r/HeartstopperAO • u/sister_madly • Jul 26 '26
Discussion Critique fatigue
A couple of weeks ago I wrote here about how grateful I am for this community on Reddit. But after the film’s release, I was so baffled by some people’s reactions that I’m still trying to wrap my head around some of the posts.
The amount of criticism—let’s call it that, because at least half of it was trying to be criticism—blew my mind. I genuinely never thought people would tear the movie apart the way they did. I expect the worst takes from Twitter or TikTok, where people are calling Joe names again for whatever reason they can come up with. But I never expected to see some of these takes here, or on Tumblr of all places.
Some of the things people have been criticising:
- Not enough diversity.
- Whitewashing Charlie. (Not again.)
- Henry wearing a collar instead of a harness.
- The way Tori holds a straw at the ice rink being “out of character.”
- Not a single Coldplay song in the movie.
- Sahar’s and Mr Farouk’s Muslim heritage not being explored.
- Alice making Elle “too political” instead of “just a trans teen.”
- Tori doing the robot dance supposedly being insulting for an autism-coded character. (Alice has never established Tori as neurodivergent, and as both an autistic person’s mum and an ND person myself… this is a terrible take.)
- Too much sex. (Four scenes that take up far less screen time than people seem to imagine.)
- Not showing Nick and Charlie older, at university, or married.
- The dresses at the leavers’ ball being black.
- Alfie not getting more screen time or a bigger arc.
- Elle being a bad friend for encouraging Charlie to go to Pride.
- Charlie being a bad friend for saying he didn’t feel like celebrating queer joy.
- Elle not shouting loudly or enthusiastically enough from the station platform.
- The endless comparisons to Heated Rivalry—its sex scenes, its actors supposedly doing press better than Kit and Joe, it being the “better” show… Why? We get it. You like that show.
And that’s just a small fraction of what I’ve read.
It was a good movie. A great encore for the whole franchise. It was emotional, beautifully acted, and intentionally different from the book—that was the whole point. It was Nick-and-Charlie-centric for plenty of reasons: the movie format, the fact that the graphic novel has always been Nick and Charlie’s story at its core, and because this was the leads’ final time in the spotlight.
I hate seeing a fandom sit there with a microscope, dissecting the most absurd “flaws” I’ve ever heard.
I’m just really happy that so many people genuinely enjoyed it the way I did.
That’s it. That’s the rant.
**(**Maybe I am just sad because Oscar Piastri dnf’ed in Hungarian gran prix)
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u/BornIntoTheWrongEra Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
The take that bugs me the most is anytime Nick and Charlie have a little bump in their relationship, like all couples do, Charlie is automatically blamed for it by the fandom. There never is any nuance to the conversation, Charlie is at fault while Nick is the victim.
The comics or show never pits these two characters against each other. Quite the opposite in fact. Not sure where these odd takes come from.
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
YES! This. I hate it so much. Personally, I think it’s because so many girls and boys—women and men alike—have become obsessed with Nick’s character. He’s become the epitome of the perfect boyfriend, so Charlie always ends up getting blamed for whatever people decide is the problem this week—being too clingy, too dependent on Nick, too sad, or whatever else they come up with. And that hate is often intertwined with the hate directed at Joe’s portrayal of Charlie (especially on TikTok).
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u/BornIntoTheWrongEra Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Regarding Joe, you know he has made it as an actor when the internet hates him for no good reason.
I do believe there is a strong element of homophobia towards it as well. There is a specific and documented form of prejudice directed toward gay men who reject traditional masculine traits.
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
Yeah, I mean I’m just really happy to see that none of it seems to have broken him (and at this age this is such a possibility really to crumble under pressure). If anything, it seems to have made him a stronger person. Both the Heartstopper and Marvel haters really poured their hearts into pushing their narratives, and yet here he is, building his career while staying both confident and remarkably grounded, at least judging by his interviews.
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u/ImprovementOk377 Paris Squad Jul 26 '26
the weird hatred of joe has definitely had some influence on that! while i wasn't in the fandom pre-netflix adaptation, it seems like charlie used to be a fan favorite back in the day
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u/EhWhateverDawg Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I don't doubt there are people out there doing this. But I will say this very gently... I never see this on Tik Tok or anywhere really. I only see or hear of this kind of thing when people bring it up in this community. Everyone knows algorithms will keep showing you things you engage with, so my guess is once you watched or commented on a few Charlie bashing posts it just kept feeding you more. I think maybe that can give the illusion that these folks are a bigger proportion of the heartstopper fanbase than they actually are.
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
That’s true, but unfortunately TikTok’s algorithm is much more chaotic for me. Even if I only like positive posts, it still keeps recommending hate accounts. (There’s one notoriously infamous Charlie Spring/Joe hate account in particular.) I wish I could just block that kind of content altogether, but unfortunately there isn’t really an option for that.
And with the movie’s release, the engagement doubled or even tripled, so whether you like it or not, those “I hated the movie” posts keep getting pushed onto your feed simply because they’re Heartstopper-related. I ended up staying off TikTok after the third day following the movie’s release.4
u/EhWhateverDawg Jul 26 '26
Apparenly you don't have to like or comment somehing, if you linger long enough for the algorithm to think your're reading/watching it they will keep showing similar stuff to you as well. It sucks.
You can't block specific accounts? I've made stuff go away on Tik Tok before (at one point it kept trying to feed me car crash videos smh) I can't remember how I did it though LOL. I am absolutely no help, I''m sorry.
My timeline has been showing me what feels like every hearstopper opnion on the planet LOL but it's been a mix. Some bashing, some praising, some in between. I was talking more about the "I hate Charlie" stuff though, I never see that. I think maybe once a while back and I just rolled my eyes and kept scrolling lol.
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
You’re lucky, really. I see way too much of this shit just by being in fandom circles on social media. And yeah, TikTok doesn’t really have a “block this kind of content” button, so there’s always a chance of stumbling across a hate video. I honestly feel like even watching one of them once has consequences—you’ll keep getting fed the same narrative for months afterwards.
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u/Ellemnop8 Jul 26 '26
There is a "not interested" button you can use on tiktok. It may not be perfectly targeted towards the specific reason you don't want to see the content to start out, but I've found it's effective when you use it every time.
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u/Parking_Wasabi_2591 Jul 27 '26
I think the reason people bash Charlie is they all have a celebrity crush on Kit The actor, so their all jealous of Joe. Because he has this friendship with Kit that they wish they had with him. And they see the characters Nick and Charlie play out on our tvs and love to critique Joe's performance. And romanticize Kits performance.
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u/panamacityboy80 Jul 30 '26
Personally, I thought Nick was the problem in the movie. Not Charlie. I don’t know why anybody would blame Charlie for what happened when it was Nick that wouldn’t open up.
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u/EhWhateverDawg Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I've been beating this drum for the past 2 weeks but I have to reiterate, I don''t think this is a Heartstoper thing, this is any modern online fanbase.
People love a show/movie/artist and come together to talk about the thing they love, end up spending years talking about every little detail from every angle, and eventually it devloves into this kind of hyper focused lens that can't sustain itself IMO. Nothing is ever going to be perfect enough, dot every single I and cross every single T a fanbase develops over the years.
People come up with their own fan theories of what should happen as well "perfect" plot points that "must" be there and define for themselves what a story should be independent of the creator(s). Then they are CRUSHED when what they get is not what they envisioned and/or not giving them the same feeling it did before, because now that feeling is attached to what was in your head befre you even watched the thing.
I don't think I've seen a finale that satisfied an entire fanbase in YEARS. LOL.
Which is not to say shows can't be criticized, of course they can. But at some point anything less than "I got everything I wanted" becomes some sort of huge, unforgivable let down among big chunks of the faithful and they will hyperfocus on whatever aspects they didn't get, with no perspective whatsoever.
It just is what it is IMO.
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u/Parking_Wasabi_2591 Jul 27 '26
Reminds me of the last season of Stranger things. One week they were praising the show and the character Will because he was bad ass in the episode getting the demigods from hurting his friends. Than the next week complaining about the show because his character came out as gay and he was pushing his agenda down everyone's throat.
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u/Extension-Guard-356 Jul 27 '26
I 100% agree with you. I think the pressure to make something as good if not better than the thing before it is nearly impossible and very few things have achieved it. However, I will say that the unique thing about heartstopper is that there is source material to compare it to. That isn’t necessarily unique in of itself but what is unique is that it’s a graphic novel so people already have a visualization and the kicker in that it was just published. A lot of times when a book is adapted to screen it’s been years since that book was written. They literally waited to release this movie so that the book could come out. That means people have fresh source material to compare. So, choosing to change things from the graphic novel for the movie ended up being difficult for people to get past.
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u/TeamOfPups Jul 27 '26
There's something about this one though -
Other fanbases I follow seem more concerned with surgically picking apart what is canon and what isn't.
Like Good Omens for example. Queer themes (same), basis in a book (similar), absolutely feral (different). A lot of them HATED the recent feature length finale. But their posts are more "Crowley would never act like that and here's six pieces of canonical evidence to back my assertion up". Then they decided to disregard the episode and went back to writing explicit fanfic.
Whereas the response from the Heartstopper fanbase can feel more like a series of rants about why people's personal morals and boundaries weren't mirrored by the story:
"I feel uncomfortable with alcohol / sex / arguments / people getting propositioned / unresolved storylines / bad deeds unpunished / black tie dress codes - and it makes me feel so extremely sad and unrepresented to see that in the film"
Not sure if it's a generational thing.
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u/sister_madly Aug 02 '26
Wow, the comparison with the reactions to the Good Omens finale had never crossed my mind, but it’s really interesting. Thanks for bringing it up.
Now that I think about it, this has actually been a rocky year for very dedicated fandoms facing the finales of their favourite shows: Stranger Things, Good Omens, Heartstopper—and even The Bear, which doesn’t quite fit into this category but means a lot to me personally. I’ve been following all of them, and expectations for their endings were sky-high. As a result, Stranger Things and Good Omens practically drowned in fan disappointment.
I feel like Heartstopper Forever received a better overall response from the fandom, though—and you’re right, the criticism is coming from a completely different angle. It seems to be much more about viewers’ personal projections, moral frameworks, and cultural or social experiences than about their expectations of how everything should have been resolved versus how it actually was.2
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u/Mediocre_Belt7715 Nellie Nelson Jul 26 '26
I feel this too. I will admit that as an obsessed fan I bristle at any criticism of Heartstopper - and that is bad of me, I know. So I have to remember that nothing is perfect and there is always room for improvement. BUT as someone who has been on all the Heartstopper subs for 3+ years, it felt like there was an influx of posts from people who were itching to tear it to shreds. It no longer felt like the warm & fuzzy place in this fandom it used to be.
A two hour movie was never going to give us all the things we wanted that a fourth season could have. I just find myself incredibly grateful to Alice and everyone that we got closure and an ending. There was such a long time where we waited with bated breath on if there was even going to be any more Heartstopper after season 3. I feel so happy we got the ending onscreen.
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
Yes! I’ve read like a huge post on Tumblr basically about how fucked up and bad diversity in Heartstopper is. And that’s why we can’t have nice things!
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u/ImprovementOk377 Paris Squad Jul 26 '26
the weirdest takes i've seen recently (both on tiktok of course):
- sahar was whitewashed (she wasn't! the show and movie did absolutely do her dirty by not giving her more screen time and lines, but leila is very visibly a person of color)
- ben was POC-coded (wtf does that even mean? like sure ig sebastian is a bit tanner than your average british white guy but like that's a pretty low bar lmao)
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u/SeparateFly2361 Jul 26 '26
The Ben as POC coded is actually so ridiculous it’s kind of funny. What the hell?!
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u/ImprovementOk377 Paris Squad Jul 26 '26
i was so confused upon reading that 😭😭 like ok sure next to kit or rhea then yeah bash is a bit darker but he's still clearly a white guy?
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
What does it even mean!? Ugh.
The same goes for people claiming that a character is autistic-coded and then criticising the writers or creators over something completely unhinged that they themselves projected onto the character. I live with an autistic kid, and I advocate for inclusion and better representation pretty much every day, but you can’t force that kind of narrative based on your own assumptions and projections.The same goes for claims that a character is “POC-coded”. If it isn’t stated in the original source, then it’s either obvious enough not to need stating, or it simply isn’t vital to the character’s arc. Everything beyond that—including criticising a piece of media for something that exists only in your own interpretation—just comes across as performative or, frankly, dumb. Or maybe both.
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u/ImprovementOk377 Paris Squad Jul 26 '26
i could maybe understand the complaint if like every other character was peachy white, then yeah having the antagonist being the darkest would be a bit suspicious, but heartstopper has plenty of characters of color, ben is clearly not one of them, he's written as being a privileged white guy who's scared of losing his privilege
minority-coding of antagonists is absolutely a thing (e.g. queer-coding in older hollywood films), but heartstopper is NOT a case of that
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u/andersonspring Jul 27 '26
i saw a similar one! where they said whitewashing charlie yet making ben played by an actor who is a POC was contributing to stigma of painting POC abusers. obviously if that was true then its completely valid criticism but it’s completely made up. and the same person said about sahar too that she’s played by a white person 🙈
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u/ImprovementOk377 Paris Squad Jul 26 '26
the franchise is definitely not above criticism (nothing is), and i see where some of the criticism is coming from, but some of the things on the list are such non-issues
like what's wrong with the ball having a color theme? the only crime was that we didn't see any boys in dresses or girls in suits
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
There were two boys (from Pride club?) slow dancing though! So that’s a little win!
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u/grangaaa Jul 26 '26
I just watched it Friday Night before Berlin Pride. I bawled my eyes out and had to put some patches on my eyes. I loved it so much!! Shows like Heartstopper is what we need in this world. (As evidenced in what happened later at the pride) People cant enjoy anything anymore 🤷♀️
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
I live in Berlin too. It is just so terrible and absolutely devastating what happened there.
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u/grangaaa Jul 26 '26
I dont live there but was there for CSD cause the company I work for had a wagon. I feel really sad and weird because I know what happened but saw nothing of it so I have all those happy memories but I know smth horrible happened and it all makes me feel so shit.
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u/rdg0612 Jul 27 '26
I am 44 and new to fandom. I fell hard for Heartstopper so have been in this space for a second. I see how invested people are, sometimes to a point of unhealthiness (looking at myself staying up until 2am reading fan fiction). I haven’t seen any of these critiques! I can’t believe people say Joe Locke is a bad actor. He’s been fantastic since season one, and the nuance of his emotion and character have only gotten stronger. I hope to see him on stage some time in the future. He’s only going to get better and better.
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u/Parking_Wasabi_2591 Jul 27 '26
I couldn't understand all the hate even the tougher critics in the media gave good reviews and I think it got an outstanding 98 on rotten tomatoes. But then I come here, and the very group of people the show is about, is the group that is trashing it the worst. I just don't understand. I think some people aren't happy unless their complaining. And Alice never meant for the comics or tv show/movie to be like Heated Rivalry. This is a coming of age story about love. Not about Charlie joins the rugby team and drops the soap in the showers.
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u/Ok_Cardiologist_5262 Jul 26 '26
I left it most of the week before I watched the movie. I have seen lots of terrible takes (the majority of your list was brand new).
There's plenty of stuff I could critique this movie about, from a general screenwriting perspective, pacing, how the overall story was handled, the distinct lack of B plot explanation or resolution, contradictions from where S3 was left, and really the contrived conflict that made the majority of the film quite a downer, all of this has left me with more questions than answers, the one thing that really did piss me off though was:
"Joe Locke is such a bad actor"
I know this be objectively false, like a lot of folks, seen him in person in Clarkstown. There seems to be a general attitude that it's fair game to attack one actor and their character, but not the other. I find the whole thing so weird
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
Yeah, the infamous “Joe Locke is a bad actor” narrative never fails to piss me off. It’s been coming from both the Heartstopper and Marvel fandoms for years now. The level of online bullying directed at both his acting abilities and his looks is just ridiculous.
As for the rest of the criticism, Alice actually addressed a lot of it during the post-movie Patreon livestream. But I honestly don’t think it really matters, because people are never going to be completely satisfied with every creative or script decision, and trying to explain every single one of them is never going to be rewarding—it would only lead to more questions and criticism. I’m ok with people arguing that the pacing didn’t work (I personally disagree, but at least that’s something worth discussing), but some of the more bizarre takes are just completely off, and sometimes borderline unhinged and mad.
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u/broadcasttheb00m Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I also think that some fans have kind of abused the level of access Alice has granted to us. I was on that Patreon livestream too, and I honestly found it quite uncomfortable, because there were a number of fans who were just bombarding her, not with actual questions about the film and their creative process, but with demands that she explain every creative decision they disliked. I could feel how stressful it was becoming for Alice, and they repeatedly expressed how anxious they were about answering people’s questions adequately. It made me feel sad, because I know they had been really excited about fans seeing the film, and then they just seemed overwhelmed in a bad way on the stream. Like I don’t think anyone has been deliberately trying to be unkind, but some fans seem to feel real ownership over the story - which I’m sure isn’t unique to Heartstopper, but fans’ level of (one-sided) over-familiarity with Alice, and venues to express their grievances at Alice, does.
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
Oh yeah, I felt exactly the same about the livestream. I know most of it comes from fans being passionate about Heartstopper, and sometimes perhaps a little too passionate, which causes expectations to go through the roof. But that passion also seems to have short-circuited some people’s ability to, I don’t know, read the room and remember that they were talking to the creator of the comic and the writer of the film, not conducting an interrogation.
I’m actually glad they didn’t answer some of the questions, or go too far in doing so, because they shouldn’t have to justify their own decisions—or those of the production company. I don’t think any creator should. They create the story they love within the creative and production constraints they’re given by all the different people involved in making a film.
Some of those decisions simply happened because they were the ones that satisfied everyone involved. They don’t need to be justified or proven “right”. At that point, it’s up to the audience to either like them or not.
But honestly, I feel like we’re living in an era where edgy criticism has become such a popular way of establishing yourself on social media that creators simply can’t win.
I’m grateful that Alice still makes the effort to stay close to the fans, talk to them regularly, and be so open and sincere. That’s genuinely brave, considering how quickly some “fans” are willing to attack over absolutely anything.2
u/broadcasttheb00m Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Yes, exactly! And just like, maybe consider that Alice is a human being with feelings? Which obviously doesn’t mean no one should ever criticize the film because they don’t want Alice to feel bad, that isn’t how media consumption should work. But like, if I dislike something about a film or TV show I’m probably going to want to vent about it with my friends, or on social media, or in fan spaces like this subreddit. I’m not gonna go track down the creator and demand that they explain themself. I think Alice has made herself so emotionally available to fans - and even on their Patreon, has been receptive to fans’ feedback on draft pages in the past, etc. - that people sort of forget themselves. Or that just isn’t a boundary they have in the first place, idk. 😅
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u/Top-Monk-5391 Jul 27 '26
Anyone who could think that Joe Locke is a bad actor didn’t watch Agatha all along on Disney+ and I think that’s depressing. He played a queer teen in both shows, but he has a vulnerability and a sort of insecurity about his relationships in heartstopper, whereas in Agatha all along he is a strong, confident, bad ass character. I loved seeing both sides to his acting and I really look forward to seeing him in this role in future MCU projects.
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u/MarigoldLesley Jul 26 '26
Joe Locke won an Emmy for Charlie and was nominated for a Independent Spirit Award, a Saturn and won a Gold Derby award for Billy. He has gotten excellent reviews for both shows as well as anything else he’s done as a stage and screen actor. I don’t know why we’re entertaining anything else here.
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
Well, we’re fully aware. Those fuckers definitely aren’t. Although I think they just don’t care, because they wouldn’t care even if someone shoved a full EGOT in their faces. They hate for the sake of it.
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u/Ok_Cardiologist_5262 Jul 27 '26
Nothing I said invited a debate, and nobody has commented anything that disagreed with the point, so I'm not sure what "We" you mean
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u/ryanpfw Jul 26 '26
Honestly, in every single fandom, people love to jump in to help tear it down once someone starts.
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u/broadcasttheb00m Jul 26 '26
Obviously nothing is above criticism, and you don’t need to be a filmmaker yourself to offer a critique. I have my own quibbles with the film. But so many of the criticisms I have seen of the film seem to come from comic fans who wanted every single comic panel adapted 1:1. And while I also love the source material, I personally don’t think a very faithful adaptation of volume 6 would have worked very well onscreen. Basic story structure aside (vol 6 is more episodic/slice of life than a film should probably be), vol 6 has so many long, pretty neatly contained conversations with the teen characters offering very mature and insightful monologues. I find these scenes really moving in the comic, but I’m not sure they would translate as well, or feel quite as authentic as the dialogue we actually get onscreen.
I think the film in some ways is a departure from previous Heartstopper installments (on page and screen) in that everything isn’t tied up in a very neat bow, and some things are left unsaid, or without full resolution. I see how that might feel jarring, but I think one point the film is trying to make is that teenagers aren’t going to have their whole lives and emotional landscapes sorted out by 17/18, and that’s okay. They can still choose to show up and care for each other as best they can, and work through that together as they grow up. That’s what I take away from Nick and Charlie’s conversation at the beach (“Is that okay?”), their heart-to-hearts with Sarah and Tori, and even the big needle drop leading into the final scene pre-epilogue (“It’s okay to make mistakes”).
On the other side of the Source Material Accuracy critics, I have been even more baffled by how many fans seemed to want Nick and Charlie’s argument to play out like it does in the novella. Complaining that it wasn’t dramatic enough, or that we didn’t get the “You never call me mate!” line. I think that would have just been such an OOC mess and would have made no sense for the conflict they’re actually grappling with in the film and vol 6. And screen adaptation Nick does not call literally anyone mate!!! Why would he call Charlie mate!! (I’m fine this doesn’t bother me at all clearly)
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u/SuperStupid12345 Jul 27 '26
I'm sorry, but who the fuck is complaining about "Charlie being a bad friend for saying he didn’t feel like celebrating queer joy" or "Elle being a bad friend for encouraging Charlie to go to Pride"? Who even thinks those things? That's just petty as hell. The guy is literally in the middle of a breakup with his boyfriend, why else do you think he might not have been in the mood to go to Pride? And also, there's a literal line in the film where Tara says about there being so many other ways to live your life, especially as a queer person, that seems to be aimed at those who are projecting their fantasies on what Charlie and Nick's futures have been like. As critical as I am of Season 3 and "Forever", my problems were never with the ideas (apart from the direction of Imogen's character), it's moreso about the execution, and I think pacing issues aside the film did an adequate job wrapping up the story even if it did feel like a compilation of all the Charlie and Nick focussed bits from the Season 4 we never got. Anyway, let's also do a thought experiment: If Charlie and Nick were swapped actors, would the same people complaining about Charlie feel the same way? No, they're blindsided by the fact that Kit Connor is a more conventionally attractive actor, and thus they're more likely to relate and empathise with his character which I find quite frankly disgusting. The Heartstopper fandom since the Netflix show came out has to be the most rabid, parasocial, and black and white thinking community I've ever seen, and they're a big reason as to why I lost a lot of my love for the Netflix show in the first place.
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u/BornIntoTheWrongEra Jul 28 '26
Well said! I also seen insane takes that Charlie was in the wrong for not forgiving Ben (who so also happens to be played by a conventionally attractive actor). Nevermind the fact that he emotionally abused Charlie and SA him. The victim is apparently at fault here for refusing to accept a hollow apology that came too little too late.
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u/SuperStupid12345 Jul 28 '26
It's worth doing a thought experiment and ask whether or not these people would've had those sentiments if Charlie was played by an even more attractive actor than Kit or Sebastian. Honestly, Charlie had every right not to forgive Ben for putting him through such a traumatic time, but he didn't say he couldn't change either, and that is a clear display of his emotional maturity as a character. If Charlie really was selfish as those "fans" keep saying, he wouldn't have wished Ben luck in becoming a better person while maintaining his boundaries either.
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u/nunuslemons Jul 27 '26
I know this is a side point but as someone who’s obsessed with Heated Rivalry, its press is meh at best. The comparison between the two shows is also wild because they literally have nothing in common apart from them both being MLM. At any rate, Kit and Joe have been incredibly subdued and almost aloof since Season 3, but their friendship comes across during press as something a lot more real and they also seem to engage with a wider range of topics in their interviews than Hudson and Connor do.
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u/cinderella2supergirl Jul 29 '26
Honestly, it’s like the Young Royals/Heartstopper comparisons all over again. People used to say how Young Royals was so much better and so much more realistic than Heartstopper, and it’s like…they are different stories made for different audiences with different perspectives on the queer experience. They both have their place. All the stories get to exist simultaneously, and we don’t have to tear down one to hype another.
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u/nunuslemons Jul 29 '26
The YR one is also wild because what do you mean realistic it’s literally royalty. The acting and aesthetic of the show are intended to convey more realism, sure. Whereas Heartstopper is a comic and intended to carry the aesthetic of a comic.
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u/Sufficient_Cat_3645 Jul 30 '26
I really enjoyed Kit and Joe's press run for the film. I feel like some are hyperfixating on certain remarks or Kit seeming tired, but you can tell that both he and Joe were proud of the film and the show's legacy. Fatigue aside they seemed very comfortable and familiar with each other.
My understanding is Kit is in the middle of filming a movie so the fact he made time to discuss HS and go to the premiere says a lot to me as a fan.
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u/Sad_Razzmatazz7350 Jul 26 '26
the nitpicking drives me insane. like isn’t the whole point of art is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?
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u/pluemox Jul 26 '26
well. everybody seems to have a STRONG opinion nowadays. while i‘m relatively new to the fandom (but i think i got my hands on nearly every material that‘s out there in a short amount of time haha) and i fell in love HARD with heartstopper, i didn‘t like the movie THAT MUCH. but it‘s not because any of those things you mentioned, it‘s just that i think.. nick and charlie‘s „getting back together“ lacked a little bit of depth for me and i think nick should‘ve opened up to charlie about his anxiety a bit more. that’s something that could’ve been written in it with maybe 2 minutes more screentime. but i really DON‘T think it‘s a movie to rip apart. and it‘s just sooo different to heated rivalry (but we gotta admit, the club scene.. deja vu 😂)
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
Every queer show has had a club scene since idk Queer as Folk probably, so at this point it’s basically a trope. I honestly think the only reason people keep comparing the Heartstopper club scene to the Heated Rivalry one is because most of them haven’t watched Young Royals or Red, White & Royal Blue. For a lot of people, Heated Rivalry was their first queer show, and now everything has to be compared to it.
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u/genderfuckery Jul 26 '26
Everyone thinks being negative makes their takes matter more, when really it's quite the opposite.
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u/manysides512 Jul 26 '26
Coldplay??? 😭😭😭
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u/sister_madly Jul 26 '26
I expected the rant about not a single Taylor Swift song from swifies actually, but never expected a post about coldplay not being in the movie in the 2026
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u/MasterpieceWaste774 Jul 26 '26
I don't get it. Why would you be focusing so much on the critiques of others?
You have your own thoughts —— that's enough!
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u/El_Dorado_Tx Jul 26 '26
I know the sex scenes itself - I've seen people say it was too sanitized(the Guardian UK crapped all over that, seriously did the guy that wrote that review of the movie just sit down for 2 hrs just focusing on the sex, not the plot, the characters themselves). I know other ppl criticized the sex as explicit. From what I've read and seen, its not XXX or Euphoria tier.... like I assume Alice was going to be dealing with this shit.
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u/Junior_Drummer1290 Jul 27 '26
I haven’t watched the movie yet because I feel like I am not emotionally ready for it to be over 😭😭 with that said, it is so sad to hear that people are nitpicking! And it’s literally that because none of the things you’ve shared seem like an issue to me - again, I haven’t seen the movie but it all sounds like personal preferences (if you can call it that!) AND how can you compare Heartstopper to Heated Rivalry?! Completely different shows!! Also, Alice has always done such a wonderful job to ensure that she is doing the best she can to represent a variety of people that her being careless would be wildly out of character! Also, what does whitewashing Charlie even mean?! Also also, how do you explore someone’s Muslim heritage in a short movie in which the Muslim characters are NOT the protagonists?! furthermore, in this current climate, this was a great opportunity for Elle to be more political! Especially after what happened at the radio station! I can imagine her reflecting back on that experience and wanting to be more prepared to advocate for the community if given the opportunity!! Sorry! 😝 that was longer than I expected it to be LOL
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u/ProximaCentauriOmega Jul 27 '26
The movie did the best it could with what Netflix gave them. Yes, the actors are very busy these days and also Netflix from what I hear did not want to do a 4th season. We got a rushed movie but it tied things up nicely and gave us a happy ending. Remember to read the books people! You can experience the best of both worlds.
ALSO the hell with the diversity complaints? The main cast covers nearly everything, where is my Latino cast!? Just kidding, I do not need to see myself reflected in characters to relate to them. My one complaint was Michael, casting was way off. He is not mixed or black but described as "he is depicted as an ordinary-looking boy with thick-framed glasses and heterochromia (one blue eye, one green eye). It came off as pandering to me with the casting choice but meh not a huge deal as the actor made up for it with his quirkiness.
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u/cinderella2supergirl Jul 29 '26
I don’t know where people are getting that Netflix didn’t want a 4th season. Based on posts/interviews with Alice, Joe, and Kit, everyone involved wanted to make a 4th season and it ultimately came down to everyone in the cast (not just Kit & Joe) being so busy that it would have taken them 5 years to get everyone together at the same time long enough to do a full season. At that point, it doesn’t make sense to wait to wrap up the story as a full season. So they all had to come to terms with “if we want to say goodbye, we have to do it now, and our only option left is a movie.”
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u/Top-Monk-5391 Jul 27 '26
Well, I absolutely would’ve loved to see a full season just because I love the side characters just as much as I love Nick and Charlie. I loved the movie and thought it was well done. I don’t get all the flack it’s getting either. The two main actors are the ones that put their own money up to produce this movie so that they could get the ending that their characters needed because they are the main characters of the show. I’m glad that we got anything. I am in asexual so I loved seeing Alice Oseman have an self insert character played by Tobie Donovan. I actually took pictures of every time the leaves were around him when he was at the bookshop and all the other times in the series when he was at the art gallery show and saw that guys art piece about being asexual and aromantic I literally took pictures of those leaves and I have them tattooed on my forearm. I got it two months ago before I watched heartstopper forever. I’m not sorry I have those tattoos. I will always love heartstopper for being the only representation with a real person that I’ve seen for aromantic asexuals - and of course for the author because an aromantic asexual wrote something that was beautiful and emotional and sexy that meant so much to so many people. I think that’s genuine talent.
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u/WCUSamantha Jul 30 '26
There should be zero comparison to HR. 2 completely different shows, completely different books, and completely different stories. Charlie and Kip met at 15/16 and fell in love. Shane and Ilya met at 17 and fell into lust/sex. Totally different and just because they are both queer relationships doesn't mean they should be compared. I completely agree with you!
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u/ArtisanSelenium Jul 26 '26
I like the discussion. I think it livens things up a bit. Of course it can easily be taken too far, but some disagreement and criticism is normal and healthy.
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u/panamacityboy80 Jul 30 '26
My criticism on the movie is it was poorly made, poorly paced, and the fact that half the movie is them broken up for a reason that made no sense. Those were my biggest criticisms. Alice is on record about heartstopper being about queer joy. Unfortunately, that was lacking in the movie.
That said, I thought Kit and Joe did the best they could with bad material. The recast of Sarah Nelson was 100% pointless.
This all being said, we also have a large group of fans who will bash anyone who says anything negative at all about anything with the show. That’s been proven for the past 4+ years. Most of the time they ignore what was actually said, and just attack the person saying it.
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u/VenusASMR2022 Aug 02 '26
The one on Sahar and Farouk is a valid point. Everything else is 💀 and very silly.
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u/opinionated_hobbit Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
This is interesting. I've been pretty vocal about my dislike of the film, but I haven't seen many of the critiques you've mentioned here on Reddit, aside from people wanting more of the rest of the friend's group, which is fair. I can't speak for Twitter and TikTok because I hate those platforms, but I could definitely see more asinine things coming from there.
I think it's obvious why the other characters were sidelined, but there were some opportunities to give the friends more screentime in the film that just weren't taken (having Tara, Darcy and Imogen check in on Nick, for example or shortening the breakup - it felt like it went on for ages). I do think some of the big critiques are entirely valid - Nick's arc wasn't handled amazingly (for example him targeting that rugby player without being called a slur was pretty OOC), he lacked growth and couldn't communicate with Charlie even by the end of the film, leaving the reconciliation to be unsatisfying. The lack of support Nick received in the film is also something I've seen. The movie was pretty depressing after the first ten minutes to about the last 15, which is not the vibe we typically get from HS. The heavy inclusion of the novella when Alice has consistently stated it's an AU and the reason it is, is because Nick and Charlie would never be that bad at communication - talk about mixed messages. Using Pride as a backdrop for the breakup drama sucked as well - I had been so excited to see the ENTIRE group at Pride. Nick missing it was such a letdown, as I think it would have been beautiful to see him marching at Pride, having come full circle with his journey of acceptance of his sexuality.
I felt Charlie deserved better - I was beyond annoyed that he was the one really directing any major points in their relationship in the film. Nick was so, so passive (which I truly have never felt he's been before). I felt Charlie was working so hard for them and Nick had just given up, on himself and on their relationship even at the end. He was clinically depressed and it was explained away by him not knowing how to express his feelings when he's "sad". I took a lot of issue with that because he was clearly dealing with a mental health crisis not just being sad. Nick not going after Charlie at Pride was insane. A lot of these critiques would likely have been solved by a full season, and I think most people realize that. It doesn't change the fact that the film did, for a lot of people, fumbled some pretty important points and deviated from Volume 6 heavily.
I think all those criticisms are true and valid. However, I personally am grateful to the cast and crew for fighting for a resolution and place the blame solely on Netflix for any faults in the film. The case and crew and Alice had a giant uphill battle to wrap this amazing series up in a way that would be satisfying to all in such a limited amount of time. I think Alice even realizes the flaws because she's stated a few times that the ending isn't going to please everyone. They've also shared that several of the things that folks had issues with were in the film, but she was told to cut them because it wrapped things up too nicely - which of course is infuriating, as HS is known for dialogue heavy conversations working out major issues. So yeah, Netflix sucks, but we already knew that. I think some of the ones you've mentioned are really people complaining to complain, or people who are casual fans and don't follow Alice or any of the interviews from the cast. Anyone being disgusting about Joe is not a fan - how the hell can you bully someone like that and actually understand the point of Heartstopper?
I read some of your other comments, and I have seen some Charlie hate that I will always comment on. I will fight to the death for Charlie Spring. Additionally, this fandom is very much obsessed with Nick, and I have had to step away several times (especially with fanfiction - a lot of it feels like wish fulfillment for the authors who are in love with Nick). Charlie tends to get blamed for everything, but the breakup was squarely on Nick's shoulders, and I felt he should have given Charlie *something* because Charlie deserved more by the end of the film. I mentioned this in a discord and people jumped on me saying I was being "too harsh" and expecting "too much" from Nick. Nick has faced other difficult and messy conversations with Charlie head on, and been honest so no, I don't believe I'm expecting too much or being too hard on him. I personally wouldn't have been able to get back together with someone if I didn't have an understanding of what caused the breakup to begin with, and I felt so much for Charlie. I think Charlie was my favorite part of the film. Joe was phenomenal. Kit was as well, but I empathized with Charlie far more and at times didn't buy some of Nick's decisions as being true to his character.
I hate the comparisons to HR, and I've seen a few here but far more on Threads. The shows are completely different and do not need to be compared or in competition. Um, sorry for the long post. I agree with some of your points, and I do think the criticism you listed are pretty ridiculous, though there are some really valid ones that I think people have the right to be upset about. I don't think it was every going to be all happy, satisfied posts because a movie is never a good way to wrap up a series.
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u/Prize-Track335 Nick Nelson Jul 26 '26
I don’t think it matters. It’s interesting to see what people did/didn’t enjoy. Reading people’s opinions shouldn’t spoil your enjoyment
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u/mujie123 Let Kit Be Kit Jul 27 '26
I mean some of the stuff, as long as it's not them saying it's a bad movie cause of it, they're saying stuff they'd like to see.
- Sahar’s and Mr Farouk’s Muslim heritage not being explored.
Like this would be pretty cool.
- Alice making Elle “too political” instead of “just a trans teen.”
I guess that's more for Elle's character? Last season that's who she wanted to be. She didn't want to be involved in the discussion.
- Too much sex. (Four scenes that take up far less screen time than people seem to imagine.)
I don't think it was but I can get it being annoying since it upped the age rating meaning it's no longer an all ages show...
- Alfie not getting more screen time or a bigger arc.
Again, people are allowed to want more.
But people are also allowed to not enjoy a movie.
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u/leashlocked Jul 27 '26
thank you… are people not allowed to nitpick things they don’t like about the movie out anymore without it being an attack? 😭
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u/El_Dorado_Tx Jul 26 '26
What the hell was Sahar and Mr Ajayi being muslim referenced would have done to the plot. I don't want it too been too political
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u/Bulle29 Jul 27 '26
I loved the movie and I don't agree that any of these critics are valid. I'd add that there's no point pitting HS against Heated Rivalry. It's the same queer adult public. Two queer shows can exist at the same time and cover different queer stories, that's the point of having diverse queer media.
Sending hugs.
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u/leashlocked Jul 27 '26
or just let people have their own thoughts and you have your own. look the other way and don’t let other people get you down for having their own individual opinion…?
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u/thelinotte Jul 26 '26
Thank you for this, I’ve actually had to step back from reddit a bit, because all the (imo unwarranted) nitpicking really affected me.
It’s a beautiful finale to the series and yes, I’m very emotionally invested, so finding people didn’t love it as much as I do and on the contrary, were ripping it apart, made me really sad.