#Gabriel's victory is arguably her fault. She had the power to stop him right from the start of season five and didn't
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miraculouslbcnreactions · 18 hours ago
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If you had to do a Nathalie redemption, how would you do it
Asking cause I wanna make a fic with the gorilla and Nathalie platonically co parenting nathalie
I'm gonna assume you meant to type co-parenting Adrien and go from there.
To start, I must confess that I wouldn't redeem canon Nathalie. At least, I wouldn't redeem her into Adrien's new parental figure. Let's discuss why and then talk about some ways to fix that.
Canon made Nathalie a terrible person and then never even tried to have her repent for her various crimes. It's actually horrifying to me that Adrien has picked her as his new mom because he has no idea who she really is. He has once again been denied a fully informed choice about his own life. Like remember this moment from Ladybug?
Sentimonster Ladybug: You're in charge, Ladybug. Cat Noir: (sighs) I should've guessed. (With their squad nickname decided the trio approaches Mayura, who is backed into a corner with the three ready to confiscate her Miraculous. Mayura clenches her hand, hurting the Sentimonster Ladybug and causing her to collapse in pain) Mayura: I release you from existence. (Mayura snaps her fingers, destroying the Sentimonster identical to Ladybug, with the keychain falling to the floor and the amok flies out of it, indicating the Sentimonster no longer exists.) Cat Noir: (enraged) How could you!? (Angered at the weakened Mayura for erasing the innocent Sentimonster, Cat Noir charges at her but Hawk Moth suddenly appears and knocks away the latter superhero. Who mocks him for getting emotional over the former artificial being.) Hawk Moth: Getting sentimental on a sentimonster? Ladybug: Hawk Moth! Cat Noir: You're the real monster!
Makes it really hard to get excited about Nathalie's "redemption" when she's shown that she doesn't give a rat's ass about human sentimonsters. She doesn't even hesitate here! And I'm supposed to think she's going to treat Adrien differently? Why? It's not like she's been a good mother figure to him all along. She was more than happy to support Gabriel as he let multiple sentimonsters and akumas hurt, kidnap, and otherwise threaten Adrien. She's even the one who told Gabriel Adrien's identity in Chat Blanc!
When you look at her actions, you find that Nathalie has not been show to be massively different from Gabriel. She may have undone specific commands Gabriel gave during season five, but she never actually did anything to stop Gabriel or ensure Adrien's freedom. She happily kept Adrien in the dark, putting Gabriel's wants above Adrien's needs. Even when she was minutes from dying, she didn't try to make sure Adrien was free even though she had the opportunity to tell Ladybug about the amoks and knew that Gabriel would probably continue to use them if he survived the fight:
Ladybug: Where is Adrien Agreste, what have you done with him?! Nathalie: He is safe, but you aren't. (Coughs.) The whole world is in danger. Monarch is about to send all of humankind after you and Cat Noir. (Coughs.) He can't get ahold of your Miraculous...
All of this means that you either need to remove massive chunks of canon or give Nathalie an actual character arc in order to make her feel like a worthy parent for Adrien. Let's talk about one possible path for the character arc option first.
Giving Nathalie a Character Arc
For this path, we're going to fully embrace canon Nathalie and her total disregard for Adrien's safety and happiness. She doesn't get Adrien birthday gifts. She happily kills sentimonsters. She fully supports Gabriel's efforts. She does all of this because she doesn't view Adrien as truly human. He's just the human-shaped doll that killed her best friend/lover/whatever. She'd happily kill him to bring Emilie back, but that's not an option so she tolerates him to honor Emilie's wishes while quietly hating him in her heart.
This all changes when Nathalie makes her own sentikid. That's right, we're bringing back my sentiLila plot! It doesn't need to actually be Lila, though. What matters is that, in season four, Nathalie makes her final sentimonster, a teenager whose job is to infiltrate Adrien's school. This could actually be a Zoe rework where Zoe is now Nathalie's "niece" or something like that. (And then Zoe could get an actual redemption instead of just info dumping her redemption as a tragic backstory of dubious quality.)
At first, Nathalie views her sentikid as a non-human tool. Nothing more than a very convincing robot. But as time goes on, she starts to like and then love her kid. By the end of the arc, she no longer views sentikids as fake. As a result, she's no longer okay with the way Gabriel treats Adrien and she changes sides because of Adrien.
This would fix another issue with canon. Namely that Nathalie's stated reason for changing sides has nothing to do with Adrien so it's really weird when she starts acting motherly. Why would this lead to any change in how she treats Adrien:
Nathalie: (on-call) You had the Time Miraculous. You could've chosen to save Émilie! You could've chosen to save me! (coughs) But instead, you chose your obsession with Ladybug and Cat Noir. You're insane, Gabriel!
Based on this logic, you could argue that her various senticommands were only given to mess with Gabriel. She's not undoing the various commands because she thinks Gabriel is in the wrong, it's because she wants to annoy him and Adrien is the perfect pawn for that. That's not what canon implies or how I think it's meant to be read based on the way those scenes are played, but it's still the more logical read for her character since she was never motherly before season five, making her sudden change in behavior suspicious. What made her start caring about Adrien and acting motherly? And don't say Emilie's videos, Nathalie has had those for the entirety of canon.
There is simply no canonical reason for this change. Nathalie got a personality rework because the writers wanted to give Adrien a new mommy and so Nathalie was forced into that role even though nothing prior to season five even mildly implied that she wanted to be a mother. In my opinion, she deserves an arc that makes it feel like her choice and not something forced on her because of a last minute change in plans re saving Emilie. (Or you can just leave her evil. I personally love her evil. I wanted Nathalie darker not whatever she is now.)
Nathalie Rewrite
This is the easier option. Just change Nathalie's character so that she always cared about Adrien. There are a myriad of ways to do that such as having her be off looking for a cure at the start of canon so that she doesn't see what Gabriel is doing first hand. She shows up mid-canon and is horrified by what's going on. She wants Emilie back, but not at the risk of Adrien's life! Nathalie now joins Gabriel both to help him and to protect Adrien.
Another option is to have her be in the dark about Gabriel's activities like she was in season one back before the writers decided to make her a coconspirator. Then she never becomes a terrorist who risks Adrien's life and can just grow to love Adrien on her own.
A third option is to just remove the stuff that made her a monster and keep her a more tame domestic terrorist who only terrorizes people she doesn't know. Adrien is never knowingly attacked or outted by her so giving him to her as her kid isn't as horrifying. You still need to explain why she's giving up on Emilie, though.
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