Okay okay okay. The number of times I just watched tuna frot was obscene but I am ready to speak.
So. I would like to start by saying that quite literally everything that Shane does in that scene is submissive. Ilya isn't overly dominant in the scene, true--we've seen him much more assertive. However, it's pretty obvious that, despite Shane initiating, Ilya has the control. And Shane initiating doesn't read as dominant. Shane kisses Ilya's body, beelining for Ilya's crotch, and then buries his face there. This is...somewhat textbook submission.
When Shane swings a leg over, we see the placement of Ilya's hands. We see him subtly correcting Shane's posture, the way he wants him to sit. Shane is physically on top of Ilya but he is not in what's really thought of as a dominant position. Lapsitting is, itself, an element of kink and in certain communities is considered a way to establish possession over a submissive partner; i.e. the submissive sits in the dominant's lap to show who they belong to. They're not in public so it's not really that, but I do really believe it's still meant to be read as shorthand for Shane's submissive tendencies. Which have been spoken about, multiple times, by multiple people involved in making the show, including Hudson Williams.
Now we reach the big moments that tend to be cited by submissive/switch Ilya truthers as indicators of submission:
The 'Seeing God' look that he aims at Shane
"Gonna come for me, Rozanov?" "Fucking make me."
So let's address them in order.
Ilya's 'Seeing God' look is, I will admit, heady. But I don't see it as submissive. Ilya, I think, just straight up thinks that Shane is beautiful and it's showing on his face. Connor is a really expressive actor. It shows here. Ilya's thought process is really obvious here, thanks to Connor's skill, and it's pretty clearly something along the lines of: Holy shit. This man continues to be the most beautiful man I have ever seen. And he is taking his dick out. And he's going to rub our dicks together. Lucky me. Also, Ilya in this moment is under the impression that he and Shane have agreed to be--not together maybe, but more. More than what they've been. Ilya thinks that they are consummating the end of their hookup era. He's allowing himself to do some things he maybe hasn't done before. Look a little longer, maybe, or a little nicer. This is still Ilya setting the tone. And, at the end of the day, they're having sex. His expressions are going to be pretty drunken.
Shane's, "Gonna come for me, Rozanov?" has never, and I mean never read as dominant to me. He's practically whining, and tone in human communication holds almost as much weight as the words--sometimes more. If we replaced one single word ('for' with 'on') I genuinely don't think that anyone would think it was anything but submissive. When Ilya says Fucking make me, it's meant to be read as a command, though a soft one. It's actually still a little whiny, lmao, but Connor loses some of his gravely Ilya-tone in this scene, I think maybe because of the repeated takes or because he's matching Hudson's energy--which is shaky and a little frantic. I noticed it again on the line, "Yeah, okay, you forgot team meeting," where he sounds more like Connor than Ilya, though it's subtle. Anyway, this is a bit of a nothingburger for me. It's just a sexy thing to say and Shane probably knows that it will--y'know, make Ilya come.
Ilya's vocalizations--LET THE DOMTOPS MOAN. For God's sake. Some submissives don't like it, I guess, but in my opinion they don't know what they're missing. This was the one scene that I considered skipping when I watched with my sibling because Ilya's vocalizations literally made me feel a way that I didn't want to feel sitting in a room with family. Thankfully I was expecting it the second time and felt a little more sane about it, haha. But yeah again, nothing about this reads as submissive to me. He's just...having a good time?? He's got the guy he likes in his lap kissing him and touching his dick. I think the implication is that they've never frotted before. It's pretty fun and nice to be doing something new. Also, again, Ilya is feeling a bit less inhibited here. He thinks he and Shane have reached an understanding. He's happy. Let dominants enjoy sex...let dominants moan...God fucking dammit...
Anyway. Here are a few ways that Ilya is still dominant in this scene:
The aforementioned ways in which Ilya guides Shane's body.
I do believe that Ilya nudges Shane to get in his lap when he has his face in Ilya's crotch but that's up for interpretation
Ilya gives several approvals throughout the scene. His Mm-hms early in the scene and his Da, like that a bit later. We know already that Shane likes to have Ilya's permission/approval. This is probably a normal part of their sex and not unique to this moment of their relationship, though this is the only time we see it onscreen.
The big one, for me, is Ilya making Shane hold out his hand to be spit in. That's...very dynamic-y, in my mind. That's not really something that I imagine a submissive deciding to do. Even if the argument is that Ilya is a switch--which I think it is, for most people. It just doesn't read as even remotely submissive to me, I'm sorry. I don't really know what a dominant headspace is like but if Shane wanted to be dominant over Ilya in that moment at all, I think that would take him out of it a bit.
Shane initiates, is maybe driving a bit, but Ilya is in control. Every escalation Shane makes in the scene is with Ilya's permission. You can see it in the way he helps Shane with their clothing, in the way he places his hands on very proprietary areas of Shane's body--his hips, then his chest. There's even a part I noticed in my multiple replays of the scene for this breakdown where it looks like Shane is nosing in for a kiss that he does not receive until Ilya allows it (It looks like he's busy watching Shane jerk him off, which...we know Ilya likes to watch it go in, so). Shane is servicing Ilya. Ilya is directing the ways Shane's body moves. They're not performing kink, to be clear--like, this isn't a scene. They're just having sex. But they have a very clear dynamic that they don't stray from and that dynamic involves Ilya being dominant. I can't force people to see it this way but I can tell you that that is what it reads as to someone who, at the very lease, knows what submission looks and feels like in the body and knows that that's not what Ilya is doing in that scene.
