DC/Marvel Things

[the-queens-men2]

never understood where the "protective ilya" thing came from when its not present in canon. like ever.

like correct me if im wrong, but is there a single instance where ilya defends shane to anyone? he doesnt do it to the media after tripgate. he doesnt do it against crowell after he threatened shane (but did it for troy). he joins in happily when other people make fun of shanes eating habits or general anxiety, despite it being something shane is sensitive about.

in a fucking deleted scene, meant to be in 2018, this happens

(“If it had been NHL players in the Olympics this year, Russia would have destroyed Canada,” Lev continued. “Canada’s stars are a bunch of pussies, like Hollander.”

“Mm,” Ilya said.

“Fucking right,” Lev said, as if Ilya had contributed anything. “Hollander takes it up the ass for sure.” He laughed and helped himself to some gravlax.

“You think so?” Ilya asked mildly.

“For sure. Every night. His teammates probably line up.”

Ilya shook his head and took a sip of beer. Lev didn’t know shit.)

ilyas teammates are openly mocking shane, being blatantly homophobic with some racial undertones to boot, and ilya. just sits there. practically agrees with them. and rachel only took this out because she had "no idea where what scene was going to end up" though it was "tough to let this scene go because I loved the idea of them texting each other while hanging out with their respective friends/teammates/countrymen"

yeah its so cute to have them text each other to the background of ilyas teammates bigotry, that is going on IN HIS FUCKING HOUSE

its insane that shane gets the rep of being the bad bf when he defends ilya to hayden, jj, his parents, crowell, etc. compared to ilya who says cute things to shane in private and does nothing to back it up

anyways #myilya would never do this bullshit, but it really shows you how much rr's distain for shane ended up coming through in her characters. she loves ilya so much that she cant understand how ilya could ever show love or respect to shane, because she cant bear to show love or respect to shane

[spritejac]

saw one of those hockey compilations about how you should never target a goalie because the entire team will be on you in seconds

and suddenly i need to see an opposing team getting into it with wyatt hayes and then all of them centaurs jumping them

[ilyannarozanova]

Beyond relieved to see more people criticizing RR's treatment of Shane in TLG. Like yes thank u we have to see past the thrill of getting a second season and remember that the source material for the second season is uhhhhhh Not Good. Like it's nice to know not everyone is rooting for a 1-to-1 adaptation of that shitass sequel lmao

[evilbeehivedemocracy]

Firm believer that Shane is high maintenance because David spoiled him his whole life and though he didn't always know his son would end up with a man he still wanted to be the kind of dad that set an example for his kid of how a man should treat them regardless

[from3am]

I am going to start calling homophobia in the GCU Schrödinger’s Homophobia because when a character is in the closet homophobia in the league is both alive and dead at the same time [speak to Scott who says it is all good, meanwhile the character clearly believes it is a big problem]. Only once that character comes out is the true answer revealed: that there is no homophobia in the league at all and it will never materially impact them [and actually the only reason everyone is abusing you is because they are rivalphobic, Shane].

[penandinkprincess]

shane and ilya probably stick to a very similar sleeping schedule during the season, but i feel like shane starts getting ready for bed probably a little earlier than ilya because he likes sitting in bed and reading

and i'm laughing about ilya feeling absolutely BETRAYED the first time anya hops off of his lap to trot after shane up to their room

his OWN DAUGHTER-

ilya, she just likes our bed and knows i'm going up

-TO BETRAY HIM LIKE THIS, AFTER EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE-

dude, you could also just come upstairs if you're that fucking bothered about it

-NO LOYALTY IN THIS HOUSE. NONE. ALL AROUND HIM ARE TRAITORS-

you could doomscroll on your phone upstairs if you want, ilya. you're the one choosing to hang out on the couch. c'mon, anya.

[penandinkprincess]

ilya trying to tell himself he wants to stay down on the couch and not give shane the satisfaction of giving in but also experiencing MAJOR fomo because the rest of his family is already upstairs for the night

[penandinkprincess]

love ilya being a fucking DEMON to connors but then getting to the club and immediately

the true duality of man

[katesgottareadthebooks]

So if season two includes the “you are a better hockey player than me” moment everyone please don’t take that as a statement of fact. Ilya has spent the whole book going thinking he’s a bad captain, a bad teammate, and a failure for not making Ottawa a winning team. This is a crisis of confidence. Ilya has probably had spent the last two seasons reading about his career is over. His points and goals are down below Shane’s because he needs a better winger. Ilya is putting all of that on himself. Telling Shane he’s a better hockey player should be a red flag.

[mucho-smasho]

we are going to see this. on our tv screens. holy fuck.

[mucho-smasho]

this scene is literally just

[wtf-is-hockey]

Every time I come across a post that’s about to be critical of Ilya I’m like oh okay cool are we gonna talk about how unnecessarily cruel he was to Shane in the Tampa hotel room when Shane was literally coming out to him or about him not taking a hint for two entire years or oh are we talking about the long game and him refusing to communicate with Shane and constantly resenting Shane and making fun of Shane at every opportunity for basically everything or about him shoving Shane against a wall or about him dismissing Shane’s valid disappointment about a pay cut with a joke about being his rich husband or - what’s that? This post isn’t about any of that? Oh it’s about how he talked about girls once? And brought up possibly needing to enter a lavender marriage with Svetlana to secure his safety as a queer Russian immigrant? And oh he used to have sex with a lot of people besides Shane? And - oh how could I forget, the time he “ghosted” his no-strings-attached casual hookup who verbally agreed to no-strings-attached casual sex directly after that same hookup spent the last two plus years not particularly desperate to have sex with him and not particularly outwardly interested in him and at no point communicated that he expected otherwise? Okay. Anyway.

[tarawitht]

Why write the trip? Why give the Metros an excuse to ostracize Shane? Why not just have them be homophobic without Shane doing anything wrong on the ice? They could have accused him of throwing games with zero evidence, purely out of prejudice, and the story would have been so much sharper for it.

Instead, by having him actually trip against Ilya, the narrative gives the bigots plausible deniability. (And validates the league’s stance that gay players are compromised liability.)

It lets them mask their homophobia as outrage and questions of betrayal and integrity, transforming a story about systemic hate into a cheap misunderstanding. (And that’s why we have Shane and the narrative forgiving JJ. Because IT reads as a misunderstanding.)

If you take the trip away and let him play a flawless game, the Metros still turn on him solely for who he is. It sends a much harsher, more honest message: you can perform without a single flaw, and bigotry will still make them hate you. They didn't need a reason to turn on him, and giving them one just pulls the narrative's punches.

[deathoftheaudience]

thinking about Schrodinger's skill of the Montreal GM... thinking about how he was apparently good enough to build a cup winning roster... but also he didn't re-sign Shane before he entered free agency... even though he won the cup the season before and also the conn smythe... pls pls tell me how i am meant to take this seriously???

[deep-state-partisan]

[dontlistentothemmoose]

[dickseldestdaughtersyndrome]

If Shane doesn't get to have the biggest crash out there has ever been in unrivaled then i don't think i will be able to keep on rooting for the characters because shane will not be the shane from hr

[jetmz9]

stepping into the "rachel said shane is selfish for not coming out" discourse and here's the context

she never said shane is selfish for not wanting to come out, and in another question she answered this

"I don't think he's selfish," "he devastated whenever he learns he's let them down, even slightly"

having moments where you act selfishly is not the same thing as calling shane a selfish person or saying he's selfish for not coming out, but this fandom blows everything out of proportion and has literally zero reading comprehension.

anyway, this is the q&a rachel did BEFORE the show aired (clarifying this just in case anyone wants to come and say she changed her tune because of fan pressure or something like that, which is simply not true). she literally says herself that shane isn't selfish and talks about his hero arc standing up to crowell, which is something everyone uses to attack her by saying she tried to write shane as a villain and failed... as if she wasn't the one who literally wrote that hero arc and the first one to point it out.

[human--rivalry]

Nothing makes me think Rachel Reid actually does hate Shane more than the fact that her first draft of TLG had Shane agreeing to Crowell’s demands.

[ragehangover]

you also cannot convince me that after being traumatically outed online shane hollander or ilya rozanov would be jumping to overshare anything on instagram. like they can be proud of their relationship without making it everyone’s business. shane ‘everything i feared came true’ hollander and ilya ‘scared of expressing my feelings’ rozanov aren’t telling anyone shit. they make a series of professional #loveislove posts and thank everyone for their support then dip. shane is paranoid about cameras for the rest of his life. ilya has to be convinced to get a dashcam (‘just in case there’s an accident’ ‘i don’t care about that’ ‘what if anyas in the car’ ‘fine’). they grit their teeth through the fun meme tiktok videos harris films. they are as artfully visible as possible — because they aren’t hiding, they aren’t ashamed, just cautious — and remain vigilant about anything that gets posted online. nothing about their sex life. nothing about their home. no specific details about how long they’ve been together because they know that would only invite more speculation and derision after tripgate. snl does a bunch of shitty sketches about them fucking in a locker room and they just have to grin through it. they are so careful about each other. they appreciate their supporters. they love their team. they are happy and cautious. they have been laid bare to the world. there is truly nothing more devastating that can be done but they know that won’t stop others from trying.