#((Also Alya: *this entire freaking special*))

[starguardianniom]

The Paris Special

Ok so here's what I thought of it:

Loved it.

Shadybug and Claw Noir owns my heart entirely now.

Seems Shadybug's backstory is a bit more than just Chloé bullying her, given that in her universe, the world is controlled by the Supreme who rules with fear. Her outright saying that she will be spared if she gets the Butterfly back also seems to imply that she will probably get killed if she doesn't, so she's threatened with violence too I guess, and same goes for Claw Noir, yikes. Oh and them using their powers for evil while so young apparently is destroying them from the inside? Double yikes. 14 years old being threatened to not be spared if they didn't complete their missions, kind of see why they're so intense they don't really have the luxury of failing or they'll probably be killed, ouch. Angry, sad kids being offered power in exchange for living, because even if they hate their lives now they also want to live, I'll probably get more in details with that in another post.

Ok so alternate Gabriel was not a good man at first either, then after losing his wife he decided to redeem himself by trying to do the right thing, unfortunatly seems he neglects his son in the process. So here he's the not main big bad, the Supreme seems to hold that position and being nastier than he is/was so there is a huge difference between that universe and the one we've been in for the show, and maybe losing his wife made him realise the errors of his ways. He's not perfect either since his son seems to resent how he moved on so fast probably, and well, I have feelings about that too, but well, he was able to move on, because he has bigger problems than grieving his wife and wanting her back.

Claw Noir is freaking insane, he Cataclysmed himself and kept walking and going without any trouble, wow, meanwhile Chat Noir and Gabriel kept groaning and flinching and being in pain the entire time they were cataclysmed. Also he got a crush on Marinette from watching her in the bakery the first time around, she didn't know about it but reverse love there, too bad Shadybug didn't have feelings for him, but well, I dunno, found their bickering also entertaining for some reason. He doesn't take Shadybug's crap, he fights right back and isn't passive at all.

Shadybug and Claw Noir struggling to work together was believable, they try to take each other's miraculous, and insults and hurt each other too, and neither takes any crap from the other and gives back as good as they get. But they also still manage to work well together despite it all, and manage to calm themselves and let go of their anger to focus on their objective. In the end they get better and they also know each other's identity so they might become a couple too, given Adrien already loves her it seems, so they won't be alone anymore, would be funny if they revealed themselves to Betterfly and Betterfly to them and Adrien realise it's his dad and then says Marinette is gonna be his girlfriend and Gabriel ships them so hard and welcomes her into the family and Marinette just takes it all in shy stride and stuff and I need to see them again one more time to see how it goes in their universe RIGHT NOW!!!!

So Tikki knows about the multiple universe stuff and thought Marinette's life was too short to get into that so she stuck to the basics, given the trainwreck that Marinette is sometimes I find it understandable that Tikki wouldn't want to burden her with other universes either so.

Slow motion akumatized Chat Noir, that was weird, but ok.

Alternate Alya, love her hair and looks. Ubiquity looks amazing.

Shadybug realising Ladybug is also her in that universe and reading Marinette's diary and keeps commenting and then tearing up over it, my heart. Then she finds the stuff about the wish, tries to do it, but apparently the Supreme fucking put a lock on that somehow? Wow! Ok. Meanwhile Adrien being restrained on the floor blushing at Shadybug's civilian self looks a bit kinky to me, and I'll leave it at that.

Ladyfly looks ok I guess, still weird to see her with the miraculous that she's been fighting against for the entire show but ok.

Shadybug and Claw Noir being talked out and become better, Shadybug using her Miraculous Cure which cures Claw Noir, and them getting new costumes, not gonna lie here, I prefered their villain looks, but well they still have more style as heroes too. Shadyclaw for the win, love how Claw Noir likes her new looks too.

It was hilarious to see Monarch working with Shadybug and Claw Noir, teaming up with villains versions of the heroes he's been fighting against the entire time is pretty ironic but it was ok too, but most likely they would probably have all turned on each other the moment they succeeded too if they would have won.

The parallel universes fights between akumatized Ladybug (omg it finally happened but with a good kamiko instead of an evil akuma what a time to be alive and she reminded me of a purple Sailor Moon) was nice, Scarabella and Kitty Noire (glad there's a universe where they are the heroes), Mister Bug and Lady Noire universe also is nice because it means Adrien can lead probably, and of course animated 2D cartoon universe, let's go.

So yeah I loved the special more than the others, now it dethrones the Shangai special in my heart.

Shadybug and Claw Noir are my kids now.

[lady0lunamoon]

Okay! My honest opinion on "Miraculous World: Paris"?

It was AMAZING!!!!

Lot's of action, some funny moments, very emotional and lots of tension!

One thing I especially love is how the Special wastes absolutely no time with getting straight into the action!

Something I hate about many movies is how they just waste so much time setting up the plot that by the time it finally gets to the good stuff, half the movie is already over!

The writers really have my respect for not doing that here! After the opening, they waste no time and immediately get straight to the actual plot!

Another thing i really love about the special is the way they handled Shadybug and Claw Noir!

I kept saying that Shady and Claw have the potential to become the best Miraculous villains ever, even if they get redeemed, and as far as I'm concerned, i was totally right about that because these two are officially my favorite Miraculous villains!!! 🖤

[WARNING!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!]

For one, I love villains like Shadybug who are driven by a desire to not be hurt anymore!

I felt so bad for her when she cried while reading Marinette's diary! 😢

And I found it so touching how she first acted cold and rude towards Sabine but quickly backtracked on her attitude, when Sabine continued to speak kindly to her!

It showed that Shadybug wished she'd have a loving mother like that and she'd actually be grateful for it!

I am truly touched by how vurnerable she looked throughout that entire scene!

💔💔💔

🖤And I absolutely love how sassy and unhinged Claw Noir is!🖤

The guy freaking cataclysmed himself ON PURPOSE FOR NO APPEARANT REASON!!

At least I can't think of a reason why he did that! And even while cataclysmed, he still managed to put up one heck of a fight throughout the entire special!!

And It's very interesting how his motivation is a lot like Monarch's, but at the same time not!

Claw Noir does want his mother back, but he seems more hurt by the fact that his father doesn't seem as upset as he is!

Although it's not that hard to read the signs that Shadyverse!Gabriel infact is impacted by his wife's death!

If I had to guess, it looks very much like Claw THOUGHT his father easily moved on and continued to focus on his work as a fashion designer and forgot about Emily, while what he was really doing was using the butterfly miraculous to create superheroes and trying to stop the Supreme, most likely to create a safe world for their son!

I also love how both Shady and Claw wear different masks to hide their sadness : Shadybug acts cold and unfeeling while Claw Noir is more outgoing and unhinged! Claw is basically that one character who is a little b*tch but is just too charismatic to hate!

[SPOILERS OVER]

There might've been a few things I had hoped to see in the special that weren't there, but that's okay because a lack of one or two good possible elements is still better than the presence of multiple bad elements — which mind you was NOT present in this special at all!

The show often has some moments that really made me cringe, but I couldn't find a SINGLE bad moment in this special!

[SPOILERS]

So the fact that we didn't get much personal father-son drama between Batterfly and Claw Noir (Which was justified since, contrary to what i assumed, they don't know each others secret identities) or the fact that neither CelesteCat's white suit and hair nore Claw Noir's giant Cataclysm triggered Ladybug's Chat Blanc PTSD (because we don't talk about this enough in Season 5) don't bother me much!

My worries about Ubiquity, despite being featured heavily in promotional material, barely appearing in the actual special (because she only had one appearence in all the trailers) were also put to rest! Even though Alya isn't Ubiqity for long at first, she still gets turned back into her a few times! Giving her enough screentime that I see no reason to get mad over her being promoted so much even though she doesn't actually stick around throughout the entire special!

[SPOILERS END]

Whoever says this show lost it's touch should definetly watch this!

Which is another little meta detail I really love in this special :

'Hope' is a central theme in the special, and it was so good that it also gave me hope that the show can return to it's former glory!

Despite a lot of controversy surrounding the show for quite a while now, this special proves that, just like Shadybug, Claw Noir and Batterfly's world, the show itself can also still be saved!

[msweebyness]

Class of Heroes AU: Worst Experiences w) Bustier

I know I said I might take a break, but my brain refuses to comply! This is based off an old post by @artzychic27, which they were nice enough to let me use the concept for! These are a lot of the kids’ worst experiences with the “amazing” teacher, Caline Bustier. She is Flora in this AU, the ‘kindest and wisest’ of the good fairies. She believes she is always right and lives in her perfect little bubble world, just like in canon. 🙃 She’s a sh*t teacher there, and being a high-ranking magical authority figure has only made her worse here. She’s a huge reason that around 70% of the royalty and aristocrats at this school believe they can do whatever they want to whoever they want without getting punished! She builds up their egos and gives them special treatment, punishing those who don’t go along with their whims. Feel free to leave thoughts and ideas, as always! (Still thinking of options for Lila and Felix) And credit to the aforementioned artzychic27 and @imsparky2002 as always!

Marinette: Outed the secret that she was never supposed to be at the school in front of everyone while berating her for her clumsiness and lack of social grace, humiliating her.

Adrien: Ridiculed to the point of tears in front of the entire class and forced to change when he came to school with a tiara on, his hair braided with flowers and in a violet flowing long shirt that could resemble a dress at first glance, told to stop acting so feminine.

Alya: Also Reduced to tears from a verbal attack in front if everyone when she came into class late and dissheveled because she had to leave work later and there was heavy traffic, and it was POURING RAIN. Despite the fact that she had called beforehand and gotten clearance.

Max: Yelled at and given two weeks of detention for ‘refusing to help’ his fellow students, which was the story she got from said (royal) students, when in reality they had been beating him up for refusing to do their homework, and the evidence of the violence was CLEARLY visible.

Kim: She’s had him suspended for a week on three different occasions, all originally meant to be expulsion, first for stepping in to defend Max in the aforementioned incident, the second was for damaging school property (He pulled a jammed door off its hinges when a fire broke out in the lab so the students could get out). The last was when he punched a prince who, with a few of his buddies, had cornered HIS princess for refusing his invitation to a ball, forcefully kissing and groping her. (Ondine was upset and crying for hours, but nothing was ever done to punish the boys responsible, despite her being a princess. Misogyny, folks, how ‘bout it?)

Alix: Taken out of class by police and accused of numerous counts of theft, got threatened with charges and jail time despite being a minor with diagnosed kleptomania, who RETURNED WHAT SHE TOOK.

Ivan: Insisted that he carry all the class’ luggage for a grade-level trip into the bus as punishment for ‘threatening’ his peers (He was defending some younger students from some older (royal) bullies.), when (as he and Mylene told her) his back pain was on the far more severe side due to his medication pending a refill, and he ended up collapsing outside the school. (No, she didn’t call for help. She also refused to let Denise or Kim help him despite both offering multiple times.)

Mylene: Forced her to sit through a ‘Parent’s Day’ event that included one-on-one time with her stepmother. Yes, THE WOMAN WHO TRIED TO KILL HER MULTIPLE TIMES IN THE PAST. Insisted that Mylene needed to ‘stop being petty’ and that ‘family means love and forgiveness’.

Juleka: SHE HAD A FREAKING MUZZLE PUT ON HER WHEN SHE WAS HAVING A PANIC ATTACK. She claimed it was ‘for the safety of the other students’ as Juleka was ‘behaving aggressively’.

Sabrina: Gaslighted and guilt-tripped her into singing the song from her old puppet show (the one she still has nightmares about when she was a part of) for a school event, and told her to stop being ‘dramatic’ when she had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the performance.

Nathaniel: Magically erased his entire sketchbook as punishment for him repeatedly falling asleep in class, despite it being a side effect of his curse, which she of all people should know.

Marc: Actively tries to keep him from using and improving his magic, always ‘gently’ reminding him of how dangerous ice magic is, just look at what happened to his poor little brother. We wouldn’t want that again, now would we? She’s also had him locked in a room alone as punishment for losing control. (She DOES NOT care about trauma.)

Zoe: Stood up to Chloe and told her to do her own chores in the main hall, taken aside and harshly scolded for not adhering to and ‘being kind’ to her sister.

Ondine: Refused to allow her to leave class when she was literally SUFFOCATING because a spell-gone-haywire (A spell that reversed any magic-induced physical changes. It also affected Sabrinocchio.) by a disgruntled student temporarily restored her gills and SHE COULDN’T BREATHE, stating that it was ‘improper’, because she couldn’t communicate what was wrong and Bustier wouldn’t listen when the class tried frantically to tell her.

Kagami: Refused to let her enroll in any of the battle or heroism courses due to her being a princess, and humiliated her in front of an entire courtyard of people by berating for not conducting herself ‘as a princess should.’

Reshma: Said and did nothing as her grandmother scolded and even STRUCK her for ‘shaming the family with her behavior’ and daring to defend her giftless younger sister from the woman’s verbal attacks.

Jean: Yelled at in front of the entire school for being a ‘spoiled brat’ and a ‘poor excuse for a ruler’ when he was focusing on a show he was putting together and forgot a small royal gathering.

Denise: Has been suspended multiple times for (accidental and inevitable, with their abilities and strength) destruction of school property, but the worst was when Bustier got them expelled for accidentally breaking Adrien’s arm and collarbone, in the process of SAVING him from a falling oak tree during a nature class outing for their grade level. She claimed they were far too destructive, violent, and dangerous to remain in the school. (*Cough*”Bad Guy” Bias*Cough*) (The decision was reversed due to Adrien insisting that they had saved him, proved though a memory display spell on multiple students, and the fact he was able to heal himself almost immediately after.)

Cosette: Publicly and harshly berated for ‘holding up the rest of the class’ when some fans wanted autographs and pictures during a school field trip. It was only a few people and Cosette had tried to make it as quick as possible without being rude.

Ismael: Had a pair of magical shackles placed on him when his power was flaring up rather badly**, completely ignoring the PTSD from previous finders of his lamp that this gave him. He had to wear them for a week.

* She forces Nino, Aurore and Lacey to fold their wings down so they don’t ‘Distract’ other students, despite it being IMMENSELY painful for younger fairies to do this as those joints aren’t developed yet.

*She actively talks down to any students who are not human or fae like herself, acting as if they are intellectually inferior and require extra guidance and redirection.

**Genie magic is incredibly strong, especially when it’s not restrained. Be careful not to say the word ‘wish’ within earshot of Ismael unless you’re a friend, directly speaking to him for that reason. It triggers his magic and if he didn’t hear you correctly, things could get…weird.

Basically…Bustier sucks.

[merchantarthurn]

all i have to say about the miraculous special aside from incoherent happy noises is that it's exactly like every fanfic i hold dear in that it felt so self-indulgent when it came to fun "what-if" scenarios and also really hit on like. actual fun character beats (okay turns out i have things to say, so here's a spoilery read more)

starting immediately with the alt theme song with gabriel was so inspired i had to immediately pause and lose my mind.

gabriel as a significantly better dude who is just failing to connect with his son during their very different grieving periods is legit so much more interesting than i expected from a "character morality flip" moment

alya and nino being still on the resistance team fills me with a lot of delight for so many reasons - character related, but also for the alt-universe actually not being a 'everyone is a different alignment' universe. the overall universe and characters perceptions of themselves or how they dealt with their grief is clearly completely altered for the ones we see changed. like... gabriel seems to have started off in a similar spot but the specifics of the universe meant he changed teams for the better. emilie seemingly dying much more suddenly and the general turmoil of the universe (and presumably not going to school with the other kids?) leading adrien to not process his grief in the same way. marinette never meeting alya and not finding the courage to stand up for herself without threats and power. damn...

betterfly is a stupid name and i love that. just remember that his name is just "butterfly" and not "hawkmoth" in french okay.

shadybug is also very silly but it's a pretty perfect alternative for 'toxinelle' and also so funny

the only knock i will give the episode is she changed her hairstyle at the end. shadybug's whole look was 10/10, she could have just shifted the colour scheme for the friendly vibe. i also think chat should have kept the green hair and maybe just gone with green eyes.

on cool outfits: the butterfly + ladybug combo looked gorgeous imo i will not argue on this

i was not expecting the episode to make me feel things but it was genuinely very sweet how both AU-duos got a mutual pep-talk. like this was a perfect time in s5 for it to be set - marinette's still struggling to find belief in herself and adrien is freaked out about what his power could do to someone, and his own self-control about that. and their chats with their alternate selves help them settle something (at least for now) in addition to helping the other!! their AU selves definitely have more to deal with given.. everything, but that's for another time im sure >:) i really do like that despite their Attitude they are just treated like kids with problems y'know? honestly i wish adrien had longer to talk about his grief cos i think that's a really valuable bit of telly for young'uns who've lost a parent y'know?

there's some #Logic you could do about identity reveals but honestly i do not care, because an actual fanfic where they're like "hey butterfly man if you told us who you were we could stop monarch way faster" and that resulting in some good!gabriel and chat/adrien chatting with him knowing who hawkmoth is like... ARGH. imagine. i feel like there's so many reasons he wouldn't want to expose his identity even to allies and we didn't need a scene where that was explained and i'll fight anyone who insists it's a ~cinema sins plothole ding~ that it didn't happen. if it's not in the show you get to fanfic it in many flavours. this is a WIN actually.

generally ive been so happy with season 5 and this just. ah. idk i was just very happy the entire time. im sure there'll be a lotta folks bemoaning this that and the other and that's fine! please have fun doing that cos i know people do but man mlb is to me my fun baby show for babies but season 5 feels like it went "what if this show was everything you already loved AND it gave you catharsis on like 30 different things on a show you've been watching since episode 4"

[miraculouscontent]

The fact that Alya AGREED to lock Mari and Adrien in a room with a SUPERVILLAIN and make them believe no one loves them just made me LOSE any positive opinion of Alya I could've had. Same with Nino. Also, can this girl get ANY privacy. But no, Alya and Nino just HAD to spy on them while making all those rude remarks? And why is it THEIR duty to get the love square together? I'm kinda getting sick of the "Black Best Friend" trope, can't these two ever do their own thing?

Yeah, even if though was a fake supervillain, I can’t believe that Nino was okay with just--luring his best friend into this whole scheme that said best friend knows nothing about.

There are also so many red flags here.

A direct quote from Marinette to Alya: “I might need more training to be just his friend after all.”

Alya proceeds to tell her that there’s still time to get off the plane, which sounds fine at first, but then she goes go on and on about how romantic New York is, causing Marinette to fall deeper and deeper into a state of discomfort/horror/disgust until she screams that she has to “get out of here.”

Ms. Mendeleiev then asks what’s wrong and Alya does not actually help Marinette get off the plane (despite saying that Marinette could and just hearing Marinette say that she has to get out of there), instead asking for Marinette’s seat to be moved.

Then, again, after Marinette told her to her face that she needs help seeing Adrien as “just a friend,” Alya spends basically the entire rest of the special teasing/mocking Marinette by asking about anything remotely “romantic” they did and just generally trying to force Marinette together with Adrien.

(also, as the anon said, spying on Adrien and Marinette with Nino and making comments+scheming about it instead of just talking with said friends about their problems, because no, teasing Marinette does not count because it doesn’t look genuine and I can’t believe I have to grill Alya for this again after “Desperada”).

And when the scheme goes bad? When Alya and Nino had sent Adrien and Marinette away to the room that the supervillain ends up stealing from and then don’t hear from them until nighttime?

No mention of it, nor apology. They see Marinette and Adrien through a window, they run outside, then they just stand there at the top of the staircase with everyone else instead of rushing down to exclaim how glad they are that Adrien and Marinette are okay. Then the car pulls up to take Adrien back and Nino’s all, “No, dude, stay!” which is something but not enough, especially since Adrien ignores it and chooses to fish for Marinette to say it instead.

And Alya? She’s not even close to the bare minimum level of friendship that Nino gave to Adrien. After the car starts driving away, she snaps at Marinette, asking “What is WRONG with you, Marinette?!” and talking about how Adrien was just waiting for her to tell him to stay, then pressuring her to make a choice about her feelings on Adrien after both Marinette and Adrien had just returned from being missing.

(you know, as if whether Marinette loves Adrien should impact her wanting him to stay, or whether she wants him to stay should impact Gabriel’s decision in any way, shape, or form)

Alya then lets Marinette run after a car, in the rain, while there’s a supervillain on the loose and the news has told everyone to stay safe. About fifteen seconds after Marinette left Alya’s side to start running after Adrien (picking up a bike in the process), the bike she’s riding on slips out from under her due to the rain and Marinette is left lying face-down on the pavement.

Had Alya just walked towards the scene a little (Marinette had barely turned a single corner before the bike slipped) or cared enough to go check and see if Marinette had caught up with a freaking car, she would’ve seen Marinette there, but she didn’t because the next scene we see Marinette in is her all alone in an empty intersection.

And there’s no mention of it from Alya afterward. No worry, no concern, nothing. The next time they’re seen together, Alya brings up Adrien (stressing the “friend” thing again even though, according to Alya’s logic, Marinette chasing after Adrien must mean that she’s acknowledging that she feels more for him than “just a friend” now) and Marinette nervously mutters, “Oh, Alya I don’t know,” which you think would prompt Alya to apologize for all the pressure she put Marinette under, or ask why Marinette is so determined to see Adrien as a friend, or say that she was sorry that things didn’t work out, or at least wonder to herself if trying to force her best friend to be with someone when she said she didn’t want that was a terrible idea that only made her feelings/confusion worse in the worst way.

But, no. Alya just tells Marinette not to think about it right now and grabs both of Marinette’s hand to pull her off to the surprise they planned for Adrien.

Keep in mind that, in episodes like “Catalyst,” Alya was all, “oh Marinette, you’re just jealous of Lila because she hit on Adrien!” and constantly questioning Marinette’s behavior around Alya because of Adrien, so Alya clearly sees this as an issue.

Yet now, when Marinette is like, “okay, I’m going to start trying to see him as a friend,” Alya steps in to put Marinette in her place and force her to get together with Adrien whether she consented or not.

Even beyond all of that, what Alya and Nino trying to achieve is so baffling when put together. Like, okay--Alya want Marinette to be clear about her feelings - basically, she wants Marinette to confess to Adrien - while Nino wants Adrien to come out of his shell. I think it is absolutely wrong for both of them to try and make plans about it behind their friends’ backs, but that’s not the important part.

The important part is that their plan assumes Adrien’s feelings, because imagine if the plan had succeeded and Marinette had confessed to Adrien... and then Adrien turned her down.

Not only would things immediately get awkward between Adrien and Marinette, but I don’t think for a second that Adrien would be inclined to “come out of his shell” again after his attempt to do so here ended in having to turn down Marinette, which caused her to feel terrible.

And just as a reminder, this was the last scene in the show where Alya and Nino were anywhere near Adrien:

They were literally right next to Adrien and Kagami, with Adrien having his hand on Kagami’s cheek.

Alya and Nino’s plan was doomed to fail from the start, and Alya has officially crossed the line where I had any hope of believing in Marinette’s friendship with her.

[jennagrinsoverml]

hii do you have a list of miraculous fics you think everyone should read at least once?

Anon, I have been excited to answer this request ever since I got it. What better way to celebrate my 50th Rec List (!!!!) than with my favourite fandom fics? 🎉🎉🎉

I've tried to choose fics with a variety of tones, from different fandom eras, and different authors. These fics are all special to me in some way, and whittling this list down was HARD. Others may have fics they think should be on this list, and to those people I say: make your own rec list. This one's mine. 😘

Experimental Kisses by @komorebirei

Ladybug watched him. Maybe it was guilt, maybe sympathy, maybe a streak of playfulness. Maybe the traumatic akuma experience had softened her up. Whatever the reason, a thought wafted lazily through her mind and out of her mouth. “You know… you’re right. It isn’t fair, is it?”

Chat Noir looked up.

“I remember my first kiss, but you don’t.” She hummed and tapped her chin, making a show of remembering. “It wasn’t a bad kiss, but we were in the middle of fighting an akuma, so I didn’t get to enjoy it much, either.”

Oops—that came out sounding a little, no, a lot more flirty than she had intended. Anyway, if she was going to commit to this idea, she may as well go all in.

One-shot. Ladybug offers to kiss Chat since he doesn’t remember their kiss and the way she reacts to the kiss…it lives in my mind rent-free. I have fallen asleep many a night fantasizing about what the repercussions of the kiss might look like. One of my absolute favourite Ladynoir fics.

team is a four letter word by @ladyofthenoodle

Alya didn’t want to come between Ladybug and Chat Noir. But she didn’t want to stop being Rena Rouge either. And if Chat Noir didn’t want to talk to her, then she’d need to find a different way to prove all three of them could be a team.

Her plan unintentionally brings a few secrets to light, which leads to even more secrets coming to light, which leads to… well, Alya is sure it’ll all work out eventually.

Multi-chapter. Warning, this fic is a WIP! (But there’s only one chapter to go.) Honestly, I didn’t want to have any WIPs on this list and I was lowkey hoping that it would be finished before I posted this list but I’m obsessed with this one and couldn’t leave it off. It’s literally one of the BEST fics in the entire fandom and, I think, the absolute best delving into the characterization and relationship dynamics of the core four. This fic feels so dynamic and complex, with all of the characters feelings so like themselves and each having their own distinct voices. The conflict is so well done and so realistic. It’s such a fantastic tackling of the issues that came up in the last couple seasons and I cannot rave about it enough!!

œuf ouch owie by @ominousunflower

Chat Noir enlists Rena Rouge's help to create an Aspik illusion. Absolutely nothing goes wrong.

Ladybug smiles. “I wanted to drop by and welcome Aspik. I know it must be a little intimidating, being surrounded by so many veteran heroes…so, welcome! We’re glad to have you on board.”

“I look like an egg!” Aspik announces, T-posing.

Chat turns to Rena, feeling like he has been punched in the solar plexus. What the hell? he mouths.

Rena grimaces, her eyes wide with panic. Stomach sinking, Chat remembers one of the first things he learned about the Fox Miraculous: that if Rena Rouge isn’t focused, her illusions go haywire.

Oh, no.

One-shot. This is hands down the FUNNIEST fic in the entire fandom asdfghjkl like I have read this fic at least 50 times and I still laugh out loud every single time. If you have somehow failed to read this fic before, read it now. You won’t regret it!

lucky (we're in love in every way) by @carpisuns​

Chat Noir is Adrien, and Marinette is freaking out. If she manages to quiet her internal screaming, maybe she can also find the guts to tell him her identity too. And maybe they'll actually live happily ever after—well, as soon as Tikki and Plagg are done humiliating them.

One-shot. This fic just makes me so incredibly happy. Like it puts a smile on my face every single time I read it (and I have read it many, many times!) I love Marinette’s reactions and Adrien’s sweetness and the kwamis just absolutely ROASTING both of them. Marissa has written a ton of amazing fics for this fandom (seriously we are so lucky to have her) and I was tempted by others (like tell me something i don't know) but in the end, I had to follow my heart with this one.

Your Kitty by @gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights​

“Such a dramatic kitty.” Marinette scratched under his chin, bringing a smile to his face and a purr to his throat.

Your kitty, he didn’t say.

Wait. What?

(The one where Chat Noir thinks he needs pats like a cat, only to find out he may have jumped to the wrong conclusion.)

One-shot. When I think of Marichat, this is THE fic I think of. Adrien being touch starved is 100% my headcanon now. This is just so sweet! Marinette’s affection and Adrien’s determination to do the right thing no matter the personal cost and the way they fell for each other without meaning to... Also I love that they both encouraged the other to go back to their original crushes because that makes so much sense!!

rattle my cage by @lnc2​

In which history, despite Alya's best efforts, does not repeat itself.

One-shot. I am always here for Adrien being rash and Marinette being smart and capable and just switching to treating him as Chat absolutely seamlessly after a reveal. I absolutely love the vibes of this one.

Chasing the C/h/atwalk. by @runningoutofink

Paris. The city of lights, love and fashion. Follow the progress of Marinette Dupain Cheng as she enters the extremely competitive world of Reality television for a chance to be the winner of Project Runway: France.

Multi-chapter. It should come as no surprise by now that I’m a sucker for reality tv and this is my absolute favourite reality cross in the fandom! I love that it’s canon compliant, and frankly the idea of Marinette and Adrien as designer and model on Project Runway is friggin’ BRILLIANT. The slow burn and pining are delicious, and the identity reveal is incredibly well done! (And it has a steamy sequel, Meet me in the Middle, which is 🔥🔥🔥 and intensely satisfying after all of that build up.)

daydream by @clairelutra

you're my daydream

you know that i've been thinking about you lately

In which Adrien finds out Ladybug is Marinette, and beats the 'this is fine' dog at his own game.

One-shot. Shout-out to the author for realizing way before canon let on that Adrien is way more likely to figure out Marinette than the reverse! And then absolutely murdering us with this intense slow burn that absolutely drips with mutual pining and UST.

What Will You Do When Everyone Knows? by @sariahsue

They stepped in closer, shoulder to shoulder to catch the akuma as she landed, but she twisted in midair, landing squarely in front of Cat Noir, swiping at him. He stepped back, trying to keep his balance. Her fingertips almost touched his face, and Ladybug felt her stomach lurch.

“Duck!” she yelled to him as she whipped her yoyo around. He did, but unfortunately, the akuma woman did, too. Ladybug suddenly had no target to latch onto and lost her balance. Her stomach twisted again as she pitched forward. Black hands darted forward to catch her, but too late she realized it wasn’t her partner. Cold gloves caught her shoulder and neck, then slid up her face, brushing past her earrings. Cold. The woman’s touch froze Ladybug’s breath in her throat.

Then there was something warm around her middle. Cat Noir’s shout sounded distant as he pulled her away. As the woman’s black gloves left her face, Ladybug felt even more heat being pulled from her, along with… something else.

Multi-chapter. There really isn’t another fic in the fandom like this one. The akuma is original and provides an absolutely amazing premise for this fic. We have mystery, intrigue, and a huge upset to the status quo with the public revealing of Ladybug’s identity. I also loved the dramatic irony of Marinette being unable to understand Chat’s reactions to things that make perfect sense to us readers. It’s got amazing characterizations and suspense, and I love it!

But All I’m Seeing Is You by @chelseaapproved

After Ladybug finds out Adrien is her Chat Noir, they start dating. She didn’t think it’d be so hard to keep her identity a secret from him. She also didn’t realize how much it would affect her friendship with him as Marinette.

One-shot. This might be my favourite ladrien of all time. It’s only about 5k, but man does it ever pack in a lot of emotion and relationship development and I really, really, really love it.  I really felt how much they love each other in this one and Marinette is just so, so wonderful to Adrien and he’s so wonderful to her and if you haven’t already please read this.

A Miraculous Reveal by @kasienda​

Series of one-shots and drabbles all centered around The Reveal Moment. Identities will be revealed, feelings will be confessed, and secrets will be discovered through contrived situations, accidents, meddling friends, desperate moments, and moments of emotional vulnerability. Each chapter is a self contained piece. Love-square focused, but will not remain exclusive to them. Each chapter will have its own trigger warnings.

Collection of one-shots. I feel a little like I’m cheating in including a collection here, but like most of us in this fandom, I’m an absolute sucker for identity reveals, and @kasienda is especially talented at writing them! Every single one of these is beautiful, amazing and worth reading at least once.

the wonderful part of the mess that we made by heresie_irisee

They knew.

They knew, and there would be no magical reset button for the memories they'd made today. She'd have to  see him at school every day, and she'd see the Chat in him, as surely as  he'd see the Ladybug in her.

One-shot. Oblivio is probably my favourite episode and this is such a great alternate take on it. The mutual pining is so, so, so good! Especially love Marinette struggling to assimilate Adrien’s identities and Adrien’s obliviousness.

The following fics are amazing and absolutely worth reading, but do feature sexual content, so minors beware.

The Ladybugs and The Bees by @bullysquadess

AKA the early-fandom Ladynoir puberty fic that spiraled waaaaay out of proportion.

Multi-chapter. I’ve avoided reccing this fic for so long as it was literally the most kudosed fic in the entire fandom when I joined. However, the kudos are well-earned and I can’t make a list of must reads without including it. I love the ladynoir, the way it builds slowly, the focus on the developing relationship, both physical and otherwise, the yearning and the devotion and the vulnerability. And, of course, the steamy scenes are fantastic!! The whole thing is just so well developed and feels so grounded and real. I absolutely love it.

one night of moonlight by @mirthaculous

i’ll always think of you

inside of my private thoughts

i can imagine you

touching my private parts

2:13 ok im texting you now like i promised instead of drunktexting adrien and telling him how badly i want his cock tonight. arent you proud of me?

2:19 this is Adrien, hi.

Marinette’s brain-to-mouth filter isn’t great on the best of days. Add some beer and some misplaced texts, and things get a little more… interesting.

One-shot. Rated M. This is one of my favourite fics of all time. This is so steamy, seriously the UST is off the charts!! It is absolutely unreal how much these two want each other and the mutual pining and they’re so stupid and this fic literally killed me and I thanked it.

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Graveyard Siblings (4)

I am sorry for not posting in a while. School is a total bitch. Here is part 4 of a fic that is not a fic.

[Masterlist]

(Part 1)(Part 2)(Part 3)

-------

Tall Marinette.(I admit I might be projecting a little here.)

One day, she took out something from someplace high and the whole family realized that ‘holy shit when did you get so tall?’

Bonus if Jason comes back from a long mission and had a wtf moment because she was wearing 6-inch-heels and met his eyes with them on.

“Pixie?!”

------

You know how Bruce has the identity of Matches Malone to infiltrate the Gotham Underground.

While Jason does the drug deals more street crime stuff, Maria uses an excuse of being the representative for Red Hood excuse to mingle with the rich people who does crime on the side (Penguin), she uses it to go to black market auctions and buy some of the lost miraculouses which got into the hands of black market dealers.

Jason knows about it and acts as her ‘bodyguard’ anytime he can or sends one of his henchmen to be one with a death threat if she gets a single scratch on her.

Bruce is unaware of this. Or is he?

------

Mari helps with running WE since she is a little less busy with the vigilante side of things.

It started with Tim panicking about deadlines and Mari offering to help, to Bruce and Tim bullying the board to have her as co-CEO.

She has to be that and head of Afterlife. So she is very busy. Doesn’t know about what comes next….

------

Somehow the class comes to Gotham for a trip. It has been 3 years since her death.

Mari has changed her appearance since the day she left Paris. She has highlights in her hair after a ‘sibling bonding day’ with Jason. Her hair is kept short for convenience and not in pigtails. Along with her tall height and more confident aura, she is almost unrecognizable.

She rides a motorcycle too.

The class waits in the lobby for the tour and in walks this badass woman with aviator sunglasses, leather jacket and designer clothes which was all MT brand, making a lot of people swoon.

She takes off her glasses and walks past the class. Checking stuff on her phone and sipping coffee in her other hand.

She seems familiar but they couldn’t figure out why. (All except Chloe, Alix and Felix who are snickering in the background.)

Lila sees her and comments on how she must be a criminal with the way she dresses. (Lila internally freaks out because were her eyes messing with her? Because she looked a little like Marinette. Also jealous of the new arrival for stealing all the attention.) Alya takes the bait and calls security to ‘arrest’ her.

They just laugh. The class doesn’t understand, speaking in confused French.

-------------

“I am Maria Todd-Wayne, also known as designer MT. CEO of Afterlife and co-CEO of the very company you are in. I am allowed in here. Don’t judge a book by its cover.” she said in perfect French.

“But Lila told us you can’t speak French.”

“Who?”

“Lila Rossi, your friend. She told us that you and MT were dating.”

“Me dating myself. Okay I love myself because self-love is a thing but that is a whole other level. MT are my initials. Anyone who has a brain could have figured that out or at the very least do a Google search. I am not sure where your friend got that notion.”

“Hey, Bean, come on. We have a long day ahead of us.” Tim reminded her.

“Goodbye but cease the rumours or you would be escorted off the premises.”

As they rode up the elevator, “Tim, why are they here?”

“They are the lucky winners of the Wayne Enterprise Young Prodigies Contest. Why, Maria?”

“Lucky, huh.” She muttered under her breath. She might as well tell him. They are the Bats and they will find out anyway. “They are from my old class, the one you know…”

“Oh. Want me to send them back? I can do that if they are making you uncomfortable.”

“Nah. Too much to deal with. And it is unfair to send them back over a petty grudge. Besides, I could have some fun.”

“Anything that Bruce and I should be worried about?”

“I swear no killing. Just because Jason came back from the dead, hell-bent on killing. Doesn’t mean I am too.”

“Cool, just don’t do any property damage or traumatize our employees.”

“I might need you to erase some footage later and tell Bruce about this.”

“Some brownies, my favourite coffee cake, the ‘special’ brew and you have yourself a deal.”

-----

So basically she just showed up around where the class was ‘by coincidence’.

Talk to a few people and take them out of earshot of the rest of the class.

End the conversation by saying a few things only they and her would know. Insides jokes and secrets. (I pick her old childhood friends like, Nino, Kim and maybe Sabrina)

Uses Trixx to turn into a walking dead version of her 15-year old self and disappears as they freak out about how she knew that secret/story.

Freaks them out further by appearing again in front of the whole class and pretending not to know their previous conversation.

Mari manages to get Lila alone.

I should also say that Lila thought that her curse was making her see MT as Marinette.

It terrifies Lila when she finds out that MT is actually Marinette, not dead but alive after all this time and apparently living the high life she wanted. This fact made the Italian swell up with jealousy.

“I hope you are not lying about me again, Lila Rossi. Like you always do.”

“What do you want with me? I swear I didn’t say anything else about you.”

“Aw, Lila. Don’t recognize me?”

Maria flickers and Ladybug is in her place and later, the Marinette that appeared in her bedroom and back to normal.

“You! How? Why are you here? Why can’t you leave me alone?”

“Why not? I mean you did take away nearly all my friends, my parents and made my life a living hell. If you think about it, I am just repaying you the same favor. How are the others? Treating you well?”

“What did you do to me, you bitch?”

“I just put a curse on you. The ghosts of your past will haunt you until you stop.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop Lying, Liar. They all feed and grow in power from your lies. I wonder what would happen in a few years if you kept this up.”

“You think you can get away with this. This is war and I have already beaten you once.”

“Oh Rossi. This isn’t a war. It’s a death sentence.” With that she disappears.

Lila tries to tell her class that MT is actually Marinette. She is met with crazy looks. Some of them look like they want to believe her but don't because they don’t want to look crazy too.

Oh. Adrien wasn’t on the trip because his mother didn’t want him to go to the crime capital of America although the crime rate has gone down a little due to Hellbat curing some of the city’s bad energy..

Right after Lila told the class about MT, Scarecrow came to steal some Wayne tech and the class got caught in the crossfire. So later, it was brushed off as Lila seeing things due to the fear toxins.

-----

Joker made the mistake of kidnapping her. Once was enough to never try that again.

(It involved the use of nearly all of the Miraculouses, old and new. He was thoroughly humiliated at the end of it and his picture by the time Hellbat was done with him was on the Batfam’s Christmas Card. Like I said she doesn’t kill but making them beg for death was okay.)

It coincided with Jason’s Birthday and the video of the incident was ‘the best birthday present ever.’ The uncensored version was watched at the next undead siblings bonding day. Damian included.

After hearing a few rumours about what happened, most criminals were glad for Hellbat’s rare appearances. (which happens once a month and during really busy time of the year)

There was a time where Penguin was carrying out one of their plans and when Hellbat showed up, all of their thugs surrendered instantly. (No Batman did not pout at the fact that this French girl was more imitating than him.)

Scarecrow used his newest batch of fear toxin on her during the first year after she died.

He was astounded to see her still standing and she later proceeded to beat the crap out of him while being under the toxin’s influences.

He has tried to stay out of her way since then.

She saw Scarecrow as Hawkmoth and said a lot of things in French which scared everyone because she said it with so much hate, anger and in a very menacing tone that everyone is like ‘I am not touching this.’

It took Red Hood and Nightwing to restrain her from further beating Scarecrow up.

He was one of the people who sympathised with the Joker after the Incident.

The next was Riddler being so arrogant in his plans and managed to get Hellbat and Spoiler into a death trap.

“You know I have a few regrets in life. And my final one is that I got captured and am now going to get killed by a walking fashion disaster.”

“Hey! I made this myself. I will have, you know.”

“You have a brilliant mind but no sense of fashion at all. When I get out of here, I am going to burn that thing with you in it, for your crimes against fashion.”

“What is wrong with it?”

Cue a lot of roasting of Riddler’s costume and Spoiler adding more fuel to the fire.

They manage to escape while Riddler is crying on the floor, having an existential crisis.

The thing was no one knows why Riddler was silent the entire week after encountering Hellbat and crying when anyone mentions it.

They now think Hellbat is the scariest one in the Batfamily, second to Batman and tied with Black Bat/Orphan.

The few who find out what really happened in the warehouse that night. Blackmail material on the Riddler.

Three ( four if you count Penguin) of Gotham’s biggest villains of the Rogues Gallery scared of Bats’ newest addition. Hellbat was not someone they wanted to mess with.

---------

Magic crisis stuff. Like a world ending event thing. Dr. Fate says they need the Miraculous jewels but the last mention of them had been in Paris a few years ago and had vanished since then.

Costantine looked at Batman. “You know who you have to call.”

Batman calls Hellbat. Who hasn’t been introduced yet to the JL.

“Ah. Bats. Not that I question your authority or anything but how can your newest ‘ward’ help us?”

She takes off her helmet and reveals her face and more importantly, her earrings.

Tikki comes out of her hiding place.

“I am the current Guardian of the Miracle Box and wielder of the Ladybug miraculous during Hawkmoth’s reign in Paris a few years ago. Any other Questions?”

“Oh great Guardian. Tikki. It is an honour to meet you.”-Wonder Woman, who else.

“You too, Princess Diana. Pass on my regards to your mother.”-Tikki

A huge face-off and the big evil is defeated.

WW asks abt HM and gives a horrified face at the end of her story. Nearly everyone who eavesdropped on the conversation was.

"Forgive me, Guardian for not aiding you in your hour of need.”

“It’s okay. I understand that there are other crises, world-ending ones that JL have to take care of. I am better now. Mostly.”

“I doubt it with those revenge schemes I found lying around. But she is getting there with her therapist.”-Batman

“I hate you, Dad.”

“Did you just call him Dad?”

“No….”

“Do you see me as a father figure?”

“I see you as a nuisance with how nosy you are with my personal business. So you are more of a bother figure.”

“I see you as part of the family too, Daughter.” (Got that reference anyone?)

“Jason was the one who adopted me.”

“Legally you are adopted by me.”

Maria with Pikachu surprised face because nobody told her that. “My life is a lie.”

-------

(Part 5)

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: ML Season 4 episode 13 Optigami

(Spoilers below)

-I will only go over things I missed from my live reaction.

-So Gabriel planted the idea in the award show by pretending it was Audrey's. Thats pretty slick.

-Trixx was the one that suggested Alya be a permanent wielder. But Marinette was against it. Though Alya insisted she could help.

-Marinette didn't want to get into the elevator because she didn't want to rush things.

-Alec was calling Audrey unfashionable and then told EVERYONE that the award was a sham. Which is true but DAMN Alec was vicious.

-Audrey wants vengeance and doesn't care. Lol she would.

-Gabriel HAD WAY TOO MUCH FUN ROASTING HER.

-So Alya and Nino hid in case Ladybug needed them.

-Zoé tried to pull Chloé down to safety but Chloé used her as a shield. (also she is still wearing the anti akuma charm around her neck.)

-No cap, but I love the glitter building design

-Adrinette in the elevator is cute

-Okay so the text conversation

Marinette: Im stuck in the elevator.

Alya: With Adrien

Marinette: YEAAAAA (fREAKED OUT CAUSE DANGER)

Adrien: Nino, I am stuck in the elevator with Marinette.

Nino: (The only one who doesn't know anything) AWESOME ADRIEN AND MARINETTE ARE STUCK TOGETHER IN THE ELEVATOR.

(Alya pretends to be thrilled)

Alya: How are you going to do what you have to?

(Okay enough texts)

-Nino is a real one and deserves that alya smooch.

-Alec is just COWERING IN THE BATHROOM.

-and Alec gets rekt.

-Luka telling Wayhem not to worry, before protecting him with his hand

-Luka getting all romantic in the vent. Glad he took his break up with Marinette in stride. Good on him.

-Audrey says no gays in the vents like a b****

-So Marinette has an emergency phone for the Kwami. Thats smart.

-Marinette is bad at lying

-"Kaalki. Im not a horse. Im a noble steed"

-How is Adrien Not realizing whats going on?

-Sass is adorable. Cause Kaalki is a b****

-They think bunnyx and Marinette is like NO!

-Adrien notices the sentimonster and shushes her

-Gonna say this once, Adrien and Marinette not being known as Aspik and Multimouse just saved BOTH of their bacons

-Adrien being there actually had Shadowmoth kind of care and NOT want his son glittered. So... yay?

-Kim missed that ENTIRE THING! I CANT EVEN

-Alya calls the Kwami with Marinette's blessing

-So sentinino was used as bait to lure out alya. DAMN YOU SHADOWMOTH, THATS ACTUALLY CLEVER'

-Kaalki is slowly becoming one of my favorites.

-Alya took the turtle on impulse.

-Nathalie and Hawkmoth deduced that Alya isn't an ordinary holder... OH NO. That isn't good at all

-So I glossed over this but... SENTIMONSTERS CAN USE MIRACULOUS! THATS TERRIFYING

-omg SO MUCH DESTRUCTION KAALKI

-LADYBEE IS BORN!

-Ladybug figured she doesn't need a lucky charm to win today.

-Yo Chat noir is so heartbroken but holds it in. poor guy

-Look I gotta give props to chat noir on hiding how hurt he is. Making a joke over the fact he WANTS to tell her who he is but can't.

-Senti-nino's confusion at the high five!

-Thats when Ladybug realizes the trap!

-Chat noir was eating a cookie while just standing there.

-HOLD UP! LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR DIDNT FIST BUMP?!

-CARDNAL SIN RIGHT THERE.

-So Marinette gives Alya the miraculous permanently.

-And Hawkmoth/shadowmoth KNOWS she is special and plans to get to know her better....

-Well s*** if this isn't going to blow up idk what will.

____________________________________________________________

This episode is one of the best plots of Hawkmoth if not THE BEST one.

So props to him and Nathalie stepping up their game.

This episode had some good moments and also building a LOT up for later.

Chat noir being sidelined, Alya basically being promoted.

Marinette maybe making a dire mistake.

I think this is the best episode since Gang of Secrets.

so 10/10

I have a few nit picks but honestly it is clearly setting up for something

Its very well done, and I am curious on where it goes from here? Is Alya in danger?

I Guess we will find out in

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Rena Rouge.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Optigami

For the first time this season, we're actually acknowledging what happened at the end of the last season. Of course, it's the thirteenth episode chronologically, so you can tell the writers really wanted to strike while the iron was hot.

Let's get into the ninth (chronologically the thirteenth) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Optigami.

We start off with Nathalie recounting the events of “Miracle Queen” to Gabriel, where Chloe exposed the identities of the temp heroes, which is kind of odd considering they were both there. Then again, it's entirely possible Gabriel forgot what happened given we're literally halfway through the season chronologically. According to Nathalie, she created a Sentimonster the very next day to spy on the heroes. After a lot of surveillance by the Sentimonster, named Optigami, all Nathalie and Gabriel really found out was that the heroes were just regular teenagers who occasionally got a Miraculous from Ladybug without even learning her identity, all while we learn she continued to give Miraculous out to the heroes despite the risk to their safety.

Okay, a few questions here. First, why the hell didn't Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth or Mayura try something like this from the beginning? It took you two lucking out in finding out the identities of seven heroes to think about spying on your enemies? Second, Mayura created Optigami the next day? Wasn't she in a lot of pain as a result of using the Peacock for a whole season? At least when she created a Sentimonster in the New York special, it was set a vague amount of time after “Miracle Queen”. Third, Ladybug is seriously recruiting the same heroes again after the rules that she imposed onto Chloe? You know, the person who couldn't use the Bee Miraculous again because of the risk to her safety, and ultimately betrayed Ladybug because she hated the rule? Seriously, the video footage shows Ladybug recruiting Ryuko, someone whose identity Shadowmoth already knew before “Miracle Queen”, so this makes even less sense. If Chloe doesn't get her Miraculous after exposing her identity to the whole world, the same should apply to the other heroes too. If they wanted to make Chloe an exception, all they had to do was have Ladybug bench Queen Bee because she didn't trust Chloe in her civilian life. This just makes Ladybug come off as a hypocrite who serves to justify Astruc's warped mentality that Chloe doesn't deserve a Miraculous even though she lost hers for the same reason as the others.

Nathalie calls Optigami a failure, but Gabriel actually uses his brain for once and comes up with a plan to take out all of the temp heroes at once by putting them in a situation where Ladybug is forced to recruit one of them in order to stop an Akuma. He calls Audrey Bourgeois, a major fashion magazine writer and praises her idea to give a monthly award to a fashion icon, and Gabriel says “there's no better introduction than giving it to his son”, so I'm not sure if he told Audrey to give the award to Adrien, or if he already got the award and Gabriel was just capitalizing on the chance.

So we cut to Marinette and Alya hanging out in the former's room, and surprise, surprise, Marinette is gushing over Adrien. It isn't a love story if there's a single scene not talking about the love interest according to Astruc.

Yeah, despite not being on the list of targets, Marinette got a ticket to the award show because the writers weren't sure how else they could work her into the plot. The Kwamis ask if they can come along, forgetting about the fact that they need to be a secret or be with an owner (guessing Marinette learned her lesson after “Furious Fu”). I'm starting to think I was a little too harsh on Master Fu considering he managed to put up with these godlike idiots for 176 years.

Alya and Trixx, the Fox Kwami, bring up a decent point that now that Alya knows she's Ladybug, she can take a more active role in helping her as Rena Rouge if she had the Fox Miraculous full-time, while Marinette points out the fact that it's too risky for anyone but her to hand out Miraculous. This is brief, but I like this little disagreement here. While I think Marinette could have brought up the fact that Shadowmoth knows Alya's identity in her argument, both sides still make a good point, and this will come into play later on, for better or for worse.

So Marinette and Alya head out to the award party where they meet up with Adrien, Kagami, Luka, Kim, Max, and Nino, with Alya doing a secret handshake with him that I'm sure won't be important later on. We also get a hilarious scene of Alya once again trying to force Marinette into an elevator with Adrien with the explicit intent to have her get closet to Adrien, while she unsurprisingly freaks out, leading to some brief Unfunny Marinette Slapstick.

So much for Marinette growing after the second umbrella scene.

Optigami is set up, and Shadowmoth creates a Sentimonster of the man hosting the award ceremony, and takes the opportunity to do what we've all wanted to do since Audrey's first appearance in late 2018.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you, Gabriel Agreste. You're the real MVP of this episode.

So Shadowmoth sends out an Akuma to akumatize Audrey into his “magnum opus”, Style Queen, once again (Audrey is also implied to be willingly akumatized like Chloe in “Queen Banana”). And since the titular Sentimonster plays a big role in Shadowmoth's plan this episode, I think now's a good time to talk about Optigami.

Optigami has a simple design, a butterfly colored like Mayura, but I like the role it plays. It has the power to hide in any solid object and observe the environment like a camera Nathalie watches, all while Style Queen chases after the temp heroes and turns them into piles of gold dust. Whether that's because she's been powered up by Shadowmoth or because the animators can't afford to create new models of the characters as gold statues isn't clear. It still really shows the writers are taking advantage of the concept of Sentimonsters as support for Akumas outside of more muscle.

So Kagami tries to distract Style Queen while Adrien runs, and she is the first to be taken out. Chloe then tells Style Queen where Ladybug went, but she gets targeted because she laughed at her mother earlier, and then tries to use Zoe as a human shield before getting blasted. Oh, thank God. I thought Chloe was going to appear in an episode where the writers didn't remind the audience how much of a terrible person she is and anyone who supports her is just as bad.

Marinette and Adrien both run off to transform, but get into the same elevator together, which then gets broken thanks to Style Queen's interference. This leads to an interesting setup where neither of them can transform and hope their partner will save them, leading to some real tension. There's also thankfully little to no stammering from Marinette in these scenes. It's almost like the writers only have her struggle to talk with Adrien so they don't actually have to write scenes like this. Alya briefly teases Marinette for saying she's stuck in an elevator with Adrien before realizing she's trapped in an elevator with a civilian and can't transform.

After Max and Luka get taken out, Marinette calls a phone she set up near the Miracle Ball to call the Kwamis, pretending to talk to the fire department and secretly tells them to send Kaalki to help her, but Adrien sees Optigami spying on them in the elevator, so Marinette is forced to hang up. Marinette and Adrien are about to transform and reveal themselves to each other, but because neither of them are on the list and because Shadowmoth felt like actually being a decent father today, Optigami retreats with Style Queen, who then takes out Kim, leaving only Alya and Nino left.

Marinette tells Alya to call the Kwamis, but while she does so, she gets a call from Nino, who is soon taken out by Style Queen and... is replaced... by an... evil... doppelganger... The eighth one in four seasons...

The only question I have is how did Shadowmoth create two Sentimonsters in the same day? Did he recharge offscreen? Either way, he sends “Sentinino” after Alya to lure her out, but Kaalki arrives and portals her to Marinette's room, leading to the funniest joke of the episode.

Alya takes the Fox Miraculous and transforms into Rena Rouge and creates an illusion of Ladybug to distract Style Queen while she meets up with Marinette with the Bee Miraculous, but she decides to take the Turtle Miraculous even though Marinette didn't tell her to just to be safe.

Rena Rouge meets up with Sentinino and gives him the Turtle, alerting Shadowmoth to the fact that Alya may have a bigger role than he anticipated. Sentinino transforms into Carapace (or would a more accurate term be Sentipace?) while Optigami hides in the Turtle Miraculous, leading to another interesting conflict. If Style Queen gets Ladybug's Miraculous, Shadowmoth wins, but even if Ladybug wins, Sentipace can swoop in and steal Ladybug's Miraculous when her guard is down. This is David Xanatos levels of planning here.

Rena Rouge escorts Adrien out of the elevator via one of Kaalki's portals, and Marinette transforms into Ladybug before unifying with the Bee Miraculous into Ladybee.

Ignoring the creepy look on her face, I think Ladybee has a pretty good design. I think the black and gold go well with her suit, and the ponytail with the gold streaks is a nice touch. I'm not sure if it's referencing Queen Bee's design, but I like it, as well as the slight antennae on her head. I still prefer Dragonbug's design, but I can see why so many fans love this one too.

Ladybee is surprised Sentipace is there, but accepts his help anyway. Ladybee summons her Lucky Charm, a compact mirror, but when looking around, she doesn't see how to use the Lucky Charm with Sentipace as he isn't highlighted in her vision like certain objects/heroes that play a part in stopping an Akuma. Ladybee uses Venom, and with Sentipace's Shelter, manages to tank Style Queen's blasts and stun her before de-evilizing her.

Cat Noir tries to cataclysm the golden shield Style Queen placed around the building, but shows up too late, being surprised at the presence of Rena Rouge and Sentipace. He jokes about it, but this will somewhat come into play in future episodes.

Ladybug prepares to throw the compact mirror to use Miraculous Ladybug and fix the damage, but through the mirror, sees Nino fail to do the secret handshake with Alya. Ladybug pulls a John McClane and swings off the top of the building and tells Cat Noir to use his Cataclysm to destroy the Turtle Miraculous, releasing Optigami, and giving Nathalie a major headache. Shadowmoth undoes the creations of Optigami and Sentinino and retreats.

Alya is naturally upset that she screwed up and almost let Shadowmoth find out Ladybug's identity, but then, well...

Like with “Gang of Secrets”, I'm very mixed on this ending. Both Alya and Marinette make good points here. Alya knows she almost let Shadowmoth win, but Marinette points out how invaluable Alya was today and realizes how helpless she was doing a lot of things on her own. Even if Alya didn't give the Turtle Miraculous to Sentinino, Marinette still had to face the possibility of revealing herself to Adrien. Like it or not, she needs someone to help her more, and Alya is the only one able to fill that position.

The problem I have is that because of how Marinette phrases that sentence, it comes off like Alya is being rewarded for what happened this episode. I get she helped, but I just find it weird that Marinette doesn't feel a little uncomfortable trusting Alya more after going behind her back and almost screwing up the entire mission in the process. I think the scene could have worked if Marinette was a little more stern towards Alya and realized she had no choice but to give her the Fox, creating a little tension between the two as a result.

So the episode ends with a post-credits scene where Gabriel and Nathalie realize they need to focus more attention onto Alya due to her connection to Ladybug.

But yeah, this was honestly a really good episode. It's become my favorite this season.

The plot has a fair amount of suspense and tension, most of it derived from the very clever plan Shadowmoth has this time, taking full advantage of the repaired Peacock in order to make what was already a very powerful Akuma even more of a threat. There were jokes, but unlike in other episodes that focus on humiliating Marinette or interrupting the tension, they're well-placed. The same goes for the elevator scene. The writers easily could have made Marinette stammer all of her words around Adrien, but for once, they realized that they needed to have her actually interact with him in order to maintain the tension of the episode.

Granted, there are still some flaws, like Marinette really had no reason to be invited to the award ceremony. All they really had to do was have Adrien invite her himself, which would justify her eager reaction at the beginning. It's also strange that nobody brings up the fact that all of Adrien's friends who were invited were temp heroes. I've already gone over the problem with timeline at the beginning as well as the ending and I plan to talk about Rena Rouge's partnership with Ladybug next time.

Overall, this was still a really good episode. Even the evil doppelganger plotline had an interesting twist to it. What's the next episode about again? What? Another evil doppelganger of Nino?

[twin-books]

Hi. This post was inspired by this post by @nobodyfamousposts that I really didn’t feel like hijacking. The following isn’t directed at anyone in particular, it’s just a rant with my thoughts and opinions that no one has to agree with. 

Regarding the New York Special and Hack-San;

There’s no real way to treat these two things equally since they are both different scenarios with different set ups that happen to have a similar idea for them. Though, that’s my opinion. I personally think they’re both in the wrong in both scenarios (though maybe not so equally measured). That’s my take. However, I blame it entirely on bad writing and less on the characters that don’t really get to be characters, if we’re honest. I mean, I guess Marinette does but that isn’t saying much, sadly. But in the New York Special both heroes left the city for a vacation and didn’t have a back-up plan. Okay... they did but it was absolutely stupid. Now I know Adrien is mostly in the wrong for not telling Ladybug immediately that he couldn’t stay and also for listening to Plagg (who I am still very angry about having his improved character immediately assassinated by this one special. Thanks a lot, New York). However, that whole situation was poorly planned out because had Adrien stayed nothing would have really changed for Paris besides the disaster might have been shorter. Going off canon; the canon hasn’t shown us that Adrien knows where to get other miraculouses so he couldn’t get other heroes. Then cataclysm only destroys things so that limits a good amount of options since it’s his only power. His best plans of attack would have to either be; willingly kill an akumatized victim (since he didn’t know Hawkmoth left), or cataclysm a senti-monster and get even more people killed with that idiotic choice, or destroy the akumatized/amoked object but no damage would be fixed (and the chances of their being no damage left behind by this is very slim) while also letting the akuma/amok get away unpurified causing more mass destruction. All pretty poor choices. Hence why I think the entirety of the New York Special was so dumb because Ladybug, who is normally pretty smart and I know would actually have a real plan for this, didn’t come up with that great of a plan. I know she was going to use the space power-up to travel back because it’s fast (instead of the much more convenient horse miraculous for some reason) but that still takes time and destruction would still happen. Plus, how would she explain Marinette suddenly going missing? And who the heck would take care of Hawkmoth back in New York when she left (grant it this is operating under the assumption she may have known about him by that point)? In the time of travel how many more lives will be lost or how many more people will get hurt while she is on her way? Just because she can fix everything and make it good as new doesn’t mean she is free to risk more lives. I applied this same logic to the chimney incident in Sentibubbler with Chat Noir. Just because Ladybug can fix everything doesn’t mean he has free reign to freaking destroy public property. Not to mention the remote and cat alarm thing is a horrendous form of communication they never tested would actually work with the amount of distance she would have to go. A remote control cannot respond to its corresponding object after an ocean of difference unless they’re magic which canon did not confirm. Don’t they have phones? Why can’t they freaking use those? Is it the civilian thing? I know that’s bs since Ladybug canonically called Alya’s civilian cell! I’m getting off-track... Chat Noir staying behind would have been useless but him going to New York, while not useless, was a terrible move regardless. He should have told her and he had no real reason not to. Even if you argue it was him worrying about upsetting her... It’s not a good excuse. It just isn’t. Plus, that’s assuming. Now, I haven’t watched Hack-San so my thoughts on this may change and take this with a grain of salt but... I’m just glad Marinette came up with an actual good back-up plan. However, this shouldn’t be compared to the New York Special. Both heroes left Paris in the New York Special, one of them being literally the only hero that can basically stop any of the villains and she chose the slower form of transport to get there making her arrival more likely to be late. In Hack-San Ladybug plans to leave but before doing so finds and solidifies a worthy replacement for herself so she can go on that trip with a good conscience. And the plan was great except... she failed to communicate that plan to Chat Noir, for some reason? Which is basically the only thing these two scenarios have in common. A hero leaves the general area they are meant to be and fails to communicate to their respective partner what their freaking plan was. This failure to communicate is, sadly, not uncommon with miraculous. And definitely not uncommon with these two adorable idiots. But like, side stepping this... Miscommunication is no excuse for the immediate need to cataclysm someone that tries to impersonate your heroic partner. Not to mention the logic behind this is very faulty. I imagine the idea going through the writers’ minds was, “well... he was nearly tricked by that wax statue of Ladybug once, and then Senti-Bug totally got him so we should probably let him be immediately on guard” but I have no idea why his on guard had to be freaking murder. Yeah, I would immediately be suspicious of Alyabug in his place but knowing how senti-monsters react to my cataclysm and also knowing an akumatized person is still a freaking victim I would probably not be so eager to activate my power of mass destruction. But apparently he’s just very trigger happy this season. When things showed even a small sign of hopeless with Sole Crusher his first suggestion was to just cataclysm her. I think Chat Noir needs some freaking help at the moment. Like, yeah, Marinette should have given Chat some fair warning but how the heck was she to know he would do that? “What? Someone pretending to be Ladybug? Better cataclysm first and ask questions later!” I personally think this situation should have less to do with the whole miscommunication thing that Marinette is very well known for and really shouldn’t be all that surprising (too bad the writers won’t let her work on stuff that matters and would rather pick on her for things that are just plain stupid) and more about this whole “guilty until proven innocent” mentality Chat Noir now suddenly developed out of freaking no where. Let’s talk about that. That ain’t healthy. That ain’t right. Sure, if Marinette had communicated her plan it wouldn’t have happened but it doesn’t change the fact he was still completely capable of doing that? Unless you got some concrete proof that Ladybug told Chat, “Hey, if anyone impersonates me or something, just cataclysm them” the only thing Marinette is responsible for is not telling Chat therefore leading to his suspicion. She’s got nothing on his whole apparent need to cataclysm someone. I haven’t watched most of season 4 but I do know Chat Noir has suggested or attempted to cataclysm someone at least three times this season. Once being in Guiltrip where he attempted to cataclysm himself, a suggestion in Sole Crusher which I already mentioned, and the third in Hack-San where he decided murder was okay. The real issue we have here is Chat Noir is very much not okay and there has been no build up for this (from other seasons) and it’s driving me insane. From my perspective it looks like he did a complete 180 and is now bordering anti-hero to villain territory. Anyway, my point being here... the situations aren’t equal to me and shouldn’t be treated as equal. The New York Special involved them both being careless idiots while Hack-San had Marinette having an “oops” moment that accidentally poured fuel into Chat Noir’s trigger happy fire. I personally think (with how it was written) that Ladybug is just as responsible for New York as Chat Noir and the entire idea was stupid. In Hack-San Marinette had a little bit of fault but please stop either side-stepping attempted murder or claiming Marinette was somehow responsible for the free choice Chat Noir made. At the end of the day Marinette was hit with the forgetful stick while Chat Noir was squashed by the falling tree of blood lust and he’s clearly still stuck under it. Grant it, I still haven’t seen Hack-San yet so maybe my opinions will change? I am really not all that interested in watching it because after Lies my patience for this show really kind of left me (if you somehow couldn’t tell).  There’s my two cents that no one asked for and most likely doesn’t matter. I’m tired. This felt good to vent but I’ll probably delete it later. I’m trying to be less salty but I just needed to vent a moment.  Sorry to bog you down. I hope everyone has a lovely whatever time it is where they are. <3

[liquid-luck-00]

Consolation + The “Talk”

Bio!Dad Bruce

Day 9: Consolation and Day 10: The “Talk”

@biodad-bruce-month 

Ao3 ~~~ First ~~~ Previous ~~~ Next

This got a little long, sorry not sorry

~~~~~~~~~~

One week, one week has passed since Damian started school in Paris. One week since the tower of lies that Lila has built began to crumble and fall. 

By the beginning of the next day she had backed off all her lies about the Wayne family but she just re-doubled all her efforts on lies that included Prince Ali, Clara Nightingale, and Jagged Stone. But the tower she had built was going to fall. 

And Damian was ready to bring an end to this liar’s reign.

So you can trust that he would find a way to avenge his sister without the use of violence against her, especially in Paris, and especially knowing his father’s mantra of vengeance not revenge. But revenge is needed. So, Damian made a few phone calls. Over the course of the next week he would have enough video and audio evidence to prove his little sister is innocent. But what would really put the icing on the cake is if he could convince the principal to hold a career day or week. Granted it shouldn’t be too hard, he is the only blood son of Bruce Wayne after all. So, telling his sister that he would meet her after fencing practice he went off early in search of principal Damocles. He found the man quite simply and was it far too easy to convince the man to go to career day parents of the students will be able to come in to do you demonstrations or speeches as well as anyone else who they would like to invite.

---

Damian left for his fencing practice which left me packing up my things getting ready to leave. I was one of the last ones out so of course something had to happen. Adrien came up to me then “hey Mari can we talk.”

‘Sigh’ “If this is about the highroad again Adrien. Her lies are hurting people it doesn’t matter if you think it’s right, she’s hurting people’s futures their chances it…” He cut her off, great this is going wonderfully.

“It’s not that, well it is that but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” He was stumbling over his words and she softened her expression slightly “Marinette what’s the difference between infatuation and love?”

“What?” That was not what she was expecting. This is confusing, and where was this coming from anyways. Never mind why “can you explain it to me more I’m having a little trouble wrapping my head around the question.”

He had sheepish smile and started “I. I love ladybug but I’m not sure if I love her or what she represents more”

“You don’t know if you like the idea of her more than the person who she is?” Marinette asked him seeming to understand where this conversation was going. 

“before we go even further down this rabbit hole, Adrien why don’t we meet up somewhere more private”

“why? “

Marinette simply pointed towards the door “We seem to have gained an audience”          

There at the door was Alya filming but unknown to her someone else was behind her. “Bean we have to go” Alya you jumped at the sound of Tim’s voice.

“OK Tim I’ll be out just give me a minute,” Tim nodded and left Alya having scurried off when she was found out. “I’ll text you place and time to meet up and talk further that is if you’re still confused about your feelings about this girl”

“Sounds good and thank you Marinette” he whispered as she left the room. Once she got to the car she glanced at him oh no, was the only thing that went through her mind “you look like a cat who ate the canary Tim spill” she was moving in to tickle him to get the info out. “Fine, fine, fine I give I’ll tell, but” she shot him a look. “only if you make me some coffee, today feels like an all-nighter”

“Deal! Now spill”

“Damian set up that next week there is going to be career days for the entire week at the school.”

“Okay” she nodded her head understanding where her brothers’ train of thoughts were heading. “The career week will be the perfect opportunity to expose the rest of Lila’s lies. At least that’s what you and Damian are hoping to accomplish isn’t it.”

“Mari, you do know you’re my favorite sister” Tim replied with a smirk that would rival even Damian’s.

So, the two of them got to work. Damian may think he’s clever and the most discrete out of everyone, but he wasn’t able to pull off hiding the cameras and microphones well enough that Mari wasn’t able to figure it out. This means they are going to have plenty of video and audio evidence use against the liar.

Now when Damian got home from practice the three of them really set out to destroy the liar. With all the audio evidence as well as the footage proving it was Lila speaking Marinette made several phone calls.

Jagged and Clara were both on board completely and wholeheartedly, especially after hearing what was going on. With those two she called the principal and he had agreed to keep them as a special surprise for the last day.

She called her father and he was willing to fly out to speak on one of the first days. Her father also happened to be able to get into contact with Prince Ali, and once hearing of everything that was going on, he to agree to come and speak.

Damian had called the Kent’s so Lois Lane, Clark and, and Jon were all going to come to speak, well Lois Lane in Clark were going to speak, Jon was coming to hang out with his two best friends.

Once Mr. Kent heard it was going on well it wasn’t long afterwards for Barry Allen to come to speak about forensics science, Oliver Queen to speak further on different aspects of business, and several other members of the league who seem to have fallen in love with Mari.

Everyone knew that as soon as Lila saw the names on the list, she would be tempted to spread the lies about every single one of them, so they would continue to record everything that was said in the class.

And who’s to say that a couple of the heroes may or may not make an appearance was well, but it was to be determined if Lila lied about them or not. Within the hour the three Wayne siblings knew, oh they knew this liar would not have a chance to escape. And anyone left believing her by the end of the week, well they felt sorry for those poor souls who still believe her every word.

---

After about two hours getting our allies ready for the incoming slaughter of the liar I met up with Adrien. And that was different.

“Mari” Adrien seem unsure of how to start. We had we decided it would’ve been best to meet up at the Wayne Enterprises Paris branch that way we can have a conference room to discuss it somewhere private, I won’t have to worry about people eavesdropping. Well everyone except for my brothers but it’s a price I’m willing to pay. “This is the first crush I’ve ever had, I, I don’t know…”

“Adrien I’ve known you now for about a year. You are quite honestly still sheltered. Well that’s the best way I can describe it.”

“What I’m not! I’m no?” Adrien began to stutter because that was not where the conversation was originally going.

“Adrien you are still quite sheltered. The way you think things should be handles when it comes to lies or personal space is the same way that people deal with the paparazzi and those are not the same at all. But I’m saying that because it’s normal to be confused when it comes to a crush. I had a crush on you for the longest time and was unsure how to act on it. I got to know about you a bit more and the crush well it changed.” He was looking at me shocked by my proclamation.

“How? Why? What are you mean? I’m not.” Adrien seemed a little taken back before he finally decided what he was going to say. “You said had?”

“I had the biggest crush on you until I learned you were a coward, or what seemed like cowardace. You decided that someone you didn’t know was more important than the person you claim to be a friend. This past week has shown me that you are a pacifist, not a coward, but you strive for peace with everyone. but that’s not how everything goes. I learned that about you that’s what made me move on. So what is it about this girl that makes you stay or is there something about someone else who makes you want to stay with them instead?“ He was silent he wasn’t staring at me, but he was starting off into space. He seemed to not know exactly what to say, but the thought was there. 

“Ladybug she’s my…” He was about to say something but stopped himself, almost as if he knows her as more than just the heroine. But that is not possible the only ones who interact with her while in the mask are now her family and…

“Your Chat Noir” she said it’s so calmly and as such a fact that he just stared at her calm and unblinking until the inevitable freak out which cost him to pass out. Great now she’s stuck at a conference room trying to revive her partner who doesn’t know she’s his partner. Once he finally came to, she just watched as it to make sure he wasn’t about to faint again.

“I’m not! I can’t be! I’m not superhero, that’s crazy Mari your” he was rambling. In the past month she has perfected the Batman Glare and well Adrien was getting it, because she was not believing the bullshit that was coming out of his mouth.

“Are you paws-itively certain about that Chat.” He went silent, but doesn’t know if it was because of the pun or because she called him Chat.

“How?” Adrien whispered to her.

“Well I figured it out since it seemed like you knew Ladybug more than just a hero.” She stated hoping that her identity was not compromised. “anyways Ladybug’s your partner but what were you going to say afterwards”

“she’s my partner and my best friend. She’s the person who may know me the best out of everyone, except I think that goes to you now” he began to chuckle, but it evolved into full-blown laughter and Mari couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

“You know it makes a lot of sense of your Chat. Chat is always carefree and bubbly, but he always makes sure to keep it professional. Sure, flirting in the middle of the battle isn’t the best. But knowing Adrien and Chat Noir are the same person makes the whole so much more. What’s the word complete” she muses tapping her chin.

“Ladybug is the hero Paris deserves. But I don’t think I love her. I thought I did. I thought about this a lot, I love that when I was with her, I was free. I don’t know the girl underneath the mask. But I do you know the girl beneath the mask is strong and courageous. She is undoubtably amazing. But maybe you are figuring out my identity snapped things into focus, because I love the way I feel around her. But I also love the way I feel about my friends. Thank you, Mari.”

“For what I haven’t said anything this was all you.”

“Exactly, I needed someone to hear me, and not force me into a conclusion they thought was best. And at this point you are my first true friend. Can we. Can we be friends again Marinette?”

Mari looked at him for a second and then broke into a smile. “Of course, Adrien we’re friends”

“Good now let’s bring down a liar”

---

Of course the week leading up to career week was unexpectedly full of lies, all coming out of the Italians mouth. Oh, Barry Allen yeah she met him on Central city oh Oliver Queen she once saw him at a charity event in Star City oh she’s practically Lois Lane and Clark Kent‘s daughter, Jonathan their son, is her best friend. The list goes on and on. Everyone on the left side excluding Adrien do believe every word that came out of her mouth. The three in the very back on the right side, being herself, Damian, and Chloe couldn’t contain their laughter. This usually resulted in a Alya yelling at them from laughing that of course Lila wouldn’t be lying and then defending Lila as she began to cry her crocodile tears.

The entire school was informed that the entirety of career week was mandatory and missing a single speaker would be equivalent to failing a midterm for and class, meaning there was no skipping at all.        

 Monday

Today there were three guest speakers, them being Bruce Wayne, Prince Ali, and John Stewart.

Prince Ali was the first to go up go up and just let’s just say that many people we surprised that he did not do go green charities but in fact did children’s charities called a few things in the question specifically from Rose and Mylene.

Luckily for Lila she didn’t lie much about John Stewart, who spoke of his time as a marine and about currently being an architect, but that was a short-lived victory on her part, when he showed up as the final school guest at the end of the day as Green Lantern. He gave her a speech about honesty and the importance of discipline and hard work in order to succeed.

Bruce spoke about honesty and a hard work when building a company as well as the importance of working with reputable companies and brands.

At the end of the day she had two ceases and desists, one from Prince Ali and one from the Wayne family.

On the bright side a new Wayne charity was in the works alongside Prince Ali for children’s medicine.

 Tuesday

Was Barry Allen who spoke about pursuing forensic sciences and the work he does alongside the police.  

Wonder Woman who was speaking as an ambassador of Themyscira, and way at being an ambassador entailed. 

And Mayor Bourgeois spoke on what it means to be a part of the political and legislative sectors of the government.

Again, Lila received two cease and desists from Barry Allen and Wonder Woman respectively.

 Wednesday

Went similar to the previous two. Oliver Queen spoke about ways to modify businesses and expanding them in order to change with consumers.

Wang Cheng, Marinette’s uncle, spoke and gave a demonstration of cooking techniques for the school.

Tomoe Tsurugi, Kagami’s mother, spoke about fencing and also about ableism against disability, mainly that even being blind she can hand many fencers their asses without breaking a sweat.

Lila only received one cease and desist.

 Thursday

Nora, Alya’s sister, spoke of being a professional boxer and the training she does for it.

Lois and Clark gave a joint presentation, and of course Alya wanted her idols to review her blog. And well that did not go so well for her, Lois tore her interviews with Lila apart stating she gives no further evidence and simply takes what the girl says at face value. However other interviews she did provide more links to her information which prove she is a capable journalist, but there is room to grow.

The Kent’s also presented Lila a cease and desist, luckily for Alya she hadn’t posted anything in the past two weeks since Marinette’s return about anything Lila had said, and she was glad for that right now.

 Friday

Jagged Stone and Clara started Friday with a mini concert, that included a special duet with the two artists. Jagged spoke about Rock’n Roll and the changes and subcategories of the genre.

Clara Nightingale spoke on the pop side of the music industry and how she got started at a young age, as well as her background in dance and choreography.

Gabriel Agreste was the final speaker, we’ll he was on video call actually, and spoke on the fashion industry, the standards that come with the consumer market, and the way public opinion shapes brands and companies.

Gabriel was about to log off when Jagged walked in front of the camera.

“Too true Agreste, public opinion does shape the way many of those who have spoken this past week” many don’t know this about Jagged but mess with his family and he will not hold back. “That is why you should know, your model, Lila Rossi has had a total six cease and desists field against her this past week. As un-Rock’n roll as it is Clara and I will be adding two more to that list. I will also be suing for defamation of character as well. Clara?”

“Lies and cheats, make for poor feats. I will also be suing as well for defamation of character. This has made me so mad I can’t even come up with a rhyme.” She called out to the crowd.

“So Agreste, how will your totally not Rock’n Roll model affect your business?” Jagged asked. Everyone was watching the screen for Gabriel’s reaction.

“It would seem it is best we terminated contact Miss Rossi. Also, Adrien.” The poor boy practically jumped in his seat.

“Yes”

“There will be no contact between you and Miss Rossi until we are able to discuss this further. Goodbye”

The entire school was in a shocked silence. This final day as set up so the whole school would see it altogether.

Lila began to cry until she became furious. She jumped from her seat and yelled. “You did this! You set me up! You ruined my entire empire Marinette!” She was glaring daggers at me.

“If it’s any consolation to you Lila you made me miserable for eight months. You took my friends, those I’ve known since I was practically in diapers. You made my life hell and if that’s consolation to you fine. I will also be suing you for slander and defamation of character. But just know this I have people who genuinely care for me and I’m sorry if you felt threatened by me to blame all this on me, but I don’t care about your opinion or the opinion of those who turned on me without batting an eye not anymore.” It’s so liberating to say that to them. Oh, a weight has been lifted off my chest and so I walked out of the school side-by-side with Damian, Adrien, and Chloe with my head held high. And for the first time and I can’t remember when I could breathe. They weren’t going to hold me down any longer.

~~~~~~~~~~

Just for to clear this up Marinette is the youngest out of all the children. She and Damian are the same age but he is older by a few months.

Next

~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist:

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[s-and-n-writes]

you are my north

a/n: hey guys! here's the soulmate fic i've been working on for a while. it's an outline-style because i didn't want to write out the whole thing. enjoy! -s ps. i can't write summaries to save my life. pps. this fic is rated teen only because of two curse words, and while there is some major character death, i didn't mark it in the warnings because it's temporary.

quick links: | crossover masterlist | 

People get many types of soulmate bonds

Some are romantic and some are platonic

Platonic can be friends, family, found-family, etc

Bonds can include marks, writing on arms, switching bodies, etc

Everyone has a soulbond but some aren’t visible or obvious

Marinette grew up in Gotham named Marianne

She didn’t have a visual bond so hers would manifest when she met her soulmate

Her parents were killed when their house burned down (she was 5)

She was sent to an orphanage and ran away after a few months (she was still 5)

Lived on the streets for a year until she met Jason Todd (she was 6 and he was 10)

They met when two older boys tried to steal Marianne’s money since she was small

Jason beat them up and gave her his hand to lift her up

When their hands met there was a flash of light

Marianne - My mama told me about this. She said it was a soulmate bond and the person it was with was really really really special to me.

They both have a compass on their palms pointing to where the other is

They go off together and live together on the streets

She calls him “Jay-Jay” and he calls her “Pixie” or “Mari”

2 years later (Marianne is 8 and Jason is 12)

Jason goes out and finds the Batmobile and proceeds to get adopted

He refuses and wants to find Marianne

Jason - Let me go old man!

Batman - No. You’re coming with me.

Jason - I need to find my sister!

Batman - Fine. Find her and you both will come with me.

Both go in search of Marianne

Earlier Marianne woke up and found Jason missing so she went out to search

She couldn’t find him and was upset and was sloppy

A Parisian couple found her and adopted her

The people at the GCPD were like ????? because who adopts a Gotham street kid?

Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng apparently

So Marianne is taken to Paris while Jason and Batman are looking for her

They can’t find her and Jason goes with Batman and gets adopted and everything

Jason believes she must have been taken out of Gotham because his compass points towards the harbor and towards the water

Eventually gives up because he won’t be able to find her since across the ocean is a massive place

Gotham proceeds as normal

In Paris...

Marianne is refusing everything because she didn’t want to leave and she misses her brother

Tom and Sabine didn’t want two children so they didn’t bother looking for her brother

They rename her Marinette

She goes to school and makes friends with two boys named Nino and Kim and is enemies with Chloe, the mayor’s daughter

Reluctantly starts calling Tom and Sabine ‘Maman’ and ‘Papa’ because it would look weird if she didn’t and she didn’t want to talk about her past

They treat her nicely but she still misses her old parents

Marinette makes more and more friends but they don’t know about her past or her brother

When she’s 11 she sees on the news that Jason Todd-Wayne died

She’s really sad because her brother and soulmate died but also insanely confused because he somehow got adopted by Bruce Wayne???

Back to his death

Her compass stays but her compass needle disappears

She withdraws and doesn’t go to school for a week

She asked everyone not to give her any nicknames (not that she had any in the first place)

Nobody knows she had a brother except Tom and Sabine but even they don’t know his name

Everyone is told one of her family members died and her parents try to console her but eventually give up

Continuing on and time skips

Her parents start leaving her alone more as she got older

It helped when she became Ladybug

Marinette also slightly resents them for forcefully adopting her and then kind of neglecting her but let’s not get into that

Becomes friends with Alya and starts crushing on Adrien

Alya posts everything and is very intrusive

Marinette is constantly questioned about her soulbond but always refuses to answer

Did I mention that she always wears gloves ever since Jason died?

Because she does

She doesn’t want to see the compass and be reminded of him

Anyways, Alya keeps trying but is always refused

She calls Marinette ‘Mari’ one day and she just…snaps

Marinette goes on this big rant about personal information and privacy and respecting boundaries and ends up screaming at her and curls in a ball crying

Alya leaves and stops being friends with her because Marinette is ‘mean’ and ‘sensitive’

They occasionally talk but they’re not really friends anymore

Very soon after, Lila comes and that's why Alya turned on Marinette so quick

Adrien tells her to “take the high road” and her crush on him dies

Marinette becomes even more miserable because everyone has left her and she is alone

Luka and Kagami aren’t her close friends here

And Chloe is not in her class anymore

Tikki is her only friend until Master Fu gives her guardianship and she is in charge of her kwamis

She is incredibly stressed because of Ladybug, Guardian duties, bakery shifts, and school

Tikki gives her the idea to get rid of bakery duties and not focus on Guardian stuff and instead do a hobby

She tells her ‘parents’ that she’s too busy with school to work at the bakery

They roll their eyes and ignore her again and sometimes she thinks they only adopted her to get her to work for them for free

There isn’t too much to do for Guardian stuff anyways

She designs more and more as a hobby and ends up opening a commission website (that’s completely anonymous so Lie-la and her cronies can’t do anything to it)

It’s more work but it relaxes her and is great for making money

Her pseudonym ‘MAT’ is famous because of Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale constantly mentioning her

MAT stands for both Marinette And Tikki, and MariAnne Todd

Eventually she gets a request from the Waynes

Marinette just cried because this was her brothers family and takes the request

She makes everything extra personalized and charges a bit less and writes a note to them

The note says something about how she knew Jason before he died and he was like a brother to her and she misses him so much and she can’t imagine what they’re going through

By this time she’s 16 and Jason would have been 20 and he is currently being Red Hood (not that she knows that)

Stuff happens, Hawkmoth is defeated, and she takes the ring away from Chat Noir because he’s an asshole who can’t take no for an answer

It’s Adrien Agreste...thank god she didn’t have a crush on him anymore

Time passes, and Marinette is now 18

She has moved out of the bakery and into her own apartment

She’s still in school but it’s her last year

She is now insanely famous and her identity is the best kept secret in the world

She is completely alone except for the Kwamis

So Marinette had entered a contest sponsored by Wayne Industries and won

The prize is a trip to Gotham for the entire class...fuck

If Marinette had known she probably wouldn’t have entered

Why would she go back to the place where her brother died?

She has to go though because she is the contest winner

Lila took credit for it and is spinning lies about how she’s so close to the Waynes and is dating Timothy Drake

So now onto a plot twist yay

On the morning of the trip Marinette is getting ready

She hasn’t looked at her hands in forever because she doesn’t want to be reminded about Jason

Keep in mind that she wears gloves constantly

That morning she looks at them because she wants to prepare for being in Gotham again and memories sake and things

Marinette is shocked when the compass needle is back and pointing in a direction

She doesn’t know what happened since as far as she knows people can’t come back to life and her needle was definitely gone before

So after interrogating Tikki and Plagg for a while she finds out that yes, there are ways to bring someone back to life and some aren’t very good for you *cough* Lazarus Pit *cough*

On the plane ride she is thinking and being both excited and scared/worried

Excited because Jason’s alive!

Scared/worried because some ways of bringing back the dead don’t work very well…

The plane lands and they get out of the airport with no big issues

Except for Lie-la hiding her luggage and getting the class to leave without her

So now Marinette has to walk across Gotham at night, alone, while carrying heavy luggage and looking like a tiny, weak, foreigner

She is practically begging to get mugged but what can you do?

Around halfway to the hotel she hears footsteps behind her

Before she can do anything, Red Hood jumps down from a roof and takes them down

He ties them up and calls the police

Marinette thinks he is familiar but ignores the feeling and goes on her way

Red Hood (Jason) also thinks she is familiar but also ignores it

Now is the time for normal Maribat field trip tropes and ideas

Nothing big happens to advance the plot

The last week of their trip is at Gotham Academy and then they go to the Wayne Gala

Again, normal first day at GA tropes until there’s a Rogue attack

For plot reasons (can’t reveal the akuma situation, Ladybug can’t be in Gotham, she has nowhere good to transform, etc), Marinette hides in a storage closet

She rubs her compass-palm to calm herself and looks at it

The needle is moving as if her soulmate was walking towards her (or the closet where she’s hidden)

But that’s not possible because Jason should be 22 and definitely shouldn’t be in a school right?

Marinette is freaking out and then the needle is pointing directly in front of her

And then the doorknob turns and the door opens and she sees…

DUN DUN DUN

Red Hood!

Marinette is kind of shocked but shrugs it off for a minute

Red Hood tells her the attack is over and she can come out

He helps her up but when their hands touch there’s a flash of light

Marinette - Jay-Jay?

Jason - Pixie?

Then there’s a very heartwarming reunion that I’m too angsty to write properly

Marinette starts going by Marianne again and meets the Bats

They love her immediately (and more when they realize that she is MAT who personalized their commissions and wrote that note long ago)

Lie-la’s lies get taken down

At the Wayne Gala she is announced to be Jason Todd-Wayne’s platonic soulmate, Marianne Todd

They live happily ever after

a/n: if you would like to be tagged for any of the maribat drabbles we post, shoot us a message and we’ll tag you!

[msweebyness]

Class of Heroes AU: Friendship Fluff HC’s

These are just some cute Headcanons I came up with for the kids in my AU! Enjoy, and as always, credit to @imsparky2002 and @artzychic27!

*Nathaniel, Ondine, Mylene, Zoé, Cosette and Adrien all love to sing together. Hearing all six of them in harmony has brought multiple people to tears just from how purely angelic it is.

*Both classes have a pact about not eating fish due to how much it upsets Ondine. (She cried for hours when she first caught sight of the seafood selections in the cafeteria. Apparently she knew one of the lobsters…)

*Kim and Denise often have ‘lifting contests’ that tend to get a BIT crazy. There was one instance where they each lifted their entire class on a set of the rising bleachers used for choir concerts. That one ended in matching detentions.

*Hair accessories are one of Adrien’s favorite things in the world. He has at least one that each of his friends has made for him, and he wears them all, sometimes multiple at once.

*On an especially hot day during summer (this is an all year school, with holidays to go home.), after some coaxing, Marc froze over the swimming pool and taught everyone how to ice skate! (It went better for some than others…)

*Nathaniel has framed drawings and pictures of all his friends, so if things don’t work out with his true love, he’ll remember them when he wakes up.

*The students who DON’T have crappy parents have established ‘Bring Your Mom/Dad/Parent to School’ Days so the ones whose parents are garbage fires or non-existent can receive hugs from those that aren’t.

*Juleka and Ivan have a special spot in one of the high towers where either or both of them can go to hide out when being labeled by those outside of the class as the school ‘freaks’ and the bullying that comes with that gets to them. It helps them to talk with someone who understands, and they often share music with each other to help calm down.

*Max was wary of Kim when he first met his roommate, thinking he would be the type of guy who bullied him, but quickly warmed up to the demigod due to how friendly he was. Kim took an immediate liking to the young inventor and runs off anyone who tries to mess with his ‘little buddy’. Max also tutors Kim in several subjects.

*Reshma gives people flowers for any occasion she can think of, it’s one of the chief ways she shows affection to friends and family. She’s a master of the messages behind them too, and at any time each of her friends will likely have at least two vases full of her flowers in their room.

*Alya teaches a cooking class for anyone who’s interested on the weekends. Everyone from both classes has come at least twice, and they all came the day she was teaching how to make her famous gumbo.

*Mylene and Zoe are great friends due to their shared love of animals. They also find it soothing to tidy up the school common areas together, chatting and singing while they work.

*Nino is actually very fond of giving makeovers! Even without his wand, he is a MASTER of hair, makeup and clothes coordination, always making sure his friends look on point for any school event!

*Jean loves to put on productions and musical numbers for all his friends. He always finds a part for anyone who wants one and makes it a fun experience for all involved, both to watch and participate. (He does a special number for all his friends on their birthdays, with original lyrics and choreography. He’s an emperor, he’s ALLOWED to be extra!)

*When Kagami goes home on some weekends, at least one of her friends will go with her because there’s a high chance she’ll be tasked with looking after her brothers. And believe me when I say this is a multiple person job!

[chat-noir-always-here]

I rewatch miraculous—Rogercop

Once again–this post uses screenshots from the French Dub version of Miraculous, translated by the good people at MiraculousSubs on tumblr. Yeah, I like the French version. FIGHT ME!!!!

Nino winking at Marinette is cute :’). Also Alya’s proud smile makes my heart  💞💞💞

Marinette and Nino noticing Adrien’s loneliness🥺🥺🥺

Alya’s mom: “Unfortunately i have no dishes to share. But maybe mister Buregouis will invite you all to the hotel! And treat you to lunch!”

....I seriously doubt it.

Not that i agree with how she reacted, but i can see how Chloe would suspect Marinette for stealing the bracelet.

 Chloe had it in her bag.

 Everyone else is in their seats or standing against a wall.

 Marinette is the only one who is walking/moving and able to take it. 

its not as if Chloe’s aware there’s a little flying devil who lives in Adrien’s shirt, mistook her bracelet case for a camembert box, started playing with the bracelet and got his head stuck in it.

HOWEVER 

it’s revealed later on she never bothered to look through her bag properly before she started throwing accusations around.

Marinette’s right--it COULD have easily rolled away somewhere. 

No one notices Plagg rolling around between Adrien’s shoes either, so it’s clear they never bothered to look on the floor or search under the desks.

Chloe: “Let’s call Ladybug! Im sure she’ll actually do something!”

Ya just accused Ladybug.

Don’t give Ladybug extra work. 😒😒😒 That goes for Plagg too, since his hijinks are what caused this mess in the first place.

Hawk Moth: “Parent-child relationships can be so complicated.”

Oh ARE THEY?!

Hawk Moth says parent-child relationships are COMPLICATED guys!

Cuz ya know hawk moth is the FLIPPING POSTER-BOY for complex parent-child relationships.

Tom is a good dad. 😏

Mrs. Bustier: “please gentlemen! This is a school here. Think of the children.”

Mrs. Bustier is a good teacher.

Plagg: “if by big you’re referring to my rock hard abs well thanks for noticing!”

2021 goals: attain the confidence of Plagg.

Adrien: “what do you mean i can’t transform?!”

Plagg: “if you transform the bracelet will get absorbed with me and damge your powers!”

...Yeah, NO. I shudder to think what Adrien would do with a damaged Miraculous. 

Tom: “Marinette let the adults handle this.” Marinette: “Papa! She called me a thief. I’m just defending myself.” Tom: “You’re also accusing all of your friends just like Chloe’s doing to you.”

WHY THANK YOU TOM. You’re a good dad. He defends his daughter but he won’t allow her to do wrong by others either. 

Tom, Tikki, Chat Noir—its a good thing Marinette has so many people who can/will tell her when she’s in the wrong about something. Not that I don’t trust queen but everyone needs sound advice from trustworthy partners/mentors every once in a while.

Sabrina: “I’m Chloe’s BFF. I wouldn’t steal from her.”

So you would steal from other people then? And do you even CARE your dad just lost his job? 

Kim and Max: pointing out Adrien’s a suspect too

Marinette: immediately wrires Adrien off as a suspect because FAVORITISM

UGGGGGHHHHHH

Don’t talk as if the entire class is suspicious and then immediately excuse Adrien from any possible suspicion the minute you’re reminded he’s apart of the class too.  That’s literally no better than the stunt Mr. Damocles pulls in Despair Bear--even if he was caving under duress and Marinette is acting on favoritism.

Have I mentioned how much I hate it when the akuma is in the school???

This whole scene is actually so nerve-wracking to me. And just goes to show how freaking courageous the people of Miraculous Paris are. 

I mean

These are the people who live under the constant threat that any intensely negative emotions could cause them to be possessed and brutally attack/ capture/ maim/ kill their loved ones. This can happen to anyone, anywhere at any time. A place like school or even a highly secure building is nowhere near as safe as ordinary people would usually believe it to be.

Also take into account that by this point in the show (going by the netflix order) five of the students at this school have already been akumatized so it’s more than clear that Hawk Moth isn’t above akumatizing children. 

So parents are literally sending their kids off to school with this knowledge. Of course they believe/rely on Ladybug and Chat Noir to protect everyone but still. People can (and probably have) die in akuma attacks. People (kids!!!) did die, or at least nearly died, in Timebreaker when an akumatized Alix took their life forces to travel back in time. 

And here we have an akumatized person in the school.

Not for the first time. Nor the last.

Not to mention this is Adrien’s school. Hawkmoth knows his son is here. He knows akumatizing someone in this place at this time could easily kill his son. But he’s not concerned with that since his “wish” would “fix everything.” 

Hawk Moth just does not value life in the slightest. 

Meanwhile LB and CN do. Even if the magic ladybugs will fix everything and bring back those killed in akuma attacks (as it states on the MLB wiki) they never hesitate to protect and save people who are in danger during these attacks. Even if it would be more expedient to leave some people behind/sacrifice some people so they can get to the akuma quicker and easier. They never allow anyone to die for their cause.

Meanwhile Hawk Moth is just a bit too ready to break everyone in Paris.

Really, if Hawkmoth wanted to win all he had to do was actually put the akuma INSIDE a person. If that’s possible. I honestly can’t see LB and CN going so far as to kill someone to get the akuma. I’m not sure the babies have that in them...

Rogercop: Mayor, you’re under arrest for abuse of power.

Mayor B.: Hah! Look who’s talking.

He has a point.

Both of them.

Mr.  Bourgeois: flees from Rogercop in a hurry.

....Did you just leave your daughter behind?

 What's wrong with you?

Or is he trying to lead Rogercop away from the school...?

Okay but Ladybug was actually able to reach an akumatized victim by mentioning their DAUGHTER. 

LB: gets yeeted over building by a supervillain.

I sense memes.

CN: is a tad panicked over Chloe when she gets in a car with a supervillain. 

I actually love their friendship, precisely for little moments like this.

This little moment here is so cute. The way she gently helps him back on to the car, keeping her hand on his shoulder as he climbs. Their eyes are locked, too <3<3<3

Lets take a minute to appreciate CN’s initial reaction to LB getting knocked off the car versus his final reaction.

Chloe: is in handcuffs

Good job giving Rogercop a hostage, Chloe.

Chat Noir: So now we’re the nations most wanted felons???

Technically you guys ARE vigilantes.

 Vigilantes who are being allowed to do as they please as they have the trust of the civilians and government not to mention ordinary people wouldn’t be able to handle akuma attacks well, as seen in the Origins special.

Chat Noir: We should go and defend ourselves in the court of law!

Chat Noir is pure.

I love this transition so much. He goes from “whoops I’m caught” to “haha so are you” in 0.2 seconds.

.....

...........

...............He’s not wrong.

All in all a good episode with a few faults. 

[miraculouscontent]

Always.

“Truth” is just... I mean, I want to say “garbage” but that doesn’t even do how bad it is justice? Like, okay, I take four major issues with it (my followers be like: just four? :P):

First is the writing in general and the continuity of it all. This episode looks like it’s been through multiple drafts and the final product is an amalgamation of a bunch of them with no coherency between any of them. I already could kind of guess it from the Adrimi kiss that the finale removed, but it’s obvious that there were going to be Adrimi/Lukanette arcs in Season 4 but then stuff happened (i.e: the staff being cowards) and they got cut. It’s totally possible that the plot with Jagged Stone being the father and Marinette having to keep secrets from Luka were still the same episode even in the original draft, but I imagine it at least wasn’t episode one.

There are other, more subtle hints as well, like the episode giving no time to Luka learning that Jagged is his father (making the fandom wonder if Luka remembered when he was Truth) and Ladybug being shocked when she realizes that the akuma is Luka as if she didn’t already see him be akumatized. Juleka also gets weirdly sidelined in the episode despite being Luka’s twin (Astruc has stated that both Luka and Juleka are older and Juleka got held back, which is why she’s in Marinette’s grade but Luka isn’t), so she’s Jagged’s offspring as well. One might presume that Juleka just never cared at all but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be allowed to interact directly with the guy or have any involvement at all. All it would’ve taken is for Luka to mention that Juleka never cared about who their father was but he did, thereby implying that Juleka’s reaction to Jagged would probably be more like, “oh okay.”

You know, if they didn’t reduce her to incoherent mumbling.

Second is the timing of this episode. We had the New York special with Paris being destroyed, but it’s clearly fine here (so I guess it isn’t canon now; thank God honestly), and while it’s technically possible that enough time has passed (supported by the vague implication that Marinette having to miss out on dates with Luka has gone on for a while, given Tom and Sabine’s lack of reaction to them dating), it’s not supported by Marinette examining the Miracle Box as if she’s only just gotten it.

There’s also Shadow Moth, where we’re shown an extended version of the scene from the end of “Miracle Queen” where Gabriel repairs the peacock miraculous, giving the episode a “Volpina”->”The Collector” vibe but then why are the events lining up the way they do???

The narrative also does a really bad job at showing us why Marinette is so strapped for time. She has guardian duties now but you’d think it’d balance out with her not having to go to Fu anymore for guardian training (you know, that thing we never saw but was said to be happening or at least that it was Fu’s intent to have it happen). You could argue that maybe Shadow Moth is more active, but then Chat Noir should be affected by this too; Ladybug states outright that she’s been busy and Chat Noir responds with something akin to, “oh I know, because you’re guardian,” which implies that it’s her guardian duties keeping her busy and Shadow Moth is just interrupting her dates specifically.

But we don’t even see what responsibilities she has added on as guardian. I knew the writers would make it so her being guardian was a hassle, but it’s the first episode of the series and we’ve gotten next to no answers for what being guardian actually adds.

It’s almost like this was a rushed first episode to break up the only thing that unambiguously made Marinette happy for the sake of bringing the love square back and needlessly making her suffer because the writers think it’s hilarious.

Speaking of which, the third thing thing is the comedy because--just--I hate the comedy in this show.

Like, just to start, there’s the kwami, who clearly begin with their mob mentality from the later episode of “Furious Fu” and all proceed to act like children. No, I didn’t expect them to all be wise (I mean, Xuppu exists and is very much not that, having been implied to be a fit for Kim who is known for being a total himbo), but I don’t expect them to all scatter like they do. Kaalki in particular, who was shown to be more poised and refined, blatantly reveals herself to a bunch of civilians just for the sake of Marinette freaking out and needing to make up an excuse.

Same with Alya and her friends. Marinette is panicking because of the kwami and Alya “deduces” (while shading Marinette so blatantly that it’s insulting) that Adrien must be there in her house which--maybe don’t SAY THAT OUT LOUD in case Adrien is literally in her room???). Then Marinette gets a call from Luka, shouts his name, and the girls do a complete 180 in support of Lukentte. It’s not like I’m not for them supporting whatever Marinette wants to do, but the shift is so sudden (and contradicts “Frozer”) that it gave me whiplash and the entire scene ends up being pointless since the girls still go with the “Marinette is in love with Adrien” thing when Truth asks them what Marinette’s secret is. Like, we could’ve gotten small, stupid secrets that everyone thought only they knew about Marinette, but instead it’s just the same thing over and over again (which makes no sense since, by the time Alya blabs the secret - which Alya has already told Nino before anyway - it’s no longer a secret therefore making the answer invalid).

Heck, the whole “secret” thing could’ve even been the people Truth shoots finding ways of answering his questions in a way that is technically telling the truth but also not really, such as if Anarka had answered the, “Who’s my father?” question with, “someone you know/someone famous,” so as to avoid saying that it’s Jagged Stone. It’s just boring seeing characters answer with whatever the asker wants to hear instead of being able to find a way around it.

And then there’s Chat Noir, who’s just--ugh.

Like--okay, I’m going to be extremely petty for a moment and just go off because I hate Chat Noir’s role in this entire episode. The Season 3 finale went out of its way to have Chat Noir be all like, “I have a girlfriend,” when it was a lie, and then Season 4 just parkours around Ladybug telling him that she’s dating (Ladybug clearly took no issue with Chat Noir telling her he’s dating so it’s not like she’s worried about issues there; she’s gotten on his case before in episodes like “Startrain” so there are exceptions) because they want to keep having him flirt and not be sAd because this is Marinette’s episode of suffering and Chat Noir actually having to face the reality that Ladybug is dating (not just in love with someone else) would’ve actually been interesting. Chat Noir gets tons of unnecessary screentime in the episode - mostly for the show to shove in LadyNoir shipping fuel - and then actively avoids telling him the obvious thing because he would’ve actually been forced to grow/develop/stop flirting.

It would’ve been so cute and sweet to see him awkwardly trying to flirt without overstepping boundaries (so more like banter than flirt) or - you know - actually try to support Ladybug and want her to be able to finish her dates by him offering to keep akuma/sentimonsters busy, but no, he’s just left in the dark.

The finale had Chat Noir supporting her (terribly but I digress) and then doesn’t do anything with it at the start of Season 4, meaning his support of her was completely meaningless and just there.

His first appearance is him pranking Ladybug when she’s already overstressed and busy, which comes off as super poor taste and I’m both glad he got splatted into that window for it but also upset because it’s screentime completely gone to waste, and of course it’s just a lead up to him guilting her by being like, “nooo the only thing that hurts me is when you leave me alone during patrol!”

I know he’s teasing (...probably) but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth because we know (well, I knew because I know how this show works) that Luka and Marinette were going to break up because of Marinette’s hectic schedule, so it just comes off as insensitive to joke about it, especially when Ladybug’s busy guardian status just serves as a reminder that Fu is gone.

Even when he’s protecting Ladybug from Truth’s questions by cutting in and asking a question of his own, of course he asks about himself to forcibly fish compliments out of Ladybug because she can’t lie to him, and of course they have Ladybug compliment his humor most of all as if that trait hasn’t nearly gotten them in danger multiple times and she’s been repeatedly annoyed when he decides to joke during the worst possible times. It’s as if the writers wanted to pat themselves on the back for their own comedy, so they had Ladybug be a mouthpiece to stroke Chat Noir’s ego.

He claims he won’t force a truth out of her and then literally forces her to say what her favorite things about him are. I acknowledge that this can be seen as me nitpicking but we went from the finale where Chat Noir actually stepped up and took charge (because Ladybug was stressed but I guess him doing anything useful is just whenever it serves the plot) to this where he’s back to flirting constantly and jamming in as much LadyNoir shipping fuel as physically possible. It’s not that he’s useless but he’s annoying and takes up space in an episode that’s supposed to be about Luka and Marinette.

And that leads us into the fourth thing, which is the break-up and just the treatment of Luka and Marinette in general. I could go on and on about how the Season 3 finale built up their relationship just to tear it down in the first episode of Season 4, but that’s not the main issue here.

Luka brought Marinette comfort. He made her happy. He never judged her. He was happy to just date her regardless of any conflicted feelings she might have because hey, who is he to complain if she wants to give him a try and who knows what’ll happen?

And the season couldn’t even give one moment of them being unambiguously happy without ruining or interrupting it. I was ready for the break-up and I was even ready for it to be the first episode but I wasn’t ready for it to be so bad.

Marinette’s Adrien pictures appear out of nowhere (again, makes no sense for the timeline) when they’ve been gone for basically all of Season 3 and even “The Puppeteer 2″ specifically which makes a direct reference to “Troublemaker,” the episode that purposefully overdid it with her pictures (”Truth” has more hanging up and clearly used “Troublemaker” as a reference, by the way). They’re just there for force the love square and Adrien into the episode as much as possible to remind the audience that Adrien breathes. There is literally no purpose to any mention of Adrien and bringing him up isn’t even relevant to Marinette and Luka’s break-up.

It’s just upsetting to know that the umbrella scene from “Origins” (which is already flawed in and of itself) kickstarts this whole thing. Adrien did basically nothing there except for clear up a misunderstanding and give Marinette an umbrella when his ride was a few meters away and Marinette’s house was just across the street, but that actives Marinette’s absolutely crippling crush on him that lasts for 3-4 seasons. Marinette is in this eternal struggle of not being allowed to grow and change because the writers think her stammering/crushing on Adrien is funny while actively punishing her for having this crush in the first place (again, like in the scene with Alya, which insults Marinette for her crush when she wasn’t even panicking over her crush).

It’s the same with Luka, and I can’t believe that it took me until this episode to realize that he and Marinette are both treated the same way: tormented by episodes for having a crush on someone. Episodes will go out of their way to forcibly insert Adrien into the plot to both humiliate Marinette and make Luka feel awkward when the episode isn’t supposed to be about Adrien at all. “Truth” is just “Desperada 2.0″ except Adrien is barely on screen at all and they still felt the need to name drop him constantly. The writers are so sensitive to the idea of people jumping onto another ship or forgetting that Adrien exists that they’ll find any possible way to include him.

“Silencer” knew better. “Silencer” knew that Marinette’s life didn’t have to revolve around the mere mention of Adrien’s name and that she had other interests/desires/traits outside of him. Adrien isn’t brought up once and it was great because the show didn’t feel the need (for once) to throw Adrien into an episode that he had nothing to do with.

Even if I was a love square shipper, I would feel insulted by “Truth” because one half of my ship kept getting name dropped and used as a tool to humiliate the other half, which makes it all the more eyeroll-worthy when the love square stans of the fandom praise this episode for breaking Lukanette up when--oh, wait, they didn’t even break up “because Adrien.”

And that ends up being the real thing here. The writers had to invent a reason for Marinette and Luka to break up. We already know that Jagged Stone being Luka’s dad is a retcon (not technically in the show’s canon but in information we heard about outside of it), so they shoved in Luka having issues about not knowing his father specifically so that he would be pushed over the edge when Marinette couldn’t tell him about her being Ladybug.

When Luka and Marinette were just together and hanging out, Adrien wasn’t mentioned once. Say whatever about the Adrien pictures being on the wall and Marinette’s stammering (she always says stupid stuff when she panics - especially stuff she doesn’t mean - so I’m not upset with her so much as the writing for having her mess up in that specific way), but the only time Marinette talks about Adrien at all in the episode is when someone else brings him up.

She goes on a date with Luka to the cinema and they were having a great time without Adrien involved at all. I know I already stressed this point in a previous post, but one of the reasons that I find Lukanette to be so amazing is because the show actually focuses on Marinette’s interests and doesn’t force her to be the writer’s mouthpiece for gushing about their sunshine boy a punching bag for comedy. In every Lukanette scene that doesn’t bring up Adrien/before Adrien shows up, Marinette is either praised, able to be happy, or is showing one of her interests that isn’t aDrIeN, and whereas Adrien being on-screen around Marinette usually just means that she’s gushing about/stammering around him with no development, Lukanette features us actually learning more about Luka or other characters.

“Captain Hardrock” - lets her bond with Luka over a shared interest in Jagged Stone, and Luka is established as a sort of empath who uses music as a way to speak for himself

“Frozer” - gets to practice ice skating with Luka, who is actually good at ice skating and also can tie laces despite not tying his own because he’s a rebel

“Desperada” - gets to try out guitar with Luka and we learn that Luka has been playing guitar for as long as he can remember

“Silencer” - showcases Marinette’s interest in fashion and properly introduces Kitty Section; has a plot featuring all of them together doing something not even remotely love-related and we get actual confirmation of Luka’s crush on Marinette, along with Marinette’s reaction (blushy+happy; just saying, idk how anyone could watch “Silencer” and not think that Marinette was crushing on Luka)

“Heart Hunter” - Marinette gets a song written for/about her and Luka is established to have a job

“Truth” - brings up Lukanette’s shared interest in Jagged Stone, features Marinette’s interest in fashion when she gives him a gift she made + had Jagged Stone sign, and shows her raising her voice but not being judged by Luka for it, who’s happy with her just the way he is

When the show focuses on Lukanette, it’s all about lifting Marinette up, praising her, and making her feel good. When Adrien is involved or it’s hyper-fixating on Marinette’s crush on him, it’s about bringing her down and making her feel bad for a crush they keep forcing her to hold onto and humiliating her for.

Point being, the writers had to force their way into getting Lukanette broken up because of their precious love square and the fact that Marinette and Luka being happy is the opposite of what they want.

It’s embarrassing to watch a team full of old white guys (I’m convinced at this point that they just hang their female writer on a coat hanger so they can point to her whenever someone says that their staff is too male-dominated) treat their female biracial lead with such disrespect, and I can only presume that the mistreatment of Luka is because he’s supportive of her and they don’t like that, meaning that the way she’s treated ends up rubbing off on him.

It doesn’t come off as a fun or interesting plot; it comes off as cruel. When Adrien is sad, he usually gets people rushing to comfort him (”Party Crasher,” “Gamer”), but “Truth” has Marinette in tears over the fact that she can’t have a boyfriend due to being Ladybug and the writing has the gall to crack jokes about Kaalki not knowing what tears are, and then Marinette has to ask for the kwami to hug her for comfort.

When Luka gets akumatized into Truth, the episode doesn’t even hesitate at bashing away at him, from everyone saying that Marinette’s secret is that she “loves Adrien” (which, as Truth points out, isn’t a secret, and they could’ve had this somehow lead up to a twist ending where Marinette actually isn’t into Adrien anymore and the Adrien pictures were genuinely for reference, but she stammered about it because it was embarrassing that her boyfriend got sent it with no context) to one of Luka’s favorite songs actually being about how Jagged abandoned him to go on tour. Luka has to deal with Marinette ditching him constantly (not that I blame her) and not knowing who his father is despite wanting to know, and the episode treats him like trash for... what? Having a crush on a girl who’s secretly Ladybug? Because that’s all it seems to come down to in the end.

I also have serious gripes with the fact that Marinette has this huge schedule established in “Gamer 2.0″ and they don’t even try to explain why she can’t use it to keep track of her obligations. The episode has her say (in a roundabout way but still) that she’s forgetting stuff constantly because of all of her emergencies (the emergencies of which are not stated and I hate the subtle implication that forgetting something means you don’t care about it when that’s clearly not how things work and also not what Marinette comes off as because - again - they establish that she’s overworked) but fails to properly explain it. The episode hammers away at Marinette having all these issues and even has Tikki chide Marinette by asking her about leaving Luka alone while apparently neglecting the fact that Marinette HAS to go be Ladybug right now and what else is there to even do??

Both Luka and Marinette are punished for just having a crush and wanting to be together and I hate that the episode forces a break-up instead of coming up with a solution to the problem. Instead of “Marinette isn’t ready for a romantic relationship,” it feels more like she’s just not allowed to be happy.

Long-distance relationships are a thing. Relationships where people don’t get to go on dates frequently are a thing. Instead of forcing a break-up, the episode could’ve had a lesson/development where Marinette is told that she’s allowed to pursue a relationship and just needs to plan accordingly. but they just didn’t want to.

For example: instead of planning dates, Marinette could wait until an akuma/sentimonster is defeated to call Luka and ask him out, because Hawk Moth usually doesn’t strike immediately after one is dealt with. I’m positive that Luka would happily take impromptu/sudden dates over planned-but-inconsclusive ones. Heck, they don’t even have to date specifically and can just stick to phone calls (kwami can’t be picked up on technology) or hanging out in Marinette’s room/on Marinette’s balcony while they do their thing.

Relationships are a commitment, but that doesn’t mean they have to be a burden, and the episode absolutely drags Marinette over it. The whole thing with the kwami being released and stressing her out when they’re not supposed to be able to just come out normally is explained away by, “oh, the new box must be like you, Marinette; full of surprises!” when the reality is just that the show wants to take away everything that’s sacred to Marinette. The Season 3 finale had Fu’s letter telling Marinette that “life doesn’t always give you what you want, but the real gift is life itself,” then proceeds to turn Marinette’s life into a living hell.

Her room? She has to say good-bye to her privacy because now the kwami are always going to be around. The first thing one of them (Trixx) did was start reading her diary, showing that they have absolutely no shame or regard for Marinette’s feelings.

Her schedule? Conveniently pops away into the realm of non-existence so she can look bad for ditching Chat Noir on patrol and neglecting dates with Luka due to her responsibilities/stress.

Her boyfriend, the one person in the entire show who loved her, respected her agency, never judged her, actually apologized when he made her sad, and who she was genuinely in love with rather than just having the equivalent of a celebrity crush for? She had to break up with him because plot and needing to force her to go back to fawning over the guy who has only made her life worse by her crushing on him.

When I say the universe hates Marinette, this is what I mean. It created random akuma to attack Paris all for the sake of forcing Marinette away from Luka, and apparently didn’t realize what they were doing in the scene where Marinette hurries back to the Liberty when Kitty Section and Adrien are playing together when Adrien is Chat Noir so he should’ve been late too.

(Oh, and Marinette completely ignores Adrien in favor of waving at Luka and even tells Luka outright that Adrien isn’t even a factor in their relationship issues, further proving the “multiple drafts smashed together” and “the Adrien name drops are pointless” points.)

The whole thing in “Backwarder” where it was basically outright stated that Marianne could’ve been Fu’s confidant had Marianne not been outed by Ladybug’s mistake? Completely forgotten and left to the wayside. Marinette could’ve told Luka that she was watching the Miracle Box in Ladybug’s place (for any number of reasons, really: either Ladybug thinks it’s too dangerous to keep with her, or if the public doesn’t know that Ladybug is guardian, then Marinette can just say that she’s guardian) and that she has to run off to keep guard of the Miracle Box when an akuma/sentimonster happens in case Ladybug needs a miraculous.

Boom, done, episode solved. Luka gets to help Marinette with the kwami, Marinette is less stressed because someone knows half of her secret, and Luka and Marinette continue to date but are able to plan around akuma attacks.

But no. That whole thing in “Backwarder” where guardians (or at least Fu) can have a confidant was just there so Marinette could feel guilty about screwing it all up, because she’s not able to take advantage of that perk herself.

How convenient.

[unmaskedagain]

Archenemies to Superfriends

Do you know how hard it is to make Lila likeable? Do you know the struggle I went through to write this fic? I know I said I wanted a challenge, something unique. BUT WHAT THE HELL! This took me longer than my last two fics combined. Class salt but make Lila the good guy? Like seriously, do you hate me? I hope the Anon requester likes this. 

"I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend." — Romulan Commander, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Balance of Terror"

It turned out there was a line Lila Rossi wouldn’t even cross. Sure, she wasn’t the nicest person in the world. Far from it. She was a liar, a thief, a cheater, a bully at times, a social climber.

But she wasn’t a monster.

           As she looked the sketchbook in Alya’s hand, and the vindictive look on her face; Lila realized what was about to take place would push her over the line into monster status.

           The school day had just ended. Most students had already left. Lila had been about to leave when Alya stopped her.

“How? How did you get it?” Lila asked. Surely Marinette wasn’t foolish enough to leave it around.

           It was Alix who preened, “I snuck it out of her bag.”

“She’s been so mean to you, girl,” Alya said. “Marinette needs to learn a lesson.”

           No, Marinette hadn’t been mean to her. Lila never even implied the bluenette had been mean to her. Lila spun her stories to the class, and whenever Marinette called her out for lying (which she was), the class would gang up on the Bluenette and accuse her of being jealous, of bullying poor Lila.

           It was actually rather startling how fast the so call best friends had turned on the girl. Lila didn’t even have to push or instigate it like she usually did. No, a few promises of meeting famous celebrities, and they all rushed to do it on their own.

           Rose’s sleepover. Rose didn’t invite Marinette at the other girls’ insistence so Lila wouldn’t feel unease.

           Nino’s party. No one mentioned it Marinette. She had been acting crazily lately.

           Trip to the movie. Marinette would just ruin it for everybody.

           And so on and so forth. Until the class was going out of their way to avoid the bluenette. Some even went as far as verbally bashing the other girl and ending their friendships. It got to the point where no one, not even Adrien, would speak to Marinette; and ostracized her to the back of the class. Only Chloe defended the girl and sought out her friendship. To which Alya snorted, “Of course. Bullies belong with bullies.”

           Now the class had moved on to destroying private property. Great.

           Lila sighed. How was she going to get herself out of this one?

Lila prided herself on still being able to look at herself in the mirror at the end of the day. Despite all she had done and would be willing to do; Lila was firm on what she wouldn’t do.

           Destroying someone’s life work; something they had spent months and months on, something that had nothing to do with Lila, was going too far.

           Lila needed to move quickly. She eyed the sketchbook. It was a standard black sketchbook, nothing special. She owned a similar one herself that she used for quick doodles and to write down ideas.

           That was when Lila got an idea. She quickly put her school books on the desk and beamed at her moronic classmates. Then all it took were quick sad eyes, and a can I hold it first, please. For Alya to hand it over. Then Lila accidentally spilled all off her books on the ground, and when everyone rushed to help her. Lila switched the two sketchbooks.

           Then it took her classmates, not friends (never friends); Alya, Max Alix, Kim, Nino, Mylene, Ivan, all of ten seconds to destroy the book into as little pieces as they could. Never even bothering to look to see if it was actually Marinette’s work.

           They left the pieces scattered on Marinette’s desk.

           Just as they finished said girl rushed back into class, a frantic searching look on her face. It took her five seconds to notice the torn sketchbook on her desk. Pure devastation overtook her face, tears filled her blue eyes.

           Alya snipped a mean retort about Karma and left the class with the other students following behind her. Not realizing Lila wasn’t among them. Not caring that she had just hurt the girl she had sworn was her bestie not too long ago.

           Marinette stared quietly at the mess, not letting the tears fall. “Why?” She whispered.

“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Lila told her. “You don’ have to believe me. But I swear I didn’t. This isn’t my m.o.”

           Marinette wanted to lash out at the other girl; scream about it being her fault, and her being a liar. But she couldn’t even find words to speak.

“Here,” Lila said as she handed over the sketchbook. “I switched it with mine before they could… you know.”

           Marinette blinked once, then twice, before she slowly reached for the book; hope filling her. And sure enough. Relief rushed through her. She thanked all the kwami. “Why?” She asked Lila. “You hate me.” That had been the basis for their relationship for months.

           Lila snorted, “I don’t hate you. I don’t hate anyone,” She shrugged. “Hate clouds judgment. You’re just my competition. No one likes their rival team.”

           Marinette stared at the Italian girl. Rival team? Competition? What? “We’re not even competing for anything! If it's about Adrien. He’s yours. I don’t want him.” It turned out, the blond was too cowardly for her taste. Not enough backbone.

“Of course we’re competing!” Lila snapped. “Since I got to this school.”

“Over what?”

           It was Lila’s turn to stare. Didn’t the other girl know? Hadn’t they been fighting for the top spot?

“Being the most popular girl in school.”

           Marinette just looked confused. “But I’m not popular. Especially not now.”

“Not popular?” Lila could’ve cursed. “Not popular! On my first day, I didn’t go more than a foot before someone mentioned the wonderful Marinette. She’s so smart. She’s so sweet. She’s so EVERYTHING. I knew from day one we were archenemies. You knew it too. Why else would you try to call me out so much!”

“…I just don’t like liars.”

           That time Lila did scream.

           Because it wasn’t possible. There was no way Marinette Dupain-Cheng hadn’t even realized they had been competing. This wasn’t just some delusional one-side battle on Lila’s side. No way.

“Why me?” Marinette asked, with a tilted head, reminded Lila of a puppy. “There are tons of more popular girls. Aurore; she’s the most beautiful girl in school. Ondine, she’s the best athlete. Ruby in drama was literally voted the most popular kid in school last year.”

“That’s different,” Lila waved it off. “Those girls are popular for one specific thing. Even Ruby was only voted because she throws the best parties. And even then, most only like them for that thing. Everyone likes you.” Or at least all but one class now.

           A class that had proven to be worthless. Lila was starting to realize that she had been playing against her most noteworthy opponent, who apparently never realized they were competing, in a less than worthwhile game to be the most popular girl in class to get the approval of the students. Students who, again, weren’t worth it.

“You’re the only one worth a damn in this school,” Lila admitted as she sat down at her desk. “That’s why you. You’re the best. I want to beat the best.”

She never attacked the weak. She attacked the strong. She went after the strongest of the strong. Lila thrived off competition. She just didn’t want to win. She wanted to be The Winner. Lila wanted the number one spot engraved with her name. To do that she had to beat the best.

Her motto: A hero is only as good as his villain. The reverse is also true.

Lila knew since was a little girl that she would never make it the big leagues if she only fought small fries. So in every school, in every class; Lila found what was most important to her fellow students and went after it. Some school was easy. A few classes valued music; Lila started a band, with her as the lead singer, and knocked out her competition. Sports freaks; Lila always had a knack for futbol. Everyone in class fought to have the best grades (It only happened once) but Lila said bring it on.

Even she had to cheat, sabotage, lie, or whatever else to get to the top she’d do it. And she did. And she was always won.

She was the most popular kid in school within the month. Always.

As for her competition. Some fell easily; too easily for her taste. Some took months to fall. One guy took an entire year. His name had been Felix, and he been Lila’s favorite nemesis. He had fought with everything he had; pushed Lila far beyond her limits and made her think outside the box every time they went head to head.

He had been the joker to her Batman. (Afterall, every villain is a hero in their own mind)

But eventually, even Felix fell.

It had been glorious. A high that Lila road all the way to her new school in France.

Looking back, Lila should’ve known better. She should’ve known that Felix had been preparing her for her greatest battle yet. The fight of her lifetime. Against the greatest opponent, she would ever know.

Marinette.

The Superman to her Batman. All good things good and pure Versus the big bad of the night.

           It had been a fight Lila had been waiting for her life. And yet it turned out, Marinette never even really noticed.

           And to think, Lila had thought she had been winning. The class turned again Marinette. Everyone loved Lila. Except none of it seemed to bother the other girl. In fact, she seemed to get stronger.

           For every friend Marinette lost, she found another; a better one. Aurore, Claude, Ondine, Marc, Luka, Bridgette; the list went on and on.

           Alya voted to have Marinette removed as class president. Marinette gets on the student council. The class loses its most organized student. Lila declines the role of feigning that she was too busy. To make it worse all the well-planned birthday parties, school trips, free costume designer, and the random sweet day where baked goods were brought to class on particularly stressful school days, (all of which Lila had enjoyed).

           Adrien no longer speaking to her. (Honestly, Lila never saw what anyone saw in the blond model besides the potential connection he offered. He was naive and a far too idealistic for her taste). Marinette gets twelve different boys, and three girls, asking her to the sweethearts dance.

           Without the class clinging to her and demanding her time, Marinette seemed to thrive. No longer stressed; rarely ever late. Lila, on the other hand, found her days busier and busier as her classmates tried to lean on her more.

           No matter the bad thing that happened, Marinette just stronger. And she never lost her positive attitude.

           Marinette shook her head. This one turning out to be one strange day. “If you want the class, you can them. They’re my friends anymore.” She glanced at the pieces of the sketchbook on her desk. “I don’t know who they are in anymore.”

“Fame seekers,” Lila answered. “More concerned with what someone can do for than actual friendships. You get used to them.” She paused. “I don’t want them either. They’re…”

“Taxing,” Marinette offered as she sat down next to Lila. “Emotionally draining. Opinionated. Users.”

“Bad friends.”

“That too.”

           It went quiet. Neither girl knowing what to say. Lila didn’t know what to do now that all competition was all but officially declared over. Marinette realized that her ex-friends' actions couldn’t be blamed on Lila. Everything they did was on their own. Forgiveness wasn’t going to happen. So what are they fighting for? What could they fight for?

“Truce?” Marinette offered. “I let the morons believe whatever you want. And you just leave me out of it.”

           Lila nodded, “You go your way. I go mine.”

           This was worse than Superman V Batman movie ending as far as Lila was concerned. At least no one died.

           That was it. They left school that day feeling a little shook. Each girl agreed to move on and avoid each other.

           Except that wasn’t what happened.

           Somehow, slowly, Lila and Marinette became friends.

           It started off small. Lila had needed a break from her groupies and hid in the art room. Marinette had been working in there.

“They too much again?” Marinette asked.

           Lila winced but nodded.

“I used to hide in the back of the library,” Marinette offered. “On the roof.  Any random classroom I could find. Sometimes, I even just left for my parents.”

“Seriously?” Lila asked. “They’ve always been like this.”

           Marinette snorted. “Worse. Wait until they start asking you for favors. Which will turn into demands.”

“…They are just the worst.”

           Then both girls laughed.

           After that whenever Lila needed a break, she sought out the presence of the other girl. Sometimes they hung out in the library, on the roof, wherever. It was nice.

           It wasn’t until Lila showed up in Marinette’s room, bitching about her mom canceling their plans together again. Marinette just listens to Lila’s sorrows and offered ice cream. They spent the entire night just bitching and watching reruns of Doctor Who. (It turned out Lila was a bit of nerd.) Lila slept over and slept easily for the first time in months.

That was when the two realized they were friends.

Marinette, Lila’s once declared greatest enemy, became her first real friend.

After that everything just fell together. Lila started showing up at Marinette’s and more.

Eventually, Lila being invited to Marinette’s girls’ night and being introduced to a new friend to Chloe, Kagami, Aurore, and Ondine.

Upon seeing her, Chloe snorted, “She got you too, huh. It’s the eyes. Don’t look her in the eyes.”

“Yes,” Kagami agreed. “I, too, had declared Marinette my rival. Now I wear bunny pajamas and adorn avocado oatmeal face masks.”

Well shit, Lila thought as she eyed Marinette’s former rivals, did I ever stand a chance?

           The answer was no.

           But Lila didn’t mind.

           After that Chloe found herself having more actually friends than ever before. In Chloe, she found a second-best friend. Someone she could always bitch with, and not just to. The blond had the presence Lila had always strived for. Chloe stalked through the hall like a model on the runway. People jumped out of her way. She was a phenomenal force to be reckoned, likened to Wonder Woman.

           Marinette and Lila were two peas in a pod. They both strived to the best, thrived under pressure, and loved fashion. But while Lila wanted to model and be in front of the camera, Marinette wanted to design.

           Lila loved Marinette’s clothes and decided the girl need a bit of a push. So she reached out to Chloe, and together they teamed up to convince Marinette to start her own website. It took a bit of work but MDC designs were officially online. All designs, of course, were modeled by Lila, Chloe, and Marinette’s other girlfriends. Lila had never felt so glamorous. Marinette never looked so happy.

           Lila started being the one Marinette went to whenever she needed someone to cover for babysitting. Or had to have a random excuse as to why she wasn’t present. And Lila did both jobs remarkably well.

           Still, despite their friendship, Lila was a bit surprised to get Marinette’s birthday invitation. Marinette made her promise not to tell anyone. Even more so, when Marinette took her and Chloe, Kagami, Luka, Claude, Marc, Aurore, and Ondine to Clara Nightingale concert. They had backstage passed and Lila nearly died when Clara rushed over to hug Marinette after a song. Lila took a lot of pictures, even one of her and the superstar together, but didn’t post them.

           Which left Marinette happily surprised. Apart, though small, still expected Lila to boast in class about the additional celebrity she knew. But that never happened. Marinette felt relief and a bit guilty, she supposed some part of her was testing the other girl to see if she could trust her; and was happy to find out Lila had passed.

           Despite their Lila and Marinette’s friendship things at school didn’t change. The other students in class still froze Marinette out. Lila, though, did her best to keep them from doing anything mean to the bluenette. Though this only happened when the other students needed something Marinette used to do for them; like free babysitting, custom-designed dresses, stage design, and interview with Ladybug, it wasn’t going to happen. Or when the class trips were lackluster at best.

           Lila hadn’t realized just how much she and Marinette had grown to like and trust each other until Ladybug showed up in her room. She was prepared to send a barging remark to the hero who had nearly sabotaged her attempts to win over Adrien, thus the rest of the class, when Ladybug spoke.

“Marinette sent me,” The red hero said. “She said I could trust you; that you’d make a good hero.” And then Ladybug showed her the fox miraculous, a replica of the one Lila used to wear.

           Lila’s mouth dropped opened.

“As soon as the fight’s done, you’ll need to return it to me,” Ladybug stated firmly. “Do you understand.”

           And just like that Volpina was reborn. Her costume was darker than before, her tail a bit longer and curved. Her mask black.

           Ladybug and Volpina fought side by side against a Clown Akuma that turn people into balloon animals. During the fight, Volpina learned that Chat Noir had, once again, abandoned Ladybug after the hero turned down his affections. Lila never felt so much disgust. What kind of hero was that?

           After the fight, Volpina and Ladybug met back up in Lila’s room and Lila immediately handed over the miraculous.

“Thanks for the help,” Ladybug smiled as he pocked the necklace.

           Lila nodded, “Chat Noir was wrong. What he’s doing is sexual harassment. Like seriously, look it up. No means no. You shouldn’t have to take that.”

“He’s my partner.”

“He’s not acting like it.”

           The words seemed to affect Ladybug who visibly wilted.  She didn’t say another word as she left.

           However, not long after Lila found herself being called forth to fight as Volpina more and more. Chat Noir never showing up once.

           When both heroines were confronted by a furious Alya, live streaming, Lila learned something.

“What happened to Rena Rouge?” Alya demanded, hurt and anger in her eyes. “Why replace her with this faux-hero? And what about the rest of the new team Miraculous;  Viperion, BrightRoar, and Ryuko. What about the old team?”

           Faux-hero? Ladybug had to physically stop Volpina from ripping into the reporter.

“Rena Rouge has been retired,” Ladybug glared. “She proved herself to be untrustworthy. In fact, all former heroes such as Caraprace and Chat Noir have been retired. They have been replaced by permanent heroes like Volpina, here, Queen Bee, Viperion, BrightRoar, and Ryuko. They have proven themselves to loyal and capable heroes.”

           No one knew who was more stunned Lila or Alya. She was a permanent hero? Chat Noir had been replaced? What?

“What?” Alya asked. “Rena was amazing. A much better hero than some people,” She gave a dirty look to Volpina. “And You and Chat Noir belonged together. Everyone says so!”

“Rena was a good hero,” Ladybug said. “But outside the mask, she proved herself unworthy. As for me and Chat Noir. I’ve said countless times, I felt nothing but friendship for him. It was Chat Noir and tabloid sites like the Ladyblog that hyped up that nonsense.”

“Tabloid?” Alya shrieked.

“Yes, tabloid.” Ladybug hissed. “Why do think I stopped working with you?”

           In retrospect, Lila should’ve realized sooner the fallout that would happen not long after. Alya wasn’t the type of person to own up to her own mistakes. However, Lila had been so busy cheering at being a new permanent hero that she got a little distracted.

           After Ladybug called her out, Alya spent all every ounce energy to find out how she went from Ladybug’s goto to Ladybug’s no go. And then answer was in the comments to her videos of Lila. All calling out the Italian to be a liar.

           By Monday, everyone in the class knew. As soon as Lila walked into class, Alya tore into accused her of lying and ruining her blog.

           TO which Lila gave big crocodile tear-filled eyes, “I just wanted to make friends.” She tried to gain sympathy. It didn’t work.

           Soon all the class was screaming at her.

           It stopped when Bustier and Marinette walked into class.

           Bustier looked like a deer caught in the headlines, unsure of what to do.

           Marinette had looked directly at Lila, “You can sit in back with me and Chloe.”

“Girl’s, she a liar,” Alya hissed. “You were right.”

           Marinette scoffed, “And yet she’s a better friend than you ever were.” She looked at Lila again, ignoring the protests from her classmates around her. “Come on.

           Lila smiled as the two girls made their way to the back of the classroom to join Chloe in the back.

           Lila, Marinette, and Chloe sent matching Ice Queen looks to the rest of the students in class; daring them to say something, to approach.

           And just like the heroes: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, Lila likened them to be; no one would even consider it.

           It wasn’t like anyone else in the class was worth a damn anyway.