ETA: One of the other things that I notice more with Yuna's skating whenever I return to it, is how her skates were able to "listen" to the music too... She was really second only to people like Mao and Michelle, there, even though if we consider overall technique on skating skills, she falls behind some others. She was able to produce the softer, more lilting flow needed in even her junior program like Papa Can You Hear Me, but her ability was such that she was also able to use her ability to bring the dance quality needed in the traditional dance used in Homage to Korea, to the explosive speed needed in Les Miserables, to the jazz-inspired rhythmic phrasing in a nuevo tango like Adios Nonino... Only two others did it better, for me.
I have had the pleasure and privilege of seeing Yu-Na, Mao, and Michelle all perform live, as well as being very familiar with their careers, and
for me, I don't agree at all that Yuna was second to them in her skates "listening" to the music. I only have to look at the one piece of music that they all skated to -- Scheherazade -- and conclude that though each skater has something unique about them that they do best, Yu-Na has her own claim to being second to none. With all due respect to Mao and Michelle and their illustrious body of programs, their Scheherazade interpretations hardly had the allure and sense of underlying strength combined with vulnerability that Yu-Na brought out that perfectly reflected the music and the character/story. Actually, I believe Yu-Na had the greatest interpretative
range of all three of them (Danse Macabre was such an amazing contrast to Scherherazade; James Bond vs. Gershwin, etc), and she successfully demonstrated very different sides of herself more than the others. And speaking of James Bond, I much prefer Yu-Na's Bond Girl performance to Michelle's (she skated to The World is Not Enough).
ETA: Also, you note that Yu-Na varied her skating flow/speed depending on the music/programs, but say it's less than Michelle or Mao ever did...and that is puzzling because neither Michelle nor Mao were especially known for their variation of flow/speed. That is why Michelle sometimes lost against Irina and even Sarah Hughes and why Mao lost out to Yu-Na and Carolina Kostner. Takahiko Kozuka's father, after Mao's 2010 Worlds win, congratulated Mao on the win but noted that she lost the PCS component, and pointed out that it was because of the difference in variation of speed and a skating skills issue. I think he literally called Mao's speed monotonous...Mao's fans were not happy about that...
Again, not a knock on Michelle or Mao -- but when you look at their greatest hits, they don't, as far as I can see, demonstrate
as much successful interpretative/musical range as Yu-Na did. I was actively watching figure skating in 2008-2009, and I firmly believe that though Mao's Claire de lune is a lovely standalone program, the reason it wasn't received quite as well as Yu-Na's Danse Macabre that year was because it was the third consecutive year that Mao was doing a delicate, soft, princess-y SP, whereas Yu-Na's Danse Macabre was a huge departure from her previous programs. Michelle also greatly struggled in the later part of her career -- post-1999 -- with reinventing herself and trying to come up with a different style/program that the judges weren't tired of (see Miraculous Mandarin as one of her attempts). I think Yu-Na really managed to avoid this because she managed to keep her programs varied and fresh, and because her interpretative ability was just
so good. Kiss of the Vampire may not have been everyone's cup of tea, but it was different from what she had done before and she interpreted the music perfectly, right down to the lengthy footwork sequence that pulls the victim in the vampire's trap.
Anyway, not sure Yu-Na's fanfest is the most appropriate place for this discussion, but I just wanted to share my perspective as well. Also, I don't see how an Olympic champion, two-time Olympic medalist, two-time world champion, six-time World medalist, fell behind them or others in terms of skating skills. The judges get it wrong sometimes, but not THAT wrong. Yu-Na's 2010 Olympics FS is still a master class in skating skills -- you can literally do a checklist of it against the skating skills (and all PCS criteria) and see how it fulfills every single one. Performance for the ages, gold standard, second to none.
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