Fairest In All The Land

"Maybe I should pull a Hollander", Cliff mutters to himself, thinking about how to best get an Adidas or Nike sponsorship or something.

HEATED RIVALRY | 1.02 “Olympians”

shane bringing home little glazed honey buns because the colour of them made him think of ilya's hair in the sunlight and he thought ilya might like a sweet treat

ilya emerging from the lake at the cottage with a smooth circular black rock in his hand and saying, 'look shane, it is like a puck!'

shane dutifully taking a photo of any dog he sees when he's out somewhere and sending it to ilya

ilya buying a silky red tie because he thinks shane would look nice in it, whether wearing it with a suit for a formal occasion or being tied to the headboard with it

Like....does that sound familiar to anyone??? Because I swear Ilya spends half of TLG basically going "look at EVERYTHING I've sacrificed for you while YOU get to have your nice perfect life in Montreal."

Sir. Listen to yourself 😭

I’m digging this out of my inbox because the last repost enraged me.

OK, I think a lot of the money Ilya sent back actually went up Alexei’s nose instead of going towards their father’s care. But yes, this pattern of self victimization, misdirection of anger and minimization of the other party’s struggles is familiar.

It’s unfortunate that Ilya spent his formative teenage years mainly with his father and brother, and it doesn’t seem like he had any other positive role models in his life. It’s almost guaranteed that he would pick up some destructive behaviors and approaches to conflicts, especially within the context of close intimate relationships and family. He would have to work really hard to identify that within himself and unlearn those behaviors.

I think Ilya wants to be different from the other Rozanov men in his family. But unfortunately he doesn’t recognize the problem himself, his therapist doesn’t recognize the problem and has somewhat reinforced his tendency to self victimize and minimize the feelings of the other party.

Buuuut- he is maybe also like his father and brother. He couldn't have pushed Shane in anger if he wasn't. He at least would have felt frightened by it, terrified of what his anger could make him do. HE WOULD HAVE MENTIONED IT TO GALINA????