the absolute lack of sympathy fans have towards Shane in TLG is genuinely astounding to me (and has racist undertones but that's a whole other conversation).
I understand having sympathy for Ilya, his pain is so visible and obvious, but the majority of the book is told from his point of view. It's completely biased towards his opinions on issues.
Shane's pain is not handed to you on a silver platter and it's because he's autistic. And despite that in society it's boiled down to not having social queues and being awkward and quirky, it's a lot fucking harder than that.
Shane is also in a long distance relationship, the only way he knows how Ilya is feeling is if Ilya tells him. If Ilya tells him he's okay, then Shane assumes he is, he doesn't have any visual queues to analyse or second guess. When they are together, he picks up on it, he knows something is wrong and he says something about it but Ilya is dismissive of his concerns.
But the main thing I see when it comes to the lack empathy/sympathy for Shane is his fear of being out. Shane is an extremely logical thinker (it's part of why he's so good at hockey), he knows it's safer for them to be in the closet. Ilya doesn't have American or Canadian citizenship, being out without it is extremely unsafe for Ilya as it is. Then, there's the fact that the hockey bubble is so conservative. Of course Shane is going to be scared to come out to anyone in the league, he could be (and is) completely shunned because of it. The only person who knows about hollanov is Hayden and that was ACCIDENTAL. So yes, when Ilya reveals he came out to Troy, Shane's going to be worried cause at that point in time, Troy is a homophobic stranger to him.
I've also seen people angry that in Shane's text after the plane crash he says 'I can't do this with my teammates around'? And I just think it's very obvious that he wanted to see Ilya's face and not sob and cry in front of his team? likeđ If I found out the love of my life almost DIED I would want to call them in private no matter if I'm out or not?
Anyways I just thought I'd defend Shane because the things I'm seeing are crazyyyyyyy. He was raised to be a perfect golden boy hockey player, so being gay and in love with his rival is going to make his mind trip, it's not complicated to understand. Not to mention the whole point is that his fears become reality almost instantly? That his fears turn out to be entirely reasonable? Not just him being dramatic?
Maybe the lack of understanding is because the fandom is made up of a lot of out queer ppl (or ig straight women) so they're extremely far removed from being in the closest. But I remember being terrified to come out to my friends as a teenager, let alone on a global scale. Or maybe people just hold him to a higher moral standard for... no reason in particular...
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