Not sure if this was the intent but on a meta level using tATu’s All The Things She Said for the club scene is so wild to me, I can’t get over it—-
The fact that they chose a gay anthem sung by two heterosexual women for a scene showing two gay (or bisexual) men performing heterosexuality is so fascinating to me.
Watching the show for the first time, Svetlana surprising Ilya after his game got canceled comes off just as how it’s presented, a girl Ilya knows who is into him decides to give him a sexy surprise
But after seeing the rest of the show and their dynamic I 100% believe that Svetlana saw an opportunity to jumpscare her best friend so bad his soul fell out his ass, and she traveled all that way first and foremost to be a menace
My favorite line for Ilya Rovanov is "everyone must know this" in episode 5. Because of the gesture he makes with his hand. Because he isn't censoring his body language anymore, not with Shane. And it suddenly shows that Shane is a masculine gay man, while Ilya, in a perfect world, would be a more flamboyant bisexual. It makes every moment of tense body language and stiff posture from before this moment look like so much work. But now, he feels that safe. Not to just have gay sex, but to be queer in front of someone. As much as Shane coming out as gay in Florida was silly, obvious, I think it really did make a difference in how Ilya related to him. Identity joined their relationship alongside attraction and shared experiences.
Shane has one (1) emotional conversation about his situationship with his girlfriend and immediately decided that he wanted Ilya… I’m telling you the man never stood a CHANCE. Shane walks into the bar looking fine as hell, who needs to do all that on a TRAVEL DAY to the ASG but he has a Man to Woo so he walks UP TO HIM IMMEDIATELY (social anxiety who, shane doesn’t know her) and starts f l i r t i n g with Ilya “I’m feeling a bit wild” “I’ve always wanted to play on a team with you” “nice shirt, you’re pulling it off” shane turned it up to 100 and Ilya folded like a bad hand. Shane Hollander flirting with Ilya rozanov in a bar full of hockey players in broad daylight is literally ilyas dream
Coming in with a hot take here, but I truly do not believe that straight people consuming queer content is fetishization. I think our society is just so homophobic and misogynistic, we're labeling it as a fetish, when there's nothing fundamentally unusual about women liking men.
As a queer woman, I enjoy f/f, m/m, and m/f content all fairly equally. There's no fundamental difference in how I consume the content compared to straight women, so why do I get a pass? What makes the way I consume m/m content any different than how straight women consume it?
I do agree with Jacob Tierney that a lot of this discourse is just society doing what it does, which is policing the sexuality of women.
And don't get me wrong, I have seen some out of pocket behavior in this fandom, and I do take issues with fans who can't separate reality from fiction when it comes to the actors. But that's not fetishization, that's just people being weird.
At any rate, as a queer person who reads queer romance, I just want to say thanks to any new straight fans for joining the community. Your support is how we get more content like this produced, and you should not, for a single second, feel guilty about consuming this content. We need you guys, and the vast majority of queer people would agree.
Straight men do not consume f/f content, and we don't get shit.
I've talked about this in tags but I need it to be a full post. There's something about Ilya wearing long sleeves here that kills me. I love that Shane is in a cozy hoodie, too, but it doesn't grab my attention as much because he's not dressed that differently from his usual wardrobe.
But Ilya? He's constantly showing off his body whenever he has the chance. This man is allergic to sleeves. He usually rips his shirt off at the first opportunity.
Ilya's usual wardrobe (or sometimes lack thereof lol) reflects the way he views his body as a commodity, like it's the only thing he has to offer, so he's constantly showing it off.
But then we have this beautiful montage showing the ways that Shane and Ilya have slotted into each other's lives in a pretty regular routine. It's a hot montage, but it's also creeping toward a feeling of domesticity, especially in this moment.
Wearing this shirt to a hookup shows that Ilya has reached a new level of comfort with Shane. He doesn't feel the same pressure to play the seduction game. Shane is going to kiss him the same way regardless of what he's wearing.
That plus the fact that Shane is taking control and pushing Ilya against the glass. Ilya's whole demeanor reflects the way he feels comfortable and taken care of in this moment and it does something particular to my heart.
I don't think Ilya is consciously thinking about why he dresses all comfy cozy for this hookup. He still has a while before he internalizes the truth that Shane wants him just as he is. But Ilya also tends to act based on feeling before he fully understands the subconscious behind those actions.
I love this demonstration of instinctual comfort he's feeling with Shane, even if he's not actively realizing it.
What really keeps me awake at night is that part in the Russian monologue scene where Ilya is close to tears talking about how everyone he cares about just wants more from him, more of him and it cuts to Shane looking like this-
boy doesn't understand A WORD of this conversation btw all he hears is ilya and hes so so content with having ilya like this that hes literally leaning into the phone as if hes right there with him IM GOING TO COMBUST
I'm just seeing people on tiktok joking about how shane would've been panicking at the mention of Svetlana's name, with it being the only word he could probably recognize but no, shane is just. drowning in this reality of being the person ilya trusts enough to vent to. He KNOWS what a big deal it is for ilya to be talking about his feelings hes been asking about this for so long and he SEES what this means to ilya and it means the world to shane himself that he gets this. That he gets to have ilya like this. did i mention they keep me up at night with this monologue?
Okay nobody touch me because I just realised just how significant the cottage is
Because. How many times, how many times have we watched a queer show and how many times have we seen this exact thing playing out? Let’s go away somewhere. Just the two of us. Somewhere they won’t be able to find us. Let’s go to Alaska. Let’s run away to Alpha Centauri. Nobody will find out. We’ll be happy.
And it never happens. It never fucking happens. They separate, or they’re forced to stay in this world that won’t let them be happy.
At this point it’s very well known on Tumblr - saying those words gets you cursed.
And then comes along Hollanov. “Will you come to my cottage this summer?”
And it seems as if it’s going to play out the same. It never happens.
But then- but then-
“I’m coming to the cottage.”
Hollanov broke the curse y’all
Despite what we see in episode 4 I really do think Ilya is the little spoon
it was hugely liberating for me to realize in my 20s that I do not enjoy being the little spoon because it makes me feel trapped/constrained when I sleep. I feel like shane would relate and I hope he has the same revelation. also you are correct ilya gives off ‘guy who wants to be cuddled but doesn’t think he’s supposed to want to be cuddled’ energy (see: head in shane’s lap in ep 6). once shane realizes this he’s going to take charge of the spooning situation
