So many copycat videos of the kind
@Karpenko originated.
I do not think Maria Sotskova is a star nor a skater worthy of being on the Olympic podium. She's a good jumper and a determined striver. She's not a great performer, nor a great skater. Med and Zagitova deserve the credit for their precocious talents and jumping (rotational) strengths. They are good at what they do, but also lucky to have clout of RusFed & Eteri behind them, which helps with the judging, particularly the high PCS scores. When you are freakin' consistent all the time, and do the difficult tech stuff, the judges go whole hog on the PCS whether deserved or not.
"One nation has risen above the rest. As legends pass into history [shot of Julia Lip in a latter day demise comp],
new ones are born to take their place [shots of uber-queens Janny & Alina].
Some have tried to discredit their dominance. But the dirty little games they play will not change the inevitable. Now the world's best figure skaters will claim what belongs to them..." 
Background music lyrics:
"We're ready for war..." Shot of Sotskova
Aside from the great production values and editing, I see so much desperation in this hype-driven video. Why all the desperation? It is what it is, with a lot of help from RusFed politicking. And the ladies in question are very talented. They don't have the speed, power and maturity of some other top competitors, but yeah, they are usually more consistent. The need and hunger to promote and flaunt Russian hegemony in ladies by RusFed even surpasses their thirst and conceit to regain traditional Russian dominance in pairs. Meanwhile, they continue to seek viable contenders to rebuild competitiveness in ice dance, forget about dominating in that discipline, for the moment.
Of course Janny Med and Alina Zag are expected to rock Pyeongchang arena with their determined consistency and jumping exploits. I think Alina is a better jumper, as Janny has tech issues on her jumps that are ignored. Neither are great artists on ice, notwithstanding the judges' PCS assessments. Ahem.
Janny has some special aura and ethereal precocity about her, and Zagitova appears to have good technique and wonderful potential artistically (despite not actually being particularly balletic, even with her exaggerated posing in tutus). In any case, ladies that young need to mature in order to fully develop their artistic side. Neither Med nor Zag are as good as Michelle Kwan in
Salome and Julia Lipnitskaya in
Schindler's List. And even Julia and Michelle were not fully developed skaters artistically when they performed those respective programs.
Another point is that Julia had a hothouse flower, hot minute of a career. Maybe her SL performance in the team event at Sochi Olympics is legendary, but Paul Wylie's exhibition
Schindler's List was better and much more profound. The symbolism of the little girl in the red coat that we remember from the Stephen Spielberg movie is what provokes emotions during Julia's memorable SL performance. It was a great vehicle that helped camouflage Julia's weaknesses. Also, real legends do not 'pass into history,' they transcend history.
What it boils down to obviously is that the Civil War is between Med and Zag. I do not think Sotskova will be a factor. If Sotskova performs well, she'll get good scores, but I can't see her taking the podium. She's not better than a slew of other ladies. It does come down to how everyone performs on the ice, and it seems clear that the judges and rest of skating community await the inevitable battle between Med and Zag for top of podium. If everyone is at their best though, Sotskova won't be climbing on the podium. She's rather bland and average compared to other top contenders. An exciting upset for the top spots would be a fitting end to the figure skating extravaganza in Pyeongchang. But I'm expecting status quo as usual.
Sotskova is pretty and a hardworker, bless her heart. She's a consistent jumper, but I do not see her as a world beater. She's been helped quite often in the scoring, especially on PCS, even more-so than Med and Alina.
