Back with more TLG/S2 posting because my brain is like a dog with a bone atm, sorry!
(on how the “Shane had been selfish” framing does not make logical sense with HR)
Sometimes I feel like the framing of TLG is an exercise in gaslighting with how it flipped the story on its head. It gaslit me too when I first read it: I felt there was something mean-spirited about it but didn’t question the premise as much as I should, and then had to go back and gnaw on why the tone and to some extent the plot kept unsettling me, and then the “Shane had been selfish … it needed to create a conflict” comment came out and confirmed that it was baked into the actual structure from the outset.
This is repeating a lot of what I’ve said and what has been said by others before, but it got into my head and I had to stay up late to write it all out again anyway: why the basic “selfish” premise of the book makes no sense either with HR or with reality.
First of all, gotta go back to HR (book canon, but it’s the same outcome in the show).
HEATED RIVALRY + THE PLAN
In HR, at the cottage, it is Ilya who suggests leaving Boston for a Canadian team, in the context of a conversation about citizenship. Then he suggests a team that’s actually further away, to help the rivalry fade. They both don’t like the idea of being so far away from each other, but it’s Ilya who first justifies this as a (mutual) “sacrifice … for future gain”. They’re both happy about the possibility of “one day”.
Then, Shane suggests Ottawa - back to the Canada idea initially floated by Ilya - to address the distance issue. Ilya’s only qualm is that they would still be rivals. He’s content with the citizenship part. And next, he is stunned by the commitment Shane shows by wanting them to be together for real in the future. “You really think that far ahead?” It is literally what prompts him to confess his love.
How do we get from that to this, via RR’s Discord comments: “Going into TLG my main notes were all the ways Shane had been selfish. It was important to hold on to that. It’s not an impossible thing to overcome, but it needed to create a conflict.”
All the ways he had been selfish? Genuinely, how? They jointly came up with a plan that gave Ilya the path to citizenship, brought them closer physically, and gave them plausible reason for their newfound closeness. This is all canon HR.
THE LONG GAME + “SELFISHNESS”
What we see in TLG is Ilya finding the situation much harder than he anticipated, for fully valid reasons relating to his depression, his desire to be open and free, his lack of an in-built support network, his having a hard time adjusting to his new team. All of that makes fair, logical and empathetic narrative sense as a way to progress his character post-HR. But none of that is in any way due to “selfishness” on Shane’s part and it’s baffling that it’s then framed and written as such.
In terms of his behaviour as written within TLG itself, Shane can definitely be faulted for not logically putting together how hard it must be for Ilya. He knows Ilya had to leave his home country behind, the team that drafted him, his teammates and friends in Boston. He knows Ilya wants to play good hockey and would therefore be finding it hard on an inferior team. He knows Ilya has no family in Canada (other than his own). All of that, he should be able to suss on his own and it’s on him whenever he doesn’t. (It’s worth noting he does realise Ilya is unhappy, he just doesn’t connect the dots with why until explicitly told.) Canonically, he can definitely also be faulted for not understanding how important it is to Ilya to have someone of his own to open up to (though it being Troy actually makes that hesitance more understandable). The fact he and Ilya are on different pages wrt being ready to come out in general can absolutely be a cause of narrative friction, though I wouldn’t blame either for their position or call either “selfish”. All of that is plenty for narrative conflict and for misunderstandings and miscommunications and inadvertently hurting each other and character growth and all the things a story about an established relationship should have.
The actual practical fact that the “sacrifices” have fallen on one side, however, is not within his control. Shane moving team to be closer to Ilya would not have solved anything wrt Ilya’s citizenship, and would have removed both of them from the support of his family. And keeping their relationship secret for now, as we’ve established, was part of the plan to keep them both (but especially Ilya!) safe, so it’s understandable that any changes to that would have to be talked through carefully, even when it’s a totally reasonable ask by Ilya in principle.
So, logically, what is Shane supposed to have sacrificed to even the scores? Why is he selfish for not having been required to give things up himself? Why is that the one-sided framing for what would be a totally plausible misalignment in a relationship, a worthy source of conflict in itself without pinning all the blame on one side? Why is any of the practical reality of the situation his fault? And if the issue is not the practical reality but his actions in response to it, then are we back to calling him selfish for not wanting to come out earlier?
In the Boxing Day fight, when Ilya calls Shane on not having had to sacrifice anything yet, he says “If we get outed, our fucking careers might be over!” Which is exactly what they are threatened with by Crowell when they are outed, which is exactly what happens to his reputation specifically when he’s the one to lose a crucial match against his rival/partner, which is exactly what happens to his legacy at Montreal and hard-earned status. What he sacrificed was peace of mind, to borrow anxiety and fear from a future that turned out pretty much as he’d expected. And hey, he also had to make the actual sacrifice in the end, so we’re even!
Re: the Russia of it all, this is also addressed inconsistently and messily in TLG. In HR, the threat is real and the main reason for Ilya’s hesitance in Tampa. In TLG, Ilya still says he could lose his work visa and hasn’t been in Canada long enough to apply for citizenship (surely important!). This is then, however, immediately handwaved away as Galina “reasonably” says “there are other ways” and the text follows up “She was right” (lol).
During that talk with Galina, the Ilya POV text says he could “seek out other ways to stay in Canada. He could find other work. He could...get married.” He says the worst case scenario is: “our NHL careers are over, but we can get married, and live a quiet life together in Canada.” We’re told he loves hockey, but would choose Shane for that quiet life with other work. Good job there’s no way that’s happening, but RR has written in the statement of intent so we’re good (compared to Shane who’s shown as selfishly wanting to keep fighting for his life’s work).
Meanwhile, the “realistic” best case scenario for Ilya in that conversation is: “We keep going, same as we are now, except everyone knows we’re together and it’s fine. No big deal.” Which is of course, what somehow happens to him in the end - but not Shane, who’s first humiliated and ostracised and character-assassinated and penalised and demoted in the exact same way that’s underpinned his fears throughout. In the same way that ties in fundamentally with the hostile and homophobic world this entire book series was meant to be criticising. Sigh.
I think it’s very clear how inconsistent and one-sided the writing and framing is. I also come back to my earlier theory that RR was somehow mad at herself for having made Ilya have to be the one to give things up, and decided to take that out on Shane by evening the scores, however nonsensically. It comes off like a long one-sided hurt/comfort fic.
If any of this makes me seem mad at Ilya, please understand that’s not the case. I think the writing does a huge disservice to both characters. It goes so far towards painting Shane as wrong and Ilya as right (even when that’s literally not the case) that I get mad at it for wanting me to hate Shane, and then get mad at it again for making Ilya seem insensitive and OOC as a result. Their HR selves BOTH deserved better.
SEASON 2
I go back and forth on whether I have hope for S2, or whether the bias of the source material is insurmountable. I do think the script (and Hudson’s interpretation and acting) will treat Shane’s behaviour and demeanour with greater care than RR did. I think it’s likely the pressure he’s under as a neurodivergent Asian closeted gay man will be handled with more understanding, and that the big painful events will be handled with greater sympathy for him from both the show and from Ilya. But I get very doomy when I think about how fundamentally unsound the framing of the central conflict is, because there’s so much less leeway to deviate from that (and no public indication so far JT sees anything wrong with it).
Sometimes it even makes me sad that I got into this show and got attached, because I didn’t know what was to come (read the books post-show). Atp sometimes I even feel like it’s retroactively tainting S1, which previously gave me such unmitigated joy: it’s harder now to watch ep 6, with Shane staying up through the night and planning Ottawa out and Ilya’s “you really think that far ahead?” and their happy-crying faces in bed after confessing their love without thinking “Shane, you will be deemed selfish and punished for this”.
Honestly, I hope I’m able to disengage more before next year at this rate - think I’m driving myself a bit mad with Schrodinger’s season 2. But there will be more posts before that, bc this is my blog and this is what’s currently on my mind! Sorry 😅
for my final and most unpopular thought of the night that i will get stoned for. i do think that looking at ilya rozanov from the outside hayden pike was completely valid to freak out
honestly even adding the Boston Lily layer to it all..... ilya is so often romanticized and over-excused by the narrative but realistically (i understand this is fiction and not real please walk with me) if i was hayden all i know about boston lily is this on again off again situation that has made shane look like he's coming back from war at least once post tuna melt (and if he was there in vegas 2014 then twice)
listen it's fine to dislike him but even in my dinner with hayden,,,,, big fan of death of the author but rachel reid writes ilya rozanov like he's her first born son that she's in love with and i can't help but notice how everyone in shane's corner is villainized and downplayed for the sake of ilya's victimisation and damseling where he is always the martyr and everyone else is being unfair to him because he's literally two apples tall
many things: hayden and 10000% had shitty moments and isn't perfect, i love ilya and think shane made mistakes too
"no zurdito la ley solo dice que el gobierno va a implementar el proceso de coito con la persona con la que estas casada, en ningún momento dice que se van a cojer a tu señora!"
realmente increíble que una empresa yanqui puede ir y usar el nombre de una región a la que no tienen ningún derecho y después querer denunciar a ALGUIEN MAS por usar un nombre parecido
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