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I don't know why, but I can't see Marinette as part Italian. Tom doesn't really give me the vibe of being anything other than French, and if I absolutely had to pick something, I'd go with Norway or even Belarus over Italy.

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Rey: (trying to flirt) Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Finn: Yeah. A lot.

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Loaf making a loaf

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My ides tiramisu, if you even care

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if vampires can't come inside without permission does that mean that you can just keep riding that thang and they can't um . yknow

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I think anon is talking about this bit in Chameleon:

Adrien: Lila, I'm perfectly happy being friends with you, and I'll gladly help you catch on your schoolwork, but please don't lie to me like you did last time with Ladybug. Adrien: (in flashback) So I'm guessing you're not a descendant of a superhero, either. Ladybug: (in flashback) She's more like a super liar. Lila: Ladybug's the liar. Adrien: I'm not judging you, Lila, but instead of making friends you're going to turn everyone against you. You can tell me if there's something bothering you. I can help. But you need to be honest with me. Lila: Are you trying to be some superhero lecturing me just like Ladybug did? Well thanks, but no thanks. Ugh. (storms off) Adrien: I'm still here if you need help catching up with your schoolwork. (walks away in a dejected manner)

I just thought about something.

For Felix and Lila, Adrien does offer to help them with any problems they have. But for Chloe, He doesn’t and instead, he tells others off for not forgiving her and being nice to her.

I am not going to disagree but I don't remember him offering to help Lila? Which episode was it?

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Why wouldn't it fit into the show's intended genre or target audience? This is exactly what these kinds of metaphors are for. A show aimed at older audiences would not bother with a metaphor and just portray the abuse and its effects directly.

As for the control aspect, that's actually what I was referring to when I talked about scarring, and in hindsight I should've picked my words better. The way sentimonsters work makes abuse literally inescapable for them. Unlike real abuse victims, they don't have the option of healing and moving on. They'll always be at the mercy of others.

But yeah, I really like your idea. It gets rid of the unfortunate implications, and sentis freezing up if someone gets their amok would work wonderfully as a metaphor for PTSD.

your “sentimonsters vs tropes” post made me realize how sentimonsters don’t work as a metaphor for marginalized people despite what other people say, because even if it was intentional, the show doesn’t acknowledge the fact that the majority of them get killed by the heroes, including Adrien and Felix (who are part of their race). Honestly, it makes me wonder if Miraculous ever did some sort of allegory right at all

(Post in question)

Before we get into it, I wanted to quickly define allegory in case that's a new or forgotten term for anyone as it's hardly common parlance:

An allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

In the linked post, I chastised canon for not using the sentikids to say anything about personhood or self worth. While I stand by that, I will also give canon credit for the fact that sentimonsters as a race are not presented as a clear allegory for anything. The sentimonsters that weren't meant to be equal to humans are just worthless akuma knockoffs created to act as canon fodder. The human-equivalent sentimonsters are basically perfect humans who happen to have remote controls. You are never supposed to think about the implications of that frankly bizarre difference. There is not meant to be a deeper message and that's the right call because, when you look at the setup we just went over, you quickly realize canon didn't set itself up to make the sentimonster race an allegory for anything but eugenics.

While you can argue that canon is eugenics apologia, that is very clearly not intentional. I don't worry about kids walking away thinking eugenics are good because you only get that as a takeaway if you're actively searching for a message in canon's writing. There is no on-screen discussion of which sentimonsters are okay to kill or any other type of blatant allegory for eugenics. If eugenics = good is the intended message, then it's incredibly subtle.

While plot-level* allegory can be subtle, that tends to be rare in family-oriented media as the point of allegory is to convey a message. If no one is picking up on the message, then you've failed to make your point. That's why no one is watching Zootopia or Elemental and walking away asking, "Huh, I wonder what that film was trying to teach kids?"

Miraculous doesn't have anything that stands out as a clear allegory like I'd expect if the intent was to use allegory to teach kids something. I'd normally say that means there was no intentional allegory in the show, but we have straight up insane statements from the writers like this one about the season five final:

In the next scene, we can see Marinette taking the miraculous that have been standardized and industrialized by Gabriel and putting them back in shape. The writers specify that this is a parable about craftsmanship vs industrial production. The miraculous will now be adapted to every person, but we can’t see what they look like just yet! In this new world, the powers are all shared, among people who they trust and know will work for the common good.

Did anyone get this from the show? I certainly didn't. With the writers making statements like this, who even knows what messages they're trying to send. Between this and the reveal that Lila learned about Gabriel by reading Nathalie's lips in the season four final, I've given up trying to figure out what these loons are doing with their wacky storytelling. It's always fascinating to hear them talk about the story they think they've told versus what the average viewer came away thinking. I have never once seen a fan get the Lila thing. Everyone I've seen thought she was just evilly enjoying Nathalie's suffering, but it's pretty clear that the writers are quite proud of this and think it was a great choice! You know what would have been an even better choice? Letting Lila read lips at any point before or even after that scene to establish this is a skill she has. That's basic setup and payoff! Storytelling 101!

*As a quick clarification, when I said "plot-level allegory" that was me trying to find a term to convey the sort of high-level, in-your-face allegory writers use when actively trying to clearly convey a message to the audience. There are lots of works that have no obvious allegory, but actually contain subtle allegory for those who enjoy analysis or a select group that's in the know. Something the author had fun playing with, but doesn't expect the audience to get.

An example of more subtle allegory that comes to mind is The Little Mermaid. There are many valid queer readings of both the original story and the popular Disney film, especially since the book was written by an openly bisexual man after a man he loved got engaged to a woman and one of the movie's producers/major creative influences was an openly gay man. These fact have lead many to argue that the stories were always meant to be about queer acceptance on some level as opposed to the stories simply being ones that can be used to discuss that topic in spite of the author never intending that. (Which doesn't invalidate the value of a reading, btw. As far as I'm concerned, author intentionality only matters in very specific types of discussion. Most of the time, I'm a death-of-the-author girl.)

However, even if the two works are meant to be an allegory for acceptance of "alternate" sexuality, you'd be hard pressed to argue that the allegory is presented in a way that the average viewer is going to get. Everyone gets that Zootopia is all about prejudice being bad. I generally hear Disney's The Little Mermaid described as a silly fairy tale about "a girl giving up everything for a man" even though that's only true for the original story.

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Astruc didn't write for Totally Spies, he was a storyboard artist on that show.

That said, it's not that the man isn't a good writer, it's that he isn't even a writer. His only other writing credit that I can find besides Miraculous is like 3 episodes of Wakfu. His actual job is as storyboard artist and director, and you can see that in the way an episode will often be built around a single scene or even a single shot, and the script will defy all logic or character consistency to get there.

So the comparison with Harry Clown isn't very apt, because Harry tried to branch out from writing comedy to writing drama. Astruc branched out into a completely different form of art. He's more like if Nathanaël completely took over writing the comic without having a clue what he's talking about, and Marc had to try his hardest to make his half-baked ideas work.

Do you think ML would’ve been better if the writers followed the PV instead or do you think the PV would’ve been poorly executed as well?

I usually see people say ML would be a more well-written show if the writers went with the PV, but I personally disagree with that. The issues with ML is the poor writing and I think if the writers are not good at bringing their ideas to life, a different concept isn’t going to save them.

Looking at how the writers messed up a show that had good potential at the start, I just think if we got the PV instead, the writers would have messed it up too. And that’s actually why I’m kinda glad we didn’t get the version in the PV instead, because even though there’s not much, I’m really fond of it lol.

You know how the quality of ML right now ended up ruining the episodes in the earlier seasons for you? I feel like if it was the PV, the writers would’ve messed it up so badly that a good amount of people who adored it wouldn’t be able to enjoy it in the same way. So when I see people say the show would’ve been better quality if they went with the PV instead, I can’t help but think they should be more careful for what they wish for. I mean, I can still see where they are coming from, though. But I just remember how many fans were saying they wish they got Felix instead of Adrien, and then when Felix was introduced in Season 3, many of them were disappointed, saying “This isn’t the Felix from the PV” or “Felix isn’t supposed to act like this.”

As someone who likes the PV but has zero faith in the writers, I couldn’t be more glad ML doesn’t use more elements from the PV. I mean, I don’t want to see the parts I like being botched in the show by the writers. It’s different enough that I can enjoy it as its own thing without being reminded of the current state of the show.

What do you think? Would the show have been better if it was more based on the PV and not the actual show we have right now? Or would it be equally as disappointing, just in a different way?

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I really don't think the starting concept being different would have made the show better. Because there's one big factor in the creative process for Miraculous that's constant that you also brought up, and that's Astruc as the head of the creative process and the writers working under him. I just don't think Astruc is capable of writer-directing a serious, long-form story the way it seems he really wants to. Like, Miraculous is really meta in the way that characters say a lot of stuff that relates to the creative process whenever they work on a movie or something. I saw someone point out how Harry's struggle to get a dramatic movie made when everyone wants him to make a comedy could be Astruc's own frustration expressed through the Harry character.

If this interpretation is accurate, Astruc is most likely the “clown that wants to make a serious drama movie but is stuck making comedy skits”. Like, maybe, mayyyybe, if Astruc got to make the show the way he wanted, instead of having to worry about what's marketable to executives, small kids and parents, he wouldn't be taking his frustrations out on the characters he made and the fans who dare to like them instead of his precious pretend daughter. That could fix the spite problem visible in the writing of the later seasons.

But, like, Astruc also just isn't a very good storyteller. His team can't keep their plot consistent for a single episode, let alone a whole season. The characters say the opposite of what they insisted half an episode ago when they don't start talking about something completely different being the point of the episode than what was set up. Not all of these problems happen because the crew is forced to sneak in the longform narrative while keeping the show mostly episodic. The inconsistency is caused by a lack of ability to stay consistent. Astruc's previous claim to fame was Totally Spies, which was often completely nonsensical, but it was forgivable specifically because the show was a wacky comedy. I'm not sure Astruc could keep hold of a more ambitious narrative, even if he really wanted to and got the freedom to do so.

Instead, I think he's just going to be stuck being jealous and envious of everything everybody else is doing. Have you noticed how he can make any movie or show that's making a buzz turn around to somehow relate to Miraculous? I really am wondering if that's actual evidence of him being dissatisfied. The Barbie Movie is a big hit? Astruc is on twitter insisting Adrinette is just like Barbie and Ken. The new season of Arcane is being praised? Astruc comes out with a detailed explanation of how Arcane is just so expensive to make because they spend so much time rewriting scripts, all the while acting weirdly smug when he admits Miraculous' script is almost the first draft like that's better just because it's cheaper. The Miraculous movie is praised for its satisfying conclusion to the Agreste Arc? Astruc tweets a weird, incorrect and nonsensical Dark Knight reference about the movie being what fans want but the series being what we need. He also spent that week hating on movies in general.

He also absolutely hates any other magical girl show, most likely because they did what his team is doing, better, at least a decade earlier. If he cared as much about little girls having role models as he claims, he'd be clad there are so many popular cartoons with female leads. But he can't be happy, probably, considering how much he praises his "unique" ideas, because these other shows existing make his show less special.

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My alya 🙈 she's so orange I love her. The amount of hate this woman gets for no reason is crazy. She's so cutie pie... I like her s6 design actually my only problem with it is her eyes... I always liked her eye shape on her old model. Gave me owl vibes. I don't know if this reads well but those little heart shapes on the side of her head are braids. She's got like a half up half down thing going on and it's braided on each side. I LOVE HERRR

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I present thee with a bunch of Plagg memes for the soul

based around many silly memes my friends gave me to work with

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Happy Chinese New Year 🐍✨

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Fandom Problem #7464:

Shipping something and then realizing that everyone else that ships it ships it differently than you do

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Chloe having the lowest IQ is also inconsistent when Kim almost always has a joke about how stupid he is each time he makes an appearance.

Very true. This is the difference between being uneducated and having some form of diminished capacity.

Chloé knows nothing about other cultures and mispronounces words she does not know, but generally she responds in coherent ways with a skewed but reasonable line of thought.

Kim legitimately does not brain. The boy put swim trunks on for a train ride because the train went 'under water'. There are trains all over France. The boy is not unaware of how trains work(generally).

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Okay okay I've got one I think will be fun!!

Spin this wheel of like 160ish fandoms of varying levels of popularity.

Extra points for telling me all about your thoughts in the tags :D

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One of my least favorite takes about Adrien is that he needs to figure out who he is, or that Cat Noir is him "overcompensating". Adrien has always worn his love for Ladybug on his sleeve, and has never been particularly quiet about how her leadership is bothering him. The first thing we ever see him do, chronologically, is run away from home and go to school regardless of what his dad has to say about it. In Simon Says, he went so far as to yell at Gabriel. Adrien, at least in S1-3, has never been depicted as someone who needed to figure out anything about who he is. He was depicted as someone who needed to be firm about who he is, stand his ground and resist the urge to backpedal or fold like tissue paper just because someone had a different opinion.

And this ties into the Cat Noir thing because Cat Noir represents Adrien's agency. It's where he's the most free to express himself. "Cat Noir is a façade" smacks of taking one of the most positive things in Adrien's life and using it as yet another vector for angst, because God forbid we do anything else with this character.

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