Old Cat Lady

As far as the Ciontu comments, I wouldn't be surprised if Yuzu himself wanted it cut. I feel like people have become so hyper focused on it that they've missed the bigger point of the show and that entire week. It's supposed to be a celebration and a display of joy and gratitude for all the support he got over the years. I don't think he had any intention of starting a big social crusade. And as fans, you have to be careful of how you react. Overzealous fans will turn anyone on the border to the negative: neutrals will dislike him, people who already dislike him will start hating him. As a fellow fan, I get embarrassed/annoyed by the crazies. Personally, while I don't necessarily dislike a celebrity because of their fans, annoying fans will turn me off from following a celebrity that I'm not already invested in. And as previous posters said, people seem to be determined to feel how they want to feel and then look for excuses to justify that feeling. I will correct things that I think are factually wrong, but it's a waste of energy to tell someone to quit being crazy. And very often real trolls are literally psycho/sociopaths so reason and empathy doesn't work on them either. The best thing you can do is just be a positive and supportive fan. as an aside, i've been binge-watching The Skating Lesson. Anyone else think this show is absolutely terrible? Some gems so far: Hanyu hates Uno, you need to "save room" in the marks for later in the season/other skaters, GOE should be based on bad/good/really good. I honestly thought that this was just a fan reaction/gossip series until I started seeing the videos about GOE's and high profile skating community guests.

What would you say is the best performance of each of Hanyu's programs? I'll update the OP as suggestions are made and add links when I have time as I think this will be great for those of us who are newer to the fandom 2009/2010 Season SP: Mission Impossible 2 LP: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini EX: Change 2010/2011 Season SP: White Legend - LP: Zigeunerweisen - 2011 Four Continents EX: Vertigo 2011/2012 SP: Etude in D-sharp Minor - LP: Romeo and Juliet 1 - 2012 World Championships (RU: 2011 Grand Prix final - fell in both but both performances are so endearing) EX: Somebody to Love 2012/2013 SP: Parisienne Walkways LP: Notre Dame de Paris - 2012 Grand Prix Final EX: Hello, I Love You EX: Hana Ni Nare 2013/2014 SP: Parisienne Walkways - 2014 Olympics LP: Romeo and Juliet 2 - 2013 Grand Prix Final? / 2014 World Championships? - fell at GPF but WC had more sloppy landings EX: Hana Ni Nare EX: Story 2014/2015 SP: Chopin Ballade No. 1 LP: Phantom of the Opera - 2014 Grand Prix Final EX: The Final Time Traveler EX: Hana Wa Saku 2015/2016 SP: Chopin Ballade No. 1 - 2015 Grand Prix Final LP: Semei - 2015 Grand Prix Final EX: Requiem of Heaven and Earth - 2016 World Championships - so heartfelt. Not sure, but looked like he was on the verge of tears at the end. Now I just need to find a high quality version without Browning's stupid commentary 2016/2017 SP: Let’s Go Crazy - 2016 Grand Prix Final, 2017 World Championships - this one's tough because he never skated it completely clean. I like the goofy expression on his face at GPF but I thought the 2017 worlds mistake detracted less from the performance. Such a tiny flaw lost him so many points. LP: Hope and Legacy - 2017 World Championships EX: Notte Stellata 2017/2018 SP: Chopin Ballade No. 1 - 2018 Olympics - I think this is my favorite performance of Ballade. LP: Semei - 2018 Olympics - even though it was flawed and the spins were slower, this is also my favorite of Semei. Can't put my finger on it, but Yuzu just brought something extra to the Olympics. He had a command and tension to his performances that weren't as strong in 2015 EX: Notte Stellata - ended the program with a serene joy that was so beautiful 2 things I thought were interesting about Yuzu's programs. Before 2013, all his exhibitions were "fun" crowd pleasing types then after, they were more soft sentimental types. Also, I can't think of a male singles skater that skated to a female singer and he does it quite often. I remember years ago also thinking about how the men seemed to always only skate to instrumental or male singers.

No, Chan made a mistake on the triple axel at 2011 worlds. We also have to define what exactly a "clean" skate is. For purposes of objectivity, I simply define it as not having any negative GOE. If you want to define it as not making any mistakes or skating what was intended, then technically Hanyu's 2018 short program wasn't "clean" since he made the mistake on the spin that cost him a level. fwiw, even the most hysterical of the ChanClan could only point to 3 clean free skates on Goldenskate, 1 at 2012 Canadian nationals (though with messy landings), 1 at 2013 TEB, and 1 at 2016 Four Continents. though if you count national titles, that's still 2 clean competitions as far as I know. By the loosest definition of "clean", Javier skated clean at 2018 Olympics - there was technically nothing wrong with the double salchow and if we're considering Chan's hooked/scratchy landings as clean or Yuzu's lost level on the spin as clean then Javier's performance was clean as well. Not that familiar with Fernandez's history so don't know how he did on his nationals but since nationals are essentially glorified exhibitions for both Chan and Fernandez I don't think it's all that germane. Though, I think of mental toughness more to do with "skating to your potential" when it matters most rather than being squeaky clean. By that, I mean that even though Nathan made mistakes in his Olympic and World free skates, since they were about as well as he's been able to skate, he still skated to his potential. Or even though Shoma fell at the Olympics and 2017 worlds, he still displayed mental toughness because he skated about as well as you ever see him skate in the 2 biggest events. Same with Chan at 2011 worlds. It's hard to judge Nathan's mental toughness. He has yet to skate well in international competition when he was under real pressure but he also hasn't been put in the situation that often.

In a video with Shoma and Nobunari, he said that he thought they'd all be dominated by their wives. This is what 16 year old Yuzu says about it: I like a woman who is not so tall, and whom I want to protect. I think it would be great if she’s someone who’s not fixated about certain things. For example, things like “Since we are attached, you must definitely do as such for me” or “It’s not ok if we don’t meet on each other’s birthdays”. I don’t want to feel restricted by such things and neither do I want to restrict someone else like that. http://seobiiiiieluv.tumblr.com/post/105648836802/yuzuru-hanyu-talks-about-love I imagine it would actually be very frustrating living with him: can't cook, can't drive, can't ride a bike. Though he seems really clean. I imagine him to be skating's version of Sheldon Cooper: brilliant at what he does but he seems like an Otaku.

D'oh. He dropped a spot. He won this last time they had this poll. There was some internet backlash at the time. I think Ohtani is a bit more of the traditionally "ideal man"

That's even better! Thanks!

does anyone know which article it was where Yuzuru was talking about how "young Yuzu" would look at what he's done and ask "what are you so proud of" or something like that? I remember someone said something about how Young Yuzu was a brat, lol. I think Yuzu also talked about how an old teacher told him he should go for the quad axel and quint. Sorry, I did a few searches and can't find exactly what I'm looking for.

What was Yuzuru's response?

lol. that makes sense. We Hanyu fans have become greedy haven't we? - our immediate reaction is to be offended at a 5th place

Do they say who placed ahead of him?

I was just wondering - is it possible that Yuzuru has more fans than all the other skaters combined? eta: currently competing I mean

I personally think they should just abolish the age restriction. Most of the pounding on the body happens during the practices so all it does is take away opportunity. This is sport - restricting athletes from competing for not being womanly enough is ridiculous

I wonder if judges screwed him over because of the skate order. If they knew that it was between him and a fellow Japanese they wouldn't have felt a need to lowball him to help their skater I think it's interesting that the judges are so much more generous with their GOE's this year. I wonder if this went under review at the meeting

The long program score is going to be pretty tough with lower base values and 1 less jumping pass but I'm hoping Yuzuru skates his short program clean at an early event so he can continue the short program record streak. I pretty much expect him to break that record with GOE going to +5. If the rules end up following speculation, the other guys are going to have to improve to deserve better than +2 for their GOE's while I can see Yuzuru getting +5. I imagine the judges are probably going to be pretty stingy with those 5's though. I was wondering if he would pass Nishikori. Always thought it was weird that Nishikori was the most popular athlete in Japan when he hasn't achieved much and is looking like he won't win any majors.

lol. I've been looking around and been thinking for the past week that we have costume threads, music threads, program threads. We're missing the last REALLY important thread - the hair thread! LGC hair is my favorite but one of my favorite pictures of him is from H&L - he looks so angelic. This is one of my favorite videos! Wish I knew how to do this stuff. I like how by the 3rd time he broke the short program record, he wasn't even surprised anymore. It's like after that he started reaching for the records. Don't think he should have been surprised when he beat the free skate record in 2017 - the bigger surprise was that he only beat it by 4 points - a whole extra quad done perfectly and that's all he got?

This is what worries me. Yuzuru has probably the most difficult while reliable triple axel in history. What is the quad going to do to his triple?

He looks so tiny when he's not on the ice. Fess up - anyone here actually measure Yuzuru's wax figure? I heard it was popular to measure his waist and I'm so curious about what his measurements are. Since he's too tall for child sizes with such long limbs and so extremely thin, I would think that he'd need to have his suits specially made for them to actually fit properly. I suddenly realized that I might understand why Yuzuru wears toe socks and am looking for some to try out myself. My toes overlap slightly and when I'm especially active, I put band-aids or tape around each one or I start getting blisters - toe socks seem like a much easier solution. I wonder if he has similar problems or if it's just a quirk. Love that quote by Habu's wife. Imagine being disappointed by seeing your name in the news eta: sorry, can't seem to figure out how to crop out some of the pics but not others. Not tech savvy but I have to think it causes extra expense.

That makes me sad. That means it'll probably be just a small blurb with a picture. Funny thing is that I was just reading the 2017 list a couple days ago and wondering how someone like Eugenie Bouchard got on there but not any figure skaters but I figured it was because Yuzu doesn't have social media and a large part of the ranking is based off of followers. I suppose we should be happy that he's at least getting recognized in the US now

He looks so beautiful in white but the fit of the purple is And he looks so great with the hair styled off his face. Not sure if it's just the coloring of the screen since I see it on my tablet but not my laptop but I swear you can see some "special" details in the photo http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2017/09/26/256166594 p.s. this site has the cutest emojiis ever!

Hi everyone. Wanted to de-lurk to encourage everyone to write to ESPN. I doubt it will do anything but if there's even a little chance of more features and more meaningful articles in NA, I want to try. Also, thanks so much to Hydroblade for the drive link. For days, I was getting sound but no image but I finally got it to work. Already saw all the Yuzu bits on Youtube but I'm so happy to be able to see Ciontu as a whole. Finally, I suddenly had a thought that maybe Yuzu only wants to stay until worlds is held in Japan. Maybe that's why he said "Only a little bit longer". Feeling crushed