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[jesusfish08054]

If I had a nickel for every time the PC wizard in a Rolling with Difficulty campaign ended up on a path to becoming a Legendary Character I'd have 2 nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

[jesusfish08054]

Why doesn't Ilya get US citizenship? At the end of HR, Ilya's met the residency requirements for becoming a US citizen (18+, lived in the US for 5+ years, not a criminal, fluent in English). Assuming that Ilya already has US PR, he can just start the naturalization process. At the time, the whole process would take less than 2 years. Ilya could have easily become a US citizen by the start of TLG.

I know that Ilya wants Canadian citizenship, but what he really needs is to not have a Russian passport being used for his job where he is constantly crossing an international boarder. Neither Canada nor the US have anti-gay laws during the timeframe of the series. Neither country would have deported Ilya to Russia for being in a queer relationship. But customs are a different matter. If Russia cancels Ilya's passport, then Ilya would be sent back to Russia when he tries to use his passport. Ilya plays professional hockey, which has about 1/4 of its teams in Canada and 3/4 in the US. Hockey teams are constantly crossing the US-Canadian boarder. Every player in the league needs a valid passport. Ilya needs a passport that won't be revoked for being bisexual.

Ilya being a US citizen would have also made his desire to come out in TLG make more sense. If Ilya is a US citizen, the threat of Russia is greatly reduced. He doesn't have to worry about being forced back to Russia if his relationship is made public. He is the safest he's ever been in his entire career. Ilya should be the happy, but he's not. He's depressed. So Ilya thinks that the only reason he's depressed is because he's hiding his relationship with Shane. That Ilya feels like he needs to come out to the world, and Shane doesn't want to. The same basic conflict, but without ignoring the main reason that Ilya wanted to keep their relationship a secret in the first place.

[jesusfish08054]

Something that has always bothered me about Scott Hunter's story is that RR frames Scott as either fully in the closet or fully out.

Something that RR does with a lot of the MCs, including Scott, is make them totally alone outside of hockey. Scott is orphaned before he figures out that he's gay, and then he's sent away from everyone he knows to a private boarding school. He supposedly has an aunt, but he never talks about visiting her or her coming to any of his games. He has no friends that aren't coworkers.

When people come out as gay, they usually go through the following stages:

Self

Close Friends

Broader Friend Groups

Family

Work/School

Everyone else

Since Scott is so alone, he has

Self

Close Friends

Broader Friend Groups

Family

Work/School

Everyone else

At the start of GC, Scott's already done step 1, and then he would need to skip steps 2-4 and go straight to step 5 when coming out. That's a huge leap for anyone to take. It makes sense that he is reluctant to come out in a sport that where gay slurs are being thrown around every game.

When Scott and Kip start dating, Scott doesn't want anyone to know. RR writes this as Kip needing to lie to everyone about where he's at constantly and that he's single. Why couldn't Kip just tell people that he's seeing a closeted local celebrity who doesn't want to publicize his relationship? GC is set in NYC, there are tons of semi-famous people living there. Why couldn't Scott and Kip agree to Scott meeting Kip's immediate family and close friends? Scott can still be closeted professionally and be out in a non-hockey social circle. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.