#Luka backstory thing

[geospiral]

Mizi, who had her entire view of reality shattered a few months ago and is still trying to come to terms with what death truly means as well as the mortal coil in general, learning that Luka is an artificial human and that cloning is a possibility in their world (she doesn't understand what cloning actually is): Guys, I have an idea!!

[kay-kaylen]

It's such a slap to the face reality check now that we know Luka's backstory. He's a human being who was stripped of his humanity by the aliens literally upon his first breath. Out of everyone, Luka is the most perfect showcase of the horrific treatment of humans at the hands of the aliens.

He was conditioned from the very beginning to fight for his own survival, maybe even met with approval and praise. He wasn't even a pet. His entire existence from his birth was solely for Alien Stage. The small world afforded to humans by the aliens was so much smaller for Luka. He's not a bird that was caught and caged to sing. He was a bird HATCHED in a cage to sing.

That's why he acts so childishly. Why he doesn't seem to understand what he did wrong. Because he doesn't. He's still a child. He's the child that the aliens stopped from growing before he even took his first steps. He never even got the chance to understand and experience what life means to him, unlike everyone else. For Luka, Alien Stage IS his world. There's only one thing that exists outside of it, and it's Hyuna.

Hyuna is his ONLY connection to his humanity, but she's just one person who's experienced her own horrors. She can't ever carry everything Luka's been through, but the fact that she tried at all? Tried to understand and forgive him? Still CARES for him even now? Enough to die for him without hesitation? THAT'S what it means to be human.

[artemisadore]

One thing that I think about more than I should is why The Cat King didn't fight back against Esther literally beating him to death. In fact, his actions against Esther/for Edwin are a bit of a toss up in general. He warns Edwin about Monty knowing it would likely get him hurt or killed, but not as early as he arguably could have. He semi-reluctantly tells Crystal and Niko about Esther's past, but does not offer to go with them to save Edwin (though he clearly cares about him). He also doesn't stop Esther from killing kids, though there's not much to suggest it would be in character to do so unless she was hurting his subjects.

Taking into account Lukas Gage's backstory that they are ex-lovers, and his overall inaction against Esther (even to the point of his own death), I have developed a specific head cannon that I cannot shake: For some reason, The Cat King cannot directly act against Esther. He can bitch and moan, he can reveal her past, he can out her spy, but he can't, for some reason, attack her.

My personal favorite theory as to why is that she knows his "true name" - aka Thomas - and has rendered him unable to harm her. Of course, being who he is, he finds loopholes, but he is ultimately powerless against her. Another is that he swore an oath to her in exchange for her promise to not harm his cats.

I also like to envision a world in which she was his first love who scorned him, because what's worse than sharing your kingdom with an old flame you can never truly retaliate against?

[weclassybouquetfun]

I see dead people and they are in the form of teenagers Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland killed in 1916 and 1989, respectively.

Yes, all eight episodes (too few episodes, I say. A good 13 eps would have been fitting) of DEAD BOY DETECTIVES is available on Netflix.

Series stars George Rexstrew (Edwin), Kassius Nelson (Crystal Palace), Yuyu Kitamura (Niko Sasaki) and Jayden Revri (Charles Rowland)

A bit about the series:

NO SPOILERS

Born out of DC Comics' Vertigo imprint and created by Neil Gaiman with its characters being spun out of the Sandman universe, how divergent is the series from the comics?Not very. They have retained the trio's backstories, but there were story arcs they could not delve into because Netflix's SANDMAN needs to get there first. Other than that, things are twists on canon or new creations.

Of the characters themselves, Neil Gaiman has said Charles was "more or less him" as a boy and in crafting the series characters, the costumes lent a hand. With his buttoned-up attitude, the bespoked suits for Edwin Paine belies his closed off demeanor. Jayden Revri's Charles Rowland had a ska/rude boy looked that was of fashion when he was alive. This was a nod that Revri appreciated as he has explained in the past he's, "half Indian, a quarter Jamaican and a quarter English." Charles also always has red on him as a nod to comics!Charles' red sweater.

While the characters were first introduced in HBO Max's DOOM PATROL, once the plans for a series was announced, it was quickly let known that this incarnation is not in the same universe as DOOM PATROL's characters, despite DOOM PATROL's Ruth Connell reprising her role as Night Nurse in the Netflix series. This series is firmly in the Sandman universe with Kirby (formerly Kirby Howell-Baptiste, briefly reprising her role as Death in the first episode.

Should DEAD BOY DETECTIVES get a second series, Rexstrew and Lukas Gage (who plays Cat King)

have already spoken of their love of Mason Alexander Park's character Desire from the series, with Rexstrew saying he would love to see Edwin's reaction to Desire.

There's no malewife like him.

Other cast members include Briana Cucuo, sister of BIG BANG THEORY's Kaley Cucuo. Briana voices Barbara Gordon and a sundry of other characters on Max's HARLEY QUINN.

Much too hot to be doing voice-work.

Jenn Lyon (Claws), Joshua Colley (Love, Victor) and Max Jenkins and Caitlin Reilly cutting it up in a (literal) small role.

Jayden says he can't wait for fan fiction and edits of Charles and Edwin and says their ship name will likely be Chedwin. Mans don't know what he's asking for!

[sopuu]

Hello tumblr user sopuu. Is there anything in mcsm series that you would change? Multiple things? If so, what?

under cut coz it’s long whoops,, tldr i wish the characters were more involved and fleshed out, both in backstories and their arcs bc there’s so much potential!! the groundwork is there!! but ig now it’s up to us to fill in the gaps ����

hmm well most of my gripes with the game are mostly in character writing— like how some character arcs could be more consistent with the message the narrative is trying to give (ahem. petra)

there’s also some who are just tossed aside or are barely given arcs themselves. i’m mainly talking about olivia and axel here but lukas as well, bc a lot of the times he’s just kinda there to occasionally give a bit of dialogue or be the punching bag of the story— i mean just look at how many times he can (almost) die lmao. he doesn’t get to complain a lot despite what he goes through, and while i get he’s the type to bottle things up i feel like the narrative is too scared to let him get mad and have Emotions bc they want so badly to paint the picture of “fan-favourite nice guy pretty boy” and never deviate from it.

ig what i’m trying to say is characters in a story should feel like they’re actually involved in the world and in the narrative rather than be a decoration, no matter if they’re part of the main cast or just a simple supporting character. i just want more lukas pleas,,,

oh and other thing! i wish there was more backstory. ik dropping only small hints and nothing more is a good tactic to get the audience to theorise n stuff but i feel like there’s a little too little. like the warden, cassie, even the admins— they drop a few important lines of backstory and then it’s never brought up again... i’d love for them to have made side story episodes that are shorter but focus on one or a few characters just doing some slice of life-y things or to get a taste of the other storylines going on during the main one (like lukas’ rebellion era) just to expand on them more.

and yeah ig that’s all? i probably have more to say but can’t think of it rn. despite the criticism tho i still think it’s a fun game! otherwise i wouldn’t be here lol. just as it has it’s pros it also has it’s cons yknow

[vendetta-if]

Jess, honestly, why are you doing this to me?! I - not my MC, no - I AM DEEPLY IN LOVE WITH JACKAL! Now, I would never want to go between Luka and Jackal. They're a super awesome, wholesome power couple... But could you imagine writing a small interactive snipped, where we could play as Luka? I completely understand if you can't. However, I needed to ask. I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes Jackal and many of us would greatly appreciate a short story, no? *puppy eyes* Fyi, I have save slots currently unavailable because I need a save for all Jackal appearances to reread them whenever. You honestly made me a little obsessed with him. I want to be Luka so bad. T-T Also, have a nice day! .. and thanks for the Rin update. Great job as always! Much love, anon

Ayy, I’m always happy to see some Jackal love 🥰🤭 He’s definitely really fun to write and I have like an entire huge backstory about him 😭 Kinda sad since I can’t really fit more than a drop of it in Vendetta. The sequel spin off, where you play as Jackal’s and Luka’s kid, might reveal some more though.

And speaking of side stories and interactive side stories featuring Jackal… I think I have two side stories currently featuring him and I’m pretty sure both are available to public 😁 For those who haven't checked it out, I made a masterpost containing the links to all the public side stories so far and you can check them out here.

First one is three part on how he first met Luka from his POV [Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3] and the second one is a two part on the moment he and Luka finally became official couple [Part 1 | Part 2].

I’ve been thinking on writing a series of side stories on Jackal’s backstory including his early “relationship” with Luka. I’ll definitely do it whenever I have free time, maybe chipping away at it bit by bit in addition to working on the main story and the patreon voted side stories and spicy side stories 🤭

And funny you mentioned an interactive side story because I already have an idea on the story, just need the time to actually write it. I think I’ll focus on that first before the big series of stories on Jackal’s backstory 🤔 So many things to do with such limited time per day 😭

Also, I saved this video because it’s giving off Jackal vibes (also works for Ash since they are both motorcycle enthusiasts):

[k9punkout]

yeah. so this image.

honestly i want to set till aside for a bit here (since when could i do THAT) and focus on luka's expression.

it's blank, carefully smoothed over, emotionless. a mask, as luka's been known to put on. but this level of neutrality is actually rather unusual for luka. his normal facade is laid back and charismatic, and it's how he normally looks when terrorizing his opponents on stage. it's a game to him, so he allows himself to have fun.

not here, though. here, his expression is so dead compared to how he usually is. you could even see disdain peek through onto his face. and if luka's having TROUBLE keeping his face devoid of emotion, imagine the barely contained things he's really feeling.

his fingertips are normal in color. his collar is red. luka's said that he monitors his heartbeat and keeps it under control at all times (trauma), and since he's so obsessed with heartbeats you'd assume that any situation in which he loses control of it would be due to a severe emotional reaction. and here he is, barely keeping his own composure.

why? what about till would warrant this sort of hateful reaction in him? my personal theory: it's their similarities in backstories, and their differences in dealing with it.

till and luka have such similar backstories- both of which being abused and exploited in severe cases all throughout their lives for the sake of creating the perfect tortured artist/performer, latching onto a happy and energetic girl from anakt who was probably the first person to show either of them human decency and growing unhealthily attached to her.

the difference between the two of them, however, is in the people they become because of it.

till learned to hate. he knows that the way he's being treated isn't love, because no one had ever told him that it was. urak openly despised and abused him in several ways, and he's been made aware that his life is a living hell. he responds to the trauma. he grows aggressive. he barks and bites, he fights back.

luka, however was always being told that the way he was treated WAS love. he sits docile throughout the torment because he was being manipulated into thinking it was all for his own benefit (i have a more in depth analysis of that. somewhere on my acc) and that this is the best route for success. he is taught to be grateful for his own trauma.

so, I'm sure you can imagine how he must've felt when he saw Till, who was put through things akin to him, fight back against his oppressors. 'who is this ungrateful kid? how dare he disrespect the segyein like this, doesn't he know that he was given a rare and privileged opportunity to have intense training like this? doesn't he know of the opportunities he's been given? doesn't he know he was only made to please?'

'why is he fighting? why does he hate them so much? what is wrong with him? why does a small part of me want nothing more than to be like that?'

till's rebellion bothers luka so much because it makes him wonder if his own childhood really was for his benefit. if he really was made exclusively to be used. if none of the pain was just tough love, if there was a reason why none of it ever felt right.

seeing such an enraged and agonized reaction to something so similar to the events he suffered has him questioning EVERYTHING, and he hates it. he hates till for it. but he simply labels it at looking down upon his lack of gratitude for his owner, the user, the one they were meant to please.

'there is no point in fighting. why does he insist on doing it? why isn't he happy for a privilege such as this? our fathers love us, so we should love them in turn.'

[enden-agolor]

i'm catching up on your fic rn

Jesse felt scared, and strangely enough, he couldn’t shake off this weird feeling that something was missing, but he was at least relieved he was in the company of Reuben and his friends– and cookies too! Thanks, Axel!

This one right here, my brain immediately went to the cookie scene, i love how the original story still connects to this timeline. The way that Jesse felt that something was missing and no conflict between anyone, just showing how things really weren't meant to be the way they are in this AU, BRO YOU KEEP MAKING ME LOVE THIS FIC SO MUCH

I'm so happy to see you're back!! 🥹

Fun fact, I actually wrote Jesse's backstory in this chapter while Andy wrote the journal entries. I think I re-started this chapter four times? Which is why it had taken so long to come out. I knew it had to be perfect, and a lot of things were changed from our previous plan as we were writing the chapter.

I like to think that there's tons of universes with alternate Jesse's and different outcomes because the game is played differently by everyone. This being one of those universes, but things are drastically changed because Lukas is absent during the main story. The canon storyline still happens, but characters and feelings are altered because without Lukas, there was a lot of room left for different interactions for Jesse to have with his friends.

But he still couldn't shake off that feeling that something very, very important was missing from his life.

Hopefully it worked out with the story pretty well. I'm very happy to know you like the fic so much. Thank you 🥺🩵

[rotatedaxis]

I know it's patreon stuff but I can't just say nothing about the bitter sweethearts. (if you haven't seen it, watch it, but vague spoilers ahead)

basically oh my god why am i crying? it's such a fun fun watch, all six and a half hours of it. but oh my god. the way the tiniest phrasing can change so much about where a story could possibly go and for some reason that deeply gets to me. but then I loved the original life is strange game as a kid so maybe i just like emotional damage and the butterfly effect and other such timey-wimey stuff.

I love falmouth, just entirely, what a wonderful character. and this narrative thing of him looking for any source of water because he's a squid monster who's ended up on land and is dehydrating at speed. also, oh I did not even hear anything about a certain part of his backstory so that genuinely surprised me, where id heard about the daemys thing before from their podcast I think. it was definitely nicer to have luke in person for the second session I felt like that added a lot but maybe that's just me but lukas was a fun character regardless. love how a part of his backstory was shared literally right at the very end because it didn't come up earlier. I adored ashen, the end ripped my heart out in a way i didn't expect. and just sam generally bc his reactions to things are top tier and that added a whole lot to the experience of watching it. And I need to cosplay ashen at some point. i love daemys for the character he is, unfortunately from other places I already knew something would happen at some point, but that's my own fault for having never once really cared about spoilers. but it was great fun to see it all go down.

also it is so sfth to have the name essentially come up out of a bit and then just an offhand comment and suddenly, boom: bitter sweethearts.

Anyway, as if I needed to be dragged further into my sfth fixation, I will now think about this for the foreseeable future.

[starsandtulips]

welt with "the kids" headcanons. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

characters⟡ welt yang, stelle, march 7th, dan heng, (slight) himeko, (slight) pom pom, (mentioned) seele, (mentioned) luka

relationships⟡ none

cw⟡ reference to canonical character death in hi3

~ all three of them look up to welt in different ways

~ stelle appreciates his knowledge of the universe, especially when she woke up she understood almost nothing and it's nice to have someone to rely on to know things

~ dan heng admires his resilience and passion for adventure

~ march loves his stories and often takes little bits of her favorites to turn into backstories for herself

~ welt can be pretty quiet when not answering (mostly stelle's) questions, often staring into space

~ the only time the trailblaze trio see his eyes light up when talking is when he's discussing the shows he's worked on in his time as an animator

~ he has shown them all of the episodes of arahato that he can remember off of the top of his head (using his mimicry)

~ they are all big fans of arahato (even if dan heng doesn't show it)

~ welt has somehow been roped into promising to get/make them arahato merchandise to wear

~ stelle attempted to bring back a small piece of the engine of creation as a gift for welt but was told it had to stay on jarilo-vi

~ the trio has several running betting pools (that dan heng had to be coaxed into participating in) about welt

~ the betting pools that are currently ongoing include:

is arahato real? (stelle and march believe arahato is a real robot while dan heng thinks the show is fully fictional)

who can eat more spicy puffy mushrooms: mr. yang or stelle? (they're waiting to head back to belobog for this one to convince welt to do it and because members of wildfire, seele and luka, are also involved in the betting pool)

does mr. yang actually need his glasses? ("because he loses them so much on the Express!" march says, stelle and dan heng are confused on why someone would wear glasses without needing them)

~~some angst below!!!!~~

~ the only thing that is off limits to bet on is why he sometimes looks at himeko like he's looking at a ghost

~ i already wrote something on this but: when welt begins to drift off and become lost in his memories, the trailblaze trio + pom pom team up to cheer him up!!!

~ they've made a pact to not let himeko know or welt catch on to what they're doing on those days

~ so far they have been mostly successful in cheering him up

[apollos-boyfriend]

mikhail is such an interesting character because while i don’t think that the personality we see is fully fabricated, there’s a certain depth and mystery to him, to the point where even the other characters point out how he can’t be read/understood fully

outside of priest, he seems to be the second-strongest exorcist, after leah. he seems to have a sixth sense stronger than most exorcists, too. he instantly clocks something being wrong with imuri, and then later aria, too. which may be a mixture of both magic and him being an extremely analytical person—imuri has no demonic power, therefore she shouldn’t be able to be detected, but asmodeus is only hidden by her own powers, meaning mikhail may be powerful enough to look through that.

the first moment is played for laughs—oh, mikhail’s a self-absorbed, overly-carefree influencer, of course he’s going to evade his duties despite the danger and fool around. but then it’s revealed that mikhail knew something was going to go wrong all along, and purposefully used his influence to avoid as many casualties as possible without worrying the public/causing a panic. there’s no aspect of mikhail’s actions and presentation that isn’t something he’s carefully-constructed.

then again, when baba yaga attacks, mikhail is the first/only one to register it as such, and able to compose himself quickly enough to warn the others. his “cuteness” thing is just how he relays that, even if it can be hard for others to understand (which may even be purposeful??)

he’s also, i’d argue, the most emotionally-aware of the main cast. he’s the only one capable of realizing that priest isn’t rampaging, but desperately crying to be heard. priest wants attention, wants others to finally see the pain he’s suppressed for so long, and mikhail is the only one outside of imuri (whose understanding of priest is one of her “unique” abilities, see priest’s barrier accepting her during the sloth arc) to be able to see that, despite him and priest not appearing to be that close.

also this post about the possible origin of his name. names are a distinctly important aspect of mtefil, both in-canon and on a meta level. in-canon, you have priest’s being left disguised to the humanization of irmuri asking for and using golem’s name to luka’s death being made unavoidable by him speaking bel’s name to verge changing his to match with dante. on a meta level, the witches’ names all seem to help with revealing aspects of their identity/personality (see this post about the meta of mtefil’s witches).

mikhail has an odd connection to witches and witchcraft in the way only dante really compares with—we’re told/slightly shown how he’s able to single-handedly take down sabbaths, he’s the one involved when the witches attack the school, and he’s the one given the most focus during baba yaga’s attack. i wonder if the answer he gives the witches as to his “tragic backstory” is true. because again, he does the same thing he does with the evacuation—he gives them a ditzy performance fitting for how people see him. he doesn’t say the truth of his actions if he can help it, even to his closest allies. if he had an incident with witches in the past, of course he wouldn’t admit that to their faces (although i do think him instantly apologizing for being hypocritical wasn’t fabricated). i hope we get to see a lot more of him (either related to baba yaga or maybe during pride’s arc? it feels fitting for him to play a role there) because BOY is he interesting…..

[imthepunchlord]

If you could erase any character from Miraculous Ladybug, which character would it be? The catch is you cannot say it's Adrien.

Oh that's easy. I'll actually tell you a few I'd cut.

For characters I just do not like, it's either Tikki, Marc, Nathaniel.

Out of all the animal research I've done on mythology and symbolism, the Ladybug is just the most boring. Kinda a bummer it's the centerpiece. As for Tikki herself, she's not really a character, she's a mouthpiece, trying to play cute mascot but also be a mentor, but she doesn't really mentor or advise Marinette hardly. On one hand, you could count the actual good advise she's given. Otherwise, she's just not a great main kwami to have. They don't even do anything fun with her tied to luck and love. If there was a kwami that was to get a lot of attention, I'd rather it be someone else.

Marc is just the vague LGBT insert that isn't even defined on what he or they are, and he/they are the... 4th anxious character to be apart of the cast. And he/they only got a Miraculous cause they're good at soccer/football? And because they're in Mendeleiev's class, they're even less of a defined character outside they like to write and have anxiety. I think people only like him/them because they ship him with Nathaniel and it's the only, potentially, gay ship ML will lightly humor, as all other popular guy ships and friendships got axed by girlfriends (seriously, I think they saw Adrinino and Kimax was popular, so they gave Nino and Kim girlfriends, and then they hardly hung out with their best guy friends anymore). So Marc to me feels like a waste of a character to include. Personally I don't care about him myself.

Of the classmates, Nathaniel I dislike the most. Due to my own personal history, characters that will destroy another's property and feel entitled to do so, and offer no apology or regret over it, yeah that's going in my bad book. It's actually bonkers to me that MarcNath is so popular as their intro ep together just raises so many red flags to me.

For characters I'm neutral on, I'd say Zoe or Luka.

Zoe feels like she was included to be an answer to the want of either a redeemed Chloe or Lila. Only instead of redeeming either of them, because apparently the show needed two mean girls to be against Marinette, they gave us Zoe who's a mix of them. And with her "sad backstory", she has that Mary Sue vibe. Also nothing about her set up really screams a match for Bee for me. I don't get her inclusion at all aside from lazily skipping out on redeeming one of the mean girls. The cast was already big enough, she was not needed. If Bee HAD to go to a blonde, Aurore is right there. And she's an actually liked character.

As for Luka, while he was an amazing alternative to Adrien for Marinette and did offer her support, that was it. He didn't progress the story of things, wasn't an actual love rival for Adrien that made him realize "oh, I may like Marinette and may not like her being with another boy". He didn't progress the story at all, which, if Marinette was stressing about all her responsibility of being Ladybug or how good she was at being LB, I would've used Luka as the alternative, the "rival" of the role as everything about him is set up to be the perfect hero, especially being so mature. He also joins the "Rich Daddy issues", which, we got enough from Adrien. Did we really need more? Which also sucks as, from what I've seen, it's more about Luka and Jagged and Juleka herself is hardly included, which, why is he and Juleka even siblings if she's not going to matter as much in this as Luka does?

The other factor is that Luka feels like a repeat, that someone else could've filled that role he has. For he's a blue boy who likes music and has a crush on Marinette.

Where have I heard that before...

Instead of immediately going the DJWifi route, why not just expand on Nino liking Marinette? He even could've been a proper love rival given that he was going to get a Miraculous anyway, and that's going to be the ONLY way Adrien would have a proper love rival.

But I guess Marinette can only be paired with white boys, can't give anything more to Nino that would have him more involved. Also would've had him work off Rena Rouge more and better build up them getting together.

No, just can't have that. We gotta add another character into the already big cast.

Lastly, for characters I like, I would actually say Marinette. This show and a good chunk of the fandom doesn't like her anyway, just let her go.

[jmgangel]

Not sure about how I feel about how the IPC is being treated in the Wardance event. Like yes not all IPC members are evil. Topaz and Aventurine prove that. But the IPC,,,is really bad. Like Aventurine’s backstory makes that super clear, and it’s Boothill’s whole thing. As much as I love Jade, I feel like it’s implied most IPC members are as cutthroat as she is.

Did Topaz back off? Sure, but that was her choice. The IPC would have happily exploited Belobog. Let Luka hate on them because honestly he does not owe them an apology.

[i-am-trying-my-best-okay]

Attempting To Analyze Luka And Till To Try And Figure Out How Round Seven Will Go

LUKA:

From what we've seen of him, while he knows how to manipulate people's emotions, doesn't quite know how to understand them and process them. We see this as far back from when he was a kid, when he and Hyuna's brother would get into fights, and he would use his frailty as an excuse to go running to Hyuna for her to defend him; it's an excuse to get her attention, to get her to side with him against her brother. This probably made him feel good, like she placed him above her brother, even if it was momentarily.

However, this strategy came crashing down when he went too far, when he killed her brother. Perhaps this was an accident, just him being too frustrated that day, him going to far, and he didn't realize it till too late. Even so, it was fine, he just needed to present himself as the victim to Hyuna like he usually did. What he didn't anticipate, was Hyuna's complete horror and rejection of him.

Now, we don't know when exactly Hyuna ran away and went rouge, but it couldn't have been right away; also, if we're going on what we saw that one time with Hyuna still having cuffs when she was an adult, then it wouldn't be till many years later. The aliens wouldn't have put Hyuna in a different group or anything; even if she did somehow try and plead a case that she was worried for her safety or something, they'd take one look at little prized Luka and be like 'nah he's harmless; that stunt with your brother was in self defense', basically not caring at all about Hyun Woo dying at all; he wasn't as profitable as Luka. It helps that Luka is so sickly; it helps with him getting out of any actual punishment on the rare occasion he slips up. And so, in the aftermath, Hyuna and Luka still had to interact with each other everyday for the remainder of their training in childhood.

Now, to backtrack, for Luka's backstory, this is more speculation than anything. But from what I can tell, he's always had a camera in his face, some sort of eyes on him looking for media entertainment. Even before he's been properly trained, we saw that small scene of him as a child with a bunch of aliens crowding him, eyes on him, and him just looking so tired from it. I'm assuming that he was either breed and born for being a singer, or he was clocked at a very early age. Either way, he started getting media attention from before he was even put into training with others. It's in this, that Luka formed his understanding of interactions; it's performative, doing whatever the aliens want out of him for their entertainment, he learns that he needs to do certain things in order to get a positive reaction out of the aliens. It's what he needs to do to survive, all he's been trained to do really. From this all he knows about socializing is how to get an emotional response out of someone, a completely hollowed understanding of how emotions work.

And then he was put into training with other humans, which is likely the first time he's actually put with other humans. He's ostracized; he's seen as sort of 'other', since he's leagues ahead of the other humans who've barely started properly learning and he's been trained for this since forever. Also, the other humans likely have been around other humans before, meanwhile we have Luka over here who as none of the common social ques that humans have. Basically; he's never been treated like an equal before, he only knows the dehumanization dynamic from aliens, who just want him to perform. But with his group, their not asking him to perform, so he essentially ignores them, thinking that's all an interaction is. That's when Hyuna comes in; she feels like the sort of person to see how Luka is put on the outside of the group for being strange, and doggedly tries to become friends with him, despite his initial disinterest. It's through this, that Luka forms an obsession with Hyuna, his first friend, the first living being that doesn't demand anything from him. He can relax around her, do weird shit like chew on his sleeve if he feels like it and she doesn't mind, doesn't have to mask a response. He actually has positive feelings himself when he's around Hyuna, something he's not really used to. But despite this, Luka still has a dysfunctional idea of how emotions are, and really likes Hyuna, so he wants to get a positive out of her, so he still tries to do things he knows will get that out of her, like that thing with her brother.

Now, back to Hyuna now being horrified of Luka, he really doesn't know what to do with this. He tries to fix it, do every trick he knows to get a positive response from her, try to get her forgiveness, but nothing was working, and he doesn't understand why, and he's getting increasingly and dangerously frustrated. Luka is not use to getting a negative response, and I think it's through this that he really learns what that's like. So, I think to ward off his frustration, he tests getting negative responses from his fellow humans, particularly his opponents. It's through this, that he finds out how useful that can be, a more secure way to survive. As the years go by, Luka gets all the better at manipulating others emotions, and it's through this that he understands why Hyuna still won't forgive him, despite his understanding of these emotions being very clinical. Because of this, he knows how to try and better manipulate Hyuna into forgiving him, so much so that it actually starts messing with Hyuna's head. She emotionally begins to be swayed into forgiving him, but rationally she doesn't want to, and it gives her a whole complex of what she knows what she wants to feel versus what Luka is manipulating her to feel. But she ends up running away from the aliens before Luka could completely manipulate her.

When she runs away, Luka falls into a spiraling depression. The one person he's ever loved is gone, the one person who made him feel anything. From this, he dives into his work, trying to glean any sort of joy from manipulating negative responses from his competitor's to make them mess up, turning it into a sort of game at this point. It becomes his only defense against the constant eyes on him from the aliens, the constant and disgustingly dehumanizing attention that has choked him ever since he could remember. Luka folds further and further into himself, burying whatever sliver of humanity he felt with Hyuna. However, he follows very closely the revolution movement that's happening, knowing for a fact Hyuna would join (or start?) the group. The aliens likely have covered up this revolution, especially from the humans so they won't get any ideas, but with Luka being Luka, he likely has the influence to get some insider information whenever he can, causally eavesdropping on important alien figures talking about it while he sings for them. Whatever the case, no matter how much time has passed, Hyuna haunts him just as much as he haunts Hyuna. And even after all this time, he still doesn't hold the proper remorse of murdering her brother or trying to manipulate her into forgiving him, just regretting the results.

TILL:

From what I can try to glean from Till's past, it's littered in violence from the aliens. I can see there being a sort of cycle with Till; he does something that his alien owners lightly punish him for, which puts him on the defense and gets violent, which in turn makes the alien's get violent and try to restrain, which makes Till get even more violent, and so on. The aliens viewed him as sort of this feral dog, completely untrainable, moving him from home to home, shelter to shelter. They try all their methods they have to make him 'submit', but each and every time he simply refuses.

I sort of have this theory that Till didn't start out as someone with an owner, or someone who was even regulated by an alien in a adoption facility or something; he used to live on the streets, completely unmanaged, which is very rare for humans. Maybe he even had other stray humans he hung around, or maybe he managed on his own. Either way, eventually he gets captured by the aliens, and maybe his fellow stray humans get captured and broken down or killed in this. The aliens try to integrate Till into their human pet system, but he's just not having it. He wasn't trained by aliens since birth to act a certain way, which would explain his intense resistance towards them. He sees the situation for what it is, how humans being put in such a degrading and dehumanizing dynamic is wrong, and it makes him angry to be expected to put up with it. It makes him especially angry that his fellow humans expect him to go along with this dehumanization, just to keep the waters calm. Because even the humans that have sort of realized that this is wrong, were still trained under this system, and has just accepted that they need to live with it, and Till won't. They all act like he's crazy, aliens and humans alike, but Till refuses to give in.

Whatever the case, Till proves to show constant resilience, something that probably was having him set up to be on track for being 'put down', having no worth as a 'pet'. Till knew this, but it just made him push even harder, fight back harder. We see in a few flashes of Till be experimented on with syringes; possibly in an effort to make him calmer. This was probably something that happened before and after he became a singer. Even then, physically and biologically abused, he refuses to go along with this system, to try and hold on to any sense of autonomy he has even as they try to restrain and degrade it. And all this fighting does take a toll on Till; we see it in the heavy bags under his eyes, but even so, he keeps going. You know, unironically, I think Till is the embodiment of the term "the indomitable human spirit"; he just absolutely refuses to be cowed for the sake of an easier survival.

I think what kept him from being 'put down' was when it was discovered he had a talent for singing. I don't know how this was discovered; maybe Till was just bored and entertaining himself with singing or strumming a guitar, or maybe they had him tested for a talent before the decided to kill him just in case he had any sort of monetary worth. Once they figured out he had a talent, he was shipped off to be the Anact Garden's problem.

Now, Till, at his core, is an extremely protective person; it's actually kind of insane. Once he decides something is 'his', he tightly holds onto and protects it with everything he has. We see this time and time again; deciding to be the sole protector of the flowers and encouraging them to grow, literally beating someone up if they stepped on them. Following Mizi around just in case she would need help, and one day she did, and she didn't hesitate to run into that cave and fight off whatever monster she had stumbled upon, literally just some child squaring up against some mutated beast (or possibly striking a deal with it? we didn't see the whole thing. either way whatever he did must have been a huge deal because it literally changed Ivan's life). He doesn't even care if Mizi loves Sua and that she'll never love him; he just wants her to be safe and happy. And in defending Ivan as well, cause he was a weird kid, and I know Till would go from snarling at Ivan to snarling at another kid who's making fun of Ivan. And that's why he fights so hard for his own rights and autonomy as well, because he's protective of his own sense of self, refusing to let go of it. His protective instincts are his main motivation for basically all of his actions, all of his supposed feral behavior.

It's probably this that trait that drew Ivan to Till in the first place; his and Till's first interaction was Till beating him up over some flowers. It kind of looked like Ivan felt alive for possibly the first time in his life during that fight. I bet afterwards, if Ivan were to question Till on it, Till wouldn't even understand the point of the question; like of course he would defend the flowers till his last dying breath? Duh? Don't be a dick? Ivan probably followed Till around all the time, but I imagine the reason Till didn't form as close a connection to Ivan was because Till sees Ivan as just another source of violence in his life he needs to fight against. It's why he probably developed such a crush on Mizi; Till is drawn to kindness more than anything, to softness. It's why he forms a connection to the flowers, to Mizi. He can't see the kindness in Ivan, not till it's too late.

It's probably those protective instincts that made him turn back when Ivan was trying to get him to run away; of course he wanted to run away. But then he thought of Mizi, left unprotected. And then he considered Ivan, who upon running away, would also be left unprotected out in the world. His need to protect was being torn at, and in the end, he chose Mizi, leaving Ivan to fend for himself. What he didn't expect, was to see that Ivan came back too. That's when Till truly stopped seeing Ivan; his guilt didn't allow him to. He feels like he abandoned him, thrown him aside what he feels he needs to protect, forced him to come back to the facility, and now Till can't look him in the eye.

Honestly, I think it's these protective instincts that serve in his break down after Mizi left. He feels like he failed in protecting her, and not only that, he feels like there's nothing left for him to protect. He'd already thrown away the idea of protecting himself when he was entered into this competition, only motivated to protect himself to get far enough to go against Mizi in the final round, in which he was going to throw the round so that she could live. He completely threw away any protective instinct for his own survival, having accepted that at the beginning of this competition, because those he loves will always come first, and he and Mizi both couldn't survive, so really it was a no brainer for him. But now Mizi is gone, and he doesn't know how to get that desire to protect himself back, can't find the motivation for it. And so, going up against Ivan, all of the years of constantly fighting are just coming to get him, and he's just so tired. With nothing left, he was just going to throw the match. And then Ivan comes up and starts kissing him, which catches Till completely off guard. But then Ivan starts choking him before Till could process what that meant, and this made a lot more sense to him. Ivan killing him on stage lines up with everything he thinks Ivan to be; just another source of violence, and he's going to let him. But then he realizes what's actually going on, and it all clicks into place for him; Ivan loved him. Ivan had a whole inner world Till never knew because he decided to look away. And Ivan was something Till still had left to protect, but now he was gone. And all he has left to protect is the sacrifice Ivan left behind; himself.

TOGETHER:

It's unlikely these two have ever really met before; they were in different age groups when they were being trained as kids, and given their extremely different vibes it's unlikely they'd be asked to perform together or even be asked for from the same clients. So this competition is likely the first time they've met. Having never really met, what they currently think of each other is Till thinking Luka "is a dick who messed with Mizi and kisses up to the audience", and Luka thinks of Till as "an idiot who will go unhinged at the drop of a hat and has no sense of his own self preservation".

Till finds the motivation to want to survive, for Ivan's sake. He wants to protect Ivan's cause for dying, almost like he wants to make up for not properly seeing him over the years, for tossing him aside and not protecting him. Bro's got a whole complex he'll work on for the rest of his life, but right now it's really motivating him to win, so at least there's that.

It would be really easy for Luka get a negative reaction out of Till; he's very reactive to things. But I think Luka will fail in getting the right kind of reactions out of Till. Typically, when he backs his competitors into a corner, they feel too much turmoil to properly sing. But that's the thing with Till; he's reactive. If Luka pushes him physiologically, his response won't be to shut down, it'll probably motivate him to sing even better, try to sing over Luka out of spite. So Luka's best bet is to try and provoke Till into violence, and it'll prove a challenge for Till who probably already hates this guy for giving Mizi a breakdown. I bet for the entire round Till will have to try so hard not to beat this guy up, to push all his aggressive energy into the performance, but it's so clear how much he just wants to murder this man, leaving the crowd and the guards on pins and needles.

Till's normal style of competing seems to be singing over his opponents, making sure they have absolutely no time to collect themselves. It's kind of funny, how both Till and Luka's strategy is just to make the other one look worse. But Luka has a lot of experience with making the crowd like him, so he throws tricks at Till he wouldn't be expecting, somehow blending the performances perfectly. But Till has never been one to stick to the script, so I can imagine him just playing a wildly different tune, trying to force Luka to change lanes again and again, seeing if he can keep up. In the end, this isn't a performance; it's a fight, a tug of war for the spotlight.

On another point, I wonder if Till will accidently remind Luka of Hyuna; she was obviously a rebel herself, given her whole thing of going to go join a revolution, so I wonder if at some point in the performance Luka will see a bit of Hyuna in Till, and it'll cause some faulter. It's kind of funny; Luka will on purpose psychologically torment Till with those that he lost, and Till will accidently psychologically torment Luka with the one that he lost.

Really, them competing with each other is sort of like a round of chicken, seeing who will crack first. But of course, all this could be for naught when we thrown in these two uncontrollable elements; Hyuna and Mizi. They're here, at the facility, and they're in trouble. This is something both of them will deeply care about, and it's unclear how it'll factor in. I wonder, if at some point during the performance the two of them will realize Hyuna and Mizi's situation, and give each other a look, like they're saying to each other "okay fuck you and all but we've got to help them", and then their battle turns into a weird sort of temporary alliance. Maybe they try to distract the aliens with their performance or start actually fighting. Maybe they do some sort of weird complicated dance move that's made to break the power and to make it easier for Hyuna and Mizi to get away. Maybe they just say 'fuck it' and run off the stage together, going to help the other two and have them all escape. Either way, I think the ending of their performance won't have anything to do with the two of them at all, but rather another. And I suppose it's fitting for the two of them, whose current sense of identity is tied so closely to other people, rather than themselves.

[fabseg-creator]

My review about Miraculous World: Paris, Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir

This is a (first) review about a Miraculous element (especially an episode form Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir).

This post contains spoilers.

Today, I've watched the Special Episode. I am prepared for the watching. I will reveal my aggregation in the end of the post.

And now, time to read:

Plot:

This happens in the same moment (at the night) as the episode Destruction (5.03). After Monarch has been cataclysmed at the left arm and before he configurates the stolen Miraculouses.

In a parallel world, a Butterfly superhero named Hesperia (Gabriel Agreste/Gabi Grassette) who is helped by Alya, Nino, Max and Markov, leaves his homeworld universe for escape from Shadybug (Toxinelle) and Claw Noire (Griffe Noire), two evil versions of Ladybug and Cat Noir. When the three characters come to the Ladybug and Cat Noir main universe, Hesperia teams up with the two titular heroes for make the ShadyClaw duo into good people. At the other side, the evil counterparts try to steal the Butterfly miraculous to Hesperia (and later to try to combine the Ladybug and Cat powers for make their wishes).

I've learned about news elements in the Miraculous lore by watching the Special:

They exist some billions an infinity of Parallel Worlds in the lore.

Each Parallel World is home to one Tikki and one Plagg (so One Ladybug holder and one Cat holder).

The inconvenients from the Ladybug's and Cat's powers (secondary effects)due to their excessive using. Shadybug and Claw Noire cause their own deterioration in their bodies by using their power for the evil.

The morale about the hope in dark and sad moments (Thanks, Hesperia.)

The parallel world (ShadyClaw/Hesperia's world) is a dystopian world ruled by the Supreme

Hesperia's, Shadybug's and Claw Noir's backstories

What I liked:

The Hesperia opening in the intro (that was WTF but that was fun)

The coming of Shadybug and Claw Noire, their odd relationships

The Claw Noir's lines and moments

The Kamiko (good alternate name to Akuma)

The akumatization forms: Chat Céleste (Cat Noir) and Ubiquity (first Alya and later Ladybug)

Ladyfly (Marinette with Ladybug + Butterfly unification)

The travels across multiple parallel worlds (Hi, Scarabella and Kitty Noire. Hi, Mister Bug and Ladynoire.)

The concept of Re-Verse (the idea of what would Marinette and Adrien have looked like if theirs lives had been different from the Canon)

The thing how Monarch has failed (again) to take the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses when he travelled across parallel worlds.

What I disliked:

The lack of end post-credits scene: I would like to see what happens in the Hesperia's world after the battle (interractions between the reformed Shabybug and Claw Noire, Hesperia, Alya ans Nino about reconciliation ans reorganisation of the Resistance against the Supreme).

The absence of other Miraclass counterparts, Luka, Kagami, Félix, Zoé, Chloé and Lila/Cerise (Only Alya, Nino, Max and Markov from the class appear in the episode as parallel counterparts)

The missing full appearance of the Supreme (his/her appearance from the shadow for reveal himself/herself/themself to spectators could make the cliffhanger effect for a sequel).

What I want to know for the future:

The most intriguing point, for me, is: The Supreme (This hidden character I have just mentioned in this post)

Who is the Supreme ? Human or Deity ? Big Brother (1984, George Orwell) ? How do s/he looks like ?

All I've learned about him/her/them is:

The Supreme is an entity/being who rules the Hesperia's homeworld (possibly the Hesperia's entire universe).

S/He is a tyrant, a dictator (worst than Chloé, possibly more machiavelic and charismatic than Cerise, more dangerous than Monarch) on this Earth (or simply Paris).

S/He hates the Love, the Freedom/Liberty, the Justice, the Happiness, positive emotions and particularly the superheroes.

It's him/her/they who is THE overarching antagonist of the Paris Special (even if s/he is only mentioned many times). S/He's so more antagonistical than Monarch.

S/He makes Hesperia and the Resistance from this world (and by extension Ladybug 2 (former Shadybug) and Cat Noir 2/Paw Noir (former Claw Noir)) as Outlaws.

It's him/her/them who given the Ladybug and Cat miraculous to Emo Marinette and Emo Adrien. Ironical and Ridiculous from the Supreme !

S/He is too powerful, too surnatural and too overcheated: s/he has a great control on the Miraculous Ultimate Absolute Power. S/He has implanted a blockage spell on Tikki and Plagg for prevent anyone to summon Gimmi.

ML theory: I'm thinking the Supreme is probably a evil type of Guardian of Miraculouses. A Fallen Guardian (NOT Master Fu NOR Su-Han). S/He has many knowledges about Miraculouses and their using + the Absolute Power.

My personal aggregation on the Paris Special:

I've enjoyed to see the episode. The narrative is excellent. The idea of Multiverse in the Miraculous lore is well found. The various animations from the episode are fun. Miraculous World: Paris, Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noire is a wonderful episode.

Result: 10/10

[lostuntothisworld]

Spaghetti theory time:

The "Luka lying to Ladybug about her secret identity after he was so fired up in Truth only to lie to her in Wishmaker" salt has died down for the most part, but I would like to bring it back up.

I'm gonna do you all a favor and copypasta the transcript below, because I know nobody is going to rewatch the episode.

Marinette: I'm sorry about earlier. There were mosquitoes on the boat, I thought we needed some insect repellent but the drug store was closed so I had to- Luka: Shh, listen, the song of the water. If you listen carefully at this very spot under the bridge, you'll hear a melody. (They listen to the river and smile at each other.) You know, I never knew my father and my mom would never bring herself to tell me. So when I just couldn't deal with it all, I would take refuge here and the melody of the water would console me. What about you, Marinette? Where do you go when you disappear? Marinette: Uh- Luka: You tell me, I'll accept it. If you're still in love with Adrien, I'll understand. I won't be jealous you know. Marinette: That's not it, not at all. Luka: Whatever it is, I just want it to be the honest truth. Marinette: The truth, Luka… is the only thing I can't tell you.

Then we get shocked Luka. He get's akumatized/amokized, and the scene continues:

Shadow Moth: Truth, I am Shadow Moth. I'm giving you the power to force people to tell you their most sacred secrets. Luka: (struggling against it) Truth needs to be shared, not taken by force, Shadow Moth! Marinette: (shocked what he just said) Uh! Shadow Moth? No! Luka, please resist, I am so sorry! Shadow Moth: Why should you resist when she doesn't trust you? Luka: Marinette does trust me! Marinette: I do! Of course I do! Shadow Moth: If she trusted you, then she would tell you the truth! (Upon hearing this, Luka becomes shocked, so he kneels.) Accept my power and you will know everything. And all I ask of you in return is to expose Ladybug and Cat Noir's little secrets. Luka: (succumbing) Run, Marinette! 

...

Luka does NOT want to force the truth out of Marinette. He tells her to run! And it's very much implied it triggered a traumatic past when his mother wouldn't tell him who his father was. What if his mom used the exact phrasing of "The truth is the one thing I can't tell you," when things got bad? If there's one thing Miraculous is good at is shocking the audience with traumatic backstories. I have my own theories as to what Luka and Juleka's traumatic backstories are... And are we really going to victim blame Luka for not being able to resist, especially when resisting Gabemoth and breaking akumatization was not actually known to be something that can be done at this point? Onto Wishmaker:

Lots of people are upset that Luka lied to Marinette at the end of Wishmaker with regards to hers and Chat's secret identities. They want Marinette to be angry with him, and for Luka to face consequences. Lying is supposed to be bad, isn't it? And Luka got akumatized into a villain who was dead set on finding the Truth, and he just lied to her about it. Inexcusable! Which is a valid interpretation if you take it at face value.

Now let's fast forward to Migration, and a little theory I've had since the episode aired: Secret identities and masks are a metaphor for being queer. Let me explain the metaphor in more detail: by rewinding back to Wishmaker and the metaphor presented to us then.

In Wishmaker, child Alec was bullied for his big hair, which he was very proud of. So he shaved it all off to fit in with what society wanted him to be. His akumatized form had a bald cap, and in the end Alec decides to "live his truth," (Astruc's words not mine), and essentially wear a big wig and become a drag queen. Iconic.

Oh yeah, and his nightmare in the season 5 finale was his father shaving off his hair.

Gonna have to link this shitpost here, just for an interesting comparison.

(It's interesting to note that both Griffe Noire and alternate Adrien have partially shaved heads, and should be included closer to the bald end of the chart in the shitpost)

Anyway, it's a bit of an unwritten rule that you don't out another person, even if you know they are queer. You have to wait for them to come to you with this reveal. It's sensitive information, and could potentially be extremely dangerous for the person being outed. A similar parallel to being a superhero with a secret identity.

Using this logic, it's not surprising the animators made Chat surprised when Luka detransformed in front of him in Ephemeral even tho he had a front row seat to Luka in Miracle Queen.

Onto the next scene of interest:

Marinette: If I tell you, things will never be the same between us again. (shakes her head) It'll mess up everything, maybe even destroy it. Alya:(voice breaking) Marinette, I'm your very best friend. Marinette: And I… I'm Ladybug.

I was actually shocked with this scene back the first time I watched it. Yes, the reveal, but also how everything in it is presented. To the dialogue, to Marinette's reasonings and how it'll mess up everything between the girls, and how everything will change and be destroyed, to Alya's oddly somber reaction to finding out her favorite superhero is her best friend, and then the subsequent hug.

It's framed as a coming out scene.

So let's circle back to Luka lying to Ladybug back in Wishmaker, and keeping that secret until Migration. His choices there make a whole lot more sense with a queer lens.

Don't believe me? Remember, Migration (the episode where Luka's lies and secrets are brought to light), is the episode that Luka shoves Adrien in a closet and he falls out of the closet as Chat Noir.

Those bedroom eyes at Luka sure do make a whole lot more sense here.