path to greatness

Monbebe. Wenee. Post about Marvel, Kpop, Books, Cdramas, Variety Shows, basically whatever I'm hyperfixating on. 

[rotund-squirrelmeister]

i love forbidden queer relationships in media where the forbidden aspect has nothing to do with them being queer and everything to do with their murderous tendancies

[imstuckin1999]

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

[hr-rep]

Everyday I live in fear of the HR fandom getting ever closer to Sitcom Dad!Ilya and Sitcom Mom!Shane being what we are forced to digest as fandom staples

[charmingpickles]

samreidgifs

[simoneashley]

Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid Interview With the Vampire Season 3 promo for Entertainment Weekly

[ofteasandinks]

I know people refer to Tumblr as the "Shane website", and I'm here for Hollanov. However, at this point, could someone direct me to where an Ilya website would be? Because I am so tired of seeing Ilya being shit on, made the butt of jokes, and dehumanized in order to elevate Shane. I'm so tired of it. So maybe the Ilya website would be more apt to show them as the equals they are.

At this point I have to go back and reheat the show to remind myself that Shane actually does love Ilya and loves him as a person- a talented, smart person who is Shane's rival- because with how fandom is- Shane's merely tolerating Ilya, is Ilya's victim, or just has Ilya as a pet.

Y'all I'm so tired I haven't even updated my fic in 2 weeks. Maybe I'll start a community or something.

[lioncourtz]

"That's like a big key to why Jacob and I got on so well, is because we're actually very similar people." x

[ofteasandinks]

Kip Grady going to Boston U for grad school (one of the other schools he mentioned in canon looking at) - becomes friends with Ilya in the process (because Ilya has the kind of perceptiveness that he clearly catches where Scott's eyes go in the crowd every time the Admirals come to play in Boston- and Ilya catches glimpse of that guy in the crowd in an Admirals jersey at their rink - brave man- and decides this would be the best way to torment Scott Hunter just a little more to & instead ends up with a genuine friendship of his own)

And Kip Grady and Ilya Rozanov are menace4menace besties right off the bat They're almost always over at each other's apartments or going out to museums or clubs or shopping together. No one thinks they're a couple because they're literally just bros hanging out. In fact, Kip hangs out with a few of the Raiders - Cliff Marlow & Connors being the other two besides Ilya, but Ilya's definitely the one he's closest to.

And Kip knows for sure that Ilya is bisexual the same way that Ilya knows that Scott and Kip are not "just friends" and Kip's not just a "casual fan" who had run into Scott back when he was still in New York and carried the team loyalty with him to Boston (for one thing, Kip would have to actually know more about hockey for Ilya to be convinced he was ever a fan of the sport). So Kip's admits to having hooked up with one of the players on the Admirals before (but not which), and Ilya pretends he doesn't know - the same way Kip pretends that Ilya doesn't stare a bit too much at the ads that Shane Hollander is in.

And at first, Kip doesn't really mention to Scott that his new friends are professional hockey players, but Scott's very impressed that suddenly Kip understands more about the sport. He's a little confused about why Kip has a Raiders jersey in his closest (he really thought Kip meant like- university hockey players) and has apparently started going to hockey games that the Admirals aren't playing in (Ilya gets Kip tickets because he likes when his bestie's in the crowd).

And then when the Admirals are in Boston and Scott's getting to meet up at Kip's apartment for a hookup, he stays much longer than intended the next day - he can afford to book a late flight- and in waltzes Ilya who apparently has his own key with coffees and brunch and ready for gossip - because Scott was supposed to be gone-

And that's how everyone realizes that everyone (except Scott) knew everything from the start.

[thevampirecaspian]

We're getting more princess and her hair flips

[always-rolling-my-eyes]

That was a lot of penises

[disasterbisafespace]

love and light to RR but the more you think about it, the less sense the entire premise of the long game makes. neither Shane nor Ilya expresses the concerns you’d reasonably expect them to, so you’re left trying to accept the premise and it just doesn’t ring true. at the end of the day, TLG asks you to accept that the biggest social hurdle to Shane and Ilya’s relationship is that they’re rivals, not that they’re both men, and maybe I just don’t care about sports enough, but it’s hard to accept that as true in a book series about closeted hockey players and as a human being who is alive on earth.

Like Ilya can’t come out because…..? Shane doesn’t want him to? That’s pretty much it? If you applied any logic, you’d think, oh, he’s worried about having his passport revoked and it impacting his ability to work, or losing his job, but nope, never contemplated. like in the text, the only reason it seems Ilya can’t come out is he and Shane are worried people will put it together that they’re a couple. which really only has consequences for Shane, and means Ilya is essentially in the closet just to protect Shane, which fine, makes sense as a motivation, but leads into the even more baffling premise of TLG: why did Shane come out to his team?

This happens between books and we don’t really get any insight into why Shane decided to come out to his team, but it’s really hard to reconcile with who he is as a person. Again, it implies that the issue is the rivalry, not homophobia. Shane is already dealing with being one of the only Asian players, and neurodivergent to boot—it’s hard to accept that he would willingly other himself further by coming out unless it was to also reveal his relationship. The strain on Shane is actually worse if he comes out but continues to hide his relationship?? Because he loses the plausible deniability of assumed straightness. And it’s not like he came out to soft launch his relationship, which would’ve also made some sense, because in TLG the plan is still to wait until retirement initially. Further, it doesn’t make sense for Shane to come out to his team rather than Ilya, because Shane is far more likely to experience professional consequences than Ilya—Ilya’s bad boy reputation protects him in a way that Shane’s model minority status does not.

It’s further strange that TLG asks us to believe the team is like mostly okay with Shane being gay, though I think this is a big opening for the tv show to explore. It’s implied they were awkward at first and they’re maybe distant now, but you can assume (as I think most fans do, in order to make it make sense) that Shane maybe isn’t the most reliable narrator about how bad it is, and finding out it’s Ilya is what causes that underlying tension to bubble over.

TL;DR, TLG suffers from trying to ask the reader to accept that the problem is the rivalry, not homophobia, and therefore the characters’ choices also don’t make sense when held up against the lived experience of any queer person, who knows that can’t possibly be true.

[scullys]

I want to be in love. But I don't want that to make it impossible for me to, like, move to LA or take a show to Edinburgh, work my ass off on Broadway, you know? I want to be able to do it all.

[ofteasandinks]

#mycliff is the kind of bro who calls his bros things like "sweetheart" without thinking twice about it. He does it regularly to Ilya.

Somehow this escapes Shane's notice until well after he and Ilya are married and Cliff has taken to visiting them regularly to catch up with Ilya. One day Ilya grabs a beer for Cliff when he's getting another for himself, and when he hands it over, Cliff, who is distracted setting up the next video game, just goes, "Thanks, Sweetheart" Cliff's lack of hesitation and Ilya's lack of reaction just swirls around in Shane's brain.

Finally, later that night when they're alone and in bed, Shane's like "..so is Marleau (not Marly because Shane is in a mood right now) also one of your friends you used to fuck?"

[ofteasandinks]

A complete AU where Ilya and Shane get caught (but not publicly outed) right after the cottage.

It's the kind of caught where Crowell knows but most of the league doesn't, and he's in a weird compromising mood so he's like,

"I'll make a deal with you both. You like each other so much, we'll make it happen as long as you can keep quiet about it until I like retire or die. Whichever comes first."

And they're like ..."okay?"

Because there's not a great alternative right now.

So, Crowell gives them the wonderful "privilege" of playing for teams whose rinks are only 30minutes apart. He even agrees for them to share a place in the middle, and he'll have the league's PR really spin a nice bromance story about them.

But it comes at a cost for both. He's thought this through.

For Shane, it's moving from Canada to New Jersey to play for the New Jersey Imps. He'll be giving up Montreal and his captaincy for an Alternate position on a not completely sucky team.

For Ilya, he's going to New York. He's going to be an Admiral. He's giving up his captaincy and now he's going to be an Alternate and on Scott Hunter's line.

It's supposed to be a punishment, but instead Shane and Ilya have a nice place together. Ilya's on a very supportive team *coughofdinosaurscough*. Shane's new team is much less sucky than the Metros/Voyagers would have been. They hang out at the Kingfisher and have an entire circle of gay/bi besties. (Crowell didn't say they couldn't come out in private-just no public statements.) Both Ilya and Shane get to indulge in one of their very favorite hobbies of talking shit behind Scott Hunter's back but also going to share drinks with him because he's actually pretty cool, but none of them are going to admit that.

[ofteasandinks]

I was trying to post a new chapter every week on the fanfic, but this week's chapter got away from me and is now going to be 3x the length of the rest. T-T

[karingold]

I think the fandom has a slightly odd approach to the idea of ​​Ilya being captain in Ottawa.Like, what do you mean, "he has to give that job to Shane"?What do you mean, "Shane won't be happy losing the captaincy and having to report to Ilya"?Well, first of all, Shane won't be happy reporting to Ilya? Really?Secondly, Ilya isn't some random stranger bossing Shane around. He's his beloved husband, who respects and cares for him. Who listens to his opinions and fully acknowledges his awesomeness.Thirdly, why should Shane get the armband at all? Because? Why not give it back to Budu? Who, let me remind you, has been playing on this team much longer than their hockey-playing husbands. Who's also a great hockey player. Who spent his entire career in Ottawa and did a ton to help unite the team. No, that's something else?And fourthly, why are we ignoring Ilya's efforts to become captain? Did he work as hard as Shane did to achieve this? On two teams? Didn't he earn that title by becoming a team leader, speaking a second language, all alone on another continent? In the same year, Shane? Didn't he lead his team to the Cup at 23?I don't know, try watching "Role Model" alongside "The Long Game" and see how he manages to be captain even in his worst mental state.And don't you think Shane would be willing to relax a bit and take a break from captaincy duties?

[ilyarozanovvvvvvv]

🗣️ STOP MOVING SHANE AND ILYA TO THE SAME TEAM AND MOVING ILYA TO WING OR SECOND LINE CENTER SO THAT SHANE CAN STAY FIRST LINE CENTER

🗣️ ILYA WOULD ONLY MOVE TO PLAY WING IN A POWERPLAY! SHANE SHOULD BE MADE CENTER SECOND LINE FOR DEPTH

🗣️ ILYA IS THE CAPTAIN AND THE ONE WHO BUILT UP BOTH BOSTON AND OTTAWA AND IF HE GOT MOVED TO A LESSER POSITION TO ACCOMMODATE SOMEONE WHO IS JUST! AS! GOOD! AS! HIM! IT WOULD BE INCREDIBLY INSULTING

🗣️ PLEASE START VALUING ILYA FOR THE AMAZING PLAYER HE IS! HE ALSO SPENT HIS CHILDHOOD TRAING FOR THIS! THIS IS ALSO HIS GREATEST AMBITION! FOR EVERY PERSON WHO THINKS SHANE IS THE BEST THERE IS ANOTHER PERSON WHO THINKS ILYA IS THE BEST! THATS! THE! WHOLE! POINT!