WinForPooh

At this point I just want her to be healthy.

I love the idea of Waka's SP! Hopefully she's getting the worst over with already, it'll be pretty spectacular when she pulls it off, especially the step sequence, she just bursts into it with the three difficult turns and it's amazing. The 2A is underwhelming with that setup so fingers crossed she gets that 3A when it's time for bigger competitions. Waka's programmes usually have too many crossovers if you look for them but she's just so fast and dynamic that I find it easy to ignore that. Rika is really, really ambitious, isn't she? Reminds me of Yuzu that way. Knows just how much she has to bring her jump and transitions game, and the dramatic interpretation part, considering the programmes she'll be going up against. I hope she pulls it off. Feels like one fall could derail the programme. I'm a bit uncertain about Kaori, her skating skills have improved and they were very nice already but some of the things that were charming and endearing as a first season senior begin to feel like maybe things she should work on now that she's in her third season as senior. But with this 3A and quad arms race, I guess it's not going to be a priorty, who can blame her? Nathan... Well, he is putting steps before his jumps. His SP 3A, his FS 4Lz - he's not going straight into them. Long setups still but getting better. That's good. That's about all that's different from last season's programmes. Or the season before that. Other than a couple of specific different hand wavy thingies, it feels like he could skate any of his SPs and FSs over this and the last two years to any piece of music he used now and in the last two years and it would take people who've watched him a thousand times to even tell that it's not the 'right' programme. And the knees are beginning to really bother me, surely it's time we should see some improvement on that. And his edges are still shallow when he has any speed. Not that it'll matter, +8GOE and 11.5PCS across the board. ETA: More people should've gone to Stephane. Yuna's programme is gorgeous. (Under cut, I think it was posted earlier but I can't find it now)

Look at their levels. Oh, Shun!

I have original suggestions for what Jack can do with his scoops, tbh. But I stand by my statement that Nathan has to increase his technical arsenal to compete with Yuzu now. And soon Vincent, too. Nathan's only got three very stable quads right now and one of those has a flat/borderline wrong edge now. And Samarin, forgot him.

Did I watch it and cry and then watch Saitama Origin and bawl like a baby? Yes, yes I did. And I'm not ashamed. @mercedes Thank you for the translation!

The scratching sounds we hear are the commentators rewriting their scripts for this season. Welp I guess Nathan is far more self-aware than most of the people who talk about him. He was coasting on the technical accomplishments he already had last season, and he does need to up his arsenal if he wants to compete with the turbocharged Yuzu and Vincent coming up behind him. I guess commentators can use Nathan's old script for Vincent this season, so all is not lost.

Kakkoi!!!

Some wear knives on their feet and fly across the frozen world.

*sigh* How many days to ACI now? @Hydroblade What do you say about a countdown?

The smol's face. Accurate. Do they usually manage to grab him for a photo after he's done with his training session? He always looks tired in these photos. But he doesn't look kuyashii so thumbs up from me.

I'm at no.10 there.

(We should all do that at the same time, synchronised, and maybe it'll be seared into the judges' brains forever too.)

I expect an Evgenia-Alina situation between Nathan and Vincent soon, especially because despite everything, Nathan seems to be working to improve certain things. The recent outing of his SP, his setup for his 3A looked like he'd been working on shortening it and even if he had a hand down, I like what it says about him. He gets the GOEs with a setup from Pluto now, the only reason he's working on it is because he wants to be better. Now whether that translates to competition, we'll see. Either way, his PCS and GOE will hit the ceiling this season because there won't be anywhere left to go. Vincent's jumps have more prerotation so he could conceivably get his edge jumps stablilised as far as landing is concerned. And he's only going to college one semester, he's got more time for training. It could very well end in Vincent having a BV advantage over Nathan and his PCS and GOE being pushed just as high. Yuzu is the monkey wrench in those plans USFSA have, they must be pulling their hair out screeching 'What will it take for you to retire!!' But the thing I find most encouraging is that Yuzu managed to make his 4Lz axis so much better. Somehow I feel like he crossed one big hurdle standing between him and the rest of the toe jumps. I'm crossing everything and looking up every way to send good health and good fortune to him because with that, he will be the one with the BV advantage. Unless he takes a whole season off, they won't Chiddy his PCS. He will have to go above and beyond his competition to get what they get and he'll have to become even better than he is now to beat them, but you know what? If there is anybody in this universe who can do it, and who will work hard AND smart to do it, who is analytical enough about technique, the politics and his own condition to do it, it's Our Overlord Trollzuru. If he's calculated that to do it, he needs to keep his old programmes? We'll be right behind him every step of the way, cheering him on to do everything he wants to do. And we'll sit on anybody who recycles their tired old nonsense criticisms about his recycling. If their faves are so lacking in depth that they perform a programme as good as they can possibly do it on its fourth outing, that's a them problem, not an us problem. We'll wait for the Origin, and even the Otonal, that he sees himself performing. We'll be well rewarded when he does it.

Sit. Twizzles. Anyway if he's gonna do 4Lz3T rippon, he'll put it in the first half.

I am now full of great hope that Origin 2.0 will be closer to that and will bring the sit twizzles back. Wheeeeeeeeeeee sit twizzles!

I guess most of us were kind of braced for Origin 2.0! Maybe he's full of kuyashii that he couldn't do justice to the vision he gave us a glimpse of on media day. Saitama Origin was gutwrenching and spectacular and soul-destroying in some ways but it wasn't The Origin That Was Promised. I can't complain about the prospect of getting That Origin That Was Promised even if I'm worried about judges and so on, but there's no way to tell how judges would take a new programme, either. I'm just stacking up all my staplers to throw at people who try any nonsense DiscourseTM about him recycling, I'm not standing for any of it.

If he really cared, he'd get on Twitter and make inconsequential comments about things instead of making donations and going and meeting people affected and skating for them!

Ah, the narrative. I'm not bothered about that because now, honestly? People who push narratives of any kind about Yuzu have made up their minds about him and the reasons why they say what they say don't have much to do with quality of skating. If he brought new programmes, they'd find reasons to trash his new programmes. Remember how they called Origin and Otonal recycling because he was paying tribute to his idols by using music made iconic by them?! Does anybody demand that any other skater not only have new programmes but also skate to music that has never been skated to before?!! So, knowing that those 'critics' will nitpick and find often nonexistent flaws no matter what he does, it's only fitting that their opinions and narratives are not allowed to matter in any way at all. Haters gonna hate. Deep in their hearts, they know how good Yuzu is. That's why they're so loud about it.

I think he said something a long time ago about doing H&L run through with 4Lz as his last jump, too, so we really don't see a fraction of the stuff he actually does. Which explains why Brian is going balder faster than we are.

I don't think we've ever got a glimpse of it. It was one of those moments when his competitive self leapt out, I think Michal said something about doing 3A-4T in practice and Yuzu said that.

Back when he and Brezina were talking about combos they practice, he said it.

But I am keen on seeing what he's going to do. Is he going to keep the 4Lo, for instance? It's a treacherous jump especially with how much it depends on ice condition, and from how much his axis seemed to have improved, I wouldn't be too surprised if the 4Lz turned out to be more reliable. What kind of layout is he looking at, especially since skating clean is going to be very important? I have many questions, this is the first season I feel like I really have no idea what to expect! Is he gonna go 4A and then his favourite 4S and 4T and 3As? He could do that, 4A, 4S, 4T, 4S3T, 3A2T, 3Alo3S, 3F would be an excellent layout and if he lands the 4A he could easily go clean on that one. It would work with Origin, too. Four quads and two 3As would keep up with BV. Could he put both 4A and 4Lz in? He could, and backload his solo 4T and a 3A combo. But that would be super risky, two unfamiliar jumps! 4A and 4Lo? Also risky, 4A is 4A and 4Lo depends a lot on factors out of his control. What about his stamina? His ankle? Basically, I'm completely ????? !!!!!!! about this season. And I wouldn't be shocked but I would be a bit disappointed about repeating Origin, not because of anything to do with the programme but because of other stuff. But I also understand how Yuzu needs to have no demon unconquered. Origin turned into a little bit of that last season. I sure hope he retires Otonal though, that's more than I can stand to consider, unfortunately I understand English unlike Russian. LGC, dear Yuzu! You didn't perfect that either!

Anybody who calls Yuzu lazy will need to bring forth receipts of their own work ethic over the last ten years or so if they don't want to be laughed out of town. If we're feeling kind.

I never thought of this way, that's a fresh perspective. Well, his recycled programmes usually have more fresh content and changes than many new programmes in the men's field which feel like same old choreo, new music, so... I love the music and the cuts and the choreo of Origin as it was conceived, tbh. If we can see The Origin from last media day all done up bright dark and sparkly, but with points maximised... I don't think he'll keep 4T-3A if he has the 4A and 4Lz in, however. Quite apart from the points, I'd think it's one big risk too many. He's landed it with positive GOE so with 4A and/or 4Lz in the programme, I hope he won't. On the other hand he does do 3A-lo-4S in practice. No loss of points there.