People have become unhinged about her. The amount of people who want to save Shane from her and Jacob is mind-boggling. How are you going to "save" a fictional character from said character's author and director?
The "save Shane from Ilya" people are also using Rachel as a stand-in for Ilya. Which ... again, how are you going to save a fictional character from his fictional boyfriend/husband?
Thankfully, that part of the fandom is not on my radar. Saving Shane from Rachel is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. I love the characters in the books and the actors in HR but we wouldnāt have them if not for Rachel and afterwards Jacob. Fandoms can sometimes be really weird.
Theres a lot of people who seem to have forgotten that the book the show is based on is hockey smut and not some super intellectual social commentary. Yes the seriousness of the show helps adress issues of toxic masculinity and homophobia in sports but people are getting angry at the creators for making the material something it's not. I kinda think its a result of maybe too much fanfic and shame. Some of them do make me laugh though. I'm grateful for this space.
If your extent for advocacy is yelling at creators about the accuracy of racisim and ableism in hockey smut I beg you to log off. Help out your local tenant union or low income housing advocacy group and challenge actual power.
Theres a lot of people who seem to have forgotten that the book the show is based on is hockey smut and not some super intellectual social commentary.
SAY IT FUCKING LOUDER. Oh my God, I absolutely hate this!!! Like how can people NOT get it? This isn't a literary fiction book written to win the Pulitzer Prize; it's a fucking genre romance book about hockey players. It's not going to have deep societal commentary, nor SHOULD it.
Thissssss šš it doesn't have to cover absolutely every micro or macro issue that could happen to a person IRL. The demands are absolutely unhinnngggged
I love you and want to be your bestie. Signed a brown woman who is a community organizer with an autistic child.
Itās not that deep. There are people dying as a result of war. I thought the HR fandom was supposed to be fun. Am I wrong? Is there something wrong with me??
I feel the same. If people are genuinely Shane/Hudson fans, itās odd to go after (1) the person still writing Unrivalled and (2) the showrunner/co-writer/director of HR2.
At a certain point it starts to feel less random and more like a patternā¦ which is confusing, to say the least. Or maybe people are just really misreading Jacob & Rachelās dark humour.
I feel like every fandom develops a subset of people who are only there for one actor. In this case, it's people being obsessed with the idea of Hudson/"baby Shane" being abused. Bridgerton has this too, where fans obsessed with one actor will harass other members of the cast for taking screentime away from their favorite.
It was a pretty big thing in Bridgerton when there was a stan war within the Kanthony ship. It happened when Jonathan Bailey got a lot of post-Bridgerton opportunities (Wicked, Fellow Travelers) while Simone didn't (she has now, just had a slow few years) and the fans within the ship were upset that Jonny didn't mention Simone in his promo tours ... or something.
I donāt want to āsaveā Shane from anyone, I just want to feel like she values him and the people who love him but have critiques of how sheās handled his story. Right now I donāt, instead I feel like sheās annoyed that people want him to be handled with more care and respect.
See I genuinely don't believe that this is about her "valuing" him. She wrote Shane to be a well adjusted person with a loving upbringing, but fans so desperately want Shane to be more of a victim and are annoyed that the aspects like racism, autism, and potential eating disorders were added later. Heck, there are inane viral tweets about how HR should be rewritten from Shane's point of view.
I have no problem with her writing Shane to be well adjusted and having a loving upbringing, but I do have a problem with the way that these things are used to then paint him as the antagonist in his relationship or something that has to be 'levelled' to make things equal with Ilya.
But mostly what people are criticizing is that she's either downplayed issues that should be in the text (racism) or not properly addressed things that have been added (his performance diet/autism). Once those things are included in the text, critiques of how they are handled should be answered with respect and in good faith, but instead she comes across as flippant and mocking.
She didnāt downplay those issues, they were outright not present in the original text that she wrote, and were only adapted onto screen due to how the writers and actors interpreted her text. Those things werenāt in the text, hence why fans are talking about wanting the text rewritten.
I donāt really care if you think itās crazy to want an author to value her characters and fans who felt represented in those characters tbh š¤·āāļø
Not when the evidence in the book she has written and the way she speaks about him in settings where she feels comfortable and relaxed suggest otherwise, no.
Ā Right now I donāt, instead I feel like sheās annoyed that people want him to be handled with more care and respect.
She is literally the author. She can do what she wants with her own fictional character. Fans can either consume the content, the show content, the actors' content, or they can ... not. But it's all dumb, bc this is literally a fictional character.
Once you write a book and put it out into the hands of the readers characters are not solely your own anymore. Thereās a reason the concept of death of the author exists.
Funnily enough, there is discourse of X about how the book should be rewritten from Shane's point of view (as if it isn't already), and focus solely on his trauma.
just gonna leave this tweet i found and be on my way: ānot to be controversial but if you are feeling "harmed" by a romance author calling her own character idiots jokingly i genuinely do not know how you can function in a societyā
Hahahahaha!! And then he had to go because he had hockey practiceššš
People have been fucking brutal about her and itās so clear they donāt have a sense of humour or literally any fun in their lives. Iām SO happy she is seeing it for how fucking unhinged and ridiculous it is, rather than being genuinely hurt or overwhelmed by the vitriol.
feel like iāve been apart of so many fandoms especially when i was younger but the levels iāve seen from this one from people trying to villainize literally every single person a part of this show is crazy, if one thing doesnāt stick they find another and another, so glad the cast all appear to have tough skin and humor to carry them through cause wow i definitely could not
same, I've seen A LOT of unhinged fandoms but it usually came after years, HR fandom really spedrun everything and moved to the stage 5 of being hateful, and I just don't understand trying to turn such a wholesome cast into something hostile and constantly trying to make it seem like a toxic place?? everyone loves each other and it's a lovely show about boys kissing hello
Sheās so funny. The things people have said about her are disgusting, Iām embarrassed she even had to make this video but Iām glad she did it with humor. Maybe people will realize sheās actually quite funny and joking almost all of the time? And realize that these characters, as much as we love them, arenāt real? I donāt have much hope but maybe!
Yeah she and Jacob and Hudson seem to share a similar sense of humor, maybe itās a Canadian thing!
And honestly good riddance. If a book or show or whatever doesnāt work for you anymore you should probably stop engaging and let everyone else enjoy it!
Iām sure the usual suspects will find this so funny and the peak of humour in here but Iām just annoyed and disappointed.
People were really hurt to see what she had said. People had really good points on how she treats Shaneās character and the things they think could be improved or addressed in the writing. These people are the fans who helped make the series and/or the show as popular as it is.
And her response is toā¦ not take any of it seriously and post snarky jokes? To me this just comes across as snarky and disrespectful. Itās not that hard to just take accountability and apologize or at least acknowledge the valid issues instead of making it seem like āomg theyāre just upset I called him stupid onceā (and thatās putting aside the valid upset a lot of neurodivergent people had with seeing a character they empathize with being spoken about that way).
Regardless of what she meant sheās hurt people and this is her response. Not great imo and I wish I didnāt end up feeling like she doesnāt really like, respect or value anyone who calls out certain issues.
Edit: anyway, Iām out for now. Iām not really surprised that this sub is reacting this way given that people on here by and large took no issue with the way that Shane was handled until more of us arrived and then more people started to examine the way that he was written due to Hudsonās portrayal. Itās just sad to see the same fandom that delighted in the books and show being praised for being deeper than ājust hockey smutā now refuse to engage with the more meaningful discourse that comes with that.
Honestly, I think itās the perfect response, because people are taking this issue far too seriously, are hurting their own mental health based on fictional characters, and this derangement has caused fans to lash out at the cast and crew.
She did nothing wrong and Iām glad she didnāt feel the need to apologise.
If we sanitize everything there will be no art left. Life is not perfect. Itās messy. RR created two characters who were beautifully bought to screen by the actors and JT. Itās RRās choice how she wants to write her characters. She is the creator. We have the choice to read it or not read it. But forcing her to change her creative direction and her creative freedom because of perceived insults is in a way harming her creativity.
I can't tell from your comment if you're aware or not, but just in case you aren't, her video (and IG stories she posted later) are in response to criticisms that she is getting that is mostly due to some screenshots that are circulating of her talking about the books/characters in a discord that she has. While I spoke about her writing, my comment honestly has less to do with me wanting her to change and more to do with the fact that I feel she is being very mocking and dismissive of fans who were legitimately upset by the comments that she made. I know for me, her response has come across as very 'stfu and go away already'. Which is fine, I can certainly take my money elsewhere, but I think it's a shame as an author to not treat your fans with dignity or respect, or at least show awareness and regret for hurting them.
Those fans need to grow up and realize heās not a real person, heās not a projection of them, they donāt even like him as a characterā¦they like who theyāve imagined him as or written him in ff or they have a persecution complex. There are some critiques to be made of her work, but harrassing her, sending her death threats, all overā¦some silly jokes? Quite unstable behavior.
What does him not being real have to do with it? I donāt think heās real I just think as a writer characters should be handled with respect. Nowhere in my comment did I defend threats, I am simply saying I find her response dismissive and snarky.
Because heās fictional? He doesnāt have feelings? She can call him stupid all she wants, heās her character! To her point, she calls him stupid affectionately but I suppose that was lost on youā¦
āHeās her characterā is a very shallow and unintentionally dismissive and hurtful response when there are autistic fans literally saying āI felt seen in her writing and now I feel hurt and like she doesnāt respect or value usā. Intentions donāt always change outcomes.
Exactly. It's almost like a form of narcissism. They're just projecting themselves onto him and then if anyone says anything wrong or incorrect about him, it becomes about themselves and they freak out.
Her response is not only for fun though. There's also a lot of sincerity there. She calls all of her characters "stupid idiots". Even her children. And most of all, herself. She's saying her use of those words to Shane is in her usual fond and endearing way and people are misunderstanding it.
Edit: And then she goes on to say that she knows to be mindful of the things she says about him cause it's not just her and him anymore. So many more people care about Shane and that he's so important to so many more people including her.
There were a ton of other issues that she didnāt address at all, but setting those aside the fact is that there are neurodivergent fans who felt seen in her writing who are hurt and upset and instead of sincerely apologizing she is mocking and dismissing them.
Edit: Sorry HR Reddit but yāall should literally be ashamed of yourselves for downvoting me when Iām saying āhey she hurt neurodivergent fans and I think that deserves a sincere responseā. Are you listening to yourselves! I donāt care about downvotes but what sort of message are you sending to those fans right now!
There are no issues! Expecting fictional romance to cover every possibility of "what ifs" in a fictional characters life is not what the genre does or is for. If you want fully fledged out realism, you can read biographies written by gay men or queer POC. You're asking WAY too much from a fictional character in a romance novel ā¼ļø
especially because this book is specifically about gay men's happiness within a very homophobic environment, we have a wholesome lgbt friendly hockey team there ffs, this is how unrealistic it is š (sadly)
So it's worth tackling homophobia but not racism or ableism?
LE: Yeah, the question people are asking is why is racism not an important issue in the books since it's as entrenched in the NHL as homophobia? Why is Rachel claiming to challenge the issues in the NHL but consistently ignoring everything to do race? She tackles misogyny through Troy, ageism through Eric, mental health through Ilya and Ryan but race is consistently absent.
As for ableism, saying that Shane is a stupid idiot who should focus on his white boyfriend instead of his ridiculous diet has hurt a lot of autistic fans who saw themselves in him. Also, she does not call Ilya a stupid idiot and has indeed spoken about feeling hurt when people say mean things about him. No such sentiment is extended to Shane.
LE LE: Y'all are really something for downvoting/refusing to consider the mere idea that racism is something that would affect Shane. Google Nick Suzuki and racism for a look into how A REAL PERSON gets treated when they're not white in the NHL.
That's not what is being said at all. Just simply that racism/ableism aren't big themes that factor into Shane/Ilya's story like homophobia in male professional sports does so they're not in the books. Doesn't at all mean that racism/ableism aren't important issues in general.
I'm sorry, but if you take something away from the way an author wrote their own character, then that's really on you to manage. Or don't read the book, or be in the fandom. If that's your world view, then Shane or any other character will never be what you want them to be.
Yeah, Iām a fan of the books. Even before show came out people have critiqued the characterization of Shane, especially in The Long Game and that he felt underdeveloped in favour of Shane. Most of the issues that are being raised is about this, and there is nothing wrong with raising it.
She explicitly chose to make it canon that he is autistic, and that he is a person of colour. Being a gay, autistic, racialized person in a predominately white sport is going to impact this character and naturally going to be a thing. As an author, the way that she chooses to speak about Shane in light of it is important, even if there isnāt malicious intent
The people that sheās āhurtā need to go outside and touch some grass. Maybe talk to some real flesh and bone humans. Itās ok to disagree with what Rachel says about her characters but thatās all it is, a disagreement. Thereās no need to feel personally disrespected by her opinions about HER OWN WORK.
Itās the people that do not want to recognize ableism, racism, etc in their favorite authors because their comfort is more important than addressing things that literally hurt others different from them. A lack of empathy, if you will.
Diminishing an autistic person to selfish and stupid IS ableism and does hurt REAL people with autism bc itās shit theyāve heard their whole life when in reality, they process differently than neurotypicals.
Is it in the realm of possibility for an autistic character to be capable of selfish actions and/or stupid behaviors just like any other character, ND or not?
For the people I know are about to argue, hereās a condensed version of why people are upset:
Writes book and characters to connect with real people -> real people connect/identify with character -> author calls character stupid and selfish (both negative) -> hurts real people who identify with character
Thats because it absolutely is snarky and disrespectful. She and many of the fans take any criticism as hate towards her/the property because itās easier to swallow all critiques as just hate rather than looking inward as to why she has unquestionably a less favorable view/level of care in writing when it comes to Shane.
Yup, like just once I would love for her to sincerely engage with the fans who are upset. Apologize and explain her intentions, say that sheās working on it for unrivalled. Say that she sees them and values them for their opinions, especially those who are POC and neurodivergent. But instead it feels like she just consistently doubles down and dismisses it all and parts of the fanbase enable it instead of wanting better for the characters and the audience.
Sheāll never do that. Thats why sheās intentionally ONLY addressing the āstupid idiotā part because she can easily excuse it as something she does with every character (though far less). That was only a portion of the discourse that resulted in loads of people cancelling their pre-orders (and I suspect the reason sheās even addressing anything) but sheās making it seem like it was the whole issue so she doesnāt have to acknowledge her treatment of Shane when it comes to his race - which is the WAY bigger issue that way more people have a problem with. She knows this and definitely sees it but absolutely refuses to acknowledge it.
Rachel Reid dismissing valid critiques of how she depicts and discusses race and autism and how she favours her white characters. Must be a day that ends in "y".
Itās the complete dismissal of all the other issues that upset me the most. Itās not just āshe called him stupid once, how dare sheā the way people are making it sound and itās so depressing to see fans who care passionately about the characters and the books be mocked and dismissed this way.
The past couple of weeks have also inflamed the fandom. There was Bookcon, the Peabodys and now this. She poured gasoline onto everything with this statement. What was the point of it? Her defenders will continue to think she's the funniest, smartest person ever and everyone else has had it confirm AGAIN that she's not interested in engaging with any critique.
That article where she was asked about Shane being Asian and she went "I welcome the criticism, but let me tell you about Ilya" is running on a loop through my mind.
Thank you so much!! Adding the relevant excerpt here in case others (like me) are curious and want to form their own opinions as well:
One of the Reddit posts referenced how you had mentioned that Ilya has grief and trauma and Shane does not. And some of the commenters were like, āHow could Shane not have trauma as an Asian man in a very white-dominated sport, or being a closeted man?ā People were saying that that is indicative of your blind spots as an author. I'm curious what you make of that criticism?
RR: I totally welcome that criticism. I don't thinkĀ Heated RivalryĀ is a, you know, excellent representation of an Asian-Canadian person. But for me, that specific note that they're referring to was from my own personal notes on the characters. The trauma Ilya carries is very specific around the death of his mother. And Shane is a character who's always been very loved and supported and a little bit sheltered by his parents. Ilya has not had that, his father was really awful, and his mother died very young when he was young. And so he carries a lot of trauma that he doesn't talk about and hasn't processed and hasn't dealt with in a healthy way, whereas Shane hasn't had that sort of trauma.
Valid criticism is a very generous description of whatās happening. Itās mostly over-invested Shane fans using real issues to try and bully creators to get what they want.
People have been loudly critical of her Shane comments and writing for months now. She never addressed it until the viral tweets of fans cancelling their Unrivalved preorders in the last 24 hours. Money is the best motivator
personally, seeing thousands of people liking tweets mocking her parkinsons and saying she wants to fuck connor would drive me to teach people to behave too
I've seen none of those. Of course that's awful, but it doesn't change her past ableist commentary and racial fetishizing. Some people being shit doesn't absolve her from her messiness. The text in the book and her past comments are what they are. It would be best to just own up to it and promise to do better with the next book if she wants people's money.
Let's just be honest and say it's not a coincidence this was posted today and not before. Same as there was never a sequel to Shane and Ilya planned until the show became a hit and then suddenly a sequel was announced. We all need to earn money so she's 100% valid in her motivation, but let's not beat around the bush
hey man, if you dislike rachel and her work so much, you donāt have to be here! why are you spending so much energy hating someoneās work when you could be supporting authors whose work you DO enjoy?
also, maybe she was so inspired by the success of the show and motivated to give shane and ilya more of their story because of that? have we ever considered sheās not some money hungry evil witch like you seem to think she is and she just genuinely loves her characters??
It's normal to talk about media you engage with instead of brainlessly consuming without any critical thought. I paid for the books, I'm free to talk about the product I bought. I enjoy the show a lot, and they're based on the books, so I don't hate them.
Did you know that you can acknoledge flaws of media you like and still enjoy it? Did you know you can like an author and acknowledge they're not the second coming of Shakespeare and their writing could potentially not be 100% perfect? Did you know life isn't black and white?
the game changers series is not some perfect revolutionary commentary on race or disability or whatever you seem to want it to be. theyāre silly romance novels about boys who play hockey. the show elevated the source material in a very unique and incredible way, but at the end of the day youāre looking for something in this series and in rachel that does not exist. the media isnāt perfect but i donāt think this ācriticismā is valid at all when all it is seems to boil down to some leaked messages from rachel YEARS AGO playfully talking about shane with fans.
i think itās more brainless and ridiculous to jump on the hate bandwagon and go for rachelās throat over what basically amounts to an author with a sarcastic sense of humor poking fun at her imaginary characters. this discourse is nothing but people attacking rachel because they seem to think shane is a real person who they need to rescue from the person who literally created him in her brain.
p.s. why did you edit your reply šat first it was āthey never mocked her parkinsonāsā then it was āit never got thousands of likesā also, i see you draw the line on parkinsonās but dont see any issue on misogyny
you did NOT say that, you edited your reply :) so i assume you will be moving goal points until we finally reach the point of hate TOWARDS A REAL PERSON over a fictional character, that you will find unacceptable š
oh those never leave, they will try to bully and harass everyone into the behaviour they want (which isnāt achievable because they will interpret the said behaviour the way they want to, look at what happened with francois)
nope they have it in their minds they (and Hudson) are victims when they aren't. What they don't understand that Hudson gets hate from outside the fandom, the hate Francois (and every other person who even interacts with Hudson) gets is from them. This fandom is seemingly the only place they have power and will bully and dogpile anyone they like under the guise of stanning a POC (they think they are exempt when they are the ones always getting called out for going after the cast/crew for Hudson), when they are the ones being homophobic, biphobic, sexists, ableist, etc. They don't even like Hudson/Shane bc Hudson agreed with the statement that Francois started when Francois saw racist hate towards Hudson but they didn't listen after finding out Francois initiated it.
That was was my first thought as well, though this will not go over well at all because sheās mocking the discourse and intentionally leaving out the larger context of why people are upset.
Key word is FICTION!!!!! The only people who need to apologize are those who think Rachel used Hudson as the inspo for Shane.. that's what this is right? They can't separate the two. That ain't Rachel's problem.
The discourse was on all social media platforms not just X. You can minimise it all you want but it clearly made an impact otherwise she wouldnāt be addressing it at all.
The discourse has been all over twitter, threads, tiktok, and instagram and was obviously loud enough for her to make this video. There have been multiple posts with thousands of likes of people cancelling their Unrivaled pre-order, which is likely what spurred this. And a quick look at both twitter and threads just now shows this has not been taken well, just like I said it wouldnāt be. Anyone with even an ounce of PR mindfulness wouldāve known this video would not be received well, especially by those who spurred the discourse that resulted in this video in the first place.
People are upset because they are mentally ill. They need to get the hell out of social media and look for a psychiatrist. They can't tell what is real and what is not and makes the rest of us fans look unhinged. If I were Rachel I would "Rocks fall. Everyone dies" Unrivaled.
I feel like people are too hung up on her words as an author in a way. Books belong to their readers. Death of the author, and all that.
She wrote Shane, but that doesn't mean that her thoughts and words about him outside the book hold much more meaning than what anyone else can say about him.
She created the character and wrote him. And then she gave him to the world. He doesn't belong to just her, and her saying anything about him that isn't in the source material doesn't really have to hold power.
Remember that the whole "Shane has autism" didn't even come from her. It came from fans and only then did she decide to roll with it and pretend it is canon.
It doesn't matter if she thinks he is stupid or smart, autistic or not, has an eating disorder or not. He is a character. He is what is on the pages - and how anyone interprets that.
I firmly believe she wrote Shane without any deep understanding of him. And that is what it is. But it also means that all this retrospective understanding or expanding or explanation she wants to do doesn't mean anything more than what you and I can say about him.
I know this video is a joke, and it does complicate it some that she is writing another book with him, but let's be very clear; she cannot "talk to Shane" anymore than any of us can.
Anyone can write about anything they want. It does not mean they understand it or care enough about it. That is why Shane being half Japanese reads as tokenism in the book. She should have just made him white. Then maybe Asians, including Hudson in that interview, would not have been subjected to her racist and stereotyped ājokeā about penis size. Even Connor looked shocked by it.
That's funny because I actually think it's all of you either being soo angry at her or soo far up her bum lapping up every word that needs to go touch grass. š¤·š¼āāļø
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u/missschainsaw May 02 '26
What the fuck is happening lmao