take it slow - take it easy on me

main @mikeywaylesbian | AO3: StormVandal ask me about my strong opinions on shane hollander's bilingualism

[blond-shell]

HEATED RIVALRY GIF MEME ➤ [3/3] characters

[iwrotemrtambourineman]

“where’s the Troy Barrett casting announcement?” “when are they saying who’s playing Harris Drover?” Okay well Jacob Tierney is obviously waiting for them to wrap up their last shifts at the Niagara Falls Rainforest Cafe and Canada’s Wonderland respectively before making the announcement

[darlingofdots]

the thing about the end of TLG is that it isn't really about Shane losing everything he's worked for his entire adult life (although it maybe feels that way for a moment both for the reader and for Shane himself). what actually happens is that Shane looks at everything he's worked for his entire adult life and he goes "wait, this is it? this is what I wanted? damn, this kinda sucks. you're telling me I did alllll that and you're upset about me marrying the love of my life? for real? yeah, no, fuck this shit, I'm out ✌️" and then he skates off into the sunset with his husband, whom he loves so fucking much that he was willing to give up everything he's worked for his entire life for him because he has realised that he wants Ilya more than he wants any of that

[rivalrydyke]

rly my problems with the majority of TLG criticism that i see boil down to:

people acting like ilya's pov is supposed to be understood as entirely rational/correct (it *very explicitly* is not, the unfairness of his feelings is acknowledged *in the text*)

people acting like Everything Was Fine for shane before being outed, aside from ilya nagging him (when it's extremely clear that the strain of staying closeted/keeping his relationship a secret is wearing on him in multiple ways) and therefore acting like the fact that his worst fears about being outed came true means that the status quo was actually fine for shane and could/should have continued indefinitely

[cloudabserk]

snugglebugs

[rivalrydyke]

guys in emo bands 🤝 hollanov

getting embroiled in unhinged secret gay situationships wherein you hook up in hotel rooms while on the road

[rivalrydyke]

this comes in really handy for putting together playlists btw

[rivalrydyke]

guys in emo bands 🤝 hollanov

getting embroiled in unhinged secret gay situationships wherein you hook up in hotel rooms while on the road

[mybloodstream-caffeine]

Fandom is so obsessed with contrasts in ships that they force them onto hollanov, a couple who are FAMOUSLY supposed to be similar. There is no slutty one and prudish one. They both love sex. There is no smart one and dumb one. They both excel at the same career where traditional metrics of academic intelligence don't apply. There is no jock and nerd. They are both professional athletes. There is no neatfreak and slob. They both pay other people to clean their houses. Please release yourself from the need to manufacture an opposites attract dynamic in every facet of their relationship, ESPECIALLY when the central conceit of hollanov as a couple is that they're more alike than everyone else seems to think.

[epiphainie]

slow burn where they're already having sex. such a beautiful combination i cannot put it into words

[summerscaries]

Canada’s Jane Hollander 🙌 🇨🇦 and Russia’s Lilya Rozanova 🏅🇷🇺

[gurlsrool]

everyday is a test in this fandom when you’re someone who has a decent grasp on what’s fanon and what’s canon. perpetually resisting the urge to reply “well actually 🤓”

[pregnanthudsonwilliams]

the thing about ilya is that he is so funny and beautiful.... and he is so sad.....

[pregnanthudsonwilliams]

@shaneposting and his dad is so hard on him....

[softgnome]

Personally I do think that sometimes non-hockey fans can end up mischaracterizing Shane and Ilya because they don't know enough about hockey/hockey playstyles

The Ilya we see in Heated rivalry would not be throwing the first punch, he's not an enforcer. Ilya is a star center and a Pest. He wouldn't be doing his job correctly if he was punching players every other game, it would end up with not enough ice time to let him be the playmaker he's paid to be.

But being a pest can be playmaking! Find a player to bait, emotionally push them just enough that they try to fight you, and then get the fuck out of there before the ref gives you both penalties. This gets your team the power play. There is probably someone on Ilya's line dedicated to helping him get out of the fights he starts, and finishing them for him!

I also think this is also something that Shane would respect. Ilya is good at it and it's a good strategy for his team. I don't think Shane would see it as some dirty tactic, because Shane probably thinks everyone with a brain can see it for what it is! He probably thinks everyone should be able to see that being an asshole is a tactic for Ilya, that it's something to ignore and not fall for, that it's a strategy and not personal beef.

I think Shane's more disappointed when a Metro falls for it. Shane sees it as Ilya set up a Looney Toons ass obvious trap and one of his teammates ran into it. Why be mad at Bugs Bunny when you can be mad at your defenceman for falling for a fucking Bugs Bunny trap.

[bleekay]

"sometimes i think i'd have told them already..." i love shane but i think here he has this more idealized version of himself in his head that would somehow feel less burdened by his sexuality at this point in time were he not in love with this specific man, and i'll be so real i don't think he would have felt it necessary to tell his parents he was gay unless he had a pressing need to, like someone he was serious about and wanted to bring home, or he if thought he had a real chance of being outed. i think a not insignificant part of shane's ability to even admit that he's gay is due to ilya, the sole man he thinks about during that conversation with rose. in an alternate reality without the ilya of it all, his response to her questioning about his sexuality quite possibly could have been "i don't know," and rose would have nodded and told him she'd be a friend for him to talk to while he figures it out.

genuinely think it would have been a backburner thought for him though even if he did accept it, like yeah i'm gay but that's not important right now, whatever happiness i might find out of the closet with the support of my parents is irrelevant while my life is centered around hockey, i will worry about the rest of my life when my career is over

[ellisonwongparty]

i love shane so much :( it's peak shaney to ask questions that are kind of weird (i.e. 'sick like crazy??' and 'is it like... very upsetting??' and my favorite 'what will they do to you there???' re: ilya and russia LOL) but ultimately shane will use what he's learned from those questions to come up with a solution so simple and earnest like "well why don't you tell me everything that's on your mind, but in russian??? maybe it will help :)" like guh :'( ilya's so luckyy to have himmm shane just gets him and like pays so much attention to him and just LOVES HIM SOO MUCHHH :'( AND HE'S ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE BEST WAY ILYA CAN TALK ABOUT HIMSELF BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT'S HARD FOR HIMM :'(

[clytemnestraaa]

sorry but i do like and enjoy when shane is a kind of bad captain and bad friend and partially reaps what he sowed with the metros as a result of years and years of a willfully blind eye and a locker room culture he enabled and i have seen the opinion that the metros team loves shane and that’s an interpretation i can understand but don’t myself hold because what i see is not the team loving shane but sucking up to shane and shane not totally having the social skills to recognize that while this group of guys seems really friendly and nice to him it isn’t actually motivated by friendship which is why the pivot takes him by such surprise

[darlingofdots]

they don't really use pet names when they're around other people but their teammates learn very quickly that there is ilya (positive) and ilya (negative) and rozanov (fuck yeah that was fucking gorgeous) and rozanov (if you do not shut the fuck up immediately i swear to fucking good) and shane (adoring) and shane (sad) and hollander (that's how you fucking do it!) and hollander (sit your fucking ass down or we will have a problem) and these distinctions are way more important to keep track of than the five times a month hollander calls cap "baby" and cap's face goes all sappy