Okay, I figured it was time we had us some Discourse™ as a fandom SO HERE’S WHAT I’M GONNA DO
There’s this blog, @sortinghatchats, see? They do things a little differently. They assign characters a primary and a secondary house–a primary house is based on why a character does things, and a secondary house is based on how a character does things. Neither is more important than the other, despite the names; they serve different purposes. You can check out more info here. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:
Our sweet darling katsudon Yuri Katsuki is a Slytherin primary. I can already see the heads shaking and the eyes popping, so let me explain: Slytherin primaries are all about loyalty to themselves and their own. Initially, Yuri appears to be the variety of Slytherin primary that’s kicked themselves out of their circle of people they care about. But when Victor comes on the scene and starts coaching Yuri to believe in himself, we see a more selfish side of Yuri kick in. He becomes incredibly driven to reach gold in the Grand Prix, and we definitely hear some possessiveness in his internal monologues during his Eros performances. It’s a little downplayed, but we also see that Yuri doesn’t particularly care about people outside of his little circle: Victor, Phichit, his family, the Nishigoris, Minako–not that he doesn’t like other people, but he can be distinctly aloof and distant, probably best seen with his relationship with Minami; it takes Victor’s prodding to get Yuri to show the poor kid some consideration. But as mentioned, Yuri sometimes focuses more on “his own” more than himself. Despite his love for Victor, he always comes back to thinking of ending their relationship so that Victor can go back to what Yuri perceives as what Victor really wants–to be back on the ice in Russia. And despite having crushed on Yuko in the past, he doesn’t harbor any ill-will over her marriage to Takeshi.
As for his secondary house, I believe Yuri to be a Ravenclaw secondary. Ravenclaw secondaries solve problems and achieve their goals by stockpiling knowledge and skill sets–not necessarily through reading and bookwork, like one might think. In Yuri’s case, he cultivates his ice skating skill. Yuri’s at his best when prepared for situations, and isn’t good at improvising beyond what he knows. When thrown for a loop, his prior knowledge and ability is what he falls back on, and so he practices and practices and practices.
Victor Nikiforov is a Ravenclaw primary. His worldview is a system he’s constructed on his own, through which his actions and experiences are filtered. His system is everything. Victor’s in particular is built around his ice skating career. We heard it from his opening monologue in episode 10; skating has been his entire life for a long, long time. Everything he’s done has centered around it, to the detriment of other important things–in his words, love and life. His realization of this led him to start into a process known as Falling, where a Ravenclaw primary loses faith not only in their system, but in their ability to form systems. But then along came a certain very drunk Japanese skater, and then the skater’s surprise internet video, and Victor found himself a new system.
On the other hand, Victor is a Slytherin secondary, incidentally making his sorting the opposite of Yuri. Victor acts by reacting, and is quite adept at making things up on the fly. Recall when Phichit started a fuss over Yuri and Victor’s “wedding rings”–Victor didn’t waste much time in coolly asserting that they were engagement rings, and that he and Yuri would only be married once Yuri won gold. Or we can go earlier; when Victor saw Yuri’s video, he dropped everything to fly to Japan to be Yuri’s coach. Or when Yurio showed up in Japan, and Victor came up with the Hot Springs on Ice exhibition. But all this adaptability and flexibility can feel like a mask, and so in the presence of those he particularly trusts, like Yuri or Yakov, he sheds the layers and facades and becomes more relaxed and honest.
Now, Yuri Plisetsky‘s primary is harder to pin down, since his motivations aren’t made as explicitly clear as Yuri and Victor’s are. However, I think I’ve settled on a Slytherin primary for him. His circle of people is very small, certainly including his granfather, Victor, and Otabek, probably Mila and the rest of the Russian team, too, and eventually even Yuri Katsuki worms his way in despite Yurio’s best efforts. And, of course, himself. His ambition is almost always on full display; the first thing we hear from him is in episode 1, where he declares that he’s going to win the gold medal in the next Grand Prix, so Yuri should just retire already.
His secondary house, on the other hand, has been glaringly obvious from day one: Yurio is a Gryffindor secondary through and through. He charges into every situation head-on, with frightening ferocity and passion. He’s highly reactive, like a Slytherin secondary, but instead of being flexible, Yurio plants his feet and screams at the other person to move. When he finds out that Victor, who has promised to choreograph his short program, has suddenly left to coach some loser in Japan, he drops everything to drag him back to Russia, whether he wants to come or not. This brashness gets him far–see his success in getting Victor to do his short program, and his record-breaking performance of it at the Grand Prix achieved through constantly pushing himself to his limits. Yurio is also unapologetically blunt and refuses to play around; when he says something, he means it. Of course, not everything he says is something he ought to say, as with his nigh-relentless mocking of Yuri, even when he’s not around to hear it, and Victor calls him out on it.
Yuri Katsuki: Slytherin/Ravenclaw
Victor Nikiforov: Ravenclaw/Slytherin
Yuri Plisetsky: Slytherin/Gryffindor
