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@thatsmybook
My favourite Young Adult mlm reads to celebrate London Pride and Omar's new music video Talk.
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what i think about a lot is like. ilya telling shane that he talked about being queer w troy and implying he wanted the opportunity to tell someone else about their relationship. and shane’s completely understandable response being hey erm. troy barrett the known bigot and bestie of a rapist? that troy barrett? and rather than explain literally anything ilya ends the conversation like this:
so i mentioned it in the tags of this post but i want to elaborate on this line in particular:
because rachel reid uses ‘bitchy’ or ‘bitchiness’ as a descriptor of shane’s behaviour in the long game, both by shane himself and ilya. what i find bizarre about it — considering that it is a derogatory gendered term — is that it is always used to imply shane is being unreasonable. shane is tone policing himself, even though his response to this situation (ilya telling him that he’s now close with troy barrett, someone shane knows as outwardly homophobic) is logical, and predicated on ilya’s repeated failure to communicate. ilya replies ‘i might be busy having sex with troy’ and then hangs up. despite his tone, despite what he says, he is only described as speaking ‘tightly,’ rather than ‘bitchily.’
to be clear, ilya and shane are both men, but ilya’s behaviour is never described this way, even when he also acts petty, unkind, or bitchy. as another example:
ilya pokes fun at shane’s diet, even after shane tells him to stop. shane loses his patience and reacts to something ilya started, but shane’s behaviour is what is described as bitchy, not ilya’s. shane is reacting unreasonably.
in the same scene — shane describes himself as an absolute bitch. shane is acting unreasonably. and again:
why is shane described this way? or more specifically — why is shane the only one described this way in the book? ilya is jealous of shane interacting with a reporter in a professional setting and shoots a puck at them from behind glass, something shane describes as humiliating, but reid doesn’t describe this action as bitchiness. ilya antagonises shane, but shane responding is what is considered bitchy.
like i said, we cannot extricate ‘bitch’ from its origin as a gendered pejorative, but we also cannot ignore that it is racialised — reid exclusively uses it to describe the gay asian character (who is also a bottom) responding to antagonism. does that make sense? why are you using this particular language to deride shane’s actions in this way, and why is it always utilised in scenes where ilya is an instigator? not to get heteronormative about it, but this dynamic feels like a reflection of the happy husband / nagging bitch wife dynamic. it is that deep.
it is important to consider the language we use to tell a story. reid’s depiction of shane is not magically unaffected by her own, obvious biases around race and sexuality. the fetishisation of his race, his feminisation, her use of ableist language all informs how she chooses to have him react and, in turn, how she chooses to describe his reaction. this is not meaningful commentary about shane’s understanding of gender or his own queerness or his struggle to find community in a toxically masculine environment. he is not calling himself a bitch as an interrogation of shane’s role as a professional athlete intersecting with his sexuality, or even how shane personally views women, it is more indicative of how reid views women. she codifies that shane and ilya fulfil gendered stereotypes in their relationship. ilya is tall and masculine and shane small and hairless. ilya is intelligent and shane is not. ilya is right and shane is wrong. ilya is a cocky asshole and shane is a bitch.
Things Rachel Reid won't write on the page because she did them already:
A coming out to your team on your own terms scene for Shane because she already did it with Scott.
A coming out scene that isn't Shane being outed, because Scott, Ryan, Eric, Troy and Ilya already had good ones of their own.
A chat about racism for Shane because she already did that with Scott and his Black coach in order for Scott to feel understood. Shane doesn't need his white boyfriend to understand how being racialised affects him.
Ilya, showing regret, attrition, and accountability with Shane, even to contextualise his behaviour as part of his depression and ask Shane for patience because she already did that in his conversations with his therapist, Galina.
Things Rachel will write on the page because she did them already: the events of Role Model rehashed for The Long Game so we see all sides of Ilya.
Systemic racism is threaded throughout Heated Rivalry and The Long Game by the author, unconsciously. It's about PERCEPTION over REALITY.
This post below brought to you by "you care too much about others opinions Shane", "Shane doesn't understand the dark side of hockey" and Shane being called a cheat and reputation trashed by think pieces and hockey society, but that not being applied to Ilya.
Also, in the author's framing of Shane as selfish in his worries about his own struggles and not paying attention to his 'sad boyfriend' (author's words) enough to have them come out. The framing implies that Ilya's depression is worsened and therefore the more injured party for not being able to publically disclose their relationship, when Shane is actually the more injured party from the fallout, and Ilya's depression is not helped by it.
Ilya is an EXPAT, not an IMMIGRANT, and that distinction is important in the way those words are viewed in a white supremacist, capitalistic way in today's world.
Shane is the actual grandchild of immigrants, as they would be viewed in Canada and North American hockey culture. In the culture, Ilya (one of many Slavic players in the NHL over generations) 'belongs' more than Shane.
There are three times as many white Slavic players in NHL history as there are any players of colour. Ilya is definitely EXPECTED and at home in the sport. Shane is an ANOMALY and treated/pressured as such.
The expat label is one that's seen to ADD, and the immigrant label is one that TAKES AWAY in Western societal construction, especially since 2015 onwards. So, in The Long Game timeline, the pressure is up on Shane.
Homophobia is one they contend with together, but there's one thing that Shane deals with alone.
The immigrant/expat view confirmed by Yuna in one of her first lines of the show: being a hockey fan, made her feel more Canadian as a kid. You can see she's now proud that her kid is being accepted as 'more Canadian' because he will ordinarily be viewed as an other, even though he is a natural born citizen with a Canadian passport.
Misan Harriman on expats:
The expat term: Europeans use it in Africa, Asia and Australia and Brits use in in mainland Europe. And so do Americans. It's a white supremacist term assigned to white temporary migrants even when they become permanent. It's worldwide and often, though a temporary visa officially, many expats apply to become immigrants and settle in the new country, they are still perceived as expats or never demanded that they return to their own country.
It's a term never specifically applied to Ilya in the text or show, but its connotations are the way he would be perceived compared to Shane's grandparents, for example. The expat label differentiates Ilya from other migrants who are discriminated against because of their skin colour or lack of funds. Ilya is subject to immigrant discrimination for xenophobia against Russians in the US & because of his queerness when he comes out, but the perceived distinction is important. Immigrant Filipino nurses, for example, obviously ADD, but they're not perceived that way. They're seen as TAKING AWAY.
Shane is always aware he has to earn his place as a hockey player, in a way that the white players never have to. The narrative shows that there's a ceiling for him and cuts him down to size.
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Dismissing and writing off everything Shane loses in The Long Game because they think him "getting the guy" at the end somehow makes up for all of it #godhelpusall
Apart from marrying Ilya, Shane's ending is largely his worst fears coming true: he's outed, driven off his team and forced to leave his city. Believing it's narratively satisfying for a character to lose pretty much everything that defined his identity just because he "got the guy" in the end?Without the author doing any internal work to make that journey, I don't know, believable? It's simply bad storytelling.
I'm always amazed by the amount of people who seem to believe that Ilya is allowed to be a complete jackass to Shane because his life sucks.
I'm sorry but the discourse around Vegas/Socchi is so... Ilya is very much being a dick in those scenes. On purpose! Because he is afraid of being vulnerable! That's a very important aspect of his character. And it's of course sad and understandable, as a matter of fact I relate to it a lot, but it doesn't change the fact that He was. Being. A dick! And Shane does not deserve it.
Shane's feelings shouldn't be the acceptable collateral damage of Ilya's unhappiness. It's not his fault that Ilya's life is awful. I mean, hello??
"But he's depressed!" Yeah I'm aware and I have to throw my Depressed Person Card here to say that being depressed does not give you a free pass to be an asshole to anyone. Trust me, I know how hard it is for mentally ill people to give themselves grace and not fall into self loathing when they're struggling, but that can't fall into a place of completely absolving yourself of responsbility re: the way you treat other people.
"But Russia! Shane shouldn't be talking to Ilya there!" I'm sorry, but that's just...Svetlana had 0 problems leaving Ilya and Sasha alone in a fancy event bathroom, and Sasha then tried to make out with Ilya in the same bathroom, and Ilya's main reaction to this was a polite and firm no, but Shane asking him if he's okay from a totally appropriate distance is too much for the russian government? To the point where you guys think it's okay for Ilya to be rude to him and yell about how they're "not anything"?
I just...sometimes I get myself convinced that the Ilya favoritism in the fandom is not that extreme, but then I get exposed to people saying shit like this (while also giving 0 grace for Shane's flaws, to the point where Shane is getting compared to Ilya's abusive father) and it really just dawns on me that no. It really is that bad.
A The Long Game ramble.
There's a conversation to be had about Shane not communicating to Ilya that he is struggling because his team have been homophobic to him for over a year, and that this is likely compounded on top of the systemic racism he's experienced in the sport all his life. Also that Ilya has not been communicating to Shane about how his depression is making him feel and why he is behaving as he is towards Shane, also with how he's struggling on his team and doesn't feel able to Captain, and his therapy and what he's learning to help so Shane can know how to help.
But that would require them to understand and be able to articulate what is happening to them. The problem really comes to be that they have few friends or community who can relate to their experiences who could help them on their individual journey to understanding so that they can bring that to their relationship and deal with these things together. This is the case at the start of The Long Game for Ilya, but he gets growing support as the book goes on. Shane gets less as the book goes on.
They both feel shame for what is happening to them. Even though systemic racism and homophobia are not Shane's fault, they're humiliating, degrading, and dehumanising, so facing them takes support from queer community and people of colour and qpoc. Shane gets a mother who understands in a way that can help him cope by helping him create a player that is undeniable because racist society will set him up to fail. This coping mechanism is finite, it is not enough because it is pushing back at a system much bigger than him and which eventually does what it does and takes it all away from him and segregates him.
Mental health problems and father trauma are not Ilya's fault, but he's culturally ashamed of it. He gets a friend Troy who can relate and perhaps offer support and in show a childhood best friend who was there and knows what happened to him, as far as his father and childhood were concerned. And he gets therapy.
Shane is yet to get more meaningful outside support. Instead, one of his supports gets taken away, twice. His one friend of colour is demonised in the writing. A poc ostracising and humiliating another poc in a room full of white men is an outrageous choice. Then, removing Shane from access to JJ, who always noticed when Shane was low and needed to be pulled out of his head, in order to segregate him to Ottawa, the queer team.
The support Ilya has should mean he is now able to have the conversations he has with Troy and his therapist, with Shane now, to better explain to Shane what the hell is going on with him and why he's behaving as he does from Shane's pov. But that support stops at Ilya and doesn't reach beyond to his relationship. Instead, Shane is also Ilya's support as well as his own. He is expected to be resilient, understand Ilya's needs and do it all, alone.
The story chooses to say that Ilya has no support because he can't tell anyone about Shane, and that is compounding his mental health struggles, when in fact, the support he needs is nothing to do with Shane. His upbringing, his own brain and the way it sees his world, have nothing to do with Shane, but his therapy focuses almost entirely on Shane. So the book spends all its time getting Shane to 'fix' the pain he's 'causing' because he's the reason for Ilya's suffering.
Strange book.
@tarawitht pretty much sums up why this is happening in this book, so perhaps not so strange, pretty expected, really.
Trauma in fiction is treated as a currency not as a character trait. And depending on who holds it, the story gives you total immunity or demands you pay for it.
If a white male lead is toxic or cruel, the narrative immediately rushes in to show you his broken childhood or his mental health struggles. Suddenly it’s not about the harm he’s actively inflicting on the people around him, it’s about how much he’s suffering on the inside. His choices get rebranded as trauma responses, and the story flips the burden onto everyone else to heal him, understand him, and forgive him. If his partner sets a basic boundary or asks for an actual apology, the narrative frames them as rigid and unfeeling for not catering to his pain fast enough. It’s a complete free pass. His past trauma becomes an absolution machine where he never actually has to take responsibility for his own actions because poor him he's so so sad.
But the second you look at female characters or characters of color, that entire grace period disappears. When a POC character has trauma, the story almost never uses it to excuse their bad behavior. Instead their pain is written as baggage they need to deal with quietly so they don't burden anyone else. They’re routinely forced into the role of the patient, grounded anchor whose entire narrative purpose is to perform emotional labor for the volatile white lead, completely stripping them of their own right to be angry, complex, or messy. If a female or POC character makes even a minor mistake, reacts out of hurt, or dares to hold the fan favorite accountable, both the narrative and the fandom drop the hammer on them. They get called annoying, selfish, or toxic, while the white guy gets thousands of words of fan essays dissecting his childhood to explain why he’s actually just a broken boy who needs a hug.
That’s where the racism and sexism sit so heavy in these spaces. White male characters are given infinite interiority, range, and grace, while marginalized characters are flattened into tools meant to facilitate his growth. Trauma should explain why a character acts the way they do, but it shouldn't be a narrative shield that erases their agency. Real redemption requires facing what you’ve done, not using your past as a voucher to treat people like garbage while everyone else pays the price for it.
One of the most infuriating narratives for me is the idea that the problem montreal had was with Shane dating his rival and not homophobia. I know this is supported by the narrative. i know Shane comes out to them, it goes okayish, but him being with Ilya is the thing that sends it crashing down. I can understand all of that and think it creates a narrative which is totally inconsistent with the experiences of queer people at best, and at worst creates a veil of comfort so it can sing the song of homophobia without really dealing with the issue.
This storyline is so often framed as ‘the REAL reason they can’t come out is because of the rivalry. We already solved homophobia!’ and it just makes me want to scream You Don’t Get It! Homophobia is not a binary yes/no switch and doesn’t get instantly solved upon coming out.
People are generally aware that pointing at a gay man and screaming a slur is socially frowned upon but they do become uncomfortable in little ways and search for excuses to justify that discomfort. Sometimes coming out can go well but the minute that you start actually doing gay things (like getting into a relationship) it meets a very different reaction. Sometimes people are comfortable with someone being gay in theory but not in practice and they go searching for reasons to justify their homophobia.
Anyways, so no I don’t believe in any world that the team’s reaction was only about Ilya and had nothing to do with homophobia. In fact, i think no matter who Shane dated there would have been hostility to the highest level manageable while remaining socially acceptable. Ilya being his rival gave them an out whether we want to acknowledge it or not. It opened the door to be hostile and point towards reasons other than homophobia as justification. Framing it as being about their rivalry because homophobia apparently just disappears after coming out just completely ignores the complexity of the issue and treats coming out as a singular conflict to be overcome in a narrative.
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The fact that bisexual Ilya gets to have queer community for at least 5 books, but once Shane comes out to himself he has so little interaction with queer folk about the queer experience as a gay character, is hard. Ilya's bisexuality almost gives him more access (because his reputation as a womaniser allows him to float unquestioned into queer spaces, because people think he's super straight). Shane's one and only encounter is dinner with Ryan & Fabian & Fabian's concert. If anything else happens, it's off the page. His fomo about the Kingfisher hangout stung. He's incredibly baby gay.
He also needs queer community of colour. Bring back Miles and Rose's theatre queer community!
Shane self reflects and realises that he needs to have queer friends outside of hockey when he meets Fabian. For the first time, he notices the wrongness in his thinking about how Fabian presents. Already, just meeting one different version of masculinity whilst he was out to himself is already changing how he thinks. So while it's nice and all that the Centaurs are a queer hockey team, Shane needs non-hockey and non-white. Preferably an Actual Gay Asian!
The other community are the queer players at the hockey school. But he's so paranoid and stressed that day likely subconsciously because of how coming out to his team recently has made him become extra vigilant about running the school this year for kids so his abilities as a gay hockey player are not called into question around children. It's why I think he shuts down Ilya, outing them to Wyatt and the other coaches as Yuna suggests that day. He's recently been burned and is extra worried. I wish Ilya and Yuna had delved into why at the time and been able to guide him to feel more secure about this possible community for him. He's paranoid about their paperwork, their food allergies, and his mother being stressed and even fumbles coaching the kids. All his perfectionism and anxiety that day seem odd when it's the second year of doing this. The difference seems to be that in the interim between the last time and this, his team has reacted homophobically to his coming out to them. Shane's head is in his hands at the kitchen table, and Yuna asks Ilya what's wrong with Shane, and Ilya just says, "seems normal to me." But if Yuna's asking, it's not normal. It's a sign something is up. So this missed opportunity for community stays as is because Yuna and Ilya don't seem to have the capacity to logic Shane down from his spiralling because no one is acknowledging what happened with his team.
I'm so jealous on Shane's behalf of Ilya being Troy's 'gay guru' but not trying to do something similar with Shane. He got Shane to go to a public restaurant with an openly queer couple, so taking him to queer spaces might have been something they could have planned to do, even just to say meeting up with the coaches from the Irina Foundation. Shane word vomits in excitement all over Ryan in the supply closet about the proposed dinner date, showing how desperate he was for community.
TLG Ilya isn't as good as helping Shane down from his panic attacks and pushing him out of his comfort zone. Not as good as Show!Ilya.
after the beach 🌅
I thought if I even stepped a toe out of line, if i was ever too sad, or angry, or difficult, then he would just leave.
also ‘shane hollander is bad at communicating’ excuse me you think shane master-of-the-follow-up-question hollander is bad at communicating? meanwhile ilya refuses-to-explain-anything-and-will-insult-you-for-trying rozanov is out on the streets engaging in psychic warfare unopposed……..
When adversity hits their relationship in The Long Game, Ilya checks out and is just: "pat on the back, bro, you'll be good".
I think this is why fans say we infantalise Shane talking about how he's treated in tlg. They see Ilya give no weight to Shane's adverse moments (that phonecall when Shane needs to share the homophobic way he was threatened by Crowell and Ilya is just seething internally at Shane the whole time), and how little earnest empathy he gives after tripgate. I think they and Ilya see Shane worry about what Crowell and others think of him as Shane's internalised homophobia externally injuring Ilya. So they don't give it weight either.
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So much of The Long Game is in response to what happens in Troy's book, that Shane has to suffer the consequences of.
The Cens are the amazing queer friendly team they are because Rachel wanted to give both Troy and Ilya that. Their nearly plane crash galvanises them to succeed. They also get the best of Ilya because he's masking his depression from them.
Shane gets a team who've been great this whole time and who suddenly she's decided are nearly as bad as her Toronto. A team Shane has helped to build, who have a long history as being amazing (the videos of the real life Habs as the best fans in the world: that stadium is deafening), and even when he's playing video games with Ilya they acknowledge that it's better than the Yankees. His legacy, his dynasty, his home where he can see his jersey hanging from the rafters because this place has got his back, like a family would. An ordinarily very white space, the best of the best, has accepted him as theirs.
Shane gets that taken from him. "No, you people (gay and asian), don't actually belong here in this HEA." The hockey that Shane loves, with Montreal, is taken from him.
He gets a nearly plane crash that interrupts finally good communication between him and Ilya and is manipulated by the plot into proposing and coming out sooner instead of them just talking together about their needs in the relationship and for the future and making adjustments together.
And he gets the bad side of Ilya that he masks from the Cens. Because Ilya feels safe with Shane and this is the reality of depression.
But their couple relationship with Ilya's depression is not discussed. Ilya never gets pushed to communicate again. Shane just figures everything out and does what he needs. No negotiating or compromise needed on Ilya's behalf. The plane thing as a consequence of Role Model interrupted actual relationship growth.
Yes, Ilya is safe, both in Ottawa and with Shane for his depression to finally come out. It is fine that that difference is shown between his persona with the team and with Shane, but the fallout of a couple living with depression has no space to be explored. The reality is: it's not just Ilya living with it. Not in a committed relationship. Shane needs to tell him how his behaviour is affecting Shane and their relationship (because Galina doesn't know, or perhaps Yuna notices something). Ilya's depression has to actually be talked about between them for longer than just that moment at the end of him possibly being suicidal. It's barely addressed between them as a couple in the book apart from Shane telling him he needs therapy and finding out he was hiding going to treatment from him all along. These are established relationship things that should be addressed as a couple.
In short, Shane is a secondary citizen to Troy's story in his own romance story.
wrt any discussion about shane as the 2C in ottawa — yes, there are many exceptional centres that play on the second line. leon draisaitl and evgeni malkin are two examples. yes, that allows versatility for the coach when playing lines. yes, playing on the second line is not reflective of draisaitl and malkin’s talents on the ice. however. draisaitl and malkin were drafted by the oilers and the penguins respectively. they both have an a. they are considered among the greatest players of all time for their teams. the difference between draisaitl + malkin vs shane is humiliation. they are not comparable to shane because shane is not playing 2C because his team happened to draft generational players connor mcdavid and sidney crosby. he is the 2C because he was outed and then publicly humiliated, and then ostracised and abandoned by his championship franchise. he is a gay japanese-canadian man whose accomplishments and successes are now being questioned. he has lost credibility and his professional reputation. he needs more support. he needs to prove himself. like. a more apt comparison would probably be linus ullmark— the starting goalie in actual ottawa who was publicly humiliated by his own captain on a podcast, took time out of the season for mental health reasons, and then completely outplayed the rest of his team in the playoffs. imagine ullmark endures that brady tkachuk induced nightmare and is then essentially kicked out to play backup for a goalie tandem in fucking. columbus ohio
Exactly OP.
Its the intersection of humiliation in the public sphere and degradation within his workplace that makes me so uncomfortable with Shane being 2C.
If the original plan of Shane & Ilya deciding to get married and then come out - with Shane being given space during the book to realize he wants to play with Ilya on the same team more than he wants to stay on the Voyageurs (like you could have set up character interactions with the Centaurs and Shane so he could grow the idea of moving to OTT) - it would have been a better set up for Shane to accept 2C for their Future Happiness, instead of the constant humiliation of being slandered in the media/at home/by his husband/by his new team and the fact that he's given a fucking lobotomy to make sure he's happy with it all is fucking insane.
NOT ALL OF THE FUCKING CHARACTER ARC CAN HAPPEN OFF PAGE DAMMIT 😩. WE NEED TO BE SHOWN NOT TOLD SOME THINGS!!
Otherwise, its just bad writing - which tlg haters usually know it is, but other people might not realize how bad it is. I think as a fandom we need to center Context. Context is KEY to why so many people are pissed at how Shane is treated as a POC high achieving athlete character in a relationship with a white high achieving athlete character, that when you analyze it, it does not seem to be going as well as it was in the first book. Readers need to have the emotional catharsis within the romance genre of their main couple getting through challenges (that are consistent and maintained throughout their journey until it is resolved - like "our families hate each other", like "we are enemies but I keep seeing different parts of you", like "I want to work in the big City but you want to stay in our hometown") and getting to their appropriate Happily Ever After.
We received a completely different Ilya Rozanov without the emotional catharsis of knowing how he came to be like that. We receive the issue of Russia and the passport being dropped. We receive the threat of homophobia being dropped in favor of "rivalphobia." We are told that coming out is the needed element to make all of Shane & Ilya's problems go away, and Shane is the antagonist for not wanting to. Not a villain - I've seen a lot of that going around - but an antagonist. He is directly opposed to Ilya's (the protagonist) wants - wants that we never see the journey he takes to get to them - and it colors the reader's perception of Shane. It isn't Shane & Ilya vs. The Real Threat of Homophobia in The League, it's Ilya's coming out/happiness vs. Shane's fear and 'rivalphobia'.
Shane said his teammates took his coming out well enough, and professionally they might kept their opinions out of it as we know they win their 3rd Cup in those conditions. Then we see the Voyageurs accuse him of match-fixing once the 'Ilya' part of it all comes out and Shane trips in a game. This completely shifts the earlier narrative of homophobia and makes it into the fact that being rivals is the challenge. What happened to the Irina Foundation's efforts to make them less of rivals? We the readers don't know, because we don't get shown anything important.
And then we are told that after the Trip incident, Shane is "angry," "furious," and "pissed off."
Wow, the development of his character leaves me in awe. 😑
That's what I would say if I were an idiot. HOW? How do you write a scene and give zero pay off for it? We get a quarter of a book about Ilya's depression, even though it's also handled like shit, but so much better than how Shane is handled. Can we get an editor here anyone? Any spare editors to go back in time and set that manuscript on fire?
So back to the original point, the emotional catharsis that readers are supposed to get from Shane and Ilya getting through the challenges, together against it all? It's been spoiled, rotted, and thrown away in the trash where all the good bits of HR are. The context of how Shane ended up in gay utopiaOttawa has spoiled the happiness of their HEA.
The context of how (excellent captain, earnest, thoughtful, brave, Asian-Canadian, loves hockey, 3-time Stanley Cup winner ("not cool," "not intelligent," "not observant")) the Shane Hollander was put into the 2C position in OTT has destroyed the emotional payoff for those who cannot ignore the consistent messaging from the author herself about how she feels about him.
