dont-stop-us-now:

Okay, so remember how in the free skate program in Russia, Yurio put six quads in his second half and everyone was astounded because this was the program he created to go beyond his limits? He landed his jumps out of pure adrenaline and rage at the fact that JJ was going to beat him. My guess is that seeing JJ collapse to the pressure in the short program is going to make Yurio feel like he has a cushion. He’s still young and his arrogance hasn’t faded completely. It couldn’t have in such a short amount of time. I’m not saying he won’t push himself to do the beyond his limits program like in Russia, but I’m saying that he’s probably not going to perform it as well without the added pressure of someone who is almost guaranteed to be better than him. And based on Yuuri’s short program, and Yurio’s conversation with Victor, the young and impressionable russian doesn’t see them as much of a challenge either. Yurio’s arrogance is going to cause minor mistakes that put him in second place.

That leaves Yuri and Phichit as the two most likely candidates to win the gold. Otabek, JJ, and Christophe are good, but here’s the thing with them. Otabek was introduced too recently to come in as the best. His storyline thus far has shown that he has been the underdog for quite some time and while he has improved, it hasn’t been enough to change skating in the way that Yuri and Phichit have. 

JJ had a rough short program. The pressure got to his head and he failed to lay down his usual performance. While he may show a stronger mentality and a better performance in the free skate, he’s still going to be recovering from the embarrassment and “failure” of the previous program. On top of that, JJ is Yuri’s opposite. Yuri walked into the season with practically no self confidence and has worked on building himself up to reach the level that he is at now. JJ on the other hand, began the season believing that he was the best in the world and that nothing would change that. In order to complete the foil process, JJ would have to have a similar result to Yuri’s in the last years Grand Prix Final while Yuri would find himself on top. 

Christophe is a great possibility for third. Here’s why. It’s been shown throughout the entire season that Christophe holds back his best until the end of the season. He could very easily go out and perform his best free skate yet and slide into the bronze medal position. I don’t see him going any higher though, based on his commentary in episode (either six or seven I can’t quite remember), when he said that Yuri may actually prove to be a worthy competitor this season. He won’t overcome Yurio because Yurio still has a point to prove and is following closely in Viktor’s footsteps.

As for Phichit, he could win third only to further his streak of making history, which at this point makes more sense. The theme of the show thus far has been improvement and fulfillment. Phichit’s goal was to be the first Thai skater to go to the Grand Prix Finals, which he did successfully. To complete his story arc, it would be greatly fulfilling for him to make it to the podium. That way he would be the first Thai skater in the finals as well as going home with a medal.  Yuri would be surrounded with the people he was closest to when he won, which is another plotline that has been developing throughout the season. 

Yuri started out by believing he was alone. He felt that while his family supported him and his coach taught him how to skate, he was fighting for himself and by himself. Throughout the episodes we’ve seen him grow into the love that is surrounding him. His family supports him tremendously, as do the Nishigori’s and Minako. His coach is now his fiancee and has told Yuri in no uncertain terms that he wants to stay with Yuri forever. Yurio has shared the pirozhki which doesn’t really seem as important as the other characters but it is. They’ve grown from Yuri being intimidated by Yurio to both supporting each other both on and off the rink. And then there’s Phichit, who has been his best friend throughout his skating career, with the exception of Yuuko. It would only make sense for this growth and support to be shown with Yuri in first place on the podium and his two closest friends in competitive skating on either side.

Additionally, there’s the fulfillment of Yuri’s free skate. As many other posts have pointed out, we’ve yet to see Yuri perform a perfect free skate. We’ve seen him develop Eros into something that broke several personal boundaries and was representative of his relationship with Victor. Once the relationship became more concrete though, Eros began to falter. The playboy and the most beautiful woman were in love. The story was complete. With the free skate, it’s the story of Yuri’s career. And his career isn’t over at least until the Grand Prix Final is. Yuri has been promising gold medals all throughout the series. I have no doubt in my mind that while he may be second guessing himself, he will fulfill (using that word again because really, it’s quite prominent in this show) his original expectations if not exceed them. 

Yuri briefly mentioned surpassing Victor on more than one occasion: Once with Takeshi and once during his free skate in episode seven. Subtle comments like that aren’t thrown into the series for nothing and as Kubo has shown us, nearly every individual part of the show counts towards the greater picture. I believe that he may break the record set by Victor and win, thus completing the theme of “Love” and tying up the loose ends of “Yuri on Ice”