never understood where the "protective ilya" thing came from when its not present in canon. like ever.
like correct me if im wrong, but is there a single instance where ilya defends shane to anyone? he doesnt do it to the media after tripgate. he doesnt do it against crowell after he threatened shane (but did it for troy). he joins in happily when other people make fun of shanes eating habits or general anxiety, despite it being something shane is sensitive about.
in a fucking deleted scene, meant to be in 2018, this happens
(“If it had been NHL players in the Olympics this year, Russia would have destroyed Canada,” Lev continued. “Canada’s stars are a bunch of pussies, like Hollander.”
“Mm,” Ilya said.
“Fucking right,” Lev said, as if Ilya had contributed anything. “Hollander takes it up the ass for sure.” He laughed and helped himself to some gravlax.
“You think so?” Ilya asked mildly.
“For sure. Every night. His teammates probably line up.”
Ilya shook his head and took a sip of beer. Lev didn’t know shit.)
ilyas teammates are openly mocking shane, being blatantly homophobic with some racial undertones to boot, and ilya. just sits there. practically agrees with them. and rachel only took this out because she had "no idea where what scene was going to end up" though it was "tough to let this scene go because I loved the idea of them texting each other while hanging out with their respective friends/teammates/countrymen"
yeah its so cute to have them text each other to the background of ilyas teammates bigotry, that is going on IN HIS FUCKING HOUSE
its insane that shane gets the rep of being the bad bf when he defends ilya to hayden, jj, his parents, crowell, etc. compared to ilya who says cute things to shane in private and does nothing to back it up
anyways #myilya would never do this bullshit, but it really shows you how much rr's distain for shane ended up coming through in her characters. she loves ilya so much that she cant understand how ilya could ever show love or respect to shane, because she cant bear to show love or respect to shane
