wild thing lily

Hayden is mostly a plot device and a way to prevent Shane from being friendless. I think people forget that he is a straight, white, male professional hockey player. By the standards set by that group of people irl, Hayden is a total saint. However, him being good by comparison isn't an excuse and doesn't mean he's actually great, especially when the books include many much better characters. Still, Hayden's character is a great way for Rachel to show a realistic "good guy" in hockey in a sea of men who are probably more like Dallas Kent or Comeau. Also, many of the issues stem from the fact that Hayden and Shane are just not that close of friends. They are best friends, but they're not truly close, they just spend a lot of time together. They don't have much of a deep emotional bond and are not particularly vulnerable with each other or understanding of each other. Shane might fully understand Hayden, but that's only because the character doesn't have any depth. Hayden definitely doesn't come close to fully understanding Shane, but he still understands him better than any other Montreal player. The two definitely care about each other, but that doesn't mean they know each other all that well. They're kind of like brothers in that way.

The most egregious thing Hayden did was encourage JJ to set up Shane with his friend when Hayden knew about Shane's relationship with Ilya, and JJ didn't. Then, when Shane confronted him about it, he defended himself by basically telling Shane he should leave Ilya for someone better. Whom, according to him, is a random guy Shane's never even met.

This was horrible for two reasons.

1.) Hayden does not genuinely believe Shane is an unhealthy relationship that he needs to get out of. He knows Ilya loves Shane very much and treats him very well, and that his love is reciprocated by Shane. Hayden merely doesn't like Ilya, and that is not justification for encouraging Shane to cheat on him or break up with him for a random guy he doesn't know.

2.) Hayden knew JJ didn't know about Shane's relationship with Hayden, and still put Shane in a position that could compromise that secret. He forced Shane to either struggle to come up with an excuse as to why he wouldn't go out with the guy on the spot or he forced to reveal his relationship before he was ready. That is pretty fucked up for Hayden to do to him.

So, clearly, he's not the most amazing friend or the most considerate person; if you hate him based on this alone, I honestly think that's valid, but this incident isn't even one I see passionate Hayden haters bring up. It's always the general fact that he doesn't like Ilya. The thing is, Ilya also doesn't like him, and has made that clear. Also, Shane never corrects Hayden when he calls Ilya an asshole, he only says he wants them to get along or basically implies that it doesn't matter that he's an asshole because Shane loves him. In reality, Ilya is not an asshole. This is a misconception Hayden has due to the rivalry narrative that was built by the MLH and the fact that Ilya is cocky, even though that's very different from mean or rude. However, this misconception is only confirmed for Hayden when Ilya actually is kind of an asshole to him, although it was largely in response to it being clear Hayden did not like him or respect his relationship with Shane; from his perspective, Ilya started it.

The ENTIRE THING i like about this pairing in the FIRST PLACE is that they're EQUALS rhrhaghasdgkhgarhgh

and like there's nothing wrong with people writing whatever they want with one hand down their pants or whatever, that's fine and i don't judge, but this was a comment on the thing i wrote! which like, really specifically was not that! so.

ok i'm normal now. promise. (no)

Oh drop the fic link, this sounds like my shit. I appreciate when someone is like hey, you know, you're an adult here, things aren't just happening to you you're also making choices.

But the biological determinism of sex roles strikes again....The one who puts it in is in control we all know this....it says so in the bible....

Sorry I'll stop being snarky. This is such a fandom thing, it's not unique to HR at all, and I never really found a good single word for it---something like infantilization, or vulnerability kink, or woobification---but it's this intense desire to turn a character into a hurt sink who is only ever wronged, and must be comforted and aided. (This is not just a fanfic thing: the masterclass on this in the literary world is A Little Life.)

(Sorry this next bit is such an aside from your post but I got going there)

It's really fascinating actually I'd love a psych / lit class on this entire nexus of tendencies. Because I think there's kind of a spectrum where you have like, woobification on one axis and then identification on the other. So as a super simple cut you get kind of a punnet square:

high identification / high woobification: hurt comfort, you get to imagine yourself as being this weak morally pure little waif receiving care

low identification / high woobification: whump, the fascination with pain and suffering in an object

high identification / low woobification: power fantasies, competence fantasies, being able to imagine yourself as this mensch that pain bounces off of

low identification / low woobification: I think this is mostly external forces that act on the story, like a villain you as the author don't identify with but also don't sympathize with

In this fandom people are often putting Shane deeeeep in that high/high corner. Less so here on tumblr for sure but I see a lot of it via twitter.

As for *why* Shane rather than Ilya (mostly)....well I do think a huge amount of it is just top/bottom stereotype stuff. But I also think people find Ilya harder to identify with because he's foreign, and even more avoidant than Shane, and Storrie portrays him with this coldness early on that makes it easy to project a lot of strength onto him, even though with access to his internal monologue we know that Ilya is grappling with *more* insecurity than Shane is.

Like I enjoy things people call hurt comfort…sometimes. I like angst. I like conflict with a happy ending.

Hudcon | Eyes drawing

"Shane takes a paycut" is based on this convo, before Shane starts negotiations

(Also I clipped so much of this because I love Shane locking into the cup and being a complete ass to his husband. "I completely believe in you" WOW Shane. Wow.)

Anyway this is where Shane starts doing 11 dimensional hockey calculus about how the Hollanov Hurricane could win the next 5 Stanley cups and this, this is how he gets to his goal of seven cups. All he had to do was be gay and seduce the second best player and then stash him in a team-in-wait and and and. Anyway. It's all coming up Hollander

Anyway we never hear about this again! Shane just says Ottawa is his first choice and he does end up signing with them:

but when he goes to sign we don't learn what his contract is. So the salary cap thing is an anxiety the legacy-obsessed Shane has, but we don't know how it pans out.

My personal headcanon is that Shane takes a lower contract than he could have demanded from a super flush team. Like I bet Vegas or some such offers him something astronomical. So in that sense I think Shane does take a lower salary than he could command to go to Ottawa. But I doubt he takes a pay cut, especially since he's leaving the option open for other teams. I think if Ottawa couldn't pay him at least what Montreal was (Kind of an unlikely scenario imo---yes Ottawa has a collection of very good players eating up salary at the end of TLG, but Montreal is coming off of three cups. They MUST have a deep roster too) he'd have walked.

I guess RR is too subtle she should've had Ilya yell "I'm suffering from anhedonia" to make sure it was clear enough

Lmao you did not hallucinate that anon. Isn’t it like a Vegas yellow spyder or something?

But yeah the whole car thing is a character moment for Ilya to show that he changed himself, sort of to try and suit Shane better but also because his former self stopped making sense to him. And you know that’s a thing that happens when you hit your late 20s even for people who don’t have depression

But also Ilya does have depression and is cripplingly insecure and terrified of losing Shane’s love. And so he’s completely lost his grip.

connor's short films: