First off: Victor is still staying on as Yuuri’s coach? He outright says as much in the episode.
There are so many posts about how Yuuri is going to be coached when Victor is competing, but Victor outright says he’s still coaching him.
It is going to be difficult for Victor to try to juggle both, yes. But it’s so Victor, and so Victor for Yuuri, that it’s not surprising. And as much as Yuuri will lean on Victor, I’m sure Victor will lean on Yuuri.
I also got the impression that this season isn’t as much about the results as Victor, as it is the love of the sport. Sure he’s competitive, but hell Yuuri’s got to get that five time world champion streak started as soon as possible or he’ll have to retire before he can complete it.
Okay so the real meat of this post. I’m going to talk a lot about Victor’s love for Yuuri and how it manifests in this episode, and also a little bit about Yurio’s love for Yuuri.
With Yakov and likely his other rinkmates who know his habits, Victor’s hug is actually not an affection thing or a reassurance but an SOS call.
Guess what he did in episode 12.
“Help me, Yuri. I can’t do this. Yuuri’s retiring and I can’t stop him. I cried and I can’t stop him. Please skate your best. Please stop him from retiring. It’s still not too late right now, he still hasn’t completely decided. I can’t think of anyone who can save both of us but you.”
…………..and literally any salt I had remaining for Yurio getting the gold just vanished in the blink of an eye. GOOD JOB WITH THAT SKATE, SON.
Many of us were expecting Yuuri to win the gold and for Victuuri to retire into domestic bliss after having found each other. But perhaps we – like Yuuri – missed the fact that Yuuri’s ownskating has value beyond being for Viktor or embodying his feelings for Viktor.
Yuuri still doesn’t know that Viktor was empty and unfulfilled in his lonely God-like position (and may likely be done with figure skating in general?). Yuuri still believes that him continuing to skate is holding Viktor back. While he still believes this, Yuuri retiring to put Viktor back on the ice amounts to Yuuri again not seeing his own value as a skater, the value of continuing to push himself and his value to Viktor.
No wonder Viktor’s pissed off.
I still believe Viktor did not truly intend to return to competitive skating. Nothing about his face feels like he’ssuper keen to return. But Viktor has always met Yuuri in his own ‘language’ in order to keep Yuuri close to him. Yuuri will be a delicious katsudon to channel his Eros? Viktor loves katsudon. Yuuri wants to call these ‘good luck charms’ instead of wedding rings? Viktor will call it a good luck charm.
And now that Yuuri has equated attaining gold to leaving Viktor and leaving skating? Viktor will fightto keep Yuuri from the gold, so that Yuuri will keep skating. Skating has always been their love language so this is Viktor desperately saying stay close to me through his actions.
Looking back, it’s pretty masterfully executed. Viktor fires Yuuri up before the free skate by emphasising all he has sacrificed for Yuuri to win gold. This seemed really out of character at first – Viktor’s love isn’t conditional on Yuuri winning gold and we know this. But Yuuri has ‘already made up his mind’. Viktor reassuring Yuuri of his love (eg. ‘I will love you no matter if you win or lose’) would reaffirm the romance issue but it would not keep Yuuri on the ice. So Viktor says he wants to kiss the gold medal. Yuuri has to win. To Yuuri, this seems like it’s acceptance of Yuuri’s decision. Skate a perfect program, give Viktor his final present (a gold medal) and retire.
But Viktor has other plans. After the skate, he essentially says to Yuuri, ‘you skated a great program but you still need to beat me.’ Will that motivate Yuuri to continue skating? Maybe – it certainly excites Yuuri. But Viktor has to be sure. Yuuri can’t win the gold. So now it’s up to Yurio. It’s no coincidence Viktor chose this moment to insist on breaking the news to Yakov – when he knew Yurio was listening.
I…don’t think it’s skating, for Viktor.
Note Yurio being the one to see through Viktor’s comeback talk and zero in on the main point, which is Viktor’s desperation to prevent Yuuri from retiring from skating. Let’s not discount the fact Viktor put aside all that happened at the beach and make himself both vulnerable and humble by hugging Yurio – this is a crisis and Yurio understands this and skates the skate of his life, all while thinking he will make Yuuri regret retiring for the rest if his life by winning. Viktor’s not the only one who sees value in Yuuri’s skating as its own existence – Yurio’s noticed it from the beginning. And Yurio wins, and it’s working – Yuuri is fired up.
Now it’s time for Viktor to sink in the final hook. He’s failed as a coach, clearly. He doesn’t get to kiss Yuuri’s gold medal. How sad. What a regret.
There’s the Yuuri he loves, this (and not making his own comeback) is what gives Viktor his ridiculous Minami!moe eyes. A Yuuri who wants to continue to fight. A Yuuri who will stay with him.
So these two idiots confusedly stumbled into what they both wanted – to stay together – without having a proper conversation about how…that doesn’t necessarily need to involve skating. But right now, it does need skating.
Stammi Vicino therefore achieves the dual purpose of both reassuring us their romantic relationship survives but also that one of them being on the ice should not be at the expense of the other. If this becomes a thing in Season 2, Yuuri needs to understand that if Viktor chooses to leave skating, it’s Viktor’s own decision, and not a sacrifice Viktor is making to keep Yuuri on the ice.
This is a conflict the writers have left unresolved – and it’s something I think they need to resolve to move forward. Hopefully a second season will give them the time and nuance to do this in depth.
When I first watched the episode, I never quite understood what prompted Victor to hug Yuri after announcing his return to skating.
It felt like it had come out of no where, but when I rewatched the scene, I began to form a theory.
We know that Victor is unhappy about Yuuri retiring, but they had agreed to form their own separate decisions after the GPF. Victor decided to return to skating professionally but when he told Yuuri, he didn’t look excited or particularly happy at the prospect.
Maybe he was hoping that being a part of the competition would entice Yuuri to not retire, but that plan didn’t seem to work so he decided to go on his next plan. Yuuri wanted to retire after winning gold, so who is Yuuri’s biggest competition?
Time to light a fire in Yuri.
Victor didn’t have to announce his return to Yakov right before Yuri’s FS. He could have waited after, especially since they need to be ready to head into the rink, but Victor intercepted them specifically so that Yuri would hear the news too.
Yakov is of course surprised but Yuri’s reaction?
He honestly doesn’t give a fuck about Victor returning. Yuuri is the one he’s interested in, the one he’s been interested in the entire series (which delves a little into a slightly different meta so I’ll leave that alone) so when he hears the news, he’s floored.
I feel like Victor’s reaction to Yuri’s expression is really telling in this situation. Notice how the lighting suddenly darkened just for this shot of his face and how his hair is covering his eyes, something that many people have pointed to indicate when Victor is guarded or hiding something.
That’s the look of a man who laid a trap and Yuri fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
Otabek’s monologue is great (which is kind of amazing since he was only introduced two episodes ago?? ) and it goes hand in hand with this scene. Victor wants Yuuri to keep skating, to keep going. Yuri competing his heart out and keeping Yuuri from winning first place is the VIctor’s last hope of keeping Yuuri on the ice.
That is to say, I don’t think Victor really wanted Yuuri to lose, but there might have been a part of him that hoped that if Yuuri didn’t win gold, maybe he wouldn’t retire.
tl:dr Victor hugging Yuri is him placing his trust on his successor to win and keep Yuuri from gold and retirement.
So this moment really jumped out at me when I was watching the YOI finale…
…and probably (definitely) not for the reasons you think. I know it parallels Yuuri’s narration in Episode 1 and brings us right back full circle—he says exactly the same thing back then, and the juxtaposition makes us realise how far he’s come in one year, how different the Yuuri of now is.
My first reaction to it, though, was that it reminded me so much of…
Hamlet. Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I know it sounds crazy but honestly!!
Hamlet is your original indecisive, waffling, angst-ridden main character. He spends most of the play trying to come to terms with who he is and what he needs to do. This line, “This is I, Hamlet the Dane”, is widely acknowledged as a pivotal turning point in Hamlet’s character and his conviction, the point where he finally reaches a decision, and it is his love for Ophelia that gives him that final push, just as it is Yuuri’s love that affirms his own convictions.
I won’t take the Hamlet/Yuuri parallels any further because they are two very different characters and these are two very different stories, but I do think that the tradition of a character declaring, to borrow a phrase from JJ’s theme, “This is who I am” is a notable and time-honoured literary trope that earmarks the importance of this moment for Yuuri. Hamlet isn’t the only example, and you don’t have to look all the way back to the Elizabethan era.
Think about “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Think about “I am Moana of Motunui.” Think about “I am Moana.” Think about “What’s your name, man? Alexander Hamilton.”
In this moment, when Yuuri signifies himself clearly, the narrative is riding on a long and rich literary tradition to drive home the fact that in finding himself, Yuuri has found his determination, his purpose, his goals, and what he and he alone can do and is meant to do. This is the culmination of “Yuri!!! on Ice”, the free skate song that represents his skating career. And he’s finally reached it.
Someone probably beat me to the punch and made a post like this already, but honestly, I just had talk about this scene.
I’m sure all of you remember the infamous bathroom scene. This new flashback from episode 12 puts things into a different perspective.
Here Yuri is, watching Yuuri’s past GPF performance. He’s trying his best to look disinterested yet you can tell he’s clearly interested. He even goes as far to admit that Yuuri’s step sequence grabbed his attention. And when he mentions the failed jumps he sounds almost…disappointed.
He isn’t making fun of him for messing up his jumps. He wants to see Yuuri be able to succeed and successfully complete a program.
one thing I love about Yuri on Ice is how filled with… positivity it is. Because they all make mistakes, they all aren’t perfect, yet they all go on, and find happiness. The writers didn’t delve in overused angst tropes that hurt the character needleslly and I think that’s great?
JJ doesn’t win yet he’s loved and supported by his family and girlfriend, and it’s important even if he was kind of a jerk. Because whe you’re the “best one”, you’ve got so much more pressure to keep being the best, and you’re always afraid to fail and disappoint everyone. Here they showed that if you fail it doesn’t mean that people won’t love you.
Yurio wins the gold medal, but his resolve is to beat Yuri, because winning doesn’t mean having reached the end, but only another milestone. And he’s so mature to know that.
Yuri fails again to win the gold, but this time he doesn’t let himself feel down. He wanted that gold medal for himself and Victor, but you see him beaming on the podium anyway. Because he now knows it’s only a matter of time before he can have it.
Not to mention the relationship between Yuri and Victor, that’s somature and supporting and respectful and where do you even see that in media? I know it would have been much better if they showed a kiss or explicitly said the three words for a number of reasons, but this felt real, tangible. They showed a love so believable it didn’t need to be stressed.
And these are only the things that come to my mind about this last episode. And I mean, it doesn’t mean that life it’s like that, there are always struggles, but the point is that you can tackle those struggles and overcome them I think? Even if you need to take one year to think about it. Maybe it can give you more perspective to make a better choice later.
And tbh I don’t know where I was going with this post, I’m just glad Yuri on Ice exists.
In which I think Victor initially decided to go back to competing for Yuri’s sake, and not because he wanted to. not initially at least.
First Victor was dead set on not returning to skating without Yuri, to the point of crying when Yuri insisted on it. And that made sense, as the episodes prior to ep12 showed Victor’s thoughts and how he didn’t really miss competitions.
So…did Yuri’s skating make him want to go back to it out of pride? To beat their records which beat his?
I don’t think so. He was too happy and proud about those and showed no sign of feeling competitive over it, apart from telling Yuri so.
And when he implies he’ll go back…his face wasn’t happy at all. His smile is almost forced.
I believe that, after seeing the love for him that Yuri poured out on his performance, and how Yuri’s desire to have him go back to skating was an honest wish (even if misguided) for his happiness… Victor decided to do it. To make Yuri happy. He didn’t really care to go back, especially without Yuri there, but he wanted to make Yuri happy and would do it for his sake.
Perhaps he didn’t want to disappoint Yuri as former fan of his by revealing the truth: to tell Yuri, who for so long looked up to him as a skater, that he never felt that alive while doing it…maybe Victor would rather not hurt Yuri’s image of him.
And so, for all of hat…he decided to go back. And it might not have turned out well at all, to have done so for such reasons but…
But then Yuri decided to not retire, and that’s when Victor started looking forward to competing. When Yuri asked him to go back to coaching him for one more year…Victor didn’t immediately retract his desire to go back to skating. Instead, he claimed he’d try to do both. And this, I believe, is the moment he truly began looking forward to competing: the moment he found out Yuri would beside him on the rink.
I have a reason to believe that Victor’s decision to return to the ice is very much determined by his love for Yuuri. I’m trying to get my thoughts straight after crying so much lol so I hope I can at least form coherent sentences.
Victor’s reaction at the hotel conversation scene tells me that he hasn’t really thought about actually returning to competitive skating. Sure he might have felt a bit of longing for it after seeing everybody else’s performances in ep 11, but I think what’s even more important to him is staying together with Yuuri. His thoughts about what he can give to Yuuri in ep 11, how Yuuri has given him life and love, how he wished Yuuri would never retire – they all seem to indicate that Victor’s priorities are about remaining close to Yuuri more so that they are about him finding inspiration to skate competitively once again.
But since Yuuri seems quite adamant that he think thoroughly about what he wants to do, coupled with everything that @fabelyn described about Yuuri’s earnest wishes, Victor becomes more inclined to see that returning to the ice is something he can do for both himself and for Yuuri. It won’t be as bad as before, he might be thinking, since now he has Yuuri as a source of strength and he is no longer fighting all by himself. What is more telling, I think, is that when Yuuri finally says that he wishes to continue skating with Victor as his coach, Victor’s reply tells me that even though he has decided to make a comeback, he still harbors a desire to coach and guide Yuuri. I think that if Yuuri really did decide to retire, Victor might’ve continued on with his decision, but he wouldn’t be as motivated or as happy as he is to be able to return PLUS still remaining close to Yuuri as a coach (of course they’re still engaged and would still love each other very much, but I think having Yuuri retire would’ve definitely put more distance between them, both physically and emotionally, I think). Now they have an added dimension to their relationship: as rivals, as equal competitors, but I really do hope that if we indeed get a second season, we will see how Victor’s return is handled in more detail. Is he emotionally, mentally and physically fine to be returning to the strain of competitive figure skating? Yakov did say that it would be impossible for him to return if he ever left (in ep 2). Yakov might’ve said it just so that he could stop Victor from leaving, but I don’t think they’re empty threats either. Victor is 27, very soon to be 28. Even if he returns to the ice, how much longer can his body hold out? There’s also the fact that he wants to coach Yuuri simultaneously being a competitor himself – I think there’s a rule somewhere that says that he’s not allowed to do that. (Unless of course, Yakov is officially put down as Yuuri’s coach alongside Yurio’s and Victor’s, and Victor can mentor the two Yuris while doing whatever else he needs to do as a competitor, haha). lol sorry I’m ending this with such heavy thoughts, but yes, I think that Victor’s decision to return to the ice is spurred heavily by his feelings for Yuuri, more so than for himself or because he’s “frustrated” at seeing his records get broken and other skaters are surpassing him etc.
I can say this because when Yurio found out Yuuri might be retiring, he literally used his entire free program to convince Yuuri to not retire. He did everything in his power to get Yuuri to keep competing, and if that isn’t real agape (sacrificial, universal love; the highest form of love that persists no matter what), then I don’t know what is.
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”
Nothing but My Aching Soul 