#I will never get over them having Adrien basically kill his father just so that they didn't have to sacrifice a healthy Gabriel

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Marinette asked Tikki and Plagg what was Gabriel's exact Wish in the London special and they said he gave up his life for Nathalie's and that was it, nothing more to it. So the equivalent of the Wish was acquired, a life for a life, and nothing else negative nedeed to happen in order to balance out the universe after Gabriel's Wish according to the established lore. In Origins Gabriel wouldn't have been willing to give up his own life, which means he would've sacrificed an innocent person's life to revive Emilie. I guess the S5 finale is considered a win for the heroes according to the writers' own words cause they prevented Gabriel from sacrificing an innocent person for his Wish (as Gabriel can't be considered as such) even they couldn't prevent his Wish.

I guess that's why they walked back on reviving Emilie cause 1 life for 2 wouldn't fly (as this one's already stretching it considering that Gabriel was mortally wounded by the Cataclysm when he used his life up as an offering for the Wish) and I think the writers didn't want to bother with more consequences for the Wish.

(Post that spawned this ask)

I have yet to see the London special, but I took a look at the transcript and you're right. That does seem to be the official word:

Marinette: What did Gabriel Agreste wish for? Plagg: (sadly) He... gave up his life. Tikki:(sadly) In return for Nathalie's, knowing she was gravely ill. Nathalie:(shocked) He... did that?

*clears throat*

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? That's it??? That's the wish??? The entire universe was rewritten so that a domestic terrorists didn't need to suffer the consequences of her own fully informed choice?

Gabriel: I told you never to use the Peacock Miraculous! Nathalie: I had no choice, sir. I had to save you! (coughs) Gabriel: It's damaged. It's way too dangerous. Nathalie: I want to help you all the way to the end. (smiles) Gabriel: (glares at her but then smiles) Thank you, Nathalie. (puts his hand on top of hers) For everything.

Don't get me wrong, Nathalie living was obviously part of the wish, I just expected more. If you're going to have the villain win, then go big! (I will die on the hill that, if they wanted to "redeem" Gabriel via a wish, then the wish should have been to make the sentikids real humans.) Then again, this does fall perfectly in line with things like the season three and four finals. Something major that should have changed everything, but that ends up having almost no meaningful impact on the story.

Having an official word on this doesn't actually change my stance on the wish, though. If Gabriel making a wish is not a massive no, then everything about the story was pointless in my eyes. If Gabriel was willing to change his mind in his moment of triumph after a season where he was at his absolute worst, then I do not believe that he would have been unwilling to change back in Origins. That's simply not the story that the writers told.

Based on what canon actually gave us, Gabriel would have been willing to change his mind at any time so long as he saw that video of Emilie saying "don't revive me." That video wasn't even directed at him personally! It was an incredibly tepid plea for Nathalie to not mourn her:

Emilie: (from the video recording) Don't be sad, Nathalie. You know that I had agreed to it, that Gabriel never forced me to do anything. But he should never try to bring me back. No one should have their life stolen from them because of the mistake that we made. You must continue to be happy, even though I'm no longer here. As long as there's love, it is possible. Adrien will be well-surrounded. He'll have you, Nathalie, and he'll have his father if Gabriel agrees to give up on his madness... and on me. (Gabriel breaks down.) Adrien... will have all the love he needs to be happy. Bug Noire: And that's what happened. Adrien has learned to live, and built his own happiness while cherishing the memory of his mother. She would be proud of him. Gabriel: (whilst his shaky hands reach for the paused image of Emilie on the phone) I... just can't live without her. (sobs) I loved her so much. When she left me, the world shut down around me. I still remember her smile the day Adrien was born. When I placed him in her arms, for so long, we've been thinking that we would never be able to have a child. Adrien was our little miracle. (voice breaks) Everything was so... perfect, until Emilie became ill. She is— She was right: Adrien was not alone. He had Nathalie and me. I've ruined everything. Nathalie's about to disappear, (the tip of his index finger shatters) and so am I. Adrien will have no one left.

If this lackluster moment could change his mind, then lots of things would have because there's no way in hell that the video was new information. It's even arguable the video didn't change his mind. At least, not the way I'd expect if we're going for a positive, meaningful message. Gabriel still doesn't want to live without Emilie. What we see in this scene and the official word of god is that Gabriel picked death over a life without Emilie:

Émilie will not be brought back to life as Gabriel has finally mourned her death, which Adrien has already done for a long time. But Gabriel cannot live without her and decides to die with her.

I would not call this good, meaningful growth for Gabriel. Nor would I call it a positive, uplifting message for children. I'd call it a horrifying and disgusting message for anyone who has ever suffered intense grief from the loss of a loved one, but let's not dwell on that too much. Instead, let's keep our focus on what Gabriel's choice means for the overall story.

The word of god and the implications of this scene are also that talking it out was all anyone ever needed to do:

In the end, it is not violence or strength that wins, but people talking to each other and opening up about their feelings. It is when people are not subject to their emotions, but instead try to understand them to think better and take the right decisions.

If this is true and it's okay for Gabriel to pick suicide over a life without Emilie, then all of Paris pointlessly suffered because of a simple communication issue. Ladybug and Chat Noir should have just asked Gabriel what his wish was, told him that he'd have to sacrifice himself or a willing third party to make that work, and then let him decide if he wanted to switch places with Emilie. Alternatively, he could have sacrificed himself for some innocent like a cancer patient and gone to be with his wife in death in that person's place. Same ending, just with the bonus of saving someone from cancer! You cannot convince me that he wouldn't go for it based on what we see in canon.

As a quick final note, letting Gabriel make the wish not only ruins the story, it also ruins the lore because we have to actually consider what the wish does now. As you said in the ask, it doesn't make any sense. If Gabriel is literally moments away from dying, then how can he give up his life for Nathalie's? And why do you need to rewrite the universe when the wish is something so minor? How does rewriting the universe make the wish come true? What actually changed? Did Nathalie now never use the peacock? Did her illness just switch to Gabriel? If so, how? I have so many questions that I know will never be answered because they don't exist. The lore is simply not strong enough to hold up to up any level of scrutiny.

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Round 3

Propaganda why Feyre Archeron is insufferable:

"She is Miss Perfect Special Never Does Anything Wrong. Rhys with her is like Gordon Ramsay with children, EXCEPT SHE'S A GROWN ADULT. I didn't hate her tooooo much in books 1-3 (she was barely tolerable), but in the novella, she becomes this housewife First Lady type character who is fine doing paperwork after stating previously that she wants to be doing something more "important", and living in a McMansion. THEN THE FIFTH BOOK STARTS WITH HER HAVING AN "INTERVENTION" FOR HER SISTER, WHICH IS BASICALLY FEYRE TELLING NESTA THAT SHE'S GRIEVING INCORRECTLY. Bitch, who are YOU to tell someone that THEIR grief is making YOUR life uncomfortable?? "Wah wah the social implications" you're the literal queen, no one cares that your sister is embarrassing you.

Imo, Feyre is also the result of a lot of internalized misogyny on the part of the author, bc she has two men in love with her and gets along very well with every other male character that's not "evil", but many of the female characters are antagonistic or unhelpful towards Feyre, seemingly apropos of nothing. It's giving "I'm not like OTHER girls". She also very clearly doesn't want children but then miraculously changes her mind bc apparently female characters can't be fulfilled without children. 🙄

Oh and btw Feyre also manages to get the powers of EVERY fairy court ruler at the end of the first book. I DO NOT use the term "mary sue" lightly, as that label has been used against feminist characters a lot, but Feyre exemplifies the Mary Sue trope."

"SHES SO ANNOYING AND SO SO STUPID AND BY THE END SHE JUST BECOMES A COMPLETE DOORMAT AND LETS RHYS WALK ALL OVER HER tbh im more mad at the author for butchering her but she's still annoying as all hell"

"Thinks she’s the victim of everything. Destroys an entire Court. Forces an intervention on her sister who is grieving differently than Feyre is."

"She's the WORST. She's an asshole to her family but thinks she deserves to be worshipped by them because she hunts or whatever, feels entitled all the time, is ableist to her dad, is fantasy racist and turns from being racist to not being racist in a BLINK, is ridiculously overpowered and treated as oh-so-special by every single other character ... I hate her and I wish she would die. "

Propaganda why Marinette Dupain-Cheng is insufferable:

"shes annoyinng anf shes a stalker"

"I love fanon miraculous but by god she has got to stop obsessively stalking her crush and generally making a ton of other terrible decisions. I’d submit Adrien too but he’s more of a deuteragonist"

"I started the show, watched one episode, and never tried again. I simply do not vibe with her."

"I get she has social anxiety but the way she goes about stalking Adrien is kind of the worst like she even has creep shots of him hanging in her room? That’s weird. I think Adrien’s going through enough without having to deal with the main character being his stalker lol. I know they’re (spoilers) at this point but in the beginning it was so sus"

"In the newest season, Marinette hides the fact that Hawkmoth was Adrien’s dad. This leads to the bastard getting a statue and honored as a hero after his death. Adrien now never gets to know the fact that his abusive and neglectful father was the one trying to kill him and is instead proud of him."

"Her crush on Adrien is like a black hole for her character. Things she’s done because of it:

1) stolen property

2) ruined dates

3) humiliated other characters

4) has a chart of Adrien’s daily schedule for the next year in her room (this is stalking)

5) broke into his room and sniffed his pillow (also a crime)

6) sniffed, took the hair from, and tried to kiss what she thought was a wax statue of Adrien

7) convinced her parents to let her go to China. Why? Not because she wants to connect with her mother’s heritage, not even because she’s a budding fashion designer and Shanghai is considered a fashion hotspot. It’s because Adrien was there."

"She easily gets away with bad, stalkerish behavior, it always feels like she can ‘do no wrong’ unless the show wants us to pity her, and the show writers want us to think she is a quirky and socially awkward girl when throughout the series we see her be friends with basically everyone in Paris with many connections to high up places."

"Listen, if Adrien's here, she needs to be too. I like her, but from the odd stalker-ish behaviour, to straight up lying to adrien and telling him that his abusive father was actually a 'very good person, a hero even and not the main villain of the series I promise', there's no way she doesn't deserve to be in the polls."

[k7l4d4]

K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 13

Hello! One more episode until I review the episode I feel is the worse in this show to date, continuity-wise!

Now, Migration is... less bad then the majority of Season 5, but that's such a low bar to clear it isn't anything impressive to write home about. The plot is kind of, honestly, garbage in that it has Kitty Section be shilled as this amazing band in the making by Jagged Stone (not sure if we've ever actually seen him play at all, honestly, but he's a professional shilling an amateur band), while also having them being super hyped over signing on with Bob, which makes no sense as Bob has never been anything less then a scumbag towards them. Like, this episode would've made more sense if they'd had it that the group they were signing on with was actually run by Bob in secret and they didn't learn about it until AFTER signing. Like, the best thing about this Episode is that it doesn't do any irreparable damage to anyone involved, and has a genuinely cool scene of Marinette freaking out over realizing someone knows her secret that she didn't tell personally before hand.

Anyway, with that said, onto the episode review! As always, warning for any profanity on my part.

Episode 13: Migration 

Alright, Marinette shows up to a Kitty Section meeting, and goes instant noodle. Not as badly as normal, though. 

And we get a brief moment of Marinette zipping around greeting everyone. I know it's partially for effect, but dang, she's fast. 

Marinette briefly dances around what she wants to talk with Luka about, Luka cuts through the bullshit, and now we get an awkward scene of Marinette using Luka as a therapist. The awkwardness is mostly in how Marinette is phrasing things, personally. Like, starting a conversation with "as you know, there are things I can't tell Adrien" doesn't help matters as, for all MARINETTE knows, Luka DOESN'T know there are things she can't tell Adrien. 

And we get Marinette whining about "breaking Luka's heart" and I just... I'm just sitting here and wondering how long this conversation is meant to last. 

...The fact that Luka is basically reiterating something both Tikki AND Alya have told Marinette multiple times for her to go "so you mean I'm not cruel, or pathetic?" just kills me, and not in a good way. It's nice seeing Luka get some development, but it doesn't feel as believable as it should, if that makes sense. I don't get why Luka is meant to be the "team therapist." I don't MIND that he is the one, but it doesn't look like anything was put into establishing why that's the case. 

And right away, now that I'm back in... Why in the world is ADRIEN going to Luka for therapy!? It made SOME sense with Marinette, but from what I recall, Adrien and Luka don't even really KNOW each other all that well, and have interacted less than Adrien normally interacts with his classmates. 

Maybe I'm forgetting something, I don't know, but the show treating it like Luka being the team therapist is this established thing feels... weird to me. Like, if they had Adrien go, "Hey, Juleka said you were good at helping with talking about problems, do you have a moment to listen?" it would feel more... believable, if that makes sense? 

Ugh... I can (grudgingly) see why this episode is regarded a bit better compared to the rest. Seeing Adrien open up when he's been so dead set on keeping his thoughts and feelings locked up for FIVE SEASONS would be a huge breath of fresh air.

And the "therapy Luka" train keeps chugging along. This one, I'm less annoyed by, even if the set-up feels a bit dumb. Like, I doubt a bunch of amateur kids are making better songs than a famous professional like Jagged Stone, but seeing him show doubts about being a father and honestly wanting to improve it, getting his son's input... it's a MASSIVE improvement overall compared to the fiasco that is the show's efforts at trying to portray fucking GABRIEL of all people as a well-meaning father. 

And the "I don't know what I'd do without you" bit ruined it for me. Also, the kinda awkward ship-tease between Jagged and Penny for a second. Jagged struggling to be a dad? I'm cool with that. But the show is trying to push the idea that Luka is this brilliant therapist... it feels forced, especially when it's three consecutive scenes of him... basically just giving extremely basic and obvious advice. And yeah, sometimes hearing obvious advice is what people need when they are making too big of a deal over something that isn't really as complicated as they fear... but it's undermined by how the first scene involved Marinette hearing advice she's already heard, the second trying to set-up Luka and Adrien as being bros when I can't even recall them ever hanging out, and the third just gives me cringe-vibes at how it presents Jagged as being... kinda pathetic 

...And of fucking COURSE we get a fucking FOURTH scene of "therapist Luka." Nope, nope, I just... can't with this. And Penny going "I don't know WHY I'm in love with Jagged" is just... UUUGGGHHH!!! As strange as it might be, people tend to have REASONS they are in love with someone. Even if they are in denial about those reasons. This just feels like the show is shoving Penny into Jagged's arms. They should be able to give a fucking REASON why Jagged makes Penny happy. And yet, they don't, and I'm losing patience with this bullshit. 

No, no, people may not be able to explain WHEN or HOW they fall in love, but people tend to very much know what it is that makes them fall in love with someone, or at least have some kind of idea. I do not like how this show is presenting love as this "unknowable, impossible to understand force of nature." Is love mysterious? Yes, yes it is. But not to this extent; it just comes off as the show trying to defend how crappily it's written all the relationships up until now by going "no no, you can't EXPLAIN why you love someone, you just DO!!" and since this is coming from the same people who insist on treating the idea as if having two crushes at the same time is scientifically impossible, I call BULLSHIT on it.

Okay, seeing Anarka literally yeet Bob off her ship makes all this nonsense worthwhile for that alone. Bob's such a selfish, stupid scumbag that seeing him being treated like garbage just made my day. Thanks, Migration! 

...Yeah, the show saying that Kitty Section are better than a professional musician is just... laughable to me. They aren't BAD bad, but they are very obviously amateurs. 

...Bob Roth getting thrown overboard makes the idiocy on display of him trying to sign the contract for the band he plagiarized so worth it. Also, I wonder if the show will acknowledge the fact that he plagiarized them; that ALONE makes him an untrustworthy scumbag, something they should be well aware of. 

"Anyone can change," yes that's true Luka... but someone has to have to want to change and have shown that they ARE, and Bob has shown NOTHING indicating he's changed AT ALL, and hasn't even acknowledged that he tried to cheat your sister's band. Honestly, knowing the episode that's coming next makes this feel like they are trying to go for the opposite moral of "people never change, so don't bother trying to get them to." 

WHY are they acting like him admitting his promise to sign them up was a lie is some big shock!? The fucker PLAGIARIZED THEIR WORK!!! 

Yup, that's about what I expected. He fired all of them except Luka because WHY THE FUCK NOT!? This man is a fucking moron who doesn't seem to have even the slightest understanding that deliberately antagonizing and alienating someone YOU JUST HIRED is the epitome of idiocy. 

Yeah, the way they are having Bob act like a blatantly evil and immoral scumbag blaming THEM for trusting him would be honestly pretty funny (and whatever comeuppance he gets more deserving) if I weren't dreading what's to come. 

Okay, I can't lie, despite the pit in my stomach, seeing Bob reveal just how completely and utterly overboard he went on making the contract as unfair and exploitative as possible is kinda hilarious. Although I don't really see what's "small print and ambiguous phrases" about "can fire them whenever he wants, is sole owner of Kitty Section as brand, AND owns the rights to whatever they make for the NEXT THOUSAND YEARS."

Like, if they were going for a lesson exploitative and corrupt businesses that treat their employees and talent like tools, it could be really interesting at seeing such a laughably blatant scumbag reveling in being such a jerk and then getting what's cumming to him... but the placement makes me feel icky. 

You know, normally I would put up a token effort against Luka categorizing this as "all his fault," but in this case...? Yeah, no, he's spot on. He took a scumbag who has done nothing but be a complete and utter piece of exploitative shit each and every time he's shown up and done nothing to indicate he's changed in any way at his word that he's become a better person, so yes, this is ALL HIS FAULT. Although, now that I think of it, it's also the rest of Kitty Section's fault, since they were perfectly willing to take Bob at his word all on their own, even without Luka's backing. This is just stupid. 

...Uhh... I just... WHY THE FUCK DID MONARCH INSTANTLY JUMP TO LUKA KNOWING THE IDENTITIES OF LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR!? Like, he has HAD people resist him before, he KNOWS that no one (aside from his cronies) LIKE getting Akumatized, so him jumping to "You KNOW!?" Is utter fucking NONSENSE. It's the same BS with Ephemeral having him take a single word as "evidence" that his son was Chat Noir. Seriously, the Writers aren't even fucking TRYING!! 

I am curious as to how Bob's contracts haven't been destroyed by being chucked in the river. Did he get them laminated? 

Huh, they nearly had Rose admit to being in love with Juleka. Boo, quit with the dodging, writers! Just admit they are a couple!! 

...They had a rubber duck somehow get turned into a record by Bob's new powers. Nope, not gonna think about it, not gonna think about it, nope nope nope! Also, while the songs being sung by the people he's "recordized" might not be what he's looking for, they honestly sound better then Kitty Section did at the beginning, to me.

...Okay, the fact that Bob LIKED the Rubber Ducky Record is the one thing I wasn't expecting. 

...Wow, Marinette really isn't noticing that Luka is explicitly stating her name, despite the fact that she's transformed. I just... wow. Not a good wow, a "I cannot believe this fucking stupidity" wow. 

Okay, NOW she notices, and is currently freaking the hell out. Which is an appropriate reaction, if COMPLETELY the wrong time for it. 

Alright, I will admit, Luka expressing his absolute confidence and trust in Ladybug was nice. 

Yup, he's still an unrepentant scumbag. 

Oh no, the guy who knows Ladybug and Chat Noir's secret identities that Hawkmoth found out by complete and utter bullshit has to leave. Who saw this coming? (Raises hand) 

...When did Jagged see Luka stand up to Bob again?? Also, for fucks sake, WHY would him accompanying Luka involve ANY of that!! He flat out said it himself during Guitar Villain that he's one of the biggest chart toppers there is in-universe, he can just find another producer who isn't an exploitative scumbag like Bob whenever he likes. 

You know, this scene wasn't as bad as I was fearing it was, since it's not Jagged inviting Luka to come with him, it's him volunteering to GO with Luka so he has supervision and company until Monarch is defeated. Still, it's annoying how little focus is given to Juleka in this, given she's supposed to be Luka's twin. And with that, this episode is done. Phew. Not as bad as I was worried about, but it's definitely not a chart topper.

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Long story short, the finale vindicated Gabriel for all of his actions thanks to a half-assed "redemption", Adrien was benched the whole time, so he never got to learn his dad was a supervillain, and because he altered reality through the wish that killed him, Gabriel is now hailed as a hero who sacrificed himself to save the world.

^^^How I feel reading that.

Are you fucking kidding me, show??? For fucking real??? Gabriel spent all five seasons terrorizing Paris (and the USA and Shanghai in the specials), his motives literally switching between wanting his wife back or wanting to just take over the world and he basically was a piece of shit father for the whole show to the point of akumatizing his son twice in two different realities, because that's how little he care's about Adrien, and instead of the karma he deserves, he gets: *The Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, aka what he's been after this whole season, and therefore, he's able to make his wish but its made to be a good thing for some fucking reason. *He gets to be hailed as a hero for some reason by the same city he was fine akumatizing its citizens off and destroying most of the time and Adrien still see's his dad as a good person (somehow) because the show didn't let him take part in the final fight and therefore, Adrien doesn't know the truth just like the rest of the city (bar Marinette, Plagg, Tikki and Nathalie (seriously, people blaming Marinette for keeping the truth when the other three also know and aren't saying shit)).

This show really did say, "I'll villainize teenage girls before I even try to call out the actual villain-" holy shit, cause don't get me started on them refusing to let this show end already and instead having Lila get the butterfly at the end. And can I just say Owl House and even Big Hero 6 The Series gave their villains consequences when they pulled Gabriel shit? Hunter got to confront Belos in 'Thanks To Them' and in 'Watching And Dreaming', Belos basically gets stomped to death by the very people he tried to kill, while Big Hero 6's Di does succeed in saving her creator, Liv, but Liv stops her from turning Hiro into a monster in time and isn't happy with her clone, not having wanted to be saved like this, and we see Di go to prison as a result for her actions.

I would ask why was it so hard for Miraculous to do these things with Gabriel (allow Adrien to confront him and show him getting consequences), but sadly, the signs were there that they were going to somehow try to make Gabriel into a good guy at the end of it all. It was just false hope that it wouldn't.

[miraculous-magicalconnections]

Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste Alternate Outfits

For the alternate outfits I wanted to give them pajamas, a swimsuit, something fancy/dress up, and two additional casual/everyday outfits (which are in the order from left to right)

If you want to see their main design, you can check the pinned post on my blog or click here

(Note: I can't draw feet so for her pajamas and swimsuit they're just not there)

For Marinette's pajamas it's just a simple white t-shirt with green boxers, the boxers she found after meeting Chat Noir and (although she'd never admit it) bought them as they reminded her of him

Her swimsuit is a mismatched top and bottom, because I felt like all the characters being in one-pieces felt unrealistic and I wanted to switch them up

Her dress is a mixture of a couple different dress I found online, made specifically to give her extra mobility with slits on both sides, and for that same reason she wears flats instead of heels (which are the same color as her camouflaged Miraculous)

For her first alternate casual outfit, I wanted to play into the running gag in Power Rangers where as civilians they wear their ranger color so she wears red, otherwise it's a simple outfit as she doesn't like to go all out

Her second alternate outfit is pink shirt and black shorts, just to add a bit more variety to her outfit choices

Her entire set may seem rather simple but that's the point, Marinette's a fashion designer and while obviously she has an eye for fashion and loves it, she also doesn't want to be surrounded by overly fancy clothes 24/7

So aside from her making some of her clothes (namely her dress) I didn't like the idea that she'd be completely overdressed just because she designs clothes

(Note: I can't draw feet so for his pajamas and swimsuit they're just not there)

For Adrien's pajamas I just went simple with black boxers, and this is the only times Adrien will take of his prosthetic (aside from showering)

For his swimsuit, I took inspiration from his in canon but changed them to be actual shorts and just gave them white stripes, thankfully due to the advanced nature of his prosthetic he doesn't NEED to remove it, but he often times does if he's alone or just with someone who knows

For his suit, it's a simple black two piece with a white undershirt, black tie, and dress shoes because of his father, if he didn't need to appease his father's wishes, he'd likely just wear a button up

For his additional casual look I gave him a very dark, almost black turtle neck and blue jeans which is his "Gabriel approved outfit" he wears whenever he doesn't need to wear a suit to any Gabriel function

And his final extra outfit is a dark green t-shirt and light blue jeans with an arm covering to hide his prosthetic

If you read his backstory, you'll know that Adrien lost his right arm in the accident that killed his mom, so he doesn't wear his prosthetic while he sleeps and covers it any chance he can get

This was unintentional originally, as it just happened, but I made most of his outfits black to further show just how much control Gabriel has over Adrien even if Adrien isn't as under his control like in canon

Aside from the accidental outfit-storytelling I made, his outfits didn't really have a set reasoning aside from thinking "what would an 18-year-old model who doesn't want to be a model wear?" which led me to very basic outfits with minimal color, this also helps contrast his two main outfits being the white long-sleeve shirt I posted in his redesign post (which is linked on my blog) and the green t-shirt outfit which he wears less commonly but more than the others

[piromina]

WIP Reblog Game

I saw this going around and thought it might be fun soo...

List the titles of your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends!

WIP TITLES (only one of these is actually up tbh...)

a breach in the brooch – So this one is an AU idea I have had in my head for...longer than I care to admit, but basically, Adrien has been in on his father's plan to become Hawkmoth since he first came up with it. Now, on the day of the Stoneheart attack, Adrien is questioning why he went along with his father's plans so easily. I mean, becoming a supervillain isn't exactly a healthy way of grieving. And so, when he finds the cat miraculous in his room, he decides to become a superhero despite living under the same roof as his enemy.

to defy a reality – AU where when the sentikids were created, because of the broken miraculous, it accidentally gave them all magical powers, dubbing the three of them "superhumans." Unfortunately, the Order of the Guardians (which Marinette and Nino are part of) is dead set on finding and killing any known superhumans. VERY Feligami, Adrienette, and DJWifi centric.

penumbra – Sometimes I think about how Master Fu was a holder of the peacock miraculous once. Sometimes I think about how Félix has the peacock miraculous. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if the two of them ever met.

identity theft – Everyone thinks Hawkmoth and Shadowmoth are two different people. Chat Noir thinks Shadowmoth killed Hawkmoth and took his miraculous. Ladybug thinks Hawkmoth actually gambles and lost a bet to Shadowmoth, and ended up handing over the miraculous.

nonexistent happiness (the name will probably change) – Gimmi is the kwami of reality, right? But everyone knows reality is just a web of lies. So when Gimmi creates a new universe, and rewrites reality, they're really making a universe that doesn't really exist. And a nonexistent universe will have to fall apart eventually...

UPCOMING

I've written most of the fic except the last two chapters, where things get very...interesting, you'll see. Not to spoil too much, but there's a really big fight scene I look forward to getting to.

There is something VERY big happening in chapter sixteen, but I really don't want to spoil it. Yes you heard me right this fic will have more than sixteen chapters. I think the very most information I can give you about it is that it's...quite a revealing conversation Master Fu has.

I'm looking forward to Master Fu's perspective on this one, I've never written that before so that should be exciting.

Félix comes in at one point. Need I say more.

The part where the universe just kinda....dies..........I mean YES thats the premise of the whole fic and should happen pretty early on but for some reason im not there yet. ANYWAYS

And for the tags....I think everyone I know has been tagged already so. if you want to do this you can just say I tagged you or something I dont know

[lixxen]

Actually, I really want to talk about this because people on Tiktok don't understand why Adrien is upset.

(Most will be under the cut to not clog feed)

I think people genuinely forget that Émilie has only been gone for a few years. She went missing a bit before Hawkmoth appeared and we have been told that Gabriel was a good dad before his wife died. Gabriel only became"Hawkmoth" because his wife had been taken away from him and he was searching for the Black Cat and Ladybug miraculous.

Gabriel throughout the series earlier seasons had been painted as an overprotective and cold father and we slowly get to see that it comes from his need to keep Adrien from the rest of the world. Adrien is all he had left of Émilie. We see the very basic controling parent habits exaggerated through the eyes of a young teenager who had never experienced it before.

Controlling things in your life is a very simple way of coping and protecting yourself after dealing with loss of someone you love that was out of your control. If your parents die in some freak accident, you're likely to not go near whatever it is and let your kids be near whatever it is. Gabriel is doing the exact same thing.

Now, for Adrien, he loved his parents a lot. We get to see him talk in loving light about both of his parents and the good memories with them. He isn't angry towards Gabriel most of the time because he's sad and upset over the controlling changes. He gets to see his dad grieve his mom in the way of shutting everyone out and throw himself into work. He clearly doesn't blame his dad, but as everything progresses he just gives up.

Adrien still loves his dad. He clearly on some level understands his dad because he never genuinely talks bad about his dad. We know he cares a lot and doesn't see him as some evil person like everyone does. People who are abused by their parents don't always hate them. People who are abused by their parents who were once in their right mind and showed them nothing but love hold onto the old them. They know the love for them is still there, but there's something wrong.

Different people take trauma and abuse differently depending on the situation, of course. It is logical to jump to Adrien hating his dad because of how controlling he is and how he treats Adrien; but people who have never been abused in the way/similar ways that Adrien was will never understand the feeling of losing your parent to something and remember the ghost of them that appears in small interactions. Chalking Gabriel up to some heartless asshole in the earlier seasons, in all honesty, is more horrible and tasteless because that is a grieving man who is holding onto the only person left who he genuinely loved and is the only thing he has left of his dead wife.

As Gabriel gets worse and loses himself to the madness, that's when you can criticize him. He slowly is losing himself to the anger and desperation of not being able to save his wife. People will go to extremes for people they love and will hurt everyone else around them who they love. He quite literally is being corrupted by it all and becomes a horrible person.

Later season Gabriel, especially when he genuinely starts to be horrible to Adrien and with all of the timeline shit, is who I will hate and not defend. They shot his character the second they made him practically try to kill and do all of that to the son that he spent so much time protecting and loving. It was out of character but truly showed how horrible of a person he was. I genuinely hated the fact they did that. But it showed how lost he truly became, so take it as you will.

But anyways.

Adrien is allowed to grieve his dad. He quite literally lost his mother and his father within a few years. He was still grieving his mom when the show starts. Two parents that loved him dearly. He's allowed to be angry at Ladybug for not saving his dad. Just because he was mistreated doesn't mean he doesn't love his dad. Don't get me wrong, there's points in the show that he clearly is upset with his dad. But he's allowed to be upset at the mistreatment.

I think the reason why I understand Adrien's character is because I can resonate with him losing his dad but still have him there and loving him despite the mistreatment. It's not easy at times and are upset by it, but you still love your parent because you remember who they once were and miss that.

This isn't a Gabriel defending post tbh. It's just understanding his character and relationship with Adrien. I will die on this hill and block people if they get too heated about this (if anyone reads this). You can interpret the show and relationship however you want, it's not that deep and a kids show so a ton of it is shallow writing at first and all of the early fics are 100% so true to view the relationship how they do and make Adrien hate his dad. But you gotta admit, they do write some complex ass relationships as the show developed. It just becomes a mess.

So take this with a grain of salt, as this post is written by an abused 23 year old who loves and is upset by the abuser. It just puts the show in a totally different light.

People who can't understand why canon Adrien is genuinely that upset over Gabriel being gone don't understand the nuance of being in an abusive household OR Adrien's character

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Chapter Seven: Trying for Normal (Gifts)

Prev

AO3

“You can not honestly tell me you are thinking of announcing that girl as your daughter.” Damian says, his scowl deeper than Dick had seen it in a while.

“‘That girl’ has a name, Little D. Plus she’s your sister.” Dick says, resisting the urge to nudge him. They had gotten to the point where a small nudge wasn’t a death sentence, but Damian was on edge. And a small nudge would probably not be appreciated.

“I do not care what her name is, Grayson. Since coming to Gotham she has been involved in two separate Rogue attacks. She is suspicious at best, and a nuisance at worst.” He replies, crossing his arms.

“Enough, Damian. Marinette is not a nuisance. She simply has bad luck.” Bruce says, obviously trying to defend his daughter.

“And poor self-preservation skills. Talking back to the Joker? Snarking the Riddler? For an individual with no combat training, she gets much too involved in attacks. It is idiotic.” Damian argues, shaking his head.

“It might have something to do with the Paris situation. She said she’s been at attacks before, so she must have some experience with villains. And from what I read on the Ladyblog, none of the damage in Paris lasts. She just may not realize how dangerous it is for her to do here what she would do in Paris. We just need to warn her, or, at least remind her, that Gotham is a dangerous place.” Dick says, thinking back to her reaction to the Riddler and the Joker. She was definitely more tense with the Joker, despite the fact that both villains had arrived with armed goons. Maybe she thought the Riddler was less likely to kill someone, not true. Or maybe she- Dick frowns as he remembers a key difference between the attacks.

“I just realized something.” He says with a frown.

“Care to share with the rest of the room, Dickiebird?” Jason asks, strolling in and flopping onto a chair.

“She was more tense at the attack with the Joker, she seemed to understand that it was a dangerous situation. Sure, she talked back to him, but she didn’t try to fight back or anything. But at the attack with the Riddler, he wasn’t even targeting her at first. He was targeting the boy she’d been talking to. And she was more reckless, and then she fought back. She fought well, but it was still super dangerous.” Dick rambles, pacing as he explains the predicament.

“Is there a point to this? I feel like I walked in at the wrong time.” Jason calls out from his chair, feet propped up on the table in front of him.

“My point, Jay, is that Marinette has a crush.” Dick says, shuddering at the word like it’s something disgusting. (It is, his sister is too young for crushes and boyfriends).

“Is that why she ran off with him right after the attack?” Jason asks with a smirk. Dick feels his eyes practically shoot out of his head.

“She what!?” He yells, running over to the Batcomputer to look at the security footage from the wax museum. Spots that were targeted frequently, like the wax museum, had their security footage directly linked to the Batcave. Just in case of an emergency or in case an attack happened and they needed an extra set of eyes.

“I’m sure she didn’t do anything that you wouldn’t do.” Jason teases, and Dick pales.

“Shut up, Jason!” He moans, his typing turning frantic as he scrolls through the day’s footage. He stops when he gets to the moments after the battle. When the phones of the French students had all gone off. Frowning, he watches as his sister runs up to the boy and grabs his hand, leaning in and whispering to each other before the two run out of the room. Towards the bathrooms. Oh hell no. Dick scrolls forwards, frowning when they don’t come out in five minutes. Or ten minutes. Huffing, he switches to the cameras aimed at the exits. Surely one of the cameras had to catch the pair leaving the museum. He rewinds it and watches, but...there’s nothing. They don’t leave the bathrooms and they don’t leave the museum. For the rest of the day.

“Has anyone been in contact with her since the attack?” Bruce asks from right beside him, making him jump out of his seat with a yelp.

“I don’t even have her number.” Dick says, resisting the urge to glare at his adoptive father. He might’ve had Marinette’s number had Bruce actually acted like he wanted her to be there for dinner the other day. Instead, he practically ignored her and she left. And now she was missing. Definitely missing, because she never came out of the bathroom at the museum.

“Hello, Marinette? Yes, I apologize for calling so suddenly. I was- yes. Yes, I did hear about the attack….yes, that was part of the reason I was calling. I was wondering if you would like to come to dinner at the manor. You could bring your friend, Adrien Agreste, I believe was his name. Of course. Yes. Oh no, I’ll send a car. No, no I assure you it- Marinette please. Taxis aren’t always safe after dark. Thank you. Yes, I- we’ll see you then. Goodbye.” Bruce hangs up, and Dick looks at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Just gonna suddenly invite her and her boy toy to dinner, B? What’re you gonna do, interrogate them?” He asks frowning.

“That’s the second time that Marinette has ran off after that alarm. I’ve seen videos of the situation in Paris and I’m concerned. Now go upstairs and act normal. I want all of you on your best behaviors at dinner. Damian, better than best please. No weapons.” Bruce directs before leaving the room, presumably to ask Alfred to pick up Marinette. Dick sighs and looks at his brothers.

“Well this isn’t going to be a disaster or anything.” He says. --- “Tikki this is going to be a disaster!” Marinette whines, throwing herself face first onto the bed. She tries to ignore Tikki’s amused giggle. This was not funny. This was dinner with her family that she hadn’t made a great impression on the first time. And Adrien was invited, and she wasn’t sure where the two stood but she was sure that if Dick was at dinner, he would just push Adrien farther away from her.

“I could practically hear your suffering from Adrien’s room, pigtails.” Plagg says, making Marinette sit up and glare at the Kwami.

“Are you just here to mock me?” She asks, pouting. He snorts.

“No, I’m here to tell you the kid’s on his way over here. I told him you were panicking and he practically ran out his door.” Plagg says with a chuckle. Rapid knocking on the door makes him laugh more before dropping onto the bed next to Tikki. Marinette sighs, rolling off the bed and pulling the door open, jumping forward in time to catch Adrien before he completely falls to the ground.

“Are you okay? Plagg said you were panicking, did something happen?” He asks quickly, looking her up and down. Marinette blinks, slightly taken aback by his sudden concern. It was nice, but still a lot all at once. Shaking her head, she gestures for him to come in and shuts the door behind him. Walking back over to the bed, she once again face plants and groans.

“She’s nervous because Mr. Wayne invited the two of you to dinner.” Tikki chirps, giggling when Marinette lifts her head up enough to glare at her.

“Traitor.” She says, dropping her head back down.

“If you don’t want me to go with Marinette, I won’t.” Adrien says. Marinette immediately jumps up, shaking her head rapidly.

“No, no that’s not what I meant. I just- I’m nervous about actually sitting through a dinner with them. And I’m pretty sure Dick will try and sit between us and glare at you like he did at the museum.” She admits, cursing the way her cheeks heat up. Adrien raises an eyebrow.

“He was glaring at me?” He asks, utter confusion on his face. Marinette groans, dropping her head into her hands.

“Sometimes your obliviousness is cute-”

“You think I’m cute!”

“But right now, it’s kinda making me want to scream into my pillow.” Marinette admits, giving him her signature “not amused” look. A look she usually saves for when Chat Noir is making a pun.

“Wait, why wouldn’t Dick like me?” Adrien asks, thankfully stuck on that now instead of the fact that she thinks he’s cute.

“Um, maybe because we were holding hands? Did you really not notice how he kept standing in between us the entire time we were at the museum?” Marinette asks, suddenly unsure if she’d imagined the whole thing.

“Oh no, I did. I just didn’t think it meant he didn’t like me. I’ve never really dealt with siblings before. I mean, I’ve met Nino’s little brother but...that’s about it.” Adrien says, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. Marinette sighs, grinning softly.

“I don’t really have a lot of experience either, so maybe I was just imagining things.” She admits. Adrien’s shoulders instantly relax and she smiles. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

“So, did you want me to come with?” He asks after a moment of silence. Marinette nods, agreeing immediately.

“Please. I don’t think I can go back there alone, not yet anyway.”

“Of course, Mari. Now, what’re you wearing?” --- The ride to Wayne Manor wasn’t as quiet as her first, with Adrien making quiet jokes and saying things to try and help keep Marinette out of her head. She was thankful that he had come with, because she was definitely going to need the emotional support to get through dinner. The car stops and Marinette sucks in a deep breath. Smoothing out her skirt nervously, Marinette glances at the small, neatly wrapped package sitting between her and Adrien. It was something she had started back when she first found out she was adopted. And that her parents didn’t know her bio dad. A scrapbook with copies of everything important from her life: baby pictures, school pictures, birth announcement, report cards, clippings from newspapers where she had won or placed in contests, pictures of her early designs and recent designs, pictures of certificates and trophies from various competitions and activities. Basically a road map of her life to be given to her bio dad so that he could get to know her. She’d written her name on the front page, with the words “daughter of Bruce Wayne and Bridgette Le” underneath. A sort of amendment to her birth announcement which listed her as the daughter of Tom and Sabine Dupain Cheng. And while she definitely was their daughter, she also wanted Mr. Wayne to know that she wanted to be his daughter too. Not just by blood, which isn’t the important part. No, she wanted to get to know him and for him to get to know her. Pushing down the intruding thoughts insisting that it was too soon and that he didn’t want her in the first place, she opens the car door and steps out, clutching the package to her chest like a safety blanket.

“Would you like me to take that for you, Miss Marinette?” Alfred asks, glancing at the package.

“Oh, no thank you Alfred. It’s for my da- er, um, Mr. Wayne. I can hang onto it.” She says with a bright smile. She could do this. Sure, it didn’t go great the last time she was here. And she was pretty sure Mr. Wayne’s youngest son could kill her and wanted to kill her. But it was fine. Everything is fine. Walking through the front door, her shoulders relax slightly when she sees Dick is the only one standing there waiting for them.

“Marinette! He cheers, rushing forward and picking her up in a hug. As in, legitimately picking her up. Okay then.

“Good to see you too.” She says, trying not to show that he’s literally suffocating her with the hug.

“Good to see you again, Dick!” Adrien says cheerfully. Marinette feels Dick tense before setting her down, his smile less bright as he looks at Adrien.

“And you. Adrien, right?” He asks, sticking his hand out for a handshake.

“Yup!” Adrien says cheerfully. Marinette watches cautiously, noticing that Dick seems to be squeezing a little too hard….and then Adrien appears to match his strength, if the look on Dick’s face is anything to go by. Marinette coughs to hide a snort, her face heating up as both boys turn to look at her.

“Uh, is it just you and Mr. Wayne tonight?” Marinette asks, choosing to ignore their awkward handshake.

“Nope! It’s me and Bruce and Alfred, of course, and Jay and Tim and Damian and Cass. Steph’s not in town and Babs is having dinner with her dad.” Dick says, and Marinette’s eyes widen. There were a lot more people in her bio dad’s family than she thought. She knew about the boys, but she hadn’t seen anything about Cass, Steph or ‘Babs’.

“I didn’t realize I had sisters too.” She says instead of voicing her insecurities. Before she only had the boys to measure up against, now she had three girls too?

“Well, the only official sister is Cass. Steph used to date Tim and she just kinda stuck around. She’s practically family at this point. And Babs and I used to date, but again, she stuck around after and now she’s practically family.” Dick explains with a grin and a shrug. Cause having your exes around isn’t awkward. Or, maybe it isn’t. She doesn’t have any exes to compare it to. Just as she starts to get lost in her thoughts, she feels Adrien brush against her gently. Reminding her that he’s there, for her, giving her the strength she needs to follow Dick into the living room. Where everyone else was sitting. Oh boy.

“Marinette, so glad you could join us. And Mr. Agreste, nice to see you again.” Bruce says, standing from his spot and moving to shake Adrien’s hand.

“You as well, M. Wayne. And please, call me Adrien. Mr. Agreste is my father.” He says, and Marinette can just barely see his wince. His father always had been his least favorite subject, no matter how much or how little they spoke of him.

“Thanks for inviting us.” Marinette says, moving the package so that she’s no longer clutching it like a lifeline. Holding it out to Mr. Wayne, she laughs at his confused face. “It’s a present.” She adds.

“Oh, well, thank you.” He says, his face unreadable. Marinette shifts her weight, glancing between him and the package, waiting for him to open it. Or properly introduce her to the rest of the family. Either option would work at this point. Glancing at Dick, she sighs in relief when he claps. At least someone was going to make the first move.

“Right, so I don’t think you got the chance to meet Jason and Damian properly when you were here the other day.” Dick says, tugging her around a still frozen Bruce in front of the two boys from the other day.

“No, I didn’t. Hi, I’m Marinette.” She says, smiling and holding out a hand to Damian first. He tuts and turns away, making Marinette’s smile fall slightly before she turns to Jason. Jason grins and shakes her hand.

“Welcome to the family, kid.” He says, before whistling. “You didn’t get B’s height, that’s for sure.” He teases, Marinette snorts, her smile turning into a teasing smirk.

“Hey, don’t count me out for my height. Ever heard the phrase, small but mighty?” She asks, crossing her arms. Jason snorts, reaching out and messing up her hair.

“Whatever you say, Pixie Pop.” He replies. She rolls her eyes and turns to the other two siblings she hadn’t met.

“Hi, you must be Tim and Cass.” She says, smiling at both of them. Tim nods, his hand twitching towards his pocket. Marinette tries not to laugh, having seen Max do the same thing when he had to socialize for any amount of time. The boy was always far more comfortable with his phone in his hand, even if he wasn’t actually looking at it. Cass smiles, and Marinette notices her hands moving. “Sorry, could you repeat that, I wasn’t watching closely.” She says. Cass’ smile widens and she nods before starting over.

“Welcome to family. Nice to meet you.” Cass signs, making Marinette beam.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” She says, eyes widening when she realizes she left Adrien alone with a frozen Mr. Wayne. Whirling around, she moved back to Adrien and tugged him forward, rolling her eyes at his surprised yelp. Honestly, he should expect this by now.

“Geeze, Princess. Give a man a warning.” He says, adjusting his shirt that she’d accidentally messed up.

“Sorry k- Adrien. Sorry. Anyway, uh, everyone this is my friend Adrien Agreste. Adrien this is Jason, Damian, Tim, Cass and you already know Dick.” Marinette introduces, gesturing to each of her new siblings. Adrien shoots a wide smile, not quite his model smile but also not quite a real one.

“Nice to meet you all.” He says.

“Marinette, I apologize. Did you want me to open this now?” Mr. Wayne asks suddenly. She turns and raises an eyebrow at his unreadable expression and the way he holds onto the present like he doesn’t know what to expect. Which is fair, considering they’d only met in person the day before.

“Oh, um, if you want to. It’s nothing big.” She says, watching nervously as he nods and unwraps it. His eyebrows twitch together as he looks at the book, obviously not yet understanding.

“Open it, B.” Dick whispers, clearly understanding the gift more than their father. Mr. Wayne nods and opens it, his unreadable expression falling into one that she...still can’t read. But it’s not emotionless anymore. As he flips through the book, a small smile creeps its way onto his face and Marinette almost cheers. That’s the most sincere look she’d ever seen on the man.

“Did you put all this together?” He asks, glancing up from the book to look at her. Marinette nods.

“When I found out I was adopted, I wanted to have something to give my bio dad. So that even if he didn’t want to see me in person, he could get to know me. When I found out you’re my, um, dad, I added some personal touches.” She says.

“And I can keep this?” He asks, and Marinette’s shocked that he sounds almost scared. As if he thinks she’ll say no and take everything back. She smiles.

“Of course. My Maman and Papa already have those pictures. These are all yours.” She says.

“Thank you, Marinette. I- This is an amazing gift.” He says. Marinette’s smile widens and her shoulders sag in relief. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be a disaster after all.

Next

Tag list: @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @jayjayspixiepop @jjmjjktth @mizzy-pop @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @waiting247 @laurcad123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @imarivers8 @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks

[iwasbored777]

Nathalie is a little better than Gabriel. I will support her redemption if only because 1. She’s the only reason Adrien was allowed to go to school. 2. She is generally nicer to him than his father and has tried several times to appeal to Gabriel when she sees him upset. 3. She encouraged Gabriel to be honest with Adrien over what he was doing 4. We never got to see her in the aftermath of the reveals in Ephemeral or Chat Blanc. She gave Chat Noir up but it’s possible that she didn’t realize Gabriel would react the way he did.

It’s true she’s been supporting a crazy terrorist man and simping needlessly for him but I am just happy to see her (maybe) come to her senses and I’m more tolerant of her redemption than his. I don’t know how long this anti-Gabriel phase is going to last. He might lure her back in. In one of those screenshots it looks like she might get akumatized and be purple too? So she might say “he made us purple together and that means his love is true.” I’m hoping for the best anyway.

"HE MADE US PURPLE TOGETHER THAT MEANS HIS LOVE IS TRUE" 😭😭😭😭😭

I don't think Nathalie nor anyone is worse than Gabriel. Gabriel is the bottom of the bottom. I just find their relationship toxic and Nathalie's standards low af. Gabriel isn't even good looking and he doesn't have a nice personality.

At first I didn't even notice Nathalie. Then in Heroes Day part two I found her relationship with Gabriel already toxic and a huge red flag was how she risked her life for a man who just beat two children with a stick in front of her. He did THAT to Ladybug and Chat Noir in front of the whole Paris and Nathalie was like "I love him so much he deserves help he is a good man who loves his family". Then as the season 3 went on I disliked her and their whole relationship more and more, I already hated him of course. But the whole concept of what they have is unhealthy to me. Then in Chat Blanc she literally spent all credit with me. The "she didn't know what he was going to do to Adrien" could work if she didn't help Gabriel break Adrien's and Marinette's hearts earlier in the same ep. She already hurt Adrien, she broke his heart. Then when she snitched on him to his father OH MY GOD I WANTED TO MURDER THESE TWO ADULTS SO MUCH IN THAT EPISODE! Then Risk, don't forget it when she flew in to control Adrien with the ring cuz Gabriel couldn't. I don't see her as a momma bear nor anyone who looks at Adrien more than a tool to help his father. I literally don't care if she dies. I used to feel little sorry for her in Strikeback when she collapsed but now I legit don't care. I just want her to go to prison or whatever. Like people legit hate Marinette and then call Nathalie "power woman who has standards, successful queen" what's with the fandom praising every bad female character and hating the good ones lol?! I would rather give Chloé development at this point than Nathalie. Chloé has more potential and she's a kid, Nathalie is a grown woman destroying the world for a one inch long d*ck and now I'm supposed to forgive her?! The same woman who's creating and killing sentimonsters knowing full well what Adrien is. Also the same woman who is also teamed up with Lila and she helped Lila against Adrien in Ladybug. Also when she let Gabriel take credit for the gift Marinette made for Adrien... (also I don't need the "that's bc the writers hate Chloé and they will give everyone development before her" just admit the writers f*ck characters up quite often at this point that no wonder the fandom is so confused who's good and who's bad). I'm just so sick and tired of hers "oh no this is so sad Alexa play Despacito" moments. Also when someone compares Gabenath to Love Square 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 f*ck them.

Now I don't know if she'll come back to Gabriel but I always compared Nathalie to Serena from The Handmaid's Tale cuz they are basically the same character, but there was a part of the series when Serena was seriously considering leaving Fred (who is just as bad as Gabriel) and she was so close and then she came back to him even though she wasn't 100% happy with that choice she still forgave him everything. So everything is possible. I just know that it's impossible for me to like Nathalie like it's impossible for me to like Serena. When a character crossed it they crossed it. If Nathalie and Serena don't have standards I have them.

Also (this isn't about this ask tho) if Nathalie stans could just ignore my blog instead of harassing me and making fun of me for hating her that would be really appreciated 😘

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Gabriel Agreste: Interesting Villain, Horrible Character (400 Follower Special)

I'm honestly surprised more people didn't want me to talk about Gabriel, especially with how often I rag on how horrible of a person he is. But, three character analysis posts later, and we're going to talk about why the main villain of Miraculous Ladybug is a real letdown.

Gabriel Needs to give the Whining a Rest

The interesting thing is one of the few things I actually liked in Season 3 was Hawkmoth. His plans actually made sense (for the most part), and by playing the long game, he managed to turn Chloe against Ladybug and deprived her of several key allies. Granted, Season 4 immediately undid the latter, but I was still impressed by his strategy.

Generally, one of the better aspects of Gabriel as a character was just how over the top he was as Hawkmoth. Keith Silverstein is clearly giving it his all with his performance, and he is just so enjoyable to watch as a cartoonish supervillain.

And therein lies the first major problem with Gabriel as a character. While he is fun to watch as a simple supervillain, the show tries to give him more depth and unintentionally makes him worse.

In Season 2, when it was revealed that Gabriel was Hawkmoth, many fans speculated on what he needed the Miraculous for, until the Queen Bee Trilogy showed it was to save his possibly dead wife, Emilie. The idea of that is so the show can give more depth to its main villain, and I think it's an interesting idea in concept. After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

The problem is just how radically different Gabriel is normally compared to how he is as Hawkmoth. He always goes on about how he's “doing this for Emilie”, but it's hard to really sympathize with him when you consider he constantly gives evil monologues and evil laughs, really getting into the supervillain role. And let's not forget all of the “I'm going to wear Ladybug's skin as a suit” faces he loves to make.

Clearly this man is the picture of mental stability.

Gabriel's motivation for being Hawkmoth when compared to what he actually does as Hawkmoth is shady enough, but the thing is that the writers clearly want the audience to at least feel a little bad for him. They want to make the audience sympathize with him despite the way he acts with or without the mask. Without Miraculous Ladybug, he is routinely putting innocent lives in danger and never once shows regret for his actions. All he talks about is how “he's doing this for Emilie”, or that “he'll get their Miraculous soon”. There's no real reason to feel bad for him other than “because the script says so”.

Let's compare Gabriel to Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow. His big plan in the first season of the show is to create a machine that will cause an earthquake to destroy a crime-infested portion of Starling City, claiming to be trying to help everyone, but it's clear he is only doing it out of revenge for his wife getting killed by a criminal from that part of the city. In addition, throughout that season and future seasons, he always makes sure his plans lead to him benefiting in some way, showing he isn't just some noble man trying to achieve his goals with a less than noble method.

If we got some moments that showed that what Gabriel was doing was selfish, it would make him a more complex villain. But we don't get anything like that. What do we get instead? Well...

I Could Really Care Less About Emilie Agreste

We have known Gabriel's motivation has been to save his wife for a little over two years at this point, but at the same time, it's hard to believe that motivation because of how underdeveloped Emilie is as a character.

There have been a total of two lines in the entirety of the show that explain what happened to Emilie, and they're both vague as hell. One of them was from “Feast” that implied Emilie used the broken Peacock Miraculous.

Adrien: My mom used to have dizzy spells… just like Nathalie.

And the other that outright tells the audience what's happening to her in a clip show that most people will skip.

Nathalie: As I've watched Emilie falling deeper into an endless sleep, my sadness for her has deepened, too

That is literally all we get for an explanation, and nothing else. We have no idea of what she's like as a person or what her relationship with her family was like other than Gabriel and Adrien saying they miss her. Other than the way the narrative says she's important to Gabriel and Adrien, we don't really have a reason to care about her as a character. There have also been some lines that imply she went along with Gabriel's questionable parenting techniques, like how he was apparently only homeschooled as a kid (Origins) and never had a birthday party growing up (The Bubbler), so how do we even know if she's a good person? In fact, why not set up this question as a mystery to make the audience wonder if Gabriel has another reason to bring Emilie back?

It ultimately turns Emilie into a plot device and not a character that Gabriel and Adrien only bring up to make the audience feel bad for them, and meant to justify Gabriel's actions by saying that he's “doing this for his family”.

But hey, if he's doing this all for his family, surely Gabriel's redeeming traits come from his relationship with Adrien, right? Right?

As a Parent, Gabriel is Far From the Best

I've talked about this briefly before, but parenting in Miraculous Ladybug is written in such a black and white way, even by the standards of this show. Parents are portrayed in one of two ways. They're either amazing people who love and support their children unconditionally, or they're awful people who treat their own children like trash. And much like a lot of things in this show, there are times where the latter is treated like the former.

There are so many times where the narrative insists on making you see Gabriel as a troubled, but wellmeaning person who tries his best to be a good parent to Adrien, but it is far from the truth.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. Gabriel is a terrible parent. Like, he is awful at being a parent in so many ways, even before you find out he's Hawkmoth. In his first appearance, “The Bubbler”, he delegates getting Adrien a birthday present to Nathalie, his assistant. He literally can't be bothered to take time out of his schedule to get his own son a present for his birthday. And as the show goes on, he becomes more controlling and forbids Adrien from going out with his friends in other episodes (Captain Hardrock, Silencer). While this could be used to show Gabriel getting worse, it's never acknowledged in-universe, with Adrien continually defending his father essentially keeping him on house arrest.

“But IOTA!” You might say. “Gabriel has made efforts to bond with his son in some episodes.” While that might be true, most of those come right after his Akumas have almost gotten Adrien killed. He only hugged Adrien and made an attempt to learn more about him after Simon Says invaded their home, he only decided to watch that movie Emilie was in with Adrien after Gorizilla nearly dropped him off a building, and he only hugged Adrien again in public after he was turned into a gold statue by Style Queen.

In fact, let's talk about how Gabriel acts in the Queen Bee Trilogy. He actually decides to quit being Hawkmoth, but it's not because he realizes all the damage he's caused. Instead, he gave up because his “magnum opus”, a stronger than usual Akuma that only got the advantage on Ladybug ironically because of dumb luck, failed. Sure, he says he can't keep putting his son in danger, but he rarely ever acknowledges that he does so in the first place. When Riposte wanted to fight Adrien, Hawkmoth did nothing to stop her other than giving her a stern warning earlier on and nothing else. Where was this attitude earlier?

Hell, even then, he immediately goes back to being Hawkmoth as soon as he sees an opportunity, not even a day after his “mAgNuM oPuS” blew up in his face (because I guess Scarletmoth was just Plan B). If he made such a big deal about caring for his son, why didn't he try harder to spend time with him? Has he ever had doubts about what he's doing before? If Chloe didn't show up as Queen Bee, was he going to follow through on his promise and try to be a better father to Adrien instead of trying to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous?

And yeah, the whole irony is that Gabriel is doing this for his family when he is unknowingly fighting his own son, which could lead to some interesting drama if done right. The idea of how Gabriel would react to his son being Cat Noir could really lead to some internal struggles for him to go through. But then we got “Cat Blanc”, which shows just how terrible of a character Gabriel is.

In an alternate timeline where he found out his son was Cat Noir, what does Gabriel do? Does he try to steal Adrien's Miraculous while he's sleeping? Does he reconsider his actions or realize he was endangering Adrien's life?

NOPE! He just decides to akumatize him all while emotionally tormenting him, before causing the end of the world.

This is honestly one of the most appalling things I've ever seen in any TV show, because it's basically an abusive father ordering his son to listen to him all while referencing his (kind of) dead mother to back up his point. And rather than use this to show how despicable Gabriel is, the episode decides to blame Marinette for this happening. Yes, according to the show, her present to Adrien caused several events to happen which caused Cat Blanc, but this logic makes no sense. It's like blaming the JFK assassination on the man who sold a gun to Lee Harvey Oswald, instead of, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Not only was this episode yet another excuse to blame Marinette for something that wasn't her fault, it leads into the biggest problem I have with Gabriel as a character.

Sympathize with Gabriel? Surely, You Jest

After everything I've gone over regarding Gabriel as a character, after all the awful things I've talked about, are you really surprised that I don't feel bad for him at all?

Gabriel is just an awful character and a despicable human being, but the show just keeps wanting me to feel bad for him. It's just so hard to when you consider everything he's done has made him anything but sympathetic. I'm just saying, it's kind of hard to feel bad for someone who tries to start World War III with the only justification being “i'M dOiNg It FoR mY fAmIlY”, especially when he treats his family like crap.

The writers go out of their way to show how horrible Gabriel is as Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth, but they think because they throw in a few moments where he looks conflicted, we'll immediately feel bad for him. What makes so many people interested in seeing Chloe become a better person is that they can tell she's the victim of a troubled upbringing, and know that because she's only a teenager, she still has room to grow as a person, represented by having more honest moments of vulnerability. Gabriel is a grown man who once caused the apocalypse because of how terrible of a parent he is, and has even fewer sympathetic moments than Chloe does. Which one of these two is supposedly irredeemable? The answer may surprise you.

But the frustrating thing is that this kind of villain could have worked. Instead of making him this mustache-twirling psychopath, show how much Gabriel regrets what he has to do, but keeps pushing onward despite all the lives he's risking if it means that he can save his wife. Instead of making Gabriel like Lex Luthor, make him like Mr. Freeze, who is basic a better written version of him.

But as it stands, there's a good reason why Gabriel gets little to no respect as a character in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, as a villain, or as a father.

[mcheang]

In another’s eyes

Inspired by https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13849241/1/Signed-Gifts

Basically Adrien finds Marinette’s signature on his blue scarf and connects the dots.

Adrien is hurt that Marinette let him believe his father gave him the scarf. He understands why but it hurts worse after all this time thinking his father finally gave him something new. It’s having new hopes crushed

He visits Marinette and gently confronts her over it, chiding her to tell him the truth next time instead of letting him believe a lie.

Frantic, Marinette wildly points out that he lets their classmates believe in Lila’s wild promises. How is she any different from him?

Pause.

Adrien never really thought about it that way. He just wanted his classmates to be happy. But if he told them the truth, they would be sad and Lila would also be angry at him and probably akumatized.

If he kept the truth from them, then wasn’t he being a hypocrite?

Marinette worried she said something she could never take back. “Adrien...”

He held up a hand, needing to think.

What was the Chinese saying again? “Do not do unto others what you don’t want others do unto you.”-Confucius

Well, Adrien wasn’t one to deny an ancient philosopher’s wisdom.

Adrien: no, you’re right, Marinette. I’m a hypocrite for scolding you for something I’ve done as well

Marinette: you haven’t-

Adrien: but i have. Please don’t sugarcoat this, Marinette. Don’t try to spare my feelings when the truth is more important.

Marinette was nervous and predictably, she rambled. “Well, if you are planning to expose Lila, you would also be in trouble because while i constantly doubted her trip to Achu, you were aware of her playing truant.”

Adrien paused and took a breath. “I know. And I’ll accept my due punishment. But what matters is making things right. We need to tell everyone that Lila is a liar.”

Marinette: but how? They don’t believe me. And who knows if they’ll believe you!”

Adrien frowned, thinking again. “Don’t you have Jagged’s number?”

Marinette: Yup. I barely got him to cease suing Alya’s Ladyblog for Lila’s interview. He doesn’t really follow her anymore.

Adrien: do you think he’ll help us expose Lila?

Marinette: we can ask. But I think it’s a safe bet. The only reason he didn’t go after Lila herself was because she up and vanished after turning into Volpina.

Jagged was thrilled to sic Fang on Lila

Marinette: we said expose! Not kill

Jagged: I never feed Fang rotten food. He’ll just sit on her or chase her up a tree

Adrien: thank you. I’m just worried Lila will be akumatized again, though. The last time, Ladybug chewed her out for claiming to be BFFs; though after hearing Lila pronounce herself a better self-proclaimed heroine, it’s not that hard to see why Ladybug was angry (Adrien may have been upset with Ladybug but I imagine he would try to justify her behavior later. seriously, who wouldn’t be angry after hearing Lila insult her like that? He’s not very sensitive to others’ emotions)

Jagged: you can’t keep everybody happy. And sometimes you shouldn’t. Some people don’t deserve to be coddled. And besides, once the witch is exposed, who is to say the others won’t be akumatized?

Adrien paled. He didn’t consider that.

Marinette: well, we could try to keep an eye out for akumas. And maybe even get the heroes to stand guard?

Adrien: good idea. But how to contact them?

Marinette: leave it to me. I’ve seen the heroes jump on rooftops plenty from my balcony.

Jagged: just say the word and set the date, and your uncle Jagged will be there faster than you can say “Croc”

Marinette soon called Adrien and Jagged to tell them that Ladybug would be happy to stand by and even offer her own testimony that she is so not friends with Lila.

However, after hearing how Lila framed Marinette, Ladybug wanted Marinette absent in case Lila blamed her for Jagged exposing her.

Jagged: well, she’s not totally wrong.

Marinette: uncle Jagged!

Jagged: what, you did call me for this.

On the day of Lila’s downfall, school had just ended and students started heading home. Marinette was one of the first, having to work at the bakery. Chloé and Sabrina also left, not bothering to stay around and chat with the peasants.

To the lingering students’ surprise, a popular and familiar rock song began blasting into the air as a tour bus drove up to the school.

Jagged: hello Dupont College! Are you ready to rock!

Students crowded up and screamed.

Lila paled and could not escape the gravity of the crowd.

Jagged: now where’s my guitar? Fang, if you don’t mind?

Fang waddled up, guitar on his back.

Jagged: now Fang’s been with me since he hatched from an egg. And he’s the best pet a rocker could ask for.

Alya: what about your cat?

Jagged: cat? Since when did I own a cat?

Alya: but Lila said-

Jagged: who? Sorry miss, but I think you must have confused me with someone else.

A pause for the class as Jagged started playing a guitar riff.

While the crowd cheered, the class stared at Lila.

Lila: he doesn’t like his kitten to be brought up

Ivan: he doesn’t even know you

Lila: he does! Right, Adrien?

Lila glared at him meaningfully. But Adrien ignored her and just sang along. He promised to maintain a guise of friendship, but no more lies. Though if Lila was exposed, maybe their deal could be considered pointless now. Still...better not to antagonise her so openly.

Nino: you’re asking the wrong person. The only other people in class who can get close to Jagged are Chloé (same hotel) and...Marinette. That’s how she knew you were a liar!

Jagged: hey, what’s going on over there?

The student body turned to stare, annoyed at the interruption.

Aware of unwanted scrutiny, Alya quickly said, “oh, we were just having a priority one class meeting. Sorry! We’ll keep it down.”

The class dragged Lila off, and Ladybug secretly followed. Adrien reluctantly did so too.

Surrounded, Lila could not run away, so she burst into fake tears.

Lila: why are you being so mean?

Mylène: do you think her tears are real?

Kim snorted. “Doubtful. But I don’t think she’s worth bothering about anymore.”

Alya: what? She lied!

Kim: and we believed a con artist. But unless we lost a lot of money or whatever, what’s the point of doing this?

True. While Lila had promised favors, that didn’t mean the class had stop working hard on their own. And Alya’s credibility was also her fault for not checking her sources and getting more proof.

Alya huffed. “Fine! But she just gets away scot free?”

Max: unlikely. There is the matter of forging doctor’s letter and skipping school.

Lila: you can’t prove that!

Alya: I can just call your mother right now.

Lila: and tell her that you’re bullying me?

Alya: no, we are just going to ask her some questions. And if she was duped by you, too, I don’t think she can deny the truth if we walk up to her office and make a scene.

Adrien: is that really necessary?

Alya: Mrs Rossi must really believe her daughter. She may think us all bullies if we expose Lila but the presence of her colleagues will influence her. Besides, our questions are simple. Was Lila really sick? Was she at Achu?

The class dragged Lila to the embassy and made such a ruckus that Mrs Rossi came out, especially when she saw her daughter in the center of it all, yelling at them to be quiet.

Mrs Rossi was angry but answered their questions that Lila had never been sick or to Achu while Alya filmed her. But there was the akuma plague. At this, the class told her the truth and even her observing colleagues backed them up.

Lila was distraught. Where was the freaking akuma?

Ladybug was lounging on the roof, her yo-yo stuffed with butterflies. As long as she didn’t use her lucky charm, she was in no danger of detransforming.

When Adrien didn’t back Lila, she told everyone he knew she was a liar.

Adrien admits his faults and realized his lesson now. The class knew why Marinette kept the scarf secret so they could sort of understand why he wanted to keep everybody happy. He also was the one who got Marinette back into school, so they forgave him.

Lila was expelled once Damocles saw the footage and Mrs Rossi confirmed it.

Lila was sent to boarding school instead where everyone knew she was a compulsive liar. Nobody took her seriously there.

As for Adrien, he was always determined to hear the blunt truth, tired of being sheltered.

[ilikekidsshows]

You know that scene in Wishmaker when Gabriel is like, “my SON!!!” Imo, if Adrien WAS a sentimonster, Gabriel would never consider that boy to be his son to begin with, lmao. He may be a terrible and abusive father, he takes away Adrien’s freedom, etc etc, but he objectively does have some feelings for Adrien, even if twisted (as shown in Gorizilla, the Shanghai special, etc), and his reasoning is that even the worst things he does (like hitting Chat Noir in Chat Blanc, expecting that the supersuit would protect Adrien physically) are for Adrien’s “own good” (getting his beloved mother back, for example) though of course it doesn’t excuse anything, I’m merely pointing out a fact. In the episode Ladybug, however, it’s clear he considers sentimonsters to be much inferior to human beings. He deadass mocks them for caring for Sentibug. “Getting sentimental over a sentimonster?”

You know what's the most exhausting thing about discussing the SentiAdrien theory to me? The fact that, no matter what reasonable arguments we make, someone will always come up to people who are against the theory and just say: "Well, Miraculous has bad writing so it could still happen." This argument should never be brought into play because it just implies any meta or analysis is meaningless. It takes all the fun out of a debate when your opponent basically cheats. It also makes all the arguments in support of the theory invalid as well, so it’s a mutual kill move.

Also, notice how, despite how many times I've brought it up, not a single SentiAdrien theory supporter that has engaged with me has addressed the fact that treating the deaths of Sentimonsters as actual deaths might be improper for a children's show? The opposite of jumping through some hoops to establish how Adrien would be "different from other Sentimonsters" might in turn be too complex for a kids' show. Miraculous Ladybug has a lot of corporate backing behind it, this is why it can't be too adventurous or we might see latter seasons getting their episode count cut down. However, whenever I try to bring this factor in to be discussed, everyone else seems to ignore it.

But, to address an actually valid counterargument to this one: I think I've seen someone say that Gabriel's attitude in 'Ladybug' doesn't prove anything, because "Gabriel is a huge hypocrite". I'm not saying this is an inaccurate assessment of Gabriel's character, but Gabriel's hypocrisy has always been about manipulating his target to be more receptive towards him. He will pretend to feel empathy for Akumatization victims when they experience things he actively puts others through. It's not mere hypocrisy, it's manipulation, so it's very likely that he knows he's doing it. If Gabriel had been taunting Ladybug and Cat Noir in 'Ladybug', he would have offered them fake sympathy and crooned over the poor lost soul just to rub salt in the wound. That would have been hypocritical.

If Gabriel had mocked Ladybug and Cat Noir properly, this might be a case for usual Gabriel hypocrisy. However, Gabriel's statement in the episode was merely a cold dismissal. The words were nothing to him, because Sentimonsters are nothing to him. He wasn't being defensive or otherwise saying anything he might view as important. If Gabriel was struggling with what he feels for a Sentimonster son, he would have spent more effort on dismissing the idea of Sentimonsters deserving sympathy or otherwise been a bit more emotional over the topic, like it actually mattered to him.

Speaking of that abuse you brought up, the fact that Gabriel is so awful is a huge argument against the idea that Gabriel is somehow struggling with feelings for a being he doesn't think deserves them. I've repeatedly discussed on this blog that Gabriel is a selfish man. I've even reflected this selfishness on real world business CEOs, who very blatantly abuse their workers and the environment with no hint of remorse. This is why I don't think Gabriel was out of character in 'Megaleech'. Gabriel doesn't care about anything outside his family. Nathalie only gets consideration because she's the replacement for Emilie as a confidant, partner and a source of comfort and emotional support. There's a huge chance Gabriel would toss her aside if he actually got Emilie back.

If Adrien was a Sentimonster, Gabriel wouldn't care about him. With what we've seen from Gabriel's character and what it takes for him to care about a person, mostly for them to either be part of his family already or willing to help him get Emilie back, he'd be incapable of it.

[p-artsypants]

Crushed

Stuck under a collapsed building together, Chat Noir and Marinette have a heart to heart.

Ao3 | FF.net

I originally wrote this as a secret santa gift, but it strayed too far from what the giftee wanted, so I did something else. I decided to finish this anyway, and I hope you like it!

—

This akuma attack was not going great. He called himself ‘Bomb Voyage’ (“Like in the Incredibles?” “Yes, Chat. I do believe Hawkmoth ripped that name.”) And he was blowing things up right and left. 

When the Lucky Charm bullhorn fell into her hands, she had some sort of plan in the works, but it all fell short at Chat’s shout. 

“My Lady! Look out!” 

The building right in front of her, mere feet away, exploded suddenly, the only clue being Bomb Voyage’s finger point. 

There was no time to run. No time for Chat to scoop her up. Only impending destruction and carnage. 

So Chat leapt, his arms wrapping around her head, and tackled her to the ground as the rubble rained down. 

It felt like ages of pain before things settled. They both coughed out lungfuls of plaster dust that still hung in the air. It was mostly dark, with a scant bit of light from above. 

Chat was squished, but he pushed up on his arms and felt Ladybug move slightly. 

“My Lady?” He asked. “Are you alright?”

“My leg hurts. I may have sprained my ankle. How are you?” 

“I took a brunt force to the back when the building collapsed. It hurts, but...I can’t really feel my legs.” 

“Chat...” 

“Though, that could just be bad circulation. I’m in an awkward position.” 

Ladybug’s earrings chirped. 

“Crap,” she muttered. “I used my lucky charm. Do you think you can cataclysm your way out of here?” 

He twisted his neck in an effort to look around, though the dust of the rubble was still thick. He looked towards the light source above them, able to see where it was coming from, but it looked several feet away. “Negative, my lady. I think we might need some outside help for this one.” 

She bit her lip nervously. “I don’t hear anymore explosions.” 

“That’s good. Right? Maybe Hawkmoth thinks we got crushed and stopped his akuma.” 

“Yeah, that’s great…unless he’s got someone waiting to take our Miraculous’ off our corpses when we’re dug out of here.” 

“Ever the optimist, hmm?” 

“It’s my talent,” she smirked. Her earrings beeped again and she turned her ear toward Chat. “How much time do I have left?”

“Looks like two minutes.” 

“Great…”

“I can close my eyes.” He offered. They were basically nose to nose, and her hands where trapped below his arms, so she couldn’t reach up at all. 

“I…I don’t know…”

He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t know?”

“We need to find a way out of here,” she switched topics. “Or find a way to contact emergency services to get us out.” 

“My baton is still on my back, if you can reach it.” 

Ladybug groped around blindly, feeling for the staff. 

“That’s my butt.” 

“Oh, sorry.” She blushed, and then moved her hand up. Once she found it, she held it out to her side as she could see the screen. “I’m about to detransform, but I have a cookie for Tikki in my purse. As long as it’s still there, she should be able to recharge before they bust us out of here.” 

“I didn’t even think about that,” Chat winced. 

Ladybug dialed the number. 

“112, what’s your emergency?” 

“Hello, this is Ladybug and Chat Noir. We’re in a bit of a pickle.” 

“How can we help, Ladybug?” 

“A building collapsed on us, and we’re pinned and can’t get out. We’re on Rue de Lappe, not far from Bastille.” 

“I’ve got your location on my map. I’m sending the fire department your way.” 

“Is there any sign of the Akuma?” 

“We’ve gotten similar calls about being trapped, but they stopped coming in a few minutes ago.” 

“Thank you. I’m going to extend Chat’s Baton out through the rubble so they can find us.” 

“Alright, I will pass that information along. Good luck, Ladybug!” 

“Thank you!” Carefully, Ladybug aimed the Baton towards the little hole to the surface, and extended the staff, the top breaking through the topside. 

“And now...we wait.” Her earrings beeped again. 

“So...you don’t want me to close my eyes?” Chat asked for clarification.

“I’ve been thinking...if I’m the guardian, and something happens to Plagg, like he gets sick or something, you need to be able to find me out of the suit, you know? It’s just you and me...” 

“Does that mean you want to know my identity?” 

She grimaced. “I should but—“ 

In a flash of pink, Marinette remained, looking sheepishly at him. “...I need a little time to come to terms with this.” 

His eyes were impossibly wide, staring at her, drinking her in in the scant light. “Marinette? Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” 

“Howdy?” She squeaked. 

He squeezed his eyes shut.

“Chat?” She asked, fearfully. 

“Sorry,” he whispered. He opened his eyes again, and his lip wobbled. “I just—I’m trying really hard not to cry.” Despite this, a tear fell from his eye and landed on her cheek. 

She tried not to cry herself. “Are you that upset?” She whispered. 

“Upset?! No! How could I ever—Marinette, I’m thrilled beyond belief! If it was anyone else—“ he clenched his eyes shut again, as more tears started to fall. “I admire you, and trust you, and respect you more than anyone else.”

“Chat...”

He smiled tenderly. “You know, I had hunches. I was almost completely certain until Kwamibuster, too!” 

That made her wince again. “Oh Chat, you know I didn’t mean to lie to you...” 

“I know, I know, at the time, it was too risky.” He continued to smile, his tears subsiding. “I know this isn’t ideal, but I’m glad I get to see you now.” 

“Kinda makes Evillustrator funny, huh?” 

He laughed. “You’re right! I forgot about that! Hey! You called yourself cute!” 

“I am cute!” She pouted. 

“You are cute,” he agreed, taking her in. “I’ve stared at your face a lot, but you look so so different without the mask.” 

“It’s the glamour,” she elaborated. “That extra bit of magic that makes it hard to connect the dots.”

“I know how it works,” he smirked. 

“Right...sorry, this is just...weird.” 

“Good weird?” 

“I feel naked.” 

“You just say the word, and I’ll get naked with you.” 

She threw him an unamused look. “Don’t be gross.” 

“Sorry, I can’t help cracking jokes around you. Although, I’m sure you were wishing I was secret mystery boy right now instead, right?” He waggled his eyebrows in an attempt to hide his heartache. “So who is it? It’s Luka, right?” 

It was like she had her mask on again, cheeks red as a tomato. “No...it’s not Luka.” 

“Oh...aren’t you guys dating?” 

“Not anymore. We did, for like a week. If you could even call it dating. He just came over to my house during my downtime, and played his guitar while I worked on commissions and stuff. It was nice and all...but I prefer the piano.” She looked away. 

“Piano, hmm?” He smirked. “You know, I’m an excellent piano player...and the real mystery guy is too?” 

“You can’t laugh.” 

“I would never.” 

“I doubt that,” she said flatly. 

“I promise, I know you don’t like people shallowly. So whoever it is, I know it’s genuine.” He smiled softly, encouragingly. 

Marinette screwed up her lips and admitted, begrudgingly. “Fine. It’s Adrien. Adrien Agreste.” 

The sound that Chat let out was not a laugh. But it wasn’t a great sign. It was like a wheeze, but a gurgle. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“I just...” he blinked several times, trying to convince himself this wasn’t a dream. Ladybug was Marinette! And she had a crush on him! “I...am surprised, is all. I didn’t know you were...close?” 

“I sit behind him in class. He’s one of my best friends. Our best friends are dating, so sometimes we end up being third wheels together?” 

“Oh. And this is the same guy as before?” 

“It’s always been Adrien.” 

Chat hoped she couldn’t hear the pounding in his chest. “Oh...even when Glaciator hit? When I found you sad on your balcony?” 

“Yep. He was supposed to meet us for ice cream, and he didn’t show...I kind of told Andre that love was bogus, and that’s why he got akumatized.” 

Chat laughed at that. “Aww, it’s okay, Marinette. I’m sure he had a good reason for not showing up...” 

“I’m used to it,” she said dully. “His father is a huge pain in the ass. I used to respect him, but now...he’s a jerk. He constantly holds Adrien’s freedom ransom to make him do stuff. It kills me! You know when I was in New York?” 

“Yeah?” 

“I had to beg his father to let him go. It was a class trip, and he was the only one not allowed to go! Just because his father is so concerned with his safety.” 

“Can you blame the man? We’re currently trapped under a pile of rumble.” 

“But as soon as I’m out, I’ll lucky charm and cure everything! Poof! Sprained ankle gone! Whatever’s wrong with you, gone!” 

“What do you think your parents would do if they found out you were Ladybug?” 

Marinette thought for a moment, and answered honestly. “Probably be sort of angry, and worried. But I think they would understand. They respect us a lot, even after my dad got akumatized.” 

“Don’t remind me.” He groaned.

“What about your parents?” She asked. 

“My mom would have been excited. I think. Worried too, but excited for me. But my father...well, he’d rip off my miraculous and make sure I never saw the light of day again.” 

“That bad, hm?” 

“I’m not exaggerating. I’m in the same boat as Adrien, extremely sheltered.” 

“I’m sorry,” she smiled softly. “I didn’t know.” 

“I didn’t really want you to know. Chat Noir is supposed to be my safe place, my wild and crazy side. I’m afraid if I start talking about home, I’ll admit things that civilian me doesn’t want to.” He exhaled, his chest bumping with hers. “God, it is just so easy to talk to you. Now more than ever.” 

“Really? You know me that well?”

“I know enough. And maybe it’s just because I’ve got you pinned and you can’t go anywhere.” 

She laughed at that. “Well, we’ll probably be here for a while. And...I still want you to hide your identity for a while, but if you want to talk about your life a little more, that’s fine.”

“You sure?” 

“Yes. It really is time for us to know who each other are, I’m just...not ready.” She huffed, and his bangs fluttered. “This was unavoidable, but let’s plan for your reveal, so I can be emotionally prepared.” 

“You won’t be. You will cry.”

“You say that with an awful lot of certainty.” 

“Trust me, when you behold me in all of my unmasked glory, you’ll cry.” 

“Alright. Can’t wait to prove you wrong.” 

He smirked. 

“Chat? Are you shivering?”

“Uh…yeah, kinda.” 

“Are you cold?”

“Not…not exactly. I’m holding up a lot of rumble so it doesn’t crush you…and I’m pretty claustrophobic.”

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier!?”

He laughed, but it lacked any mirth and was filled with quiet panic. “Uh, just…you know…trying to stay calm.”

“What can I do to help?”

He exhaled shakily. “I don’t know, but talking about it isn’t helping.” 

“Okay, well, why don’t you keep eye contact with me, and…let’s just talk.”

“About what?”

“I know you’ve got a whole list of questions you’ve been dying to ask me. Now’s your chance.”

“Damn it!” He nearly shouted. “I had a whole notebook full of questions I wanted to ask you, but it’s at my house!”

“Well, you know where I live, so you can ask me some other time if you want.”

“Deal!” He screwed up his lips. “But first, since you mentioned it, Weredad.” 

“Oh god…”

“Why did you say you were in love with me?” 

She winced. “To be quite honest, I thought you were going to find out who I was…and the poor excuse just flew out of me before I could think through the consequences. I didn’t think my dad would overhear anything, and I didn’t think you’d show up for brunch.” 

“You didn’t think I’d show up? Me? The biggest gentleman in Paris?”

“Okay fine, I hoped you wouldn’t show up.” She rolled her eyes. 

“Now that I’m thinking about it, there’s a lot of shenanigans that could have been prevented if—hold the phone, how did you do Multimouse?!” 

“Fox miraculous,” she shrugged. 

“The Fox! Of course!” 

She laughed, his reaction calming her nerves. “I understand what you mean now, it’s easy to talk to you. It’s always easy, but I didn’t notice until you said it.” 

He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “You don’t always feel that way.”

“I mean, I get frustrated with your jokes when I’m trying to be serious, but that doesn’t mean—“ 

“That’s not what I meant.” 

“Oh?”

He swallowed thickly. “Civilian me…you…you have a hard time…” He trailed off, not looking at her face. 

“Chat?”

“Did you ever tell Adrien? That you…you know?”

She tilted her head at the sudden topic change. “Uh…no. I tried, but it was never meant to be. Every time I did, something would go catastrophically wrong.” 

“Like what?” 

“Like...I gave him this scarf, right? For his birthday. And I forgot to sign it initially, so I snuck into his house and left a sticky note on it. Somehow, it still managed to go wrong, and he thought it was from his dad.” 

Chat stared at her, wide eyed. “And you never told him?” 

“No, he was happy believing that it was from his dad. His happiness is all I want.” 

It was hard to describe the look on Chat’s face. Almost pained, but still full of love. Like seeing something so precious it brings you to tears. “You did that for him? You really love him that much?”

She looked away, “Unfortunately.” 

“Why unfortunately? Is he a jerk?”

“No, not at all. I just…I know he doesn’t love me back. ‘Oh Marinette, you’re such a great friend.’ ‘I’m so glad I have a friend like you.’ ‘Please stay my friend forever!’” She shook her head. “That boy has me firmly friend-zoned.” 

He winced, “I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that. He probably really really likes you, and just wants you to know how much he appreciates your friendship.” 

“And that’s another reason I can’t confess. He doesn’t have a lot of friends, and I don’t want to ruin our friendship.” She groaned. “I sound so pathetic! It’s so stupid.” She shook her head. “I wish I had your bravery.” 

“My bravery isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s gotten me hurt pretty badly, after all.” 

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” he smiled at her softly. “You feel how you feel, and I just hurt myself.” He gnawed at his lip. “Actually…can I ask a really dumb question?”

“I don’t see why not.” 

“You don’t have to answer it…actually, no. I shouldn’t ask at all. Nevermind.”

“Well now you have to ask,” she chuckled. “I’m curious.” 

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, but don’t hate me.” 

She nodded him on.

“Why…why did you go out with Luka if you knew I loved you? Do you also like Luka? Or…are you just that…repulsed by me?”

Marinette’s mouth fell open in quiet shock, and she inhaled some dust. She turned so she wouldn’t cough in his face at least. 

“Sorry,” he tried to sooth. “I told you it was stupid. You can date whoever you want…” 

She cleared her throat, and then wheezed out. “You just wanted it to be you.”

“…yeah…”

“Chat,” she leaned up to tap her nose against his. “To say I have absolutely no feelings for you would be a lie.” 

He looked hopeful. “Really?”

“They’re still developing. But I noticed thoughts I have about you sometimes. Missing you, thinking you’re cute…but Luka was the safer option at the time. I was trying desperately to get over Adrien. Luka and I weren’t really friends first, so if it didn’t work out, it wasn’t a big loss. But with you…” She looked into his eyes, an insurmountable amount of pain and unsaid words just beyond his reach. “I could lose everything.” 

“You won’t lose me, My Lady.” He said softly. 

“Oh kitty,” she moaned. “I…I never want to lie to you…but there’s something that I haven’t told you. Something I should have a long time ago. I just…don’t like thinking about it.” 

“What is it?”

“Chat Blanc.” 

At her hesitation, he prodded her on. “What’s a Chat Blanc?”

Her whole face tightened, lips curling into a thin line, eyes squinted hard, and brow furrowed. “It’s…he’s your akumatized self.” 

“What?” He breathed. “But I’ve never been akumatized.”

“No, not anymore. You see…Bunnyx helped with it. Somehow, the event of me signing a gift to Adrien triggered a series of events that got you akumatized. I don’t know what the correlation was, but…you knew my name, and you said our love destroyed the world.” 

“The world?”

“I hate thinking about it,” she winced again. “The whole of Paris flooded, the Eiffel tower knocked on it’s side, the moon exploded. Everyone, including me and Hawkmoth, turned to dust. You cried when you saw me. You asked me to save you, but you also wanted my earrings, wanting to fix everything yourself. So we fought.” 

“I assume you won, if you’re here.” 

“Yeah...the Akuma was in your bell. Your all white bell, on your white suit, with your white hair and blue eyes...” she shuttered. “I still see you like that in my nightmares.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” 

“I didn’t want to mention it. I didn’t want to worry you, and I didn’t want to remember. I knew I should have told you sooner, though. I’m sorry.” 

“...I understand.” He swallowed and exhaled in a whoosh, all the debris above them shifting. He moaned, ending with a hiss. 

“Chat?”

“Sorry, I moved and realized that I’m a little more hurt than I thought.” 

“What’s ‘a little more hurt’?” 

“Uh…I think I’m…I’ve been impaled?”

“What!?”

“It’s not that bad, the suit took most of the pain. I just…am having a little hard time breathing, and I thought it was from my claustrophobia, but I think something is lodged in me.” 

Very carefully, Marinette reached up and felt along his back. A lot of debris was laying flush to his suit, but as she moved her hand around, she noticed he felt wet and sticky. 

“Yeah, I think you’re bleeding, kitty.” She said so sadly. She touched where the wound was and he cried out in pain. It was his lower back, by his spine. 

“I’m sorry!” She pulled her hand away. 

“S’kay,” he hissed out. “God damn, that hurt.” 

“I promise, as soon as we get out of here, I’ll magic you right as rain. Just...just hold on, kitty.” 

He opened an eye to look at her, still fond through his pain. “Are you panicking?” 

“Yes! I was worried when the building collapsed, but now I’m on the verge of pure panic!” 

“I must admit, this is not how I expected today to go.” He breathed slowly, the pain subsiding when he held still. “Actually, I didn’t imagine this happening when I found out who you are. You being Marinette is like…the cherry on top of a diarrhea sundae.” 

“Do you like cherries?” 

“I love cherries.” He whispered. “I got grounded today.” 

“Oh.” 

“I was having lunch with my father, a rare treat. My friend texted me and I answered without thinking. My father became upset that I would do something so ‘rude’. He said if my friends were more important than him, then he shouldn’t bother eating with me. Then he took my phone.” 

“That’s the kind of assholery that I’ve come to expect from Adrien’s dad. You’re in that boat too?” 

“Unfortunately, yes. Come to think of it…he’s probably the reason I got akumatized in that other timeline.” 

“You think so?” 

“It’s a hunch. I don’t often get upset about things, but when I do, it’s usually because of him.” He sighed, ending with a wince. “That’s something I haven’t admitted to myself until now.” 

“Kitty...” 

“I didn’t mean to bring that up...” 

“It’s okay. I’m glad you did. I want to be able to support you where you need it.” She could see that he was spiraling into depression, and quickly sought to remedy that. “What was your daydream like? When you would find out who I was?” 

A twitch of a smile took his face. “I knew I would spend a long time staring at you, memorizing what you look like without the mask.” He took a shaky breath. “And I thought, when we decided to share our identities, it would be because you finally fell for me. So there was a kiss. And a lot of roses. It was sappy...but it made me happy to think about it.” 

“Can I ask...what it is that you love so much about me? In case you don’t know, there’s a lot of differences between Marinette and Ladybug.” 

“I know,” he smiled. “But there’s plenty of similarities. Your strength, for example.” 

She laughed. “Chat, Ladybug can throw you across the city. But Marinette couldn’t even lift you.” 

“I bet you could! We should test it later! But I meant your strength of heart.”

“You sound like an anime character.” 

“Well, it’s important to me.” He blushed. “You aren’t wishy-washy. You don’t cater to the voices around you. You do what’s right. You want justice. Even when akumas and civilians tell us to go or step down, you get up and fight.”

“I do that?”

“Yes. The day you stood up to Hawkmoth, and you promised Paris that you would fight for them until the end? That moment, I said, ‘no matter who that girl is, I love her.’ And even now, it hasn’t stopped. I may even love you more.” 

“Chat…” She sniffed. “I…I care about you so much. And I know that if Adrien wasn’t in view, I’d fall for you hard and fast. But I can’t.” 

“I know, Marinette. Just knowing…that maybe someday…”

“All the more reason to get rid of Hawkmoth, right?” 

He nodded, a tear slipping from his eye and landing on her cheek. “Today sucks.” 

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s really not your fault. And I’d much prefer that you were here, under me, than being alone. I’m handling my claustrophobia a lot better because of it.”

“I’d much rather be under you too.” 

He gave her a smile, and then snorted with a little blush. “Oh my lady…”

“I thought we were being mature.”

“Me? Mature? Come on.”

“Yeah, I should have known better.” 

“You’re beautiful too,” he added. “I’ve always thought so. As Ladybug and Marinette. I saw you with your hair down once, and it’s haunted me ever since.” 

“You saw me with my hair down?” She questioned, trying to ignore the hot blush on her cheeks. 

“Yeah, it looked really nice on you. I know it’s not practical for crime fighting, but…” 

“Maybe for a patrol,” she offered. “When things are calm.”

A smile graced his face as he sighed deeply. 

The pile above them shifted, and Chat let out a cry of pain. 

“Kitty?”

“This sucks!” He moaned, leaning his forehead down to her face. “Sorry, whatever is in me moved, and I really felt it.”

“Please don’t apologize, Chat. If anything, I should apologize, you took the hit for me!” 

“My Lady…you didn’t do anything wrong. If I can help it, I will never let you get hurt.” 

She closed her eyes, trying not to cry. “It breaks my heart that you would do that. I don’t want you to be a meat shield, I want you to be my partner.” 

“You said it yourself. Once we’re out of here, you’ll do Miraculous Cure and set me right. So I’ll take the hits if I have to.” He sucked in a harsh breath. “Even if it hurts like a bitch.” 

With her hands trapped at her sides, she couldn’t reach up and wipe his tears away. So she opted for the next best thing. She leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for protecting me. I know you’re going to say it’s your job, but I really do appreciate how much you look out for me.”

“I love you, Marinette. Of course I’m going to protect you.” 

She shook her head slightly. “How can you just say that so casually?” 

“Why bother hiding it? You know already. I’m not going to bottle it up.” 

“I just…wish I could do that. With Adrien. I wish I could walk right up to him and say, ‘I love you, you magnificent human being’ and crush my lips to his perfect face.” 

Chat hid his blushing face in her shoulder. “You should. I bet you’d make his day.” 

“Yeah, or he’d freak out, and sue me for sexual harassment, and then I’ll be the laughing stock of the school, no, all of Paris! The whole world, maybe!”

“Do you often catastrophize?” He chuckled. “I’ve heard you do it before.” 

“Usually only with Adrien. I just…don’t want to mess things up.” 

“I don’t think you will. I know Adrien. He’s a nice boy. He won’t turn you down.” 

“You can’t possibly know that.” 

“Call me a psychic.” 

She scoffed. “Whatever.” Then she shook her head. “Whether or not you’re confident he won’t reject me…I don’t think I’ll ever tell him. I’ve tried to get over him, but I just look at him and melt all over again. I’m sorry Chat.”

He was quiet, his face resting next to her head, cheek against her ear. After a moment of contemplation, he asked, “hey, you like pink, right?”

“Oh? Uh, yeah.”

“I’ll do it tomorrow. A dozen pink roses, maybe some red and white in there too for flavor.” 

“You’re doing what tomorrow?”

“I’m going to reveal my identity tomorrow.”

“After all that? What about Adrien?”

“Don’t worry about him right now. I’ve been thinking. If you and I know who each other are, in a crisis, we’d be able to communicate better.” 

“What do you mean? What kind of crisis?”

“I’m just trying to imagine what happened with my akuma. If there was a problem with my father or miscommunication, we could better solve it without identities in the way.” 

“Okay, yes…” she considered. “But please don’t get your hopes up, okay? I would love to spend time with you out of the suit, but I won’t fall for you instantly.” 

“I suppose you’re right. After all, how can I compare to the amazingly handsome Adrien Agreste? Well, he won’t be a problem for much longer.” 

She frowned. “You say that like you’re going to kill him.”

He laughed. “No no, Bugaboo,” he said fondly. “Look, everything will make sense tomorrow, I promise…as long as I don’t bleed out down here first.” 

“You’re acting really jovial for someone with a mortal flesh wound.” 

“Tis a scratch.” He breathed a shuddering breath. “Or so I hope.” 

“Ladybug! Chat Noir!” A male voice called from up above. 

“Ugh, finally,” Marinette muttered to herself. “We’re down here!” She called. 

“We’ll get you out as soon as we can! Any injuries?” 

“Chat has a…bit of a scrape.” 

“An ambulance is on the way!” 

Marinette didn’t want to tell him it didn’t matter. Once she did the cure, he’d be right as rain. 

Right?

“Marinette,” Tikki piped up. “I’m all set, whenever you are.” 

“Alright. Tikki, Spots on!”

The pink flash only helped the first responders locate them quicker. 

“There’s the baton!” His voice sounded closer. The light above was distorted by a rain of plaster, before it was replaced by flashlight light. “Hello?”

“We’re down here!” Ladybug called, moving her arm under Chat. 

“Can either of you move?”

“Chat’s pinned, but I might be able to wiggle out, with some help.”

“We’ll get a sling. We might be able to pull you up and out.”

“Once I get my arms free, I should be able to cast the cure and set everything right.” 

“Great plan, Ladybug! We’ll have you out in a minute.”

Ladybug nudged Chat’s nose with her own. “I’ll cast it as soon as I’m free. Can you hold out that long?”

“I’ll have a dozen pink roses. And I’ll wear something nice, like a sweater. Or maybe a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I heard the ladies love that.” 

“Chat?”

“I’m trying to focus on something else instead of being trapped.” He explained. “Sorry, I might not be very useful for the next few minutes.”

“Okay,” she kissed his cheek. “You do what you have to.” 

The fire department lowered a strap attached to a chain into the hole. “If you can maneuver that under your arms, we can pull you out.”

Using Chat’s Baton, Ladybug was able to pull the strap closer. Very slowly and carefully, she wriggled it under her armpits, careful not to jostle Chat in the process. 

“Jewelry could be fun. I know she doesn’t like it when I’m extravagant, but surely she would cherish it if I gave her a ring.” He had his eyes shut tight, his brow furrowed. 

Ladybug gave Chat a pitiful look. 

“Alright, I’m ready!” Ladybug called to the rescue crew. 

She was pulled out from under Chat. Though, she had been supporting his lower half, and he sank to the ground as she slid away from him. This jostled the debris violently, and he cried out in horrible, agonizing pain. It was the worst sound she had ever heard. 

“Chat!” 

He kept howling, sounding like he was being ripped apart from the inside out. 

Ladybug pushed on the piles around her, hurrying to get free. 

The moment she broke the surface, she called for her Lucky Charm. 

It was a rose, and she teary-eyed through it up into the air, and called for the cure. 

The explosion of Ladybug’s surrounded her, mending her ankle and silencing Chat’s cries. 

She touched down on solid, undisturbed concrete, and turned to find Chat face down on the ground. 

“Kitty!” She cried, voice cracking as she rushed to him. 

He pushed up on one arm. “I’m okay, My Lady. Just a little winded.” 

“Are you sure?” 

He stood slowly and stretched. “Yeah. All cured.” 

She hugged him. Tight and sure, maybe squeezing a little harder than she should. 

“Bug, I can’t breathe.” He chuckled. 

“Sorry, I just...”

He hugged her back. “I’m never going to turn down a hug though.” 

Her earrings beeped. 

“Are you both alright?” Asked the EMT on the scene. 

“We’re all better,” Chat assured. “Thank you for your help!” He gathered Ladybug close to him and put an arm around her waist. “We gotta go though!” 

Ladybug only had a second to realize what he was doing, before she was lifted off her feet and into the air. 

“I can travel myself, you know. I still have time.” 

“Sure,” he shrugged. 

He carried her all the way to her balcony, before setting her down. Her transformation ran out just as they landed. 

“Thanks for the lift, Kitty.” She scratched under his chin. But as she looked in his eyes, she saw tears. “Chat?” 

He sniffled and hugged her again. “Just...a sucky day. I wanted to hug you in privacy. I know how you get when people assume things about us.”

“Well, it’s different when you’re getting handsy and when you need comfort from a traumatic experience.” 

“I never get handsy,” he argued. “I just like to be close. I’m touch starved.” 

“Well, from what you told me today, I believe you.”

He laughed mirthlessly, and pulled away. “I really do feel better now.” He reached up and cupped her face, letting his thumb trail across the apple of her cheek. “No matter how bad this day was, it will never taint the absolute elation of finally seeing you.” 

“Chat...” she blushed. 

“I must be the luckiest man on Earth. Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Ladybug, all rolled into one. I can’t believe it.” 

“Two transformations and you still don’t believe me?” 

He smiled. “My brain believes, but my heart never gets so optimistic.” He cast his gaze away. “Even if you...change your mind...” he mused. 

“About what?” 

“Nothing. Never mind. I’ll just...see you tomorrow. With a dozen pink roses.” 

“I’ll get a vase ready.” 

He reluctantly pulled away, like tearing himself from her was physically painful. He hopped up on the railing of her balcony, and with a little salute, he hopped into the night. 

“I’m proud of you, Marinette.” Said Tikki. “It had to be hard being that honest with him. 

“I didn’t really have a choice. I can’t imagine how much worse that experience would have been for him with his eyes closed the whole time.” 

“It’s over now. And tomorrow, you’ll know who he is too!” 

Marinette whined. “I don’t know if I’m ready for that...” 

“It’s a little late for that. What? Are you going to run at the first sight of flowers?” 

“I might.” 

“It’ll be fine. Marinette, I know who Chat is. And I promise, it’ll all work out fine. Great even. Just, take a shower, and go to bed. Then you can wake up early and mentally prepare yourself.” 

Marinette chuckled as she dropped back down into her room. “What would I do without you as a life coach?”

“Sleep through most classes.” 

“It was a rhetorical question.” 

—

In the morning, with the extra sleep Tikki had urged her to get, Marinette rose and dressed. 

Then the nerves turned on. 

“What if I just fake sick?” 

“Don’t you dare! You’d hurt his feelings!” 

“You’re right...but I really do feel like I might throw up.” 

“Just relax. You’re going to love this.” 

“If you say so...” 

After breakfast, Marinette wandered over to school leisurely. Tikki would say she was stalling, but Marinette would disagree and state she was simply taking advantage of being early. 

At the front steps, students were gathered. No roses. In the courtyard, teens milled about. No roses. In the locker room, her locker was devoid of anything that wasn’t supposed to be in there. 

“Well well well,” said Alya, with too much bravado. “Lookie who’s early!” 

“Yuck it up. I was tired and went to bed early last night.” 

“You sure you aren’t eager to see Adrien today? He looks pretty cute in that button up.” 

In all the confusion surrounding Chat, Marinette had honestly forgotten about Adrien. Her. Forget about Adrien. Perish the thought. 

“I mean...it would be a bonus.” She muttered. 

“Well, he’s up in the classroom. If you were wondering.” 

She wasn’t. Or hadn’t been, until now. But it seemed that Chat wasn’t ready to reveal himself yet, and Marinette still had time to prepare. 

She ascended the steps and headed to the classroom. 

What she wasn’t expecting, was seeing Adrien standing there, sunlight filtering through the window to make a halo in his hair. He wore a black button up shirt, sleeves rolled up, and had a dozen pink roses in his hands as he talked to Nino. 

Dare she hope? Dare she dream?

She just stood in the doorway, staring, before he noticed her. 

“Good morning, Marinette.” He smiled at her, looking warm and inviting and…nervous?

“Goo-goo-good morning, Adrien.” She stumbled. She glanced down to the flowers, then up to his face. “Um…those don’t happen to be for me, do they?”

With a twinkle in his eye, he smirked. “Why? Just because something is pink, you think it’s for you?”

She deflated. “Haha, right…that was really forward of me.”

With a pleasant hum, he leaned in and whispered in her ear. “I’m just messing with you, My Lady. These are for you.” He placed the bouquet in her shell-shocked hands. 

“My...?” She breathed. The word was just a whisper, barely heard by even him. 

His smile was broad and gleeful, squinting his eyes and coloring his cheeks. “Mmm-hmm!!” He hummed eagerly as he nodded. 

Marinette had to shut her eyes as a sound like a laugh and a sob burst from her lips. Tears started immediately, and there was no way to stop it. 

“I told you you would cry,” he teased. 

“You jerk!” She blubbered. Then she tossed the flowers at a confused Nino before throwing her arms around Adrien, and sobbing into his shoulder. “I love you, Kitty.” 

He squeezed her back. “Do you really? Because I’m getting mixed signals.” 

“You’re awful. You’re wonderful. I’m a mixed bag of emotions. Just hold me.” 

“Can do!”

As other students came in, seeing the couple embraced, they gave them thumbs up and congratulatory back pats. 

And then Lila entered. 

She halted, hid her sneer, and said, “oh no! Marinette! What’s wrong? Why are you crying on Adrien like that?” 

He patted Marinette’s hair. “Happy tears, no worries.” 

Marinette refused to let Lila ruin this moment. It was far too perfect. Adrien was far too perfect, the flowers, her kitty...

Mustering all her strength, she hooked her arms under his, turned and spun his into a dip. 

“My lady?” He breathed, in awe. 

“You’re the love of my life. I should have kissed you yesterday. I definitely wanted to.” 

“You did?” He smiled drunkenly. 

“Yes, like this.” And she slammed her lips to his, kissing him just like she had in her dreams. 

Adrien let out a contented little mewl as he tangled his fingers in her hair. 

The class went wild with roars and cheers. 

Before she could drop him, Marinette righted Adrien. “Sorry, I just...wanted to do that for a while now.”

Adrien nuzzled her cheek with his nose. “Oh don’t worry, Bugaboo. You can smooch me whenever.” 

Nino made a gagging sound. 

“Oh, well I’m very happy for you guys,” Lila feigned a smile. “But Adrien, are you sure your father will be okay with this?” 

Chloe, who had known this was coming since she saw the roses, stood and stalked over. “Okay, you’re done. Bye!” 

“Chloe, I’m just trying to be rational...” 

“And Adrien is the most deserving person for a happy ending...even if it’s with Dupain-Cheng.” She cast Marinette a glance and rolled her eyes. Then she looked back at Lila. “Though, he could do worse.” 

This made Marinette and Adrien giggle. 

Lila scoffed. “Fine! Make me the bad guy! But don’t come crying to me when Gabriel tells you to break it off!” 

Adrien whispered in his new girlfriend’s ear. “Even if my father makes Adrien and Marinette break up, Ladybug and Chat Noir follow their own rules. It might not be the most fun, but we’ll make it. Then, once I’m 18, I’ll propose.” 

Marinette laughed, kissing him swiftly. “Oh my sweet kitty. Let’s take it slow for a little while. We have the rest of our lives to be that insufferable couple.” 

Alya, who had come in not that long after Marinette but stood quietly in the door, finally spoke up. “Adrien, I couldn’t bear to tear you away from your Princess. So I’ll take your seat.” 

Adrien just grinned in gratitude and hugged Marinette. “This makes that building collapse yesterday totally worth it.” 

“Does that mean...you had a crush on me?” She teased.

“No, my Lady, I fell for you.”

[sairenharia]

Sentimonster Adrien Theory 2

Spoilers for all of Season 4 as of 8/31/21

For my previous thoughts, and the validity of at least SOMEONE on the cast being a Sentimonster, refer to: Here

As a note, my previous theory was written after Ladybug and BEFORE Chat Blanc, and Felix. I will be retreading ground for Adrien specifically, but basic belief in there being a sentimonster is there.

Something I just want to say, I don’t think Adrien being a Sentimonster negates the abuse Gabriel inflicted on him. What it does is explain why GABRIEL is able to justify it, but seeing where someone is coming from does not excuse them of their actions. Gabriel has to repent. The fact is Adrien is a person even if Senti!Adrien is true, and that doesn’t change just because he’s not human. Treating someone who can think and feel cruelly is never a good thing.

That being said, evidence and why I think Adrien really might not be human.

A: The Wish

We know Emilie is in the basement. She is in some kind of stasis. We know the Wish involves her.

We do not know Gabriel’s wish. We very deliberately do not know Gabriel’s wish, because we, the audience, hear him talk about it a lot, but only in vague terms. He wants his wish, he wants to change time, he wants to achieve a goal.

But he’s never said he wants to wake Emilie up, fix her, bring her back. He wants to do something for her sake, but its not the most obvious thing.

So its NOT the most obvious thing. There is no reason to be vague about this unless its to elude to a deeper meaning. The obvious wish is too obvious to be obtuse.

And more importantly, we know Emilie and Gabriel wanted something fifteen years ago thanks to the Shanghai special. Something to do with the human virtues, potentially.

We know Marinette is fourteen now. So Adrien’s birthday in Bubbler was his fourteenth birthday. 

The want for something started around the time Adrien should have been conceived.

B: Ask for Forgiveness, not Permission.

Adrien doesn’t like to ask his father for things. We see this over and over again with him sneaking out to things like the Startrain, or say he’s going to fencing with Kagami, and other excuses. Sometimes he does try to do things in the straight forward way, but when there are things he really wants to go to, things he doesn’t want to have to accept a no, he sneaks out.

Like the class trip. Like going to see his mother’s movie.

And when Adrien is told directly ‘no,’ he will often listen. For Adrien. Chat Noir, however, is a different entity, and he often uses it for a reason for why he can go out. Chat can, Adrien can’t.

To date, the only time Adrien has gone against a direct order from Gabriel is in regards to going to school.

And Chat Blanc.

I’ll get to Chat Blanc.

Adrien was told he could not attend school, and he accepted that. Until he became Chat Noir and only then did he rebel. Interestingly, when he was pulled from school after the book incident, he didn’t plan to just run away again. We know he was willing to disobey to attend, so why did the ban take this time?

Perhaps because Gabriel made it a thing that was allowed. It wasn’t an outright rebellion, it was a thing earned and then lost.

C: What Is The Amok?

Its the rings.

Not ring.

Its BOTH RINGS.

Which may or may not be magic items in of themselves, but there is not enough information for that.

When Gabriel transforms, there is a distinctive beep. When we first see the basement, we hear that beep again. We we see the rings in Felix, we hear that beep yet again. This beep is a sound cue of significance in regards to Gabriel and Emilie.

And here is the thing. If Adrien is a Sentimonster, he’s meant to be their child. Which comes into some questionable things, ethically speaking, for his free will. They don’t want Adrien to know he’s a Sentimonster. They could tell him to always hold onto his Amok, but he’s the son of very wealthy people. Even without being a model, there is every chance his Amok could be stolen because he’d be a target for theft.

But just having the Amok sitting somewhere is dangerous.

And what if it gets broken?

The only way to keep Adrien’s Amok safe is for one of his parents to have it....or both.

Crocoduel has shown us an item can be Akumatized and taken apart at the moment of enchantment and exist as two separate things. And a bonus, the item has to be put together and THEN broken to break the magic.

And here are the twin rings that are perfect copies of each other and get clean together really nice and maybe they attach a little bit? Having two rings stay together that well while cleaning is quite the party trick if there isn’t something to that. But visually speaking, it tells us, the audience, these are two halves of the same whole.

And it allows a little bit in the form of free will. Because if someone does not possess BOTH rings, they cannot control Adrien completely. Its still incredibly hard for Adrien to resist, but he IS capable of disagreeing at the very least.

Of course, when combined with the home atmosphere, his ability to resist doesn’t account for much without extreme circumstances, but still.

We can see this with Sentibubbler. The moment Ladybug had the coffee cup, he changed tracks without a sign of hesitation or confusion. Because he just had the one item. Even though Ladybug was ordering him with more autonomy then Shadow Moth. (I will also get into that.)

This is also why in Felix, Gabriel immediately goes to retrieve Emilie’s ring to wear. Sure, accusing Felix of stealing the ring gets into a whole legal lawsuit that makes it complicated and would make it difficult to retrieve the ring. Its a whole hassle, but it doesn’t explain why he needs to wear Emilie’s ring.

Except Felix has the ring that is one half of Adrien’s Amok.

Gabriel HAS to wear the ring, because Emilie cannot influence Adrien in any way, but Felix can. Gabriel has to balance out whatever Felix may do to Adrien, so he takes his wife ring. And its why he can’t get into the legal battle because he has to wear the ring to protect ADRIEN, and if they see him with the ring, there will be questions he can’t answer.

This also may explain Gabriel seems even more harsh to Adrien after Emilie’s disappearance despite some oddities.

Adrien wasn’t allowed to go to school while Emilie was around. But Gabriel granted it. When Adrien wants for things he wasn’t allowed before and is willing to fight for it, Gabriel grants it.

I don’t think Gabriel’s authoritative nature has truly changed that much. I think what changed was Adrien’s PERSPECTIVE of it. Because before, Emilie was a constant counter to his need to obey. Now he doesn’t have that, so being told what to do feels more absolute. I think the thing that truly changed was how much time and affection Gabriel was willing to show Adrien in his pain, not how much he restricted him.

Which still ain’t great.

Though that is a thought. Maybe Gabriel avoids Adrien because he knows he’s a commanding sort and he’s trying to not do overly much. Which is why most of his time around Adrien is when he can critique him, because it gives him a focus for orders? It would be a twist.

D: What About Chat Blanc? Or rather, what about Plagg.

So I’ve heard people say Chat Blanc disproves this theory because that is certainly a time to command Adrien to obey with his Amok! Which true, except for two things.

One, the end of Felix has little reason to change in the new timeline. Adrien and Marinette dated for at least a little while which was shortly before Felix happened. Felix still visited.

What might have changed was what kind of terrorizing Felix did on Adrien.

What has no reason to change is Felix stealing the ring.

Which means Gabriel DIDN’T have the means to absolutely command Adrien to do anything, we only had half the Amok.

And the fact the Amok was in two pieces is why Chat Blanc didn’t destroy himself if Gabriel’s ring was still capable of being destroyed while he was transformed, and if London still got wrecked. We saw in Crocoduel the item has to be COMBINED and THEN destroyed. Destroying both at once doesn’t count.

And it would explain something in Chat Blanc.

We know the move he TRIED to do was kill himself. He engulfed himself in the power before it went out of control.

We also know, officially of Guilt Trip, that cataclysm DOESN’T KILL SENTIMONSTERS. It makes it so the Amok doesn’t control them, usually go crazy. We saw Chat Noir get Cataclysm’d in Miraculer, but he didn’t turn to ash. We don’t even know if he truly died. He was suffering, to be sure, and we see Sentimonsters take damage. He could have been damaged.

But Chat Blance is a Sentimonster AND an Akuma, so he was able to take the damage more and went absolutely off the rails instead, and instead of blaming Gabriel, like he should have...

He blamed Ladybug.

Because he was no longer connected to what gave Gabriel control over him. The only ‘control’ over himself he recognized was Ladybug’s influence and his own love.

And then there’s Plagg’s influence, which ties into Cataclysm. Sentimonsters cannot be killed by Plagg’s magic, but they can be FREED of control thanks to his magic. As I said in my first post, the one time we see Adrien disobey as direct order, its after he meets Plagg and goes to school. He uses Chat Noir as a means to disobey all the time.

In being bonded to Plagg, Adrien is given genuine free will and freedom, over the manufactured version that his parents made with a split Amok. He is able to decide things on his own, because he has the chaos magic that grants him the ability to SAY NO. To develop his own means of rebelling.

Ask for forgiveness over permission. And sometimes, learning to say no anyway.

This doesn’t change the conditioning Adrien has been through. He’s obedient to a fault because that is all he’s ever known. Its just instead of fear and gaslighting having trained this into him, it was magic. His parents never NEEDED to be cruel, Emilie COULD be as kind as Adrien says, because they never needed to use negative reinforcement on him.

They had magic.

And that was able to do the job just as well.

Plagg is able to naturally counter the magic. And he’s giving Adrien the unconditional love and support to help him learn, but Adrien is still a person, still has a personality. And the mental bars he has around his head are just as effective as the magic ones were.

E. Shadow Moth vs Mayura

There is something I’ve noticed between how Shadow Moth and Mayura operate.

Mayura made Sentmonsters for others, but she did make one for herself: Ladybug. But here is the thing about Sentibug, she gave her orders. Gave her a general guideline. And then she let Sentibug take those orders and just go.

Shadow Moth, when he makes an Amok, does not do this. He allows others to control Sentimonsters as they will, and often Sentimonsters are just given general guidelines, but not Shadow Moth’s Sentimonsters. Sentibubbler, SentiNino, SentiAlec are Sentimonsters Shadow Moth made.

And he didn’t give them orders. He didn’t give them guidelines.

They were Literal Puppets.

He controlled their movements. He SPOKE THEIR WORDS FOR THEM.

Out of all the Sentimonsters, Gabriel is literally the only one who has used his Sentimonster this way.

And I think there’s a good reason for it. I don’t think Gabriel is capable of making an entity that can act on its own, but is still a complete slave to his will and be okay with it.

Because what does that say about Adrien?

Akumas are fine because those are PEOPLE. People he manipulated and coerced, people he threatened, but they are still people. They can still refuse him and he knows it.

Puppets are find because that’s all they are, puppets.

But this middle ground that Sentimonsters are, that is what Adrien is. And Gabriel is unable to cope with that because it means seeing his son as a tool and despite how much of a genuinely terrible person Gabriel is, that is not something he’s willing to see in himself.

So he hyper controls the Sentimonsters and Does Not Think About It.

F. Wishmaker.

Listen, its valid to have a wish as a child to be what your parents wanted to be. Depending on parents, it could be a perfectly healthy wish.

Here’s the thing.

Everytime Wishmaker granted a wish, we saw people at the age they wanted that wish granted. They were children when they had this wish.

ADRIEN WAS AN INFANT.

And here’s the thing.

Infants don’t think of others. Infants are a bundle of vulnerability that is very curious about the world and don’t want to die and is trying to figure out how to make its wants known. Infants are selfish beings because they are just trying to survive in this world they’ve shown up in.

An infant doesn’t think about what its parents want.

Adrien should not have been CAPABLE of having that wish as an INFANT.

Not unless he wasn’t human.

A Sentimonster sure does want to do what its Amok holder wants.

And what his parents wanted was a son. What they wanted was Adrien.

So that’s why Adrien appears as Adrien for the wish, because for all he has doubts, the Sentimonster in him knows that is what they wanted.

F2. Gabriel and Emilie’s eyes.

....idk, fam. The fact their eye colors were switched FEELS important and we’ve supposedly seen Emilie at seventeen with green eyes and her sister has green eyes, so what’s up with that is wei-

F2. GABRIEL AND EMILIE’S EYES, A THOUGHT I LITERALLY HAD RIGHT NOW.

The Amok is both rings. Gabriel and Emilie have their own rings. The rings they have always worn as their own.

Felix, with green eyes, has Gabriel’s ring.

Gabriel, with blue eyes, has Emilie’s ring.

The reason the eyes are switched in Adrien’s memory is because he associates the eyes with the ring and the current holder of the specific ring have THOSE EYES. He knows the faces they SHOULD be, but the eyes are DIFFERENT because the holders are DIFFERENT.

G. Allergies.

Its still funny if a boy made out of a feather has a feather allergy. It may also be a defense mechanism put in. Logically, any peacock user will have feathers. Maybe he’s allergic in case they ever lose the peacock, he’ll avoid the holder while they’re transformed at least. Maybe it could even distract the holder from noticing anything off about him.

H. Obedience.

Adrien is obedient. Which is one of the reasons he’s a suspect Sentimonster. I won’t go into this because I already talked about his Permission versus Forgiveness thing.

I. Taking Charge

I talked about before about Adrien taking charge and struggling with it, but I also have another point about it.

The thing is, we see Adrien excel at second in command....but also when he’s Chat Noir.

Adrien did BADLY as Mister Bug and as Aspik. But the thing is, Plagg wasn’t there at the time. As Mister Bug, Plagg was with Marinette. As Aspik, the ring is in the weird pocket dimension things are bamf’d away and while Plagg is around, his power isn’t bonded to Adrien.

Adrien has proven able to figure out Ladybug’s plans with minimal instructions. The fact Mister Bug couldn’t even get to step one is weird.

He tried being Aspik for months and was unable to figure out what he needed to do, focused solely on the objective of protect Ladybug. Unable to step back and think beyond his goal. Three months is a long time to not come up with ANYTHING.

Its like Adrien’s ability to decide things on his own was compromised. Like his free will was stripped away, hindered by the rings that control him. He could try to focus on protecting Ladybug, but he couldn’t figure out a good way to take down the enemy on his own.

His father didn’t want him to.

We do see Adrien can lead well. When he wanted to talk to Juleka in Guilt Trip, HE was the one making the right decision. But he was unable to overtake Marinette’s charisma, so even if he could think of what to do, how to handle the situation, he doesn’t have the force of personality to overtake a true leader.

We see Chat Noir have plans and direct a crowd.

With Plagg granting him agency, he’s able to make good decisions, good calls, able to use that brain of his well. Its when he loses Plagg he struggles the most.

J. The Need To Be Useful

Adrien thinks he needs to be useful. He needs to be good and perfect. And yes, this is reinforced by Gabriel’s treatment of him, always criticizing him, but it is a kind of curious fear.

Adrien has two great fears.

The fear of trapped isolation and the fear of rejection.

The fear of trapped isolation is the one Gabriel has reinforced. Adrien has only shown a fear of his father rejecting him once, during Christmas, when he was frustrated in the idea Gabriel would not spend time with him, and even then, Adrien chose to make it a reality on his own first.

And its very likely Gabriel was affectionate when he was younger.

I think the fear of rejection from Gabriel is a newer one that Adrien is aware of. After Gabriel has refused to be around Adrien.

But I think the fear was ALWAYS there. Because he is an Sentimonster. If a Sentimonster isn’t useful, then they have no reason to exist. And the thing is, while Adrien fears this, there is also a strong part of him that is RESIGNED to it.

Which makes it even weirder in that Gabriel’s behavior should make this a NEWER fear...unless it was part of Adrien’s natural existence. One of a Sentimonster. He’s afraid of it, because he wants people, he loves people, but there is a part of him that just....accepts it as a natural consequence.

One that isn’t worth fighting.

Like he isn’t in season four right now.

K. Memories

Adrien couldn’t remember having childhood dreams. We know he used to play with Chloe and...that’s it. There’s even implication his modeling is a Newer Thing instead of being a child model.

We know he didn’t have a childhood dream. He never had a childhood wish. Which is weird because Adrien is the biggest romantic dreamer of the series save for ROSE. He never thought about being a charming knight, a magical girl, even just being a superhero? He was all on board with being a superhero when offered, like he’s thought about it a lot!

But it wasn’t something he called a childhood dream.

But you know who probably did have being a superhero as a childhood dream?

Chloe.

If Adrien has two Amoks to make a facsimile of free will, it may have been impossible for him to truly ‘dream’ in the sense Wishmaker was talking about. It was too deep of a want for him to truly conceptualize enough to count.

But he played games with Chloe, he still saw the wishes and dreams and fantasies that he could enjoy with her as a proxy.

Perhaps that is why they were such good friends. Chloe wanted things so fiercely that for Adrien, who struggled to want, he was able to figure out how to do it with her influence. Not enough for a childhood dream, but enough to know how to want enough that it gave him a love for people. A need for more in his life beyond the perfect son.

L. Emotions.

Adrien is the heart of the Ladybug and Chat Noir duo. The Peacock is the Miraculous of Emotions. Adrien has shown a difficulty at controlling his own feelings. He can control his REACTIONS, but its hard for him to figure out what to do about his feelings beyond ‘conceal, don’t feel.’

Which is weird, because he’s extremely empathetic. He’s very good at judging others emotions (save for Marinette ‘Just A Friend’ Dupain-Cheng.) He can offer comfort and figure out is they need space or help. The fact he struggles with his own says maybe his are just too strong.

Like he’s a being Made Of Emotions.

M. Narrative Foreshadowing.

Just saying it again.

It comes up a lot with Adrien becoming some kind of puppet, copy, impostor. It happens so much. SO MUCH.

Also he was the first one to think Sentibug was a Real Person.

Then there is the end of Mega Leech.

Could it just be another example of Adrien being emotionally abused? Sure.

However, considering how often this series genuinely glosses over abuse (Adrien, Chloe, Kagami, even Zoe to an extent), its weird to just throw that in at the end of an episode that, frankly, barely involves Adrien’s emotions.

Save one.

Adrien was told it was a perfume commercial. He was Lied To. He was told One Thing was Another.

And there is the framing. There is the double focus on the ring, the focus on the words. There is so much focus on this being a command that could not be denied, and that doesn’t need to involve the ring AT ALL if it was abuse.

Unless, of course, the ring was an Amok.

Then the visual cues make a whole lot more sense.

N. The Wild Mass Guessing.

Now what is the wish.

Clearly Emilie’s use of the peacock is what made her sick and it made her sick for years. Now whether the peacock was ALREADY BROKEN or Emilie broke it is up in the air. Either way, we know she used the peacock longterm. Since there is no talk of supervillains or previous superheroes, it seems highly unlikely she was granting people super powered monsters.

So, her use was for a Sentimonster. Perhaps trying to split the Amok broke the peacock. Perhaps that one use was enough to make her sick, but because it was just the one time, it took years for the magical sickness to take her down. That is all up in the air.

What we do know, the crux of the wish is fifteen years ago. Which means it involves Adrien’s existence in some way. It likely involves rewriting time a bit.

And here is the thing.

Gabriel loves Adrien. He does. He’s a trash person, he’s toxic at best, abusive at worst, but HE LOVES ADRIEN.

What if the peacock was broken when they found it. What is Emilie DIDN’T break it?

‘I wish the Peacock was never broken.’

Fifteen years ago, Gabriel and Emilie were trying to have a baby. But they were unable to conceive. Amelie had her own baby boy, and he’s beautiful, and Emilie and Gabriel just hurt more at their inability to have a child.

(This is why adoption should be seen as more valid, folks, but that’s neither here nor there.)

But Emilie’s family knows of magic. Because let’s be fair, there is something truly suspicious about that lot and it screams they know magic stuff. Emilie has heard of grand artifacts and magics and maybe there is away around this limitation.

They explore the world, research magic artifacts, until they finally find the Peacock and Butterfly Miraculous. They are able to learn what they can do, either from Nooroo and Duusu. Clearly an Akuma does nothing for them, but a Sentimonster?

That had possibilities.

But the Peacock is broken.

Emilie doesn’t care.

They experiment. She uses the Peacock more and more, but she figures out the trick. She figures out how to make a child, how to make him SAFE.

Adrien is created, using the sign of their union, and the Miraculous are locked away.

But Emilie is still sick from figuring out how to create Adrien. And the years go by and she doesn’t get better, but she doesn’t care. She has her son. A son both her and Gabriel love, but they have to be careful. He’s not human, after all, just a little off.

Let him meet Chloe, because the Bourgeios are hardly normal. Slowly socialize him. Keep him inside so no one sees how odd he is. Keep him safe. He grows, happy enough, independent ENOUGH to believe.

Then Emilie collapses.

And doesn’t get up.

Gabriel is the only one with active control. He keeps Emilie’s ring on her finger and hides her away, but now, he’s the only one who can order his son. He doesn’t want to destroy what independent thought Adrien has achieved, doesn’t want to destroy HIS SON, so he keeps his distance. He only interacts in ways where he can be silent, or criticize what he has always criticized. Doesn’t even dare to get him a gift for his birthday because what if that becomes far too important?

As Adrien shows a rebellious streak, does things for himself, asks for things HE wants, things that Gabriel will sometimes give if its deemed safe, and Gabriel tentatively shows a little more attention. Goes to a few events, goes on a few trips. Not for long, brief amounts of time, hoping that Adrien keeps being Himself.

Because he can’t take off the ring.

Taking off the ring means leaving Adrien vulnerable.

And he fights Ladybug and Chat Noir for his wish.

If the Peacock wasn’t broken/didn’t break, then Emilie wouldn’t have gotten sick. She would wake up and Adrien wouldn’t be erased by his sole control. Maybe if he’s bold enough, he can just make sure Adrien was never at risk of being a puppet again. Take the Amok’s out of the equation, make his son real.

And if time is altered then....then it doesn’t MATTER if Adrien is hurt NOW. If he hates being alone. If Gabriel fails, at least he doesn’t erase what little will his son has left. If Gabriel wins, then literally nothing done matters!

Sometimes he forgets that. He sees Adrien in danger, and he feels that fear, that need to save his son.

Sometimes he remembers, tells himself if he wins, then any harm he caused Adrien with Riposte, with Style Queen, WITH CHAT BLANC, will no longer matter. He just had to win, he has to win, he has to win because it will return Emilie, and it will ensure his son is never lost in the magic that makes his soul.

It doesn’t matter who he hurts. It doesn’t matter how villainous he becomes. None of it matters as long as he achieves his end.

Once, he even thinks of explaining it to Adrien. Tell him he’s Hawk Moth. Tell him he’s a Sentimonster. He knows the distance hurts his son, but if he knew why, then Adrien would understand just how much he loves Adrien.

He keeps his distance so he doesn’t accidentally change Adrien.

He’s Hawk Moth so he can save Emilie and Adrien.

He will fix everything once he wins, and he regrets how often he had hurt Adrien until then.

And then Adrien talks about how he’s noticed Gabriel and Nathalie becoming closer and Nathalie has the Peacock. Adrien is switching his loyalty from Emilie to Nathalie, he’s changing due to MAGIC and Gabriel is furious because he’s been too lax, been too kind, he needs to WIN.

When the Peacock will no longer hurt, when Nathalie will stop fighting him on him using it, he takes it. To keep Adrien from changing more due to magic.

There are times where Gabriel’s heart remind him of his love. He can’t hurt his son then.

There are times where he remembers his goal. If he wins, whatever harm he caused Adrien doesn’t matter, and he HAS to win.

And he throws himself more and more and more into the fight, into winning because if he can win, then he can save everyone important to him.

What does it matter if Adrien suffers now as long as its undone?

[dotstronaut]

HEY DID YOU KNOW that four years ago, I had a full AU idea for Miraculous Ladybug that integrated Felix and Bridgette as the original Parisian Chat Noir and Ladybug and inserted them into the canon timeline by making Felix the younger brother of Gabriel Agreste? 

If you want the rundown of the AU and basic plot (and the reasons why I will never finish it), it’s under this read more:

Felix and Bridgette have the same roles they do in the pilot. Felix is a little less social than his older brother, they were close when they were younger but grew apart as time marched on and Gabriel met and married his high school sweetheart, Emilie. I was going to make it so that Emilie Agreste was the original Moth miraculous holder. The old man gave all of them their miraculous secretly, so it’s likely very few of them know who the others are. Emilie and Gabriel are either given theirs as a unit, or Gabriel finds out his partner’s identity on his own.

Felix tragically dies while using his bad luck during a particularly tough job (conflict is either caused by general bad juju/negative emotions taken to the extreme OR the holders just save people from regular disasters and crime) and the current Ladybug is beside herself with grief. (In my headcanon, miraculous ladybug either doesn’t fix death OR because there’s no akuma to purify, it just doesn’t have the same amount of power.) She may have had a crush on Felix at school, but she had become quite close to Chat Noir during their time working together. Possibly at that point they had grown up and ended up together as a couple, even. 

Tikki, in an effort to save Bridgette from the trauma, uses her miracle to fix what was broken and also wipe Ladybug’s memories. (Or this may have been a deus ex, more than one miraculous being used by Bridgette, something like that.)

Gabriel witnesses all of this and suddenly realizes he has lost his brother. He didn’t even know Felix was Chat Noir. When Felix gets killed by his bad luck, Gabriel blames the miraculous and kwami and steals Emilie’s moth miraculous and stashes it away with his Peacock Miraculous. He becomes obsessed with the miraculouses and with his failure to protect his little brother. They have and raise their child, Adrien, but their relationship quickly degrades due to his controlling and abusive behavior, and eventually she runs away to try to regain control of her life. Gabriel’s role in the show is shifted by this. He owns two miraculouses and is desperately trying to find the old man and the rest. When a new Chat Noir and Ladybug appear on the scene, it enrages him. He starts using the moth miraculous to try to steal theirs in a misguided attempt to save them from the miraculous and themselves. This makes it Extra Dangerous for Adrien to be found out by his father, as Gabriel blames Plagg for his Felix’s death.

If you’ve read this far, the big twist, the big surprise ending? The young woman who gave up her memory of being Ladybug rather than feel the grief of losing her partner? It was gunna be Nathalie. Gabriel’s loyal assistant, who upon having no memory of her role as Ladybug and therefore no memory of much of her youth, was taken in by Gabriel and given a job so that he could keep an eye on her and make sure nothing else happened to her.

Over the course of her boss acting as Hawkmoth, she encounters Ladybug and Chat Noir a few times and has niggling memories and reminders. Of course at some point the memories would be unlocked at just the right moment, or to prevent Hawkmoth from doing something heinous. I was never sure how this AU was going to be resolved, but it explained some of why Hawkmoth is such a dick towards two kids and why he wants the miraculous so bad (he wants his wife back, but it’s possible he may believe the power of all four would be able to bring Felix back for himself and Nathalie).

It’s too bad the network approved/published a super racist comic where Marinette interacts with super-stereotypical “gangster” African Americans (plus Marinette is naked/wearing a cardboard box and assumes they are going to kill her - you know, fun for the whole family!) It’s too bad the show’s creator defended the comic and called those who were upset ‘sjws’ and looking for racism where there was none. :)

It’s also a shame Astruc was such a dick to members of his audience in general and treated them like they were idiots for wanting to identify with a struggling teenage girl playing the villainous rich-girl role (and wanting to see her redeemed and grow as a person). He straight up insinuated that a struggling teenage character was evil and never going to change her ways! :) So that’s the other grudge I hold in addition to the racist comic thing.

No shame to anyone who is still in the fandom, because the characters were super sweet and relateable, and it was a really fun sandbox to play in. But these were dealbreakers for me, and as I don’t trust the show or Astruc anymore, I will probably never return to this idea or the Miraculous Ladybug franchise ever again. But like, if you’re reading this and you still care about these characters and think it would be interesting to explore this idea, it is absolutely up for grabs! You can take pieces of it or the whole AU, I do not mind at all. I appreciate credit but it’s not required. You can also reblog my other fan art and AUs for this show if it floats your boat. 

[apricotgojo]

yo.. I saw the request that you posted today? IT WAS SO FUCKING GOOD WHAT THE HELL? and I looked for the prompt and ended up finding it , Can you do a part 2 where the news reporter lady gets akumatized again finds the video that she was looking for? where y/n's crazy mafia father threatens to kill her now abusive ex boyfriend because he cheated on her but she was so blindly loyal and didn't want anybody to find out? like because that would be embarrassing but instead y/n didn't know (1)

HELLO! so I didn’t really understand the request well but i wrote this out and i’m planning on making another part related to this! so here it is! thank you for this request im so happy that you liked the first one.  Speaking of which, if you haven’t read the first one here it is!  Part One

The other part will be posted soon ;)) 

Strawberries, sunshine and Adrien Agreste on a red picnic blanket.

Life is so serene, so perfect at this moment. Especially with the blond resting his head on your lap as you run your fingers through his soft blond locks. He hummed and smiled softly. You noticed his cheeks were tinted red because of the time he spent in the sunshine. He’s gorgeous.

You pick up a strawberry from the plate and pop it in your mouth, the sweet juice bursting and dripping from the corner of your lips. Before you could react you felt a hand move to your face and wipe the substance with the thumb. You look down and see Adrien looking at you, his green eyes glistening and full of life. You couldn’t help but move down and kiss him softly on the lips. It was a slow, tender kiss which you didn’t want to pull away from but you did in order to catch your breath.

“Ma Belle,” Adrien whispers, moving a lock of your hair behind your ear. “How do you feel about coming to a film festival with me tonight?” “Film festival? You need to elaborate on that babe.” You say quirking your eyebrow up. You’ve never been to a film festival before, you didn’t even know what happened there. Fuck, you’ve never even been to a movie theatre before because you basically have a whole private theatre in your house.

He furrows his eyebrows at you and chuckles. “Basically once a year the students organise a film festival on school campus. Students get to show their own short films and projects that they’ve done while we sit on the grass with snacks and drinks. It’s really fun.” He explains.

It really seemed like fun but you end up looking down. You knew that after last time’s event some people still thought of you as a bitch. People still whispered behind your back and they still judged you. Other than that reason, your father was coming home tonight from Madrid and you were going to ask Adrien to come with you to meet him for the first time.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want you come?” He asks you and you look at him, a slight frown on his face. “Alya is going to present her film today and I told her we’d come..” He continues and looks to the side.

“No, no I do !” You say quickly and sigh, “My dad is coming tonight and I was going to ask you to meet him.” You say, averting your eyes to the side.

You feel him stiffen up. “Oh.” He says.

“But I can tell him that we can meet for brunch tomorrow instead.” You say and hold his hand. “I know you’re nervous about meeting him but I just want my two favorite boys to finally meet.” You say and give him a small smile.

 He softly chuckles and grabs your hand, kissing it. “Of course mon ange.”

You giggle and hug him. It made you happy that he was willing to come. He knew it would make you happy.

“What should I wear for the festival? I don’t want to be under-dressed.” You say suddenly pulling away, already thinking about the outfits you want to wear.

“I think I’d worry about you being over dressed instead.” He laughs a little bit and you playfully hit him on the shoulder.

  “Nadja, if you don’t get me any scoop on them by tonight you’re fired.”

“Fired?!” Najda exclaims getting out of her chair. She watches as her boss raises a questioning eyebrow at her and she clears her throat.

“But madam, I can’t-“

“By tonight Nadja.” Her boss urges sternly, causing the red-head to gulp.

She nods slowly and keeps her head down as she walks out of the office.

Rage started eating her up from the inside. She needed to do something. Anything.

  “Hey girl!” Alya closes you in a tight hug and hands you a red solo cup filled with juice which was already spiked with some type of liquor.

“Hey Alya.” You smile at her and give each other a friendly kiss on the cheek. “Are you nervous?” You ask her.

“No..” She scoffs and suddenly downs her drink, laughing nervously. “Okay maybe just a little bit.” She says quietly and it causes you to laugh.

“I’m sure that your film is amazing.” You reassure her.

“Thank you.” She says warmly. She looks you up and down. “You always love dressing up dont you?” She raises an eyebrow at you.

“I told her that it’s going to be causal.” Adrien sighs and you roll your eyes playfully.

“This is as casual as I can get.” You state and arrange the beret on your head, smiling proudly.

 The two laugh and you feel Adrien kiss your cheek and sliding his arm around your shoulder.

“Marinette and Nino saved you guys a place up front, I’ll be joining you guys a little later.” She explains and nods over to where Marinette and Nino were sitting. You see them waving at you guys.

“Okay we’ll see you later then.” Adrien says and you both start walking away from her.

There they were, the whispers, the eyes all on you as you walk past the people. Adrien felt it too, you knew he did, that’s why his grip on you was tighter but it was also somewhat comforting.

“Allô!” Marinette says and giggles while she hugs you both. You could tell that she’s already had a few too many to drink You all sit down and start talking about what’s going to happen tonight, what films are expected to show and what you thought Alyas film is going to consist of.

You sip your drink slowly. This shit was strong but you didn’t mind it.

“Alya’s film is going to be the best.” Nino says proudly and confidently. “She’s been working super hard on it non-stop.”

You smiled at him. The way he talked about her with his adoring eyes - you could just tell that what they had was real. It reminded you of You and Adrien. Maybe you two weren’t there yet but the way he looks at you was the same.

“Luka’s coming later because he got held up at his gig.” Marinette groans and sprawls herself out on the blanket, her phone resting on her chest.

“are you and Luka getting serious?” Adrien asks, grinning at her.

She hums and nods. “I really like him.”

“I’m happy for you Marinette, you guys look really cute together.” You say and she sits up quickly.

“You think?” She asks, batting her eyelashes at you. You nod, grinning. “yay!” She exclaims and hugs you unexpectedly.

“Okay I think that Mari has had enough of this.” Nino says and takes away her drink, chuckling.

The atmosphere was amazing. People drinking, laughing and chatting all around you guys.

  Everything died down when the screen in front of you turned on and everyone started cheering.

Alya quickly joined you guys and you all greeted her again quietly as you clapped for opening of the first film.

It was a love story between an alien and a human which formed because of their mutual love of French toast. Weird ass story-line but it was beautifully filmed for some reason. You could tell it was amateur but the shots and the beauty of the movie as the human and the alien shared their first bite of French toast really immersed you into it.

“those berries look so good im going to bust a nut.” You hear Nino whisper and Alya hushes him, earning a snicker from Adrien.

“I wish someone would eat me like that French toast.” Marinette blurts out and you clasp a hand over your mouth trying not to laugh.

As the film showed the ending credits the creator got up from where he was sitting and everyone cheered, whistled and clapped for him.

“Isn’t it Alyas turn now?” Adrien asks and Alya nodded taking a deep breath in.

Nino squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek. “Everyone’s going to love it babe.”

Everyone got quiet as it started.

Two people were sitting on the roof,

“It’s the end of the world isn’t it?” the character says and before the other person could respond, the screen went pitch black.

Everyone started whispering to each other in confusion and you looked over at Alya as she furrowed her eyebrows.

The screen turned on again but it was a different setting.

Two men were now sitting at a large table, one with a cigar between his lips and the other in front of him. Both of them were wearing a suit.

“Mother fucker.” The man says as he lights his cigar.

“What the fuck? This isn’t what I filmed.” You heard Alya whisper.

You were confused as to what was happening but you were too focused on the film in front of you. The man with the cigar came into view even more. He looked famillar.

“You can’t kill him.” The other man says.

“he cheated on her, Johnny!” the guy with the cigar shouts and hits his hand on the table.

Wait. Holy shit, that was your dad.

“He cheated on her and she still went back to him.” He blows out smoke and looks to the side. Disgust evident on his face. “I thought I raised her better than that, I guess she’s stupid just like her mother.”

A picture of you on his desk was shown in view.

You were visibly shaking, your mouth dry. You heard people around you ask you questions but you couldn’t hear anything. You couldn’t even react.

Your father pulls out a gun and clicks it. “I’m killing that bastard tonight, pay off a few people to make it seem like a car accident and we’re going to Paris. Just her and me. I’ve got too many problems with my junkie wife and I don’t want an ignorant daughter too.”

Tears stream down your face. It wasn’t a car accident. Your father killed him. That’s how Trevor died. Trevor cheated on you with one of your best friends back In New York but you never left him because you never wanted people to find out that someone cheated on you, you had too much pride for that.

You get up from where you were sitting and run away, ignoring the murmurs of people and gasps as the film continued. You felt like you were going to throw up, you felt like everything around you has been all a big fat lie. You heard Adrien call out your name but you kept running away until you froze when you heard a familiar evil laugh.

You turn around and see the villain from last time again. but this time it she was holding your father In her arms while he’s passed out.

“Finally! I got it!”

People started to scream and you simply fell down to your knees. Too weak to move. Too weak to do anything.

Your heart was shattered.

Flashbacks come back to you at Trevors funeral. You were sobbing as you watched them bringing out his casket. Little did you know that your own father was the reason for his death.

You were broken.