#Show!Marinette
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Submitted prompt:
When Adrien has his outburst and quits being Chat Noir, the ring ends up in the hands of someone new after a crow picks it up and brings it to a human who feeds him regularly. (Crows do that with humans who are nice to them, sometimes.) This person is Célestin Rivage, a trans boy who is an up and coming fashion designer. He’s active on social media calling out the industry’s problem with underpaying workers, using sweatshops, and other awful practices in the fashion industry, someone Marinette follows and thinks is nice but doesn’t have a crush on. She wants to be a sustainable fashion designer who makes things that last and that contribute to the anti-fast fashion movement in France, so she follows his Tiktok and YouTube, uses some of his tips on how to spot poor craftsmanship and signs a garment was made with unethical labor, etc.
Célestin is not sure he’s the right choice for a superhero. As he tells Plagg, he’s got real concerns about if he can do superhero duties, schoolwork and his part time job correctly without neglecting some aspect of it. But since he’s moved to Paris and Paris has akuma attacks, it would be immoral not to jump in and try to help while he’s here. Ladybug shouldn’t have to do everything by herself. So he jumps into a fight against an akuma, they win, and then he takes off the ring and holds it out to her, explaining he’s not right for this but he trusts her to find someone who is. He trusts her judgment. But Marinette… well, she just had a fight where someone took the threat seriously, didn’t clown around and had her back for once. She sees someone who views having a miraculous as an incredibly serious thing. After having dealt with Chat’s nonsense, that’s wonderful.
Ladybug tells Célestin to keep the cat miraculous for the time being. She’ll look for another candidate to give it to long-term. For now, though, she trusts him to do the job correctly, since he takes it seriously. The bigger issue she has is Alya speculating on the Ladyblog that Ladybug and Chat Noir broke up or that Ladybug is cheating on Chat Noir with the new black cat. Exhausted with Alya insisting the two are dating and not listening to anything Ladybug has ever said about not being interested in him, Ladybug stops giving her interviews and instead, with Célestin’s help, sets up her own social media accounts and personal site in order to be able to speak to people directly. She talks about how Chat has harassed her, touched her without her consent, repeatedly ignored her boundaries and made her life harder. Paris’ opinion of him turns sour at the same rate as Adrien at school gets snappier and shorter tempered with the people around him. Marinette’s crush on Adrien fades as she sees him defending Chat Noir, arguing with other people and generally being less and less mature in ways that are distinctly repulsive instead of charming. Lila decides to go for a different model she’s charmed online who isn’t defending sexual harassment, Chloe is too busy trying to figure out what’s going on with Adrien to bother Marinette, everything is looking up.
Then Adrien gets akumatized. It’s a combination of having his hero persona disliked by everyone, seeing Ladybug be happy with someone else, and the fact that she said she wasn’t romantically interested in him. He manages to suck at being an akuma because the person he goes after, immediately, is the new Chat, Chat Minuit. He thinks this man somehow stole his girlfriend despite all evidence to the contrary, and yells out that he was Chat Noir and Ladybug is his. Ladybug has never been more disappointed or repulsed in her life. Unfortunately for him, Alya livestreamed most of the fight. Now people know he was the douchebag Ladybug had been complaining about, and they’re mad, so Gabriel, if only because he likes money and this is bad for his company’s reputation and profits, shuffles Adrien off to a private boarding school away from angry, dangerous people who hate him enough to want to hurt him. (Yes, Adrien is a minor and shouldn’t be threatened by adults, but sadly, we’ve seen adults IRL threaten minors. It’s wrong but it happens. The fic just shields him from it because no minor, even a shitty one, should be threatened by adults with physical or mental harm.)
Alya apologizes to Ladybug for everything and vows to make amends. Marinette excels at pursuing her fashion career without having to worry about carrying around Chat Noir’s deadweight and instead has someone to lean on when it comes to superheroics. Célestin ends up being the permanent new holder of the cat miraculous and finally overcoming his ongoing fears of not being a good enough person. Now the fight against Hawkmoth can go on but with two competent superheros, not just one.
In my mind I picture Célestin as black, but honestly I’d be cool with a prompt filler making him another race so long as he wasn’t white. This show has way too many white characters when you look at France’s actual demographics already. Please keep him a nonwhite biromantic ace who isn’t automatically attracted to Marinette and she isn’t automatically attracted to him because people can in fact just be friends, regardless of what bad writing might tell you. Give me some bi ace rep where being bi doesn’t mean crushing on everyone or cheating and being ace doesn’t mean being cold or standoffish and I will die happy.
#submission#Adrien salt prompts#adrien salt#Miraculous Ladybug#ML salt#ML salt prompts#Marinette Dupain-Cheng#Adrien Agreste#ML OC#Show!Miraculous#Show!Marinette#Show!Adrien
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Submitted Prompt: A wish for Solitude
This is the accessible version of this prompt.
The special-text version can be found here.
- - -
Hi Rjalker, I'm kinda back! So after who knows how long since I wrote my prompt about Serrah, and the show's ending of the fifth season being a dumpster fire like always (actually, even worse than usual, I seriously miss the finales like the ones of the first and second seasons), I decided to write this because... something. I myself aren't sure, but I guess I will just write something different than cosmic entities trying to fix the universe (or doom it because their existence requires the universe's own oblivion) because I'm not planning to rewrite the entire plot of this idiotic show.
I will be honest and say that this is a completely new territory for me, so if you spot mistakes and see something that needs to be changed, please do so.
So, have fun?
Occurs after Strikeback (season 4 finale).
My try at an Akumanette prompt.
Pronouns: lon/lones/lones/loneself (same as she/her/hers/herself)
TW: mention of sexual harassment, and a character experiencing touch revulsion
-----
It was so hard.
It was so hard for her.
Marinette thought as time kept moving too fast, yet it felt like everything was crawling to a halt.
Everything was becoming too hard, too difficult, too unbearable.
It was so painful, dealing with it. Being Marinette. Being Ladybug. Being the Guardian.
"Marinette, how did you forget to go to our planned party?"
Because Ladybug's job is too important than Marinette.
"Marinette, is there something bothering you? I heard you've been skipping classes."
Forgive me mama, papa, I can't schedule for when an Akuma strikes. That's the sacrifice I must make.
"Marinette, cheer up! We will defeat Hawkmoth in the end!"
Yes, Tikki, in the end. And what about my life?
"Marinette, I know that Chloe is a bit too much but..."
I know, Ms. Bustier, I must forgive her, for I am Marinette and I am nice, forgiving, no matter how many times I and others get hurt by her.
"Meowch Bugaboo! You know that you always have me!"
Leave me alone. Don't call me by that. Don't come closer to me. Don't flirt with me. Don't touch me. Don't try to kiss me. Leave. Me. Alone!
"You still are in denial about Adrien, Marinette?"
I didn't want this, Alya. Your question isn't funny. I don't love this. I don't want these feelings. I hate them. I despise them. They were why I lost the other kwamies. Love only hurt me.
"You must be responsible, Marinette!"
It's difficult to be responsible. It hurts to be responsible. I don't like this. It's so painful. So suffocating. So tiring. So dark. So cruel. I don't want more even if I have to take more. I want to be alone. I want to be left alone. Alone. Only alone. No one to nag on me about something. No one to have me deal with their problems. No one to guilt trip me and shame me for not doing what they want.
I want to be alone, with only myself being the only company I need.
"Hello, Solitude. I am Hawkmoth. I will give you the power to be alone, free from responsibility, at the price of giving me the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses."
It was so wrong to accept. She knew it. It would be admitting defeat, admitting that evil had won in a way. But why bother? She was so tired. So exhausted of fighting, fighting when everything she tried to do backfired on her.
What's the worst to happen if the accepted? Surely, Alya and that harasser Chat Noir can deal with it. They seemed to never run into real problems or face truly permanant consequences.
Oh how jealous she was.
"Yes, Hawkmoth."
And Marinette ceased to be. ---- When lon opened lones eyes, Solitude felt it, the desire burning from lones being.
"I want to be alone. I don't want anyone else with me."
That was it. Simple, yet clear. To be alone on lones own. Lon only wanted to be alone with loneself. No one to bother lones with anything.
No responsibility, no demands, nothing but simple, and sweet solitude.
Yet it just wasn't so easy.
"What is this?" lones expression looked repulsed.
Something was wrong, something was feeling off.
Solitude's body felt something uncomfortable, disgusting, hateful.
Something that just felt like something was touching lones body. Something that just refused to leave lones alone.
What is this? Lones body feels heavy. Breathing and moving feels difficult.
Nothing was touching Solitude, yet the feeling only grew stronger, the repulsion and hate for this thing that was seemingly crawling all over lones, seemingly invading lones blood and skin only continued.
Solitude hated this. It felt so wrong, so awful, so utterly-
"Marinette!"
A voice screamed as lon saw... a girl closing towards lones. Rose? That was her name, right?
Immediately, lon jumped away, as if burned by her presence, almost screaming and attacking her and the others that came alongside her.
How dare they come so close? How dare they call lones Marinette? How dare they try to touch lones?
"Leave me alone!"
Solitude ignored their pleas to come, to wait for Ladybug to help her, to fix her, to heal her.
There's nothing to heal or fix. Nothing wrong with Solitude. Solitude isn't Marinette. There's no need for Ladybug to heal lones.
The awful feeling seemed to diminish, it wasn't as bad as before. So this sensation of pure disgust relates to lones presence with others? Or when others enter lones comfort zone without permission?
Solitude felt that this was the correct answer.
Then, Solitude might go to a place far away. ---- Lon was on the top of the Eiffel tower for nearly half an hour now.
It was a calm area, and there was no one around lones from what Solitude can feel.
Yet...
The sensation of something surrounding lones body still persisted.
Solitude couldn't comprehend it. Nor did lon like it one bit.
What's going on? Why doesn't this feeling leave lones alone?
Lon could feel it, something was seemingly demanding for lones to do something. Something that Solitude doesn't want to do, and it is getting almost physically painful to deal with.
What is this? Why is this happening? Solitude wanted to be alone. Is that really so much? What is causing this? Who? Why?
Lon would like it if they stop continuously touching and crawling all over lones bod-
"Hello, mademoiselle!"
A voice that feels extremely, horribly familiar resounds, and Solitude feels all sensations go overdrive.
Chat Noir was so close-
So close, too close, that repulsive smirk, that leering look, that uncaring posture, too dirty, too repulsive, too hateful.
Lon hates it. Hates him. Hates that person. He will touch me, he will ignore my boundaries, he will torment me, will not leave me alone.
For just a moment, Marinette's memories resurfaced, and nothing but pure rage and hatred consumed lon vision.
A blast of pure, unbridled energy of repulsion and exclusion consumed the part of the Eiffel tower they were in, practically erasing it from existence, and that hero harasser being thrown away, far away so he couldn't violate lones boundaries anymore.
Solitude's body shook from the sheer disgust lon felt, lones mind already making possible connections to why lon felt so much worse with that guy around.
"Is it because Marinette suffered the most due to him?" Solitude thought in rage.
Is that why? It made sense, right?
But before lon could fully calm down, the sensation returned once more.
Why? Why? Why don't they leave lones alone!?
"Good job, Solitude! You've lured Chat Noir! Now go and take away his miraculous and Ladybug's!"
Lones heart raced with pure rage as Solitude felt the connection linking lones with Hawkmoth.
It's this guy...
Lones eyes seemed to look somewhere, what Solitude felt to be Hawkmoth's direction.
This guy was who was crawling over lones body using that link...
Hate and energy, already twisted due to the corrupted magic, twisted even further as it followed Solitude's desires.
If only he didn't exist... if only he and Chat Noir didn't exist...
Then Solitude would be already happy, alone with nothing bothering lones...
Solitude must destroy them first... And make sure not even a shadow of them remains...
---
End?
Or at least until I might write a sequel.
Hope you liked it.
#long post#submitted prompt#neopronouns in action#neopronouns#lon/lones/(lones)/loneself#lon/lones#lonlonespronouns#Miraculous Ladybug#ML writing prompts#Akumanette#Akumatized!Marinette#Marinette Dupain-Cheng#Adrien Agreste#Adrien salt#Chat Noir salt#Show!Marinette#Show!Adrien#Show!Miraculous
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Hi, uh, this is actually for adriensaltprompts, but the link isn’t showing up so could you maybe reblog it over there? Anyway:
~~~~~~~
From Rjalker:
Here’s the link, I’ll just paste the prompt directly into a new post!
https://adriensaltprompts.tumblr.com/submit
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emma dupain cheng on the brain😽🎀
more:
#ml#miraculous#miraculous ladybug#my art#emma dupain cheng#emma agreste#(i think that may the more popular tag for her lol. she is a dupain cheng in my heart though)#plagg#she is thirteen almost fourteen here btw. because i love circularity#emma dupain cheng to me is like. what if emilie or adrien grew up in a stable home with no trauma. that’s emma#and she is theater kid✨#and adrien and marinette are soooo so so supportive and love going to her shows and are so proud of her#/marinette has to be held back from trying to manipulate the school play casting process to secure emma the lead every year#but then emma sets her sights on bigger things(broadway west end)#and adrien pumps the breaks big time#and he’s so torn between supporting her interests and wanting so badly to keep her from like. being a child actor. having a job. b#being pulled from school#and emma gets upset bc he is standing in the way of her dreams#and they fight about it:(#and then emma discovers plagg and convinces him to help her sneak out and go to her callback that she secretly auditioned for#(and forged all the parent signatures for lol)#and. well. plagg CAN be bribed#and also she just reminds him so much of baby adrien🤧 he is a softie#and she runs away to her callback. and adrien and marinette wake up the next morning and see on the news that there is a new chat noir.#anyway. not that i’ve thought about it or anything
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Birds of a Feather previous / next
#my art#feralnette au#birds of a feather#long tags#sorry I went apeshit in the tags#LETS SAY IT ALL TOGETHER NOW#I - M - A - G - OOOOOOOOO#its fun drawing marinette's back to Alya and having her appear stout and unstoppable and totally logical#and then you see her face and she's like two seconds from completely snapping and is keeping it together by a thread#as a note just because mari feels very certainly abt smth doesnt mean she's right. feelings can be valid and also irrational#in the throes of grief she decided it was better to be alone than to lose someone again so she started pulling away#and lila made pulling away very very very easy to do#shes also vaguely aware she's being unfair in pinning this on alya which is why she started spinning the drain on cockmoth again#legitimately all the shit that's happened to her wouldn't have been so catastrophic if he was never in the picture and she knows it#but the bitterness of her bestie choosing a fantastic liar over her at the worst of times stiiiiiings#alya's personal timing was bad but lila really took advantage of the fact that marinette had been acting off and weird#she basically clocked marinette as being unstable from SOMETHING and made up a lie about her#knowing she wouldn't have the strength to defend herself#between her social life going tachy bc of lila and losing fu in a way that felt like personhood death marinette was really put on the spot#and alya doing her thing of busting in there and assuming her bias is correct was a terrible combo#essentially marinette is highly unstable and alya is just realizing that#busting in and giving her a lecture when she's slightly hysterical and definitely delirious from exhaustion is NOT the way#to show her she's self sabotaging#cuz thats just gonna make her double down on self sabotaging. bc marinette will not accept that she is also a CHIIIIILD
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I just watched the London Special and oh.. oh my god... oh my GOD OH M
#the ladynoir scene at the end GOD#the fact that it's the last scene in the old animation style...#it's bittersweet in a way yk#like the show isn't ending but it's changing#hhhhhh miraculous why do you this to me#ok time to stop rambling in the tags my bad#marinette dupain cheng#ladybug#chronobug#miraculous ladybug#miraculous#ml fanart#miraculous fanart#ml london special#sylkie art#ml art
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🤍 Monster AU(?) Horror movie/actor AU(?) drawn for the Le Blanc zine in 2023 🤍
I thought it would be super fun to go for an old school, kitschy horror movie poster vibe with a werecat!Chat Blanc -also I may or may not have just come out of a huge monster romance reading binge at the time huhuhu
#I can't believe it's been over a year since the last time I made ML fanart 😭#this was also the very last piece I drew right before I had a major art style shift to how I draw now#I really do miss these comfort characters so much 🥺 One of these days I'll finally sit down catch up with the show... 😔#miraculous ladybug#miraculous ladybug fanart#miraculous fanart#chat noir#chat blanc#marinette dupain cheng#marichat#celdraws#celerydays#mlb#mlb art#le blanc zine
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some old ml doodles
#miraculous ladybug#ml#marinette dupain cheng#adrien agreste#kagami tsurugi#i havent watched the show in years but it will always have a special place in my heart#kagaminette#my stuff#marigami
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One lucky girl 🐞
Something to celebrate the master post!!
And for everyone’s support bc WOW?? I get so many nice asks about my art and it really helps me get through my day,, and I wouldn’t even be making a master post if it wasn’t for everyone’s interest in my au. It really motivates me and I hope that I can continue to share my ideas with y’all!! THANK YOU EVERYONE!! 🌈🥹🎉🩷🫶🫶
#I’m a really lucky girl too :’)#miraculous ladybug#chocoau art#marinette dupain cheng#mlb#ml#miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir#HELP THIS TOOK FOREVER NEVER AGAIN#this would also be a banger Madoka magica fanart too#I had to look at afk arena art for the mural style inspo-#is it really a magical girl show if the main character doesn’t ascend to godhood at least once??
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oh the accidental transformations,,,
#miraculous ladybug#miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir#miraculous fanart#marinette dupain cheng#adrien agreste#adrienette#nino lahiffe#alya cesaire#kagami tsurugi#felix fathom#ladybug and chat noir#ladybug#chat noir#cat noir#westy doodles#furuba au#comic#haha yes new comic finally!!#not continuing the previous three but u know. its somethin#the endless scenarios for accidental transformations... my brain is going wild#and YES i will be doing a kagami part soon!!#since shes introduced as one of the cursed as well :))#and if youve seen the show... u might be catching on to where im going with it ;)#anyway have u ever seen a cuter cat adrien
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Pick One: Magical Girl Show or Rom-com. You cannot be both.
Early in season four we get the episode Gang of Secrets. An episode that ends with Marinette outing her secret identity to Alya. A touching moment that sparked outrage across the fandom because it meant that Marinette had made the choice to reveal her identity to her best friend while keeping her hero partner in the dark.
This choice spat in the face of the exceptions that many fans had for the series. Thousands of pre-season-four fanfics feature moments where Ladybug and Chat Noir promise each other that they'll be the first to know each other's identities. After the Alya reveal, scores of fanfics were written to salt on Marinette's choice to tell the "wrong" person.
Most of these fics feature a betrayed Chat Noir quitting or otherwise punishing Ladybug for breaking their promise to be each other's first, thereby destroying his faith in their partnership. But that promise was never made on screen. It only existed in the realms of fanfic and, when Chat Noir finally found out in canon, his reaction was largely neutral. He never once blamed Ladybug for her choice or pushed for a reveal or even asked for the right to tell one of his friends.
So what happened here? Why did the fans have such wildly unrealistic expectations of canon? Were their expectations even unrealistic or did canon betray them? The answer to that is not as straight forward as you might think because it all comes back to one of Miraculous' many, many, many writing problems: Miraculous is trying to be both a Magical Girl Show and a romantic comedy, but those are not genres that mesh. You can only be one (or you can be a third thing that we'll get to at the end as it's the easiest way to fix this mess, but I want to mostly focus on where the anger is coming from and why the writing is to blame.)
To discuss this mismatch, we're going to do something that breaks my heart and talk about some of Origins flaws. While I love that episode and unironically refer to it as the best writing the show ever gave us, it's not perfect and its flaws are all focused around trying to set up both genres. Do note that I'm going to use a lot of gender binary language here as magical girl shows have a strong focus on gender segregation and rarely if ever acknowledge gender diversity.
Let's Talk Magical Girls
Magical girl shows are shows that center on young women and their friendships. While male love interests are often present in these shows, the boys tend to take a backseat and function primarily as arm candy while the girls save the day and carry the narrative.
A great example of this is the show Winx Club. This show features a large cast of teenage girls who save the magical universe from various threats with their magical powers. Each girl has a love interest, but the boys are usually off doing their own thing and only occasionally show up for a date or to give the girls a ride on their cool bikes or magical spaceship. I don't even think that we see the guys fight or, if we do, it's a rare thing. They are not there to save the day. They are there to be shipping fodder.
Like most magical girl shows, Winx Club starts with the main character making friends with one of the girls who will eventually become part of her magical girl squad. This brings us back to Miraculous.
Did you ever find it weird that Origins implies that Marinette has no friends? She doesn't even have a backbone until new girl Alya shows up to become Marinette's First Real Friend:
Marinette: I so wish I can handle Chloé the way you do. Alya: You mean the way Majestia does it. She says all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. (pointing at Chloé) Well, that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can't let her get away with it.
This is a bizarre opening because Miraculous is not about Marinette making friends or learning to stand up for herself. If you skipped Origins and just watched the rest of the show, then you'd have no clue that Marinette wasn't close with her classmates before this year. You also wouldn't know that Alya was new in town and you definitely wouldn't know that Marinette had never stood up to Chloé before this year. So why is this here? Why waste screen time setting up elements that aren't actually important to canon?
Miraculous did it for the same reason that Winx Club did it: magical girl shows traditionally start with the main character making friends with at least one of her eventual female teammates because Magical Girl shows are all about the girls and their relationships. The boys are just arm candy.
But Miraculous isn't a magical girl show. The writers have explicitly stated that it's a rom-com and romantic comedies aren't about female friendship. They might have female friendships in them, but that's not where the focus is. The focus of a rom-com is on the romance and Origins is very clearly all about the romance.
Origins as a Rom-com
Origins has a lot on its plate. It has to establish the villain's motivation for the first time, show us how the heroes got their miraculous, show us how the heroes first met on both sides of the mask, show us how they met their respective best friends, and show us how the heroes dealt with their first akuma. It would be perfectly understandable if this 40 minute two-parter didn't do anything with the romance. They have a full show to give us that!
In spite of this, Origins has some incredibly touching moments for both Ladynoir and Adrienette because romance is the heart of Miraculous. It is the main focus of the show. The driving motivation for both of our leads and the majority of the show's episodes. To tell the story of how their journey started without at least one of them falling in love would feel wrong. That's why we see both of them fall in love!
First we get Chat Noir giving his heart to his bold and brilliant lady, then we get Marinette's heart being stolen by the shy sweet boy who never once thought to blame her for her snap judgement of his character. We even get a touching moment where Chat Noir inspires his lady to accept her role and be Ladybug, leading her to boldly face their enemy and call him out:
Roger: I have a new plan, unlike you! Move aside and let the pros do their thing. You've already failed once! Ladybug: …He's right, you know. If I'd captured Stoneheart's akuma the first time around, none of this would have happened! I knew I wasn't the right one for this job… Cat Noir: No. He's wrong, because without you, she'd no longer be here. (they look at Chloe) And because without us, they won't make it, and we'll prove that to 'em. Trust me on this. Okay? Ladybug: Okay.
I love this moment, but it does lose a little of its power when you remember that we had an Alya-driven variation of this exact same thing five minutes prior:
Alya: HELP!! (Marinette suddenly gets filled with courage. She gets the case out of Alya's bag and puts on the Miraculous. Then, Tikki appears, happy to see Marinette again.) Tikki:(raising her arms) Mmmm! Marinette: I think I need Ladybug! Tikki: I knew you'd come around! Marinette: Well, I'm still not sure I'm up for this, but Alya's in danger. I can't sit back and do nothing.
This scene initially confused me because - if Miraculous is a rom-com - then why would you make Alya the reason that Marinette became Ladybug? Why wouldn't you have Chat Noir be the one in danger so that Marinette chose to fight because of her love interest and then encourage that bond with the later scene of him encouraging her? Why split the focus like this? Why give Alya so much attention?
In case you haven't figured it out, it's because Origins is trying to establish two different genres of show. Two genres that will continue to fight for the rest of the series (or at least the first five seasons).
Magical Girls Vs Rom-com
Why is Alya the one to shake off the nightmare dust and inspire the others during the season five finale? Why is Alya the one that Marinette trusts with all of her plans while Chat Noir is kept in the dark? Why does Alya and Marinette's friendship get so much more focus than Adrien and Nino's? Why was Alya the only temp hero who got upgraded to full time hero?
It's because Alya is Marinette's second in command in a magical girl show and magical girl shows focus on female friendships while the boys are just there to be cute and support the girls.
Why do most of Marinette's talks with Alya focus on Adrien? Why is Chat Noir the only other full time holder of a Miraculous for the first three seasons and then again for the final season? Why do Marinette's friends become more and more obsessed with Adrienentte as the show goes on? Why is the love square's identity reveal given so much more narrative weight than any other identity reveal?
It's because Miraculous is a rom-com and the love square is our end game couple, so of course the story focuses on their relationship above all else!
Are you starting to see the problem?
Circling back to our original question: no, it was not unreasonable for the fans to expect that the Alya reveal would have massive negative consequences for Ladynoir. That is what should happen in a rom-com and Miraculous is mainly written like a rom-com. But the writers are also trying to write a magical girl show and, in a magical girl show, Alya and Marinette's friendship should be the most important relationship in the show, so it makes perfect sense that the show treats the Alya reveal as perfectly fine because the Alya reveal was written from the magical girl show perspective.
When it comes to Miraculous, if you ever feel like a writing choice makes no sense for genre A, re-frame it as a thing from genre B and it suddenly makes perfect sense which is fascinatingly terrible writing! It's no wonder there are people who hate the Alya reveal and people who will defend it with their life. It all depends on which genre elements you've picked up on and clung to. Neither side is right, they've both been set up to have perfectly valid expectations. Whether those expectations are valid for a given episode is entirely up to the mercurial whims of the writers!
How Do We Fix This Mess
At this point, I don't think that we can, the show is too far gone, but if someone gave me the power to change one element of Miraculous, that element would be this: scrap both the magical girl stuff and the rom-com stuff and turn Miraculous into a team show where the friendships transcend gender.
At this point, I've written over a quarter of a million words of fanfic focused on these characters (the brain rot is real) and one thing I've discovered is that it is damn near impossible to keep Adrien and Alya from becoming friends. They're both new to their school while Marinette and Nino have gone to the same school for at least a few years. Alya and Adrien are both obsessed with Ladybug plus Adrien is a natural hype man who loves to support his friends and Alya loves to talk about her blog. Alya is dating Adrien's best friend. On top of that, Alya, Adrien, Nino, and Marinette are all in the same class, meaning that they pretty much have to be spending time together five days a week unless French school don't give kids a chance to socialize or do group projects. If so, then judging them for the first issue, but super jealous of the latter.
Given all of that, why in the world is does it feel like Alya is Marinette's close friend while Adrien is just some guy who goes to Alya's school? Along similar lines, while canon Marinette barely talks to Nino, I've found that Marinette and Nino tend to get along smashingly, especially if you embrace the fact that they have to have known each other for at least a few years.
If you embrace this wider friendship dynamic and scrap the girl squad, replacing it with Alya, Adrien, Marinette, and Nino, then the fight for narrative importance quickly goes away. It's no longer a question of is this episode trying to be a magical girl show or a rom-com? Instead, the question is: which element of the friend group is getting focused on today? The romance or the friendship?
A lot of hero shows do this and do it well. I think that one of the most well known examples is Teen Titans. That show has five main characters and the focus is usually on their friendships, but there is a very clear running romantic tension between the characters Robin and Starfire with several episodes giving a good deal of focus to their romance. I'd say that this element really starts in the show's the 19th episode - Date with Destiny - and it all culminates in the movie that capstones the series: Trouble in Tokyo. The character Beast Boy also gets a romance arc and, while it's more short lived, it's further evidence that you can have strong romances and strong friendships in the same show and even the same episode. You just have to own the fact that boys and girls can be friends with each other, a very logical thing to embrace when your show has decided to have a diverse cast of heroes instead of imposing arbitrary gender limitations on its magical powers.
I couldn't figure out a way to work this into the main essay, but it's relevant so I wanted to quickly point it out and give you more to think about re Origins. Have you ever found it weird how Origins gives both Adrien AND Marinette the "I've never had friends before" backstory and yet wider canon acts like Marinette has this strong amazing friend group while Adrien doesn't seem to care about making friends and instead focuses all his energy on romance? Why give both the protagonist and the supposed deuteragonist this kind of origin if it's not going to be a major element of the show? It makes so much more sense to only give one of them this backstory and then focus that person's character arc on learning about friendship.
#ml writing critical#ml writing salt#adrien deserves better#marinette deserves better#alya deserves better#nino deserves better#My queendom for a team show#I was promised a team show!#Why even give the boys powers if you don't want the boys to have screentime?
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Submitted prompt: Smell Test
Marinette is done. It’s… it’s too much. The Miraculous gives you the attributes of the animal it’s based after, right?
Her fingers are slow and hesitant as they click-clack across the computer, and a quick Google search tells her that cats are repulsed by the scent of lemons and eucalyptus.
And a dig through her drawer tells her that Nana had bought her plenty of perfumes during that period where she didn’t really know who Marinette was as a person.
Now, whenever Chat Noir leans in for a non-consensual kiss, he leaps back and hisses. When his hand is on her shoulder, her wrist, even their classic Pound It!, he quickly flinched back as if burned.
It’s interesting, though, how Adrien is struggling to remain within a five foot radius of Marinette before needing to flee suddenly (a pity, too, because he sits almost right in front of her). And Marinette’s upset about that, but that’s a minor side effect to being free from Chat Noir’s advances, the harassment, the assault, all of it.
She’s a pet owner with a spray bottle, and she’ll keep spritzing until Chat Noir gets the hint.
And as soon as she can handle being around him, she’s taking that ring.
(From the editor: I can’t really vouch for the idea that cats are repelled by citrus or eucalyptus, ours don’t seem to mind and actively try to eat the leaves off my lemon tree when I brought it inside, so let’s just assume that the strength of the smells is too potent and that’s what repelling him)
#submitted prompt#submission#Miraculous LAdybug#Adrien salt#Marinette Dupain-Cheng#Adrien Agreste#Chat Noir#Chat Noir salt#Show!Miraculous#Show!Marinette#Show!Adrien
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miraculous prompt- reverse liar?
so i have this idea where lila comes to school as the new student and is starting to lie. i already posted it onto my own tumblr account.
her first lie, coincidently enough is about jagged stone. but her new classmates (maybe nino or alya) talk about how marinette is rather close with jagged.
so lila switches up and talks about clara nightingale, only for someone else to mention how marinette is close with clara and got the whole class to be in her music video (lila thought it was just a bunch of random teenagers hired for the video).
SO SHE SWITCHES UP AGAIN, but this time with prince ali and the whole charity thing, only for rose to mention how MARINETTE helped her become friends with prince ali.
(if you want to make it maribat, lila can talk about how she is ‘secretly’ dating the youngest child of bruce wayne, damon wayne, only for someone to mention marinette’s overseas boyfriend from gotham who also happens to have a last name wayne)
then she mentions her final trump card- LADYBUG. only for alya to mention how perfect little marinette is also friends with ladybug and organised an interview for her blog.
now lila, at this point, is becoming really annoyed with this marinette person (who hasn’t arrived yet due to an akuma or sleeping late or whatever) and doesn’t like how she has the seemingly perfect life lila is pretending to have, so she asks for proof.
BUT NO ONE HAS ANY SORT OF PROOF!!
it can be because these celebrities had them all sign ndas saying they wont post anything or spread the rumor too much. or because marinette isn’t ready for publicity decided not to leave any chances.
either way, the class knows marinette has these connections since they were there when it was made, and decide to tell lila since she is new and seems trustworthy (AS IF!!!)
and LILA IS SHOCKED!! someone already lied to these people before her? and the gullible idiots believed her?!?!?
at this point, marinette enters the class and school starts.
what happens now is up to you. you can have lila do the opposite of what she has done- make everyone the truth about marinette. or you can have her try to dismantle marinette with lies and everyone calls her out on it.
how she does it is up to you, all i want to see is lila trying to persuade everyone that marinette is a liar so she can get the attention.
if anyone ends up writing this, let me know and tag me. send me the link so i can read it and enjoy it!!
#submission#Miraculous LAdybug#ML writing prompts#Lila Rossi#this is hilarious#Show!Miraculous#Show!Marinette#Show!Adrien
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Okay, so remember this scene from Darkblade?
...and everyone was like 'adriennnn your cat noir's showing'?
Pay a little attention to Marinette in that last frame there.
That's a perfect 'goddammit cat noir' pose if I've ever seen one.
#miraculous ladybug#adrien agreste#marinette dupain cheng#marinette your ladybug is showing#season 1#ladynoir#adrienette#ladynoir and adrienette are the same freaking thing#these idiots just don't realize it#season six you better give me a reveal
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anyone ever heard of Them!
#colored this sketch as a gift to instagram after abandoning it for 2 years. i’m back on there now. potentially#bc i was required for one of my classes to demonstrate my media presence. and i was not going to show my tumblr#i did somehow end up mentioning that i had a youtube channel and then i was peer pressured into showing an animatic to the class.#why do these things happen to me#it’s ok i am cringe i am free i am cringe i am free#anyway them!!!!!#ml#miraculous ladybug#my art#adrinette#adrienette#adrien agreste#marinette dupain cheng
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Hey, I know it’s impossible but what would be the first meeting of Marinette and Alya in Dad Villain?
Alya, like most, was instantly charmed~
Rose is usually the mastermind for who meets with her, though. lol. lmao, even
#dad villain au#alya cesaire#marinette dupain cheng#my art#marinette rlly does run the social media too on top of everything#mostly to show off cute pics of the food and advertise new products and sales#and sometimes to post pics of cool looking customers#luka made it on there once bc he wore a cool hoodie and he rode that high for weeks
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