hold onto me

we never got to hear his story.

water break!

if yurio were a cereal he’d be honey nut yurios

Being silly!

The sunset has never looked quite as lovely <3

So of course talking to @stammiviktor about her tags gave me a lot of feelings about these two.

It's a moment where Yuuri pulls Viktor down to earth.

"Yuuri touching him in this spot he’s clearly never seen on camera before; a portion of Viktor he’s never been privy to before. and there’s something about Viktor being self conscious of that, being so ridiculously dramatic. I don’t think Viktor’s hair is really thinning and I don’t think that’s why Yuuri touched him there, but it’s so fucking ENDEARING that Viktor immediately collapses in embarrassment. I think part of it is embarrassment too but the other part for Viktor is just like the mortifying ordeal of being known, help."

And I love his hair not really thinning because I love the idea of his insecurities being completely baseless. It makes him so human. And ridiculous. I love him being ridiculous.

And she pointed out that this is after like 13 jumps and seeing how much better Yuuri's stamina is. He's at the top of the sport, of course it can make him feel a bit insecure even before Yuuri touched him.

Yuuri seeing Viktor's insecurities for the first time. Viktor getting to be a person. Yuuri seeing that the person he idolized is human.

And now I'm thinking about Yuuri internalizing it and allowing himself to see that he's really on the same level as Viktor, he just needs the confidence.

hbd!!

AO3 Top Relationships Bracket- Quarterfinals

This poll is a celebration of fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with many of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement, and refrain from harassment.

Stammi Vicino and the events of Yuri!!! On Ice are still mind boggling to me. Where’s that post about scarcely-fathomable level of romance.

Stammi Vicino is the first skating sequence in YOI. It is the first full skating routine we are presented with and it’s the choreography we see in the very first moments of the show. Lyrically, Stammi Vicino is about a man calling out for someone to hear him, speaking of intense loneliness and decrying love. The lyrics were written by the creator of YOI, Kubo Mitsurou, and translated into Italian for the composition.

In the first episode of the show, both Yuuri and Victor skate this routine individually. Victor skates it for Worlds, and Yuuri skates it because he wants to get his love for skating back.

Unbeknownst to him, Yuuri’s performance was recorded and uploaded to YouTube, and Victor comes into his life from there (directly because of Yuuri’s SV performance).

Victor sees Yuuri’s performance and comes to meet Yuuri, and that’s the inciting incident of the show. Both of their routines were a calling out into the darkness, and they were answered. (That’s love!) Through the show, we learn that both Victor and Yuuri were in bad places at the time of the routine of the first episode, and we see them grow wonderfully together in their relationship and as people through the series.

Stammi Vicino is also known as Hanarezu Ni Soba Ni Ite in Japanese, or Stay Close to Me. This line is said by both characters throughout the show, perhaps most significantly by Yuuri in their argument in the parking garage in EP 7 (a major turning point for their relationship).

The first time Yuuri sees Victor in the flashback, we get notes of Stammi Vicino underneath the dialogue.

This song is perhaps the musical foundation for the entire show! Every aspect of Victor and Yuuri’s relationship is writ in, from calling out into the darkness to finally coming together— represented in the closing routine of the show, Stammi Vicino: Duetto.

Yuuri skates Stammi Vicino once more as the show’s final episode closes, and this time Victor joins him for a pair skate. The final episode is one where they’ve finally fully come together — they agree on their future and on their future together. It’s a beautiful bookend to the story, and represents, as the skating routines always do, their characters and their relationship.

In Duetto, the verses about condemning love are gone and the piece has two singers instead of one. Verses in both the aria and duetto say “your hands, your legs / my hands, my legs / our heartbeats / are blending together,” referencing — and they were crazy for this honestly — Plato’s theory of soulmates. At the end of the piece, the singers “leave together”.

The creator, Kubo Mitsurou, has stated in the past very explicitly and publicly that Victor and Yuuri are soulmates. Canonically! The first time Yuuri sees Victor in the flashback, we get notes of Stammi Vicino underneath the dialogue. Stammi Vicino is the musical thread of Victor and Yuuri’s relationship.

They’re engaged!! To be married!!! They’re canonically soulmates!!!

The music in YOI is deeply intertwined with the storytelling. Each routine is uniquely representative of a character, who they are as person, and their journey. The relationship between Victor and Yuuri is the core of this show, and Stammi Vicino is perhaps the most important piece representative of their relationship.

Stammi Vicino, the aria and duetto, represent a story about loneliness and calling out for love and that call being answered. That’s the thesis of Yuri on Ice.

“There’s a place you just can’t reach unless you have a dream too big to bear alone. We call everything on the ice ‘love.’”

SO SPEAKING OF SOULMATES I REMEMBER KUBO-SENSEI SAYING THAT YUURI AND VIKTOR ARE SOULMATES AND I WAS LIKE HUH THAT MEANS THEY'RE TOGETHER IN ANY UNIVERSE AND YOU KNOW WHAT I REMEMBERED

THEM APPEARING IN A STEVEN UNIVERSE COMIC

THEM APPEARING IN BLOOM, A YA COMIC ABOUT A BAKERY

THEY REALLY ARE SOULMATES YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY MIND

i dug up this old sketch of young viktor sunning himself in the spotlight

I’ve spent some time lately trying to figure out why, exactly, it always rings false to me when people call Viktor a “playboy.” And I think I figured it out:

Viktor Nikiforov believes in love.

Viktor is definitely presented as a playboy. That’s not the problem: he has millions of male and female fans who literally swoon over him, he’s noted for being “free with his charms,” is called “the world’s hottest bachelor,” and his initial behavior with Yuuri is very forward, physical, and flirtatious. Even seven episodes of character growth in, his initial reaction to comfort Yuuri is kissing him.

So it’s not that Viktor doesn’t have the groundwork laid for this interpretation.

Most “playboy” archetypes fall into this pattern of having been hurt in the pat by someone—a parent, a friend, usually a former lover—and they are now jaded and no longer believe in love. The love interest is there to facilitate the playboy’s growth by being warm and loving and caring and everything the playboy needs and convince them that love doesn’t have to hurt. The playboy’s character arc takes them through this long trial in which their love interest is used as free emotional labor and an emotional punching bag while the playboy works out his personal issues.

While we have basically no backstory on Viktor, he doesn’t appear to have been hurt like this in the past. He’s just a sad, lonely man with major depressive disorder and no friends or family, apparently. Which, as my brother pointed out when I made this argument to him, doesn’t sound very much like a playboy.

As soon as he meets Yuuri at the banquet and realizes, “I could fall in love with this man,” he chases it with everything he has. He already knows how much he wants and needs love and how much good it could do him. He’s not running away from affection, he’s running full-tilt toward it.

Which neatly averts any “using Yuuri as an emotional punching bag,” and for that I will be forever grateful.

My grandfather always used to say that he chased my grandmother until she caught him. Episode 10 will forever make me think of that phrase, ‘cause episodes 1-9 is a whole lot of Victor chasing, but episode 10 is where Yuuri catches him.

I have thoughts on this as well. I just want to point out that we are left with a huge number of degrees of freedom for how we view Victor simply because he has very little backstory given (at the moment).

But Victor-as-playboy is an interpretation that is given to us by Minako when she is watching Victor skate. At this point, Minako hasn’t actually met Victor. She’s basing her view of Victor-as-playboy on publicly available facts: * he has millions of female fans * he is flirty in public (for instance, Victor winking at the camera)

But we know that Victor is a performer. He instructs both Yuuri and Yuri how to perform, and–at least as far as coaching goes; his personal feelings are likely a different matter–is 100% fine with Yuuri performing Eros by thinking about katsudon.

We also know, canonically, that Minako is wrong about Victor’s motivations. Minako tells Yuuri in episode 2 that she thinks Victor is using coaching as an excuse to figure out what he wants to do next.

This image of playboy is projected onto Victor by people who don’t know him.

These two projections as to Victor’s internal state are brilliant narrative strokes by Kubo, because they allows us (as viewers) to construct an explanation for behavior that makes absolutely no sense without Episode 10. Why is Victor flirting with this guy he barely knows? Why did he drop everything to come coach him?

The narrative of Episodes 1-4 is explicitly built to lie to the viewer about who Victor is, to heighten the drama of the Episode 10 reveal. Victor is set up as someone who has many passing affairs, few of which manage to hold his interest.

One of those narratives–that Victor is just using Yuuri as an excuse to figure out what he’s doing–is clearly false. The other one, IMO should be treated with extreme skepticism.

Given how little we know of Victor, I think anyone can legitimately headcanon Victor anywhere between actual playboy and…the opposite of actual playboy, which is much more likely to be the case.

What we do know of Victor–the part that comes directly from himself–is that he’s spent more than twenty years having neither life nor love. You could probably squish a playboy-ish image into that, but… Not easily, I don’t think.

If you start from that perspective, you see Victor’s actions in the first few episodes as fumbling–terrible fumbling–because he has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.

And here’s where we get Kubo’s third brilliant narrative stroke. If you try to explain the way Victor tries to seduce Yuuri in the first few episodes, he’s absolutely off kilter. This is not how a seasoned playboy would approach a skittish ingenue. “Hey, let’s sleep together to get to know each other better!” is actually really hilarious when viewed as an actual attempt to start a relationship.

The viewer reads all this as, essentially, fanservice in the first few episodes. We read it as a character overacting, over-exaggerating, to get those sexy frames in place. But these are coupled with things that don’t quite fit the fanservice image–Victor crying at night while hugging Makkachin, Victor looking away and sighing when Yuuri refuses to talk to him, Victor getting massively drunk when Yuuri says that katsudon is his eros.

Kubo uses and subverts the trope of fanservice. We think we know what we’re seeing. The reality? Again, open to interpretation, but my headcanon is that Victor is actually Bad At Seduction. He doesn’t know what to do; he’s basically imitating fanservice because he has very little actual real world experience. (Whether you see this as Victor-as-sexually-inexperienced, or Victor-as-never-having-had-to-do-work-because-everyone-comes-to-him-first is again up for grabs).

From Victor’s perspective, Yuuri is the seasoned playboy, and he thinks that all he has to do is signal that he’s available. So he shows up, naked, and is like…uh, how do we do this thing? I touch you, right? And ask you who you’re into? This is how we do it? No? Okay, well, let’s keep trying new things.

Victor knows he’s failing, but you don’t land a quad flip by giving up on the first try. So he keeps trying. Okay, that didn’t work…let’s go somewhere together! Let’s sleep together! Let’s go to the beach together!

It isn’t until episode four that Yuuri and Victor sit down and Victor just flat out asks the equivalent of this: “Yuuri, I have no idea how to human, HOW DO I DO THIS THING.”

And Yuuri tells him to be himself.

So, long story short, “Victor as playboy” is IMO a construction that is built by Kubo based on testimony from highly unreliable narrators to heighten the drama of the episode 10 reveal.

a quick paint

I said I’d draw some *real* fanart if the kiss was the Real Deal. And here we are.