I don’t have much room to complain, as someone who has yet to read Game Changers or fully watch Heated Rivalry but I have read over 400 fanfics of Shane and Ilya with varying depictions and a general understanding of the plot, character development and so on. And one thing that has consistently irked me that I can’t get past is how much Shane’s racial identity is undermined and under discussed.
I’m well aware Rachel Reid doesn’t depict Shane ‘in touch’ with his Japanese heritage which would be a great plot point about how immigration can erase culture and the isolation faced from both nationalities when neither really accept you, ‘too white’ for your Asian heritage but ‘not white enough’ for the American one. As someone who also deals with this, it would’ve been unimaginably gratifying for this to be an actually developed plot point where she expands on the difficulties of the social isolation faced as a child and how losing touch with a culture that’s been in the family for generations upon generations does impact Shane.
Yes, I need this man to discuss how he doesn’t speak the language fluently and that he doesn’t know their religious beliefs or how their etiquette works or what type of cuisine is enjoyed or seeing people who are in touch with that culture and feeling like not deserving to be part of it or losing contact with family still there because family is so different there than in a predominantly white country where individualism is the favoured culture but collectivism is in Asian countries and so on. I could honestly go on for days and days about this but the main point is, it feels like when shows include the ‘token poc’ to hit a checkbox rather than including them to actually deal with the struggles of people in that situation. Shane Hollander is Asian-Canadian but he may as well be just Canadian with how it’s treated in the books. I can respect her choice more if the reasoning behind her decision is that she doesn’t want to misrepresent and stereotype Japanese culture but even so, with all the research she’s had to put in to make the series as good as it is, it feels mildly disrespectful. Ilya and his struggles with Russia and their perspective on homosexuality is dealt with respectfully and in an accurate manner so even just including small tidbits from Japanese culture for Shane would’ve been so much better and immersive. Maybe giving him a Japanese middle name or having him enjoy a few Japanese dishes or even just a few words from the language (like how he addresses Yuna) would be enough.
This isn’t even getting onto how there’s little racism discourse which, in the hockey setting she’s writing in? There abso-fucking-lutely is. Shane will have dealt with being called shit like ‘chink’ and have any ethnic food he had around other kids called ‘gross’ and asked to pronounce words from his language whenever they come up randomly in an attempt to be ‘inclusive’ and so on. Shane has so much going on behind the scenes and yes, Ilya is the favourite child and I can respect that but it’s one thing to include a poc with the intent to commit to that and another to include them so it feels more ‘diverse’.
Finally, now that more people are currently talking about Troy and his interactions with Shane while he was in his asshole era which also plays into this and I do have many thoughts on it, it felt like I could actually voice some of my complaints about how Rachel skirts around Shane’s race. Mainly because I read some fire fics about this which helped me put these thoughts into more cohesive ideas.
Also, to be very clear, this is NOT Ilya bashing in any way, shape or form. I love that man too and her tackling his mental health struggles and the topic of depression and suicide with him (as someone who also struggles with suicidal ideation) but good lord put some respect on our boy Shane’s name. Just give him a little more, even if it’s not his race and more about his relationship with food or being on the spectrum. Like, he’s a goldmine of issues and yet it’s not being delved into and dissected thoroughly???
















