#ML S4 spoilers

[new-kit-on-the-block]

Miraculous - The watered-down significance of akumatization

(This is an analysis, but it's also a sort of rant. So there's a lot of text underneath the cut. Just a fair warning.)

I have a problem with the way that the latter seasons of Miraculous handle akumatization.

There's a pretty basic rule of thumb when it comes to writing the bigger moments of your story:

If something is a big deal, let it be a big deal.

Seasons 4 and 5 don't always do that.

Let's take a look at what I mean.

These are screenshots of the three separate occasions that characters have broken out of akumatization in seasons 4 and 5.

Take note of who these characters are and their importance (or lack thereof) to the overall plot.

On the one hand, you have Alya and Nino, the two main characters' respective best friends. It's only natural in a show like this for these two to be strong enough to break out of akumatization, it makes the main characters look like they definitely chose their friends right.

And then you have Alix's Redditor conspiracy-theorist older brother.

Why is he one of the big three who managed such a significant feat like this?

It's not like he's been shown to be particularly strong-willed. In fact, one could argue that he's even less so than most other characters due to how much further he fell into the rabbit hole of Lila's manipulation than anyone else.

His gullibility and irrationality are the entire reason he gets akumatized in the first place.

And he doesn't ever play a significant role after this, either. The only other time that he even had so much as a speaking role was the other time he got akumatized way back in season 1 for not being allowed to sacrifice someone to the Egyptian gods.

Now, these aren't the first times that people have fought back against Hawkmoth while being akumatized. But they are the first times that they've successfully broken out.

Pixelator questioned Hawkmoth's authority over him, and in response, Hawkmoth did something with his hand that started causing physical pain to Pixelator, reinstating his control over his akuma.

The only other time an akuma victim fought back was Robustus, which was a special case because he rebelled against Hawkmoth by using the specific abilities that were granted to him.

Neither of them even tried to escape akumatization.

Akumatization has always been set up as something powerful. Something that takes the worst parts of you and amplifies them to the point of no longer being capable of rational thought.

We never end up questioning why people don't try to resist akumatization if they know that they might end up hurting people. We already know the answer. It's because they can't.

Even Ms. Bustier, possibly the character who hated akumatization the most at the time, couldn't avoid becoming akumatized despite her best efforts.

So three separate people breaking free from their akumatization should imply that Gabriel's control over his victims is getting weaker, which would be a very big deal.

But nothing is ever done with that. After Alix's brother, nobody ever broke out of akumatization again. The ability to do so is used as nothing more than a plot device in these few episodes.

Another thing is that, if anything, Gabriel's grasp over his victims' emotional state should be even stronger.

His akumas are canonically more powerful than before, to make the lucky charms that Ladybug hands out stop working against him.

If bigger and more powerful akumas don't make his hold on people even stronger than before, then the entire arc of Ladybug realizing that she can create charms to prevent people from being akumatized more than once, and Hawkmoth's counter-arc of nullifying her efforts by simply creating bigger akumas was all just a complete waste of time.

After Guiltrip, I assumed that they were building up to Rose being able to break out of akumatization through her naturally positive nature alone, and then they would have an arc of her teaching others how to do the same.

Suffice to say, neither of those things happened.

Rose's "inner voice" that she's apparently had in her head this entire time doesn't serve any actual purpose other than to make her worthy of the pig miraculous.

To be clear: I don't have any issues with Rose's invisible illness never being mentioned at any point before Guiltrip. That's the entire point of an invisible illness.

My point is that Rose's ability to break free from negative emotion-based mind control is an extremely important ability that was never even so much as hinted at before or even brought up again any time after Guiltrip.

So, once again, it's just an extremely important one-off ability that doesn't matter and doesn't affect the stakes whatsoever.

These seasons keep throwing moments at us that should be very big deals but are never treated as such.

Now let's compare all of this to an actually good akumatization-related scene.

When Chloe successfully rejected akumatization.

When this happened, it was huge, and it felt like it too.

Not just because of how impressive the feat itself was, but also because of where Chloe was in her character arc.

Chloe was under the impression that Ladybug might never let her be Queen Bee again. Full stop.

She had potentially permanently lost a privilege that really mattered to her, Lila was starting to get inside her head, and she was becoming mean to Sabrina again.

By all accounts, Chloe should've been in the stage of her arc where she started to revert back to her old self. The old Chloe would've accepted Hawkmoth's words without a second thought.

If this was the conventional Zuko-style arc that so many writers try and fail to replicate, this would've been the scene where it seems like she may not actually get redeemed, and would fall back on old patterns of hers. Which is an interesting enough arc on its own.

But we instead have a girl who doesn't have any way of truly knowing better, has no good role models, and is close only to people who enable her worst behaviors. And she chooses to be good.

Her worst fears are starting to come true, nobody seems to have any care or respect for her, and a smarter and more experienced grown man is using all of these negative emotions against her to mind control her. And she still chooses to trust the process and work to gain back Ladybug's trust. Exactly like Ladybug told her to.

The one time she was given really good advice, it stuck with her.

This is the moment that flat-out confirms that Chloe can be redeemed, and actively wants to be better.

Not only did she not get akumatized, she almost made it look easy.

But the show still makes it perfectly clear that this wasn't an easy feat by any means.

She was visibly exhausted and scared after the akuma left, breathing heavily like she almost just drowned.

But the important part is that she did it. She didn't get akumatized. And she is shown to be rightfully proud of this fact.

It's also interesting to note that no other character has ever broken out of akumatization, mid-akumatization.

In the seasons to come, several people would be breaking out of akumatization after they had already been akumatized. But Chloe is the first, and only, person to reject akumatization before it even took hold.

That's how you give a moment like this the emotional weight that it deserves, by letting it stand on its own and not bombarding your audience with the same scene played out by several other characters.

Chloe was the only one to do this, and that shows that she could bring something special to the team if she actually got the chance to be a heroine again. It makes us consider the possibility that her stubborn and argumentative nature might actually end up being a silver lining. She can still be herself while saving people. In her own way.

She can be a hero. She can become a better person. And she doesn't have to change a thing about herself.

It would be a really nice message to send.

Which just makes it all the more disappointing when it doesn't amount to anything.

If the point of her character was that she could've been better, but became worse instead, that would've made for an interesting sort of tragedy.

But that's not what it is. I know that's not what the writers intended because if that were the case, then Ladybug would've probably had some lines about how much potential Chloe had, and how well she was doing before she went back to her old self.

We don't get any of that. What we get instead is the show and characters acting like Chloe was always as bad as she is in seasons 4 and 5.

She never actually liked Adrien. She was never kind to her father or Sabrina. She never wanted to get better.

And that's just not true.

Sorry, the main point of this post was to showcase the difference between important moments that were given the appropriate emotional weight, and those that weren't. But I just went off on a bit of a tangent there.

God. Even when this show gets something right, it gets like ten other things wrong.

Anyway, TDLR: If you want a moment to be significant, let it be significant. Let it make big changes that actually matter. Don't be a coward who's too afraid to change the hierarchy of your story in any kind of way that matters.

If you want a moment to have an impact on your audience, give it time to breathe on its own, and don't repeat it for at least a little while after.

And for God's sake, if an ability is a big deal, then don't let some unimportant side character that no one cares about also have that ability. It just makes it seem like it's not.

[aalissy]

Me tryna watch anyyy of the livestreams rn omllll

[xaran-alamas]

You know, thinking about it, I think Season 4 of MLB is my favourite so far, and I think a part of that is the team aspect, but also getting to know the Kwamis more.

Which is why I'm pretty optimistic for Season 6

One of my favourite characters joining the cast didn't hurt either.

[mrplushgore]

Season 4 finale went kinda hard, huh?

[madlyclumsy]

so ugly～♡･:*

[cakemousse]

i'll never abandon you 🤝 i love this girl

parallels we love to see

thank you @bananagreste for coming to my aide and @little-mari-on-a-roof for the translation in revelation 💕🥰

[ladykyriaa]

I am begging. PLEADING. Let my girl sLEEP

[ayana-banafrit]

OH MY GOD PEOPLE IT HAPPENED!!!

GABRIEL IS ACTUALLY USING HIS BRAIN TO THINK!!!

Also props to Luka!

[mystic-myrtille]

What do you think was the most pointless plot point in the show?

Couldn’t pick just one so here‘s a list in no particular order:

Rich kid sentimonsters: uninteresting, confusing, stupid

The mari//chat mini arc thing in s5: cute but ultimately just fan service and Mari went back to Adrien either way so yeah

Chloe‘s „arc“ post s3 : she just became annoying and pathetic. If the show gets rebooted one day I hope she gets redeemed just to spite on Astruc

Luka figuring out both identities: leads to brazil nowhere

Marinette‘s dating trauma: super unnecessary, just there to drag thing out further and created more inconsistencies (but also it made me feel validated in shipping Lukanette so at least I got something out of it😂)

Gabriel‘s redemption: … why? (Obviously bc the show just really loves white men who really love their family a lot uwu🥺)

Adrien staying oblivious to all of this: just straight up insulting to his character

Su-Han: he‘s literally just there to yell at Mari and not be her mentor and serves no purpose at all

Magical akuma charms: didn‘t they work just so well?

Jagged the deadbeat dad: the way everyone just went along with it? hello?? THE POTENTIAL FOR ANGST??

[xxovercanyonmoonxx]

Why did they think it was okay to have the password Miraculous123? 😭💀

[new-kit-on-the-block]

I really want to know what was going through Gabriel’s head every time he akumatized Mr. Pigeon.

“I’ve akumatized him 26 times and he has failed every single one.” and then he proceeded to akumatize him 46 more times.

[miraculous-floconfettis]

Still can't believe that those 2 scenes happened inside the same house at the very same moment and they have absolutely no idea

[miraculousalt]

Im dreadin the day S6 might very likely have Ladybug turn round & go off on Chat Noir bc she had to fight alone against Monarch an that wish will result in vry bad consequences

& you just know exactly Adrien wont be gettin anything close to a fair treatment in that scenario bc in LadyNoir Chat's not allowed to exist as civilian person when Ladybug is bein inconvenienced by it n if he does than SHE'S the one being wronged & he has to make it up to her n take all the blame.

And thats most likely once again all the show will do bc Chat Noir never getsa fair treatment when Ladybug has so much as an emotion, no matter what the truth around it was.

Im just so not lookin forward to S6 ladyNoir...

[terribleartist]

Here’s something I’ve begun to notice. Despite the fact that I haven’t watched a single episode of s5(Lol), I’ve noticed something interesting. Mari and Adrien are our main characters, then you have their classmates.. But looking at the class there’s something different about one of them.. It’s Alya. Yes, Alya didn’t play as huge of a role as she did in S4, though I’m sure she would’ve if she had kept her miraculous after the s4 finale. But nevertheless, Alya is treated differently, she’s not really just a side character anymore, she’s her own character. I mean, her alternate universe counterpart is playing a major part in the up coming special.

She’s not just a side character anymore. Not to mention Plagg chose her to become her temporary holder. If not for the fact of her nightmares causing her to doubt her ability(Which is such a nice touch because she’s almost always confident in herself), she would’ve been a temporary black cat miraculous holder(Slightly bitter we didn’t get that lol). Not to mention, Tikki specifically chose Alya to take the place of Ladybug, she was given the choice and she chose Alya. Which, to be fair, Alya had already handled the LB miraculous and was aware on how the powers worked, but still, she could’ve chosen anyone and she chose Alya.

If Thomas plays his cards right, he could have a really interesting supporting character. I can’t help but feel they’re going to do something with Alya considering what we know of the next special, how she was treated in S4, and how she was treated in S5 finale, especially with her returning as Rena Rouge(My beloved)

[wehadabondingmoment]

Catwalker and Velvet Paw (French Dub) were both excellent name choices for Kuro Neko because they have simultaneously the same and the exact opposite meaning.

In this (totally over-analyzed) essay I will-

[nirrvana]

so i just wrapped up my full s4 watch and i literally couldn’t stop thinking about how this uncanny frame from guiltrip looks like anthy covered in swords