My Crow Hoard

Where I yap about my hyperfixations. Lex, he/they. icon by @ruyelle

[toasted-rivalry]

Ilya and Shane, but it’s just them seeing each other as a version of their husband no one else understands them seeing.

To Ilya, Shane is the funniest, sexiest, bitchiest and downright FREAKIEST person he knows. He tells everyone he knows this, yet for some reason no one seems to believe him. His husband is such an asshole, and Ilya loves him for it.

While to Shane, Ilya is his soft and most precious baby. A heart of gold and with feelings so wide and deep he is breathless at just how much he CARES. Sunshine itself. Shane laughs at how people describe his ‘scary, no-smiling Slavic nightmare of a husband.’ See Ilya! He DOES get sarcasm (he does not.)

[crowhoards]

I'm gonna be so upset if HR season 2 has Ilya treating Shane the way he apparently does in tlg. I love Ilya and I love Shane. It'll ruin both their characters to have Shane go through what he does and be Happy and Cool with all of it and to have Ilya be so uncaring of Shane. Like absolutely they can do things that hurt each other but like, that shit has Gotta be addressed later. there can't just be no consequences. they can't be uncaring of each other and have that just be fine. pls Jacob Tierney don't make these characters hollow and unlikeable im begging u

[the-queens-men2]

something I wish more people understood regarding the RR discord drama is the fact that the issue is not only how she talks about shane. shane can be stupid, shane can be selfish, and shane is more than capable of having a million other bad traits.

but why is this only about shane? to my knowledge RR has not spoken like this about ilya or at least not to the same frequency. so then why does she feel the need to consistently reiterate negative comments about shane?

why is the main conflict in TLG, as per her own words, attributed to shane's supposed selfishness (im not going to even get into how i feel about this claim, thats an entire different post)? shouldn't a romance book focus on how the shortcomings of both characters impacts the relationship? why isn't ilya's lack of empathy regarding shane's disordered eating/overall anxiety also a factor, or his inability to communicate until he blows up? why is shane the asshole for not focusing on his sad boyfriend, but ilya is not expected to worry about how shane's anxiety has a significant negative impact on his life?

i can maybe understand how as a white nuerotypical author RR did not initially consider how shane's autism and race would impact his life, and how it would certainly be traumatic for someone like that to be a star player in the nhl. but to not only do that, and then claim that he has no trauma, and then double down and sideline a question specifically talking about shane's trauma to instead talk again about how ilya has trauma because his parents are dead whereas shane has good parents is insane. to have ilya claim in the book that has a white man, he understands the dark side of hockey more than shane, a POC, is insane.

what people need to realize is that when all of this piles up, the jokes she makes are not just jokes. its consistent evidence that she was not initially capable of exploring shane's character with the traits she gave him, nor is she interested in changing that fact.

[in-the-hollanov-trenches]

You know how little kids think their teachers live at school? Little Shane thought his peewee hockey coach lived at the rink and he was sooooo jealous. Always angry kitten after practice when he had to go home and the coach got to STAY

[lesbians4leprosy]

Charles refering to him and Edwin as fated mates because he doesn't quite grasp what it means send tweet

[gingeralevodka]

Part of Shane Hollander will always “just want to play hockey”. But after over a decade in MLH, he also wants to win, be respected for his achievements, be paid for what he’s worth and have his jersey hung up on the rafters in Montreal. He’s allowed to want those things because he’s worked hard for them. It’s not selfish.

[crowley-stardust]

you are NOT immune to cunty little detective. at some point in your life your brain will be taken over by a fictional detective and there’s nothing you can do about it. it WILL happen to you. you might even end up transgender about it

[ragehangover]

really tempted to rewrite the boxing day fight to be consistent with the timeline from hr…… ie shane has the opportunity to point out ilya actually left boston for a canadian passport while refusing to play for montreal. like it’d be nice if there was a mutual realisation there instead of it being comedically one sided

[gingeralevodka]

What’s confused me for a while about Rachel Reid and TLG is the huge gap between what she claims she’s trying to do and what she’s actually done.

Like if she wants to show Shane as selfish and have characters view him as selfish, why would you have him check in with Ilya constantly, try to set him up with a support network, make long drives to Ottawa and name the foundation after Ilya’s mother? She also clearly gets hurt when people criticize Ilya, then why would she write him as doing douchey things like make fun of Shane’s eating?

An easy answer would be that she’s just bad, but I wonder if there is another explanation. Maybe there is a fundamental chasm between her values and those of some readers. I wonder if she fundamentally believes there’s something unequal about Shane and Ilya. Maybe she honestly believes that all the things she had Shane do in support of Ilya are not enough to make him not selfish, and that Shane needs to be willing to sacrifice the entire career and life he’s built for himself to be worthy of him. For Ilya, losing most of his hockey teams and no longer having arena of adoring fans is already too much for somebody like Shane. This tremendous sacrifice needs to be shouted from the rooftops and beaten into all characters and readers, and she’d make it up to him by giving it all back to him. Shane is ungrateful and selfish for the sin of not appreciating Ilya’s great sacrifice enough, and he needs to not only break down and repent, but be punished by having the things he values taken from him. Sex should already be enough as a comfort for Ilya to provide to Shane and he needs to be grateful for it and find it enough. She also seems to be genuinely under the impression that it’s totally acceptable behavior to make fun of somebody’s eating habits (even if we disregard the ED of it all).

This is why there’s no way to settle the discourse within the fandom and one side will never agree with the other. Some people have the same set of values as RR and they honestly think TLG is good. Like some honestly think Shane has a HEA too because all his losses (reputation, salary, team) are negligible when he gets a man at the end because they do truly believe that and the things he’s lost would be insignificant to THEM. They would argue that until they’re blue in the face and there’s just no way to change their mind. Some people honestly think it’s acceptable to make fun of somebody’s eating habits because that’s their sense of humor too, and if you get offended, you’re just too sensitive or they believe any humor is acceptable if the party being made fun of is OK with it.

Btw, people have argued with me that the values of the author have nothing to do with the values of the characters. I’d say that HOW an author approaches her characters and whether their actions are positive or negative have a lot to do with her values. For this fandom in particular, Rachel Reid has also made it abundantly clear what her values are and how it influences her work.

[calamitys-child]

It’s always “why did you go out in the storm” and “your soaking wet” and never How was the storm The storm looked fun was it fun

[lesbianroselandry]

honestly, i think the trophy room sex scene really encapsulates that rachel reid writes about instutitionalized, systemic bigotry as though it's something that can be solved with personal confidence. this is a running theme throughout all her books but especially game changer and the long game. both shane and scott don't want to come out publicy because they play a full contact sport and are fully aware that a lot of their coworkers are homophobes, and they (quite rationally!) fear not only potential future workplace discrimination, but also straight up physical assault.

however, the narrative frames this as a choice borne not out of reasonable trepidation, but rather as one made from selfish cowardice. kip claims scott is forcing him back into the closet and even asks him what's the worst thing that could happen? about coming out, as if the answer to that isn't blatantly obvious: a hate crime? ilya accuses shane of all sorts of nonsense, from "not choosing him over hockey" to being selfish and naive (because somehow shane simultaneously is very aware of how much would go wrong if he and ilya came out publicly, but also has "no idea about the dark side of hockey". how does this incredible dissonance work? don't worry about it! rachel reid sure didn't! shane is an idiot when she wants him to be and a paranoid hyperaware selfish asshole when she wants that instead).

so like, of course she writes as though shane being upset about workplace harassment and discrimination is something that can be solved by ilya ~fixing~ shane's self-esteem with hot sex. it's the culmination of this entire victim-blamey attitude that systemic problems can be solved by #slaying hard enough and simply not caring what other people say. of course workplace discrimination and harassment will simply stop being an issue if you stop being a vulnerable target and remember that you're awesome, right? right? that's how this works? just don't let them get to you and they'll stop because they'll realize the error of their ways! it's foolproof.

like .. . . ... .. .. . . this strat has already largely been discussed as deeply flawed and often unhelpful re: playground bullying. among children. do we actually, seriously need to establish that "ignore it until it goes away" is not a real solution to institutionalized bigotry? seriously?

[ticklefighthockey]

I love the bathroom scene (bathroom scene my beloved) because yes ilya eventually handles the situation masterfully and regains the upper hand or whatever but you can tell how hard he’s winging it. second by second this man is flying by the seat of his pants. he’s not some suave sexy self-assured dom he’s like twenty-two and an idiot and he made shane cry which he genuinely didn’t know he had the power to do and now he’s scrambling to figure out what a suave sexy self-assured dom would do to fix it (while still seeming suave and sexy and self-assured of course). to me the beauty of ilya as a sexual and emotional being is that he is ALWAYS just making it up as he goes while simultaneously trying to project an aura of cool unflappable confidence. and he fools shane completely right up until tampa when shane is suddenly like ‘wait. hold on a minute. you have NO fucking clue what you’re doing do you’ and takes the reins.

[lesbianlandry]

prev tag from @jesterlesbian

[shieldofiron]

Shane: And sexy bellboy role play. Of course.

[hyperpixating]

[tears-of-acid-and-sluts]

🤠

[tarawitht]

So is Shane so oblivious and unaware of the bad things in the league (unlike Ilya the white man) or is he observant enough to realize that coming out as gay may cost him his career?

Is he aware of the racism and homophobia he’s subjected to but chooses to ignore it because he believes that he’s not capable of fixing it and that his career is worth pushing through it all?

Or is he oblivious to it, and in this case, what’s stopping him from coming out? Why is he so paranoid about being outed? Why does he know that his coming out to his team brought tension to the locker room if he’s socially inept and can’t read the room?

And if it’s all paranoia, and he’s just being selfish, and coming out is the solution, why did he loose everything because of it?

Make it make sense.

[gingeralevodka]

Over the past couple of months, I’ve really struggled with how hard it was for me to like TLG. I loved the show and maybe that made me biased towards the HR book, but despite very obvious issues with the book, enough cohesion and elements are in there for me to not hate it.

Then I moved onto TLG, and right away, it was quite obvious that it read like a dumpster fire. However, I really wanted to like it, and like many readers, I relied on some inaccurate fanon and interpretations to rationalize the inconsistencies (ie. Ilya is an unreliable narrator). This gradually fell apart when I realized those head canons are simply not true. What’s become unacceptable to me is the way the characters I fell in love with (mainly from the show tbh), flawed but fundamentally decent, respectful and loving individuals, seemed almost unrecognizable in TLG.

Reading it again (out of a curiosity to figure out where it went wrong), it became clear that almost all issues and consistencies with TLG are related to RR’s very bizarre framework (what I started calling “RR’s fundamental principles of TLG”):

- Ilya cannot be viewed negatively. Ilya is smart, charming, selfless loverboy, beloved by all who get to know him, bestest at everything and knows so much about the dark side of hockey. Even if he acts poorly, it’s not his fault because depression made him do it and you should feel bad for him instead

- If Ilya’s bad behavior cannot be explained well enough by depression, then it’s probably Shane’s fault

- Readers should not feel sorry for Shane. Bad things that happen to him are not a big deal (some head canons go a step further into the “all the bad things that happen to him are his fault”)

- Shane is a selfish villain who needs to be punished and taught a lesson on how to be less selfish. Even if he tries to make compromises or tries to communicate, it’s not enough and he’s not doing it right.

This is the reason we have Schrödinger’s homophobia with the Voyageurs, homophobia becoming almost a nonissue in MLH, Centaurs being Schrödinger’s bad team, Ilya not able to bond with his team but also feeling close enough with them to trust them with his deepest secrets, Shane’s dietary restrictions fitting almost all criteria for orthorexia and causing profound anxiety but also not a big deal and can disappear overnight, Ilya’s fear about being queer and being Russian disappearing despite not having Canadian citizenship yet, etc etc etc.

Whenever any characterization or plot develops somewhat organically but deviates from her bizarre goals, she puts a hard stop to it and takes a u-turn. The characters act erratically and nonsensically because in addition to following normal literary rules and act like normal human beings, “RR’s fundamental principles of TLG” must be followed as well.