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AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Firstly, I just want to thank everyone who took the time out of their day/s to follow and read through this story. I’m so incredibly overwhelmed by the positive reaction that such a sensitive topic has warranted. I’ve decided to write a quick commentary about this story which will focus on things such as character choice, theme, stylistics, and whatnot. This is just for people who are interested in the thought process that went into ‘And the penny drops’, so I hope you enjoy J
Let me start by telling you that the last fanfiction I wrote was in November of 2016 and was a 1000-word fic about Remus Lupin pining after Sirius Black (truly inspiring stuff). I’ve often shied away from writing fanfiction, especially multi-chaptered, long fics, purely because the commitment was terrifying, and fanfiction requires the writer to try to remain as close to the character’s personality as possible. I’ve also had a few bad reviews on fanfiction.net back when I was a 13-year-old who wrote about a character secretly liking Star Wars (apparently people didn’t enjoy that too much). So, naturally, after a year of studying creative writing, I decided why the hell not.
I’d been reading a lot of Hockey RPF when the idea popped up – an NHL player who was forced out of the closet. I didn’t know which player I would use or what the circumstances would be. I wrote several plotlines out and even got 3000-words into a Tyler Seguin fic that centred around that idea. Except – the story just wouldn’t play out, wouldn’t read well. And then I was drawn to the close relationship between Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner – and I thought “that’s definitely something I can work with.”
It wasn’t one of those moments where I was actively searching for a player to work with in my fic, just a moment where I was sitting on YouTube at 3 o’clock in the morning and watching a video which highlighted all of Auston and Mitch’s best moments together.
So, why write a story that focuses on rape?
I didn’t necessarily set out to write a story about a character getting raped, it just kind of happened. I was originally going to focus on Auston dealing with being outed but as I was writing the story I came to realise that no, my character did not consent to any of this happening to him, and therefore, a bigger story needed to be told. That bigger story being the effects that rape can have on people – specifically on a man. We see this play out with the way different people react when Auston reveals that he was unable to consent to what happened.
Paul, Lamoriello, and the other lawyers, look down on him, they can’t understand why Auston wouldn’t fight back despite knowing that he was drugged. For Lamoriello this becomes less of a protecting Auston fight, and more of a “we can’t let anyone know that this player is weak” mentality. We also see that Auston struggles himself with this mentality. However, we see that Babcock, Mitch and Judie, act as Auston’s support system. They understand to some degree what Auston is going through, and show that they do with their actions.
Judie, as Auston’s therapist, shows him that what happened to him was not his fault and the things he is going through (the panic attacks, the PTSD) are all normal to go through despite what people may think. We see that he grows close to her, and as soon as it’s pitted to him that he can’t visit her as often anymore, it begins to affect him.
Babcock, as Auston’s coach, has a father-like relationship with him and although his role isn’t quite as significant as Mitch or Judie’s, he plays a key role in giving Auston those talks about it not being his fault. This is largely because of the respect that Auston has for Babcock, and that being told he isn’t weak by someone who he looks up to, really helps him through.
And finally Mitch, the one who figures it out in the first place. He becomes Auston’s main support throughout this. Especially after finding Auston in vulnerable situations (i.e. Auston’s panic attack in the locker room showers). He doesn’t push for Auston to tell him things, he trusts that Auston will tell him when he’s ready; furthermore, Mitch waits for Auston to initiate contact, or waits for permission from him, lets him know, even if it’s not out loud, that with Mitch, Auston can make the decision.
Why have Auston sue David, rather than press charger for rape?
I really wanted to try and make this story as realistic as possible, and in doing so I felt that pressing charges might be too much of a stretch considering the position and industry that Auston’s in. I felt as though as much as an organisation says they’re behind a player, their image is, ultimately, what they care about the most. Male rape victims are already not taken as seriously as female rape victims and what we see in this story, is that the organisation doesn’t want to dip their toes in something like that. Of course, they do push Auston to sue David for releasing intimate images without consent and defamation because it looks even worse on them if they don’t take any action at all.
It’s definitely not the best case scenario but unfortunately I feel as though it would be the most likely thing to happen should a situation like this ever occur.
In the end, the Leafs get the money and David roams free, if not out of pocket. That’s the unfortunate way the events play out so it’s not exactly a happy ending for Auston, but I believe that it does leave room for the story to be added onto whether in a series or as an extra chapter in the future.
As for now, I am hoping to write an outsider’s perspective on the events that have transpired from this fic whether from Babcock or Mitch it has yet to be decided.
Thank you all for reading ‘And the penny drops’ and if you have any more questions, I’m more than happy to answer them in the comments J