#reg rants

"But I'll still solve you"

ANDREW THAT'S FLIRTING?? YOU'RE ALREADY FLIRTING WITH HIM? Y'ALL HAVEN'T EVEN MOVED INTO THE DORMS YET! NEIL DOESN'T EVEN LIKE YOU AS A PERSON YET AND YOU'RE FLIRTING WITH HIM?! HOW DID I MISS THAT IN MY FIRST READ?!

And then HR is mainly from Shane's perspective while TLG is from Ilya's so OF COURSE we aren't going to see as much character growth from Shane just like we didn't get an insane amount from Ilya in HR.

And even then we see him get an arc and fulfill that arc!

Shane at the start is content and Complacent in his and Ilya's relationship. He's also terrified of coming out and being outed while having these moments of desperately just wanting to scream from the rooftops that he's in love with Ilya Rozanov. But holding himself back because they have a plan and he wants to follow that 10 year plane. (Remember he is Autistic and this is clear coding of that)

Then after the almost plane crash he's so distraught that he almost lost Ilya and over the fact he would not be able to mourn his boyfriend openly in the way he'd want to because they were not out publicly.

That leads to Shane realizing he wants to marry Ilya soon (it was always in their plan to get and have kids) and in the books Ilya describe I'm detail at the Cottage how he'd propose to Shane, so Shane takes that description and sets that all up in Ilya's house. Ilya walks into his house for the first time after the almost plane crash and Shane leads him into a proposal.

AND THAT NIGHT THEY DECIDE THEY WILL COME OUT AT THE END OF THE SEASON THEY ARE CURRENTLY PLAYING!

THAT MEANS! That Shane as not only thought of, but accepted the fact that they've thrown out the 10 year plan, and that he will be faced with blatant homophobia towards nothing himself and his and Ilya's relationship and is prepared for it. BUT HE ALSO SUGGESTED IT! HE'S THE ONE WHO SAID THEY SHOULD COME OUT SOONER! THAT WAS ALL HIM!

AND THEN AFTER THAT THEY GET OUTED! (accidentally, we forgive you Hayden but for fucks sake watch your videos back) which I'll remind you is Shane's Nightmare and is the THIRD TIME THEY'VE BEEN OUTED! The first to his parents, the second to Ryan who walked in on them kissing and the third to the whole fucking world!

So Shane obviously fucking panics, this isn't like the other two times, he can't immediately talk to his parents and find out of they support him or not and he can't immediately know that they'll be supported like he could with Ryan and already out gay guy. And worse, Ilya is also panicking, while less and a little more internally, Ilya was still afraid they'd be outed even though he was read to come out all the way back at the end of HR.

Then they talk with the Commissioner and Shane struggles over taking the easy way out and taking the prepared statement that says the kiss was a prank on Hayden. The Commissioner threatened Shane and Ilya by the way, threatened their careers. (if Ilya stopped working, he'd have to get married very quickly or would be deported back to Russia,and while he and Shane are currently engaged in just wanted to remind y'all of that)

So Shane at the risk of losing his career, and his fiance, chooses Ilya. He chooses to own up to the kiss and start planning his wedding, making sure that he is choosing Ilya over hockey (something Ilya has already done)

His arc is literally about getting over any internalized homophobia and being scared of coming out. And you may be saying "yes yes this is all great but his arc is directly linked to his relationship with Ilya" and I'll remind you that this is a ROMANCE BOOK so all his arc's are going to at least tie into the romance plot and also THAT ILYA'S ARC ALSO IS DIRECTLY TIED TO HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH SHANE!

And then there are the criticisms that Shane is a bad boyfriend in The Long Game and I need y'all to listen to me because what I'm about to say is very important, Ilya in the long game is hiding his feelings, and not communicating. To Shane. A canonically Autistic man who canonically struggles with picking up what Ilya is saying when he is not being direct. While also dealing with his teammates being homophobic, being on an incredibly strict diet (which I personally believe was an eating disorder) and dealing with being outed.

But let's start with the most common complaint that Shane was not supportive of Ilya's mental health journey....which is just so wrong but also- SHANE WAS THE ONE WHO BROUGHT UP ILYA GOING TO A THERAPIST! And then was violently shut down by Ilya.

Shane bringing up Ilya seeing a therapist because he could tell Ilya was off caused a fight which lead to Ilya leaving the house. To go back to his house. Two hours away. So Shane OF COURSE dose not bring up Ilya's mental health again until Ilya brings it up himself as he's terrified of causing another fight.

And then of course Ilya is a master of masking his depression, he very very very rarely let's it slip through the cracks and lashes out or breaks down when it dose, if someone mentios it.

And the other complaint is that Shane wasn't there as much as Ilya was there for him when they were outed and a little after. Which I'll remind you Shane literally tells Ilya being outed is his 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦 in Heated Rivalry at the cottage when his father walks I'm on them making out. While Ilya had straight up said to Shane that he is ready and willing to come out whenever Shane wants in the Long game (well it's a conversation that Shane tells the reader about but still-) meaning Ilya is immediately using his knowledge of Shane to comfort him through his nightmare. Again.

And after they are outed 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 on his team besides Hayden is upset with Shane, including one of his best friends JJ. So much so that he's isolated from the team during the playoffs. Which they lose for the first time in 3 years because of Shane (he tripped in the book but I really hope they change that in the tv show because Shane wouldn't fucking trip like that)

Shane is of course going to be upset and a little distant, he's not mad at Ilya but he's Jealous because Ilya's team all, and I mean 𝘢𝘭𝘭, support Ilya and his relationship with Shane and Win the Stanley cup. In Shane's hometown.

He had every right to be upset and not the best partner at this point, but he's actually being a pretty good one all things considered.

The Fic is "The Prince of Baltimore" by whosarmin on ao3 I believe I say it on tumbler a few times too but I'm not sure

I'm still thinking about Cardan Greenbriar, the main male love interest of the cruel prince series is implied to like women and men

I'm still thinking about Cardan Greenbriar the main male love interest canonically doesn't like violence

The first thing I want to say is that I don't support jkr or her views. She's a transphobic piece of shit and just because I am a marauders fan dose not mean I'm a jkr fan.

The second is that there will be spoilers for the fanfiction "All the young dudes" by MsKingbean

Now I don't love the idea of Fanfictions being scrapes off the internet to then be published. The author originally posted it for free and for fun and for the community. So taking that fic away especially a fic as important to the marauders community feels wrong. That being said, Heated Rilvery is a spin off of a Stucky fanfiction.

The game changers universes first fic (Game Changer) was originally a Stucky (Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes) fanfiction. Heated Rilvery is a spin off of that fanfiction and it's one of the best and most loved queer stories in recent history. I would loved for All the Young Dudes to have a similar effect all Heated Rilvery for the queer community.

Fanfiction has also been published into traditional books quite frequently, Fifty Shades of gray being the most obvious example but I believe there were 3 Draco x Hermione fanfictions that got published last year or semi recently. It's not like this is a new practice, I just wish once the fics were actually published the fandom version of it was still available to read for free.

I am all for authors writing what they want and am so happy that this author gets to break into the publishing industry, but like I've said my personal problems with fanfiction being published is it being taken away from the fans. If All the young dudes had never seen an audience then yeah go for it completly it's much easier to change things before people have read it and grown attached. But there are fans who have grown attached and knowing that this fic which means so much to people is going to be taken off ao3 and not be able to be read for free is a little heartbreaking

I don't know enough about the legal side of fanfiction and publishing laws to comment on that but I don't believe this will negatively affect fanfiction in the way most people are scared of as this has happened many times over.

Now let's get into the specific Marauders reasons on why I have mixed feelings about All The Young Dudes being published.

Firstly, All the Young dudes as a fanfiction works because of how it foreshadows and references the Harry Potter books. There's a sad, inevitable feelings you get from the fanfiction from the first word you read because you read the tags and you know it is a canon compliant fic, almost meaning everyone dies by the end of the book. Including the main character. The author is either going to have to find a way to remove that feeling that's in the book, laced in every word, or stick too it.

As a traditional book the for shadowing and references will not work so they'll have to be removed or changed to references a future work sequel which would have to be a Harry Potter retelling (something the author explicitly stated in their authors notes on ao3 that they had no interest in doing)

And the author would have to rewrite the magic system so it's not similar enough to Jkr's Harry Potter to be copyrighted.

If you remove the somber tone, and every instance when the Harry Potter books are even slightly alluded too along with changing the magical universe so it's different enough from Harry Potter to not be copyrighted then you've removed a core part of All the Young Dudes and why it works as a fanfiction

The second fic specific thing I don't like is how the Women in All the young dudes are written and treated. At first they are treated as annoying little bugs who just hang around Remus and his friends until Remus becomes friendly with them. But they never become more than 1 dimension characters until Marlene's brother gets bitten by a werewolf and she finds out that Remus is a werewolf. But after she forgives Remus she's back to a one dimensional character but this time a nurse, this sucks because Remus is supposed to be friends with Lily, Mary and Marlene but we never get more than 1 side of these characters at a time when we know the author can right nuanced characters because both Remus and Sirius are incredibly nuanced in this fanfiction. This book would be the chance to change that. But I'm not sure that opportunity will be taken.

My 3rd "complaint" is that because the character names and nicknames will need to be changed a lot of iconic lines from this fic will either not be there or have the same impact.

"Have you ever kissed anyone Remus?" while it's a generic line it has a lot of impact because of the situation Remus and Sirius are in, the setting, and this is one of the rare time Sirius uses Remus name. No matter the name given to Remus character it will not have the same impact for me.

And arguably the most Iconic line for All the Young Dudes will likely be cut completely

"Anything for our Moony"

If this line is cut it is heartbreaking because it's said so often and so sincerely each time, and if the nickname is changed it just won't be the same.

And finally the iconic fight between Sirius and Remus the line

"Was it a werewolf thing?. Was it a Black thing?."

Once again this line will either be cut or changed and the reason this line hits you in the gut so very hard is the prior knowledge you have from the Harry Potter books/movies on the Black family and how werewolfs are treated by society.

That leads me into my 4th point.

The world building. The author did I great job a world building in all the young dudes but also did minimal world building and that is because we know were it's set. They didn't have to explain the castle layout or what it looks like or how it feels because we got all of that very important world building from the Harry Potter books. This means they'll need to be added sections in the book to give us all that information or it'll be left out and leave us lacking in important information. I'm hoping that the book doesn't get to clunky (unlike this post because I have a hard time transitioning to new segments)

Point 5 the book is going to be a tragedy, and if its not a tragedy were all the main characters die at the end then what's the point? The inevitable death of these characters is what makes the story so good and what makes certain moments work within the story. I personally don't love to read Tragedies and queer tragedies get a lot of hate because people automatically assume it's the "bury your gays" trope (which is a whole other issues that needs to be talked about which I don't want to get into right now) the author should not get unnecessary hate for killing off the characters which will happen if they keep All the young dudes a tragedy. Which they should do. They wrote a great tragedy and should make it better.

Point 6, Grant Chapman and Sirius Black. I am going to be completely honest here. I prefer Grant and Remus to Sirius and Remus in the All the young dudes universe. I think they were better written, and Grant feels more human to me than Sirius. I also love Sirius and wolfstar I'm general and in this fic. I think if All the Young dudes dose become a published book or book series then Grant Chapman should be a bigger character and I'd love some teen Sirius and Grant moment besides the drunk beat up Grant after wolfstar is established. Sirius is already incredibly messy and jealous in this fic ("Chris, dare me to kiss moony" Anyone?!) and this book will probably have a love triangle between these 3 men. I either want polyamory to win or for Sirius to be even more jealous, messy and possessive.

Point 7, TAKE OUT REMUS X TONKS! Remus had no attraction to women before that one hookup with Grants friends girlfriend and Tonks. I see absolutely no reason for Remus's character who will have been a queer presumably gay man and main character exploring his sexuality throughout the books to end up married with a wife and a kid. IF the author still wants Teddy Lupin to happen and the wonder Grant x Teddy spin off/ kinda Eqpologe (which is wonderful btw go read it while you can) to happen then make the main character bi and have him hook up with women. Have him become friends with the woman he got pregnant and want to step up to be a dad but not be in love with her. Not after Sirius and not after Grant. Please.

And finally. All the young dudes is the basis of a lot, like A LOT of marauders fandom knowledge. While the fanfiction isn't as big as it was a few years ago it's still on almost every list of recommend fic to get into the marauders fandom with. It has a lot of canon knowledge, and a lot of the fandoms inside jokes or saying are from it and newbies will feel left out until they read it. I know I did. I go back to all the young dudes for any canon compliant rp's I do (and my Harry Potter books that I got before I was old enough to understand how horrible jkr was) it's the basis of how I see Remus Lupin and how I chose to characterize him. And there are a lot of fics, and rp's and things within this fandom that have subconsciously or consciously adopt All the Young dudes as a semi canon or "fandom Bible" that will expect you to know things that you just can't without reading All the Young dudes. Like I said before "Anything for our moony" is an iconic line that's used far beyond just All the Young Dudes marauders fans and is a wider thing now. Which as I said above is why I don't like it being published because it takes away a great gateway into the marauders fandom