#their toxic yuri potential plagues me

[saturdayschwartz]

i have nobody to talk to about jessica drew and nekra and it drives me crazier every day that i think about them

[a-midnight-luna]

I think what I love the most about Yuri On Ice is the fact that it kinda breaks a lot of clichés and stereotypes we've used to see in movies or even series on the same genre.

The more evident one, and also the one I love the most, is the fact that uses the "me vs me" kind of conflict, where the main character (Yuuri) is also the main antagonist, which is something we don't usually see in commercial media. This and the use of "rivals, not enemies" is what gives me most joy when watching the show, even a few years after its release.

The sports/competition genre in media is plagued with a main character who is mostly bullied by their rivals who think they're better, and this MC has to overcome themselves and prove that they're, in fact, better and stronger than the rivals and usually they beat the others up in a fierce competition that, most often, ends in a magnificent failure from the rivals and gives the MC and their gang the victory.

In YOI this doesn't happen.

Yuuri doesn't win the gold medal. Yes, he does give us a spectacular performance that breaks Viktor's own record, but he doesn't get gold.

Even though we're all rooting for him and his potential engagement with Viktor, he doesn't get first place. But we're not upset with this either. We're happy that Yuri P did get gold despite his struggles and his doubts and his anger. We learn to love every single character (yes, even JJ because he also has his redemption arch) because the show itself shows us that they're all real, with their struggles and their own fears, and makes us, the spectators, closer with all the competitors individually, even if we're not actually watching their competitions (as in the case of the girls, who are also skaters but we never see them skate).

Whilst it is true that we want Yuuri to win his gold medal and be the best and beat the rest and himself -ehem and get his official engagement with Viktor ehem-, we're not completely sad that he got silver. And that's because we also wanted Yuri P to win. Or even Phichit or Otabek, because all of them worked hard to get to the finals and we're happy for them. And it's just like in real life, were we support athletes from somewhere else around the world when they're at a competition and we want them to win gold, even if we don't know who they are or where they come from.

And that's the whole beauty of YOI. It doesn't give us that sickly, toxic relationship between rivals we're used to see in Hollywood movies, and we see that the characters are actually friends outside competition and hang out together when they can, because that's how it's supposed to be in real life. Just because someone else is better at something than you doesn't mean you have to hate them and be mean to them. The positivity of the show is also something to love.

And of course there are a lot of other factors and qualities to remark, but this one, this is what makes me come back and rewatch it over and over again even after actual years of me not watching anime anymore, and it's because it has become more than just a story with animated characters; it has become a whole philosophy in itself, a way of life.

And that, my friends, is what makes a story worthy of being a cult classic, one that I'm sure we will all remember when we're older, and one that will live in our hearts for many many years to come.

Because we were born to make history.

And we are still making history 💙💜

[pendulumprince]

Is it wrong for me to hate predatorshipping (Yuri x Serena)? I mean, I certainly won’t get up in peoples business if they like it. (I refuse to be a toxic fan) Regardless of the whole fusion dimension counterpart thing, it feels so forced to me.

It’s totally fine anon!

I’m a pretty big predatorshipper, but I’m not about to shove my preferences down anyone’s throat. If we’re looking strictly at what happened in canon, you’re absolutely right: they barely interacted, and fought on opposite sides of the war. Hardly a foundation for a relationship. But, that’s the thing: I have yet to see a predatorshipper who ships them solely based on what happened in canon. It’s impossible, there’s next to nothing there. 

I ship them because of the (imo, wasted) potential. There’s something intriguing about the idea of someone like Serena and someone like Yuri interacting, forming that friendship, falling in love—the battle-hungry idealist and the bloodthirsty sociopath. It’s a difficult dynamic (this may be what you mean by it feeling forced), but one that can work beautifully in the hands of a capable writer/artist. Because shipping two idealistic teens together is one thing, but in my experience I’ve always gotten the most out of dynamics/ships that didn’t run smoothly, that weren’t the ideal, or even entirely healthy. 

Two different types of conflict are interpersonal, and external. All the other Yu boys/bracelet girl pairs were plagued by external conflict; had Serena and Yuri been allowed any extended interaction, their conflict would have undoubtably been interpersonal. The question with them wouldn’t have been why can’t they be together; it would have been how can they be together. And that’s a big question, one that we’ll never know the (official) answer to. Doesn’t mean we can’t take a crack at it!

Just to be clear, the above is only an explanation to why I ship it myself, not an attempt to ‘convert’ you lol. But by all means, you’re within your rights to hate it, and you have good reasons to. You’re not doing anything wrong :)