VAGABOND

/600

MARTYRS (2008)

The idea of the song is that of being given a glimpse of God – something that we dearly want – but being told that unless we work for it, we will never see it again, and even then, we might not be worthy of it. The choruses are meant to express the feeling of entering timelessness as you become ready for the experience, but only when you are ready. – Kate Bush Club newsletter, 1982

THANK YOU

I feel like so much of the fandom has been saying “everyone get ready pls don’t hate Shane in season 2!!!” and I’m like “girl you need to stop me from hating ILYA”

And to be clear, I don’t hate Ilya. I love Ilya. And I don’t think I’m going to hate him in season 2 because I trust the show runners to fix. Whatever that bullshit was.

I hate how Ilya acts in the long game.

He is borderline cruel to Shane at times. And he exhibits a shocking lack of empathy towards Shane’s fears and concerns considering a hallmark of his character is how empathetic he is. In the long game, he is empathetic to everyone but Shane.

If the narrative had framed the conflict as a mutual communication issue that they needed to overcome together, I would have been so much happier with it. I do not want my characters to be perfect and I want them to struggle. I want them to experience conflict, including communication issues. Like, that’s a good conflict, especially in the context of a relationship narrative. But the narrative affirms again and again that Shane alone is the problem, and we know it is meant to, because the author herself says so.

Ilya is so dismissive of Shane’s concerns in every conversation. Take when he’s asking Shane to go to Ottawa after Shane was just *checks notes* abandoned by his best friends of over ten years. Shane says they don’t have the cap space for him. Ilya asks how much money he needs. Shane says “no, it’s not about that, I want to be paid what I’m worth.” Ilya says “okay but consider you have a very rich husband to provide for you”

Like that is not what Shane just fucking said!!! A queer Asian man said “hey uh it’s unfair if I have to be paid extremely below my worth to have this job” and his white partner replied “don’t worry baby hubby will provide” like what the fuck??

But the narrative affirms Ilya’s view. Shane immediately laughs and agrees. He was wrong to be caught up in it to begin with.

Do you have any idea how destructive Shane’s move to Ottawa and subsequent pay cut must have been to his reputation? He went from the most respected captain in the nhl to a second fucking line center on His Husband’s Team getting paid less than any other player on a team that had never so much as even grazed the fucking Stanley cup. He must have looked fucking radioactive. No one even wants Shane Hollander anymore. He is lucky to even get to play. It is so callous and disrespectful and humiliating. Jesus fucking Christ, she did not have to write it that way.

Do you realize that nhl players can and have voluntarily taken pay cuts to make cap space?

Ilya himself could have said “i will take a pay cut so we can get you here in a way that doesn’t devalue you. We are merging our finances anyway, it does not matter whose name is on the check, we get the same money either way but I do not want you to lose any more respect than you already have after what your friends and the media just did to you.” Other players on the centaurs could have said “oh we all agreed to take a pay cut to even have a chance at Shane fucking Hollander on our team. I’d take a pay cut just to have Shane Hollander make eye contact with me. Thank you to the metros for fumbling the greatest player on your team we will NOT let this opportunity pass us by. Oh my god we’re going to win the Stanley cup.” The Centaurs management could have come out and said “hey we moved heaven and earth to renegotiate these contracts so we could afford Shane Hollander on this team. Absolutely everyone on this team is a trooper for doing this and it sucks that we have to cut anyone’s pay but we are all so committed to bringing the Stanley cup home that we decided to make it work.”

Again, NHL players regularly do this. It is an option and one the author could have found out about with a single fucking google search. It is built into the cap system. Players openly chose to be paid less than their worth because they believe getting a certain player makes their team a contender for the Cup. And no one talks about that fact like it is a devaluation of the players. The public knows that they are worth more money. The pay cut is because the nhl salary cap system is ass and their team cares enough to get that goddamn Cup.

Shane would still likely have to take a pay cut just because he and Ilya are such ludicrously valuable players that it’d be hard to ever have them operating under the same cap. But it could have happened in a way that doesn’t humiliate him further. It could have given him even the tiniest scrap of dignity back. And instead she put him on goddamn fire sale and had him fucking laugh it off. He’s worth less than the fucking rookie but it’s fine because his big strong husband will provide for him. It is a meaninglessly cruel humiliation ritual that did not have to happen and it makes me so unbelievably fucking mad.

It is not about the money. It is about the fact that Shane Hollander is a queer person of color who gets paid pennies on the dollar despite being better than every single straight white player in that league. And we are told it’s not a big deal because his husband will take care of him. Jesus Christ.

If I lived in universe and Shane had told me how Ilya treated him after that conversation with Crowell or after the metros reject him or in almost any other conversation they have in that book, I would have been like “I WAS RIGHT TO HATE HIM DURING HIS FUCKASS NAVY BLUE SHEET PHASE BABY DUMP THAT MAN.” I would be livid. I would drive to Canada to kick that guy’s fucking ass. I would have called Scott Hunter and been like “hey are you and Kip looking for a third. Also where are we on the retirement front like will the admirals be needing a new gay superstar center soonish bc boy do I have someone for you.”