#gonna tag my most used tags (besides fandoms) here so they're easy to find/get to

[enteragoodnamehere]

oh boy it's that time again (remaking my pinned post)

My name is Cicada, I go by they/it/any neo-pronouns, I'm 17 and white. I'm queer both in sexuality and gender, and aromantic

I have very bad anxiety + various other Brain Stuff and may not respond to asks/messages/etc. right away, or I may come off as awkward when I do. I promise it's not you lol

My media interests fluctuate constantly, currently interested in: The Magnus Archives (+ Protocol), I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Flight Rising, Ultrakill, Faith: The Unholy Trinity, The Amazing Digital Circus, Warrior Cats, Rain World and Rain World Downpour, TF2, Portal/Portal 2, and the Hatchetfield universe (Starkid)

non media interests include: Art (of all kinds), Music, Entomology + Insects and similar critters, Cats, Snakes and Reptiles, Biology/Animals in general, paleontology, dragons, speculative biology, various petsites, my ocs + more

I don't have a big set DNI because they aren't very effective, but know that I block liberally and I WILL block you if you're any variety of bigot, if you're any sort of queer exclusionist (ie anti neopronouns, anti asexual/aromantic people, against bi lesbians/gays), or if you only post NSFW and other sorts of things like that

Other places to find me:

Flight Rising | AO3 | Toyhouse (major wip) | Artfight (major wip)

I also have a Discord but I'm not comfortable giving it out to people unless you're a mutual or we've talked before. Feel free to ask for it if you fall into either of those :>

Tags will be below the cut:

All potentially triggering things will be tagged as #cw [item] . If you ever need something tagged, please let me know and I'll fix it asap

#cicada screams > textpost tag

#cicadas creations > my art and maybe eventually writing tag

#fav > my favorite posts/posts I really like :)

#[name] posting > tags meant for specific characters from things I like. I tend to get really attached to one or a small amount of characters whenever I get Into something lol. May include fanart (mine and other people's), ramblings, or things that remind me of them

#oc: [name] > tags for my ocs, if I ever post them lol

#dragon: [name] > like my oc tag but specifically for my flight rising dragons

#[fandom] ocs > for fandoms like rainworld or warrior cats where people make a lot of ocs. Includes mostly other people's but may include mine too

#various beasts tag > my general animal tag (excluding cats/bugs/snakes/dragons/dinosaurs + prehistoric life, which each have their own tags)

The rest are pretty self explanatory I think. Thank you for reading this far :] have a blinkie I made:

[catgrassplantdad]

2021 Fic Year in Review

I was tagged by my beloved dingus @howlinchickhowl 🥰

Total Number Of Completed Works:

Like Howl I am also going to count tumblr ficlets because I think I only did a couple of them. 4 on ao3, 2 on tumblr. Am I forgetting any? I think it was only 2 besides the ones cross-posted to ao3.

Total Word Count:

18,666.

Fandoms I’ve Written In:

Shameless (US)

Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, Or About What You’d Expected?:

I didn't think I'd be writing any fic ever, so yeah, I wrote about 18,666 words more than I thought I would.

What’s Your Own Favorite Story Of The Year?:

Probably the first one I wrote, sink in. It just makes me smile.

Did You Take Any Writing Risks This Year?:

Yeah man, I wrote a bunch of smut and was really anxious about what people would think of it. And I've never written fiction in my life, so it all felt like a risk honestly.

Do You Have Any Fanfic Or Profic Goals For The New Year?:

No specific goals besides finishing my three current WIPs, plus one other little project I'd like to get to as well.

Most Popular Story Of The Year?:

float because you're all feral as fuck. I love it.

Story Of Mine Most Under-Appreciated By The Universe, In My Opinion:

Honestly I think they're all appreciated to the extent that I would expect them to be. I just wouldn't expect my g-rated dad fluff to get as many hits as my porn, ya know?

Most Fun Story To Write:

Oh man! All of them for different reasons. I know it's a cop-out answer, but I mean it. I only write when I'm having a blast doing it.

Most Unintentionally Telling Story:

I have no idea, honestly. None or all of them.

Biggest Disappointment:

I've got a couple of prompts sitting in my ask box that I know I'm never going to get to. It's hard for me to write when I'm prompted to, especially when I'm not personally vibing with the prompt. I'll probably never do another prompt game, it wasn't a great idea for me to try tbh. Which sucks, because the concept is so fun and I've read so much amazing work born out of prompt games.

Biggest Surprise:

The fact that I wrote any fic at all, let alone smut. I knew I was into the fluffy stuff, I sort of could've predicted that that would come easy to me if I were to try fiction. But to write at all, and then find myself writing porn? Very surprising indeed. Also very surprised to see it as well-received as it was.

My Favorite Part Of Fandom This Year:

Fuckin...I don't know. How do I pick one part? I just really like being here. The fact that I was welcomed in so quickly just to discover that the space is so incredibly supportive was such a delight. I've only been here for like eight or nine months but it felt like I fit right in, and there are few spaces I've entered in my life where that has been the case.

I'm under the impression that this has been going around a lot, so I have no idea who's done this already but I suspect it's everyone. That said, I'm gonna risk it and tag @gallavictorious @abundanceofnots @arrowflier (lol arrow how would you even do this you have written four thousand things in like eight months pls ignore this if it is an impossible task)@smokey-mickey @celestialmickey If you're not feeling up to it or you've done it already, then just consider this me blowing you all a kiss. 🧡💜

[smilingperformer]

Discussing the good and bad of Pokémon Journeys: Part “Goh”

Oh boi... this part is gonna be a doozy. Because I have a lot to talk about Goh, or as I tend to call him, Gou.

TLDR; I like Gou as a character but I very, very much have issues with the way he's currently written in the show. And that frustrates me deeply as I'd love to feel more positively about him. More under the cut, with Journeys abverted as JN.

Where do I even begin... Maybe by how I first became a fan of Gou's character, by after some time started to go back to neutral ground.

Like, ever since the very first episode, we've got a very clear picture of what kind of character Gou is: a bookworm, loves Pokémon, loves to show his knowledge and isn't exactly good at making friends. His only friend before Satoshi (and before learning about Tokio/Horace's reasonings for not showing up to their meeting place) was Chloe/Koharu, and we still don't know how the two met. Thou my guess is that their childhood friendship bonded over their parents meeting during some job or by Koharu feeling the need to be Gou's friend. Who knows, it's something I want to learn about. But that's besides the point, cough.

But like, from the very first episode on, it became clear that this show wants to focus on Gou, and telling his journey on becoming a Pokémon Trainer who wants to catch all of the Pokémon in the World, in order to get closer to catching Mew, the mythical Pokémon who's said to contain DNA of all existing Pokémon. He had a very strong introduction arc, with showing his dynamic with Koharu, having him meet Satoshi on top of Lugia, first getting to know Satoshi (and Rockets) and then catching his first partner Pokémon in Hibunny. However, as time went on and episodes started piling up, I started feeling like something about him was... off.

I feel like the first time I had an issue with the writing involving him was in JN006, where he went on his first catching spree. Where he kept catching Pokémon with ease. Small struggle at the start when trying to work together his dynamic with Hibunny, but the rest of the ep felt way too easy. Then again, Gou IS flat out Pokémon GO promotion. No one can deny that. His purpose is to promote GO's capture mechanic. It is the most successful Pokémon Mobile game of all time.

Anyway, the easy captures piled up on and on til JN010 when he finally had to use dozens of pokeballs to catch one. single. Dewgong. I loved this so much. It made me feel more at ease with his goal mechanic and I felt like I'd be fine with him from there on out. And I was. Til I started having new issues with him. All thanks to Satoshi's new goal in PWC finally having been established.

As time went on, it became clearer and clearer, that Gou was more focused on when it came to his goal progression, development in character level, and in what kind of quality his episodes would be.

Everyone knows how much I love JN032. Everyone does. It's one of my absolute fav episodes in the series. However, it also kinda is what first prompted me starting my worry that hasn't gone away since then: That Gou feels more like the protagonist than Satoshi does in this series, and not really an equal dual protag he was advertised to be.

Before the pitchforks are getting aimed at me, hear me out. I know, that based on some statistics, the focus is equal, with sliiiightly more inclinded towards Gou. However, that's where the issue is: Gou has, so far for me, had way better focus and way better episodes in this series, than Satoshi has, while also getting progress on his goal on other character's focus episodes. When Satoshi's episodes have been about PWC and training his Pokémon, Gou's had the kind of episodes that are more character exploring, developing him, evolving him in some way. And it, frustrates me. Because despite my better judgement, it gives me this feeling that Gou is stealing Satoshi's thunder, even when some type of statistics would suggest otherwise. It gives me this feeling that Gou is here to write Satoshi out. I do not like that I feel this way, I don't know how to get rid of this feeling and I hate it here.

Again, I like Gou's character, he's sweet, well developed, and I do enjoy seeing him in his own episodes. But I have come to noticed, than whenever he gets goal progression in an episode that's supposed to focus on Koharu or Satoshi, I feel so.... angry? And I've never, ever felt like this while watching other characters progress. And I know it's irrational.

Like, his main partner's already fully evolved, his secondary partner Sobble is already evolving soon despite only having one focus episode for itself before it, and he's caught all three of the Galar starters now, with some of his other not-that-important Pokémon making appearances every now and then with possible evolution showcases. And it's all done so fast. Same issue was with Satoshi's poketeam evolving in fast arcs, but I forgot to mention about it? But then again, I am somewhat fine with it as I get the writing style is to focus on one 'mon and then move on to another. Which is not to my taste completely but I digress. ANYWAY, back to Gou.

After seeing discussions and joining in on some on tumblr and twitter and elsewhere, it does appear that Gou's development speed and progression speed is incredibly fast. Like, seriously fast. He's caught a lot of Pokémon by now, and the show's already shown about 50% percent of all existing Pokémon in a bit over a year. About 30% being caught by Gou. (Statistics borrowed from EntityMays' Living Dex trackers, links in posts will disrupt showing in tag search so, google EntityMays's Living Dex, and you'll find the statistics there).

This is also very apparent when you think about how fast Gou suddenly became a good battler, when at the beginning he sucked. A lot. I get Satoshi could be a great example on learning how to battle with good strategy in mind, but we barely saw Gou struggle. We Satoshi struggle in OS, so I would have prefered more struggling by Gou. His first battle against a legendary ended up in Zapdos almost getting caught and uuuuuggh, while it's a pretty good episode it really should have been at later point, same with Suicune episode. Thou with the latter I have WAY more issues than just the placement but, I'm not gonna rant about that today.

And what should I say about his dynamics with other characters... They're good, I am a huge fan of how the dynamic between Koharu and Gou works, as their childhood friend dynamic is shown so, so well, and you can just tell the two have mutual respect as Gou gives Koharu the space she needed when she wasn't into Pokémon for a while, and when she then became partners with Eevee, Gou was so so SO darn supportive just, AGH. Love how these two work.

And everyone knows I fell for Gou x Tokio dynamic straight away. Like they had a friendship built up right away when they first met as little kids and Tokio missing out on their promised meeting due to being sick and not having any means of contacting him yes still considered Gou his friend after these years when Gou considered him a traitor of trust and Gou then forgives him for it and just aaaaaahhh-. KRHM. Excuse me.

Then there's Gou and Satoshi's dynamic and I already said in my post about Satoshi how I feel intimidated by the fans of their shipping and how it makes me feel.... kinda sad about not being able to like their dynamic for what it is. I LOVE it a ton. I have said it a countless times, they're a broTP to me. They're dynamic was very enjoyable for me to watch, and even Gou was. But like, on TOP of these issues I mentioned before this part, I also have another issue with Gou: his fanbase, or the crazier part of it.

Often times I feel like I'm unable to enjoy Gou's character without being reminded of the fans who constantly think of him as shipping fuel, or think he's flawless and anyone disagreering is in some form a negative trait filled human being, etc etc etc. In a way, I feel like I'd enjoy Gou and his dynamic with Satoshi way, way more, if I had never learned about this side of the fandom. Let people like their dynamic the way they want. Be it romantic or platonic. Neither is wrong, but pushing one side to push their own headcanon to other people's head is just, bad act. Having this feeling in me has actually made me wonder, whether I would have liked other characters I am such a huge fan of, if I had been watching their shows during their airing times (for example Serena).

Now what would I have done differently with Gou? Firstly, slow the fuck down. I would have prefered to see Hibunny way more. I would have prefered to have one Galar Starter, namely Grookey, go to Satoshi, as it would help me feel less like Gou's stealing his thunder. I would have prefered if Gou and Satoshi's goals were established around same time. I would have very much liked it, if Gou wouldn't be catching Pokémon each episode.

Now what COULD help me like him better from what we have by now? Well. Slow it down. Have him interact with Koharu more. Give him a rival to further make him shine on his own instead of seemingly relying on Satoshi to shine through. Hell, maybe make Tokio his friendly rival. And on top of that, please let him not catch Pokémon almost every single episode. I'd love an episode where he captures some Pokémon that prefers to be free, and he then would let it go. I think that would make his character be good on his own, and make me feel better about him once again.

Cough. I think I've got my point clear. As said, I like Gou, but very much dislike the way he's written in such fast pacing and in a way that, despite statistics stating otherwise, making him feel like he's the sole protag and not sharing spotlight as dual protag. And I hope to god I can get rid of this feeling as the series goes on. Because right now, I don't have high hopes :(

If you've read this far, thank you for reading, and I am so, so sorry this became a long long rant about the issues I have with Gou, but I hope I managed to bring out what I like about him as well. Hopefully next time's gonna be a more positive post, as I'll try writing about my full on feelings about the handling of Koharu, or as dub audience knows her, Chloe.

Once again, thanks for reading, have a good evening or morning or whatever time it is by the time you've read this, and I hope you'll have a fantastic time ♥ And as a reminder, these are just my opinions, and if you disagree, you are totally valid.

Til next time! This was Smiling Performer aka Aleira, signing out!