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YOI and Word of God
A few things to keep in mind, about Yuri!!! on ICE and about any canon.
Word of God is not canon. What's on the screen or on the page is canon. Word of God is supplementary material that you are welcome to incorporate but you are not obliged to. We do not live in a universe where Greedo shot first!
Actions speak louder than words. People don't always say what they mean. They don't always know what they mean. When they try to explain their motivations after the fact, they may get them wrong or they may not be able to admit their true motivations. That applies whether you're taking a Doylist or Watsonion point of view.
Just because Kubo or Yuuri says, "hey, looking at these matching gold rings that canonically engaged couple JJ & Isabella are wearing makes me want to go buy a matching set of expensive gold wedding bands to wear on our wedding band fingers and exhange them with Victor on the steps of a church -- it will be just like that time my high school handicrafts club sewed matching bookmarks for everyone!" doesn't mean that was actually Yuuri's motivation, even if Yuuri tells himself it is. Or Kubo tells us it is.
People can't always articulate their feelings. One anime scene that strongly impressed me in years gone by was in Nana. Early on, Hachi and her boyfriend are away on a trip together. She asks him to tell her that he loves her. At first he says, "Don't ask a Japanese man to say that!" But he can tell she really wants to hear it, so he starts psyching himself up to it: I'm an American. My name is Michael. But he still can't say it and in the end, Hachi says it's okay, she heard him say it in her heart.
Obviously, not everyone will have that much trouble speaking about their feelings, but it's something to keep in mind.
Your interpretation is valid. I can interpret Yuuri and Victor's relationship in a lot of different ways and I really love that. You do you.
Personally, you will never convince me that Otabek is a DJ.
Word of God is not canon. What's on the screen or on the page is canon. Word of God is supplementary material that you are welcome to incorporate but you are not obliged to. We do not live in a universe where Greedo shot first!
Actions speak louder than words. People don't always say what they mean. They don't always know what they mean. When they try to explain their motivations after the fact, they may get them wrong or they may not be able to admit their true motivations. That applies whether you're taking a Doylist or Watsonion point of view.
Just because Kubo or Yuuri says, "hey, looking at these matching gold rings that canonically engaged couple JJ & Isabella are wearing makes me want to go buy a matching set of expensive gold wedding bands to wear on our wedding band fingers and exhange them with Victor on the steps of a church -- it will be just like that time my high school handicrafts club sewed matching bookmarks for everyone!" doesn't mean that was actually Yuuri's motivation, even if Yuuri tells himself it is. Or Kubo tells us it is.
People can't always articulate their feelings. One anime scene that strongly impressed me in years gone by was in Nana. Early on, Hachi and her boyfriend are away on a trip together. She asks him to tell her that he loves her. At first he says, "Don't ask a Japanese man to say that!" But he can tell she really wants to hear it, so he starts psyching himself up to it: I'm an American. My name is Michael. But he still can't say it and in the end, Hachi says it's okay, she heard him say it in her heart.
Obviously, not everyone will have that much trouble speaking about their feelings, but it's something to keep in mind.
Your interpretation is valid. I can interpret Yuuri and Victor's relationship in a lot of different ways and I really love that. You do you.
Personally, you will never convince me that Otabek is a DJ.
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i speak in a one-note tone
every day i lace on skates
and give thumbs up to my mates
Gonna get everyone on the DJ Otabek and his bad freestyle rap page, yes I am.
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Okay, maybe you'll convince me that Otabek is a bad DJ.
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However I'm happy to accept that Chris's Mystery Man is a former ice dancer and there to keep Chris from being lonely. (Except when Chris/Georgi is at issue, in which case he's no one of importance at all, thank you very much.)
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God, no. How horrible would that be?
So is this in response to the Yuri on Ice marathon event I saw mentioned on Tumblr? Watching with fans marathon-style would be awesome. Less to the Q&A, for me.
I'm all about what's on the screen (or page), too. Commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes, interviews: all of that has little interest for me. "Making of" type extras are fun, but I prefer enjoying my own interpretation of a work, instead of hearing about the creator's. It dulls the magic for me. And it rarely fails that some actor or writer or creator I admire will -- at one point or another -- say something that disappoints. Nah, just give me the goods. And fanworks!
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I honestly wish I could avoid the info altogether but a lot of it comes by on Twitter so by the time you realize what you're reading, you've already read it!
But a marathon with other fans would be fantastic, I agree!
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Anyway, I'm assuming some kind of interview came out and while I can be interested in the motivations and interpretations of creators, if it doesn't mesh with my own interpretations, I'm pretty comfortable ignoring it, haha.
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I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here on DW but I wasn't quite worked up enough to cross-post on Tumblr!
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Hee! Nicely stated.
Personally, it always seemed to me like the show was trying to maintain a thin film of plausible deniability so that the audience could interpret things in whichever way they wanted, so hearing Kubo say "I tried to keep things ambiguous so that people could interpret things whichever way they wanted" feels like a vindication of that impression, even if I would have preferred for the series itself to make the Victuuri relationship more explicitly canonical. (Like, that amazingly forward-thinking anime about the two male skaters who actually for-real kiss and then get for-real engaged and there's no ambiguity at all and it's the most progressive thing ever? I wanted to watch that show! But I never felt like that was actually the series that was on my screen, if that makes sense.)
I guess one upside to the wiggle room is that it leaves the door open for lots of shipfic featuring humorous misunderstandings and UST-filled pining where Yuuri thinks he gave Victor a $700 friendship bookmark but secretly wants it to be something more. Or at least, as a fan of pining and misunderstandings, I hope that's the direction that some of fandom decides to go in. :V But for sure, the best thing about fic is that we have the freedom to imagine + write whatever we want.
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I have to wonder about that whole "engagement" scene! Mari and MInako were right there. Were they texting under the table to Yuuri's parents? "OMG, Victor and Yuuri just got engaged!" When Yuuri gets back home, is there a huge banner up in Yu-Topia congratulating them on their engagement? Are people badgering them for wedding dates? Are Yuuri's parents trying to convince Victor to join the family to help run the onsen? Yuuri may end up engaged whether or not he meant to be!
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This kind of thing comes up in some of my other fandoms too. Frustrating as hell when people are telling me that the author's Disqus comments should be considered canon. Nnnnno.
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Yuuri asks to see the "pair rings" in the Japanese audio. "Pair rings" is the term for matching rings romantic couples get in Japan, either when they're dating or to be considered as engagement rings or 'pre-engagement' ring (similar to old-fashioned concept of "promise rings"). To the Japanese audience that solidified it being a romantic gesture, no matter how Yuuri goes on about "good luck amulets." Non-Japanese speakers arguing about this just baffles me though I assume the official subs did not help matters.