There is not one thing that the internet doesn’t ruin, but it specializes in setting fandoms ablaze.
Ever since Heated Rivalry was released at the end of 2025, fans have taken the idea of obsession and ran with it. Every couple of scrolls on Instagram, X, or TikTok is a reference to the show or an interview with the stars, Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, and François Arnaud. Which is great for the show, the possibility of more seasons, and opportunities for the actors to get more work. However, the more people talk about this show, the weirder everyone is getting about this.
We’re seeing it reach a fever pitch, especially with Arnaud’s most recent appearance on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, where the show’s host, known for being a purveyor of mess, asked Arnaud, the actor who plays Scott Hunter on the show, if he’s single. To which he responded, “None of your fucking business.” That seemed to catch Cohen by surprise, who was expecting the actor to play ball. This comes not too long after Arnaud unfollowed all his co-stars and the show’s creator on Instagram, fueling yet more speculation about his presence in season 2.
Also, the queen of twinks herself, Simone Cromer (aka Club Chalamet), has her sights set on the Heated Rivalry boys — however, more specifically on Storrie. On X earlier this week, Cromer — famous for running her fan account on Timothée Chalamet — uploaded a post announcing her latest venture, a fan page dedicated to the actor who plays Ilya Rozanov.
"I have become repulsed from the immature discourse surrounding Heated Rivalry and the lead actors and supporting actors," the post reads. "Haters invited me to create Storrie Times which will focus on #ConnorStorrie but will also include cool Hudson info." But for once, I agree with her — the discourse surrounding the show and its actors is immature.
To be clear, this isn’t a knock towards the show or the actors at all; if anything, it’s in defense of them. Fandom is not a new concept online, but for many people who don’t understand the inner workings of what it means to be a respectful internet obsessive, it's completely foreign. The fan discourse began about whether Williams or Storrie are actually gay, and that was quickly deflected with the counter-conversation of: “It’s none of your business, and they shouldn’t be forced to come out like Kit Connor was if they’re not ready.”
Great, cool, moving on. Then the conversation naturally turned to infantilizing these actors, attempting to protect them from any and all commentary or discourse, as is the case with any actor at the helm of a popular movie or television show that is the subject of people’s desires. I’ve seen the discourse ebb and flow between normal “get behind me” preservation of the actors/the show and Misery levels of infatuation. And this is where things started to get unnerving, because everyone seems to be forgetting that there are real people at the center of all this.
One of the more persistent rumors I’ve seen circulating online is that Arnaud and Storrie are secretly dating, and wannabe detectives are scouring the deep recesses of the internet to prove it. Now fans are commenting that their “relationship” has a “controversial age gap,” given that Arnaud is 40 and Storrie is 25 — which is not so uncommon, by the way.
Unfortunately for us, that’s not the only thing people are being weird about online. In the fan-fiction community, people are taking issue with the idea of authors writing fics that depict Storrie’s character, Ilya Rozanov, as a bottom (because in the show and as it’s written in the book, he’s strictly a top). However, the book does say that he’s not opposed to Shane “giving his ass some attention.” On top of that, these fan-fiction stories are clearly not being written by gay men, because hey, sometimes people like to try new things. God forbid a vers top get some representation!
Fanfic readers are known to care about canon and expand on the story that’s been laid out in the books, but some readers are taking criticism to a new level. “Tryna make Ilya bottom is a crime against humanity,” reads one post on X.
“Hollanov are literally the most perfect couple to have strict roles ever. I genuinely can’t fathom why anyone would want to switch that up like they’re FINE,” another post reads, before adding in a reply that says, “Ilya doesn’t need his butt played in, and Shane’s dick doesn’t even work like that, sorry.”
In recent years, fandoms have become less about community and more about being the loudest and most vocal fan of something. In the age of the internet we currently operate under, engagement is commodified and the distance between fans and celebrities has diminished to be almost completely nonexistent. Pair this with the most miserable people online sharing the worst takes online and racking up tens of thousands of likes, you get the Heated Rivalry mess that we are currently seeing online.
I hesitate to call this newfound obsession with Heated Rivalry a “psychosis." This mania that the general public is currently experiencing is just fandom, but the dial is turned up all the way to 100 because of the open-air market of unmoderated thoughts, opinions, and takes swirling on the shitstorm that we call social media platforms. It's OK to be a fan of something, maybe even a stan, but once that comes at the expense of the person you're admiring's mental health (mainly Arnaud), maybe it's time to take a good hard look in the mirror and start to wonder if this is all worth it.
Moises Mendez II is a staff writer at Out magazine. Follow him on Instagram @moisesfenty.
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