{"id":6876,"date":"2018-06-19T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6876"},"modified":"2018-06-10T19:56:27","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T02:56:27","slug":"mark-watches-yuri-on-ice-s01e07-chinas-on-the-grand-prix-series-opening-event-the-cup-of-china-short-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/06\/mark-watches-yuri-on-ice-s01e07-chinas-on-the-grand-prix-series-opening-event-the-cup-of-china-short-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Yuri On Ice’: S01E07 – China’s On! The Grand Prix Series Opening Event!! The Cup of China Short Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh episode of the first season of Yuri On Ice<\/i>, I have expired. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Yuri On Ice<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Holy shit. Holy shit??? HOLY SHIT<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For talk of anxiety<\/b><\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressure<\/b><\/p>\n

Look, this episode is stressful for a number of reasons, and I am not ashamed of how glued I was to the screen as Yuri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s free skate unfolded. I AM SO INVESTED IN THIS! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN SO QUICKLY!!! But right from the start, Yuri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own mounting panic and anxiety started to make ME feel nervous. We all knew that more than anything else, the pressure to succeed is what Yuri struggled with more than anything. He could pull things off in practice when few people were watching that he fumbled once he was in front of a crowd. After his incredible first skate, the pressure to succeed was higher than it had ever been for Yuri, and thus, we see him have the worst<\/i> anxiety attack in the show so far. It builds and builds; it is a cascade, a growing wave, a perpetual wall that Yuri cannot get over.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And how is Victor supposed to deal with that<\/i>? More so than ever before, I really got the sense that Victor was worried for Yuri, that he was attuned to his panic and desperate to reach through to him, to find any way to motivate him to keep going. Unfortunately, he does so in a REALLY TERRIBLE WAY, and oh boy, you better believe I was close to crying after Victor made that horrible judgement call. I was just so upset??? I have decided I hate seeing Yuri cry??? HE WAS SO HURT WHEN VICTOR THREATENED TO RESIGN AS COACH, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. I understood why<\/i> he thought it would work, but even Yuri saw it as nothing but a cruel manipulation, not a genuine attempt to make him feel better.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Victor changes; he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try this tactic again, and he even admits to himself that he is so inexperienced as a coach that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing in this particular instance. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have you know that he does<\/i> offer to kiss Yuri, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that???? That happened, too???) I appreciated that because it provided a much-needed thread of realism to Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization. This is<\/i> something new to him, too! And he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to mess up and misjudge situations and provide bad coaching because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s learning alongside Yuri!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Competition<\/b><\/p>\n

Like the previous episode\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand really, episode seven is more like a second half of a story rather than a standalone one\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe writers still<\/i> give us some wonderful insight into the minds of the other skaters. We are shown just how important Guang Hong\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s free skate was to him, which included a very fascinating use of Leo??? Like, does Guang Hong see him less as a competitor and more of an ally, someone to sacrifice himself for? PERHAPS. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first of a number of internal sequences that provide us with character motivation and the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153story\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that each free skate is supposed to tell. I love that the show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget that this is an integral part of the free skate, either. The narrative of the choreography matters as much as the other pieces do. So, I found it fulfilling to see each of the characters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 internal thought processes regarding their choreography. Like I said in the last review, the writers didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have<\/i> to go this route, but it has made this entire story stronger for it.<\/p>\n

Success<\/b><\/p>\n

Because Yuri doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to place first to advance to the next competition, it means that the writers had more freedom to change up what actually happened in this episode. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still thrilled that Phichit won the Cup, as his victory meant a lot particularly<\/i> to Thailand and Southeast Asia as a whole. (Which felt like a pretty cool thing to include in the episode, I should say.) It was a kind writing choice, and y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m all into nice things right now. All of this is leading up to my eternal freak-out because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 look, what do I say? How do I communicate the importance of this to you? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure most of y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthose who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been following me for years, that is\u00e2\u20ac\u201dknow exactly why it matters that Victor did as he did, that Yuri channeled the love he feels for Victor into that<\/i> performance, that THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED ON THE SHOW.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not obvious: this is something I still<\/i> don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see that much. More and more these days, sure, and certainly more than a decade ago. Sports dramas are often rife with homoeroticism, but that rarely manifests as anything canonically gay or queer. Usually, stories like this make it clear that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a giant \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No Homo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sticker over their drama because nothing is worse than that, right??? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so used to that bait and switch that I approached Yuri On Ice<\/i> with caution. Was this actually<\/i> a queer narrative, or was it just hyped up by enthusiastic fans? How much of it was onscreen, how much of it was hinted at?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, I feel like this is such an obvious point of no return because VICTOR TACKLED YURI INTO A KISS and he did so IN FRONT OF EVERYONE and also HE TOLD YURI HE DID IT BECAUSE IT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT WOULD SURPRISE HIM and????\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, I want to know where the show is taking this. Will they talk about the kiss in the next episode? Pretend it never happened? MAKE EVERYTHING GAYER??? Please let it be the latter, please<\/i>. Because holy shit, that episode was the best one yet.<\/p>\n

The video for the second part of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s On! The Grand Prix Series Opening Event!! The Cup of China Short Program\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\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":"