#no hate to ilia btw

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

I saw something about the scores on twitter and for the first time since his announcement I was glad about Shoma's retirement. I do feel very bad for Yuma though. Such a talent and he has to deal with that. (And no hate towards Ilia. He has no control over his own scores.)

Same. I fear Yuma will need a world title to make his PCS higher than Ilia's at this point...which is such a shame bc he is the better skater, maybe not jumping content wise but definetly skating wise and I think everyone can see that.

The PCS for Ilia are a joke. They were a joke before even when Shoma competed, but at least Yuma and Shoma usually had higher PCS than Ilia, what they should have based on the skating skills alone. No hate towards Ilia, he does work on his pcs and I'd say he has a performance quality but not like in pcs criteria, but there is also where the problems begin and it's a judging problem ever since IJS was implemented. There is no separation between each part of the PCS compartments. It's all muddled together. And just bc Ilia "improved" doesn't mean he improved this much to warrant 9s in all compartments. So yeah Ilia's scores are a joke, BUT ofc it's not his fault and also he deserved to win. So at the end of the day even with the clownery of scoring we should ask the question: Did the right skater win? And yes the right skater won. (And surprisingly despite all the scoring nonsense I think there are just few cases in the last 10 years were the wrong person got the Gold imo)

I'd say though that it is not a surprise that Ilia's PCS got higher than Yuma's. Ilia is the world champion, he gets a bonus as world champion it happened before. If you're considered best of the world, you get a better treatment, it doesn't happen every time but with certain factors like other more decorated skaters absent/retired and high TES you can bet on the judges to fall for this. It's quite similar to what happened with Shoma vs. Nathan since 2018 Worlds. Until Pyeongchang 2018 Shoma always had higher PCS than Nathan bc objectively Shoma is better in skating skills and presentation than Nathan, but since Nathan won and produced highest TES of everyone regularly his PCS rose too and were always higher than Shoma's. Seems like once you win suddenly some rules don't apply anymore. Improvement or not, no one can improve so much in just a summer break.

So I am definetly happy Shoma is retired. Though if we think it from the other side, maybe in comparison to Shoma Ilia's PCS may not have risen as much? 🤔 I mean Ilia is the current world champion, but Shoma would be the most decorated men skater in comparison with two titles, so maybe Shoma would still get higher pcs, it's no guarantee and we will never find out but it's a sidenote to mention....the TES on the other hand...well I think Ilia can smash every competition with his TES even if he makes mistakes. So on TES alone Shoma would not hold up to Ilia anymore...so back to the original statement that I am happy Shoma is retired 😌

[constantvariations]

They tried to buy matching outfits at Villains 'r' Us but had to make do with similar shades of ugly

[crearuru]

as a csa/rape survivor whose school in 2010 was full of impressionable young men screaming "rape jokes" and about what theyd do (and some DID) to me the gaiaonline screenshots suck for many reasons. aside from the undeniably inappropriate behavior emile was shown engaging in (which was awful but incredibly typical conversational subject matter for the year 2010) but hiding the other party's name only in the archive of what their 2010 username was (it was Lawly) to make it look like the word loli (which i hate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) was repeatedly brought up as if lawly was coined as a nickname by emile is Bad (context still sucks!!!!!!!) and even worse is how an autistic person deflecting sexual harassment is what everyone was defending when it was emily who deflected without saying no but when its an autistic man being repeatedly told how the other party plans on "raping him" and he deflects with a (awful and horrible but period-typical) wisecrack "well it wouldnt be pe/do/ph//ilia if the minor was raping" (in response to being told the other person who first brought up rape fantasized about raping him!!! And the other person told HIM in response that "it wouldnt be rape if you liked it and liking it is consent which makes it pedophilia *smiling emoticon*"!!!!!! btw!!!!) People who are (rightfully) criticizing him for not instantly blocking (can you block effectively on AOL??? its before my time and i cant find any tutorials on how to block aim users) but (not rightfully) wouldnt criticize emily for not blocking like be consistent. The messages are sickening to read as a survivor and ive been struggling to even speak all day from how this incident is bringing up old trauma and also emile is in the psych ward now and ppl are saying itd be good if he killed himself and people are spreading unrelated false claims about him forcing masae to give him sexual favors with her feet (which she never claimed he did!!!) And im so nauseous from this whole thing my head hurts so bad

[erigold13261]

🌻, 🌈 and 🌌 for the OC ask game 👀? (i dunno if some were already asnwered btw)

"🌻 Do any of them hide dark secrets under a cheerful veneer?"

Hmm... I don't actually think so!

Pretty much all of my OCs that have potentially dark secrets either don't keep them a secret (or are very casual about it) or aren't hiding them behind cheerfulness and instead of gloomy.

I would say the closest thing to that would be Synthia, but he doesn't hide the neglect and abuse he gets from his mom. He's very casual about it because he dissociates her hate for him which is why he's always very happy.

Oh! I think technically Carna tries to hide faer kleptomania through cheerful attitudes, but that is more like playful lying from being raised in a rich and spoiled environment (the second time being raised since the first time was in a dysfunctional house with an abusive mother and neglectful father). Though that isn't really a dark secret, so doesn't really count.

I guess technically Ilia hides his past by being happy, but it's not like he is actively hiding it. He's more of a lying through omission kind of person. So if you don't ask the right questions, you aren't getting the full story from him (which is why the curses think he's a human when they first meet him).

The only other OC I can think of would be a much older OC named Emi that I haven't drawn in a while. She wears a mask with a permanent smile on it and has a pretty cheerful attitude as she hunts down humans to collect their teeth and eat their faces.

I haven't thought of her much in a while, but she isn't really hiding her past/dark secrets. Though, since I am thinking of her again, I can make her into an entity and she definitely would be a character who hides her actions behind friendliness! Very much looking like she is a perfectly friendly entity on the outside but a human hunter in reality.

"🌈 Which ones are The LGBTQ+?"

I mean... I better question would be which one is NOT queer lol!

Pretty much all of my OCs are some flavor of queer. Mainly asexual, aromantic, or aroace. I also tend to have a lot of lesbians or wlw as well as trans or nonbinary OCs.

The ones who are cishet are Sharon, Matvey, Martha, Aria probably, Nuru, Sarabi, Joust experimented a bit but is cishet. Quida is cishet, so is Noa and Asa. Honestly Asa might be something, but for now he is cishet. I think that's all but I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

A lot more cishet OCs than I remember lol! But otherwise, pretty much all my other OCs are somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum!

"🌌 Do your OCs inhabit a shared universe?"

Yes and no!

I compartmentalize my OCs depending on where they are from. So a JJK OC would be in JJK while an NSR OC is only in NSR.

However, because I made the Eriverse, technically all my OCs can now live in a single universe! Even single fandom universes like JJK can be connected to the Eriverse through Ilia now! Meaning that event though they aren't in a shared universe, they share a multiverse through Ilia's powers.

And speaking of multiverses, I have a LOT of NSR AUs that I basically turned into OCs in my head as they are so far removed from the base NSR premise. Though these are in a different multiverse compared to the one connected to the Eriverse. If that makes sense lol.

So yea, yes and no. It depends really. For the most part, if I want them to be connected then they can be in the same universe. If not then they aren't. Really depends on what I want to do in the moment.

[dragynkeep]

Would you like to talk about how you see Adam as a Jewish allegory?

considering how much violently antisemitic hate this concept got recently, hell yeah i would lmao!

there's a few minor / character related things for adam that i think relate to him as totally unintentional jewish allegory, & then some larger scheme aspects in regards to the faunus as a whole & some other jewish concepts that apply. again, this is all totally unintentional in the eyes of the writers as they themselves are also incredibly antisemitic, but i'm jewish so those goy can suck my dick.

red hair!

red hair, while incorrectly associated with irish people — we have phenotypically dark hair & light eyes — was also a marker for jewish people, especially ashkenazi jews. the stereotype seems to stem from all the way back in the talmud: where david & esau were referred to as "admoni", basically meaning redhead. by time it came to medieval europe & the spanish inquisition: red hair was a mark of jewish "otherness" & dishonesty / treachery. adam himself having red hair ties into these tropes, he's othered by society due to his faunus nature & is seen as the "traitor" in the narrative of others.

his name!

a lot of "western" / "christian" names are hebrew in nature, due to the violent colonization & oppression of jewish people. these names were anglecized / westernised to strip them of their roots, but they are hebrew all the same. adam itself not only refers to his red hair / the red earth, but to adam in the bible.

his faunus type!

aside from the faunus in particular just being really applicable to jewish oppression & survival in the midst of goyishe oppression: adam's specific faunus type can also allude to the golden calf. the sin of the calf, aka the worship of the golden calf idol when moses went up mount sinai, is an important part of the book of exodus.

the golden calf itself wasn't just a sign of insolence from the israelites following moses, but their fear & anxiety that he wouldn't return & they would once again be in danger. adam being tied to this bull & the narrative of the whole tale could very well tie into his own fear of ever being placed back into the horrors of slavery in the sdc & the violent oppression there: becoming his own calf idol in order to lead the white fang in a way that he sees fit to keep himself safe.

his colours!

adam himself is associated with the colours : red, black & blue. red obviously brings forth the very biblical concept of blood & wrath & rage: but i also like to really tie it to the lamb's blood put over the doorways of jewish homes when g-d's justice for us against the egyptian oppressors came at the loss of their first born sons. that blood, that sacrifice in the moment meant that we were kept safe while our oppressors suffered for their decisions, which tbh can be very applicable to adam.

blue is an interesting one in judaism because it's a holy colour for us, it's usually the colour on our tallit alongside black & white. it's also tied with jewish reclamation & hanukkah: a holiday centred around violence being used as liberation from a violent oppressor. the fact this colour is in adam's eyes could very well show that he sees the way that will need to be taken against the violent human oppressors in remnant.

his brand!

the way jews were borderline branded with the number tattoos in camps such as auschwitz is basic knowledge of the horrors surrounding the holocaust: adam being branded by the oppressive sdc company that exploits faunus labour while simultaneously dehumanizing them, brutalizing them & often being complicit in deaths under that exploitation — see: ilia's parents — very much parallels this in my eyes, though obviously not to the same horrific extent.

the fact that the schnees are a very german coded family & corporation does little to dissuade this comparison btw.

the faunus as a whole!

this one's a lot more generalizing to the entire faunus population which we completely acknowledge had taken primarily from black struggles & oppression in the mid 20th century america. however there are a lot of parallels to jewish oppression also, such as them being ethnically segregated into an ethnostate, the various attacks on faunus being seen as pogroms, a lot of the featured animal types of faunus in the show featuring in the torah & other things.

the faunus has overall just become a blob of "insert oppressed minority here", in a far less tactful way than other groups like them in media such as the x men but hey ho.

so yeah! this is why i see adam, personally, as jewish allegory & why people reducing him to just a "sociopathic abusers", ableism aside, ends up being incredibly reductive because this character is the one who faces the most racialized violence in his life, he was literally a former child slave, he is canonically pushed to actions he didn't want to take & in the end of it, adam's death is treated as the cure to faunus racism because it's never brought up again post this event.

overall it's just really disappointing to see this incredibly marginalized character who, not unintentionally, is constantly compared to an actual jewish character based on combating jewish oppression without respectability politics in magneto, essentially just used as a very blunt tool by very dumb, very ignorant non oppressed writers.

[rubyneo]

RubyNeo accademy au?

waves oh so sweetly.... so basically my ruby/neo lady beat's AU (as much as i dont particularly care about rh) has the events of roman holiday happen during the time that WOULD be volume 1.

for timeline reasons: lady beat's starts in march/beacon starts in april. at the end of march trivia is taken to lady beat's by her mother and around the same time (roughly a week later) ruby is fighting torchwick in the street. (neo is 17, ruby is 15)

when glynda rescues ruby and ozpin comes to talk to her, noting her silver eyes, resemblance to summer, and connection to qrow (and therefore taiyang) he decides it would be far too dangerous to enroll her at beacon so early but it's also too dangerous to just leave her at signal (around 5 ish years prior is when that one student tragically loses her life at signal academy.) oz is worried that roman is working for salem and so he fears that salem will start looking for ruby within the huntsmen combat/upper academies. he and taiyang agree it will be safest to hide her in plain sight amongst the troubled girls of the upper class attending the preparatory school.

so two months into the semester, ruby is enrolled in the academy. trivia is intrigued by her but is certain that the other girls will make sure ruby avoids and hates her so she ignores ruby's initial attempts at friendship.

trivia finds ruby reading by herself one day and recognizes the book (the girl who fell through the world) and tentatively starts a conversation about it. ruby doesn't mind that trivia has to type out her questions and trivia likes that ruby doesn't ask why she doesnt talk. then ruby stops reading the book right before the final chapter where alyx makes it home and trivia asks her why? and ruby explains her mom was a huntress and when she was little promised to finish the story when she got home, but she never came home. so ruby can never finish the story.

the girls quickly become pretty close after that, and when the malachites destroy trivia's uniform, ruby helps her fix it.

trivia is a little protective over ruby because ruby is softer around the edges and so nice and she doesn't want to see the other girls hurt her because ruby can't tell when they're being cruel sometimes.

the spiders and roman are both working for salem in this AU btw. so when trivia and ruby sneak out to follow the malachites they find them meeting with roman and cinder and ruby tells trivia "those two...the man and woman...i fought them a few months ago..."

ruby and trivia spend the next few months trying to figure out this tangled web they've found themselves in until it all comes to a head during the volume 2 finale. they've been thorns in cinder and roman's sides for too long and so while cinder oversees the mountain glenn project, roman makes a deal with the vanilles to bring trivia back home since she still is not acting how they want her to, uses some of junior's men and hei xiong sr's weapons and kidnaps ruby, taking her to the vanille manor in hopes of luring trivia there. unfortunately for roman, ironwood's army is on direct orders to investigate every disturbance and it turns into a fire fight between the atlas military and roman.

ruby, trivia, and roman survive, carmel and jimmy do not. roman is arrested, and ironwood takes ruby and trivia to beacon to discuss what will happen with them. ozpin decides to just make the girls students as soon as the second semester is finished. to try and keep them safer ozpin gets them set up in a dorm on campus that would have been used by the CMSN team if this was in show canon.

during their time bumming around beacon, ruby helps trivia design hush, and they train together.

so volume 3 sees trivia and ruby joining in on team ABYS (Abyss, made of ilia, blake, yang, and weiss) and JNPR's wacky hijinks. cinder's team has also infiltrated the school and (with lionheart's help) faked an entire other student who is, oh so tragically, back in mistral with a horrific injury and simply cannot participate in the vytal tournament this year :(

the rest of the volume carries out basically the same as canon. beacon falls, ozpin dies, yang AND ilia go to try and help blake (yang still loses her arm, ilia barely manages to get all three of them out alive), weiss ruby and trivia go to beacon tower at jaune's urging to save pyrrha but they're too late. ruby unlocks her silver eyes.

trivia pulls a blake and takes off before ruby wakes up post Silver Eye Blast because she blames herself. if she hadn't pulled ruby into helping her tail the malachites and torchwick they would still be more or less safe within the prep school.

Yang and Ruby are Heavily Traumatized by these new abandonments and do NOT know how to talk to each other about it. and then ruby takes off.

volume 4 would see the split as:

yang, alone in vale

weiss, alone in atlas

blake, with ilia and sun in menagerie

ruby, heading to mistral. JNR tags along with her even though they don't know her as well in this AU because they need to feel like they're doing anything useful in the wake of pyrrha's death

brief flashes to trivia travelling on her own under the alias neopolitan, gathering information on the spiders and torchwick and trying to uncover who cinder is/who she's working for

then we come to volume 5! the Reunion Volume

neo catches wind of something brewing in mistral and starts heading that way. yang decides to seek out raven to find ruby faster than just searching every inch of land on the continent of anima. weiss runs away, hoping to find winter in mistral but her airship is downed. blake rallies the people of menagerie to aid the people of mistral. and ruby does her best to bond with JNR and oscar.

first reunion: weiss and yang

second reunion: weiss, yang, and RNJR

third reunion: qrow runs into neo while trying to find the huntsmen of mistral. nobody but ruby recognizes her on first sight. Things are Tense and Emotional for a bit. ruby is still upset trivia left her, neo is terrified that they're biting off more than they can chew.

blake and ilia return to the main crew!

the battle for haven proceeds as it did in canon, basically. neo is doing her best to help ruby and be her support in the fight, the tides truly start to turn when ilia and blake join the fray.

ilia defends jaune and weiss while jaune heals weiss. the first thing weiss sees when she opens her eyes is ilia's back and hears the SNAP of lightning lash and knows she's safe for another moment.

ABYS is reunited, with Weiss throwing her arms around Blake and Ilia and then dragging Yang in. Ruby and Neo stand off to the side and have a little reunion of their own

volume 6:

while ilia and jaune do their best to rally their teams behind them and do some Team Bonding, ruby and neo have a quiet moment to talk. the last two weeks have been trying so hard to get everyone up to speed with every one else, neo only now realizes she has to truly look up at ruby to meet her eyes, and tells her as much. she apologizes for leaving, ruby forgives her. ("i forgave you the moment you left and the instant you came back.") it's not all fixed but they're going to try.

WUH-OH BEE TENSION (ilia and weiss are sipping coffee and ignoring the other two. they'll work it out if ilia has to beat them over the head with a relationship self help book)

ruby fully uses her silver eyes for the second time to save neo, screaming out her name as the apathy take her down. (in a few moments maria's words would echo in her ears. think about the people who love you.)

ruby controls her power for the first time, grabs neo, and drags her out of the cellar.

volume 6 more or less continues as it did before. cinder finds herself teaming up with roman to hunt down ruby.

the bees kill adam.

ruby petrifies the leviathan and cordovin finishes it off.

they escape to atlas. (and neo pulls ruby off to a dark corner of the airship to check on her. was she okay? did she need anything? and ruby presses their foreheads together and tells her she's fine, they were okay. they were finally safe.)

cinder and roman follow.

MISCELLANEOUS OTHER STUFF BEFORE I PASS OUT SLEEPY STYLE:

Neo's birthday is December 21st, the winter solstice (so in this AU they have roughly a 22 month gap between them)

Ruby's 17th birthday still takes place between the end of volume 5 and beginning of volume 6, neo doesn't get a chance to give her a gift until the wardrobe update in volume 7 (it's a very simple pink and white braided bracelet. ruby keeps it in her belt pouch so she doesnt lose it in a fight)

ruby nearly kills roman in the volume 8 finale fight because he throws neo off the yellow brick road.

penny doesn't play as large a role because ruby literally doesn't know her.

roman severly injures neo after he lures them to the jabberwalker's acre and then uses ruby's distraction to set a bunch of the leaves of the tree on fire and force ruby to inhale the smoke + ascend because she thinks neo is dead.

the cat possesses neo because she regains consciousness as ruby "falls" into the tree.

okay im going to bed now good night i love you anon

roman chooses to ascend at the end upon realizing he has nothing waiting for him back in remnant as he is.

for getting this far here's ur reward (art i did for this AU like a year ago)

[thelastbraincellofthehive]

And we're back for V4! Honestly, I'm making it through more than I thought I would. I was sure I was gonna bail after 2 lol.

Anyways, the new engine was really a breath of fresh air for this volume, and it's impressive how much animation is still getting better every volume<3 RWBY makes me proud in a way no other show or just thing has ever done. I just wish it wouldn't hurt so bad lol.

Anyways, time for random thoughts!

I gotta go ahead and say that V4-6 is my favorite outfit for Blake. The pirate vibes on her are *chef kiss* and I'm just in love with her white coat RIP the coat, another good thing Adam ruined *sighs*

God, the yearning separated bees are so angsty <3 I love it, the payoff will be so great.

God, Sun was so annoying this volume, poor boy has a good heart but definitely is too eager for Blake to match him and things get aaaaaawkward lol I'm happy the managed to get into an understanding by next volume tho, Blake needed him, I can see that now.

It's so interesting to hear all the bits of story we get to learn each volume and how eventually it all falls apart with Jinn's story in v6. I don't blame Qrow for how hard he took it, poor man has been through a lot, and he really believed in Ozpin through it all.

I loooove the tale of the two brother's animation style<3 it's one of my favorite parts of the season.

The ship captain is another favorite part lol I don't know, I just think he's neat. Wouldn't be opposed yo seeing more of him.

Ilia <3 Love of my life, best lesbian Chameleon girl <3 good how I miss you!

Again, when is Ilia coming back so she can finally meet and fall in love with Weiss?? RT is homofobic to keep these two apart! /Jk

But seriously they are fuckin' perfect for eachother I won't get tired of saying it. Schnee x Faunus? Both sides of the Atlas/Mantle coin? Rainbow x white? Trying to live their families legacy without letting it consume them? What's not to like?

Ahem, anyways. The Kuroyuri arc had me biting my freaking nails. Seriously after v3 I was so sure someone was going to die!

Remember that couple days we were all terrified of the nuckelavee and then someone compared it to the wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tubeman and since then we just laugh about him? Lol this Is why I love this fandom.

Maya Zwei <3

I can't imagine how horrible it was for the girls all that time we didn't get to see in between volumes. Weiss being completely alone in Atlas, with no way to know if Yang and Ruby had gotten better, just knowing that Blake had ran into the night. Blake wondering everyday if Yang was thinking about her, so sure that she was hated, heating herself too much to ask for help or just company... Ruby missing the friends she had come to trust so wholeheartedly and seeing her big sister broken and depressed and not knowing what to do because Yang had never been nothing but bright and strong and perfect. Yang looking at books and thinking of Blake and wanting to hate her because it would be so much easier. And that's not even counting all of them mourning Pyrrha and Penny and everything they lost in the blink of an eye.

On that note, Ruby's outfit for this arc paying homage to both Penny and Pyrrha still hurts me so much</3 this is also probably my favorite outfit of her, thought her Atlas outfit is quite good too.

The moment we learn that Blake is practically a Princess lol I love it, I love seeing reactors get to that part.

But honestly my favorite part to see reactors will always be Taiyang's 'lost a couple braincells along with that arm' joke lol honestly I hate that joke, but the sheet shock on everyone's faces is just epic lol.

Honestly I feel I've slept on Yang's v4 outfit btw. Yeah, her final/v5-6 outfit is extremely badass and I love it, but the sweats + orange tanktop looks so good on her??? Honestly this was the first volume I looked at Yang and was atracted to her lol.

So yeah Yang please join the line of women who could step on me and I'd thank them.

Also: *puts Ilia there too*

Specially once she paints her arm yellow <3 I stan by my previous statement that Yang looks so much better with her new arm. It feels like her design is finally complete.

V4 villains really, really make me miss v1-3 villains lol. I'm sorry, but I just think Hazel and Watts are unninteresting (aside from the Emm-Hazel plot but I only like it because Emmerald) and while I find Tyrian kinda funny because he's an obvious theater kid lol it was not enough to put team WTCH in my good graces after getting rid of my two faves from team CRMNE lol. Also, Cinder being too hurt to cause chaos was a negative</3 I loved sassy overconfident world destroyer Cinder.

It is also extremely painful for me to watch Cinder slowly dig her own grave after seeing her backstory. I always had a soft spot for Cinder and that really made it worse.

Baby Nora and Ren<3 good they were cute! And god did the timeskip did them good lol this is also my favorite Nora outfit <3 she looks amazing.

That moment in Kuroyuri when baby Ren gives Nora the hammer while boop play in the background? I tear up every fucking time. It's literally imposible not to love them together, just as It was literally imposible for Nora to not fall for him <3 my babies

Qrow being bandaged over his clothes while injures will never not be funny to me lol oh, the joys of working with 3D models!

Weiss learning to summon <3 also just... Weiss <3 She's the best. This volume wasn't kind on her, but she rose to the challenge and got so far!!

Also, can I just say that I feel Whitley... Is what people thinks Draco Malfoy Is? Like... I always remembered Draco while watching Whitley, but Whitley is an actually cool character as you get to know him, while Draco just... disapointed me. He's also my baby and I demand him to be protected.

Seeing Raven oficially was one of my favorite parts of the volume <3 She's a bitch, she's the worst, I love her so much!!!!

Again with the controversial and refuted headcanon... Qrow getting a song that includes the line 'you don't want the burden of my name', talking to Ruby about how his semblance makes things hard on family... That delirious 'Tai, she's not coming back' while poisoned... Seriously it would've made so much sence if Ruby was his daughter lol. At this point it's just hilarious.

The Jaune - Ruby moment in Kuroyuri </3 seriously give these poor kids therapy, they need it.

This Is the only volume where I actually have a score saved on my Spotify playlist: the first part of The next step where you can hear the music box version of Divide. I would pay for a full of that song <3 I adore creepy music box covers.

The way Blake's voice breaks when she finally says Yang's name? I'm ok, I swear! I'm not.

If you didn't cry during Ruby's letter scene... You're lying!! It's not possible to not cry! Specially with Home in the background. Home is another special song to me, it was one of the first ones I memorised back when my english wasn't great <3

That part when Ruby talks about people who are still lost and people who wants to take advantage of them and it shows Ilia with the Albains? I loved it, that's why I never doubted of my girl<3

And so it became the long journey to have Winter back... I remember how annoyed I was during all of v4-5 that we never got to see her outside of the Weiss trailer lol you don't just introduce a character like Winter for two episodes and then take it away like that RT! I say, as if I didn't knew v5 at all lol

I'm still curious about Tyrian and the fact that he apparently couldn't fight while Qrow didn't have his Sword/Scythe? Did we ever got a reason for that yet?

I think that's all that comes to mind right now lol also, I watched the v5 trailers and I just had to say how much I love them <3 Blake's probably my favorite, but they were all great!

O better keep watching now lol I gotta watch as much as I can before saturday!

[deviantartdramahub]

So, Ilia tries to call me out on tumblr but i can get my revenge on tumblr as well until i am return on this site in december 2023. If she will be nicely to me, Maybe but she SHOULD be NOT EVIL.

And i am also regarding her awful post back for what ilia did shit to me: https://www.tumblr.com/deviantartdramahub/735373729478098944/regarding-this?source=share

"A post that implies that if he had another account that he would evade the block and contact the person who blocked him - which is block evading and against dA rules (I was rude here, could've been nicer. I wasn't. I apologize for that bit)" Too bad ilia, because he already quit dA but yet you beg him to reporting me, But now you did because you cause my dA channel to be a damaged so you did, And no! I did not blaim you, You blaim and harassing me first. You also send your friends to attack me on my social media account when i got roasted but i escape, And i don't know you since july 2023.

"A status update that uses transgender as an insult. Which can be seen as hate or some kind of aggression. (even if I was transgender, how does that have any bearing on anything?)" Then whats your gender? Oh, You are female! I know what you reveal, I was asking you who are you but no, You are monster. Do i ever aggression you ilia? Hell no, I don't. If you are transgender in real life, That means you could be a male.

"Status by RRCBT577 on DeviantArt (archive.is) - A beware status about me / call out post with little to ZERO evidence of claims. And the ONLY evidence that was used was this status Status by ZazGal432 on DeviantArt (archive.is) < which Zazgal didn't even PROVIDE evidence of. - The original link Status by ZazGal432 on DeviantArt If you actually look at the entire freaking comment section NO WHERE in any of that is there evidence of claims of me supposedly bullying her. You know what I did ? I linked her to the RULES of deviantart regarding screenshots of other user activity like comment threads or dms. THAT'S what I did. (Telling someone the rules of dA isn't considered bullying or harassment). If you're curious - here's the rule she broke: What are your policies on resolving social conflict? - DeviantArt Help Center (deviantartsupport.com) - In the section that stats "Leave your deviations out of it" it talks about how screenshots aren't allowed with serve as a PERSONAL ATTACK."

So you archive my dA channel? Like why are you archive my social media account? Stop using archive.is and quit archiving me instead, You are so annoying lady in the world, You also trying to call me out but you failed. With a little to zero exposed of claims. And the only reasons why i share on your community tab because you beg someone to leave you alone but you cannot handle the FUCKING hate, I already read the dA rules but still. < Your friends are SUPPOSED to quit reporting me on dA, Instead of your bullshit. Btw, I send your friends request on discord because i have to bad reply at you back, I can also send my real friends to come over to your youtube channel. Such as a other, So you have to appeal my ban account instead of CONTACTING a dA help center, You would have to. And screenshots are still allowed you idiot, So stop trying to dragging me.

"The 2 statues he created were used solely for the purpose of attacking, not warning anything.. < Those 2 statuses were removed by staff." Now go RECOVER my dA channel by contacting a dA help center, You are still helper so you cannot hiding your actions. < Or i gonna get the hacker man to recover my dA account, So don't ever trying to reporting me on dA and tumblr you sick woman.

"And then after I created my own beware journal I got comments from an Account named Anti-esai who created this journal: Do not trust a karen username named Illia-Mae by Anti-Esai on DeviantArt (archive.is) - Supposedly, stating that I was "forcing" max to report richard when I was suggesting/recommending. Recommending something isn't "Forcing", btw." I do not created those accounts, It was made by yours or someone else, And yes you are karen. Also like i said before, Stop begging someone to reporting me on dA because that's not how it works, Recommending on your bullshit post is also not gonna help. Ilia, Just stop looking at me on my social media channel and leave, But you won't leave because you still let your friends to ATTACK my community tab. I already get my hero friends to get you because i suggest you to NOT come over me on tumblr. You are the most villains woman in social media i ever seen, And i am becoming a super hero soon until january or march 2024.

"After that journal was posted I created my report with that account and 3 others including the main account asking staff to REVIEW IT.. they deemed the anti - esai was breaking dA rules being a ban evader, Didn't state that it was his account but it was banned nonetheless ; However when Richard here created an account called Anti-Spinninganansi after his prime got SUSPENDED and sent me a note stating "go ahead and suspend me". Tell me you're richard without telling me your richard . and spinning a note asking for his "manager" - It was deemed by the staff that he was indeed suspension evading and therefore banned." So you think you are better than me? Well, You are WORSE than evie when evie attacking me. And now i lost my 1K watchers because of YOU! You keeps blaiming me alot of things that i did, But you DID because you are bad woman. And bad womans don't deserved to be return on other social media, You will unbanned me on dA soon. And my dA channel isn't supposed to be a name my prime, Including nick! He does NOT appeal me when i can show you on the center. I am stuck in banned from dA in 4 months and you won't let me go, Idiotic woman. And you wanna trying to reporting me on tumblr but you are not leader on this site. And he is not my manager, Your friends has a manager on dA because they are acting like a admit ; However when you came to my unfinished dA channel, Then your friends should quit reporting me because i am NOT a ban evade, I am a innocent you monster. Just leave my dA account alone already and stop trying to find me with a help welcome, Go ignore your dA notifications instead and leave my other social media accounts, If you don't leave my social media accounts, Then i am about to get my friends to get you. Now do it or you get bullies by my friends.

"DeviantArt - Discover The Largest Online Art Gallery and Community (archive.is) < this comment thread, pretty much threat. Or can be considered a threat." If you did, < Then explain this

Nick does not let me a appeal because you EVER cause my dA channel to be a damaged and you will RECOVER my dA accounts, I don't care if you not admit but you will.

"That's the reason why NICK a STAFF member of dA declined your appeal. because your behavior on the site got YOU into trouble not the other way around." Oh yeah? Ilia, Your friends evie is trying to get my twitter account trouble because she tries to reporting me on twitter but she failed, But you will never able to REPORT me on twitter and tumblr because you are not A PRO.

Also, I will do a regarding her another awful post about me: https://www.tumblr.com/deviantartdramahub/735374599547748352/also-i-get-that-you-are-upset-richard-and?source=share

"Also -" For what, Another bullshit post you created? Ilia. -

"I get that you are upset Richard and absolutely you have the RIGHT to be upset. And I validate your feelings on being upset. But, how you are handling this ENTIRE thing; Instead of acknowledging your errors - you blame others. Instead of growing and reading the rules that are presented to you that YOU YOURSELF AGREED TO - you continue the behavior. Instead of actually being a mature teenager - you act like a petulant 2-year-old." I am 16 years old, You are upset too because you keeps telling someone to leave you alone but you deleted your post on youtube because you are still letting your friends to attack me. How about you grow up instead and not being a idiot like evie, My fellings will be not upset as your fellings will, I only acknowledging my life - you only blame me first, Instead of your lying and too many times that i already read the dA rules, The only villains that YOU ONLY AGREED TO - you also continue to the drama war too and the behaviour, Instead of actually being a adult - you act like a idiotic crazy woman, Now do it about recover my dA account or else. I am already have 5K subscribers so you will NEVER go inside my YT account.

"The behavior you are displaying on here, YT, twitter, wherever other socials you have - you display a tantrum. (and yes I do see it because you always seem to mention me or others you have issues with)"

You display on my dA account back in july 2023 when i told you ilia, I don't FUCKING know you. - You also display a crazy woman that you are insulting me, Also what do you mean i mention you? You mean a deviantart mails right? You have a issues with your stupid mails that you don't deserved to be a KING, Instead of your evil behaviour.

"I WILL ADMIT that I was rude to you and I AM sorry for being rude to you. But here's a question for you: IF (keyword) IF I nicer to you and let you know PRIVATELY via DMs/notes about the rules of dA - Would you still act the same way?" If you want to apologies to me and being a nice to me, Then do NOT contacting nick to ban me on dA because i can do a legally screenshot whatever i have to, And IDK if i still act the same away but still pissed me off. -_-

"Here's the difference between You and I, right now richard. I have NEVER once threatened to hack your account, I have NEVER ONCE threatened to get "vengeance". I don't create "evilrichard" accounts. I don't post "who is more evil" polls. I don't do things like that." I don't think you shall not do it but my evil clone does NOT exist and my evil clone will be not return, You cannot treating me like this. If you want to be good woman like plankton, Just try but NOT a being evil like your friends evie, I hope the dA drama will be finally END and they will be NO MORE WAR AND BANNED, So please be a good woman or you will be a evil like him.

"You're right. We don't know if the evileviejulia accounts or evilsky or evil-iliamae accounts are yours. But if you look at the coincidence of the situations and everything in between, between your threats, the behavior you're displaying. How can we NOT assume that they are yours?" Like i told you ilia, These acocunts are NOT mine. Your threats must be a quit, Between your community tab of the situations and everything on deviantart and youtube. You'are supposed to be a good or bad, But if you acting like scar from the lion king. This means you can be a villains like him, But if you good woman! You will be good like spongebob or simba.

"I have made mistakes and I will own up to those. My primary mistake was interacting with you. Trying to save your account. - Again. I WAS RUDE. I will admit that shit. But at least I didn't threaten you, call you names by using offensive words, or swore vengeance on you for something so stupid as this."

If you have a mistakes, Then DO NOT CONTACTING ON DA HELP CENTER TO GET MY DA ACCOUNT BANNED.... Because thats not how it works, But it did. If you did not threaten me, Calling me names by using offensive words, then stop trying to attacking me. Because i am a good person and i delete those status update, If i trying to save my account, I will save my account sooner until someone recover my dA accounts. Look ilia, You must be good woman or evil womans! Otherwise you might end up like her.

So that's all i have to say her post about me.

DA belongs to its admins, I would say they can boot who they wish. However, it is more agreeable everyone's approach to this is hideous.

[macaroni-rascal]

Sorry I'm late with the women's FS review, you-know-which dress took me out, and now I'm also reeling from H/B's WD. Why does god hate me? Anyway, redemption fashuns from many this time around.

Young - a decent dress, very pretty skirt, but I'm wishing away the darker shade at the top. If she's already skating to an autumnal theme, if the soft yellow had continued up and they'd just used rust-colored rhinestones, she would've looked like a leaf changing colors and it would've been light and bright, which she needs rn. One of several kinda stereotypical skating dresses here, but what're ya gonna do. I feel really bad for her because we can see the sadness in her eyes and I wish she'd allow herself to take a break. The Korean ladies already look tired and we know why 😡.

Our poor baby Clare. Her presence here is less reflective of her preparedness and more of her coaches' seemingly pathological need to insert themselves into the conversation at any cost, regardless of whether they have anything to say. A mindless Yuna knockoff with matching styling from 10-15 years ago. Truly random stoning on the dress, and don't even get me started on the back. It's like they fed Yuna programs into ChatGPT and this is what it spat out. If we're doing over-the-boot tights, then why not cover the heel as well? Somebody pull this sweet child out of Colorado because she did incredibly well considering the material she was given.

Seoyeong - massive improvement, beautiful colors, great shading, but again - we've seen this exact dress in a million different iterations. Nevertheless, it doesn't offend me because it follows the lines of the body amazingly and it enhances rather than detract. They might wanna work on opening her shoulders a little bit. Exogenesis is officially overdone.

Hana is so cute! She kinda looks like a blend of Riku Miura and Akiko Suzuki, don't you think? The construction of the dress is good, but the appliques and rhinestone shapes seem truly haphazard. I don't know what the deal with the one red glove is, but I would've put it on the other hand. Kinda random combo of music pieces. A bit of a leg wrap they'll want to address but there were some moments of real sensitivity in this, I'm excited to see how she develops.

Omg Nini again. This could've been a spectacular dress, which is why I was in physical pain watching this. The color is fabulous, I love the lacy shoulder straps and neckline, but everything going on between the bust and the knees is a felony. Why is the bodice so narrow? Why are the side cutouts so big and asymmetrical? Wth is that medallion in the middle of her back? Why the chewed-up skirt? Just imagine if the tan gloves were purple lace matching the dress. I'm livid, I'm filing for emergency custody.

Okay, Katya - possibly the best dress she's ever had, but lbr it's a low bar. Nice colors and ombre, but I wouldn't have slit the sleeves and I would've just had them run to a point over her hands for extra flowiness and sense of extension, since she's itty-bitty. The V in the back and front is well-placed and the flowers I didn't mind since the front needed something, but they're a bit outdated. Not a fan of the opening signature Russian miming, but they're clearly working with her to mature her, it'll just take time. And can we please retire the arms above the head in the jumps? Btw, didn't Brian get a hip replacement, like, yesterday? I didn't expect to see him here at all. I see his tie is from the same fabric as Ilia's FS shirt and for that, he's canceled.

This will again be in two parts out of consideration for those who will have to scroll past my ramblings.

Correct opinions were shared.

[light-lights-up-light]

If you hate Ilia you're wrong btw

[defilerwyrm]

I've seen some vegans claim to have grown up in families that hunt and now think all hunters are boodthirsty maniacs.

I don’t doubt they do. The kind of person who’s in everyone’s face about veganism is also the sort who claims that anyone who eats a burger is a serial killer, so their opinions aren’t really worth much. They live in a world of hyperbole and are not to be taken at their word.

Oh but yeah, my family taking down 3-4 deer a year to feed 5-7 people, what maniacs. Such bloodthirst, very massacre, wow.

[just-another-miserable-prick]

Aight, we're doing this. It's headcanon time.

This is engines 1-6. This is all Sodor High School AU canon btw.

Thomas Gail:

Freshman. Tiny gremlin child. Full of energy and straight up refuses to shut the fuck up. No, he physically can't shut the fuck up. Prankster #1. Much like James, he's very over the top, but instead of his looks, I mean his pranks. Like, this little bitch wrote a whOLE ASS FUCKING MUSICAL for an APRIL FOOL'S PRANK. FOR REAL. (I'll make a post about that whole mess, it's the best fucking thing) Protects Percy with his l i f e.

Edward Belwett:

Senior. Braincell #1 of 2 of the entire Steam Team. Extremely farsighted but simply does not realise that it's a problem. Poor guy just thinks everyone sees the world like he does. (I dare you to try and change my fucking mind, also @zellezel, I'm stealing this, thank you very much) The caring dad friend and the team's designated therapist. Guy's got Rapunzel hair (as in floor length) and only James is allowed to touch it. Why? Let's just say the story involves fire. If you manage to piss him off, good fucking luck. Trans king.

Henry Holt:

Junior. Braincell #2 of 2 of the Steam Team. Very kind, gentle and anxious introvert. Absolutely fucked mentally AND physically (thank his mother- or rather birthgiver for that one) While he is a pacifist, he's known for having lost his cool a grand total of 2 times. (One of these involved Edward) Legend has it he threw a chair once. No one knows the truth though, except for the witnesses. I'd advise everyone to just stay on his good side for their own sake.

Gordon Rask:

Junior. HOO BOI, man be f u c k e d beyond belief. 6th of 8 siblings, parents are divorced, dad's an alcoholic, lord knows where mom went ("no hard feelings tho, good for her" says our local mess of a highschool junior), most of his siblings already booked it, life really went: "Welp- What could go wrong? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" *dumps entire content of the Trauma Truck™ on this one guy*. So damn jealous of Scott and thinks or rather hopes that people don't notice. They notice, don't worry. ("I do the exact same thing he does and he gets all the recognition?! What about me?? What am I doing wrong?!") No wonder he's got such a bad temper.

James Bragg:

(This may or may not be me projecting my own issues onto this bitch) Sophomore. Almost homeless, as in his house, or rather what's left of it, could collapse literally any minute- (which it does at one point-) he tries to cover up his misery in public by acting like he's a vain, self-absorbed little sassy twink, and it seems to do the job. For now at least. When he's in private or alone with someone (aHeM, Gordon-) he's a m e s s in pretty much any way you can think of.

Percy Klein:

Freshman. Thomas' adopted brother and tries to be a voice of reason when Thomas is about to do something stupid (or illegal cuz Thomas w o u l d). Normally fails to stop his brother from committing his silly acts of mischief but hey, at least he's trying. Precious baby. If you somehow manage to anger him, he'll cuss you out in fluent German. Then it's over for you. He might as well be summoning a demon for all I know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (<- this coming from someone who studies german. I hate that fucking nightmare of a language.)

Ships? OH HELL YEAH!

To preface, these are just my preferences. If you ship something else, go ahead. As long as it's not like- Inc*st, p*dop*ilia, you know- disgusting shit. Or anything that involves Spencer. This is a Spencer hate blog. ANYWAY

Henry X Edward:

yes yeS YES Y E S- Yea this is my OTP, I fucking love these two, they are my life force and I want them to be my dads- in my mind it's the "slightly more social introvert X anxious mess of an introvert" dynamic and it's the cutest fucking thing. Edward confessed first, on Valentine's day! :D

Gordon X James:

Two fucked up guys looked at one another one day and thought "I could… try to fix him?". That's literally it and I love them. Like they're both absolutely fucked up to no end so they're really the only ones who understand the other's struggles and could help without making shit even worse. Love that they both have someone there for them :D.

Thomas and Percy are brothers in this AU ^^ I know I said it before but I'll say it again.

Thanks to @zellezel for inspiring me to finally write this thing :)

[womenofwonder]

Option on RWBY ships:

Btw, I don’t usually ship characters. Romance is usually the least interesting part of the story for me so expect a lot of meh.

Arkos: obviously I love this, it’s perfect

Blacksun: ehh, it’s cute. I started out feeling kinda meh, it was sweet but not really interesting, but now it’s growing on me. Ironically the same thing is happening with Bumblebee, although I still like Blake and Yang better platonically

Bunanas: so this is a ship between Velvet and Sun, and it’s honestly really cute to imagine even if it is completely random. I like it better then Blacksun…I think?

Candy Cane: this is just weird. I can’t imagine Nora being anything but a older sister to Oscar. The age gap makes it creepy too, not the four years is much of a gap, but when your teenagers it’s a big gap.

Chocolate Arc: this is hilarious to imagine but obviously yeah, Coco isn’t going to fall for someone like Jaune

Cinnabun: I barely know anything about Yatsuhashi but he and Velvet are cute, I guess? Still like her better with Sun

ClockRose: heck no!

Coconuts: again, can’t see Sun doing anything but annoying Coco. I really don’t like the whole ‘badass jerk of a girl falls for goof ball trope.’ It always ends up feeling sexist in several ways

Combat Boots: honestly outside of an AU I can’t see Yang ever forgiving Mercury much less falling in love with him. Also Mercury just doesn’t deserve her

Combat goggles: I feel like Yang and Neptune would have fun causally dating each other and slowly realizing they actually like (Blake/Sun/Jaune/whoever) and become each other’s wingmen. That fanfic better be lying around somewhere

Crimson Lotus: okay, if I didn’t love Renora and Rosegarden so much I’d probably ship this. It’s really cute

Crimson Sun: this feels like an excuse to write lemons of the two hottest characters

Crimson wings: look I understand most of the shipping heroes with villains because they’re both hot and the villain/hero dynamic is always fun. But Cardin…he’s not even hot. He’s not even interesting. And yet people ship him with Ruby? Why?

Daddie Issues: you know I see where this is coming from but they would just end up murdering each other.

Dairy Farm: obviously this is downright creepy in cannon, but in an au where Neo isn’t evil and both are closer in age, this would be adorable. I feel like Neo’s main problem is she’s incredibly lonely—other then Roman no one bothers to understand or talk to her. If Oscar reached out to her, and she began to protect him…it would be perfect. In way even better then Rosegarden because I think Neo would still be a bit of pycho even when good, and it would be fun to see her lose it when Salem hurts him.

Ilia/Adam: I just want to say I am forever grateful the show went out of its way to avoid this obnoxious, cliche ship from being canon

Dragon slayer: I see why people ship Jaune and Yang, I really do. They’re both the team mom/dad of their team, they’ve got the whole goofball/badass thing going (which is a trope I do like when the badass isn’t a jerk), they both have a good sense of humor, etc. But I just can’t see them as romantic. It feels really weird. I can’t even explain why. I understand shipping them but I really can’t ship them myself.

Emercury: I really love this ship, but I also don’t mind at all if the show decides to make them platonic. I enjoy their relationship in general and it works either way.

Oscar/Emerald: again, feel creepy. I love the idea of a sibling relationship and can’t see them possibly being romantic even without the age gape.

Cinder/Qrow: yeah again. Both are sexy and good for angsty lemons. I’m not into that stuff so I don’t ship them

Fall Stinger: I just don’t know why anyone would ship Tyrian with anyone. Unless it was Salem and even that is super creepy

Firerobber: I like villain relationships but Roman already has Neo and Cinder is a hot mess. Literally

Firewall: I don’t know why anyone would ship Watts with anyone. He’s even worst less ship-able then Tyrian

Footloose: I don’t actually ship it but just imagine Mercury and Melanie bonding over weaponized feet.

Freckles: Yeah this is just painful. The two most adorable characters (Penny and Oscar), who go through the worst things imaginable. It’s endless fluff, angst, and whump, and I love cute romance and tragic romances, so this is definitely something I ship.

Frostbite: seriously, this is so weird and toxic. Having Adam fall for Weiss or vice versa. Maybe it would work in an AU or something but it’s just too creepy

Funky Beats: it’s cute, I ship it.

Gelato: yeah I love healthy villainous relationships! Neo and Roman are freaking adorable, and I’m sad that we didn’t see more of them together.

Grandmasters: I obviously don’t ship Salem and Ozpin because that’s just creepy, but I do like their romance. I like tragic romances, and this probably the most tragic one in existence

Greek Lotus: I don’t see the chemistry and crashes two of my favorite ships so…

Green Knight: well, she kinda helped kill his last girlfriend so…unless it’s AU this isn’t going to work. Even if it is an AU. This feels like another ship made solely for lemons

Velvet/Cardin: yeah, a bigot changing his mind when he falls in love with a minority isn’t cute. Isn’t sweet. It isn’t romantic. I don’t even excuse lemons that use this trope. Even porn ought to be above that

Weiss/Cardin: WOULD EVERYONE STOP SHIPPING CARDIN WITH PEOPLE

Hummingbird: it’s hard to ship something when you only know one character, but I was interested in the theory that Qrow was actually Ruby’s father. But then in season 7 Qrow’s description of Summer made me rethink it, and it didn’t sound anything like how you’d describe a romantic relationship. So I don’t really like that theory anymore

Iceberg: this is just cliche and boring. I get them dating but it wouldn’t last that long

Flynt/Weiss: I really love this one, it’s my favorite ship with Weiss. I don’t want it to actually happened in cannon because that would be random, but I feel like it would be fun for both their characters. And they both share an interest in music. I’m imagining an AU where he gets her into jazz and she starts singing it at all her concerts to the horror of Jaques.

Iron Maiden: honestly what. Why. Gross

Iron witch: well I definitely see why people like it. I actually wouldn’t mind it being cannon, It’d be a good combination of funny/tragic and I’d like to see Glynda mentoring Winter

Jailbirds: this just feels forced and also Qrow is probably too old for her. I like their relationship and don’t want it to be romantic

Knight fall: lemon ship. Moving on

Knight Life: I feel like Jaune just gets shipped with everyone but this is cute I guess

Lancaster: it’s cute, but I can’t ship it because it feels cliche. I was worried that Jaune was going to be her love interest when they first met and was relieved to see him with Pyrrha instead. It just feels forced and boring to have him end up with Ruby

Pyrrha/Mercury: this really popular for some unfathomable reason. I like Mercury but Pyrrha deserves better

Marrowgold (May/Marrow): I just don’t see it

Nikong: Pyrrha and Sun would be cute together, but I don’t really love this ship. It’s kinda meh.

Nora’s Arc: no. Just no. It technically would work but their platonic relationship is way too good to lose

Old Silver: this is Maria/Pietro, and I think it’s adorable. They both strike me as really flirty for their ages and both are very good mentors. They can be the crazy grandparents of the team

Ozglyn: just don’t see it

Phoenix: yeah Raven was a horrible girlfriend/wife. I don’t ship her Taiyang

QuickSilver: Ruby deserves better than Mercury.

Rehab (Qrow/Glynda): the fact that this is called rehab explains why I don’t ship it

ReNora: yeah, this is probably my favorite ship. I don’t think I have to explain why.

Robotic Knight: I briefly shipped this but now disagree

Rosegarden: I really love Rosegarden, they’re just too adorable together, though the whole Ozpin does make it a little awkward

Rosewick: I can’t see this happening, even in an AU

Coco/Fox: I don’t know enough about Fox to really ship them, but the fact that Coco canonically slaps his butt during battle definitely makes me want to

Mercury/Neo: I could see this working. It would be pretty cute

Silent Knight: again, it would have to be an AU and even then I don’t see it working

Snowbird: so at first I really liked the idea of Qrow and Winter being ex’s, but now that I think about it he has to be at least twenty years older then her. Also, I have to say that while they have chemistry I think they would just end up killing each other

Speakeasy (Flynt/Coco): I got to say I like this ship and could see them having a lot of chemistry together

Strawbanna: I just can’t see Ruby and Sun together. It feels weird

Sunflakes: Can’t see it working

Sunflowyr (Ren/Yang): don’t see any chemistry. Again this just seems random

Tauradonna: this is obviously as toxic as you get.

The Hunt (Cardin/Blake): stop shipping Cardin with anyone!

Mercury/Cinder: Mercury is way too young, and even if he wasn’t this would be really weird. Also Cinder makes him look like a stable, peaceful person, so also no.

Toxic Petals: I swear I’m done with this. No more Cardin, Tyrian, or Watts ships. They too gross

Velveteen Knight: Aw, they’d be cute together

White Knight: I really hate this ship. It’s so obnoxious and boring, and nearly falls into the jerky badass/goofball trope I hate

Winter Soldier: ew, no, Ironwood is like her dad

Wise Dragon: anyone care to explain why this is so popular? Sage barely has any character to him, I can’t ship him with anyone

Yellow rose: Yeah, I kinda ship this, but again, it’s difficult when you barely know one character

IronQrow: I understand why you would ship this but I just don’t see it. Guys can hug without being gay you know

Martial arts: why?

Noah’s Arc: why?

Sea Monkeys: again I understand why you could ship it but I don’t. They’re obviously just friends to me

Shovel Knight: like most Oscar ships it feels weird. Jaune is obviously a big brother to him

TaiQrow: As funny as it is for Tai to sleep with every member of his team, I don’t ship it.

Fair game: I really can’t stand Clover so again, don’t ship it

Achilles heel: Cinder literally kills Pyrrha, why would you ship them?

Baked Alaska: lemon ship

Black glass: annnd, another lemon ship.

Blood Mint: yeah I don’t see Emerald and Ruby ever being a couple

Catmelon: I found Ilia’s crush on Blake kinda cringy and I can’t see them being a couple

ColdMurder (Weiss/Cinder): even in an au I don’t see it working

Cold Steel (Penny/Winter) eeewww, they’re practically sisters

Cream Machine (Neo/Penny): I mean…if she wasn’t evil…and wasn’t so much older…it might work? Maybe?

Crosshares: cute but I feel like Velvet is too much of a doormat for Coco

Digital Clock: Ciel obviously didn’t care much for Penny, and she was barely a character at all. I don’t see it

Pyrrha/Nora: don’t see it, and also can’t stand the idea of breaking up the two best ships

Falling Petals: I get that Cinder is hot, but can we stop shipping her with the kids she’s trying to murder? Because I can see several things wrong with that

Freezerburn: again, for no reason that I can think of this ship just doesn’t work for me. Much like Dragonslayer it just feels weird

Gingersnaps (Penny/Nora): that would be chaotic. I can’t really see them romantically though like most Penny ships it would be cute

Guilty Conscience (Bree/Winter): oh please no. They really don’t have any reason to be together

Ladybug: I just can’t see Blake with Ruby at all. Blake feels way to old even though she’s only older by two years.

Milk and Cereal (Ruby and Pyrrha): I guess it would work but I just don’t any chemistry

Mint chocolate (Emerald/Coco): if Coco managed to forgive her for everything that happened at Beacon I could maybe see this happening. There is some chemistry

Mommy issues: Nah, can’t see this working out.

Monochrome: Blake and Weiss have never had any romance chemistry despite plenty of opportunity to have it, so again, I see them as strictly platonic and shipping them feels almost like incest. I know that doesn’t make sense

Nordic Winter: I can’t see Weiss handling Penny, but again, any Penny ship is pretty cute

Nuts and Dolts: I would ship, but I like them together platonically too well. Definitely understand the ship, though I find it funny that Ruby, who insist she likes weapons better then people, would fall in love with a personified weapon. I know that’s probably racist against robots

Overheating (Penny/Cinder): I take back what I said about every Penny ship being cute

PennyWeiss: but this one is pretty cute

Pink Lemonade: can you imagine the chaos of Yang and Nora dating each other? They both need someone with a cooler head to keep them in check

Scheenoks: with Weiss’s fangirling I can definitely see were this is coming from, but Weiss is too mean for Pyrrha

Steadfast: I really don’t ship any of the ace-ops with anyone. I found them all boring and annoying except for Marrow

Strawberry Shortcake (Neo/Ruby): not seeing it

Sugar Rush (Ruby/Nora): Again, too much chaos. They both need chill partners. And I love Rosegarden and ReNora too much

Thunder cat (Blake/Nora): don’t see any chemistry between them

WhiteRose: I can see why this is shipped and I don’t dislike WhiteRose shippers. I just prefer Rosegarden, and find Weiss and Ruby working better together romantically

Bumblebee: again, I see this working better platonically, not romantically. It kind of annoyed me at first, but it is growing on me, much like Blacksun. I still like Blacksun better though

Enabler: No.

[greenbeany]

Idk if you're still doing ship but uhhhh I need that disaster lesbian combination of Jewel Lizard (Emerald x Ilia)

FUCKING LOVE RAINBOW QUARTZ/JEWEL LIZARD! I DON'T SAY THIS ENOUGH BUT I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Tbh I think I just like Ilia-

Emerald is the cuddler. They're both pretty touch starved, but Emerald is WAY more touch starved so she goes at it whenever. If she literally sees Ilia on the streets its hug time. Hugging while fighting. They cuddle. A lot.

I think they probably make the bed together? Ilia does all the work tho Emerald just follows along. She's got the spirit.

Ilia wakes up first, cause that's how white fang raids worked.

Emerald likes Falloutboy, MCR, Paramore, you know the type. Ilia likes folk songs and indie country and basically all the songs on folklore. She has good taste.

Emerald is more protective by far. Sure, Ilia is fierce, but I find that being protective is a key feature for girls dating faunus (see Parhelion, Monochrome, Thundercats, a bunch of others I've probably done)

The girls have a polished cover of No body no crime from evermore on YouTube. This started when Ilia heard Emerald singing to herself in the shower one time.

They both cry in movies but Ilia only cries because she hates seeing Emerald sad.

Emerald spends more shopping tbh. Like, easily. She's a shopper.

Ilia kisses rough. Ilia really likes girls.

Em is more dominate because Ilia likes following her through hell.

10/10 I think they have the exact same vibe as Monochrome... Although I have no idea why.

Btw I'm tagging these as "10HC" now if you want to find them all.

[kitkatopinions]

I'm tired of fantasy world writers being like 'oh, this is my allegory for racism in my fantasy world where actual racism doesn't exist, also I'm going to not do any research on how to properly include said allegory, badly portray it, make my main characters affected by this white or white passing, and then use racist stereotypes later.' Long post full of RWBY criticism ahead.

RWBY is terrible with the Faunus racism they chose to make part of their story. They made the White Fang an evil terrorist group, they made Blake lecture fellow Faunus about how they're the ones actually hurting themselves by using violence against each other, they framed comfortable and peaceful protest as the only good way despite establishing that peaceful protest didn't work, and they made their child slave coded character who literally got branded turn into nothing more than an abusive stalker and then had him killed without ever addressing the aforementioned child slavery. Also, the only Faunus among our main cast now that Sun is gone is one of the most privileged of the Faunus. Blake can pass as a human if she wants to, she grew up fairly rich, she has two loving parents, and she comes from an inherently powerful position as the daughter of the Chief. Having Blake be privileged would be absolutely fine, if she acknowledged her privilege, wasn’t the mouthpiece on Faunus rights, if she wasn’t the only Faunus in our main cast, and if she didn’t repeatedly lecture other Faunus.

On top of that, two of our main cast have been racist (within the narrative of the show) towards our main Faunus character, one of them learns from it (even though that as well was badly handled) and became the only member of Team RWBY to ever call out human's being racist after season three. Oh wait, except the other member of our main cast that was racist that never had it addressed because it was treated like a joke now has yelled at a racist once, in an incredibly tense situation, so I guess her racism is gone. It’s good that it’s gone, since CRWBY is pushing her and Blake as a couple, but it’s frustrating that her racism never even got a ‘that wasn’t funny’ and we never see Yang learn any better, because it feels like CRWBY brushed it off and acted like it was fun and quirky instead of treating it like the casual racism it was. They do a similar thing with Robyn in season seven which came out in 2019, when she calls Marrow ‘Wags.’ Also none of our main cast are ever seen protesting for Faunus rights (sans a two second flashback of child Blake at a rally and a non canon RWBY chibi cartoon.) I don't think Ruby - our main protagonist - has ever even mentioned Faunus rights. In a world where Adam was branded with the SDC logo under fifteen years ago at the most, racism and fighting racism should be a big part of the story, and instead, it's brushed to the side and used for the occasional 'we don't like racism btw' moment now that Blake got rid of a Faunus run terrorist group. To me, this implies that the number one threat to the Faunus… Was the Faunus, and although some humans are still anti-Faunus, no one has to devote their time or energy into fighting for equality. In season 7, Blake doesn’t even attend the rally of the political figure running against Jacques Schnee - who as far as I’m aware, is the only business owner or person in power who has ever displayed anti-Faunus racism in the show. By the way, please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. It’s been a hot minute since I watched through the show.

Instead of attending a rally that seems very important for the Faunus, Blake goes dancing with her crush. It’s like she stopped caring about politics and rights after the White Fang got removed. That feels so bad. Also, I'll note that most of the actual POC Faunus that can't pass as white in this show are on the bad side (Sienna, Fennec, Corsac, Lionheart, Ilia, Marrow.) And either they die, or they must learn to give up their destructive ways and become better people. I’m not saying this was intentional, I’m saying it’s a pattern, it’s alarming, and the writers should’ve known better.

I believe Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross have admitted that they mishandled Faunus racism, but first off, it still doesn’t excuse them because they were grown people putting out a product that premiered in 2013 and they should’ve known to do research and do better. But second off, I still feel like they haven't done the research they need to and continue to mishandle the racism by ignoring it when they want to and bringing it up only to let us as an audience know Weiss and Yang aren't racist anymore. They can’t just cut the Faunus from their storyline now, but they can’t just ignore it, and need to actually make it a better allegory. Honestly though, one of the big reasons I'm convinced that they still haven't done any real research on how to properly portray POC or racism is because of how terribly they're handling the Ace Ops.

They're writing a fantasy show, they aren't tied to real world portrayals of law enforcement, but they went the route of commentating on real world police, corrupt police, and use of excessive force. That's fine. But things are already pretty dicey just starting off because of how they've mishandled and continue to mishandle Faunus racism. Outside of Jacques Schnee and his company and business partners, I don't remember seeing Faunus racism in Atlas (not Mantle, Atlas.) If I'm wrong about that, again, please correct me, I may have missed it. But without seeing actual discrimination against Faunus within the police force, right off the bat, that's a mishandling of commentating on police brutality. But also, other than Clover who is now dead, the Ace Ops are all people of color. CRWBY made their bad cops all not white. Even Ironwood - who is white passing - is voiced by a person of color who has said he believes that James is Chinese American. I'll point out that being a Hunter is pretty much just being a cop with more freedom and seemingly less rules. Qrow (a Beacon Huntsman) goes around destroying public property and comments on how some hunters work outside of the law, and yet it's only the Ace Ops who are held to real world ACAB rules and everyone else gets to be a good cop/law enforcement officer. Ruby gets to proudly proclaim herself a Huntress, Weiss gets to arrest people, Jaune gets told that he deserves his Huntsman license, we've been getting told for seven seasons that Hunters help people and do what's right, and we're given long time Hunters and mentor figures like Oobleck, Glynda, Qrow, and now Robyn is being framed that way, and they back that up. Even training Atlas soldiers like Neon and Flynt are fine and fun. But only the Ace Ops are bad, corrupt law enforcement officers. So that way, we can have the entirely white passing Team RWBY beat up the entirely POC, not white passing Ace Ops. Even though Team RWBY is a byproduct of the same kind of program and even though we’ve seen the police discriminate against Faunus in Vale. If CRWBY wants their allegories to be taken seriously, they need to recognize that RWBY and co are also certified police. Also, it’s really not funny to see people use ACAB as a reason why the Ace Ops are of course bad, but then turn around and simp for Winter, and be like ‘We want Winter to be redeemed, but Harriet? What a bitch!’ Like… I’m side-eyeing that pretty hard.

Speaking of Winter, now she’s in charge of the Ace Ops. But unlike Marrow, Winter doesn’t just look sad sometimes and blindly only follow direct orders without protest. She’s actually feeling all kinds of things, and she’s actually being framed as strong, intelligent, and reasonable. I’m sure no one forgot this, but I’ll note it anyway; Winter is white. Having Winter be the only Ace Op to actually listen to JRY and do things without James explicitly telling her to (although I don’t consider what she did a betrayal or going behind his back) is dicey. They could’ve given this moment to Harriet and nothing would change. ‘This lady typically follows orders, is short tempered, and pushes down her emotions, but she can still recognize a fairly good idea when she sees one and can actually think for herself, so although this isn’t a betrayal, she compromises and lets Team JRY go after their friend.’ Yeah, idk guys, I feel like there was literally no reason to slot Winter in with the Ace Ops to be the lone voice of reason when Harriet could’ve become the new leader and played the exact same role. Instead, Winter gets to have a power move where she puts Harriet in her place. Winter is given actual depth and gets to put down the black woman who the writers have made display nothing but anger for the whole season. The fans rally behind Winter because she was given depth and hate Harriet because she has none, but that’s the fault of the writers. Btw, ‘this black woman won’t show any emotion besides anger’ is a racist stereotype. It would probably have taken like five minutes on google for Luna and Shawcross to have realized that it was a bad idea to write a black woman in any sort of position of power to be constantly angry + hiding her emotions. Elm is in the same boat as Harriet, and I was going to say it’s less severe, but then I remembered that she literally attacked Ren for talking about their emotions.

Look, my point is that RWBY as a show has never handled allegories like racism and corrupt police well, and either they should stop trying and stick to ‘make believe land is just different than the real world’ or start putting in the work and fix this. By the way, I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad for watching or even enjoying RWBY, but I hope people can watch it while recognizing that some of the things CRWBY has chosen to put into their show are destructive and that the creators need to be called out. I’ll continue to hope that most RWBY fans do recognize that RWBY is deeply flawed, but I’ve just been stewing recently about someone who told me that I shouldn’t have expected the show to address Faunus racism in the Atlas arcs because that ended when Adam died.

I want to make it totally clear that I agree with and support ACAB in the real world and I'm not against it being used in fantasy works, I just think CRWBY is doing a poor job of portraying it and many fans are misusing it and it feels disrespectful. This is an actual real world movement with actual real world consequences. It feels very bad to see people use it to argue that the writers who have never handled allegories of racism well can make an all POC group be a destructive, violent, easily controlled, easily beat group of corrupt cops that need a white woman and fellow cop to be the voice of reason.

[illyria-and-her-pet]

Ice Dance Drama Timeline

Natalia Dubova rises as an ice dance coach in the 80s when Irina Moiseeva/Andrei Minenkov go to her as their career ends.

Tatiana Tarasova coaches Natalia Bestemianova/Andrei Bukin to 1988 Olympic Gold. They retire from amateur skating after winning 1988 Worlds.

Dubova’s Marina Klimova/Sergei Ponomarenko and Maya Usova/Alexander Zhulin are now fighting to be the top team in the world. Dubova also coaches another medal contender, Oksana Grishuk/Evgeni Platov.

Dubova favors Usova/Zhulin going into the 1992 Olympics.

According to Elena Vaitsehovskaya’s book, she saw Klimova cry when she found out Dubova favored Usova/Zhulin.

Andrei Bukin, who became good friends with former rival Sergei Ponomarenko after his retirement through show skating, begs TAT for over an hour to leave the theater and comeback to coaching and take Klimova/Ponomarenko, so they aren’t robbed of 1992 Olympic gold. He had already told Klimova/Ponomarenko that TAT would coach them before he even talked to her. TAT ends up agreeing.

Usova/Zhulin have been married since 1986. Zhulin starts having an affair with Grishuk.

Zhulin gives Grishuk his wedding ring before the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France for good luck. Grishuk wears it on a chain on her neck for the compulsory dances: 

“How did she find out? This is just a guess, but maybe it was because he gave me his wedding ring for good luck before the Winter Olympics in France. I wore it on a chain around my neck in the compulsory dances. I gave back the ring the next day, after Maia went ballistic.” (x)

At the 1992 Olympics in February, Klimova/Ponomarenko win gold (TAT), Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay (Martin Skotnicky) win silver, Usova/Zhulin (Dubova) win bronze, and Grishuk/Platov (Dubova) come in 4th.

At the 1992 World Championships in late March, the podium is 1. Klimova/Ponomarenko (coached by TAT, but formerly coached by Dubova), 2. Usova/Zhulin (Dubova’s faves), and 3. Grishuk/Platov (also coached by Dubova).

Grishuk and Zhulin’s affair continued during the 1992 Tour of World and Olympic Champions. Usova caught Grishuk and Zhulin together at a restaurant and hit Grishuk’s head against a bar counter: 

“Usova walked into Spago’s restaurant in Hollywood, saw Grishuk sipping a margarita at the bar, came up behind her, grabbed her hair and smashed her head against the counter." (x)

According to Grishuk, Usova actually went to her hotel room and begged her for forgiveness the next day: 

“What they don't write is that Maia came to my hotel room the next day, got down on her knees and begged me to forgive her. Now we are friends.” (x)

Dubova kicks Grishuk out of her coaching camp for getting involved with Zhulin in mid-1992: 

“Natalia Dubova, the woman who coached the four of us in Lake Placid, N.Y., sent me home to Moscow. She said she couldn't stand to see Maia cry.” (x)

Dubova tries to pair Platov with Tatiana Navka (future 2006 Olympic champion who is just a teen at the time). Grishuk goes back to her first coach, Natalia Linichuk. She is getting ready to skate with Peter Tchernyshev in case, but calls Platov saying “don’t let them tear us apart” even though Grishuk and Platov hate each other. BTW back in the late 80s, Peter Tchernyshev also skated with Maria Anikanova (Evgeni Platov’s wife).

Platov follows Grishuk to Linichuk in fall 1992 and they train under her: 

“After a brief stop in Germany, where she, too, sought a new partner, Gritschuk returned to Moscow and her previous coach, Natalia Linichuk, Dubova's rival. Platov, who was supposed to go to Lake Placid in September 1992, stayed in Moscow to be with his new wife and rejoin his old dance partner.” (x)

Apparently Linichuk thought Grishuk was a traitor for leaving her in the first place since she was her first coach from 11 years old to 1989. Grishuk’s mom and aunt explained her situation to Gennadi Karponosov, Linichuk’s ice dance partner, husband, and co-coach and Karponosov convinced Linichuk to take her back.

Not sure if this is a reliable source, but allegedly Zhulin wanted Grishuk to quit skating to prove her devotion to him, she agreed, Platov got mad and snitched to Dubova that Grishuk wanted them to move to her old coach Linichuk, and then Dubova and her husband beat Grishuk when she kicked her out: 

“Because of Grishuk Platov forgot about the wedding. He was going to marry Masha Anikanova, a skater who later became an actress. That time Oksana was head over heels in love with another skater Alexander Zhulin. She fell in love so much that could fulfill any Zhulin’s wish. Alas Alexander was married to Maya Usova. 

Once, during a foreign tour Zhulin presented Oksana with a wedding ring, but… asked not to put it on, as he was not divorced yet.

“Now you know how I love you”, said Zhulin. “Can you prove your love to me?”

– What should I do? – Oksana asked quietly.

– You should quit skating. For me. For us.

– But why?

– We’ll have a family, you know. My wife is a skater. I do not want this. At work and at home, we have the same problems. I need another family. Well, do you agree?

Oksana almost cried. At the beginning of the career. But if because of love… So, she agreed.

Grishuk didn’t want to be with Platov and refused him. The man was offended. And Platov said to their coach Dubova that Grishuk wanted to take him and returned to Natalia Linichuk, who was Oksana’s ex-coach.

Dubova was shocked! She and her husband couldn’t cope with their nerves and broke Oksana’s rib and nearly knocked out a tooth.

As a result, Grishuk packed up and flew to Moscow.

Platov found a new partner – Tatiana Navka. Evgeni was still together with Masha Anikanova, but their marriage was short-lived.

Grishuk came to Moscow, hung her skates on the wall and began waiting for her prince Zhulin.

One night Maya Usova phoned Oksana and told her about her husband’s love affair with Tatiana Navka. Grishuk could not sleep.

A day later Zhulin called her: “Well, dear, are you waiting for me?”

Oksana said that she knew everything about his affair with Navka and asked not call her anymore.

The duo Platov-Navka broke up and he came to Linichuk and Karponosov.

To get over the depression Grishuk also came to Linichuk. So the couple Platov – Grischuk was reunited and in 1994 they became Olympic champions. Then, in 1994 Oksana could not even imagine that just four years later she would skate paired with Zhulin, with a man, whom she thought she would never forgive.” (x)

1990 and 1992 World Junior Champions Marina Anissina/Ilia Averbukh split at the end of the 1991-1992 season because Averbukh falls in love and teams up with Irina Lobacheva. Anissina  and her mother studied videotapes of international competitions and selected Gwendal Peizerat and Victor Kraatz as suitable partners. Anissina sent letters to both but the one to Kraatz did not reach him. Peizerat did not respond immediately but when his partnership with Marina Morel fell apart, he contacted Anissina. Anissina wanted them to skate for and train in Russia, but Peizerat’s family was opposed, so they trained in Lyon with Muriel Zazoui and represented France.

At the 1992 Russian National Championships, Alla Shekhovtsova tells the judges if they put Elena Kustarova/Oleg Ovsyannikov over Anjelika Krylova/Vladimir Fedorov their careers will be over: 

“The only rock on Linichuk’s way to gathering all potential contenders for the two vacancies on the Russian team (one was reserved for Usova and Zhulin) under her umbrella was her collegue Svetlana Alekseeva. To be exact, the problem was her skaters – her daughter Elena Kustarova and Oleg Ovsyannikov, who were constantly competing with Linichuk’s Angelica Krylova and Vladimir Fedorov, and along with them eyed the third spot on the team (the second was predestined to belong to Gritchuk and Platov).

The 1992 Nationals in Chelyabinsk were supposed to make the final determination. I naively supposed that all the talk of the “bought” judges that I kept hearing from all camps was nothing more than an attempt by the weaker (or less confident) contender to excuse their possible loss in the fight. Yet on the second day of the competition, after the dancers were done with their compulsories, I became an unwitting witness to the most engaging scene. Piseev’s wife, judge Alla Shehovtseva, was surrounded by the judges from this competition, and without pulling any punches or choosing her words, was driving home a very simple point – anyone who will place Alekseeva’s team above Linichuk’s in the upcoming programs can consider their careers over.

Despite those instructions, the results were even. Kustarova and Ovsyannikov lost by one vote. However, they also lost their whole career – Krylova and Fedorov got onto the team, got bronze a few months later at the Worlds in Prague, and just a little later Ovsyannikov was lured to Linichuk’s camp to skate with Krylova just as Fedorov was thrown out. The dangerous opposition was rooted out.” (x)

Usova/Zhulin are clearly the #1 team in both Russia and the world in the 1992-1993 season. They win both the 1993 European Championships in January and the 1993 World Championships in March with 1st place finishes in every segment. Grishuk/Platov place 2nd at both events. At Worlds, Grishuk/Platov are even almost overtaken by bronze medal winners Krylova/Fedorov.

Dubova refuses to let Rusfed see Usova/Zhulin’s programs ahead of time since Zhulin is injured. Rusfed switches their support to Grishuk/Platov for Olympic season.

At the 1994 Olympics in February, Usova was extra depressed because Zhulin started having an affair with Navka as well while Grishuk was away. Zhulin was 31, while Navka was only 19. Then Navka’s partner, Samvel Gezalian beat Navka and said “HOW COULD YOU DO IT TO MAYA SHE’S YOU’RE FRIEND.” Then Usova’s mom and Zhulin’s mom started beating each other too. The police got involved. 

Grishuk/Platov win the 1994 Olympics. Usova/Zhulin retire from amateur competitions. Grishuk/Platov then go on to win the 1994 World Championships in March as well.

Krylova/Fedorov split after 1994 Worlds where they had to withdraw from the free dance due to an injury to Krylova. Krylova teams up with Oleg Ovsyannikov.

Linichuk moves her base to Newark, Delaware. Grishuk/Platov and Krylova/Ovsyannikov follow her there.

After 1995 Worlds, Navka/Gezalian split.  

At 1996 Worlds in March, you can see this fluff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrpC9QEXAZs about Grishuk/Platov and Krylova/Ovsyannikov and how they love training together in the US and the most important thing is to stay friends. Grishuk/Platov got gold and Krylova/Ovsyannikov got silver. They were the top 2 teams in the world leading into the 1998 Olympics.

Grishuk/Platov and Linichuk start to have problems. Some say that Grishuk/Platov wanted Linichuk to weaken Krylova/Ovsyannikov, so Grishuk/Platov would have an easier way to another Olympic gold, while others say Linichuk wanted Grishuk/Platov to retire so Krylova/Ovsyannikov could win Olympic gold. Linichuk also tried to take credit for choreographing Grishuk/Platov’s 1996-1997 programs from after they left her:

“On the other hand, when, in 1997, Russian, World, and Olympic ice-dance champions Grishuk & Platov split with their coach, 1980 Olympic champion Natalia Linichuk, they chose to fight all of their battles exclusively in the press.  In December of 1996, Grishuk & Platov, having been off-ice for most of the season due to Platov's knee injury, reportedly travel led to Moscow, for a secret meeting with the Russian Federation.  There, they sought a guarantee that they would win all the competitions they entered, leading up to the 1998 Olympics.  The Federation told them they could provide no such guarantee.  Grishuk & Platov then returned to their home-base in Newark, DE, to ask their coach, also coach of the 1996 World Silver Medallists, Krylova & Ovsianikov, to insure another year of victory for them, by deliberately weakening the second team. When Linichuk also refused, Grishuk & Platov split for Marlboro, MA, and Tatiana Tarasova, trainer of 1996 World Silver Medalist Ilia Kulik.  At the 1997 European championship, after Grishuk & Platov's new dances not only won them the gold, but also an almost record-breaking twelve perfect 6.0's (England's Torvill & Dean still hold the record, 17 6.0's at the 1984 Europeans), Linichuk tried to take credit for the stunning victory, by claiming she'd participated in choreographing their new numbers. Grishuk categorically denied the contention, adding ‘Let God be her judge.’

God, or at least, the Russian media, who sided squarely with the skaters over their ex-coach, asserting in ‘6.0,’ the official publication of the Russian Skating Federation, ‘Linichuk did every-thing in her power to push Grishuk & Platov into the professional realm.  This duo had already done their thing for her (won Olympic gold) and she was convinced it was time for them to leave.’ At Europeans and the subsequent Worlds, even the Ukrainian media got into the act, ruminating about their national champions, Romanova & Yaroshenko, who also trained under Linichuk, ‘One can only feel sorry for the athletes. Their mentor will never make champions of them.  Linichuk is a trainer first and foremost of Russian skaters, and she always places her bets on the Russian athletes.  As long as (Romanova & Yaroshenko) keep training with Linichuk, they will see medals hanging only on the necks of their opponents.’

Within months of the media declaring Natalia Linuchuk persona non gratta of skating, the coach who, at the 1996 Europeans, saw a podium filled with only her skaters (Grishuk & Platov Gold, Krylova & Ovsianikov Silver, Romanova & Yaroshenko Bronze) was down to one winning team. Heeding the advice of the Ukrainian press, Romanova & Yaroshenko also defected to Tarasova.” (x)

Later in 1996, Grishuk/Platov leave Linichuk and move to Tatiana Tarasova in Marlborough, Massachusetts. TAT said in her book that Grishuk could be such a bitch sometimes that she wanted to beat her, but congratulates herself for refraining herself.

In 1996, Navka teams up with Nikolai Morozov. They are coached by Zhulin and Bob Young in Connecticut.

On a summer skating tour, American singles’ skater, Nicole Bobek, and Grishuk start feuding over both being romantically involved with figure skating tour promoter, Michael Collins. Grishuk claims Bobek slapped her, while Bobek denies ever touching her. Apparently, Bobek was also linked to the divorce of Platov and Anikanova: 

“American skater Nicole Bobek slapped Grishuk while the two argued over a mutual lover, Michael Collins, a skating tour promoter. ‘I almost fainted,’ Grishuk said. ‘I'm not very big. I thought to hit her back but I didn't want to get into a fight. I didn't understand. I was crying, of course. I didn't do anything. Then she apologized later that night.’” (x)

“‘Pasha, or whatever she calls herself, is one of those people who needs attention,’ said U.S. singles skater Nicole Bobek.Where, you might ask, does Bobek fit into this plot? It was a boyfriend thing, with first Grishuk and then Bobek vying for the affections of the same man. Grishuk said Bobek slapped her in a hotel lobby last spring.‘I never touched her,’ said Bobek, who once was linked romantically to the divorced Platov.” (x)

On September 29, 1997, Oksana Grishuk changed her first name from Oksana to Pasha because she was tired of being confused with 1994 Olympic ladies champion who had been arrested for drunk driving, Oksana Bauil: 

“I legally changed my first name to Pasha.If you are going to have a name for the rest of your life, it should reflect your personality. I am passionate about life, about skating, about Hollywood.

I didn't want to be Oksana any more because so many people confused me with Oksana Baiul, the bad Oksana, the criminal Oksana. She is a fat has-been.” (x)

Elena Vaitsehovskaya said that one of the reasons Grishuk changed her name from Oksana to Pasha was because she was jealous that everyone in America knew Oksana Bauil, but not her and was offended when people would confuse them.

At the 1997 Champion Series Final (the equivalent of today’s Grand Prix Final) in December, Grishuk’s aunt confronted Canadian team Shae-Lynn Bourne/Victor Kraatz over their Beatles original dance not being rock n’ roll enough. Shae-Lynn thinks Grishuk sent her aunt, but Grishuk denies sending her: 

“Grishuk trashed Baiul during December’s Champions Series Final in Munich, Germany. That also was where her aunt, Zoya Kujawsky, interrupted a news conference to excoriate the quality of Bourne’s and Kraatz’s skating. Kujawsky, who Grishuk says is a journalist, did not have media accreditation. ‘Some people would stoop to any level,’ Bourne said, implying, as others have, that the aunt was planted by Grishuk.” (x)

“A bizarre outburst occurred at a news conference following the original dance when a woman identified as Grishuk’s aunt criticized the Canadians, telling them they didn’t belong in second place and that their performance to Beatles music could not be considered rock and roll. Kraatz said the criticism felt like a kick in the groin. Bourne seemed on the verge of tears. ‘I don’t know the woman very well,’ Grishuk said of her aunt. ‘I haven’t seen her in three years.’” (x)

Before the 1998 European Championships where Grishuk/Platov were 1st and Krylova/Ovsyannikov were 2nd, Krylova said she thought the result was already decided: 

“But there is plenty of oral sparring among the coaches and athletes in this discipline where rules are disregarded by both skaters and judges. Krylova, runnerup at the European championships, did not hesitate to say, ‘I think the result already was decided’ before the competition.” (x)

At the 1998 European Figure Skating Championships in January, Krylova/Ovsyannikov and Grishuk/Platov collided TWICE in practice and sustained injuries. Krylova claimed it was an accident, but Platov thought they were out to kill them: 

“Linichuk also coaches Krylova and Ovsiannikov. At the European championships in January, first Grishuk (forearm) and then Platov (pant leg) was cut by one of Krylova's skates during encounters that occurred in a practice session and the warmup for the compulsory dances.‘Everybody wants to win, but nobody wants to kill each other,’ Krylova said. ‘We're not boxers.’” (x)

“At the last European Championships in Milan, Italy, Krylova slashed Grishuk on her forearm with a skate blade and sliced Platov's costume behind the knee. Krylova called it an accident. ‘I think maybe because we are winning so many times,’ Platov said, ‘they are trying to kill us.’” (x)

Linichuk threatened to sue Grishuk/Platov for $100,000 in unpaid coaching fees, but they said that she didn’t give them enough attention and that’s why they moved to TAT: 

“It also has brought them near legal action by former coach Natalia Linichuk, who claims she is owed nearly $100,000 by Grishuk and Platov. They counterclaim Linichuk, who coached the pair to 1994 Olympic gold, owed them more personal attention. They left her 14 months ago for Tatiana Tarasova.” (x)

TAT said that she didn’t think Bourne/Kraatz deserved a medal at the 1998 Olympics: 

“Tarasova thinks anyone could see Bourne and Kraatz don’t deserve a medal. ‘In my professional view, the Canadians are not ready for competition this year,’ said Tarasova, who coached the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympic dance champions." (x)

Dubova who of course hates her former pupil Grishuk and was also Bourne/Kraatz’s coach replied with this: 

“Dubova, the Canadians’ coach, countered: ‘Probably we are being attacked because for the first time in history, a North American couple (is trying) to win an Olympic gold medal in ice dancing.’” (x)

Victor Kraatz trashed Grishuk/Platov’s Memorial free dance saying they always recycled their programs, while Grishuk said Bourne/Kraatz’s Riverdance was so easy she could learn it in a day:

“Grishuk said she could do the Canadians’ ‘Riverdance’ routine in a heartbeat. One of Grishuk’s relatives even got into the fray by lambasting the Canadians for their original-dance piece. The relative, who was wearing a press pass, claimed the Canadians weren’t dancing to rock and roll. The Canadian couple responded that the Beatles are, indeed, rock 'n’ roll. ‘It seems like every year the Russians pick the same kind of TC music and the same kind of programs,’ Kraatz said. ‘They pick that slow, sad music. It seems like all they have to do different is change the expression on their faces.’” (x)

“Grishuk said at a competition last December that she could learn Bourne and Kraatz's Riverdance routine in a single day. ‘Why don't they try?’ Kraatz huffed.Then he ripped the Russians, saying they choose the ‘same, sad, slow’ music each year. ‘You just have to look very sad,’ Bourne said.” (x)

The Canadian federation accused the Russian, French, and Italian federations of making judging deals: 

“The Canadian skating federation has accused the Russian, French and Italian judges of deal-making in order to prop up their own skaters.

Grishuk said that those who complain about the judging are ‘weak.’” (x)

After the compulsory dances, Dubova claimed the Olympics was rigged against Bourne/Kraatz in favor of the French and Russians: 

“‘It's a joke,’ Dubova said. ‘I don't know what else to call it. The judges had a lot of time in Milan, at the European championships [in January], to discuss what to do here, to discuss how beautiful the Russians and the French are skating, to decide who must be on the podium.’

‘They think they need to put us down to make sure they have a third place to give. I saw this from the Russian judge. I saw this from the French judge. I knew they would do this.’

Dubova, who once coached Grishuk and Platov, was asked if she believed the competition was rigged.

‘Oh yes, oh yes,’ she replied. ‘They did this all before the competition. . . . It was prepared before by the Russians and the French.’

Dubova's eyes were red as she spoke emotionally about Friday's judging, visibly upset over the fifth-place score Bourne and Kraatz received for their first compulsory dance, the Golden Waltz.

Bourne's voice, too, cracked as she railed against the judging.

‘I'm a little disappointed, but I also expected that this could happen,’ Bourne said. ‘It's frustrating because it's out of our control. It has nothing to do with how we skate this week--it has to do with what goes on outside the sport. It's out of our hands, so far beyond our control.’

‘I think you saw all the mistakes,’ Dubova told reporters. ‘That was almost foul, what Grishuk and Platov did. The other Russians, they did not skate close together, and same with the French. The first partner was much faster--they could not hold the same speed.’

‘I can tell you Bourne and Kraatz had the [most complex] program, skated the closest to the other partner, had equal speed and had great positioning. . . .’

‘But the judges, they so wanted to show that North Americans cannot have more than the bronze medal. They know North America has many good skaters now, and they want to keep them down. I think Punsalan-Swallow is a very good couple. I think the second Canadian couple [Chantal Lefebvre and Michel Brunet] should not be 19th--they should be higher than that.’

‘I don't know what to tell our skaters.’

‘We need to explain what they are doing to us,’ Dubova said. ‘We are not happy with the bronze medal. We are ready to fight for gold.’” (x)

Gwendal Peizerat said there was no deal between the Russians and French: 

“‘All this political stuff with the Russians is not our stuff,’ Peizerat said. ‘Our stuff is the skating side. We are really out of the political side.’

‘At Munich [at the Champions Series Final in December], we won four judges to five for the Canadians. Every competition is close. That's what happened tonight.’” (x)

On the night of the 1998 Olympics free dance, Grishuk wrote this: 

“Torvill and Dean’s Bolero in 1984 was the best ever, but I think you’ll all like our Memoriam tonight. It is about artists, many of them skaters, who lost their lives in recent years. It is very moving. Evgeny and I get along well most of the time. He says I am half crazy and that I drive him full crazy. Maybe that’s why he hit me with a hockey stick once.

I thought about filing for a restraining order against him, but somebody, probably our coach, pointed out that we might have trouble practicing together if he had to stay 100 yards away from me at all times.” (x)

Grishuk claimed Platov hit her with a hockey stick and she almost filed a restraining order against him. Apparently she has also said Platov beat her all 10 years they skated together and she called the cops on him claiming he beat her, but then they found she just had a minor lip wound and all the witnesses at the rink said he accidentally pushed her and she fell on the ice.

Grishuk/Platov won the 1998 Olympics in February. Krylova/Ovysannikov won silver. Anissina/Peizerat won bronze. Bourne/Kraatz came in 4th place.

On the podium when they got the gold medal, Platov said that Grishuk told him he was only responsible for 20% of their success. He says it in “The Dark Side of Skating: Maia, Evgeny, Pasha, & Sasha”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w227JiWLImM

After Grishuk/Platov won gold, silver medalist Krylova said that she thinks the public liked Krylova/Ovysannikov better:

“All I can say is the public liked us better. I think we had a better program overall.” (x)

4th place finisher, Shae-Lynn Bourne, thought the results were a joke:

“‘I think we skated like champions tonight. . . . I really believe we could have been at the top.’

‘The Olympics are all about survival of the fittest. It's about true games and sport,’ Bourne said. ‘That's not what ice dancing is right now. It's all about off the ice.’

Bourne and Kraatz were assigned fourth place after Friday's compulsory dances, and remained there through Sunday's original dance and Monday's free dance competitions--even though the judges rated their free dance superior to bronze medalists Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, by a vote of 5-4.

Bourne and Kraatz dressed in green and white for their free dance, instead of traditional Canadian red, possibly in an attempt to fool the judges. They performed to ‘Riverdance’--or, as one rinkside reporter quipped, ‘The Judges Sold Us Down the Riverdance.’

‘It's funny,’ Bourne said. ‘You would think I'd be real upset, but I don't feel awful at all. . . . I look at it as more of a joke than anything. You've just got to look at it, laugh at it and get past it.’

Can anything be done to alter the system?

‘We're talking about it. That's all we can do,’ Bourne said.

‘People now know a little more about what's going on. The media are talking about it, the skaters are talking about it. It's like an explosion about to happen.’

‘It's coming to head. Maybe it will bust wide open and bring about a change.’” (x)

Dubova trashed her former pupils, Grishuk/Platov, saying they regressed without her and can’t do what her current pupils Bourne/Kraatz can:

“Natalia Dubova, former coach of Grishuk and Platov, currently employed to train Bourne and her partner, Victor Kraatz: ‘All of us remember what [Jayne] Torvill and [Christopher] Dean did to improve our sport, how many steps they brought up the sport. I always ask myself, ‘What have Grishuk and Platov done for the sport?’ For me, they don't bring the sport up.’

And more from Dubova: ‘Grishuk and Platov, I teach them so many things, and they don't use any of it. I teach them for so many years, and they can do so much more. What they have now, is just a funny program.’

And more from Dubova still: ‘They have not improved, they are just more experienced. They are tired. They cannot do this work that Bourne and Kraatz do, they can only do these simple things.’

‘Grishuk and Platov, their music must be much louder and stronger. They need the music to help them. Bourne and Kraatz, the music and the skating are together, like a package.’

Even long-time coach Dubova concedes that ‘Ice dancing is not a sport. Something must be done. It's impossible anymore. When five of them are from the East bloc, it is easy for them to work together.’” (x)

Grishuk said that she believes they have pushed the sport:

“‘We brought the sport back,’ Grishuk said. ‘We did it. When people were saying the ice dancing does not belong in the Olympics, that it is not a sport, that it is like ballroom dancing, we tried to improve the sport and make it look very interesting, very exciting and difficult. . . .’

‘In my opinion, and in the opinion of a lot of people who were telling us this, we really developed the sport and make it look like a real sport. We brought a lot of new movements into ice dancing, things nobody else ever did before.’

‘We make the sport happen, and we make the sport continue.’” (x)

In 2012, Grishuk said she actually considered going for another Olympics, but she knew Platov’s knees wouldn’t be able to handle it, so she retired from amateur skating:

“They won countless Grand Prix events, four World Championships, three European titles and two Olympics. She considered another Olympic run but retired knowing Platov’s knees couldn’t hold up for another four-year cycle.

‘I felt thankful and blessed that he agreed (to compete through 1998) and that I was able to do the most passionate thing in my life,’ she said. ‘We were considered an ‘unbeatable’ team.’” (x)

After 1998 Worlds in March, Navka and Morozov ended their partnership. Morozov tried skating with another partner for 3 months, but retired. He became an assistant coach to Tatiana Tarasova.

In professional skating, there was a partner swap. The new partnerships were Usova/Platov and Grishuk/Zhulin.

Grishuk claims Platov dumped her in the summer with no explanation: 

“Evgeny? That's a different story. I suspected there were problems, like the time he hit me with a hockey stick. But I thought we would be a team forever. Then he dumped me this summer with no explanation. Maybe it's like he used to say, that I am half crazy and that I drive him full crazy.” (x)

According to Elena Vaitsehovskaya’s book, Platov dumped Grishuk for Usova because he found out that Grishuk was just using him in ice shows, so that she could have a big Hollywood career. Grishuk has said multiple times that she wanted to break into Hollywood and win an Oscar. John Frankenheimer actually wrote a part for her in “Ronin”, a Robert DeNiro movie, but she couldn’t do it because of the 1998 Olympics, so it went to Katarina Witt instead. Grishuk was supposed to play a figure skater who is the girlfriend of a Russian mobster and is shot to death on the ice.

Platov in “The Dark Side of Skating” also said that he was so happy when Grishuk and Zhulin teamed up because it was his chance to get revenge.

Usova/Platov beat Grishuk/Zhulin to win the 1998 World Professional Championships.

Usova said that Zhulin beat her all 18 years they skated together and that when she made a mistake while skating with Platov she would always panic and prepare to be hit, but Platov was so nice and kind to her.

Platov was IN LOVE with Usova. Look what he said about her in 1999: 

"Maia was an amazing partner - hardworking and most importantly not scandalous since I sure had enough with Grishuk. I was very flattered to have besides me not only famous and talented but beautiful woman. Maia is one of the most feminine and graceful skaters. Time (as in age) can’t do anything to her.”

Usova said Platov was in love with her and TAT (TAT coached her and Platov in professional skating) and her mom wanted her to date Platov, but she could never fall in love with Platov no matter how hard she tried.

In a 2009 interview, Usova said that she should have ended her partnership with Zhulin and teamed up with Platov in amateur skating: 

“After you and Alexander Zhulin finished skating as amateurs, I often thought that your career was very cruel, so to speak. You worked toward that Olympic gold medal for so long, you sacrificed so much to it – and then you lost. How do you look at it?

I certainly don’t consider it senseless. I’ve been thinking lately about how everything the person goes through is predetermined from above. Sasha and I are still remembered, loved, and I am often reassured that in many people’s thinking our sports rating is far higher than some of those have become Olympic champions. The only mistake, and it is purely my mistake, was remaining with my partner after our family fell apart. It could have all been different then…

What do you mean?

My career. I should not have held on to my relationship with Zhulin. I should have partnered with Platov there and then. At one time, our coach Natalya Dubova threw Oksana Gritschuk out of her group precisely for personal reasons. Dubova really loved me, and wanted to thus clear my and Zhulin’s path to medals, so to speak. I just didn’t find the strength to tell my coach that it wasn’t about Gritschuk, but about the relationship that has become unbearable for me. However, after what Dubova did, I just couldn’t stab her in the back by quitting the team. Had I done it, though, it is entirely possible that Platov and I could have had our results in the amateur sport, not in the professional which we ultimately did.” (x)

Platov has said that he suspected Grishuk was mentally ill because she had a paranoia that everyone wants to hurt her and during one of her panic attacks the only way to get sense into her was to shake her shoulders with might and she picked his leg with her skates, so he has holes in his training pants because of this.

Navka teamed up with Roman Kostomarov. They were coached by Linichuk and competed together during the 1998-1999 season. After placing 12th at the 1999 World Championships, Linichuk dissolved the team and paired Kostomarov with Anna Semenovich.

Linichuk actually claimed in an interview after 2003 Worlds that she had to work hard to convince Kostomarov to agree to partner with Navka:

Q: Your former students Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov are progressing, they took second at the Grand Prix Final and nearly bronze at worlds. Are you surprised?

A: “When I created this pair, Roman was categorically opposed to skating with Tanya. He thought he neated a more lively, quick partner and a bit smaller in size. It was so much labor to convince him. It seems, I didn’t try for nothing.” (x)

Krylova/Ovsyannikov win 1999 Worlds. They planned to compete the next season and even had programs and costumes prepared, but doctors advised Krylova to retire due to a risk of paralysis stemming from her back problems. Krylova suggested Ovsyannikov team up with another skater, so he could still compete, but he declined. After a year Krylova grew more confident and they competed in professional skating, since it was less demanding on the body.

Zhulin went back to Grishuk briefly before getting married to Navka in 2000.

Navka and Zhulin’s daughter Sasha was born in May 2000. Navka took the year off from competition.

In mid-2000, Kostomarov called Navka and asked to skate with her again. She agreed and the were coached by her husband, Zhulin.

Bourne/Kraatz changed coaches from Dubova to Tatiana Tarasova and Nikolai Morozov in 2000.

Dubova, who previously trashed Anissina/Peizerat back when they were her former pupils’ Bourne/Kraatz’s rivals, became a consultant and choreographer for Anissina/Peizerat during the 2001-2002 season.

Marina Anissina/Gwendal Peizerat win the 2002 Olympics, coached by Muriel Zazoui and choreographed by Natalia Dubova and then retire from amateur skating. Ilia Averbukh, Anissina’s former partner, and Irina Lobacheva, coached by Natalia Linichuk, win silver. Barbara Fusar-Poli/Maurizio Margaglio, coached by Paola Mezzadri, win bronze. Shae-Lynn Bourne/Victor Kraatz, coached by Tatiana Tarasova and Nikolai Morozov come in 4th.

Usova and Platov were assistant coaches to Tatiana Tarasova from 2002-2004.

Linichuk said in an interview that she believed Lobacheva/Averbukh should have won 2003 Worlds and that Bourne/Kraatz won because the judges pitied them for competing so long, but never becoming champions:

Q: Natalya, what do you think of the new system in which 5 judges of fourteen are absolutely not included and the judges give their marks anonymously?

A: “I’ve noticed that the judges’ posture is better, they are not afraid to show their opinion. Maybe this system isn’t ideal, but it’s working. Before the worlds, nothing criminal happened. But in Washington, a portion of the judges gave Bourne and Kraatz a gift for long patience. These skaters were in the world elite for many years, but were never champions. SO they pitied them. By the way, if you add all 14 marks, Lobacheva and Averbukh would have been first. I think their free dance in rock and roll style looked more winning.” (x)

In the same interview, Linichuk also said that she had repaired her relationship with Grishuk who was once again Oksana instead of Pasha:

Q: Do you associate with Oksana Grishuk anymore?

A: “Why not? She had a daughter recently, she calls about every three weeks from Los Angeles. She sent pictures of her daughter, Grace Skyler. The baby has SUCH cheeks! Oksana says she is happy. She wanted to try herself out in Hollywood, but that didn’t turn out so far. By the way you’re right, now she’s not Pasha but Oksana. As before. She thought up Pasha for Hollywood.”

Q: They said you sued her for money. What happened? Did she pay you?

A: “According to our contract, a portion of the prize money for Grishuk and Platov was to go to us as payment. IN America you don’t have to stamp it – just signatures of both parites is enough. When Grishuk and Platov went to Tarasova, they forgot us.”

Q: And after that you still associate with them!

A: “Of course, it’s unpleasant to sue your students, but… I know Oksana since she was 12, Zhenya a bit less. There is so much connected with them. They left me for Dubova, then returned. I made them the best pair in the world. You never forget the best. Recently Platov decided to be a coach – he works with the Israelis Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhonovski. Zhenya came up to me, asked for advice. I see that he was listening to my recommendations.” (x)

Bourne/Kraatz win the 2003 World Championships with Morozov as their sole coach, since Morozov had left TAT to coach and choreograph on his own. Shae-Lynn Bourne was dating Nikolai Morozov and they got married in 2005 and divorced in 2007. Shae-Lynn and Victor fell out because Shae-Lynn wanted to do show skating, but Victor still wanted to be a competitive skater. Shae-Lynn started doing ice shows by herself. They didn’t reconnect until 2008.

In the fall of 2005, Platov joined Zhulin as a coach at Floyd Hall in New Jersey. They coached Navka/Kostomarov to the 2006 Olympic gold medal:

“‘This is why we have teamed up,’ Platov said of his professional relationship with Zhulin. ‘We want to start an ice-dancing school here that will bring attention all over the world. We are very well known and among the most decorated people in the world because of our winnings in the Olympics and in the World Championships. We will organize a school, one of the greatest dance schools in the world.’” (x)

Zhulin said of the coaching partnership:

“‘I work alone,’ said Zhulin, ‘and I never collaborate because I like to feel responsible for everything.’ At least until Platov came calling.

‘When Evgeni first approached, I was hesitant. I said, ‘Okay, we'll give it a few weeks and see how it goes. Amazingly, we worked perfectly together. Such good work, and no arguments. He is, after all, one of the best technical skaters in the world - that's why I lost the Olympics to him.’

Zhulin says he believes if the situation had been reversed, ‘Evgeni would have done the same for me. It's about respect, and we have that respect for each other.’” (x)

After 2006, Platov coached on his own in New Jersey and Zhulin moved back to Russia to coach.