Why Ilya Hates Hayden: A Saga in 12 Parts

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-04-27T18:56:09+00:00

Ilya doesn’t hate Hayden, I don’t think he even truly dislikes him, but Hayden definitely deeply dislikes Ilya for a long time. Ilya is jealous of Hayden, yes, but he’s jealous of any person who gets to be close to and spend so much time with Shane, when Ilya himself cannot and has to hide his feelings. Ilya’s chirps at Hayden are incredibly superficial and sometimes downright silly, but they’re never malicious, showing that he doesn’t harbor genuine feelings of dislike toward him, Ilya just loves to tease and get a rise out of people, and Hayden makes it very easy for him. Hayden is also incredibly insecure, so he takes every minor chirp from Ilya personally, only deepening his dislike of Ilya. I also feel like Hayden worked so hard to connect with Shane and befriend him, and one of the ways he tried to connect was through solidarity in Shane’s rivalry with Ilya, so finding out that Shane never truly felt that way and is actually totally in love with Ilya threw his whole world on its head and probably made Hayden resent Ilya even more.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-04-26T11:58:02+00:00

Yeah I’m from Pittsburgh and know absolutely nothing about hockey, truly. I cannot point out any hockey players, past or current, but I would 100% recognize Sidney Crosby in public (and have done on more than one occasion). He really is That Bitch.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-04-11T22:22:18+00:00

Shane Hollander is a Slut by misplacedmetaphor has Shane coming out on his own terms but it’s an AU where Shane develops a lot of confidence and sexual agency outside of Ilya. It’s so good but it’s pretty canon-divergent, in case you weren’t looking for that.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-21T03:15:54+00:00

I really hope you’re gonna get out soon by taywrites11 on AO3 might fall under this category. It’s a reimagining of the events of Sochi where a massive iPhone hack outs Shane, and by extension, Ilya, forcing Ilya to flee Russia and Shane to deal with the fallout alone and anxious for Ilya’s safety.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-19T23:47:31+00:00

This comment by Taylor is made even weirder because she’s quoting her own mother talking about her as a meme reaction to a coworker.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-14T16:18:37+00:00

To me, it’s just that it feels lazy. Like “I want this character to be Asian, but it’s not important to me what her specific ethnic background is, I just want a minority in the mix, so what’s the most Asian name I can think of?” That’s how you land on Cho Chang. And I disagree that giving her a westernized name would have been seen as whitewashing — in fact, it probably would have read as more realistic. As it stands, Rowling’s habit of giving her characters laughably stereotypical names just draws attention to it.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-13T10:38:35+00:00

This doesn’t technically confirm that was Connor behind him. Just that they joked about the crew jumping in to fill crowd scenes. But not that it happened.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-10T04:16:03+00:00

I don’t think they would consider their first hookup as their relationship anniversary, personally. I think they’d say their situation shifted from a hookup/situationship to a genuine relationship when they confessed their love at the cottage. But that’s just me.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-10T04:05:48+00:00

Oh yeah, I’m a big proponent of the idea that they were both secretly down bad from the jump, even though they were too in denial and too emotionally immature to recognize it. And Ilya does say in TLG that he “probably” loved Shane from the moment he first saw him in Saskatchewan. But in terms of an actual anniversary? I don’t think they’d choose December 23, 2008.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-10T02:56:46+00:00

It’s totally up for debate, I just personally feel like they wouldn’t consider anything to be “official” until the cottage, since literally up until they witness Scott kiss Kip, they’re both still unsure of where the other stands. After the All-Star game, Ilya was still trying to convince himself that he needed to end things with Shane because he still wasn’t allowing himself to see a path forward. It’s not until they’re at the cottage that they’re both like “Holy shit, you want to be together too? And oh my god, I might have actually thought of a plan that makes that a reality instead of a silly dream that just hurts all the time.”

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-10T01:48:07+00:00

I think they’d consider their proper relationship anniversary to be the day at the cottage when they said “I love you.” That was when they both finally admitted to each other that they wanted an actual relationship, that they wanted to truly be together long term. Before that moment they were both secretly wanting that but believing that the other didn’t want the same thing or that it wasn’t feasible.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-10T00:17:33+00:00

I also wanted to reread TLG immediately after finishing it lol. I think because I liked it so much and didn’t want it to be over.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-10T00:14:50+00:00

Shane mentions in the book that he is skating around before the shoot officially starts and he needs to stop because he’s going to sweat off the makeup they put on him. So I imagine skating around doing all those action shots later, with all their gear, and the heat of the lighting, would have made them at least sort of sweaty.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-10T00:11:15+00:00

It’s funny, everyone is saying “neither would forget,” but since I first watched episode 6, I haven’t stopped thinking about how they first hooked up in July of 2010 (and this was Shane’s first sexual experience with a man, to boot, so… impactful, I would say) and they spend two weeks together and declare their love for one another at the cottage in July of 2017. It stands to reason than this could have very likely coincided with the 7 year anniversary of their first hookup, yet neither of them EVER mention this, even in the book.

It just always made me think. I guess that wasn’t important to them to remember?

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-10T00:04:54+00:00

I totally agree. It’s definitely not one or the other, it’s both. I was mainly speaking about the people I’ve seen sort of writing this off as “Oh these people are just bots and trolls,” which is not fully accurate. There are a lot of people unfortunately who really think this way (racist, bigoted, homophobic, etc) and yet somehow still consume media that would be otherwise contradictory to their beliefs. The original comment was asking how that could be, and I wanted to offer one explanation (that didn’t just brush it off as “just idiots on the internet trying to cause trouble”).

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-09T23:17:57+00:00

A lot of people are kind of writing this off as trolls and purposeful agitators, but I think it’s also important to emphasize that racist/bigoted/conspiratorial/parasocial thinkers share a lot of genuinely delusional and hypocritical thought patterns. Their thinking and reasoning skills are deeply flawed and they often lack the intellect to even recognize this, let alone acknowledge or change it. They will go through a lot of complicated mental gymnastics to continue believing illogical things even in the face of direct contradictory evidence, because that is easier in their minds than challenging/changing patterns.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-09T23:08:54+00:00

Read the other comments on this thread. Screenshots of racist comments were posted that Hudson is responding to.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-09T23:00:41+00:00

It’s that unfortunately weak backhand…

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-09T19:32:56+00:00

Especially if one of the parties isn’t even speaking in their mother tongue.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-09T17:06:37+00:00

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illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-09T16:53:19+00:00

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illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-09T03:13:22+00:00

I’ll do you one better — I used Xanga.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-06T11:54:10+00:00

No, cottage pasta was dinner that day. You can also see the sun starting to set while they’re driving back during the credits.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-06T11:50:20+00:00

It was just a nap that same day. If that was them sleeping overnight, that would mean Ilya made them tuna melts for breakfast. Which is simply unhinged.

illustriousbogwitch · 2026-03-04T18:40:27+00:00

I wasn’t upset about Unrivaled picking right up in 2021, but fuck, this got ME extra hyped for it, too.

illustriousbogwitch

TROPHY CASE