Re: Ilya getting outed in 17/18 season and staying Boston. What is shane's arc here you asked. I think def yes his eternal exhaustion with tokenization. But also! Metros locker room getting multiple degrees more homophobic and very specifically targeting Ilya with their homophobia and Shane does not know how to handle this without "looking gay" but also this isn't something it occurs to him to bring up with anyone because he just. Assumes that's the league that Ilya and Scott must be getting it so much worse. And he's already getting direct homophobia because of the foundation and they're just jokes no one thinks it's real but maybe front office or PR or something pull him in and tell him the fact that people are talking about how he might be gay is bad for the team image so can he please have a girlfriend or be papped with a puck bunny or something because this whole thing is distracting from hockey. Anyway I don't know what exactly will get Shane to break or decide to move to Boston for this but this whole au is so deliciously angsty.
oh yeah that is definitely an option! i confess i generally find like... the idea that the metros are WAY more homophobic than other teams kind of uninteresting narratively because i like nuance in a villain & also i don't really see a basis for that in the show (i know it's book canon). that being said i do think there's very interesting exploration you can do with shane listening to discussion of ilya & feeling trapped and unable to defend him (the hayden "wow what an asshole" / "he's not so bad" moment multiplied one million times) + there is definitely homophobia, don't get me wrong, jj has canonically casually called ilya a cocksucker. but to me it's more crunchy if this is just the background noise of hockey and shane leaves anyway?
AS A ROMANTIC & a lover of A Big Damn Gesture the thing that narratively compels me is when someone makes a positive choice rather than a negative one. shane leaving a toxic team is something that's externally imposed & easy to root for. but to me that's not as fun and delicious as shane taking a cold look at his life which is a home in a city that loves him, a team he loves because his mother loves them, a safe comfortable space he has built with his own hands, and then asking himself: am i willing to give this up!!! what is a home if you can't have the person you love in it? how does the fundamental risk analysis change when it turns out you're not the only person you want to protect? shane choosing ilya affirmatively even when the other option is easy and ilya is hard and demanding and difficult, when the thing he loses is big and meaningful and still doesn't weigh against the future he wants to build with ilya, that's what makes my heart sing!! that's romance to me!!!
but also he comes to boston and there's a generational three-year cup run and they throw a parade for shane and ilya gets to kiss him on the mouth next to the make way for ducklings statue. this i want for normal reasons (it's cute)
