#american problems

[beemovieerotica]

I remember there being PSAs on facebook and stuff a long time ago about watching out for cars with police lights on them but that don't have any actual official markings, because there was this (real or not) scare of people with modded cars pretending to be cops and robbing people I guess

but I just saw the most normal honda civic suddenly turn on police lights + a siren and go speeding down the road and it's like. okay so now we're expected to believe any car with lights and a siren is legit, lest we defy the panopticon. on what legal level am I required to freeze and put my hands up for a vehicle with no visible ID showing it's actually a government car. oh right I'll get shot if I dont. I fucking hate it here

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Tell me, what did you think of ML when you first discovered it? I thought Chloe's arc in season 2 was decent for this type of show, even if it could have been better. I also never took Marinette's obsessive behavior over Adrien that seriously until it started getting really grating.

My first interaction with ML consisted of me looking for kids shows to watch in Spanish, finding Miraculous on Netflix, watching maybe three minutes of The Bubbler, and then turning the show off because it didn't seem very good. That's the episode that starts with Marinette freaking out about giving Adrien a birthday present and it gave me the impression that Miraculous was doing the classic female-protagonist-pines-for-the-male-protagonist-who-barely-even-knows-her-name trope, which is not a trope that I'm into. I'm way too ace for that shit. This is the scene in question as I looked it up to make sure I was remembering it correctly:

Marinette: Ah! (she stops right in front of Adrien.) Um, he-- Hey! (she gets nervous as she holds her gift behind her back.) Adrien:(surprised, shyly) Hey. Chloé:(as she watches what's happening outside) Wait! Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing? Don't tell me it's Adrien's birthday?! Sabrina:(checks her tablet, gets surprised, and makes excusing noises while smiling sheepishly.) Chloé:(facepalms) Ugh, do I have to do everything myself? Seriously, what are you good for? (walks toward Adrien.) Marinette:(nervously) I, uh, I wanted to, umm, gift you a make-– I mean, gift you a give I made-- I mean... Chloé:(yawns while Marinette is talking and then shoves her away) Out of the way. (she acts sweet.) Happy birthday, Adrien! (throws herself onto him and gives him a kiss on the cheek.) Mwah! Adrien:(surprised) Yeah, thanks Chlo.

This backs up my vague memory that my initial assumption was that Adrien and Chloé were friends while Adrien didn't know who Marinette was because he was clearly much more comfortable with Chloé. Same goes for Nino who was talking to Adrien earlier in this scene.

I'm not sure when this first watch occurred, but I know it was at least a year before I revisited the show. I made a friend in another fandom and that friend was transitioning out of Miraculous, but they had a lot of really good Miraculous fanart and even some fanfic which got me curious as I couldn't understand why anyone would be into the show given my dismal initial impression.

On this friend's recommendation, my SO and I started watching Miraculous an episode or two at a time. I was pretty unimpressed with the actual show, but I started reading early fandom fanfic between our watching sessions and that kept me interested enough to keep watching. My initial impression of the show didn't really change until we watched Origins. That's the episode that really made me fall in love with the canon characters as it took everything about the show and elevated it. The crushes had depth! The Chloé/Adrien thing wasn't just the bitchy rich girl going after the popular boy! Gabriel was confirmed to be the big bad! Things were suddenly going places and that honestly wasn't surprising.

It's incredibly common for kids shows to have lackluster first seasons where they don't really commit to anything major re plot because they're just testing the waters to see if they'll be green lit for more seasons. Because of this, I was under the impression that Origins must have been when they got green lit and season two was going to do the standard kids show thing where they really get to dive into the plot and characters in a big way now that they're making money. This assumption was backed up by the addition of the new heroes to the show's intro.

For the first half of season two, I was invested as it seemed like we were finally getting seasonal arcs. Chloé seemed to be getting set up for some sort of character arc, which I was all for as I enjoy a good mean girl arc. We also had some tension brewing between our heroes with Fu favoring Marinette, a dynamic that felt more accidental than planned since it only happened because Marinette found the grimoire at the end of season one. I thought all of that was going to come to a head with Chloé's Queen Bee debut as things had seemingly been set up for Chloé to be Adrien's pick for a Miraculous.

Then Queen Bee actually happened and my excitement quickly faded. I still cannot think of a less interesting way for Chloé to get and use the bee. No one gives it to her and she outs herself on national television right away? Talk about wasting an idea. Clearly this had just been a one-off thing done so that the show could drive up hype for season two based on promo images of Chloé as a hero.

But it wasn't a one off thing. For some reason, they kept bringing Queen Bee back and that's when I knew we were in for a bad time because that should have never happened. It especially shouldn't have happened when Marinette was giving out the miraculous. I could maybe see a setup where Adrien gives Chloé a second chance, but Marinette trusting Chloé made no sense:

Marinette: I must choose someone who's not impressed by people in power. Who can help me trap Malediktator. Huh?! Of course! That's it. (reaches for the Miraculous of the Bee) Wait, what am I thinking? (facepalms)

Yeah, what are you thinking? Alya was your first choice for the bee, she isn't impressed by people in power, and she wasn't hit by Malediktator, so go grab her! Why would you pick Chloé?

Long story short, I kept watching because the show wasn't terrible, my SO enjoyed hearing me dunk on it as we watched it, and I was really enjoying the fan content, but I didn't have much faith in canon after the midpoint of season two and I continually lost faith as the seasons progressed. I never pictured it getting as bad as seasons five, but I only had hopes for Miraculous to be truly good for about 2 weeks as that's how long it took us to get from Origins to the Queen Bee mess. I was also disappointed by Alya and Nino's hero journeys. I expected them to be chosen for grander reasons. As is, it felt like they only got recruited because their loved ones were in danger.

Since you brought up Marinette's crush, I'll end by saying that I have never been a fan of that style of crush-based humor (once again, way too ace for that shit), but it didn't bother me in a serious way because it was very obviously meant to be humorous. I just suffered through the jokes when they happened and then moved on as there was no reason to dwell on them. It probably helped that I was reading a lot of fanfic and even the people who love the show generally agree that Marinette's crush should be played down in more serious stories.

The only time Marinette's crush bothered me was Derision as that episode straight up destroyed her character. It also made the writers look awful because they made Kim the bad guy for laughing at Marinette's behavior, but we'd just spent over four seasons being told Marinette's behavior was a joke, so what is the lesson here? Are we all supposed to feel guilty for laughing at a trauma response we didn't know was a trauma response? Are the writers saying that trauma is funny? How can you be so tone deaf?

[climbdraws]

I got scammed

[gilf-armand]

sorry but is waiting on the election votes making anyone else want to throw up

[learningfromlosing]

can't tell you how embarrassed I am to be american

[crazycatsiren]

Why do the folks of my native land insist on believing that because I'm American I must love Starbucks with my entire soul.

Don't get me wrong, I can't live without coffee. But the only thing from Starbucks I've ever cared for is pumpkin spice latte.

[shiftingwithmars]

I just got an ad for mosquito repellent. Buddy, NOTHING can keep those fuckers away. They can survive through a fucking mass extinction.

[same-pic-rick-roll]

Oh boy election season in my home country again.

[almostfini]

I think if you've ever made a doctor/nurse say "wow" with your symptoms you should receive free healthcare for life. You expanded their scientific knowledge, you gave them a GIFT and I think they should be grateful.

[revcleo]

[viktheviking1]

Been thinking about maybe living in a different country someday. I asked for my parents advice for how to move out of the United States safely and cheaply. They said that I should join the military. Bruh, I gotta sign a contract to potentially kill and be killed for the USA to leave the USA? Imma just wait til I got more money.

(I know a lot of places are less safe than America, but we all know it ain't all it's cracked up to be, to put it lightly.)

[theeminentlyimpractical]

counting on my fingers to figure out if it is too late to rant at my mutuals

[seokmattchuus]

the amount of people i saw saying "oh bc i have this view/bc i voted for xyz i can't engage with your content?"

the play the victim

someone who welcomes queer, poc, disabled, etc different types of people on their account would not want to associate with someone who sides with an old man who doesn't see the above mentioned as his equal

that's like keeping a friend around who keeps twisting the knife in your back 🤷🏻‍♀

No because I'm so SICK of people babying theses shitty ass SNOWFLAKES. They want to be catered to after throwing us to the curb? We need to be meaner to them. We need to be vocal about how horrible they are. So many of them have gotten so fucking comfortable being horrible on main and I'm so done just letting shit like that slide. They're so self-centered and used to receiving no consequences and it needs to change.

If anything's radicalized me overnight, it's this. Fuck being the bigger person. I'm 5'1 anyways.

[snowflake-blake]

you never see ice cream trucks anymore. we've lost our whimsy in America 😔💔

[pumpkin-panik]

Irrationally pissed off post timeee: I don't think a lot of people realize how shitty the work climate is in the U.S. it's quite irritating. I'm thinking about this because I'm trying to get a job, in highschool, so while I don't need to pay rent, I'm still gonna have to pay car insurance and stuff. Assuming that in the area I live in, most people working entry level jobs. make around 10 dollars an hour, based on the area I live in, it'd be 15-20 hours of work at least, a month, just to pay car insurance. At 10 dollars an hour, it would take around 30 hours of work to pay for a standard apartment. If you're a college student, you are going to struggle. Work life balance won't be a thing in my future, and I simply have to prepare in high school so that I'm not overwhelmed too much. Doesn't help that in my case, it's fucking hard to get employed. I'm autistic, and while I have, for lack of better terms, low support needs, I don't have some of the skills that they want, or my skills are heavily lacking, this is mostly in the social skills department. When will people realize that America isn't a glowing beacon of hope. It's just shit, coated in fools gold foil.

[anteroom-of-death]

America is the most propagandized country on the planet. No other people actually buys their country's bullshit at the levels that most Americans, regardless of political affiliation, do.