Heated Rivalry & Bisexuality
Sexual and romantic attraction isn’t a choice, you are attracted to who you’re attracted to. It’s something that happens naturally, something that you just feel. (If you experience attraction ofc.)
Sometimes people forget that when thinking about bisexuality. They almost think of bisexuality as the capability to just choose who you’re attracted to. Like you’ve got a big pool and you can just pick whoever you’d like. But that’s not how humans desire or fall in love with others.
And this is actually what makes me like the bisexual representation in heated rivalry so much. Iliya is attracted to women, he has sexual relationships with women throughout both the book and the show. He even has a woman in his life, Svetlana, who would make logical sense to be with. But he’s in love with Shane, and that’s not something he can control.
He can’t choose to be romantically interested in Svetlana just because it’d be the most societally advantageous. That’s not how attraction works. The most that Iliya could do is try and move on from Shane, then hope that the next person he falls in love with is a woman.
The criminalization of homosexuality in his country impacts him in that way. Having to make the horrible decision of leaving his home or moving on and desperately hoping that the next person is different. I think that’s a very authentic experience and I appreciated seeing it in heated rivalry.