Is Victor going to continue as Yuri’s coach or go back to competing? The ending implies he’ll do both.
Look at the gif above: he tells Yuri even he is worried about going back to skating while being his coach…so Yuri needs to really do well. Obviously the last part is a joke, but he’s just told Yuri he will do both things Yuri really wants: compete yet stay on as his coach.
I got the lyrics from here. They aren’t mine, but the breakdown for which singer is singing what parts is. 🙂
Blue = male singer, Pink = female singer, Purple = both
And now we can all collectively cry about how this song is basically Yuuri and Victor making love through skating.
ANALYSIS TIME GUYS!
So, looking at these lyrics more closely they’re actually SO INCREDIBLY RELEVANT.
We start off with just the male singer, who I am going to associate with Victor. He is alone, feeling abandoned, and sees an equally upset individual (the one he is singing the song to/with, who I am going to say is Yuuri). “I hear a voice crying far away” “Have you been abandoned as well?” The first time Victor notices Yuuri (and commits him to memory) is after the medal ceremony at the GPF. He sees Yuuri obviously upset. It’s easy to see how he could have made a connection to himself in him.
“Come now, let’s empty this glass of wine soon” can easily be a reference to the banquet. Equally as important for setting a timeline are the next two lines.
“I’ll start getting ready” “Now be silent.” There was a 3 month space after the GPF banquet in which Victor was mulling over the prospect of moving to be with Yuuri (whether that’s in the capacity of a coach or otherwise isn’t important). The second line can easily be Victor just asking for the space to think through his decision.
Then we get the main lines. It’s very important to note that these lines are sung TOGETHER. “Stay close to me” “Don’t go” “I’m afraid of losing you”. All of these lines apply to both of them. Also, they both skated to the song who’s name is both the title and the first line of this section, Stay Close to Me. This is what brought them together.
The next lines are interesting. “Your hands” and “My hands” are sung by Victor while “your legs” and “my legs” are sung by Yuuri. Why is it that way when they could have assigned each person to 1 viewpoint? I believe it’s because of the coach/skater dynamic they have. Victor uses his hands to mould Yuuri (coach him) and Yuuri uses his feet to communicate back (his skating).
The next 2 lines are sung together. “The heartbeats” “Are fusing together”. Victor and Yuuri are becoming one in their desires, from all levels; their careers, their relationship, their roles. They really are fusing their hearts together.
Then the last section. “Let’s leave together” is sung by Yuuri. Yuuri is asking Victor to be with him, he is taking the lead, holding out his hand like at the end of his free skate, and showing Victor the way. And Victor responds with “I’m ready”. Together they leave “Now”.
To add a couple last notes to this analysis, it’s been shown throughout the series that piano is Yuuri’s instrument and violin is Victor’s. The first time we heard Aria it was a large mixture of instruments, mostly strings. Very much Victor’s song. But this time it’s ONLY piano and violin. It’s definitely playing towards their musical motifs.
And last tiny comment: does the first note of the duet sound familiar? It’s the second last note from the ep 9 airport reunion scene. Do with that what you will.
Ok, I need to address the major fandom freakouts I’ve witnessed about episode 11. Basically, Kubo knows how to write anxiety, and specifically self-esteem related anxiety, extremely well. Frustratingly, painfully well. Still this
This is what we call narrative tension. Ending abruptly on this ambiguous line is meant to be a cliffhanger and make us suffer because we only have one episode left and we can’t go into the last episode with no narrative tension (say, Yuuri placing first and being super lovey-dovey with Victor) or else there would be no stakes. It doesn’t mean the series will end badly.
1. Yuuri messed up Eros because he wasn’t focused on love
As soon as Yuuri talked about changing the jumps and compared his program to JJ, I knew he would mess up. Yuuri’s performances rely on his mental state a lot, Eros in particular always has him adopting a very particular persona to pull through. We had none of that in episode 11. Yuuri is too focused on landing the quadruple flip and forgets to focus on love, and he ends up failing the jump but also losing presentation points. It’s why his score is lower than usual for a performance he had perfected before.
I also feel that the thing about Eros is that Yuuri’s original motivation is gone. Eros is about enticing and seducing a target and so far Yuuri’s focused all of that on Victor. Yuuri doesn’t need to seduce Victor anymore and he’s not trying to do that at all, so the message he’s trying to convey with Eros is not working anymore. He aimed too hight because of anxiety instead of focusing on delivering the same sort of perfect Eros performance we’ve seen from him before. In a way though, you could say he reached the limit of what he can do with Eros, but not with Yuri on Ice, which is why I believe he will ace his Free skate with a perfect Yuri on Ice performance next episode, thus surpassing himself and completing his self-improvement journey.
2. Victor and Yuri are not breaking up, but they are on completely different wavelengths when it comes to the relationship
Let’s get this one out of the way since it seems to be the major source of panic. “Let’s end this” is ambiguous, just so we can suffer the most. Yuuri can mean the coach-skater relationship, he can mean the romantic relationship, he can mean both. I would hope he means the first. If we follow through his thought process along the season however…he probably means both. In the sense that, he probably feels like ending the coach-skater relationship, as he intends to do, will end any sort of relationship he has left with Victor. So what he’s saying is that he wants to retire and let Victor go as a coach, but what he’s feeling probably goes beyond that, even if he doesn’t actually break up with Victor.
This isn’t new information. Yuuri has been unsure about his future in skating since episode 1. He’s been doubting his entire relationship with Victor and wether he will stay or not since episode 2. The types of looks we’ve seen Yuuri sending Victor this episode are not new.
Yuuri has always believed, as he expressed back in episode 4, that his time with Victor was a limited blessing. He believes that Victor will inevitably go back to Russia and skating like everybody around them says he should do. Yes, even after Victor kissed him on international television, even after Victor announced that they were engaged to be married, you can bet Yuuri still believes that Victor’s love is purely conditional and dependent on Yuuri’s skating performances and that this relationship is only temporary. Because Yuuri’s type of anxiety is that type that makes him hear “We’ll get married after he wins gold at the Grand Prix.” as “We’ll get married only if he wins gold at the Grand Prix and thus deserves it.”
There’s been moments he has believed otherwise, of course. The airport scene I’m sure calmed him down, most of episode 10 as well, he probably believed for a moment that maybe this was it, maybe it was real and he deserved this lasting happiness. But then he’s at the Grand Prix and messed up his Eros performance and watched Victor appreciate other skaters doing better than him, so he’s back to questioning everything that’s ever come to pass between him and Victor because right now Yuuri is very set on the “I’m not good enough for him and am just holding him back.” mindset.
Victor meanwhile? Having the time of his life! I mean I should hope nobody gets so caught up in Yuuri’s POV that we start to doubt Victor’s feelings when we had an entire episode narrated by him about said feelings. Victor was leading a lonely and empty existence where he felt like he couldn’t rely on anyone and like he was prisioner to his carreer. Until Yuuri came along, and now he’s finally enjoying life, he’s in love, he’s at peace, he’s free to see fellow skaters as friends and not just rivals. The tiny amount of Victor POV in this episode only reinforces this.
Victor is having a grand time and he’s so invested in Yuuri, so focused, so in love, so ready to marry him on the spot, which is why he doesn’t realize that Yuuri’s anxiety is not exclusively over skating performance anymore but over their relationship as well.
That said, they definitely love each other and they both want to stay together. So this is good. I mentioned this before, they desperately need to talk and let out all their feelings towards each other. This will make things better in the long run. Remember, Yuuri is making assumptions on what Victor actually wants. It’s time Victor tells him exactly what that is, because no matter what it will include staying with Yuuri. They need to discuss the future, together.
They won’t break up.
3. Yuuri is not out of character nor is he experiencing character regression
Yuuri has an anxiety disorder. I’ve discussed this before. Yes Yuuri has progressed very far, yes Yuuri has gained more self-confidence. That doesn’t make the anxiety go away. Victor’s love doesn’t make the anxiety go away. It flaring up at the Grand Prix, when he’s at the peak of pressure? Completely understandable. Especially when you consider his anxiety in particular is connected to his self-esteem and how you see the way his self-esteem works. Basically, Yuuri measures his self worth through his achievements and recently in his life, particularly through Victor. Remember, Yuuri believes Victor’s main interest in Yuuri comes from Yuuri’s skating. So messing up Eros, even if not much? Was a huge blow. Watching Victor happily watch and appreciate other skaters who are doing better than Yuuri? An even bigger one.
Yuuri still doesn’t know what really happened between him and Victor at the banquet last year. He doesn’t know any of the things Victor monologued about to us, the audience. For Yuuri, the only thing keeping Victor around is whatever special spark he saw in his skating in that video. So Yuuri feels he’s losing that spark since he’s underperforming, he feels like he’s not good enough anymore to keep Victor around. Victor didn’t say anything to Yuuri after his short program and then spent the rest of his time looking and even complimenting other skaters. In Yuuri’s head, Victor is disappointed with him.
Thus Yuuri also feels, most likely, that he’s hurting Victor and taking advantage of him. He feels guilty for keeping Victor to himself all these months. If Victor remains his coach he will be unhappy, that’s what Yuuri believes. Hell, he probably thinks he’s been forcing himself on Victor. He asked Victor to stay over the Hot Springs on Ice, he asks again later that he stays until he retires, he gives him the ring first, all of this is probably weighting down on him in the shape of terrible guilt because he loves Victor so much and he wants Victor to be happy.
So, there’s this panic response your brain has to extreme levels of anxiety, which is self-sabotage. Self-sabotage gives you the illusion of being more in control of the situation. Yuuri feels like the relationship with Victor, be it coach-skate or romantic, is doomed to fail, so he decides to end it, to free Victor himself before Victor loses interest and leaves on his own. Things still fall apart but he controls how they fall apart, which is less stressful for his anxiety muddled mind. That, and he gets rid of his crippling guilt over ‘holding Victor back’.
Everything about Yuuri’s actions and thoughts in this episode make sense.
4. EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT
So way back before episode 7 graced us all with that kiss and canon status, I believed that we would only achieve said canon status in episode 12 and the way I thought it would happen would be through Victor skating “Stay Close to Me” to Yuuri, thus confessing his feelings. Then episode 7 happened and I was a bit confused about the scene. Because the scene is totally happening, we have the duet version of the song in the soundtrack, the opening scene in the anime is clearly half a flashforward to that scene, so I knew it would still happen but I didn’t know how they would make it emotionally significant. Now, I think it might be the ultimate reassurance Victor can offer Yuuri about his feelings.
Reassurance, that’s what.
Victor can’t make Yuuri’s anxiety go away, that’s not how it works. But this series is about love. Love wins, love makes Yuuri stronger. Anxiety may not magically disappear but it can be fought against, it can be overcome. So everything will be alright, they will be alright, Yuuri will be alright.
Speaking of music and how it works as meta-narrative in this series, if you still feel unsure, go listen to the Yuri on Ice track. Listen to it, think about how it mirrors the entire story of Yuuri over the course of the series, and note how it ends in a joyful harmony between the piano and the violin.
am i the only one who’s kinda touched that yakov had a flashback of victor during yurio’s SP? gosh….
So I haven’t seen the episode yet, but let’s all remember something.
Eros is about a womanizer conquering the heart of a lady who didn’t like him at first.
Yuri on Ice is about Yuuri’s love and career.
As we know, Yuuri tends to nail the Eros routine and flop the YOI one. Thing is, as of now, Yuuri doesn’t have to be a katsudon to seduce Viktor anymore. He doesn’t have to skate like he has to get a man, since well, Viktor and Yuuri are literally engaged.
Tl;dr- I feel like this sudden switch of score is supposed to represent the changes in Yuuri’s life (and relationships). Both routines take completely opposite meanings in regards to love after all. So yeah, don’t panic (and don’t start to bash the series too omfg it has given us so much so far), love will still win in the end!
LISTEN TO ME LET ME TELL YOU WHY THROUGH A REALLY CONVOLUTED AND BEN AND JERRY’S FUELED POST
it’s not hard to deduce why Yuuri did what he did, nor is it surprising. We were so caught up in our canon ship reverie that we were completely blind to what was in front of us, lol. But the chips have fallen, and most of us have reached the same conclusion by now.
Yuuri has anxiety.
Yuuri has self loathing.
And this entire time, Yuuri never stopped believing that Victor will eventually leave him.
Alright, I think we can all agree on one thing – Yuuri did not deserve a score than low after attempting a quad flip, getting the necessary amount of rotations on it, landing it and messing up merely touching the ground. I mean, he touched the ground during his jumps in his Short Programs in the past and he still got more points, even though the base value was lower, right? So what the hell is up with that low score?
Well, I think I might just have the answer:
Yuuri forgot about his Eros – the core of the entire performance.
He lost points not from his Technical Elements but from his Program Components aka his presentation.
And think about it – what was he thinking about his entire program?
That’s right – points, jumps and scores.
And not about love. Which is a grave mistake when skating a program about love.
If you recall, in previous episodes, he often thought of Victor during his short program and I can tell you 100% that that was what allowed him to score so well. He focused on his skating but also on the objectof his love. Sometimes he did it more, sometimes less, but here he didn’t do it at all.
I mean look at his face:
And this was in the same moment where he previously blew a kiss or sensually licked his lips.
Perhaps it’s the pressure of the Grand Prix Final but Yuuri forgot about the love in his performance and it was that – not the slightly messed up quad flip – that fucked him over in the end.
Now, what do you wanna bet that it will be the power of love that will allow him to get a high score in his Free Skate next episode?
Nothing but My Aching Soul 