gardenias on the tile

kat, she/her, 30.

[firstprinced]

KAT, 30, SHE/HER. i talk a lot (#katpostin if you wanna see less. or more. also my #heated rivalry shitpost tag for random hr talk). i make gifsets, open for requests! do not repost my stuff! tracking #firstprinced (for mutuals).

this is my only blog and thus everything flies here but i tag accordingly. minors dni and i block easily if ur racist, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic etc. xo

[ily-a]

Hollanov + text posts (part 2)

[firstprinced]

being hunted for sport in my head can’t look at dash drowning in neg goodneit

[firstprinced]

its fine if no one shares my opinions. rocking back and forf

[doinggreat]

[bjorkandablunt]

fútbol.

[avantgarden-er]

Pitbullthatwillbeadoptedsoonsmile_ilya_Face.jpg

[ryebreadgf]

once I snorted a fat line of nuance and everything started depending. watch out

[firstprinced]

thing is i can criticize the books where i see it valid but i love them still never mistake me

[disc80s]

x

[theghostofashton]

that thing she says about people not liking or not understanding ilya is truly so damning and i don't know how she didn't see that tbh

it upsets you when people misinterpret his actions because you love him so much you know why he's doing these things even though people may get it wrong? shane, on the other hand.... he's selfish. he's just stupid. he doesn't understand the dark side of hockey. he's oblivious. agrees with the popular hc that he's autistic and then walks it back bc that resulted in people having empathy for shane (and also makes clear that it is ilya's responsibility to communicate more effectively to accommodate his partner, which we just can't have. ilya can't change his behavior to accommodate shane. it always has to be the other way around).

and then she wonders why people think she doesn't like shane like...... i have to laugh

[wordsonapage2]

One scene that always struck me as a little weird for a romance book was the first Vegas rooftop.

"Not everything is about you, Hollander." He didn't look at Shane at all when he said it. His voice hadn't been angry. He just sounded...tired. And sad. Shane studied his profile. His own anger left him, and he found himself caring about Ilya Rozanov, which was an odd sensation.

Characters misreading each other is a very common romance trope, like in Pride and Prejudice. Usually that's something that is eventually resolved as the characters come to know each other better, but Reid cannot stand for Ilya to be thought badly of by the audience even for a scene--even when the characters barely know each other at all. Instead, Shane has to have a perfect perception of Ilya's mental state (even though that directly contradicts her description of Shane's qualities) and immediately puts his own feelings aside to center Ilya's. See, Ilya isn't being a jerk, reader, Shane is concerned about him so you should be too!

It happens in the Sochi scene as well.

Rozanov was being an asshole, which was nothing new, but he didn’t seem to mean it. In fact, Shane would bet that Rozanov would actually really like him to stay. He looked like he could use a hug.

Shane and Ilya literally never spend any time together outside of a quick hookup a few times a year, but here he's able to perfectly read Ilya through his attempts at masking to read a complicated hidden desire. And this is a particularly annoying thing to me when she made that stupid list and said that Shane isn't observant or perceptive. Because it means that Shane's not reading Ilya because Shane is good at reading people, but because Reid cares more about how the reader perceives Ilya than she does about Shane's characterization. In these novels, Shane can never be mad at Ilya when Ilya is actively trying to hurt Shane's feelings, because Reid has Shane constantly able to perfectly understand the source of Ilya's behavior and his true desires. And then she has Shane prioritize that over his own feelings, because the most important thing to her is for the reader to feel like Ilya's hurtful behavior is minimized and not actually harmful. Shane is given no space or grace for his own feelings, because the narrative doesn't consider them important.

[firstprinced]

me trying to whisper when someone mentions fandom discourse

[bloominflowers]

thinking about Shane's first pride night with the Centaurs ;u;

[smokingrozanov]

Vampire Shane who won’t drink human blood for ethical reasons & human Ilya who is like oh my god Hollander you’re so boring 🙄 you should just feed from me I’m literally giving you permission. Shane is like Ilya I can literally hear the blood rushing to your penis when you say that

[sunsbleeding]

[hollanov-ann]

Connor Storrie + Hudson Williams, GQ Photoshoot BTS

[gloryhollanovjah]

Connor's pleased soft 'oh there you are' smile when Hudson first settles his weight on him... I'm fine

[firstprinced]

every time i like one of you guys' "headache" post just Know my head is definitely hurting as well, as it always is