yes hockey IS that serious

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@bluets-bloom
yes hockey IS that serious
let’s go centaurs!
based on this excellent post
Just finished The Long Game and I don’t quite understand why there was so much hate for Shane because of this book. This book is clearly more Ilya-centric because his entire arc is basically him realizing, apart from that he has depression, that what he was fine with for the last 10 years (i.e. the hiding, the secret relationship), he’s actually not fine with anymore.
Do I think it’s a bit unfair that he changed a lot of things about himself for Shane while the latter stays in the comfort of his home? Yes. But what’s the alternative though? If Ilya stayed in Boston, he would definitely have a better track record but do you think their relationship would’ve survived that long distance? Do you think he would’ve survived that?
Ok, one could say then why couldn’t Shane be the one to move, and to that I say, why should he? There’s nothing really substantial that’s keeping Ilya in Boston as compared to Shane whose family is in Canada. If it were a battle between Russia or Canada, that I would get.
They were both initially fine with keeping it a secret when they both started being exclusive. In TLG, both of them are still anxious about dealing with the absolute shitshow that’s gonna happen when they come out and reveal their relationship. It’s not just Shane. And hell, they both have moments where they just wanna be done with it and scream on top of their lungs that they’re fucking in love with each other. It’s just that out of the two of them, Shane is the more…disciplined(?) one. He’s better at sticking to the plan they both agreed on– Ilya goes to Ottawa and get a canadian citizenship, start Irina Foundation, play up their “friendship” so that their “rivalry” image slowly dies down, and then retire, reveal their relationship, and get married. For all he knows, he’s just sticking to their plan and protecting their relationship and peace.
In this long game they’re playing, I definitely clocked it even just from Heated Rivalry that Ilya will be the one who cracks first.
So I can’t hate Shane for keeping their secret when Ilya didn’t outright verbalized that he is not fine with it anymore. And once Shane understood that, he immediately went to fix things. He proposed, planned their coming out as well as their wedding. Because that’s the type of person Shane is. He’s only playing this long game because it’s what he thought would keep him from not losing Ilya. He had the patience and the grit to stay in the dark for a long time if it means he gets to be with Ilya always.
Sorry for the addition OP but I think there's a weird dynamic with some fans where they take the TV show canon and then read TLG and so they see Ilya's more positive seeming relationship with the Raiders (compared to the Bears, which are described as being hard partiers and with whom Ilya seems to have no intimate friendships) and his close friend Svetlana in Boston and they see it as Ilya having lost so much, and Shane ignoring it.
But book!Ilya says the Bears kind of sucked. He genuinely likes the Centaurs a lot more. Book!Ilya doesn't have childhood friend Svetlana, she's just an old hookup he likes better than most because she's Russian and knows puck. Book!Ilya wasn't leaving behind anything in Boston other than his career.
Which is a lot! Obviously! But it's a calculation book!Ilya makes very deliberately.
The book spells this all out pretty clearly too. The conflict Ilya has in TLG is he doesn't know how to be in relationships---platonic, romantic, AND familial. He doesn't know how to express his needs to Shane. He doesn't know how to build intimacy with friends. And he doesn't know to be part of a family dynamic. He learns each of these over the course of the book, with the help of his therapist.
Shane's shittiest moment in TLG is when he accuses Ilya of just slacking off and smoking weed, but if we think about it from Shane's perspective for a hot minute, this is when Shane's out to the Voyageurs and things are pretty obviously not going well, based on how fast stuff falls apart after the leak. Shane's developing an eating disorder and Ilya won't stop bitching at him about his diet, he's worried about Ilya but Ilya won't talk to him, he's (in his mind) running out of time to acheive his career goals with his 30th bearing down on him.
Whereas (from Shane's perspective) Ilya is having a ball on the Centaurs. He's throwing fun Halloween parties. His house smells like marijuana. He's going to gay bars with his hot gay available teammate Troy Barrett. He doesn't seem to care that the team loses constantly even though wasn't it hockey that they fell in love over? Doesn't he miss competing with Shane? Why won't he talk to him?
So Shane's over here like "I thought we were doing this together for our careers and you're fucking around and having fun. And now you're asking me to put our whole plan in jeopardy for what, a party? What the fuck?"
Anyway my point being that I don't think either of them are in the wrong they just don't know how to communicate because they don't know how to be in a relationship because they're barely adults and have never done any of this before and they're doing it under the most stressful possible conditions. I love how Yuna says she's proud of them because really it is a miracle what they manage to do and how they manage to love each other despite everything. Or not a miracle, they fucking work for it.
I just be doing anything at this point
”genetic” girl WHATEVERRRRR
HEATED RIVALRY 1.02
want to fly to a place where it's just you and me nobody else, so we can be free
HEATED RIVALRY -> 1x06 | The Cottage
I would like to relax with you. For once.
freak4freak
Does it fucking kill you too? Not anymore.
Hollanov + season 1 timeline
I'll be OK in a second. Hey, hey, hey, hey. We're good here. Your family is here.
I have an idea. How about you tell me everything that's on your mind, but in Russian. I won't understand but maybe it'll help? HEATED RIVALRY — 1.05 "I'll Believe In Anything"
— You're an awesome player to watch. — Yes.