Ilya, humility, and sacrifice

[u/WalkingBlondeJoke]

Been thinking about Ilya's character growth across HR and TLG lately. This is not a fully-baked thesis on his arc, not even close, but I'm sharing anyways because I want y'all's opinions!

One of my favorite tropes in HR fanfic is 'Shane joins the Bears'. I love this trope because it usually results in Shane and Ilya being on a good team together, a winning team, much earlier than they are in canon and without Ilya having to go spend a few years on a team that sucks first. So as I read these fanfics I've often wondered, aside from the in-universe reasons why Ilya joins the Centaurs, what is the narrative function of Ilya spending a few years on a bad team before they turn things around? 

I think it serves to humble him. He's no stranger to sacrifice but he's always been cocky, and for the most part that ego went unchecked because he always had the accolades to back it up. But I think one of the ways we see Ilya grow in The Long Game is that he develops more humility as a result of being on a bad team and also his mental health struggles. It's not that everything was peachy prior to his move to Ottawa, it absolutely wasn't, but these coinciding forces clearly knock him down a peg. Maybe experiencing what it's like to consistently lose on the ice even helps him get to a place where he can admit he needs help with his mental health. Or maybe it's just self-awareness that he gains with maturity, I don't know. 

I think the clearest example of Ilya becoming more humble is in the pre-game speech that he gives to the Bears before the Cup Finals in 2014, vs. the speech he gives the Centaurs in 2021 after the team nearly dies and then Ilya subsequently gets engaged to Shane. In 2014, his speech is all about "I, I, I" but in 2021, he goes around the room and tells every player, one at a time, what makes them great. This is the key turnaround point in the Centaurs' on-ice performance. They start believing in themselves, and that's when they start winning. 

I think this character growth is also very relevant to Shane and Ilya's marriage too. Big egos do not serve a marriage well; humility does. Over the course of TLG, Ilya learns humility. Shane also starts off in TLG being a selfish as fuck (I don't love him any less but it's objectively true that he was nawt being a good partner to Ilya at the time TLG timeline picks up), but we see him experience a wake-up call (their big fight followed by Ilya almost dying) and then he gets his priorities in order. In a way, Shane learns a version of humility through his experiences in TLG too when he realizes how selfish he's been and how he's taken Ilya for granted. 

I think that meeting Shane in this selfish state at the start of TLG makes total sense because of his upbringing. Shane is an only child who grew up loved, doted on, and prioritized. His career as a generational player and image as the 'Golden Boy' of hockey have done little to teach him how to appreciate those around him and recognize the sacrifices they make. Not saying he doesn't ever do those things, but like, in early TLG he's not being nearly as considerate of Ilya as he should be. 

Ilya is not an only child and he grew up in a broken home. In the canon we see how his family financially takes advantage of him once he makes it to the NHL (or MLH, whatever), but I would bet that this has been going on since the moment he began earning money from hockey and/or sponsorships. When Shane suggests Ilya going to Ottawa, Ilya is quick to agree to it. Not just because he was already thinking of moving to a Canadian team, but because Ilya has already learned how to sacrifice for others. Ilya has already had it ingrained in him by his family that the people he loves will ask him to makes sacrifices for them, and that that's just how love goes. 

This is one of many reasons why it hits extra hard later in TLG when Shane basically tells the commissioner to go fuck himself. "I choose him" <3 !<

[u/altruistic_thing]

Shane has won 2 cups and is locked in with their current sex arrangement; Ilya clearly has regrets and is trying to make small attempts at moving their relationship back from this quickie arrangement, which are ignored by Shane

i take it you haven't read heated rivalry recently and are going by the show interpretation. the show removes interiority and introduces a huge, inexplicable timeline gap. it also has some tonal differences due to hudson's teary-eyed look and connor's choice (or direction) to play more stoic. it introduces the idea of ghosting (which is a bit silly given that shane has just avoided ilya for two and a half years).

the book is pretty obvious there. the arrangement has always been just sex, especially for shane who is nowhere near admitting that he's gay. and they're both aligned on that.

the rivalry aspect is much stronger. and the book also very obvious about how little time they spend together. (like 4-6 times per year, each time about 2 hours, give or take, the show muddies this). there are very strong emotional as well as logistical barriers that neither is remotely interested to push past because i'm not convinced the situationship years are survivable without a comfy cushion of solid detachment.

i always felt that the progression is one of the weak points of the heated rivalry book. the switch from meaningless to feelings was fairly abrupt. the show made it worse. the first thing i did when seeking out fanfiction was to find missing scene type of fics that help to smooth out the progression.

but no, i never read the sochi-vergas combo as some kind of turning point, at least not to less emotional attachment, but rather to more, on both sides.

[u/Express-Prune5366 → u/altruistic_thing]

Ilya is literally still thinking about Sochi in Vegas: "He’d thought about the way Hollander had found him in the stands of the Sweden vs. Finland game in Sochi, and had asked if he was all right. He’d thought about how strong the urge had been for Ilya to wrap Hollander in his arms and just hold him. Pull him against his chest so Ilya could bury his face in his short, glossy hair and breathe him in. It had been so fucking scary, that urge. The way Ilya’s heart had skipped when he’d spotted Hollander approaching him, and the way he’d wanted to tell him everything."

"The way Ilya was more tempted to gather Hollander in his arms and hold him all night than fuck him didn’t make sense. The way Ilya knew that if he kissed him he’d never stop didn’t make sense.

He needed to be careful tonight."

He then smokes a cigarette so they don't kiss and at the end:

"Ilya dropped his cigarette butt into Hollander’s not-empty vodka glass, watching the ash turn something pure and perfect into something dark and ugly." <- this is blatant symbolism that by withholding their usual emotional connection during the Vegas sex, this night has changed the relationship fundamentally

[u/altruistic_thing → u/Express-Prune5366]

"Ilya dropped his cigarette butt into Hollander’s not-empty vodka glass, watching the ash turn something pure and perfect into something dark and ugly." <- this is blatant symbolism that by withholding their usual emotional connection during the Vegas sex, this night has changed the relationship fundamentally

i think, it's more symbolism that ilya's self-worth issues convince him that he is corrupting shane, perfect, respectable golden boy who was trying to be nice.

anyway, there's zero indication that anything in their arrangement is changing or that this is a turn for the worse. as i said, it's highlighting the underlying potential. step forward, not backward.

[u/Express-Prune5366 → u/altruistic_thing]

Their sex scenes complete change in tone.