another thing that gives me psychic damage about tlg is the way yuna is written. Because she is very much used to underline the books narrative that shane is selfish and wrong and that he should be punished. Like, why on earth is she saying that ilya is her favorite son with the subtext that ilya is being a better son??? Why is she ganging up with ilya to make fun of shane's performance diet and his worries and fears???
Don't get me wrong, I love ilya being a part of the hollander family and receiving familial love, but whyyy is it happening to the detriment of shane? And if rr intended to show these familial bonds through bickering and ribbing, she should not have spent the entire book essentially saying that ilya is her perfect sad white boy and shane is the devil incarnate that is only there to atone for not personally curing ilya of his depression and not reaching the state of 60s housewive sooner. Like this, the 'ribbing' becomes a genuine expression of dislike and it just seems like yuna now dislikes her son for being the person she raised him to be and for having valid fears. And the subliminal message is that maybe would be more likeable and loveable if he was just more like ilya.
When I was growing up I was really close with my dad. We had a lot of the same interests. We spent a lot of time together. Once, my little sister was angry at him and kind of threw in his face that I was his favorite.
He told me later that that was one of his hardest moments as a parent. He felt like he failed if my sister thought even for a second that he somehow loved her less.
The “favorite son” scene always makes me think of that. Yes, it’s a joke. It’s just not a very funny joke.
That entire scene is just so mean spirited. It literally opens with Yuna asking “what’s Shane’s problem?” not “is there something wrong” it’s “what’s his problem”
Shane is miserable and visibly spiraling, because Ryan Price just walked in on Shane and Ilya kissing. Once again, he’s just been outed and he’s scared.
Ilya’s response is, of course, to look back at Shane, who has is face buried in his hands and looks “miserable” and say “looks normal to me.”
Yuna and Ilya then spend the rest of the conversation talking about how Ryan’s great and it’s not a big deal and maybe they should come out to even more people. It ends with Yuna telling Shane that Ilya is her favorite son because he’s helping her with dinner instead of sitting on his butt and moping.
Shane is just. The world’s most outed man. He only gets to come out to his team and they turn on him. Every other time, he is outed, and every time it upsets him, the rest of the characters rush to agree that it’s not a big deal. The fact that he wants to be closeted is always, always the problem.
There’s just something so disdainful about how the long game is written. Shane is the butt of every single joke. The narrative reinforces again and again that Shane is the problem and Ilya is better, Ilya is the one everyone likes, Ilya is the one you should like.
Someone else made this comparison in a comment on one of my posts—Shane really gets the “90s sitcom wife” treatment. I couldn’t agree more. Like. Every joke is at Shane’s expense, but the laugh track plays. You are supposed to agree with them. You are supposed to laugh.
Not even Shane’s own mother will be on his side during this. And yeah, sure, she’s joking, but does it really feel like a joke?
If Shane was a female character, I am convinced that the jokes made at his expense would be condemned as misogynistic. Because the jokes are never funny. They are “90s sitcom wife” jokes. They are laughing at Shane, and they are always aimed at a point of genuine sensitivity. It’s just so ugly.
origamiaround
gamechangershow
titsay
stormborns
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romaincrisis
