beki

Choosing Ballade again is showing his stubborn side. He will show us the ideal Ballade whether we want it or not. It is in character after all. I still wish he was willing to take the lessons he's learned and apply them to a new piece. But if wishes were horses, beggars might ride.

Still with the wings... hope is not dead for a new freeskate.

Cheating on beloved 3A with the 4T I can't take this summer of sadness.

Sometimes I wonder if champions from different cultures have more in common with each other than they do with regular people from their own cultures. Champion mentality is special. For sure, hard work, a killer instinct, turning negatives into positives, and taking responsibility for yourself are some of the ingredients.

What she said is offensive and rude. It's an insult, not only to him but to many other people. His coaches, choreographers, his skating friends and fans who are from different countries. Her ugly words give me a negative opinion of her.

I would have preferred the return of Seimei to the return of Chopin, but oh well. The short program segment is evil. I had stopped being afraid of it, but now I'm remembering how brutal it is, that he had to do this. I know I am just being so literal... but a totally different program is a program with different music and a different theme. I don't understand such reworkings... why keep it if you are going to change everything? I always get the impression it is out of fear a new theme won't be accepted.

Amen, sister! Seriously half the interwebs will rip him to shreds if he double recycles.

No Max, you are unloved until you behave

He is on my sh*tlist. Favorite status revoked.

What does everyone think? Will he only perform Chopin during FaoI or will we get to see something different?

Current Yuzu is so evident in Baby Yuzu (but the hot mess aspect is gone now). So freaking talented. I don't really follow juniors, because I can't take the stress and heartbreak, but I haven't seen another in the same league as him.

I do love that. I remember when I first saw it, it really struck a different tone to dare to enter the program that way. (=Wow factor. But—tbh I feel that element of surprise has worn off, so that's one of my issues with 3.0.) Also my fave. I would have died and come back to life many more times if he had done that. My feeling right now is that LGC and H&L are his best programs, simply because his abilities keep getting higher. So the most recent ones are the best. I get that people are excited for him to apply those skills to Chopin 3.0. I think for me, revisiting it is like times when I have eaten incredibly rich foods—at a certain point I've had enough and can't bear to have any more. Like Liha, Ballade playing in my head prevents me from falling asleep!

Picking between versions of Yuzu is like being asked which of your children you love more—should you really answer that? But I want LGC to be more appreciated. How many skaters are capable of pretending to be a rock star without embarrassing themselves? Plushenko comes to mind, but who else could do it to that extent? Not just a rock-themed program, but actually becoming the star whaling on the guitar? The force of personality to fill an entire stadium? Whereas a greater number of skaters have excelled doing expressive classical numbers like Chopin. Even if you prefer his execution and interpretation, it doesn't stand alone.

So it's tiresomely obvious I'm Team New Programs, but I confess to a little curiosity about an RJ3... he could interpret it so much better now. RJ1 worked for me because he had that genuine teenage impulsiveness. I enjoyed RJ2 at the GPF, but I never got a good sense of "story" out of it. The idea of embodying Romeo AND Juliet, and having that reflected in the costume, is so intriguing, but wasn't quite there for me in the performance at that time.

The Ballade music has been stuck in my head for days now, like a dramatic soundtrack when I'm grocery shopping or at work. I picture Yuzu's dramatic gestures punctuating my activities like loud piano bangs. I think it's like eating devilishly spicy food... my sense of taste is numb... I can't escape the tingle... it's kind of a bad feeling. I wonder if this will continue for the entire year.

That sounds right, but I didn't feel the wow factor from clean FaOI Chopin... maybe a better quality video would help... runs away and hides from cats and pitchforks

Lol, should I? Double recycling... environmentally conscious hippie Yuzu No new programs Maybe we should just time travel back to 2015-16 and hold the Olympics then

There's so much weight on the LP now... Me too.

I know the ideal is to dominate for an entire season, but that isn't really his pattern. If he doesn't win CoR, it's not a huge concern to me. If the overall trajectory of the season is good, he doesn't need to stay undefeated. I say this to manage my anxiety and expectations. If he must falter, better to get it over with and build up from there.

Chopin costumes may be as controversial as layouts and Olympic music choices I am a defender of the gold cutouts; I adore 2.0 costume. Gold is what we're going for after all

Everyone's done a great job with the numbers, I'm just wondering about the intangibles of perception. Is repeating Chopin 3.0 with 4Lo, 3A, 4T-3T politicking-proof? I think it's open to commentators, rival feds, etc to create a narrative of "Where's the wow factor?" If you ask me specifically how that impacts scoring, I couldn't tell you, but I believe it makes a difference. Frank Carroll and Joe Inman laid the foundation for Lysacek's gold with "Plushenko has no transitions." It's a season-long political campaign. Including the 4Lz demolishes the attack from "newer, fresher, younger, harder."

For perception, I think tech upgrade is strongly preferable. Personally I'm not too fussed about it, but it looks like the conventional wisdom is that quad flips and lutzes still "seem" more impressive than 4T/4S combinations in the second half. Even the 4Lo doesn't get as much love as expected. The sQuad has set expectations for more different kinds of quads, even though they can't do some of the combos Yuzu does.

That's very smart. But isn't it sad, that with their underscoring the judges have taken away the possibility of new masterpieces from him? To me it is, and I haven't quite picked myself up and moved on from the loss yet.

I think you hit the nail on the head with this explanation on differing perspectives and backgrounds. I definitely don't think I know better how to win the Olympics. I don't know that at all. I just know what I like and what I want to see. I can understand others wanting to move on from the topic now that the decision is made. That sounds constructive. But if we define being supportive as changing from being disappointed to being happy and excited, that may be a bit much. I respect other people's right to set goals and make their own decisions. To know themselves. But it's also important to me to stay connected to my own feelings, values and opinions. There's no one in this world who completely overrides that, not even Yuzu. Well, I guess if anyone could, it would be him. The gold is his goal, and I want him to have it. If I'm not 100% overjoyed along the way, that's just how life is, and it's fine. I will focus on what does satisfy me, even if I don't love Chopin 3.0.

I don't want him to go through the pain and surgeries Plushenko had, but his persistence is really admirable and something to emulate. Also, we noticed at Japanese nationals the men's field wasn't deep anymore. Aside from Shoma and maybe Sota, who will take over? He's still needed like Plushenko was.