My-loved-figure-skates - I Wanna Be On Ice

Yuri On Ice AND figure skating nerds might appreciate that this weekend, the NHK Trophy is taking place in Yoyogi Stadium, which is the location where Viktor won his 5th consecutive World Championship

The real stadium vs. the anime version:

... and from above - a sight we don't get to see in the anime.

The venue from the inside real vs. anime:

If you look closely, you can even spot the two big ventillation tubes on the left right below the curved ceiling.

It's not that uncommon that a figure skating event takes place in one of the venues from YOI because there are only so many suitable venues for figure skating competitions available. In 2021, the Rostelecom Cup was held in Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi where the Grand Prix Final of tears happened. The Beijing Olympics in 2022 and the 2023 Grand Prix Final were held in Capital Indoor Stadium where Yuuri and Viktor kissed for the first time. And the 2022 Skate Canada was held in Mississauga, just like the Skate Canada in YOI-- and those are only the competitions since I've started following the sport.

By the way: the 2021 NHK Trophy was held in Yoyogi Stadium as well.

However, every time a real figure skating event takes place in some of these places, it feels magical. As if the world of YOI and the real world connect and the universe feels a bit more complete.

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my-loved-figure-skates

1 year ago

MY HYPE MEMBERS WHENEVER I DO ONE THING RIGHT

World Team Trophy in Figure Skating 2017

Victor Drowning his Sorrows?

A little after the bombshell of episode 10, the observation was made that Victor’s all night drinking spree happened after Yuuri declared the pork cutlet bowl to be his Eros.

Thus it was proposed that Victor, who had been spending the last week trying to reignite the spark from the banquet, drinks all night to drown his sorrows.

This idea caught like wildfire to the point it almost seems accepted canon. I, personally have always been a leery of this interpretation. Don’t get me wrong,I find it very funny, but first of all the timeline is a little off.

Victor heads out to drink at least a day, if not a couple of days after Yuuri declared his Eros of the pork cutlet bowl, (there is a montage of Yuri and Yuuri both skating and off ice conditioning, which implies to me that it was more than one day)

The one glimpse we get of Victor out at the ramen shop he seems genuinely happy.

(Also I have become leery of an American point of view that interprets any occasional overindulgence of alcohol as necessarily having some underlying negative cause.)

Beyond the possible timeline issue, it could also be argued that there was some level of Victor being slightly devious in purposely leaving the Yuris together, since with their opposing strengths they could learn from each other. I mean look at the little smile he gives after discovering them working together

Then he later admits after the Hot Springs on Ice while critiquing Yuuri’s performance that he knew he and Yuri had been working on his Salchow.

That said, I recently have been examining the idea more seriously than just an elevated piece of fanon, and there is something there.

First, the scene directly before Yuuri’s revelation, we’re shown Yuuri in the onsen contemplating about how to express Eros when a completely naked Victor asks Yuuri to take a picture of him. At the time I assumed this was just Victor being a funny foreigner, but in retrospect I think it’s possible to interpret it as Victor deliberately trying make Yuuri discover that Victor is the target of his Eros. This post argues this interpretation really well.

Which follows to the next scene where Victor’s jinbei is completely open at the front, strengthening the idea he’s trying to get Yuuri view him in a romantic way.

We see at other times his jinbei is loose, but not as completely open as it is here, so this is deliberate.

Then after Yuuri’s declaration the smile Victor gives is ambiguous.

It’s certainly not his heart smile or the proud older brother smile he gives when Yuri finds his Agape, but it’s not quite his frozen upset smile either, making it a bit hard to really interpret how Victor feels about Yuuri’s declaration, though he does seem a little taken aback by it, judging by the sweat drop.

So, Victor doesn’t go out that night, but after the montage we see that Yuuri was forced to join Yuri in the waterfall.

Yuuri even reasonably asks why he had to come, which is a valid question since he had already come up with his Eros. Unless we accept the possibility that Victor might have hoped that Yuuri would come to a different conclusion after further contemplation. However, we could also chalk this up to devious!Victor theory where he was hoping by throwing them together they would learn from each other.

What made me think about this seriously was the realization that we only see Victor overindulge in alcohol twice:

The first is drinking all night some indeterminate time after Yuuri declared pork cutlet bowl is his eros.

The second was at the hot pot restaurant in China after Yakov told Victor that he wouldn’t interact with him unless he went back to skating.

Therefore both times we see drunk Victor are following perceived rejection, first by Yuuri and secondly by Yakov, the two people we see Victor really having an intimate relationship with.

This could also parallel Yuuri’s known issue of overeating in response to anxiety and stress.

So, I personally am still not sure how seriously I take the idea that Victor “drowns his sorrows” when rejected, the evidence as noted above is a bit circumstantial, but it is interesting and potentially offers insight into Victor’s character.

tldr: does Victor drink his feelings the way Yuuri eats his feelings? Evidence is inconclusive, but an argument can be made, I guess.

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my-loved-figure-skates

1 year ago