In the third episode of the first season of Yuri On Ice<\/i>, this show is tormenting me personally. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Yuri On Ice<\/i>.<\/p>\n
What am I supposed to do with this??? I am stuck in the exact position I was in the previous episode: I am supposed<\/i> to read all these looks and these gentle touches as something genuine, or is Victor just so goddamn oblivious that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing?<\/p>\n
Perhaps that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole point, especially since this episode works spectacularly<\/i> as a Yuri unaware of his own feelings and affection towards Victor. Well, sort<\/i> of unaware. At times, Yuri is perfectly willing to admit that Victor is his idol, that he finds him attractive, and that he means the world to him. But the context is muddled; he expresses them through safe avenues or through narration to the audience. Is it ever to Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face? Is it ever expressed as<\/i> romance or sexual love? No, at least not yet.<\/p>\n
But \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am Eros, and Eros is Me!?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d dances around this subtext as Yuri struggles with the emotional motivation for his routine. And y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe this episode got me to think about Yurio sympathetically, but WOW, HOLY SHIT, DID I HAVE A FEELING? This is why I felt so captivated by the story, though. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just about the technical skill involved in skating; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a vehicle by which these deeper themes can be explored. That being said, this show does not<\/i> fuck around when it comes to depicting figure skating, and I love that, too. It feels so real<\/i>? Like, let the video for this episode stand as evidence that I was enthralled with both performances in the Hot Springs face-off. So I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to belittle the fact that this is about figure skating, you know? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important aspect of the show.<\/p>\n
So, let me back up and talk about the main conflict. After Victor gives both skaters their general choreography and then has them run through it, they both have the same problem, though they come at it from opposite directions. Yurio is so overconfident that he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t master the emotion of unconditional love. His skating is technically<\/i> perfect, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mechanical. Yuri, on the other hand, never really has a problem being emotional; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all right on the surface. But he lacks<\/i> confidence, and that means it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredibly challenging for him to portray sexual love with any intensity. His skating is messy, not certain.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How do you find something that seems so contradictory to your nature? Well, Yuri tries really<\/i> hard to, and Yurio resists every attempt Victor makes to put him in the right mind for it. Seriously, Yurio is so angry<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. He fights everyone on everything all the time, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no wonder that the concept of unconditional love seemed confounding to him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 until he let it in. Look, all we know about Yurio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s current coach is that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Actual Worst. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mean, cruel, and incredibly demanding. But that brief flashback that Yurio experiences while at the falls communicates warmth and understanding. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so short, but I still understood why it was important. At one point in his life, that<\/i> represented skating to Yurio. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so intense that he nearly has a breakdown on the ice thinking about how he failed his theme, despite skating well. He isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> like his grandfather in that regard.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While Yuri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice to skate for his pork bowl is adorable\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand look, there is some food I love so much that this feel perfectly relatable\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but feel like the reason Yuri excels here is because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tapping into a subconscious affection for Victor. Like!!!! Victor caressed his lip with his thumb! He looks upon Yuri with so much intensity! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL ABOUT ALL OF THIS, OH MY GOD. But again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy for me to assume this is the point because I am deeply biased by the GAY AGENDA. I want<\/i> this to be real because of how much it would mean, and I think it captures a part of the gay experience that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see too often. Pining for beautiful straight men who are out of your league but irresistible? Channeling your unrequited and unacknowledged feelings into performance art? BECOMING UNABLE TO SPEAK BECAUSE BOYS<\/i>???<\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to project too much, but I hope this is real, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am Eros, and Eros is Me!? Face Off! Hot Springs on Ice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the third episode of the first season of Yuri On Ice, this show is tormenting me personally. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Yuri On Ice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[684],"tags":[685],"class_list":["post-6860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-yuri-on-ice","tag-mark-watches-yuri-on-ice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}