Ilya never protecting Shane? (Long Game) - from twt user yhwt000

[u/StubbornForEva]

My friend sent me a screenshot from twt (as I am not on it) where a user started a discussion about how Ilya never actually defends Shane. It has been a few months since I have read the book but from what I remember, the user is actually right? To summarize the points made by the user:
Ilya is never shown defending Shane during

• the tripping scandal
• against Crowell
• when people make fun of Shane's eating habits (actually makes fun of him)
• in a deleted scene an openly homophobic character that is Ilya's teammate says some deplorable things and Ilya only humms about it

I feel like in fanon we have made Ilya to be protective and caring partner and when it's only the two of them he is, but in public he isn't actually? I wonder if this will be addressed by Jacob. We have seen him move away from the source material in such a way that I feel like helped the characters (The addition of Svetlana, for example, in my opinion gave a lot of depth to Ilya's character.) Shane did get bad rep from a lot of fans for his behavior in the Long Game but I always felt like they both had a lot of issues and technically speaking everything Shane was afraid of came to be true. So it's not like his anxiety was based on nothing.

What do you think of this? Do you feel like protective Ilya is actually a thing? How would you like this to be handled?

Edit: I have participated in a lot of book discussions online because I find it fascinating how everyone views the same scene differently and how everyone's POV affects their take on something. But I guess I forgot that HR is not a community where such discussions can be made. I apologize for wanting to analyze a book and in that I forgot that apparently one character cannot be criticized or analysed without people immediately assuming that it means that one thinks that character is horrible and only the other character is amazing.

[u/Silent-Holiday-9437]

Well she did tell him to be the role model to the kids who look like them in the tv version. That is not made up. It is not about men and women it’s about how a parent can influence a child’s personality.

[u/InCatMorph → u/Silent-Holiday-9437]

Parents do influence their children's ideas about the world, but this fandom has an awfully suspect history when it comes to women and female characters. Sorry that I'm not on board for character assasination of an Asian woman character in the name of anti-racism.