I don't really comment or participate in comment sections. and i apologize if anything is badly written since i'm not that good at english, but I've seen quite a lot of comments and discussions both here and in other platforms not liking the direction scores 49 and 50 took because "it makes it seem that all of Inori's progress disappears or reverts back", but i do have to say, i HARDLY disagree with this view and i think people that have fallen into this line of thought during these chapters are similar to the coaches that have been making mistakes regarding reading their students during this arc.
Inori has shown absolutely no progress regardless her issues with self esteem and her frustrations towards competitive skating, there's been no development in that front and i have no idea why people think she has grown regarding the issue. She's better regarding her pre performance anxiety, sure, but in terms of her frustrations, the only thing Inori has become better at is hiding her frustrations from the adults and skaters around her.
I think a lot of the people reading Medalist expect and want to hold Inori to an emotional maturity that's expected from a fully grown up athlete (and even then, her reaction is also not unreasonable for grown, experienced athletes at all). People dismiss a lot the fact she's a 13 year old kid growing up in a highly stressing competitive environment. Regardless of how good Inori is, she is still a child just now barely starting her teen years, and quite literally entering the age in where kids start having their first identity crisis. At age ranges similar to where Inori is right now, a kid's whole worldview starts changing; so its absolutely no surprise she has started to act different to how she did at the start, or that she has become more self conscious of herself or has started bottling stuff up instead of talking it out with the grown ups in her life. People expect Inori to inmensely improve mentally from habits that have been rooted to her core in a timeframe that is way too short for someone so young (because two to three years IS indeed a short timeframe of growth), and i think its unfair to judge how she reacts to these issues when the problem itself is something that hasn't been tackled in the story yet.
This also doesn't really come out of nowhere, i don't think it's hard to see how Tsurumaikada has slowly been building up to this, since they have shown Tsukasa's and Inori's communication issues a couple of times so far. Her characterization right now as both, a highly competitive character and also a kid in the specific developmental stage Inori is right now is completely on point with how she's grown so far.
Believing Inori is improving on these aspects people claim are being thrown away now just because she didn't cry against Iruka (even though not only is that a whole different situation, since Inori's and Iruka's relationship is different to the one she shares with Hikaru, AND even though she herself admited she was putting on a front to mask how frustrated she truly was) or because she didn't get particularly ancious after what happened regarding Iruka's injury is quite literally falling for the intentional facade she's putting on that we as an audience are supposed to be smart enough to realize is fake in the first place.
Besides that, i want to talk about the fact i read a lot of people thinking Hikaru declaring she will skate for Inori is a disservice to their relationship as rivals, and while i can somewhat get the thought process that might take you there, i also HARDLY disagree with that take, and i think its mischaracterizing the characters Tsurumaikada is trying to write. Rivalry is not the same as enemies or people disliking each other, and it's something that can come hand in hand with things like friendship, love and support. Hikaru cheering Inori up by saying she will skate for her is not putting down Inori as someone who is less than in terms of her rivalry with Hikaru; its quite literally doing the opposite.
The fact Hikaru is skating for the first time for someone else, and actively confronting Jun's phylosophy is a huge indicator of how desperate she is to have Inori on the ice with her; for Hikaru, Inori has never been someone below her, she's her equal, and not only that, but as she says herself, she's also the only skater that has made her feel like she's not alone in the ice on the first place. Hikaru wants to be a motivator for Inori's skating because she understands that the flame she put on Inori's heart back in score 2 is one of the main reasons Inori has always been so reactive and competitive towards her. Hikaru skating for Inori is not some kind of pity party in where she amazes Inori and she becomes a fan, it's a challenge.
"I'll skate for you if you skate for me" or "I will keep amazing you, as long as you do the same". Hikaru is not putting down Inori as a less skilled skater, she's lifting her up as the one she herself says, loves. She is the only one that has been able to amaze her this much while on the ice, and with this, she's inviting Inori to keep reaching out for her. Her relationship with Inori is what has made Hikaru actually want to start to skate for herself, that's how important Inori is to her, and i think reading it or simply reducing them as an invencible idol and the follower that will never truly be her rival is just undermining their relationship and the two of them as characters; their relationship is reciprocated, thinking the two talking things out makes they will stop being rivals is just a bad take.
