The Shibutanis Thread 4: Ready for Paradise

Finally got to watch their FD last night also watched their Gala performance (which was fabulous).

From what I read about their FD I did not know what to expect. Yes the mistakes were there but they
fought through the program and managed to deliver a good quality program despite the mistakes and that is why they
earned the GPF Bronze.

The Shibs medal hardware is not a fluke and I just wish this team would get a little respect for that.
 
Also, I think it's worth pointing out that the Shibs do EXTRA twizzles. I think some are complaining that Hubbell/Donohue's twizzles were docked down a level in the SD and the Shibs weren't (in both segments). But the Shibs actually do a ton of twizzles, so if there's an issue, it doesn't affect their level, just GOE.
 
Cayuse said:
"...Each time I find myself, flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in the race! That's life!..." Go Alex and Maia! So looking forward to counting the twizzles in Spanish in San Jose!
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It just crossed my mind that when you consider the demographics, out of all the places they’ve skated their SD, San Jose has the biggest chance of having a significant portion of the audience be Spanish-speakers. That might make the Spanish-countdown twizzles even more exciting!
 
MRani said:
It just crossed my mind that when you consider the demographics, out of all the places they’ve skated their SD, San Jose has the biggest chance of having a significant portion of the audience be Spanish-speakers. That might make the Spanish-countdown twizzles even more exciting!
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I'm pretty sure the Asians in the area will turn out more than the Latinos, but I think most anyone can count Uno, dos, tres! (They may get stuck after that, lol.)
 
Did TSL have anything to say on Twitter after their standing ovations for the program at Rostelecom and Skate America or was he sitting on that in case they had a bad performance? I feel like if the Shibs end up losing Nationals (or placing third) and don't get to do the team event and miss out on a medal at the Olys, then the bullies win even though the other teams have nothing to do with TSL's abhorrent behavior.
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
Did TSL have anything to say on Twitter after their standing ovations for the program at Rostelecom and Skate America or was he sitting on that in case they had a bad performance? I feel like if the Shibs end up losing Nationals (or placing third) and don't get to do the team event and miss out on a medal at the Olys, then the bullies win even though the other teams have nothing to do with TSL's abhorrent behavior.
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At Rostelecom they said some disgusting comments. I don´t think they said anything at SA but I don´t know if they mentioned them in their video. To be fair, they have praised to Maia several times, I think their problem is more with Alex.
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
Did TSL have anything to say on Twitter after their standing ovations for the program at Rostelecom and Skate America or was he sitting on that in case they had a bad performance? I feel like if the Shibs end up losing Nationals (or placing third) and don't get to do the team event and miss out on a medal at the Olys, then the bullies win even though the other teams have nothing to do with TSL's abhorrent behavior.
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Oh my gosh, why would you even start thinking such negative thoughts? They had one off performance. The bullies are not going to win!

chapis said:
At Rostelecom they said some disgusting comments. I don´t think they said anything at SA but I don´t know if they mentioned them in their video. To be fair, they have praised to Maia several times, I think their problem is more with Alex.
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Again I feel compelled to point out that the anti-Shib narrative has done a 180 degree turn in the past few years. Maia used to be the target of their complaints. Now that she's caught up they have to turn elsewhere. We should shut out the stupid trash talk the same way I'm sure the Shibs do, IMHO.

The one thing I do take seriously is that there are lot of doubts about their FD and that, as a Coldplay program, it's being compared negatively to FY. But SA silenced people. If they skate clean and lights out they're majestic and transfixing. But it's not as easy to identify with emotionally because the plot is not clear. Even who it's about is not quite clear (according to some posters here). The lyrics say "she," but in an interview they said "we." Just going by the choreography I would be hard put to answer the question. Maia does stand out but not as much as I thought she would when I first listened to the song. They are unified like P/C but not in the same way. But P/C don't have lyrics to interpret... it adds a challenge.
 
Spun Silver said:
The one thing I do take seriously is that there are lot of doubts about their FD and that, as a Coldplay program, it's being compared negatively to FY. But SA silenced people. If they skate clean and lights out they're majestic and transfixing. But it's not as easy to identify with emotionally because the plot is not clear. Even who it's about is not quite clear (according to some posters here). The lyrics say "she," but in an interview they said "we." Just going by the choreography I would be hard put to answer the question. Maia does stand out but not as much as I thought she would when I first listened to the song. They are unified like P/C but not in the same way. But P/C don't have lyrics to interpret... it adds a challenge.
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It is about both of them with the main focus in Maia, first, because the lyrics are about ¨she¨ but also because they started to skate competitively because of Maia, Alex did not like figure skate very much at first, but he tried it again because he saw how Maia was getting much fun, Alex can not be ignored because he, helped her achieve her dream, which became their dream.
 
chapis said:
It is about both of them with the main focus in Maia, first, because the lyrics are about ¨she¨ but also because they started to skate competitively because of Maia, Alex did not like figure skate very much at first, but he tried it again because he saw how Maia was getting much fun, Alex can not be ignored because he, helped her achieve her dream, which became their dream.
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The problem is that that is only clear if you know their bio well (as opposed to just their competition history that the commentators repeat over and over). It's not clear from the program or lyrics themselves.
 
I wonder how it would work if they were somehow in different places (figuratively and literally) at the opening of the program, just enough to establish that it's Maia's dream at first, and then the audience could see Alex deciding to join in it. That small change could tell the story. Just a thought.
 
I think this goes back a bit to the issue about there being a lack of storytelling in their step sequences. There’s a lot of time spent doing that circular step sequence that doesn’t have choreography specific and meaningful to the program and music. They improved the diagonal step sequence choreo a lot, so they need to do the same for the circular so there’s a clear storyline and emotional hook from the beginning. And the original straight-line lift needs to come back because it expresses the lyric “stuck in reverse” so perfectly.

Anyway, TSL was just waiting for an excuse to bash them. They couldn’t get one at SA (and besides, they were too busy trying to tear down Ashley there). Their criticisms don’t really make logical sense though. If it’s not a winning program, why is it the third highest scoring FD by a significant way this season? If there’s no vision or impact, why does it get standing ovations out of audiences (never mind the hometown crowd at SA, even people in Russia stood up for the program that was going to beat B/S). There’s definitely a vision and an impact, it just needs to be focused and maximized.
 
MRani said:
I think this goes back a bit to the issue about there being a lack of storytelling in their step sequences. There’s a lot of time spent doing that circular step sequence that doesn’t have choreography specific and meaningful to the program and music. They improved the diagonal step sequence choreo a lot, so they need to do the same for the circular so there’s a clear storyline and emotional hook from the beginning. And the original straight-line lift needs to come back because it expresses the lyric “stuck in reverse” so perfectly.

Anyway, TSL was just waiting for an excuse to bash them. They couldn’t get one at SA (and besides, they were too busy trying to tear down Ashley there). Their criticisms don’t really make logical sense though. If it’s not a winning program, why is it the third highest scoring FD by a significant way this season? If there’s no vision or impact, why does it get standing ovations out of audiences (never mind the hometown crowd at SA, even people in Russia stood up for the program that was going to beat B/S). There’s definitely a vision and an impact, it just needs to be focused and maximized.
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I don't take TSL seriously. I was listening more to some of their readers and some posters here. I agree with your last line completely.
 
Spun Silver said:
I wonder how it would work if they were somehow in different places (figuratively and literally) at the opening of the program, just enough to establish that it's Maia's dream at first, and then the audience could see Alex deciding to join in it. That small change could tell the story. Just a thought.
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I kind of like this idea. But in ice dancing you can’t spend a lot of time far away from each other so I don’t know how it’s feasible. Maybe they can have their starting poses apart from each other and then quickly come together and go into the dance spin?
 
Spun Silver said:
The problem is that that is only clear if you know their bio well (as opposed to just their competition history that the commentators repeat over and over). It's not clear from the program or lyrics themselves.
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yes, it is true, but at least the program has a meaning and a coherence, was not done just thinking about making beautiful movements. But at first,the music bothered me a lot because of the quality it had in the Russia Cup and I watched it many times without sound and it's really beautiful to see how they move, so it also works that way. They are not as literal and theatrical as C/L, V/M, B/S or G/P, the style is simply different, and those programs have not had the best critics either. The problem is that the Shibs also chose few fragments of the lyrics, if you only see the programs of C/B and H/D without listening to the lyrics of the song, the choreography does not say much. I have to make an effort to understand English, which I have not done with the H/D´s song, so I only see that they skate nice, but the choreography, I have no idea what they are trying to tell me, I can not even tell if It is assumed that their relationship is romantic.
 
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MRani said:
I kind of like this idea. But in ice dancing you can’t spend a lot of time far away from each other so I don’t know how it’s feasible. Maybe they can have their starting poses apart from each other and then quickly come together and go into the dance spin?
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Yes, something like that. It's amazing how much can be "said" (shown) in a few seconds.
 
chapis said:
yes, it is true, but at least the program has a meaning and a coherence, was not done just thinking about making beautiful movements. But at first,the music bothered me a lot because of the quality it had in the Russia Cup and I watched it many times without sound and it's really beautiful to see how they move, so it also works that way. They are not as literal and theatrical as C/L, V/M, B/S or G/P, the style is simply different, and those programs have not had the best critics either. The problem is that the Shibs also chose few fragments of the lyrics, if you only see the programs of C/B and H/D without listening to the lyrics of the song, the choreography does not say much. I have to make an effort to understand English, which I have not done with the H/D´s song, so I only see that they skate nice, but the choreography, I have no idea what they are trying to tell me, I can not even tell if It is assumed that their relationship is romantic.
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Right now H/D is the only one to be concerned about IMHO (although maybe I am not really seeing C/B's potential to come back) and their relationship is always intimate and steamy.
 
You know I finally watched all the GPF FDs today and the Shibs FD wasn’t the disaster I was afraid it would be based on their score. Obviously below their expected standards, but if they’d kept their level 3 on the diagonal step seq they would’ve scored about the same as RC :eek:

People who think they should’ve gotten even lower than 109, why? :confused:.

I noticed V/M had their beginning circular step sequence downgraded from level 4 to level 3 too. It’s how their TES dropped from 62ish in the livescoring box to 59. My untrained eyes thought that step sequence was divine and could’ve stayed level 4 lol. So maybe the tech caller was a little picky about the step sequences (not saying the Shibs didn’t deserve their level 2, I don’t have the expertise to claim something like that).

Anyway I feel a little better about the whole thing.
 
Spun Silver said:
Right now H/D is the only one to be concerned about IMHO (although maybe I am not really seeing C/B's potential to come back) and their relationship is always intimate and steamy.
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I was thinking that it would be funny if C/B will end winning the gold medal :rofl: after all the hype around Shibs and H/D . They have done it before. H/D have never won a Grand Prix gold medal, they have never won a 4cc gold medal, they have never won any kind of world medal and they have not even won a silver medal in the Nationals.
 
I was thinking C/B are a legitimate threat to H/D’s upward momentum now too. They’ve finally hit their stride and will only get better. H/D might not be able to pass them so easily after all.
 
chapis said:
I was thinking that it would be funny if C/B will end winning the gold medal :rofl: after all the hype around Shibs and H/D . They have done it before. H/D have never won a Grand Prix gold medal, they have never won a 4cc gold medal, they have never won any kind of world medal and they have not even won a silver medal in the Nationals.
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You are right, it is possible. FSU is not the judging panel, for better or worse. Better, I think! Sheesh, am I the only one who can't get Blades of Glory out of my head these days? :lol:

Coming back to my idea of the storytelling opening, I think it could also demonstrate their relationship very effectively and WHY the "she" of the lyrics so easily becomes the "they" of the program. Alex doesn't just join in Maia's dream, he does it in that protective, supportive, admiring, brotherly way he always has with her.
 
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