I love that Sochibama AU gives Ryan the opportunity to play and enjoy hockey again! Always makes me sad that in canon he essentially gets chased out of the sport he loves (the funeral scene really gets to me in a Muppets Christmas Carol sort of way, you know?). Anyway, how does this impact the Fabian Of It All – do they still get the opportunity to reconnect? I'd imagine the boyfriend vs hockey choice becomes much harder now he's actually enjoying hockey again
You will never catch me actually doing a boyfriend v. hockey storyline in seriousness. The closest I get is with the child star crashout summer au and even in that one the ultimate conclusion is “you can and should have both.”
I want to be clear that when we’re talking about literary criticism, there’s a difference between “this is not the kind of story I want to read” and “the story did what it was trying to do poorly.”
I think the “what will you pick, love interest or ___” narrative is overdone. It’s beaten to death. Love is always somehow exclusive with someone’s career or passions or family and it’s almost always the woman or the minority that has to sacrifice their career or passions or whatever to make the relationship work.
I just don’t like those kinds of narratives. I think if you love someone you’ll want to uplift them. You’ll want to see them happy and fulfilled in other aspects of their life. You’ll want them to have a life outside of you and try to support them in doing it like just by living between your two cities and commuting a fucking hour Jesus fucking Christ
I want to be clear though, if I make any critique about a type of story being overdone, I’m saying “this is not the kind of story I personally enjoy.” That’s different than saying “they did what they were trying to do poorly.” Even if I don’t enjoy a certain type of story, other people will and I want that story to exist for them, I’ll go read a different story. But if I’m writing a story, then I’m writing the kind of story I want to read. And that’s not a “what will you pick, love or ____” narrative. I simply shan’t be writing it.
And in this case if I tried to write it, it would make my own writing worse. The sochi outing au is very much not a “what will you pick, love or ___” story. One of the biggest points that story is trying to make is that Shane and Ilya don’t have to pick each other over hockey. Shane rebuilds Montreal. Ilya stays in Boston. They make their relationship work long distance, and while it takes sacrifice, they do it because they don’t want the other to lose all they’ve fought to achieve with hockey. They both want to see the other happy and fulfilled and thriving with their teams. They both want to see the other lift the Stanley Cup as the captain that led their team to victory. It is unfair to make them pick one or the other to begin with, and the narrative takes pains to underscore that point.
And that point would be undermined if in the background I quickly add in a “but Ryan should have to pick thooooo”
Having him pick Fabian or hockey, it just, it doesn’t work with the kind of story this is. And it really doesn’t work with what Ryan’s arc is.
The Montreal dream team rebuild is meant to be a very healing and joyful experience for everyone on the team. It is primarily comprised of people who were all, in some way or another, harmed by hockey. They were the wrong kind of person to play. They had to fight and claw for scraps their whole career. People tried to force them out again and again and again. But now that they’re together they’re creating a space where everyone is protected and allowed to be themselves and it’s a healing experience for everyone in the room.
Ryan’s arc is a homecoming. It is allowing him to return to hockey as a passion. He’s brought on as an enforcer to protect Shane and then he hardly ever has to fight. He is taken so seriously as a defenseman that Shane makes a point to develop his skills in it because they are NOT strong enough on the power play to have a guy devoted to Fight Stuff are you FUCKING serious. He will crawl out of his own skin. Fight only when absolutely needed.
The city of Montreal goes absolutely bonkers batshit crazy for him. They love their new strong gay son. And he’s not in a toxic locker room. Shane and J.J. clock his quiet panic attacks on planes during a roadie because they May Or May Not Be Experiencing Those Themselves On Occassion and Shane’s like. Okay. We’re flying into New York. Next game is Philly. We will hire you a car to drive you there and we will get you that Xanax prescription for the next flight in utter fucking secret. Don’t worry the new team doctor is scared of Shane after the last one fucked around with medical discrimination against him and got slapped with a license suspension and a Career Ending Blacklist. Like Ryan’s problems are solvable and they are in fact solved.
Ryan also gets to miss the worst parts of his career. He stops getting traded after the 2014 season. He never goes to Tampa. He never goes to Buffalo. He never goes to Toronto. Montreal loves its strong and beautiful gay hockey players and they shan’t ever let them go. And so he misses years and years of fighting. He doesn’t become dependent on pain medication. He doesn’t have a panic attack on the ice. He is legitimately happy in his career.
And I don’t really think introducing Fabian at this point would add much to that narrative. Like. Ryan’s arc is about reclaiming his passion for hockey and sprinkling in a love interest doesn’t do much. I’d just be adding him in for the sake of adding him in and I don’t really like to do that with my characters. They need to be performing some kind of role in the narrative. It’s also years and years before they get reunited in canon so I think the best way to play it is to leave the path to Fabian open and imply they get a love story in the future. His arc is complete without a love interest and so I’m not super inclined to add one in.
Right now the most I’m planning is to have a joke where Hayden and Jackie’s new married person activity is to comb Instagram trying to find that one childhood crush Ryan mentioned having to see if they can make some magic happen. Sometimes you get a little weird in marriage. They used to direct this energy towards Shane and then he went and took himself off the market with such finality that it became a matter of international concern. Let’s try a different spelling of “Fabian” and see if we find anything.
