History of YOI fandom
As a YOI fandom grandparent, I felt it was my duty to write out all the fandom explosions for the newer fans who weren’t there to witness the big bang and gradual week-by-week creation of this universe. All the arguments, people blowing things out of proportion, blaming characters, death theories, awesome fans clearing up miscommunications, YOI breaking the internet…
This isn’t a post to call out specific people on their arguments and theories - I’ll stay respectfully away from restarting flames and picking fights, thankyouverymuch. Rather, this is an overview of the topics and conflicting views that swept across hundreds and thousands of people and prompted strong reactions. I’m doing this now, because I know that 6 months later, 1 year later, 3 years later, etc. there will be new fans who will have many of the same exact arguments. We’ve been there and done that. I see fans now who say things without knowing where the spelling/quote comes from, or who don’t realize how much has changed, or don’t know why there are certain perceptions of characters. So here’s a little bit of passing down history.
I also don’t want to forget the crazy ride this was. Laugh with me at the silly theories; smile with me at how deeply YOI has impacted our lives. For those of us old-timers, let’s take a trip down memory lane. Remember when…
—————- (Large arguments will be italicized or bold. Special thanks to @sachiro for reminding me of a bunch of stuff I missed, and looking over the draft in its various stages of being written and edited.)
Pre-series
Idea that there would be a love triangle (Yuri P.–Yuri K.–Victor)
Some fans started spelling Yuri Katsuki with two “u” in order to tell them apart.
Victuri ship name created for Victor x Yuri K. (in a comment to the PV)
The title
“lol ‘Yuri’ on Ice? Where are all the lesbians?”
“When it said Yuri on Ice, I thought we would get girls. Y’know what I mean?”
“Yuri on Ice? More like Yaoi on Ice! amiright?”
etc.
J.J. misspelling (English spelling “Jean Jack” instead of French Canadian “Jean-Jacques”)
you can see the remnants of this in the audience banners during the episodes, but it was corrected to “Jean-Jacques” on the official website and the in-show text
Phichit x Seung-gil ship created (there was more art for this than for Victor x Yuuri)
Episode 1
Victor vs. Viktor spelling arguments
Although “Victor” is the official spelling and seen in-show, people argued that the creators are wrong and that we fans know better than them about Russian culture - thus the “Viktor” spelling was born.
People argued back that spelling is subjective and you can spell a name multiple ways and still be correct - thus transliterating his Russian name into English as “Victor” would be just as acceptable.
The YOI wiki held fast for a time on using official spellings and information from the official website, but the transition of power led to a new team that started using agreed-upon info rather than solely using official info. “Viktor” replaced “Victor” on the website.
this change from “Victor” to “Viktor” on the wiki happened around episode 2~3, but the arguments were in the page comments since episode 1 – with moderators explaining their reasoning with sticking to official sources.
Victor is a flirtatious over-the-top character who will seduce Yuuri
Victor is the overwhelming seme and Yuuri is the shy whimpering uke.
Keep reading
Yaoi on ice =)))))) exactly what i think about after the episode 1 lol