I feel like the whole Emilea/Vadym versus LaLa and CPom doesn't just come down to skating (though your question is very fair). I do think some of the argument, though it isn't necessarily always made or said, also comes down to both other teams rising for a while (if slowly bc how dare anyone touch the top teams) and the E/V coming up so quickly with the other teams suddenly getting pushed lower. Now I do think each of the teams have their own strengths but with the way judging went this season even with the struggles both other teams had things feel a bit off and people are looking at the thing that is easiest to point at and say "look this is wrong". (And I would argue they can skate but before this people were pointing out that both other teams were much lower than the top teams in spite of getting similar levels and being as if not more proficient than them. So yeah valid question but I suspect the whole thing is messy and complicated?)
Yep, hit the nail right on the head. I think a lot of the "backlash" against Zingnik, if you can even call it that, comes from people posting when their emotions are the most heated so they're more likely to say the first thought on their mind. Combine that with the feedback loop found on most social media platforms, and you get a lot of straight up angry tweets from people painting Emi and Vadym of all people as everything wrong in ice dance.
If I were say, a long-standing Lala and Cpom stan (btw I actually adore Lala!) and I saw them getting underscored in favour of a team I didn't gaf about, my immediate reaction to the Worlds result would in fact be shit talking the team I hate. It's actually been hard to stan Lala nowadays because how tf did they go to placing 5th at Montreal to fucking 9th in Prague underneath Saullison or Smart/Dieck.
But when the more heated emotions die down, the situation regarding the scores of Lala and Cpom feels more complicated than "it's all Zingnik's fault" or "Zingnik can't skate and don't deserve those scores."
There's probably a lot more politics behind the scenes than me, a chronically online FS stan, can pick up on. I understand wanting to throw out random ideas like "Lala should switch to IAMO!" because you want what's best for them, I do as well, but the reality is that there's honestly no concrete answer on how to fix Lala and Cpom's dwindling scores, or if Zingnik is really at fault for it.
I honestly saw so many angry anti-Zingnik tweets speaking in Lala and Cpom's defense you'd think that Emi and Vadym pulled a Jeff Gillooly at Prague.
But going back to my original question.
As far as I'm concerned my own answer is yes. I asked the question because I was genuinely inspired by their skating this season. So when I see people Post-Worlds screaming in anger that Zingnik can't fucking skate and they're industry plants who can't compare to Cpom and Lala who are far more deserving of a higher ranking than the posers, the part of my brain that takes everything literally began observing their skating more closely. And upon doing that and still seeing people rant about Zingnik's apparent lack of skating skills, I began to feel like I was being gaslit.
And come on, y'all, at least when I say Fear/Gibson can't skate I always point to their lack of speed, abysmal musicality, choppy lifts, non-existent chemistry, and numerous twizzle mistakes that make me wonder what on earth they're actually learning at IAM. If skaters you don't like actually can't skate, at least try to explain why.
