(heads up: sorry, I’m not good at making metas so this post might be really wonky)

I know everybody and their grandmothers have made an analysis about Victor’s character, but I’ve been thinking about him day and night since last week’s episode, and I have a few things I want to say about him. In particular, I want to address the idea that Victor will return to competitive skating if we ever get a second season/if Yuuri doesn’t win gold/etc etc etc.

To even think about this possibility of him returning to skate competitively, I thought long and hard about Victor’s character arc, the whole narrative woven around him as a character, and I decided that no, I would definitely not want him to go back into competitive figure skating, because that would ruin the purpose of the whole narrative centered around his character. 

Let’s go back to the first episode. In snippets, we see that Victor has doubts about what he wants to do for next season. In the GPF, he scored another gold medal, and Morooka commented that it laid rumors of him retiring to rest. Sure he might be in his late-twenties, but he’s still winning lots of medals and he’s still living up to his title as the living legend and Russia’s hero. But a few months later, during the World Championship, he is quiet and thoughtful when asked about his plans in the future. This is after Sochi’s GPF, so it would mean that he’s probably thinking about the option that Yuuri has presented to him a few months before: becoming a coach. It would make sense that he’s mulling it over all this while, because hell, this dude does not know a life outside of competitive figure skating. 

In the next episode, Yurio says that yes, Victor indeed had been harboring doubts about where he wants to go next in his career. The thing about Victor is that he’s done it all; he’s been reigned champion almost all of his career, he’s won dozens of medals, he has tons of fans, etc, so nobody is ever surprised anymore when he wins. Heck, what would be surprising is if he doesn’t. And the other thing we know about him is that this sucks, because he loves to surprise others, he thrives off it. He’s formulating new routines for next season, but does he even really want to compete? Will he even surprise anyone anymore? He’s probably only planning new routines thinking that yeah, of course he’s gonna continue to compete, because he doesn’t know what he would do if he doesn’t. 

What’s also interesting is that Yakov has said in the very beginning that if he leaves [his skating career] now, he won’t be able to come back. Why? Well it’s because he’s leaving the strict regimen that every figure skater has to stick to in order to win. And episode 10 cements this, telling us that Victor has been neglecting ‘life’ and ‘love’ all his life because of skating. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been the Victor Nikiforov that’s revered by the skating world. Yakov knows this, which is why he tried to prevent Victor from leaving. Do you really want to do this? Do you really want to drop your career now? Do you really want to drop the only life you’ve known so far? But Victor’s done thinking about it, he’s had a few months to think about it, and he decided that yes, he wants to fulfill what he has been devoid of all his life. He’s had his run, he’s won and gained a lot, but he’s also lacking a few integral things in life. 

Christophe said that this isn’t like Victor. Victor has lived his whole life on the ice, and everybody thought he would continue to do so. It’s “not like him to find someone he wants to protect” – this line by Chris is probably one of the most moving things that’s said about Victor and Yuuri’s relationship I think. Because it suggests that Victor – despite having previous lovers (as he himself implied in ep 2 lol) – had never found someone he’s willing to leave the ice for. Skating, surprising others, winning – these had always been his top priority, and no one else truly mattered. But his commitment to Yuuri is real, and despite what everyone else says about bringing him back to the ice, he won’t be returning. He’s found something else now, something that doesn’t rob him of ‘life’ and ‘love’. He can still skate, but he doesn’t have to sacrifice his personal life now, not anymore. 

Sure, there might have been the possibility of him not being Yuuri’s coach anymore (inferred from Yuuri’s monologues, which is a whole different topic lol), but after episode 10, after the exchange of rings, Victor is definitely sticking with this new path he’s chosen for himself. The question of him returning to competitive figure skating is pointless now. And Yurio’s “Victor Nikiforov is dead” line pretty much supports this. The Victor that sacrificed so much in order to win and keep on winning is no longer here, the legendary figure skater Victor Nikiforov is no more, but what exists is Victor who is a person of his own, without having to carry the burdens of skating and whatnot. Because with Yuuri, he can do just that – be Victor and nothing else (recall Yuuri’s line in ep 4: “I want Victor to be Victor!”)  (ps: this post is a great one that discusses this idea)

I digress, but some have pointed out that Yuuri had expressed that he wanted to be on the same playing field as his idol in ep 1, but I would argue that this could also mean that he simply wanted to be acknowledged by Victor, not necessarily wanting to compete against him, and boy is he acknowledged now ohohoho. Then there’s also that small part during Victor’s interview in ep 8, about whether he wants to face Katsuki Yuuri as a fellow skater, but his smile and lack of answer (which Yurio noticed) indicates that he’s probably realized, at that point, that he can never go back go that world anymore. 

My main point here is this: Victor’s character development and growth is about him finding something meaningful in life once again at the age of 27, it’s about him finding “a brand new world he’d never known before”, a world that he never thought possible for him. And this is why I don’t think I would want to see him return to competitive skating. This is just my personal thoughts though and I could be completely wrong, but yeah lol