#adrien's game series

[thatonevamp]

My boy...

Look what they've done to my boy...

[characterswithcolorsnamesfight]

Best character with a color name

Round 1 Poll 33

Noir is French for "black".

[cantheywinthehungergames]

Character: Adrien Agreste

age: 14

restrictions: no black cat miraculous

Tribute Name: Adrien Agreste (Cat Noir)

Age: 13-14 (throughout series)

Restrictions: No superpowers of any kind

If you would like to see a character aged 12-18 enter the Hunger Games, please submit them through my asks. 19+ aged character submissions are currently closed.

Please also look at my pinned post for submission rules as well as a list of previously submitted characters prior to submitting your character.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

“Physical 100” is such a crazy concept to me because if you were to make an American equivalent to the show, you could end up with an episode where NBA’s Steph Curry gets into a wrestling match with NFL’s Brock Purdy. Or the YouTuber “Yoga with Adrienne” wrestling with WWE’s Becky Lynch.

[arcanemadman]

Netflixvania fans will hate Mariacard because one's 16 and the other's an adult after shipping and continuing to ship Trephacard, which has a teenager shipped with two adults

EDIT: Okay I know this isn't obvious but it needs to be said, Netflix Maria uses the design of 12 year old Maria, but she's actually 16. SOTN Maria is 17, which makes her a year older than Netflix Maria. If there was a 5 year time skip in the show, that would make Maria 21.

[yolowritter]

Anybody order an Evil Emilie Au?

Hello there everyone, and welcome! I'm back on my bullshit and 99% sure I talked about this before, but who cares? This, this wonderful thing is the Games of Innocence Au! Did you ever want a world where Emilie is a psychopath? Did you ever imagine her being as morally grey as they come yet still trying to be a mother to her son? What about if it was Gabriel who used the Peacock instead? What if she's replaced him as Hawkmoth? Empress actually, but still! And what somewhere down the line, she tries to manipulate Nathalie into helping her?

What if Emilie accidentally falls in love with her best friend? This absolute masterpiece is one of my favorite show re-write ideas of all time, and I've got some sweet 9.5k words for you guys to enjoy right here! Thing is, since I already have an Au that's over 300k words long, and rapidly approaching 400k...not to mention the next huge project on my list (a conservative estimate of 500k words)...I will not be writing the Evil Emilie Au in it's entirety. Most of it is a show rewrite anyway, and I simply don't have the time go through each individual episode and change it so that psycho!Emilie is there instead of mr Mothballs. I'm currently trying to write the finale, since it is the single best part and my personal favorite scene, hopefully to post it both here and on the Archive when I'm done.

However! I can and will rant about it until the end of time, assuming someone asks! And since the voices in my head did, here's an entire analysis about this version of Emilie! It's right below the cutoff, but I'd highly recommend to first read the fic! So here's the Ao3 link, hope you enjoy!

Alright then, welcome back! I hope it was a good read! Now as a disclaimer, I am not a mental health specialist, and might be confusing the terms "sociopath" and "psychopath" here, but I did read that sociopaths often struggle to control their emotions and act erratically (which Emilie doesn't, she has great self-control), where psychopaths have difficultly forming any emotional connections, so I feel like the latter term describes this Au's Emilie much better. Let's get right down to business, and explore (this) Emilie Agreste's mind, shall we! Obvious spoiler warning for the above fic.

Firstly, I'd like to make sure we're all on the same page with what kind of person Emilie is! Whenever I refer to her I'm obviously talking about this Emilie, so don't confuse it with canon. I have another upcoming post abt that. Her main attribute is that life as a concept is permeated by a general sense of boredom. Wake up, do tasks that only matter because she's told they do, sleep, repeat. Emilie was born into a rich family, which immediately means expectations. I'm assuming that she was kept pretty isolated aside from eventually starting school, so the only emotional connection Emilie formed in her early life was her sister, Amelie. She does genuinely care about her sister in a way that Emilie just can't bring herself to for her parents or staff, though she is nice to the latter and appreciates the work they do for her. Her parents are just stuck-up snobs but who cares? And so, Emilie shows this care the only way she knows how. Being perfect. Excelling at everything she does, getting the top grades in class, you all know the drill. The only thing she doesn't have is friends, and hangs out mostly with her sister. But even with Amelie, who she feels very strongly for...Emilie has a hard time expressing these feelings. For an example, see this flashback when they are sitting together in the garden:

“Sister…do you love me?” Amelie asks in a soft tone, her voice barely loud enough not to be carried away by the wind. Emilie recalls that she must have been... ten, maybe closer to eleven? And in all her admittedly few years, she never felt her heart stop beating as suddenly as when she registered Amelie’s words. “It’s- it’s just- …m’ sorry, Em. I… I don’t know, but whenever you smile at me...” the girl lets out a tiny sigh, nervously fidgeting with a stray strand of platinum-blonde hair. “It’s the same smile mum has when people are coming over…”

Emilie remembers it as clear as day—the way that the soft blades of gray grass between her fingers felt as if they’d been sharpened enough to draw out blood. Why…why would Am ever think she didn’t love her? Emile had done everything she was expected to do! She kept up her good grades like father wanted, always smiled and politely socialized with mum’s friends and family whenever they came over, and- …and she’d been nice to Amelie. Her twin sister, the constant presence in her life that truly felt like family…did not seem to think so. Or, maybe, Emilie had messed up somehow and given her the same bland niceness that the world would present her with day in and day out. But what else could she do? Wasn’t this what family meant? Just... be nice to one another and keep up with what was asked?

And over here, notice the way Emilie thinks of herself as a corpse, as not alive, even at such a young age:

“I- I’m sorry, Am,” she manages to whisper, even as confusion washes over Emilie’s mind. But…this is her sister. The one person who might understand how she feels about all of this, how the world itself registers only in dull shades of gray, how she can barely tell cold and hot apart, or how her heart sometimes feels like it’s stopped beating for hours at a time. “It’s hard for me to feel,” Emilie says, in the same reserved tone that’s always marked her sister’s voice.

And yes, obviously I know I'm the writer of the whole Au. I'm not patting myself on the back with these scenes, I'm just trying to get the point across. Emilie's life has always been that same dull grey, and the only people who can make it go away are Amelie, Adrien, Nathalie, and (to a lesser extent) Gabriel. She's been wearings masks her whole life, trying to be accepted by others but knowing that nobody would ever like who she truly is. And when she's alone...the thoughts come back, she can't tell if she is alive to begin with. Quote from the fic:

"Oftentimes, Emilie isn’t even able to feel her own heartbeat, never mind registering the expanding and collapsing of her lungs with every breath. When left alone and with nothing to catch her eye, Emilie could easily fool herself into thinking she’s some kind of undead or a ghost haunting the manor’s halls with twisted, quickly-fading memories."

Just to be clear here, Emilie suffers from deep depression. She feels isolated and alone, depending on the very few people who are perceptive enough to see even a tiny bit under her many masks, and she gets extremely attached very quickly. She isn't unable to love, since she (at the timeframe of the fic) has started to fall for Nathalie despite actively trying to manipulate her, but it's an extremely difficult mental situation to even begin dealing with. Emilie has hyperfocused on her family, and especially Adrien, her son. She isn't possessive and does genuinely love him, but there are obvious complications with their relationship. I'll get to that in a bit, but let's backtrack to her childhood one last time.

Emilie has absolutely no moral qualms with murder. Wow, that is a special combination of sentences right there! But in all seriousness, she thinks in a purely black-and-white kind of way. Emilie's #1 priority are her people, and for them she would burn the world to cinders. If anybody even looks at Amelie wrong, they will be wiped off the map for no reason other than the fact that this person was percieved as a danger. Emilie is that level of extreme in her protective streak. To give a few examples related to her sister, right after that flashback between the two of them, Emily recalls finding out that a slightly older girl was bullying her sister at school. And in a move that would make Ashley Graves proud, she straight up murders that child. No hesitation, no grievances, no regret. That girl was a threat to Amelie, and got swiftly eliminated. No questions asked, even at the grand-old age of 11.

Furthermore, Colt Fathom is straight-up dead in this Au. Emilie killed him when she came to visit her sister and nephew, staging a company emergency and sabotaging both his car engine and breaks, just to make sure. Can't take any chances with Colt of all people. Again, another threat to her sister eliminated, with Amelie's (implied) knowledge and support. The only reason she didn't kill him before the wedding is because Amelie personally convinced Emilie that she was willing to take on the burden for their family's sake. And also to use Colt's connections behind his back. Who doesn't love a good scheme?

Now...Gabriel and Nathalie never realized who exactly they were dealing with. It's worth mentioning here that Nathalie was actually Emilie's college roomate, and Gabriel was studying in the same university. Little detail, but I wanted to add it because Emilie canonically went to France to further her education. And Amelie got to work making friends in high places while Colt was busy in the 'murican bars downtown or something. Listen, all my homies hate Colt Fathom, and all you need to know is that the police didn't find enough of him to put in a casket. Anyway, Nathalie was studying business and finance, Emilie and Gabriel studied creative arts, and they met during their college years. The thing is, Emilie did love Gabriel. Only...not exactly the way he loved her. Quote again:

"Ever since she’d met him, Gabriel had been downright lovely. Polite, bookish, and a little nerdy, but with a creative spark powerful enough to bring forth an inferno of passion for his work. And he was also very loyal, most of all to the pretty popular girl who’d taken an interest in him and decided to befriend him in their first few days of college. Gabriel Agreste had turned out to be far more than just an interesting critter, and he was admittedly one of the extremely few people in this world Emilie had ever felt for, even if she was not fully able to reciprocate his feelings. Well…not in the way that Gabriel wanted, at least. Of course she loved him, hence why she obviously married him later on in life, but the man was…more of a cute, adorable puppy than a husband. If she were to put it crudely, Gabriel was far too easy when it came to matters of the heart."

Yeah...poor guy didn't notice the Yandere even after he married her. Also, another detail is that the reason why Emilie even took interest in Gabriel is because he saw through almost all her masks, believe it or not. Aside from the rampant psychopathy and slightly murderous tendencies, Emilie Graham De Vanily was an open book to him. Oh well, sometimes she ends up being crazy! What can you do? But anyway, worth mentioning that this Gabriel is far closer to his Reverse!Gabriel counterpart in terms of personality, and never acts in the callous, cold way we see in canon. Granted, we don't see what he was like before Emilie's canonical demise, but I don't like leaving room for implications on this matter. So you get your Good Parent Gabriel Agreste tag and you'll like it too!

As for Nathalie...there's an entire four and half posts' worth of ranting to do, so I'll just leave you with what the fic already has for now. Suffice it to say, she's very much into Emilie but knows she shouldn't be. I'm sure that with Empress trying to emotionally manipulate her into keeping the basement fridge life support pod thing a secret, that's going to go very well! Especially when the villainess herself is accidentally falling in love with Mayura! The Eminath is extremely strong with this one...

But anyway, about Adrien! Considering that even in canon, Emilie still wore his Amok-ring inside her sleeping pod, it's obvious that this Emilie will be wearing it too, right? Absolutely! And guess what? Thanks to a little help from an Akumatized Nathalie (prior to Origins in this Au), she magically enchanted the ring to make it literally impossible to unwillingly remove from her finger for as long as she's alive. Control issues, much? Seriously though, she does love Adrien very deeply, and does her best to be a mother. Emilie knows that he loves her back, and absorbs that love the same way a starved wolf devours fresh meat. She isn't oppressive and does her best to give him certain freedoms...but Adrien also never went to school in this Au. In her defense, she'd have little issue with it normally, but Emilie also wants to start her supervillainess career on the same year...and the thought of Adrien being caught in the crossfire genuinely terrifies her. Plus, in canon he does get involved in several Akuma attacks because of Gabriel, so... He still manages to get out of the house long enough to bump into Fu, hence Chat Noir, but doesn't ever meet Marinette and co. Not even for the Gum Incident.

In that case...hello Marichat! But again, that's for another Games of Innocence post. Today we focus on our resident Yandere! Believe me, it will become extremely evident why I call Emilie that once I post about her relationship with Nathalie/Mayura. Just trust me on this one. Back to Adrien, his dearly beloved mother is very much that. Beloved. But he is slowly starting to understand that something might be wrong with his home life, and tries to talk to Emilie about it.

This, I think, is an excellent time to talk about the color-coding in this Au. In a lot of my works I incorporate color theory and those meanings into stuff like aura colors, presences, Luka Vision™ (listen my hc is he has Synesthesia), etc. Obviously Adrien is supposed to be a vibrant green. Fresh start, new life, we've heard this all before. And Emilie...as Empress, she is a dark purple, because she's embracing her mystic side, and going absolutely wild with any and all magic shenanigans involving the Miraculous. But like I said above...in those moments where she's alone, not clinging to Adrien's side, or talking to Nathalie, or spending time with Nooroo...she's a dull, dead grey. The same tone that's haunted her since childhood. As a side note, Emilie doesn't abuse her Kwami. Nooroo actually thinks they could be good friends. You know, if she'd drop the quest for ultimate power and all.

Speaking of that, as far as Nathalie knows, this is all for the sake of bringing Gabriel back to life. Which...is true, yes. He's Adrien's father and Emilie did marry him, even if as "just a friend". She did actually have feelings for him by the way, just supressed them to avoid hurting herself when she realized he wasn't seeing her psycho side and then convinced herself that said emotions were better off locked up in the back of her mind. Never again...until Nathalie. But anyway! Emilie's main goal is Unlimited Power!!! Why? Shits and giggles, of course! She can do it, it's really fun to play this game with Ladybug and Chat Noir, and Akumatizing people just feels so intimate!

Do not get me wrong here! The reason why Emilie is obsessed with Akumatizations is because she loves going into people's heads and manipulating them! It's not weird, just the only coping mechanism she had in her entire childhood! Bless Amelie for giving her at least that... But yeah, Emilie basically treats the whole Akuma Shenanigans™ is her personal reality tv show, coupled with as much drama and action as anyone could ask for! And she gets to control the narrative! Plus, there's times where Emilie lets the Akuma do their thing just to see what might happen. Evillustrator is a prime example here, but that's part of the Marichat post so I won't get into it here.

Okay, okay. This rant is getting way too long. TL;DR: Emilie Agreste is kinda insane but still a better parent that canon Gabriel! I am currently working on the finale for this fic, because the ending is the best part and I want to share it with you all! In the meantime, feel free to send me as many asks abt this Au as you want! I'll be more than happy to have an excuse for more ranting! Anyway, I'll be seeing you all soon, but until then, Stay Miraculous everyone!

[ninadove]

fold your hands and close your eyes 👀

HAHAHA YES 🖤💜

It’s been a while since I’ve made progress on this one — not because I’m not invested in it anymore, I’m just even more invested in a plethora of other WIPs (as you know). I think I will end up making this a series of shorter fics, so they are easier to write and read. Also to artificially boost the number of works in a certain tag, which is barren.

Anyway. Fold your hands and close your eyes started as a Transmasc Felix Propaganda fic, but has since turned into an in-depth exploration of his relationship with Amelie from the moment she learnt she was expecting. The title was taken from Church Bells, by Carrie Underwood, which tells you everything you need to know about where the story is headed.

And since I know you, Noctie, I shall give you the Graham de Vanily twins:

Emilie, as always, did not understand.

“This is wonderful news,” she exclaimed, arms clasped uncomfortably tight around her sister’s stomach. “Oh, Lilie, I’m so happy for you.”

The corners of Amelie’s lips twitched. Her brother-in-law, at least, had the decency to stand a few steps behind; she was grateful for his emotional incompetence.

This was, by far, the most pathetic baby shower in the history of baby showers. But it was nice to have company over without supervision — as unpleasant as said company might be.

“Isn’t it wonderful? Our little ones will be born within a few months of each other,” Emilie smiled, rubbing her bump with childlike excitement. “They will practically be twins, too!”

Evidently, she looked back on their childhood with more fondness than Amelie ever could.

“We need to get them matching bonnets,” the older twin chirped. “Oh, wouldn’t it be so cute if we got one of each?”

“One of each…?”

“A boy and a girl, silly!”

There was something unsettling about the way Emilie talked about their unborn children; a stranger passing by might have believed she was carrying them both.

Ask game here!

[miabrown007]

not taking responsibility for the person I inevitably become when a sad blond boi shows up on the horizon

[rxttenfish]

What are your thoughts on Adrien x Hazel though?

Shipping meme.

oh god i can't even really talk about this ship, just on account of how much the sheer principle of adrien pissed me off. i'm so sorry hazel i'll find you someone nice to smooch later i just really hate what was attempted to do with adrien more.

[fandom]

Ships

Week Ending April 22nd, 2024

Farcille +2 Falin Touden & Marcille Donato, Dungeon Meshi

Buddie -1 Evan Buckley & Edmundo Diaz, 9-1-1

Bucktommy -1 Evan Buckley & Tommy Kinard, 9-1-1

Ineffable Husbands Aziraphale & Crowley, Good Omens

Radioapple Lucifer Morningstar & Alastor, Hazbin Hotel

Narilamb +2 Narinder & the Lamb, Cult of the Lamb

Destiel +2 Dean Winchester & Castiel, Supernatural

Satosugu +4 Gojo Satoru & Geto Suguru, Jujutsu Kaisen

Hannigram +4 Hannibal Lecter & Will Graham, Hannibal

Chilshi Chilchuck Tims & Senshi, Dungeon Meshi

Jerejean Jeremy Knox & Jean Moreau, the All for the Game series

Huskerdust -5 Husk & Angel Dust, Hazbin Hotel

Labru +6 Laios Touden & Kabru, Dungeon Meshi

Phan -3 Daniel Howell & Phil Lester, YouTubers

Steddie Steve Harrington & Eddie Munson, Stranger Things

Chaggie +2 Charlie Morningstar & Vaggie, Hazbin Hotel

Adrienette Adrien Agreste & Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Jegulus -1 James Potter & Regulus Black, the Harry Potter universe

Ghostsoap -5 Simon “Ghost” Riley & John “Soap” MacTavish, the Call of Duty franchise

Wolfstar Remus Lupin & Sirius Black, the Harry Potter universe

The number in italics indicates how many spots a ship moved up or down from the previous week. Bolded ships weren’t on the list last week.

[sasukesofficiallawyer]

Thanks for tagging me! I don’t really know which one suits my vibe the most

I’m a weird combination of all of them I think

@the-real-sasuke-uchiha @madelinemayfair @moon-trees @kittencrazy

rules: choose 4 of your favorite characters from 4 pieces of media as options and let your tumblr pals decide which one most suits your vibe.

Thank you to @cool-thymus for tagging me 🫶💕💕💕💕💕

I’d like to invite @inzuinzudesu @obitobi-simp @clackclackboom @ferymary to join :,D 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

[theshipwars]

[Image Description: A competition banner showing Adrien Agrestte and Ladybug as representatives for The Love Square, from the animated series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, versus Zelda and Link, from the game series Zelda. End ID]

[zoe-oneesama]

Hi. I was wondering since Felix now has a peacock miraculous, will he be added to your Angelic layer Au? Love your Scarlet Lady au by the way ;)

I'd definitely like to draw him up as well as an Angel of Argos for him. I'm mostly just having trouble fitting any of the antagonists into the AU.

Angelic Layer is essentially one long tournament arc with no long lasting enemies. In the manga especially, everyone who's antagonistic just needs to be beaten into friendship by Misaki, and even those characters are rare - pretty much everyone is just having a good time. The anime (which I'm watching for the first time) has some one off characters to challenge Misaki's naivette but they disappear as soon as they're beaten too. No one's really a long standing enemy in the series.

The most I have for Gabriel is that Adrien hides his identity as a player so that Gabriel doesn't find out, implying he either dislikes the game or dislikes his son having fun of any sort lol. Unless I give him a Tragic Angelic Layer Backstory it's a little difficult to think of a reason why he'd be playing as Hawkmoth that makes any sense. But maybe if I finish the anime it'll give me some ideas through Misaki's mother.

[ilikekidsshows]

https://www.tumblr.com/ilikekidsshows/768500900590436352/many-people-said-cn-is-not-a-good-fighter-and-i?source=share

It reminds me of this exchange from the beginning of Penalteam when they're choosing the soccer teams: Alix: We can try girls against boys! (Sabrina, Mylène, Rose, and Juleka pose behind Alix) Kim: No way, we'd lose again!

Like I get that they didn't want to have Kim be a sexist jerk by saying that it would be an easy victory because the opposing team would be made up solely of girls, but implying (intentionally or not) that the girls always win against the boys is just trying way too hard with the girl power aspect. The episode shows that Adrien doesn't know how to play soccer, so maybe they could have had Kim instead say that the boys could lose because he would be on the team (still dickish, but at least he wouldn't be sexist)?

---

Oh, the show is the epitome of a try-hard. Because what do you have left to do when you don’t have the talent to be subtle or consistent? That’s when you’re so on the nose that anyone actually paying attention finds it ridiculously over the top. “Boys versus girls is so unfair because the girls are so much better than the boys!” is only an attitude in the most try-hard of try-hard “girl power” setups and even then, it sounds like a parody of typical girl power setups. If you can’t write the girls actually being competent, make the guys incompetent. If you can’t write the girls actually doing cool things and all the same things as boys, have the characters claim they constantly do so off-screen.

It was the same thing in ‘Gamer’, where they made a huge deal of how Marinette, a girl, was super duper awesome at videogames, way better than the stupid, nerdy boy who had videogames as his hobby and passion. Never mind that, unlike all of Marinette’s other hobbies, video games only ever get a passing mention again, almost like the writers didn’t know how to write a girl gamer outside of “everyone is surprised she’s good”. The show also implies that, whenever Kim and Alix compete in something, Alix wins, because, despite her ridiculously small stature and lack of muscles, she’s the bestest at every sport ever, because it’s funny she’s better than a boy because she’s a girl. Never mind how we don’t actually see her do anything other than rollerskate or skateboard, almost like the writers don’t know what to do with a sporty girl other than skating.

The problem is, once again, like I keep saying, the fact that the writers don’t fucking commit to anything they put down. The show is such a try-hard with the GURL POWAH because the writers can’t actually write powerful girls. They make such a big deal of the girls being better than the boys, but they do it in such an insincere way that it’s literally a joke. But, because the joke is the unexpected twist that a girl is good at these things, then the show is emphasizing how unexpected it is, that usually you should expect them to not be good at these things. The show’s girl power is actually really sexist.

Sonic Boom, a gag series, understood this concept, and illustrated it, ironically, with a soccer match.

[alexfierroaf]

Yea, I’m convinced that the Miraculous season finale was unsatisfying on purpose.

The “happy ending” scene at the end had this surrealist lighting and slightly off-putting music in the background. It gives off major false utopia vibes. It actually makes me feel relieved, because there were two things I was worried about for this finale but the way they wrote it resolves those issues a bit.

First, I was worried that they were going to try to wrap up everything perfectly within the span of this two episode special. There was no way they were going to be able to give all the different plot points and character arcs the closure they needed within that time frame. by leaving us with an open ending, It gives itself room to properly develop and deal with the fallout from this mess slowly over time.

And then, arguably the bigger issue, was Miraculous’ future after season 5. I kept thinking to myself, what are they going to have to do to keep Miraculous interesting after this? Sure we’ve got Lila, or Cerise, or whatever her name is, but everything we’ve been following this series for since the beginning was about to be resolved. Monarch gone. The Agreste arc over. Adrienette canon. What is Miraculous’ sense of identity after this? Do they hit the reset button and retell the story Disney sequel style? Do they force a breakup between Adrienette to keep the romance plot alive? What’s the point of this still VERY fresh reveal of senti-Adrien if Gabriel and his influence is nothing but a distant memory?

But because of the way things went down, none of those things we thought would be resolved actually are. Monarch fucking won. He got what he wanted, and now everyone is living in a world of his image. He’s remembered as a goddamn hero, which is fucking infuriating! And Adrien doesn’t know! Doesn’t know that his dad was a supervillain and terrorist, doesn’t know that he’s a sentimonster, doesn’t fully accept that he’s been abused. And Marinette is keeping all that from him! Probably because she doesn’t want to inflict unnecessary pain on him, but when he finds out he’s going to be an absolute MESS.

Which means the Agreste plot, the family drama, the relationship antics that we’ve been following for all these years will continue as a throughline in the show. It means that there are natural reasons to continue existing conflicts and keep the show running without it feeling contrived. Because none of this is ok, and it’s going to take a lot of time to resolve. A lot of pain, a lot of drama, and a lot of conflict. I wouldn’t be surprised if Adrien and Marinette have major relationship problems over the secrets that she’s keeping from him. The Ladynoir angst from season 4 is back at full force. And you KNOW Cerise is going to zero in on that shit like a moth to a flame. Before this I was fearing a ultra-contrived break up to keep the audience invested in their story, but now I would be totally satisfied with a temporary break up as Marinette’s secrets become too much to keep hidden.

So yea, I was angry at the season 5 finale. The Gabriel statue made me gag. And I REALLY wanted to see Adrien stick it to his father. But then again, he did in his own way. He pulled one over his father by tricking him into muting his mics, which gave him a chance to strategize with Plagg. He’s the one who decided to play the long game and wait patiently while Plagg found a new holder to defeat Monarch with -- as opposed to rushing in with brute force, which shows significant character growth for him, by the way. I’m proud of him. And I can’t wait to see where his arc goes from here as he continues to explore his own agency and his relationships with people around him.

As for Marinette, I was very satisfied with her face-off against Monarch/Gabriel. The moment he realized his archnemesis was her was priceless. And that piano? God. That was glorious. She was a total badass. And she demonstrated her growth, too. She acted with a lot more maturity than we’ve seen at other points in her story by putting aside her personal vendetta towards Gabriel and Monarch to focus on creating a peaceful solution -- even if it did come back to bite her in the ass hard.

So the manipulator won. Fitting, because I feel kind of manipulated too. I would’ve never guessed in a million years that Gabriel would actually be able to make his wish in the permanent timeline, or that Miraculous would go down such an unsettling and unsatisfying route (at least in the short term). I’ve gotta respect them for that. All these years we thought we knew how this conflict was going to resolve -- all those dramatic reveals in the Agreste basement, the final battle between Adrien and his piece of shit dad, Adrien breaking out of his control in one decisive and cathartic swoop. Instead, we got something much more sinister, something much more insidious. Whatever is lurking around the corner is bound to have MAJOR repercussions going forward.

So I’m content to wait and see what happens next. There’s no point in complaining about how a story went when it isn’t even resolved yet. Was it perfect? Nope. Will it be done perfectly in the future? Also no. And that’s ok. Because it never will be perfect, and what we saw here made sense. It was impactful. It creates new opportunities for the characters and their story arcs that didn’t exist before this finale. We are in a new era of Miraculous, and I will be waiting on the edge of my seat to find out what the hell this beautifully unpredictable series is going to evolve into next.

[foxwitchaine]

Which is your most hated character in Miraculous Ladybug?

I wouldn't say hate so much as strongly dislike, as it takes a lot for me to outright loathe a fictional character. More often than not, I have better things to spend my energy on than hating a fictional character.

But if I were to answer that, five take the top spot:

1.) Lila Rossi

I know. Surprising, isn't it. Well, it's all fun and games until you actually meet one in real life. And it's frustrating as hell getting those with the wool over their eyes to listen until it's too late. I have to emphasize that it wasn't originally part of the plan to redeem her in the early drafts. It was thanks to Rafe that I even considered doing a Lila redemption.

Lila had a lot of potential in the early seasons. Of course, that was before she was turned into a one-dimensional villain with little in the way of making her interesting. It says something that I got the feeling the showrunners were trying to make her hateable without actually putting in the effort while reading the Chameleon transcripts. (I had to stop reading to settle my blood pressure)

All in all, Lila is just a symptom of a bigger underlying issue regarding the show's writing. I personally think she has a very nice design, but it looks better in 2D than 3D.

2.) Gabriel Agreste

He's a severely underwhelming main villain. At the start, he had potential. But as the series drags on, it's become painfully clear that the showrunners don't actually know how to make a compelling main villain. He was surprisingly much more intimidating and better-designed in the pilot PV.

Gabriel also lacks the charisma you would find with iconic main villains such as Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, the rogues gallery in the first Powerpuff Girls, Batman's rogues gallery, and so on. I could make a whole post about how to write Gabriel better, but I don't feel like resurrecting a dead horse.

3.) Adrien Agreste

The poster boy for wasted potential. When Rafe and I first started watching Miraculous Ladybug, Season 2 hadn't been released yet. He was nice, if a bit bland. Could have used some flavorblasting in both design and personality (he's a fashion model, for crying out loud. Where's his fabulous wardrobe?)

And then all the red flags in Seasons 3-5 started popping up.

As it stands, he's nothing more than a plot device to humiliate poor Marinette. And a mouthpiece for the writers' very skewed morality. We weren't going to redeem him at first, but then it occurred to me a fantastic way to strike a devastating blow against Gabriel. I won't say anything more since they're spoilers.

4.) Alya Césaire

Ohhhh boy. Where do I even begin with this one? Disregarding the racism allegations towards the writers regarding her character, Alya is just an awful best friend, plain and simple. While it's true that she's a go-getter who isn't afraid to go for what she wants, that same trait has pretty much been solidified into a toxic trait courtesy of her refusal to question Lila later in the show. Even after Marinette broke down in front of her and confessed her secret identity in Gang of Secrets.

I will forever hate that episode just for how entitled everyone was about Marinette's secrets.

When Rafe and I were brainstorming who to use as our civilian antagonist to fill in for Lila, it was rather telling that Alya was among our first choices. It wasn't our intention for her to fall as hard as she did in The Wolves in the Woods, but honestly? It was inevitable.

5.) Caline Bustier

She's a non-authority figure who coddles the troublemakers in her class. I'm restraining myself at the moment because I've had teachers just like her in real life. Who look good on paper and are the sweetest people on the outside. But their inability to discipline a class regardless of behavior does a lot more damage in the long run than many would care to admit.

Bustier is a character who I could have grown to understand if the writers handled her better. The biggest brat of the school is the daughter of the city mayor. That right there is a beautiful setup for interesting conflict. We could have gotten a plot where we had a good, caring teacher trapped in a terrible situation by her superiors. Which is unfortunately something that can and does happen in real life. Instead, we got an airhead who can't for the life of her understand this simple thing called nuance.

I find it very telling the fandom prefers Mendeleiev over her.

Honorable Mentions:

Principal Damocles: Too much of a spineless noncharacter to really care about

Tom and Sabine: I try to understand the parents' side of things given parenting is far from an easy task

Bustier's class: A mixed bag here, since I don't think they're necessarily bad kids

Mayor Bourgeois: Again, another mixed bag here since he's another spineless "parent"

Zoé Lee: Too much of a blank slate to have an opinion on

Félix Fathom: What kind of a name is that?

Master Fu: He was done so dirty in his backstory

Chloé Bourgeois: Another with wasted potential