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Viktor Nikiforov is first presented to us through Yuuri’s eyes, the light behind him shining halo-like in a way that obscures his features. It is not necessary to know him, only to know his skating. Vitya, the man, always fades away as the Legend emerges from beyond, the spotlight becoming a sort of focal point rather than the individual placed within it. 

When we see this same montage again later in the show, Viktor emerges whole, no longer eluding us as he remains visible and enchanting. And this time, it is because we see him through Yakov’s eyes that we are able to see him. Yakov, who has known this boy for years, who has trained him and spoken with him and loved him. 

Viktor flits between Viktor Nikiforov and Vitya, moving in and out of the light as if donning and shedding a coat. He lets the rays of the sun caress his features and hide him away from the gaze of the audience, flashing cameras a mask he can move behind as the artifice emerges – no longer a lonely man but the pride and joy of Russia.

Amidst the GPF in Barcelona, when he wakes up early in the morning while his student (and fiance) remains asleep, he finds himself at the beach watching the sun rise over the ocean. He faces the light, now, clear and present in the moment, hand outstretched as the illumination of dawn catches on his ring. In this moment, he is facing his future, one in which he is Vitya first and foremost. We can see who he is, finally, and he can too. He has found his life and love and looks onwards, his path laid out before him as his identity appears unobstructed. 

Then, Yuri Plisetsky. Who is young and bold and wants to beat the legend of Viktor Nikiforov, grinding his records into dust and laughing from the top of the podium. He wants to be great. And when he addresses Viktor as a skater rather than the man and coach he spent time with in Hasetsu, Viktor turns. Once more his face is hidden in shadow, the radiance behind him a mandorla of glory that speaks to his talent and accomplishments. A god on earth, a figure skating deity. He moves between earthly and heavenly so swiftly, the transition between man-in-love and unreachable idol never so clear as it is in this moment.

When Yuri is done with his threats, Viktor turns back towards the beach. He turns away from his past on the ice and the recognition it holds in favor of this new future.

And there, on the beach, is a man and a dog walking side by side in the light. Viktor watches, and he thinks, and it becomes clearer than ever that there will no longer be able to be a divide between Vitya and Viktor Nikiforov. Only him and Makkachin, happy in Hasetsu with Yuuri, going wherever his life and his love bring them.