one other thing about tlg that really makes it impossible for me to like or engage with its story beats is that, like. not only is it just a cruel and racist book in how it treats shane, but also its ilya characterization is just wholly and completely inconsistent with heated rivalry ilya whatsoever!! that's literally not the same character. that's some other fuckin guy wearing his face.
in heated rivalry, ilya rozanov is:
an immigrant who has a lot of feelings about his family and being apart from them after moving overseas
a very private person underneath his posturing and loud exterior (all the bragging and bullshitting serves to deflect attention from all the vulnerabilities he refuses to let anyone see)
so deeply closeted he can't even entertain the concept of a completely secret committed relationship with a man until he sees the skip kiss
so deeply closeted, repressed, and scared of homophobic retribution that he constantly rejects shane's bids for emotional connection for YEARS until the skip kiss
generally not someone who talks about his feelings literally ever. getting him to open up is like pulling teeth
a man with a somewhat contentious relationship with the media (early hr ilya struggling with english in press conferences and feeling self conscious of his english next to shane, and developing a media personality full of bravado and swagger) who is well aware of and even actively cultivates a specific public image that serves as a cover for all the things he refuses to share
again. private. repressed. really deep in the closet and really comfortable in there, to the point of not understanding why shane's sexuality crisis was even a big deal to him, bc to ilya this is something to be kept hidden behind closed doors and not acknowledged otherwise no matter what.
so how the fuck did we get from all that, to a man who is suddenly just frothing at the mouth to post details of his sexuality and personal life on instagram???????
and like yeah, a character can have development where they change radically from how they've been established. but if you want me to believe that ilya "private and repressed" rozanov suddenly wants to blast personal details onto the internet, you better SHOW me that character development. it can't be entirely offscreen! as it is, he doesn't even scan as the same guy. like, what's next, an a:tla sequel where aang changed his mind about killing entirely offscreen? lord of the rings pt. 2 where sam gamgee is suddenly a capitalist? another star wars sequel where it turns out that, actually, leia never actually cared about alderaan?
if you're going to change the core characteristics of a major character, that character work and development needs to be done on screen. otherwise it just does not read like that's the same character. and by throwing out everything about ilya's repression and struggles as an immigrant, and instead turning him into someone who wants to invite public scrutiny of his queer relationship, tlg just reads as a text fundamentally incompatible with hr. i don't know who the fuck that man is, but he's not the ilya rozanov i know.
gummygunk
romaincrisis
ellievsbear
gamechangershow
