WinForPooh

I had absolutely no idea what that free skate is supposed to portray except for strange random ballet reference and a Chinese cultural background. I knew that much because of what I read and the music, not the skating. I read up on some of the history later, and then found an article on a US daily (I don't remember which) about how Nathan developed artistry (PR plant, obviously), and it said that Nathan originally did not want to do it because he had no connection to the music, and he was convinced to do it and then he believed n it. Or something of the sort. But his skating told no story, evoked no feelings. I think he shouldn't have done it. He should've skated to something contemporary, without a story behind it, so that the focus was on landing quads on the beats. But can he actually do that, have his jumps choreographed to the timing of the music and then stick to that choreography? I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, in the end he ruined significantly downgraded the artistry of Nemesis, too. It had such potential in the beginning, I was looking forward to where it would go. Where it went was backwards, losing most of what had such impact, except for that step sequence which thankfully stayed for most of the skates. But that free skate was reaching far too high for him. He either needs to invest in developing his skills or he needs to embrace his identity as a quad-jumper and choose programmes that highlight that. If he weren't from the US, he wouldn't place anywhere as high as he does without developing his skills other than jumps. If he'd been in a later group, with the landed jumps, he would've got higher PCS for that programme and that just proves that the system is broken.

Can't delete, can hide, or click edit and erase everything and say 'double post' or something.

We did see him practice. Honestly though - I bring back my proposition of the Sex Bomb tribute. Because we did see him intently observing and taking notes during that ice show practice.

I think he said something like he'd only tried the Lz a few days before leaving for PC because even the triple is pretty hard on the ankle. And the 4Lo only a day or two before. Now, it's the 4Lo thing that makes me happy. It means the loop has started to behave again, because he had a few deliberately popped ones in practice there, and one landed one, but nothing that looked like the axis was off or wobbly. Nothing that looked off. The time off without Lz seems to have done the Lo good.

If he does, maybe he can sing a song. Adam did it.

Look at the eyes and lips. Very... zombie-ish.

Is that supposed to be zombie Yuzu?!

But I think the fact that he didn't fall despite it being at the end of a free skate he had only had complete RT of a couple of times before competition might be what he focuses on. He conquered it. He's probably sure he can conquer big bro Lz too once his ankle is better. I do not want to see the 4Lz ever again, btw, I'm forever scarred, but Yuzu is terrifyingly brave and strong. To the point of OMFG-wtf-is-wrong-with-you, I mean, he just skated on a wobbly ankle that was hurt from a 4Lz and what does he say his next goal is? The 4A. What kind of person with any sense of self-preservation even thinks that.

OMG OMG I got an animated version of his Chopin 3A, but animated black and white Yuzu looks like he has a black eye! ETA: There's Tessa and Scott, too.

Figure-skating should be less stressful than football, I thought... What a fool I was.

Who wants to bet he hasn't done at least one without the harness? I think it's a decent get-rich-quick scheme, bet the most outrageous stuff about Yuzu with his antis who say he can't do anything. Decent odds that a video will turn up somewhere sometime, really. Really, he is the only one with the axel technique to do it. And it WASN'T our imagination that some of his 3As looked like there was some delay. No wonder. Well, when he does eventually get it, he'd better not lose his 3A like he lost his 2A.

I think I actually saw Brian's hair fall out. I'm not taking my hair out of my ponytail ever because I think it's all falling out too, I might lose all my hair as the scrunchie comes off. ETA: Lol @ Brian basically ignoring the Flip just like we do, like pishhh not happening.

Oh yes! Online Pooh rains if anybody attacks him.

Anybody who believes anything said in Internet comments without looking for confirmation from a reliable source is a deliberately ignorant idiot. Why would we care what the belligerently ignorant think? Why would Yuzu? He just won his second OGM and will be showered in admiration and love. Trolls can troll away without the slightest hint of acknowledgment.

Well, we know Yuzu does look up reports about him, and he knows there will be hate comments. But in this case, any hate there is seems to be in a language he neither reads nor writes, so I don't in fact care. We can always drown them out with supportive and gushing comments in every language. But most of the ones I checked, responding to a hate comment increased the number of those and encouraged the haters. There was one forum where trolls were drowned out by posting unicorn, kitty and puppy pictures faster than they could copy-paste their hate, without ever responding to them. So anybody who does understand anything negative and personal, just post nice stuff until it scrolls up. But never feed the trolls. It makes them happy.

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I know, me too. I'm an axel-stan but Yuzu's health comes first. But then so does his happiness and apparently his new childhood dream (TROLL!!!) is the 4A.

The only thing he does better than skating could be memefacing. ETA: Wait, I forgot trolling. Top three things Yuzuru Hanyu does better than anybody else. Brian gives him a good run for his money for the trolling though.

Yeah, much as I love Plushenko, I'd rather Yuzu never got Nessie and never tried Nessie again if he has to risk Plushenko-level almost-cyborg surgeries because of it. I want Yuzu to be happy and as healthy and pain-free as possible all of his life. He can get sponsors to build him a reduced gravity rink or something if he really wants to land it.

I think the analysis is right, too, but it's why I absolutely refused to let the alternative even become concrete in my mind, because he had to get the gold. He had to get it because he would do his best, pushing through everything, and that had to be enough. If it wasn't enough, he would have felt as if he wasn't enough after all. So there could be no other outcome, and there could be no hedging of bets. Really, the only thing I could do was believe, blindly, focusing only on the positives. So I did that. Though IRL I'm a cynical, pessimistic, control-freak bint who thinks hope is a big con and it went against everything in my nature. A very risky and possibly unhealthy attitude from him, of course, letting everything hinge on one moment that's such a wildcard. But I couldn't change his attitude. All that was left was to accept it and believe he'd make it happen. Now I guess I can let myself think 'no matter what happened in that moment, all the other moments make him the greatest ever anyway', but even if I believe that, he wouldn't have. All that matters is that he needed this, and he has it. He's happy. Hopefully now he does what he wants, only because it makes him happy.

Fi... Five...? ??? *me counting* toe, sal, loop, lutz. Is he already counting Nessie?!

Yeah but Shoma is like... Ok, you guys are crying again. We're hugging now? Okay. Okay, you're crying. I don't understand anything. Hugging again? Javi sure likes hugs. I guess it's okay. When can I sleep? I'm hungry. Loads of people reporting the same thing sometimes does work. But generally, yeah, I call Tw*tter what I do for good reason.

In most places with laws that have adapted to the webbernets age, yes, definitely. Reporting isn't engaging with them, which makes no actual difference because they usually want attention, but there's no reason why we shouldn't use the report button when it exists. And Twitter keeps saying they're going to tackle hate speech blah blah, right? Well, they can do it now.

Yeah but anybody who has a Twitter account please do hit report on the death threats, if you see them. That is seriously not cool and people who make death threats on social media should be taken off social media.

I am here for Yuzu giving the judges murderface from the stands after Satton's skate, daring them to lowball her on PCS. Call her UR (fingers crossed for miracle of none but let's be realistic), by all means. Give her the damn PCS though, anybody saying Alina deserves higher on anything but TR deserves Yuzu murderface in all its terrifying glory. It might be good for him to just stay put and relax for a few days, too. His ankle must have inflammation after what he put it through, he'll need to rest it properly before any actual treatment can start. But he and his ankle will get the best care, that I do believe. I believe he will come back, too. I am looking forward to watching him and worrying only about whether he'll pop his jumps, that seems almost relaxing now. We won't have to worry about whether his foot is in fact superglued and duct-taped to the rest of him and stuffed into his boot. We'll only have to worry about him popping jumps. That sounds so good to me right now! Did Nathan really say that? Has competing with Yuzu - who has landed everything Nathan has, except for 4F, but call me when Nathan lands a really good 3A and then we'll talk - not taught him anything? Has his six-quad programme's score being soundly and roundly beaten by Yuzu's four-quad H&L not taught him anything? Maybe US fed can start a jumping competition? And how insulting to Jason Brown, too, to say that. Seriously, did he really say that? He should've chosen another winter sport, then! The boy must've been a terrible ballet student if that's how he views artistry. I think Patrick's confession was funny, but I understand where it comes from. He's used to focusing on himself, so he will do that, I guess. But it's not a bad thing now that he's using that particular trait to admit a few hard truths. It came across as acknowledging how he has changed and grown, and he wouldn't be Patrick if he didn't mention that, would he?