rockstaryuzu

Not to mention the $10,000 or so I've spent traveling to comps etc to see him.... but that's really not relevant. Here's the issue: I'm a fanyu, but Yuzu is *not* my religion. He's someone I admire greatly and consider to be an amazing human being. But it makes me deeply uncomfortable to witness how some folks here on the Planet - and elsewhere - speak of him as if he were literally a deity*. It borders on blasphemy, it perturbs both my conscience and my soul, and we all should realize full well that it would alarm Yuzu if he became aware of it. Love him, admire him, spend your time and money on him all you want - but remember that he is *just* another human. One with great gifts and talents, but still, human. Please. * to be clear: I'm not talking about when we jokingly call him a 'god of skating' etc. I do know the difference between joking around and losing the plot, eh?

The only way to fix this is to make the scores completely separate, and have blind, random judging. I.e. no one knows who from the pool of judges will be scoring their skaters beforehand. And have two separate judging pools for TES and PCS. Or, eliminate PCS completely and make it all different aspects of tech. Henni makes a really good case for the fact that most PCS stuff is also tech.

In all fairness, I think Yuzu himself would say the exact same thing, and he would say it straight to Kaori’s face. He's always been supportive of his fellow skaters and shown great respect for Kaori. After all, it's about bloody time the Japanese ladies got out from under the shadow of the highly questionable and most likely doping Russians and got their well-deserved flowers.

Exactly! There's such a difference between skaters expressing themselves and skaters trying to please the judges. It's a rare person that can manage both at the same time

It did something weird to my heart to see Ilia skating as the final star of tbe finale, in the men's champion place. I missed Yuzu being there in that spot. It really felt like now there's a missing piece that will always be missing. I guess that feeling will go away once I manage to get to one of Yuzu's solo shows

I know there'll be fancams

Jump off! Adam & Elladj sbs backflips, then Keegan and Elladj one right after the other, over Nam 😁. Max with the flag So one other thing: they had the audience vote for a favorite Gala performance, which Adam (of course, 🥵) won.

Ilia 4A, followed by a cantilever he is clearly still working on. And his raspberry twist thingy Ah 💩

Finale.

That's what the audience was waiting for! Deanna & Max get the cellphone torchlights

Costume change in the middle. Well, that was definitely expressive! And now, Deanna & Max

Ilia next. Is he really going to skate in jeans and a hoodie?

What can I say, Kaori is just lovely ❤️ Chock & Bates. More black costumes.

Keegan brought the fireworks. He's another Ilia could stand to learn from, about the value of quick feet and good knees. Kaori!

Keegan backflip over Nam

Lukas was just joined by an ensemble of thebother skaters - and got a lift from Nikita! Just a fun program! Isabeau in angelic white. Lyrical program. Fab Bielman position

Lukas Britschi does the early 90s. Fresh Prince!

Elladj & Elvis just joined them for line dancing

Piper and Paul. I think everyone has seen this cowboy themed program by now

That was lovely! Jason Brown. Banter with Nam. Doing BSB

Super cool lift!

Minerva & Nikita doing When a Man Loves a Woman in sparkly black

Hana Yoshida in very slinky black glitter lace. Skating with real power. Love it.

Patrick just demonstrated that skating skills never leave you. For a man who hasn't performed officially in quite a while, he was in fine form. Even did a triple - looked like a flip? Or Lz - and a 2A. Ilia could learn a few dozen things from him, and should. Lopareva & partner next, doing something science-themed

Patrick Chan in a hockey shirt