I'm not responding to all of this but people have been saying Mura skates the same programs every season for a while now and I don't get it lol. From the last 4 seasons she had Carmen, 2 contrasting swan lake programs, horizon of memories and proud. All of these are completely different and constitute the majority of her last 4 years, which means the so-called generic melodic programs constitute the minority of her repertoire. That's all assuming her pilgrims program, romeo and juliet, and her benoit program are the same which they aren't. By the way this claim is also just straight up debunked by her exhibitions. Her lady gaga program was like one of the boldest and most playful programs we've seen from these Russian ladies (even though I didn't like it at all). There was also that weird leopard program but we can forget about that one. I just question if half of these people I talk to are even watching the tournaments or what. I guess people just latched on to ne me quitte pas and proud being similar and haven't changed their position in like 4 years. It's just weird how low tier these claims are. People like or dislike a skater's choreography which is fine but to call it generic is also basically wrong. The swan lake SP for instance was choreographically impossible probably for basically any other skater except Adeliia. Don't think Frolova has the energy for it. Maybe Gorbacheva. Was the carmen choreography generic too lol.
The only real criticism of Mura is just that she has zero competitive mentality.
I watch Rus champs. I can't say I always like what I see, but I am curious what new happens. I didn't watch it last season though, I basically lost interest in FS mid-season, and I've seen some programs in test skates and early season, and this was enough. I also didn't bother to watch the Olys until later, same reason: had seen most programs, couldn't be bothered to look for a stream. But I looked yesterday at the 1980s WC ladies for the other thread. They said in the commentary that Trenary was a queen of interpretation and an obvious FS winner, but I didn't find anything special in her interpretation or music choice in the FS. The SP was more refined and I enjoyed it a lot more. She skated well but to me the obvious winner was Midori Ito. To me it was pretty obvious that Natalya Lebedeva, otherwise a beautiful skater, could have invested feeling into her FS, which she basically didn't, but other than that... They all expressed some emotion, so, based on this and technical content, for me it was Ito. This just shows the difference of perception. Maybe it's just me. Maybe things that used to be OK stopped satisfying me. I will not argue, perhaps Muravieva is great. But each program she skated is in the same style, which also happens to be overused in that part of the world. You'd want something different from top skaters precisely because they are so capable. OTOH, I understand that when you chase the quad squad with a 3A, you can't scatter, have to focus on technique, so...
I disagree that interpretation judging is obvious. Many skaters kinda obviously overexpress to dramatic music parts, whereas for me the point of expression is not necessarily this. It's expression of nuances of the music with movement. If a skater chooses dramatic music time and time again, there is a question of whether this is her comfort zone or it is in trend or what the other reason is. I am sure they have their reasons, but it is disappointing to see this, as much as it is disappointing to see ET's women and some other top ladies skate to the same old stuff. It was also disappointing to see Anna Frolova skate to the Krutoi's song. This is an unusual choice, but I remember the times when the song was released. The image of a nice capable skater just doesn't click in my mind with the image of the 46 y.o. singer who sang it, sorry. I mean there is no question for anyone who lived through those times as a young person, how vulgar she was. But perhaps for older people who remember the singer from earlier times it's OK, and perhaps it's OK for Anna, who doesn't have the context. So no, this is not obvious. Anyway, they have artistic resources of the whole Moscow and St. Petersburg to help them. Get a music specialist on board, get advice from friends in music circles, get a professional choreographer, I mean a choreographer with a relevant degree, not necessarily from figure skating. They seem not to want it.
