Yes, I'm aware that Yagudin started first, but that's why I said this was going to be mostly chronological, because damn it, Plushenko is going beat Yagudin when I'm doing the writing. (Yeah, that's a spoiler for who is coming in 4th.)
I fell in love with Plushenko the very first time I saw him skate, which must have been the '98 Euros. There was just something about him. I've never been able to explain it.
It has lead to more fear, worry and psychosomatic nausea while watching figure skating than is entirely necessary. (For instance, I know he won the gold medal at the 2006 Olympics, but I still can't watch that routine without worry. It's like being an Ivanisevic fan all over again.)
I remember the brilliance, the random oopses, the re-writing of programmes in mid-stream to make up for oopses, the excessive fondness for shiny, metallic fabrics and a certain style.
He is my favouritest favourite and I love him and I don't care that he's occasionally lacking in artistic merit (to quote my Mother, "I'm not sure what he's skating to but it's not the music that's playing". She exaggerates of course. And lots of his later stuff was definitely to the music that was playing.).
I was lucky enough to see him skate at the 2012 Europeans (a friend had a spare ticket). I'd heard he was injured and wasn't doing the Worlds, so I assumed that he wasn't going to be at the Europeans. I was pleasantly surprised.
One of the things that doesn't come over as well on the TV is that he really is magnetic on the ice. You don't notice anything else when he's on there. The crowd really is in the palm of his hand. He said, in the interview after the free skate, that the crowd's support was what got him through it (I think this was one of the back injuries, but it might have been his right knee), and he was aiming for Sochi. And there weren't many people in the audience who weren't crossing their fingers that he'd get there. So it was nice that he achieved that. And he got a gold medal, even if it wasn't the gold medal.