beki

Clearly the only solution is continuing to Beijing

I don't expect to be rooting for anyone else to win. But the only way I possibly could is if someone else comes out with two amazing programs that absolutely blow me away, excite me and impress me more than his. Which I would have thought was a very remote possibility. And it still doesn't seem likely, but the recycling opens the door just a teeny tiny crack. But we could be getting worked up over nothing when it comes to Seimei 2.0. Not sure why Ambesi is trolling us like that.

After H&L's evolution, I had mentally prepared myself to trust any choice for a new long. But I had not mentally prepared for this repetition scenario... I've liked every short he's ever had, so I blithely assumed coming up with a new one = piece of cake lol It's not that I always hate repeating. I even wanted Patrick to keep his long. Happy that Boyang is keeping Spider-Man. I don't know, it's just my instincts rebelling against it. It doesn't feel right... it's depressing... but I have changed my mind before.

When you put it that way, it isn't. I thought he matured a lot artistically since then, and in my view became a more perfect, complete skater. Part of that was innovation. So he is still a great technical skater, a great competitor, and there is incredible beauty to those programs, but there would be some disillusionment for me. Maybe my ideal does not overlap with his after all. That is no one's fault. I am a bad fan, in a way, because I care less about figure skating as a sport than as art. I am ignoring what it's really about, in the end, which is a competition.

Don't know if my time conversion is correct; is this in an hour?

I don't know, I agree with a lot of others. The judges won't mind. They have oppressively boring taste. Only thinking outside the box disappoints them (H&L). Judges and fans do not agree... You mean trolling

Still holding out hope he won't recycle Seimei. But I will say that last season I regretted that the widest audience didn't get to see the Chopin/Seimei combo at its best. It was obviously Olympic-worthy. I'm not questioning the gold medal strategy. But I'm realizing that even though I want him to win, the gold medal isn't the most important thing to me. I was hoping to be inspired by great new programs. The Olympic season is indeed completely uninspired for everyone It's like buying one of those "best of" CD compilations at the Starbucks checkout.

You know what, I'll accept it in one case: 4A Oh wait, that's against the rules

I have to rethink my life if that's the case. Seriously, Zuzu, don't do it. Choreographers need jobs too.

I think Viktor Petrenko had a program he kept bringing back over and over. It's not the way to get points for artistry though. Honestly, I'm not just disappointed, I'm a little annoyed. I hope this conservatism actually gets him the gold medal. I guess I really got hooked on artistic risk-taking this year. He could have chosen a similar piece, not the exact same one. Now I can't exactly criticize Shoma for safe, repetitive choices... or Nathan, or Javi. He's lost the high ground on originality.

Same SP for a third season? To be fair, I will say what I would say for any other skater. I don't like it at all. It looks like a defensive move. What happened to trusting Jeff?

Yeah, the skin doesn't look fresh like his. This is future older Yuzu. 10 or 20 years from now lol

Adorkable, he performs along to everything. Going up against Darth Vader was my favorite part. May the Force be with him!

All the feather/wing imagery did make my think of the Icarus myth, among others. But the symbolism is bad. Getting carried away with your homemade wings, flying too close to the sun, melting them and plummeting to earth? Noooo! That is the opposite of what needs to happen. I call choosing that music tempting fate.

One other thing we haven't considered—Virtue and Moir have said they want to do back-to-back GPs to simulate the team and individual events at the Olympics. Maybe he will want to do the same. Seems like overkill but you never know.

Selfishly I hope it isn't SA, even though I'm American. There's no way I can get to Lake Placid over Thanksgiving!

Good-looking ads! Is it just a trendy thing to romanize the names?

You're right, I don't expect two NA GPs. He could do NHK and SA. I just think that if he wants to peak at the Olympics, it's better to be more frontloaded in the GP series. This year he finally peaked at Worlds, but now everything has to be shifted forward six weeks (though I'm sure he still wants to win the GPF). Also, USFS will want Nathan to win. To combine with NHK, I would still guess 1) SC, 2) CoR and 3) SA. Of course, in the end, I am only guessing, and your guess is as good as mine

Here is Yuzuru's GP history (sorry for bad table formatting). 1st GP = 29% of the time. First time was NHK. Second time SA followed his World bronze. Doesn't hate it, but prefers 2nd GP? 2nd GP = 43%. Since he's had a choice and Patrick wasn't a top seed. A safe bet according to history. 3rd GP = 29%. Feels like bad juju now. Always happened in combo with 6th GP. Can't face Boyang. 4th GP = 0%. Doesn't like? The only thing that could make a (big) difference is that it's NHK this year. Can't face Shoma? Who will they pick? 5th GP = 29%. He went to the 2nd and 5th GPs in the last Olympic year. 6th GP = 71%. Veery interesting... because it's usually NHK or because it's last? NHK Trophy = 71% Skate Canada = 43% Cup of Russia = 29% / Cup of China = 29% Trophée de France = 14% / Skate America = 14% (1) Preferred gaps scenario suggests Skate Canada and Skate America. (2) Last Olympic year suggests Skate Canada and Trophée de France. (3) Love for Japan/ace status suggests NHK. Smack in the middle, which he's never done. So what to combine with it? The earliest GP, Rostelecom? Or two picks with less travel, 2nd Skate Canada, or 6th Skate America? Politically speaking, strange things could happen at SA. My takeaway: maybe I will buy that ticket to SC now. It's a possibility in any scenario. My clicking finger will also be ready for TdF and NHK. 17/18 CoR Oct.19-22 SC Oct.26-29 CoC Nov.2-5 NHK Nov.9-12 TdF Nov.16-19 SA Nov.24-26 GPF Dec.7-10 16/17 SC Oct.28-30 NHK Nov.25-27 GPF Dec.8-11 15/16 SC Oct.30-Nov.1 NHK Nov.27-29 GPF Dec.10-13 14/15 CoC Nov.7-9 NHK Nov.28-30 GPF Dec.11-14 13/14 Olys SC Oct.25-27 TEB Nov.15-17 GPF Dec.5-8 12/13 SA Oct.19-21 NHK Nov.23-25 GPF Dec.6-9 11/12 CoC Nov.4-6 CoR Nov.25-27 GPF Dec.8-11 10/11 NHK Oct.22-24 CoR Nov.19-21 GPF Dec.9-12

Shipping is cool, but kids talk gives me a slight feeling we are talking about racehorses or show dogs instead of skaters

I don't know if I'm reading the mood correctly, but I'm feeling some concern on the planet along the lines of "maybe the 4Lz is finally beyond his limits." To me, past history doesn't suggest that. Not at all. Look where he started the season and where he finished it. He can definitely do it.

Tracy's words. I expect a new jump. 4Lz... or 4A?

This is actually mostly encouraging (except for one person)

My sister and I had our own judging system in Helsinki for the free skate. One of the categories was how likely the skaters would be to survive a zombie apocalypse on a scale of one (breakfast) to five (postapocalyptic warrior). Basically it was a combination of stamina, heart and mental toughness on the day. Scores from first to never eaten were: Javi = 2 (lunch) Nathan = 3 (afternoon snack) Patrick = 4 (dessert) Boyang & Shoma = 5 (survivors) Yuzu = 6 (off the charts, god)