Skate into Love watch thread! Feel free to mute this if you're not interested or don't want spoilers.

In a nutshell; this is the Chinese take on skating romcom.

I'm watching this in full Chinese no English subs BTW so boy do I have to figure out a bit of skating terminology now

Disclaimers:

This is a het romance. I'm not expecting much accuracy (never expected it since the start) but I do appreciate it when I see it.

Aka yuri on ice has ruined me

Ah yes it opens with the male protag winning a hockey match and the female protag dreaming of winning her speed skating comp

All these kids are college kids and their dorms are big and spacious... I want

I've never seen first meetings in the shower... But here we are along with farts

So far the most unrealistic part of this show is the huge and very nice dorms and the really really REALLY nicely renovated university hockey team locker room.... Yeah no in reality those are kind of shit holes (and I don't even think uni hockey teams have locker rooms??)

Anyway, female protag Tangxun gets is the quartermaster of the hockey team uwu and in exchange she gets free ice time... Not terrible if you think about it LOL

First episode down and I think it's enjoyable. It's your typical modern day cutesy romance show with cute animal sounds.

As far as actual skating goes, there's only hockey and speed skating and to my very limited knowledge those are... Passable at best

Jfndjdn it's 1am and I spelt her name wrong it's Tangxue and she's a vet student who speed skates and due to a ~mysterious~ injury she can't anymore.

Also she has the same blade guards as me heheheh

Episode 2 and we find out that the protags have a past together AND IT'S HILARIOUS AHDDHDHSHHS they're both so petty it's hilarious

Ah yes your usual hockey vs FS feud

WHY THE FUCK AREN'T THEY WEARING BLADE GUARDS WHEN THEY GET OFF THE ICE!!!!!!!!

Bingbing bullying Tangxue back as college students is hilarious jfbdjdjdjd rip

The hockey drills are pretty accurate I'll give them that

I've never seen a nicer Chinese college cafeteria with nice seats that don't shock my fingers when I touch it

Oh we finally meet the FS boy AND THEY'RE LIKE "HE LOOKS LIKE A LAMB" JFBDJJDJD it's true

I love how they call the male protag aka li yubing "ice god" jfndjdndnhdbdbd like okay let's casually call someone ice god

This uni rink is so nice it's not realistic fibdjdnrnr

WHY is THE MANAGER OFFICE SO NICE JFBDJDBEHDJ

Jfjdjdjdjdjdnd the entire hockey team so buff but BING BING IS A SCRAWNY BOI

Bingbing vs Tangtang is jfjdjdjdjdjdnd oh my god the petty the P E T T y

There's inline skating in this.. For some reason

Oh it's an inline skating gang fight... But with speed skating and the FS dude is standing there like a little lamb

Episode 3 now and I'm still confused as to why this is happening jdndndndbdbd

Bingbing has an unrealistically big fan club fjnddjndd he's just a uni student who plays hockey... He's not exactly a big celebrity but ok

Oh the love rival is tangxue's cousin zhouran and she's already hella annoying oh no

FS boy aka yuyan has shitty taste in program music

IM CRYING JFBDJDJDJD ALL THE SPINS FJDJDJDJ AND JUMPS Jfjdjdjd his face is too nice they just put the actor on a spinner and filmed its hilarious

Yuyan chooses songs based on.... What the judges like?? Which is.... Hmm....

Not terribly inaccurate cuz we all know how the ISU judges are lmao

Yuyan has been skating for 13 years wow okay la... The double who skates and spins isn't bad it's believable

But they're getting yuyan to teach the hockey team skating... Uh not terribly bad bc hockey DOES benefit from using edges

Yuyan is teaching the hockey team how to move better. I see the merit in this plot line I suppose?? Bc it IS true hockey benefits from figure lol

BINGBING ONE FOOT SPIN ON ICE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH okay this is a freestyle move I'll give it to him

I'm not calling out the inaccuracy of spinning on hockey skates because it IS POSSIBLE. I see my hockey friends do this shit every week

But unless bingbing is also doing freestyle, he wouldn't know how to do it

2A on hockey skates is not impossible but it's hella fucking scary??? I've seen it with my own 2 eyes at my rink

Bingbing's attempt is abysmal lmao it looks like a shitty butterfly jump and obviously he falls. Still, a valiant attempt

Hockey team calling it unfair they make bingbing do the 2A is correct bc hockey skates vs figure skates make it super difficult to do

At least they're right lol

Anyway I suppose bingbing knows freestyle bc otherwise he wouldn't know how to spin, no matter how good he is at hockey. See: Michelle Kwan and her hockey husband in that buzzfeed video

Bingbing is jealous of yuyan LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Yuyan wears Risport slow claps for him

Break waiting for Dian to be back but hmmm the trailers for this show really hyped the FS aspect of this show when in reality there's not much of it. Its mainly focused on the protag romance with SOME skating. It's enjoyable so far bc the feud is pretty funny.

I can see why people grapple with the FS skating inaccuracy and doing FS moves on hockey skates but tbh I don't see much problem with it. None of the FS moves are impossible on hockeys... They're just harder to do with a flatter rocker and no toe pick

Before the lockdown, my friend and I discussed the benefits of hockey/Freestylers adopting more FS skating moves. Because she's a female skater, she's not as powerful as the male hockey skaters so she relies on her edges for power like FS skaters.

Basically, we concluded if you combined the power of edges + the brute power of male hockey skaters, you just get better and more powerful skating. Which is why I don't take issue with yuyan "teaching" the hockey skaters how to move because it IS to their benefit

Also yeah, this is also a skating show trope but it has merit. Probably the most unrealistic part is the hockey and FS gang fighting this out on the rink via a competition lmaooooo but this is still skating show trope territory and I expected as much

Back with episode 4 and we finally see uni tangxue skate... Confirm done by a double

Jffndjndndndndd bingbing "ice skating is very dangerous *launches into all the ways you can get injured*"

We're back to the inline plot now and tangxue's bffs are trying inline

Tangxue is so gangster I like her a lot ifndjdndndb

Yuyan is my new baby in this show and I will protect this little lamb

Oh god yuyan refusing to drink coffee because he wants to lose weight... Then he has no money for a decent phone oh my god he's so precious please

So the inline skating gang fight happens because huanhuan is harassed by dude bros at the inline court.... Ew...

Inline speed skating... Okay then

Also the school students make a big hoohaa out of this like eh I don't think anybody cares

Tangxue wins but uh can someone knowledgeable tell me if you can do ice speedskating on land lmao

Tangxue says if you can skate fast on ice you can skate fast on land...

Episode 5 and the ice and land skating gang are celebrating... Wow I've never seen two groups celebrating like this LOL

Tangxue angrily stuffing prawns into Bingbing's face fjfbdhdhd but she does make 7000rmb... Worth it

Alas the speedskating rival has arrived and I'd go gay for her

Episode 6 and they're hinting towards tangxue going back to being a pro skater which is... Hmm...

Idk if its even possible for you to go back to pro speedskating at 20+ tho

Episode 7 and we were all under the impression that Yuyan was a poor boi bc he uses a Nokia or a bank card but he's LOADED

He just gave 40k to tangxue to help pay off her debt to bingbing and said it was his competition winnings. He's so precious oh my god

Okay but we all know yuyan isn't broke... To win FS skating comps at his calibre? He needs the money for good coaches and skates lol

Jfjdjdjd Of course tangxue quits speedskating bc she gets injured from being sashimi-d by a blade which is caused by her being distracted by her crush being an ass

Episode 11 and the romance is heating UP HAHAHAH yuyan just told bingbing to F off jfndjdjd

What even is this show

Also bingbing and tangxue fell and kissed on ice and its HILARIOUS

Yuyan: close your eyes and relax your body to skate better *starts spinning together*

Tangxue: I feel it

Me:

Wow I haven’t updated this in 10 eps whoops but here’s my thoughts on the romance so far:

The main romance between Li Yubing and Tangxue is very very cute. And frustrating. Tangxue is my level of romantically oblivious unless it’s right in my face. Bingbing is a himbo.

Their relationship is very healthy and none of that weird guy sells his life for the girl bs. Bingbing is very respectful of Tangxue and supports her skating in healthy ways. Also, they finally confessed in episode 21. Bring on the angst because there’s 20 eps left.

The side pairings are also very entertaining. There’s the romance within the protags friendship circles. There’s this cute romance with the coaches. They’re all very entertaining in their own ways and you really root for them and feel for them. They’re all foils for the main too.

The love rivals are.... something. The only likeable ones are Yuyan the FS boi who just yeeted off to Canada (more on that later) and Wei Ge (not her real name she’s just so shuai I’m gay for her). They both serves as foils to the mains and they’re actually good!!

The other rivals, Bian Cheng and Zhou Ran are.... not likeable. At all. Their entire existence is to like the protags but do every single terrible thing to get them. BC wants to sabotage Tangxue’s father and actually stalks Tangxue. He’s creepy and looks like a serial killer.

Zhou Ran is your head bitchy queen who can’t take a hint. I really just dislike her sooooo much my god I need to shut up before I start ranting about her.

The show deals with lots of real problems. In particular, Yuyan has a very very shitty mother that we’re familiar with. She deadass believes he should have no distractions with his skating and deprives him with simple pleasures like ice cream and going to the aquarium since

he was 4 years old?? She used to be an ex-skater so she’s throwing all her hopes and dreams on him. She moves him to Canada to train without even consulting Yuyan. Jesus she makes my blood boil. But because of this, she is also relatable.

Tangxue’s accident leaves her injured and it also kind of traumatised her parents to the point they won’t let her skate again and telling her to focus on her vet studies. So far, she’s spent the episodes skating in secret and Bingbing paying for her lessons in secret.

Overall I’m liking this show so far. I think it’s pretty good for what it is with the only issue of the plot being a bit slow. Here’s hoping the next half of the show goes just as well.

Oh right, skating wise.... haven’t seen much FS yet. No comment on that until the end.

Ding ding ding episode 28 and the skating and drama has gone up

Ugh I really dislike how they made yuyan self destruct during a competition because he found out tangxue got together with li yubing... And the pressure from his mother and coach has increased

to the point any of those subjects cause him to go into an anxiety spiral :((( fkkk

Also they made him skate in the dark with a spotlight at a competition. Not realistic.

The double's footwork and jumping isn't bad tho. My only problem with yuyan is that his blades suck.

Also so far I haven't seen yuyan actually skate a full program... Which is a bummer. I would've really loved to hear his commentary but noooo all we got was him falling on spins and jumps in the dark wtf

Anyway, bingbing and tangxue's relationship is so sweet it gives me secondhand embarrassment oh god

Bingbing's dramatic ass staking a claim on tangxue before his hockey match and then kissing her on ice in front of everyone when they win?? 我没有脸

I really like how they kept Tangxue's character consistent even when she's in a relationship. She's still super gangster and bold but doesn't get jealous when bingbing hugs another girl who is part of his bro gang (ILY Wei Ge)

Tangxue's father finds out she started speedskating again and boy that was heartbreaking. He's vehemently against it because he doesn't want to see his daughter hurt again. But then he scolds her in front of the entire team?? Not cool.

This leads to Tangxue proposing an ultimatum in which she quits if she loses the next competition. God. Basically like there's a whole ass reason why your daughter is afraid of telling you all this shit sir... And it's a you problem

On another note, bian cheng and zhouran finally get found out by the protags for the evil scheming. Bian Cheng even self destructs. Its pretty satisfying to watch ngl but it doesn't resolve this conflict.

With 11 episodes to go, there's likely some sort of evil desperate plan

The next part of the show is gonna focus on the competitions now. Bingbing is grappling with how him getting injured on the ice will negatively affect Tangxue...

And there's a new evil dude in the mix working with Bian Cheng oh no