My fandom hot take that should actually be tepid is that I don't think Mr. Jean-Jacques "J.J." Boiziau deserves the hate he gets.
Don't get me wrong, he did not react well to The Whole Thing. I'm not absolving him of ANYTHING there. But deciding that he's irredeemable, deciding he's a bad person, deciding that he's as bad as every other MTL player (save Hayden) is incredibly reductive and, honestly, I hate to say it, but it's pretty fucking immature.
Because in the real world people fuck up. In the real world, people react poorly in highly emotional situations. And it is pretty fucking important, actually if a loved one has had a bad/negative reaction, has done and said hurtful things, but then COMES BACK AND TRIES TO FIX IT, after he has had time to examine why he reacted that way. That is fucking huge. It's huge and it's RARE, and it's so, so good.
J.J. showing up on Shane's doorstep to talk it out is so fucking brave. Shane letting him in (physically and emotionally) and allowing him the opportunity to talk it out is ALSO so fucking brave. And it is truly beautiful and valuable and GOOD that the ten year friendship they have is important enough -- on both sides-- for them to do the hard work to mend it.
Repairing something that has been broken is an important aspect of any long term relationship. It's important for J.J. to see why he was wrong, and for him to be the one to reach out . It's ALSO important for Shane to understand how his secrecy (no matter how well-justified it is) and hiding and lying has impacted ALL of his personal relationships, because a huge theme of the book is that Hollanov don't exist in a vacuum, and cannot live in a vacuum!!!!!
Anyway. I just think the villainous, toxic narrative that some (unfortunately loud) parts of the fandom use to frame J.J. completely erases a part of Shane's healing journey in a way I find to be breathtakingly sad. Yeah.
My even hotter take about jj is that the fandoms insistence on hating him on the basis of not standing up for Shane in a locker room and nearly an entire league full of physically fit rich white men who he is under contract to work with is ignorantly race blind at best and racist at worst if you factor in the love people have for Troy. Do you really think a black man is going to stand up for a friend that they’re already successfully icing out with the help of their coach and team management ? A friend that he comes to believe doesn’t see him as as close of a friend as they see Hayden ? A friend that while visibly Asian is known by these men as half white ? If Shane is struggling and Hayden isn’t making it much better wtf do you think would happen if jj tried? Thats why he showed his support in private up until he got his feelings hurt which he apologized for and was forgiven. I think people should save some of their outrage for Troy Barrett because I have stumbled across way too many fics that villainize jj and then in their notes or tags talk about how much they love Troy like maybe consider that societal pressure and fear of hatred and retaliation is what fuels toxic locker room culture and all of that applies to jj as well.
