WinForPooh

I think Boyang's quads are better than almost everybody else's, and his skating skills are somewhat underrated. And Nathan's performance skills are there, he just saves it for the galas. Strange (but makes sense with how they are currently set up) that the short is where we can see some of his artistry, the free is where you're supposed to be able to see it! But Shoma's performance skills - I'd like to see he can do more than the intense thing. Gentleness, lightheartedness, upbeatness - the whole thing. Because right now, Shoma's performance skills are what put him closest to Yuzu in some ways, but everything for the last two seasons, while well done, looks the same to me.

Oh, I didn't even think of what an alt universe that might have been!

Yuna is still the benchmark for getting technique perfectly on point, isn't she? But Mao's commitment, now that's something else altogether. All that work, unpicking her jumps and starting from scratch, to come back to the top... It might be a little different for the men because we don't know what the physical effect of jumping so many quads in their programmes will be. Plushenko didn't jump so many and he had robospine and barely any ligaments left in his knee by the end! Careers might be shortened, and shorter careers don't leave so much room for Mao-style dedication to get relearn technique, or Yuna-style commitment to getting all technique perfect. I think I'm crashing so hard from the swan-high, I'm so pessimistic today! Not about Yuzu, about skaters in general. Zhenya not fixing her flutz and not getting called for it, Wakaba - didn't her lip get a free pass, too? Mirai's UR on the triple axel... Everything is so rushed to strategise for max point-accumulation for the Olympics. I think we should be really glad that Yuzu has the character he does, and that he rarely got a free pass on any of his mistakes. It's made him better as a skater. He had to develop the right technique. With all those quads, that should help his longetivity. So the tough calls earlier in his career have really been good for him. (This also makes me have renewed respect for Nathan for getting his quads flip and lutz! And a little sad because he could probably be so much better as a skater if he could focus a little less on the jumps.)

I hope they don't break him. This Olympics seems badly timed for the younger lot. Give them another year and they could perhaps take a breath and focus on becoming better skaters instead of jumping as much as possible to accumulate those points. Shoma and Nathan especially, Boyang seems determined to become a better skater, timing be damned, he will make his own schedule and become the best he can - skating skills AND jumps. Even if Boyang is older than the others, he'll be 24 for the next Olympics, won't he? Shoma especially, I really really wish he would fix his jump technique, he'll hurt himself this way! Nathan seems to be going all out for this one because he has other plans for the rest of his life. So... *shrug* One more year and we might have seen the best from all of them.

There's usually a difference between being part of a crowd shot, and being the focus of a video. For the latter, you usually have to be proven 'newsworthy'. Is dressing up in a way she found appropriate to support her fave and being Chinese newsworthy? I dunno, is wearing your dad's shirt and being American newsworthy? If it's good for the goose, got to be good for the gander. It would depend on the terms and conditions, I suppose, but it's still toilet journalism, there's the poo CBC was looking for. ETA: None of this is in any way Nathan's fault, he seems to be a good kid, like Shoma is. All these 'wars' are manufactured for clickbait more than anything else. We should stop giving them those clicks and call them out when they get really inappropriate, like they were here. Though Nathan needs a costume. Just any costume. I'll take a bad costume now. Any. Just... costume, please!

That is actually very irresponsible! Speaking as somebody who specialised in journalism and worked in the field for years, this is far more the kind of stupidly irresponsible stunt that an unscrupulous marketing team would pull, where the clicks and views are worth the infamy and hit to credibility. Showing her face like that and making a video centred around her without getting an actual waiver, with a translated copy if need be, then misrepresenting her? That is toilet journalism. Even when I was on the lifestyle beat and churned out fluff pieces till I thought my brain was turning into fluff, as a complete rookie, I would've had my ass handed to me if I'd pulled something like this! Unbiased media is a thing of the past, sure, but there should be some pretence at least of standards!

I get plastered on anything other than beer or wine. I don't know why, more than one drink of anything else and I'm spilling my life's secrets (I no longer have any, as you might have guessed) to anybody around. Or nobody, at times. Now I am very curious about how I'd do with soju. But not during a GP event. At the very least I need to be able to type!

Ugh to have wasted money you could hardly spare on non-alcoholic beer - now that's kuyashii stuff right there. I've never had soju, we don't really get it, but if we did and I did, I'd probably get so drunk that I'd have to squint and watch out of the corner of my eye to know whether he did a triple axel or a quint axel... And whether two yuzus did it in almost perfect synchrony.

Oh no, that truly is a tragedy! You have time to remedy it? I don't get non-alcoholic beer either, because... Yes, I totally got commercial bottled beer for the taste of it? Yumm, Carlsberg?!

I even finally see not-squid! On his costume! I didn't think anything could achieve that. Amazing!! (Apart from the obviously great drawing skills, I mean, this is very important to me personally.)

Can I just say you're amazing? Because you're amazing.

@ warm up comment! But yeah, me too, but I don't think it's going to last me till the weekend so I'll need backup stocking up. Moderation? Self-control? No idea what' you're talking about. Unlike @Ladysci

He looks happy. He looks happy and relaxed. I'm terrified and eating ice cream out of the tub, but I'm so happy he looks happy.

That would have been a much better format. It's obviously not Yuzu's thing, he doesn't need to be good at everything. Just needs to be the very best at what he is good at. No pressure! And they must do promos - I mean, this must have been excellent promo for her concerts and album, because she got to promote that at the very end and all of his fans will watch this segment! I'd guess that if you make a CD, you have to promote it one way or another, especially if you have concerts and recitals coming up.

Yes, putting the music-skater together was genius, but getting them to then interview each other without prepping them (enough) to have a better conversation - they formatted it like an interview - was not exactly genius. Yuzu just steamrollered over her at times - and sometimes it seemed to be him going overboard trying to fill gaps so there wouldn't be silences (oddly, that's another introvert thing, so this might actually have been two very different kinds of introverts interviewing each other)! I wonder how her album promos go, with that extremely introverted demeanour! But I'm pretty sure the entire interview portion could've been edited differently. Yeah, like my school uniforms were new every year. I meant more of the emotions that go with the music would be replaying in his head in his sleep, too. The kind of energy you need for Seimei isn't what sweet dreams are made of. Hmmm an exhibition skate to Sweet Dreams. Oh my. I might sell half my soul for that. I hope you have dreams of skating to Sweet Dreams now.

Our boy is a bad interviewer - too used to talking about himself and can only talk to somebody he's supposed to be interviewing by relating to how he feels. Too used to being interviewed, I'd say. Unless the programme was edited to cut out when he was being a good listener and drawing the pianist out... I wonder if he wakes up to Seimei nightmares after too much practice. The listening to the same thing over and over and over again part sounds like a bit of a nightmare, especially with the ferocity he has to bring to that music. I guess he's really, really, really focused on the Olympics. Nothing will get in the way of his goal. Boy, the pressure! And we wouldn't be annoyed about the costumes if Brian hadn't gone and talked about the new costumes. He could've said upgraded costumes to go with the upgraded programmes or something, but no, he said new. So we expected new. This is not new.

No expectation of a new ex now, though. None. As if he'd waste time on that. Unless he was watching Plushenko and taking notes on Sex Bomb for this...

I'll drink the vodka and watch you. And throw a few sparklies around for good measure.

I wish all demands echoed my own wishes like this... All hail the Pumpkin King. Seriously. What a wonderful King he is.

I came back after watching Worlds H&L to see the Pumpkin King. Well I'll just have to watch him too, now.

Ha! Deft dodging there. But it was the H&L at Worlds that I fell for, so it's special to me. So special. He's so... brb overwhelmed

At times like this I do wish the Internet wasn't a thing. I mean, I can fangirl with no filters (I think wewease-kwaken-Seimei is an awesome costume too, I *smh* at myself), but tomorrow I will be sober and hungover and so embarrassed.

And they are going to have a few surprises come Halloween. Better costumes than Yuzu. Hmph!!

What? What? The H&L costume... Is it not universally loved? What??? PPOS???? Whaaatttt???? (I loved the H&L costume, he looked like a water and wood nymph had a baby who grew up so handsome and became an earth spirit who made everything all right again...) (Yes, I did indeed make a deadline to my own great surprise and am celebrating by opening the beer(ETA:s) I'd been denying myself unless I made my deadline, why do you ask....)

I don't expect drastic change to Seimei, either. It's wedded to the music and the choreo and the performance and the entire concept, for better or for worse. In health and in even better health. He put a hell of a lot of thought into it when he did it the first time around, and the improved version is only going to be the same but better. He's not going to junk any of the things he got right (whether or not we agree) earlier. Even the cosmetic changes - only those of us who've watched it a million times will notice most of them. I think he doesn't WANT change in the appearance of it. He wants an upgrade that will remind judges of how good it was, and how he's made it even better - not changed it entirely. (pop concert not the way to go, Yuzu, just saying...) With Chopin, though, I have hopes. It might be similar, but that is not music and a concept that is original to him. He can make it different and still make sure the judges are reminded that it's one of the best SPs ever. It can be separated into elements - costume, layout, choreo, music - and put back together, and it will still be different, but his because he does it better than anybody else. So perhaps nothing drastic, because he will want that recall of all he did with it before, but maybe something a bit different.