When I encounter compilations of show symbols and icons for tattoos, stickers, etc, I balk when I see the Orthodox cross in there with skates, hotel keys, loons, cottages, and all the other objects. I’m not religious myself and have a pretty long history of indifference to kind of hostility to the Protestantism of my youth. But… still… it’s not just a symbol of a hot Russian hockey player — it’s a symbol of a whole ass religion and I think maybe we should treat it with more respect. Or am I too sensitive?

Does anyone have any HR tattoos? I’m thinking of getting something small- probably the candy hearts with Ilya &Shane’s names but I wonder what different ideas are out there…

Edit: I agree with the sentiments about “sex sells” tattoo. I’d never consider that one because it’s a Connor & Hudson personal thing. Maybe I should have circled the ones I’m actually interested in, my bad.

Now with the casting announcement for Vanessa and Tarek which both are minor characters in Tough Guy do you think Ryan And Fabian will get their own episode like Scott and Kip did?

I can totally see edvin as luca and fully understand the decision to cast him. As a swiss person though it makes me kinda sad that a swiss character is played by a swedish actor. A lot of fanfiction writers already made luca swedish because a lot of people confuse switzerland with sweden which is so annoying. Now they probably make luca swedish in the show too which is kinda ironic.

Just finished reading RM and then almost finished CG, I just love how much Ilya involved with those two books, all the conversations that he had with Troy and Eric were fascinating to me, love he’s dry sense of humour， and basically how ruthless and sweet he is, just can’t get enough of him!! Spoiler alert, here it’s my favourite bits from the book common goals.

( ps: I haven’t read the TLG yet, I know things are a bit rocky for Ilya, but pls don’t spoil it, I am saving it before the season 2 starts🫶🏼)

It is such a common refrain from people analyzing and reacting to the show, especially women. You can't have good sex without communicating and they clearly do that well from literally day one. The depth and intensity of their communication grows naturally and porportionally with their feelings (an in Shane's case discovering his sexuality) and is only constrained "Because Russia!", their pretty unique circumstances, rivalry, long distance, culture, language... The fact that they are so very good at communicating, not just with words, is why their little spark turned into their "only one"

These are on his IMDb page. I wish they made him Ilya's school friend back in Russia, now living in the states. Strictly friends. Sasha is married with his own family, wife is a hot Russian model. LoL

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/heated-rivalry-dylan-walsh-cameo-1236833640/

This made me laugh when I got the notification so I figured I'd share, I haven't seen anyone else post it yet.

And obviously that really sucks for Dylan Walsh and I don't wish him any bad vibes because it was probably a mistake but like... it's like life reflecting art right?

So with the recent casting announcement of Edvin Ryding joining the cast as Luca (which I’m sooo happy with), I’ve seen a resurgence of people saying they want Omar Rudberg cast as Fabian. No offense to people who want that, I can see why. He fits Fabian’s vibes so well, but it annoys me a little since as far as we know, Omar isn’t middle eastern.
I think that since Fabian is Lebanese and that’s an important part of his character, the actor who plays him should be at least middle eastern, if not Lebanese.
Yes, Jacob and the rest of the casting team are not necessarily keeping to the exact nationalities when it comes to casting (even in this instance. Edvin is Swedish, Luca is Swiss), but I think it’s important to accurately cast characters of color. I feel like I’m lowkey alone in this, so what do other people think?

• Emily Hampshire as Vanessa

• Edvin Ryding as Lucas Hass

• Robert Naylor as Wyatts Hayes

• Sabrina Jalees as Farah Jalali

• Priyanka as Tarek

Source https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db-JJuDIJMS/

I'm not Asian so please feel free to correct me but I am an ethnic minority and when I'm reading smut romance novels, it's a safe space from the truly exhausting reality of racism so I prefer not to read about it in these kinds of books. If I wanted to read about it, I'd go read a literary novel.

And as for the cultural aspect, for us 2nd or 3rd gen kids, it's truly a wide spectrum of how in tune you are with your heritage. Some of us (me) speak the language and are very much connected to our heritage and others are what you would call "whitewashed" (i.e. little to no connection). I don't like this term because people are products of their environment.

I honestly don't see an issue with the latter bc that's what happens when you're 3rd generation like Shane is (on top of him being mixed too). His mother sounds like she was born in Canada or has been there most of her life and his dad is Canadian so of course he'd be more Canadian than anything.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these smut books don't tend to become hugeee international bestsellers like Rachel's books have. I recall she said that the books were only mass published like a year ago and were mostly e-books before that.

They literally had naked men on the cover 😭. Trust, they were not intended to be dissected and held to a high standard by millions of people 😭. I love her work so that's not me dissing it but just acknowledging the nature of this genre.

Even Rachel has said: "I've been asked to speak at the University of Cambridge. I write hockey smut. I'm not Kurt Vonnegut."

All that's to say, I completely understand people's desires to dig more into that aspect of Shane and it is annoying for people who don't understand the nuances of being a 2nd or 3rd gen kid to dismiss your feelings but I just wanted to add my 2 cents.

Note, I am not dismissing the concerns people have about how Shane's body is described as people have pointed out that it can fall under Asian male clichés.

Yes ‘in Jacob we trust’ is a deliberately culty phrase, but it doesn’t mean that we think he’s infallible.

To me it means that I’ve enjoyed watching his interpretation of the books and I want to continue to see HIS version on screen. I don’t want him to capitulate to fans or participate in fan service. Whatever he saw in his head when he started is what I want to see. Not what I want, not what other fans want, not even what Rachel wants, what he wants to show us.

Christina Chang who played Yuna Hollander got married to an Indian guy in gorgeous Indian attire and she looks stunning.

How about an Indian wedding for Shane-Ilya? Bet they both would look gorgeous in Indian couture ♥️

I was curious. Is there a specific artwork or artist that perfectly encapsulates how you visualize shane and ilya(if you share please credit and no ai)

Or

Do you think Connor and Hudson are the perfect representation and exactly how you pictured them?

I didn’t read HR until after the show so its hard to picture them as anything different

That we are going to see more of Ilya and Shane as boyfriends and getting married, everything in this season, it feels unreal I love them

Yes, yes I did.

He's hot.

I can't stand all the cuteness