Rachel Reid never had any intent behind making Shane a person of color and this passage below is the biggest proof of that:
“Ilya glanced at the end of the table, where Shane was sitting.As Ilya had suspected, Shane looked confused and uncomfortable. Hockey had never made Shane sad for a minute of his life. Ilya couldn't pretend to know how it felt to be let down by the game he loved-not in the way Max or Ryan had been-but he was more aware of hockey'sflaws than Shane was. He'd been paying more attention, over the past few years, to the darker side of his sport.”
More on why Rachel Reid’s racial bias becomes extremely evident throughout Shane’s arc below the cut.
So while writing a fic where Shane talks to his son about how hockey is hard for people that look like them and how it’s okay if he doesn’t want to play hockey because of it, I recalled a few lines in The Long Game that don’t sit right with me.
I have talked about how Rachel Reid’s refusal to engage with white supremacy as a core problem in hockey harms her analysis of the other problems that are present in hockey.
But this to me sits differently to that.
This to me is the clearest evidence that not a lick of thought was put into writing Shane as a biracial Asian man in a sport that is dominated by white people and a white supremacist culture to its core. It is also pretty clear that she doesn’t think much of Shane with regards to his character motivations in the Long Game.
So let’s unpack this:
Rachel Reid, at least from Ilya’s point of view has stated that Shane looks *confused* and uncomfortable by discussion of hockey’s flaws. I’ll give you uncomfortable since it’s always uncomfortable when flaws in a thing you love as much as Shane loves hockey are brought up. But confused?
You are going to sit here and tell me a gay, autistic, biracial Asian man who has played hockey his entire life is unaware as to why some hockey players hate the institution? As if this isn’t the same institution that is the reason Shane can’t be public with the man he loves. As if he wasn’t an Asian child playing hockey in Canada. And Asian child that was good at hockey.
To make my points in this, I will be using examples from prior to 2020 only despite, with an April 2022 release date, the long game manuscript being due April 2021 at the latest, which was after the hockey world had started reckoning with race.
There is extensive documentation of racism including anti Asian racism in Canadian Hockey that spans decades.
But let’s get more specific and talk about specific hockey players who have been open about their experiences:
Larry Kwong is the first person of Asian descent to be drafted and play in the National Hockey League. His debut season was in 1948 and he spent only 60 seconds on the ice. This was his only NHL game. Kwong is known for breaking the color barrier in ice hockey, despite First Nations players having played in the NHL first. I, personally, do not known enough First Nations history to comment on why that is.
In November 2019, a Calgary Flames coach resigned for being racially abusive to his players.
It took until 2019 for the NHL to implement stricter consequences for slurs.
A 13 year old Black child was racially abused by the opposing team and their fan, also in 2019.
Val James spoke about his experiences of racism in 2015.
Of the 8676 men that have played in the NHL, only 45 of them have identified as Asian. For the math challenged, that is 0.5% of total NHL players and many of these men are from recent years.
Shane is a minority (Asian) within a minority (people of color) in a sport that is dominated by white people.
There is zero, zero, zero chance that an Asian child makes it through peewee hockey without at least one experience of racism directed at them (or their parents). There is zero chance that that same child who turns out to be very good at hockey also makes it through triple A, major juniors, and all the way into the NHL without a single hockey related incident making a biracial Asian child sad.
Sidney Crosby has talked about adults encouraging their children to make dirty hits on him because he was very good at hockey.
An asian child in that same set of circumstances is in for a worse fate than Crosby because they are Asian and they are good at a sport that racist white Canadians tie to their national identity. Whatever abuse Sidney Crosby, who Shane is based partly off of, double it and give it to Shane and you might get close to how he was treated as a child.
Shane would’ve been exposed to the worst of hockey’s racism probably from the moment that anyone realized how good he was. He’s always been the best everywhere he’s played which means he’s always been outperforming white children which means he’s always been exposed to the worst racism that Canadian hockey culture has to offer.
We know this because white kids in hockey get bullied for being good. We know this because children of color in hockey get bullied for being not white.
And Shane is BOTH!!!!!
Even removing hockey culture, do you not know that Asian children experience racism and prejudice in Canada, that they experience at school and on the playground and at the park and at summer camp, why the fuck wouldn’t it be present in hockey when it’s the same damn kids? It is the “Canadians are too progressive to be racist!” bullshit that is their national image because they’re marginally better than their neighbors to the south but it doesn’t mean that racism doesn’t exist.
The idea that a person of color doesn’t know how bad hockey culture can be is absurd. The idea that said person’s white immigrant partner is somehow more aware of hockey’s flaws than a person of color is absurd. The idea that a person of color is totally unaware and even confused by discussion of hockey’s flaws is so difficult to imagine that it’s laughable.
The idea that hockey has never made Shane sad is functionally impossible. It relies on a history of Canada that doesn’t exist, and certainly one that doesn’t exist in the GCU universe seeing as Scott’s coach talks about the racism he faced and that doesn’t all go away in a few decades, especially in an organization so reticent to change as the NHL.
Like, be so forreal, a biracial Asian man in a league that has had less than 45 Asian players total, who billeted and played hockey in a majority white city, who grew up playing hockey in Canada and then joined a league with a racism problem that is documented by the book has zero awareness of the flaws of hockey?
Are you seriously going to try and sell me on that?
The only logical explanation is that Rachel Reid wasn’t writing Shane as a person of color. She was writing him from her white lens without a lick of regard to the ethnic background she gave him and it makes Shane’s character lack so much dimension and depth in the long game.
Shane is the person who doesn’t want to come out for no reason or the one who is so attached to his terrible team and teammates that he doesn’t notice hockey’s flaws instead of him being one of literally probably 5 Asian men in a league that starts the racial abuse at peewee and continues into the big leagues who has to manage being Asian and gay and dating his rival and all the implications that come with it.
You can’t both make Shane an Asian man in hockey and make him totally oblivious to hockey’s flaws.
This is why I cant get behind Rachel Reid and her writing. Everyone knows that fanbase of any sports are incredibly toxic and racist. And there are historical facts on it. And you are telling me that a homophobic sports and fanbase just accepted Shane Hollander, a biracial man without any hesitation? And the pressure he faced from fans is just expectations and not racism of any kind? And he had a smooth sailing navigating this sports as a gay biracial man in a toxic masculine homophobic league and has no trauma? If people dont like Shane it's because Rachel is a shit writer when it comes to Shane and has a racial bias. And if people love Shane it’s because Jacob and Hudson but also they understand what happened to Shane in that universe realistically even though Rachel never wrote about it.
Another way to support and show love to Hudson Williams is to watch and comment on his short films. I'm providing a list below. He didn't act in every film, but he worked on these films in some capacity whether it's in front of the camera or behind the scenes. Please make sure to show love to his co-stars and co-creators too. Also, please pay attention to content warnings.
It made me realize that a lot of people overlooked one of the major plot points of Heated Rivalry (and the Game Changers series as a whole), which is that there’s a reason why it took any NHL/MLH player so long to come out, and why it was such a big deal when Scott Hunter did so. There’s a reason why Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov work so hard to keep their relationship a secret.
Because even in this fictional version of professional men’s hockey, the majority of players are exactly like the ones that cozied up to Trump these past few days! Hockey culture absolutely sucking is very much a major plot point of both the show and the book series.
On silence, fandom comfort, and why POC and women actors and the fans who support them deserve better.
I’ve been sitting with a question lately, and the more I think about it, the harder it is to ignore.
When people face racism, microaggressions, or targeted hostility in fandom spaces, and increasingly in media coverage and industry commentary, why is silence so often presented as the wise or responsible response?
Ignore it. Don’t feed it. Don’t make it bigger.
And every time I hear that, I come back to the same question:
Is that really allyship?
This isn’t just about fandom arguments. What’s been striking lately is how similar patterns show up across multiple spaces — fandom discourse, media coverage, commentary from journalists, and sometimes even industry voices. The language may be more polished in some places than others, but the underlying dynamic often feels familiar.
Criticism is part of being a public figure. That isn’t the issue. But criticism and identity-based hostility aren’t the same thing, and treating them as interchangeable makes it easier to dismiss patterns that deserve attention.
When people say “everyone/ every POC gets hate,” it flattens context. Not all backlash operates the same way, and not all of it carries the same weight — especially when the person at the center is someone like Hudson, who is half Korean and navigating narratives that don’t exist in a vacuum.
Calling racism or microaggressions “normal fandom behavior” doesn’t make them less harmful. It just normalizes them.
I don’t think everyone who says “just ignore it” is acting in bad faith. Some people genuinely believe silence keeps things calm or prevents escalation.
I hear that logic. I still disagree with the conclusion.
Because silence doesn’t remove the harm — it just changes who carries it.
The articles still exist. The commentary still exists. The atmosphere doesn’t disappear because someone chooses not to acknowledge it.
And when silence becomes the default response, it sends a message — whether intentional or not — about what is acceptable to ignore.
The industry argument often comes up here: that people stay quiet to protect careers, that speaking up is risky.
I understand why that perspective exists. But risk isn’t equal for everyone.
There’s a difference between someone early in their career navigating real insecurity and creators, veteran cast members, or established industry figures who already operate from positions of stability and influence.
For some, silence might feel like survival.
For others, it looks more like a luxury.
And that distinction matters.
Another pattern that’s hard to ignore is how quickly the narrative flips once fans push back.
When commentary from media or industry voices leans into dismissive framing or subtle microaggressions, it’s treated as normal discourse. But when fans — especially those who feel personally affected — respond or call out patterns, the conversation suddenly becomes about “toxic fandom.”
The focus shifts from the original behavior to the reaction.
And that double standard is exhausting.
Pushback isn’t automatically toxicity. Sometimes it’s simply people refusing to accept that harmful dynamics should be treated as inevitable.
Speaking up rarely changes the minds of the loudest critics. But that isn’t really the point.
Public responses shape culture. They signal what behavior is acceptable and what isn’t. Most people in fandom and media spaces aren’t the loudest voices; they’re observers learning what gets tolerated.
Silence communicates something too.
And when silence keeps being framed as the responsible choice, it’s worth asking who that responsibility actually protects.
This isn’t about demanding perfect statements or constant public performances. It’s about recognizing that allyship isn’t defined by avoiding discomfort.
Sometimes it’s simply choosing not to look away.
Maybe speaking up doesn’t change everything. Maybe it doesn’t stop every article or every hostile comment.
But maybe that isn’t the point.
Maybe the question isn’t whether speaking up fixes everything — maybe it’s whether we’re comfortable letting silence say enough.
People are being so mean about TLG!Shane and I just cannot understand that at all. I think the most important thing about their relationship is that The Long Game is ultimately about the external barriers that are keeping both Shane and Ilya in the closet, but even though they're technically both in a similar position (captain of a team, high profile players), their experience is so vastly different.
Like, yeah, Ilya gave up his spot on a successful team and his chances of winning any trophies and his city to be closer to Shane, but he also gets to be part of Shane's family the way he dreamed of when they first come clean with Yuna and David, his new coach prioritises good relationships over discipline, and the Centaurs may suck at hockey but they're also genuinely friendly and they treat Harris as one of them despite his visible queerness. Over the course of that season, it becomes increasingly clear to Ilya that not only is hiding his bisexuality and his relationship with Shane not sustainable, it's not necessary. Two years ago, they couldn't imagine a reality in which making their relationship public wouldn't be catastrophic, but for Ilya, that has changed. He is surrounded by people who love him and who would have his back, and he's watching other people (especially Troy and Harris) have what he wants so desperately, and the idea of waiting for retirement becomes more and more of a prison to him.
Shane, meanwhile, spends the entire book slowly breaking under the pressure he's facing from all sides. Once the season starts, the first thing we learn about Shane's team is that they won the Cup last season, and that their coach casually slings homophobic language around in the locker room, and that Shane realises he barely even registers the background homophobia anymore because he's so used to it. Shane has led the Voyageurs to 3 Cup wins and they keep pushing him harder. He has friends on the team, sure, but he already didn't fit in because he's quiet, boring, doesn't really drink, and being out just added another layer to that. The Voyageurs only value him as one of the best players in the league and it's fine that he's gay only as long as he keeps scoring. He's rapidly developing an eating disorder because he is terrified of not performing at peak capacity, because he is trying to exert control over everything he possibly can to protect himself and his partner. He can't imagine a life where he isn't playing hockey, and he can't imagine a life where he gets to be in a public relationship with Ilya Rozanov and also gets to play hockey. In his mind, this is the best they can have until at the very least Ilya's citizenship is secure and that is the status quo he trying to protect, because in his eyes, the status quo is constantly under threat. From his perspective, the question isn't this or more, it's this or less.
That's why he's so against telling more people and why he can barely handle being in public with Ilya. He's convinced that a single toe out of line is going to be punished, because in many aspects of his life (as a gay man, as a non-white superstar in a very white sport, as a neurodivergent person in a neurotypical environment) that is exactly what happens. His realisation that hiding has negative consequences he can't live with is the push he needs to start being an active participant in his life rather than a good, obedient cog in a machine designed to hold him down.
“You always hear about people thinking X, Y, and Z are gonna solve their issues, and then they get it and nothing’s fixed. But truly, nothing externally gained unfucks your mental state.”
Heyy just a heads up, I think you should look up the term queerbaiting before throwing it around when talking about someone's sexuality 😅
Queerbaiting is a marketing strategy where writers/producers/actors hint at a CHARACTER'S queer sexuality or relationship with another character, without ever confirming it in canon
Shane and Ilya are confirmed queer AND in a confirmed relationship with each other. Not queerbaiting.
Hudson Williams is not a character, he's a real person. Not queerbaiting.
A person can't "queerbait" their own sexuality 😅
As for why people think Hudson is queer:
He has written/produced/starred in queer projects for no pay, and said that "Sexuality is fluid", all of this long before Heated Rivalry, back in college, when no one knew who he was or questioned his sexuality. He just seems to really like being involved in queer art
Both he and Connor had 0 expectations about HR becoming a global phenomenon. They thought: "IF it does well enough in Canada, it MIGHT get streamed in the US too". They both expected to go back to their serving jobs after S1. They took a small pay that they intended to use to make more art (as a matter of fact, as soon as S1 wrapped, HW flew back to Vancouver to help some friends make their movie, and CS went back to LA to work on his own indie movie)
They did not see HR as a cash grab or award bait. They wanted to be involved because they care about the story
Some time ago a person made a video saying "Why are you all shocked by Hudson Williams' digital footprint? He's just your average queer theatre kid", to which Hudson replied "Average? 🤔" taking no issue with the "queer" part
Recently, he said he likes stretch marks on men and women, that he likes body hair but doesn't like treasure trails unless you're "Hairy all over" (usually, it's men that have treasure trails and it's men that are hairy all over their torso). He has also given details on his own grooming habits and advised people do the same "Whether or not you're engaging in anal"
He's also extensively described how attractive Connor is, how big his muscles and butt are, how his triangular torso is "like an arrow pointing at his d*ck", and how "aesthetically pleasing" that is (Connor's comments about Hudson's body remain limited)
He's extremely comfortable talking about Shane's sexuality and sexual preferences, he has no issues with the idea of bottoming, engaging positively with fan comments about having "yearning bottom eyes", describing Shane's face under Ilya as "the happiest he's ever been" and making several comments about having "a hot Russian behind me"
(meanwhile sooo many straight men think bottoming is degrading and emasculating and would never engage so positively with the idea, not even just for a character they play)
It's clear to everyone that Hudson cares deeply about the queer community and queer art (Moonlight and Brokeback Mountain being two of his favorite movies ever). He said Shane helped him come to terms with certain aspects of himself. He talked extensively about how the S1 finale is actually very "bittersweet", because Shane didn't get to come out on his own terms, and his mother still focused on sponsorships, so it wasn't really a reception with "open arms". HR is a small instance of queer joy but it's not ENOUGH for him. He wants more for Shane. He wants something better
The hints are all there for those with eyes to see them, and all the discourse surrounding his sexuality feels EXTREMELY biphobic ("he has pics with girls and an alleged gf, so he must be straight!"). If he's queer, I hope he NEVER feels the need to come out. I hope he never feels that pressure. People obsessing over whether he's straight or queer missed the point of the show imo
But even if he's straight, his behavior is not queerbaiting. He's a damn good ally.
(I won't comment on why people think Connor is queer, other people have already done it and I hate to think about his awful ex 🔫 but Connor has called Hudson his "soulmate", has revealed they share so many niche interests and immediately clicked because of that, because they have similar niche tastes that they've rarely if ever found to have in common with other people; he said that Hudson gets him - literally, when asked to describe his relationship with Hudson, he told him "You get me"; if we accept the idea that Connor is queer as a fact, it's very likely that the soulmate he's clicked with so quickly is also queer... and I haven't even talked about their incredible chemistry! They did their chemistry read over Zoom and Jacob was immediately impressed, and the whole crew knew they had struck gold; one look at show will tell you they were right :))
Thank you for this long explanation!! I think now it's safe to say he's part of the community❤️
I've seen a few quick judgments about Hudson's acting from his short films and personally, I don't think that's fair. Most of them are student films meaning he was ~19 in all of them and he's acknowledged he's grown a lot since then, which he has. Because we literally just saw him in his first real big role as Shane Hollander and he knocked it out of the park. That's why I don't really consider his short films as part of his repertoire... Does that make sense? Not to say that he's not good in them. Just that it vastly differs from being on set with more to work with and an experienced director.
I don't want you guys to pigeonhole him just from that. Let the man prove himself before ya'll start calling him a one-dimensional actor. Literally saw someone say he'd be a Ryan Reynolds type and just play different versions of Shane (because of his voice? or something I don't know) — like excuse me, respectfully, wtf???
The fact that Hudson completely disappears into the role of Shane, to the point that people were baffled by his real life persona, is proof that he has the capability to disappear into any role. Besides, he's barely gotten started and ya'll are already trying to contain him.
I think Hudson is so unbelievably talented. He's an extremely physical actor—the way he's able to embody Shane's micro expressions and rigidity in posture and movement, that's amazing and not easy to do.
Personally, I want him to do a dark comedic role, a totally opposite role of Shane where his movements have to be bigger and louder. Something like Knives Out would be amazing for him.
I will never not love fans dragging Rachel Reid for her poor characterization of Shane Hollander.
I'll be honest. I'm not a fan of the books at all. I only read them because I loved the trailer and it had me so intrigued,the plot, the visuals that I needed to know what the series was about. But I was unimpressed af especially with Shane's character which I have spoken about before. Rachel has the plot down. It's a good plot. But her writing lacks the finesse to portray the nuances of the characters or even the emotions of the scenes. I couldn't feel Shane or Ilya's emotions or felt sympathy towards their pain extensively. I could not feel the yearning. It really felt surface level emotions and smut.
And I guess this is why I love the show so much. Because you see books and shows are different mediums. In books it's the words that should make you feel everything that's going on. The writing needs to be in a manner that you can visual and feel everything,which was absent in the book. This is where Jacob, Hudson and Connor did so well. Hudson and Connor made me feel everything through the acting ,Jacob made the story telling and the visuals so compelling that the story came alive and became everything it should have been.
It's also why from the very beginning Shane and Hudson became my favorite. Ilya was an interesting character. If the writing was a bit better ,he could have easily been one of the most heartbreaking characters in the modern romance genre (I feel like Rachel could have fleshed out his story a bit more, there was so much potential). So Connor had the plot, the materials. And obviously being the fabulous actor he is, he took it up to the next level and then some and made Ilya the character he should have been. Also kudos to Jacob for adding those moments that showed how much Ilya was carrying, his responsibilities, his trauma ,his pain. And again Connor delivered and nailed every single aspect with his acting.
But Shane? His character was so two dimensional and insufferable in the books that I often felt like throwing the book. So Hudson had basically nothing to go on with. But his acting, the way he portrayed Shane ,the way Jacob directed it , it really brought his character alive in a way that felt true. He was not just Ilya's side character anymore. He was the other half of the main protagonist. Shane's confusion,pain,fear dilemma, his identity crisis, his autism, internal homophobia everything, everything was portrayed so beautifully in the series when in reality none of those things were ever really shown or explained in its full potential in the books. Plus the way Hudson portrayed his yearning for Ilya. The way he had this lovestruck expression from episode two and it never went away just clenched my heart. His eyes constantly said things that he never said but we needed to hear.
The point I'm trying to make is ,Shane Hollander is ours now, he belongs to us fans. So I don't care what Rachel says about his characters ,his lack of trauma or whatever. She wrote a half Asian gay character in a predominently white hyper toxic masculine sports and she had zero input about what his struggles could be.
I hope Jacob goes beyond the source material and give his version of Shane and Ilya and expands on their character which addresses their characters as it needs to be. Rachel may have created them, but she still doesn't have a clue how to give them the depth they deserve.
P.S : My disapproval towards Rachel has nothing to do with her gender. All of my favorite writers are women. I'm a fan of romance genre so best believe all I read are the works of women. But as a reader I cannot get behind her works.
Every day I grow more resentful of how much I am forced to hear about Heated Rivalry cast members possible dating lives against my will. I don't want to know cast drama, back to speculating about the fictional characters I care about! Just show me the cute interviews that are actually fun!
Connor's acting is amazing but I always been more impressed with Hudson's acting and Shane as a character. His eye acting is so beautiful. The way he said everything without saying anything is such a beautiful way to portray a character who doesn't verbalize their feelings much.
Not to take away from Connor but I feel like portraying an internal character like Shane and doing those subtle things that hint what they are feeling is a lot more challenging than a character who is very expressive. Hudson deserves his flower too.
Before I get into this topic of conversation let me preface this saying I love both Connor and Hudson and I have literally zero hate towards this cast and series.
However if you don't accept that biasness and racism exists in the industry you are a child and an idiot.
Hudson can't afford to be the elusive ,low key, dedicated ,artistic actor. He just can't. He needs to be out there and charm everyone's pants off, stay relevant, have a constant buzz about himself. If it lands him to be more of an influencer or celebrity than serious actor then that's fine and maybe that's how he will pay his bills. Because name 10 POC actors especially of Asian background who really got to be an A lister actor,you can't. Maybe they got to do that one role that gave them recognition, got them respect and maybe some sort of fame but none of them became a household name, a permanent fixture in the hall of fame.
Connor has the luxury to ignore the noise and lock in and find serious acting roles without playing along the fame game. Thousands of roles will be written for a white actor. He doesn't need to stay visible or use every instrument in the industry to make himself popular. He can afford to just focus on his work and let the work speak for itself. While it's not his fault and neither am I saying he is wrong to do any of it, at the end of the day it's a matter about Connor has the luxury, Hudson just doesn't.
Hudson can try and work twice as hard, try to be twice as visible but still in the upcoming days we will see the the difference in the trajectory of their careers. I hope Hudson doesn't fade away and gets the kind of role he desires but I also know that Connor will climb up the ladder much faster than Hudson ever will. Connor already met Luca who famously never hires a POC male lead and he will meet many more other famous director who will work with him and he will deserve all of it. But even if Hudson deserves it all, the opportunity will come far and few between.
And this is reality. And those of you don't understand this, don't agree with this and try to undermine Hudson's talents and efforts, ya'll can go f yourselves.
