#hr meta

[dogsdayilya]

Loyalty (1869)

— by Briton Rivière

Loyalty (2025)

— by Ilya Rozanov

[your-cab-is-definitely-here]

Was briefly amused by Shane in room 1410 immediately latching on to Ilya's brief conversation like "omg who else have you slept with, was it another player, weren't you afraid of getting caught" like he's so fucking cute and earnest with it. And maybe a wee bit jealous already over this beautiful boy who came on to him so confidently in the showers.

And then I remembered that this is almost definitely his first ever open conversation with another queer person and holy shit. It's just so poignant that Shane has no one he can talk to, no one AT ALL, except Ilya. "Weren't you afraid of getting caught" yeah, Shane is constantly bone deep terrified of this and it robbed him of any chance to make connections with another queer person. Until Ilya. Ilya's not just his first top or his first time with another man. Ilya's also his first queer friend, in any real sense.

Of course Shane wanted to be able to say the words "I'm gay" to Ilya once he knew they were there to be said. "Who else am I gonna tell?" Who indeed.

[lucrezianoin]

episode 6 recreating some of their previous moments

Episode 1:

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 5:

Not to mention that every time we see Yuna and David with Shane they are at a lunch and eating together, and this time finally Ilya is there.

[aheartofgold]

Imagine you're Ilya Rozanov and you've spent a long time thinking about how you would like Shane Hollander to be more than a hookup in the dark whenever you are in the same city. You want to share with him that you want more but you don't have the words so you try to show. You invite him to your home, make him food, encourage him to stay over, try to ask questions to learn more about him. And it's working. You can feel the bricks of the wall between you falling away, slowly, slowly. Until you slip up, get too familiar and physically feel the wall being rebuilt in front of your hazy eyes. You messed up, like you always do, tried letting someone in and they rejected you. Again. You'll always just be a secret, and you're not even that any more.

And then that same boy who ran away from you runs straight into the most public relationship anyone has ever had. A movie star who parades him around in front of the paparazzi while he smiles and smiles and kisses her and smiles. She's everything you can't be - she's safe and pretty and he can be so normal with her. You don't see Shane Hollander for months, but you've never been more aware of him. He pops up on every social feed, every news bulletin (and you have news notifications on him that chime every day), he is inescapable. All you hear about is how happy he is, how his new girlfriend has changed his life. It's all so very out in the open and there you are, stuck in hotel rooms alone.

Then you go to Florida for an All Star game, knowing you're going to have to see Shane Hollander off the ice for the first time since he ran away from you and into her arms. He walks in to the bar you're sat at and he looks so good. Better dressed than you've seen him, yes. But more than that - he looks confident. Sure of himself in public in a way you've never seen before. He looks beautiful. And he comes to sit next to you, orders a beer, looking so calm and relaxed while you feel like you're going to crawl out of your own skin. Is his new girlfriend so perfect that he's made him this self assured? Shane Hollander would never talk to you in public if he thought people could guess that something was going on. Shane Hollander wouldn't even acknowledge you if he wanted to be anything other than rivals on the ice - he's too afraid, too paranoid. So when he's talking to you all you can think is - this is over. Years of stolen moments and it's all lost because of the confidence that Rose Landry has given the man you only ever loved behind closed doors.

You're Ilya Rozanov, cockiest player in hockey, and you are terrified that you're going to love this man forever, and no one will ever know.

[intergalacticmca]

Shane and Ilya cannot be trusted to be alone in a room together for 2 minutes without going at it in some capacity and that’s why Ilya had to keep so much physical and emotional distance between in Russia, a place he doesn’t consider safe.

They shared a single, brief, stilted conversation and Ilya was staring at Shane in the rafters while he was actively involved with a practice with his team at the International Prospect Cup.

At the draft, Ilya stares down at Shane from above and corners him in a public hotel gym to flirt with him.

At the CCM photoshoot, Ilya calls Shane pretty and cannot stop himself from giggling at his proximity to the cute boy who’s been consuming his thoughts since their first meeting. Afterward, in the shower, he touches himself next to Shane and they end up hooking up.

At the Nashville All-Star game, Ilya taps his foot against Shane’s in a room full of people, moves across the bench to flirt with him, and pointedly tells him his hotel room number as he skates by him in front of everyone. A few hours later, Ilya is throwing himself between Shane’s legs and begging to fuck him.

On the Vegas rooftop, which is accessible to anyone, they argue yet Ilya can’t help but push Shane against a wall and kiss him passionately.

At the Vegas award show, he holds Shane’s neck in the crowded room and sensually trails his hand down his back. In the bathroom, which is, again, public and accessible to everyone, Ilya can’t help but cross the small space to touch Shane, caress him, and kiss him, then text him in the middle of a crowded party his hotel room number.

In the episode 4 montage, Ilya doesn’t even make it to the bedroom in Shane’s apartment before he bends Shane over the couch, and in the same montage refuses to part his lips from Shane’s as the ascend the stairs in Shane’s apartment. When Shane comes to Ilya’s house, it’s barely a minute before Ilya’s mouth is on Shane’s and he has Shane up on the counter.

Contrast this to Sasha in the Russian bathroom in episode 2, someone who Ilya has been intimate with. He allows Sasha to crowd into his space, unaffected, and rejects him with ease because it’s disinterest motivating his rejection here more than fear.

Ilya does not trust himself around Shane because he knows he can’t resist being close to him, touching him, kissing him, holding him. Ilya tries to come off as cool and unaffected, which can lead to the shallow interpretation that he’s manipulating or using Shane, but the fact of the matter is he knows he can’t resist Shane. When Shane approaches him in Russia, Ilya barely looks at him because he knows there’s a chance he’ll crumble if he does, and that’s dangerous.

Ilya desires and loves Shane so much he’ll often behave recklessly just to be near him in places where he feels less threatened, but Russia is one place he knows he cannot do that, and his distance is to protect Shane as much as it is himself.

[gayhockeyshow]

Have we considered that Shane’s clarifying questions help Ilya process his own emotions? Mr. Stoic Mr. Strong Mr. Responsible with a controlling father keeps things so tamped down that I wonder if Shane asking things for his own understanding helps him emotionally process as well.

I’m watching the Moscow phone call scene, and Ilya in his grief starts talking about how his family is at their worst and are being terrible to each other. He seems resentful, almost bitter.

Shane asks “Is it very upsetting?” And Ilya responds “Yes,” and then, after a beat, “But maybe… I am upset about the wrong thing…”

Shane prompts him further, “You mean, not your father?” And from here Ilya really starts to open up. He gets sad. His heart is broken, and he lets Shane see a little piece of it. Lets it breathe out in the air.

We often talk about how Shane’s questioning is useful to him, how it helps him better understand the world around him when he feels like there’s something he’s missed. But I think it’s so important to acknowledge that their communication is so compatible that this helps Ilya gain a better understanding of his own thought processes and emotions as well. They really do become better through each other

[parcai]

thinking also abt shane post-outing having to relearn how to be a guy in public who isn't performing straightness 24/7 and just. being SO bad at casual. like his whole personality pre-fanmail was "polite but distant, disciplined, unknowable" and now he doesn't have to hide anything and he has NO IDEA what a normal amount of hand-on-ilya's-back is in public. :') which is sorta sweet but also oaughhhh

so he’s just standing in a grocery store like: is 2 minutes of hand on ilya’s back normal or is that insane. is that nothing. is that divorce behavior. & then two aisles later he’s just absentmindedly mouthing at ilya’s throat in the cereal section like they’re back in a marriott at 1am and someone’s uber is outside in six minutes and they r running out of time again even though they’re not

every instinct he has for affection....finite & filthy...bc that's all they ever had. his body doesn't know what to do with the surplus lol (let's all cry). thus no in btwn.

crucially ilya finds this hilarious & hot and does not comment. yay shane being unhinged plsplsplspls

[oknotgood]

Rose really was meant to parallel Ilya in every way.

(edited to add:) as was pointed out in the comments, of course there's Rose's name - a flower, like Lily, but also literally the first syllable of Ilya's last name, and means the same thing. It's SOO deliciously inescapable; it had to have been intentional.

But like, even their very first meetings were so similar:

Shane already knows who they are and wanted to meet them.

A private meeting where they're not introduced by someone else or on display. It's not for appearances.

Shane starts off complimenting them.

They're not in the least starstruck by him.

They put something in their mouth.

They issue a hockey-related challenge.

From the comments: they order him to put something in his mouth. (for Ilya, admittedly this is during their third encounter, but still)

From the comments: in the book, there's also a seafood connection. Ilya makes a tuna melt for Shane and Rose is eating cod fritters instead of french fries.

This is nothing that hasn't been said before, but yeah, there is real chemistry there. Shane does genuinely like her and gets along well with her. It's just not sexual or romantic. And if Shane was finally going to accept that he's not into girls, it had to be Rose, specifically because she's so perfect for him.

I just love how it was set up--from the very first time we see her, she's positioned in opposition to Ilya. Shane will never be able to stop comparing her to Ilya, and finding her wanting. The relationship was doomed from the start. But it was still necessary, you know? Rose changed the course of Shane's life. It's so cool.

(edited to add:) I love that Rose isn't purely symbolic. She does influence the direction of the story. I love that she was the one who broke up with Shane, was the one who gently, kindly, lovingly forced him to be honest with himself and also showed him that he can be accepted and embraced as he does so. But in certain ways, of course she's symbolic. She's so symbolic! She's the echo of Ilya. Her presence merely emphasizes his absence. He's haunting the narrative because Rose is possessed by his ghost! Ugh, I love it.