#skimblysalt

[skimblyshanks]

I actually do agree that getting too into Discourse on either side of the anti-proship debate is unhealthy, bc getting too into online discourse is by nature unhealthy.

But like. One side is built around trusting yourself and your immediate audience to be responsible engaging with fiction.

And the other side is half the living embodiment of Morality OCD thoughts and half regurgitating conservative and radfem talking points, and then being surprised when their own puritanism inevitably comes back to bite them.

Like these are not equally bad camps djsjfjejtnekf As someone who has been in both, one was actively detrimental to my mental health, and one was adopted naturally as my mental state improved; 3 guesses, no prize, as to which happened when.

[skimblyshanks]

Personally, I have serious concerns about the fact that my friends and myself are repeatedly, forcibly cut off from the wider fandom because a bunch of adults have convinced themselves and a bunch of teens we're dangerous predators even without any real evidence.

Like. Most of us were already staying away bc we knew this was going to happen, and it happened.

And idk there's not really anything else to say, is there? lol. It's about exerting control. Using that control to isolate us. Using that control to consolidate opportunities to boost your own popularity and feel righteous doing it.

But also like. Yall started tearing yourselves up over ship discourse without us there at all; strictly infighting. Because again, it's about control. So like yeah dw we won't willingly put ourselves in a position for u to flex on us; have fun keeping your sense of superiority without us there to be easy scapegoats.

[skimblyshanks]

Sometimes I'd like to politely ask 3-4 of the ppl who think there's a clear canonical plot to cats the musical to like. Tell me? And the rest of us? What it apparently is? Like. no communicating with each other, not even thru middlemen, just. One at a time, on their own, tell me and the rest of us what they think the plot or canon is. And how they account for various traditions and productions.

[skimblyshanks]

I'll just say.

I was an anti ages 13-17.

I was always a rather passive anti? By 16-17 I was annoyed by most ppl I saw and probably would have called myself neutral. I don't think it's a coincidence that by this point I was in a DBT therapy group where skills were taught to own and manage our own feelings and behavior to the best of our ability.

I look back at the behavior I condoned towards artists who hadn't done a thing wrong and I still get hit by waves of guilt like. I wasn't even active in the harassment per se, but I absolutely rationalized it as being deserved when it just. Plainly wasn't.

Constant crosstagging while feigning innocence toward such behaviour; constant posts and answered asks about how ~dangerous~ an artist was for drawing a ship. Same artist mocks antis for being so pressed abt a 7 year age gap btwn a fictional 18 year old and a fictional 25 year old? They're as evil and bad as plebcomics.

One artist was deemed an active danger to children bc they did nude figure studies and made them homestuck characters. Hatred toward artists was obsessive; new accusations against them to justify continued obsession were often just. Being mad they still existed on the platform.

Anyway, just. I can't get back into the old headspace I occupied. I don't know if I ever will be. But what I've seen since 2020 has only served to make antidom and the behaviors it encourages just. Inexcusable to me.

And I look back at 13 year old me and I just feel bad. Guilty. For all the claims and behavior I'd end up spewing and supporting in those next 4 years. Especially now not only being on the receiving end starting literal months after I turned 18 and getting a refresh every few months, but also seeing shit like the harassment of Bryan Fuller; iamlunasol; seeing an artist, who isn't even proship but merely offered support to one bc they were dealing with a hacker, get "outed" as gay by antis to their family while living in Iran. Quotation marks bc the family member they told already knew, but that wasn't common knowledge; seeing the horrifying reactions to the possibility that a 15 year old killed themselves over harassment received over an rpf shockfic.

I still feel pangs of panic and shame and paranoia while making innocuous content. I have lost a large amount of my capacity to trust and befriend new faces bc of the willingness to turn on me no questions asked. But mostly I see teen antis and just. Either you're going to grow up without understanding why and how what you're doing is genuinely harmful, or else you're going to look back on your teenage years and feel awful. Antis are hurting real people, and it gets harder to ignore that the older you get; the more control you get in your own life. And like idk I just find the whole thing skeevy and v much built around exploiting young people by grabbing them before they can realize all the radfem and otherwise reactionary and conservative rhetoric that antidom is drowning in.

Idk how to end this lmao. Uh. If your side is pointing at everything it doesn't like ad is seeing pedophilia. Ask why the ppl most likely to agree with that assessment believe in pizzagate, the wayfair conspiracy, and satanic panic

[skimblyshanks]

Navigating the wiki as a contributor has been uh. Too overwhelming for me for a while but. Until we're told otherwise and tbh even if we're told otherwise, Roan Pronk's swing character is Victor on this blog. And I'm gonna talk about why down under the cut bc if I don't i'll lose it bc I really don't think he should be ID'ed as pouncival but I get why he's being ID'ed as Pouncival but also I think it's incorrect so.

To begin with, I get why ppl are think he's george-pouncival. Comparing the makeup he has to the last iteration of Victor vs George-Pouncival, he's closer to pouncival.

But lemme blow y'all's minds real quick.

Bc look at these 3 different male swings from the original London run. Look at the makeup designs

Classic London....had a habit of simplifying swing makeup. Victor is the one on the right.

But this was the concept art that wound up being assigned to victor

I also know that another point made in favor of this being pouncival is that Roan's swing character is wearing Palladium George-Pouncival's unitard.

But! I have a rebuttal to this as well! Bc, again, Victor is a swing. When he was an onstage swing in the 90s-early 2000s, it changed a LOT, and none of them match Nathan Zach Johnson's 2017 costume (bottom rightmost)

And! We have photos of Victors in other character's costumes!

(Palladium, Victor in classic!George's unitard; 2013 UK tour, Victor in ???Patches' unitard)

We already know that the ongoing tour is reusing Palladium and previous tour-legs' costumes for its covers. It's safe to assume that the swings are reusing Palladium costumes, especially when Anna Campkin's swing getup is a Jenny unitard from 2013, without being Jenny.

I think it's safe to assume that if reusing unitards of certain characters that have been updated =/= playing that character, then giving one swing another swing's unitard doesn't mean anything inherently. Especially when the Pouncival identity has gained more and more brown and copper tones.

For my final point. A comparison of Roan's costume as a whole compared to Victor's concept compared to Palladium pounce's costume.

The grey area on the right side is marked when comparing Roan to Victor concept bc even tho he is in Palladium!Pounce's costume, this aspect carries through between both.

I did not mark costume design similarities between George and george-pouncival bc those are givens.

Roan and Concept!Victor wear their arm warmers at the same lengths. One of their legwarmers match. His makeup closely matches the shapes present in concept!Victor.

George-Pouncival has been defined within London and. For most of his existence barring 2020-2022 Asia productions. By only having one warmer. This is consistent, from 2005 Moscow to 2013 UK to Palladium to 2016 US Revival to 2014 Australasia to 2017 Asia. This is consistent across iterations. Roan's character has 2 warmers. None of his warmers match the george concept's.

The modern George Pouncival makeup is already a loose approximation of the concept, but it has been the George look since the 2000s, and it is now the "pouncival" look. Roan matches only the broadest strokes of geometry and then shading down the neck.

So uuuhhhh yeah I am firm in my identification of the role as Victor.

[skimblyshanks]

No one is obligated to gift footage to ppl who have slung verbal abuse at them and their friends for over a year and taken glee in disregarding their boundaries, babes

[skimblyshanks]

Hey remember in november 2021 when we were like "hey guys if you're gonna repost gifs of privately held footage then credit the master of that footage when they request you do so" and then not only did you not do that you decided to get cheeky and so we started watermarking gifs and for a while yall would really conspicuously try and blur out said watermarks. And then remember how you told a victim of online stalking you would stalk her online and then when she pointed out she had taken measures to monitor general instances of who was on her blog you started crying that you'd been threatened with doxxing.

Remember how during that whole thing you showed a flagrant disregard for camerapeople actively holding footage you wanted, because of how they labeled themselves. Remember how you showed a bald ignorance for how sharing footage and bootlegs is supposed to work.

Remember how yall love to call us pedoincest fetishizing freaks up to the point we have something you want, at which point its all civility until we're firm in. Having Boundaries.

[skimblyshanks]

20-What is the purest ship in the fandom?

I honestly think it's a toss up between Jemtoria and Jellyshanks? Djdnfbdjfj

Jellyshanks is a rarer pair but from what I see of my fellow shippers we are. V enchanted with its domestic, soft, loving aspects.

And for Jemtoria I mean, they literally complete each other. Also if u see them in the US+inspired traditions (which includes Hamburg) like. U just can't not at least see why these sweeties get shipped!

...

And I guess pla.tor.ia is here, too?

I tend not to entertain victoria/mating dance partner ships myself that often, just because like. It's arbitrary. All that matters is the partner can lift her. The focus of the mating dance isn't so much who Victoria has partnered with, but that she has reached the encounter she has wanted since her opening solo; her arc was intended to be one of sexual Awakening and coming of age in that sense, and the importance is her getting that experience, not which guy she gets it with. By which I mean like. If I ship one then I ship them all (pla.tor.ia, tum.ble.tor.ia, pou.nce.tor.ia, cor.ico.tor.ia,mis.tor.ia, vic.lon.zo, and anything done wwith covers/swings, non replica and/or regional theatre pairups), and all with the same level of investment— that is to say: none, really.

That said, The US Revival took the standard London pairup with Platometus and gave them interactions throughout the show; lots of lifts and small partnered moments to precipitate the Mating Dance encounter. The choreography of said encounter also shifts—he's not just a little bashful about Getting It On, they're both nervous and it feels like a more mutual, scared-but-excited exploration, and its p damn wholesome.