If you would like to take your mind off the Other tm wildness in this fandom, I have a take/bias/Thought I would like to scream into the void and maybe have the void scream back with outside perspective and analysis.
I do not understand (and therefore do not much appreciate) the entire coversation and plot point around the desire to come out to the world in TLG. I will also say that I have never felt the desire to come out as anything (am queer in multiple ways) and my grasp on the concept of romantic relationships is iffy (aromantic).
The idea that Hollanov coming out 'fixed' or 'will fix' anything is confusing. Before coming out/being outed, the best case scenario is that they will be placed under insane personal/professional scrutiny from homophobic fans, face professional issues and physical endangerment (homophobic players on other teams), and the Russia of it all (as Ilya does not have a PR card iirc). The benefits would be The Joy Of Being Out (???? this has actual lasting value??? i do not understand) and being able to discuss their relationship. The distance issues would not be resolved and they still could not spend much time together (as Shane would stay in Montreal). To me, this tradeoff, even in the best case, is so incredibly not worth it it is inconcievable to even seriously consider it. Coming out to friends/teams or even in Ilya's case talking about his relationship using 0 pronouns has more favorable risk/reward balance.
I also do not understand why Ilya (who desires coming out) cannot say he is in a long-distance relationship with a very private man. this would allow Outness, not implicate Shane, and allow him to discuss his relationship.
In TLG, the actual consequences of being outed were horrific, and easily could have been worse. Shane was exhiled from his team, endangered (they wouldn't properly cover him defensively, iirc?), lost all of his friends (he went to these people's weddings! was in the bridal party!), and had to take a lower salary to move to another team, not really by choice. They were threatened by the Commisioner of their jobs, barred from playing for a time, faced incredible personal and professional backlash that will be ongoing, and Ilya still doesn't have a PR card. Even with the benefits of Outness and not being long distance anymore, this still seams like almost a tragedy plot.
I know i have specific biases and interpretations, but this is not a Happily Ever After, or even kinda happy to me. I don't like this frequent portrayl where Coming Out Is The Only Thing That Will Make You Happy, No Matter The (sometimes awful) Consequences.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
This is something I've talked about a lot on my blog since reading the long game. The thing is that the premise of tlg should have never been the premise of tlg. It's not an appropriate story for these characters. It goes against the narrative the ending of HR set up. It is completely illogical to make Ilya so desperate to come out in tlg when he still isn't a citizen, and even more illogical to make him entirely unpreoccupied with his citizenship status the entire book despite this being the initial reason he brought up moving to Canada and despite supposedly wanting a Canadian passport.
In general, I can understand the desire to come out, but there are many reasons why some don't want to or can't, and Shane and Ilya realistically would not want to and, just as you point out, for extremely good reason. Ilya also very much wouldn't be able to. I have defended Reid's choice to write an outing story before - it makes sense in a series of six books about queer hockey players in the NHL that one of them would explore the "What if?" of being outed. But the way Reid did it didn't make any sense at all. It doesn't make any fucking sense to writing a getting-outed story and then decide one of your characters is going to come out to his whole team before the events of the book begin, and the other is going to be desperate to come out the whole time. It is just completely fucking illogical on multiple levels.
Then, it is all the more illogical to constantly paint one of your characters as paranoid and selfish for not wanting to come out, as though coming out should be no big deal, as though there's no real danger, then, once he's outed, destroy his whole entire fucking life as a direct consequence, AND THEN, as if that isn't ENOUGH, paint this as nothing more than an inconvenient bummer the same character gets over in less than ten pages, just so he can be handed a HEA that would not, under any circumstances, make him happy, at least not so happy it immediately and completely makes up for everything he lost.
THEN - it is somehow even MORE illogical, to write a story in which your Russian immigrant character is desperate to be out, is outed before he's a citizen, and faces zero consequences of any kind for this. In fact, the story doesn't even mention Russia once after the fact.
And all this to say that it is all almost entirely moot to talk about, because textually, all of this happens because of rivalry-phobia rather than queerphobia and the entire narrative acts like rivals being together in the NHL would be more offensive and dangerous and have a greater impact on the characters' lives than being queer. Nothing is more illogical than this.
I can't stress enough that this book is entirely, beginning to end, nonsensical. Its plot is nearly incoherent. It is a phenomenally poorly written book that is simultaneously trivializing queerphobia on every page. It is arguing that the only oppression closeted queer people face is the closet itself, and the only people who harm queer people are other queer people who trap them in that closet. It is the worst book I've ever read and though I'm sure my followers are sick of me saying that I will nevertheless say it a million more times before I die.
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