#Like how Alya literally pushes Marinette to say hi to Adrien

[ilikekidsshows]

Call me a childish hater but I'm glad the Hack-San Ladynoir ending got obliterated into pieces. It already felt degrading and hollow back then with how Adrien's worry for Ladybug's life is not not addressed to give Marinette a free pass for throwing the worst possible situation in Chat's face (someone else suddenly having her earrings which he understandably took as Scarabella being a Sentimonster and Hawkmoth possibly having found Ladybug). That episode said so much more about Marinette's absolut lack of care for Chat as a person than about Adrien being "needy". At least he deeply cared for her safety, can't say that about Marinette apparently)

And I also hate how Marinette is using the term 'sulking' to describe her own feelings if she were in Chat's position. It's such a childish and degrading word to use here. That episode already killed most arguments that Marinette thinks about Chat's safety beyond how she plays into it (with Kuro Neko for example killing the rest. Gurl seriously thought Chat's akumatized as a civilian for a while and didn't even consider it BAD that Hawkmoth knows his identity, which she disregarded again in Elation), but I simply HATE that Adrien was made to attack Scarabella because he clearly thought about the realistic worst cases

And yet the end of the episode has Marinette use childish terms and not even once push back on Chat basically telling her that he's irrelevant. She took care of what's important and that doesn't include him. She's perfectly fine with him thinking that because obviously she considers his hurt feelings as unprofessional neediness that came from their 'special bond' and not because he was still left to believe that he's supposed to care for her safety in their duo and that Ladybug would do the same (which the show has shown over and over again, she literally wouldn't. She barely remembers that Chat is a real person and the show plays it straight)

I hate that the episode had Adrien initially REACT in a way that honors the bond Ladynoir was once supposed to have (meaning, seeing a new holder with the other one's miraculous as a red alert situation) just to be girlbossed into oblivion by the two leaders on top of the hierarchy who clearly don't consider him in anything.

That is such an awful way to morally approach this as show. Adrien was the only one of the three of them who treated the situation with the right seriousness and he got punished for it by being treated as a pet and needy child to the two treat Ladybug's above him.

It says honestly so much more about Marinette and Alya than Adrien.

Marinette viewing Chat's problem as some unprofessional neediness is also highlighted by her not even humoring the question of if he too may need a person to confine in. All she say sis that she would have sulked if she had found out like this that he revealed himself to someone else, but she does not care to ask of he needs anyone. For. Her it's a ridiculous thought apparently that Chat could need something.

Or have valid feelings that go beyond unprofessional hurt feelings because "their bond is so special uwu". How special can it be if Marinette at no point can be made to give a shit about the person underneath his mask? When she immediately ditched him after being told "no" once in Kwamis choice?

How special can it be when Marinette over and over and over again degrades anything Chat feels as childish pettiness and sulking that need to be fixed by him catering to her more?

I don't care what anyone says, Adrien was right in leaving in Kwamis Choice. Very obviously he had to learn ever since Hack-San that Ladybug is a person he needs to be able to live without because this girl is the most unreliable partner anyone could be stuck with. My hope is that Lila will have a blast with the broken pieces that is Ladynoir. I don't even want them to break up forever to punish Marinette or some nonsense, I just want the show to fucking DEAL with this horrible morality that is Marinette's absolut disregard of Chat being a real person.

---

This tendency is extra annoying when as early as the New York Special we saw Adrien’s despair over killing someone be sidelined with Marinette lying on the ground, sobbing about how Adrien went back to Paris instead of spending a school trip with her, the epitome of having petty “me problems”. Cat Noir giving up his ring is just pushed aside with a "he made his choice", because why would Marinette care about her loyal superhero partner who was just seriously traumatized when she can cry about Adrien going home from a trip early instead? Adrien having any feelings on actually important stuff is just him “sulking”, but Marinette can throw herself a pathetic pity party about how she can’t see Adrien for a few days and we’re supposed to treat it like she’s lost everyone who ever cared about her.

But, sure, Adrien is the one being emotional and needy, while our feminist icon “girl power” protagonist cries and throws up because she has to be a day without her crush. At this point, Adrien could have a hole in his torso, and the show would still treat him as an ungrateful whiner, while Marinette getting “Queen Bee” in a Miraculous hero personality quiz would be treated like the world was ending. It doesn’t matter whether or not someone is dead, has had their secret identity discovered or has been replaced by a Sentimonster. What actually matters is whatever petty shit Marinette is worried about today, which is usually the same petty shit she’s worried about every day, just for the record.

This is Marinette being sad that she failed to tell the boy she will see in school a few days later that she loves him, like she fails to do every day of the week. But this is treated as the emotional lowest point of the movie, with more pathos than anything else this entire show has gotten even after the fact, because she’s crying in the rain about it this time. Clearly Marinette has more important things to worry about than Adrien does and this isn’t all just emotional manipulation on the part of the writers! Her love life is being slightly inconvenienced! We're supposed to take this shit seriously!

Like, while Marinette is lying on the ground, in the rain, crying after failing to do something she will be able to try again in a few days at the most, Adrien is dealing with having (temporarily) killed someone and his abusive father being in a Mood(™). Cat Noir is missing in action. Soon after we see Hawk Moth is gonna try to cause a nuclear apocalypse, which ends up being treated as normal superhero hijinks. The special treats all of this obviously more pressing stuff as unimportant, because it’s not about Marinette's love life and god forbid this show be about anything other than Marinette for five minutes.

Like, when I first saw the NY Special, I said she deserved to lose Cat Noir as a partner. I only meant that in a “This was caused by her own actions and Marinette should learn a lesson from this” kind of way back then. Now, though? Getting away from Marinette is for Adrien’s own good, and I hate that being concerned for Adrien now translates to “wanting Marinette to be punished”, all because Marinette has been turned into such a toxic, needy, clingy person that she will be in emotional agony if anyone around her takes distance from her to take care of their own needs first instead of solely catering to hers.

In a narrative that treats Marinette’s smallest inconvenience as more important than the well-being of any other character, of course the idea that Marinette herself could ever be in any real peril is inconceivable. The writers would never let anything happen to her, so Cat Noir is just stupid for worrying about her well-being, he should just be aware of the meta narrative, I guess. No one could ever defeat Ladybug, which is why the writers’ commentary claims Marinette won in the S5 finale, so the only thing to actually be worried about is whether or not she gets to have her boytoy of choice. Actual peril doesn’t exist in the larger narrative of Miraculous, outside of vague hypotheticals that will never come to pass, because the biggest worry of the entire universe is to make sure Marinette isn’t upsette.

[marinettesaltprompts]

Cat in the Belfry (Part 2)

Adrien x Gotham City Sirens

Prompt by @somereaderinblue

Harley wonders if somehow, there’s something in Paris’s water that’s stronger than the literal toxic soup running through Gotham’s pipes. Like, she’s pretty sure the principal skipped 80% of protocol when he chose to hire her as the new counselor. Then again, that’s probably how Bustier got her job, nevermind that she’s more suited to teach kindergarteners.

Bustier is all too eager to preach about her perfect class & model students. When Harley meets them however, ooooh boy. It’s no wonder most of them have gotten akumatized. She meets Marinette, who takes the chance to rant abt Lila, the class’s ingratitude & Adrien’s betrayal. When Harley tries to poke holes (i.e. how Mari tried to call a witch hunt everyone understandably balks at & how she never told Adrien abt the threats), Mari throws her hands up & storms out, fed up that another adult ‘failed her’.

Red flags raised, Harley is shocked to see Lila practically molesting Adrien & once, swore she saw Mari look through a trash bin Adrien used. She asked his help to do a little test & yup, somehow, Mari knew abt Adrien’s private schedule. Adrien talks to Nino, who talks to Alya, who confirms the extent of Mari’s stalking. Needless to say, both boys are horrified & after lots of much-needed heart to hearts, Adrien tells them the truth abt Lila & Alya sees the error of her ways.

She & Nino try to apologize to Mari but she refuses to accept them bzc teenage impulsivity is clearly an unforgivable crime. Slowly, Adrien reaches out to the other classmates to help them see the light. They’re angry & hurt but he convinces them to apologize to Mari privately and ignore Lila, which for a pathological attention seeker, is punishment enough.

Mari shuns their apologies, wanting them to grovel some more & Lila is left to stew. The Italian’s reign goes out with a whimper as Adrien simply contacts her mom, mentions Lila’s lies & she’s transferred to a strict boarding school in Italy.

Adrien would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy being sneaky.

But yeah, Mari is shocked when the class doesn’t come crawling back to her for forgiveness. They point out that they already said sorry but she chose to stew in her grudges & isolate herself. When she plays the victim card, they call her out, asking if all her ‘kindness’ were bribes to turn them into sheep. She has no response to that.

As LB, things get complicated. The mayor is panicking as Selina steals from the corrupt elite & discovers a lot of juicy blackmail. LB promises to help. CN confronts Selina abt it & rather than get angry, she’s amused.

She takes him to see the nitty-gritties of Paris. Opens his eyes to human trafficking, the homeless, the poor & the corruption and lies. Gives him some hard nuanced lessons that pushes him to act instead of react, patrolling in neglected areas & always checking up on past victims. He feeds the strays with Catwoman, Ivy helps him with a bio project & Harley teaches him how to dye his hair green.

One day, LB swoops in while Catwoman is doing a robbery. CN also shows up to defend her. He tries to explain that he hired her to help. LB is enraged that he made such a decision without her input & is defending a criminal.

CN: Are you any closer to finding out who Hawkmoth is?!

LB: I’m trying my best! All I have are Fu’s notes!

CN: Are you?! Were you & Fu trying to find Hawkmoth or is he just teaching you how to be a ‘better Guardian’? I didn’t have his teaching or his notes but at least I’m actually trying to do something about it.

LB: Do you think being a Guardian’s a game?!

CN: I think it’s a second priority to stopping Hawkmoth! Maybe becoming the Guardian will help us stop his akumas but it won’t. End. The status quo. We need to go for the head.

LB: And we do that with the help of a criminal?!

CN: This ‘criminal’ is a better hero & a better friend than you are!

Everyone is stunned by that statement. But it’s true. CN wouldn’t go as far as to call Selina a maternal figure, but her, Harley & Ivy are the cool wine aunts he’s never had. 

LB glares at CN & though he has the power of destruction, she’s the one who decides to land the final blow.

“Traitor.”

The next morning, LB goes on TV & tells everyone that CN is now a criminal.

[sasuhinasno1fan]

Long awaited kiss - Lukadrien June Day 11, 12 + 13

So I had the idea for Winx Club, it's not the same Winx Club au I've done before, this is different. I did try diving a little into the lore throughout the story but if it seems interesting, maybe I'll make a post about what I imagine this AU to be like. Anyway, it ended up falling into three prompts so I mixed them all. Enjoy.

@lukadrienmonth

Royalty Another fandom au Magic

Adrien- fairy of the sun

Luka – fairy of sea

Nath – fairy of art

Marc – fairy of stories

Max – fairy of technology

Nino – fairy of music

Kagami, kim, alix, ivan (dates mylene, fairy of nature) – specialist

Marinette, chloe, felix, alya – witches

Sabrina – goes from witch to fairy

Rose – fairy of joy

Juleka – half mermaid

________________

“What do you think?”

Luka looked up from his phone, texting the others and took in the sleeveless tailcoat with ornate embroidery Adrien wore.

“It’s nice.”

“Nice?”

“What he means to say,” a familiar voice said, as a near identical person walked off his own clothing platform and stood next to Adrien, “is that it looks better on me.”

Felix wasn’t wrong. The Witch was more fitting in the suit, with the cravat and knee-high boots, seeing it was more his style. His put together hair and all-knowing eyes seemed to tie everything together.

“What do you think? Can I be a better Prince of Solaria?” he asked, puffing out his chest and waving, Adrien rolling his eyes.

“Ok, not for me then.” He said, pushing his cousin off the platform and pulling up the screen again. Felix sent the outfit he wore to be bought and picked up under his name, the magic dropping and leaving him in his normal clothes before he dropped next to Luka.

“How long have you two been here? I thought the plan was to go to the beach?”

“Juleka is going to meet us there, she just has to get here from Andros. The others are exploring and we’re meeting the Specialist at the beach. Are the other Witches coming?” Luka asked.

“Marinette dragged Alya back to her home planet though she will be there for the coming out ball. She’s been getting flack for being controlled by Lila. As if half the school wasn’t under that fox’s spell. Literally.” Felix said. “They’re only bothering her because of her whole easy ability to use both fairy and witch magic, so half of them think she acts likes she better than she is. It’s like they’ve never had a conversation with her.”

Most of the Witches at Cloud Tower were, well, as nasty as their magic typing casted them as. They weren’t any nicer when there’d been a dark force operating from their school during first year and draining the school to summon dark creatures to attack everything with the Magix dimension. Not even when Chloe had been the person the dark force was after, her and her sister Zoe.

Second year revealed said force to be Lila, or whatever her actual name was. She managed to take control of Marinette and used her ability to use both sides to locate and collect to codexs of all the schools and Pixie Village to reach the Realix dimension and the Ultimate Power. Even after all that, it seemed they still stuck to being rude and mean.

“I’m assuming you took care of them?” Luka asked.

“Oh no, Chloe took care of that. No one is allowed to bully Marinette except her. But enough about them, let’s talk you two. How have things been since the final battle?”

Luka looked back at Adrien, who switched to another suit that didn’t look good. During said battle where Marinette was stuck in the mind controlled dark version of herself, the Fairies, Witches and Specialists tried fighting Lila, anything to get an advantage over her. Adrien hadn’t been there originally, at the entrance with Nathaniel to keep the monsters Lila had from storming them. Luka had been fighting against Lila and one of her hits managed to get him really bad, slamming into the ground hard enough his transformation dropped. His injuries were bad, like really bad. He didn’t remember much before Marinette snapped out of it and used her own healing powers on herself and the others, but he did remember Adrien begging him not to go.

And a kiss. Luka would have thought he was dreaming or hallucinating with the blood loss, had Adrien not gone completely red when he woke up. They hadn’t spoken about it since.

“Well, I’m here and the others are, around.”

“Uh huh.” Felix said. “You two haven’t said shit have you?”

Luka didn’t bother responding when Felix knew the answer already.

“Ok, this. this is the one.”

Luka turned from Felix’s knowing look to take in what Adrien put on.

“Wow. Much better.” Felix said. Luka was finding it hard to find words.

“Do you like it?” Adrien asked, looking nervous.

“You look amazing.” Luka was eventually able to get out.

“And on that note, let’s go pay and meet the others. Or you two can catch up on your own.” Felix said, trying to throw them a bone.

“Ah, it’s ok. Luka’s coming with me to the castle first.”

This was news to him but Luka nodded.

“Alright then. Food and then beach?”

“Well, we actually have one more stop, but you can go ahead, we’ll meet you there.” Adrien said, his order sent ahead and got off the platform, left in his clothes. “Luka has an appointment to get to first.”

___________________

The trip to the beach had been cut short when the waves went out of control. Luka couldn’t understand it, not knowing the reason for the near tsunami sized wave that appeared, only that he felt mermaids in the water nearby. Juleka had gone under looking for anyone, but she only caught the tail end of mermaid guards swimming away. The trip had been cancelled and everyone headed home to get ready to come to Solaria.

Luka was focused on his phone, biting his nail as he hoped to get a reply back from his mom. Mermaid guards were mainly in Andros and Luka’s mother worked at the castle in close quarters with the royal family.

“Nothing still?”

“No. it might be nothing but that wave was sudden. The sea was, I don’t know, not angry, but…I don’t know. it just, it wasn’t normal. Would your dad know anything?”

Adrien hummed, trying to think. His father wasn’t the best ruler and hadn’t been since his mother’s death. He was getting better, actually trying but for the most part, “Nathalie is the real person who runs the kingdom. We can ask her, assuming she’s not too busy. Dad’s on the Solarian Council but Nathalie really does the work.” Luka nodded, looking back to his phone, seeming to ignore the hair falling out of his bun. “I really like your hair. I don’t know if I mentioned it to you.”

During the final battle as the Specialist flew them to Lila’s castle, Luka had made a joke that if they made it out with minor injuries and Marinette back with them, he’d get his hair longer, a choice he’d been debating the whole school year. Luka tried arguing when Adrien told him of the appointment he made, that his own injuries weren’t minor.

“We all survived and Lila was defeated for good. If you don’t like it, just cut it off.”

His hair was now just past his shoulders when out and the blue in his hair was brighter with the new growth needing to catch up. Luka looked like a siren already in his fairy form, the longer hair made it even better.

“Thank you.” Luka said, tucking the strand back. “Everything is probably fine. we only defeated Lila, what, nearly 2 weeks ago? There’s no way that she’d regain any power that quickly, even if she could. She was essentially poisoned by Marinette’s healing powers eating into her own powers.”

“exactly. It’ll be fine.”

“Ok.” Marc said, exiting his dorm.

The group split up back to their schools after the cancelled beach day, most wanting to repack with Adrien’s invitation to stay at the castle for the summer. Those who went home, promised to be at the Solarian castle when the party happened the next day. Adrien was just hopping nothing bad would happen, that Luka’s worry over Andros was just a small thing that wouldn’t spell Lila regaining power and coming back.

“I’ve repacked my bags, but now I don’t have space for my books. Or Nath’s art supplies. He had to want to go traditional this year.” Marc finished.

“I have another bag under my bed. Just use that.” Luka said, fiddling with his phone before finally putting it down.

Marc went back into his shared room with Luka as Nino ran into the common area of their dorm.

“Alya asked for help convincing Marinette to come to the party. I have to head there before Chloe gets wind and tries her hand.” The music fairy said, grabbing his bag and pushing his suitcase towards Adrien. “Can I send my bag ahead with you?”

“Sure. call if Marinette still says no. I’ll beg if I have to. In fact, if anyone else is ready, we can head to Solaria now.” Adrien said, pulling his silver ring off his finger and tossing it, the ring turning into Adrien’s sceptre.

“We’ll be there later, you go!” Marc called, Nino agreeing as he waved and darted out the room.

Adrien shrunk all the bags and held his hand out for Luka to take. “Just us then?”

“Ready when you are.”

Arrival at the castle was quite subdued, just the way Adrien liked it. they were greeted by Nathalie and Gorilla, Adrien’s main bodyguard until he began school at Alfea.

“Your father is working on the finishing touches of your party.” Nathalie had explained when Adrien wondered where his father was.

Adrien decided not to question it too much and instead showed Luka the entire castle, from the gardens, the different hallways full of tapestries and finally, his favourite room of all.

“Welcome to the Hall of the Universe. Every single dimension is represented as a planet and it’s always spinning. The shinning one? That’s Solaria.”

“Andros, right there.” Luka said, finding the pale pink and blue planet that represented his dimension. “It’s kinda weird to think that if we decided to finish our fairy education on our own dimensions instead of accepting the invitation to Alfea, we would have never met.”

Adrien looked over at Luka, who was still focused on looking at his planet. He had to beg his father to let him attend Alfea. If he let him talk to Feragonda and have him be in a complete single, he wouldn’t have been assigned to the Kwami dorm, wouldn’t have found the amazing friends he had, would have never gotten the chance to meet Luka. he would pass on Lila and everything she did but everything else, he’d do all over again.

“What?” Luka asked.

“Oh, uh…nothing. Come on, I’ll show you to your room while I go find dad.”

______________________________

Felix picked up another jewellery box and opened it, blinding both him and Luka with the bracelet’s shine.

“Moons below, that’s gaudy. No surprise there though.” he said, looking at the not left with it.

Adrien was speaking with his father and Felix had arrived with his mother as Luka was trying to decide how to keep himself occupied. Felix wanted to poke around Adrien’s gifts and Luka needed advice and a bit of help, which was why he wasn’t stopping the Witch.

“Can I ask you something?”

“I asked my mother already; she doesn’t know what’s going on with Andros.” Felix answered.

That was helpful to know but, “it’s about my present for Adrien.”

“Oh. You know, you don’t have to get him something. Most of this is because this is Adrien being formally recognised as the heir of Solaria. That and a decent number of them wanted to thank him for helping to save the Magix dimension after Lila’s first attempt at control.” Felix reassured.

Luka pulled out a box from his jacket pocket and handed it to Felix. The necklace inside was simple, a gold crescent moon and dangling from it in the centre was a stylized sun with an opal set in it.

“the sun can open into a locket.” Luka explained, watching Felix find the catch and open the empty pocket. “I was hoping you can point me in the direction of Adrien’s favourite picture of his mom. And if you think it’s a good idea.”

“I swear to Red Flame Dragon, if you don’t tell him how you feel but he doesn’t get it seeing this, I might actually murder the both of you. yes I will help you get the picture. I know exactly which one.”

“Your highness, oh!” standing in the doorway was a woman wearing a stripped jumpsuit, an oversized white hat and obnoxious sunglasses. There was something familiar about her. “Prince Felix, what are you doing in here?”

“I’m allowed to be here. Luka, this is Audrey Bourgeois, Dutchess.”

And Chloe and Zoe’s mom. The one who made sure each daughter could only handle one type of magic, which got Lila’s attention in the first place.

Magic could bend either way, some more aligned with Light like Faires and other aligned with Dark, like Witches. A person could go either way, depending on what their magic felt most comfortable in, which was why Sabrina transferred out of Cloud Tower and to Alfea after the first battle against Lila. Marinette was one of those rare people who could handle both, despite being more aligned with being a Witch. Chloe and Zoe, however, could only ever handle Dark and Light respectively. Any attempt to dive into the other side didn’t end well. doing the spells together worked, but never apart. Lila needed someone who could do both which was why she went after Marinette next when Zoe and Chloe didn’t work out. their magic had been stolen and it nearly gotten them killed, all because their mother wanted her kids to be perfect and special.

Chloe was Adrien’s best friend and he’d promised Audrey full hell when he finally saw her again after they found out the truth.

“I hope Adrien will enjoy my present; the bracelet was expensive.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll shine bright.” Felix said, point to the box he just opened. “Can I help you?”

“I was just curious if he knew that his babysitter was leaving. I saw her things being removed from her room.”

“That’s because my father’s proposing.” Adrien appeared behind Audrey and Felix closed and tossed the box to Luka to hide in his pocket again. “Dad said he wanted to use the party as a way to have everyone here so he can ask Nathalie to marry him. I don’t mind, Nathalie is going to make an amazing queen of Solaria.”

That seemed to piss Audrey off. “But she has no royal breeding.”

“And yet, she has more grace and elegance than most members of high society I know.” Adrien said, quickly looking Audrey over and giving a fake smile. he’d give that to the Witches who wouldn’t leave Marinette alone for being friends with Fairies. “If you don’t have anything else, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

_______________________

Luka blocked the sun as he watched the Specialists ship touch down. Max had to of asked to give it a go because it was one of the smoother landings.

“The party has arrived!” Nino called out as the gangplank extended and let everyone off. Nino’s suit was much fancier than the one he wore for their first-year mixed school dance. There were still music notes sewn into the lapels of his jacket. “Luka!”

“Welcome to Solaria guys. Adrien wanted to come greet you put he’s been pulled in to helping his father make the surprise perfect.” Luka said, seeing Chloe walk down and head straight for him. She started to tug at his jacket. “Marinette ask you to do her job?”

“Why do you think I’m doing it? How else am I getting her off the ship?”

“Chloe, it’s a cropped jacket! It’s not supposed to go any lower!” Marinette, dressed in a pink dress Luka knew she designed herself, rushed down and moved Chloe away. “You look very nice. The gold detail looks like suns.” She commented, adjusting his collar.

“Honestly, it kinda matches Adrien’s outfit.”

“Does that mean we’ll have an answer to the ‘will they, won’t they’ debacle?” Nathaniel asked, the mix of colours working with his white suit.

“You, do not get to judge me.” Luka remarked. “let me know when you and Marc have talked.” Luka smirked as Nathaniel shushed him while Marc came down with Alix and Kagami. “We have a bit of time before we’re supposed to join everyone in the ball room. I can give you the quick tour.”

Kagami took charge as she normally did, leading the large group towards the back doors to the castle. Chloe pointed out a few things they walked around. They started up a flight of curved stairs when Luka spotted Audrey. She was leading a girl, probably about their age down the hallway they were walking towards. There was something about her short brown hair and fox-like eyes that seemed very familiar.

“Who’s that?” Zoe asked.

“Who cares? She didn’t see us and we don’t want to see her. Come on, before she hears us.” They all went in the opposite direction, though Luka kept looking over his shoulder. When brown eyes met his, his stomach clenched and he turned away.

“Are you ok?” Juleka asked, her black dress fitting her almost like the mermaid she was.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. anything from mom?”

“No, nothing. Honestly, it didn’t go through but every channel I checked says everything is ok. It’s the other mermaids I’m worried about. I haven’t heard from them either. Do you think Adrien would be mad if we headed for Andros tomorrow?”

Luka gave her a dry look. “you say that as if he wouldn’t shove all of us onto the ship so we can all go.”

“That’s very true. Speaking of Adrien, are you going to give it to him?”

Luka nodded. “Felix has it now. I’ll get it back when we go in.”

They eventually made it back downstairs and into the ballroom. It was amazingly decked out, fit for a prince but just understated enough that Adrien would love it. Roses with starlights were all over in vases on the table, green table clothes in all shades and the faintest piano music playing. Gorilla waved them inside before refocusing on his group of guards. Kagami, Chloe and Zoe seemed at ease surrounded by so many high members of society, while Marinette and Marc looked nervous.

“What if they know who I am?” Marinette asked, hiding her face in Alya’s arm.

“Then they know a highly skilled Witch who has the ability to use Fairy magic and that’s it. anyone else tries to dig deeper will be dealt with by being kicked out. or worse, by Adrien.” Felix said, appearing in the outfit he’d chosen, the sleeveless tailcoat still looking good on him. He slipped Luka the jewellery box before looking at Marinette again. “Or I can deal with them. Can’t let Chloe have all the fun.”

“Or maybe we save the scathing comments for after Adrien’s long-awaited party?” Sabrina suggested.

“At least until after the surprise. Adrien might kill us if it’s ruined.” Luka pointed out.

Many of the group asked for answers on what the surprise was but Felix and Luka continued to not say anything. Audrey finally made it in, obnoxious ballgown and all but thankfully she ignored her daughters, which left Chloe in a better mood. Kagami was just being talked out of using her Dragon Sword as a way to eat meat on a stick when trumpets started to go off and the doors at the top of the stairs swung up to reveal King Gabriel of Solaria. Dressed in his standard white, he walked out, head held high. While Nathalie was definitely the one who ran the kingdom while he dealt with his grief, he was still a king, no matter what a person said.

“Welcome everyone, guests and citizens of Solaria. Today is an auspicious day. Today, my son is recognised as heir of Solaria. My son has been at Alfea for the past 2 years learning to become a great fairy and with time, the Guardian Fairy of Solaria. But it hasn’t been without its challenges. He has done out dimension proud though, standing against the dark force once known as Lila with his friends and saving us all. I truly couldn’t think of a better person to lead us when the times comes. Please, join me in formally welcoming, Prince Adrien Emile Gabriel Donatien Athanase Agreste, Prince and Heir of Solaria!”

Gabriel moved, starting the applause as Adrien came out. the dark grey and tan of his tunic, like Luka promised, matched with the gold throughout. The crown on his head was delicate and fitting of a sun fairy. Adrien took his father’s hand as he led him down the stairs, where everyone bowed.

“I have one more announcement to make before the party formally starts. And not to worry, I have Adrien’s permission for this. as most of you know, I lost my wife 4 years ago, the Moon Queen Emile. I turned into myself and I admit, not been a good king after her passing. But this dimension was well looked after by one of her dearest friends and a person I don’t know where I’d be without. Nathalie?”

Not a look most people would see on the woman, Nathalie was surprised when Gorilla took her ever-present clipboard and pushed her to take Adrien’s hand. She started to look disbelieving when he joined the adults’ hands and took a step back.

“Nathalie, I don’t know where this dimension would be without you. I don’t know where we’d be without you. you’ve never given up on me and try as I might, it became hard not to ignore how it made me feel. You told me that you thought Emile would be my only love and how you were fine with that. You were wrong. She’s not my only love and I know what she meant now when she told me to always keep my heart full. Nathalie, even if I was not king, I would be forever lost without you and I can’t bear to lose another I love again. Will you marry me?”

Eyes shiny with tears, she nodded, Adrien leading the applause and cheering this time. He gave his father a small box, bouncing away as he continued clapping. Luka caught his eye, sharing a smile. it was hard not to be swept up in all the love. Adrien was fine sharing the spotlight with his father and his new fiancée but if Luka was going to do this, he wanted it to just be them.

“Please welcome the first dance of your king and future queen!” Adrien called, rushing over to his friends so the adults couldn’t say no. “Stars and suns, finally! I thought he’d never propose.”

“How long has that been brewing?” Nino asked, the only one other than Chloe and Kagami who’d interacted with Nathalie the most, not to mention Adrien’s father.

“pretty much since first year. Dad’s stuck in his ways and Nathalie would never overstep if she thinks she is. But before the final battle with Lila, when we were heading towards her hideout, I called him and told him he had to. I didn’t know if we’d all survive and I didn’t want him facing another loss alone.”

“Well luckily for him, Lila is gone and his son gets to spend the whole summer break with him planning a royal wedding. I already accept my invitation.” Alix teased.

“I think it’s a sign for us all to not take things for granted. And with that, to the dancefloor!” Alya decided, grabbing Nino.

All the pairs joined them, Alix getting Zoe to join while Chloe dragged Marinette. Sabrina had been quickly spirited to the dancefloor by a court boy who caught her eye.

“Should we join them?” Adrien asked.

“Actually, can I talk to you? I wanted to give you your present.” Luka said, pointing towards the open balcony doors. “Or are you not allowed to disappear just yet?”

“Not there. Over here.” Adrien led Luka to an alcove that was thankfully clear of people. They could see the ballroom even if they weren’t seen. “So, what’s up?”

Luka took out the box Felix had given him and presented it. “Felix was snooping at your presents and I know comparatively, this is pretty simple, but I hope you like it.”

“I’m sure I’ll love it.” Adrien reassured as he took the box. “Oh, it’s so pretty.” He said as he opened the box.

“The sun is also a locket.” When Adrien let out a stuttered breath and his smile got bigger, Luka said, “I know Nathalie has been like a mother to you and you’re really happy she’s joining the family, but I also know how much you love and miss your mom. Now you can always carry her with you.”

“Thank you. oh,” Adrien put his hand to his neck, fingering the high collar of his tunic. “I can’t wear it right now. The after party that Chloe planned, I have a different outfit. Will you help me put it on then?”

“Of course.” Luka promised. Now seemed a good a time as any. “I was also wondering if we could talk, about the final battle.”

Cheeks going pink, Adrien looked at the ground, keeping the box with his necklace close to him, like it was a pillow he wanted to hide behind. “W-which part?” he stuttered.

Luka took the smallest step forward, trying not to be discouraged by Adrien moving back. He was getting redder though. “I think you know which one. I just, I don’t want to think it didn’t happen, because I know it did.”

“You nearly dying isn’t something anyone would forget.” Adrien threw in.

“No, no I don’t think so. I know my Charmix wasn’t enough to keep me protected so my transformation dropped. I know I was hurt badly when everything hurt. I knew you were there, calling my name. your hands run warmer when you’re transformed.” Luka said, managing to get Adrien take one of his hands. “I know you were begging me not to go and I wanted nothing more than to tell you I wouldn’t. not unless you wanted me to.”

“You like giving people what they want.” Adrien reminded.

“And you like making people happy. Aren’t we a pair? I know, when it started to feel like it was fading away, you kissed me. I didn’t want our first kiss to be like that. I wish I kissed you when we were on the pavilion.”

After the battle, a party was had at Alfea and Luka had gone looking for Adrien who’d disappeared. He found him by one of the gardens, standing on the pavilion, standing in the moonlight. Sun fairy he might be, but Adrien was also made for moonlight. There’d been a charged moment when Adrien looked over his shoulder and looked at him and Luka regrated not saying anything then.

“Why didn’t you?” Adrien asked, finally looking at him.

“I’m an idiot? I can’t stop thinking about losing the chance to do it if I don’t say anything. Adrien, you’ve, enchanted me since the first moment we met. The more I got to know you and the closer we became; I just couldn’t help falling for you more. the song in your heart has been replaying in my head constantly. I want nothing more than write a symphony for it.”

Adrien let out an embarrassed laugh. “no need to go that far. You could just kiss me.”

“Can I? Kiss you and date you and be with you?”

This time, Adrien was the one to step forward, staring up at Luka. “I didn’t want you to leave because I didn’t want to lose a friend. I didn’t want you to leave because I couldn’t bare losing you, not before you knew how much I wanted to be with you.”

Not needing words, Luka started to lean down, Adrien closing his eyes when Felix came around the corner.

“Adrien, your dad – fuck!” he cried when the two sprang apart. “I have the fucking worst timing.”

“It’s fine.” Adrien reassured. “It’ll happen,” he promised, squeezing his hand in Luka’s.

Felix looked like he was struggling to walk away and let them have their kiss but he groaned and held out his hand like he normally did so he could drag Adrien places. “Your dad wants to really start the ball with a dance with you. I had better not see either of you for at least an hour after the dance.”

Adrien went to his dad while Luke rejoined the others, all of whom had looks on their faces like they had had a guess as to where they disappeared to.

“So, anything you want to tell us?” Nino asked.

“We confessed, but no kiss.”

“Seriously!” Zoe said. “We’ve been waiting for just that for like nearly 2 years at this point.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault.” Luka said as Adrien and his father went to the middle of the room. “Adrien still has duties right now. But soon.” Catching his favourite green eyes and gentle sunlight smile, Luka couldn’t help but smile himself. “Very soon.”

[jacquesthepigeon]

Re:suffering

First the caveat that this is writing choices and not meant to address the character's *personality*/core.

I think one of the big reasons you get people arguing in favor of the suffering thing comes down to catharsis and reprecussions.

Adrien's plot is suffering, like, you legitimately can't put a kid through what he has canonically gone through without issues. A literal property for his father's fashion empire, schedule controlled to the minute, mother dead, isolated from the world, yeeted into superheroing, the various things involved in that. A girl both frenzying at him and running from him, him being fairly useless in relationships having had almost zero and yet multiple people wanting one with him mere weeks after his emergence. His father's descent into madness, whatever the hell was going on in S5.

It's all there. Yet as you say it never seems to really *hit* him. This is because he needs to be a 'perfect' trophy for our lead heroine. After this much time being denied catharsis it no longer feels like he isn't affected, it feels like the best 'smiling through the pain and slowly going mad' riff you have ever experienced.

Meanwhile we see Marinette suffer alllllll the time. Dragging Marinette is this show's favorite thing next to beating the dead Chloé horse. Yet... It's always performative. Marinette suffers...but it almost always just works out fine when push comes to shove. She wants a boy and he is unavailable? Here's another boy. That one won't work out? He's the first one back, and a couple girls on top. Take your pick.

Lost Fu? Okay but now you have access to all the miraculous and here's Alya too. Lost all the Miraculous? Don't sweat it Monarch is going to go back to generic akumas. Lost the wish? Don't worry the results work out in your favor.

Nothing ever sticks. The show wants you to sympathize with Marinette (hence making her suffer) but won't let her actually fail/have a meaningful setback. She is required by law to girlboss by the end of every episode.

So all that just sets up a lot of cognitive dissonance. People express it ... Poorly.

See, I have to disagree on a number of points.

When it comes to Adrien, it does come across as him simply not caring rather than trying to smile through the pain, at least to me. His lack of significant interest or reactions in most of canon combined with the WOG knowledge that anything that could challenge his worldview and pure-heartedness is to be avoided and never acknowledged as a possible factor in his behavior gives me no choice but to read him that way. The crew won’t even acknowledge Gabriel, or any other parent for that matter, as being abusive so according to the universe’s rules and intentions, while Gabriel is extremely overbearing and controlling, no one, in or out of the ML universe, is meant to interpret that as anything other than misguided forms of affection. As a result, while Adrien is canonically traumatized in that he feels caged, he can’t resent his father for more than an ep at a time and truly recognize how bad his situation is. In addition to the fact that we’ve had a couple of scenes of Adrien confiding in Plagg about his upsets, he rarely mentions difficulties coping with family, instead focusing on his romantic pursuits. Just look at how his main daddy drama in S5 was about Gabriel disapproving of Marinette rather than the lifetime of isolation and the cover-up regarding his own mother’s mysterious disappearance.

And don’t get me wrong, I’ve made posts about his fixation on romance being a bad coping mechanism and what it would imply for his character, but as far as canon interpretation goes, he acts like The Problems don’t even exist and only seems to care about getting a girlfriend 99% of the time. WOG pretty much confirms that.

As for Marinette, I think implying that having a support system negates suffering is incorrect on many levels. It helps with coping, yes, but does not negate the hurt. And it’s not like she got 1:1 tradeoffs either so none of the events can be considered bittersweet in regards to their effects on her. The writing being Lazy and Bad does make it not as bad as it could be, but it’s still undoubtedly bad.

[k7l4d4]

K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 9

Hello everyone! I'm dropping this a bit early, since I have work today.

Honestly, in retrospect, this episode kinda best represents the kind of hypocritical double standards MLB can get up to. As always, whenever Ladybug does something creepy, overly insistent, or boundary pushing, it gets treated like a joke, yet when Chat does it, it's presented as tragic that the person he likes isn't giving him a chance. Even leaving to the side this episode bringing the show's obsession with treating romance as the be-all end-all to life (which feels pretty insensitive to any aromantics in the audience) to the forefront, the episode has Alya, who has consistently been a person who, even after learning Marinette's secret, a near-rabid LadyNoir shipper, acting as a low-level obstacle by turning her stance on Ladybug get with Chat Noir on a dime. It's not healthy to treat romantic feelings like that; they aren't something that can be controlled, or reasoned with, or that you can just decide to no longer love someone or not. And the show treating love as this thing that can only ever happen between two people at any given moment is... unpleasant.

Now, enough of my rambling, onto the review! As always, please forgive my profanity.

Episode 9: Elation 

Okay, somehow Ladybug pulls out an entire table, complete with a cloth covering, chairs, and snacks. On the top of a roof. WHAT!? Okay just... no, this isn't any kind of funny. It's just weird and out of place. 

I'm honestly creeped out by how forward Ladybug is being. She's actively trying to keep Chat around, despite the fact that he is literally starting to time out of his transformation, and insistently trying to kiss him. Like, this is uncomfortable on so many levels to watch. 

I'm just exhausted, and it's not even five minutes in. It's just cringe-inducing role reversal between Ladybug and Chat Noir's usual dynamics, but whereas Chat, as annoying as he could be at his worst, limited himself largely to just flirting, Ladybug is actively trying to forcibly kiss him... and somehow doesn't seem to get the problem with that. Just... this show in general seems to have a severe issue with informing kids that you have to willingly and knowingly consent to be in a relationship, and that rejecting someone's advances SHOULD BE THE END OF IT. What makes this fiasco all the more infuriating is that Weredad was literally an entire episode dedicated to shutting down the idea of Chat liking Marinette. 

Okay, the thing I find the most annoying about this current set-up is that they aren't actually addressing anything INTERESTING about this change in dynamics. They just have Chat play it off as a joke or a test, and Ladybug moping. It's just boring drama. 

And now we get Marinette complaining about Chat Noir shutting her down... and we get Alya, one of the people who has ROUTINELY called out Ladybug for "not giving Chat Noir a chance" despite him constantly pushing Ladybug's boundaries, saying that her old behavior of keeping Chat at arms length and wanting to be just friends was perfectly within her right to do so. Yet her wanting to move on from Adrien is treated by both Alya and Tikki like some dumb joke. Wow, I am amazed (sarcasm). 

Okay, and now we get Marinette going "wait a minute, what if he's turning me down because he doesn't love me (Ladybug) anymore!?" Wow, it's almost as if he's a person with his own emotions and not obligated to return how Marinette feels... just like how she wasn't obligated to return how he felt back when he was being the ultimate flirt. It's just so... bland. Like, they aren't making Marinette be DUMB, but they are making her come off as oblivious that she can't see these very obvious reasons for things.

Oh, and one really annoying thing that's coming through to me is that Marinette doesn't seem to grasp that she's coming off as obsessive and massively pushing Chat's boundaries even further than he has ever pushed HERS. 

And we get yet another repeat of "blab our secret identities if we got together then Monarch would find out," but they never expand on HOW THAT WOULD EVEN WORK. And if I ever see anyone unironically point to Chat Blanc and Ephemeral, I would throw a fucking shoe at them because those episodes made it very fucking clear how contrived Gabriel "figuring it out" really is. He somehow failed to pick up on the truth FOR MONTHS in both throw-away timelines, and only figured it out based on a wild guess because of overhearing Adrien/catching Ladybug on video. Because it's not as if Ladybug is a nice person and would agree to pass along a gift for a girl's crush, or that anyone other than Chat Noir would use fancy pet names like "my lady." 

And now we get the strawmanning of Marinette deflecting the already shoddy argument of "revealing their identities, leading to Hawkmoth figuring out who they are!" by getting mad at Nino and Alya blowing their secrets to one another... when as Alya pointed out, that's literally all her fault since she gave them their Miraculouses while they were directly in front of one another, at the exact same time. 

And now we get the "Marinette's lying to herself" point. Sigh, the level of deligitimization of romance going on in what's supposed to be a love story is honestly disgusting to me. 

Is Alya supportive of Marinette moving on, or isn't she? Is Alya respectful of Marinette's right to reject (or not reject) Chat Noir's advances, or isn't she? Are Marinette's feelings for Chat Noir real, or aren't they? It just can't seem to make up its mind and just clings to whatever stance makes the most drama. 

And now Marinette's just having a meltdown. Honestly, this is probably the most interesting part of the entire season to date, in that it's Marinette finally losing her cool over how her "love" for Adrien is functionally dead in the water and how she's basically been making a fool of herself for the majority of the school year all in the name of impressing a guy who hasn't shown any interest in her in nearly the entire time. 

Okay, Adrien just showed up to the bakery and he's acting super awkward. I would find it adorable to see him visibly out of his depth and having no clue what he's doing if it weren't tied to more Love Square BS.

Uuuhhh... I am honestly just... tired of how this show treats teenage crushes between awkward kids as if they are gonna be together forever. 

It's one thing if it's just the teens themselves, but the adults too? They should honestly know better. Okay, I'm honestly mostly annoyed at just how incessantly Alya is trying to push Marinette in Adrien's direction. It honestly looks more like she cares more about getting them together than about how Marinette feels and what she wants. To note, I don't blame this on her, but on the writers, since if they think THIS is being a good friend, I pity whoever they claim are their best buds. 

Because let's be honest, even though the writing is very strongly portraying Marinette as a Strawman against HERSELF, her position is honestly the most moral (however loose and twisted a definition of the word you use) in that so far, everyone who should be in her corner is ignoring her agency and pushing her to do something she (currently) does not want to do. 

She had me at "for once, we aren't talking about Adrien" and then lost me at "we are talking about Chat Noir." If this narrative of ignoring what she wants and feels and trivializing her desire to stop pursuing Adrien in favor of Chat Noir hadn't been pushed as an inaffective case of denial on her part, seeing her shut down Alya honestly acting like a bad friend and just having actual turmoil in their friendship would be interesting, but because it's all about this stupid Love Square BS, it's just irritating. 

And the stupidest part of all this is that I'm still not even five minutes into the episode. 

I will say this, seeing Marinette's downward spiral into paranoia, self-loathing, and just a flatout inability to cope with being a superhero could be interesting... if they weren't trying to make it all about the Love Square. 

Adrien getting ambushed by someone who wants a photo "with the Alliance guy" does a surprisingly good job at pointing out that the so-called "freedom" of Alliance supplanting his responsibilities as a model is just a facade. It's almost entertaining.

What really makes this whole thing with both Alya AND Tikki treating Marinette's crush on Chat as if she's lying to herself so obnoxious to me is that the battle against Safari with Marinette becoming Lady Noir kinda strongly implied that her feelings ARE real... and now this episode has her having to convince herself that this is true. It's kinda pathetic how inconsistent the writers are. 

I'm honestly kinda banging my head against the wall at how Marinette doesn't seem to realize she's acting around Chat EXACTLY how she acts around Adrien; i.e. a flailing, awkward, motor-mouthed MESS with limited self-control and non-existent self-confidence. 

Okay, just got it started again and WOW, they are seriously doing the "awkward whistling while up on a balcony" scene. Oof... it just looks so awkward. 

EEeeeyyuupp... Marinette's inability to talk to her crush (THAT ONLY EVER SEEMS TO APPLY TO ADRIEN/CHAT NOIR) is back again. Ugh, they seriously can't come up with any new material, can they? 

Honestly, what's throwing me off the most with this is that they are having Chat be so awkward and dodging addressing his apparent attraction to Marinette... which doesn't make much sense to me given his track record for being blatant to the point of being pushy when it comes to Ladybug. Why in the world is he so awkward HERE, with Marinette? 

Okay, awkwardness sorta passes a bit with Chat providing a cheesy pickup line... but I will (grudgingly) give the writers credit, since this comes off as the most heartfelt and genuine moment in all of S5 I've seen so far. 

And Marinette goes and says "she thinks of Chat like a fan." They SERIOUSLY cannot keep her from self-sabotaging herself, even for a second, can they? Okay, they recovered it. Still cringe-inducing. But the fact that they set this up as being doomed to fail, despite this honestly being the BEST romantic representation the show has had ALL THIS TIME, is infuriating. 

And now we FINALLY get Alya having a moment of self-reflection over how she's treating Marinette's feelings... now how are they gonna fuck this up?

Okay, and we get TIKKI being the one to ruin things by claiming that Marinette's feelings for Chat Noir having "caused negative feelings between her and Alya!" Like... Tikki. THOSE NEGATIVE FEELINGS WERE PURELY BECAUSE YOU AND ALYA WERE IGNORING AND DISMISSING THE VALIDITY OF HER FEELINGS, WTF ARE YOU ON ABOUT!? 

And I honestly just "love" how Tikki claims that romance between the holders of Creation and Destruction has the risk of causing the end of the world... when we literally have ONE OF HER PAST WIELDERS CONTRADICTING THIS!! As much as I fucking utterly HATE the revisions they made to Joan of Arc's history, SHE AND DARK GRIMALKIN NEVER PUT THE WORLD AT RISK JUST BY GETTING TOGETHER!! And Tikki KNOWS that Adrien and Chat Noir are the same person, SO BY THAT LOGIC SHE SHOULD BE DISCOURAGING BOTH OF MARINETTE'S CRUSHES!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT DOES THIS PISS ME OFF!!! 

And here comes the Ice Cream Crybaby. Ughh... I'm just gonna tune out this idiot, since nothing he says is anything more than a bad joke about shipping. Okay, them acting as if Andre going "Chat Noir is supposed to love Ladybug, and Marinette is supposed to be in love with Adrien Agreste" and having them be rattled honestly annoys me. It's just more feelings invalidation. 

Nope, nope. N-O-P-E. This all just absolute BULLSHIT. I don't mind Chat Noir learning that Marinette used to crush on Adrien, and literally EVERYONE knows Chat Noir is obsessed with Ladybug, but why the absolute FUCK are they treating Andre telling them this as if it's some big reveal that they never knew about!? Like, yeah, in this context, CHAT has a reason to be upset because he now has a reason to think that the girl he now has a crush on wouldn't love him if she learned the truth, but why in the world is MARINETTE acting as if her crush on Adrien is this big secret OR that Chat's crush on Ladybug was a big secret!? This episode ITSELF had it pointed out that Chat was head over heels for Ladybug, and that idiotic two-parter Truth and Lies had it revealed to Marinette that her "crush" on Adrien is WELL KNOWN TO ALL OF PARIS!!! Dear LORD is all of this obnoxious. I just... can't deal with this crap. I'm just gonna try and tune this out, for real, because this pisses me off way too much to be healthy. 

And the forced drama BS just keeps on coming. I knew, I just KNEW, that Marinette describing herself as a fan would come back to bite her in the ass, because now Chat thinks he's taking advantage of her, not building a real relationship, meaning the ONE possible bright spot in this BS season has just been shot in the foot. FUCK ALL THIS NOISE.

And we get another fucking meltdown from Marinette, and unlike the prior one, this one is just obnoxious because it's entirely forced by the writing insisting that she HAS to be pursuing a relationship to be happy instead of, you know, HAVING FRIENDS, HOBBIES, AND A FAMILY THAT LOVES HER!!! 

Because all this BS? It's just the show artificially creating drama FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME!! All to shoot in the foot a ship they were never gonna let get off the ground in the first place, and I FUCKING HATE IT!! 

And of FUCKING COURSE they make it be Chat Noir forcing Marinette into a kiss in a panic be the thing that stops the Akumatization, BECAUSE WHY FUCKING NOT!? 

And WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK ARE THEY ACTING AS IF IT'S THE FACT THAT MARINETTE IS PURSUING CHAT NOIR THE REASON SHE WAS ALMOST AKUMATIZED!? Seriously, THIS IS NOT THE FIRST CLOSE CALL SHE HAS HAD!!! It is not possible, NOR HEALTHY, to be lacking in negativity every second of every fucking DAY, and I just GAAHHH!!! I can't even put into words how much this nonsense both disgusts and angers me. I'm just... I'm just gonna stop typing, and wait until we get past the Akuma before I add any other thoughts, I just can't DEAL with this. 

Alright, I'm wrong, one last moment. Seriously, it has been who knows how many moments since Andre last saw Chat Noir and Marinette, WHY THE FUCK IS HE GETTING UPSET NOW OF ALL TIMES!? He wasn't even fazed to see them when they showed up asking for Ice Cream, SO WHY IS HE UPSET!? Was he spying on them and saw them kiss somehow!? Because that's the only thing I can think of that would make this manchild flip out like that. 

OH DO NOT EVEN GIVE ME THAT "LOVING CHAT NOIR WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!!" BS!!! WHAT HAPPENED HAD NOTHING TO FUCKING DO WITH YOUR CRUSH AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE WRITERS FORCING DRAMA FOR THE SAKE OF IT!!! 

Marinette IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT AT ALL!!! Andre has been set off by FUCKING PICTURES in the past, and I'm just fucking SICK of this forced drama nonsense. SICK OF IT!!!

Huh, we get ANOTHER Akuma that's actually incapable of retrieving the Miraculous. Who knew an Akuma that's a giant Ice Cream Golem without actual hands and whose limbs are too big to even remove the Miraculouses to start with was a bad idea? /s 

Okay, never mind, apparently he can reach his human limbs through the ice cream. 

I would be more impressed by Alya learning to let Marinette make her own choices regarding her feelings if it weren't coming off the heels of her attempting to FORCE MARINETTE TO LET ADRIEN KISS HER IN A PRIOR EPISODE, among many other things. It's a sharp case of "too little too late." 

The way this show treats the fact that they are superheroes and having secret identities as this overwhelming obstacle against being a couple is exhaustively stupid. 

And like, AGAIN, the "we love each other as friends" resolution is so much a case of "too little too late" I just roll my eyes. 

Okay, how did Hawkmoth know where Ladybug and Chat Noir were hiding?? 

You know, the stupidest fucking part of all this, Andre's obsession with Ladybug and Chat Noir being a couple, is the fact that THEY WERE NEVER A COUPLE TO BEGIN WITH. Making him going "what matters is that you are happy" bit ring hollow, because the actual status of their "relationship" has never stopped his nonsense in the past. 

Show of hands, who thinks that Gabriel learning that Chat Noir is "in love with Marinette" will amount to all of fucking nothing? (Raises hand) 

And now they are having Chat write off Marinette's feelings as "idolization." Which, yeah, is partially because of Marinette's fumbles right from the very beginning of this episode... but that honestly more accurately describes Marinette's feelings FOR ADRIEN than it does for CN. 

Huh. Chat Noir managed to make me find a joke of his funny. ...Please check outside your window to make sure the sky isn't on fire and raining cats and dogs. And we get the ending being Plagg (accidentally) encouraging Adrien to keep pursuing Marinette on the basis of "she could fall for me again!" Instead of doing the emotionally healthy thing and try to move on.

[purrincess-chat]

In honor of this fine April month, what are your favorite things about Adrinette?

So

This ask is like 2-3 years old I think, but I never forgot about it. I just needed time to assemble my thoughts, and I think now is the best time to answer it because hooooo how far they've come since this ask was sent.

I'm going to break this up into sub-categories so that it's not 8 pages of me just rambling about how cute they are, though I will probably still ramble a lot about how cute they are. But we're going to look at the entire span of their relationship from Origins through Revelation in s5. So, if you haven't watched the out of order episodes from s5 or are waiting for everything to air before you watch, this is your spoiler warning. Let's get into it.

Enemies speedrun

We all love a good enemies-to-lovers story. There's just something inherently satisfying about seeing two people go from hating each other to falling in love. One aspect of their relationship that I appreciate is that sparks didn't fly immediately when they met as civilians. It's not a true enemies-to-lovers, more of a speedrun if you will, because Marinette did lowkey kind of hate him at first. It wasn't until she realized there had been a misunderstanding and saw Adrien's true character that she fell in love with him.

Y’all know the umbrella scene has me in a chokehold always and always will because that moment is just imprinted into my brain. The moment when she truly sees him. Not a marketing image or magazine cover. Not a spoiled rich boy that's friends with her bully. Him. She sees his vulnerability, his desire to be accepted, his kindness. That's what she falls in love with. That was the moment when Adrinette became my favorite side because it was just so raw and genuine and beautifully crafted, and I think that moment has only become more impactful as their relationship has progressed. To see two people who started off at odds, even for a short time, grow to love each other so much is just *chefs kiss*

Seeing beyond the mask

Another thing I love is how Marinette has always been the person to see Adrien for more than what is presented. Yes, she spends a lot of time ogling over his pictures in magazines throughout the show, which some people seem to think is a cardinal sin because how dare a teenage girl think the boy she likes is hot apparently, but when push comes to shove, she has always been the one to look deeper. The umbrella scene is the first instance of that. From the beginning, people wrote him off as being a rich daddy's boy model. Alya literally calls him as such in Origins. They make assumptions based off of his image/status. The difference is Marinette eventually sees past it, and she continues to see past it.

And I know some people are going to say, "What about Nino?" But Nino has taken a huge step back since s1 when it comes to their friendship. Yes, Nino is the first person to give him a chance, but any other time he just waves stuff related to him away. Oh, his dad said he can't come? Oh well. Everyone, including Nino, always writes Marinette off when she's worried about him as Marinette just being Marinette, but she has always seen more than other people when it comes to him. And that's no shade to Nino or saying Nino isn't still his best friend because Nino has tried and failed to help Adrien before. He understands Adrien's life is complicated, but he doesn't think anything more than that. (that we have seen on screen anyway) It's a winless fight that can't be helped.

Marinette always pushes further, like in the NY special when everyone is like oh, Gabriel doesn’t want Adrien to come to NY, what a shame, and Marinette is like I will fight that man myself if I have to, and she does. People have mixed feelings about the canon-ness of the Specials, but I deeply appreciate the Adrinette we got in the NY special, even if it was angsty in the end. I love when Adrien expresses his gratitude to her for sticking up for him because it’s truthfully the first time he’s really gotten to see it happen out of all the times she’s stuck her neck out for him. I think that moment aided his confession in Risk because Adrien feels like he can confide in her and be understood rather than dismissed. Because why should the rich boy complain about having nice things and money and girls falling all over him and getting to travel the world? But Marinette pays attention to him, not just the shiny filter everyone else sees. He's unhappy, and she sees that when all of their other friends don't.

Season 5 has given us a lot of insight into Adrien's home life and how he feels about it. A key moment I think a lot of people have glossed over is in Transmission when he tells Marinette that the Adrien most people know is just a marketing image, and how the two of them can be different. He is inviting her into his world that other people have only scratched the surface of, and as their relationship progresses, she gets to see how thin the glamour really is. I know her speech in Emotion went to the wrong person, but the message still rings true. She doesn't think less of him for being trapped and doing what his father asks. She knows he doesn't have another option and feels stuck, and she wants him to know that she loves him and will always be there for him until they figure it out together.

Another key moment along that same vein is when Marinette goes to talk to Gabriel about their relationship after Emotion, and they have the pancake conversation. Gabriel literally offers her fame and fortune, a successful career in the business she's always wanted. He could hand that to her, but she says no. She sees beyond the shiny glimmer Gabriel presents to the rest of the world, and she values Adrien more than anything. That whole scene where she fights back and disobeys Gabriel's order to find Adrien and tell him it will be alright shows how deeply integrated she's become in his life. She doesn't care if it's hard. She wants to fight the dragon with him, and she's not giving up until they can have their happily ever after. I just think their whole narrative where Marinette is the knight fighting to save the prince is incredibly sweet, and it makes me want to root for them. They're made for each other because they fight for each other and see sides of each other that no one else sees, and I think that's beautiful.

Learning how to love

I absolutely love the way they’re approaching their relationship this season, and how we can see the impact of Adrien’s past loves in the way he approaches her. With Kagami he wasn't decided enough. With Ladybug he was too decided. I've talked about how Glaciator 2 completely changed things for him before, so I won't rehash that too much, but we can see it in the way he approaches Marinette gently and patiently this season. He doesn't push his feelings onto her or demand that she hurry up and decide her feelings. In Migration Adrien isn’t pushing her to open up to him completely right away. He knows she has things she’s not telling him, but rather than focusing on what he wants or thinks their relationship should look like, he worries that she is stressing herself out and hurting herself for his sake, and he doesn’t want that. In Derision, he is patient and constantly checks on her when she’s not doing well. When he finally learns what’s wrong, he listens to her about what she needs and comforts and supports her instead of insisting that she hurry up and figure it out. Both of those things came from his prior loves. With Marinette, he's finally figured out the right amount of push and pull, and the two of them are learning together what they both need and how to love each other in the ways they need to be loved.

One of the reasons Protection is one of my top episodes so far this season is because Adrien realizes that Marinette needs more out of him than he’s been giving, and he puts in more effort! He wants her to feel comfortable with him and puts in the work to help her overcome her anxiety around him. The whole picnic set up is so incredibly thoughtful and sweet and clearly tailored just for her. I love that a message of their love is that you don’t need anything flashy. Adrien is filthy rich and could provide a lot of flash, but instead he sets up a romantic picnic in his backyard. They play games and talk and laugh and watch the clouds in their pajamas. And it’s so sweet! Even the song he sings her in Perfection is about how he doesn’t care about any of those things. He just wants to be with her. Their love is beautifully simple, and I love to see that after several seasons of Marinette making everything overcomplicated. They care about each other, and that’s enough.

She fell first, he fell harder

I am so obsessed with how once Adrien realized he loves her, he was all in, immediately asking her out, swooning over her. She literally spouts nonsense around him half the time, and he's just like aww, she always knows what to say. I love her sm! I dunno. It’s just refreshing after seeing Marinette have zero chill for 4 seasons to see him having absolute heart eyes at her now. When everyone else is shaking their head at her Marinette-isms, Adrien just smiles and laughs with her. One of my all time favorite things when writing their pairing is portraying the moment Adrien realizes he loves her and seeing how his perception changes after that, so seeing that be canon is everything I could have ever asked for. And he doesn’t hesitate to let her know how he feels and how deeply he cares for her. We love to see it.

Love built from friendship, trust, and mutual respect

I know this aspect is hotly contested and controversial in fandom, but I don’t care. Other people’s inability to watch media with their eyes open and understand what’s happening on screen isn’t my problem. Their development from being uncertain and even hostile to each other to being so supportive and caring toward each other is so sweet and satisfying. Seeing Marinette go from barely being able to get a coherent sentence out around him and constantly being jealous of every girl that talked to him to confidently holding his hand, telling him she loves him, and not being threatened even when his father’s marketing campaign is coupling him with his ex-girlfriend is such satisfying character development.

Marinette fell in love with Adrien for his kindness and sincerity. Slowly but surely they became friends, then good friends, and along the way they developed a sweet love and respect for each other. When people challenge Marinette’s honor, Adrien speaks up. When their friends think Adrien sent a mean message, Marinette knows it couldn’t possibly be from him. They see each other, even when others don’t, and I love that about them.

Protective/Sacrificing

Along that same vein, I love how much they protect and sacrifice for each other. Since s1, we’ve seen Marinette sacrifice chances to impress him for his ultimate happiness. When he thinks her scarf came from his dad, when she quietly returns his father’s book so he can come back to school, when she gives up her feelings when he’s in love with someone else. Marinette has always wanted him to be happy, even if that’s not with her. She swallows her feelings when he’s with Kagami, and even tries to help Kagami reignite her feelings after they break up.

In Adrien, we see a protective nature come out in him when it comes to Marinette. How many times has he tackled her away from danger and cradled her head? When she gets bumped to the back of the class, he goes back to join her so she’s not alone. When trouble breaks out, he tells her specifically to find somewhere safe. He took on a statue Hawkmoth with an umbrella to protect her. When he thought she was sad, he tried to cheer her up. When he found out another boy broke her heart and felt no remorse, he snapped. When he realized how bad Chloe used to bully Marinette, he cut ties with her. When Kagami got the wrong impression of Marinette, he set the record straight. They both pay so much attention to each other and are always trying to keep the other one safe and happy. They’re so sweet.

Literally the softest ever

Okay, this is my section to gush about how cute they are. I mean look at them.

You could make several collages of all of the soft looks Adrien has given her over the course of the show.

Look at them blushing

And holding hands

They are the cutest couple! Literally soulmates, made for each other, perfect in every way for each other wow.

Two absolutely unhinged halves of a whole idiot

Even with as cute as they are, these two are still a chaotic duo, and I love that for them. She literally had him pick up constipation capsules for her once, and he didn't bat an eye. She kissed him when she thought he was a statue, and that was the moment he realized he might like her. She full on panicked about sitting next to him on an airplane, and he was totally unfazed. Even hugged her the next morning and talked about how grateful he was to have her as a friend. When she couldn’t figure out an automatic door, he stayed with her the whole time and jumped to catch her when she fell. We stan two halves of a whole idiot.

Slow Burn

Listen, I know that we were going crazy over the will-they-won’t-they all this time, but seeing them together now has made it all worth it. Watching season 1 again knowing that someday Marinette does confess her feelings and get the boy is just everything. All of their little moments, the soft looks Adrien always gave her and how much we clowned on him for being in denial about his feelings for her. How he finally wised up and realized he loved her. Watching their relationship grow and develop over the last several years has certainly been a journey, but looking back at it now, all of those little hints and pieces we picked up but didn’t know if they’d ever pay off have finally paid off. They’re canon. Like actually, properly canon. And I’m loving that they didn’t wait until the very end for them to confess, but instead are continuing the slow burn by addressing their trauma and Adrien’s complicated home life. They’re dating and still fighting to be together. I love that their love wasn’t just an end-all-be-all prize to win in the very end. They got together and things weren’t perfect. All of their problems didn’t magically get solved. They still have to work together to figure things out and are continuing to grow together. It’s the goodest shit.

Carving their own path

The last thing I want to talk about is how much I appreciate that they are carving their own path for their relationship. Their friends all have this image in their mind of what they need to be happy. Adrien’s father has his own image for what Adrien needs to be happy, but the two of them? They’re like thanks but no thanks. We’re gonna figure this out on our own. Their fairytale love story has been anything but since they got together. Marinette was still having nervous breakdowns around him and running away. Adrien’s father was constantly trying to keep them apart. But despite all of that, they continue to work together to sort through all of the messes and be there for each other. After Adrien learns that Marinette has unresolved trauma that he’s been unknowingly triggering all this time, he makes a change to help her work through that. When Adrien is stuck between what he wants and what his dad wants, Marinette promises not to give up on him.

They’ve told us since the very beginning that these two are made for each other, and we’ve gotten bits and pieces over the course of the show demonstrating the ways they work together in perfect sync, but this season is really showing us why these two are made for each other. It’s because they work for it, and they work together for it. Yes, they have undeniable chemistry and are a perfect team, but when things get hard, they don’t give up on each other.

I dunno. I just think they’re neat.

[ghostlyhamburger]

Husband Watches Truth and Lies

they changed the opening theme?

They rerecorded the audio too. I don't know if I like it.

Wait Zoe's in the intro sequence? and Hawkmoth is using TWO miraculous?? What's with Ladybug's new outfit??

I don't know if I like it.

I do like that it's creating more visual interest in the outfit but I don't think that's how you should do it.

We're not even a minute in

Hm. So they gave the unify upgrade to the villain too. I like the outfit aaand he's phantom of the opera. He looks like more of a prick now.

Honestly I feel like the normal box is a lot more inconspicuous

so kwamis don't show up on things but we have seen evidence of their audio existing. in the kwami capture episode where Marinette put on all of them. also they can maintain sentience and awareness in the suit forms so they'd already ahve seen a lot of this stuff when she moved across the city wearing all of them.

I did not hear what Juleka said. I don't think there's any actual words in that.

I remember why I stopped watching this.

{Marinette is babbling to Luka about Adrien and husband is taking a lonnnnng drink}

What the fuck is happening here? "Marinette forgot everything and they're just" Being dicks about it?

This feels like there's an amount of time that has passed between the end of season 3 and the beginning of season 4 and none of it was covered. It clearly isn't the next day, I don't remember them dating, but also Alya didn't know so clearly they haven't been together long?

Also why is every episode with Luka so cringey?

It's like everything else with the show is so subtle and intriguing but the relationship stuff is so goddamn heavy handed. It's hard to enjoy it when it's being forced in our face. It's not even me disliking romantic stuff, some of the greatest stuff in shonen revolves around romance.

The donut of my life??

What is with this show and the stupid orange juice??

They're trying to show off their increased budget here

Bitches you are talking during a movie!

None of the things about Luka should really be flagging as he's an asshole, but so many things flag as he's an asshole!

(Luka got Mari to say "kiss me") That was actually really smooth. Props where props are due.

"I gotta keep my identity a secret more than ever!" So you shout it in the bathroom.

So there's been pretty much cartoon violence in the show so far. Season four opens up with THE BOMBING OF PARIS.

This feels more like first actual episode than first episode of a season. A lot of reestablishing who the characters are and what their relationships are.

He didn't impact the glass at the center where it would have fractured. Yes I will be that pedantic.

Plus he's not actually pressing up against it so it doesn't look like he shattered the glass

This is Mr Pigeon isn't it

(They're at Andre's) Fucking hell this episode has all the worst people.

Nino's wearing WWE shoes.

It's almost like the universe is telling Marinette not to date Luka because it keeps pushing her towards Chat Noir

God Luka's so pretentious

(Husband noticed a poster for Le Coquelicot in the background and asked me to look up what that meant and so I found out it means poppy, and the meaning of a poppy is remembrance and hope for the future) So the universe is reflecting her hope for the future here but also showing that she really can't have that with Luka?

what? THAT'S what akumatizes Luka? "I can't tell you the truth" THAT'S what breaks him?

(husband downed the rest of his drink)

What is this show? Why must it be so stupid? Why must it hurt me? No bitch is that dramatic!

So this is their way of stepping up the villain. Giving him TWO powers.

That seems like such a STUPID idea. putting the amok and the akuma into the same object? if you break one, you break both!

also dude you're literally wearing the thing that says that she cares about you, you are so fucking stupid oh my fucking god

This goes against the aloof nature they gave Luka in other episodes. so going back to the heavy handed bullshit

So he can force akumatization. (Actually I think on some level Luka gave in because he did want to know Marinette's secret) That makes more sense, plays into his duplicitous nature

Finally something more important to Luka than getting into Marinette's pants!

(Ladybug gags herself) The Totally Spies influence keeps rearing its head

So there's one thing I don't understand. In earlier episodes we've seen that Hawkmoth can force akumas to do things. Why isn't he doing that now?

Look at Tom being a good father!

Why do I recognize [Ziggy's] voice

Wow really showcasing the quick thinking abilities of Chat

Why did they make Chat more tan

Yeah putting the whole amok and akuma into the same object seems like a stupid idea. also is there a point to de-evilizing the amok when it has no sentience?

oh she doesn't say bye bye little butterfly anymore

That was a pretty good episode if you don't count the first 15 minutes

All right that's actually a really good moment for Jagged

All right so that to me says they're gonna stop with the romantic bullshit till the end of the series but I KNOW that's not the case.

and that's this episode!

Props to Jagged for actually confronting his own inadequacies and trying to do better for what he should be. Also I guess I kind of understand Luka a bit. It's not easy growing up without a father figure. It was hard enough not seeing my own often, it must be worse having NO father figure. It's probably why a lot of anime that are male centric with a lot of older male characters really hit home with me, because they could teach me paternal morals. Luka clearly didn't have that. Even though anime is more popular in France than it ever was in America.

(So what you're saying is Adrien is more well adjusted than Luka because he's a weeb.) Yes actually!

This really ties into my thoughts of Adrien and Luka being mirrors of each other, Kagami and Marinette being mirrors of each other, Adrien and Marinette being reflections, even Kagami and Luka being reflections.

Adrien and Kagami are obviously reflections with the isolation and fascination with anime and fencing but Adrien had a friend in Chloe and Kagami had no one.

I could keep going

(He is still going)

(so at the time I was pissed at Luka, because I thought it was shitty when a girl breaks up with a guy for his response to be "that's okay I'll wait"). I see it differently. So I disagree. I don't think that was their intent. I think they were trying to show Luka's emotional intent. Luka came out of the akumatization and realized he was being unfair to Marinette. He realized that with the gift and everything that she was trying to be there for him and that she just still couldn't tell him. So when she broke up with him, he understood that she was overwhelmed, and even though she didn't say she couldn't be with him right now, he understood what she meant. It just went over badly because the episode was so heavy handed at the beginning.

I don't like what they did to Juleka in basically making her mumble mouth, in previous seasons she was just shy and didn't talk much. also they changed her personality.

(TIME FOR LIES)

The weirdest thing about the series so far is they have random bits of speeding up people's dialogue to make it fit and it doesn't work.

Why didn't they start the first episode like this? We followed Marinette through the previous episode. We should've kept with that and followed Adrien through the first episode.

why is the camembert not stored in the fridge

Did Plagg just talk to him through the phone?

that's a stein of milk

those sneaky bitches

when did they give Kagami freckles?

I wish Kagami wasn't the only one who had a unique suit.

Considering Kagami hates lies, does she not use feints in fencing then? that would turn her episode point into an actual character quirk.

There could also be more characters in the fencing class that we knew besides Adrien and Kagami. it's cool that adrien wears the same thing as everyone else but it's forcing Kagami to stand out that she's wearing something different. Actually considering how controlling her mother is that may not be her choice.

The timing on this is just too weird. It made sense from the Ladybug perspective but the amount of time between things. They had a walk away from the boat and had a whole ass talk and a whole ass Hawkmoth thing and Ladybug having her transformation sequence in the time it took them to walk down the stairs

wow he really just nuked the entire Kagami/Adrien thing in this one episode

"I only ever have this much fun with you" YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND

It was bright as frickin day when they defeated Truth

See this actually makes a lot more sense because they are meant to be younger and less emotionally stable. I think it actually works really well.

Considering the fact that Hawkmoth is lying that would include him. and why didn't he give her a sentimonster?

Fang want cake

Are they actually gonna use Chloe to an effect? The most honest, brutally honest bitch?

FANG WANT CAKE

Fang the best

is her orb getting bigger?

Actually that was just a really good episode. the only things that don't work are the parts that conflict with the previous.

Yeah this episode hurts

Why did they give Ladybug such an ass

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: ML Season 5 episode 20 Revelation

(Spoilers below because its out of order)

-Lila is lying to her mother

-And now lying to her... mother? who it deaf? Wait that is not her mother

-You know I heard the rumor that she had multiple moms. I thought is was a joke? Is this like that Bitch in Orphan?

-Lila is Loving the attention.

-Also there is no way people use that ring that much... Actually I take it back I  know people obsessed with their phones

-Girl is a pathological liar and everyone just eats it up. I swear people an ACTUAL siri to fact check this s***

-Lila be trying to turn Sabine against her own daughter wtf

-Oh Alliance update. Oh look, Lila is OUT

-The whole room just glanced at her. DAMN!!! ROASTED

-And she is gonna try and recover from that humiliation

-Okay I will give her credit for that spin, that was a smart move. But you can tell that Lila is seething

-Lila collecting Moms like they are pokemon cards

-Yes Gabriel get worse.

-Damn! Gabriel Roasted Lila like he makes Pancakes. I love when Awful people are awful to eachother.

-Also his plan is evil and I kind of love it. (Way to be an irredeemable scumbag. I hope your magic cancer kills you)

-Gabriel literally felt her hate and then went “Nah. That would be dangerous”

-Lila Knows hes monarch. I forgot about that. Question is... How does she know?

-Cute Adrinette right off the bat.

-Adrien and Marinette having no idea about the update.

-Rose is like “Why your dad shipping you with Kagami when You and Marinette are the OTP for life” Mood rose. Mood

-Adrien and Marinette totally ignoring the BS gabriel be pushing out

-Sabrina getting sloppy with her work.

-Wait... Did miss Bustier NOT realize Sabrina had been doing her homework until now?

-Why would you explain you had sabrina forge your homework? Are you braindead Chloé? Probably but anyway

-I 100% agree with Marinette on this. Chloé shouldnt get off so easily. Especially since she JUST Admitted to never doing her homework. Like if I was a teacher I would take her to the principals office and discuss having her sent back a few grades based on a Literacy test

-I cant take Chloé seriously. Like you can tell they are trying so hard to make her a little s*** even more so than in season 1

-Lila be scheming

-Marinette even giving the teacher lip. You go Marinette.

-And Lila’s turning the situation

-Miss Bustier was still reeling from the fact that Chloé never did any work. Feels like a cop out.

-Alya... I am going to say this once. You are a complete idiot. Do you think MAYBE just MAYBE Marinette is right about Lila? ESPECIALLY CAUSE YOU KNOW MARINETTE IS LADYBUG! For f***s sake this is a really bad look girl. I am disappointed in you.

-Good on Adrien for finally saying something. Boy is like “Yea I am done playing nice, My deal with Lila is void. She f***ing sucks”

-Nino you. are just as bad too

-Me at Alya

-Sabrina knows Lila is sus now and isnt sure what to do

-Miss Bustier, you maybe a future milf, but you disappoint me greatly

-This is shaping up to be Chameleon 2.0

-The whole class hearing Lila nominate Chloe as her deputy is such a “Bruh”

-Wow... the class are idiots.

-I swear Lila walks around with a simpleman field or some s***

-Adrien and Marinette are immune to the BS

-Lila just rolling nat 20′s on loaded dice

-Wait there are only two weeks of school left? Seriously? And they are doing this?

-That being said, I do like that Lila is a personal foe for Marinette, being that she is the opposite of Marinette.

-Marinette is completely right. I love how chloe is NODDING like “Oh she right. I am glad she understands”

-Okay Lila I see what you doing. Okay, full points on manipulation, that was a clever little spin.

-I still think Lila is ridiculous but when she gets one good scheme it works. But yea... the class are idiots

-Monarch is like “Oh thats some good hatred... Wait a minute”

-Then he was dumb enough to actually be like “Meh its not at me”

-Lila playing Monarch like a fiddle. And calling Her Hoaxer

-Giving her the power of Illusion once again.

-Oh, I really like the red and Black color scheme on Lila’s akuma form. Its basically red Volpina but I like it

-Hoaxer  controlling everyone with an aliance ring.

-Oh thats clever

-They convinced everyone she is Monarch. Thats hilarious

-Ivan and Mylene are safe since they didnt trust alliance. (Thank goodness)

-Plagg always insightful

-Alya knows that Marinette is Ladybug... so how could she buy the illusion... because alliance control.

-Oh she can feel when the rings are removed

The meme potential

-When you out of this world.

-Lucky charm is a sewing machine

-Chat noir still call Ladybug is lady, and he calls himself her Kitty cat. 10/10

-Wait Alya is gonna be scarabella?

-How did chat noir get captured so easily? Again... Off Screen?

-Lila using Nathalie to get dirt on gabriel. That is clever

-What does Nathalie know

-WHAT THE F***

- HE WAS A PUNK NAMED GABI GRASSETTE who owned a chip cart

- So he knew Audrey and Andre when younger.

-He also went exploring with Nathalie and Emilie

-Okay Chat noir escaping makes sense. he was trying to bait her out.

-Nathalie is spilling all Gabriel’s secrets to Lila. Thats a clever move by Lila.

-Marinette showing once again why adrien simps for her

-Chat noir simping

-Lila broke her akumatization. Because... her plan was already finished

-Gabriel doesnt even realize he got played by Lila. thinking its Marinette’s fault.

-Oh thats good that Adrien is apologizing (Just like he did in Soulmate survey check out my fic) so thats good

-Marinette is letting Lila have her way so she. can expose her later

-Lila got what she wanted

______________________________________________________________________

-I will say this was Chameleon 2.0 but with a better akuma.

Lila’s plan was actually clever, but everyone was also dumbed down considerably

So I am on the fence.

Also I think Gabriel’s secrets are really f***ing dumb. And Lila’s second half performance and the adrinette are the only two things making me even tolerate the episode

I will say that this was a 5/10

[unchataparis]

A Review of Illusion

This endcard highlights Lila and Marinette’s rivalry, look at the contrast of their body language! Marinette is furious, glaring, watching her back, clearly not trusting Lila to not stick a dagger into it; while Lila appears to be filming a perfume commercial. Lila looks peacefully radiant here, and that’s exactly the image she wants others to hold of her. Despite the commotion over Lila’s actions in Season 3 and the hype for her in Season 4, she didn’t appear that much. I hope this wouldn't still be the case in Season 5. Lila is a fantastic character with a lot of villainous potential. If written properly, she could really shine, even more so than she does already.

I like this segment of a newscast interviewing a variety of people on their options of Ladybug’s capabilities (again, Chat Noir has evaporated). Having all the Miraculous stolen from her strikes a huge blow upon Ladybug’s reputation; most Parisians support her, but I bet there are quite a few who’ve lost sufficient faith in her.

Really appreciating the newscast followed by the debate followed by the Alliance ad. Feels very real.

Adrien doesn’t like the Alliance rings because it’s literally his identity stolen from him and commercialised, but Plagg embraces any kind of lazy luxuries like a moth to flame.

"Thanks to the Alliance ring, anyone can make you say anything." What an extraordinarily horrifying concept.

Gabriel, you are screwing up so badly, I can’t even emphasis how badly.

And the famous Agreste kitchen is finally revealed. It looks quite nice.

Hopefully, they can have all the intimate conversations a family can have once night has fallen and the kitchen light is low here.

French toast, the American dub says, over the very obvious animation of a pancake being flipped.

This man smiling is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen today.

Gabriel is almost completely leeched of colour. remember when he used to be blonde? And deeper blue-eyed? It’s like his life is draining out of him.

Gabriel knows he’s dying. He’s making amends.

"I’m not comfortable with my face on these things." "We can spend more time together…but if you want things to go back to the way they were, just say the word." I see that Gabriel has not lost his flair for manipulation. Good on Adrien for bringing up his concerns, but it’s understandable why he won’t push it.

This is such a cool perspective, I don’t think Miraculous has ever done split-screen before. And Alya is wearing the little hip-bag Marinette made for her, even though Trixx isn’t residing in it anymore.

I was watching both screens and the videos playing on their respective Alliance ring/phone. This was cool, the background and facial expression correlates with what they were expressing, it must’ve been difficult to animate.

"La Resistance." "There’s a resistance?" "Not yet, but you can be the first new member if you sign up."The comedy of this exchange in flawless. Good on Nino for not being too burdened by his lack of Miraculous. He was never a permanent Holder like Alya, but he grown Wayzz’s absence quickly.

"You don’t feel weird talking to these things?" "Well, it’s only my image, and it’s allowing me to spend more time with people I care about, like my father, my friends. You." Adrien successfully gaslighted.

This episode is full of great cinematography. The switching shots between Adrien, Alya, and Nino at the lunch table as they discuss the Resistance is quite personable, and really highlights the silliness of the shenanigan they’re involved in. 

"We can tell Marinette and Adrien that we were superheroes, it’s not like we have any Miraculous that Monarque could steal from us." Nino, you are so fired.

Adrien being approached by both Chloé and Lila. Chick magnet.

Lila has an Alliance ring. And her avatar is Adrien. Of course it is.

And now all of Adrien’s fans know where his school is.

Lila alerted Adrien’s fans to his location so that she would be able to spy on the Resistance meeting? She wanted to disrupt the gathering, I guess, get Marinette away from Adrien. And when that didn’t work, when they split off together instead of scattering, her next best bet is to eavesdrop on their conversation.

The way Lila is sitting is so pretty.

Realising from this image that most of the class’ parents have already been revealed. RIP Nathaniel, Nino, Ivan, Rose, and Kim.

This is the most inane plan in Miraculous yet. Inane and hilarious.

Animation error, Gabriel's suit was clean before Adrien dunks on it a second time.

Lila did help Gabriel exponentially. If Gabriel wasn’t Monarque and he wasn’t aware of the plan, he would’ve flown into a rage that’ll make him a prime target for Akumatisation.

They spilled entrée, main, and dessert on Gabriel. Nino should’ve come into the classroom with some beverage. Could’ve completed the course.

"You see, Alya? I’m a curse for Adrien. All this proves is that I’d better stay away from him." Girl, enough with the self-hatred, you didn’t do anything.

Alya being the voice of reason, she proposes that everyone needs to apologise to Gabriel.

Enough with the dramatics.

I have to admire Nino for his rigid, unwavering dedication. If the  situation is already screwed, peel whatever benefits you can from it.

This is a pretty risk plan on Monarque’s behalf. Just one touch and the Mirage would be dispersed. Of course, chances are Ladybug and Chat Noir would just assume the Collector also has the power of illusion but surely the suspicions would start building up. The Collector would have to aim to miss Ladybug and Chat Noir on purpose. The Collector’s teleporting power reminds me of the Spot from Spiderverse.

This man is going to die. The amount of Kwami he’s using is slowly draining him of his sanity and vitality.

Huh, that’s a good plan from Monarque. Joining the battle like this, Chat Noir and Ladybug are going to have some trouble dodging all these tiny butterflies, especially if they don’t even know he’s there.

But the man looks ridiculous. He looks like an army of toy soldiers.

Ladybug realised something is wrong the moment Chat Noir froze. Didn’t waste a second to flounder. Great battle instincts.

Hiding in the sewers wasn’t a good idea after all. Even if the water puddles didn’t give the Monarques’ footsteps away, the echoing would’ve alerted Ladybug to the fact that there were many more people than visible. Being in the streets, aboveground, with the clamour of pedestrians, shine of the Sun, and continuous metropolitan noises would’ve hidden Monarque much better.

Magical bolt of lightning. Huh. Well, sending lightning bolts is a pretty cool power.

The spaghetti got cleaned off.

"In order to do good, anything goes." Thank you, Gabriel. Very wise.

This man could win gaslighting championships – he is really laying it thick this season. It doesn’t even seem cartoonishly exaggerated anymore, I could see actual manipulative parents doing what he does. I don’t think he ever planned to take Adrien out of school in the first place, he just played at enacting that final command, and, of course, overturning this decision and apologising to Adrien about it would grant the illusion that he is a changed and renewed man, when in reality, he’s the same Machiavellian bastard he always has been.

"Père, I don’t want to wear the Alliance anymore, do you mind?" "Of course not." Because the one person Gabriel will never suspect to be Ladybug or Chat Noir is the son that’s 24/7 under his nose.

Starting to wonder what affliction each sauce has with the personality of the named Resistance member. For Lila, Comrade Sweet and Sour is obviously a play on her two-faced personality, but for everyone else? Is Adrien mayo because he's basic? And Marinette is a foundational sort of person that could be built upon?

After analysing Alya and Adrien’s nails, it’s really noticeable how long Lila’s nails are, and they even have French tips! Very stylish, just like her.

This episode establishes the the ordinary folk of Paris, especially the ex-Heroes, aren’t giving up just because they don’t have any more Miraculous, they’ll fight however they can. It’s curious that Nino calls his secret brigade the Resistance, instead of the Patrol, the Anti-Monarque Squad, or the Neighbourhood Watch. The Resistance implies that Monarque has already won, and they’re only struggling against him, trying to prevent him from gaining further ground.

This episode also marks a revolution in Adrien and Gabriel’s relationship. Finally, after seven years of being ignored and belittled, Gabriel has not only reached out to his son but tried to form a genuine connection with him, granting him amenities such as an relief from modelling and small privileges like being able to stay at school for lunch. Gabriel is definitely trying to make amends with Adrien before it’s too late. Unfortunately for Adrien, this miraculous (ha) turn of heart is neither permanent nor truly sincere.

Lila comes onto the playground again, worming her way not only into Marinette’s tight-knit friend group but the very same group of ex-Heroes who are making a stand against Monarque. I’m predicting that, sooner or later, the members of La Resistance are going to realise they’re among fellow heroes, and Lila is going to have some interesting leverage with this information. Whatever movement the Resistance can enact will be nullified by the fact that they have Monarque's double agent in their midst.

[lilbit-of-kizzy]

Live blogging the 9 miraculous season 5 episodes on Disney+ below the cut! (Spoilers obviously lol and it's uh...long and rambly 😅)

Ep1

Gabriel looks absolutely ridiculous omg 🤣

Bunny cat!

Me:....did he just die???

Chat: did we just...defeat him??

Me: nah fam he dead welcome to orphanhood

Someone please get this girl some real therapy my god

Ya gotta feed your pets Gabe jesus, I love how the kwamis were just willing to let him die 😅😂

The bunny miraculous makes Chat's face so cute lol

Get. His. ASS NATHALIE

Ep2

Omg grand master's shoes 🤣🤣

Thank you Plagg we've all been saying that for years

Love square reverse here we go

Uh-oh scetti-os

Ep3

Oh hey...they actually said "yeah no one's that stupid, magic literally stops you from recognizing the holders" also I love the Kwamis annoying Gabe lmao meanmeanmeanmeanmean

"Tom? Is it really the time to be baking croissants?"

"Yes dear the plot demands it"

Gabe just....doing all this shit in front of two pajama clad teenage girls while Marinette and Alya just.....stand there looking so confused 🤣🤣

Reunion?? Later????? TAKE THE MIRACULOUS WHY ARE YOU MONOLOGUING??????

Told you 😮‍💨

Aw baby boy :(

Oh shit

Dude the rings look even more stupid 🤣 but the cocoon transformation is pretty bad ass

Ep4

Why does everyone have clones?

Phht banana Adrien

Well damn Tikki

"it's probably just a bug" lol puns

Ooooh it's both their gift that's fascinatingooomg that baby doll kill it kill it with fire o.< Nooo they're multiplying....oh no my babies :(

Oops you made him mad....oh jeez really mad...

Giiiiiirl

(real talk a: therapy, both of them b:....the problem with teenagers is, when not shown the actual consequences of an action...that action becomes much easier to repeat.....ie I know smoking is bad, but I can't see or feel it affecting my lungs so it's probably fine........Adrien baby boy I know the part of your brain that controls executive function is still developing but fight it my dude)

Ep5

*hissss*....*HISSSSSSSSS*

Omg Nino's look of disgust at being lied to

Whyyyy does Mari have 3 plates of spaghetti?? (I'm gonna just assume it's not spaghetti but why 3 plates 😂)

Publicity stunt, though yeah Nino

This is the 2nd time Mari's used her klutzieness around Gabe to get away with something but uh...has she been klutzy lately otherwise?

"and lack of dietary quality of the cafeteria" why must he be funny?

Gabe stop mentally abusing his son for his own gains challenge

Oh that's interesting....he didn't go with being mad, just being a bad father....ummmm

Dramatic much

Phht Nino the condiment names gotta stop

......*hisssssssss*

Nino....pick different names

I love that everyone is outgrowing Mari, the fact that they're all growing at all is pretty cool

Ep6

Reverse love square pt2: Adrien is still dense af (my boy gotta thing for eyes)

Omg she actually answers in Spanish I thought that was a meme 🤣 (is it Spanish in French as well??....what do they use in the Spanish dub??)

It's uh called hormones my dude...hormones kicked in

A few DAYS ago??? It's been weeks right????? Continuity people it is important

I like how they're handling this, cause Mari is absolutely right, she's built up a fake person

Lol Luka and Kagami are just like "stop" neither of them are gonna let her cop out of this 😂

Cat slipped out there for a sec lol

Ofc she carries measuring tape

Poor baby boy (how many times have I said that?)

Luka do you know how to OPEN those doors??

Oop Reverse love square Mari: Oh No He's Hot (I knew this was coming lol)

The sword wasn't a meme 🤣

Oh look trauma

Ya waited too long...wait a bit longer it'll all sort out... hopefully lmao

Ep 7

Oh he's got it baaaad

Plagg....you were pushing him towards Mari like 2 days ago

Get his assssss, I love how worried she is for Adri....YASSS QUEEN

Not well Adrien....not well

Can uh....can people see when they're paralyzed?....nope 😮‍💨

I really like the swap designs

Oh no the overflirting comes from Plagg 😂

"My suit has a really weird influence on you" yeah that's the cheese crazy kwami

Aw Adrien's voice is deepening

Tikki is so full of anxiety

Does Alya just live with Mari now 🤣

Aww 🥺

Ep8

Hey Alix went to NC!!!

Forsooth!

Oh look....someone being corrupted by social media...topical!

Trivia boy lol

Omg the history lesson 🤣

👍🏻

*gasp* Gib (if you understand that I applaud your taste in musicals)

Plagg spit is radioactive be careful Adrien

Ep9

And a bell!

Alya: touch grass

Oh uh-oh actual marichat wow (also what does she say in French for Chat Noir lol I wanna know)

Aww he's nervous

Uhhh Mari if he likes you he won't like Ladybug... they sure are cute though

Mari you aren't in a suit....you should not be that high up that precariously

Oh noooo they're so close (at least he knows she loves both of him)

She booped his snoot :3

Good job Adrien, that is not easy to do but exactly the right thing to do

Oh ok that's one way to do it but god poor kids

Aw that neck touch

You're melting my butt!

Why are they still going with the charms? They don't work 🤣

Gabe's rotting arm is uh...really disturbing to think about

Mari you're 13...you have so much time to figure love out

Welp... that's it lol

[miraculouscontent]

Anonymous asked:

I don't know about you, but selling the main pairing giving a greeting kiss by having Alya physically stopping Mari from pushing Adrien away is very uncomfortable.

It's like we've traded away AdriChat forcing boundaries in private with nobody to stop him to now making it a group effort to steamroll over every boundary MariBug ever makes. I wish Alya cared more about Marinette's comfort than the ship. It's gonna get to a point where she'll never be able to maintain any boundaries.

Anonymous asked:

So... Multiplication.

I have to say, I was horrified that they went straight from Marinette telling Alya that she did not want to focus on her crush with Adrien, and very clearly, so it couldn't be misinterpreted, to Alya PHYSICALLY PREVENTING Marinette from avoiding an unwanted kiss from Adrien, and not just once, THREE TIMES. Thankfully Ikari Gozen came just before he was about to succeed, because Alya was literally holding both of Marinette's hands down so she couldn't stop him as she had the previous two times.

Anonymous asked:

Don't you just love how casually Adrien is trying to smooch Marinette after realizing he loves her?

I hate that we have to sit here and talk about why it’s wrong for grown white men to write “jokes” about a white boy who can’t take a damn hint and a best friend who will physically hold the female protagonist in place even after she’s made clear that she doesn’t want this.

And naturally the fandom will eat it up and praise Alya for being “a representation of the fandom just wanting Adrien to kiss Marinette already” because Marinette’s agency doesn’t matter as long as The Ship is happening.

Also, just throwing this out there--

- Alya bringing up Marinette’s past attempts of giving up on Adrien (as if Alya wasn’t involved at all in forcing Marinette back in Adrien’s direction) is beyond insulting.

- “It’s just a friendly kiss!” No, it’s not. If Adrien had purely friendly intentions, then not only would Alya/Nino be getting one, but Adrien would’ve been giving them to Marinette before (remember back in “Ephemeral” where we all mocked Adrien for calling Marinette one of his closest friends? yeah).

- If Adrien supposedly loves Marinette so much, then maybe he should be able to use his eyes and see that her rejecting his cheek kiss the first time means that he shouldn’t try it again. This is Season 5, there’s no excuse for this behavior anymore and there hasn’t been for a long time.

- Even if Marinette genuinely wanted to be kissed or whatever, it doesn’t excuse her being physically held in place. At the end of the day, she was rejecting the kiss and had already stated her feelings on how troublesome the Adrien crush had been. Hell, even if she was already in a relationship with him, she should be allowed to not want to be kissed and those feelings should be respected. Even people in real life relationships have moments where they’re just not in the mood for physical contact, which is completely valid.

[breakandbuildfiction]

Ladybug is actually awful

Throughout the show of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir or whatever the full title is we see both main characters act kinda... not so great, but I maintain that the worst of the two, by far, is Marinette/Ladybug herself. Specifically in regards to being a partner to Char Noir.

Yes Chat has his own issues, mostly in terms of constant flirting and asking for a date despite being told no, but he is not nearly as bad as some people say he is.

Now ignoring things like not going to the date which was justified, the NY special thing and the trashcan incident which while not excusable were done in the heat of intense and stressful moments, there are still a LOT of things that Ladybug has done that could qualify as gaslighting, abuse of trust, and just straight up disrespect.

First up is the Grimoire, she never even tells Chat Noir it exists, and even if we say that only Guardians are allowed to read it she still doesn’t bother to tell Chat anything she learns from it that could affect him. I’ll put that as a minor infraction but it plays into some other things.

Second is how even when she learns-- via Alya’s outside perspective-- that the power of a Miraculous can be evolved, altered, and enhanced via imagination and doesn’t have to strictly follow it’s default she again never tells Chat Noir anything about it. Don’t say its a right of passage, she didn’t learn it herself either.

Third, Alya herself. Marinette tells her her secret ID and makes her a permanent holder in Gang of Secrets, but Chat isn’t told for twelve episodes-- a timeframe that is at least two weeks and is likely closer to two (one episode every three in universe days as a lowball still means five weeks) months-- and then only in the form of Ladybug being a no show for a fight and Scarabella taking her place. Now, even if you say there was ‘no way to tell Chat about Scarabella before Marinette had to leave to go to her aunt’s and she tried to get out of it!’ that one doesn’t track because she had time to call Alya, for Alya to go to the bakery, and for the hand off to happen but apparently not enough time to transform and leave a fifteen second voicemail, and two Chat should have been told about Rena being a permanent holder LONG before that because news flash, she is a BIG security risk seeing as Shadowmoth-- or Monarch-- knows her secret ID. Not telling Chat Noir was nothing but disrespect and showcasing distrust in her partner. Then she just gives a placating ‘I won’t abandon you’ to him and everything is all okay because Chat loves her and wants to believe her.

The last thing I’m going to bring up-- though its not the last instance to be found-- is her plan in Ephemeral. There is absolutely NO way to excuse that plan. She emotionally manipulates him and abuses his trust with the express intention of betraying any and all feelings he has for her. She literally uses the line that Chat would only ever give up his ID to her because he loves her. And the only reason she ‘doesn’t go through with it’ is either A) she finds out its Adrien and her simp mode activates so hard she can’t bring herself to react or give up his ID, or B) Time goes crazy and she loses her chance. So really she does go through with it, she did go through with it, and it should not be given a pass.

Ladybug is in fact a toxic partner to Chat Noir who does not respect him, only trusts him as far as using him as a meat shield or a distraction, and actively pushes him aside for practically an entire season before she is forced to start using him again because all the other heroes are no longer available.

[imthepunchlord]

While I don't exactly agree with the exageratipn of the classmates in salt fics, I DO think they're not good friends most of the time.

I mean, Marinette seemed to have zero friends and depression pre Alya then suddenly she's friends with the whole class (minus Lila, Chloé and Sabrina) when they never tried reaching for her before? Then there's all those moments when they blaming HER for their actions or impose their opinion om her.

Sure, they do have wholesome moments, but eps like Frightningale when they were already at the line imply otherwise. It's... weird and inconsistent. Literally the only friend she has who never did anything to her was AURORE.

A big part of that just stems from the ML creators not caring about the friendship. Its just to jerk and tease this romance and drag it out for 5+ seasons. And honestly, you get a lot more romance focused than friendship.

Like, aside from Girl Squad, who do we see Mylene hang out with outside Ivan?

Marinette and Alya's "friendship" does exist outside her dating Nino, but it's more about matchmaking than actually being friends and having fun together.

Nino and Adrien, they haven't fully really hung out much at all post him dating Alya. Can they even be counted as best friends anymore?

Rose and Juleka are romantically coded, and you don't really see them hangout one on one with other characters. I consider us lucky that we even got Kitty Section's existence.

They do have Kagami wanting friends, but they also got her saying that she'd choose her romance of Adrien over her first friend; which can echo off this show's theme of romance more important than the friendship!

Biggest shame is that some of the possible friendship that exists could've been really solid, and it would've helped some characters. Like, Alya's matchmaking, I can find debatable how well that works with what her character is supposed to be; though, who could work as the passionate matchmaker in Marinette's life who can push a little too much and get caught up in what things could be? Rose. And hey, Rose and Marinette both love pink and plushies, and Rose is interested in perfume which goes in hand with fashion.

Rose and Marinette would've made a lot of sense as friends.

Mylene seems to have an interest in acting, so her and Nino could've been solid friends. This could also extend to Adrien if you play off the headcanon of him interested in acting too.

Gaming also seems to be one of the few things Adrien actually likes as his own and not through his dad, so he could've befriended Max. And Kim being very sportsy could've made basket ball fun for Adrien and they get to be goofy together and challenge each other on parkour.

Nathaniel likes superheroes so him and Alya should've clicked and really get into superheroes together, and make their miraculousonas.

Juleka and Ivan both have a gothic aesthetic going on so they could've been buddies too.

There's ground work here for some possible friendship dynamics to exist; but the creators of ML just don't care about the friendship.

Only romance matters.

[ilikelookingatthings]

honestly yeah. They built up some nuance in her. like we saw her sincerely care about adrien and sabrina at different points and sincerely apologize a few times as well. How am I suppoused to stay that angry at someone who had to ask with her own mouth why her mom doesn't love her? and yet the show tried to act like she was always the 10nth level of irrdeemable despite all the build up where whole POINTS of episodes was to notice that chloe wasn't pure evil and one note as it seemed?

Personally I think there is still a way to save Chloe's arc becuase while its true the show tried to make chloe WAY meaner after siding with hawkmoth which felt out of character since it wasn't feeling natural or inline with her motives before...I actually thought it feeling a bit forced was intentional as chloe was relying on something familar as a crutch to distract herself and others from chloe's real vulnerable feelings about the situation...which actually paralleled how both adrien and Marinette relied on putting on a bit of a front and relied on previous behaviour to distract themselves and others from their problems.

Mari went back to her crush on adrien to make herself feel more normal like she wouldnt have to give up on things due to beinng guardian and becuase it reminded her of the time before she became guardian and before everything was changing and she tried to focus on being guardian and seemed on the surface to rely on her firendship with alya to distract herself from her guilt and feeling pressure after the loss of master fu while subtlely we see her pushing people away at points.

Adrien tried to go back to his crush on ladybug to distract himself from how chloe spiraled and wasnt his friend, kagami broke up with him and wasnt his friend, nathalie was getting sick similar to his mom and he was being shut out of information again, his dad was still distant from adrien and trying to distract himself from how he was shaken over not being able to be there is battle as much as he used to before no matter how much he tried....using the crush was easier that confront his issues definitly weren't crush based and how he was trying to use it as somehing familar to be ladybug's rock wth everything changing and connect to when the partnership felt more equal.

where Chloe spiralling and being mean to distract herself from her guilt and truly facing all f her feelings after siding wth hawkmoth that first time...feeling like she burned her bridged with LB entirely since being mean is familar and hurt less trying to be good and failing.

I actually thought what was interesting was while mari and others thing chloe sided with hawkmoth due to a entitlement due to being the bee hero.....Chloe had actually understood in miraculous she couldnt be the bee for pollen's safty and so she wouldnt be targetted....only for chloe to be targetted anyway...unable to defend herself where NOT being queen bee didn;t protect pollen either...

Gabriel literally set up a scenerio where he isolated chloe on a rooftop by targetting her parenst and letting her know chloe was the reason her family was targetted to her face,cutting the ladybug signal then digging into chloe's insecurities and framing things to target chloe;s frusteration at ladybug...where chloe only agreed to side with him when he took pollen and the other kwami's hostage....and when he agree to release her parents.

with mari's tendency to be incosistant with her rules and giving gabriel a edge.

CHloe agreed only when he released her parents and the fatc if she had said no she would have been defensless with a displeased adult villian where he would have kept pollen and the rest and after he manifactered a scenerio where chloe would HAVE to say yes.

considering the show has made a point of pointing out that the akuma villians are victims who were taken advantaged of when they couldnt think clearly in the heat of their negative emotions and that the REAL bad guys are the ones who emotionally manipulate and take advanatage to encourage and enable the worst ways to handle the situation.......

I feel like chloe represents a victim who isn't a good victim...the whole point of emotional manipulation is the victim thinks its their idea....they dont want to feel powerless so they aren;t going to admit to themselves their choices weren't entirely their own but thats what the manipulator NEEDS. the show has made a point of showing that the akuma villians are victims who are being manipulated....so I actually think a interesting factor is its CLEAR to US that chloe was manipulated and that she agreed in a situation where it WASN'T feelings of feeling entitled to being a hero that was the main reason she agree...the undercurrent was he took people hostage and said things in a way to give chloe's frusterated feelinng of helplessness to target LB instead of him.

Where chloe doubled down after returning to normal becuase she has no reason to think LB would trust her or being understanding when there was permanent damage in the side heros being known and how chloe fell back on the old habit of blaming someone else becuase blaming yourself feels bad and no one likes to do that.

Where then chloe pushed others and adrien away and eventually Sabrina so no was was there to REALLY try to reach out to Chloe becuase chloe was pushing people away and acting out to cope...

which can show what happens if you have a bad coping mechanism and push others away and how its easy to NOT REALIZE there were signs chloe was acting out becuase she needed help becuase we were used to Chloe being mean. She's giving them what they had expected from her and it was her trying to feel in control by owning her action....even though it was clearly not something she had REALLY wanted to do before.

We even see chloe then enabled by her dad...but also manipulated and enabled and pushed further by lila and Hawkmoth at other times the more she ended up isolated herself much like akuma victims...only without the butterfly coming at the same time as the manipulation....

I think chloe facing some karma for how far she fell makes sense since your still responsible for your actions and people aren't always going to look into why you were acting the way you where....

but it also feelings disctinctive that something feels off becuase the show made a point of using chloe to help teach mari to look deeper into people..even people she dislikes and to see they aren't simply evil or bad and can be redeemed and complex.

Mari seeing chloe as irrdeemable makes sense becuase mari doesn;t have all the information WE know and mari's most consistant flaw )even if it can work in mari's favor at times) is mari's tedency to jump to conclusions and judge people harsher and a bit too soon at times without having ALL the facts.

So I actually think chloe's arc could be saved if a point in future seasons is for mari to find out that MARI was wrong about chloe being irredeemable and realizing the manipulation or deeper aspects.....kindof like in antibug. that it points out the dad dumping chloe was wrong of him and that he is responsible for how chloe acted. Maybe finding out that good reason chloe had agreed to side with hawkmoth initially that git hidden by a surface bad reason.

Like it could have a benefit or pointing out as a victim of bullying its not mari's job to fix chloe if chloe improves more now that she's reached rock bottom and how your still responsible for the fallout when you get manipluated...but also pointing out once again that to REALLY defeat a villian you have to try to understand their root cause for acting the way they have...and how you can't just disregard the manipulation of someone you dislike.

and it would point to one of mari's weakness in the show which is mari might SEEM like the logical one...but mari is VERY driven by her emotions and bias for better or worse and how lowkey usually a main reason mari has learned to look deeper into people was adrien and chat...and her initial reason for giving chloe a chance was due to more shallow reasons of liking adrien rather than REALLY believeing in chloe.

it honestly reminded me of what happened when Mari tried to 'save' Sabrina and show her better friendship by taking her from chloe...only to kindof half ass it(ot thanks to evilstrator but still eve without evilstrator getting involved mari was clearly flubbing it up a bit). Where Sabrina got hurt by Mari just leaving her behind that Sabrina went back to Chloe.

Even more when its still not PROPERLY addressed that mari has a issue with being consistent with the rules and doesn't look at things from others perspective accurately and mari's inconsistency with the rules tends to backfire at times ALOT.

Chloe has reached rock bottom...but that means Chloe COULD really change on her own now.

and if they are smart about it they could point out chloe feeling replaced by zoey WAS pretty valid at this point as well even if it didnt meant choe acting mean to zoey was right...like what if zoey was more worried about Chloe now that Chloe was left just with the mom? or finds out about the hostage situation from pollen? or what is Zoey showed some of her bad aspects that they SAY she had but never actually show...where she might be nice to our main caste but kindof sus when it comes to her sister...or heck maybe zoey could worry about chloe and be a bit upset no one else is or something.

or maybe adrien will find out more since a point is things are not as they seem and since we know Chloe was manipulated by not just gabriel but LILA who is now even more sus.

considering mari never really HAD to get over her struggle when it came to tough conversations and confrontation since the show had adrien fall for mari on his own and find out through andre the icecream man and had her mainly seem right in how she handled gabe depsite it resulting in a wish........

i think that inconsistency with Chloe COULD be intentional where they could use it in the future when it comes to mari REALLY starting to adressing the core of mari's main flaws which the show usually side steps.

Mind you I'm still tryig to wrap my head around that weird out of character episode which gave mar pool and love trauma regarding kim and chloe whihc had kim look worse, chloe being WAY worse than they ever implied and adrien almost catacysming kim even though adrien is generally the understanding one....

but considering that episode was inconsistent as well in continuity we'll see if that still gets used.

and considering the show has been consistent in pointing out the ones who do the manipulating are the REAL bad guys...I don;t think we'll see the last of chloe at this point...especially when I think they could use Adrien with Chloe to adress some things since Adrien is still being lied to by his loved ones and chloe's downfall was tied to them as well.

I like how you pointed out chlie feels like a punching bag at times...honestly chloe basically never WINS in the show...and mari and chloe has alot more in common than the show actually adresses which I hope gets pointed out again..

like just saying now that felix is 'redeemed'...what if he gets those videos in adrien's phone back and adrien sees the one chloe left him which was sincerely sweet?

though DAMN it I need them to do SOMETHING interesting with zoey///like whats the POINT of her when they haven't done anything with zoey aside from have her replace chloe as the bee?

OKAY FINALLY ABOUT CHLOE. last time i tried to write something about her it turned into frustrated screaming so ill try not to do that this time.

"i can fix her?" well i can accept her as she is, you don't like the murder? grow up. the atrocities are part of her and i think they're funny.

chloe is built for people to hate, everything about her- from her appearance to her personality everything is engineered to take as much hatred as possible like a punching bag. she's rich, spoiled, a bully, wears make-up, treats her friend like garbage, ungrateful etc. basically, the mean girl archetype you see in a lot of children's tv shows. either the opposite or the wrong love interest (shes mean go for your best friend who is not like other girls instead) to the perfect main character.

the important thing about characters like these is that there's always something charming about them. i can name pacifica from gravity falls, marsha from the owl house, sharpay from high school musical (if i spell any of these wrong im so sorry). you can trust that there will be a line they won't cross- and that there will be something important to them. once a character is fictional you tend to be entertained by their antics regardless of how unpleasant their personality may be in real life- because they aren't real.

the problem with chloe is that- she did have a line she wouldn't cross, things that she would protect- but they took that away from her for no apparent reason

prior to season 3, chloe, while still being herself was a fan of ladybug to the extent that makes me think this poor 14 year old has no idea about lesbianism yet. which in turn made her want to save people and want to apologise for several things that she'd caused.

other episodes in s2 that focused on her development includes her-

-wanting the approval of her mother to the point where she imitates her entire demeanour and personality

-being one of the first people to actively deny getting akumatised

-obtaining the bee miraculous - leading her to work in a team.

all things that lead to a possible redemption arc, right? you think spending an entire season dedicating episodes to her growth would've meant something right?

but.

the end of season 3 had her completely hating ladybug and willfully getting akumatised to defeat her. im not going into what happened - but it was.. really weird? especially because a season later they replaced her role of bee miraculous holder with her half sister, zoey, in the episode after the one zoey was introduced in.

you see, there was no reason to give a character a redemption arc if you're going to destroy it and give what gave her arc some meaning to another, "better" version of her character. there seems to be the misconception that chloe needed to change completely for her to become "likeable" but, she already was likeable to a lot of people in the fandom. hell, i still like her, like the red text earlier suggested, i think she's funny. you couldve used the bee miraculous and zoey storyline as a "who deserves to be a holder and who doesn't" thing, but not after an entire season of writing chloe into a possible redemption arc. not after the show confirms her as a miraculous holder. it genuinely feels like zoey herself was a preteens wattpad self insert oc.

"gave her chances but she didn't take it" arc could have worked as well, but it doesn't feel like that, it felt like you wrote yourself into a corner because giving chloe the bee miraculous was something marionette would've never done in the first place! because giving chloe the bee miraculous a se c o n d t i m e would'nt have made sense in the first place. i get that you can blame it all on marionette being inexperienced and too trusting, but.. god, this doesn't feel like good writing.

look at the season 1 ladybug fangirl chloe and season 4 chloe. season 4 chloe is a punching bag made by a fanfic writer because she's the most evil person in the world and season 1 chloe is a troublemaker. even if i dont really mind what direction they couldve taken her the very fact that she had so much potential but they just decided to make all of that mean nothing is just, so disappointing.

she deserved better.. rest well my queen #slay #girlboss #gaslight

[zoe-oneesama]

AAAAA WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE NEW EP (i screamed many times)

I really liked it! Alya really carried the whole thing, genius level planning in this one on her part! I have minor pet peeves, as per usual, but overall I had a fun time.

-I like that Marinette is getting more sleep on the weekends, lol, and that she can just show up at Alya's place and no one bats an eye. I even like the confirmation that Chat Blanc is a feature in her nightmares and something that she does still think about.

-I like that Nino's afraid of spiders, maybe it was established that he was already afraid of them in Anansi (I haven't watched it yet tbh) but if not it's a nice little continuity that he was effected by it in that way.

-I was cackling immediately when Shadowmoth started belaying his plan, which all hinged on Ladybug delivering to Alya a miraculous that she already had. Plus, I hate to get meta on ya Hawky, but if you explain your entire plan before the plan happens, that's media short hand for "this plan is going to go wrong".

-I liked that Adrien called out Nino's name first when he saw the news, and I liked that he also called out Marinette's. Just cute when they remember that he has friends and cares about them.

-Can't believe...but also totally believe that SM fell for the whole "I need to use the bathroom" ploy. Absolute child's play.

-Also I love all the comics that have come as a result of SM showing up to a fight with coffee. Please keep them coming, forever.

-Alya was a total boss in convincing SM that she's not getting her miraculous anymore. And I've always thought that the Fox is best when the enemy doesn't know they're there, so if Rena Rouge has to fight only in the shadows from now on, I support it.

-The Marichat (though not romantic) was peak. Him listening to Marinette after being so annoyed with being bossed around by Rena, him assuring her that they'll rescue her soon, her supporting his idea to head off Sentibubbler before he can expose Illusion-bug and out Rena's whole illusion. her trying to warn him about SM's attack, him lowkey trying to show off when he escaped the bubble the first time. I like Marichat best when it's friends having each other's back, so this watered my crops and cleared my skin. I am a simple woman of simple tastes and offer my Ladrien friends a hopeful prayer that you are next.

-I liked that Pegabug was only like 45 seconds, thank the Lord.

-I liked that Chat Noir saved Nino first and foremost (and uh left literally everyone else to Ladybug, thanks?) Still, bromance is bromance and I'll take my crumbs.

-I think (?) Chat Noir is over the Rena thing now? At least he's over Rena being on equal partnership as him with Ladybug, especially with how the Rocketear teaser is portraying their friendship as growing. That's not to say there's no possible angst to be had down the line if he finds out she's permanent or that She Knows.

Now the nitpicks:

-I don't love Alya's "Alya vision" but it's way better than how the "Adrien vision" looked.

-Also don't love Alya's fanny pack. Maybe if it was in a contrasting color? Or just solid? Why'd they make it the same pattern as her shirt but just...zoomed in?

-I get they're trying to ramp up the DJWifi drama for Rocketear (and possibly beyond) but I'm sorry Nino "Let's throw a city wide party for Boys Only and purposefully exclude and lie to the Girls about it because Guy Time is Guy Time" Lahiffe, were you bothered that Alya and Marinette wanted a little alone time to talk about something without you? Because I find it hard to feel to bad about that.

-Rena rushing through trying to give Chat Noir the right information making her be careless with her words while a bit frustrating is totally understandable. Also understandable is Chat Noir being angry about it because of how she worded it or because of the situation itself. But him destroying a piece of property in his anger is kinda frightening to me, especially when it's paired with him telling himself that the Miraculous Cure will fix it (implying that means it doesn't matter), which is just...eerily parroting things that I've had Scarlet Lady say, who if you recall, I'm portraying as The Worst(tm). So, that was less than fun.

-Pegabug has two hands, I do not understand how she didn't go for both the amok item and the butterfly broach (outside of the meta reason that the show might be over then). For sure she'll be kicking herself for that (and so will her detractors). And given how the Magic Charms and Senti[x]s have made akumas obsolete, I don't get why she couldn't have grabbed the Butterfly, but SM could get away with the Peacock and continue his terror that way. Them giving her a throw away Lucky Charm that didn't even assist in the fight at all combined with her only going for the coffee just doubles up on how contrived it feels.

-While I appreciate Chat Noir's turn around at the end of the episode, it does come out of no where. Maybe in order for this change to make a little more sense, Rena Rouge should've called him back when Illusion-bug left to be like "Okay, kit-kat, you're on now! We need you to make sure my illusion isn't found out, time for the two-person plan to become a three-person one!" At the same time, it is to Chat Noir's own credit that he realized what he needed to do on his own, so it's a bit of a mixed bag.

But uh I think that's it for now! One thing I've noticed in this season is that I feel the need to hold back on full salting because this is the first season that I feel like I need to wait until the next episode before I can complain about the current one because things are for once being continuous. I'm actually, like, pumped? For new episodes? Because they build off one another? Maybe they don't do it in the order I'd particularly like (why is Optigami and Sentibubbler so IN THE MIDDLE of the season when they should come almost right off the Season 3 finale, we seriously could've pushed Zoe and Su-han back to fit them in sooner) BUT they are building, and, I'm kinda excited for it!

[mokkamicci]

My issues with Kuro Neko

So this post has been long overdue so I figured I finally said it. I’ve been thinking that the way Chat Noir has been treated in S4 episode Kuro Neko has been incredibly unfair. I know we are in season 5 now, but my grievances about Kuro Neko needed to be said. This is really just me ranting

I had a lot to say about Kuro Neko. The most egregious thing the narrative did in Kuro Neko was how Chat giving up his ring was framed as him being heartbroken over Ladybug.

To go into detail, the narrative uses Plagg as a mouthpiece to say that the reason Chat gave up his ring was because he was upset since he’s in love with Ladybug and not getting enough attention from her. I hated that the episode framed it as that when the real reason was because obviously he was being neglected as Ladybug’s equal and partner. Like this should be obvious right? I’m not just speaking out of my ass?

Plagg literally says it here:

(also this is from YouTube, so the captions are autogenerated)

Like I’m pretty sure Chat Noir was upset not because he’s in love with LB, but because he was being sidelined constantly and not being kept in the loop as a partner should. The fact that Alya knew more about the Miraculous at this point in S4 and about the Miracle box in general is just baffling to me. This does eventually get addressed in Strike Back where Ladybug admits to Chat Noir that she was being a bad Guardian and keeping secrets from him after having had losing all the Miraculous because of Felix.

Anyways, now Ladybug is under the impression that Chat left because of his romantic feelings towards her. So what ends up happening? Marinette has to look for another candidate to take the ring, someone that won’t be in love with her so that there won’t be any problems in their partnership. My dude, that was never the real issue to begin with. I guarantee that if Ladybug did the same neglectful bullshit that she did with Chat, with a new partner, that new guy would have the exact same complaints Chat had all along. Complaints like “why am I being pushed off to the side, why am I not being made aware of all this important Miraculous info, why is Ladybug bossing me around, instead of treating me like her equal, you know, as she should?” (But that doesn’t matter anymore because the new guy ended up being Chat in a different costume anyway. And Ladybug ended up wanting Chat back. Sooo...)

The key lesson here from Kuro Neko is that any self-respecting individual would understandably feel resentful and upset at being pushed to the side and kept out of the loop of important matters that concern them too. Not just because the individual is in love with the person who is doing the sidelining. A person is allowed to feel upset and angry if they’re being left out, especially if the information they’re being left out of is highly important to them too. And if that person is being kept in the dark, it might end up negatively affecting them.

This is what’s happening to Chat. The fact that Ladybug is not only neglecting her partnership with Chat, but also leaving out important Miraculous and Guardian-related information, information that is crucial to him as well. If Ladybug had used her Guardianship duties as an opportunity to not only become closer to Chat as partners, but also free her of the stress of dealing with it alone, we would not have the issue of Chat renouncing his ring.

This same issue occurred in the S2 episode Syren where Master Fu was still unknown to Chat but Ladybug knew of him. Ladybug was bound by Fu to keep secrets from Chat then too. When Chat found this out he threatened to renounce his ring then as well. Adrien salters will justify this as an excuse to say “no wonder Fu didn’t reveal his existence yet to Chat given how much of a hissy fit Chat threw over not being trusted with secrets that he wasn’t ready to know yet.” This is the reason salters give. Unbelievable.

So now we have Ladybug in S4 repeating Fu’s mistakes. Ladybug knew keeping secrets from Chat then was a problem so why oh why did she keep doing that in S4? Keeping secrets from your partner never ends well!

Anyways, I ended up going on a tangent here.

Here’s a TL;DR - basically Kuro Neko was not a good episode because of the narrative’s treatment of Chat Noir. They essentially treated his reasonable depression being caused by him being heartbroken over Ladybug, and not because obviously he was being neglected as Ladybug’s partner and equal.