#freakingrambles

In terms of both separate and together, people have put these two boys under a HEAVY microscope— not the classic “scrutinize everything” but a microscope of what feels like borderline obsession. People are NOTICING incredibly small details about them— both together and separately— which usually isn’t too bad. But, they’re taking this and running miles and miles. Example: When Mack or Will do interviews, people use their facial expressions (such as lighting up) as some kind of “see! They are in love!” I will see constant posts of the same regurgitated ideas, over and over and over again— until the concept is worn out completely. When WillMack are together, people notice how close they stand to one another— and, once more, post over and over and over. When the conversation gets intensely repetitive, fixated on small shifts in demeanor, it becomes concerning and borderline parasocial.

Another strange obsession is the fact that people are heavily invested in what they post on Instagram— who likes the others post within this time frame, who posts who. They’ll talk themselves into circles, hyping up the fact that Will liked Mack’s post within five minutes— or that Will posted Mack in a single photo or, god forbid, DIDN’T. It’s strange to me, to be so fixated on two people that things like that matter more than the simple basic “yeah will liked Mack’s post real fast.” People are turning it into some kind of sign that the two of them are obsessed, jealous and possessive of each other— which, while one can argue a possibility, cannot be proven by the difference Instagram activity. And people need to realize that. It can’t even be proven by their natural inclination to hang around each other or score hockey goals with the other’s assist (which, claiming a goal was done in some kind of act of possessiveness, in of itself, is another strange phenomenon).

I, as a gay man, very STRONGLY dislike the way that Heated Rivalry fans have been affecting everything they fucking touch- the world and the hockey fandom. Many have a lack of decorum that borderlines on fetishizing, if not IS, and its seeped into so much.

I already knew from the get go that some of the fans were going to be a little... interesting. In of itself, the book the show was based off of was OBVIOUSLY made for straight women. Theres already many things to be said about writing queer stories for non-queer audiences, especially overtly and overly sexual ones (usually for the purpose of getting those said straight women to kick their feet and giggle). But, thats a story for another day. On top of that, fan bases aren't always affected by intent or reason of the author.

Yet, the seeming borderline fetishization carried on into the fan base. One of the first introductions to the show that I had was a SLEW of posts, all by different creators, about how hot the sex scenes were and basically NOTHING else. This immediately had me a little off put- sure, the media was doomed to be very sexual but ONLY sex? Many of the fans also spoke about it in ways that were... strange. They claimed it brought back their "fujoshi", a japanese term coined for women who consume and enjoy mlm media, which felt incredibly strange- why SUDDENLY have an interest in male queer media? Why feel the need to announce that, alongside how hot and sexy the scenes were? How fat Ilya ass is?

As well, many of the fans were over-babying Shane, a symptom of queer stereotyping. The more "submissive" man is more UwU / baby-core and unable to do anything. To me, it felt like the straight women who this show were targeted towards were kinda... missing the mark. Sure, while Shane is the softer of the two, he's certainly not INNOCENT. He's actively seen having sex. He's a GROWN MAN and is treated as such. Yet, many of the fans just couldn't seem to see that- likely because they were too focused on the soft-core p/rn that they didn't realize that they were actively stereotyping Shane as they typed away.

Through this show giving light to queer men, with a emphasis on the enjoyment of straight women, queer men are getting overly sexualized by women who cannot conceive that what they are doing is WEIRD. They're stereotyping multiple of the characters based on sexuality and obsessing over queer sex, in ways that they wouldn't do if it was a straight couple. I didn't even see anyone talking about anything other than sex until WEEKS after people actually started to talk about it. People are reinforcing to themselves, and others, that queerness is NOT something that should be treated with the normalcy of other relationships- they're reinforcing that queer relationships are, almost, for the viewers pleasure and not for the actual lovers. Queer love is not a show, not entertainment, but they're treating it as such. Even going so far as to spread out into queer spaces to try and find queer love to watch as entertainment, while also actively silencing said queer voices when this is brought to attention.

These fans have begun to be problematic in the hockey sphere now too. Instead of interacting with these athletes like they are human, they're posting comments asking about "when do they kiss?" and asking if they're in relationships. This is incredibly strange. Sure, many people engage in a little RPF- a little hehehaha about "omg they're so dating!". But it gets to a point. If someone is actively posting that where the people they're talking about can SEE it... thats weird. No one is logging onto AO3 and looking up their name and expecting cute little posts about how good they did last game. But, they also aren't expecting to open a tiktok comment section and have people talking about how they wanna watch them make out. As well, its over and over and over and over and over again. It's constant! These athletes cannot seem to be doing anything OTHER than being with every person they look at a little fondly. This is reinforcing the fact that men cannot have genuine, especially close, friendships without being in a relationship. THATS WEIRD. Especially because it happens to mostly ATTRACTIVE players- like Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini.

It feels, in some way, like these fans are weaponizing queerness to fulfill fantasies. They don't actually want people to come out and be gay- they just want to watch two hot men kiss. They don't want the ugly guy on some random ass team, the one with three missing teeth, to actually wanna kiss a boy. They want the HOT ones to do it. Again, this is only emphasizing queerness as something to be entertained by- NOT something that is so truly genuine and real. This mentality also harms the NHL too. It could push players away from fans and each other. It could breed discontentment and anger for new fans, both within the player base and the fandom, start people actively trying to be "less gay". Less friendly, less obvious with any kind of emotion that isn't just "rah! i man!". This could cause pushback of a "need to be more masculine so im NOT gay" mentality, which is really bad.

In society, the requirements of masculinity is harmful to everyone. It stops men from expressing mental health, from being open or friendly, but it also just justifies the present harmful behaviors that men do- lets them get away with it on the basis of "hes a man" or "boys will be boys". People NEED to realize that friendship does not equal GAY! This has been a problem for a while but has only gotten worse now that people are consuming Heated Rivalry and not giving the show its proper breath.

On top of that, because of Heated Rivalry, people are... being WEIRD fans. Recently, someone got hit on the ice and had to get stretchered off- a HORRIFIC thing. Yet, people kept on mentioning Ilya ("omg what is Ilya gonna do? / Ilya's gotta fight him now!.")... WHAT THE FUCK. Dawg, this is a real person with real feelings and real injuries. What happened to "Omg what happened?" or "Omg I hope he's okay, that looked scary". Why must be mention Heated Rivalry right now? Theres a time and a place- do you have NO decorum? Any sense of decency? It's incredibly weird to mention such a thing, to try and connect a completely fictional injury to a real life person who is now dealing with real life consequences.

in general, the fact that the NHL admin is giving people these spaces is harmful because it can lead to people to truly believe WillMack are dating and that they have any kind of claim to the players lives. the NHL admin represents the NHL- by letting people borderline RPF and FUEL THE FLAMES, they're making it genuinely seem like they are dating or simply that the NHL admin believes so too. this will make people feel like they have rights to players personal information- if anything, whats not more personal that a queer relationship in a homophobic sport? when people feel they have a right to information, it may lead to things like the stalking situation a few months (?) ago- when the person chased down Will's elevator and made some snide comments about him "going to Mack's room" on twitter/X after. sure, there might not be as dramatic and direct effects such as that- but no matter what, they're still allowing space for those who may end up falling down this path. they're also allowing space for possible fetishizers and people who don't have the greatest intentions (ie stalking...) to continue to populate the fandom (which also will only bring more hate to new people in the fandom). it's very much a risk that the NHL admin is obviously either ignoring or not caring about. they're trying desperately to cling onto what is intriguing, but instead of creating genuine content (like NHL euro admin or other team's admins) they're actively profiting off of queerness and off of people's wish to see queer people represented.

Heated Rivalry (yes I'm beating this dead horse) fans might lack SPORT fandom etiquette because some are treating hockey like an extension of HR- a fictional media that requires much less care when talking about it. Saying "when do they kiss?" about characters in media is fine but NOT fine when they're real. The HR fans are mixing the two types of fandom etiquette up, or not processing that they're different.

Lowkey, as much as I hate it, the Sharks defense DO NEED a revamp. Do I think giving everybody up now to get better D-men is a bit too late and at the worst time ever? YES. They should have done it earlier, when the defense was showing holes mid-season (or something along those lines). Not right before a crazy break and so close to the end. It's really not the smartest decision made...

I lowkey think people talk too much about ONLY willmack... yeah like they're cute and all but sometimes it feels like people lose track of anyone else on the sharks. sometimes it does get to a point- maybe my algorithm is just doodoo but theres some days where all i get is willmack willmack willmack and not anyone else (like asky, graf or eklund). it also feels like people become too obsessed with RPFing every small thing they do into some mythical magical shit. yes, sometimes they say things and are always seen around each other, but sometimes people just play it up WAY too much. this isn't to say NO WILLMACK. I like willmack, but I think some just take it too far.

people deserve to be disappointed in the fact that their favorite player is not the best person. I've seen people try to diminish someones emotions by stating that hockey players are usually conservative. While yes, one really should acknowledge that and understand thats the community they're engaging it, it doesn't mean that their feeling of heartbreak is any less valid just because they decided to give someone the benefit of the doubt.

I, personally, feel like calling a rink the "boy aquarium" isn't really that bad. it's actually really funny.