This was several pages ago, but still wanted to address it: I agree with you. What I love about Yuzu is how he supports and promotes friendly and fair rivalry. He is of course, human, but what's most apparent of all is that he wants to be the best out of the best. He said this in a interview - but he also lives it and shows it. Having Shoma in Team Japan imo is actually what's best for Yuzu (although it makes me stressed as a Yuzu uber) as it actually pushes him forward much like having Javier as his training mate does (or the addition of Boyang and Chen.)
Imo Shoma and Yuzu's rivalry is similar like Yuzu's rivalry with Javier (but not exactly because interactions and Shoma's reserved personality). What Shoma said reminds me of Yuzu - at Worlds 2015 or 2016 (I can't remember), Yuzu was truly happy for Javier's win and yet he was also resolved to defeat Javier next time (and the kiddo was so open and honest about it!) I think this is what makes friendships even stronger - when you can be rivals and friends.
In other fandoms they're always like, "It's a waste to give presents to idols! They make more money than you! If you really want to give something, donate that money instead!" Of course, FS athletes are not idols, but this is definitely a scenario where if I wanted to give a gift to a FS skater I'd probably not over-think it.
FS is as hard, and sometimes even harder, to do competitively than other sports and it's sad how underappreciated both monetarily and just fandom-wise (especially men's single) it is internationally and even locally in some places. The commentator from B.ESP during Yuzu's GPF 2015 LP named other currently popular and legendary athletes in the world and how Yuzu is comparable to them in his sport - and I agreed and thought it's a shame that a hard-working prodigy like Yuzu's name won't ever be recognized on the streets by random people who may not even follow the sport, like they would for Messi or Curry. But tbh I shouldn't be complaining because YH has a big fandom and FS is comparatively bigger in Japan than in other countries so he's got the best deal out of most Figure Skaters.
If Yuzu skates again for Japan's annual charity event - 24 hour tv (which happens around the end of Aug 28-30?), I hope he does either the swan ex (though not likely since the lyrics are not sung in Japanese) or Hope and Legacy (a little more likelier than Notta Stellata and tbh it's very fitting for the charity event with the title and meaning - and he won worlds and broke wr with it too). So hoping WTT wasn't the last we saw of them! (But he might also debut something new, or collaborate on something new just for the event which is not bad either).
I wonder if his free children skate class on August 16th (mentioned more than a few pages back) is for 24 hour tv also - it is close to the date of the charity event. If it is we might see footage after all!
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Left my introduction for last because I'm loquacious when I'm writing so you can skip if you want!
Hello! This is my first post!
I'm a lurker - here, on tumblr, Goldenskate and FSuniverse. I actually found the latter two sites first and since I was also interested in Figure Skating too and not just Yuzu I spent a lot of time there (still am). (So here's an appeal to everyone who has an account on GS and FSU, don't abandon it altogether! As I was starting out, those two sites were very informative, but sometimes not so welcoming to YH fans, so it was very nice reading people defend YH calmly and with logic on threads outside fanfests, or call people out for being antis or trolls too.) I didn't want to delurk, but it's the holiday weekend here and I'm taking a break from reading the YH GS fanfest from the beginning.
Rest of intro in spoiler:
