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If anyone says ANYTHING about The Diamonds from SU I will kick you in the shins.

villains shouldn’t always get redemption arcs. some people are just terrible, and that’s okay.

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HELL YES BERDLY IS INCLUDED FINALLY-

They're mewing together

alt colors + the cover its based on :3 ↓

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My Thoughts On “The Art of Murder”

(Spoilers below)

*Sees Detective Twink Boy for the first time* Oh no….he’s gonna be the fan favorite tumblr sexy-man, isn’t he? (I WAS RIGHT-)

Oh, hello Pomni from the popular indie show “The Amazing Digital Circus”-

Is Winn saying “Hot Soy Sauce”? (It’s honey soy sauce)

Is…..is that Sasuke?

The princess is gonna be the least liked….isn’t she? (That’s still being determined but I’m leaning towards yes)

An Ace Attorney reference in MY INDIE ANIMATION PILOT??

OC looks like he’s straight out of Cuphead…but he’s adorable

….did they say “Hot pops” or “Hop-pops”? (It’s Hop Pops)

Damn…they’re all kinda assholes huh?

HELL YEAH MUSICAL NUMBER!

The lyrics are a little redundant but the song still slaps!

Okay so all of them have a motif for killing OC. Interesting…

And we’re back to the beginning

DOGGO ALERT!!

Oh shit, Soskue is on the chopping block first

So you guys are probably wondering who I think killed OC. I think no one killed him. But there are three theory’s as to why.

First: I think everyone tried to kill OC at some point but everyone failed by either chickening out at the last minute or by failing the execution. All four of them had a motif for killing OC since all of them were scared by the idea of OC replacing them. Sosuke and Winn are the obvious suspects because Winn has water on her and Sosuke has mud on him. Sosuke could have been in kahoots with Weeaboo (b/c of the name) and he might have had the dog rip out OC’s page. He might have accidentally gotten trampled by Weeaboo in the process.

BUT I want to shed some more light on Giorgio. He was quick to rule himself out both because he’s the detective and he has a self proclaimed alibi of waking up after everyone else. But a good detective knows that everyone is a suspect including themselves. So for him to say that is already sus to me. And then there’s Albie. Admittedly, she doesn’t have a or of dirt on her but that doesn’t erase her having a motive like everyone else.

Here’s what I think happened. If we aren’t counting the dog, Sosuke, Giorgio and Winn probably tried to do the deed themselves and failed due to the dog coming in and ripping the page out itself. Albie might not have had it in her to do it because her being a princess (princesses are usually kind and just) might have been part of her conscience. (Although that could have also been a motivation to do it as well since she clearly doesn’t want to be a stereotypical princess.)

Second theory: No one tried to kill OC and it was an accident aka: Weeabo did it.

So it’s very likely no one tried to kill OC. After all, the dog has the paper on its paws. Weeaboo probably has access to the outside and the outside is muddy. He could have gotten wet and muddy, went back inside and to Pip’s room and then accidentally ripped out OC while getting Winn and Sosuke dirty. The “water” on Winn could have also been dog saliva.

The only thing that makes me not confident about the water being drool is that dog drool has a smell to it..a bad one. And when Winn tasted the water, she said it tastes/smells like disappointment. Ya know what else tastes like that? Water.

Third and most far out theory: Pip ripped OC’s page herself.

This theory has the least evidence advocating for it but I’m still gonna argue. As we saw in the beginning of the video, we say Pip struggling to draw OC’s other arm. She could have simply scrapped the whole drawing together. I know from personal experience that if I get stuck on one aspect of the drawing, I’m scrapping the whole thing. There’s another thing. Pip could have just not liked OC’s design anymore. It’s normal for artist to say “I like this” one night, sleep, wake up the next morning, looking at the art and say “Oh I don’t want you anymore.” And then scrap it. This all could have been Pip.

One thing is for certain though….

I REALLY liked TAOM!

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Guys…The Diamonds weren’t redeemed. They simply got their minds changed- the last episode is literally called “CHANG YOUR MIND”

Regardless both SU and ML have controversy over redeeming the main villain like The Diamonds, Spinel, Gabriel, Nathalie and Felix, which one who actually handle the "post-redemption villain" better ? SU Future or ML "Pretension", "Representation", London Special ? Give me your solid answer

(sorry for my bad language)

I'll give Steven Universe props for consistency, which helps make a lot of it seem reasonable and like it's part of a theme. If someone like Rose can change and be a better person, then so can everyone else or something like that. They always preached love and empathy so it's not out of the box to see it take it to the Diamonds. This is the hill they chose to die on, for better or worse, and I can respect it.

With MLB, a lot of their redemptions get dragged down with the show, especially season 5, spending way too much time telling us why Chloe, the one at the bottom of the threat pyramid of baddies, is pure evil and doesn't deserve a chance. The punchline is how much of those anti-chloe-redemption bullet points apply to all the other villains, yet they get off scott free. Double standards man. They can't have their cake (tell the audience their wrong for rooting for Chloe redemption) and eat it too (tell us all these other people who did worse than Chloe deserved to be redeemed).

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Isn’t every time LB uses her “Lucky Charm” a risk? It’s called that for a reason-

This is really a minor thing but I found it a little weird that in the s4 finale Gabriel talks about how LB never takes risks and like… did she?? Did LB actually never acted risky? Because I‘d think that‘s something that a hero kind if has to do to save the day and the show makes such a big deal out of it (s5 mentions taking risks several times when that was never really brought up before)

What is the message here? That LB should take risks or not?

You're as lost as I am, anon. She takes risks all the time! She has to. That's how fighting works. I'm also not sure what the message of the final was. It was weird, but I was willing to give it a pass as a setup for a good season five (which it was) then season five dropped the ball and proved that all of season four really was a total waste of time, especially the final.

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The only “what if” special I’ll let slide is “Oblivio” since Marinette lost her memories in that episode.

Oh and what I forgot about the Marichat ask, why has she no problem throwing herself onto him when derision (🤮) establishes her to have so severe dating anxiety that she can‘t even talk to a guy she likes?

(On a similar note it‘s also weird that this trauma only applied with Adrien but never with any other crush but that‘s beside the point)

Yeah, it's one of the many, many ways that Derision completely falls apart. Marinette never had that level of trauma around Chat Noir, Luka, Catwalker, or even Adrien in the what-if episodes. It's only randomly introduced mid season-five to justify the square not immediately being happy and in love because heaven forbid they just be a cute couple that we can enjoy shipping.

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I know this idea is silly…and honestly looking on how things actually are it is silly. But the idea that Ragatha is secretly evil and is a manipulatior pisses me off. Because nice characters (especially female) always have to be either naive or secretly an evil jerk. They can’t actually be nice.

honestly the idea of ragatha being a master manipulator all along is so funny to me . like . not in a ' because i support women's wrongs ' way but because it doesn't Make Sense Narratively to the point it'll be so fucking Hilarious if it was true .

kinger's more dependent on a pillow fort than ragatha herself , i'm pretty sure things are awkward between her and gangle , zooble's closed off to pretty much everybody , jax doesn't buy into her bullshit in the slightest , and it took pomni attending kaufmo's funeral to even Consider ragatha as a potential friend after befriending an npc First

like wow . she doesn't know how to be evil in the slightest . gold star for effort i guess ??

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In a way I can also see this as Mare also coming to terms and accepting that Nate has moved on from the past. Sure, he can stay angry at him leaving him and the other egos behind but that’s not going to bring him back. It’s not going to do any good for Mare to stay mad. He has the others to look after him, he has the fans that still love him. He’ll be okay.

“Good luck, Host.”

Genius MV (*crying

*The following is a fangirl's irresponsible deconstruction.

Just my personal opinion.

Apologies in advance.

Although it's a very selfish thought, i really feel that the shadow is Mare (crying(at least my head cannon style(www

He is the dark moon of inspiration, the self he once walked side by side with, and the old days that he cannot let go of.

He is the haze of shadow accumulated by years of unwillingness, but also the fire of the heart that bursts out with a sudden flash of inspiration.

They share the same name, have experienced the same past, and have disagreements and conflicts along the way, but they are destined to face the future together.

He is the reflection of his soul, and also the self he cannot give up. He was born with his silence and pain, but still stole his gaze and light when he left.

The past that he let go of took away his chance to appear, and the blurred shadow is his best stage.

In the end, who on the other side would chose to get up and leave? And where will he end up?

How many euphemisms were there in the missed glances they looked back at?

Maybe only the shadows at the corners of his eyes under his messy hair can tell him the answer.

This is a difficult dialogue to resolve, an eternal confrontation and silence.

But fortunately, they still have time for many songs.

So all I can do is bless you, for our unknown and fearful future.

I wish you good luck, my most familiar and unfamiliar self.

Good luck, stranger.

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Bro she looks like an attorney-

mental breakdowns the clown.....

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Okay….i still don’t see why Chloe can’t still learn not to give her mom the time of day. If anything, this could be a parallel with Adrien and his story. And yes, Zuko is not the main character of LAB but he was still given a lot of screen time to focus on. The same could be given to Chloe despite her being a secondary character.

She could have a greater purpose by being Marinette/Ladybug’s lancer, teaching Maribug that she’s not fully like someone but still work with them and even agree with them from time to time.

I’m not saying Chloe should be treated as the main character, but Zuko’s existence wasn’t JUST to serve as a mentor for Aang. He had his own thing with his father and Azula. The same could be done with Chloe and her mom while STILL serving the main characters.

Since reading that ask about Chloe where you linked Sara Z videos, I wanted to ask, if you'd be willing to share, what you plan for Chloé in your rewrite of the show. I'm not asking if you "think she should be redeemed" bc that is a child in a cartoon lol-but I mean to ask how you'd write, well, whatever happens in her story. Growth or not or a roller coaster of ups and downs.

Overall I really enjoyed your changes to the world and characters and I think about that version of Miraculous often. The scenes where Adrien tries to talk to Chloé about her behavior really stood out to me. I'm just curious to pick your brain a little lol.

(Post in question)

I am a total sucker for a good redemption arc. I like seeing people change for the better! However, just because I like a redemption arc doesn't mean that I'm going to throw one in for no reason. This is especially true for Chloé since redeeming Chloé is not something that you can do with ease. It eats up a lot of screen time because Chloé is not an easy character to redeem. She needs a lot of active attention. That's a problem because this isn't her story. It's Adrien and Marinette's, meaning that the only reason to redeem Chloé is if you want to tie her into one or both of their character arcs.*

That's why I don't blame anyone for ignoring Chloé or only hinting at redemption. Unless you're making her the main character or giving her a big role in the lead characters' story*, you really shouldn't redeem her. The show actively shows why! Felix, Sabrina, Nathalie, and Gabriel's "redemptions" all fall incredibly flat because those stories lacked substance. They needed a lot more screen time to work and a formula show is never going to be able to pull that off.

Now that I've given those disclaimers, let's talk about why I would absolutely take the time to redeem Chloé if the format allowed for that kind of story. The answer is quite simple: Adrien needs an arc focused around setting boundaries and learning that you can't live your life focused on making others happy. An arc where he learns how to decide when he wants to give someone a second chance and when he wants to give up on them. He also needs to learn that giving up on them is okay. That you can't set yourself on fire to keep others warm.

This arc cannot be about him and his father. Adrien is too young for that. The power balance is too stacked against him. He can't cut his father off at fifteen and the arc can't happen after the terrorist reveal makes cutting Gabriel off a possibility in spite of Adrien's youth. That's way too much way too fast. You need a less serious relationship to give this arc to so that it can take its time to be messy and complex. When you embrace the hinted at childhood friendship between Chloé and Adrien, she becomes the perfect fit for this kind of arc. A person who Adrien has equal power to and who he can muddle his way through things with, letting them both learn and grow into better people, setting the stage for Adrien to avoid completely falling apart when he learns the truth about his father. That's why Adrien so desperately needs an arc like this. His naive little sunshine self simply isn't ready to face the Gabriel reveal until he's done some major growing up.

Obviously you could use this setup to give Chloé a damnation arc, but as I said above, I'm a sucker for a good redemption. I want Chloé to be a better person and find happiness! There's also the fact that a damnation arc doesn't work as well as a redemption in this context. It's important for Adrien to be able to make the choice to give Chloé another chance and to have that choice be a struggle. Something he really has to work through. If he abandons Chloé and never looks back or welcomes her back without a second thought, then you're not setting him up to deal with the fallout of what's coming with his father. Chloé needs to feed like a proper proto Gabriel. You want her and Adrien's story to end in a way that makes you feel like he really is as ready as he could ever be to face his father.

It's also worth noting that, if Chloé really was Adrien's childhood friend, then she should have some sort of relationship with Gabriel and/or Emilie. She should know the Agreste's family dynamics way better than any of his new friends, which is another reason why I like redeeming her. I want Adrien to have someone who really gets it.

*If Miraculous was the kind of show where side characters consistently took center stage for a while, then Chloé being redeemed without a clear tie to the leads could work. It's a nice way to pad out the run time and is what I originally thought the show was doing with her. But Miraculous has no interest in giving anyone a proper story, not even the leads, so I'm still baffled by the choices the writers made with Chloé. I will never fully get what was going on there.

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I overall agree with all of this but the way you phrased this kinda sounds like Chloe’s hypothetical arc would be just a means for Adrien to grow as a person and not Chloe which is a bit troubling since this is CHLOE we’re talking about. Boundaries and learning when to separate from someone are lessons Chloe could totally benefit from in terms of her mom. We know that a lot of what she does stems from her wanting her mom’s love. We know Audrey isn’t the greatest mom or greatest person at all. Chloe learning how to separate herself from her mom would be a key part of Chloe’s redemption.

Since reading that ask about Chloe where you linked Sara Z videos, I wanted to ask, if you'd be willing to share, what you plan for Chloé in your rewrite of the show. I'm not asking if you "think she should be redeemed" bc that is a child in a cartoon lol-but I mean to ask how you'd write, well, whatever happens in her story. Growth or not or a roller coaster of ups and downs.

Overall I really enjoyed your changes to the world and characters and I think about that version of Miraculous often. The scenes where Adrien tries to talk to Chloé about her behavior really stood out to me. I'm just curious to pick your brain a little lol.

(Post in question)

I am a total sucker for a good redemption arc. I like seeing people change for the better! However, just because I like a redemption arc doesn't mean that I'm going to throw one in for no reason. This is especially true for Chloé since redeeming Chloé is not something that you can do with ease. It eats up a lot of screen time because Chloé is not an easy character to redeem. She needs a lot of active attention. That's a problem because this isn't her story. It's Adrien and Marinette's, meaning that the only reason to redeem Chloé is if you want to tie her into one or both of their character arcs.*

That's why I don't blame anyone for ignoring Chloé or only hinting at redemption. Unless you're making her the main character or giving her a big role in the lead characters' story*, you really shouldn't redeem her. The show actively shows why! Felix, Sabrina, Nathalie, and Gabriel's "redemptions" all fall incredibly flat because those stories lacked substance. They needed a lot more screen time to work and a formula show is never going to be able to pull that off.

Now that I've given those disclaimers, let's talk about why I would absolutely take the time to redeem Chloé if the format allowed for that kind of story. The answer is quite simple: Adrien needs an arc focused around setting boundaries and learning that you can't live your life focused on making others happy. An arc where he learns how to decide when he wants to give someone a second chance and when he wants to give up on them. He also needs to learn that giving up on them is okay. That you can't set yourself on fire to keep others warm.

This arc cannot be about him and his father. Adrien is too young for that. The power balance is too stacked against him. He can't cut his father off at fifteen and the arc can't happen after the terrorist reveal makes cutting Gabriel off a possibility in spite of Adrien's youth. That's way too much way too fast. You need a less serious relationship to give this arc to so that it can take its time to be messy and complex. When you embrace the hinted at childhood friendship between Chloé and Adrien, she becomes the perfect fit for this kind of arc. A person who Adrien has equal power to and who he can muddle his way through things with, letting them both learn and grow into better people, setting the stage for Adrien to avoid completely falling apart when he learns the truth about his father. That's why Adrien so desperately needs an arc like this. His naive little sunshine self simply isn't ready to face the Gabriel reveal until he's done some major growing up.

Obviously you could use this setup to give Chloé a damnation arc, but as I said above, I'm a sucker for a good redemption. I want Chloé to be a better person and find happiness! There's also the fact that a damnation arc doesn't work as well as a redemption in this context. It's important for Adrien to be able to make the choice to give Chloé another chance and to have that choice be a struggle. Something he really has to work through. If he abandons Chloé and never looks back or welcomes her back without a second thought, then you're not setting him up to deal with the fallout of what's coming with his father. Chloé needs to feed like a proper proto Gabriel. You want her and Adrien's story to end in a way that makes you feel like he really is as ready as he could ever be to face his father.

It's also worth noting that, if Chloé really was Adrien's childhood friend, then she should have some sort of relationship with Gabriel and/or Emilie. She should know the Agreste's family dynamics way better than any of his new friends, which is another reason why I like redeeming her. I want Adrien to have someone who really gets it.

*If Miraculous was the kind of show where side characters consistently took center stage for a while, then Chloé being redeemed without a clear tie to the leads could work. It's a nice way to pad out the run time and is what I originally thought the show was doing with her. But Miraculous has no interest in giving anyone a proper story, not even the leads, so I'm still baffled by the choices the writers made with Chloé. I will never fully get what was going on there.

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I’m sorry but Mia deserves better than Diego-

Round 1-

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I will say this. I agreed with your earlier post about Amy and her flawed and stuff. But this…isn’t this kinda putting Amy in a box? Something that you criticized before? People are allowed to like and dislike parts of a character. And Amy having crazy love for Sonic shouldn’t just be her core thing about her. She’s stubborn and has a thing for the supernatural. She’s kind but goes by her own thoughts and feelings.

As long as people are aware of Amy’s flaws and strengths and aren’t ignoring them, I can consider them a fan.

>I never liked the extreme way she showed her love for Sonic.

Then you didn't like Amy lol. That's like saying you like Batman, but you never liked how he refuses to kill criminals. There are OTHER THINGS to like about him, sure. But that's definitely a core primary defining attribute. If Batman killed criminals, he would be a fundamentally different character. If you don't like that Batman doesn't kill criminals, then you don't like Batman.

Same thing with Amy being crazy for Sonic.

For some reason people think "I enjoy this characters aesthetic design" and "I like this character" are the same thing.

But. They're not.

You can like LOOKING at Amy because of her character design and DISLIKE her characterization. That's ALLOWED.

You don't have to PRETEND to be a fan of the CHARACTER just because you like their character design. Especially when it's clear you actually completely despise everything about the way that character is written and would rather prefer they were a completely different character instead.

If you want to rip a characters skin off and dress up a different character in that skin, then you don't like the character. You just like the design.

If you "like" Eggman but don't want him to be evil, then you don't like Eggman. If you "like" Fang but want him to be a hero, then you don't like Fang. If you "like" Amy but don't want her to be violently in love with Sonic, then you don't like Amy.

And that's fine. Just. Be honest about it.

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Another thing is Amy is persistent to an annoying degree. It’s practically why she’s friends with Sonic in the first place.

I feel empathy for the people who kinda glaze Amy. Because for a while all people talked about in terms of Amy was her flaws and they did it in such a derogatory way. People were called weird and were bullied for liking Amy so I can’t blame people for trying to present her in a more positive light. But what people (who either hate Amy or glaze on her) don’t seem to realize is that the whole Sonic cast is very flawed. It’s not just Amy. Sonic, for instance, is often portrayed as a noble leader. But bro isn’t supposed to be a leader at all. He goes by the heart of his own drum (just like Amy) and that could be seen as being negligent. And Sonic often is negligent because he rarely slows down for others including his friends. He’s also not that smart either and is kind of a bitch at times. But he’s still kind and does want to do good by others.

Shadow, the one people glaze hell and back over, is a violent edgelord. For a good while he was terrible at communicating with others (kinda still is) he’s a “fight now, talk later” person and he’s not all that nice to people. He is also negligent to other’s feelings. Bro almost aided in destroying the world (and would have if it wasn’t for our girl Amy). But over time he realized the value of kindness and friendship and is better because of his growth.

People who like Amy Rose are right that Amy is so much more than just her crush on Sonic. But they always kind of fall into this trap where they ONLY ever talk about her virtues. The positive attributes of her character. They glaze her up. They say "Amy Rose is a great character because she's a Good Person" and that kind of thing.

And that's a trap and it's what allows people to mischaracterize Amy and butcher her portrayals in shit like Sonic Boom and IDW Sonic. Because Amy is actually a crazy stupid bitch. And THAT is what makes her a great character. If you want to explain what makes Amy so great as a character, you need to talk about her flaws in addition to her virtues. Because her flaws being sandpapered away and disregarded because they're "sexist" or "problematic" are the REASON her character keeps getting fucked up and then that fucked up characterization gets held up as an "improvement" by people who never liked Amy.

Amy FROM HER VERY FIRST APPEARANCE in Sonic CD was an annoying clinger. LITERALLY. She would jump onto Sonic and cling onto him, making it impossible for him to move. When she meets Sonic at the ending of Palm Tree Panic she is literally an obstacle that you as the player need to avoid, and jump to shake her off when she grabs hold of you. And after the Metal Sonic fight, the act will not conclude until Amy grabs hold of Sonic. Stopping him from running off screen to the right, the way he does at the end of every other boss act. And the score screen showing the end of the act will ALWAYS last just long enough for Sonic's idle animation of frustrated impatience to start. From her very first appearance, Amy is an annoying bitch. This is a FOUNDATIONAL attribute of her character.

In Sonic Adventure Amy's story opens with her complaining about how bored she is, and how she misses the excitement of going on adventures with Sonic. Then when Birdie crashes into her she takes it upon herself to help this lost animal who is being targeted by killer robots. She is throwing herself in harms way risking her personal safety on behalf of a creature that is weaker than her.... PARTIALLY because she was bored and thinks this will be exciting. SelfISH motivations for selfLESS actions. And it pays off when she runs into Sonic and uses the whole situation of the Birdie needing protection as an excuse to get to spend time around Sonic by imposing the need for a bodyguard onto him without giving any thoughts to what Sonic might be up to.

THEN WHEN THE KILLER ROBOT COMES BARING DOWN ON THEM, AMY GETS CAUGHT UP IN THE IDEA OF A ROMANTIC DATE THROUGH TWINKLE PARK WITH SONIC AND RUNS OFF IN A FLIGHT OF FANCY WHICH COMPLETELY DISTRACTS HIM FROM FIGHTING SAID ROBOT.

Amy is immature, selfish, does NOT have her priorities straight, and is kind of dumb. These flaws and shortcomings being ignored and disregarded is why Amy gets turned into the sensible mature voice of reason with a good head on her shoulders - which is the EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHO SHE IS SUPPOSED TO BE. These are character flaws that have NOTHING to do with her obsession with Sonic. But because her feelings towards Sonic are all anyone ever talks about, and because people who like Amy always want to present her in the most positive framing, these elements of her character getting sanitized are ignored.

Amy being sort of a super fucking annoying dumbass is WHY she gets treated like a punchline in games like Sonic Adventure 2. She gets caught up in her own little world, and because of that she gets left behind when everyone else is focused on more pressing issues right in front of their nose. All of her interactions with other characters in Sonic Battle are about how she's caught up in her little delusions about Emerl being her and Sonic's baby, and she lashes out violently at anyone who challenges that. You cannot have Amy without her being kind of crazy and kind of dumb.

Because these flaws are the REASON she's capable of her virtues. If Amy wasn't always getting swept up in her own little ideas, she wouldn't be there to find Shadow on the ARK and get him to remember Maria's wish and convince him to save the day. If Amy wasn't always charging off on her own flights of fancy, she wouldn't be the spunky little ball of energy and inspiration that helped Cream and Big rescue Chocola and Froggy. If Amy wasn't obsessively in love with Sonic, she wouldn't have gotten Blaze softened up to the idea of not needing to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders.

I've not put much focus on Amy's virtues in this post because I wanted to emphasize her flaws and shortcomings, BECAUSE I feel those are important parts of her character that always get ignored. And ignoring those parts of her character make them easy to get swept under the rug. And that more than anything else is what results in Amy being mutilated in spin offs like the comics and cartoons.

Amy is more than JUST her crush on Sonic. She is more than just her hobbies. She is more than just her virtues! She is ALL of those things. And she is also REALLY fucking dumb. And REALLY fucking crazy. And those things should be celebrated as part of the whole of Amy Rose JUST as much as her love for Sonic, just as much as her enjoyment of fortune card reading and shopping and boxcersizing, just as much as her being a spunky inspirational leader who reaches out and touches the hearts of others and risks it all to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Love Amy Rose warts and all, or lose her.

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A (pretty late) birthday gift for the boi

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This was actually a good essay that made me understand why people liked Scarlet Lady.

Unfortunately, it’s still not for me and while this essay has given me a fresh take on it, I just don’t have any interest in Chloe being a stagnant character in re-writes. I think her character potential has grown beyond that stagnation and I appreciate stories that actually shows that potential rather than just hint to it at the very end. It seems almost cowardly to me.

Since you've mentioned Scarlet Lady in one of your posts, what's your opinion on it?

I've mentioned before that I'm a big Scarlet Lady fan, which is the only reason that I'm comfortable answering asks like this one. I don't publicly criticize the content of hobby creators. That's wildly inappropriate! Punch up, not down.

The linked post was a general discussion of the adaptation process and how @zoe-oneesama did a fantastic job, so for this one, I'm just going to do some general gushing because I do actually like praising and enjoying things!

Scarlet Lady's chosen format (comic) allows it to have this wonderful conversation with canon where it can rely on the framework of canon to tell it's own story while also using canon for jokes and meta commentary. This means that Scarlet Lady is about as close as fan content can get to a direct reboot because it's able to have moments like this one from the comic's first post:

[Image description: Adrien standing in his room after transforming into Chat Noir for the first time. He is beaming and his eyes are shining with excitement as he exclaims, "This is gonna be awesome!"]

A single picture that communicates everything we need to know about Adrien getting his miraculous. When I've done this same thing in fanfic, I had to write out the full scene because that's how novels work. You have to give the full picture. With a comic, you can just quickly acknowledge this thing that we all already know and then move on to the new stuff. A picture really is worth a thousand words! (Or, in my case, more like two thousand...)

This allows Zoe to keep the same akumas that we get in canon without her story feeling like a boring rehash because she can focus on what's different in her version. A novelization of the same content would have to show both the stuff that stays the same and the stuff that changes for it to be coherent. That's a lot less fun to read and write. It's why I basically never revisit canon akumas in my own stuff. It's just too derivative for the written word.

This is one of the big reasons that I loved Scarlet Lady. Because it was able to have that more directly conversation with canon, it was able to take canon and say, "hey, why don't we embrace the tone that you established in season one and retell the story with that vibe?" That's something that I desperately wanted to see, but that is totally unsuited to my chosen artistic form. It couldn't be a novel. It had to be a comic.

If you want to know what a true formula show version of Miraculous would look like, Scarlet Lady is it. It does everything that Miraculous should have done:

Sticks to a lighthearted tone where nothing is ever super serious

Keeps Gabriel entirely unsympathetic

Has slow character development and background hints at a bigger plot as the only serial elements, allowing the individual episodes to be their own story while never feeling incomplete or rushed

Allows characters other than Marinette to shine while keeping Marinette as the clear main character

Makes Adrien narratively important

MAKES THE LOVE SQUARE CUTE SO I CAN ACTUALLY SHIP IT

Understands that Lila and Chloe can't coexist as antagonists

Reverses the love square, which is the best way to tell their story. Yes, I will die on my "love diamond" hill. It's a good hill. Come join me. I'll bring cookies.

I could keep going, but you hopefully get my point. While Scarlet Lady is certainly not the only way to do a formula version of canon, it's proof that a formula version does work! You don't have to go the serious route for Miraculous to be successful.

I want to take some time to gush about the ending, but I don't want to spoil it, so I'll put that gushing under a "read more" in case anyone hasn't seen it. I'll finish out this less spoilerish section with this:

I feel like some people are surprised when they learn that I love Scarlet Lady because - as some of you have probably picked up - it is quite different from my ideal version of canon. I'm not sure why that would stop me from enjoying a thing, though. It's important to remember that our personal ideals are not the only way to tell a good story. There are lots of ways to take what canon gave us and make something wonderful! It's part of the reason that I enjoy being in a fandom.

If I only wanted to see my ideal take on canon, then I'd stick to writing/imagining my own stories. But I don't want that! I like seeing alternate takes, too. Scarlet Lady is one of my personal favorites. It's completely different from anything that I'd ever think to write and that's why I'm so glad that it exists! I like being entertained just as much as I like creating my own entertainment and I don't want to only read stories that look like something I'd write. That's boring!

Spoilers below:

I've mentioned before that there are many, many ways to properly handle Chloe's character and Zoe did such a good job with her take on that! Chloe isn't absolved of all the things she did wrong, but she's also treated as a young woman with the ability to change.

While the comic bares the name of Chloe's alter ego, she was the never the main character. She never went on a journey. The story kept her to her shallow season-one self: a petty brat who just wanted attention. It did this because that's who Chloe was in canon and who Chloe needed to be for the comic to work.

The first time we see any complexity from Chloe is in the comic's final few episodes, which was absolutely the right call for Zoe to make! In a recent post, I talked about how the end of a formula show is the only time when you can break the formula in catastrophic ways and that's what Zoe did. She kept Chloe static until it was time to end the story and that's when the formula breaks. That's when Chloe gets depth because, once she has depth, the formula doesn't work.

That depth is not used to redeem Chloe, but to show us that there's hope for Chloe. That this petty brat who we've been dealing with has some serious issues and needs help. Help that she's going to get far away from the people that she's hurt because her issues aren't an excuse for what she's done. They don't erase the harm that she caused. At the same time, understanding her issues makes us hope that she can be better now and Scarlet Lady took a moment to give us that hope. To show us the START of Chloe's true story.

That is the kind of ending that I have wanted to see in so many properties!!! It was so wonderful to finally get one that did this right. A story that understood that full redemption to the team and damnation to death/suffering are extremes on a scale of possibilities. You don't have to go to extremes! You can fall in the middle and the middle is a perfect, natural place for Chloe to land in this kind of story. Fully redeeming or even fully damning Chloe simply doesn't work in lighthearted formula content. It's too big a lift as canon has already demonstrated.

I also loved Zoe's take on Emilie. I've mentioned that I don't like evil Emilie in part because it makes her revival feel like the start of a new story. She's back and she'd bad, so we have to take her down now! But I don't want that. I want the story to end when Gabriel is stopped. Zoe does this by giving us an Emilie that is another perfect middle ground. She matches canon's uncomfortable implications without feeling like a true villain who is a threat to society.

[red-balloon12]

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