#I also love this & rarely get to do it

[martyryo]

"How long are you gonna pretend I'm the one tugging on your tie?"

[sergle]

man, you know, nobody asked me, but I have such conflicting opinions on some of the fat falin art, where on one hand: it's always nice to see A Fat Body in fanart anywhere + it's being done in positive ways, for funsies and on the other hand, there is something so familiar about how you are automatically The Fat One if you are a woman simply standing next to a more petite woman, bc I've had a 0% hitrate in seeing people change Marcille's body type and keep Falin's, or change both of them. it's just Falin

[crimeronan]

it's sometimes so silly to look in the notes of a polyamory art/post and see people like "is this cheating art....?" when the characters in canon are all extremely close friends. i know it's not malicious because most people think of monogamy as the default and anything outside that Must be cheating, but truly i'm always like. guys. guys Please.

please think about this for like 2 seconds.

under what circumstances do we think this non-canon couple might hold hands directly in front of their canon partners. and under what circumstances do we think the canon partners might be okay with this. do we Truly think this is a secret relationship. do we Truly think these guys would sneak around behind their canon partners' backs when all of them are extremely close friends with a high level of trust and commitment to each other.

would assuming that these extremely close friends have actually communicated with one another Exactly The Same Way They Do In The Canon Source Material perhaps cause less despair.....

[pepperpixel]

Initial drawings of that old man… I literally, I haven’t finished reading the book of bill yet!!! I had to stop and take a break for a week to feverishly draw fanart of myself petting fords floofy hair and giving him attention and shit…!!!! The urge was too great….!! I’ve literally. I had a crush on this guy the instant he was first REVEALED in the show, but I did not have the artistic prowess to draw good looking old men back then… but I do now… thank god… thank fucking god

[offjumpoladulkittiporn]

this IS the trainee 😆💚

[hood-ex]

"Love" and "proud" and "family" come up so frequently in bat comics now. Bleh. Bring back something I can relate to like emotional constipation and repression.

[phoenixcatch7]

It's always funny to me when in an lu fic the chain is offered bananas and don't accept them. Like, you're offering these high energy adventures free food?? Fruit they'll have never even heard of before??? A ridiculously expensive imported good at best?? AND it boosts your attack?

Not ONE of these idiots would ever turn down something new and interesting to eat at least once. They'd be all over those bananas and immediately get dubbed yiga and I'm honestly surprised no one has used it in a fic yet ��

[crystalpallette]

ringo has never ever looked bad in an alt but my god she's hitting never before seen levels of Help Me lately

[thesulkycroissant]

I love to give Bruce crap as much as the next person, but at least he's trying. Also Dickie's face in that last panel 🥹

[sluckythewizard]

FIIIINALLY almost nailed my designs for lizzie and caspian can i get a HEEEELLL YEAAH???? i think these two make a vvery cute duo and i cannt wait to see them again. i also hope they both get hurt reaaaallly really badly. togeter

[yoroshiu]

Isn't it funny that most of the games in Kingdom Hearts end in tragedies, or very bittersweetly, AT BEST. And even the handful that are technically happy endings have the underlying pressure of the upcoming battle, so nothing is ever truly "outright happy."

[jade-len]

Me, fully prepared to be a little ass: If I were a horrible person and killed a bunch of people, would you report me to the police? lol

My older brother: Even if you were a monster, i'd protect you. I wouldn't be able to bring myself to hate or punish you. You turning out that way would be my fault because I should've been a better sibling. In the end, you'll always be my responsibility, and more importantly, my younger brother. I'll always love you.

Me, about to fucking bawl my eyes out: Hey what the fuck

so anyways after careful consideration and recollecting, that's how i came to the devastating realization that my older brother was a yue qingyuan kinnie.

[shorthaltsjester]

re the first three tlovm s3 episode title teaser fr. vex getting [redacted] while standing in front of percy . i will undoubtedly have Thoughts about plot n adaption once the whole season is out but i will say people acting like vex potentially dying again is a betrayal of the arc is . i say this politely. ridiculous. vex’s most common habit aside from haggling and flirting in campaign 1 was being knocked unconscious. she required full ass resurrection spells on four separate occasions. we currently have no idea what the shape of any arc in season 3 will look like beyond broad strokes and teasing shots. if they end up wanting to incorporate the exandrian magic lore of it’s harder to come back each time you die, vex seems like the obvious opportunity to do so. please at the very least save the panic posting for when you actually have something to panic about .

[trappedinafantasy37]

There is something in particular that we need to discuss in regards to the ending Minthara gets with an embraced Durge that is unique to Minthara. Hopefully by now, we are all aware that at some point, it was planned that Minthara would be pregnant by the end of the game and Larian cut this. Sadly, I do not have a pickaxe in the datamine so I do not know the full conditions of what would trigger it (ie, I do not know if it was meant to be a Durge specific pregnancy).

However, if you embrace Bhaal and talk to Fel you can ask him if Bhaal will allow you to spare your romance partner. Here is what he will say in general:

And here is what he has to say about Minthara specifically:

^ These lines of dialogue have been in the game for a while and are still accessible as of Patch 7.

The only clear thing that we get from this line is that Bhaal most certainly does like Minthara and approves of her (and she is the only companion Bhaal likes). He also seems to be very well aware of her fertility and sees it as a major benefit. And Bhaal very much would like Durge to use Minthara to breed and raise the next generation of Bhaalspawn. The only thing that is rather vague is whether or not Minthara is currently pregnant with Baby Durge. I mean, it would be wild if she was considering that Daedra is female and doesn't have the "right equipment." I mean, anything is possible when it comes to Bhaalspawn and reproduction. But I am going to go with the headcanon that Daedra can indeed get Minthara pregnant if she really wanted and this is good enough for me! My evil drow lesbians deserve the right to make evil drow babies together!

I also had a mutual express to me their confusion as to why Bhaal would have Durge kill Minthara if Bhaal does like her and may potentially be pregnant with Baby Durge. Bhaal is the definition of chaotic stupid. Not everything that he does makes any logical or rational sense. Bhaal's wet dream is for everything to die, specifically through murder. He does not care if that death is an inconvenience or will backfire, he just wants death and murder because he's fucking dumb (comparatively, Lolth and Shar are good examples of what it means to be a murderous god and be smart about it). I also want to note that Durge killing Minthara, or any of the romance partners, is not Bhaal forcing Durge, but Durge willfully choosing to do so. As Fel said, Bhaal is giving Durge the choice to spare their romance partner, but they do not have to do so. At least, not right now and it seems like Bhaal would prefer that they keep their romance partner alive specifically to make babies.

As stupid as Bhaal may be, he is at least smart enough to have backup plans and contingencies. This is why he created his own horde of Bhaalspawn and why every Bhaalspawn has the instinctive desire to breed. I can do a separate mini post about this to go into the lore of it if people want, but what you really need to know is that Bhaal essentially cannibalizes his own children. Every time a Bhaalspawn dies, a piece of their divinity gets returned to him and it makes him more powerful. So Bhaalspawn want to make more of themselves, and then kill each other because the more Bhaalspawn that die, the more powerful Bhaal becomes. Every single Bhaalspawn is born to die.

So, how does this all relate to Minthara and her baby? Well, her baby would be a Bhaalspawn, but not just any Bhaalspawn, they would be mini Dark Urge. A mini Dark Urge Bhaalspawn who would inevitably be driven to kill Durge one day, and maybe even Minthara since Bhaalspawn have a nasty habit of killing their parents. Most importantly, this baby is meant to be a backup plan, Durge's contingency. Bhaal does not care if a Bhaalspawn dies, because their death empowers him. Bhaal may have his favorites, but he does not need to like his child in order for them to carry out his prime directive of kill everything. Although he was pissed that Orin attacked Durge and usurped them and he does not like Orin, Bhaal still rose her to Chosen because Orin would still be able to carry out his plan of murdering the world. When Durge returns, Bhaal gets super happy because Durge has the greatest potential to fulfill his dream, but Bhaal still requires that Durge earn the title of Chosen once more.

On the precipice of doomsday, Durge has two choices for Minthara, kill her first, or kill her last. No matter what choice Durge makes, they intend to kill her one day as that is what Bhaal's ultimate goal is and Minthara was never going to be an exception, even if Bhaal does like her and may be carrying his grandbaby. The blood eclipse that we do see in the embrace Durge ending is not reality just yet, but a premonition of what would happen if Durge keeps things up. It's a vision of what Bhaal wants Durge to accomplish. Since it is not yet reality, it is possible that Durge could fail and could be killed by other factors. If Durge dies or fails, then Baby Durge would be their backup if Durge chose to spare Minthara. Or, Baby Durge may be the reason why Durge failed because they were drawn together as all Bhaalspawn are and are destined to kill one another.

No matter what choice Durge makes in regards to Minthara's fate, it still benefits Durge and Bhaal in the end. As I mentioned earlier, Bhaal may pick favorites but he does not give a shit if his favorite babies die as he still benefits from all of his babies dying. So him liking Minthara and her being the perfect broodmare was never going to spare her either. At the end of the day, she will have to die in order for Bhaal to jerk off to his wet dream.

Choosing to kill their romance partner right now or later is all Durge's choice to make, not Bhaal's. Sadly, the game only gives you two choices in regards to your romance partner. There is no third option to have them walk alongside Durge during all of this. Ironically, Minthara and Ascended Astarion are the two companions that I think would stand by Durge as they murdered the world and they would gladly murder the world with Durge. But, that was not the choice Larian gave us and that is a major L.

Depending on the choice that you make, you can roleplay the reason that you want and Minthara has a unique RP aspect as she may be pregnant. And Minthara being pregnant with a future Bhaalspawn is excellent RP material. And it need not be because Durge is a callous asshole who never loved Minthara and was only using her as some people are perceiving it to be. Just because Durge will inevitably kill her does not mean that they did not love her or never loved her.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

The fandom can't make up its mind on what's supposed to be a joke and what's supposed to be serious because the show can't either half the time. It's a tonally disjointed mess that wants to have absurd over-the-top humor as well as a plot and moments of drama, romance, and angst that demand you see the characters as people and feel for what they're going through. Except you can't do that without also treating the dumb bullshit in a somewhat grounded way. Like, you're still dealing with the same characters. You can't just go "Oh, that? Let's ignore that!" the moment it's no longer convenient to you. You've opened this can of worms and now you have to sleep in it. So, every character flip-flops between two different versions of themselves depending on what the writers need in any particular scene.

This is not to say surreal humor can't be used right alongside characters you're supposed to empathize with, Teen Titans (not Go) did that and it worked. It's just that the absurdity can only come from the setting (Mad Mod, Mother Mae-Eye, pretty much anything Control Freak is in) or from designated joke characters (Date With Destiny). Teen Titans never had the main characters acting in clearly absurd ways as the butt of a joke unless those characters were brainwashed somehow, because the writers knew that would ruin any of the more grounded moments they wanted to write. The writers of Miraculous missed the memo on that one.

I don't disagree. A perfect example is Derision where the show takes all of the bad jokes about Marinette's crush and decides to take them seriously as if you can possible take them seriously without making Marinette come across as unhinged and dangerous. You can't, which brings us to the topic at hand: how do you even begin to understand these characters when the show is constantly making character-breaking choices?

My approach - and the approach I recommend others take if they're going to keep watching the show - is to focus on the characters' cores and reject anything canon does to violate those cores. I don't argue for this stance because I love the characters so much that I only want the good things to count. I take this stance because, if you don't, then the characters fall apart. There is no way to make them work as fully realized characters while embracing every choice canon has made. Miraculous has massive characterization issues that go well beyond the humor.

For example, Adrien has multiple moments of terrible behavior that are played in a serious manner such as the moment in the episode Frozer where he tries to start a fight with Ladybug in the middle of an akuma attack because she wouldn't accept a rose from him earlier:

Setup

Ladybug: I can't accept this rose from you. I told you already. I'm in love with someone else. Cat Noir: I know, M'lady. But if he weren't here, would things be different between us? Ladybug: Well, you know, I can't even begin to imagine him not being here. I'm sorry, Cat Noir. I really gotta get going, and you better do the same. (Swings her yo-yo to head back home; Cat Noir is sad, looking downwards, with one petal of the rose falling.)

Payoff

Ladyice: Cat Noir. We need to set up a trap for whoever turned the city into a giant ice rink. (throws yo-yo) Icecat: (bitterly) My feline instincts prefer to track and observe before I attack. You go your way, I'll go mine. Ladyice: Please don't tell me you're mad at me about the rose. Icecat: There may be a certain chill now between us. Ladyice: I get it, but we should really focus on saving Paris right now. Icecat: We don't always have to do everything together, after all. It's not like we're a couple. (skates away)

There's no way to argue this off as a bad joke. While Adrien has every right to feel hurt, those feelings don't excuse him acting like a pouting child in the middle of an akuma fight. It doesn't excuse him acting like this at any point! Ladybug is not a villain for telling him no. She wasn't even mean about it!

I clearly fully agree that Adrien looks awful and selfish here, but I'd still argue that it's not something that should be used to define Adrien's character if your goal is to tell the "ideal" version of Miraculous. "Ideal" being the version that canon seems to be going for based on the overall picture we can sort of make out if we back way, way, way up and look at the extremely abstract picture canon is clumsily painting.

Unless canon is going to do something monumentally stupid, Adrien is Marinette's endgame romantic interest. It's also clear that there is no plan to cut him from the team. He's going to be Chat Noir for the rest of his life or at least well into his adulthood. This means that he is supposed to be a good hero who deserves his miraculous just like he's supposed to be a charming and cute romantic lead. These are the two things I keep in mind when trying to shift through canon to figure out what writing choices I should fully embrace and what writing choices I have to either ignore or treat as true flaws that get an actual character arc. In my book, either approach is fine because most of the characters are deeply flawed at this point and you can't give them all arcs without bloating the story to nonsense levels.

My goal with this approach is never to say, "oh, that moment shouldn't count in terms of how people feel about the character." It's more, "that moment goes so hard against who this character is very clearly supposed to be that I can't take it into account if I want to tell the kind of story that Miraculous is trying (and clearly failing) to tell."

As an example, let's list off Adrien's worst behaviors. The things that make him look terrible:

He sucks at communicating his needs and feelings, leading to multiple moments where he gets mad at Ladybug for things she's totally unaware of

He has quit or considered quitting without warning multiple times and only one of those was because of something he did "wrong" (NYC Special)

He puts his feelings before the safety of Paris on multiple occasions, even going so far to purposely miss akuma fights to see what happens

He is incredibly pushy about his crush, often ignoring Ladybug's feelings on the topic by continuing to bring it up even after she asked him to stop

There have been multiple instances where he almost cataclysmed multiple people in a fit of anger

His love for Ladynette isn't strong enough to let him break free of things like akumas and nightmare dust even when he's looking her in the eyes making him a pretty crappy romantic lead

People will argue that some of this behavior makes sense for his character because of the abuse that canon has technically introduced, but that the writers seem blissfully unaware of. I don't disagree with that argument, but that doesn't change the fact that none of this is acceptable behavior for a hero and Adrien is a hero who keeps doing these things. A sad backstory doesn't give you the right to behave poorly without consequences.

At the same time, if I fully embrace these elements of canon, what I get is an Adrien salt fic where he loses his miraculous for good while Marinette finds her real true love or even just a non-salty fic where Adrien leaves for his own meatal health and gets replaced by someone who can handle being a hero right now. Canon's not writing either of those, so the only way to engage with these flaws while enjoying canon or aiming for the same end goals as canon is to say, "I guess this doesn't count" or "I guess I need to tone this way down and work through it via a character arc" or even "I guess that was just a bad joke maybe?"

That is the essence of what I mean when I call myself a writing salt, character sugar blog. It comes from looking at canon and seeing that there's simply no way to embrace the worst moments and the best at the same time. We're not dealing with a coherent plot and/or complex characters. We're dealing with a nonsense plot that will warp the characters to bizarre shapes to make random ideas work even if those idea go wildly against canon's end goals.

As an example, Glaciator and Frozer should not exist in the same universe or, at the very least, something should explain why Chat Noir randomly changed his stance on Ladybug's crush from acceptance to pushiness. As is, the pieces don't fit together. The behavior is too contradictory. Remember, this is how Glaciator ends:

Perhaps Ladybug will love me someday. I mean, like, I love her. I have to believe. In the meantime, her friendship is the best gift of all.

Where did this version of Adrien go? Why did he regress in Frozer? There's no in-universe reason. It happened because the writers weren't ready to let the love square date or grow close, but they also wanted the love square to cause drama, so Adrien ends up looking terrible just like Marinette ends up looking terrible when it's her turn to cause love square drama. Her terribleness takes a different flavor so it can be hard to realize that this is a systemic issue, but that's what it is. It's deeply frustrating, but it also clearly stems from cheap writing and not quality characterization.

This is also why my stance is that canon as a whole only supports my Doyalistic core-character analysis style of approach. The writing is too poor quality to do Watsonian analysis where you embrace the full picture and try to put it all together. The closest I'll get to Watsonian analysis is pointing out how much the writing botches a Watsonian take by showing you all the way the writing contradicts itself, twisting into a nonsense pretzel of frustration where the payoffs never satisfy! (See the season four rant for an example or anything where I talked about Chloe's supposed damnation arc.)

There are even characters where canon is such a total mess that you can Doyalistically argue for two separate takes! Gabriel is a perfect example. He is all over the place and his ending was so poorly handled that you can make strong arguments for writing him as a cold-hearted villain or a sympathetic villain without the end result feeling like it spits in the face of canon because both takes maintain his one core element: villain.

That's the big thing I keep in mind when I look at the characters and the lore and the plots and try to come up with versions that the average fan would like. I don't think that there's one true version of any of these things, but I do feel comfortable saying that there are versions that will very clearly only appeal to people who are salty about a specific thing that canon did poorly. That's not who I want to appeal to in my adaptions, so while I'm not going to argue that those takes have no backing in canon, I will argue that those takes are not supported by canon as a whole. Embracing them requires you to take the worst parts of canon at face value while ignoring what canon is clearly trying to do with the overall story.

I get the appeal of that, but it's not fun for me because that approach feels like rolling around in the mud with the pigs. I don't want to sink to canon's level! I want to have fun! That's why I talk about how to make canon into its best self, not its worst self. If you want its worst self, just go watch the actual show. I will be shocked it if disappoints you.

[deadpoetsandlivinglegends]

Results are in:

Scrooge outfit: Neil, Todd, and Cameron

Heart Boxers: Knox, Charlie, and Pitts

Pink robe: Meeks and Keating

I will forever be indebted to anyone who draws fanarts of them in these outfits