#I just want them to talk about how ladybug had this reoccurring issue of pushing people away instead of letting people in

[galactic-space]

*rises from the ashes*

Miraculous ladybug gen 2 but we actually talk about the crazy bs that was ladybug and cat noirs relationship. Like serious convo on how good AND horrible they were together.

[sage-nebula]

Fight with one girl over a guy? Overused trope but sure ok it happens. Add another? Um, alright. Another?! Three at one time?!! The writers make Lila and Chloe irredeemably nasty so that they feel this putting other girls down over a guy schtick is acceptable to use over and over. Kagami had a chance to be decent but noooooo she's an "Ice Queen" and he "doesn't know what she's REALLY like". Fights happen but I'm not about to excuse them for using this trope 3 freaking times. It's lazy.🤷‍♀️

Kagami still is decent. Marinette insulting her and putting her down (behind her back, no less) doesn’t reflect poorly on Kagami, it reflects poorly on Marinette. To my recollection, Kagami has never once insulted, tried to sabotage, or attacked Marinette. She’s not very fond of Marinette because she can tell that Marinette has a crush on Adrien that she’s not doing anything about, and Kagami doesn’t exactly respect passive behavior (or passive-aggression), but she’s never done anything that reflects poorly on her. Just because Marinette is jealous and has some passive-aggressive jealousy issues to work through regarding Kagami doesn’t mean Kagami herself should be judged poorly.

As for Chloe and Lila, they’re nasty (though I wouldn’t say irredeemably so) not for the “girls can fight over a guy” trope, but rather to create reoccurring antagonists in the classmate age group. As I mentioned in the post you’re replying to, Chloe is nasty to everyone, not just Marinette, and if her shock at realizing Marinette had a crush on Adrien in “Animaestro” is anything to go by, she didn’t even know Marinette had a crush on Adrien at all! Instead, it seems to me that her jealousy was more caused by the fact that practically everyone else adores Marinette. This is why she tried to steal the present that Marinette made for Ms. Bustier, why she always singles Marinette out in particular, et cetera. Marinette has loving parents, Marinette has tons of friends, Marinette has all the adoration that Chloe so very badly wants, and so Chloe targets her more than anyone else as a result. That Marinette has a crush on Adrien as well really isn’t a blip on Chloe’s radar. She’s nasty for other reasons, and also just so happens to be Adrien’s childhood friend and have a crush on him as well. Either way, Chloe’s nastiness from a Doylist (i.e. writer) standpoint is due to the fact that there had to be someone who could akumatize over half the class, and since it’s unlikely they’d all get akumatized by randos, there had to be classmate antagonist. Just as Libby was an antagonist to Sabrina in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, just as Pacifica was an antagonist to Mabel in Gravity Falls, so too is Chloe an antagonist to the rest of the class, Marinette included. The spoiled, bitchy rich girl trope is one that has been done over and over, but that’s because it’s a useful one in shallow narratives that take place in a school setting.

As for Lila, I believe she was created because Chloe wasn’t an antagonist who could get under Marinette’s skin as easily. The only time Chloe pushed Marinette toward an akumatization was when she stole Ms. Bustier’s present, but that’s one instance out of how many of her being horrible? Marinette has been dealing with Chloe for years, so by this point she’s built up a lot of resistance to her. Lila, however, is a new element, one that’s deceptive and has tactics that Marinette hasn’t seen before, and so she’s much more of a threat when it comes to Marinette ending up akumatized, thereby raising the stakes. Additionally, Chloe idolizes Ladybug, hates Hawkmoth, and wants to be a hero herself. This makes her a much less dangerous antagonist because she badly wants to be one of the good guys (even if she’s bad at it). Lila, on the other hand, despises Ladybug and welcomes akumatizations. It makes her a bigger threat and, again, raises the stakes. That she also has a crush on Adrien and sees herself as a rival is irrelevant, especially since we know for a fact that Adrien himself is not at all interested in her romantically. Lila’s presence in the show as an antagonist is much less about the romance nonsense and far more about the superhero side of things.

Lastly, whether you “excuse” the writers or not is not really a concern to me. I shared my anecdote because when I think back to how my friends and I were as teenagers, I see how worked up we got over things that, as an adult, I know we’d handle more maturely or find silly now. I think that portraying teenagers behaving that same way in fiction is realistic, even if it might not seem like it to those who are either so old they’ve forgotten what that was like, or to those who haven’t gone through those experiences yet themselves. That being said, Miraculous Ladybug is not that deep. It’s a silly, shallow, animated superhero show for children. This is NOT to say that children’s animation cannot be deep. My current favorite television show is The Dragon Prince, which is an animated show with PLENTY of depth and absolutely fantastic writing. But just as not every single book needs to be a literary classic, not every animated kid’s show needs to be a masterpiece. In fact, we wouldn’t be able to recognize the masterpieces for what they are without the lesser quality works surrounding them. Miraculous Ladybug isn’t that deep, or serious, or something that’s going to revolutionize the industry or be remembered years from now as a masterful work, and that’s okay. It’s a fun little thing to watch every once in a while, a way to spend twenty-two minutes when you don’t have anything better to do. In a couple years from now when it’s over it’ll fade into obscurity like so many of its animated peers, and animated media culture won’t really change either way. Until then, we’ll just have to see how it unfolds while it does.

On the other hand, if you’re really that angry that this show is not deep, that it is not making any attempt to be deep, and that it’s not a masterpiece of animation—and if it’s something that genuinely upsets you, and makes you feel bad (whether that bad feeling is anger, sadness, resentment, or some other negative emotion)—then I recommend you drop it and go watch something else. I’m not saying that because you’re affecting my ability to enjoy this show, because what you say, do, think, or feel doesn’t affect me in any way. I’m saying this because your free time should be spent doing things that make you happy. Our lives, no matter how old we are, are filled with so much stress as it is. There is so much negativity in this world, so many things to feel anxious, sad, or resentful about. There is no reason on this Earth why someone should waste what little free time they have consuming something that upsets them further. So if this show really makes you unhappy, don’t waste your time on it anymore. Go watch something else, and enjoy that instead. The Dragon Prince is beyond excellent, as I mentioned. Gravity Falls ended years ago, but it’s only two seasons long and was absolutely fantastic. Hilda has one season on Netflix, and while it’s also not that deep, it’s still creative and fun. There are other animated shows out there that you might enjoy far more than Miraculous Ladybug. If you’re one of those who can’t look at, think about, or talk about Miraculous Ladybug without getting upset, then I strongly encourage you to drop it and find something else, for your own mental and emotional well-being. We’re only guaranteed this one life, and time goes by much faster than you’d think. Please don’t waste the time you have on things that make you unhappy. I spent enough of my own life doing that, and I can tell you right now that it’s not worth it at all.