#Thomas Gabriel imagine

[mbat]

this was an idea i had last year that i found in my files and decided to revive. woe, angst be upon ye

[im-out-of-it]

you like gabriel and gideon?? yasss share some hcs of them or with their partners pls

do I like Gabriel and Gideon? YES I LOVE THEM (this will be long so BEWARE) (quick edit, I DONT KNOW IF I DID THIS RIGHT NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED FOR MY OPINION BEFORE LMAO)

I feel they get severely mistreated. Gabriel is talked about in TID as this bad person. but is he really a bad person? his little sister gets humiliated so he takes matters in his hands (even if he fails) and then gets branded as the person who’s the problem. when it’s actually Will. Will is the one with the fake curse who treats everyone like shit and gets zero repercussions for it. what is so terrible that Gabriel did? I mean, he does say some stuff about Jem (not his proudest moment) but he ends up stepping away from his father, his fathers actions, and ends up trying to become a better person.

the fact that Will tries to make it seem that gabriel is only interested in Cecily to “get back” at Will is insane. SOME PEOPLE HAVE OTHER CONCERNS ADMIRATIONS HOPES DREAMS THAT DONT INVOLVE YOU WILL. Gabriel isn’t the one treating a woman as his whore but that’s for another day 😌 in my mind, gabriel is passionate, he has a soft side, and he will fight for what is his. I truly think he’s a wonderful father but it’s a shame we didn’t see him actually be a parent. the writing doesn’t allow us to see Gabriel’s growth. Anna can be seen as problematic and Christopher going to Grace after what she did to James is a little out of character but that’s mainly the writing. CC doesn’t understand how to execute her characters and show growth unless she accidentally does it for someone she doesn’t care about

Gabriel is one of my favorite lightwoods. he’s got one of those soft hearts and uses this defense with his sarcasm and jokes so people can’t hurt him. he has to kill his father and the whole thing ends up being a joke which I think is insanely messed up. I think the whole Gabriel and Will thing doesn’t get talked about. yeah Will has trauma but he uses it as an excuse to be awful to everyone. Gabriel has trauma but he tries to grow from it. Gabriel isn’t out here saying “oh I killed my father and had a bad childhood so I can treat you how I see fit.” I don’t ever recall Will ever apologizing or showing growth for his actions. but I do see Gabriel saying how he wishes to change and actually changing.

imagine if Gabriel humiliated Cecily or used Will’s fathers issues as a joke and song. then everyone would be like “omg Gabriel can you stop being a dickish bastard for one second please?” but Will jests on Gabriel’s trauma so all is well I guess. I don’t think Gabriel gets enough love. I just think almost everyone making Gabriel’s trauma into a song and joke is vastly disgusting and messed up and I hate no one ever talks about it

I adore Gabriel and Cecily together. I think they fit really well together. they’re both fierce, strong, and passionate. it’s a shame we didn’t get to see them grieve Christopher or any of their development. Gabriel not saying anything when Alexander gets kidnapped is sloppy and lazy writing. these two really get shoved in the back after TID

one of my fav Gabriel moments is when he tosses that demon into the river and his one liners are BEAUTIFUL

GIDEON!!!!!! what a sweet, beautiful, and thoughtful man. it’s funny how before he’s introduced, they’re like “you think Gabriel’s awful? wait for his brother” and he’s the most kindest man. is the evil in the room with us????? it’s adorable how he cusses in Spanish because he’s happy 🥲 Gideon tripping over his words and making a fool of himself for Sophie is high tier entertainment. Gideon seems to be a very calm soul. where Gabriel is a more reckless storm, Gideon is the calmness we need. he’s strict with Gabriel but it’s because he wants the best for Gabriel. I’ll always love the moody and quiet brother with the loud and always has something to say brother. we didn’t get enough of them bonding and arguing

now Gideon gets some growth. he goes to Spain and understands his father is wrong and he actively chooses to leave, tries to bring his brother back, and actually helps Charlotte. he’s another of my favorite characters. he’s very quiet but when he has something to say, it’s loud and clear. Thomas really embodies gideon and Sophie. I also really love Sophie and Gideon! Sophie takes a backseat after TID which is another shame

Sophie takes no prisoners and I love her calling out anyone who disrespects her family and herself. (Tessa acting like Gideon is a bad person and trying to warn Sophie off, girl the man you like treats you as some whore shut up already) it’s sad we don’t get more of Sophie. it would’ve been nice to see her as a shadowhunter and the family dynamic. Sophie and Gideon are just really good people full of love. it shows in their parenting because of what we see of Thomas, Eugenia, and some of Barbara. I think Gabriel and Gideon used their traumatic upbringing and decided to be better than what they had. they broke the cycle in a way. and this is only pertaining to their kids, I have no clue what happened to make Robert who he was 😬

one of my fav highlights of Gideon: when he tries to purpose to Sophie and his dry humor and MAN HES JUST SO FUCKING PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED and I love Gideon defending Thomas 🥹

I don’t think their treatment gets talked about enough. they are almost perceived as the villains when they have the most growth in TID and are far from being villains. I think they’re both very funny and Gideon seems to have a dry humor that isn’t appreciated enough. in my head, they’re super supportive of one another and constantly are hosting family nights together. I don’t believe the whole the merry thieves first meeting at the academy when their families are close. I really see Gideon and Alastair bonding and hitting it off right away. I also see Gabriel and Cecily being like “we’ve had our childhood taken from us so we are here for you” and just making Alastair feel at home. (IN A GOOD WAY)

I really hate how Gabriel and Cecily get left behind. they don’t get to grieve Christopher. Anna desperately needs some guidance and little Alexander’s kidnapping doesn’t get mentioned or is the focus. we do get to see gideon and Sophie kind of grieve Barbara, but I would have wanted to see more of them with Thomas and Eugenia gets left out. when Thomas gets accused of murder, we don’t see Sophie anywhere near Thomas or see Thomas have a conversation with Gideon about it.

Gideon and Gabriel are severely underrated and underutilized. they’re the best part of TID (besides Jem) and the only reason I read that ghastly series. they don’t get talked about enough that I see. they get this villain treatment from CC when they’re anything but that. we don’t get to see Gabriel and Gideon much in TLH (which I get it’s not about them but it wouldn’t hurt to feature them) so that’s also sad

but all in all, I love these two so much and I wish we could have had more of them. they’re beautiful, passionate, fun, and humorous together 🥹 (you made me realize more how much I miss them so thank you) I could take more of Gabriel and Gideon tripping over their words and literally themselves to impress the women they’re in love with. it’s a real treat

[callofdooty]

A Place To Get Away From All The Cold

A prompt fill I actually completed for Whumpuary 2023 - I did have a few others, but chances are I won't get them out by the end of the month. It's a miracle this one even got finished in time HAHA

For Whumpuary Prompts Hypothermia and "Stay with me"

Fandom: Call of Duty (Call of Duty: Ghosts)

Summary: Keegan ends up hypothermic and he goes through the five stages of grief from being cared for.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences (Lots of cursing)

Relationships: Keegan P. Russ & Everyone, Implied Keegan/Ajax (Can be read as platonic or romantic)

Warnings/labels: Fluff & Angst, Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Ghosts as Found Family, Self-Hatred, Inaccuracies in most fields, Hypothermia Whump,

Can also be read on ao3 here!

The point is, Keegan liked to at least believe he was pretty durable, as Elias once said. Operation Sand Viper taught him many things, and that just so happened to be one of them. Sure, he came out of it feeling like he was made of glass - weathered down, one wrong move away from shattering irreversibly - but looking back it’s… a reassurance. A sign that he could get through anything. They survived. Fifteen against hundreds.

Keegan has been through a lot of shit throughout his life. That’s no secret; not to anyone that spends 5 minutes within his presence and especially not to the people that have known him for much more than 5 minutes. He’s “impossibly tough” (thanks Rorke) and “disturbingly durable” (thanks Elias) both of which are products of him going through the various personal layers of Hell a little too early in his life. 

Keegan was a survivor, a hardened soldier. He'd looked death in the face and he'd won.

Which is why it’s nothing short of mortifying to be in this situation. Hazy, confused and fucking cold. His shivers were bordering on violent, it’s a miracle his chattering teeth hadn’t bitten through his tongue yet. Simple things felt far too difficult; his usually sharp mind was well and truly dulled by the biting chill creeping through him. Of all the things, how the fuck was this the thing that overwhelmed him? Had him struggling to comprehend anything beyond the tremors barrelling through his body?

And the worst part? Rorke is the one bearing witness to his most pathetic display yet. He would’ve preferred anyone else, in all honesty. Even Merrick. Even Elias. Because while Merrick probably would’ve poked fun at his expense, and Elias would have  - no doubt - gone into full “fatherly” mode, they wouldn’t really judge him for it. Or at least, Keegan didn’t think they would.

But Rorke? He’s... Well. Keegan wasn’t exactly sure what to make of him. The man was his captain; impressive, reliable but also downright terrifying. Keegan didn’t want to say he was a hardass per se, especially considering some of the other superior officers he’d met in his lifetime; but he definitely didn’t have the same tact that Elias did. 

Rorke took shit very seriously, he expected the best - and only the best - out of them at all times. So him seeing Keegan at his worst? Seeing Keegan crumble over some chilly temperatures? Yeah, not exactly what Keegan would call ideal.  

This was so stupid. So fucking embarrassing. Why did Rorke have to be the one to get a front row seat to this shit? If the abyss looked him dead in the eyes and threatened to banish him to an eternity of nothing right now, he would take it up on the offer in a heartbeat. 

Actually, with the way he felt, the abyss might actually be here to do just that. 

Fuck he was tired. 

What was he thinking about again…?

There’s a light pressure on his wrist, right on his pulse point and then a faint muttering of expletives.

“Christ kid, you’re freezing.”

He sure is. 

His eyes flutter open just barely, it almost surprises him how heavy his eyelids feel. Should they feel this heavy? He doesn’t think they should. Was opening his eyes always this hard? 

“Y’seein’ me, Keegan?” Technically, yes he was. It's a little hard to focus but he can identify him well enough. He can’t even nod his head in reply, but the slight tilt must’ve been good enough. “Good. Stay with me, now.” the pressure on his wrist stays for a bit, until finally the captain moves to help him sit up.

There’s something almost funny about the way Rorke handles him. Almost like he’s trying to be gentle, though Keegan’s not sure he’d ever quite attribute such a word to Rorke of all people. It’s made quickly unfunny, however, when Rorke's jacket is gingerly shoved onto him, as well as the hat he was wearing. He was wearing his captain's jacket and beanie. Because he was beaten out by the weather.

At this rate he couldn't tell if the embarrassment or the bone-deep chill was more exhausting. 

"We need to get you out of here. Think y'can stand?" 

In Keegan’s defence, he did try. He tried his very fucking damndest to get his shaky legs to cooperate, but Rorke wasn’t having it, making him sit right back down after only a few seconds of watching him struggle. The apology he uttered under his breath barely caught Keegan’s notice before he was being (carefully) heaved up into Rorke’s arms.

If he didn’t wish for certain death before, he certainly did now. 

Rorke seems to understand, and rumbles an apology again. Keegan just hopes he didn't unknowingly pull a face to garner such a reaction. 

"Sorry, kid. It'll be faster this way anyway."

Perhaps luckily for him, the entire jourmey doesn’t exactly register in his memory. In fact, he’s pretty sure he ended up passing out at one point; one moment he’s staring blearily up at Rorke, and the next he’s suddenly coming-to in a helo, already curled into Ajax’s side with a comforting arm wrapped around his waist. No more biting winds to gnaw at him, but he still felt more akin to a popsicle than a person. 

There's some muttering around him that he doesn't have the energy to decipher. A hand settles on the nape of his neck, and he follows it to a sympathetic-looking Merrick. The look in his eyes is nothing short of soft, and Keegan would've bashfully ducked out of its path, had the dumb bastard not opened his mouth to ruin it all.

“Not doin’ so hot, huh?” That fucking–

“‘Sshole.” Keegan grumbles, pressing closer to Ajax. Rorke’s chortling loudly from somewhere, which only furthers his annoyance. Ajax swats Merrick's side with the same hand he had around Keegan, though he was failing to hide his amusement.

"He just came back around, man, give him a break." The chiding only gets an indignant scoff out of Merrick before he shuffles up, now pressing Keegan between them as he threw his arm around him in a mirror of Ajax's. Surprisingly, it's kind of comfortable. A steady, warm presence on either side of him, protective in a sense. He could almost fall back asleep if it wasn't for Rorke's distant order to keep him awake.

Great. 

"You okay?" Ajax asks more quietly now. There's not exactly room for a private conversation in this situation, but it's as close as they could get. Out of all the Ghosts, Ajax seemed to understand him the most; was always considerate of the fact that Keegan hated drawing attention to himself or got overwhelmed when too many people were focused on him. He'd lowered his voice, made a moment just for the two of them so he'd feel more comfortable to talk. Ajax was one of the few people to ever accomodate for him. It had his stomach flipping a little. No one had ever known him the way Ajax knew him. 

"'m tired..." he mutters lowly, burying his face further into the other's shoulder with a sigh. Ajax's thumb starts to run up and down where it rested on his waist; a small gesture but it's soothing all the same.

"We'll be back and through medical before you know it," Right. Medical. He caught his frustrated huff before it could leave, burying his face more into Ajax's shoulder. Sleep is all he wanted right now, but that's the last thing he was going to get. He's allowed to be a little miffed about it, he thinks, but there's no need to get huffy to Ajax about it. 

"Wanna play I Spy?" The sudden joking remark has Keegan grinning sleepily, unable to hold back the chuff of laughter that preceeded it.

"God no, please." He pleads in response, "Anything but that." 

"I'm sure a refined gentleman of your tastes must prefer 20 Questions," Merrick supplies, joining in on the conversation now that it wasn't hushed.

"More like the Quiet Game." The resulting snort that gets out of Ajax is every bit worth it. 

"He's saving 20 Questions for the medical team." 

"Right, right, so you just played a real long game of I Spy with Rorke, yeah?"

"Oh my god,"

"You having fun over there boys?" Elias calls softly. Their heads snap up to look at him, startled out of their joking pretty quickly. Well. The other two had quick movements. Keegan could barely lift his head, but he still managed to look at Elias. All he does is give them a fond smile. "Good to see you more alert, Keegan. Had us worried for a while there." 

Oh god, don't make him think about that. If there was one thing he was lacking, it was the mental energy he'd need to deal with everything that's happened in the past... However long. He's not exactly sure how long he was out for. Surely not more than a couple hours. 

"Thank you, sir," he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Definitely... doing better now." 

"Honestly kinda scared the shit out of me when Rorke carried you in." Ajax's brow creases, "Think that goes for all of us."

"I've never seen Rorke or Elias fuss over someone like that before." Merrick mutters quietly. He can tell it's Merrick's attempt at sparing Keegan a little of embarrassment, but he still feels his figurative hackles raise about it.

Jesus fucking Christ. Can they please not destroy the last of his dignity? A shaky sigh left him, frustration building in his chest.  "Not my finest moment."

"We all have our moments Keegan." Elias placates him, voice firm and strong but in no way demeaning or condescending. It's one of the things he appreciates about him; preferring to strictly build others up, rather than burn them down and rely on the slim chance that they can find a phoenix in the ashes. "There's no shame in that." He's too tired (and too smart) to argue with that; though he still feels terrible, still sits uncomfortably with guilt and an unhealthy dash of self-hatred, there's no point to really put up a fight about it. He fucked up. It happens. And he'll just have to prove himself later.

'Turn the sting of survival into fuel for bettering yourself.' As Rorke had once told him. Fuck ups are dangerous, but getting through one intact almost always guarantees that you'll be improving. (Especially when you're on Rorke and Elias' team.)

He gives a small nod and rests himself against Ajax's shoulder again.

"Don't lose your head thinking about it now. We'll go through it once you're in the state to do so. Alright?"

"Yes, sir." Defeated. For now. He's sure this'll come back to haunt him for a while, but for now he'll try and let it rest, idly listening to the conversations that sprung up between his teamamtes, though it mostly ended up as background noise. As Ajax's head comes to rest on top of his (more comforting contact that he soaks up like a sponge) he starts going back into his own thoughts. 

...He needs to figure out the least awkward way to give the hat and jacket back.

[leeimperatriz]

¿Locamente enamorado o trágiamente culpable? / Madly in love or tragically guilty?

Porque también veo otras series a parte de BajoTerra.

Gabriel Agreste ha sido uno de los personajes que más me ha llamado la atención (y que siento que Thomas masacró completamente junto con Chloé y pienso defender esto con capa y espada), debido a su historia de amor que término en tragedia y en la búsqueda de los miraculous de Ladybug y Chat Noir, más que un villano, era un hombre roto que cazaba un milagro. ¡Y ese es un gran concepto!

Sin embargo, siento que algo que no se ha explorado muy bien en la serie es su relación con Emilie, el por qué la amaba tanto, hasta el punto en que fue capaz de convertirse en Hawk Moth/Monarca para traerla de regreso, y si bien es cierto que es su amor por Emilie quien define quién es Gabriel y su rol en la serie, puede que no sea su única motivación.

.

Because I also watch other shows that aren't SlugTerra.

Gabriel Agreste has been one of the characters who got my attention the most (and who I feel got completely butchered by Thomas alongside with Chloé and I will defend this with cape and sword), due to his love story that ended in tragedy and his quest for the miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir, more than a villain, he was a broken man, hunting a miracle. And that is a great concept!

However, I feel that something that hasn't been explored enough is his relationship with Emilie, why did he love her so much, to the point of becoming Hawk Moth/Monarch to bring her back, and although it is true that his love for Emilie defines who Gabriel is and what he does as a character, it may not be his only motivation.

Gabriel le entrega a su esposa el miraculous roto del pavo real.

Puede que no parezca mucho, ellos decidieron tener un hijo, y al no poder lograrlo, recurrieron a métodos cuestionables para tener a Adrien, la culpa recae en los dos, Emilie por acceder a usar el miraculous, sabiendo que estaba roto, y Gabriel, por haberle permitido usarlo.

Sin embargo, creo que no nos hemos puesto en los zapatos de Gabriel, ni nos hemos puesto a pensar en las connotaciones que esto conlleva para el desdichado y enloquecido diseñador/terrorista.

"Gabriel le entrega a su esposa el miraculous roto del pavo real."

Gabriel le entrega a su esposa el miraculous roto.

Él le entrega a SU esposa un miraculous roto.

Él le hizo esto.

.

Gabriel gives his wife the broken miraculous of the peacock.

It may not look like much, they decided to have a kid, and when they could not, they went with questionable methods to create have Adrien, the guilt falls to both of them, to Emilie for agreeing to use a broken miraculous, and to Gabriel for allowing her to use it.

However, I don't think we have put ourselves on Gabriel's shoes, nor thought on the connotations that this have for the hapless and maddened designer/terrorist.

"Gabriel gives his wife the broken miraculous of the peacock."

Gabriel gives his wife the broken miraculous.

He gives HIS wife a broken miraculous.

He did this to her.

Él le entregó el miraculous roto, lo que provocó que la salud de Emilie se deteriorara hasta llegar a ese punto, lo que desató toda la serie.

Gabriel la amaba, con toda la fuerza de su corazón y su alma, de eso no hay duda... pero ella está ahí dentro por culpa suya, porque ÉL fue lo suficientemente estúpido como para darle el miraculous roto sin medir las consecuencias, él la condenó a ese destino.

A parte de sus planes para derrotar a Ladybug y Chat Noir, esto es lo que verdaderamente puede estar pasando por su cabeza, esto es lo que verdaderamente puede estarlo torturando, es cierto que ama a Emilie lo suficiente como para aterrorizar Paris, pero también es cierto que puede vivir terriblemente atormentado por la culpa de haber sido responsable de su estado actual.

Y de ahí viene su desesperación de conseguir los miraculous, no solamente es incapaz superar lo que le ocurrió a Emilie por su amor por ella, sino también, porque siente que él le hizo esto, que él la puso en esa cápsula y quiere enmendar su error a toda costa, no solo para tenerla de vuelta, sino también para liberarse de la culpa que lo tortura día y noche.

Él la amaba, él la amaba, era su alma gemela, la mujer que lo completaba, su vida, su todo...

... Y él. La puso. Ahí.

.

He gave her the broken miraculous, what caused Emilie's health to deteriorate until getting to this point, which kickstarted the whole show.

Gabriel loved her, there is no doubt on that... But she is inside there because of him, because HE was stupid enough to give her a broken miraculous without measuring the consequences, he doomed her to this fate.

Apart from his plans to defeat Ladybug and Chat Noir, this is what must be truly going on in his head, this is what must be torturing him so much, it is true that he loved Emilie enough to terrorize Paris to bring her back, but it is also true that he could be living terribly tormented for the guilt of being responsible for her current state.

And this is where his despair for getting the miraculouses comes from, not only he is not capable of getting over her demise because of his love for her, but also, because he feels he did this to her, that he put her in the casket and wants to correct that mistake at all costs, not only to have her back, but also to free himself from the guilt torturing him day and night.

He loved her, he loved her, she was his soulmate, the woman that completed him, his life, his everything...

... And he. Put her. There.

Si...

Yo también enloquecería.

.

Yeah...

I would go crazy too.

[little-mari-on-a-roof]

Along with finally airing the season 5 finale, Tfou released a version of the two last episodes commented by the writing team!! So, as I already did with the commented version of Evolution, here's an overview of what they said!! It’s quite long given that it was two episodes and they talked a lot so I will put the parts I think are the most interesting in bold!! Obligatory disclaimer, this is my own interpretation and translation so take everything with a grain of salt!

At the beginning, the writers recall that the first episode of the season 5 finale, Conformation, starts with Adrien and Kagami supposedly arriving in London "like rock stars". However, it is actually just an illusion made from the scanned version of them and the two teens are actually being sequestered in London. At this moment, Thomas says "talk about good parenting" in English, which I think is very funny. The team explains that they were first put in regular apartments in the previous episode but are now in rooms without windows after both of them escaped. This is also done to protect them from what will happen, as Gabriel is about to put his plan of akumatising the entire world into action.

The writers say that Gabriel had been imagining his plan ever since Animaestro when he was seen signing contracts with Tsurugi, and has been putting it in place since the second episode of season 5 (Multiplication). They say that he also tested the first part of his plan, to put nightmares in everyone's heads, in a previous episode.

The rest is under the cut!

Talking about previous episodes, they then say that as was the case with the Risk - Strike back - Evolution - Multiplication - Destruction series of episodes (aka the longest day ever), the 5 last episodes of season 5 (Collusion - Revolution - Representation - Conformation - Recreation) go together and there is a direct continuation between them. (However, one of their rules as Miraculous writers is that these episodes can also be watched and understood independently.) Therefore, season 5 both starts and ends with a series of 5 episodes (quintologies as they call them).

They note that Marinette's nightmare at the beginning is reminiscent of the episode Weredad from season 3. At this point, we can see that Marinette starts to understand who the villain is although she's not fully conscious of it yet. Thomas says that you can read it in two different ways: if you don't take the previous episode into account, she's starting to intuitively link things together but if you did see Representation, you know that she knows who Monarch really is. (They say that to highlight the fact that even though this is the 4th episode of a quintology, all episodes can be understood on their own as mentioned before.)

They then talk more about Gabriel's plan. He gives everyone nightmares on the same day and we can see the different characters suffering because of that (for example, Marinette's mom who thinks Tom is overprotective). He will then offer a solution which a sort of relaxation application directly inspired by the different yoga apps people have on their phones nowadays. This app helps them relax, but also makes people addicted since their nightmares come back as soon as they don't use it anymore. They joke about the relevance of this in today's world with people being "addicted" to their phones or people in positions of power spreading poisons and then monetising the antidote, or the corruption of capitalism selling things we don't need or causing mental illnesses to make people addicted. They ironise that nooo they couldn't possibly be referring to all of that, not in a children's show!!

During the scene that leads to Adrien wearing the Alliance ring after being reticent to it, they say that they had a conflit when writing it as they had to find a way for Adrien to not become his superhero self, cataclysm the walls and go help his lady in Paris. The end result is that Adrien is reminded of the devastating effect of his power by the nightmare and would therefore do anything to avoid hurting people, and so he wears the ring. Mélanie says that he "could become Chat Blanc" and the others add that even though he does not remember and has never lived it, Chat Blanc still has an influence on his actions.

Thomas mentions that Plagg (who he calls "Plaggo" and "Plagounet", which are sort of funny and affectionate nicknames) doesn't show up on cameras, and Sébastien jokes that there could be kwamis around them as they're talking but we just can't see them. Speaking of Plagg, Sébastien jokingly calls Fred the "queen of cheese" as she's the one writing the cheese puns and mentions that there are way more cheese jokes in season 5 than there were before, which makes him think that she is getting retributed by cheese industries in exchange for writing them. Fred then replies that she's getting paid directly in cheese.

The writers say that while the episodes are often narratively dense with science fiction elements, Plagg allows them to add humour in the scene and keep a lighter atmosphere for small children (you know, when he shows his butt to the camera while Adrien is having an existential crisis).

Anyway moving on lol, the writers then say that they had actually planned since 2014/2015 that Chat Noir would not be there to defeat Hawkmoth as they wanted a very particular power fusion to happen (aka Marinette wielding both the ladybug and black cat miraculous and becoming Bug Noire).

Fred then talks about how ever since the start of the series, they have incorporated the symbolism of fairy tales with the sleeping princess and the knight coming to save her. However, they're switching the genders in Miraculous as Adrien is the princess and Marinette the knight (while Gabriel is the evil dragon). They add that they already explained this in a previous episode (in season 4) but they're showing it again now in Marinette's nightmare.

In the scene where we can see that Tikki ate all the croissants, they joke that she did well given everything that is going to happen afterwards. They also jokingly tell the kids watching that they shouldn't do like Marinette and hide in trash cans but eating bananas and croissants is ok (trust me it's funny when they say it). They add that if Fred is the cheese queen, Mélanie is like Tikki because she loves cakes and anything sweet.

We then see Nathalie's nightmare in which Gabriel successfully makes his wish, and therefore manages to accomplish his evil plan which Nathalie knows about. We can see that she's looking very bad and the writers again jokingly give recommendations to the children watching, here to not use a damaged peacock miraculous.

They then talk more about Natalie's past, in which she was a treasure hunter. They say that someone should let them show the fabulous story of Nathalie, Gabriel, Émilie, Audrey and André when they were younger. Indeed, they already wrote what happened in their youth as it is the origin story without which they couldn't have written Miraculous. When Natalie looks at the picture of her in her "Lara Croft outfit", as they call it, from when they were chasing the miraculous and found the peacock and butterfly ones, they jokingly ask what they were chasing and why and say that you have to watch the rest of season 5 to know (basically, they're strongly hinting at sentiadrien).

They say that Gabriel/Hawkmoth and Tsurugi have been allies for a very long time, but it has only been revealed rather recently in the show and we can see it now in a scene where they're plotting together and rising the tension.

In the following scene, we can see all the kids ready for the "miraculisation", except Mylène who is not wearing a ring because while she is not fully anti technology, she is more wary of it and vigilant of its excesses. They then focus on Ivan, who would also like to resist like her but for whom it is too hard. They add that he has "things stressing him out" but that we will only learn about them in later seasons 👀👀.

They take a moment to appreciate the "exceptional" direction and lighting done by Wilfried in the scene where Nathalie threatens Gabriel with a crossbow. Thomas also makes a reference to Citizen Kane but I've never watched it so idk what he meant by that sorry I'm uncultured haha. The writing team says that while they are the ones writing the scenes, they need a director to make the scenes look like what they imagined, and that it's not always easy.

In the next scene, we can see Ladybug looking around in Nathalie's room to find hints about where Adrien could be and finding her tablet with all the information about the miraculous, which makes Marinette realise that Nathalie was Monarch's accomplice right before they enter in the room. They joke about how OMG THEY NEVER COULD'VE GUESSED that Adrien's father was actually Monarch the whole time. We can see Ladybug recording a message for Chat Noir where she reveals his identity, but she never ends up actually sending it.

They talk about how this scene is a huge climax as it is rare to see Ladybug in the Agreste mansion. It had already happened in season 1 during the episode Simon Says where they already played on the dramatic irony of Hawkmoth being Gabriel (which people did not know at the time). This is the second time that Ladybug is in the mansion, while Marinette has been there before a few times (including the iconic pancake moment). While they talk about Simon Says, Fred looks really smug saying that they had planned everything since the beginning.

They say that the scene during which Nathalie gives Ladybug her phone with the pictures and videos of Émilie explaining all of Miraculous's backstory is beautiful, and that if we as viewers had this phone, we would know everything about it (👀👀👀). In addition, they mention that since this is the final episode of the arc, a lot of things happen to get all the final outcomes of the different relationship between characters.

When Gabriel shows the video of Ladybug and Chat Noir kidnapping Adrien and Kagami on everyone's Alliances, the writers explain that people are so disoriented and stressed that they'll believe anything we tell them. They are therefore receptive to any controversy presented to them, just like how people nowadays will engage in numerous sterile debates on social media.

We can then see Monarch using things he obtained in previous episodes: the cataclysm dust from his deteriorating hand and the magical charm Ladybug gave him. We can see that Gabriel had been planning everything from a very long time but that because of the cataclysm he suffered from, he has no choice but to carry it out now. Coincidentally, it is this very cataclysm that allows his to have Chat Noir's quantic signature and put his plan into action. They jokingly compare what he is doing to making a dog sniff a sock, but in a cyberquantic version.

The quantic signature allows the miraculised people to find Ladybug and Chat Noir, and the team says that when they were writing the scene where they detect Ladybug in Gabriel's mansion, they were all going omg omg omg trying to figure out how they were going to get away with it. They say that while Ladybug is trapped in the villain's lair, the writers trapped themselves with the story.

They once again give a shout out to Wilfried's direction when we can see Ladybug getting attacked from all sides by the miraculised people, notably because of the camera motions. They also acknowledge SAMG's amazing animation especially in the scenes including a lot of characters.

My unculturedness shows again when they say that Marinette hiding in a cupboard under the sink is a reference to Jurassic Park. The reference I do get however is when they say that Plagg not being able to shift through the door with his ring was the plot of Mr Pigeon 72.

The action then reaches a maximum as Monarch knows that Ladybug is hiding somewhere in his house, detransformed. We now get to THE moment they had been waiting for since the beginning: when Monarch discovers that Marinette is Ladybug and she transforms into the fabulous BUG NOIRE!!! They keep talking about how cool she is and that they left the best for last: the final fight with Monarch does not happen with Ladybug, nor with Chat Noir, nor with Chat Noir and Ladybug but with BUG NOIRE!!!!!

Fred says the season has a particular taste of closure, even though there is still a next part, and warns to hold on because the latter will hurt a lot 🥲🥲.

🐞🐞🐞

Now, onto the the second episode, Re-creation !! (Yeah the first 2k words before that were on Conformation alone. I am bad at summarising. 😭)

At the beginning of the episode, when we can see Lila laughing when she sees Alec having an akuma induced nightmare on TV, the writers say that it is because she has known who Monarch is for multiple episodes now. They mention that it is because she read something on people’s lips in Evolution (episode 501) which allowed her to discover things. She also stole a case from Tsurugi so she knows who Gabriel really is.

Then, they focus on the fight we "had all been waiting for", and Mélanie mentions that her favourite lucky charm is the piano crashing on Monarch. They say that while they have spent multiple hours finding intelligent and sophisticated lucky charms for years, this one is just simple and exhilarating.

They then talk about how the resistance is fighting against the miraculised people, and how this happens all over the world (in China, Rio, New York) and includes a LOT of different characters. This explains why it takes a long time to deliver the episodes and they joke about how they’re blowing up their budget. However, despite all the superheroes fighting all over the world, it is still not enough.

Indeed, the outcome doesn’t play out in the giant arena outside, but in the KITCHEN. They joke about how they waited long enough to finally get it and that the resolve should therefore happen there, and even nickname the episode a « kitchen-two-room episode » (the joke makes more sense in french since we define homes according to their number of rooms, not just bedrooms).

They say that in the fight between Bug Noire and Monarch, both are so evolved in mastering their powers that neither of them have limits (Monarch can use as many powers as he wants at once thanks to his rings, and Bug Noire can use as many lucky charms and cataclysms as she wants). They lovingly say that our little Marinette from season one has grown a lot 🥺. She’s now super badass (they kept talking about how cool she was) and has learned so much.

They add that the scene where Bug Noire uses her handcuffs lucky charm is a reference to Kung Fu movies where characters fight while being chained to each other (once again, I’ve watched like zero movies so I’m gonna trust them on that lol). They once again mention the amazing direction and get very excited when Bug Noire slams Monarch through the wall.

During the fight scenes outside, they joke that Doorman (the USAmerican superhero whose power is to open doors) and Fang (a literal crocodile who knows Kung Fu) were essential in saving Paris. However, despite all the people fighting outside, the miraculised people remain too many and there is only one person who can save everyone from Monarch’s perfect plan.

Back in the Agreste mansion, Bug Noire is losing and her only escape is to cataclysm the floor which makes them land in the crypt (which was right under the mansion all along !!!). She then sees Emilie’s body and understand why Gabriel is doing all of this. When talking about his motive, the writers joke that if he succeeded, it would be hard to explain to Adrien why his mom, who has been dead for a year, is suddenly back and that while it would be unjust for Gabriel to trade her life for someone else’s, he doesn’t care and would just make Ladybug go away.

The team explains that in the following scenes, there is an alternance between the outside (in Paris) and inside (in the crypt) fights, with the dialogue happening inside continuing while we see what is happening outside on screen. They don’t do that often, which gives this scene all the more impact during the finale. They talk about how this kind of thing is a trademark of Miraculous: the episodes are quite dense despite their short length, thanks to the fact that the story continues when the action is taking place and the emotion continues to be conveyed. They oppose it to classical action movies where some scenes are dedicated to dialogue/story while fight scenes are just about fighting.

The writers say that from the moment Bug Noire gets her glue tube lucky charm, they are already working on the plot of season 6: when she manages to steal the butterfly miraculous from Monarch, she does not actually retrieve it because of how far away she is and it falls in the water below (cf Lila retrieving it which will be relevant in season 6).

At this moment, Gabriel loses and the resolution of the battle is not what we could’ve expected: we don’t have Ladybug winning by thrashing him, but she instead simply talks to him and even detransforms in front of him. It is not Ladybug who defeats Monarch but Marinette. This echoes to a message they have been trying to convey since the beginning : that in the end, it is not violence or strength that wins, but people talking to each other and opening up about their feelings. It is when people are not subject to their emotions, but instead try to understand them to think better and take the right decisions. And this is what Marinette is hoping for here by showing Gabriel the video of Émilie saying that she never wanted him to become evil, and instead just hoped for him to take care of Adrien (which he didn’t do lol).

In the end, Marinette and Gabriel’s main goals are the same : making Adrien happy. She takes a huge risk and detransforms to see how much he loves Adrien, or on the contrary how much he would rather bring his wife back. This is the only moment where we see Gabriel being truly emotional and understand why he has been doing all of that. Fred adds that he is a character who thinks love goes beyond good and evil, and oversteps every boundary, including moral ones. Therefore, Marinette is trying to solve a crisis of feelings by using feelings.

Back to the episode, we can see Marinette taking the biggest risk in her life and extending her hand to her nemesis, even the kwamis tell her that she’s insane. The writers joke that well, they were right, as Gabriel steals both miraculous and it does not end well (or at least not for now). Gabriel has now won as he can do what he has been wanting since the very beginning.

The team mentions that the next scene is one of the biggest reveals of the show, as we can finally see how the wish happens. We discover that the kwamis are not actually little plushies but take this appearance to avoid scaring their wielders, and the writers actually hinted to that in Dearest Family when Tikki ate all the galette des rois. One member of the team jokes that when the kwamis reveal themselves, they become a Swedish hit from the 70s : Gimmi (as a reference to Gimme ! Gimme ! Gimme ! by ABBA of course).

Moving on from the dad jokes, when Gabriel removes all of his miraculous rings, Marinette is released from the bee sting and can now witness her defeat. But the fact that Gabriel laid down his weapons shows that she has actually won, even though it is only shown and not said.

However, they say that there is still some doubt : we do not actually know what he wishes for as his words are cryptic and we only see the outcome of his wish. They do say that Émilie will not be brought back to life as Gabriel has finally mourned her death, which Adrien has already done for a long time. But Gabriel cannot live without her and decides to die with her.

In order to accomplish the wish, they explain that the world has to be destroyed and then re-created, which leads us to the aftermath of the wish a few weeks later and the pool party where everything seems to be going well. Then comes probably the most enigmatic shot of the episode with Nathalie and Amélie/Émilie. The writers say that they’re not telling us who it is but I think we can guess pretty easily based on what they said right before 😭😭. They also add that with Nathalie next to her we can guess what Gabriel’s wish was, but that it is "not what we think" and that there is a trick.

They say that with the final wish, they have arrived at the end of what they wanted to tell in this arc, which is a revolution of the minds. They said that each played their role, including the villain because he gave up on his power with which he could do anything to make his son happy. They add that the new world we are seeing shows the premise of season 6, which will have a "different taste" and in which they will talk about different things.

They say that at the end, some lies remain as Gabriel is presented as a hero. They say that Marinette gave Adrien the twin rings, in what frankly looks like a wedding proposal lol. Then they go insane because it’s time for LE BISOUUUU, and a real lovey kiss that they remember for once, not like in Oblivio, and not a desperate kiss like when Adrien left for London. However, even with all this cute romantic stuff, we can see some ominous butterflies flying around them…

In the next scene, we can see Marinette taking the miraculous that have been standardised and industrialised by Gabriel and putting them back in shape. The writers specify that this is a parabole about craftsmanship vs industrial production. The miraculous will now be adapted to every person, but we can’t see what they look like just yet! In this new world, the powers are all shared, among people who they trust and know will work for the common good. They joke that the "Avengers" shot at the end with all the heroes is something they’d been dreaming of.

In the last scene with Lila, they joke that it’s never really finished because there’s a bunch of epilogues one after the other. Thomas add that the school described at the end is how he thinks all schools should work!

And we’ve finally reached the end!! They don’t reveal anything in the scene where a weird flash appears in Lila’s room to keep the suspense, and just all scream going OMG WHAT’S HAPPENING!!!

🐞🐞🐞

I hope this was helpful to learn more about the writing team and some stories behind the episodes!! Don't hesitate to add stuff if you think I forgot something or ask questions if I wasn't completely clear :)).

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

EVEN MORE SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6

I figured since I already read it, I'd give my thoughts on the recent interview Astruc and Thibaudeau took part in.

Due to incompatibility with the new animation engine, SAMG will not be working on the next seasons of ‘Miraculous’. The series is now being developed entirely in France, with the integration of Dwarf Animation.

Okay, props for no more outsourcing, even if I'm not sure what this means for the other ZAG shows.

Season 6 is considered to be “a new beginning”, aside from being a new story arc. It is sometimes referred to by the writers as Season 1.

I'm sure that isn't confusing to the executives at all. Also, maybe don't imply you're starting from scratch when you're already reusing the plot of the main villain using the Butterfly Miraculous.

The writing team already has concrete ideas for how Seasons 7, 8 and 9 will begin and end. They also have ambitions to make it to a Season 12, only if the support of viewers and executives allows them to do so. With this, they emphasize the fact that they would not continue with the show if it were no longer needed or interesting.

So basically, they're planning to keep this up for as long as they can until someone pulls the plug.

The opening of the sixth season is still undecided. They are still discussing whether they will change the musical arrangement or not. Thomas also considers the possibility of making a brand-new theme song. A song has been confirmed for S6. They have the music, the arrangement and a female singer. The character remains unknown.

Imagine how funny it would be if they brought back the woman who sang for Marinette in the movie instead of having Cristina Vee sing again.

Despite leaving Paris at the end of ‘Revolution’ (5x23), Chloé Bourgeois will return in Season 6.

Putting aside all the things I've said about her "damnation arc", what is even the point of bringing her back at this point? She has no powers, no influence, no allies, and isn't a threat of any kind. This makes her not being the next Hawkmoth make even less sense, becuse she has more of a reason to hate Ladybug than Lila does.

Also, with the news that Chloe is coming back, this means that she essentially escaped punishment or at least found a way to rebound like Lila did. So that's a grand total of ZERO villains who actually got punished for their actions after five seasons. I'm starting to think Ladybug and Cat Noir really suck at their jobs.

Sebastien Thibadeau: “[Cerise] (IOTA: I'm still calling her Lila for simplicity's sake) is a villain without costume. She is a villain all the time. There is a reason why, but this reason, neither I nor Astruc will reveal to you yet.” Interviewer: “You mean you already intend to tell it?” Thomas Astruc: “Yes. And you know what, we have already told it, but you haven’t noticed.”

Translation: Ladies and gentlemen, LET'S GET READY FOR RETCOOOOOONNNNS!

Seriously, we are approaching the sixth season of this show. It has been eight years since Lila first appeared all the way back in "Volpina", and we still know nothing about her other than the fact that she has some three moms for some reason. You can't pull the whole "This is something you need to rewatch to understand!" excuse because the last two seasons hinged on breaking the rules about Sentimonsters.

Speaking of, I love how this comment about Lila accidentally implies that Gabriel never did anything evil when he wasn't Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Monarch. All that emotional abuse and isolation Adrien suffered was all out of love!

Thomas Astruc on Chloe redemption arc: “We put the characters in situations, and then we say to ourselves: “what would be the logic?” How would the character logically react in “such and such” a situation? And we tried, we tried everything. But every time, we say to ourselves: “if we write this, it’ll be wrong”. There’ll be no reason, it’ll come out of nowhere, the fact that she’ll face something nice and say: “Oh, I’ve been horrible, Marinette what have I done! From now on, I’ll be...” No, nonsense. I understand people’s desire for Chloe to be nice. I’d like that too. But I’d like it if in real life, people with a lot of power suddenly started doing nice things. But Chloé has no interest in changing. She has no reason to change, unfortunately.”

Ah, yes because Gabriel (Global terrorist and abusive parent), Felix (Betrayed Ladybug and temporarily wiped out all of humanity on a whim), Nathalie (Willing accomplice to Gabriel) Andre (corrupt politician and Chloe's primary enabler), Sabrina (Willing accomplice to Chloe) all had compelling reasons to change their ways.

Also, "I've been horrible, what have I done?"

MY BROTHER IN CHRIST, THAT'S HOW VIRTUALLY EVERY REDEMPTION ON THIS SHOW IS EXECUTED.

The fact that he's seriously acting like he actually wanted to write a redemption arc is insulting. Not only does it ignore all the things he's said to fans who were upset at the turn of events, but it makes no sense for him to take this stance because he's a writer. If Chloe turning a new leaf is too strange of an idea, then write an actual character arc allowing her to progress to a state where she recognizes what she's done is wrong. You control the character for God's sake! It's not like you're training a dog to stop humping the couch. You can change things to make a redemption arc possible.

In other words, Astruc is either lying to save his ass, or THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES about writing characters.

Sebastien Thibadeau talks about Andre's character development: In contrast to Chloe, “Andre Bourgeois evolved as a character because we had already imagined a back story. He had the potential to change, and that’s where the beautiful scene comes from — I think it’s magnificent — between Gabriel and himself on the roof of the Grand Palace, where he says: “But Gabriel, what’s become of us? We’ve forgotten the kids we used to be”. But we [writers] know what kids they used to be, and we’d like to tell the story one day, to show what young kids they were, when they were struggling through Paris and weren’t yet what you’ve come to know in the series. He’s sad about what’s happening to his daughter [Chloe], and he’s trying to change it, but he can’t. He is proof that a character can change.”

This. This right here is what cinched it for me. I've tried for years not to say it because it's a word that has been flung around a lot over these last few years, but I feel like this little snippet is enough of a reason for me to say it.

These writers are sexist.

They may not believe it, but whether they intended for it or not, they wrote a story arc where a grown man was shown to have more sympathetic qualities than his daughter. How the hell can you defend it in a way that doesn't highlight the misogyny that this show runs on?

The fact that they gush over how much "potential" Andre had right after saying how that same kind of potential wasn't enough of a reason to attempt a redemption arc with Chloe really shows how confusing their priorities are. I'm sorry to keep saying this, but for a show that takes a heavy anti-capitalist philosophy, it seems like the members of the 1% are the characters who get the most depth and sympathy... unless you're under 18 and lack a Y chromosome, that is.

A meeting will be set up in the coming weeks to decide on whether or not to make a live-action for ‘Miraculous’, Thomas Astruc reveals.

As a former Arrowverse fan, I'm willing to see this out. Not only did the Netflix One Piece series prove you can make an animated property work in live-action, Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie managed to do really well even without the usual writers behind it.

Thomas when asked about Gabriel’s wish in ‘Re-Creation’ (5x26) and whether he brought Emilie back to life: “All the answers are in the episode.”

For the love of--STOP SAYING THAT!

You keep claiming that we just need to rewatch the episode to understand things, but between the continuity errors and abandoned subplots, it's hard to tell what's important and what isn't. Either say "No comment" or give us an honest answer.

If people are still confused about how the season ended after almost a year, and you keep giving answers like this:

Maybe you need to change the way you tell the story.

Astruc when asked about ‘The Supreme’: “Oh, if only you knew... Nothing we do is meaningless.”

Sebastien Thibadeau on Season 7: “Once you’ve seen the start of season 7, I can swear you’ll watch season 6 a second time. That’s all I can say.”

Because it'll make Season 6 look like a masterpiece by comparison?

Thomas Astruc on the worldbuilding: There are Kwamis and Renlings, what makes you think there aren’t others [creatures]?

I swear, by the time we get to Season 10, we're going to get stuff like aliens, demons and talking mushrooms, or at least something ludicrous like that.

Zoe had a love at first sight when she met Marinette in ‘Sole Crusher’ (4x07), they confirm.

Of course! That's why it wasn't framed any differently from something like the umbrella scene and Zoe showed absolutely no signs of attraction to Marinette! It's genius!

Executives had Thomas write several alternative concepts for ‘Miraculous’, very different from what we know today or even the early PV. Among them, “a concept where Ladybug is the head of a group of superheroines, like Sailor Moon. There was no love story.”

Can you imagine a world without the Love Square?

The script writers’ favorite episode is ‘Simpleman’ (4x19) as it represents a personal, work and family attachment. Marinette’s grandfather, Roland Dupain, is inspired by Thomas Astruc’s grandfather.

Okay, either Astruc had a complicated relationship with his grandpa or he's been dead for years. While I understand that older generations have outdated views (for example, my great-grandmother yelled at me for saying I wanted to learn Japanese because "They tried to kill us!"), the fact that a caricture of a grumpy old man was based on his grandpa is a little concerning.

Also, between this and Sabine being based off an old flame of his, this only makes the theory that Chloe is based off a real person Astruc knew more plausible.

Astruc: “This is why our work is so difficult. We have to manage to bring in this generation of younger ones, and at the same time, we have to satisfy the generation that was here before and that grows with the series.”

First, if you're trying to please older fans, maybe don't get into fights with them on Twitter.

Second, you made a thread after "Simpleman" aired where you insulted fans for not getting the "meta" element to the episode and compared them to the character you just said was based on your grandfather.

You've also been burning away a lot of the older fans' goodwill over the years. Trust me, I have a few examples.

Despite sharing a similar appearance, the symbol on Nino’s T-shirt is not related to Hack-San.

Okay, is this a fan theory I missed back when Season 4 was airing? Why would anyone draw that conclusion?

Thomas Astruc talks about Season 6: “I’ll say it sincerely, I was very doubtful at the end of Season 5. I said to myself: “if we were to continue, how would we exceed?” Well, we did. It’s been a great season. The new writers have brought us a lot of great stuff. All the episodes we’ve written in Season 6 are fabulous. Each episode is on point, there is no unnecessary lines. All the scenes are really interesting, really well-crafted.”

Translation: Tons of filler, bad comedy, reused Akumas, and more Love Square drama that we're trying to claim hasn't been done before.

Thomas when asked if Marinette will get akumatized: “We never give any information about what may or may not happen.”

JUST. SAY. NO. COMMENT.

There are many important details throughout the series that no one has noticed. Thomas says that when we see the next seasons, we’ll think, “Oh, the writers had it all planned.”

You know, like how Season 3 established that Sentimonsters can be sent out of control by Cataclysm a few episodes before Adrien, a Sentimonster, gets hit by a Cataclysm and is affected in a different way. It was all planned from the beginning.

The Ladybug PV was an animation test and was not intended to be public. Jeremy Zag decided to leak it himself.

Honestly? Dick move on Zag's part. You have to wonder how pissed off Astruc was.

According to Thomas Astruc, what the ‘Miraculous’ series is today represents only 5% of what he wrote in the original bible he presented to Jeremy Zag. “The universe has evolved a lot since. I don’t know if the ideas I put there will be reused someday. It was very extensive.”

Thomas Astruc and Sebastien Thibadeau discuss the parallels between Marinette and Gabriel: Astruc: “Gabriel’s personal back story is the cause of his misery, not his will. And above all, it creates a beautiful mirror with Marinette, which is what’s interesting. They both have a lot of love for Adrien, they’re both designers, they both have a Miraculous, but it’s other choices.” Thibadeau: “That’s what makes it a great hero-villain contrast. Even if they don’t know it from the start, they have a real point in common. As we see at the end of Season 5, they both love Adrien. Except there’s one who does it by doing the right thing, and then there’s another who does it by doing the wrong thing, hurting people, to get there.”

And the one who did the wrong thing by hurting people ended up winning. What does that say about the contrast?

------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's it for the interview. I have to say Season 6 does not look pretty so far.

[fabseg-creator]

I imagined this image yesterday.

It talks about Thomas Astruc "giving his answers" to the people who ask questions on him about his animated series (explanations, coherency, character development, alternate soluces, salting, plot, etc.).

Example:

Why haven't Chloé any redemption ?

Why Teen Bunnyx didn't seen the moment when Cerise stole the Butterfly miraculous (which fell in the water of the Crypt) via the Burrow ?

Why Bunnyx didn't noticed the disguised Cerise entering in the mansion while Bug Noire and Monarch fought each other ?

Why Timestalker, when she returned back to the Plage, didn't thought about reading the book BEFORE rejecting the akuma (that could make Cerise correct the Chronobug's vandalism) ?

How can Cerise be able to imprison and paralyze Nooroo (with finger snap) WITHOUT touching the Butterfly brooch (and without wearing it on her) ?

Why hasn't anybody created a healer sentimonster to healing Emilie and Nathalie from their magic illnesses (like in the Scarlet Lady comic) instead of seek the Ladybug and Cat miraculouses ?

Why Mei Shi the spirit of the Prodigous didn't felt the arson against his guardian's kung-fu school in what his master Wu Shifu (Fei's adoptive father) has been killed ?

Why none of any kwami hasn't felt the negative energy (and Nooroo's distress) caused by Cerise when the latter used the Butterfly miraculous for her auto-akumatization into Timestalker and Spectral Looter while Wayzz already felt the negative energy from Hawkmoth in Origins ?

In the Re-Verse, The Supreme is the master of the world but also the Guardian of his/her own Miracle Box. In there, there are the same miraculouses like the Quantic Miracle Box. And there are Ladybug, Cat, Butterfly and Peacock miraculouses. So, there is a Rabbit miraculous. Why the Supreme didn't thought to use the Rabbit miraculous for tracking Gabriel after the latter stole the Butterfly and Peacock jewels to him/her ?

In response, you can imagine (in your mind) TA can answers to you:

Warning: The post is a dark humour-themed parody. It doesn't require any bullying or offend.

[generalluxun]

I'm still trying to get my head around Chat Noir's complete sidelining not just in the finale, but pretty much the entirety of the show. Based on some of the tweets I've seen, Thomas Astruc is pretty hostile to the suggestion that Chat should have more of a share of the narrative.

So... why? Why make his family, his very existence, the fulcrum on which the show turns? If you want to be the show to only be about Marinette, with Adrien as a side character and "just" a love interest, then MAKE the show only about Marinette. Don't make the main plot about Adrien, and wonder why people are confused when he's not more involved in the main plot. It's such a self-inflicted wound.

Heck, the least they could have done was give Marinette SOME personal stake in her conflict with Hawkmoth, even if it's as uncomplicated as making Marinette a paragon-type superhero like Superman or Captain American who takes her duty to the people of Paris very seriously and feels deeply about the hurt Hawkmoth's is putting them through. But most of Marinette's personal conflicts are about romance or school dynamics. The closest any of her conflicts come to her actual enmity with Hawkmoth are those that deal with the stress of being a superhero/Guardian, in which Hawkmoth doesn't really feature as a person who is her mortal enemy but as an impersonal cause for the stress she's in.

While the finale tries to summon some emotional weight to Marinette's situation, the final fight, at least on Ladybug's end, feels less like the culmination of an epic rivalry and more like a contractual obligation Marinette needs to meet as Gabriel's assigned nemesis.

I mean, the unsatisfying but true answer is twofold:

1)TA never wanted Ladybug to have a partner. That was a requirement in order to get producers lined up to hand over money. It should be understood that I am NOT trashing the producers for this. It is their money. If you want to pursue your purely artistic goal then you secure other funding or self fund. If you want to get something MADE then you have to make what people want to pay to have made. A portion of the friction here comes from the fact that I don't think TA ever stopped fighting for his original version of the show, and that version conflicts directly with the version he was paid to write for.

2)In the context of the above- Adrien is a TROPHY. Gabriel is the DRAGON, and his home life is the TOWER that the KNIGHT Marinette must rescue him from. If Adrien were a side-character he wouldn't be much of a trophy, investment wise. Is it good to make a character purely a trophy? No. It's not good when it is done ot female characters, it's not good when it's done to male ones either. (Or intersex, enby, nongendered, etc) We've moved past the kind of storytelling TA is selling in his vision of ML. It feels like something out of the early 00's, which when you consider where he started his work, makes a lot of sense.

Should they have connected Marinette to Gabriel more? Absolutely! They both do fashion! SHE could have had an internship right along with Lila. Can you imagine the rivalry there? Can you imagine the conflicts with Gabriel?

At the VERY least they should have let Marinette actually track down abriel. Let her put all her planning and analysis to good use! Instead they just had Felix do it all and then some blind luck at the end. That's LAME, that's cheating Marinette out of a well deserved culmination story beat.

Punching has never been what Ladybug was about, so a final fight could never be a satisfying climax no matter how 'epic' it was.

[cassandraclare]

no mourners, no funerals

spoilers!!

poesflowercrown asked: Why didn't we see kit's [Christopher Lightwood's] funeral

Okay, so quite a lot of the questions I’ve gotten are some form of “Why wasn’t there a funeral for Christopher?”

And the answer is that Christopher surely did have a funeral — but that it strikes me as fairly obvious why he didn’t have one that took place during the time when London was under attack by Belial. Also, had they had a funeral in Idris during this time (where his body was, and where they have funerals), we have no POV characters who are there to see it.

After that, we jump ahead six months, and obviously his funeral isn’t going to be after such a long period of time has elapsed — instead we see grief at the stage of what it is often like after half-a-year: the most active part of the mourning is over, and the Shadowhunters are moving into fitting Christopher and the grief for him into lives that go on and go forward. James dreams of dead Christopher almost every night, and yet he is still moving on with his life: they are Shadowhunters, this is how they live, knowing life can always be interrupted by destruction, battle or war, and knowing (in a way mundanes don’t) that any day carries with it the possibility of immediate death and loss.

Now, could I have shattered the structure and timing of the book to shove in a funeral between the coda and the wrap-up of the epilogue? I think it would have been a lot of more jarring and weird than people realize, but I also think that it wouldn’t have offered anything. I get a lot of questions that seem to think a funeral for Christopher would have offered “closure” somehow — either to the characters or readers — and the fact that I don’t think it would have done anything like that, or offered anything useful or meaningful, is partly why I didn’t include it.

Shadowhunter funerals aren’t like mundane (human!) funerals: they’re not for closure, but rather for generally honoring the dead of war, because the Shadowhunters live in a constant state of war. What would have happened at a funeral for Christopher is that he would have been burned on a pyre along with Elias and those who died freeing London; people would have come up and given polite condolences to Gabriel and Cecily, the Consul would have given a general speech, and that’s about it. We see this with Livvy’s funeral. — how it is entirely unspecific to Livvy. We see how much closure her funeral offers her family (none, basically.) I think what people are imagining as “Christopher’s funeral” (everyone cries, makes speeches, has feelings) is not what a Shadowhunter funeral is.

There is one more thing I would say, which is that death, as depicted in art and fiction, is not required to offer closure. Sometimes the point is to sit with that lack of closure, and feel the absence of that person, that character, because living with the death of someone close to you is often living without total closure: sometimes for a long time, sometimes forever. That is okay. It is not required of books that emotions be neatly put away at the end of them, like guest towels. Sometimes they are just there to be felt afterward.

[I have also seen people say that Christopher’s friends didn’t mourn for him — which is so bizarre I haven’t decided whether to address it or just leave it as a Thing We Totally Disagree About, like the many questions I get about how we “never see that Tessa loves Jem” or “Isabelle doesn’t care that Max died” etc. Sometimes you just can’t see eye to eye about things; I don’t really get how Thomas being so stricken by Christopher’s death that his physical appearance is literally altered forever, or Anna “turning to stone” with grief, or Matthew being unable to even say Christopher’s name without flinching in pain, is “not mourning”, but we all have our different ideas of how things should be depicted. I tend to believe in a less-is-more philosophy about showing intense emotion, but we are not all that way!]

Anyway, closure. The intense mourning for Christopher in the Sanctuary is short-lived not because the Shadowhunters have gotten bored mourning intensely, but because of Belial. Because they are at war, and then and forever their grief for Christopher must fit itself within the interstices of them needing to save the world. In looking at research into Shadowhunter mourning, I looked at the way people mourn when they are either civilians in war, or soldiers on the front lines, because all Shadowhunters are all least one of those things. A great deal of intense compartmentalizing is required, because the preservation of life going forward must be the priority. The Shadowhunters know this; they are raised knowing this. They know that not only may you be called upon to sacrifice your own life to be what you are, but that it is likely you will lose other people, and if you lose them in battle, you have also sacrificed the ability to stop the world and engage in just grieving. You sacrifice, sometimes, even the ability to bury your dead or to know where they died. As Lucie observes:

“And now they were back at the Institute courtyard, which was empty and quiet, as it always was. There was no scar here, no sign of the dreadful things that had happened there such a short time ago. Lucie envisioned a plaque: HERE IS WHERE IT ALL BROKE APART. Matthew and James’s vanishing, Christopher’s death—they seemed both very close, a trauma still ongoing, and yet far away.

On the other hand, she thought, this courtyard had been torn up by Leviathan a couple of weeks ago, and there was no sign of that, either. Perhaps to be a Shadowhunter simply meant drawing runes over one’s scars, over and over.”

They mourn, they grieve, they have to go on — to “draw runes over their scars” — because the other option is wallowing in grief and doing nothing to prevent Belial winning. Lucie is feeling these things as “far away” because they have to be shoved down in order for the Shadowhunters to continue doing what they need to do. They can’t lie on the ground and scream NOOOOOO for days; they honor Christopher by going on, by seeing his project through to the end and using it to save countless lives. Which is what Christopher would have wanted — not a cold and monotonous funeral in Idris.

So short answer: I didn’t think a funeral for Christopher would have provided anything worthwhile to the story, but rather would have made it worse. In the end, that’s usual the answer to the why of any decision. :)

[richincolor]

We're nearing the end of 2024, so in preparation for our hiatus, our schedule will be changing slightly. Today we will have all of the November 2024 releases, and this Friday will be all of the December 2024 releases. After that, our team will make their individual favorites lists for the year before we go on our break. So without further adieu, here are the books coming out this month:

November 5th

Batgirl: Possession by Jade Adia, illustrated by Charly Palmer Penguin Random House

Batgirl™ is on the case when strange attacks start happening at Gotham Academy. The long shadows of Gotham City stretch deeper than she imagined when evidence points to black magic and something more sinister still in this original suspense novel!Thanks to a scholarship to the prestigious Gotham Academy, Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, gets to experience how some of the city’s wealthiest teens live with fast cars, expensive clothes, and more. But when these advantages and luxuries are not enough, Barbara discovers that the some of them have turned to dabbling in black magic to get their kicks . . . setting off a series of strange events and deaths. Batgirl quickly steps in to investigate, but finding the killer proves to be more difficult than usual. The prime suspect’s brother is an irresistible distraction from the case at the same her growing relationship with Robin, the Boy Wonder, is hitting an all-time low. If all that wasn’t troubling enough, the hard facts aren’t to be lining up. Batgirl isn’t one to believe in black magic, but there seem to be forces in Gotham City’s shadows growing hungrier and stronger, and if she doesn’t find a way to shed some light on the case soon, the creeping darkness just might take possession of her . . . forever!Batgirl and supernatural thriller fans will love the mystery and horror lurking in this action-packed original novel!

Streetlight People by Charlene Thomas Dutton Books for Young Readers

For most, Streetlight is a dot on the map you pass on your way to somewhere else. But if you live there, you’re either a Have-Not, like Kady, or a Have-Lot like her boyfriend, Nik, who also happens to be a member of the exclusive social club, The IV Boys.

Known for their powerful families and the coveted ball they host for a selective guest list, The IV Boys have always refused to accept Kady regardless of how much Nik loves her. All the Boys except for Aaron, who didn’t grow up in Streetlight and is one of the few who knows that life—real life—exists outside of it. But his stepmom has the kind of wealth and power even IV Boys can’t resist.

With Nik at college, Aaron stands by Kady’s side. But all Kady really wants is Nik, and when a chance encounter on Halloween hands her the power to twist and hold time, she doesn’t hesitate. Now she can keep Nik close for as long as she wants.

While Kady tries to relive her best moments with Nik, the IV Boys have her in their sights. A rumor’s spreading that Kady and Aaron are much more than friends—and not even twisting time is enough to defend against the power that the Boys were born with.

The more Kady changes the clock, the more dizzying reality becomes, until she stumbles upon a truth darker than anything she could have imagined. Streetlight is filled with monsters—and maybe she’s always been one, too.

Teen Titans: Starfire #5 by Kami Garcia, illustrated by Gabriel Picolo DC Comics

Kori Anders’ summer job at a ritzy Santa Monica beach club is fun, but she doesn't feel like she belongs there. She never breaks the rules, she doesn’t care about keeping up with the current trends, and she can’t be bothered rushing around to make an appearance at all the parties—in fact, Kori avoids rushing at all costs because of her Ehlers Danlos Syndrome diagnosis. What she does feel is an inexplicable draw to the stars.

Her older sister, Kira, on the other hand, is the most popular girl around. With the hottest clothes, an even hotter boyfriend (the Tate Fairweather), and a take-no-prisoners attitude, she’s Kori’s opposite in every way. Sadly, Kori doesn’t think Tate is a good fit for her sister, and nothing she says will convince Kira to break up with him.

The summer heats up when Tate’s uncle, Lynch Fairweather, CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, asks Kori and Kira to participate in a clinical trial designed to advance treatments for EDS. During treatment, Kori begins to discover some strange powers that she has never had before…and she might not be the only one.

Can Kori uncover the truth about her powers and find a way to persuade her sister to trust her before it’s too late?

Where the Library Hides (Secrets of the Nile #2) by Isabel Ibañez Wednesday Books

The stunning conclusion to the story that started in What the River Knows. A lush immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt filled with adventure, and a rivals-to-lovers romance like no other!

1885, Egypt

Inez Olivera is left reeling from her cousin Elvira’s murder, and her mother’s betrayal, and when Tío Ricardo issues an ultimatum about her inheritance, she’s left with only one option to consider.

Marriage to Whitford Hayes.

Former British soldier, her uncle’s aide de camp, and one time nemesis, Whit has his own mysterious reasons for staying in Egypt. With her heart on the line, Inez might have to bind her fate to the one person whose secret plans could ruin her.

November 12

Fortune's Kiss by Amber Clement Union Square & Co.

The legendary Fortune’s Kiss has returned to Ciudad Milagro for the first time in ten years. The magical gambling house shows up twice a year in a new city during the solstices to lure those worthy enough to wager their souls for wealth, the realization of their greatest desires, and, even, immortality.

Known by many names throughout the years, it returns to Milagro as El Beso de la Fortuna . . . and the game is Lotería. And best friends Mayté Robles and Lorena (Lo) de León are determined to change their lives, escape the dangerous men who threaten them, and gain riches.

Mayté, the sole daughter of the disgraced Robles family, wishes to leave her family and become a successful painter, while Lo suffers at the hands of her powerful and abusive father and seeks to find her mother, who escaped to Fortune’s Kiss years ago but never returned.

When Fortune’s Kiss finally returns to their city, the pair follow on their childhood blood pact to enter the gaming salon. But once inside, Mayté and Lo quickly realize that beneath the marvelous glamour, the salon is hiding dangerous secrets and the house always wins. And the game of Lotería is not the children’s game they grew up playing—it is a deadly lottery of chance.

With the help of a young, handsome croupier, the girls embark on a mission to unravel the mystery of the salon’s magic, find Lo’s mother, and try to win a nearly impossible game as their friendship is put under the greatest of tests.

Greater Secrets by Ananth Hirsh Random House Graphics

In a family gifted with the ability to see a mysterious light in the distance, one teen embarks on a fantastical journey to find her missing sister, and finally answer the question: is this ancestral gift a blessing or a curse?

Maya’s family is cursed.

Or blessed, it depends on who you talk to. For as far back as anyone can remember, her family has had to ability to see a mysterious pillar of light in the distance. Those who have tried to find it have never come back. Maya has no idea what you're meant to find if you follow the light. Adventure? Destiny? But what if your destiny isn't a good thing?

Maya’s sister left to follow her light…and has been missing ever since.

That’s how Maya finds herself on a surreal road trip with two people she barely knows, headed towards a ghost town where her sister was last seen. Unfortunately, the closer Maya gets to her sister...the closer she gets to her own pillar of light. Maya doesn't know if she's ready to face her destiny but if it means finding her sister then she'll do whatever it takes.

Heist Royale (Thieves' Gambit, #2) by Kayvion Lewis Nancy Paulsen Books

The high-stakes sequel to Thieves' Gambit, for fans of Jennifer Lynn Barnes and Ally Carter.

It's been six months since the end of the Gambit. Instead of winning an impossible wish, Ross has the threat of her family’s execution hanging over her head. Devroe, the only person Ross thought she could trust, could wish the Quests into oblivion at any time. Shockingly, despite his betrayal, Devroe is still making a play for Ross’s heart as the two work together pulling jobs for the Organization. But Ross has learned her lesson: A Quest can only trust another Quest.

When Ross finds herself at the center of a power struggle within the Organization, she sees her chance to change her fortunes. As a new deadly Gambit develops for control of the criminal underworld, Ross strikes a risky deal to guarantee protection for herself and her family.

In this final clash, Ross will square off against a ruthless opponent who will stop at nothing to seize power, and in their corner will be not only Devroe but his mother, who wants to destroy the Quests at any cost.

The new Gambit takes Ross and her crew into the intoxicating casinos of Monte Carlo and across treacherous snow-covered slopes in Antarctica as Ross competes against Devroe in a fight for her life. Loyalties will be tested, backs stabbed, hearts broken. May the best thief win.

I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call (I Feed Her to the Beast, #2) by Jamison Shea Hot Key Books

Monsters and mortals, rejoice! Acheron is back . . .

Though Laure has tried to close the lid on her ballet shoes and the feelings she once held for dance since the Palais Garnier incident two months ago, Laure is spinning out. Between partying, drinking, and avoiding anything and, well, everyone, she has no time to be anything but a monster. But when Laure stumbles across a mysterious dead body during one of her nights out, she’s forced to notice the cracks stretching beyond herself.

Below the streets of Paris, Elysium is dying, and Acheron and Lethe’s influence is spilling into the streets like a blight. Laure isn’t the only of Elysium’s beasts to rise from the ruins of Palais Garnier, and someone is mobilizing an army of monsters with plans greater than Laure, Andor, and Keturah could have ever guessed. While Laure is warring between her wants and Acheron’s ever-demanding appetite, she and her circle of monsters are left to reckon with a not-so-simple question: how do you save yourself from oblivion?

Jamison Shea's sharp and unflinching voice will bring readers to terrifying new heights in this vicious sequel to the "relentlessly gory and almost euphoric in its embrace of the horrific" (NPR) I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me.

Midnights with You by Clair Osongco Disney-Hyperion

“Where were you thinking of going?” “Nowhere.” “Great,” he says lightly, putting the car in gear. “Then we’ll go there.”

Seventeen-year-old Deedee’s life is full of family ghosts and questions she can’t ask. She longs for an escape, but guilt holds her back—that, and the fact that her strict Filipino single mom won’t let her learn to drive. But one sleepless night leads Deedee down a road she never thought possible: secret driving lessons with the new boy next door, Jay, whose turbulent family life also keeps him up until sunrise.

As midnights stretch into days, Jay helps Deedee begin to unravel her past, and as shared secrets blossom into love, Deedee starts to imagine a life where happiness is possible. But the deeper she digs into the trauma that has shaped her, the more that trauma threatens to tear Deedee and Jay apart. Together, these two must decide if the pain they’ve both inherited has the power to choose their fate, or if they have the power to choose for themselves.

More Than This (The Davenports, #2) by Krystal Marquis Dial Books for Young Readers

Like the blazing Chicago sun, the drama is heating up for the Davenports and their social set. Before the summer of 1910 drops its last petal, the lives—and loves—of these four young women will change in ways they never could have imagined:

Newly engaged Ruby Tremaine is eagerly planning her wedding to the love of her life when a nasty rumor threatens her reputation and her marriage. Olivia Davenport has committed to the social justice cause and secretly hopes she’ll be reunited with dashing lawyer Washington DeWight—until her parents decide she’s to marry someone else. Amy-Rose Shepherd is making her lifelong wish of owning a salon come true, but when an incident forces her to return to Freeport Manor, she’s back in the path of John Davenport, who still holds her heart. Helen Davenport is determined to get over her own heartbreak and bring the Davenport Carriage Company into the new century, even if it means teaming up with a thrill-seeking racecar driver who just loves to get under her skin.

Inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family, More Than This is the second book in critically adored Davenports series, following four empowered and passionate young Black women as they navigate a rapidly changing society and discover the courage to steer their own paths in life—and love.

Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar Feiwel & Friends

In this sapphic dual POV Young Adult romance by Adiba Jaigirdar, Meghna and Rani (ex-best-friends-turned-rivals) realize they're dating the same guy, so they team up to beat and expose him at a big science competition!

Meghna Rahman is tired of constantly being compared to her infuriatingly perfect ex best friend now rival. Everyone, except, at least, her boyfriend Zak, seems to think that Rani Choudhury can do no wrong—even her own parents! It doesn’t help that Rani is always accepted into the Young Scientist Exhibition, while Meghna’s projects never make it. But this year, she finally has a chance at defeating Rani in something.

Rani Choudhury is tired of feeling like she doesn’t have much say in her life—not when it comes to how her mom wants her to look and act or how her parents encourage her to date incredibly charming close family friend Zak. She would much rather focus on her coding, especially once she places high enough at the Young Scientist Exhibition to go on to the European Young Scientist Exhibition

When Meghna and Rani figure out that Zak has been playing them both, they decide to do something no one would see coming: they team up. They’ll compete in the EYSE as partners, creating an app that exposes cheaters and a project that exposes Zak. But with years of silence and pressure between them, working together will prove difficult. Especially once each girl starts to realize that the feelings they had for the other may have been more than platonic...

Hey, no one ever said science was easy!

November 19

Serpent Sea (The Spice Road Trilogy #2) by Maiya Ibrahim Delacorte Press

Imani is a magic-wielding warrior sworn to protect her land from the monsters that roam the desert. But an even worse enemy now threatens the Sahir. As the powerful Harrowlanders march south with their greatest weapon—spice magic—Imani knows it’s only a matter of time before their invasion of her land begins . . . and it will be a losing battle for her people.

But Imani also knows that one way to fight magic is with monsters. If she can restore Qayn’s stolen powers, together they can summon a supernatural army to defend the Sahir from the Harrowlanders. Forming an alliance with a djinni king is risky, but Imani will do anything to save her people, even embarking on a dangerous quest beyond the sands to find the magical jewels of Qayn’s lost crown.

As Imani journeys far from home, she will discover monsters that warriors have only heard about in myths . . . monsters that can strike at any moment. Meanwhile, her rival, Taha, has been captured and is on a dangerous mission of his own.

One wrong move could cost them their lives—and everyone they love. But they may find that there is more than meets the eye crossing the Serpent Sea . . . and betrayal cuts deeper than any dagger.

Sophomore Year (Briarcliff Prep #2) by Brianna Peppins Disney Hyperion

Amelia Westlake Was Never Here meets an empathetic exploration of anxiety at historically Black boarding school Briarcliff Prep. Love triangles, friendship breakups, and slice-of-student-life are balanced with a thoughtful discussion about mental health, all in a love letter to Black girls.

Avielle LeBeau is beginning her second year at Briarcliff Prep, and she's got big dreams. Top of the list? Starting her own student life magazine and rooming with her besties Rhyon and Zazie. But a housing mix-up splits Avi from her friends—and to make matters worse, she's rooming with her rival, Fallon Walsh, instead.

How does one girl juggle school, a fracturing friendship, living with a mean girl, and getting caught in a potential love triangle between the ex she can't move on from and a friend who’s becoming something more? It's a lot. Made even harder by the panic attacks Avi has been experiencing lately.

If one thing is true about the LeBeau family, it's that they’re always there for each other. But with her older sister Belle away at college and her brothers preoccupied chasing their own dreams, Avi must learn how to find support in new (unlikely) places.

Will Avi finally find her voice? Or will her dreams be drowned out by everyone else?

When Mimi Went Missing by Suja Sukumar Soho Teen

Shy, nerdy Tanvi has always thought of her perfect cousin Mimi as her sister. Not only did Mimi’s family raise Tanvi after the tragic death of her parents, fierce Mimi has always protected Tanvi at school. At least until Mimi fell under the spell of their flawless, rich classmate, Beth . . . Tanvi’s biggest bully.

Fearing another terrible year, Tanvi decides to take a desperate, preemptive strike—and captures an incriminating photo of Mimi and Beth at a party. When Tanvi wakes up the next day with a bump on her head, scratches on her leg, and no memory of what caused her injuries, Mimi is gone.

When the investigation for the missing girl takes a dark turn, Tanvi begins to fill the gaps in her memory, hoping to bring her cousin home alive. She questions Mimi’s friends and enemies—including Mimi’s shady boyfriend, who refuses to answer her questions, and Beth, who catalyzed the split between the once-close cousins. Meanwhile, the cops announce that they are now hunting a murderer—are they hunting Tanvi?

To preserve her family and find the truth, Tanvi must revisit the worst night of her life and the darkest parts of her past to discover if she’s capable of murder—and the truth of what happened to Mimi.

November 26

Heart-Shaped Lies by Elizabeth Agyemang Delacorte

Kiara, Priscilla, and Nevaeh have nothing in common—except they just found out that they’re all dating Tommy Harding, the internet’s most famous teen prank star.

KIARA is the girlfriend who the cameras know and love, the academic star who Tommy parades around in public to keep his image in check.

PRISCILLA is Tommy’s co-star. As a beauty influencer and an accomplice to Tommy’s notorious antics, she’s always known that the two of them could be the Internet’s power couple—if only he would confess to his girlfriend what really goes on during their ‘rehearsals’.

And NEVAEH is the good girl, the pastor’s daughter who’d never dream of dating a boy who’s already taken.

When a viral post from Tommy’s social media account exposes his cheating ways during their high school class trip to Florida’s biggest theme park, the girls are crushed—and furious. Tommy claims his account was hacked. Now, Kiara, Priscilla, and Nevaeh want him out of their lives. Forever. After all, Tommy doesn’t just hold their hearts—he holds their secrets, too.

But when Tommy’s body is found the next morning, their so-called wish becomes a twisted reality. Because Tommy may be gone, but the internet is forever. And the girls are about to go from strangers to suspects….

[lyledebeast]

New Thoughts on Visual Representations of Violence in The Patriot

As I was reading through reviews to plan a lesson on evaluating sources for my students, I kept seeing descriptions of The Patriot's extreme violence (which is wild looking back from 2024!) and of Tavington's excessive cruelty. And it occurred to me that anyone who had not seen the film would probably expect those two things to be connected, and they would be resoundingly incorrect.

The most striking example of Tavington's violence is, of course, the burning of Pembroke Church. The scene is visually arresting, but for very different reasons than we might expect seeing Tavington's superior officer describe his tactics as "brutal" and learning the populace has named him "the butcher." In one a wide shot of the interior, fading sunlight is shining through the windows, illuminating the congregation, all of them in cool tones so that the one bit of color that catches the eye is the back of Tavington's red jacket as he addresses them from his horse. It looks like an 18th century painting. It looks like it could be a shot from Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lydon (1975). The same goes for the wide shot with the church going up in flames as the British dragoons and regulars look on. What is absent from this scene is actual visualization of violence. Once Wilkins lights the church and smoke begins pouring underneath the doors, the interior shots become very tight, focusing on the terrified faces of women and men. We never see them again. The scene inside the church ends before anyone can so much as cough, and John Williams' score rises in the external shots to drown out the screams of those trapped inside. The next visual reference we have to the Pembroke congregation is freshly dug graves with neat little white crosses.

Tavington's other kills are similarly crisp and clean. He kills both Thomas and Gabriel Martin with wounds through the torso, from a shot and saber respectively, and while they do not appear to be in the bloom of health when they die in their father's arms, nor are their deaths remotely messy. For reference, Wade is wounded through the torso in Stephen Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan from two years earlier, and his dying produces buckets of blood. In one scene featured only the extended cut, we are meant to believe Tavington and Bordon have tortured a man to death without either of them getting stained by so much as a drop of blood.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Martin is also evoking a classic of 70s cinema in a scene I will henceforth only describe as The South Carolina Tomahawk Massacre. When I went to Amazon Prime to pick up where I left off on my last viewing, I got to see this scene completely unprepared. And I was reminded that it is visually horrifying, audibly gut-wrenching, and goes on for longer than most kills in slasher movies. Most of the shots in this scene are close-ups of Gibson's blood-splattered face as he grunts with exertion and finally screams, redoubling his efforts. There is a score in this scene, but the thwack of the tomahawk going into the British soldier's back again and again cuts straight through it. There are also some PoV shots from Martin's sons' perspectives, but every time I see this scene I'm grateful that there's no Martin PoV shot. That would show a degree of bodily destruction I could never unsee.

Frankly, I'm at a loss as to why this is. Why is the villain's violence so sanitized it would be at home in one of Disney's darker offerings while the apparent hero takes a literal blood bath half an hour into the run time? Who is this audience that can stomach cannon balls tearing off men's heads and legs but not the charred corpse of a woman or child? Is there something rugged and manly about Martin getting soaked in blood like Carrie at the prom and something effete about Tavington's distaste for excess in his violence?

You tell me! There are more ways to take this than I could write about out or probably even imagine. Reblogs and replies are equally appreciated, as are DMs. I want to read someone else's thoughts for a change!

[anxresi]

I’m Sorry, But We REALLY Need To Talk About THIS from the leaked scripts.

Out of the MANY downright idiotic and plainly risible events that occur in future episodes of this accursed show, THIS is the Big One which stands out to me as being utterly beneath contempt (and it’s got nothing to do with Audrey being a balloon, funnily enough).

Who the hell does Andre think he is, giving himself a divorce JUST. LIKE. THAT. Pretty sure even mayors don’t have that power.

Also, how can he adopt Zoe out of the blue? (don’t forget: he’s barely even LIVED with her for one season, and not even say her name for THREE) He hasn’t asked her, and as far as I’m aware, they never even discuss it before the end of the season. 

Come to think of it, what does her ACTUAL father Mr Lee back in New York have to say about this bizarre situation? Is he going to fight this sudden whim of Andre’s in court? Is he dead? No-one knows, sorry. Expecting any kind of logic from Miraculous is like waiting for it to rain chocolate milk in the Sahara during the middle of summer, I guess.

Andre has a point with Audrey, of course... but who was it that caved into his daughter’s worst excesses while his wife was regularly away? Who let her have everything she ever wanted, so she became the spoiled brat we know of today? And who’s set to avoid prosecution for YEARS of political corruption, just because he now wants a quiet life as a movie director with his oh-so-perfect adopted daughter? Here’s a clue... he’s wearing a big sash! 

But suddenly ‘redeeming’ Andre and relieving him of all responsibility to his daughter’s conduct (not to mention avoid punishment), it just goes to know how DETERMINED the show is to vilify Chloe and give her the WORST possible outcome (even ahead of ACTUAL TERRORISTS like Gabriel) even at the expense of changing past events, and radically modifying other character’s personalities at the drop of a hat if it suits their painstaking ‘Chloe sux lol’ agenda. 

But seeing as they’re pretending Chloe was ALWAYS a complete monster with no moments of humanity now, at least they have form in this department. They must hope the audience has amnesia at best, or are complete fools at worse. Well, there’s nothing with MY memory Mr Astruc, and I may not be a genius but my IQ is comfortably three figures last time I checked. Better luck with the rest of the fanbase though!

You can just imagine Thomas personally BEGGING to animate that last shot of ‘Chloe Looking Worried’. Probably offered up the life of his firstborn grandchild. That ****ing *****... 

Anyway, please spare a thought for Chloe being forcibly taken away by her lifelong abuser on a plane to further damage her permanently, I guess. “Take Control’... yep, I’ve heard those words before...

All at the behest of ‘Father Of The Year’ Andre, who I suppose is now meant to be some kind of hero for subjecting his now estranged daughter to even more trauma at the hands of his despised ex.

But it’s all okay! He likes Zoe ‘the best’ you see, so he can quite happily turn off his conscience now that the show has seen fit to allow him to escape any kind of karma, and start a new life with no regrets. YAY!

This is Chloe’s last scene in the episode, the season and possibly last in the series as a whole. 

Gabriel gets a statue. Andre gets a fresh start. Chloe...

I’m sorry, I can’t even think about it. Did I mention I now HATE this show with the intensity of a million suns?

Because I do. And now you know why.

[im-out-of-it]

PSA: I STILL FUCKING HATE WILL HERONDALE AND HE IS A BASTARD 👏🏼

Will said, “some shadowhunters have always been bastards. My family has good cause to know it.”

well that’s ironic because you’re a bastard but we must be ignoring that? are we ignoring how you’ve treated Tessa in the beginning, all Jem has been through, Sophie’s treatment, literally almost everyone in TID, how you treated Gabriel-

and I don’t care if anyone wants to argue Gabriel but Will threw the first punch. he came after Tatiana, Gabriel’s sister. say what you want about Tatiana (I hate what she did to her brothers) but she was just a child with a silly infatuation. she at the time didn’t know any better and how he treated her was gross and then assaulting Gabriel because of it, and acting as though Gabriel is some ghastly villain, the fuck?

and yes, Gabriel hasn’t always been kind (he’s a sweetheart and I love him ok?????) but he’s not the one who started this feud if you want to call it that. Gabriel owns up to what he did, staying by his fathers side and choosing to be better.

at least Gabriel grows and becomes a better person. I’m not defending what he’s done wrong but I feel like gabriel actually grows and adapts as a character. I don’t see Will changing and to say this statement is humorous and ironic in all

Will has made jokes about the most traumatic experience Gabriel probably had. having to kill his own father. I’m sorry but that’s not a laughing moment??? that’s something I would guess stays heavy in Gabriel’s head. if I were Cecily, I would not be allowing that shit. everyone just accepts this????? if Gabriel made a joke about Will’s father, on the devil, all hands on deck!!!! then Gabriel would be seen as the bad guy. and it’s mainly CC and her writing that do this because she purposely does this thing consistently.

this is part of the terrible and lazy writing of CC. she has men go through things (herondales) and then doesn’t have them own up to what they did wrong. there’s no trying to change, adapt, grow. it’s just stale

Alastair grows a lot in my opinion, Alec slightly grows (it’s still super bad though. he deserves better too.), I even think Matthew kinda grows. literally so many characters grow but who never takes accountability??? majority of the herondales. they’re basically out here “I went through trauma but I will treat anyone how I deem desirable and y’all will accept it”. this is just my personal take on the family and the characters. plus it’s super repetitive because CC keeps doing the same thing over and over again.

it’s tiring honestly. I don’t think Will has ever apologized for how he has treated Gabriel or Gideon (which I don’t think was as bad but I also can’t remember) and his apologies always come off as half ass. also I feel like Tessa kinda settled for Jem because he was sick and they thought he would die anyways??? and that doesn’t sit right with me. but these are just my opinions and takes on these matters

I still fucking hate Will and what he did to Gabriel is unforgivable.

personally I would’ve cut out all the Will stuff in TLH (especially the weird fucking grieving sex he and Tessa love and the abandonment of their children basically) and added more Gabriel and Gideon content. yes im Lightwood biased but it’s not my fault they’re better lmao

let’s see gideon and Alastair bonding, add Gabriel as a parent. maybe have him talk some sense into Anna!!!! see gideon reassuring Thomas that he knows he’s innocent and didn’t kill anyone. see more of Eugenia. once again: IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER

[physalian]

List of “I need to calm the fuck down” music

(please reblog your own)

Most Trance Music if this list is intimidating- Usually not something you dance to, doesn’t have a lot of percussion and erratic noise. It’s supposed to entrance you.

This list spans the following genres: Pop, folk, grunge, cinematic, and rock.

Maybe I’ll make a Spotify playlist or something with all of them, idk. These are not in alphabetical order but I tried to keep multiple artist entries grouped.

I had the whole thing color-coded but Tumblr didn't like that so here's it in boring text (I still have the colored one if anyone wants it)

WITH LYRICS

Good for Me - Above & Beyond

On a Good Day - Above & Beyond

Blue Sky Action - Above & Beyond

The Hollywood Bowl Show - Above & Beyond

I Love You Always Forever - Donna Lewis

I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie

Through the Eyes of a Child - AURORA

Retrograde - Pearl Jam

Run Boy Run - Woodkid

The Night We Met - Lord Huron

Would That I - Hozier

After All These Years- Journey

Let it All Go - Birdy

Holocene - Bon Iver

Home I/II - Dotan

Outro - M83

Flares - The Script

O - Coldplay

Fly On - Coldplay

Strawberry Swing - Coldplay

Midnight - Coldplay

Lovers in Japan (Acoustic) - Coldplay

Clocks - Coldplay

Every Teardrop is a Waterfall - Coldplay

Up & Up - Coldplay

Fix You - Coldplay

Oceans - Seafret

Dice - Finley Quaye

Medicine - Daughter

Wash Away - Joe Purdy

Upside Down - Jack Johnson

Heartbeats - Jose Gonzales

Teardrop - Massive Attack

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - U2

Where the Streets Have No Name - U2

Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin

Life is a Highway - Rascal Flatts

Something I Need - OneRepublic

Dead in the Water - Ellie Goulding

Mr. Brightside - The Killers

Morning Elvis - Florence + The Machine

End of Love - Florence + The Machine

What the Water Gave Me - Florence + The Machine

Sky Full of Song - Florence + The Machine

Free - Florence + The Machine

Choreomania - Florence + The Machine

Walls - Kings of Leon

While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Tom Petty/Prince

Silver Spring - Fleetwood Mac

Big Love - Fleetwood Mac

Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac

Don’t Look Back in Anger - Oasis

The Albatross - Taylor Swift

The Archer - Taylor Swift

You’re On Your Own Kid - Taylor Swift

Clean - Taylor Swift

On My Way - Phil Collins

Hoppipolla - Sigur Ros

I Shall Not Walk Alone - The Blind Boys of Alabama

Send Me On My Way - Rusted Root

Manic - Cloves

Dorian - Agnes Obel

Down to Earth - Peter Gabriel

Shine On You Crazy Diamond I-IV - Pink Floyd

On the Turning Away - Pink Floyd

High Hopes - Pink Floyd

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

Take it Back - Pink Floyd

November Rain - Guns n’ Roses

Breathe Me - Sia

They’ll Soon Discover - The Shins

Just a Kid - Wilco

Evenstar - Howard Shore

Just Like Heaven - The Cure

Angela - The Lumineers

Scotland - The Lumineers

Nobody Knows - The Lumineers

Sleep on the Floor - The Lumineers

The Ink from Books - Sleeping at Last

Lightning Crashes - Live

Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins

Glitter in the Air - P!nk

Silhouette - Aquilo

Water Under the Bridge - Adele

Golden Hour Album - Kygo

Stole the Show - Kygo

Wake Me Up - Avicii

Heaven - Avicii

Hope There’s Someone - Avicii

Fade Into You - Mazzy Star

WITHOUT LYRICS

Flow State (Continuous Mix) - Above & Beyond

Memory Gospel - Moby

Immanuel - Tony Anderson

Define Dancing - Thomas Newman

Haiku/Nemo Egg - Thomas Newman

American Beauty - Thomas Newman

Chasing Ice - J. Ralph

One Day - Hans Zimmer

Thunderbird/The Decision - Hans Zimmer

1917 - Thomas Newman

The Mighty Rio Grande - This Will Destroy You

The Minecraft OST - C418

The World of Goo OST - Kyle Gabler

Tessa - Imagine Dragons

Forbidden Friendship - John Powell

Experience - Ludovico Einaudi

The Aviators - Helen Jane Long

Once There Was A Hush Puppy - Benh Zeitlin

On the Nature of Daylight - Max Richter

The Beginning - Factor 8

End of An Era - Zach Hemsey

I Walk With Ghosts - Scott Buckley

The Chasing Coral OST - Dan Romer

The Luca OST - Dan Romer

Arrival to Earth - Steve Jablonsky

Tower of Joy - Ramin Djawadi

Light of the Seven - Ramin Djawadi

Into a Nighttime Sky - Jeremy Zuckerman

Greatest Change - Jeremy Zuckerman

Your Hand in Mine/Home - Explosions in the Sky

Ori, Lost in the Storm - Gareth Coker

Arrival of the Birds - Cinematic Orchestra

Fireflies - Mychael & Jeff Danna

Across the Stars - John Williams

The Soul OST - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

The Queen’s Gambit OST - Carlos Rafael Rivera

[miraculousdeservesbetter2024]

One thing that really does bother me a lot about season 4&5 Chloe is that…she doesn’t even show genuine love or interest in anything anymore. She’s just always having this “better than everyone” attitude about everything. Yes she did this in other seasons, but it just feels completely different now. It doesn’t even feel enjoyable to watch anymore, she’s not even that character that “you love to hate” anymore, she doesn’t even feel like Chloe anymore. She’s not even a bully with redeemable qualities anymore, she’s just this one-dimensional evil shell, just so people won’t feel sorry for her. It’s OOC, it’s stupid, it’s just…ugh.

And if anyone’s gonna to dare show up and say:

“WELL THATS THE POINT DUH!”

No…it’s not.

Because it’s the way you write it. Don’t you see? It doesn’t even FEEL like she had this “backwards development” Thomas claims he was giving her, she just feels ridiculously unrealistically evil now. That’s dumb, even for Miraculous. It’s dumb because…even bad and evil people have a humane side, like Gabriel, Audrey, Andre etc., but apparently Chloe's still worse than all of them combined for some reason.

As mean as she was, I don't imagine seasons 2 and 3 Chloe doing this or behaving like this. Heck, I don't even imagine season 1 Chloe doing this. Thomas has turned one of his most complex characters from the show into a blander version of true her self, all because so people would grow to hate her, just like he does…for some strange and immature reason. Now I’ve pretty much accept that Chloe is a lost cause, but to no real through of her own. In show, the adults in her life failed her, and in real life, her creator failed her. She’s never going to redeem, have proper development or a happy ending as long as that guy is in charge.

I’m not saying that Chloe was never wrong nor didn’t deserve any punishment, but I don’t blame nor hate her more than them. I never will.

[stabbydragon]

*clears throat* Can we just talk about how unfair it was that Cordelia was the one who got to kill Tatiana? Like there were a million other people who were way more qualified.

I’m pretty sure most people, like me, were rooting for Grace. After all, she was the one that Tatiana hurt most by physically abusing her, making her into a weapon, forcing her to brainwash James which made everyone she cares about mad at her, etc. Not to mention that Christopher, one of her only friends, the only person who defended her, and the one who encouraged her to pursue her passion for science, had just been MURDERED by Tatiana! And like, Grace was RIGHT THERE with a knife to Tatiana’s throat! Then CORDELIA had to come and ruin everything by summoning Lillith! WTF!?

Jesse was another person who had been hurt by Tatiana. This bitch, who he thought cared about him despite her flaws, as a mother should, SOLD HIM TO BELIAL so he could be possessed and forced to murder people which he would never do under any circumstances of his own free will! The guilt the poor boy must have gone through because of this bitch! Although personally, I don’t think he would be capable of murder, but it would have been better than fucking CORDELIA.

Also, the idea of either Jesse or Grace doing it to avenge their sibling? 😭

My second choice after Grace would be Lucie, who would be furious both because of Jesse being possessed, and because she had just found out that Tatiana had been the one to ruin James and Cordelia’s marriage, causing both her brother and parabatai a lot of pain. It would have set the scene for a fascinating conversation between her and Jesse regarding how they both felt about Tatiana’s death (the same is true for Grace) because I need more Ghostwriter scenes. Also, if she killed her partially on Grace’s behalf, it would better showcase what could have been a beautiful dynamic that desperately needs to be explored further. I need these too to become besties immediately! Lucie, unlike her boyfriend, totally deserved to be a morally ambiguous character. She had so much potential for stabbiness, so where’s all the stabbiness? It’s so unfair that she never gets to stab someone ONCE because she’s a main character and therefore needs to be morally perfect even though people who grew as rich as she did are the ones most likely to be evil. Besides, she could have ordered a ghost to do it while Lucie herself was far away, giving her an alibi, and any witnesses would not have seen the ghost. Honestly my preference would be if Lucie and Grace teamed up to do it together in Jesse’s name.

EVEN FUCKING JAMES a would have been a better option, not that I would like it much. He was the one who was brainwashed since he was fourteen after all. He was the one who kept on accidentally breaking his wife’s heart because of the gracelet.

While Cordelia was still hurt by Tatiana’s actions, she was farther removed from the situation. But because sHe’S tHe PrOtAgOnIsT, she had to be the one to do it. Not even of her own volition, but because she was being manipulated by a greater demon. Imagine all of your protagonists being so heroic and morally sound that they can’t even neutralize someone as twisted and dangerous and inhumane and this bitch without being physically magically controlled by Lillith herself. Is there anything more boring?

And what really makes me angry is that she finally gave in due to the death of one Christopher Lightwood, a character with whom she had no established dynamic. If this was CC’s plan all along, she could have made it so they had at least one single fucking conversation alone??? If the main catalyst for Tatiana’s death was Kit’s murder, then practically ANY OTHER CHARACTER a would have been better. Cecily and Gabriel and the others were in Idris but, once again, there’s Grace, Lucie, James, Thomas, Anna, Matthew, etc. Hell, even Rosamund Wentworth, who arrives pretty soon after Kit’s death, knew him longer than Cordelia!

*Ahem* Thank you for listening to my PSA