what even?

We don't get to learn about Ilya's background, family or relationship to Russia. His depression isn't explored far beyond "he gets sad sometimes :( but it's okay bc he's in ✨therapy✨. But that won't solve everything 😔". I don't even think he learned how to communicate with Shane by the end of the book. Like, that seems like the most basic obvious development for his character in that book, literally just learning to confide in his loved ones, and I don't think she managed to give him that.

Sorry for the rant, but it genuinely boils my blood to see these characters with so much potential be written with blatant disinterest at best (Ilya) and such deep and genuine disdain and vitriol at worst (Shane). Like. No one's making her write this. Leave them alone.

It gets overlooked a lot because Reid's treatment of Shane is so especially egregious and there's just so much to hate about it but yeah, she really didn't do Ilya's story justice either. I think it hit me exactly how bad it was when he was in his first therapy session and he talks about his mom and breaks down - and it's all in summary. We don't hear anything Ilya says. We don't know what, if any, revelation was made. We don't see what it looks like at all, and we certainly don't feel it because it's in fucking summary. I wish I could make it clear exactly how bonkers of a writing decision that is. It's insanely bad writing. impressively bad. It is writing that is defeating its own purpose. Doing exploration by avoiding exploration. It made it clear to me that Reid almost very literally views therapists as an internal-conflict fixer. Like when people go to a therapist it's no different then taking a car into a shop, swapping out a part and leaving like it's crazy. She really thinks that just by having physically attended therapy, Ilya was therapized. Insane.

And yeah the most obvious thing for him to have learned there was how to communicate with Shane, but first of all, this being Ilya's major character flaw should have been an obstacle in therapy and it wasn't. He spills his guts to his therapist immediately, is completely honest with her the whole time, does everything she says - it all goes perfectly beginning to end.

Then, more importantly, you have to remember that this isn't a flaw Reid purposely and consciously gave Ilya. This is something the fandom deduced from the book, but it is not a point Reid was trying to make. Throughout the book, Reid frames Ilya's unwillingness to communicate as something noble. He's heroically refusing to burden Shane with his woes. She makes no effort to suggest that this is a character flaw of Ilya's at all. Rather, her argument is that Shane is a failure for not being grateful enough for it. So like, it's not even just that she failed to make her point with Ilya's story - she was never trying to make the point she should have been trying to make with it at all.

I'm pretty sure she has even referred to Ilya as emotionally intelligent before? Hell, in that list she made, she said Shane "barely notices his own feelings" and used that to contrast Ilya. Like, I think it's clear she views Ilya as emotionally mature, but apparently thinks bottling things up is reflective of that rather than in opposition to that.

Hudson Williams as Jason/Rex in DOGGING

+ bonus:

here's the sexual content guidelines saying nudity is ok

here's the bit from the termination email telling you you can make a new account as long as it doesn't break the same rule

here's the guidelines for what counts as explicit (not mature, aka grounds for content deletion)

here's the section telling us that you will always be able to respond to content getting flagged as explicit (lie)

here's the section where it says you will be notified when your accunt gets terminated, and that the appeals are reviewed by humans (both lies)

and by the way, posting a single thing against ToS isn't supposed to be grounds for deletion,

Yeah I agree. The transition from fuckbuddies to being in love is so abrupt I personally wouldn't really call it a transition at all lmao. Reid does this thing that I've talked about before, where she makes her characters kind of self-aware unaware, and she uses this to imply that something in both of them is changing, and to her credit, she does it for a significant amount of the book and this could be used to say, look, they were falling for each other for a long time without realizing it, it was there all along.

The problem with that for me though, besides just that it's not very well-written, is that their self-aware unawareness doesn't, to me, imply that what was buried deep below the surface was love. To me, It feels more accurate to say that the way Shane and Ilya are written in the books is transitioning between for real disliking each other (but fucking out of lust and convenience) to crushing. At the end, I would buy that they have begun to have feelings for each other, that they've begun to care about each other, but I would not buy that they're in love.

(And listen - true enemies to lovers, a story about two people who genuinely hate each other but eventually fall in love, is a perfectly valid dynamic to give your characters. It can be really interesting. But you still gotta do it right!)

Especially because the other thing that bothers me about Reid's writing is that she doesn't show them getting to know each other outside of their fucking...their fucking that is a lot more utilitarian and hostile. How could they fall in love? They don't even fucking know each other. But by the end, Ilya is talking about Shane like he knows him so deeply, saying stuff like, "That's so you," or "You would do that," and it's like? How would you know bro?

The other thing that really gets on my nerves - and this is a thing that gets on my nerves consistently in romance and frankly in fan fic - is that it doesn't show why they fall in love. I think a lot of the times when people write romance (or the equivalent in fan fic, which is a great deal of fan fic) they kind of take it for granted that their audience will buy into the idea that the characters are falling into/have fallen in love on the basis that it's romance (or fan fic) alone and it's like, no. Sorry. In real life people fall in love with each other for reasons. And besides, I want grand romantic gestures in my romance, you know? I at least fucking want romance in my romance ffs. I didn't get any of that from the book.

Tierney, Connor and Hudson do a lot to improve upon this aspect of the story, and it's another example of the show making small changes that make a big difference.

For example, in the very opening scene, we are listening to commentators. This is a narrative device. It is being used to put these characters into context for us very quickly.

One of the first things we learn about Shane from the commentators is that he's "unsociable."

Yet, one of the first things we see Shane do is go well out of his way (it appears) to introduce himself to Ilya. He's very polite and friendly as he does. He smiles. We know from the commentators that even before these two are officially pro hockey players, they are competing against one another. They're going to play against each other, and they're competing for number 1 draft pick.

So we can deduce right away that these two should have good reason to not really be interested in talking to each other, or even meeting each other except as necessary. We also have reason to believe that Shane would not be the one to preemptively introduce himself if they did. Yet, that's exactly what happens.

So, we as an audience can already take something away from this. Shane was paying attention to Ilya in advance. Despite being unsociable, Shane was compelled to go out of his way to introduce himself to a boy his age that he has very good reason already to want nothing to do with. Right away, I was thinking, Oh he's been watching Ilya. He's already drawn to Ilya. He thinks Ilya's cuuuuuuute. He doesn't know that's why he went way the hell out of his way to meet Ilya in advance, but that's why. Already - al-fucking-ready - in the opening scenes, barely five minutes into the show, we have reason to see something between these two in a way that we don't in the book.

Does Shane introduce himself to Ilya in the book? Yes. But we don't have the commentators contextualizing the choice for us in the book like we do with the show. And, crucially, in the book we get an additional tid-bit after the fact, where Shane's parents see that he met Ilya and ask Shane what Ilya was like, and Shane says, "Kind of a dick." Reid is also not doing anything to take advantage of their internal monologues in the book to convey to us that Shane feels anything different than that on the inside. Supposedly Ilya liked Shane's freckles immediately - but we don't get a scene in the opening of the book where he looks at Shane and thinks his freckles are stunning, you know? We don't learn any of that until they're at the fucking cottage.

We also have a metaphor included in the opening. When we first see Ilya outside, he's struggling to light his cigarette. He struggles for some time. He's interrupted by Shane approaching, then he tries to light it again and it works. So, there's a spark. That's a cue to us right away, if we're paying attention. Hey, there's something here. There's something here from the very first second. (There's also Shane getting distracted by Ilya skating when his mom is lecturing him about Reboks, and Ilya not being able to take his eyes of Shane in the bleachers when Ilya's meeting with his team. He gets yelled at by his coach to pay attention. So! Literally! Right fucking away there is so much there for us to pull from!)

From that point on, a lot more is being done differently from the books, and in similar ways to that opening scene. Both between Tierney's writing choices and Connor and Hudson's acting choices. You also have the fact that Tierney does some things to take advantage of the medium that I don't see Reid doing. The soundtrack in the show is doing so much for us. The montages are doing so much. But Reid doesn't do more to take advantage of her medium - the greatest asset of a written book is that we literally have front-row seats to their internal thoughts. But Reid rarely uses these internal monologues to cue us into much of anything, and when she does, it just doesn't have the impact it needs to most of the time (there are exceptions, but most fall flat). Tierney shows their rivalry for the fabrication it is, whereas in the books, the rivalry is genuine too, and so that adds to why it's so hard to believe.

I've said this before, but ultimately this is how I view it:

In the book, they are fighting against falling in love with each other because they don't want to be in love.

In the show, they are fighting against falling in love with each other - and failing from day 1 - because they know they can never be together, and they want to spare themselves pain.

Now, I wouldn't say that Tierney completely succeeded where Reid failed. Even though we get more of them getting to know each other in the show, I think we needed more. I wish we had gotten more of what makes them fall in love with each other.

In the show it's not hard for me to see why Ilya fell for Shane. When the foot tap happens, that alone had to have been so big for Ilya. He's young, living in a foreign country, supporting his whole ungrateful family, and on top of it, he's not a native speaker but he's being constantly spoken to without regard for that, and oh, if he slips up, it's on tv for everyone to see. But Shane saves him. It had to have meant the world, already.

Then you have the fact that Shane is like, sincerely the first person who has ever asked Ilya, wait a minute, do you even like Russia? Do you even want to go home? Like, it's pretty obvious before then, that Ilya's never even considered an alternative. He doesn't know an alternative to going home even exists. But then you have the fact that Shane is not only illuminating this to Ilya, but he's doing it after the Vegas sex...some of the most impersonal, harsh sex they have in the show, and he's so obviously doing it because he cares for Ilya.

I also think that Shane just represents peace for Ilya. I joke about Ilya having a domesticity fetish, but in all seriousness, I think Ilya's drawn to Shane because Shane takes him away from the chaos he's lived with his whole life. He's a refuge.

But I struggle with what makes Shane fall for Ilya, I really do. Not because I can't see what's lovable about Ilya - but because Ilya so purposely hides what's lovable about him from Shane for the first two episodes you know? We have the fact that he set up that commercial - which cues us as viewers again (and cues us in the book) - but in universe, that's not really something he's doing for Shane, and could just as easily be about hoping to hook up as about crushing on Shane (I do think it's crushing, but from Shane's pov, it could be anything).

I don't think it can be understated how much it meant to Shane for Ilya to, essentially, give him permission to try gay sex though. That's not something Ilya did specifically for Shane, but it is something that I think would stick with Shane for a long time. Ilya walked into his life and saved him years of repression, and Shane might not be consciously thinking that, but what he must have known for sure was that Ilya opened his eyes to something he would have never had, or not had for a very long time otherwise. I've also spoken about how I don't like to dismiss the role sex could play in them falling in love, and how sex is not divorced from getting to know somebody, or falling in love with them.

Anyway, this is more than long enough now.

To illustrate, I have a passage from "The Long Game".

“And leave them?” Ilya asked, horrified. He’d grown up in Moscow and had seen plenty of stray dogs, but the idea of someone abandoning a dog that loved them—a part of their family and their home—was monstrous.

Girl, it's a big issue in Eastern Europe to abandon farm dogs and cats somewhere random (or was, though it's still happening at times), especially undesired pups and kitties. Like my family is guilty of that and all I could do was watch, because I was a child 💀. Ilya Rozanov would ABSOLUTELY know this is a thing and maybe even have had to witness it himself as a child, though him living in the city might make that unlikely. However, he wouldn't react like a clueless person in this instance. Maybe that's even the reason why he loves dogs so much, smh.

Sometimes adaptations are an elevation of the source material simply because you're better off not knowing how the author wrote the internal monologue of her characters 🥰

Oooooooooh my GOD. Look, it's not like I didn't already know that Reid is terrible at writing their internal monologues, but I do not have the life experience to grasp exactly how bad she is at writing a Russian man's internal monologue. I wouldn't have known this. I would have known that Reid probably had no idea whether or not that would be his reaction, and that she probably did zero research to find out - but I wouldn't have known for sure how wrong she is. Oh my God. The way she wrote Ilya is so fucking offensive I don't fucking care what anybody says.

Even the way the show writes Ilya is not completely inoffensive. The show is better about not including anything it shouldn't but are things that should have been included that weren't, like the MLH's perception of Russian players, for example, and how that would affect Ilya.

And look - research is so hard. It really is. It's so fucking hard, because you don't know what you don't know. You can research all fucking day, but if there is something you don't know you need to be researching, you're not going to research it, and so research is so so so fucking hard. I get it! I fucking get it!

But from what I can tell, Reid didn't even try. Tierney put in vastly more effort - but they still fucked up things they shouldn't have.

Multiple Russians have talked about how the dialogue is written unnaturally at times, you know? Why weren't they getting advice on the scripts from native speakers? Idgaf that they hired a dialect coach if the dialect coach isn't a native fucking speaker. They had native speakers on set! Hello???

I mean I genuinely hate to give the show any shit because they already did so much more than I am used to getting from western tv, even prestige tv with big names and huge budgets. But still! Still! This was such an easy fix!

And it's also just like...multiple Russians too have talked about how insane it is that at no point in the show do they acknowledge any of the political current events happening in Russia during this time period, especially at the Sochi Olympics and how that would influence Ilya and their situation.

Disclaimer: I get so angry about it because I study psychology, work in the mental health field and have friends and family members with autism. (I'm not from America tho and I don't study there, so my (anecdotal) knowledge probably cannot be applied 1:1) (Also, my field of work and study is why I'm also incredibly angry about how disordered eating and eating disorders are handled in the book and by rr)

The ableism in Shane's case obviously exists in an intersection to racism. I have heard the joke 'are they Japanese (or German) or are they autistic' a few times now. A lot of the characteristics that anon listed as being ascribed to Asian people (diligent, obedient etc.) are attached to autism. Anon has already disected the racism behind it all so well.

Yes, (diagnosed) autistic people can come of as awkward. Yes, they can have difficulties interpreting social cues. No, that does not mean that they are socially inept.

People with autism have often times spend their entire lives very aware of how they process social interactions and faces differently. Especially autistic women experience an enormous pressure to mask and this pressure can also be felt heavily for men of color. And you need social competency for masking. To mask, you need to get which behaviors you need to imitate and which to suppress. This may fail in new situations or with new people, but generally, they get what 'normal' should look like in our neurotypical society.

Masking also takes an enormous amount of energy. Imagine having to work in customer service the moment you come in contact anyone outside of your inner circle. It would exhaust you down to your bones. So people with autism might like to leave social interactions early, especially if it is a group gathering with a lot of sensory input, but especially if they're high functioning and high masking, they will also often stay 'the socially acceptable amount'. Shane, as captain, with the knowledge that he doesn't have a lot of leeway as a POC and the expressed goal of doing well, would not leave every group function early or skip it entirely, are you nuts?!

Also, just because he has autism doesn't mean that he automatically dislikes most people??? He may find social interactions more exhausting but that doesn't mean that he has deemed most people unworthy of the effort?! People with autism can be so kind and empathetic and so open to trying to understand other people. In an effort to mask, to 'fit in' and do being social right they have to engage in empathy. They can deeply wish for social bonds. This part is truly anecdotal, but in my experience, they often internalize the rule "treat me like I want to be treated" regarding information you freely give about yourself. I would like to be asked in depth questions about my hobbies so I will ask a lot of questions about yours. Oh, you gave me the information about your family. Let me ask more. They do this because, generally, they want to treat you well.

All of that is also why I was so disappointed that rr called Shane stupid and selfish in the discord group. Those labels are often unfairly out on people with autism.

What anon also already addressed is that there are different leadership styles. And the imagined Western 'ideal' that anon described can correlate with job satisfaction, performance etc. in very specific fields of work with very specific workers in specific parts of the world but I also cannot express how much studies have shown that other leadership styles can also get great results. Like, Shane is modeled after Sidney Crosby. I just googled that man a little after I heard that and one of the first things I learned about sidcros is that he is a motivational, uplifting leader and that he doesn't believe in individual blame. And he seems to be highly respected and liked for his leadership. I simply cannot imagine Shane as being less than that. (Sidenote: the idea that Shane would not experience the homophobia and feminization that Sidcros was confronted with in his early years even worse is insane to me. What do you mean Shane never felt the dark side of hockey???)

Anyways, this is already way to long and jumbled. I'm sorry for my incoherent rant.

He couldnt even move the car during game day, and sometimes even during non game days bc people wouls try to see the players b4 and after practice.

Shane would have been dealing with this shit since he was 18/19.

Sidney Crosby once talked how he always wore a cap during game days and his parents wouldnt say his name in public bc otherwise he'd be harassed by parents of the other team. At 12.

Shane and Ilya have the kind of skill that would have been making waves since before they were teens.

Oh this is really interesting insight.