#AGRESTE LORE YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS TO ME

[akqrus]

Would I seem crazy when I say that Emilie closing the cabinet was symbolizing smth?? Like uh maybe her knowing that she's at the end and every door or opportunity for her to be cured is blocked. That she has no hope anymore, or that she has given up on believing she'll be cured? Maybe symbolizing that her death will cause the family's downfall and breaking up...

Bc what made Gabriel become Papillon?? EMILIE. What made Gabriel become more distant, colder, and stricter on Adrien? EMILIE. What caused his death? EMILIE.

HER LEAVING RUINED EVERYTHING AND LITERALLY MADE THE WHOLE PLOT BY JUST DYING.

[yolowritter]

Can I give you my rant about the absolute MESS Astruc and the rest of the staff did with the background of ML? Because it's infuriating to a history buff and cultural appreciator like me. Especially after the episode Darkblade shows they CAN do a good job (the story of the ancestor Darkblade is the last years of Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac and Conestable of France, just with names filed off), they just choose to be lazy. And infuriating.

Side material references the Fox, Bee, Turtle, Peacock, and Butterfly Miraculous as the Elemental Miraculous, drawing in the Wuxing... And they never explored that.

The Miraculous Order was based in Tibet... Except the Wuxing link above and everything else we see of the Order say they're Daoist-adiacent, and the Tibetan monasteries are Buddhist. And let's not go on the fact Tibet was a different and often rival civilization to China (even the CCP admits that, and bases their control on how China had CONQUERED Tibet before the British got involved) yet the Order is quite obviously Chinese...

Gabi Gassette changed name in Gabriel Agreste... Except this is impossible under French law. Changing one's personal name is already hard enough, and changing the family name requires a petition to the PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC proving you have a good reason under French law (and by what is shown, he didn't have one).

Joan of Arc never user her sword in combat, and in fact created her famous banner to have an excuse to not fight. So the scene of her getting time displaced and drawing a sword to fight is utterly ahistorical.

Lila Rossi is coded as an Italian, and I say that as an actual Italian. Her gestures, her expressivity, her hamminess, even her vindicativeness ("vendetta" is actually the generic Italian word for "revenge", but in English it became the word for "horrific revenge" because we're THAT vindicative), everything says she's an Italian teenaged girl. So all the "Cerise" nonsense is frankly ridiculous...

Now the really infuriating one, their take on Joan of Arc, of how she and the English bearer of the Black Cat were manipulated by the ambition of the Kings of France and England. Except Charles of France was the Dauphin, that is the heir to the throne, and grasping at straws to save France from the invasion when Joan showed up and requested he gave her an army to throw the English out of France and couldn't get crowned until Joan reconquered Reims, the city of the coronation. As for Henry VI of England, he was SIX (almost seven) when Joan entered the war (hence why Charles had a chance to reclaim the throne, to be crowned King of France one had to be a knight, and that meant one had to be an adult). These guys claimed Joan and Dark Grimalkin were manipulated by a desperate prince who was considering giving up and by a six years old child.

Sorry for the rant... But seriously, why did they do all of that?!

Because it's Thomas Astruc, and frankly I have no idea! Don't worry, rants are always welcome! By all means, I'm sure there's more stuff if we look for it! As a fellow history nerd, and also with Joan being my single favorite French historical figure ever, I have been seething ever since I saw their take on her. Henry the VI was literally just a child, and Charles was dependant on Joan because the English were demolishing France at the time! There is a perfectly good story in real history as to what could have happened to her and Dark Grimalkin! Just do an "partners on opposide sides of a war", slap in the iconic banner as her Miraculous weapon and call it a day! It would have been so much easier to follow real history! They didn't even need to do any work!

And as for the Cerise nonsense...that "explanation" better be really good. It better be Dark Souls-level deep lore with an interconnected backstory that ties up every single mystery in Lila's character better than Scooby Doo ever could, or I am going to lose my mind! I've already said this in my Lila post, but it's genuinely offensive that they had such a great idea for a character, and built her up so much...just to say "oh well actually she has three moms who don't even know eachother, and her name is Cerise, or Iris, or...something else". Lile c'mon! For Nooroo's sake here, it's a blatantly poor attempt to make her interesting again and it only worked because the fandom is grasping at straws for theory material because of the hiatus!

Any side material for the show just doesn't do a good enough job at actually giving us something new, or at the very least something interesting. The Miraculous and Kwami are constantly sidelined because why bother talking about this extremely high-potential universe you have in your show's Lore...if you didn't bother to fill in the blanks? Kwami are supposed to be Gods, Season 2 has references to Plagg blowing up Atlantis! Myths are apparently real in this universe! Please do something with that Thomas, it's free money! But nope, of course they ignore it.

The Guardian Order...well, I call them "The Jedi from Wish" for a reason. Like okay, religious order that has conservative thinking and backwards methods in a new world that is rapidly and constantly evolving. Cool concept! Unfortunately they don't even get their designs right, can't be consistent with which religion they're even based on, contradict themselves all the time, and make them utterly irrelevant after Su Han's first appearence. His only job in the story is to show up, yell at the protagonists, and then be proven wrong because "Ladybug is always right", only to apologize and then yeet himself to Brazil or something! I have an entire rant about this guy, but I'll refrain atm.

And lastly abt Gabriel's name change, I honestly didn't know that. Cool info, I'll add to my list of "times the writers didn't do their 5-minute google search". But like, c'mon. You're choosing to incorporate an important detail about your main villain into his backstory. Shouldn't you have somebody do the research to see if that's even possible? Even the intern is better than no one! I swear...and then us fanfic authors spend hours upon hours looking up obscure stuff just so one sentence/joke can be factually correct.

[yolowritter]

Miraculous Adventurer Au 3: Time to spill the tea!

So...anyone remember back here when I said "this AU is still alive and kicking"? Yeah it's kicking alright. Kicking and screaming as I drag it out of my WIP pile! Welcome back to the show everyone, it's been a while! If you guys want a recap of what this Au is about (+ the Origins episode) I highly encourage you to go read part 2 of this Au here. Yes, I did just link it twice. No, I don't care. Anyway, this is just an info/idea dump for this AU, because it was in my head yesterday and refuses to let me write anything until I rant about it!

First off, I wanna explain the magic system a little better. People don't have actual "classes" like DnD, they just happen to be good at certain things and not great at others, just like real-life proficiencies! There's plenty of types of elemental magic like Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, Thunder, Light, Dark, etc. but not all of them can be casted by humans. Some magic subtypes are excusive to certain races (for example plant-related Earth magic is a druid-only thing), and others are very very rare, to the point where only a few people in the whole world can use a certain type of spells. It doesn't really need to go beyond "medieval fantasy magic", so I'm trying not to overcomplicate it. You're here for the characters and the lore, anyway.

Secondly, let's talk characters! I have almost everyone from the Miraculous Cast making an appearance in this AU, some as adventurers who encounter the Core 4 party (Ladybug, Chat Noir, Carapace and Rena Rouge), some as other roles! Here's a short list to give you an idea of what everyone does! Oh, and I should mention that everyone is in their early to mid twenties here, concerning taverns and the like. The legal drinking age in Medieval Fantasy Land is 18, so we're all good.

Marinette: Adventurer and aspiring fashion designer, travels with "Team Miraculous", including Chat Noir, Nino and Alya. Her adventurer name is Ladybug, and she really didn't mean to get wrapped up in all this hero business. Turns out wanting some extra cash can really go arwy if you tango with the local cat enthusiast. Marinette is the daughter of two bakers from a backwater village, and has always dreamed of being a famous seamstress in the Capital. Now an adult and having saved up for the trip, she ends up in a small town not far from her own home. Wanting additional funds for when she eventually arrives at the city of her dreams, Marinette decides to offer her services to any adventurer whose clothing might need adjustment or repair. Surely this won't lead to her signing up with the Guild, right? Cue the Origins episode from part 2.

Adrien: Son to Gabriel and Emilie Agreste, Prince of the Kingdom. Isolated in his childhood to be protected from political scheming, Adrien has only a few friends that he can rely on. His cousin Felix, and a rich noble girl named Chloe Bourgeois who took an interest in him when they were children. A few months ago, he recieved a marriage proposal from an eastern kingdom, and his parents introduced him to Princess Kagami, a stoic but passionate girl who he becomes fast friends with. But one day, tired and suffocated by his palace life, Adrien seeks to live out his own life away from rules and regulations. With the help of his betrothed and cousin, he and Felix switch places, allowing Adrien to don the mask of Chat Noir and freely travel as an adventurer.

Alya: A girl from a small village in the outskirts of the Kingdom, Alya has a high potential for magic powers. Unfortunately, no matter what type she tries to cast, she has great difficulty with even the simplest of spells, leading her to develop a desire to discover mysteries and the arcane as a way to try out new methods of manifesting this supposed potential. During an encounter with Ladybug and Chat Noir, Alya finds out she's proficient in Illusion Magic, for which a caster hasn't been seen in at least a century.

Nino: Childhood friend and later boyfriend to Alya, who happily supports her mystery solving and looks after his fiery and lovable girlfriend. Has a talent for music and defensive magic, and is a local bard. He knows their small village won't keep Alya occupied forever, and once she manifests her illusion magic, decides to follow in the footsteps of the adventurers who saved her and travel the land at Alya's side.

Chloe: Daughter to a backwater Baron, she's been spoiled her whole life in lieu of any parental attention. Her mother is famous in the world of high society, and so Chloe often gets invited to balls and functions where she presents herself as cold and untouchable despite her techincally low station. Once meeting the young prince Adrien, Chloe felt he was unprepared to deal with the "snakes" of the royal court, and took to being an overprotective friend through their childhoods. She still has unresolved anger issues regarding parental figues, and is extremely jealous of a village girl named Marinette, whose town her father's manor happens to be near, for having the loving parents she's always wanted.

Felix: Cousin to Prince Adrien and son of the late Duke Fathom of Lunden. Coming from a prestigious family and looking almost identical to his cousin due to the Graham De Vanily family having historically superior genetics, Felix is not much different than other nobles in terms of attitude. Cold, calculative and extremely cunning, he thrives in situations where backhanded compliments and polite threats are the norm. Having been isolated from the world by his father to be moulded into the "perfect heir", Felix lacks proper social skills, making up for this fault with sarcasm and quick wit.

Kagami: Princess to one of the Eastern Kingdoms, Kagami Tsurugi is the daughter of a queen despised by her people. Perhaps using her last bit of sense, Tomoe Tsurugi has sent her away to be married off to a western prince, who surprisingly turns out to be quite sweet and kind-hearted. However, while she could see herself and Prince Adrien becoming great friends, there exists no true spark of love between them despite his parents' enthusiastic support of their engagement. Kagami is stoic and prefers those who refuse to hesitate or mince their words...and happens to fall in love with exactly such a man. Adrien's cousin Felix, who quickly falls for her in turns during the few short weeks of wedding preparations. Explanaing the situation to Felix's mother and Kagami's fiance, the four devise a plan to ensure everyone gets their happy ending. With Adrien hurrying away to a life of adventure, Kagami is left to adjust to court life with Felix at her side, needing only to ensure Gabriel and Emilie don't realize their son is not who he seems...

Luka: Travelling bard and former boyfriend to one Marinette Dupain Cheng, what Luka lacks in magical profiency is made up for with great empathy and a golden heart. Coming from the family of a famous pirate, Luka sought to venture the world by land, and make a legitimate living unlike his mother, Anarka. Trusting the retired pirate queen with the safety of his younger sister Juleka, Luka left home to travel, and happened upon a village girl he quickly fell in love with. Despite their mutual feelings for one another, Luka still had big dreams of performing in the royal capital someday, and asked Marinette to come with him so they could be together. Unwilling to abandon all she's ever known, she refused his offer, leading to a mutual breakup. Two years later, Luka happens to visit Marinette's home town again, only to realize she's left it behind. Determined to find his one true love, Luka sets out to find out where she's gone, making new friends along the way.

Okay, that's it for the main cast! I have some details about the secondary characters such as Alix, Kim, Mylene, Ivan, miss Bustier, etc. but I'll add them at a later post. If you're interested in someone specific, feel free to shoot me an ask!

Thirdly and lastly, the storyline! I'll be honest, it doesn't necessarily have to be concrete! Since Gabriel is a standup guy and his wife is very much alive, there is no Hawkmoth! I won't spoil if Lila is or isn't here, that's for a later post, but aside from her...there isn't really a villain here. The Adventurer Au is only meant to be a light-hearted slice-of-life type of story, with the occasional beats thrown in regarding the Lore. For example, Alya and Nino becoming adventurers and quickly joining up with Ladynoir to form Team Miraculous. Chloe calling them back to her manor for a job, and joining up with the gang as Queen Bee for a short time. Ladybug bumping into Luka at some point. The Team finally arriving at the Capital, where Marinette has to wrestle between staying with her friends or going after her dreams. Obviously much more, and I do have an entire plotline about what happens when they finally arrive at the Capital regarding Adrien/Chat Noir, Felix and Kagami! That's actually going to be the subject matter next time, since I really want to share it with everyone! Until then, Stay Miraculous!