Medalist - Ch. 50 - Proof of Earnestness

[1idd0kun]

She has become stronger but this loss has brought her insecurities to light.

Had she truly become stronger, she wouldn't have those insecurities still.

 

[1idd0kun]

She was apologizing because she and Hikaru were never at the same level. She was just chasing after Hikaru. It was an act of arrogance to call herself Hikaru's rival. She got Hikaru hopes up and then dashed them.

It was that arrogance that brought her to this point. It was the source of her drive. Without it, she has no hope to ever get to Hikaru's level.

 

[Quality_Reads]

On what basis do you say this?
How many examples of people taking part in many competitions did you track the psychological development of? Where are the statistics?

Throughout middle, high school and college I went to national competitions in 8 subjects and international competitions in 3 subjects, won many trophies and medals, and how strong did that make me mentally? I became a shut-in weeaboo.

Which field did you go to international competitions in?

 

[Quality_Reads]

It was that arrogance that brought her to this point. It was the source of her drive. Without it, she has no hope to ever get to Hikaru's level.

Yup. But in her moment of insecurity she considered it arrogance. And indeed that is true. They both can be true. All her claims of her showing off in the Juniors competition amounted to nothing after that poor skating.

 

[Quality_Reads]

Had she truly become stronger, she wouldn't have those insecurities still.

You do know that elite sportsmen can and do have insecurities too. There are multiple instances of Olympic level players breaking down.

Inori is just good at putting up a brave face. Moreover she is a teen which is the prime time to have insecurities. Lastly, trauma [for lack of a better word] never dissapears, it fades. This incident with Iruka brought that trauma of her sister's injury to the forefront. Espescially as she looked up to Iruka. If someone else was injured, she would've performed normally. But it was Iruka, her role model.

 

[tomatomandarine]

What an amazing pair of chapters, I'm super excited for what Hikaru is going to show us on 51. My arms are already in position.

 

[1idd0kun]

Yup. But in her moment of insecurity she considered it arrogance. And indeed that is true. They both can be true. All her claims of her showing off in the Juniors competition amounted to nothing after that poor skating.

Inori started her journey feeling sorry for and ashamed of herself. 4 years later and we find her apologizing for daring to claim she would beat Hikaru. It only took one loss to get her back to square one. No character growth whatsoever during those 4 years.
I don't know about you but I don't think this is good writing.

 

[1idd0kun]

You do know that elite sportsmen can and do have insecurities too. There are multiple instances of Olympic level players breaking down.

Inori is just good at putting up a brave face. Moreover she is a teen which is the prime time to have insecurities. Lastly, trauma [for lack of a better word] never dissapears, it fades. This incident with Iruka brought that trauma of her sister's injury to the forefront. Espescially as she looked up to Iruka. If someone else was injured, she would've performed normally. But it was Iruka, her role model.

It all comes down to the fact that she's not strong enough yet. Or more like she hasn't become stronger than she was at the beginning.

 

[doomrider7]

I don't know. Maybe this could be interpreted as an isolated incident if we hadn't seen what happened when Tsukasa got hurt. Back then Inori lost her ability to land her jumps, just like right now. So I don't think this is an isolated incident. I think there's more to it. And something must be done. And there's no time. GP finals is around the corner and Junior Worlds just a few months after that. It's do or die now.

And I get the feeling Hikaru saving Inori with her performance is not the right move. Inori needs to stop depending so much on others. It feels like Inori's regressing to the beginning.

Yeah I didn't like that too much either same for the dedication of the skate to her. It felt like a passive acceptance that she'll never beat surpass Hikaru and that her role in their rivalry was more to drive Hikaru to excell. If anything it feels more like Hikaru is the MC now and the titular Medalist(a japanese fan said as much on Twitter) and Inori's journey is more about her being the PoV character for that rise.

 

[ewjifowejfiowe]

What happens with Inori goes beyond just a bit of anxiety. This is basically a trauma, most likely steming from what happened to her sister.

Yes, that's my point.

Things being like this, it's hard to buy into the idea that she has any chance to ever beat Hikaru or Iruka. Not only they are far more skilled, but also way more mentally resiliant than Inori.

Yes, that's Inori's weak point. After only 2 years of training she was doing quadruple jumps, which is very, very hard. If she didn't have that weak point, she would be unbeatable. I believe this is an import plot point in the story.

Figure skating careers are really short, specially for women. Inori is already 15. If she can't get over her mental hang-ups now, she's finished. And the fact she hasn't grown at all so far is a bad sign.

I have been watching some real high level competitive skating and there are multiple 22~24 year old female athletes competing. Kaori Sakamoto, three-time consecutive World champion, is currently 24. Inori's is 13 right now, she has a lot ahead of her. In other sports at least, it is not rare to hear about athletes that even though were not always the best, eventually hit their peak and then became the best. A fifth place guy now getting the first place. Inori is very skilled, she has potential for that. It would be bad if she absolutely sucked and then out of nowhere became the best in the world. This is grounded in reality. Actually, if we were to judge based on that, Inori is a top talent.

She really doesn't have the time for this shit. Bombing the All Japan means she might not be selected for the Junior World championship. And that will make it harder to get selected for the Olympics any time soon, if ever. Every time she loses a competition, she's not just losing that one time, she's losing chances of getting selected for future tournaments too.

Yes, it is a setback, a failure, but that's life.

No. She started to doubt herself because she bombed her performance.

Yes, I spoke about that in my first comment.

not a positive development. It means going back to the begining of Inori's journey. It's a setback that will hurt Inori's growth as a skater because she doesn't have the time for this shit right now, as I explained about.

I don't know what the author is planning for Inori. What I do know is that if the author wants Inori to beat Hikaru at some point in the future, this isn't the right way to get there.

Sometimes you do need to look back and reevaluate your perspective. Not that I'm criticizing you by this, but how old are you? Did you never had such experiences or met someone who did? If you truly didn't, I'll honestly be surprised, maybe our environments are very different.

I don't think Inori doesn't have time for that, but if she indeed does not, then so what? She either overcomes this hurdle of fails, we are not breaking reality in here. She's being tested right now.

I think you are mixing bad writing with satisfaction. You seem unhappy with how things turned out and sees this as a failure of the author. My point is that Inori's behavior can be absolutely justified with real life examples, it holds plausibility, therefore it's not a writing quality issue.

 

[1idd0kun]

Yes, that's my point.

Yes, that's Inori's weak point. After only 2 years of training she was doing quadruple jumps, which is very, very hard. If she didn't have that weak point, she would be unbeatable. I believe this is an import plot point in the story.

I have been watching some real high level competitive skating and there are multiple 22~24 year old female athletes competing. Kaori Sakamoto, three-time consecutive World champion, is currently 24. Inori's is 13 right now, she has a lot ahead of her. In other sports at least, it is not rare to hear about athletes that even though were not always the best, eventually hit their peak and then became the best. A fifth place guy now getting the first place. Inori is very skilled, she has potential for that. It would be bad if she absolutely sucked and then out of nowhere became the best in the world. This is grounded in reality. Actually, if we were to judge based on that, Inori is a top talent.

Yes, it is a setback, a failure, but that's life.

Yes, I spoke about that in my first comment.


Sometimes you do need to look back and reevaluate your perspective. Not that I'm criticizing you by this, but how old are you? Did you never had such experiences or met someone who did? If you truly didn't, I'll honestly be surprised, maybe our environments are very different.

I don't think Inori doesn't have time for that, but if she indeed does not, then so what? She either overcomes this hurdle of fails, we are not breaking reality in here. She's being tested right now.

I think you are mixing bad writing with satisfaction. You seem unhappy with how things turned out and sees this as a failure of the author. My point is that Inori's behavior can be absolutely justified with real life examples, it holds plausibility, therefore it's not a writing quality issue.

I'm most definitely not mixing bad writing with satisfaction. If Inori is being set up to fail, then I think this is a decent way to do it. BUT, if the author wants her to actually beat Hikaru, this isn't the right way to do it. The right way to do it is to show a gradual growth, so that when Inori beats Hikaru, it feels earned and believable.

Whether these chapters are well written or not depends on what the author is planning for Inori.

Yes, that's Inori's weak point. After only 2 years of training she was doing quadruple jumps, which is very, very hard. If she didn't have that weak point, she would be unbeatable. I believe this is an import plot point in the story.

Please, even if she didn't have that weak point, she wouldn't beat Hikaru. For instance, she still hasn't mastered her 3A and 3L despite training for years. Inori's not talentless but she isn't nearly as talented as Hikaru, who has the same "hawk eyes" as Jun and can master techniques with way less training than normal.

 

[LaconicKibitz]

Jesus, some of you are being ridiculous in your interpretations of this chapter and the previous one.

First off, athletes choke all the time in competitive, high-stress situations. It sucks, but it happens. The nerves got to Inori and she messed up her jumps.

Second, Inori's reaction to her loss is hardly out of character. Don't know if any of you are watching the anime adaptation, but it's been refreshing me on the start of the story. From there, it's obvious that Inori's self esteem is directly tied to her skating performance, probably to an unhealthy degree. Thus, considering this is also the first time she's choked in a competition this hard, it'd be more surprising if her self-esteem didn't falter. After all, Inori's only been skating competitively for 2 years, compared to Hikaru's 8 years and Iruka's 13 years (assuming they both started at 5 years old).

Third, I personally can't see how some of y'all are blind to Hikaru and Inori's relationship and how they've helped each other grow. Hikaru's story has been one of slowly humanizing herself and properly solidifying her relationships so that they can exist off the ice. As Hikaru states in this chapter, this was kickstarted by Inori's display of passion and determination back in volume 1. Since then, Hikaru has finally taken off her mask in front of Rioh and was able to properly connect with her former clubmates before she left. And now, for the first, Hikaru is reaching out. To Inori, the person who initially helped her. Dedicating her performance to Inori is Hikaru's way of returning Inori's favor.

Inori has been training like hell in order to be able to stand by Hikaru's side as competitive figure skater. And now, Hikaru has realized she also wants Inori to be there. That's why Hikanori is the best ship in this story and you can't convince me otherwise.

 

[J_the_Man]

"Inori's emotional development is completely undone"

Guys, growth isn't linear or exponential. It's gradual, with ups and downs.

Inori is, what? 14? She's smack dab in the middle of puberty, relearning how her body works, just witnessed her cherished senpai suffer a traumatic injury... Oh yeah, and she was already weighing herself down mentally with her lofty promises to Hikaru.

Reminder, she just started figure skating three years ago, and effectively started emotionally from rock bottom. Had Tsukasa not stepped in when he did, she might have been hopelessly shattered by her mom.

Inori has grown as a skater at roughly a third of the rate most of the girls around her have put in time-wise. It's a testament to how much of a genius Inori is. There's also no way that growth is going to be stable and consistent. She lacks the experience everyone else around her has. Not to mention, from a mental standpoint, she's completely caged by the idea she can only justify her worth by winning.

Inori has grown emotionally, but she is still fragile and is effectively trying to pretend that she is strong when she isn't there yet.

Which is ironic, because it appears Hikaru is going to be the next person after Iruka to break free from her own cage. This move to Tokyo has been seminole moment of growth in her own life as she realizez there is more worth to her self than becoming the next Yokada Jun.

The opening pose is also intriguing, as if she is mourning the loss of someone precious to her. I wonder if it will have the effect she wanted. Every time Hikaru had put off a masterful performance, it seems to corner Inori more and more.

 

[doomrider7]

I'm most definitely not mixing bad writing with satisfaction. If Inori is being set up to fail, then I think this is a decent way to do it. BUT, if the author wants her to actually beat Hikaru, this isn't the right way to do it. The right way to do it is to show a gradual growth, so that when Inori beats Hikaru, it feels earned and believable.

Whether these chapters are well written or not depends on what the author is planning for Inori.



Please, even if she didn't have that weak point, she wouldn't beat Hikaru. For instance, she still hasn't mastered her 3A and 3L despite training for years. Inori's not talentless but she isn't nearly as talented as Hikaru, who has the same "hawk eyes" as Jun and can master techniques with less training than normal.

Ehhh...you CAN beat a 3A and 3L with only 2A and 2L, but that's a tough ask on the GOE front. Not impossible and seems to be Inori's style.

Jesus, some of you are being ridiculous in your interpretations of this chapter and the previous one.

First off, athletes choke all the time in competitive, high-stress situations. It sucks, but it happens. The nerves got to Inori and she messed up her jumps.

Second, Inori's reaction to her loss is hardly out of character. Don't know if any of you are watching the anime adaptation, but it's been refreshing me on the start of the story. From there, it's obvious that Inori's self esteem is directly tied to her skating performance, probably to an unhealthy degree. Thus, considering this is also the first time she's choked in a competition this hard, it'd be more surprising if her self-esteem didn't falter. After all, Inori's only been skating competitively for 2 years, compared to Hikaru's 8 years and Iruka's 13 years (assuming they both started at 5 years old).

Third, I personally can't see how some of y'all are blind to Hikaru and Inori's relationship and how they've helped each other grow. Hikaru's story has been one of slowly humanizing herself and properly solidifying her relationships so that they can exist off the ice. As Hikaru states in this chapter, this was kickstarted by Inori's display of passion and determination back in volume. Since then, Hikaru has finally taken off her mask in front of Rioh and was able to properly connect with her former clubmates before she left. And now, for the first, Hikaru is reaching out. To Inori, the person who initially helped her. Dedicating her performance to Inori is Hikaru's way of returning Inori's favor.

Inori has been training like hell in order to be able to stand by Hikaru's side as competitive figure skater. And now, Hikaru has realized she also wants Inori to be there. That's why Hikanori is the best ship in this story and you can't convince me otherwise.

The issue I have with Hikaru is that she's starting to veer into Invincible Rival since a lot of stuff like her change of club, leaving her foster family, a complete change in environment, her lingering hip issues and other physical issues, haven't really amounted to anything in terms of change to her sheer dominance when they we're presented in ways that made it feel like they'd have some kind of impact, but if the most we get is a mistimed jump then yeah, she pretty much IS the de facto best skater in the series and just an insurmountable wall for Inori outside of author fiat*.

There's also her speech to Tsukasa about no longer doubting Jun's words if Inori fails again as well as Jun's views and philosophy which have no real way to be wrong anymore again outside of author fiat*.

* It CAN still work outside of this, but the sheer amount of growth Inori would have to do would dwarf her initial rise. The Hikaru stuff just feels all around messy though and I don't know where it's all going honestly.

 

[doomrider7]

"Inori's emotional development is completely undone"

Guys, growth isn't linear or exponential. It's gradual, with ups and downs.

Inori is, what? 14? She's smack dab in the middle of puberty, relearning how her body works, just witnessed her cherished senpai suffer a traumatic injury... Oh yeah, and she was already weighing herself down mentally with her lofty promises to Hikaru.

Reminder, she just started figure skating three years ago, and effectively started emotionally from rock bottom. Had Tsukasa not stepped in when he did, she might have been hopelessly shattered by her mom.

Inori has grown as a skater at roughly a third of the rate most of the girls around her have put in time-wise. It's a testament to how much of a genius Inori is. There's also no way that growth is going to be stable and consistent. She lacks the experience everyone else around her has. Not to mention, from a mental standpoint, she's completely caged by the idea she can only justify her worth by winning.

Inori has grown emotionally, but she is still fragile and is effectively trying to pretend that she is strong when she isn't there yet.

Which is ironic, because it appears Hikaru is going to be the next person after Iruka to break free from her own cage. This move to Tokyo has been seminole moment of growth in her own life as she realizez there is more worth to her self than becoming the next Yokada Jun.

The opening pose is also intriguing, as if she is mourning the loss of someone precious to her. I wonder if it will have the effect she wanted. Every time Hikaru had put off a masterful performance, it seems to corner Inori more and more.

Inori means prayer and her pose is one of prayer and it's supposed to contrast "the pianist" pose of the last time she did the routine. Something about being the inspiration rather than the one inspired.

 

[1idd0kun]

I wonder if it will have the effect she wanted. Every time Hikaru had put off a masterful performance, it seems to corner Inori more and more.

This is a really good point. If Hikaru's performance is extra fabulous, it would just hammer in how big the gap between her and Inori is. I don't see how it would have a positive effect on Inori right now that she's doubting herself.

 

[Renu]

On the one hand, give my poor baby a W.

On the other, shippers are eating so well those two chapters.

The Yuri on Ice is real!

 

[doomrider7]

This is a really good point. If Hikaru's performance is extra fabulous, it would just hammer in how big the gap between her and Inori is. I don't see how it would have a positive effect on Inori right now that she's doubting herself.

In chapter 5 it has a mixed effect. She's starstruck and amazed, but when the scores are read her face visibly shakes and frowns at huge disparity. It's why I'm wondering where all of this is going and what "dedicating her skate to Inori" is supposed to to do. What Inori needs is MORE of that almost RAGE filled moment when she woke up after her last failed run. Like react to setbacks with a mass of feelings of all kinds, anger, sadness, inadequacy, rage, conviction, etc.

What I think should've happened and where I think the author screwed up and is trying to course correct is that Inori should NOT have come up so close to beating Hikaru last time. She should've done very well, but fall in the Top 10 maybe 8th place and still keep a lot of the big things like the 4 Sal and 4 sequence.

You keep everything the same and have her come 4th HERE and change things so that instead of just thinking them, Hikaru actually verbalizes the stuff from 49 and 50 and both have a quiet REAL TALK moment about what skating means and even is to them and where it's all going in their lives.

 

[Mentholatum]

It only took one loss to get her back to square one. No character growth whatsoever during those 4 years.

I think that's too radical. Saying she didn't grow at all based on a single event is as wrong as saying she was as mature as an adult Olympic medalist based simply on how she recovered during some previous competition.

 

[Scruffy]

She got a slot for the GP finals, but I was talking about the Junior Worlds, a different competition. To secure a slot for the Junior Worlds she needed to podium in the All Japan. She bombed her performance hard so she's not gonna podium. She still has some chances to get a slot for Worlds, but it's gonna be harder now and dependent on other factors.

Yep she missed out on the Junior worlds this time. But remember she is only 13 and will be eligible next year. It is not until she is 17 that she can compete in the Olympics so she still has a few years before she actually becomes a “Medalist”!