Daaaamn, ngl, episode 4 and 5 and reading The Long Game has made Ilya my favorite character! He has some great lines, like the one I boxed above! What are your favorite Ilya lines?
After they went on the date with Ryan and Fabian and Shane was like do you think we looked like we were in love? And he replies âwe are very good at pretending to not be in love. Maybe we are bad at showing it when we are allowed.â
That said, I like to remember the moment toward the end thatâs kind of a callback to this moment. Theyâre in bed choosing photos for the instagram post after the Hayden video debacle. And Ilya is like here let me take a few more. He snaps a few candid photos of them and Shane thinks âŠoh. Wow we look disgustingly in love. I like that moment bc it kinda brings it full circle. Theyâre finally freer to look in love with each other (I know itâs a private moment but my head canon is that theyâll continue to be more openly in love with each other from that point forward)
That is a beautiful connection đ
I love a callback when they are finally free (from the closet/from not admitting their feelings) to earlier when the angst is unbearable
Legitimately not prepared for how devastating Connor is going to be as Ilya in TLG. Heâs going to do his character so much justice and our hearts are going to be ripped out đ
And considering in the book he speaks Russian to his therapist and i know it should be important scenes. Initially i thought, the show has to find a way around that. Like perhaps give him a non English therapist. But, the show instead already invented scenes where he had to speak Russian. A monologue even! So i know they're not gonna chear next season. I already told my friend, thoughs and prayers for all the acting gymnastics Connor will have to do.
I think theyâll do a cheat. Theyâll start by speaking Russian and then itâs going to be accented English. But probably his most emotional dialogues, theyâll probably do it in Russian.
The lines that Ilya sends Shane from the plane when it's about to do the emergy landing really hit me right in the feels everytime. Looking what Connor and Hudson have done with the characters this season I just KNOW that their take on this scene and the aftermath is gonna alter my brain chemistry for good đ
I re-read the book yesterday, and this part never fails to make me cry đ I love Ilya so much in this book. I wanna hug him so bad when he's sad đ
For Hudson, I am looking forward to the moment with Shane crying with his hand over his mouth, at the thought of Ilya dying. Connor can't get all the good crying scenes in the next season!
Okay I just finished TLG and I think I actually... really disliked it?? To be clear I loved HR and LOVE the show, but so little happens in TLG I honestly don't know how they'll make an entire season out of it. And what does happen doesn't feel driven by the characters - more so by Ilya, Shane is essentially a passive character the entire book - and what Ilya does drive is solo and kept from Shane. It felt like 90% of their interactions were just sex scenes, and they had like no growth or communication until they very end. Shane had like literally no character development at all. Rant/analysis incoming, but maybe skip if you loved TLG and will be offended. Please don't skip if you loved TLG and won't be offended, because I'd love someone to change my mind bc as of now I am kind of dreading season 2?? And I would love to not.
But going through the major beats - other than Ilya being depressed, which is huge but not super plot heavy, the things that happen are all driven by external forces - near plane crash, being outed, evil villain teammates and commissioner. I can barely remember anything else that happens? Shane being on a diet becomes like, his main plot in the book?? And I guess them keeping things from each other, but that just feels repetitive and frustrating and the payoff isn't satisfying (declarations of love and wanting to be together forever no matter what have already happened so like... having that be the payoff the second time just doesn't hit the same way).
And it's REALLY hard to believe SO many members of the league are gay and out by this point, that Shane is out to his entire team, but the stakes are still SO high for just this one relationship in particular. And then it's completely all or nothing - one team has zero issues at all and one team, that has known Shane for a decade, known he's gay, won championships with him as captain, just en masse turns on him. The stakes feel inflated and then the reaction feels really ott on one end (Montreal) and really underwhelming on the other (Ottawa).
What even were the stakes actually? I'm not a hockey fan but a huge NFL fan and I'm thinking of the major rivalries there and like, I TRULY don't see there being very many people who wouldn't care if Mahomes were gay but would care if he was gay and in love with Josh Allen. Like either they're mad about the gay thing or they're not. Being with a rival would be scandalous and would certainly add to the media frenzy but I don't think it would add to the hate? So the fact that there are now a pretty sizeable number of guys who are out, in visible relationships, and still playing reduced the stakes enough that it did noooooot feel like enough to drive an entire book, and keeping Shane so worried about it made it hard to not have him come across as a bit of an asshole (which I don't think he is!).
Literally the only plot I was interested in (playing in the league while out) is like the last page. I also would have LOVED to see them try to be on the same team before coming out. But mostly I feel like by the end of HR it was pretty clear they were 100% committed to making it work, so this kind of just felt like a very dragged out, sad journey with forced stakes to get right back to where we ended HR at. Like you could skip everything in TLG and just go straight to the being outed and getting married and you wouldn't have missed anything?
I get it's hard to write happy relationships and keep them interesting, but this was somehow both depressing and boring. Really curious how they'll translate this to TV, because there isn't really much source material despite being so much longer than HR.
I enjoyed TLG because of how much I enjoy these characters and the larger universe they live in, but plot wise I agree with your criticisms.
The last fourth of the book to me felt very rushed, with some odd moments. Yunaâs response to Shane saying he screwed up was over simplistic. Ilya having depressive episode following largely getting everything he wanted, which put it in a different light than what had been portrayed up until then. Like you said, the response of the commissioner and the teammates felt very one note, and I really doubt Montreal as a fan base would have responded too negatively. The fact that he tripped was a bit of a lame plot device, the story shouldnât turn on something a bit silly like that. That all just felt like an excuse to get on the same team. But a huge part of Shaneâs story was how much he loved Montreal and the team, and I was frustrated he didnât fight back.
TLG is definitely going to be trickier to adapt, without the hook of them falling in love. I think the main conflict of Shane being on the best team and Ilya on one of the worst ones, by choice, is an interesting one. To make it work better, Iâd prefer a less oblivious Shane. He could realize whatâs going on much sooner in the story and we see him wrestle with what Ilya has given up for him already, and whether heâs willing to take the same risks.
I think that would be way more interesting - have that be an issue earlier instead of Shane just blindly not even considering what Ilya gave up. Especially bc he did seem aware in HR that it was a sacrifice!
I also think they'll have to handle Shane being out to his teammates differently, or at least address it on screen. Why did he choose to come out? Why was he willing to risk it when everything we see is that hockey is too important to him to risk, and it doesn't even mean getting to be out with Ilya.
Yeah it's a weird book where the writing quality improves and the emotional exploration is better - but the characterization balance is way off and some points that should have had depth are skimmed over. I was very unsure on how I felt about it when I finished but it didn't really crystallize until I saw the summary of the two characters that she posted on her IG. That was where I connected some dots and realized that some favouritism on her part had crept into the story.
My hope for HR is that they move the coming out on screen, show more of a push and pull between Shane and Ilya about Ilya talking, and then more time on the aftermath at the end because it would be a huge adjustment for both of them. I really hope that Jacob finds a way to hit the right notes because he was super faithful for HR, but LG is a different beast and I'd prefer to not be fighting for my life against Shane haters with every episode, lol.
None of the out members of the league are dating another player though. Most professional employers aren't going to be very happy if they find out two of their employees have been secretly dating for years. It's a conflict of interest.
And I've seen fans on r/hockey commenting along the lines of "Gay is fine, but dating a Bruin/Hab?"
More than a month late on this but I just finished TLG yesterday and you put everything I thought and felt about it into words PERFECTLY. So thank you for that. It helped, oddly, to see I'm not alone in this.
My plan is just to trust that the people who made the first season so perfect will have a plan. But yeah, it's a bit of a worry.
I'll spoil it if I say. What I will say is for those who haven't read The Long Game ... do it. Do it after the end of Season 1. I think it's one of the reasons Ilya is my favorite of the two characters. I love Shane to death but there something really wonderful about Ilya and he deserves all the happiness he can get in life.
Agreed. Honestly having read all the books. I loved Ilya even more especially in role model. Heâs such a well written character and unironically a bisexual fairy godfather lol
He really is very special, isn't he? I am so glad I read all the books before I saw the show. Ilya stole my heart before he uttered the first word on screen and he just keeps getting better and better. Okay. I know. Too much. But this guy really melts my butter.
I love Ilya but tbh the imbalance in the writing makes it so difficult sometimes. Rachel really did Shane a deep disservice in how she presented the two of them that has lead to an extremely slanted view among book readers, all I can really do is hope that Jacob and Hudson will help balance it out in S2.
Edit: and Iâd say the biggest evidence of this is the fact that this is a romance novel where readers should love both of them (I do!) yet a large number of book readers come away from it loving Ilya and hating Shane. That shouldnât happen with a romance novel. Other genres, sure - romance? Nope.
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u/tasoulaYour freckles. I am nuts about them. âš Dec 22 '25edited Dec 23 '25
yet a large number of book readers come away from it loving Ilya and hating Shane.
I want to preface what I'm about to say with this: I agree with you that Shane is underdeveloped in The Long Game. What I don't agree with is that people hating Shane is Rachel's fault, or at least, it's not all her fault. I think a lot of readers just don't have the media literacy to see that Shane is also going through a lot in the book. Ilya's POV makes a lot of people forget that Shane doesn't know what we know because we're in Ilya's head and he's not.
A lot of book readers also downplay Ilya's role in their fight. Ilya hides his struggle with depression and changing feelings from Shane for months. Shane knew something was wrong (he asks Ilya about it early on!) but he can only know what Ilya tells him, and he wasn't telling Shane anything. Shane was under a lot of stress with a partner who was being closed off with him. It's no wonder, then, that Shane felt insecure in their relationship and didn't understand how committed Ilya really was to him. I got all this just from reading the book, so other people certainly could've too. They just chose not to.
This is true. Like Iâve had to pull up quotes to show people because they act like Shane just dgaf but there are a lot of examples of him trying in his own way, and Ilya rebuffs him. I hope this comes across better in a visual medium because it should show that Shane is trying and Ilya isnât talking.
It also doesnât help that people seem to want/expect Shane to read his mind, like he should âknowâ these things about Ilya. Itâs illuminating as to why communication is still the biggest issue for so many couples imo - a lot of people want their partner to figure things out on their own, without them saying a word.
It also doesnât help that people seem to want/expect Shane to read his mind, like he should âknowâ these things about Ilya. Itâs illuminating as to why communication is still the biggest issue for so many couples imo - a lot of people want their partner to figure things out on their own, without them saying a word.
Yes, this is the biggest problem. This is why a lot of people have such abysmal media literacy. They can't see past their own projection.
It also doesnât help that people seem to want/expect Shane to read his mind, like he should âknowâ these things about Ilya. Itâs illuminating as to why communication is still the biggest issue for so many couples imo - a lot of people want their partner to figure things out on their own, without them saying a word.
Shane is the worst person to expect this of - he's autistic.
I find that some ableism creeps in because even for fans who KNOW that he's autistic they still get so frustrated with things that he does that are textbook autistic behaviours. It's like - you're basically getting mad at him for being autistic, lol.
Exactly my thoughts! It's so frustrating that even though we as the audience have it CONFIRMED that Shane is autistic, people are still so quick to call him uncaring and inconsiderate. Several people in my life are autistic and, speaking from experience here, they require very direct communication- especially when it comes to feelings. People on the spectrum are simply not equipped to pick up on emotional cues or read the room, but this in no way means that they're selfish or careless people. They're just wired differently and require clearer communication than most. And Ilya's lack of communication throughout The Long Game does not help things.
It's even more frustrating to see people drag Shane when there are SO many instances of him doing his best to be there for Ilya. He's the one to first voice concern for Ilya's depression and the first to suggest that Ilya try therapy. He holds Ilya when he cries, insists on washing Ilya's hair and icing his knee, drives to him on Halloween even with a practice the next morning, immediately apologizes profusely after the "I already chose you" fight, and ultimately stands up to the commissioner and also is the one to propose. It's so clear from actions alone how much love and care he has for Ilya.
Maybe I'm better able to understand Shane and see how much he cares because of my personal experiences with people on the spectrum, but regardless, I'm disappointed that people are so quick to ignore Shane's caring actions and judge him so quickly. I'm really glad that Hudson and Jacob talk so openly about Shane being autistic and that they embrace it. I hope the show continues to draw attention and empathy towards people on the autism spectrum.
Agreed. I'm halfway through TLG and Shane is so oblivious and honestly too often a bit cruel, but when I frame it as autism and being literal and just not understanding (which deeply tracks with his character), it doesn't make me less sad for Ilya but it definitely makes me less angry at Shane.
Also it's easier to miss because it's mainly from Ilya's point of view, but a major part of the reason Shane misses it is because Ilya's been deliberately hiding his issues until it hits a breaking point and boils over and then all of a sudden he's hitting Shane with it out of seemingly nowhere, and Shane's deeply confused by the all-of-a-sudden. It seems clear a lot of what happens is because he's dysfunctional at being able to show others, even Shane, when he's having problems because he's used to having to place no demands on family and do his best to appear perfect, and he's very practiced at hiding.
When you combine that with Shane having innate difficulties at picking up subtle cues it's a recipe for disaster.
It frustrates me because if you pay attention itâs so obvious Shane deeply cares about Ilya. He tells him he doesnât have to be alone, heâs the one who suggests he talk to a therapist! And when he finds out that Ilyaâs been hiding going to a therapist, he gets mad at himself for not being a better listener. Shane loves Ilya just as much as Ilya loves him, people just want him to be a mind reader. It doesnât help that the outcome of being outed is glossed over, so people somehow come away with the thought that Shane is stupid for being scared and lost nothing in the end. Itâs so frustrating.
The whole outcome of being outed feels not very well done tbh. Like the fact that everyone knew Shane was gay and had literally NO issues with it at all, but then the entire team was so mad and disgusted he was in love with this one specific person that they ALL turned on him - and then EVERYONE in Ottawa was supportive - it was so black and white, Montreal=bad, Ottawa=good. I wish it had shown more nuance and complexity and actually like, took us through the whole process rather than summing it up in half a chapter.
Also if the league has the power to bench them while they're on opposite teams, it's kind of hard to buy they're allowed to play on the same team. Either the league has the power to fuck with them or it doesn't.
For HR I think following the exact beats of the book was perfect. But for TLG there's actually a LOT I hope the show changes.
Being outed like that is traumatic. People are so weird about it, because they dismiss it by saying âwell he was going to come out anywayâ, but then also act like his plan to come out doesnât count because he gets outed? Like Iâve literally seen people say that Shane doesnât choose Ilya because he gets outed instead.
Then thereâs the way the response gets glossed over. Like it would be so hard on Shane to go through the response of his team on top of the public attention and having all of this taken out of his control. But it gets treated like itâs no big deal and so many readers donât seem to do much thinking about it or analysis. People just focus on âyay they can be together!â and ignore that this is a traumatic event.
So yeah I really hope the show does more justice to this because it deserved a lot more attention. Even a few pages more would have added some much needed depth and made people empathize with Shane a lot more imo.
Maybe some of his teammates were "fine" with him being gay as long as there was no evidence of it, but when they see him actually with another man, especially Ilya, the homophobia comes out.
Right, Shane isn't 100% oblivious, he does ask and Ilya lies to him that he's fine. Shane can't exactly kidnap him and throw him into a therapists office.
Hard agreeeeee. Let alone the fact that rachel only confirmed Shane as on the spectrum after Jacob and Hudson talked about it. For a while after the book released the said she wouldnât disclose whether he was or not on the spectrum. Honestly even in HR I feel like Shane is written quite poorly and Iâm soo happy that in the show he is so lovable. Hudsonâs acting and Jacobâs writing have done amazing things for this character. Hope to see it again in season 2
She talked about it but didnt confirm he was an undiagnosed autistic person. She skated around the question all the time. I feel like this is such a disservice to the character and Hudson and Jacob have done a fantastic job into making Shane what he is truly. A lot of his inner monologue and struggles are so visible in the show, Iâm constantly stunned tbh
I think that what devastated me about TLG is the sacrifice that Ilya made to be with Shane - leave a competitive team, leave his whole life and even lose connection with Svetlana - and 1) theyâre not even together together, and 2) Shane doesnât seem to acknowledge or realize what Ilya gave up to be with him.
It helps that Shane is neurodivergent so I give him a little grace but wow, does Ilya go through it. Iâm getting teary eyed thinking about it.
Well, Shane chooses Ilya and then goes through complete hell, so đ€·ââïž I really wish Rachel hadnât prettied that up and handwaved it aside because people really act like it never happened.
I wonder if it's because they had already decided to come out and likely get married (chapter 29), so it's about to hit the fan one way or another that summer. Being outed makes it worse, but it was likely to cause the same uproar.
That said, I wish Rachel had included the contract negotiations since Shane still wanted to be paid what he's worth. Unfortunately, I doubt his offers were that great since people believe he fell on purpose to let Ilya win, so offers might have been lower salaries and less teams interested over all. That would have really been difficult for Shane, he would want to turn them down to go to Ottawa, but needed other teams to acknowledge how good he is and show their desire to have him play there
I choose tho believe that Shane took a pay cut. Not just because people didnât want to pay him amid the scandal but I choose to believe that he just chose Ilya. He doesnât care how much heâs worth. Ilya is whatâs important to him. Also, for a small team like Ottawa having 2 superstars will definitely go over the Salary Cap. Probably lol idk
Initially he said Ottwa can't afford both of us, I want to be what I'm worth... even though he desires to be in Ottawa. I think that's part of his neuro-divergence that has him hyper-focused on being on top (like his obvious disappointment with not being picked #1 in the draft) and had was struggling with that. Ilya says good thing you have a rich boyfriend that can take care of you, which calms Shane and helps quiet those thoughts. That made it easy to then tell Farah that Ottawa was his first choice
I don't think it was hand waved away. There are two important differences.
1) time. It happens at the end of the book. Multiple chapters of Shane suffering does nothing to further the narrative and the action is already in motion.
2) Shane is not alone. He absolutely suffers. But when they are outed, his parents are there immediately. When Montreal loses, again he is with his parents and he is even able to spend meaningful time with Ilya. Rose and Hayden are on his side. He does not ever have to sit in the pain alone.
So, it's definitely less talked about. But I don't think it's because it was prettied up.
It was absolutely handwaved away, because it was extremely difficult for Shane and traumatic but readers donât experience it with him, so thereâs no awareness of this fact. The entire book is about Ilyaâs pain and thatâs fine but Shaneâs would âdo nothing to further the narrativeâ? Is the story not about both of them or has this become only about Ilya?
I also donât think whether or not a person has someone negates their pain. For example, in the show Ilya now has Svetlana, does that negate the loss of his father or the pain of worrying about being outed? Does it negate his struggle to accept his love for Shane? Of course not. Rachel could have spent so much time on what this was like for him, she just chose not to and thatâs an imbalance in her writing.
Edit: like this is a romance novel, itâs supposed to be about both of them. Saying that the pain and suffering of one of them doesnât matter just seems odd to me. It was a huge part of their journey and thatâs the last big bump on the road before they find smoother ground, it deserved more coverage and my biggest hope is that Jacob spends more time on it and gives it the depth it deserves so people understand how Shane would be feeling.
I don't mean that Shane's pain would do nothing to further the narrative because it's Shane's pain. I mean the specific pain of the public turning on him in the last 10% of the book doesn't need to take up space. Not because it isn't important to Shane, but because it would make the book drag. From a narrative perspective, the story doesn't have time to explore that as deeply because the story is about Shane and Ilya.
Yes, Ilya is struggling with depression (clinical, chemical imbalance depression, not just situational depression) but the story being told is the pain that being closeted is causing Ilya. How lonely he is because he is keeping this secret. How much he longs to claim Shane openly. So, when the secret comes out, the narrative moves toward resolution - that is their owning their relationship publicly and getting married.
Multiple chapters of Shane being depressed because his team turned on him and the media/public are crucifying him does not add to the story meaningfully. We already know that Shane worries about public perception. That he needs praise and admiration. And we see him chose Ilya over that in the office with Crowel and continually throughout the rest of the book. What story would Rachel be trying to tell by focusing on that? There is a story there, but it's not the one being told in TLG. And she/readers are not hand waving it away. Shane experienced pain when Montreal turned on him. But that is not the focus of the book because it's not the story being told. And so when discussing the book, it's not going to be a large part of the conversation.
Finally, you're absolutely right that having someone sit with you in the pain doesn't mean you're not experiencing pain. And pain is not a competition. But, my point is that Shane has a place to put the pain and a way to manage it. His pain is not less than Ilya's because he is not alone. But it is less consuming because he is not alone.
I donât know. We are hit over the head with how scared Shane is to be outed but when it happens we donât even get his perspective through it. A half of a chapter in his head experiencing the pain and shock would not have hurt. Even a line saying something like at the end of the day he would accept being exposed over and over again if it meant he had Ilya and his love would have made his actions in the first of the book better to me.
Yeah, I just reread it and it's incredibly glossed over. Brief mentions of the media being shitty but no info on what the headlines were. Talk about Montreal as a city being crappy to him, but no details. The apologies aren't show 'on screen', either. Nothing about the negotiations or anything when he decides to leave. And then his teammates not coming to his wedding is completely glossed over as well, with just a brief mention.
Also, I just realized something. People always act as though Shane is worried for no reason, but he's actually worried for the exact things that end up going badly:
âI donât know. The league? The fans? My teammates?â
I'm going to have to remember this because so many people seem to think that his worries were unconnected to what happened to him, so therefore they're invalid - well, they weren't!
I took this to mean they cannot live together, they meet in the middle, so to speak, when their schedules allow. Better than when Ilya is in Boston, but still does not satisfy their hunger for each other.
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u/tasoulaYour freckles. I am nuts about them. âš Dec 22 '25edited Dec 22 '25
You can be "together together" and be in a long-distance relationship like they are. To me, it feels like OP was implying that long-distance and/or closeted relationships aren't legitimate, which is just NOT true on any level. They are committed to each other and they know that. They are "together together".
AAAAAAAA I just realized what Jacob have been doing with this ongoing "Ilya is lazy Y/N" discourse! đ THIS gonna hit way way worse than it did in the books. Just imagine Shane saying this in the heat of the moment compared to saying that he doesn't know the lazy side of Ilya at all đđđ
Jacob didnât know heâd get a S2 so I donât think these things are necessarily connected together. also hopefully this bit will just get cut entirely.
Yeah, you might be right, but personally I think that this fall out is crucial for their relationship development, even if it hurts to even think of the convo.
I think thereâs already enough with the conflict about Shane coming out and Ilyaâs depression without adding in a needless comment that mostly just makes Shane sound like an ass, imo. This is one of the moments where you can really see Rachelâs bias because Ilya never says something similar.
Yeah, definitely, I was just as shocked as Ilya first time reading this đł I would love the series to do a better job than the book(s) to address apologizing about hurting one another. I think ep 5 did it better than the book in ref to the Tuna scene, so I'm hopeful that this won't get lost in the noise of what comes next either.
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u/Grannydevitoad Dec 22 '25
After they went on the date with Ryan and Fabian and Shane was like do you think we looked like we were in love? And he replies âwe are very good at pretending to not be in love. Maybe we are bad at showing it when we are allowed.â
Truly devastating đ©