#AND I NEED YOI

[babyjakes]

[hinamie]

dropped everything because i had to do a proper tribute :( have an updated redraw of my very first yoi piece

2016 - 2017 - 2024

[cosmiclion]

I'm dead serious some of y'all need to stop commenting shit like "Kill it with fire!!1!" on every post of a bug or any "scary" creature you see. Idgaf if you have a phobia or how many legs it has, having such a violent hateful reaction to any animal is just not normal behavior. And that goes double for posts by someone who's happy about the creature, I'm not asking you to go cuddle bugs just to mind your own business, people don't want to hear how much you hate something they like.

Edit since I forgot this was the piss on the poor website: Yes ofc ppl should tag pics of bugs so that those who don't wanna see them can filter them, and yes I know ppl can't choose what they are scared of, but wishing violent death on an animal, wanting to drive a species to extinction and telling people who like unconventional animals that you hate them and wish they died is still not normal behavior, hope that helps.

[acepalindrome]

Okay, genuinely, if you need some queer joy in your life and you haven’t watched it already, watch Yuri on Ice. Even if you aren’t usually into anime! Even if you don’t know shit about figure skating! Yeah, I know it’s seven years old now, but it still holds up! It’s just a genuinely wholesome, fun piece of queer media full of lovable characters, excellent music, and a world almost identical to our own except there’s no homophobia. Not a bit! Everyone is chill about folks being gnc too! There’s a scene where a guy talks about exploring his femininity and no one has any issue with it, not even the teen who loves to shit talk him!

I was also bracing myself for being queerbaited in the first half because it’s a sports anime and that’s just how this goes, but nope! It’s GAY gay. It’s a romance! It’s sweet and heartfelt and lovely!

There’s drama, but none of it has anything to do with the characters being gay. There is no villain. Hell, there’s not an unlikable character among the whole cast! There’s a cranky, shouty coach, but he deeply cares about his kids. There’s a little edgelord teenager, but he’s 15 and is treated accordingly by the story and characters. There’s one guy who’s a cocky bastard, but he’s not a bad person and gets some great character development later on. The biggest conflict is caused by, as usual, gay people not knowing how to communicate, but everything ends happily.

AND it’s got one of the best plot twists I’ve ever seen in anything.

Also there’s a scene at the end that’s one of the most romantic things I ever seen and I’m not exaggerating a bit. Seven years later and it still melts my heart.

I remember Con O’Neill talking about OFMD and calling it kind, and that’s how I feel about this show too. It’s kind.

Go watch it. Get the opening song stuck in your head. Watch two unhappy, lonely men fall in love while expressing their feelings through figure skating. ITS GREAT.

[yaoiadderall]

yuri on ice came out almost 8 fucking years ago. i have not felt that same amount of joy centered on an ongoing tv show since. i miss waiting for new episodes each week and scrolling through the tag after watching it. i miss the plot twists being absolutely world shattering bc we were all watching together.

i miss the kiss discourse, i miss the “let’s end this” angst, i miss the way everyone freaked out over the proposal, i miss how none of us thought we could get anything crazier and more gay than the rings until we found out about the banquet. i miss the speculation on how they would explore yurio and otabek’s relationship in future stuff for the series and i miss losing it over grainy screen recorded videos of welcome to the madness before it was officially released. i miss the crack videos and shitposts and pork cutlet bowl memes lovingly crafted fan art and fic. i miss following at least a dozen blogs that were all posting about yoi at once. i miss the community i felt with a bunch of strangers who were all as obsessed with this incredible show as i was. i even miss how people were sending death threats over shipping otabek and yurio but i think that part is purely rose tinted nostalgia making me blind to bad.

victor and yuuri you will always be legends to me. thank you kings, i hope you are fagging it up in anime heaven

[pokeberry5]

me: i should work on my mini-comic

also me: have you considered tim in seifuku? tim in GAKURAN?

[yuurikatsukienthusiast]

My favorite breed of YOI fanfiction is when the entire plot is just everyone admiring Yuuri Katsuki

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

On not getting eros

I’ve discussed Yuuri not getting eros multiple times, but I never explained what that actually means because this subject seems to be a sensitive and controversial one either way. Yet, it's also an important one for a number of reasons I will come back to later.

First: What is eros? - a very short trip back in time

YOI explains eros as “sexual love”, matching the Ancient Greek definition as “sensual or passionate love” from which the term “erotic” is derived. Classical philosophers described eros as a “madness from the gods” that befalls people at the sight of another person with disastrous results (e.g. the story of Paris and Helena). In YOI, this “madness” equates to “what causes you to lose the ability to make normal decisions”.

(The definition of eros varied a lot over the centuries. Plato defined eros as a general concept of passion that excludes physical attraction and argued that it can be utilised to pursue intellectual interests. Freud insisted that eros is not to be confused with libido, and the Catholic Church’s definition had a huge influence on more modern definitions and not for the better.)

What the ancient Greeks called eros is nowadays known as sexual attraction. Classical philosophers probably didn’t make the distinction towards romantic attraction since the two are often conflated. However, “madness from the gods” describes a primal instinct that the majority of humans experiences starting from when the body begins to produce sex hormones during puberty.

What this implies for Yuuri

As an adult male of 23, Yuuri is long past puberty. Thus, one would expect him to understand eros on an intuitive level. However, what makes him lose the ability to make normal decisions is not the sight of another human being, not even his celebrity crush parading in front of him like a Greek god—no, it's his favourite food. And there’s only one explanation why that is:

So far, Yuuri has not experienced sexual attraction.

No anxiety disorder, no feelings of inadequacy, no lack of self-esteem, and certainly not an alleged ability to restrain himself can explain this absolute cluelessness about a basic human instinct. It cannot explain why Yuuri is immune to the sight of naked Viktor, i.e. why that doesn't make him want to bent Viktor over the edge of the hot spring and do unspeakable things to him. And this brings us to the subject of the discussion:

Yuuri is on the asexual spectrum.

Where on that spectrum he could be, I'm going to discuss in a minute.

Yuuri is well aware that at his age the general populace is able to express eros and that by extension, he is excpected to and should be able to express it, too. In his first attempt at tackling eros, he uses his favourite food as a workaround, but if he had no particular food cravings, literally anything he’s passionate about would work as well (it took me ages to figure that out myself because, personally, I rather roll with Plato than food metaphors). Yuuri keenly feels that katsudon isn’t it, though. He thus changes the protagonist of the story he made up for his SP because he relates to the woman’s situation more than to the playboy, which works fairly well because it reflects his fears about Viktor leaving and his desire to keep Viktor for himself (see this meta). However, it takes him until episode 6 to find his eros, and this eros is a very possessive and commanding one (see this meta). Essentially, episode 6 is about Yuuri learning that he is indeed capable of seducing Viktor with his skating and this ability comes with a certain power that is reflected in his scores.

That Yuuri is aspec is essential for the plot of Yuri!!! on Ice to work.

Which asexual microlabels are compatible with canon Yuuri?

Aside from a few subtle hints, this is pretty much open to interpretation. The tie-grab in episode 8 and the strong sexual tension in that scene suggest that Yuuri and Viktor did it by now, which narrows the list down to demisexual, greysexual, or sex-favourable ace.

A demisexual Yuuri would experience sexual attraction once he has formed a close bond with another person or got to know them intimately enough. Before Viktor, Yuuri struggled to form close relationships of any kind; Viktor is the first he wants to form a bond with and whom he lets into his heart. In this context, Yuuri's SP in episode 6 could be interpreted as the very first time Yuuri experiences sexual attraction.

A greysexual Yuuri would be capable of experiencing sexual attraction sometimes and in certain situations, but again, the point when Yuuri perfects his SP defines the earliest instant at which he would experience sexual attraction for the first time. For example, it could mean that Yuuri only feels sexual attraction when he's in his Eros role.

Personally, I have a hard time picturing Yuuri as lusting after Viktor's body at any time. His performances of Eros rather seem outbursts of sensuality than an overall change in how he feels about Viktor in this aspect of their relationship. To me, Yuuri's Eros has the nature of a kink rather than the experience of sexual attraction. Yuuri's Eros is possessive, wants Viktor for himself, and demands of Viktor to watch him to drive him insane. Yuuri's Eros is dominant. I thus see Yuuri as a sex-favourable ace with one kink (at least!), which he has learned to use very well during his explorations of Eros.

Yuuri doesn't need to experience sexual attraction to sleep with someone else. Wanting physical closeness and sharing pleasure are very valid reasons.

Le tue mani, le tue gambe, le mie mani, le mie gambe, i battiti del cuore si fondono tra loro. Your hands, your legs, my hands, my legs and the heartbeats are fusing together.

Physical closeness as expressed through "Stay by my side" is a leitmotif in Yuri!!! On Ice, played back and forth between Yuuri and Viktor throughout the show. The lyrics of Stammi Vicino go even beyond that and describe a unification on a physical and on a mental level, implying an intimacy that can't be explained alone by Yuuri and Viktor being a couple and skating this routine together.

If you want your version of Yuuri to be canon-compliant, you can't go wrong with either flavour of aceness, including those I didn't discuss in this because they seem less likely to me. If you came to the conclusion that a sex-repulsed kinky Yuuri would work just as well, my answer to you would be that canon Viktor would be happy with everything his Yuuri is willing to give. If there's a fictional couple who would make a relationship in which one partner in sex-repulsed and the other is allosexual work, it would be viktuuri.

Next some questions I wish someone had explained to me in this context:

Q&A: But why does Yuuri...?

dry-hump Viktor at the Sochi banquet: If the amount of clothes Yuuri wears gives away the timeline of the event, he danced with Viktor before he went off to the pole with Chris. Some of this dancing was quite physically and that can be totally enough to cause arousal. Add an unholy amount of alcohol to this and you have Yuuri rubbing his genitals at his idol. (note that libido ≠ sexual attraction)

say that Viktor could impregnate everyone, including him: Being asexual doesn’t deprive you of the ability to identify sexiness in other people and understanding the meaning of “hot”. Viktor demonstrating Eros right in front of Yuuri would instantly put Yuuri into a massive swoon, and while it wouldn't make him horny and want to fuck Viktor, he would be be swept away because of how cool and amazing Viktor is.

hastily turns away when Viktor stretches in front of him in the bath: Well, that's an obvious reaction of discomfort. Not everyone would be happy to stare right at someone else's dick (unless you love dicks, obviously).

On a side note, I find it quite ironic that Morooka calls Yuuri “Japan’s ace skater” in the Blu-ray subs, but aside from the fact that things one character says about another should always be taken with a grain of salt, deriving a character’s sexuality from such wording is as far-fetched as deriving it from colour schemes, aesthetic attraction, or characters blushing at one another (and in YOI, they blush like all. the. time.). The YOI creators likely didn't intend an asexual reading of Yuuri, but the result is a nevertheless an unambiguously ace-coded Yuuri that is needed for the story of Yuri!!! on Ice to work in the way that it does.

Why this discussion is overdue

Good ace representation: Although it's not officially confirmed, Yuuri is a realistic representation of a queer label that is often overlooked and underrepresented in media. In addition to that, it's the only label that applies beyond a superficial impression.

Educational purposes: There are many harmful misconceptopns surrounding asexuality, and while this post doesn't aim at dispelling them, I hope it will make a little difference.

Spreading awareness: Because there is so little awareness about what it means to be asexual—even inside the queer community—the ace-coding is only obvious for people who have educated themselves on the subject. Unfortunately, this makes Yuuri being prone to being mischaracterised.

Helping people figure themselves out: Asexuality is a concept that is very hard to make sense of when you don't even know that you experience things differently. I've seen posts discussing ace-coded characters and they only confused the hell out of me. I hope that this post will be helpful to other people being unaware of or questioning their aceness.

For further reading about Yuuri and his endeavours to tackle eros, please check out these metas:

How skating to Eros despite not getting it showcases Yuuri's extreme bravery (episode 3): [X]

Yuuri finally finding the definition of eros that works for him (episode 6) [X]

The development of On Love: Eros throughout the series, including a discussion of the workarounds Yuuri uses: [X]

The romantic aspects of Yuuri's love life: [X]

My special thanks goes to cecebeanie for our countless discussions on the subject and patiently answering even my stupidest questions, for proofreading, and for encouraging me to write this post in the first place 💜💙

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me! My ask box and my DMs are always open!

If you like my metas, please check out my works on AO3.

Edit: While I was going through the reblogs of this post, I came across a lovely comment from someone who was a bit divided about whether Yuuri is overly sexual or asexual with a tendency towards the latter, and so I thought I'd provide some context for anyone else wondering about this:

In my experience, these two things aren't mutually exclusive. People with a strong libido or sex drive can be perceived as overly sexual, and that can apply to asexuals as well. Experiencing no sexual attraction doesn't determine whether someone has a low or high libido, nor does it determine whether someone enjoys having sex for whatever reasons. It's true that many asexuals don't ever want to have sex, but enough of us like it because we find it pleasurable, want to feel physcially close to our partner, engage in sex-related kinks etc. It's a spectrum after all. Personally, I think that Yuuri would enjoy sleeping with Viktor for all of these reasons once he's okay with allowing so much intimacy.

[kimdokjas]

what if we made ice ado the new goncharov

[pichirobi]

missing this power couple 🥴

[muckyschmuck]

the credentials of a loser

[hinamie]

i have so much band!au content in the pipeline my brain is Rotting but enjoy these two for now

jjk band!au

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Yuri on Ice x Rangshi Edit

Putting the real yuri in Yuri on Ice. >:3c Aka "I wanted a reason to edit Rangi drunk and then I spiraled outta control into four more pics TT0TTεミ(ο_ _)ο"

[m1sseveryth1ng]

If only we had Ice Adolescence in this trying time

[international-repeater-station]

hobbies include: sketching phos (particularly not having a great time). yeah this is just a sketch dump pretty much!.

the last 3 were done while listening to the most phos-core song ive ever heard: Low – More (discovered thanks to @punpuncake) (no seriously, google the lyrics. mind-blowingly accurate. angst.mp3.)

aaand a bonus sketch from an aggie.io session with friends – blindingly white next to the previous pics, so im putting it under the cut:

[capsensislagamoprh]

Because I am god damned shipping trash and you can't stop me, I started looking up things. When I saw this:

I had a hot moment of: BWAHAHAHAHAH! Then I was like: I wonder what the other names mean. The rabbit hole.

I found a twimbler by jikooksubunit that basically summed up to : Katsuki Yuuri means ‘student of a victor who benefits from courage’ and I think that is beautiful. And I was like: Fuck yeah.

Then I went further down, because fuck you, you can't stop me.

Yuri Plisetsky means (first name) farmer [unless he's Jewish, in which case it means Light of God] (last name) Influencer/Freedom Lover/Charisma. Which, I mean, humble origins, willing to suffer for what he wants, and damned if he's not an influencer with his own style and everyone wants a piece of him (for good or ill). Also a fucking demonic angel. So... yes.

And as you know, shipping trash don't do half. So I looked up Otabek Altin. We all know Altin means gold. What dose his first name mean, google? Fucking help me! So it did. It's actually an Uzbek name. It can be translated as "The Father of all Dukes" or “The Greatest Duke”. In middleage it was also a title for all the heirs coming from a certain lineage of Taimur. MY MIND FUCKING BLOWN.

Fucking ICE KING Winner-Winnerson

his Queen/King consort SIMPAI TAUGHT ME HOW TO KICK YOUR ASS

there feral ice child some times called princess to the determent of everyone with the sheer chutzpah to try it HO, I'M GONNA AND MAKE YOU PAY THE BILL RESPECT MY ETHEREAL, DAINTY, TOUGH AS NAILS ASS, YOU BASIC BITCH

and his BFF/prince charming : LITERALLY A FUCKING ROYAL BLOOD LINE MADE OF GAWD DAMNED GOLD, A.K.A. original 'Daddy of them All' (it's in the fucking name!), called a hero of his home country (rescue Yurio, on your modern day steed, daddy?). [Calmly exert your 'dad energy' in that 'you have awoken the beast' way that the wild cat some times needs?] Ether way, mah dudes. Ether way.

No wonder his ass can afford to ship that bike where ever he wants. Yurio is gonna get so damned spoiled. I love this fucking fandom.