"Awesome. Ilya can do it" is my reaction to SO much shit I see from this fandom.
"The second line isn't a demotion" "Awesome. Ilya can do it"
"It doesn't matter who holds the captain title since they're equals who have equal say" "Awesome. Give Shane the title then"
"It doesn't matter how much they're being paid since it's all going to the same household" "Awesome. Ilya can take the paycut"
"If they want to be on the same team, one of them needs to move" "Awesome. Ilya can go to montreal"
Anyway I hope everyone keeps the long game haterism coming. I follow like 3 blogs for this fandom because my requirement is that you have to absolutely hate the long game and the way Shane is treated before I click the follow button so like I'm loving your blog lol
Yeah itâs really the disparity in how Shane and Ilya are treated both in the fandom and in the narrative itself that exposes the fact that Shaneâs position is very much worsened in the long game. Every single one of his losses are treated as not a big deal for Shane but unthinkable for Ilya.
The biggest textual evidence is in the move and paycut. Ilya expressly contemplates moving to Montreal for Shane at a paycut and immediately rejects it as unthinkable because he doesnât want the paycut. But when itâs Shane, the idea is quite literally laughed off as a joke. Why would he worry about being paid his worth? He has a rich husband who will take care of him.
So many people insist that itâs not a demotion to have Shane on the second line. Awesome. Why shouldnât Ilya be on it then? If itâs not a big deal for Shane, itâs not a big deal for Ilya.
Losing his captaincy is another big thing. You could make them equals on the team so easily. At the very least give Shane an A. There is absolutely no reason why he shouldnât have gotten an A. He is the most qualified person on the team three times over. It is incredibly common to still give players that are new to a team the A if they are veteran star players, and Shane is both. Why the fuck would he not have an A. The only thing not giving him an A does is cue him up for a mean joke about how he was demoted.
Ilya straight up tells him at the end of the long game to not even think about being captain because itâs staying with him. And itâs once again being posited as a joke, but itâs a cruel joke in the context.
And while they canât actually be co-captains, thereâs only 1 C on the ice at a time, they could get very close. The Minnesota Wild spent 9 years rotating their captain every month. The Boston Bruins had two players serve as effective co-captains by giving one the C during away games and swapping it to the other during home games. Thereâs precedent for respecting two players as leaders in the team this way. But the long game goes out of its way to disrespect Shane. He is outright laughed at for not having a leadership role. Itâs so fucking cruel.
We need to end this fiction that Shane was a bad captain. That is directly contrary to the textual evidence. He led his team to three goddamn Stanley Cups. That man is the most qualified one on the Centaursâ roster and somehow his happy ending is to be underpaid and overlooked for positions he is absolutely qualified for, because what implications could that possibly have for an Asian wifey man. At least give him the goddamn A.
If Shaneâs ending isnât degrading in some way, then awesome, Ilya can do it. Shane is the one who had to have his reputation be fucking shredded. Ilya can take one goddamn hit
