The fact remains that we know Yuuri’s a sweet bean with a liiiitle bit of a dickhead streak because we see things from his perspective, or from Viktor’s, and Viktor is down horrendous. There’s a fair to middling chance that prior to the Sochi banquet and the year of increasingly public shenanigans with Viktor, many other skaters thought Yuuri was kind of stuck up. (See my post about how the Katsukis are probably solidly middle class or even wealthy for their area, and the way Yuuri’s schoolmates may have perceived him as a result)
Anxiety has a funny way of doing that, making you appear unsociable and increasing your social isolation as a result of simply being shy. :/
I mean, the very beginning of the show, where Viktor offers him a photo and Yuuri just… walks away without a word. We know that he’s having an absolutely horrible day and week after some stressful months. And his brain is being a bitch and twisting things. We know that. Anybody watching irl would think it’s rude af. It’s like the accidental-rivals fanfictions, which are *chef’s kiss* 🤌 Noice! Yuuri is probably very easy to take out of context, because he’s so busy picking himself apart over things he only assumes other people think that he misses the reality of it.
Like I imagine someone in 17th place congratulating Yuuri on making the top 10 and Yuuri getting all “oh it’s so terrible!” About it and having that guy be like 😑😑😑. Ahhh, maybe not. He’s probably at least somewhat better trained than that 😂. Then again, his demeanor with both Viktor (at first), and later Minami might indicate that as a matter of fact he has not received any kind of PR training.
In-universe, the other skaters and the figure skating fandom in general probably have some interesting and varied opinions on our beloved Katsudon, especially before he cratered at Sochi, got drunk and revealed himself to be a chaotic dance machine, disappeared, came back, ranted at a press conference about love, got tackled and kissed by Viktor on live television, put a ring on it, set a world record, and tackled Viktor back.
☺️ It’s why Viktuuri is such a perfect couple. They’re both flawed but in ways that drive each other to be better? If that makes sense? Yuuri’s chaotic tendencies shake up Viktor’s very disciplined life. Viktor’s better awareness of other people, despite his lack of connection with them (he’s been an observer of life until Yuuri), causes Yuuri to be more considerate. Paying attention to each other comes with the side effect of also paying attention to other people, and it’s good for both of them. They each need the other to be emotionally vulnerable, so they have to become emotionally vulnerable themselves. And they call each other out on their bullshit but in a loving way that the other person is able to receive. #goals 💖