On the subject of Shane's pay cut at the end of tlg - idk, I think it was a no win situation all around. I think it was probably for the best to glaze over it, because trying to dive into it seriously wouldn't have looked good on anyone.
Sure Ilya could take a pay cut, but then it'd be 2 queer players who aren't getting paid what they're worth. Publicly, it would look like Ottawa only took them because they came cheap, 2 for the price of 1. And narratively it might have come off as Shane valuing his public image over Ilya's, something that had already caused friction in the book. It would look like he was regressing.
And sure the rest of the Centaurs could take a pay cut. But it's wouldn't read well as a viewer. Because Shane is going to go to Ottawa basically no matter what. That much the reader knows. If he took money from the Centaurs, he would be doing it strictly to save face.
And a team taking a pay cut to play with a great player is one thing; having them take a pay cut to spare his feelings is another. And maybe the characters wouldn't know he was always going to sign there, but the reader would. And it would feel weird to essentially watch Shane and Ilya trick their new teammates into financing an emotional bandaid.
It would also feel a little bitter on any reader who like the Centaurs. Because the Centaurs already face a ton of humiliation in-universe just being the Centaurs: worst team in the league. Even Shane talks down about them. You spend the whole book rooting for them as underdogs, watching them grow from a joke to an actual competitive team. Having them pay money to essentially soothe Shane's pride would feel bad - yes you want Shane to be paid his worth, but not at the cost of anyone else. Bood and Troy and Luca also deserve to be paid their worth, ya know?
I think the main problem is that any attempt to make up Shane's pay would be performative in-universe, and possibly reflect badly on the character as a reader. He's not going to be making the same amount no matter what, and he's going to Ottawa no matter what. These things are set in stone. Discussing it in length would only bring attention to a problem that doesn't have a good answer.
Narratively, I think it was just something better glazed over. When Ilya tells Shane to consider he has a rich husband, it's more of a joke than anything. And he does agree that Shane deserves to be paid his worth. But their conversation isn't being too serious at the moment - it's just an emotionally charged rant when Shane is feeling mad after the trip. It's not a planning moment or even a serious discussion moment, and Ilya doesn't even think Shane is serious about leaving Montreal.
Idk, I think this is one of those times where it was better that RR didn't go into detail. It leaves enough space for the reader to decide for themselves the details of Shane's salary. Maybe the team did take a pay cut, maybe Ilya did, maybe someone retired. For the sake of the story, it doesn't really matter. Kinda frustrating if you really care about that, but there are a TON of things that RR doesn't go into depth over because that's simply not the story she wants to tell. Maybe it'll come up in Unrivaled, who knows.
I do agree that RR doesn't dive deep enough into Shane's ethnicity, but that's more of a "writer didn't consider exactly how deep a rabbit hole went before she put it in" type thing.
Anyway this isn't a criticism on you or your take, which is valid. I just think it's an interesting subject to think about. I love snapping birch btw
So I’m gonna respectfully disagree with all this.
First, don’t agree that it looks like Ottawa only got them because they came 2 for the price of 1. Because they can’t do that. They already have Ilya.
Ilya is under contract. His contract is not expiring. He is entitled to the full amount of that contract unless they agree to execute a mutual termination and renegotiate a new amount to free up some cap space. Any downward departure cannot happen without Ilya making it happen.
Let’s say Ilya is getting paid $17.5M. But they only have the cap space to give Shane Hollander $2M. Ilya has the freedom to say “hey, lets mutually terminate and I will re-sign for $10M or however far of a downward departure that the NHL will approve. Give the other $7M to Shane. We will be paid roughly in line with each other, and it will be clear to everyone watching that we are making a salary sacrifice to make this team a cup contender.”
The optics are completely different on that decision. Shane is leaving his team in disgrace. But Ilya is an established captain who does not need to change his salary at all. Shane taking a low salary looks like no one values him anymore. Ilya choosing to lower his own salary looks like he is a good captain who is doing whatever it takes to make his team a cup contender. Jamie Benn took a massive pay cut to help maintain a competitive roster for the Stars and we lauded him as a goddamn hero. The optics for Ilya are fantastic if he does this. The optics for Shane are atrocious.
One thing I fundamentally disagree with is the premise that Shane has to go to Ottawa. He doesn’t. Especially if we look from the perspective of someone in-universe.
As readers, we want Shane and Ilya to be on the same team. We know that the book is trying to bring them there. So to us, it feels obvious that Shane is destined for Ottawa.
People in-universe don’t know that. Even though they know he’s with Ilya, people regularly make long distance work or super commute. Up until this point, they know Shane and Ilya have been comfortable doing exactly that. Shane Hollander can theoretically sign with any team close enough to make the relationship work.
You know where he can go? The New York goddamn Admirals.
Scott Hunter is going into retirement. The cap space just freed up for them for a new star center, and Shane Hollander has three goddamn Stanley Cups. He and Ilya would have to be long distance, but they were already long distance, and this is the same distance that they had when he was in Boston. They are rich enough to super commute via private jet. In the public’s eyes, this is a guy that should have options.
If he signs for pennies after his name was just dragged through the mud, he looks like he doesn’t. He is radioactive. No one wants Shane Hollander anymore. Only his husband’s team will take him, and that’s only if he is on fucking sale.
I don’t agree that this would come off as Shane regressing either. Especially because it would be so simple to frame it in a way that negates the possibility.
Don’t have Shane ask. Have Ilya offer.
Have Ilya bring it up. Have him say “come to Ottawa. Yes we are low on cap space but I will call management right now and tell them that if they let me terminate and resign for lower I will bring them the goddamn Stanley cup. We will both have to take pay cuts but it would be worth it to be together.”
The pay sacrifice is now mutual. And Ilya comes off like he is considerate of his partner who just got publicly humiliated and abandoned by his best friends of more than ten years. I’m saying “thank god he has Ilya” not “fuck Shane for wanting money.” Shane never has to ask for money to begin with.
From the canon ending, I do not think better of Shane. I think worse of Ilya.
The way it goes in canon, Ilya has his partner tell him he is so fucking angry after he was spat on by people he’s known for a fucking decade. He says he doesn’t deserve this. Ilya barely even acknowledges this. He just says “okay well we will appreciate you in Ottawa.” This doesn’t do anything to address the pain and loss Shane is feeling about what his friends just did to him.
Shane immediately raises the fact that they are out of cap space and the fact that it’s not about money, it’s about wanting to be paid for what he’s worth. And Ilya’s like “oh don’t worry baby, hubby will provide.”
Pause for laughter.
Ilya absolutely ignores what Shane just fucking said. He’s not worried about money. He just wants to be valued by the team he’s on. I think worse of Ilya because his partner who just got fucking hate crimed raised a valid concern that he outright blows off.
Shane doesn’t come off like he’s putting Ilya above his career from that scene either. He just agrees that he has a rich husband to provide for him now, so it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t get the character benefit of saying “you know what? I don’t care what I’m paid. I just want us to be together” because the thought doesn’t even occur to him.
The entire analysis I just said about Ilya also applies to the Centaurs. Their contracts are set, so it does not look like they are being valued less by management if they take a cut. Management literally cannot value them at any lower than their current contract price. Nothing can happen without the Centaurs making it happen. So it looks like they are the goddamn heroes bringing home Shane Hollander and getting their team its first ever Stanley cup. They would get a fucking parade for that, and any marginal percentage that they lost from their contracts would be more than made up for in the sponsorships they’d get from the good PR. This would be ultimately a good move for them in the public eye, and there is no need to “trick” them to do shit.
The solution is the same. Do not ask them. Have them offer.
You’d need to change the structure of the scene to do it, but you could do it with a few paragraphs. Have Ilya tell the rest of the team that he may be able to get Shane on the team too. Have them affirmatively flood the group chat with “oh my god we’re going to win the Stanley cup. Fuck wait the salary cap. I would take a pay cut to make this happen. I’m calling my agent right now.”
Shane didn’t ask them to do that. He didn’t ask them to do shit. Let them affirmatively recognize that there is a problem and immediately mobilize to fix it.
Do you have any idea how much better that would make the reader feel about Shane’s move to Ottawa?
Shane has just been rejected by the team he has spent more than a decade on. And it is a team that has been in varying degrees homophobic towards him since they found out he was gay. They act with vitriolic anger towards him after the trip, and almost none of them come to his wedding. That hurts.
Now here’s a new team. Shane doesn’t know them that well. He’s not friends with any of them. All he has is Ilya and that is because he just lost everything else. He is a fish out of water and he has no assurance that this will go well for him.
If those people go out of their way to do something to make him feel welcome after what his friends just did to him, I love them. I love their characters. I am excited that Shane gets to go to Ottawa because even if he shouldn’t have been ousted from Montreal, the narrative has just reassured me that he is amongst people who care about him, and it has soothed some of the pain of what just happened. These teammates want you, and are going out of their way to show you that. You didn’t ask. They offered.
There is another solution to this problem. And it’s to not bring up the salary cap at all.
Who put a gun to Rachel Reid’s head and made her bring up the salary cap? Just don’t include it in the conversation. Shane never says shit about the salary cap, and neither does Ilya, and the problem does not exist. Most readers will never think about it. The ones that do are free to draw whatever conclusions they may. Maybe Ottawa has oodles of cap space. Maybe the cap is higher in universe. Maybe they all took pay cuts. There is nothing in the narrative to contradict them, so the reader is never obligated to say “Ottawa does not have the cap space for Shane Hollander.” The answer could be anything.
Like, I do agree that it would be better to leave the space for the reader to draw their own conclusions. But Rachel Reid did not leave that space. She presents the problem and the solution in the same breath. Ottawa does not have the cap space for Shane Hollander. Take the pay cut, hubby will provide. It leaves the space to say that maybe something changed after that conversation, but that is not a lot of space. After all, Ilya just said it didn’t fucking matter, Shane just agreed it didn’t fucking matter, and who the fuck is going to challenge that?
There’s another thing I fundamentally disagree about with the premise of your argument, and that’s that this would be just some performative emotional bandaid meant to soothe Shane’s pride. I agree, this would be solely directed towards lifting Shane’s emotions, especially if Ilya was the one to take the cut.
Why would caring about Shane’s emotional health ever be a bad thing?
I want Ilya to be the kind of character that gives a shit about his partner’s emotions. I want the Centaurs to be the kinds of characters that care about their teammates’ emotions. Emotions are important.
After the trip, canonically, everyone Shane has been playing with save Hayden completely abandons him. They reject him in the most insulting and degrading and homophobic way possible. Only J.J. ever reestablishes contact. Ilya has all of his teammates at their wedding, and Shane gets two fucking people. And the media? It’s eviscerating him. His name is mud in the home he’s lived in and loved since he was 18.
That is not minor. People are put on suicide watch over less. Something similar happened to David Beckham during the World Cup and there are entire documentaries about how it almost fucking killed him.
Emotions matter. I care about the emotions of the people I love. And if someone I loved went through what Shane just went through? I would move heaven and goddamn earth to alleviate that. I would do absolutely anything I could to show them that they were still valued and loved. Call it performative, call it a bandaid, but I call it showing someone that I love them enough to want them to feel happy and welcomed and appreciated. I do not want the people I love to be publicly humiliated. And I would never in a million years let my poc partner who was just dragged through hell go through the public humiliation that is going for fucking gay discount if I had the power to do something about it.
The most common explanation I hear for why the game changers books are they way that they are is that the author decided to just glaze over it because it wasn’t what she wanted to focus on or its just a romance book, it’s not that deep. That’s the explanation Rachel Reid herself gives. It’s just a romance book, she never thought it’d be analyzed with this depth, it’s not that deep.
Whenever I hear something like that, I think to myself “that sure is a lot of words for saying, ‘I am a bad writer.’”
I harp on this so much, but it’s because I truly believe it: You cannot escape the consequences of your own narrative. You do not get to introduce something and then pretend it isn’t there. If you are not willing or able to address those consequences, do not bring it up.
If you are the writer of a story, the world is your goddamn oyster. You do not get the excuse of “oh, well, I couldn’t really deal with that conflict properly” you are the one who introduced the conflict to begin with. No one has a gun to your head, girl. Just don’t bring it up.
I can think of thirty goddamn ways you can resolve the salary cap thing that takes five sentences or less. The easiest? Again, just literally never mention the salary cap. Boom. Done.
She could have had them take pay cuts. She could have had there already be room in the cap because it’s much higher in the game changers universe. She could have written two sentences in the beginning about how there’s a veteran player on the Centaurs who is about to retire and free up cap space, foreshadowing the fact that Shane would be able to move there soon. There are so many ways to solve this that does not have the frankly racist connotations of having a gay Asian man be paid pennies on the dollar but it’s fine because he has a rich white husband to take care of him.
Like, the fact that she did not consider how deep the rabbit hole was before making her main character a marginalized individual in a racist and homophobic system is exactly what I am criticizing her for. She chose to make him half-Japanese and then never once think about the actual experiences of Asian men. She chose to drizzle in her representation without making actually it representative in the fucking slightest. And I am saying that makes her a bad writer.
i do love and respect the idea of the world at large being stunned at finding out how long ilya and shane have been together, but i truly think that under NO circumstances would shane ever choose to offer ANY personal details about himself or their relationship willingly.
which combined with ilya loving just making things up and saying them (as seen in the "yes, the rumors are true-" scene) offers the very funny idea that ilya actively tries to offer as much privacy as possible by just throwing out stories about them at random so there IS no central story for people to hound shane about.
assorted backstories a la "ilya just started talking and found out with everyone else where he was going with this":
they got snowed in at all stars one year (b-but wasn't that year in florida?) and decided there was nothing better to do
it started as a bit and neither is willing to give up first
they paired off to combine forces like nato
they paired off to limit how many kids they could have in the future to make sure hockey stayed fair
ilya lost a bet six years ago
shane lost a bet three years ago
ilya got tired of remembering phone numbers for his hookups and shane's is easy
ilya got tired of having to look things up in english and french when talking to other people and decide to marry someone who speaks two languages to save time
shane is gifted enough (wink wink wink) that other people are cowards and only ilya was brave enough to rise to the challenge (this one gets him in trouble on the phone later but it also gets him laid that night at home and also confuses the online speculation about who tops and bottoms, so net positive tbh)
yuna hollander is the best manager in the business and a political marriage was the best way to secure her services longterm
with the end result that all shane has to do is shrug and "my husband has already told our story a thousand times by this point. no point in repeating it and boring people." in interviews to get out of people trying to dig into things he doesn't want to tell them.
the reporter obviously knows he's not serious (...mostly) but plays along with "what kids?" and ilya just ☝️ as he pulls out his phone and starts looking through, and everyone is like "surely not...bUT WHAT IF", and then he goes "ah! here", and holds out his phone
and it's a picture of anya and luca haas
and ilya just "thirteen hours of labor, but worth every minute, yes?" as he puts his phone back looking SO fucking pleased with himself because he really at least 33% had them for a second
the more i think abt it the more i think ilya would get so hot for being shane’s fuck toy like. shane will tell him how hard to go etc all bossy as fuck and ilya’s just “yes. yes.” muscles straining sweating just dying already but neverrrr not wanting to please shane just like he wants to be pleased just being a hard cock for The shane hollander.
anyway I think it should be ilya wearing a leash and collar while he fucks shane so shane can yank on it when he thinks ilya isn't fucking him hard enough
Shane as team mum who has literally anything you could possible need: ❌
Shane does have that thing but it’s His and if you use it it’ll have Your germs so he pretends he doesn’t. (Ilya’s got three but two of them are backups for Shane so it’s really 50/50 whether he gives you one): ✅
There is a kid out there who did every single one of his school essays and projects and short stories and friendly introductions at the beginning of the year about Shane Hollander. He did his book reports on the books Shane recommended in interviews. He saved his money to buy that stupid cologne Shane advertised. He got a puck from Shane once at warm ups and he slept with it in his bed for three weeks. He writes his moms name on his stick tape because Shane did it first. He watches the Olympics in awe. He gets into fights with kids at school about whose a better hockey player and its Shane all the way, no matter what the other kids told him or what their moms and dads said. Shane is the best.
And this kid did not have a lot of friends. His teachers thought he wasn't very smart because he made everything about hockey. And they dismissed him when he struggled with math and reading. "if you could just put some of your hockey energy into school, then maybe you would get better." His classmates laughed at the hockey themed valentines day cards him and his mom had to hand make because nowhere was selling hockey themed valentines day cards. And they laugh at him when he repeats the same thing over and over about "getting pucks deep, pucks deep, pucks deep." When he would play all by himself on the yard pretending he was skating, picking up any big stick he could find on the ground, they'd push him around. "Can we play? We'll be defenders" and ram him and take his stick. And he'd just go through all the penalties they would have just gotten over and over again until he can calm down. He celebrated every birthday at the ice rink in his full hockey gear even though he didn't really have classmates showing up. Not for lack of invite.
And his parents try to steer him away from it. They try and watch new sports, they try and get him to watch kids shows, get into things kids his age like, but all he wants to do is watch reruns of the metros cup wins. Wants to wear his hat backwards with his black shirt because that's how Shane looks in the interviews. Memorizes the answers he gives in french even though this kid never learned french in school. And its useless. This kid is hooked and they just kinda have to ride this wave.
So when the announcement comes for the Game Changers camp, these parents do absolutely everything to get him there. They don't care what it takes, this is like a light for all of them really in the midst of all the bullying at school and the meltdowns at home and the obsessive routines that fall apart if even one thing is out of place.
And they explain to the camp that their boy might have a hard time. Might need some time to adjust. That he struggles with math, and reading, and can get caught up in all the rules sometimes. Preemptively trying to say "he's not a bad kid. he's trying his best."
So at the end of the first day, his parents are prepared for a meltdown. Its new, its a lot of kids, the rink can get loud and cold, and he doesn't always do well with transitioning out of hockey. He's hard to pull off the ice at home.
And they can see some upset under the surface when they arrive. He clearly doesn't want to go home. Thats no surprise.
What is a surprise is the way Shane gets down on one knee next to where the boy is sitting upset on the ground. He doesn't move to touch him. He just gets down and the two of them softly have a chat. The boy is tugging on his hair and nodding at what Shane says. And eventually he stands and the parents walk over to them.
"You must be the parents. Its good to meet you," Shane says softly. "I was just going over some things about tomorrow. So that way he would know the schedule."
And they can see their son isn't quite happy, still clearly exhausted. He'll nap in the car and be grumpy at dinner. But he is much more regulated than they expected him to be.
"And, I was telling him about my schedule when I go home. About getting some quite time, making sure I can decompress. I think that's what all good hockey players need, right buddy?"
"Right buddy," he repeats.
And for all the understanding that seems to be there, his parents are just grateful that of all the things their kid could have a special interest in, its Shane Hollander.
shane post-vegas walk of shame underwearless bc he couldn’t immediately find where they landed after he threw them at ilya and he wasn’t going to stick around rummaging after getting the cold shoulder
Maybe we should collectively, for a while at least, stop post any pictures of Hudson and Connor. Take a big mental break so that *cough cough* some of us come back to reality. Sure still post pictures of Ilya and Shane but like…. Maybe seeing 2 million copies of the same picture of Hudson and Connor is getting some of y’all’s wires crossed.
i am begging, BEGGING the hr fandom to realize that slavs are people and not unsocialized cave men.
look, i hate russia just as much (more, so much more) than the next guy. i LOVE russia bashing
but post-soviet countries are developed countries. we have towels & hygiene products and we are actually way stricter about cleanliness & self care than the west is.
there is no such thing as a 3-in-1 in eastern europe. we wash our floors on our hands & knees with towels & boiling water. we wear tapachki everywhere around the house. there is a stereotype of slavic women putting on dresses & heals to take out the trash and that stereotype exists for a reason.
i was raised in america and my ukrainian family is horrified by the way westerners live, not the other way around
the hr fandom is obsessed with the notion that ilya would be this frat boy living in filth when that is just unrealistic. he was raised with so much emphasis on cleanliness, he was taught to take care of himself & his image.
being an immigrant & depressed do not make him an animal
picture it, the mhl awards the season after shane joins the centaurs. the leagues gayest team are racking in the awards and in the crowd weibe walks up to theriault to shake his hand and, so sincerely thank him for letting shane go
Ilya is absolutely thrilled the first time he gets a minor concussion after he comes out, just impatiently waiting for someone to ask how his head is. He's literally vibrating with excitement at getting to answer with "haven't had any complaints," or, better yet, "you should ask Shane, he seems to like it."
Sometime after Shane is on the Centaurs, JJ drops by to hang out with Shane and of course Ilya is there.
Ilya: So I hear you tried to get Shane to cheat on me with a personal trainer with his dad's name.
JJ: dude I did not know you were together and also he was so fucking stressed out! I figured getting laid would help!
Ilya: Oh it does 😉
Shane: Kill me now
JJ: but now I've got all these single gay dudes in my phone and I've hooked some of them up with each other but I was vetting them for a really specific guy, you know?
Ilya: And now all your hard work is wasted, very sad. Not everyone can be amazing gay hockey matchmaker like me.
JJ: ...you don't happen to know any anxious glasses-wearing second overall draft picks in need of a man, do you?
Ilya, queer hockey radar zooming in on Luca: show me your menu of gay men
okay, so what we're NOT gonna do as white folks in fandom is say: 'it's easy to avoid racism, just filter it out' or 'people who think fandom/creator is racist are just deliberately looking for racist content.' we're not gonna do that !!!!!! because we are thoughtful anti-racist adults here. so what we ARE gonna do is call out racism and know that racism is embedded in our spaces and we must continuously push back against it and relearn our approach to dismantling it and check ourselves and others, and recognize that fans of color cannot escape racism -- it isn't possible to """"filter it out"""" when you are fucking experiencing it -- and we WILL always protect the right of fans of color to continue to critique the way several white people wrote an asian character however goddamn long they please. that's what we're gonna do, right. right ??????????
is it so wrong that i want shane to be on his back, feeling cracked open and flayed while ilya sucks bruises into his chest? ilya barely even moving, tight little rocks into shanes ass as they both shake with it. shane gasping out "please, ilya, baby, please please please" trembling hands coming up to cradle ilya jaw and pull him in for a kiss. breathes "i love you" into ilyas mouth as he clutches up around ilyas cock and ilya swallows the words and kisses shane like he never wants his tongue to leave shanes mouth
