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.
How goddamn refreshing is it to see these 2 beautiful men not only skating together but also BOTH of them taking on the male and female roles during their ice dance? Absolute perfection.
As a gay man it has been a wonderful journey seeing these 2 men be an accurate representation of a gay relationship. They are not fetishized, there are no specific gender roles, just wonderful love.
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.
Nothing but My Aching Soul 