#my 2nd ever pr season and it is so dear to me

[cupcakes-are-ours]

❝a pai zhuq master doesn't ask. he knows.❞

—power rangers jungle fury, feb 18, 2008

anniversary gif roulette:

episodes 3, 11, 14, 21, 27, 32

[doromoni]

Not Over the Papaya | OP81

⊹ ｡•┈꒰ა ♡ ໒꒱┈• ｡ﾟ

Ships : Oscar Piastri x Popstar! Reader , Ex!Lando Norris x Popstar! Reader

Genre : Fluff Smau

A/N : Let the silly season begin againn~

Face claim : Jennie Kim

Summary : Y/N and Oscar cope with their own breakups by making the Heartbreak Club.

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

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mclaren

liked by landonorris, zakbrown, Ln4 and others

tagged @/landonorris and @/zakbrown

mclaren What a night with the Mclaren Family! To a successful first half of the season 🎉

landonorris Now that’s how a team celebrates!

mclaren y’know it DJ!

user1 Mclaren is showing the grid the best driver pair 💪

user2 Oscar is monstrous even just on his 2nd year 😮‍💨

user3 where is Oscar??!! he's not in any of these pics

user4 you are so right! why are they celebrating without Oscar??

user5 Oscar’s in Aus with the other drivers and Y/N

user6 Dude Oscar should really try to fit in with the team better

user7 Ik… dude is not making himself look good by skipping team gatherings

user8 jumping into conclusions there bud

user7 Am I tho? What? like mclaren threw a party without telling Oscar?? their own driver??

user8 I wouldn’t move past it them … Ehem what ever happened with Danny Ric? yeah exactly

user9 Bro Piastri really chose to be with other drivers than show support to the team who gave him a seat and a job 🤡

user10 Dude just won a race and decided he’s above everyone else

user11 Oscar is starting to piss me off. He should be supporting Lando and the team inside and outside the track. He’s just plain selfish

user12 why is everyone suddenly going ham on Oscar’s absence??? So what if he missed a team party? do y’all expect him to fly across half the world to kiss ass. Y’all need better things to do.

user13 Nah dude, I love Osc but they do have a point. He should show some appreciation the team who gave him a car.

*Incoming call from Mavy (Mclaren PR)

Pick up or Decline

Decline

*Incoming call from Mavy (Mclaren PR)

Pick up or Decline

Decline

*Incoming call from Mavy ( Mclaren PR)

Pick up or Decline

Decline

*Turn on Do not Disturb?

* Do not Disturb is enabled

f1news

f1news Is the entire grid in Australia??? Look at all of them in suits 😮‍💨 As it turns out Oscar’s “party” tweet was not a joke at all!

User1 Wow just what did Oscar do to make them all come??

User2 Is that lewis?? wait is that SEB VETTEL?!!

user3 IK im freaking out too!!

user4 Ohoho I smell dramaaaa

user5 Hmm no Lando?? or Zak?? or any papaya??

user6 Well John, Osc’s engineer is there

user5 ok fine one papaya

user6 What tf is going on??? Luv to see it tho

user7 Not oscar turning the tables at McLaren.

user8 He’s so unhinged! Honestly only he can pull something so crazy as this.

user9 i heard other people are attending not just drivers.

user10 yeah i heard that too! apparently its turning into smth quite big and other singers and celebs are attending

user11 lmao thank Y/N’s influence

Y/N. 5m

story replies

oscarpiastri Can’t wait to see you on stage

Y/N. Well you do like bragging that I’m yours

oscarpiastri guilty as charged, baby. They can look but at the end of the day you are mine

Y/N. mhm all yours Luv.

oscarpiastri Thank you for doing this my dear… i know it was sudden for me to ask you to perform

Y/N. are you kidding?? I’m so down to help you Baby. Show them youre no push over!

oscarpiastri Y’know i could get fired for this right

Y/N. Well~ i could earn for the both us luv. 😉

oscarpiastri harharhar . ily you gremlin

Y/N. Ily more! I’ll stay by you through everything. thats a promise.

oscarpiastri

liked by Y/N., charles_leclerc, lewishamilton, sebastianvettel, and others

oscarpiastri No. This is how you celebrate.

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*incoming call from Zak Brown

Pick up or Decline

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[puckinghell]

Fall | Carter Hart

Summary: While Carter Hart tries to teach your 2nd grade class how to skate, you try not to fall... flat on your face, or, for him. Words: 2826 of 7433 Note: The request was for 1 imagine but I accidentally came up with a 3 part series... This is part 1. Also I was today years old when I realized Carter Hart and Shawn Mendes have the exact same energy

When you told your roommate goodbye this morning, you hadn’t done so with the expectation that it was going to be a nice, peaceful day. After all, any day spent with about 25 seven year olds was destined to be filled with chaos, and that was how you spent all of your days lately.

But you could’ve never had guessed what the universe had in store for you.

If Nancy, the head mistress and the woman monitoring your progress during your internship, had told you there was currently a pink elephant flying through your classroom, you would’ve looked at her with the same expression you’re currently wearing.

“What do you mean Babs is sick?”

Nancy shoots you an understanding look, filled with empathy and maybe pity, when she shrugs. “Just that. She has the flu. There’s no way she can make it today, and we simply don’t have the means to get a substitute teacher in. You know how excited the kids are about this day, and you’re basically a teacher yourself.”

You’re not; you’re only halfway through your education to hopefully one day become a teacher, and this internship was meant to give you a first taste of the job. You loved it, so far; the kids were amazing, if sometimes a little rowdy, your days were never boring, and Babs, whose class you’d been observing, had been nothing but a role model to you. She was exactly the kind of teacher you hoped to one day be; fun, loving, caring, and stern when need be, but always fair.

She’d taught you a lot, but definitely not enough for you to be send out on your own.

“I don’t think I can do it, Nancy.” You hate the way your voice quivers, but you can’t help it. You know if today gets canceled, you’ll be letting down the kids. They’d been looking forward to it for weeks.

“They’re so excited, Y/N,” Nancy says softly, playing on your feelings of guilt even more. “And I don’t think we could reschedule. The Flyers’ season is almost over, and it was so generous of them to even invite us in the first place…”

With a few very fervent hockey fans in her class, Babs had told the kids to write a letter to Carter Hart, the new Flyers goalie. You’re not a big hockey fan, put in absolutely no effort whatsoever to keep up with the Flyers, in fact, but even you know that he’d been brought in in a highly criticized, time’s up-desperate move by management, and he’s still young; around your age. However, he’s so far surpassing all expectations and the kids had been talking about him with so much excitement, Babs had thought it would be a nice gesture to write him a little thank you letter.

Undoubtedly, she’d been thinking that it would be good for them to learn to show some gratitude. Undoubtedly, she’d not expected to get a response back from the Flyers, inviting the whole class to the arena to participate in a special Flyers practice, where they would be hosted by Carter Hart himself.

And of all days possible, she has to get the flu today.

“How would I even get there?” you wonder out loud, and a smile appears on Nancy’s face. Your resolve is falling, and she knows it too.

“We have a bus ready. Just get them in the bus, get them out the bus. Someone from the Flyers will meet you there. Try to keep them from accidentally murdering the Flyers hot new goalie. The bus will still be there at the end of the day, bring them back. That’s all.”

You sigh, nod. “Okay.” There’s no way you can let down the kids. It all sounds so simple.

Of course with a bunch of 2nd graders, nothing would ever be simple.

“Rachel, please keep on your shoes. We’re still in the bus. Simon, don’t pull Darya’s hair! Patrick, close that window!”

“It’s gonna be a long day, huh?” Paul, the bus driver you had seen on many field trips, sends you a sorrowful look, and you sink back into the uncomfortable chair you’ve been sitting on for the past hour.

Of course, on the one day you really need to get these kids somewhere, there’s traffic.

“It’s gonna be a disaster,” you mumble. “I don’t know anything about the Flyers, Paul. Their biggest superstar could walk straight past me, and I wouldn’t recognize him.”

“Superstars probably prefer it that way, you know,” Paul tells you wisely, and you sink deeper into your chair, focusing on the road.

Finally, you get there, and somehow you manage to get all the kids out of the bus and into the arena without any casualties.

Well, Thomas falls and busts his knee, but you tell him that would cause the hockey players to mistake him for one of their own, and he stops crying after that.

“Miss Whackerman’s class?” An older woman stands in the hallway, a smile on her face and a clipboard in her hands. “I’m Janine, I’m with the communicaties and PR department and I’ll be with you today.”

“Oh!” You quickly shake her hand. “Y/N. Miss Whackerman is actually at home with the flu, I’m taking over the class today.”

Janine’s eyes travel down your body and you try to ignore the judgement in them. You’re not even sure what she doesn’t like; that you look too young to be a teacher (you are), or that you don’t look put together enough (when you picked this particular hoodie this morning, you didn’t know you would be going anywhere).

“Very well,” she says finally, and to her credit, she’s still smiling. “Follow me, then.”

You try to shush your students as they follow Janine through the hallways of the arena, but it’s clear the excitement is getting to them. Fast whispers and little pushes ensue, but luckily, you get to the locker room safely.

“Here we are,” says Janine. “You can go inside and start putting on their gear. I’ll go get Carter.” At the sound of their favorite goalie’s name, the kids all fall quiet, their eyes widening with realization.

You barely register the sound of Janine’s heels walking away, when you, too, realize what she’d said.

Gear?

You open the door to the locker room and are met with a room much bigger and lighter than you’d expected. In every single stall hangs a jersey, with a kid’s last name on it.

Squeals of excitement explode around you and suddenly little bodies are running past you, their little hands grabbing the jerseys and pulling them down. There are skates, and pads, and helmets, and you have no idea what to do with any of them, but some of the kids seem to be familiar with them and start dressing themselves.

“Miss, I don’t know how to tie my skates.”

You look down to find Yasmin standing there. She’s a shy little girl, and it has taken her a few weeks to even look you in the eyes, but when she started talking to you it had felt like your greatest accomplishment ever. Now, you’re staring at the skates in her hands with horror in your eyes.

“Uhm.”

“Need help with those?”

The voice that interrupts your moment of panic is deep and unfamiliar, and yet, at the sound of it, almost all of your students turn around in lightning speed. When you also turn, you understand why.

Opposite you stands Carter Hart. You don’t know much about him but you’ve Googled him on the bus ride here, wanting to make sure you wouldn’t make a fool out of yourself by not recognizing him. On Google, he’d seemed cute, but in real life, he’s gorgeous. With toned arms, which he has crossed over his muscular chest, and a lot taller than you’d somehow expected, he looks like he’s walked straight out of a gym membership commercial, and you know what? 

If guys that went to the gym looked like that, you might actually go.

You’re torn out of your oggling moment by Yasmin’s little hands clinging around your leg. She’s staring up at Carter with big eyes and you can’t help but giggle at the starstruck, but terrified, look on her face.

“We really, really do,” you tell Carter honestly. “I can’t say I’ve ever tied a skate in my life.” Carter laughs at that, and points to the bench in Yasmin’s stall. “Take a seat, honey.” There’s something soft and friendly to his voice, and it doesn’t surprise you that Yasmin obliges immediately.

“It took me a while to learn how to tie them, too,” Carter speaks softly, while he sits down next to Yasmin and extends his hand. “Can you give me your leg?”

You watch in awe as Yasmin does as she’s told, then, looks up at him and quietly says: “Thank you.”

Unbelievable. It took you three weeks to get her to talk to you. You understand Carter is a lot more attractive to talk to than you, but still. Three weeks!

Carter ties the skates, then stands up and looks around the room. “Anyone else need help?”

Everyone raises their hands, even the ones that clearly don’t need help at all, and you laugh. “No, no lying! If you’ve got your gear on, sit down and wait for the rest. Who actually needs help?” Only a few hands remain, and Carter goes by them one by one, dutifully tying skates and tucking jerseys and strapping on pads.

“Is anyone here a goalie?” he asks, but the room stayed quiet. You know a bunch of the kids have played hockey before, but so far you’ve not heard of any aspiring goalies. When no answer comes, Carter shrugs. “I guess you all just have to shoot on me then.”

This causes a loud, communal cheer to erupt, and everyone follows him to the ice.

You sit on the bench on the side of the rink as you watch the kids. Some of them are actually decent skaters, others are clinging to a chair for dear life.

If you were on the ice, that’d be you, so you stay where you are, burying your hands in the pockets of your hoodie.

Who knew an ice rink would be so cold.

Apart from Carter, you’ve been joined by Janine again, a bunch of ice girls, and of course, Gritty. In Gritty, Carter has some competition for favorite, as your class has crowded around the giant orange mascot and is currently trying to bring him down.

“He’s popular with the kids, huh?” Carter skates over to the boards, leaning over them to peek into the bench. “Are you not coming out?”

“It’s kinda weird, cause he’s terrifying,” you admit with a smile. “And no, I’ve never skated in my life.”

“Ah, come on, time to change that!” With seemingly no effort, Carter hops over the boards and plops himself down on the bench next to you, asking Janine to go get you some skates before you manage to protest. While he speaks to her about what your size is, you allow yourself to look at him for a few seconds.

God, he’s handsome. It’s so ridiculously unfair, that most of the time when you see him on TV, his face is hidden by that giant hockey mask.

He’s not wearing that, today. In fact, he’s not wearing any gear, just some skates and sweatpants with a hoodie.

“Do you know how to put them on?” Carter turns towards you as he talks and if he catches you staring, he’s polite enough not to call you out on it, although the hint of a smile dancing on his face leads you to believe he definitely noticed.

Feeling your cheeks heat up, you frown. “Uhm, I mean, it can’t be hard.” You wiggle your feet into your skates.

“Let me tie them for you,” Carter hurries to say, when he sees you struggling, and drops to his knees to grab your foot. And, well, you don’t want your skin to burn at his touch, but you can’t really help that. “They need to be tight, or you’re gonna break an ankle.”

That’s when you remember most kids have tied their own skates, and a wave of worry washes over you.

It’s quickly pushed away with worry over your own health and wellbeing, when Carter stands up and extends his hand. “Ready?”

You snort out a laugh. “Absolutely not.” Yet, there’s no way you could say no to those blue eyes of his, and you grab his hand and let him pull you up.

The ice, unsurprisingly, is slippery, and you cling to the boards for dear life. Carter’s laughter rings through the air.

“Do you want me to bring one of those chairs?” he teases, then reaches out and grabs your elbow, attempting to steady you. You glare at him, but your pride takes over and you try to let go of the boards.

Just when you think you’ve found your footing, Rachel comes skating over. It’s clear that it’s not her first time on skates, and your pride takes another blow as you realize the 7 year skates better then you probably ever will.

“Miss Y/N, you’re skating!” Rachel might be better at skating, but she isn’t that good at stopping, and before you grasp what’s happening, she bumps into your leg and your legs slip out from under you.

For a split second, you’re convinced this is it for you; you feel yourself plummeting towards the ice, and surely you will hit your head and split it open and Carter’s worried face will be the last thing you ever see.

Not that that’s the worst thing you could see, but you’re not ready to die.

But instead of the cold hard ice, you’re met with something hard and warm, strong hands gripping your arms as you bang your head against his chest, the soft fabric of his hoodie against your cheek.

“Wow, careful.” His voice is soft, his breath warm against your hair as he speaks. You have to push against his chest to get yourself back upright, and damn your face for flushing as red as it does at just the mere contact. His hands remain on you, but slowly go down from your arms to your hands, grabbing them. “About that chair…” he drawls, and you would’ve hit him if you weren’t using your hands to hold onto him for dear life.

“Sorry, miss Y/N!” Rachel says. She fell too, but is already standing back upright. “Isn’t it lucky that Carter was there to save your life?”

“Save your life, huh?” Carter chuckles, and there is a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

“So lucky,” you tell Rachel, who beams up at you before skating away again, and then you look up at Carter. “Saving my life might be a bit dramatic, but you did save me from going face first into the floor, so thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he hums, and that’s when you realize your hands are still in his.

Just when you’re starting to think you couldn’t possibly blush any more than you already were.

Then, a voice calls from the tunnel.

“Hartsy, time for practice, dude!” You assume it’s one of Carter’s teammates, although you have no clue who it could be.

“Coming!” Carter calls back, then shoots you an apologetic look. “Time to wrap this up, I guess.”

You swallow. “Could you, uhm, perhaps, bring me back to the bench?”

Ah, you definitely can blush more.

He laughs, and slowly starts guiding you towards the bench, one of your hands in his and his other hand on the small of your back, softly pushing you. You gratefully grab the boards and manage to climb back onto the normal floor yourself.

Thank God.

“Kids, time to say goodbye to Carter!”

Immediately, the kids come skating over to him, giving him hugs and high fives and saying thank you. Only Yasmin stays behind – her skating has been, possibly, even worse than yours – and Carter goes to get her, lifting her in the air and carrying her back to the safety of the ground.

“Thank you, mister Hart,” Yasmin says, her voice soft but clear, and he smiles at her.

“You’re so welcome, Yasmin.”

Finally, he comes over to you. “Thanks for bringing them, this was fun,” he says, and are you imagining it, or does he look genuinely sorry for having to leave?

“Thanks for saving my life,” you joke, and he laughs.

He waves again, and then he skates away. But before he reaches the tunnel, he calls over his shoulder: “See you around!”

And when you find out later from Nancy that he’s going to come back to your school to do a PE class for the kids, well, it’s in a completely professional way that you feel excited like a kid on Christmas morning.

[iguana012]

Japanese Nats: The Aftermath

This recap is almost 3 weeks late but fwiw I judged the event on The Judges’ Table. If you’re interested in my (serious) opinions about the competition, you can read them there. If you’re interested in my less censored opinions, I will include as much as I can in this post. 

So what happened is that Japan crowned their tiniest champions ever, Satoko Miyahara (her 3rd title) and Shoma Uno (his 1st title). But some people were less interested in that and more interested in receiving updates on Yuzuru Hanyu’s recovery after he decided to withdraw from the competition in order to prioritize his health, thus generating earthquakes among his sensitive fans. Other people (those who attended the competition) went just to see Mao Asada but they were polite enough not to get up and empty the arena while Mao wasn’t skating unlike what happened at the Sochi Olympics when Evgeni Plushenko withdrew from the men’s event. 

Now I’m not pretending to be some advocate of justice and I’m not intending to preach. But I believe this is a good opportunity to highlight frequent problems in the skating fandom so you won’t be tempted to fall into their traps. 

DISCLAIMER: I do realize I’m already in a very high risk of getting attacked by some Yuzu fans via anon asks or salty replies/reblogs but I’m gonna say this again: it’s okay if you’re not into my kind of “”””humor”””. You can ignore me and I promise I won’t get a boo-boo. GETTING TO THE SUBJECT NOW!

THE LADIES EVENT aka Game Of Thrones

Satoko Miyahara waltzed into this event giving negative fucks and the results showed: when she gives negative fucks, that 3Lz-3T combo in the second half of her SP is miraculously rotated. As a consequence she got 76 for her program and further established her new position as one of the most overscored skaters currently competing (don’t believe me? Ask the Russian ubers and Mao ubers). I also thought “damn, this empty program actually looks nice when neither she nor I have to worry about rotations”. But the key here is to make the program look like that when you give a lot of fucks as opposed to negative fucks, and Mie Hamada knew that. So the next day before Satoko skated her FS, Hamada annoyed the crap out of her and pressured her as a strategy to make her get used to skating clean when she gives a lot of fucks, such as when she’s thinking she’s gotta get a medal in a relevant event, including the Olympics. For now, Satoko is still failing that test because she had a step-out on the 3Lz-3T combo and a couple of carrots. 

Wakaba Higuchi finally - I repeat - FINALLY skated a clean short program and it was so adorable to see her get all excited and happy about it. Except it wasn’t a squeaky-clean program because she got a wrong edge call on her flip. What can ya do, if ya got a good lutz ya gotta lip and when ya got a good flip ya gotta flutz. She’s gonna have to follow Satoko’s example and replace that lip with a loop and be done with it. Other than that, damn this girl got huge jumps. Everyone loves some huge jumps. However, the disadvantage of huge jumps is that you gotta have very good control of the landing and you have to know how to manage your speed, when to speed up, when to slow down, otherwise you’re doomed to pull a Midori Ito and land your jumps over the cameraman outside the boards. (Have you imagined Evgenia Medvedeva landing one of her 3-3-3 combos on Tarasova’s table cause I did and I cracked myself up really). 

Another skater who is fast as crap and has great technique on top of that is Mai Mihara who won the bronze medal and got herself a ticket to Worlds. Just a year ago around this time she was watching Nationals on TV from a hospital bed having been diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Doesn’t that make a great Cinderella story? She is, actually, skating to Cinderella but her style is still stuck somewhere on the road between junior and senior (she was pretty good as a junior but I didn’t like her skating then and I’m not necessarily warming up now) but she seems like a very sweet girl and if there’s anyone who deserved going to Worlds aside from Satoko and Wakaba, it’s this young lady. 

Marin Honda is another skater who finally - I repeat - FINALLY skated a clean short program after burying herself in competitions right from the start. The poor girl has been under so much constant pressure this season I feel like she’s always on the verge of having an emotional breakdown. It’s not only the fact that she’s cried a number of times after her performances, but this season she always looked like she was terrified of her results no matter how she skated. I’m not a fan of either of her programs this season (SP is similar to last season’s and the FS is a hot mess combo of Yuzuru’s Romeo & Juliet 1 and 2) but she has excellent skating skills, musicality, expression, projection to the audience for her age. She doesn’t have the best jump technique but she is one of the few lucky ones with a clean lutz AND flip. After a smooth short program, a popped jump in the free prevented her from stepping onto the podium but that’s how it is in competition; it’s not about what you’re able to do, it’s about what you end up doing when it counts. 

Rika Hongo has been in serious trouble ever since the beginning of this season - or maybe as far as the previous Nationals - and the worst case scenario happened. She finished 5th and now the juniors ahead of her are old enough to go to Worlds in her place. While she was 2nd in the SP with the best performance of the season, she went down to 6th in the FS and finished 5th overall despite bringing back Riverdance, a program that worked for her last year. Unfortunately the spark, the freedom and the joy that was present last season was absent in this competition as she was very nervous even before she took the ice. 

Yuna Shiraiwa on the other hand... I’m only going to say this. Clean 3Lz-3T and (second half) 3F-3T combos in the FS. No UR calls. Highest TES (71.74) of the evening. She’s the real MVP in Hamada’s team. 

THE OLD(ER) GENERATION

This was Mao Asada’s worst result at Nationals but instead of having retirement thoughts (like she had last season at Nationals even though she skated better), she’s still determined to come back stronger next season. An old knee injury prevented her from landing the 3A and rotating a lot of her jumps but at this point she’s obviously not skating for the medals as much as she’s skating for herself. No skater wants to leave the competitive world with regrets so who are we to judge Mao’s decision to continue in spite of physical difficulties? With Yuzuru absent due to influenza, most fans attended the competition to see Mao and it was obvious just counting the number of flowers that were thrown on the ice for her compared to the other skaters. 

Redemption from Kanako Murakami, who is also nearing the end of her career but managed to deliver the first clean FS she’s skated in ages. That’s all she wanted from this competition, she got it, and she awarded the audience with her signature Kanako Smile.

Painful competition for Haruka Imai, former Japanese Jr National Champion and 4th at the 2014 4CC. No GP assignments this season, she was plagued by inflammation of her hips and knees but she fought to land the 3Lz and 3F. This was also the first time we got to see one of her new programs (the FS, which is Primavera by Einaudi) and she’s still beautiful to watch. 

SHOMA UNO & CO.

It was kind of depressing to watch the men’s event this year because only a couple of years ago it was the fiercest event at Nationals. Keiji Tanaka seized his chance to grab onto the silver medal while Takahito Mura’s bronze was (once again) useless - as harsh as it sounds. Shoma wasn’t at his best here but he showed that he learned a new lesson (tag a 3T to a different jump if you screw up one of your planned combos!!) and he came out of this alive and well. The added pressure of having to “live up to expectations” in the absence of Olympic King Zuzu was another thing he suddenly had to put up with (good job Fuji). But there’s an old saying; “better here than at Worlds”. 

CONTROVERSIES 

While Satoko and Shoma are the tiniest champions Japan has ever had, they’re also the most criticized. They both have to skate under the shadows of two skating giants, Mao and Yuzuru, who have hoards of fans. Among those hoards of fans there are ubers, people who have made a habit out of bashing their favorite skaters’ successors. In Japan there already are Mao ubers whose jobs are to tear Satoko apart and the disease has long spread worldwide. You can see it on forums, you can see it on comment sections of YouTube videos, you can even hear it on television (looking at you Simon Reed). People who write passive-aggressive, sarcastic remarks, calling Satoko names and whatnot. Shoma gets similar (though mellower) treatment from overseas fans, but not from Japanese fans, possibly due to the fact that he’s a Daisuke Takahashi fan so most of Dai’s fans are now supporting him. 

These two young skaters (and not only) deserve all the support in the world. It’s not easy to become Japan’s supporting pillar and leading lady after the great Mao Asada, but Satoko is doing an incredible job. Appreciate more, bash less. Don’t let the judges cloud your judgement. There’s also a massive amount of PR in figure skating; Mao has so many sponsors you can see her in commercials, you can see fluff videos about her because that’s what the general audience wants. She’s been advertised as a child prodigy (which she was) and people consider her part of their family. Satoko doesn’t benefit from that kind of treatment so people tend to be cold and judgmental towards her because she’s nothing compared to Mao-chan (oh dear those jumps, oh dear the way she bends her knee, oh dear her face). 

Recently Marin Honda has been getting the “heir of Mao” treatment, getting sponsorship from JAL, shooting CMs for Ghana and stuff. I feel like I have to point out the fact that all of her siblings, including herself, are managed by a hugely influential management company. If you’re into Japanese entertainment, you might have heard of it. It’s called Oscar Promotion and it’s a talent agency whose famous names include actresses Emi Takei, Aya Ueto and Ayame Gouriki. She’s been promoted and modeled by a talent agency since she was a young child so she’s an expert at working with the camera, the audience and the reporters. As a result she’s also been gathering - well, pretty scary fans who are downright infatuated with her and will start arguments if you dare criticize her. Similar to idol group fans, I’d say. 

But this is figure skating and crack commentaries aside we’re talking about real, young people with feelings who are training every day from dawn till dusk, who get injured, who sacrifice their childhood and adolescence. We’re also talking about real fans behind the computer screen who like who they like and no one person is entitled to criticize or ridicule the things that make them happy. At the same time, no one is entitled to attack fans who criticize your favorite skater(s) as long as they bring valid arguments and they’re polite about it. And no one is entitled to attack another fan whose way of seeing or perceiving things is either more or less intense than yours. Be nice to each other. #PEACE