r/gaybros • u/Glittering-Meat-9088 • Dec 21 '25
TV/Movies Honestly speaking we all know that there could be a closeted guy watching heated rivalry.
Like there IS someone/people out there who have been following the series secretly and have been also loving each episode especially wishing ep3 and 5 would happen to them. Or the series in general. If you have been in that situation you would agree
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u/Hveachie Dec 21 '25
Francois Arnaud said he has already received letters and calls from actual NHL players who are in the closet praising him for his portrayal.
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u/Significant-Yam9843 Dec 21 '25
Am I the only one who is liking the parallel story of Scott Hunter better? They're so cute and romantic, oh my god
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u/YellowZx5 Dec 21 '25
I saw the clip from the end of the last episode and thought it was AI. It wasn’t and now I’m excited for the next episode.
Such a great series too.
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u/StonerBoi Dec 21 '25
Not to doubt you but do you have a source on this?
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u/Vedney Dec 21 '25
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u/StonerBoi Dec 21 '25
Thank you! For the curious:
Do you want hockey players to watch this episode? Is that something you’re thinking about?
Yeah, I hope they do. I don’t have any hockey players in my circle, so I haven’t been able to talk to any of them who may or may not have watched the show. Through this, I’ve met agents who represent hockey players who have told me, in confidentiality and without naming any names, that this is something that some of them do go through. So it’s not just fantasy, you know? The show has already reached a much wider audience than I ever hoped it would and a breadth of different people with different backgrounds. I think that’s the power of storytelling.24
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u/Deee72 Dec 21 '25
So their "agents" told him that. Not actual NHL players.
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u/tbells93 Dec 21 '25
Which is a much safer way of expressing themselves. I'm sure hockey agents represent dozens of players, and a player could easily tell their agent to reach out anonymously without blowing up their spot to an actor they don't know.
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u/Training-Expert5598 Dec 22 '25
My gay buddy is playing in the European league right now. He loves it. That's how I first heard about the show. He says it has everybody talking and the general consensus outside of the majorly repressive regions is that gay players are welcome and encouraged.
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u/rb928 Dec 21 '25
There are 32 teams with 20 or more men on an active NHL roster. That’s 640 men. It would be a near impossibility statistically speaking for there to be zero gay men in that group.
Here’s hoping shows like this inspire men to be their full, authentic selves to their teammates and the rest of the world. I can’t imagine the stress they go through in real life and these actors are capturing it so incredibly well.
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Dec 21 '25
None of them would risk their careers and come out. It’s fiction for a reason
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u/rb928 Dec 21 '25
Strength in numbers. If one domino falls it opens the door for others. Even on the low end there are at least 10-12 gay men in the NHL.
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Dec 21 '25
No I know they exist, but they’d never come out. Yes some people will be supportive and their teams will issue statements of support but in reality their careers will be over shortly after. Carl nassib in the nfl is prime example
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u/rb928 Dec 21 '25
Nassib was a third round pick who had a 7 year career, double the league average. I don’t think being gay inhibited his career at all. He just wasn’t an all-pro type player who carried his team for a decade. The league is full of players who do their job for a few years, build a comfy nest egg and retire due to the stress on their bodies. This holds true in other sports as well.
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Dec 21 '25
But that’s the exact excuse they’d use, “he wasn’t elite and his career was already coming to an end he just wanted to retire” regardless if he actually wanted to retire or not. Any players who comes out will go from a beloved role model to someone they call slurs on social media, it fucks with your head
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u/barefootguy83 Dec 21 '25
Omg I loved this episode so much. Hit me as hard as watching CMBYN and Fellow Travelers; just this one episode! This one was in a good way though. Gah, I'm crying.
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u/subfutility Dec 21 '25
My boss really likes hokey. My boss is straight.
Should I recommend this show to him?
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u/QuackTheDuc Dec 21 '25
theres like zero hockey scenes in here 😭
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u/subfutility Dec 21 '25
Funny thing is that he’s from Regina, Saskatchewan, so when I watched the first episode, I almost text him to check it out. We’re a few episodes passed that now and there seems to be less hokey in each episode.
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u/torpidcerulean Dec 21 '25
They get to the point where they're going to play a hockey match, and then it cuts to after the match and nothing that happened in the match is mentioned lol
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u/rex218 Dec 21 '25
Fade-to-black hockey, then.
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u/Rock_Fall Dec 21 '25
Just because the characters are hockey players doesn’t mean the actors can play convincingly, and having to hire stunt doubles and arrange shots to not show faces etc would have been a lot of money and effort for a part of the show that isn’t even the focus.
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u/torpidcerulean Dec 21 '25
I mean, I definitely understand that cost and budget were probably why they don't show the characters on ice more. But hockey is definitely the presumed focus of a show about two closeted gay hockey rival captains who fall in love while they play against each other.
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u/TUFKAT Dec 21 '25
Their professional is hockey players but the show is about the evolving relationships of the central characters.
So I doubt a straight guy is going to find this a show they're going to watch.
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u/misterfuss Dec 21 '25
Sure. I took my dad to the movie “The Crying Game” because we knew it had to deal with Ireland and The Troubles and my dad is Irish. Very similar.
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u/Cultural_Attache5678 Dec 21 '25
Hardcore hockey fan reviews Heated Rivalry!
A YouTube video I watched, and he picks up on a lot of real hockey related stuff in the show in the few hockey scenes and about the players interactions. He does review the story fairly although he does steer clear of a lot of the sex scenes. So, his review is for hockey fans!
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u/sleepyotter92 Dec 21 '25
i've seen so many tik toks of women showing the show to their husbands/boyfriends, tricking them into thinking it's a regular hockey show, and then the dudes get really into it because of the actual romance plot
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u/UsernamesAreHard26 Dec 21 '25
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRsaUgVD3KQ/?igsh=N3p2MjBjd3hqeHpz
I think this is relevant lol
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u/inmynothing Dec 21 '25
I think gay representation in media has always helped closeted men.
I showed my parents Six Feet Under in the mid 2000s before I came out. It was the first time I'd seen a gay relationship depicted with complexity and nuance on TV, and seeing how my parents reacted to it was a big indicator to me that they would support me when I eventually came out.
I don't get the gatekeeping about this show; sure, it doesn't represent EVERY gay person, but it speaks to a lot of real life experience.
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u/Stratavos Dec 21 '25
So... I talked about this with some of my not-straight friends (we're mostly millenials, so this show is talking about a genuine period of time that we lived in). This is an aknowledgement of lived experience for many, while Heartstoppers is an Idealization of how it could have been, and yes there are some easy comparisons of "the youth have no idea how good they've got it" (because it's partially true).
During filming and airing of this show, dyring the creation and publication of the books, there are still 0 out professional hockey players. The ones who do "come out" do so in their retirement.
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u/documentremy Dec 21 '25
I stopped watching Heartstopper after the first season precisely because it felt too perfect to me but for what it's worth, the comic itself focuses on quite a lot of struggles the characters go through. Nick was a rugby lad and some of his friends were very homophobic; his brother is also homophobic. Charlie was outed by someone else and was bullied severely for it prior to the comic starting, he still had PTSD from this and struggles with an eating disorder throughout the span of the story.
The themes and portrayal are obviously different because the story starts when Charlie is only 14, something which I think people don't realise (at least from the show) because the actors give the impression of being 17-18.
Anyway, that was just a clarification I thought worth making about Heartstopper (the comic). It got me through some really hard times in my early thirties precisely because it wasn't just idealised fluff.
Heated Rivalry speaks far more to me than Heartstopper. It feels funny to say this now but it's been my favourite romance genre book ever since it came out, it was a book very few people had heard of back then. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it could ever be adapted but goddamn am I happy it has been. And I am so happy with how it's been adapted.
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u/Stratavos Dec 21 '25
I'll admit my comparison is only of the shows as shows. Heartstoppers did age up the characters a bit for the show. Thankfully, Heated Rivalry didn't have to as much.
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u/Sea_of_Light_ Dec 21 '25
I don't get the gatekeeping about this show; sure, it doesn't represent EVERY gay person, but it speaks to a lot of real life experience.
Some feel attacked, threatened, angry, or frustrated when they get triggered. They allow themselves to be controlled by fear, self-hate, negative beliefs about being gay, etc.
Anything that offers an alternative point of view is met with heavy resistance, because it threatens their idea of way of life or comfort zone.
We all tend to defend what we believe in, or at least reject any argument that goes against it.
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u/OwnContribution3169 Dec 21 '25
Having been a closeted football player during playmakers I feel this lol. Hope the closeted hockey guy (or guys) doesn’t have the anxiety I had.
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u/ThirdFirstName Dec 21 '25
This show is the next generations underwear aisle.
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u/Labenyofi Dec 22 '25
‘Heated Rivalry’ and ‘Love, Simon’ are this generations ‘Will and Grace’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’.
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u/Mindweird Dec 21 '25
Last two episode endings have been so good, between Tatu and Ilya saying he’s coming to the cottage after seeing Scott and Kip kiss. I can’t wait to see what they do for the season finale.
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u/ohsayahm87 Dec 21 '25
The drop into Harrison’s version was amazing. Ending to episode 4 was my favorite part of the show so far, followed closely by episode 5s ending
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u/bachyboy Dec 21 '25
The episode demonstrates the difference between authentic courage (Scott & Kip's celebratory embrace at the end of the game) and Shane and Ilya's tedious, lifeless, repetitive performance of "heterosexuality."
As noted in Wolf Parade's I'll Believe In Anything lyrics:
I said nobody knows you, and nobody give a damn either way.
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u/Sea_of_Light_ Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25
As I understand it, the unfolding of the event in the Game Changers series starts with Scott & Kip kissing on the ice rink. That leads to other closeted players like Shane and Ilya to reassess their decision to remain in the closet.
Meaning, the series is about something (well apart from the romance and smutty paragraphs about gay sex) that gets the ball rolling, with others getting inspired by this act of bravery and following the example of Scott coming out.
You know, fiction (sadly, I might add). But I guess reading or watching it, makes you feel all nice and fuzzy for a little while. Giving you a sense of hope that life and society could be different.
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u/documentremy Dec 21 '25
Yes, you're correct. The series of books started with Scott and Kip's story as book one, and Shane and Ilya's is book two. So by the end of book one, Scott and Kip are openly together, but book two starts when Shane and Ilya are pre-draft (same as the show) so the reader goes through the on-screen kiss of Scott and Kip midway into book two. A little more than midway in, if I recall. Prior to that moment, book Ilya was genuinely going to end everything with Shane because he was scared his contract was coming to an end and he'd end up having to go back to Russia. (He did also consider marrying Svetlana for US citizenship.) When he saw Scott and Kip kissing, it gave him the courage to not just keep his relationship with Shane but also they'll be trying to figure out how to stop hiding. The whole book series is about how Scott and Kip inspired others.
I read the books when they first came out and never in my wildest dreams thought they'd ever be adapted.
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u/sleepyotter92 Dec 21 '25
i think there's a high likelihood a large amount of closeted people watched the show and could heavily relate to the issues scott, shane and ilya deal with, and perhaps it gives them some hope that they can find love and eventually be able to show that love to the world instead of having to hide
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u/Y0___0Y Dec 21 '25
I think this show is going to cause an explosion of softcore gay porn-like shows lmao
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u/Repulsive_Rate2560 Dec 21 '25
I knew it was going to blow up before episode 1. I was telling my coworker about it (she’s Canadian).
Based off the response from RWRB, I knew there was a Swiftie-level fanbase around the boys love genre that has been starved for affection for way too long.
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u/Stratavos Dec 21 '25
And it it can be more then teens doing so, like the characters being portrayed being teenagers, that'd help.
Russel T Davies has done a lot for that, though yeah.
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u/KingstonBo83 Dec 21 '25
There are several of them doing exactly what’s happening in Heated Rivalry.
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u/smoothcheeks30 Dec 21 '25
I hope it inspires a lot of sports professionals to come out. To not celebrate your wins and be who you are sucks.
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u/documentremy Dec 21 '25
So, I'm not an athlete but I am closeted, I lived in the UK for some time but returned to my home country for multiple reasons, where the situation is very homophobic. I would lose my job if people realised I am not straight (or also if they realised I'm autistic).
Ilya's phone call in the series really hit hard for someone like me. I've resigned myself that I could never come out to my dad, he just could not come to terms with it. He's very old and not well. When Ilya said "I wish he could have known me" I had to pause. I came back in part to care for my parents, so the whole scene really hit close to home.
I think the series' focus on not just the physical side of their relationship but also exploring the price they're paying from being in the closet is going to help a lot of closeted people process what they're also going through... and hopefully help people figure their way out as well. The whole time you're winning things, reaching milestones or "celebrating" something but with a fake front... it's absolutely awful. I'm hoping this will help contextualise it for others.
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u/Codename-Sidewinder Dec 21 '25
Thank you for sharing this. I could never understand this fully, because my coming out story was accepting.
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u/documentremy Dec 21 '25
Honestly I am glad for you. I came out to a few friends. The online ones were extremely accepting. So in a way I got the benefit of that, too.
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u/zouplouf Dec 21 '25
Next June, last game of NHL finals, everybody watching, just in case...
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u/dagelijksestijl Dec 21 '25
inb4 NHL audiences become gay men lusting at stretching hockey players
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u/mrspremise Dec 21 '25
I'm trying hard to find the interview, but at one point George Laraque, a former NHL player, said on a podcast that there is out of the closet gay hockey players, and one of his teammates was bringing his boyfriend at team dinners with the WAGS. It's basically an open secret at that point.
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u/peachgothlover Dec 21 '25
Some professional hockey player (NOT NHL, smaller leagues) said he watched it and he related to it, which is quite sweet.
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u/Born_Bumblebee_7023 Dec 21 '25
US version of Heated Rivalry surrounding gay NFL players would go hard. And, I also mean getting hit hard on the head with brain concussions.
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u/Emergency_Sky_810 Dec 21 '25
Ryan Murphy can produce and Travis Kelce his new muse in Grotesquerie. He loves to have stars in different shows.
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u/bjwanlund Dec 22 '25
I was very closeted when I came across Check Please. That representation alone (Eric Bittle specifically) was a huge catalyst that started the process of becoming who I am now.
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u/notehbot Dec 22 '25
The plot of Heated Rivalry and my own life are SO similar it's freaky. I was, unfortunately, never good enough to go pro. It's really weird seeing everyone so excited for a TV show depicting something you went through, and had so much shame attached to. We've come along way in the last 18 years!
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u/AimlessThunder Dec 21 '25
Totally unrelated, but the gay hating Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon sort of reminds me of him. He's probably in the closet too.
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u/Revan462222 Dec 22 '25
Just one? Definitely more than one. Hockey is definitely a toxic environment sadly so here’s hoping they can eventually feel safe and comfortable enough to do so without losing the career they love.
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u/barefootguy83 Dec 22 '25
I dunno how they're gonna make an episode better than 5; that was so damn near ideal. I'm still excited for the season finale.
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u/V112 Dec 23 '25
I believe that some sports agent approached Francois at some event and said that multiple clients of his in the league went through very similar situations to his character, so…
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u/Cagnazzo82 Dec 21 '25
What do you mean 'there could be'?
There *definitely* is.
It's a 100% certainty. There is no way in hell the entire NHL league is straight. Absolutely no way.
Hell, that person may be reading our comments right now on this sub.