okayy this would definitely take some more research on the ntdp but. leviticus-inspired willgabe au... take my hand 🫴 let's go for a walk 🚶 obviously not a 1:1 comparison but: gabe in naim's role and will in ryan's role and leno in hunter's role. as opposed to ryan and hunter and eventually naim being subjected to the exorcism from the deliverance healer as a method of conversion therapy by the church let's consider will and leno and eventually gabe being subjected to an exorcism from a church by the program because it violates their contract and they believe it makes their playing weaker. like there's obviously an element of religious mania due to the white american hockey culture of it all but i think that combined with the rigid expectation of becoming a machine solely for hockey makes it scarier. like whoever said the ntdp is basically a cult wasn't lying and in this specific scenario we can look at it from a standpoint of the focus on hockey being so glaringly large that the obsession to become "perfect" bleeds into homophobia and stereotypical religious mania and psychosis. ryan and naim kiss -> naim sees ryan and hunter throwing rocks at each other and then kissing -> naim is jealous and hurt and tells the pastor -> the church gets the deliverance healer to perform an exorcism on ryan and hunter -> hunter is killed by the entity and we can only assume it looks like ryan -> naim finds hunter's corpse and after reporting it he is basically outed to his mother and subjected to the same exorcism -> naim's entity looks like ryan and ryan's entity looks like naim. okay now: will and gabe kiss -> gabe sees will and leno hooking up (he shouldn't, because he stays in the dorm and will and leno live with will's mom) -> gabe is jealous and hurt and tells someone at the program because it's a violation of the contract they signed and he knows it -> the program gets a local church to perform an exorcism on will and leno with little to no pushback from will's and leno's parents -> leno is killed by the entity and we can only assume it looks like will -> gabe finds leno's corpse and in his panic and delirium he basically outs himself and is then subjected to the same exorcism -> gabe's entity looks like will and will's entity looks like gabe. also to note: will's control freak tendencies and his habit of bouncing around from person to person based on how much attention he is given and what kind. this also feeds very well into my "leno and will are childhood friends and there will always be some kind of love there but will barely likes him and would likely always choose someone else even though he is the only person who was there for every part of will's life" narrative. Does anyone want to play toys with me 🤹🤸
