ok ramblers, let's get rambling.

but theres a moment from TLG you didnt mention that's actually maybe ilya's biggest sin to me. and it's the morning after the fanmail outing - the fact that he doesnt call or text shane once after he heads back to ottawa until TEN PM when shane texts him first about eating a snickers bar.

he fucking KNEW shane was going to face the lions den in the metros locker room bc hayden TELLS THEM how jj and the team are reacting already.

and then ilya has a heartfelt conversation with wiebe, finds out theyre both scratched - and this is all happening in the morning btw - and then just sits on his ass the WHOLE DAY after his coach and team are supportive and does not initiate any conversation with shane or check on him at all. until nine or ten pm.

Y E P

I legitimately cannot reconcile Ilya’s actions in the long game with the Ilya that lives in my head. Ilya in tlg is the worlds least supportive partner. Shane’s like “I think literally my entire workplace is going to be hostile to me after this” and Ilya’s like “mine will be fine. Sorry to bounce but✌️” AND THEN JUST DOESNT CHECK IN TO SEE IF SHANE GOT JUMPED IN THE LOCKER ROOM.

Ilya knows some of Shane’s biggest fears have just come true. He has been outed and his best friend and coworker confirmed to both of them that their teammates were taking it bad. And then he just. Goes about his day. Has a nice chat with his supportive coach. Finds out that they’ve been benched, meaning another one of Shane’s biggest fears have just come true. Doesn’t check in with Shane once.

So I am wondering if you or any of your followers have fic recs that take Shane's pain in TLG seriously, preferably something salty that calls out the people who belittled it (namely Ilya and Yuna). I don't have many high hopes but I REALLY need some salt to go with the angst, some moments of Shane getting rightfully angry and the narrative rewarding him for it instead of shaming him...

At this point I would take a Shane divorce fic too - I like Ilya, and the fandom version of him is usually a pretty good boyfriend, but TLG Ilya frustrates me so much!! Why is Shane even still with him, if that's how he is treated by the supposed love of his life...

I don’t have any fic recs but I’m gonna post this here to see if anyone else has fics they want to rec.

I honestly don’t read all that much heated rivalry fic and I don’t read any fic from post tlg because it always reminds me of how angry the canon ending makes me. My rule with fandom and art in general is that I need to take a step back if I’m not able to engage with it in a way that’s healthy. If I think about what happens in canon for too long I get Viscerally Angry, which isn’t a healthy relationship to be having with art, so I have to take a step back. I read very little fic as a default and I read absolutely no fic dealing with tlg ending, so I’m not gonna be good for any recs.

YOURE SO RIGHT THOUGH

In the books, when they’re talking about Ilya switching to a Canadian team, Ilya proposes leaving Boston for a Canadian team himself. It is brought up explicitly because America is bad for Russians at the moment, and he wants non-Russian citizenship. And during the conversation, Ilya has this moment where he can tell Shane wants him to come to Montreal, but Ilya doesn’t want to because Montreal could never afford both of them. Ilya says “Not Montreal,” and Shane immediately understands. He proposes Ottawa as an alternative because it needs a star center and has the cap space for Ilya.

And, critically, I cannot find a single mention of the fact that Ottawa is a bad team in Heated Rivalry itself.

Like. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I can’t remember any mention of the fact that Ottawa is terrible. I pulled up the pdf of the book and searched couldn’t find a single mention of the word “Centaurs” in it. I searched every mention of the word “Ottawa” and couldn’t find a single mention discussing how Ottawa was a bad team. The closest we get is Shane saying that they need a star center, but still needing a star for one position is a very different thing than it being the shittiest team in the whole league. And you’d think that Ilya would maybe bring up the fact that that team is absolute ass and would destroy his career if he went there if that was a legitimate concern. The Long Game rewrites its own canon to victimize Ilya and make Shane the villain in the Ottawa move. Its claims are fundamentally and irrevocably inconsistent with the explicit text of Heated Rivalry.

The entire dialogue around Shane being selfish in the Ottawa move drives me absolutely raving insane because it is fundamentally based in revisionist history. Shane is at no point in the conversation a driving factor in Ilya’s decision to leave Boston. Ilya decides he wants to be on a Canadian team before he even talks to Shane. The fact that he wants to come to Canada specifically is because of Russia, not Shane. And picking Ottawa is for the sake of Ilya’s career.

Signing with Montreal is outright considered and rejected by Ilya so he doesn’t have to take a pay cut. The explicit reason why he doesn’t want to sign with Montreal is the fact that Montreal cannot afford both of them. And that decision is later recast entirely into Ilya picking Shane over hockey. If Ilya wanted to pick Shane, he would have just taken the pay cut in heated rivalry and they would have been playing on the same team since fucking 2018–and it would have been on a team that Ilya himself describes as “the most legendary team in the entire league.” He would have had a great team and been tearing it up winning Stanley Cups but he didn’t want to take the pay cut or hit to his captaincy and his position and Shane fucking understood that and found him an alternative that wouldn’t require him to sacrifice his own position.

They explicitly pick Ottawa so that Ilya’s career doesn’t have to suffer and then the Long Game revises the entire narrative to turn it into how Ilya sacrificed his career for Shane. It is absolutely nonsensical when read in light of their conversation around the move itself. They outright reject playing on the same team so Ilya doesn’t have to sacrifice his own career.

And then!! All of the reasons why Ilya shouldn’t have to sign with Montreal suddenly do not matter at all when it’s Shane who has to suffer them. Shane has to take a pay cut? Laugh it off. Hubby will provide. He loses his entire career as narrative punishment for “making” Ilya sacrifice his career, but signing with Ottawa was explicitly so that Ilya wouldn’t have to sacrifice his career. Ilya actually does what Shane is accused of and villainized for in The Long Game, and Shane never did it to begin with. I feel like I’m being gaslit by an entire fucking fandom. Can anyone hear me hello

shane: ok so how about ottawa [which there is no mention of being a bad team in this book], they need a star center and can afford you

ilya: sounds good

ilya in TLG, on a rebuilding team that he chose for his career instead of being closer to his boyfriend: i sacrificed hockey for you hollander

shane: omg im so selfish and such a bad boyfriend :(((( i dont deserve ilya :(((((((

"Rhéaume" by Richard Harrison, 1994.

When you slip into flirty banter with your situationship, and all you can think about is kissing him.

Galina: that’s very difficult. have you told him about the pot?

Ilya: OF COURSE I HAVEN’T TOLD HIM ABOUT THE FUCKING POT