hes soooo real for this wtf
I think we're all so devastated at the news of IceAdo's cancelation. It was an incredible anime not only because it was groundbreaking for the queer community in terms of quality, but also in terms of how intimately the relationship was depicted without being vulgar or explicit, which many other such anime depend on to gain an audience. The profound devotion Yuuri and Victor had towards each other and figure skating was palatable and it just sucked you in. A lot of times, it even felt like you were intruding on a private moment between them, especially as Yuuri got more comfortable around Victor and started being more open about his anxiety, which was also a focal point of the show, also masterfully depicted.
It was such a beautiful experience, that we wanted more of it, which is what we thought we were going to get. But for 8 years, we were strung along, our hope exploited, until finally, the cancelation, which we all realized, after a certain point, was coming.
The pain of not being able to sink in to the world of Yuuri!!! On Ice once more is very deep, because that kind of magic is something you just crave once it has entered your life, BUT!!!!
OK SO i found this vat7k Spotify playlist and YKK I LISTENED TO THE WHOLE THING IN ONE RUN AND YOU SHOULD TOOOOOO its honestly so accurate đ¤ whoever made this, ilysm please marry me
Okay, to those who might not follow figure skating as closely, I just need to point out that Yuuri, despite what he insists (unreliable narrator), did not do badly in the Sochi GPF.
We know from the flashback in episode 5 that Yuuri during his free skate fell on at least two of his jumps and touched down on one and it can be assumed he didn't do too well on his others. He says in episode 4 that he falls on jumps and makes up the gap with Program Component Scores (how artistic it was) which can also be seen on the protocol from his short program where his PCS is higher than his Technical Element Score (how technically sound it was). This is not how those scores usually relate except in certain cases (see Jason Brown, also known for his high PCS and (relatively) low TES though this is by choice).
This is Yuuri's short program protocol. If you don't know how to read this then all you need to know is that his total score was 82.80, 40.42 of that being TES and 42.38 being PCS.
Now, to relate that to the real world, in the 2015 Grand Prix Final, Daisuke Murakami scored a total of 235.49, scoring 83.47 in his short program and 152.02 in his free skate and placing 6th. As we can see, that's pretty darn close to Yuuri's score (82.80 in the short, 149.79 in the free, 232.59 total) and I would not be surprised if they were inspired by his scores since they're also PCS centric.
Sidenote: Looking at Yuuri's PCS here and comparing them to Murakami's, Yuuri's are higher, not having anything lower than 8.00. Based on the fact that he was likely very off-kilter, I'd say this is still a very respectable score (duh, Yuuri just can't accept that he's good). Boyang Jin who took 3rd in the short, 5th overall in the 2015 GPF had way lower PCS scores.
Anyway, here's Murakami's free skate protocol.
Murakami has 8 jumping passes in his free, 7 of which he lands with a two-footed landing on one and a stepout on another. He only falls ass on ice like Yuuri does once on his second quadruple salchow (which was supposed to be a combination. The << and REP are explained at the bottom of the protocol). He does not touch down at any point. Otherwise his jumps look fine to me, most of them barely having any ice spray and only his 3Lz+1Lo+2S combination getting a warning for an unclear edge.
If you don't know, falling is (kind of) the worst mistake you can make on a jump and the judges are required to both give a certain negative GEO (grade of execution) and a deduction of 1 point. Other mess-ups just give negative GEOs.
Murakami's FS score is 73.26 TES and 79.76 PCS which would mean Yuuri's scores are likely very similar. But he fell on two jumps, not one meaning his PCS would likely have been higher to make up the difference.
And if Yuuri's insinuation that he flubbed all his jumps in some manner is true (which I find highly unlikely, have some confidence) and he missed elements by either popping (opening too early which costs rotations but saves you from a fall) or just not doing them, his PCS would have needed to be even higher to make up for that.
Missing elements, like popping a double, triple or quadruple axel into a single (at least one double is required), results in that element not being counted at all. Zero. Zip. Nada. You get nothing for it if you can't make up for it later in the program. Even falling on a jump is better because that's at least a few points. So if that happened, he'd have a big gap to make up with his PCS.
To sum up: with everything that could have gone wrong for Yuuri, this is still a very good score, even on the international scene. And to highlight that, Murakami is happy when he finishes, even fist pumping.
And yes, there was still that 103.17 point gap between Yuuri and Viktor which is the same (okay, 94.95) for Murakami and Yuzuru Hanyu who took gold in the 2015 GPF. But, and I cannot stress this enough, Hanyu broke 3 world records with that score meaning Viktor likely did as well. No wait, scratch that, I know he did because Hanyu's score was 330.43 which Viktor beat by 5.33 points. Of course it's not going to be even close, are you kidding me?
Looking at the World Championships in 2016, Yuuri would, with that 232.59 score, still have taken 11th place. He'd have taken 16th in 2023 and that's with a single quad (I don't trust his quad salchow yet) in the age of quads (and that quad being the one with the lowest base value). I'm positive he'd have been able to do a Jason Brown whose PC scores are so good that he in 2023 placed 5th without a single quad and would have placed 3rd in 2016. Now, take that and throw Yuuri's quad toe loop and some confidence in there and you've got a Worlds podium finish before the series even starts.
And then in the season the show is in, he has his quad toe loop, quad salchow and quad flip. He might even have gotten the quad loop down in the 3.5 months between the Barcelona GFP and Worlds. I definitely see a world champion on the next level (if they'd give us it >:[ )
And scores always get higher over time, the world record having gone from Hanyu's 330.46 in 2015 to Nathan Chen's 335.30 in 2019 still standing in 2023 which is still less than Viktor's Sochi GFP score (335.76) (yes, the system has changed since 2015 but it's close enough that it doesn't really matter in this context. Viktor is OP no matter what).
Really, the fact that Yuuri's in the GFP at all should be all we need to know that he's insanely good. It might not technically be Worlds but my stars, Yuuri, it does basically make you 6th in the world.
BE. PROUD.
putting them in situations. today: trauma train simulator
[closeups!]
This is so funny bfoibfoaib 'They'll be so surprised, hah!' We regret to inform you they're too busy being gay and gazing lovingly into each other's eyes to pay attention to how cool and epic you are. Our condolences. He just wanted to impress them đĽ˛
The thing I like about Kabru is that he has Main Character Energy leaking from every pore. He was born with unusual eyes. He's the last survivor of a village destroyed by an out-of-control dungeon. He was taught to be an extremely effective manslayer by his hot adoptive elf mom. He can read people like a book. He picks up women effortlessly.
But in the dungeon he's completely out of his depth and all his Sherlock abilities are completely useless against Laios, the Most Autistic Man Alive and the real main character.
I could speak endlessly about the things that make Victor and Yuuri an amazing couple, but this one really stood out to me: their insecurities.
(some of this is kinda headcanon, but itâs based on what is implied in canon)
Itâs evident from the beginning that Yuuri sees himself as not enough. He doesnât think heâs good enough, attractive enough, sexy enough, or talented enough to be Victorâs student. These fears introduce his struggle with anxiety long before he enters his first Grand Prix competition. He doesnât think heâs good enough to deserve Victorâs attention, he doesnât think heâs talented enough to beat Yurio, he doesnât think he can keep Victor in Hasetsu with him when the world wants him back in Russia, competing.
And although his confidence grows throughout the series, his self-doubt is still very evident in their argument in episode 11. Yuuri doesnât think his career is worth more than Victorâs career. Yuuri doesnât even consider the romantic value of their relationship, only comparing the success of their careers, because even with all the validation he receives from Victor, he doesnât know just how much his love means to Victor, and heâs scared of overestimating it. Yuuriâs ongoing fear is not being enough.
Victor, on the other hand, is an enigma. Throughout the show, Yuuriâs unreliable narration makes it difficult to know exactly how Victor feels. Victor is scared of being too much. When he arrived in Hasetsu, he was expecting a very different welcomeâ something akin to the sensual, sexy, confident dancer he encountered at the banquetâ and is instead greeted by a shy, unconfident skater, who canât grasp why Victor would be there to coach him of all people.
Though Victor initially tried to coax Yuuri out of his shell by being extremely forward, he realized that he needs to give Yuuri his space, and meet him in the middleâ not force Yuuri to let him in when heâs not ready. Yuuri challenges Victor in episode 4 by telling Victor to be himself. For so long, Victor had been performing in every aspect of his life; every season wiping the slate clean and beginning again, constructing a new persona for himself. He was seen as a force of nature, a whirlwind, a god. Nobody has ever asked him to be himself before. Heâs afraid heâs too messy, too impulsive, too Victor to be what Yuuri wants, which is why he asks Yuuri to give him a role in the first place.
Although Victorâs extra-ness is far from lacking in the following episodes, heâs significantly toned down how direct he is, and instead motivates and challenges Yuuri through his small touches and words. When Yuuri is crying in the parking garage in episode 7, Victor doesnât know how to react, and slips back into a suave bachelor personaâ âShould I just kiss you or something?ââ in order to keep his messy self hidden; the kind that doesnât know how to handle when people cry, the kind that acts impulsively, the kind that really doesnât know what heâs doing. And Yuuri challenges him again. He doesnât want Victor to be fake, to hide his true self behind a mask. He just wants Victor to stand by him, as himself. This could be another reason why Victor was so angry when Yuuri wanted to end things for the sake of Victorâs career. Victor had given himself, all of his whole, messy, impulsive, imperfect, balding self to Yuuri, who wanted to give it up for the sake of Victorâs suffocating career, his persona as The Worldâs Most Eligible Bachelor, God of Figure Skating, Victor Nikiforov. It felt like a rejection of his true self, the one that was shown to Yuuri after he painfully tore down all the walls he had to protect his fragile heart. Victor is afraid that his true self is too much.
But together, they fit together like a puzzle piece. When Victor is afraid heâs too much, Yuuri embraces all of itâ all of the messiness, all of the tears, shattering those masks one by one and letting them pick up the pieces together. When Yuuri is afraid heâs not enough, Victor helps him build himself back up, showing him that he is strong and deserving of everything he has.
They are perfect for each other.
Thereâs a reason that trying to write âfan ascendingâ is an extremely hard trope to get right, because so often the âordinary Marty Stuâ pairing with the superstar has this air of author wish fulfillment to it that can ring a little bit false.
Itâs also why Yuri!!! on Ice is brilliant, because it nailed the fan ascending trope. How did it do this? In a couple of ways.
First and foremost, Yuuri Katsuki is not an ordinary fan. Heâs an unreliable narrator who is a Japanese superstar without the ability to see that about himself. He has every bit the ability of Victor Nikiforov, just with much more of it stored up in his potential rather than results and blocked by his anxiety.
That though is not why Victor fell for him. And not why it felt so damn real to see Victor fall for him. Because Yuuriâs power was in who he was inside, and how he dealt with/handled Victor Nikiforov becoming his coach, and importantly, the massive difference between how Victor predicted this arrangement was going to go, and how it actually went.
Victor remembers the drunk and moony Yuuri begging him at the banquet, and then skating Stammi Vicino. In Victorâs âalways be camera readyâ existence, he probably saw the Stammi Vicino skate as a brilliant marketing strategy, Yuuri making clear he was serious and asking again. And Victor, who was burned out and needed something new probably laughed and said âhe got me.â
But⌠as we know, Stammi Vicino was not about luring Victor to Hasetsu. It was a genuine Yuuri trying to find the things that could bring his love for skating back. It wasnât meant to be a public call to Victor at all, and so when Victor came and expected cameras and social media and look at me Victor is my coach! He got⌠something so entirely different.
He got a front-row seat to what it looks like when an entire hometown has adopted their local skater as a collective son. He got a front-row seat to a family who loved their son and supported him no matter what. He got a front-row seat to what happens when sincere hard work and friends who care about the person not the persona band together to help someone reach their potential.
He got I want to eat katsudon with you if I win, instead of I want you to declare to the world that you are my coach.
And for Victor, I think this was a shock.
Yuuri didnât even fathom the idea of telling the whole world that Victor was coaching him (which we watch Victor decide to do).
Yuuri worried about how he was going to afford Victorâs coaching fees, as if Victor really truly was a celebrity coach, instead of a skater looking for a new way to be inspired.
One scene I have always adored is Victor complaining to Yuuri about coach seats being cramped on the way to Beijing. We know that Victor would easily have flown them both in First Class and not thought anything of it. It means that Yuuri was insistent that he pay for himself and his coach to fly to Beijing. Iâve no doubt he also insisted on paying for both his and Victorâs hotel rooms.
Itâs also why the purchase of those rings is so profound. Because Victor knows that Yuuri budgets carefully. Yuuri bought those expensive rings for himself and his rich boyfriend, needing to pay them off in installments, without so much as glancing back at said rich boyfriend about finances. Victor recognized the profundity of the gesture.
And to Victor? Here was a person who made it so plain that he had no intention of ever taking advantage of him. Yuuriâs entire desire with Victor was for Victor just to be himself. Yuuri didnât need a âoh look Victor is my coach look everyone.â He was over the moon that his idol was there teaching him. He didnât want a fake kiss and relationship, he wanted a Victor who freaked out when he screwed up.
It meant that Victor who do you want me to be to you? Nikiforovâs mask slowly eroded away. And he found that Yuuri relished in the real Victor. And that it felt good being the real Victor.
All because Yuuri just wanted to eat katsudon with him when he won, insisted on paying both his and Victorâs way when it mattered.
Yuuri wanted Victor, and only Victor. The real one. And in every action, every decision, that Yuuri made, he reminded Victor of that.
Itâs a master class to people attempting to write âthe fan and the idolâ stories. Yuuri wanted Victor the person, not Victor the persona. And in every action, he reinforced that for Victor.
No wonder Victor fell so hard.