iwatchedhockeyonce

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

here he is jant zimmerman

@chromovirus time for u to draw the accompanying piece, jort zimmerman :-)

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

there isn't enough love for this ship tbh

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

we are all going forward. none of us are going back.

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

urgent / holiday comms discount! ･:*+.\(( °ω° ))/.:+

happy wintertime yall! as a present to yourself, to me, and to people you love - consider getting art from yours truly <3 !!

my original prices are here, and if you’re curious if this deal overlaps with my want-to-do discounts - IT TOTALLY DOES! that’s so many discounts yall!! wowzas!!

likes/rbs/sending to ur pals/boosting this in any way is sososo appreciated! pls dm with any questions xoxo i love u guyssss <333

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

Hot Take: Check Please doesn’t deconstruct toxic masculinity in hockey, it applauds it.

Zimbits as MLM Comphet

Bitty perfectly slots into traditional housewife role, with enough “boys can be feminine” + “contempt for women / women can only exist in this ethereal heavenly state of godhood (see: Beyoncé)” flavor that I’m convinced we have a case of fujoshi self-insert genderflip on our hands.

The whole premise of “hockey player likes baking” is consistently played for laughs. People liking Bitty’s baking, a trait the comic frames as feminine, is portrayed as a humbling and emasculating experience, and a constant punchline throughout all four years.

Women in Check Please can only exist if they’re “one of the guys”

Lardo is called by a derogatory (and frankly racist) nickname and is the bossy team manager who is framed as being cool only by virtue of being masc. From the moment she’s introduced, her whole thing is that she is “the manliest bro – who happens to be a woman”.

Foxtrot proves her character worth the moment she demonstrates that she can yell loudly and run a tight ship and be dominant with the guys. And that’s kind of it.

George has a masc nickname, and that’s her character.

Even so, all major women characters only ever appear in subservient roles to men, never being equals. All of them are PoC, too, which is an even worse look.

Women in Check Please can only exist if they’re not like other girls or effeminate gay men.

Bitty is also not like other girls

Bitty is consistently portrayed as inherently unique and special by the lone virtue of being queer, despite being at a school where supposedly one in four students is queer. Outside of Bitty and three “twist” queer characters, everyone is neatly heteronormative (even characters like Lardo, who are afforded no femininity in their personality, are paired up neatly into a cis-hetero couple).

In Year 4, we briefly see Bitty argue with the other varsity captains over who has the gayest team. This too, is never elaborated on, conserving Bitty’s status as being unique as a queer person at Samwell.

What follows then is a facade of a queer narrative, in which the cisheteronormativity of the setting can comfortably continue to exist without being disturbed by the presence of queer characters. What it pretends to do is infuse the narrative with queerness; what it really does is dress up a cisheteronormative narrative in pride colors and call it progressive.

Trans people don’t exist

Despite being at a school where supposedly one in four students is queer.

That’s it, that’s my point.

The closest you get to any transness is how the above-mentioned female characters can only persist in the narrative by adapting to the men’s behavior, something they are applauded for, for not being appalled by.

Jack’s abuse gets brushed over

The moment he shows softness towards Bitty, all of Year 1 is forgiven and forgotten.

Dude yelled at the main character and made him wanna quit hockey, when Parse comes to Samwell, Shitty points out that even compared to his “usual bitchiness” (which Shitty also excuses, btw) the way Jack treated Parse scared him. This is later both retconned and justified by the narrative (see 4.19).

Kent Parson Can’t Have Feelings

He can only exist in the story to be an obstacle to Jack, any and all of his raw outbursts are framed as him being petty and bratty. Any deeper sensitivities he might have are framed as weaknesses (being closeted in the NHL, still having feelings for Jack).

His “redemption” consists of Bitty one-upping him. When he comes to Samwell to talk to Bitty, he is only there to be humbled for what he did wrong (having complex emotions he wasn’t able to express calmly). Bitty is portrayed as the hero for emasculating him (making him like his pie) and that humbles him into submission.

Whiskey’s closet story

Both Jack and Whiskey are set up as stoic, masc and talented at hockey, so the reveal that they are queer is played as a big twist in both instances. Despite the comic banking on the premise that “yes, you can be a queer man and play hockey”, here are two instances where the comic betrays its own premise. (Three if you count Parse.)

Whiskey, like Parse, is not afforded any internal emotionality. His demeanor is portrayed as cowardly and duplicitous for not wanting to be out and proud like Bitty, and his closed-offness is, by virtue of the comic being told through Bitty’s lens, framed as disdain. He, like Parse, is framed as a villain because he has feelings.

Misc: 

The infantilization of Chowder. Chowder is constantly referred to as Bitty’s baby boy, by virtue of his somewhat-clueless outward demeanor, and being Asian.

The hazing. I didn’t think I would have to go into this, but apparently people love to downplay the fact that Bitty bullying the rookies in his senior year is not only questionable at best, but also illegal.

Bitty has no political stance despite being queer. His parents are most likely Republican, which is never addressed; he never unpacks his Christian upbringing, despite being queer in a traditional Christian family, and when confronted with the fact that Dex might be Republican, he frames Nursey as the one being silly for bringing up this conflict.

Shitty’s performative liberalism. Shitty plays into the stoner hippie archetype by flinging about a bunch of feminist theory, but is never actually shown actively doing anything to deconstruct the environment of college hockey. When Jack flies off the handle at Bitty, he excuses it. When Jack refuses to partake in hazing (likely because of his addiction?) he calls him a wimp.

I don’t count Farmer as a major character because she appears in two panels and has no speaking parts, but she, too, falls into the “just one of the guys” category.

Anon I love you and you are CORRECT.

Adding to the Zimbits as Comphet point: Bitty says his mother is his best friend yet we know next to nothing about her aside from her homemaking skills. According to a tweet (so not actually canon) she does have a job but we never know what it is. And we see time and time again Bitty belittle his mother's recipes or brush off her hurt and concern (such as when she thought it was her jam recipe Bitty was sharing with NHL players). It's played for laughs in the comic but just makes Bitty look selfish, entitled, and self-centered (oh wait, that's what he is). Bitty never acknowledges his own bad behavior because he lives in the mentality of once a victim always a victim. Which, I would argue, Jack begins to fall into as well the deeper his relationship with Bitty gets.

Which we're not even going to get into Bitty's vlog and twitter where he took private conversations and blasted them to the public. Because the internet is public.

Also the fact that Bitty, despite not being out until Samwell, manages to out all three other queer characters in the comic, either through his vlog or vague (not very well) posting on his twitter: Jack, Kent, and Whiskey. And isn't that telling that not even in this supposed queer comic are 1 in 4 characters queer. I'm talking canon, not fanon. The actual canon.

Great ask/post anon!

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

help the hockey boys are calling one another breedable again

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

I just think that Kent parson- *explodes and dies*

@amandayetagain this is your fault but look at him.

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

I stopped reading omgcp a while ago, but Kent was always my favorite. Can you tell me what the update about him was? I don't want to slog through the rest of it to find it.

Sorry it took so long to respond to this anon, but I really appreciate the ask. I’m going to give a summary of what actually happens in canon in Kent’s ending, and then a short breakdown of why I dislike it.

This turned into a lengthy post and a collection of what I’m sure is only a fraction of the retcons surrounding Kent’s character, so I apologize for that.

If there’s one takeaway to understand from this ending, it’s that this ending really isn’t about Kent or for Kent’s fans, and I’ll explain below.

The canon ending:

—Bitty is taking out the trash at the Haus one night after a kegster when Kent unexpectedly pops up, dressed like every one-off drug addict character ever seen on any crime drama ever. He says he didn’t know how to contact Bitty (I guess Bitty’s Twitter and Facebook must still be on lockdown at this point? Can anyone confirm?), hence why he appears out of the blue. He says he wants to talk.

Note: Kent mentions here that he’s been getting kegster invites from Ransom for years now. It’s unclear why he didn’t try to contact Ransom to get Bitty’s contact info, but that’s really just a nitpick.

—Kent says he wants to wish Bitty good luck in the playoffs (which I guess he’s been following?) and to wish him good luck with Jack. Bitty responds by inviting him in for pie.

—Kent proceeds to try Bitty’s pie and gush about it at length, like every character in the comic has at this point. Actual quote: “Oh my God. Oh my fucking God. This is. Wow. Jesus. Thank you.”

—Kent mentions again he really does want to wish Bitty good luck, and then mentions Jack and wanting to tell him something.

—Bitty asks if Kent would apologize to Jack. Kent seems surprised and says no, but then he says maybe. He brings up the last time they talked, and specifically points out the last time he and Jack spoke and comments, “Not like I said anything terrible.”

—Bitty informs Kent that he was there and confronts Kent about how he treated Jack. At this point, there’s yet another retcon, this time more subtle, about what Kent said.

4.19 version:

Parse Part III (2.09) version:

Note: No mention is made in 4.19 about anything the could be interpreted positively or sympathetically about Kent’s conversation with Jack, including his offer to Jack about freeing up cap space on the Aces so that Jack can be a part of the team [basically that means trading away current Aces players to make room for Jack’s salary], telling Jack repeatedly that he misses him, expressing frustration that Jack shut him out, or telling Jack that he and others still care about him even if Jack thinks of himself as worthless. More on that last part here.

—Kent looks defeated and responds that there was no excuse for what he said, and follows up by saying he’s sorry that Bitty had to hear what he said and also expresses that he’s sorry for saying it at all.

—In the next part, Kent explains his thoughts. Actual quote: “When Jack left hockey, it sucked. And...yeah, he shut me out of his life. But he was taking care of himself. The shit I was doing at eighteen, as a rookie, in the league...wasn't good for him. And if he thinks he owes me an apology for that, he doesn't. I made it about me. But at this point, trying to say all that to him, yeah, that'd still be more for me than for him, you know? He's way, way past...Zimms has done so much for himself...It might sound weird, but I'm proud of Zimms. Even though I was shit to him. I'm proud he's moved on in a big way. He's a great player and Jesus....I'm twenty-six and our shit was forever ago."

Note: Kent unequivocally stating that Jack doesn’t owe him any apologies is a direct narrative retcon of this panel from 2.10.

Second note: Many fans speculated Jack completely cut off all contact with Kent after his overdose when Kent went ahead into the NHL as Jack took time to recover. Kent’s statement in 4.19 is explicit canon confirmation.

—Bitty responds that they were both kids at the time. Kent dismisses that notion in regard to himself. Actual quote: “"Yeah, but Jack grew up. And seeing you guys together? That center ice kiss? Holding the cup? Listen, when I said I came here to tell you good luck, I meant it. That's why I came here, because the more things work out for you, being out and stuff...you know? The more things could work out for everyone else. You guys are doing good stuff. So thank you for that."  

—Kent follows this up by effusively complimenting Bitty’s pie again and telling him he should open a bakery.

—Kent goes to leave and finds Scraps (the one other named Aces player besides Carl) hanging out with Ford and Tango. Scraps was helping them both clean up. It’s unclear if Kent is actually out to Scraps at this point.

—Kent thanks Bitty for the pie again, wishes him luck, and then leaves.

—Also, as an extra, Ngozi responded to an ask about “What’s Kent been up to?” with another drawing of Kent with Bitty’s pie and paying thousands of dollars for it because he loves it so much.

Link here.

My thoughts:

     1. It’s been said before, but this scene taking place between Kent and Bitty is utterly bizarre. These two characters have no history together to make this conversation compelling or meaningful. They’ve never even spoken a word to each other on page before. Additionally, Kent is a closeted NHL player whose career could be destroyed with this information, and so he’s used to keeping his emotions in check. His decision to have this conversation with a stranger at all severely stretches the willing suspension of disbelief and makes it clear that this conversation isn’t occurring because it’s a natural decision for the characters, but for narrative convenience. 

And when you factor in the part about Kent being Jack’s ex-boyfriend who was seemingly in love with him for years after their relationship ended painfully for them both, and that he’s having this heart-to-heart with Jack’s new boyfriend, it shatters the willing suspension of disbelief into a million tiny pieces. Why would Kent want to talk about his baggage with Jack to Jack’s new BF who he’s never spoken to before? There’s no real reason for it. It only happens because Ngozi wanted to have Kent apologize to Bitty regardless of how weird or illogical the scenario for them to talk. And so that’s what happens, even if it’s utterly absurd.

     2. This ending really goes out of its way to paint Kent in a negative light as possible while still having Bitty be the righteous but charitable arbitrator of what’s Good and Decent behavior.

Notice that Bitty offers up an excuse for Kent’s behavior: “Y’all were kids.”

But the narrative makes it clear that the audience is not meant to excuse Kent’s behavior, as Kent then rejects that excuse and shoulders responsibility: “Yeah, but Jack grew up.” (Implying here that Kent did not.) “And seeing you guys together? That center ice kiss, holding the Cup? . . . Listen, when I said I came here to tell you good luck, I meant it. Because the more things work out for you, being out and stuff . . . you know? The more things could work out for everyone else. So thank you for that.”

And I know that as an audience, we’re meant to nod our heads in agreement with Kent and be like, “Yes, what he said was beyond the pale, good for him for admitting it, and good for him for admitting that it was perfectly fine for Jack to spend years refusing all contact with him.” But I’m definitely not nodding in agreement, and the narrative’s refusal to allow this justification really bothers me, because Bitty is right: they were kids. Jack and Kent were kids of the same age and in almost identical situations. So why is it that Jack gets a free pass for his bad decisions while Kent doesn’t?

The answer is, of course, to pacify the section of fandom that really, really wanted to see Kent come crawling back and beg for forgiveness or “get called out”, but that really isn’t any kind of satisfying answer within the story itself.

Simply put, everything about the situation and the dialogue goes to great lengths to paint Kent as the one in the wrong who’s now doing the right thing at long last by shouldering responsibility, all while simultaneously playing down any culpability Jack might hold for the tensions between the two of them.  It is the “Kent Was Wrong” show, and it’s being aired because a certain portion of the fanbase thinks that Kent is villain who needs to repent for all of all of the terrible crimes against Jack and Bitty that he has committed, while Jack is an innocent smol bean who has never done anything wrong in his life.

From 1.05.

However, I will point out that while the 4.19 accomplishes that specific goal, it also fails in the area of character development. Because the narrative works so hard to make it known that Jack is completely blameless, Kent, a minor character whose appearance here in 4.19 marks only the fourth time he appears in canon proper, ultimately winds up growing more as a person than Jack. As much as I dislike his ending, Kent is someone who can admit when he’s done wrong and apologize for it. Jack, to date, has never apologized for how he treated Bitty during the latter’s freshman years. At the end of the day, Kent’s refusal to accept any excuses for his behavior, even the ones that are reasonable and justified, paints him as a more mature individual than Jack.

     3. It’s impossible to ignore the equivalency of Jack and Bitty publicly kissing and coming out with “growing up” and implying that Kent’s decision to remain closeted is therefore immature. This bugs me for several reasons, which I’ll explain below.

The NHL is a highly homophobic environment, as is juniors hockey, where Kent and Jack met and became romantically involved. There’s recently been a lot of discussion on these points from former NHL players Akim Aliu and Dan Carcillo. Conformity is perceived as commitment to the team, and being different or even showing off too much is frowned upon and criticized. RL NHL players like Alex Ovechkin have been criticized for celebrating too much after scoring a goal, and just to show you how extreme it can get, player PK Subban faced ongoing tensions within his then-team the Canadiens because he opted to start his own personal charity for the Montreal Children’s Hospital rather than use the team’s established program. The incident is actually speculated to be a factor in the reasons for his trade to Nashville. That’s right; conformity is so valued that players are criticized for giving to charity the wrong way.  

So, yes, Kent’s growth is very likely to be stunted because he’s coping in such a highly pressurized homophobic environment, dealing with at least one homophobic teammate. Yes, he has chosen his environment insofar as joining and continuing with the NHL, but he didn’t specifically chose its homophobic and toxic culture. And it’s worth mentioning that he’s being contrasted with Jack, a character who took several years off from hockey following a drug overdose, attended an LGBTQ-friendly liberal arts school for four years where he could find himself and grow comfortable with his sexuality and build a strong support network, and then landed on an NHL team where every member was miraculously accepting and not homophobic.

Of course Kent is going to look immature in comparison to Jack if you compare them that way. Kent has been locked into a culture of toxic masculinity and homophobia since he was a teenager and forced to be closeted so he could have a career. And why should he have thought differently? He was being exposed to homophobia on his team, which would have cemented his fears of not belonging in hockey or having a place on his team if he came out as gay.

Meanwhile, with every Falc unfailingly supportive of Jack and Bitty, Jack really had nothing to fear. Honestly, from the way the story develops, it seems as though Bitty’s life was made more difficult by their post-Cup kiss, rather than Jack, who is the celebrity athlete, and, according to canon, the first gay athlete in the history of pro sports.

So while Kent (and canon) might continually praise Jack for growing up and coming out, Jack had far more time to become comfortable with himself and the idea of being openly gay, given that he’s had Samwell as a safe haven for years and multiple close friends he trusts. Kent hasn’t had either of those things. Of course he’s not ready to come out like Jack and Bitty—after all, he’s not out, and he ends up having to listen to Carl’s mockery of queer individuals. And yet, canon would have us think that this decision means he’s not “grown up” like Jack is. So Kent essentially ends up being implied to be immature for . . . being afraid of the homophobia that he already experiences.

From 3.16.

Also, I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: it’s never sat quite right with me that Jack and Bitty both gets teams that are unfailingly supportive of their sexualities and relationship, while Kent isn’t even out as gay but is stuck dealing with open homphobia from a teammate and has no known support system. Almost as if canon is okay with protecting its main gay couple from homophobia while pushing the struggle against homophobia onto a gay minor character, all while proceeding to put the main couple on a pedestal for “growing up”. I don’t care if Ngozi told us not to worry about it; it really annoys me that no one on the Falcs or SMH is homophobic, but at least one person on the Aces is, and we’re supposed to be okay with it. After all, Ngozi herself told us: “Okay, first of all, ignore Carl”, as if homophobia is something that queer people can totally dismiss and forget about.

Link here.

So, as far as the OMGCP narrative is concerned, homophobia is meant to be something that’s should be easily shrugged off and ignored, and being afraid of it and unwilling to deal with it means that you’re immature and not ready to “grow up” in the way that openly gay individuals have already chosen to. 

     4. The implication that Kent was wrong to be bitter or upset about Jack cutting him off.

This is a fairly simple one, and one where the characterization does an exceptional job at refusing to admit normal behavior. It is perfectly fine for Kent to be upset and hurt that Jack ghosted him. Canon has him accepting all of the blame and saying that he was wrong to not want to let Jack go, but let’s examine the scenario. 

You’re dating a guy for several months and then he abruptly overdoses in a deliberate suicide attempt right before the jump-start to both your futures. You’re forced to abruptly move away to begin your new life without any real closure from the incident, so you’re left hurt and traumatized and wondering if you could have done anything to stop him. You try to reach out to him so you can heal, only for every attempt to be rejected. This behavior and your attempts continue for years. Now, even if you decide to move on, are you going to think fondly of this guy going forward? Or are you going to be hurt and confused and questioning your entire relationship and what you could have done differently whenever you think back about him?

Jack did not overdose in a vacuum. This is not an incident that had zero effect on Kent. And yet, canon seems to want us to think that this highly emotional and traumatic event should have washed right over Kent and that he chose to bear a grudge against Jack due to, like, petty vindictiveness or something. When the real issue is that Jack deliberately refused to give Kent any closure over the incident. And if that’s the case, if Jack is just refusing to speak to Kent over and over, why shouldn’t Kent feel bitterness towards him? Maybe Kent honestly wants to give Jack up and get over him, but needs this resolution to move on, and can’t get anywhere without it. Maybe he’s still hurting from watching Jack almost die. Whatever the reason, Kent being upset with Jack is only human.

     5. Finally, the complete lack of acknowledgement from Bitty or Kent regarding Kent’s individual accomplishments. It’s less obvious than the rest of what’s on page, but I find that this omission speaks the most strongly out of everything that this ending is written by someone who doesn’t really like Kent, specifically for people who don’t like Kent.

Kent was introduced with a multitude of accomplishments. Thirty-one game point streak, one of the best players in the sport, a recent hat trick (three goals) during a game, which earns him congratulations from Holster for it. And he’s not arrogant about his accomplishments—Shitty refers to him as a “modest bro”. Additionally, even though Kent is only at the Haus to see Jack, he still takes the time to take pictures with various Samwell hockey team members.

From 2.08

From Notes on 2.08.

But glaringly, none of these positive qualities are found here. Instead, all Kent does is compliment Jack on growing up, compliment Bitty on his pie, wish them both luck, and apologize to Bitty (for his treatment of Jack). There’s no mention of what’s going on in Kent’s life, no compliments about his hockey or mentions of any recent milestones he’s reached. There’s no exchange of praise between him and Bitty, even though there easily could. Just as an example, one of the many lines where Kent is gushing over Bitty’s pie could have easily led to a response from Bitty congratulating Kent for reaching the five hundredth goal of his career or something similar. 

Or Bitty could have wished him luck at his next game—maybe the Aces are up against their division rivals, maybe they’re up against the top team of another conference. But there’s no mention of anything that has to do with Kent’s present or future, and that’s because this ending really isn’t about Kent or for Kent’s fans. It’s written for Jack/Bitty fans who think Kent is mean or abusive and really wanted this scene of Kent groveling to Jack and/or Bitty. Why else would Jack be absolved of all responsibility for treating Kent badly for years while Kent is left shouldering the blame?

Kent might appear in this chapter, but what we get isn’t actually Kent. This appearance is Kent being used as a device to state information to the audience instead of using interesting and emotional storytelling. We are being told via Kent yet again how Jack is a flawless cinnamon roll, that Jack is oh-so-noble, that Jack and Bitty are brave, that Jack and Bitty are special, and that Bitty’s pies are unnaturally wonderful. And that’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

We ostensibly got an ending for Kent Parson in this chapter. It was just an ending written with a certain audience in mind, and that audience wasn’t people who actually like the character or wanted better for him.

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

fix your mind, mend his heart.

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

can i say something. kent parson 2024

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

#WiPItGood Take 1

“So, Kent Parson.”

“Yes.”

“Is there anything that scares you about being in Vegas?”

Kent stared at the woman for a moment, trying to think of the best way to answer the question. He looked away when he finally figured it out. “Tumbleweeds.”

“Ex-excuse me?”

“Tumbleweeds. I don’t know why, but I did my research and some of them are like the size of dumpsters or small cars. And I just imagine like… going for a run and then getting taken out by a rogue tumbleweed. And they don’t have breaks like cars do, right? So it’d just take me out, then continue looking for it’s next victim.”

“Oh. Okay,” the interviewer said with a smile. That was definitely an answer she’d never heard before. “Well, how about when it comes to hockey?”

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

While I’m not thrilled with Kent’s ending, one aspect I find interesting is that in what we were given, he actually shows the most growth of any character. I can’t remember Jack ever apologizing for being a dick to Bitty in his freshman year, and I’m not sure if we ever saw Bitty apologize to anyone for anything, IIRC.

But even if I don’t think he needed to apologize, it’s fascinating to me that Kent has the perspective to look back on his younger self and admit that he thinks he was wrong. And while I still don’t understand why he’s having this conversation with his ex-boyfriend’s current boyfriend, it’s pretty amazing that Kent has had this much growth over (IIRC) six canon appearances, one of which is a non-speaking cameo, while Jack didn’t apologize at any point over the canon’s four years for treating Bitty badly.

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

Because it bothers me: What Kent is quoted as saying in the 4.19 chapter isn’t what he actually said it the actual Parse Part III comic.

I guess it’s similar enough in actual words, but the sentiment is quite different. This line in Parse Part III always struck me as important:

Kent: “You know what, Zimmermann? You think you’re too messed up to care about? That you’re not good enough? Everyone already knows what you are but it’s people like me who still care.”

I always see this line misquoted as Kent trying to manipulate Jack by saying he’s the only one who cares about him. And I always think that’s blatantly untrue, because Kent clearly says here that multiple–not just him!–still care about Jack.

Personally, I’ve always read this line as Kent saying that no matter how flawed Jack thinks he is, Jack will still always have people to care about him, Kent among them. I think he’s angry when he says it, that he’s exasperated and fed up with Jack (because, like, Jack’s been ghosting him for years at this point), but I do think he’s sincere when he says he cares.

This line is a little bit different, though:

Kent: “You’re scared everyone else is going to find out you’re worthless, right? Oh, don’t worry, just give it a few seasons, Jack. Trust me.”

This is the line that most people treat as utterly indefensible, and the one that canon deliberately misquotes. And let’s break that down.

Kent didn’t say, “Jack, you’re a worthless human being.” He didn’t even outright call Jack himself worthless. He insinuates it, playing on Jack’s insecurities, but I think it’s important to remember that he didn’t actually call Jack worthless to his face, as 4.19 tries to present him as doing.

In fact, Kent’s deliberate mention of “seasons” instead of “time” or “years” almost makes it sound that he’s talking about Jack’s hockey, not Jack himself. he sounds more like he doubts Jack’s ability as a player, not as a person. 

But let’s look into this further. Right before their rookie season in the NHL, Jack ODed and ghosted Kent. 4.19 makes it clear that he didn’t respond to Kent’s attempts to contact him. And Kent dealt with this treatment for several seasons in a row. It’s his sixth season when he’s having this conversation with Jack.

This is more my inferences than anything else, but I think that when Kent is talking about Jack proving himself to be worthless after a few seasons, I think he’s referring to Jack’s behavior as a friend and boyfriend. He’s already mentioned “people who still care” about Jack, and he’s been dealing with Jack’s cold shoulder for years now. So, while I don’t think it was intended to be read this way, I think Kent was reacting to Jack’s poor treatment of him and saying that once Jack begins treating his new teammates the same way, everyone will know exactly what type of man he is.

And while that is just my interpretation, I think it’s important to remember that going by 4.19 canon, Jack has been refusing contact with Kent for a long time by the time of December 2014, when Parse Part III takes place. Possibly since June 2009, when Jack’s OD took place, which would be more than five years. Five years of Jack ghosting Parse and rejecting Parse when he tries to help him, five years of Kent, alone in the NHL, struggling with his sexuality and the hurt and trauma of his then-boyfriend’s suicide attempt. Even if Kent was fully insinuating that Jack was worthless … is his anger really totally unjustifiable after what Jack left him to struggle with? Honestly, I don’t think that it is.

(Also, Bitty, yeah, duh, Kent knows Jack tried to kill himself. Because Jack tried to kill himself while dating Kent and then ghosted Kent for years, as confirmed by 4.19 itself. This is not news to Kent. He had to deal with his boyfriend trying to kill himself and then never responding when Kent tried to reach out. He’s been dealing with that, by himself, for years now.)

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

For @plz2daysatan, since they wanted some Patater thoughts:

I feel like a bad takeaway Kent has from his relationship with Jack is that he needs to protect his partner from any of his own problems and devote himself 500% to them. He tells himself that he doesn’t want to bother them or stress them out, and so he just . . . doesn’t tell them when he has significant events in his life taking place.

Mom’s the hospital? Can’t tell Tater. Have a stalker sending creepy messages? Don’t tell Tater, he’ll just worry. Under scrutiny from the media and Aces management after a call-up was caught with coke? Let’s not bother Tater with this. Kent can’t be laying all of his problems at Tater’s feet.

Meanwhile, Tater is very ??? and worried and confused about why Kent never tells him about ongoing stressful situations in his life. He keeps on finding out about these situations from locker room gossip or the media, and he’s really starting to wonder if maybe Kent doesn’t take their relationship all that seriously, since Kent never confides any of his problems in him.

Eventually, Tater tentatively asks Kent about it, and Kent is just gobsmacked that Tater is interested. And concerned, even? He’s not upset that Kent has problems or worries, he just wants to hear about them and maybe try to help out with them?? And Kent just feels so lucky to have that.

And Tater feels like it’s the bare minimum he can do, really, but when Kent tells him that, he just holds him close and tells him, “We’re on same team, Parsnip,” and holds him close, ready to protect his boyfriend from anything that could harm him.

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

One of my favorite headcanons is to imagine that after his Dude’s Health cover requires reprints to meet demand, Kent was invited to be the new face of a steamy Calvin Klein underwear ad campaign, and his mostly-naked image was plastered on hundreds of billboards across the US.

His face becomes super well-known in America, not for being a hockey player, but for his sexy come-hither stare. It gets to the point that Vegas tourists are coming up to him on the street when he’s out with the team, like, “Hey! You’re that sexy underwear guy!” And Kent just grins and says that he is, while the Aces chirp him and roll their eyes.

[iwatchedhockeyonce]

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