#Marinette is taking it well

[maddascanbe-blog]

Miraculous Lifeswap Origins Part. 1

Meanwhile-

So I have been slogging through packing in preparation to leave for school in the fall. And am getting so sick of looking at my redesign sheets that I almost started yelling at it.

So why not make a little lifeswap comic? As a treat?

Lifeswap-Marinette and Adrien

Next

[bigfatbreak]

I honestly can't wait to see Adrien's reaction to the whole engagement thing. I wonder whether he will get jealous and just. Not completely, if at all, understand where it comes from. He just wants to hang out with his dear friend Marinette it's not like her engagement changes anything, right? And meanwhile his fae hindbrain is seething.

P.S. your posts made me want to go read lukanette fics after not engaging with the fandom (besides your comics) at all for *checks watch uh clock uh calendar* 4 years. Thank you<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

honestly before the jealousy even forms, the abandonment trauma hits like a freight train and he almost falls apart

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

How to Use Absurdist Humor

I will often excuse away the “worst” of Marinette’s behavior with a very dismissive, “It’s an obvious joke, so there’s no point taking this as a serious character beat. Let’s not waste our time here.”

While I stand by that statement, I can see why some people struggle with this approach. Miraculous has made the unfortunate choice to tie the humor to parts of the narrative that have actual meaning to the audience. This undercuts the power of the humor, making it hard for some people to separate the humor from the actual character beats, so let’s step back and look at a show that did this right to show what I mean.

That’s right, folks, it’s time for more gushing about Kim Possible!

For today’s case study, we'll start with episode 17 of season one: The Twin Factor. In this episode, Kim is stuck babysitting her little brothers while on a mission to stop her arch nemesis. You may be thinking that Kim's "flaw" in this episode is the fact that she brings two 10-year-olds on a dangerous mission.

You would be wrong.

This is the lead-in to Kim bringing the twins along:

Kim: Er, speaking of forgetting, I totally spaced on the baby-sitting. Mrs. Dr. Possible: Kimmy, you made a commitment. Kim: Two commitments, actually. I'm suppose to go on a mission today. Mr. Dr. Possible: You'll just have to take the boys. Kim: Mom, can you please tell Dad that's a bad idea? Mrs. Dr. Possible: Oh, Kimmy. I'm sure Jim and Tim would love to visit a secret lab with you.

This is how you do absurdist humor. Is this technically horrible parenting? Yes, but there is no way that anyone is taking this seriously. It’s just so over the top that anyone trying to criticize the Possible’s behavior comes across as completely missing the point.

The other important factor is that Kim’s parents are played as genuinely loving and supportive parents, just in a really absurd way. This is a very natural bit of loving family dialogue about a totally ridiculous version of a normal family conflict. None of these three characters show off flaws that we expect to see address here save for their complete lack of concern about Kim’s life-risking adventures.

If Kim’s parents were shown to be genuinely neglectful or if Kim’s adventures were played more seriously, then this humor wouldn’t work anywhere near as well as it does. It would still be an obvious joke, but it would stumble the landing if you knew that the episode would go on to see Jim and Tim die. (They don’t, btw. The absurdist humor carries on, I’m just giving an extreme example of a plot beat that would kill – or at least weaken – this humor.)

Another example of Kim Possible doing absurdist humor right comes from the next episode in season one: Animal Attraction. In this episode, Kim is up against Senior Senior Senior, an eccentric billionaire who pursues villainy as a hobby, leading to exchanges like this one between him and his son:

Jr.: Did we not leave Kim Possible on a conveyor belt to her doom? Sr.: Yes. A proper villain always leaves his foe when he's about to expire. Jr.: Why? Sr.: Well, it would be bad form just to lull about, waiting for it. Jr.: Why? Sr.: Tradition!

This episode has a lot of moments like this. Moments where Jr asks why they don't do the obvious, more easy/effective thing and his father blows him off because that's not how villains do things! It's totally illogical logic and it's great. I love it! Perfect example of absurdist villains and a great way to keep the show from getting too serious. The writers never wanted you to feel like Kim was in over her head.

If you look at these two examples and compare them to Miraculous, you'll notice a big difference. While Miraculous does occasionally pull off good absurdist humor, a lot of the absurdist humor is more questionable because it's tied to the show's central conflicts.

As an example, let's talk about Marinette's inability to confess to Adrien and all the nonsense tied to that. Her many failures and attempts to know him better are clearly jokes, but they have this serious edge because the show has not set up the love square as nothing more than a source of humor. This is our end game couple. The audience expects to see their romance developed. The longer the show goes on without doing that and the more absurd Marinette's attempts get, the less the comedy works.

Another good example is Lila's lies. There is a solid argument to be made that the writers are trying to be funny with Lila's extremely obvious lies, but it doesn't work because the lies are a source of serious conflict. Lila is working with the villain! She gets Marinette expelled! We want to see her outed! Every obvious lie she tells just grates on our nerves because this is not the time for jokes!

To be fair, you can use absurdist humor in more serious shows. Another of my personal favorites is The Good Place, which relies heavily on absurdist humor, but has a very serious and heartfelt overall plot. The humor works there because the show knew when to use the humor and when to be serious and also because The Good Place is not a formula show. It's a serialized show. One big story told in 20-minute chunks. This meant that the humor had more room to breath and could be more closely tied to serious conflicts. When every story has to stand alone and be finished in 20-minutes, that blending rarely ever works. You're trying to do too much.

Kim Possible's writers knew this, too. The two tie-in movies (Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time and So the Drama) are still comedies, but they both have far more serious tones because they had the time to do that. While the episodes run about 20 minutes, both movies run a little over and hour which meant they could be more serious than in a standard episode.

So why did I write all that up? Because I was watching Kim Possible and thinking about how much better the humor generally was and I suddenly realized how easy it would be to be confused by Miraculous' humor if you didn't have this kind of background. I've seen enough absurdist humor to identify it with ease and even I struggle with Miraculous at times. Like I'm still not sure if Lila's lies are supposed to be a joke or not.

If you're new to absurdist humor or struggle to interpret less overt humor? Then I can see how you'd take Miraculous way more seriously than the writers intended because a lot of the absurdist humor simply isn't absurd enough. That doesn't change the fact that it's humor and I'm still going to treat it as such, but I can see why it goes right over some people's heads and leads to complaints like, "Marinette has his schedule for the next three years!!!" That was a joke, but I get why you're missing it.

[iwasbored777]

So this is the plot of the episode

[justaz]

ballerina marinette lives rent free in my head

[cookiedough77]

guys PLEASE keep posting miraculous stuff i need more content before i like die PLEAAASEEE

[bittersweetresilience]

say hi to me i don't know, i just remembered being so much brighter, i guess

cigarette ash like wildfire burning holes in the nighttime open scars feel like barbed wire white lies flying high like a ceasefire dropping flags on the shoreline this is as far as i can feel right 'cause what you don't know can haunt you

and all we ever wanted was sunlight and honesty highlights to want to repeat let's get away from here and live like the movies do i won't mind when it's over at least i didn't think for a while

don't drag it out living like that doesn't mean a thing

so let's, make a great escape and i'll be waiting outside for the getaway it doesn't matter who we are we'll keep running through the dark and all we'll ever need is another day we can slow down 'cause tomorrow is a mile away and live like shooting stars 'cause happy endings hardest to fake

and i wanna let you know i wanna let you go but i just can't bring myself to speak but this is how it goes the end credits, they roll this bridge was built over kerosene but we can watch it and all i ever wanted was sunlight and honesty highlights to want to repeat let's get away from here and live like the movies do i won't mind when it's over at least i didn't think

so let's run, make a great escape and i'll be waiting outside for the getaway it doesn't matter who we are we'll keep running through the dark and all we'll ever need is another day we can slow down 'cause tomorrow is a mile away and live like shooting stars you can wish away forever but you'll never find a thing like today

[colorful-horses]

I'm still mad about how Miraculous treated Chloé Bourgeois btw

[alenachelk]

I have a hard time connecting with Felix's fans, especially since they only started liking him after season 5. (his entire personality and development was flushed down the toilet in season 5 and just made him a boring pathetic insipid uwu boy and people like it? I do not understand this) and in season 6 he will be the same stupid puppet in the hands of Marinette, like all her friends, who will endlessly love her and support her, not having your own personal life or opinions. Stand in the background with everyone and smile, waiting for at least a little screen time.

[thimbleb3rries]

If I could, like, hold a thought long enough to put it into words that would be really great

I would also like someone to inject the entire Mandarin language into my brain

I'm having adrinette fanfic ideas but am so horribly unable to write down any of them arghhhg

[fragileizywriting]

picture this with me

kitty and flp juleka.

oh? OH???? come here. join me.

i haven’t gotten the chance to introduce flp juleka yet because, god, things just weren’t in the cards in flp yet. essentially, juleka is also like 7 or whatever. 10. somehwere. she’s a young little naga who’s selectively mute; a dark purple color with long hair and pretty eyes and a childlike smile.

she’s so unbelievably shy. she hides behind luka when (if) she meets the others, too afraid of anything. sas luka crouches on his ankles to make her less afraid. she’s weirded out by his legs and can’t stop touching his jeans over his kneecap. she’s approached calmly, gently, like a skittish animal.

kitty does not in the slightest give her this option.

upon seeing little jules, kitty almost shrieks in excitement. she’s on her calves, petting her tail, touching her hair and smothering her in a (consensual!!!) hug. they become best friends almost instantly. kitty introduces herself:

“hello, my princess!” she cheers, propped up on one knee, one hand on her chest and another holding out her palm so juleka can put her hands on her. she does. she’s giggling. her eyes are twinkling. “i am your most loyal knight, my lady.”

jules rattle stops shivering in simmering anxiety.

kitty makes faces. makes fun voices. she’s animated, she’s excited, she’s not afraid to look ugly and stupid and cartoony.

juleka laughs and laughs and laughs.

“i’m not sharing her,” kitty explains, when dl luka tells her to stop hogging her attention so he can say hello. “you hear him, my lady? the big bad dragon wants me to give you up. but i’m not falling for your magician tricks! come, my lady.” kitty picks up juleka with little effort. bridal style, of course, because there’s not much else. her arms don’t even shake, even as they all warn her to put her down because she’s still so much heavier than a human even though she’s a child. all kitty does is snort. “look at them, thinking i can’t pick you up. i think they’re weak. do i look like i’m struggling with you?”

juleka shakes her head.

i’m thinking kitty has this catch phrase when dealing with juleka that is so evident that kitty knows how to deal with any julekas that really just is her repeating “not to worry not to worry not to worry not to worry” over and over again in silly voices. they’re to distract her from whatever it is jules is worried about. they’re also just another way to get kitty to sound goofy. she shakes her head with it too, and it gets so frequent that jules starts doing it on her own when she’s starting to rattle again.

she can stop herself from rattling but repeating kitty’s actions like she taught.

“you know what we should do, princess?” kitty asks. “i think we should play dress up. you have to show me all of your cool clothes so we can make you the most beautiful princess in the entire world— so pretty that luka will have to fight every single person who wants to hold your hand.”

juleka is nodding like crazy, so excited.

[apecosmica]

 watching the end of  “adoration”:

Zoe: *Smiles at Marinette, looking genuine*

me: this girl is so going to cry herself to sleep tonight

[wonderwoman6199]

Marinette: Is violence the answer, no. It’s the question, and the answer is yes!👊

Audrey, you're about to catch some 14 year old HANDS!

Episode 51 Part 16 First < Previous > Next Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5 Ep 41, Ep 42, Ep 43, Ep 44 Ep 45, Ep 46, Ep 47, Ep 48, Intermission, Ep 49, Ep 50

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[miraculoustakes]

marinette could survive s saw trap

.

[wisteriasymphony]

ladrien is cool in its fuckedupness because it's so comfortably distant. they're both in their fake personas, they know the other is in their fake persona, and they're entirely willing to and enthusiastic about keeping up the charade. every interaction feels scripted and they both love this about it. there's never any danger in it because they're never required to be vulnerable whatsoever. they never have to be honest, they never have to be genuine, and they never expect the other to be genuine, and there's probably some twisted sort of comfort in knowing that the other person is never expecting you to take off their mask. that you can just lie and keep lying and it's fine

marichat is cool in its fuckedupness because it's so uncomfortably close. they both know each other so well but are unable to admit why, so they're just overly-friendly and don't have boundaries where they arguably should. there is no pretense to be civil or respectable so marichat comes with the grossest jokes and awkwardest silences and flippant displays of bad behavior. chat has no idea what proper boundaries should look like when someone isn't Using A Mask, and marinette is in no position to draw her foot in the sand* because being authoritative is for ladybug!!! so they're violating each others boundaries and making each other uncomfortable CONSTANTLY!!!

and like the others idk.

[delightfuldevin]

Miraculous would be sooo much better if the show was like, half as long