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[deathoftheaudience]

Cannot stop thinking about how the rushed ending of TLG means that romance genre conventions traps shane into being happy :) while everything he ever feared came true in the worst way possible WITHOUT DEALING WITH ANY OF IT.

You're being tarred and feathered in the media for tripping in a hockey game and your teammates who you thought of as brothers believe your did it on purpose. You're so happy to go see your partner play with your family :) Your friends of almost ten years don't come to your wedding. Ten years of long away games and deep playoff runs. Ten years of being their captain and their friend. Ten years and they don't come to your fucking wedding. You're so happy to be marrying your partner :) You're run out of the city you lived in for your entire adult life and the team you dreamed of retiring on. The team with your three stanley cup banners, the team where you should have gotten to see your number raised to the rafters. You're so happy to get to sign with your husband's team :) You're worried if any team will sign you at all (3 cups. 3 CUPS. 3 FUCKING CUPS). You cannot be paid what you're worth because there is no cap space for it. Never mind that you might be taking a hammer to every step you paved for children like you (Why would you be worth that much? Just look at what they pay Shane Hollander) You're so happy to be playing with your husband :) You are not even given an A to offset the low salary. Shane fucking Hollander, 3 times Stanley cup winner, Conne smythe winner and Olympic medalist without a letter in a team that made its first playoff the season before. You're happy you're happy you're happy-

[fakecuriosity808]

A pervasive piece of fanon I see in defense of TLG's ending is that Shane would probably enjoy not being captain because he would prefer to focus on just playing hockey. He doesn't like the pressure of being captian. So he won't mind his demotion on the Centaurs. This is coming from the idea that Shane puts too much importance on hockey and also a bit of ableism where people think he can't handle it because of his autism. And this is just not supported by either HR or TLG. He doesn't struggle to captain his team until he's outed and they decide to be homophobic. Shane never expresses any displeasure with being captain. He loves it. He's fulfilled by playing hockey at the highest level. He wants to be captain.

Also fans saying they don't care about a millionaire making less money is irrelevant to the critique. If other players at Shane's level are making millions, why should Shane be the one to make less? If he chooses to do so to help his team, fine, but that's not what happens in the book. He clearly states he want to be paid what he's worth. We know from Shane's own words and actions that his situation is not happy from a hockey perspective at the end of TLG. Fans have just decided that his hockey ambitions are less important than his love life.