i‘m the one that you love & the one who loves you

and most of the time it's fine. shane's bedtime is 7:30 pm because he is so itty bitty, but yuna and david have always just gone to their room after that so bb just assumed they were also following The Time To Sleep rules.

which is all well and good until nana is visiting while staying with her sister, it's 7:40 pm, and she is just cooing and delighted at bb shane just repeating "night NIGHT" over and over from the doorway to the living room because she is not understanding that this is not him being cute and saying goodnight.

It is perfectly okay to not read the books, but I would really REALLY caution non-book readers to be careful with what they discuss unless it stems from an actual excerpt from the text.

This is not me gatekeeping. (Please! Go read the books! If you’re unsure of where to start, I would recommend reading Role Model first, which gives proper context for The Long Game) This is me attempting to counteract the misinformation that has only grown tenfold since Troy and Harris were cast.

With all that being said, a list of things that Did Not Happen In The Books: 

Troy is not racist. This is a reasonable conclusion to draw, that a homophobic bully could also be racist, but there is no textual evidence of this. 

On that note, Troy does not hatecrime Shane. Troy actually does not have any direct interactions with Shane at all. The closest they come to speaking with each other is when they’re on the ice at the same time during an Ottawa v. Montreal game. 

Ilya does not hate Troy. Like all of the Centaurs, Ilya is wary and uncertain about Troy at first. He’s annoyed with the situation surrounding the trade, and he definitely hates Dallas. But he does not hate Troy. 

I hate to break everyone’s hearts, but... Troy does not ask Ilya for Shane’s number. Troy thinks about doing this, but doesn’t actually follow through. This concept is so funny that I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually does this in the show. This is the actual excerpt from the book:

it is deeply depressing to me how people think that rachel reid omitting any overt mentions of racism in the nhl in the text of her books means that not even known bigots like dallas kent are racist in canon. they are just homophobic and misogynistic, with the exception of like troy's dad who is the one character noted as explicitly being racist.

so haha they're homophobic and they hate women but DON'T WORRY!!!! they are EQUAL OPPORTUNITY. they'll be homophobic to white people and people of color both! they don't see color!

setting aside the books for a moment i just. oh my god. do you actually think you can meaningfully separate the homophobia directed at a person of color from racism? do you think sexual stereotypes about black men as aggressive, wild "beasts" are unrelated to homophobic portrayals of black men in m/m ships as angry mindless savage tops? do you think sexual stereotypes about asian men as submissive hairless feminine bottoms are unrelated to homophobic portrayals of asian men in m/m ships as 24/7 subs who take it up the ass and follow white mens' every order? do you understand that when discussing the oppression of qpoc, racism and homophobia are inextricably linked?

this is intersectionality 101 people. do not make me laugh.

but then let's look at the books.

tough guy, ch18.

role model, ch11.

deleted scene from heated rivalry, posted on reid's website.

so we have multiple scenes of homophobic jokes being made by nhl players here (two are dallas kent, and the last one is one of ilya's boston teammates, koslov). notably, all three are about shane, and two out of three single him out as being a bottom, something the first excerpt has kent outright deny about ilya, calling him straight.

let's consider that for a second. do we think maybe shane being the prime target every time reid needs the bigots to be homophobic to someone about anal sex, has anything to do with the way she writes shane as a hairless small asian obligate bottom?

she doesn't write these jokes about ilya, or ryan, or scott. it's just shane. like can we put on our thinking caps? do we think there might be a reason for this? do we think that these characters in-universe as the authorial mouthpiece are completely off the hook for perpetuating that same stereotype about asian men, just because the author is putting wholesale stock into it too?

“On the plane home from New York, immediately after the game, Ilya felt himself start to spiral. He was frustrated about the loss, but it was more than that. He wanted to fucking disappear. He didn’t want his teammates to look at him, he didn’t want to talk to anyone. He was exhausted and he couldn’t remember what it felt like to not be exhausted. It was a tiny bit devastating to learn that none of the changes he’d made in his life—therapy, winning, getting a dog, coming out to friends and teammates about his sexuality and his relationship with Shane, getting engaged—had fixed him. Even with so much to be happy about, he was almost hoping for the plane to crash for real this time.”

reid’s use of language is universally blunt but in this scene that is sandwiched between the outing, tripgate, and scott hunter assembling the gay avengers, we get a very clear description of what ilya is feeling, and reflects on his personal arc in the book. by comparison, here is how shane is written reacting to being completely ostracised by his championship team, losing his professional reputation, and being accused of cheating:

“These were the guys who were supposed to have his back. They’d won a cup together last year and fought like hell all season for another one. Some of these men had played with Shane for over ten seasons. It made him sick that they were so quick to believe him to be a traitor. Shane’s parents were waiting for him outside the locker room by the time he’d gotten showered and changed. He didn’t even bother saying goodbye to his teammates. If any of them wanted to apologize, they had his number.”

there is just. zero elaboration on what shane is feeling. the betrayal ‘made him sick.’ a page later his eyes are described as burning with furious tears. he takes his gear off angrily. and what else? this is one of the worst things that has ever happened to him. is he feeling sad? anxious? is he spiralling? is he in disbelief? why do we spend more time on ilya’s playoff game — which then leads to a long scene of emotional support from shane — and literally no time resolving this serious, potentially career ending situation? the next chapter starts with ilya complaining that people are discrediting ilya’s efforts by saying shane cheated. there is literally no emotional real estate in this book utilised to address how shane is feeling, and shane’s emotional journey is just unbelievably flat in a book whose prose already lacks particular grace and nuance.

“You wouldn’t have beaten me if I hadn’t tripped,” Shane pointed out for no reason at all. “Shane,” Ilya sighed. “Not now. And of course I would have.”