It’s crazy cuz when Shane is like guys I think everyone will hate me if I come out everyone is like (gaslighting him) Shane. You’re literally gaslighting yourself right now. This will not happen. And then when it happens Shane is like SEE??? and everyone is like Shane it’s so crazy that we all hate you now. It’s completely your fault. You should have said something Shane. If you had just told us sooner about the thing we hate you for we would hate you so much less.
Drunk Shane can be a bit of a menace. A drink or two is fine, but eventually he'll hit a point where you turn around and he's gone, literally gone because he's going places and he'll happily come trotting back when Ilya calls him, but that's only helpful if he's in earshot, which... can be a challenge.
Drunk Shane when Ilya is ALSO drunk is the BEST. His boyfriend is sooooo funny and soooo fast and strong and smart and brave and they're going on an adventure!!! Ilya doesn't know where but his legs are wrapped around Shane's waist and Shane's arms are wrapped around his legs and the back of Shane's neck smells so good and they're GOING!!!! They're going and going and going because Shane can run forever he's the best hockey player in the whole world and he's Ilya's BOYFRIEND and they're gonna live forever and the stars are out and his mama is watching them and Ilya doesn't even know he's smiling until his cheeks start hurting from it.
(inspired by this post from @pregnanthudsonwilliams) (I've never seen Twilight I'm just having fun)
Shane was drunk the first and only time he ever heard Nelly furtados I’m like a bird and he cried so hard he threw up and when he woke up the next morning he asked Hayden what the song was and Hayden (scared for him) is like. what song dude. And Shane is left to assume it came from his heart and soul and he’s ashamed to have had those thoughts so he’s like. I actually don’t know what I was talking about. There was no song. And Hayden is thinks to himself that gaslighting should not be this easy
You can be talking to someone and she'll be like, "Oh I made a silly mistake. Women don't deserve voting rights teehee." And you'll be like, "What." And she'll be like, "Oh I'm sorry! That must sound so bad out of context. No it's this Tiktok meme where, if you're a girl and you do something dumb, you say 'Women don't deserve voting rights teehee.'"
And you'll be like, "That sounds bad." And she'll be like, "No no. It's totally not that bad. It's just a meme. Men say it too. Like if a man does something silly he'll be like, 'I am like those women who do not deserve to vote.'" And you'll be like, "Does that make it better?" And she'll be like, "Well there was one guy who tried to make 'Men shouldn't vote' a popular meme. But it never caught on and also he got yelled at a lot."
And then you drop it there because like, you're harshing the vibe.
Because of the OC defends their cast / HR doesn't discourse, I went back to what Jacob Tierney said exactly at the time when they all (sine Connor) reposted the anti-hate statement. Because the quote that was plastered all over social media was this:
But the full interview is actually more nuanced and reveals so much more:
Jacob as a queer man wanted to tell a queer story, he knew the base audience was white women and queer folks, this is who the script was written for and these are the demographics he expected to show up to watch.
Tangent: We already know Rachel didn't really research much about Shane's Wasian background and it's a frustratingly poor portrayal of a mixed-race Canadian (bc we all know Shane is just copied mindlessly from Yuri in yaoi)
Having a POC lead was not something Jacob thought about. It didn't even occur to him that POC audiences will tune in for Shane / Hudson. That they will feel seen and will want authenticity of their own experience too.
So to me, what Jacob says here is not so much celebratory, but really sobering about where the film industry still stands today:
"We can learn a few lessons out of that: you don’t need to be making an Asian show to have an Asian lead."
Because Jacob Tierney was in the film industry since he was 5 - for four decades, and it just occurs him now that the lead does not have to be white as a default. Rachel wrote Shane as mixed-race to have someone with "exotic" looks; Shane's racial background barely matters to the story in the books (a bit more in the show).
Sit with that. If Rachel didn't make Shane's looks such a big part of Ilya's attraction to him that they felt like they needed to get it right, I don't think Hudson Williams could have even auditioned for the lead role in this series, because it would have never occurred to Jacob to cast an Asian lead to play in a "non-Asian show".
And I don't think Jacob is a bad person or he's racist or anything like that. I think he's someone who as a part of a particular minority (queers) is hyper-tuned into that experience (which I think is normal and human), and the whole POC angle is a blind spot for him, just as it is for most white people (including myself).
I also hope that Jacob - now that he realises how much Shane means to the POC audience - will pay more attention to the script also from this angle and bring in more of the racial narrative that's completely missing from the book, and that I think is hugely relevant to Shane's character (as a role model to other Asian kids) and journey in TLG, especially the post-outing vitriol he faces. (and maybe have Hudson and like a professional sensitivity reader take a look at it)
But also, this is just a small glimpse at how much white is still the default in the film industry, and how even though it's changing little by little with poc actors being cast as leads in movies where the audience expects white actors (and still a fucking discourse every time), it's a slow change. So everyone watching Hudson's career, keep in mind that it's by no means an easy climb, and I think it's important not to compare him with others (Connor especially) because they are not in the same situation and won't get the same opportunities. I also feel like being Wasian is a particularly delicate spot, where they may be too white for an Asian story, but too Asian for anything else. At least, if I look at the list of Wasian leading men / women, the list is woefully short.
Anyway, this is just to say, it feels like HR was fully unprepared for any of the racial aspects of the show or the fandom because it was a blindspot. I also speculate here, but I don't think Hudson himself expected it or ever felt as Asian as he's feeling in the past few months after being targeted by such a racist hate campaign. I hope what Jacob says in this interview is true and they are actually going to think about it more in the upcoming season(s) both in terms of script, and in terms of managing the fandom / protecting the POC cast (though undeniably, most of the hate goes to Hudson).
Also, I don't want to feel gloomy about Hudson's career - it's good that Canada has visibly taken so much pride in him and that there is a lot of hype around him from fans all over the world (not just poc fans, but also a lot of white fans who relate to him for other things, like his ADHD, views on neurodivergence and just generally being the greenest flag ever). I feel like with HR being successful in Asia, with Hudson being picked up by two really big European fashion houses, maybe more producers and film makers are paying attention to Hudson's global appeal and how he could be an asset for any film / franchise trying to break into those markets.
And because all of this, I also do have a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory that this latest smear attack is more than just run-of-the-mill Twitter drama and is more like a paid campaign run by a PR firm working for someone who is in competition with Hudson for something really big.
I'm just going to leave this here, at the end:
"We have to be undeniable because there's just no other option." - Hudson Williams x
ilya's bisexuality really is such a vital part of his character and his identity and i Do get a little bothered when people (usually normies/straight people) just refer to him as gay bc he's in love with a man....but that's just my personal feelings as a #bi person
ACTUALLY i'm adding onto this bc there's something i always notice in ep 6 that i wanna talk abt briefly, and that's yuna & david's faces when shane says "ilya likes both" - especially yuna
there's concern there. it's obvious. and it's SO common when it comes to bisexuality bc there's this huge and annoying misconception that bisexual people are unfaithful unloyal cheaters. and you can see it in her face as she processes the information that this is an immediate concern for her and for her son.
and now let's look at ilya's face
now he's concerned, because he knows he has to explain himself (which he does. he shouldn't have to but he does) and he's basically throwing out a hail mary to shane's parents that says hey, wait, no, i'm not gonna cheat on your son. i love your son. just because i'm bisexual doesn't mean i would hurt shane.
and this is something bisexual people deal with all the time btw. not just from straight people, not just from gen x & boomers, but from our own community too. it's incredibly exhausting. anyway i just notice this every time it makes my heart hurt a bit for ilya.
i love the “hollanov has a crush on carter vaughn” take not necessarily in a “i think they would invite him to watch” way but more in a “ilya would accidentally let it slip while chirping at shane to fluster him that vaughn is at the top of their ‘would’ list and vaughn is a little thrown off and straight so he’s like “are you guys asking?” and ilya laughs and pats his shoulder and assures him “absolutely not, i do not share my shane, we just think you are good looking man, i like that you are pretty and fun and my shane likes that you are serious about hockey and have good grooming habits. is not serious, do not worry vaughny we will not be asking you to witness me and my beautiful husband ever” and vaughn low key is overjoyed about it, his teammates who are around and hear the exchange are sometimes like “that doesnt bother you? you dont find that a bit weird?” but vaugh genuinely is just like “rozanov just called me pretty and fun enough to hang out with and hollander thinks im good at hockey and clean enough for him, you could hand me a nobel peace prize and it wouldnt come close to this achievement” and eventually it gets out to the general public so vaughn is captioning his instagram posts shit like “#1 contender for being the hockey husbands third goes fishing” despite shanes mortification about this getting out and vaughns clear delight with it” way
proud victim of the tumblr accent. it's fading out of public consciousness as the tik tok accent takes precedence; a linguistic evolution that makes the tumblr accent 85% funnier to unsuspecting civilians. it's like releasing a disease on a non-inoculated population. coughing baby versus hydrogen bomb.
the issue with growing up in the 2000s and 2010s was like there was this really big push toward "accepting your weirdness" overall but they meant like idk wearing mismatched socks or something not being tangibly beyond the norm in any way shape or form
also its important to me that shane Knew he was gay the whole time, it was this Thing itches in the back of his brain, something he couldn't look at head on or really think about. bc admitting it was like giving up. but its not that he didn't Know. shane hollander didn't have to have rose tell him hes gay for him to be like "oh huh really i hadn't noticed" bc he Knew. and you can see it so clearly on his face in that scene how he knew. how thinking about it scares him, how Really looking at this part of himself feels impossible. but again shanes not just completely unselfaware, he knows this about himself he just Hopes he can make it work. that it doesnt really matter. he likes rose Enough, he likes girls Enough, it can be Enough
I don’t talk about it enough, but I am going to clarify: I think about the Rietveld family at least once a day. Absolute minimum.
I want to know what Kaz’s parents were like. I want to know their names. I want to know why his mother is never mentioned. I want to know what kinds of stories his father told him and his brother at bedtime. I want to know if the family was whole and happy once or if they were always steeped in tragedy.
Kaz Brekker believed so resolutely in a father’s unshakable love for his child(ren) that he hinged a whole plot around it twice. And I’m just supposed to move on from that?