saw this post by @littlespoonevan on my dash and immediately had to get to work bc i couldn't stop thinking about it:
Do you think Ilya has developed a Pavlovien response to Shane folding his clothes because Shane folds his clothes before sex, do you think Ilya's teammates call him to go out and he is like "no, Shane is doing the laundry today" and everyone is like what the fuck is he talking about
he ran after him btw. he noticed him leaving and followed him.
In the rookie episode I feel like we don't talk enough about the face that Ilya makes after Shane admits to having a d1ld0 where he is looking at Shane like wow who are you?! this boring square repressed boy who also has somehow gone out and gotten yourself a "thing" and probably used it?! Is this the same guy I know?
something else that really bothers me about discourse on shane being a bad boyfriend in the long game is how people constantly talk about how much ilya gave up and how much more support shane has. that is such an unfair way to look at a relationship. first of all, what did ilya give up? he wasn't particulary close to anyone on his team in boston. he only had meaningless sex with people he wished were shane. he gained so much and it bothers me that people take that from him because it was so healing for me to see ilya genuinely become family with shane's parents. they don't just like ilya as shane's boyfriend, he is their family as in individual. he just hangs out with them, and they cook for him. he has a warm home. and he has an Amazing found family with his team in Ottawa even it the team isn't "good." he makes friends - real friends. queer friends. he HAS support.
shane has hayden. he has rose. but he knows that his team is homophobic. he is terrified of what coming out means because his team will react badly. and they do! for fucks sake, his coach SCREAMS at him for being outed. that's insane. and jj treats him like shit over it, just like hayden has been for 3 years. it's so different for shane! and despite it all he still happily chooses ilya over hockey, over montreal and everything he had forced himself to see as almost a religious calling.
shane and ilya were always meant to be on the same team and that is what the long game is always about. people focusing on one fight instead of them winning a stanley cup together while MARRIED is just bonkers to me.
shane hollander the man that u are
btw having curly hair but not being taught how to care about it as a child means that even if you are white, the majority of hair advice being given by other white people is useless and actively harmful to you, so you literally owe everything you know to black and brown women online
awards night

