we all begin somewhere

ilya in the situationship era “it’s just fucking”. ilya now being a married man lying on top of his husband and kissing him all over his face and saying between kisses “oh my god i love you so much” MWAH MWAH MWAH “i can’t live without you even for a second” MWAH MWAH MWAH and shane giggling beet red on his face cus even after so many years together he’s still gets shy around his husband. it’s just two men who still have crushes on each other

call me terminally academia-brained but i do think a lot of the fun of character analysis is figuring out how to build a compelling argument for a particular reading using lines of evidence from canon as well as meta/intertextual support

and you could say that what i’m saying here is basically “a lot of the fun of doing character analysis is doing character analysis” but let’s be real a lot of fandom character analysis is pretty heavily vibes-based. and i think that’s where i really chafe up against the traditional thought-terminating fandom attitude of like, everyone’s opinions hold equal weight and any interrogation of that is inherently hostile. because i think it’s fascinating to dig into where others are coming from in terms of their views on characters or dynamics or whatever, especially when they differ significantly from more commonly expressed views, and part of that digging is asking people okay what parts of canon are you drawing from to support your opinion? what parts of canon are you disregarding or downplaying? how does this argument hold up in the light of how race, gender, class, ability, etc. operate both in the piece’s in-fiction and real world contexts?

one day a rookie is gonna flirt with yuna hollander not knowing who she is. her response will be "oh i'm flattered but you are young enough to be my son who, by the way, will KICK YOUR ASS in this next game." and during the game he will get slammed into the boards at approximately the speed of sound.

the NHL official account posted a video of shane and ilya at the practice with the caption “when you and your best friend are on the same team” and it’s a minute long compilation of them skating around the rink yapping, giggling, whispering, pushing each other around, hitting each other with the stick and just completely attached at the hip. one of the top comments being like “omg do they turn everything into a date?” and the same commenter later posted a screenshot “not the cens players liking my comment”

shane and ilya spending the day at shane’s parents house. both went to shane’s childhood bedroom to take a nap after lunch but ilya woke up first and went to living room to make company to david. shane woke a while later and still sleepy and wrapped in the blanket and went straight to where ilya were seated and lied on top of him and whispered “you did not wake me up to come with you. you left me by myself there” and he hid his face in the crook of ilya’s neck and his breath got deep again and david chuckled and said “he was exactly like this when he was a kid. he hated to wake up alone after a nap. our shanebug never changed” and ilya repeats adjusting his husband’s body who had fallen asleep again in his lap and giving him a gentle squeeze “shanebug?” and david explained “that’s his childhood nickname, he always had so many freckles just like a ladybug spots, but he hated that nickname after he grew up, but yuna and i keep calling him that way in private when we’re talking about him” and ilya smirking mischievously “but why would our shanebug hate this… how is it called?” he asked david “a term of endearment?” david suggested and ilya continued “that’s right term of endearment, i’m sure he’ll come to love being called that again now he’s a grown man”. spoiler alert he didn’t but he can’t never be mad at ilya for more than 5 minutes

Whoever's dog is cast as Anya in s2 is about to be immortalized in a deluge of fanart, the likes of which has never been seen before

shane featured in a NHL official account video being asked “what’s your favorite workout off season?” and shane answering “i love cardio with ilya” and people on the internet immediately taking it to the dirty side thinking they’re fucking nasty off season and shane genuinely thinking about all the running and hikes he goes with his husband and anya

we should’ve never coined the phrase agree to disagree girl sorry you can’t ’agree to disagree’ with me telling you ppd is not the same as ppp because depression and psychosis aren’t the same thing. this is objective!!! you’re just wrong, sorry get over it!!!

There's a response to the Lindsay Clancy trial that essentially amounts to "if i was experiencing an episode of reality altering psychosis i would simply stop and think logically and then not do anything out of the norm" which really reminds me of that post someone made after the BAFTA awards saying "if I had tourettes I would never say slurs my tics would be stuff like 'trans rights!'" Like theyre both the sams sort of "ive never experienced this reality so I am gonna just assume its identical to mine

thinking abt the first time shane calls ilya his family… it’s fall 2017 they’re talking abt christmas shane asks ilya if he’ll come spend it with him & his parents in ottawa & ilya is all ‘oh you don’t have to invite me i know christmas is a family thing for you’ and shane is ??? um yeah… you’re my family… which is why i want you here…. & ilya dies on the spot

a side effect of the fact that shane and ilya are not just husbands but also best friends is that i do in fact believe that shane calls ilya "dude" sometimes. he's a jock !! he's a jock and that's his best friend and the coolest and funniest person he knows like yes that's his man but that's also his dude !