SO, in this setting, the cap exists, and Montreal (the gay hockey capital of the world) doesn't give a shit about the Shane Hollander (gay hockey Jesus) being run out of their team, and in HR Ilya purposely doesn't consider going to Montreal because he wants to be paid what he's worth and keep his captaincy and have his career + citizenship, while in TLG that choice is rewritten as if he did it for "love" only. The first time that Ottawa is brought up as a terrible team is in My Dinner With Hayden, by the way.

And when Shane does the same thing with wanting to stay in Montreal for his career and keep his captaincy - well - you are such a selfish pos for that, ofc; how could you not choose the man you love over being seen as a diversity hire who got too diverse and needed to hide behind your boyfriend, haha.

And obviously Shane didn't go through any actual terrible homophobia from his team until the tripping incident; that's why we don't get a Shane POV of him coming out to the team, or anything about how his coach took it, or the staff in the entire Montreal organization. If there wasn't any big problem, then why is Shane so jumpy about being outed? Well, it's just because he is such a high-strung guy and a bad boyfriend, ofc. Shane doesn't have trauma; only Ilya does (RR said it!), which obviously means that racism and the entirety of Canadian junior hockey doesn't fucking exist in this universe, haha.

It's really not important, after all; Ilya is going through such a terrible time with depression, guys. Shane is holding out on him on purpose to make sure Ilya is suffering as much as possible!! You don't understand; it's not like Shane actively dissociates to ensure that he is able to Get Through the Hard Times. It's not like he believed his boyfriend when Ilya lied to his face and made Shane doubt his own intuition that the signs of his depression were actually a big deal haha.

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RR's list of character traits for Ilya and Shane also contributes to how disgustingly TLG is written btw.

An excellent blog that talks about the sheer insanity of what happens to Shane (and Ilya's characterization) in TLG is @polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup from one of Syn's posts: ["One of the many Rachel Reid controversies around the writing of these books is that she posted a list of character traits that were the core guidelines of writing Shane and Ilya. Most of shane’s traits were just defined as like, the absence of whatever Ilya’s trait was. “Ilya is cool, Shane is not. Ilya carries grief and trauma, Shane does not. Ilya is very intelligent, Shane is not,” etc. Shane got a few actual traits though. One was that he was obsessed with hockey, whereas Ilya was not. He was described as being very private and cautious about letting people in, whereas Ilya seeks intimacy from everyone. And Ilya is extremely perceptive, whereas Shane barely notices his own feelings."]

So, all the signs that Shane was observant enough to catch in HR & TLG whenever Ilya couldn't explain his feelings out loud, but RR needed Shane to figure out how Ilya was feeling, apparently don't matter enough to his characterization because in the second half of TLG, Shane randomly turns unobservant and "stupid". Because Shane is not intelligent, Ilya is. And Shane is not cool; Ilya is. Shane is not selfless; Ilya is. Shane is not white or neurotypical or the author's special little sad boi.

Shane has so few characteristics that are just about him, and not just that he is the absence of Ilya's traits. He gets: love of hockey, love of privacy, being cautious with his trust (which makes it more precious that he gave Ilya his trust - and annoys me when RR uses Hayden as a conflict starter for no reason), and he is characterized as a person who, once he understands exactly what he wants, makes sure it happens.

So in total, we have: hockey lover, privacy lover, cautious dude, go-getter. This is Rachel Reid's Shane Hollander, everybody.

So in a Watsonian analysis: TLG is a fucking mess.

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And Harris being with Troy and doing all that cute PDA together in TLG. How cute it is, especially in front of all of their coworkers and in their professional lives. But ofc Hollanov would be the ones who need a PDA jar in fanfic. right. right. And Shane, Mr. Professional, Mr. I Do Not Want Others To Perceive Me Or My Relationships, would be so not embarrassed of this and super comfy with his husband's team he had to sign with after his entire professional career was blown up because it's his HEA. right.

And also, Troy Barrett definitely never said or agreed with anything racist said around him because it was never written into the books; only homophobia exists in this universe, DUH... which ofc means that there is no reason for Shane to be a little wary of Ilya randomly coming out to Troy in TLG. He is just a jealous little guy haha.

Because Troy (white + rehabilitated image like crazy style) and Harris (white + the one who dedicated his time to rehabilitate Troy's image crazy style) get their HEA after Troy comes out and Harris is promoted.

Because Scott (white + rich) and Kip (white + educated) get their HEA where they are The Gay Couple of hockey.

Because Ryan (white + retired) and Fabian (Lebanese-Canadian + "glamourous") get their HEA after making up and escaping hockey.

(Also, Fabian barely gets any attention to his race either; it's mostly an excuse to have him be “beautiful” and “golden-skinned.”)

Because Eric (white + retired) and Kyle (white + non-hockey) get their HEA after figuring out how to trust each other.

So happy ever afters that are kind to both halves of a couple exist.

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Ilya Rozanov (white with a background apparently excellently researched and written + a known, successful captain who led his former team to the Stanley Cup once and rebuilt Ottawa to proper playoff contenders in 2-3 years) helps each of these couples understand themselves or sees their struggles in a crucial moment several times, as he is characterized as an empath.

And yet, he suddenly lost all of that empathy when he said he was happy his husband's, Shane Hollander (Asian-Canadian + very successful captain who led his team to 3 Stanley Cups), career was blown up, with several jokes being made about it. What the actual fuck happened in RR's fingertips for this bullshit to be written and brushed off because "its just a romance book" & "you shouldn't take things so seriously in this genre."

No. I'm going to take it seriously.

If this book is supposed to be escapism, then who can escape when Shane is hatecrimed and gaslit, Ilya becomes a terrible partner, Hayden is just a plot device to make you think that Ilya has a terrible reputation that no one can use their brain to look through, Galina is a plot device to make Ilya look like he's trying to get better & to put the "would Shane choose you over hockey" question into his head, and JJ is a black man who apparently doesn't understand why his Asian-Canadian captain doesn't want to put more diversity into his image???

And @lesbianroselandry had a great July 4 post where they said TLG "...includes multiple passages in which rachel reid posits that a bunch of white queer people understand bigotry in hockey culture better than a qpoc in hockey (because he's, like, too autistic to get it or something??),..." which also brings me back to Ilya for some reason (*cough* RR *cough*) thinks that Shane doesn't understand the dark side of hockey.

Pardon? Shane Hollander, who grew up as Canada's golden Hockey Jesus, doesn't know the dark side of Canadian Hockey? Just fucking kill me already.

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Shane Hollander did not get a HEA by the end of TLG, and no one will be able to brainwash me into thinking that he did. He can be written to tell himself to accept that what he got is the best he can get in the book-universe, but he is not a person - he is a character. I am a person who can read everything in that series and think critically about how the minority character - who is in a rivalry and relationship with the white man who benefits from his slashed career - is the one who got cheated out of a HEA. Because even in a fucking unrealistic universe where hockey doesn't work like that, racism fucking prevails. He is the one who had to settle. He is the one who didn't get what he wanted (his jersey in the rafters, his team supporting him, and Ilya as his husband). He gets a paltry fate as a second-liner, with a rookie and Tanner Dillon (who has been said to suck as a winger). He gets jokes about how he'll never get the C, even though he will always have more Cups than the fucker who laughed at that joke. He doesn't even get the A. Are you kidding me? His pay is cut. "Good thing that your husband can take care of you as the breadwinner 😂" No. Absolutely not. Shane is literally being forced into the wife role. He is being destroyed in his career, moving to his husband's gay utopia where they laugh at him too, and whenever he brings up feeling a bit sad, his empathetic husband talks about fucking the bad feelings out of him. What the fuck.

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Also?

SHANE IS A GREAT CAPTAIN. No, he isn't written as someone screaming speeches at his team to hype them up, but you know what he did do? He is trusted and liked by his team, so he is invited out again and again, despite however many times he declines. He is a hard worker, diligent, particular, and a great hockey player who elevates the game. He put together a team of large egos, mostly white teammates who undoubtedly gave him a hard time, dealt with an old-fashioned coach, and dragged them to the playoffs every year he was a captain. He is Ilya Rozanov's equal on every level, at minimum, not just what people want to pick and choose from.

No, the fact that Shane's teammates turned on him doesn't mean he didn't cultivate enough good-fucking-will in the locker room. It means they were homophobic enough to betray the person who toiled over their progress and work ethic and brought them to a level of excellence that got them 3 fucking Cups. Stop blaming the gay guy for the homophobia of the people around him. Parents will abandon their children on the streets, send their children to conversion camps, and allow their children to be raped or tortured because of homophobia. The Montreal Voyageurs loved Shane Hollander when they thought he was a great leader and straight. They allowed their homophobia to destroy that. If loving someone enough could stop homophobes, then the fucking closet wouldn't be a thing. Stop acting like Shane was in the wrong for any of that, including trusting the men he loved like family for 10 years.

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I have so much more to say (not even including side character 😭, and especially about how Yuna is also turned into a plot device to make Shane look super selfish after Ryan Price catches Shane & Ilya, but I'm actually steaming right now, so I'll reblog this with more when I can.

A final word would be that @ravenbytes had a great take in her March 26 post (you can tell just how long I've been chewing on this idea lol), where she said that, "We can’t simply forget that the Doylist perspective exists, and it is crucial that we consider that perspective before ripping a character to shreds for their mistakes. As such, the author has a responsibility to their story to ensure narrative clarity, consistency, and coherence in theme, tone, and character alongside plot progression."

The book can be fun and/or impactful for any reader who isn't bothered by the bigotry or implicit biases of the author. For me, this is like talking about Harry Potter and how JKR very obviously names her POC characters with the most racist option "on accident." If RR isn't racist, then she can at least admit that her subconscious is driving the wheel and crashing her writing into every fucking racist stereotype.

Dear Heartstopper readers,

The Heartstopper webcomic’s first update dropped on September 1st 2016. Today, on April 11th 2026, the story has concluded.

I don’t quite know how to put all of my feelings into one letter. Heartstopper means more to me than words can express, but I’ll try my best.

Heartstopper has defined the past decade of my life. It started as a fun side project and quickly grew into something much bigger, eventually becoming my career. Despite that huge and unexpected change, making the Heartstopper comic feels the same to me as it did on day one. When I sit down to make Heartstopper, I feel at peace. When the world feels so scary and difficult, I have been able to return to Heartstopper, and everything feels okay again for a little while. 

Nick and Charlie first appeared as supporting characters in my first novel, ‘Solitaire’. In Solitaire, Nick and Charlie represent the idea that hope, love, joy and connection can persist and thrive despite the trials and tribulations of being alive. So maybe it’s ironic that Nick and Charlie have come to represent this in my own life. They have brought me joy. They have given me purpose. They have given me everything, really. And I’m so grateful for every moment I have spent with them.

Heartstopper is profoundly special to me. Which makes it extremely hard to say goodbye.

But it is time. I always knew that Nick going to university would be the end point of the story. And despite how sad I am to be bidding farewell to these characters, I am so, so proud and excited to have made it to the end and concluded the story exactly the way I wanted to.

Any webcomic creator can tell you that making a webcomic requires a heavy amount of determination and endurance. To draw a page almost every day for the past ten years has required a lot of sacrifice and a lot of energy. But every moment was worth it. And now that it is complete, Nick and Charlie’s story can be experienced from beginning to end, for the rest of forever.

I wouldn’t have made it here alone. From the very start, Heartstopper’s readers have offered so much support, love, community, conversation, and enthusiasm. Knowing that there are people out there who love these characters just like I do has given me the strength to keep going. I’ve also had the support of many colleagues, friends, and family members, who’ve all helped in different ways at various points in the past decade. Thank you so, so much to everyone who has been here for the journey. 

I have no idea what I’ll make next. For now, I’m taking a break. And I know that Nick and Charlie won’t simply vanish. I expect I will always return to drawing them and writing about them, probably in smaller ways, for the rest of my life, as long as my body allows.

Nick and Charlie will forever be in my heart, hand in hand on a beach somewhere.

Thank you, everyone.

Lots of love,