My Nonsense

These choices come up when taking to Johnny to Make sure you get a new car before you leave rogue if you already have let me know and I’ll send you where to get it.

Also when offered choice to engrave Johnny’s name choose to.

The Ilya we see in Heated rivalry would not be throwing the first punch, he's not an enforcer. Ilya is a star center and a Pest. He wouldn't be doing his job correctly if he was punching players every other game, it would end up with not enough ice time to let him be the playmaker he's paid to be.

But being a pest can be playmaking! Find a player to bait, emotionally push them just enough that they try to fight you, and then get the fuck out of there before the ref gives you both penalties. This gets your team the power play. There is probably someone on Ilya's line dedicated to helping him get out of the fights he starts, and finishing them for him!

I also think this is also something that Shane would respect. Ilya is good at it and it's a good strategy for his team. I don't think Shane would see it as some dirty tactic, because Shane probably thinks everyone with a brain can see it for what it is! He probably thinks everyone should be able to see that being an asshole is a tactic for Ilya, that it's something to ignore and not fall for, that it's a strategy and not personal beef.

like wait, hold on, this is a good point that I never considered. Yuna Hollander being a momager would definitely be something Shane would get chirped for and Shane doesn't go for stupid fighting penalties but also you can't let an insult to your mother slide, no one can. Yuna is both present in the hockey world and also very recognisable. There can't be many Japanese women involved in hockey in the GCU, it would be obvious to even the most concussed player that that's Hollander's Mom. Let's also add a sprinkling of "Shane's mom is hot' because while that's never been explicitly stated in book canon, it's clear in the show, and also, Shane got his genes from somewhere he's got hot parents for sure.

So what do we get? Shane's got a momager. A fair number of other players probably recognise her. She's really hot. Shane never dates. Shane's the best/2nd best in the league and it's really fucking difficult to make him get a penalty. Hockey players are generally misogynistic.

Shane baby I'm so fucking sorry for the horrible shit you've had to hear about your mother

And Ilya wouldn't go for this because 1. the obvious trauma, and 2. he likes Shane and doesn't want to genuinely piss him off.

Shane IS neat. He folds clothes before sex. Maybe not all the time, but it's something that he at least does to express nervousness and he complains about a messy bed after sex. He's private enough that I'd be surprised if he DID hire a cleaning staff, even with a hard core NDA. A man who buys out the apartments next door (show) or a whole different building to have sex (book) is not going to risk his privacy like that.

I get that folks disagree with the take that Ilya is particularly sloppy or gross. I do too. But we don't have to ignore Shane's canon traits to do it. (Honestly, stupid jock Shane is as reductive a cliche as every other version that we see, and it's tedious as fuck when you like to pay attention to details in your media.) We don't need a contrast here. They can both be neat people.

This time however, I want to rant about Ilya and the way a lot of fans really want to downplay his partying and occasional fuckboy nature.

No, Ilya was not "the boring one" in Russia. The partying is not new to Boston. Sasha makes that very clear. Sasha was expecting Ilya to fuck. He was expecting him to do drugs. Because they've done it before. The fact that Ilya isn't as sexually confident or experienced as he pretends to Shane that first time doesn't mean he's not a 19 year old fuckboy. It just means he's a 19 year old fuckboy and all that entails.

(Also Sasha was propositioning him in the same fucking building as his dad and all sorts of other really powerful people, within the year that Russia passed that anti-gay propaganda law, DURING the Olympics when scrutiny is at its highest. Even if Ilya wanted to join Sasha, he's not stupid enough to do it.)

Yes, when we see Ilya in Russia, we see him train. We see him take care of his father. We see him support his family. Those are all responsible traits that Ilya has.

We also see him go to night clubs with Svetlana. We see him with women. Later, it's significant when he blows off a woman because he's busy texting Shane. And it's significant because fucking women (and presumably the occasional man) is something that Ilya genuinely likes to do.

There's nothing wrong with that, by the way. You can be both a responsible person, someone who cares very clearly about consent, who parties and has sex. These are not mutually exclusive traits.

But people act like they are and that's annoying.

Ilya is smart. Ilya is responsible. Ilya seems to be very financially solvent (and I do appreciate that we seem to be moving away from the "Ilya needs Shane and/or Yuna to take over and fix his career" silliness. Dude might or might not not have his sports cars in the show, but he owns property in Boston and Moscow, he can afford penthouses in Vegas, he has plans to make a trust for his niece, he's doing fine.)

He also likes to party and he likes to fuck. He likes the escape and he likes the release, and he likes the feeling of control he gets through sex with a willing partner and there's nothing wrong with any of that.

FIRST OF ALL. being queer women in the public eye will never normal or boring. yes, many pwhl players are gay and out. that doesn’t make pwhl hollanova less interesting.

the rivalry between shane and ilya is what made the secrecy regarding their relationship so crucial. they weren’t the first gay players in the league, but there was much more drama for them when they were outed because they were “rivals.” this can and should still exist in the pwhl au.

shane would still be one of VERY FEW women of color in the league. this is still something that might make her want to keep her sexuality out of the conversation. people already don’t take her seriously for being asian, let alone for being a lesbian AND fucking a female rival.

AND LASTLY. shane’s wish to be the best player in the league, and play the best hockey imaginable. even if the league was more open to their relationship, i know she would HATE that every move she makes has to be related back to her marriage and her sexuality. ex. stacey and poulin - the wife line, they’re gay marcus, etc. i’m not saying those real women feel any sort of way about those conversations, but hashtag myshane would really struggle with them.

and on top of all this, ilya’s family would still have a problem with her sexuality, and genuinely her sports career is far more interesting to me as a woman who chooses to move from russia and away from her judgmental family when she won’t be making millions like ilya. ESPECIALLY because if we keep the timeline the same, the pwhl wouldn’t have existed when they were starting out, so there is just so much rich women’s hockey history to be played with here.

Shane had to deal with the racism and homophobia.

Ilya the homophobia and xenophobia and immigration.

Other than that they got the idealized hockey experience and they can hide it to maintain that. They got money, popularity, and recognition of being the best and while hiding institutional protections. Hollonova wouldn’t have that part. it’s like getting cookies and cream when you wanted chocolate. Yes cookies and cream have a lot of the same ingredients but doesn’t taste the same. I loved Cleat Cute as a soccer romance with a lot of the same ingredients but it wasn’t quite the same.