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maybe kent parson is better than me bc if i had an emotionally fraught situationship/whatever with a fellow closeted professional athlete who ghosted me for eons even after i found him almost dead the night before one of the biggest events of our young lives, only to watch him win the stanley cup & come out by kissing his boyfriend on the ice for the world to see, & the boyfriend looked almost exactly like me? id be on the fucking news
When I first read "Check Please!" years and years ago, I knew way less about pro hockey than I do now. It was never surprising to me that some of the fandom went nuts for Kent Parson despite the fact that Parson is barely in the comic (and that there was significant fandom backlash both to him and to people who liked him, I know, which I'm not really getting into here, sorry), because he's 1) basically the closest thing that the series had to a villainous character for a long time, a haunting source of tension in the main romance, 2) pretty, 3) angsty, and 4) he never really got... a satisfying plotline in the end? Altogether, he's basically fandom bait.
Stepping away from Parson for a moment: I'm still quite fond of OMGCP, but a large part of that fondness is towards select parts of the fandom and the fanworks. OMGCP is actually quite short, its entries are quite limited, and so a LOT is done through offscreen events and implications. I enjoy some parts of this ambiguous design, some things remain mysteries in life, and I find some of these open-ended aspects disappointing.
In my opinion, one of the things that initially made OMGCP so rich for fandom is that it brought up a LOT of really complicated, compelling ideas and then only skimmed the surface of them, which tends to send fans into headcanon and fanfiction overdrive regarding all these missing scenes. Curiosity and dissatisfaction can be huge fandom drivers. (Note: the fandom at large was also occasionally a fucking nightmare in many respects, so I understand and respect the author ultimately unfortunately backing away from dealing with some shit.)
OMGCP references substance abuse, mental illness, internalized homophobia, closeted relationships, toxic masculinity, toxic friendships and rivalries, the pressures of celebrity and legacy, the pressures of professional sports, the toxicity of media, misogyny and racism and homophobia in sports, homophobia from your own parents, injury and disability, the classism and privilege involved in attending college and playing professional sports, all the scandals and issues specific to the fucking tar pit that is the NHL, and so on, without... really delving into it or just how ugly any of this complicated stuff can get.
Any potential tangles in the characters' lives mostly just work themselves out. OMGCP instead ultimately chooses to focus mostly on light humor and feel-good romance. Sure. Fair enough. It's cute.
An example: Jack had a very serious anti-anxiety medication overdose, but by the time we meet him, he's already been through rehab and therapy. Drug use and addiction (whether for pleasure or painkiller reasons or both) are common among athletes, and it can start young, especially in juniors hockey or college, places not known for responsible, risk-aware drug use. But if substance abuse was ever part of Jack's issues, we never really get to see any of those personal recovery struggles from him or even him reacting seriously to anyone else risking alcohol poisoning.
Other examples: hockey is a reeeeally expensive, reeeeally white sport. Ransom, Nursey, and Chowder (and Lardo) must be dealing with racism, it's referenced, but the characters never really seriously contend with it. Dex is supposedly from a working class family, Bitty is on a scholarship and is threatened with losing it, but money never seriously interrupts anything. No one ever gets injured out of sports. Jack and Bitty ultimately have supportive parents, despite those parents being heavily involved in toxic sports environments, and Jack has a supportive employer, so neither of them have to lose loved ones or careers when they come out individually or as a couple.
And OMGCP is a feel-good fantasy comic telling a limited story, ultimately, so it's not surprising that it chooses not to engage at length with some of the uglier elements of life. Serial fiction updating as it's made comes with a whole host of issues. I also totally respect a creator just being done with a story and wanting to close it off for various reasons. But the end result is a little disappointing if you were personally hoping that the comic would actually delve deeper into some of the complicated and compelling topics it hints at, especially with its minor characters.
Which brings me back to Kent Parson. I guess my point in the above bit is that interpretation and personal headcanon was always a huge part of OMGCP and its fandom, with or without Parson, from the beginning. Now that I know a lot more about hockey and pro sports generally, it's really, REALLY not surprising that some people went nuts for him despite his incredibly limited appearances, because besides maybe Jack himself, Kent Parson is BY FAR one of the most compelling character concepts in the comic.
Like, okay, if kids want to play pro sports, they're often living away from home at some special academy or billeting with another family by their early teens. And these junior leagues can be RANCID environments in terms of bigotry and mental health and even physical health. Hazing and drug abuse and sexual abuse is way too common. If any kid is genuinely talented, they'd BETTER for their sake have a responsible, savvy adult in their life protecting them from everyone who wants to turn them into another money-making asset, who will encourage them to just... ruin their bodies and their mental health and their lives.
So, there's this USAmerican kid named Kent Parson who is really fucking good at hockey, so good that by the time he's a teenager he's playing away from home in Quebec. He's gay in a famously homophobic sport. At some point, he gets paired up with Jack Zimmermann, an up-and-coming Canadian prince of hockey, the next Next One, the son of a famously talented hockey player and Stanley Cup champion Bad Bob. If Kent's billeting with Bob and Alicia, he possibly lived with them for YEARS.
Jack and Kent are friends. They're rivals. They're teammates. They're partners. They're soulmates. They're secret lovers. They're both celebrities before they're 17 and drafted, media is swarming them at every juniors game, and probably both already have sponsorship deals. They're winning like they're never going to stop, and there's no way underage drinking isn't going on, and that's fine because "boys will be boys." They're being told by coaches that all of their nasty, aggressive edges make them better athletes and competitors, probably. Everyone knows they're going to go first and second overall in the draft, and no one can EVER know they're gay because their careers will be over before they've even started and that's EVERYTHING.
And then teenage Kent Parson's secret boyfriend nearly dies due to a drug overdose directly before the draft. And it's maybe even Kent who finds him and has to call for help. It might be Kent Parson who saved Jack's life.
But Kent still has to go to the draft because... that's his future? He doesn't know what else to do, probably. And HE goes first overall at one of the NHL's big spectacle events of the year, dozens of camera trained on him constantly, while all everyone wants to talk about is Jack's scandal: is Jack going to die, does Jack have a drug problem, does KENT have a drug problem too, did Kent SABOTAGE his friend to go first overall, are the Las Vegas Aces disappointed by getting their second choice instead???
And obviously Jack's parents have to focus on Jack right now instead of Kent, who is not actually their kid.
And afterwards, Jack doesn't die but he doesn't want to talk to Kent, and there's no way either of them knows how to handle this responsibly or in a healthy manner. And Kent goes to Las Vegas while Jack stays in Quebec, leaving Kent to wonder if it was at all HIS fault for putting even more pressure on Jack with their rivalry and secret relationship, for not noticing Jack's issues sooner and taking them seriously. If Kent actually wants to be a better person (and let's remember, he's probably like 17 or 18 here), then he almost certainly doesn't know HOW to be better person.
And teenage Kent is expected to be the face of the franchise and lead an NHL team to victory (despite the fact that everyone knows he's NOT the one that they originally wanted), and he DOES, he becomes captain WAY too young 1OA-style and wins a bunch of trophies, and he even wins the Stanley Cup, which is supposed to be everything he's ever wanted but also Jack STILL won't talk to him. (Does Kent still talk to Bob and Alicia??? Unclear!) And Kent is STILL a closeted gay man in the homophobic NHL, one of its celebrity faces, and basically couldn't date anyone even if he wanted to, because he probably gets photographed by random people ALL the time. And also toxic masculinity says that pro athletes do NOT go to therapy.
And also the media probably STILL asks him about Jack regularly, because they're bloodthirsty like that.
And while Jack is going to college instead, he gets together with a teammate who looks a lot like Kent, but is nicer and sweeter and apparently more palatable than Kent is? And is also apparently, like, the male version of the perfect, blonde homemaker / social media influencer that so many hockey players choose to marry. And then Jack kisses this apparent Kent replacement on the ice in front of EVERYONE after winning the Stanley Cup???
Fuck! FUCK!!! That's wild! That's a crazy situation to be in emotionally! That's an incredibly juicy narrative and it's all just going on in the BACKGROUND of OMGCP. I get why people would push the more wholesome main romance out of the way and say, "Talk to me about the deliciously problematic storyline happening back THERE."
Like, yes, it IS totally reasonable to, say, point out that fandoms almost always unreasonably favor white men, especially privileged and conventionally attractive "bad boy" characters, even when they're barely in a story at all. Jack and Bitty are also white men, but in this case, I'm referring to people choosing to focus fanworks on Kent Parson instead of, for example, far more prominent minor characters like Ransom or Nursey or Chowder or Lardo.
But Kent Parson is also one of those cases where I'm like, "Yes, but through inference, we arguably know just as much information about Kent Parson as we do some of these other supporting characters. Also, you must understand, if you follow the NHL at all and understand how the sports entertainment industry works, everything about Kent Parson's career path is NUTS. The NHL is CRAZY about their 1OAs, and if one of them (a legacy Next One of THAT pedigree) had a drug overdose and got replaced by this other kid who shortly became captain of an expansion team and won a dozen trophies including the Stanley Cup, the hockey media would NEVER stop talking about it. If Kent Parson was real, he'd be Sidney Crosby levels of famous, and people would write angry clickbait articles every year about how Kent Parson (a filthy USAmerican) sabotaging (good Canadian boy) Jack Zimmermann's draft is the reason why the Montreal Canadiens and/or Toronto Maple Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup again yet (because OBVIOUSLY Jack would have come to play for the Habs or the Leafs eventually, the articles suggest, and therefore Canada wouldn't be in this embarassing, unacceptable position of not having won a Stanley Cup since the 90s). If Kent Parson was a real person, his narratives would drive the Men's Hockey RPF shippers up the fucking walls, and people would right now be filing the serial numbers off of their RPF romance novels starring Kent Parson* to turn into original fiction booktok bestsellers that probably later get adapted into television shows streaming on Crave."
*I am aware that people have filed the serial numbers off and published their OMGCP fanfiction starring Kent Parson. What I'm saying here is that if he was real, it would be even MORE of a thing.
Kent Parson is one of the most interesting, haunting character concepts in the comic. The more you know about the machine that is the NHL (or any pro sports league), the clearer it is that this a complicated guy in a real fucking Situation here. And it sucks that the backlash against him apparently prevented his storyline from ever getting a satisfying resolution. Kent Parson as an element just fades out.
Listen, Kent Parson and Ilya Rozanov would hook up the handful of times a year they play against each other without knowing that they could also be complaining to each other about being in love with boring Canadians.
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Check Please is ultimately a story about creating a community where everyone can thrive and what happens when those communities don't exist. Bitty is an unconventional hockey player who comes to Samwell with deep-seated trauma from bullying and deliberately chose his school because he'd read it was a safe place for him. And that impression gets proven correct, as these "bro-y jocks" wholeheartedly embrace him--with the ones who take their time being those who grew up internalizing (on some level) self-hatred and shame. But then, within a program that accepts everyone's differences, a character like Dex can go from saying things like "I thought guys at Samwell would be . . . less good at baking" to someone who respects Bitty, Whiskey can acknowledge there's something going on with him even if he's not in a place to accept it (or tell the world), and Jack basically learns that he's a person with emotions other than anger and jealousy.
Because of Jack's growth at Samwell, he is deliberate in signing with a team that values diversity and growth, and he is proven right when the Falconers accept him after he comes out. His proposal speech basically says it all: "It started here and it started with you, Bitty." Jack is, for the first time, able to be his own person and his own player, separate from his dad's legacy. He has learned to rely on others and trust them with his fears and anxieties. Without Samwell, he would've been bitter, stuck in the past, and unable to self-reflect . . .
. . . so basically, exactly like Kent Parson. Jack and Kent are my favourite set of character parallels in anything. Kent is still going to kegsters YEARS after things ended between him and Jack, still bringing up the idea that Samwell is beneath Jack, still talking about him in interviews with tears in his eyes. Kent has everything Jack was "supposed to." Kent is Jack if he never found--and helped make--the environment where he could be properly nurtured instead of made to suppress his emotions. And that version of Jack is obsessed with the situationship he had when he was 18 years old. It is such an effective way to reinforce the themes of the story and I love how even he can be changed by Bitty and his pies (he's still bad at self-reflection, but he finally acknowledges that it's time to move on and that maybe it's not Jack he wants, but the things that Jack has found in his absence). It's been years and I still love these characters so much, I love this world and this team and everything Samwell stands for. It's 1 AM and I'm crying in the club (my bed) over how good this comic is (as per usual)
