ash

The story in general has such a large emphasis on coming out as hollanov’s inability to do so is a central conflict. And in itself that’s completely fine, of course it’s fine to want to be out and struggle with not being able to. But where I start to feel weird about it is how being closeted/out is treated.

Because “learning to come out of the closet” is embedded into Shane’s character arc. Ilya’s built up resentment (which the text justifies) over Shane not wanting to come out, the boxing day fight, it’s resolution with a promise to come out. His love is “proved” by a willingness to come out.

And once he’s out, a lot of the consequences he faces are framed as being because he “lied” (which is very negative framing of an action that was necessary to protect himself and Ilya). Like his fight with JJ, anger from his team are because he was bad by “lying” to them. Being in the closet reads like a character flaw, a dishonest, selfish thing that he must grow from to be a better partner.

And then we have Ilya whose arc gets completely resolved when he’s out. All his very valid concerns about Russia from the previous book disappear, the struggles he (and also Shane) faved are clumsily wrapped up with a “it’s all fine because they’re out now” sentiment. And again, I’m not saying it’s unrealistic being closeted would have a big toll on people’s mental health, but the brushing over of every other issue is a problem.

Rachel really seems to view being out as the only viable option for their relationship, sees coming out as some grand euphoric moment of self-actualisation, like how it was for Scott. And I obviously don’t think they should stay closeted when they both clearly wanted to be out, but I wish it was set up differently. I know it’s a romance, so it will have a magical happy ending but being out shouldn’t be used as a cure-all to achieve that.

Ilya losing rookie of the year is tied to angst about going home, going out early at the olympics is tied to angst about being home, and therefore his cup win that year feels like a victorious and deserved comeback after that failure. Doing badly with the cens is part of his sacrifice for love and a factor of his depression.

Then with Shane, winning rookie of the year gets made into a moment of him being unaware of Ilya’s struggles, a good amount of the fandom don’t even know if he won gold or silver medal, and his back to back cup wins are glossed over, as is his third one.

It is only natural then, that Ilya arrives at his happy ending alongside arriving at a good place in his career. He can be out and his mental health is doing better while his team becomes competitive and he gets to play with his husband. The audience is meant to feel happy for him for both, and meant to feel like his hockey achievements are deserved and earned because they come with his development as a character.

Shane on the other hand arrives at this ending through being professionally humiliated. He loses his reputation, his team’s respect, and he’s basically forced to move from the team he created a dynasty with and take a big pay cut. But because the romantic plot takes precedence over hockey, Shane’s career being so narratively disconnected from his personal life means this isn’t addressed or treated as the serious loss it is.

Poor handling of race? “Shane’s a whatever gen immigrant who assimilated and Yuna didn’t teach him about his culture!”

Critiques of Shane being forced out of his team and losing his captaincy? “Ilya’s the better captain” (literally nothing to suggest that) “Shane would be happier because he doesn’t want the pressure of being captain!”

yeppp, and like call me crazy but in a league with rapists and abusers allowed to play, a guy liking one single Instagram reel (literally could have been an accident too)… isn’t really what I’m worried about