Why Viktor is the saddest character of YOI and why his relationship with Yuri saved his life
This moment is what made me realize that out of every character of YOI, Viktor Nikiforov is probably the saddest of them all.
Viktor Nikiforov, 27 years old, the world champion figure skater of his generation, admitted that he has been neglecting both life and love for over 20 years because of skating. The only time he could even think about those two words was whenever he wasn’t skating, and since he is literally the best figure skater of his age, this must mean that he only very rarely thought of it.
In other words, skating literally took his entire life away from him.
From what we’ve seen of Viktor, he is a bubbly, upbeat, happy, charming, funny and adorkable man who has stolen all our hearts not by his looks, but by his amazing personality. But that is only how we’ve seen him after he decided to quit skating, and became Yuri’s coach. We’ve only seen him after he decided to take his life back.
I honestly think this indicates that when Viktor was still skating competitively, he wasn’t like this at all; he was never his true self. I think this was confirmed from what we’ve seen in one of the very first shots of him.
He doesn’t look happy at all, when he just won gold again for the trillionth time. And why? Because he wasn’t living.
It was already made clear from the very beginning of ep1 that he was thinking about retiring, but that he probably never went through with the idea because he was still so good at skating. My theory is, that he at first wasn’t going to go through with his retirement because his life wouldn’t have a purpose without skating.
But then, he saw Yuri skating to his routine in that video. Of course he immediately recognized him from the banquet party months ago after he miserably failed the Grand Prix Finale. I mean, how could he forget Yuri? Since he was probably the very first person in all those 20 years who made him genuinely enjoy himself again;
Look at that smile. He looks so genuinely happy. This was probably his first genuine smile in such a long time. And that is so precious. In that moment of their silly drunk dance, in that short moment, Yuri reminded him of what it was like to really live again.
Viktor at that time was already thinking about retiring, since this was right after the Grand Prix Finale, and the announcer said during his GPF performance that there was a rumor of him retiring. But the only thing that kept Viktor from actually confirming that, as I mentioned before, was because he had no idea what to do with his life other than skating. Skating was his entire life, so what was he supposed to do without it?
But then, Yuri pole-danced right into his heart after they had spent an amazing night together on the dance floor, asking Viktor to become his coach.
Just look at his facial expression right when Yuri asks Viktor to become his coach. That isn’t just a look of confusion; but a look of surprise. Because of course, becoming someone’s coach had probably never crossed his mind before. Becoming the coach of a figure skater, allowed him to be able to start living his life after all those years without fully abandoning figure skating.
It was the absolute perfect idea, his one way ticket out of his depression and towards living his life again alongside the man who reminded him of what it was like to genuinely enjoy himself again.
But then of course, Yuri forgot all about that night and went back to Japan as Viktor completed that season and won the world championship.
But then, what truly was the turning point for Viktor, was seeing Yuri skate to his own routine again. As other theories already suspected, Viktor saw that video of Yuri skating perfectly to his routine as a way for Yuri to call out to Viktor, making him think that Yuri still remembered their night together, and still wanted Viktor to be his coach.
That was the moment he decided to fly to Japan and accept Yuri’s offer to become his coach. That was the moment he decided to take his life back again, once and for all, without abandoning figure skating.
That was the moment Yuri saved him.
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