#also mild unrelated tangent THE BOYS IN WINX CLUB DO HAVE IMPORTANCE IN THE EARLIER SEASONS

[ghostess-with-the-mostess]

Okay so I DO agree you're absolutely correct that Miraculous is an uneven mesh of different ideas that aren't thought through in the SLIGHTEST and make character relations wonky as hell, but can I also make a few small (ha) corrections to your explanation here? As well as bolster your points/bring up ways to actually do these plotlines well.

What you're describing isn't the magical girl genre, at least not in its entirety - what you're describing is the sentai/superhero team subgenre that was started by the likes of Sailor Moon and further expanded by Pretty Cure.

You're also correct in that drawing irresponsibly from this subgenre is (part of) what's causing all these problems, because the sentai/superhero stuff is what Miraculous Ladybug is consciously drawing on - but the conclusion from the writers of Miraculous (and your essay) that it's 'because magical girls and romcoms don't mix' is not only incorrect but it ignores the actual history of magical girls, both pre- and post-Sailor Moon.

MAGICAL GIRLS AS ROMANCE, AS SITCOM

"Miraculous is trying to be both a Magical Girl Show and a romantic comedy, but those are not genres that mesh."

First is the fact that the original magical girl template was FOUNDED on romance and sitcom tropes.

Most sources are going to tell you that the origin point for Magical Girls was the sitcom Bewitched, which if you're not familiar, is about a witch falling in love with a mortal man and vowing to be a normal housewife for his sake - but her family, who doesn't approve the marriage, constantly interferes to break them up through their magic, thus hijinks ensue.

Not EXACTLY described as a romcom, but I'd argue it DOES count as at least romcom-adjacent seeing as the focal point is the relation between Samantha and Darrin, even if a big part of the conflict between their relationship comes from outside the two's interactions.

It was popular in Japan, and was where two of the three grandmas of all magical girls gets its main inspiration from - one series being Sally the Witch, which is about a witch girl who finds herself in the mortal realm and decides to stay when she makes some friends, but with the caveat she has to hide her magic powers - hijinks ensue.

Now, with this one we do see some of that initial inspiration that would also bleed into Miraculous Ladybug well down the line - namely the whole 'keep your identity a secret' thing being a hard rule, rather than something the characters do for the sake of keeping their loved ones safe like in superhero works.

(Albeit, Miraculous does it incredibly poorly, as it IS the superhero safety thing, but wants it to be the magical hard rule because... drama.)

But this is the starting point of the original magical girl, founded on these sitcom tropes, whether or not they also include romance.

But they CAN be romance focused.

Two good examples of this type of sitcom magical girl with a romance focus (and hilariously, a more 'spooky' focus) exist both east and west.

In the West, (though most people might not really consider it) we have Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

(I just like making people aware that this actually existed)

Predating both Sally, as well as Bewitched by two whole years, Sabrina has had multiple permutations (the original comic, the ABC sitcom, four cartoons, the more recent show, and however many versions of her appear across the Archie-verse) but they generally follow a similar plot to Sally - girl who has to keep her witchy side secret from the normal people around her.

But compared to Sally and her friends, Sabrina doesn't really have consistent friend characters, sometimes not even within the same continuity/series.

But who is the most prominent human character? It's (at least usually) her love interest, Harvey Kinkle.

Interestingly, in a way that does bolster OP's essay, is while Harvey often gets to be the main human secret-keeper (when he's allowed to be, and for as long as it lasts), the one instance where its a female friend instead of him (the first DIC animated series) is also the first where he isn't really focused on as a love interest due to being a show for much younger kids (as far as my memory can go, it's been a while since I watched any Sabrina so forgive me.)

On the eastern side, is my beloved Tokimeki Tonight.

God I love Tokimeki Tonight

Tokimeki Tonight revolves around Ranze Eto, a half-werewolf, half-vampire girl who finally gets her parents to allow her to go to public school, where she falls in love with a boy named Shun Makabe - but not only do her parents not want her dating a human boy, she also has a bitter rival in the form of the rich mob boss' daughter Yoko Kamiya. In trying to maneuver through this, she makes use of her power to turn into anything she bites (and turning back when sneezing), and with this, hijinks ensue.

Out of all the titles I'll bring up as examples this one is more magical girl-adjacent, particularly the manga which is much more shojo romance than classical magical girl (the anime, which only adapts a small portion of the manga, veers much closer to the genre) But it does have the hallmarks of those older series - girl with magical power, and the conflict of interest (having that same 'family nonapproval' thing as Bewitched) which she comes to blows with.

In the manga, she does have a couple of friends, but in the anime, we don't really see any friends of hers, at least not beyond any bit roles - the focus is on Ranze and Shun, and Yoko, her yakuza father and Ranze's own family/magic society who tries to get in between them.

No matter what, though, there is one through line between all of these series - a girl with magic powers, in conflict with her social life. Friends or romance, what is important here isn't the girl's relationships, but what the girl is going through.

There leads into my second point, and my main point of contention with OP's argument. Magical girl series aren't SPECIFICALLY all about 'women and their friendships'.

MAGICAL GIRLS - EXPLORATION OF SELF

It entirely depends on the series (and the sentai/hero subgenre often uses it because its a universally common trope to team-based kids programming) but the ONLY real requirement to a series being generally considered a magical girl series is that its about A) a girl, who B) has some sort of magic/power, that C) causes her conflict, either in daily life and/or through an antagonist they have to face.

Sally the Witch may have friends, but they are a means to an end so that Sally can get into hijinks that involve her hiding her magic from the normal, non-magical people in her life.

Sabrina and Ranze have love interests, but they often exist more as plot devices that drive along that same wacky conflict of keeping things a secret.

Not to mention: in those Showa-era days, there really wasn't a lot of 'magical girls fighting evil' like the whole genre has been wrapped up in. Rather, many of these stories would serve as vehicles for girls to be able to fantasize about all the sorts of fun things they could do, once they get older.

Lets get into that second grandma.

Himitsu no Akko-chan, which predates Sally the Witch in manga form but didn't get adapted until after Sally's own adaptation, is about an elementary schoolgirl named Atsuko Kagami (nicknamed "Akko") whose mirror becomes enhanced by spirits thanks to the respect she'd given it upon it breaking, thus becoming a magical tool that allows her to transform into anyone and anything, and even allowing her to copy abilities of others.

This isn't the only magical girl series that has this type of setup - You have other early examples like the (more mundane) Marvelous Melmo, where a girl gets magic pills from her dead mother that allow her to age up and de-age at will, or Magical Princess Minky Momo, in which a Princess of a magic land is sent to help revive the hopes and dreams of mankind, usually via transforming into an older version of herself, with a costume and skills that suit the task on hand.

There's also the five Pierrot magical girls series, most notable of which is Creamy Mami, where a girl gets temporary powers from aliens that let her transform into an older version of herself that becomes an idol singer. Three out of the four other series that succeeded it (Persia, Magical Star Emi, and Fancy Lala) also transform into older/adult alter-egos.

Now, this style of magical girl is pretty well (mostly, the above is the ad for a new Pierrot series) dead in favor of the Sentai-style or just team-based magical girl groups, but it IS another important branch of the magical girl trope - and none of these really focus on 'friendship' first and foremost.

Sure, these characters often have friends, families, love interests - but they are not the focus of any of these series. The focus is on the magical girl herself, as she learns lessons and experiences the cool possible things that the future holds for her as she grows from a little girl to a teen, and later, adult. Modern team shows do this as well, of course, but its through the circle of friends that she can confide in rather than the fantasy of the future.

But why did that shift occur, from slice-of-life-fantasy self-expression to beating up bad guys and friendship?

One (smaller) element is that it was thought that girls couldn't really handle/be interested in action series or genuinely evil threats.

This was quashed by the eventual success of Majokko Meg, which appealed to both boys and girls and had these elements, including the first dark magical girl, Non.

If you've watched Sugar Sugar Rune, this is the show it cribbed its notes from.

Majokko Meg itself was the followup (in terms of the staff who worked on it) to Cutie Honey, which was not aimed at girls, being a sexy action comedy that skews way, WAY closer to being a classic Sentai like Kamen Rider, just happening to star a female hero (you know, for the sexy). It does still serve as a precursor alongside Meg to action-oriented magical girls before Sailor Moon existed, and thus does play a role into the gradual change the genre's most popular form would experience once SM did release.

But obviously that's not all it, right?

And for that we need to take a quick detour in the world of Idols.

MAGICAL GIRLS AND IDOLS: THE PAST AND FUTURE

In Zombie Land Saga, one of the girls, Junko, has difficulties embracing the modern idol culture. She's a fantastic singer and a great presence, but she's not a great dancer, and, more importantly - she struggles to work in a unit, as idols of the Showa-era were generally solo acts.

Magical girls and Idols are VERY inextricably linked, especially in the 80's - one of the most popular avenues to promote actresses in anime and live-action shows during that time was to have them release an idol album and do performances - Creamy Mami being one example of many, whose voice and singer would go on to produce over two dozen albums in the wake of Creamy Mami's popularity.

That's not the only way in which magical girls resemble idols - both in their most typical forms are market-and-merchandise-driven media that exists to advertise 'the idealized girl' albeit in different forms, and sometimes (though not always) to different market groups.

In the 80's, both the ideal magical girl and idol were usually a single girl as the promotion, untouchable yet relatable. By the 2000's, what was popular was instead a collection of different girls, often distinguished by certain characteristics that made them stand out, yet also act cohesive in the group, allowing them to gain a larger following than one might be able to alone.

Also, they dance!

The multiple girls is especially important for magical girls, as unlike (most) Idol units, Magical Girl shows have a story to tell - and by the new millennium, having a more intricate story and world in place was becoming more important compared to the more story-light and sitcommy series made in the Showa Era. One of the easiest ways to do that is, of course, have more fleshed out (or at least different) characters that can actually bounce off each other.

Because, like. Girls, they have different personalities and interests, right? As much as I love Showa-era magical girls, many of them had quite similar 'average girl' personalities that made them comparably less distinct from each other. It's just good sense to cater to as wide a range as possible via more relatable archetypes split into multiple girls, rather than shoving every archetype into one bland girl.

(I'm no expert on Idol culture, especially in the 80's, but I don't believe the variance in personalities was much greater in that industry either - if an idol lover can correct me in another paragraph-spanning post, please do)

But that's not the whole picture, either.

Wait, I keep using words like 'Market', don't I?

(look, I'm getting to one of my two points in making this, please allow me my very short rant to set my bullshit up)

I'm not saying anything new when I bring up that Magical Girls (and Idols) are intended to be money-machines - most animation made since the days of President Reagan have been made for the sake of making millions of moneys off of the kids (and kids at heart) that want to buy the toys, the merch, the dvds, the albums (if they bother with the last two), etc.etc.etc. And with more characters? That means you can make more merch, more dolls of the characters, each of their magical tools, blind bags that people can keep drawing on until they get the one actual girl they like, the works.

(But as long as people are properly passionate and have the time they need they can make good work, blah blah blah, if I get into the obvious here I will unquestionably go on a massive detour its 1am I've been thinking about and writing this for seven hours - just remember that point about passion and time for later when I attempt to wrap this around)

But with that, lets get to....

MAGICAL GIRLS AND FRIENDSHIP

So, this part is less about me explaining it, as OP explains it very well above. What I have here is just to explain the two series that founded this perception of magical girls being 'about friendship'

Sailor Moon and Futari wa Pretty Cure.

ESPECIALLY the first Sailor Moon anime.

The original manga for Sailor Moon is long, albeit not even close to the longest out there, at a solid 18 volumes (later compiled into 12).

(Its also been eons since I read the manga and even longer since I watched the anime, I've fact checked this with a friend but forgive any errors I've made)

The manga does cover female friendships, of course - compared to many magical girls before this which were written by men, this was notable as a series written by a woman, both for the friendship element as well as its much darker story on top of that.

The anime, meanwhile, has 200 episodes which granted the anime a lot of juicy filler, including opportunities to further flesh out the other scouts, their daily lives, and their friendships with each other.

It also had Kunihiko Ikuhara as its second series director.

Now, the rumor mill has it that he HATED Mamoru with a fiery passion and quit because he wanted to break up the leading pair - this is more an exaggeration, at best. He's been on record saying that, really, he's just not fussy on the 'perfect prince' archetype that he felt Mamoru embodied (and is something he would explore in his beloved Revolutionary Girl Utena) and he moreso quit after SuperS because he disliked not having the creative freedom he wanted in his projects.

Even so, I would at least make the argument that his interest in the girls over Mamoru meant he kept the focus on the friendships between its female cast in the seasons he worked on, where a lesser director and/or writer might've taken that focus away and diluted it with something less important or unrelated (COUGH COUGH COUGH)

I didn't bring it up specifically above in my explanation about solo vs team, but this series probably WAS the one that blew everyone's minds and made them realize 'hey, more magical girls... means more depth, AND more merch to sell!' (depending on the individual's inclination of course)

This is taken up to eleven by the next big magical girl franchise to take off, Futari wa Pretty Cure, by putting all that friendship power into the single friendship between two girls. With this one, we get a bland satellite love interest (and a doomed villain love interest), but both of which are still overshadowed by the bond between Honoka and Nagisa - and from which the pattern of magical girl friendship would be perfected into a science.

this is what I grew up on, you now must face it with your own two eyes and ears. Fresh was the airing season when I got into this series GET ON MY LEVEL NONCANADIAN/NONBRITISH SCRUBS

Again, I don't have to tell you how big Sailor Moon was, and how it was then followed up by Pretty Cure, Tokyo Mew Mew, Shugo Chara, Cardcaptor Sakura, and many, many others. So, of course, that's the series that defines 'magical girl' to MANY in the west.

I wanted to get into this topic because HONESTLY, AS A HIPSTER SHOWA-ERA ANIME LIKER it pisses me off to see people frame genres in these hyper-specific ways, likening them to hard rules when its better to look at these things like interconnecting threads that you'll snip pieces off and knit into a cool sweater - sure, the knots might be wobbly, the colours might be mismatched - some might think its the ugliest sweater ever made, others might love the colour clash - but its an effort of love built from one's own gathered ability and frame of reference, and it's really cool to unravel that sweater and see where it used to connect.

But that's only one point I wanted to make with this incoherent nightmare, I've still got more to say!

And that is...

ARE THERE MODERN TAKES ON OLD MAGICAL GIRL ARCHETYPES?

Obviously, of course there are - I just noted above that Pierrot's making a new magical girl series, and we'll see if they go for a classic solo girl or try to make a team.

Sugar Sugar Rune takes the classic 'girl from the magic world on a quest' archetype, where two friends must collect the hearts (or, more accurately, the emotional power) of human boys as a competition to see who becomes the new Queen, while evil lurks in the shadows threatening the world and their friendship.

Arina Tanemura is very fond the the classic magical girl as well - One of her earlier works, Full Moon o Sagashite, takes the magical idol/age-up and gives it a heavy does of tragedy, in that the girl is terminally Ill and is given this power by shinigami to find the boy she fell in love with before her time is up, and only gets more sad from there. There's also Idol Dreams, a josei manga which subverts the 'older form' magical idol girl by instead being about a woman pushing into her 30's that finds herself able to turn back into a teenager via experimental science, which as per the genre, she uses to enter the idol industry.

There's probably others I don't know as much about, but many of those would be pretty niche (or are just beyond my scope, who knows)

But there is one more series that I think does the 'sitcom-solo-magical-girl' thing, not great, but as a decent start.

Its called Miraculous Ladybug: season 1.

Okay, so I said I agree with OP, and the above essay does bring up Origins, which is a season 1 episode - I can't deny that we were seeing the cracks form as early as that. But a lot of those cracks are things we only really got a look at in hindsight.

Season 1, as it stands on its own, is a 6.5-7/10 decent start to a kid's cartoon that embodies the classic magical girl ~but with a twist~ alright.

Miraculous Ladybug, as stated in the opening, is about an ordinary girl named Marinette. She has a crush on young model Adrien Agreste, but has to hide the fact that she's his own biggest crush, the superhero Ladybug. The twist is - Adrien himself is also her sidekick, Cat Noir, who also must hide his identity from her, his father, end everyone else in his life. Hijinks, of course, ensue.

Its a neat little gimmick, turning the often normal/satellite love interest into arguably a more in-line typical magical girl than even its actual female lead, giving us two parallel protagonists that also serve as love interests to each other. It also has a diverse and fun, but one-note cast of characters that serve as decent satellite civilian friends for the cast, as well as fodder for the villain to use his abilities on.

If Ladybug had stayed a single season show, it might've been seen as a rocky but decent start to a possible franchise, with wasted potential in having not continued so that it could blossom into something great from its starting point, albeit perhaps with the less-considered risk of getting stale with its romcom setup.

But that's not what happened.

DESPITE EVERYTHING, LADYBUG IS A GODDAMN CONFUSED MESS

Like, what else do you need me to say that OP or dozens of other ML fans and critics haven't said? This show started what could've been a fun, modernized, general audiences take on the classic magical girl + superhero ~with a twist~ but bloats itself trying to line itself up to be more like other modern magical girl shows without considering its setup, gives its female protagonist self-reflection/lessons that range from weak to even sometimes terrible, putting what should've been civilian characters further ahead while sidelining one of its protagonists to the point that he doesn't get involved the THE FINAL BATTLE THAT REVOLVES AROUND HIS OWN BACKSTORY, failing to actually address this issue while acting like it was building to something meaningful about it all along (season 4), pretending to have character arcs for characters before taking it back and making them worse (Chloe) and thoughtlessly destroying the logic of its story so hard for the sake of drama that it turned its entire cast into Ron the Death Eaters in the countless fanfics and essays written of it.

But again - it doesn't work not because 'magical girls and romcoms don't mix' its because of the writers, who appear to be writing each season in EXTREMELY not enough time actually needed to smooth out the kinks. They are over-eagerly putting in all this glut because 'that's what a magical girl series should do' or 'this could be super hype!' to which companies looking to make more merch aren't going to complain about (yeah sure have 19 possible minimum heroes/villains think of all the toys and merch! environmental variants! fusions! power swaps! so many possibilities! The hype will keep them in!)

This comes at the cost of actual cohesion, and thus multiple threads that are just kind of being jumbled up into a ball that vaguely has the shape of a sweater.

Hbomberguy, when talking about RWBY, said that it 'threatens to be good' which is something I'd say aptly fits Miraculous Ladybug as well - there's a lot of good, or at least fun, ideas, but its so bogged down by that perceived 'idea of what magical girls should be' or 'what a good romcom should be' and hell, that whole 'each episode will have a bomb on par with Chat Blanc' bull that it just leaves something that becomes more fun when placed into the hands of fans that care about doing something fun with these characters, or this world.

I do think, now that the Gabriel arc is over and they're pushing the whole 'everyone is a permament hero!' thing, that the series DOES have the opportunity to swap to the ensemble cast idea presented at the end of OP's essay - Adrien and Marinette are together, leaving only their identities being revealed (and maybe, doing something with the fact that Marinette is now constantly lying to Adrien about his dad) on the table, so it might be neat to use this to further expand on their relations to the rest of the cast... not that I could see them feasibly doing something to that scale, with 18 heroes to work with, but its a lofty thought.

I have like a lot more to add but holy christ its now 3 am (at the time I finished this) and I should sleep

Pick One: Magical Girl Show or Rom-com. You cannot be both.

Early in season four we get the episode Gang of Secrets. An episode that ends with Marinette outing her secret identity to Alya. A touching moment that sparked outrage across the fandom because it meant that Marinette had made the choice to reveal her identity to her best friend while keeping her hero partner in the dark.

This choice spat in the face of the exceptions that many fans had for the series. Thousands of pre-season-four fanfics feature moments where Ladybug and Chat Noir promise each other that they'll be the first to know each other's identities. After the Alya reveal, scores of fanfics were written to salt on Marinette's choice to tell the "wrong" person.

Most of these fics feature a betrayed Chat Noir quitting or otherwise punishing Ladybug for breaking their promise to be each other's first, thereby destroying his faith in their partnership. But that promise was never made on screen. It only existed in the realms of fanfic and, when Chat Noir finally found out in canon, his reaction was largely neutral. He never once blamed Ladybug for her choice or pushed for a reveal or even asked for the right to tell one of his friends.

So what happened here? Why did the fans have such wildly unrealistic expectations of canon? Were their expectations even unrealistic or did canon betray them? The answer to that is not as straight forward as you might think because it all comes back to one of Miraculous' many, many, many writing problems: Miraculous is trying to be both a Magical Girl Show and a romantic comedy, but those are not genres that mesh. You can only be one (or you can be a third thing that we'll get to at the end as it's the easiest way to fix this mess, but I want to mostly focus on where the anger is coming from and why the writing is to blame.)

To discuss this mismatch, we're going to do something that breaks my heart and talk about some of Origins flaws. While I love that episode and unironically refer to it as the best writing the show ever gave us, it's not perfect and its flaws are all focused around trying to set up both genres. Do note that I'm going to use a lot of gender binary language here as magical girl shows have a strong focus on gender segregation and rarely if ever acknowledge gender diversity.

Let's Talk Magical Girls

Magical girl shows are shows that center on young women and their friendships. While male love interests are often present in these shows, the boys tend to take a backseat and function primarily as arm candy while the girls save the day and carry the narrative.

A great example of this is the show Winx Club. This show features a large cast of teenage girls who save the magical universe from various threats with their magical powers. Each girl has a love interest, but the boys are usually off doing their own thing and only occasionally show up for a date or to give the girls a ride on their cool bikes or magical spaceship. I don't even think that we see the guys fight or, if we do, it's a rare thing. They are not there to save the day. They are there to be shipping fodder.

Like most magical girl shows, Winx Club starts with the main character making friends with one of the girls who will eventually become part of her magical girl squad. This brings us back to Miraculous.

Did you ever find it weird that Origins implies that Marinette has no friends? She doesn't even have a backbone until new girl Alya shows up to become Marinette's First Real Friend:

Marinette: I so wish I can handle Chloé the way you do. Alya: You mean the way Majestia does it. She says all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. (pointing at Chloé) Well, that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can't let her get away with it.

This is a bizarre opening because Miraculous is not about Marinette making friends or learning to stand up for herself. If you skipped Origins and just watched the rest of the show, then you'd have no clue that Marinette wasn't close with her classmates before this year. You also wouldn't know that Alya was new in town and you definitely wouldn't know that Marinette had never stood up to Chloé before this year. So why is this here? Why waste screen time setting up elements that aren't actually important to canon?

Miraculous did it for the same reason that Winx Club did it: magical girl shows traditionally start with the main character making friends with at least one of her eventual female teammates because Magical Girl shows are all about the girls and their relationships. The boys are just arm candy.

But Miraculous isn't a magical girl show. The writers have explicitly stated that it's a rom-com and romantic comedies aren't about female friendship. They might have female friendships in them, but that's not where the focus is. The focus of a rom-com is on the romance and Origins is very clearly all about the romance.

Origins as a Rom-com

Origins has a lot on its plate. It has to establish the villain's motivation for the first time, show us how the heroes got their miraculous, show us how the heroes first met on both sides of the mask, show us how they met their respective best friends, and show us how the heroes dealt with their first akuma. It would be perfectly understandable if this 40 minute two-parter didn't do anything with the romance. They have a full show to give us that!

In spite of this, Origins has some incredibly touching moments for both Ladynoir and Adrienette because romance is the heart of Miraculous. It is the main focus of the show. The driving motivation for both of our leads and the majority of the show's episodes. To tell the story of how their journey started without at least one of them falling in love would feel wrong. That's why we see both of them fall in love!

First we get Chat Noir giving his heart to his bold and brilliant lady, then we get Marinette's heart being stolen by the shy sweet boy who never once thought to blame her for her snap judgement of his character. We even get a touching moment where Chat Noir inspires his lady to accept her role and be Ladybug, leading her to boldly face their enemy and call him out:

Roger: I have a new plan, unlike you! Move aside and let the pros do their thing. You've already failed once! Ladybug: …He's right, you know. If I'd captured Stoneheart's akuma the first time around, none of this would have happened! I knew I wasn't the right one for this job… Cat Noir: No. He's wrong, because without you, she'd no longer be here. (they look at Chloe) And because without us, they won't make it, and we'll prove that to 'em. Trust me on this. Okay? Ladybug: Okay.

I love this moment, but it does lose a little of its power when you remember that we had an Alya-driven variation of this exact same thing five minutes prior:

Alya: HELP!! (Marinette suddenly gets filled with courage. She gets the case out of Alya's bag and puts on the Miraculous. Then, Tikki appears, happy to see Marinette again.) Tikki:(raising her arms) Mmmm! Marinette: I think I need Ladybug! Tikki: I knew you'd come around! Marinette: Well, I'm still not sure I'm up for this, but Alya's in danger. I can't sit back and do nothing.

This scene initially confused me because - if Miraculous is a rom-com - then why would you make Alya the reason that Marinette became Ladybug? Why wouldn't you have Chat Noir be the one in danger so that Marinette chose to fight because of her love interest and then encourage that bond with the later scene of him encouraging her? Why split the focus like this? Why give Alya so much attention?

In case you haven't figured it out, it's because Origins is trying to establish two different genres of show. Two genres that will continue to fight for the rest of the series (or at least the first five seasons).

Magical Girls Vs Rom-com

Why is Alya the one to shake off the nightmare dust and inspire the others during the season five finale? Why is Alya the one that Marinette trusts with all of her plans while Chat Noir is kept in the dark? Why does Alya and Marinette's friendship get so much more focus than Adrien and Nino's? Why was Alya the only temp hero who got upgraded to full time hero?

It's because Alya is Marinette's second in command in a magical girl show and magical girl shows focus on female friendships while the boys are just there to be cute and support the girls.

Why do most of Marinette's talks with Alya focus on Adrien? Why is Chat Noir the only other full time holder of a Miraculous for the first three seasons and then again for the final season? Why do Marinette's friends become more and more obsessed with Adrienentte as the show goes on? Why is the love square's identity reveal given so much more narrative weight than any other identity reveal?

It's because Miraculous is a rom-com and the love square is our end game couple, so of course the story focuses on their relationship above all else!

Are you starting to see the problem?

Circling back to our original question: no, it was not unreasonable for the fans to expect that the Alya reveal would have massive negative consequences for Ladynoir. That is what should happen in a rom-com and Miraculous is mainly written like a rom-com. But the writers are also trying to write a magical girl show and, in a magical girl show, Alya and Marinette's friendship should be the most important relationship in the show, so it makes perfect sense that the show treats the Alya reveal as perfectly fine because the Alya reveal was written from the magical girl show perspective.

When it comes to Miraculous, if you ever feel like a writing choice makes no sense for genre A, re-frame it as a thing from genre B and it suddenly makes perfect sense which is fascinatingly terrible writing! It's no wonder there are people who hate the Alya reveal and people who will defend it with their life. It all depends on which genre elements you've picked up on and clung to. Neither side is right, they've both been set up to have perfectly valid expectations. Whether those expectations are valid for a given episode is entirely up to the mercurial whims of the writers!

How Do We Fix This Mess

At this point, I don't think that we can, the show is too far gone, but if someone gave me the power to change one element of Miraculous, that element would be this: scrap both the magical girl stuff and the rom-com stuff and turn Miraculous into a team show where the friendships transcend gender.

At this point, I've written over a quarter of a million words of fanfic focused on these characters (the brain rot is real) and one thing I've discovered is that it is damn near impossible to keep Adrien and Alya from becoming friends. They're both new to their school while Marinette and Nino have gone to the same school for at least a few years. Alya and Adrien are both obsessed with Ladybug plus Adrien is a natural hype man who loves to support his friends and Alya loves to talk about her blog. Alya is dating Adrien's best friend. On top of that, Alya, Adrien, Nino, and Marinette are all in the same class, meaning that they pretty much have to be spending time together five days a week unless French school don't give kids a chance to socialize or do group projects. If so, then judging them for the first issue, but super jealous of the latter.

Given all of that, why in the world is does it feel like Alya is Marinette's close friend while Adrien is just some guy who goes to Alya's school? Along similar lines, while canon Marinette barely talks to Nino, I've found that Marinette and Nino tend to get along smashingly, especially if you embrace the fact that they have to have known each other for at least a few years.

If you embrace this wider friendship dynamic and scrap the girl squad, replacing it with Alya, Adrien, Marinette, and Nino, then the fight for narrative importance quickly goes away. It's no longer a question of is this episode trying to be a magical girl show or a rom-com? Instead, the question is: which element of the friend group is getting focused on today? The romance or the friendship?

A lot of hero shows do this and do it well. I think that one of the most well known examples is Teen Titans. That show has five main characters and the focus is usually on their friendships, but there is a very clear running romantic tension between the characters Robin and Starfire with several episodes giving a good deal of focus to their romance. I'd say that this element really starts in the show's the 19th episode - Date with Destiny - and it all culminates in the movie that capstones the series: Trouble in Tokyo. The character Beast Boy also gets a romance arc and, while it's more short lived, it's further evidence that you can have strong romances and strong friendships in the same show and even the same episode. You just have to own the fact that boys and girls can be friends with each other, a very logical thing to embrace when your show has decided to have a diverse cast of heroes instead of imposing arbitrary gender limitations on its magical powers.

I couldn't figure out a way to work this into the main essay, but it's relevant so I wanted to quickly point it out and give you more to think about re Origins. Have you ever found it weird how Origins gives both Adrien AND Marinette the "I've never had friends before" backstory and yet wider canon acts like Marinette has this strong amazing friend group while Adrien doesn't seem to care about making friends and instead focuses all his energy on romance? Why give both the protagonist and the supposed deuteragonist this kind of origin if it's not going to be a major element of the show? It makes so much more sense to only give one of them this backstory and then focus that person's character arc on learning about friendship.