We Love Our Skating Husbands, I Had To Draw Them Being Adorable Cause I Love Their Relationship So Much

I mainly post Yuri on Ice stuff BUT I made this piece and wanted to post it cause I love Nennen and Wangwang so much and they don’t get enough attention, their story made me cry it was so sad and bittersweet, and DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON YASRATCHA, especially with the most recent episodes 😭

This had me cackling, the fourth one is literally the most iconic roast in the series, and qi rong’s cannibal bed and breakfast is one of the most hilarious scenes, god I hate that guy but every scene with him is so fucking funny

small moments from tgcf i think about a lot

◇mei nianqing calling xie lian "His Little Highness"

◇pei ming tenderly holding a severed leg wondering what beautiful woman it used to belong to, only to toss it aside the second he's told it belonged to a man

◇xie lian's cooking almost killing he xuan. who's you know. a ghost. a dead ghost.

◇"you sure know a lot" "no you just dont know much"

◇shi qingxuan beating qi rong after he called them a tramp

◇ling wen being accused of fathering cuocuo

◇hua cheng noticing xie lian looking at that bowl of yuanxiao and getting him some

◇"you're alive?" "i'm dead!" and "i swear to die following your Highness" "you're already dead"

◇mu qing talking about his feelings once in his 800 year long existence and immediately trying to jump into lava

◇pei ming slapping xie lian's mouth with eming

◇qi rong's cannibal bed&breakfast

◇xie lian going Well its okay none of us is normal anyway :D after seeing the 10k statues

◇that one 5D chess scene with ling wen and xie lian in the brocade immortal arc that was reminiscent of death note shennanigans

◇shi wudu making fun of pei ming and ling wen being depicted as a couple, only to see a play about him and his sibling being in love like 3 mins later

This is the most adorable thing ever

Yuri on Ice Sanrio

If this isn’t exactly what happened I don’t wanna hear about it 🤣

HE BLUSHED WHEN UPON SEEING YUURI

“He’s here!!! He’s here. So cute and handsome, Yuuri. I’ve waited so long…and he looks so soft, even cuter. OMG OMG what do I do now. ?!?! Wait, don’t panic…we’re Russian, we don’t panic.”

VIKTOR NIKIFOROV WAS A MAN ON A MISSION.

“Calm down, Vitya. This is your moment, remember Sochi.”

“That’s right, I've been waiting for this since then, to see again the boy who made me feel passion for the first time in a long time…Imma seduce Katsuki Yuuri.”

*Stops blushing, now focused. Oozing every ounce of confidence and attractiveness practiced for 20 years, he thinks of this as a choreography but this time to win Yuuri. And he ALWAYS delivers*

“OH IT WORKED, HES LOOKING AT ME. YES, VIKTOR FUCKING NIKIFOROV, HES YOURS NOW. SO CUTE WHEN BLUSHING. MINE MINE MINE”

*Blushing again, owning the most extra and flirty move he's pulled in his life*

Analysis of the important little detail of this scene: Viktor Nikiforov blushing as Yuuri Katsuki got in the hot springs.

Love me some gay skating ⛸️🏳️‍🌈

Just some sketches

Excellent analysis of Victor’s choice to go to Japan, yes his feelings for Yuuri played a part in it, but that was hardly the only reason; i love their relationship so much, but as individuals Victor and Yuuri are great characters as well

Viktor Nikiforov is an adult character with adult problems and anxieties. However, unlike for Yuuri, whose struggles couldn't be more obvious to the audience, Viktor's issues are portrayed with subtlety. Which is ironic since, of the entire cast, Viktor is confronted with the most drastic life-changing choices and changes.

We meet Viktor as a competitive figure skater who has reached a point in his life many people eventually end up. The initial excitement for your profession has long since withered away and you're stuck in a life that is making you miserable. You're only staying out of convenience, the fear of change, the fear of taking a risk, or due to a lack of opportunity—or a combination thereof.

That's where Viktor is in episode 1. You can read the misery in his fake smiles and in his empty expression when he skates—an activity that once has been his passion (we know because creating your own programmes demands a creativity that is the result of passion). There are rumours that he might retire, and when being asked about his future plans, we see again the empty expression of a man who has lost his purpose. He has accumulated quite a fortune through sponsorships if his expensive clothes are any indication of that, but money can't buy happiness.

For twenty years, Viktor has lived for his sport and neglected his private life over it. His body might keep up for a couple of more seasons, but his mind is weary and his creativity is running dry. Twenty years is a long enough time to make even a decisive person think that that one thing is all you will ever be good at.

When you're stuck like that, maybe even to the point that it affects your mental health, it's hard to make it out of the slump on your own. Having someone showing you an alternative can work wonders to shift your perspective and enable you to take matters into your own hands again. For Viktor, this shift comes in form of a cute and utterly drunk fellow skater who not only seems to have a crush on him but very explicitly voices his wish that Viktor becomes his coach.

Viktor is a master of his craft. He choreographs his own programmes, he has music composed for these, and he has twenty years of experience in figure skating. Before that fateful banquet, Viktor already showed low-level coaching tendencies like when he gives (unsolicited) advice to his younger rinkmate...

or when he encourages him to become junior world champion without a quad jump and agrees to choreograph his first senior programmes.

These examples indicate that Viktor has a hidden skill he might not have been aware of during his active career as a skater. He could build on that if the sets his mind to it.

While it's true that Viktor only decided to become a coach when he saw that video (see Sayo Yamamoto's episode commentary), his feelings for Yuuri played a major role his decision because he felt a connection. That's important because feelings ignite passion and provide you with new purpose. It's tempting to assume that Viktor went to Japan for a booty call, but this totally disregards the complexity of his situation and the key role feelings play in igniting passion in someone and giving them new purpose.

"People shine brightest when they understand what kind of love sustains them."

Turning your life upside down and leaving behind the safety and convenience of a job you're good at but that you learned to hate, comes with fears and requires a certain readiness to take risks. Many people don't go to such lengths unless 1) their current situation is insufferable and 2) they have a very strong motivator to start all over. Like love or passion. As both stem from the same place, I'm equating them in the following.

Taking your first step into the uncharted territory of your new future IS scary. It can be one of the hardest things you have ever done. Especially if it means a complete reorientation. But burning for this future—be it out of love for your new subject/field, a specific person you will work with etc.—is a truly inspiring experience that fills you with the confidence that you can actually do it. So far, Viktor has been on the receiving end of coaching, but his feelings for Yuuri, his experience as a skater, and his resulting dedication to the task ultimately turn him into a good coach for Yuuri and help him succeed where Celestino failed. And it's obvious that Viktor really loves being Yuuri's coach.

Viktor Nikiforov is a true inspiration for everyone who faces the choice of staying on in a life or work situation that is making them miserable or going full risk by following one's heart. I cannot thank Sayo Yamamoto and Mitsurou Kubo enough for creating a show with so many mature characters that are dealing with realistic adult issues and I'm happy that one of my favourite YOI characters is one of them. I wish that Viktor would receive more appreciation for this.

I want to thank the reader of Thousand Spotlights whose comment about my portrayal of Viktor inspired me to finally write this post 🩷 Also many thanks to @cecebeanie for reading over it in advance 🩷

Please note:

In some cultures, changing your job frequently is normal and thus not a big thing for people, but the concept I've discussed is the universal.

This meta doesn't attempt to be a comprehensive analysis of Viktor's situation as this would have gone beyond the cope of this post (I have written other metas that discuss some of these). Viktor shows signs of depression and/or creative burnout that might or might not have to do with focusing on skating for most of his life. Depression can manifest itself differently in different people and no one's experience is less valid than someone else's.

If you enjoyed this meta, please consider giving me a follow or checking out my works on AO3 (link in bio), which build upon my analyses.

Not this scene 😭 The perspective is breathtaking and the framing is everything, it’s a beautiful work of art that perfectly encapsulates this moment and I might just have to go cry for a bit

My final for art class allowed to us to make literally anything so I made banana fish fanart 🤞

Heavenly officials: Hua cheng is dangerous!

Xie lian: 👍🏻

Heavenly officials: He's challenged 33 gods and made them lose their godhood

Xie lian: 👍🏻 *kisses him*

Heavenly officials: He'll kill you!

Xie lian: 👍🏻 *sleeps with him*

Heavenly officials: Something is not fucking right with this guy.

Hua Cheng didn’t wait 800 years for Xie Lian’s love—he waited 800 years for Xie Lian

…and that’s a difference some of y’all need to understand

In my crying over beefleaf era where every couple weeks I will reread sections of the Black Water arc (in which I find some new line I somehow missed before that hits like a gut punch) or a beefleaf fanfic and end up sobbing because I love both Shi Qingxuan and He Xuan so much, mxtx why did you have to do them like that