#and now hop won’t be having his ‘i’m a failure’ arc because i made him and dove. talk it out. and realize things

[dovewingpkmn]

So I found Hop…

He’s okay with me talking about this, by the way. He was trying to take on two Team Yell grunts at once, and I jumped in of course! We dealt with ‘em.. and then we.. talked.

..We have a lot more in common than we realized.

AND NOW WEN’RE EVEN BETER FRIENDS :D

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

I guess I should provide my hottt takes on the new DBS movie.  A few days ago, they did this video for Comic Con announcing the title of the movie and teasing some details about the story.  

I gotta say, this is exactly why I’ve never had any interest in Comic Con.    They put this on YouTube, I guess because of the pandemic, but any other year they would have gathered an enormous crowd and made them stand in line for hours to watch all of this in person.   I live in the Midwest, and when I went to comic book conventions it was for the sole purpose of rummaging through back issue bins.   SDCC was always promoted like the biggest and most important convention in the U.S., but all I ever heard about it were trailers for movies and TV shows.   Or, like, you had to go to Comic Con because that was the only way to get an exclusive Orange Lantern Hal Jordan action figure or something.   They would always hype up all of this useless stuff and I just never heard of anything so important that I was willing to fly out to San Diego and stand in line for three hours for it.   So now SDCC peels back the curtain with this video, about something I’m fairly interested in, but it’s really not that big a deal.  I found out most of the information on Twitter before I even knew to watch this video.

But I’m just not that hyped about trailers or sneak peaks or sneak peaks at trailers.   Which is probably why I waited this long to talk about it.  

I’ll just go through the video.   The first four minutes are Hironobu Kageyama performing “Cha La HEAD Cha La” live on the stage.   That’s a pretty epic way to open this, but I feel like it oversells the importance of this event.  You finish watching him and you think you’re about to see the movie itself, instead of hearing from the people who made it.  

Next we have Sascha, the host of this panel.   He speaks better English than I do, but I’m not sure what the point was in having any of this in English since he has to talk to the guests in Japanese.   Pretty much all of the important information in this video is in Japanese, and I think everyone understood that going in.   I guess it does give an international feel.  If I spoke another language as fluently as Sascha, I’d want to show it off too.

4:56 is where Masako Nozawa comes out, and she’s just a joy to watch.   She looks like this sweet grandmotherly figure, all warm smiles and then she busts out “Ossu! Ora Goku!” and immediately sounds like a badass. 

Guest #2 is Akio Iyoku, Toriyama’s editor.   Not to be confused with the awesome editor who poo-pooed all the androids and Cell’s semiperfect form.    That was Yu Kondo.  Iyoku comes out dressed like Goku, but he can’t talk like him so he’s immediately second-tier. 

Guest #3 is Norohiro Hayashida, Producer from Toei Anaimation.   He is also rocking the Goku cosplay, which would be a faux pas in most fandoms, but he can just say that he’s cosplaying as Krillin or Yamcha, which gives him greater nerd credibility because those are more obscure references.

Around 8:30 we really start getting into this, and they show us a model sheet of Piccolo.  Is Piccolo being in the new movie a big surprise?   He had a dry spell in the mid-90s, but he’s been in every Dragon Ball movie made in this century so far.   And it’s not like they changed his look, like when they put Goku and Vegeta in those adorable coats last time.   I’m not complaining about any of this.  It’s nice to see that a) Piccolo is confirmed for new movie and b) they didn’t tinker with his appearance.  

All I’m saying is that they only brought up this model sheet to show off how they’re using his color scheme from the manga as opposed to the anime.   Hence the red belt and the yellower arm sections.   In the anime, the belt was always blue, and his biceps were hot pink instead of off-yellow.   But it’s such a subtle thing that even Sascha didn’t pick up on it.   It’s like they were hyping up the fact that it’s such a minor change.    I like it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a weird flex.   Also, he looks like he still has his five-fingered anime hands, so I’m not that impressed.   Give us four fingers, Toei!

Sascha asks Masako Nozawa what she thinks about Piccolo and she just starts off with “He was Gohan’s teacher,” and talks about how strong and cool he looks.    She speaks of him like he’s a family member, because she’s awesome.

Next up, we have Pan, and now we’re talking.  The scuttlebutt is that this was the character Toriyama was referring to when he spoke of an “unexpected character”.  And I guess Pan fits the bill, since I don’t think anyone expected her to be this old in the movie.   I understand this is her kindergarten uniform, so she’d have to be about five or six years old.  I love Masako Nozawa’s reaction here.   Throughout this video, you can see that Goku and Gohan aren’t just roles to her.   

I’ll put on my fanboy hat here and point out that Pan’s age may imply that this movie takes place after the final episode of Dragon Ball Z.    She looks older here than she did when she fought Wild Tiger, at any rate.   So far, the entire Dragon Ball Super franchise has been set during the ten-year gap between the Buu crisis and the finale of Z.    So everyone has been wondering if DBS would move beyond End of Z, or whether Akira Toriyama even still recognizes the continuity of those final chapters.   They were supposed to be ten years of peace, but all the battles in DBS say otherwise.   Also, I’m pretty sure Pan and Bulla’s ages in the DBZ finale don’t line up well with their appearances in Super, but I’ve never studied it very closely.  

So this might be set post End of Z, or this might be Toriyama retconning End of Z altogether.  I’m interested to see which way this goes. 

Here’s Krillin, still working for the police, although his uniform looks more like Bronze Age Lex Luthor than anything else. Like Piccolo, the “big” story here is that he’s been tweaked to resemble the coloring in the manga, so his sclera are now white instead of fleshtoned.  

Never mind that, here’s Piccolo’s house.  This is probably the breakout star of this video, because I think everybody is excited to see Piccolo’s house.   Because it’s new lore!  No one even knew if he had one or not.   It was a running gag in DBZ Abridged that he was homeless.   I mean, congratulations to Krillin for getting his eyes colored in right, but that doesn’t tell me anything new about the character.  But Piccolo’s house is a big friggin’ deal.   What’s inside of there?  What’s on the second floor?   Check out his mailbox.   What kind of mail does he get?  It’s exciting.  

Nozawa even points out that she and her co-workers would talk about this sort of thing in the recording studio.    That’s a big deal to me, that the voice actors think about the same kind of stuff that I do as a fan.   

Around 15:30, they start talking about Toriyama’s commitment to the making of this movie, which seems like a weird thing to focus on, because he wrote the screenplay to the last two movies.   Did anyone think he was stepping back? I get the impression that there’s still some hard feelings about the failure of Dragon Ball Evolution, in the sense that they want to reassure everyone that we’re still in good hands.   I suppose one of these days, Toriyama won’t be as heavily involved in a project like this, so maybe it makes sense for Toei and Shueisha to make it clear that today is not that day.

On the other hand, Toriyama was just as involved with Broly as he was with Resurrection F, and Broly was a much better film.  The Dragon Ball Super manga seems to have revived the old argument over who’s to blame when the story is a letdown, and I think that misses the point.  Look, the Zamasu arc sucked, and I don’t care who wrote what parts, or whether Toriyama had a bad idea or whether he handed a good idea off that was badly executed.   They can hash that out behind the scenes if they want to.  

About 19 minutes in, they show us this model sheet, and refuse to explain who these guys are or what they’re doing in the movie.   Are they villains?  Who knows?  I’d like to think they’re important characters to the story, but I have my doubts that Krillin will have a big part to play.  

At 20 minutes, they announce the title of the movie, and I’m not very thrilled with “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.” They can talk it up as much as they want, and maybe the title is relevant to the plot, but it’s just too many uses of the word “super”.   Especially when they’ve got another series called “Super Dragon Ball Heroes” on YouTube. 

Then we get this teaser trailer, or whatever you want to call it, with a CG Goku hopping around and doing his classic fighting pose.  Now, for some reason, lots of people concluded that this means the entire movie will be done in this CG style, which has led to a debate over whether or not that’s a good thing.  If they can make the whole movie look this slick, then I’m fine with it.  Hell, I’m not picky.   They could animate the whole thing in Yukio Ebisawa style, and I’d be thrilled. 

But I’m not understanding where people got the idea that it’s definitely going to be a 100% CGI movie.   They never spell that out in this video, and they even go out of their way to admit that this shot of Goku isn’t actually from the movie.   So is there some other source people are referring to, or did everyone just jump to conclusions?  

And that’s pretty much it.   I don’t mean to sound negative on this panel, but I don’t feel like they revealed very much, unless this is actually going to turn out to be Piccolo and Pan having an adventure by themselves.    I think Toei could make a movie like that and it would be a success, but I have my doubts that they’d go in that direction.  If this is going to turn out to be another big slugfest with Vegeta, then I’m down for that too, but don’t show me Piccolo’s house if the movie’s going to be about Vegeta punching a guy. 

Bottom line: I’m still looking forward to this, but I don’t feel like I know much more about the movie than I did before.   Well, except for the part about Piccolo’s house.  I’m looking forward to seeing the inside of it.

[whatisthiscontentyouspeakof]

The One Where They Know

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@laurcad123

I’m going to be honest, I’m  not feeling this chapter. I may come back and rewrite it until I’m satisfied. It just feels flat and forced to me but I wanted to move on instead of killing myself creatively when it comes to this story.

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Chapter 2: It’s Been A Day

Chat Noir and her had both tried searching for the akuma but since they were both so close to their transformation they had to give up. Marinette felt dread fill her heart. This was worse then her first day as a superhero when she had almost forgotten to purify the akuma but Chat Noir had reminded her but they still had to chance they thing half way across town before she could capture it. She had no idea what was going to happen now. 

Unfortunately all she could do was cast the Miraculous Ladybug cure and head home since the akuma was long gone. 

“Tikki, what do I do now?” Marinette softly asked her Kwami once she was in the privacy of her own room. She felt drained now that she was alone, shame at her failure overcoming her. She shouldn’t have gotten distracted and let Chat Noir handle the situation, he would have made sure Ivan was safe and she wouldn’t have gotten the akuma. 

“I’m afraid there is nothing you can do, Marinette,” Tikki said, floating up to look her in the eye. 

“But what does not purifying the akuma mean?” Marinette asked. “Ivan is obviously back to being himself and I was able to fix everything so what’s going to happening? Does the un-purified akuma give Hawkmoth some sort new power? If so why hasn’t he used it before? Will he-“

“Marinette!” Tiki yelled, having already said her name a few times, getting no reactions. “Take a deep breath.” Marinette did as she was told, taking a deep breath before looking at Tikki. “So there’s two things that could happen since the akuma wasn’t purified. One, Hawkmoth won’t do anything, either because he doesn’t see the point in reusing the akuma, or because he doesn’t know how to he can reuse it. The other thing he could do is reuse the akuma if he’s aware of the ability. That means the second Ivan gets upset again he’ll be re-akumatized into Stoneheart again. He’ll also get the ability to control minions.”

“Minions?” Marinette asked. “You mean like how other akumas can take control of people?”

Tikki nodded before shrugging. “Sort of. Instead of Stoneheart needing to come into contact with someone to turn them into a minion like other akumas, Hawkmoth will actually be able to turn anyone upset into a stone being for Stoneheart to take control of when Ivan turns into him again.”

Marinette bit worryingly at her lip. On one hand, she needed to keep Ivan from getting upset since she doesn’t want him being re-akumatized, but a part of her wanted Ivan to get upset as soon as possible so that if Hawkmoth was planning on akumatizing Ivan, she could purify the akuma before a bunch of other civilians got turn into stone minions.

Tikki seemed to know what she was thinking because she said, “There’s no point in worry about it now, Marinette. We don’t even know if Hawkmoth will even re-akumatize Ivan. We can wait until tomorrow to deal with all this.”

Marinette allowed herself to relax like Tikki said, sending Chat Noir a message to tell him to do the same. She had a nice supper with her parents and finished a few tiny projects she was working on before heading to bed a bit earlier then normal. After all, the early she was to bed, theoretically, the easier she would wake up and make it to school and check on Ivan.

Marinette made her way downstairs the next morning trying to figure out how to bring up Ivan’s akumatization with him since it was an unspoken rule that bringing up someones akumatization to them is really rude. 

“Good morning Papa,” Marinette greeted, kissing her dad on the cheek. “Maman in the bakery?”

“Yes. She’s training Harmony on the cash register today.” her dad responded. Harmony was their newest hire. She’d help with the front end aspects of the bakery so that her maman could focus on custom orders and decorating while her papa made the stuff for customers that just walked in. They had other bakers on staff but it was only on a part time or casual basis depending on how busy the bakery was. And her maman and papa both like making sure everything made was to their standard so it was just easier to hire people to run the front end and help customers. 

Marinette grabbed her cereal bowl just as the news turned on. Nadja was onscreen, showing pictures of other stone beings that were frozen in place.

“Don’t be amused, it’s just the news,” Nadja said, before going onto news coverage. “The stone beings are all over Paris.” The screen filled with a clip of a police officer standing guard over the frozen stone being while a civilian was taking its photo. “For now, they’re showing now signs movement.” It cut to another stone being, this one outside the Louvre. “Police have cordoned off the areas.” Was that one by the Arc de Triomphe? There was going to be a lot of angry people if the Police had to block off part of the road.

The Screen turned to show the Mayor standing in front of Hôtel de Ville speaking to what Marinette assumed was a bunch of reporters since he had a press podium in front of him. “We won’t stop until we get these people back to normal.” the mayor was saying. She noticed that Sabrina’s dad, Roger Raincomprix was standing behind the Mayor, his arm in a sling. She would have thought Lieutenant Roux would have been standing there since he was the lead on all Akuma cases. Not that she missed him. Officer Raincomprix was more understanding and empathic to Akuma victims. If he had been there in the stadium yesterday, he would never had ordered his officers to shoot and Marinette would have gotten the Akuma just like she had all the other times.

“We’re not making much headway but with the help of Lieutenant Raincomprix, who has been promoted to take over for Lieutenant Roux as the lead on Akuma cases, and our heroes, I’m sure everything will be back to normal before supper tonight,” the mayor said jollily. Marinette couldn’t even feel happy she no longer had to deal with Roux and his views on Hawkmoth and Akumas since the mayors promise of having everything normal by this evening was making her anxious. What if she and Chat Noir couldn’t fix this? What if Hawkmoth kept the people as stone beings and never reakumatized Ivan?

The screen cut back to Nadja with the picture showing a image of her and Chat Noir instead of any of the stone beings. “Paris is relying on our guardian angels, our heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, to save us all.” she said, making Marinette feel worse. If she had just dealt with Roux quicker she would have been able to get the Akuma and none of this would have happened. “Our lives depend on them.”

Marinette couldn’t help but gasp a little. She knew if she failed that Paris would suffer but this was the first time that something had happened that could actually be considered a failure and it was weighing heavily on her. 

She felt her father place a large, warm hand on her should. “I know all this is scary and upsetting,” he told her gently. “We’ve never had an akuma attack that’s lasted more then a day, but don’t worry, Ladybug and Chat Noir will fix it, just like they have in the past. We just have to show them that we’re not scared, that we believe in them because we trust them and know that they’ll find a way to turn those people back to normal.”

“But what if Ladybug fails?” she couldn’t help but voice the thought she had had since she first started doing this. If she failed then there was no one to purify the Akuma or rebuild the city. Hawkmoth would win. The little voice in the back of her head, the one that she thought had died the more comfortable she had gotten with being a hero, was telling her to find someone better to be a hero, someone older with more experience. God, there was the entire Justice League who dealt with this kind of things. Another voice reminded her that Chat Noir and her had agreed that getting the Justice League involved was a bad idea since it ran the risk of someone capable with their own powers getting akumatized.

“Then, I’d come and save you,” her papa said as if it were the easy. “Superbaker to the rescue!”

Marinette couldn’t help but giggle as her dad picked up a baguette and held it forward like a sword. She turned and hug him, placing a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, Superdad.” she told him, genuinely feeling better. If her dad could believe in her, then she could to. And she knew her partner, he always had her back. They’d be able to figure this out, together. 

Now energized for the day Marinette made her way back up to her room, a hop in her step. She had this. 

Marinette walked through the school doors, having met Alya right outside the doors. Was this what having a best (civilian) friend was like? She was just glad she wasn’t late so Alya didn’t have to wait for her or risk being late herself.

“Look at this,” Alya said handing her her cellphone. “Apparently a bunch of other teens are a bit freaked out that another person their age got akumatized, it’s becoming more and more common after all, that they all decided they need more information on Akumas, Akuma attacks and all news related to either, including that of our heroes. My blog had a major spike in visitors last night, especially since the news used my footage of the battle. I may have update my blog to make sure it doesn’t crash.”

“That’s great. At least something positive came from having one of our classmates become an akuma.” Marinette said, handing Alya her phone back.

“That’s a good way to look at it, girl. Staying positive is the best way for us to fight against Hawkmoth. Ladybug even said that herself you know. I bet you won’t have to worry about getting akumatized with kind of attitude.” Alya said, completing her as if it were the easiest thing to do. Marinette wasn’t used to be completed as Marinette, at least outside of the Art Room. Chloe had made sure that anyone who did would later regret it. 

Before Marinette could say anything nice about Alya, both of their attentions were grabbed by a group of people surrounding Ivan. Marinette frowned as he started to look upset. You’d think by now people would realize that upsetting people was a bad and mean idea, not to mention stupid since everyone had the chance of becoming an akuma.

“Come on Ivan.” Kim was needling. “You have to know what went wrong. Why are you normal and there a a bunch of stone monsters still hanging around? What did you do?”

“Everyone knows akuma victims don’t have any memories,” Rose said, trying to defend the gentle giant. “You can’t blame them for their actions.”

“Yeah, and everyone knows that after an Akuma is defeated the city is repaired and everyone is returned to normal and yet here we are, the city in ruins and several people have been turned into stone beings,” Kim argued. “So who’s to say that he doesn’t remember exactly what he did?”

Several people looked uncomfortable with what Kim was saying but no one spoke up. She notice Ivan looked towards Mylène, as if hoping for her to either say something, or to not look at him like he was a monster.

Well no one nice anyways. “Once a monster, always a monster,” Chloe said form off to the side, Sabrina standing half a step behind her. “We all saw the way you were going to beat Kim up even without the Akuma. Are any of us surprised that you turned into one of those monsters? Now with innocent Parisians turning into a bunch of stone versions of Akuma you, I’m surprised you haven’t been brought in.”

Iva stood up, obviously sick of everything he was hearing, storming off angrily. 

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” Chloe called after him.

Marinette felt angry on Ivans behalf. If anyone was a monster here, it was Chloe. She saw Alya turned angrily towards Chloe, and decided to let her deal with the bully since she had dealt with her so well the day before. Concerned about Ivan, she raced after him. She knew there was a chance he’d be reakumatized, and while that would give her the chance to purify the akuma, she didn’t want her classmate going through such negative emotions. If need be she’d get Chat Noir and the two fo them would take Ivan somewhere private and let him know what’s happening before trying to get him akumatized so they didn’t risk the chance of any civilians getting hurt.

She found the larger boy sitting on the floor of the locker room in front of his locker. He had headphones one and seemed to be trying to destress as not to get reakumatize, something Marinette applauded him for. He knew he was upset and was trying to calm down and deal with it in a way that was helpful and relaxing to him.

She knelt down beside him and place a gentle hand on his arm. His face relaxed at bit seeing it was her, pulling his headphones off and looking at her.

“You should tell Mylène how you feel,” she told him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ivan insisted.

Marinette smiled encouragingly. “Come on, I saw how you look at her.”

Ivan looked at her as if trying to tell if she was making fun of him. She tried to look as supportive as possible. She genuinely thought he and Mylène would make a cute couple and that the shorter girl felt the same way about him. Ivan looked away, still looking upset.

“No, no negative emotions.” he looked up her angrily and she had to back track. It did sort of sound like she only cared that he didn’t become a ‘monster’ again. “What I mean is…be positive. I’m sure she likes you too.” She leaned closer. “Do talk to her.”

“I’m no good with words.” Ivan said and Marinette could almost shout in joy. She was making headway. He was no longer denying that he liked Mylène and pretty soon the two of them would become the schools cutest couple.

“Who needs words?” Marinette said. She was so going to make this happen. “You could draw her a picture, send her flowers….”

“I could write her a song?” Ivan asked hopefully.

She smiled widely at the idea. Maybe he’d be better with words when it was an art form and something he could practice. Especially since this was the most upbeat she’d seen him yet. “That’s a great idea!” Marinette said firmly, her hands forming little determined fists. She’d love it if someone wrote her a song. It’d be so romantic. “Who wouldn’t want a love song written for her? Go for it, Ivan, and stay positive. We can all make the world a better place, one full of love, if we were all just more positive.”

Ivan nodded at her, shooting her a smile, before heading off to write his love song. Marinette smiled as she watched him disappear. She couldn’t wait to hear what he wrote, or see what a cute couple he and Mylène will be. 

“You did good Marinette,” Tikki said, flying out of her purse.

“Even if I didn’t take the chance to fix everything?” she asked her Kwami, sure that Tikki would be disappointed with her.

“You’re classmates feelings are more important. And I’m sure you’ve already come up with an idea of how to fix everything later. You looked out for your classmate and his feeling and that’s what’s important.” Tikki said. 

Marinette smiled at her before opening her purse back up, allowing Tikki to fly back in. It wouldn’t do her any good to be on school property and still make it to class late. She’d never hear the end of it.

Marinette was happy to Alya was still downstairs. This way, if she was late, at least she wasn’t going to be late alone. 

“Oh, I can’t stand Chloe,” Alya said. “Who does she think she is, making fun of people and making them feel worse then they already do.”

“She thinks she’s the mayors daughter.” Marinette muttered. She sighed. “I get, Chloe can be really upsetting but you have to be careful. I admire the way you’re able to stand up to her, but the school won’t punish her in case they piss off her dad. You have to be careful that you don’t get punish instead.”

Alya placed a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for looking out for me, girl, but I got his. Chloe and her dad don’t scare me.”

Alya walked through the classroom door and gasped. Marinette walked up behind her to see what had caused her to react like that. She saw a blond haired boy kneeling down by her seat doing something to it.

“What are you doing?” Marinette demanded, rushing forward. She saw a chewed piece of gum on her seat, his finger against it as if he had just placed it there. 

“I..” he was cut off by Chloe’s laughter.

She should have known that the heiress was involved in this. 

Marinette placed her hands on her hips, pushing down the upset feeling that was building in her chest. No way was she going to give Chloe the satisfaction. “Ok, i get it. Good job, you three. Very funny.”

The boy jumped to his feet. “No, no. I was trying to take it off.”

She didn’t believe him. This had to be some sort of mean trick on Chloe’s behalf. “Really?” she demanded.

She huffed, placing her backpack on the ground and leaning down to get the piece of gum off her seat. She poke it before decided to just cover it up with a napkin. She’d deal with that later when she didn’t have an audience. She turned to the blond boy who she could feet still standing behind her. “You’re friends with Chloe, right?” she remembered Chloe mention yesterday that her friend was joining the class. 

“Why do people keep saying that?” he asked as if he didn’t know.

Marinette just stood up angrily, not giving him the time of day, before sitting at her spot, making sure she didn’t step on the napkin. At least it wasn’t that far across the bench so she wasn’t going to be crowding Alya.

“That so wasn’t cool,” Alya said as she sat down beside Marinette. “See what I mean about who the real monster is.”

Marinette just hummed, not ready to talk about it yet. She would have thought after all these years Chloe’s bullying wouldn’t affected her anymore but she was wrong. She glanced over at the boy growing even more as she looked at him. Something about his face seemed familiar.

“I know I’ve seen him somewhere before,” she muttered. Alya must have read her mind because she handed her her phone which was pulled up to the issue of Paris that had Gabriel Agreste, aka Marinette’s fashion designer role model, was on the cover. That brat was his son. Figures he was rich with that attitude.

“Of course. He’s the son fave’ designer, Gabriel Agreste.” Marinette said just in case Alya didn’t know who exactly Gabriel Agreste was, since she was new to Paris. She flipped through the dozens of photos of Adrien, that was right his name was Adrien like her Chaton, though he’d never behave like this, recognizing some from some pretty popular Gabriel ads. 

“Daddy’s boy, teen supermodel and Chloe’s buddy?” Alya scoffed. “Forget it. That boy is bad news.”

Marinette made a noise of agreement. Any friend of Chloe was trouble to her.

Marinette and Alya both turned forward focusing on class as Ms. Bustier walked in. No need to think about Chloe and her bully friends. 

“Agreste, Adrien.” Ms. Bustier called. There was a moment of silence as they all waited for him to say something. After all, they all knew he was there after that little display.

Suddenly the model shot to his feet, throwing his hand in the air and yelling ‘Present!’

Had he never had a roll call before? No one was the excited to have their name called. 

“Bourgeois, Chloe?” Ms. Bustier asked, continuing the roll call after letting out a small giggle at the boys enthusiasm. 

“Present,” Chloe said, giving a half hearted raise of the hand. 

“Bruel, Ivan?”

There was a large bang and Marinette was startled enough that it took her a second to realize that Stoneheart had bursted into the room, literally.

“Present”! the giant stone akuma yelled. He turned to look at the class. “Mylène.” he called.

Marinette ran as Stoneheart shoved her desk to the side to get to Mylène, ducked under one of the desks, hoping Stoneheart hadn’t spotted her. Once he left she’d be able to sneak away and transform. Until then, she just need to stay safe and out of sight. 

“Let go of me, Ivan,” she heard Mylène say. She risked a peak around the desk, seeing Mylène being held up in the air in Stoneheart’s right fist. 

“I’m not Ivan anymore. I’m Stoneheart.” 

“Why are you doing this?” Mylène asked, as Marinette ducked back behind the desk. 

“So you and I can be together, forever!” That so wasn’t the way to get a girl. 

“Daddy, the akuma is back,” Marinette heard Chloe saying. She risked another look and say Chloe ducked under her own desk, speaking on the phone with her father. 

“You!” Stoneheart said, lifting the desk up and throwing it. Chloe screamed as Stoneheart picked Chloe up with his other hand. 

“Please, my hair,” she begged. 

Stoneheart didn’t listen to her, kicking a hole in the wall and jumping away. 

“Put us down, Ivan!” she heard Mylène yell as she pulled herself up from under the desk. Now all she needed was to get away without anyone noticing. At least fleeing to her room was a good excuse with this akuma. 

Before she could sneak away, Alya turned towards her. Guess there was a downside to making friends. “Let’s follow him.” she said.

She threw up her hands. “Oh no, you go. I’m finding a place to hide.” She put on her best terrified face. “I don’t like being around during akuma attacks.” There, hopefully Alya wouldn’t think anything of it in the future when she randomly disappeared. 

“You’re gonna miss Ladybug in action.” Alya said, not knowing that if Marinette didn’t disappear, there’d be no Ladybug coming.

“Well… I see everything that happens on your blog, right? It’ll be like I was there myself” She smiled at Alya, hoping this was enough to get the blogger to leave her be. At this point, Chat Noir was going to beat her to the scene and the akuma appeared in her classroom.

Bingo, Alya seemed to realize that nothing she said was going to make her come with and left the room, not willing to lose out on the follow up story of Stoneheart’s akumatization. 

Marinette creeped from the room, taking a moment to look down the hallway to make sure Alya wasn’t lurking around to try and convince her to come with still. Satisfied, Marinette rushed towards the girls bathroom, taking just enough of a moment to make sure all the stalls were empty before opening her purse. “Tikki, spots on!”

Instantly she was surrounded by the comfortable pink glow of her transformation. As soon as if fell away, leaving her as Ladybug, she bolted from the bathroom and used her yoyo to propel herself into the air, over the school wall and out into the city. She took a moment to survey the scene, to try and locate where exactly Stoneheart was. She caught a clamps of colour out of the corner of her eye and looked over, the streets having quickly been abandoned when Stoneheart had burst through the school wall, though Marinette would bet that several streets away there were car jams and lots of people milling about in a panic. 

Turning to see what had caught her eye, Marinette just caught a glimpse of Alya as she rounded a street corner. Where Alya was going then that was likely where Stoneheart had gone.  She swung herself over to the building of the street, to get a better view and felt her heart drop. A car was being flung towards Alya. Not having a good enough view, she dropped to the ground just as Chat Noir threw his baton to knock the car off course from squishing Alya. Ladybug flung her yoyo forward, wrapping it around Alya and pulling hard. Alya flew through the air towards, just missing being pinned by the car. She saw Chat Noir being grabbed by a stone being but she could only deal with one thing at a time.

“Oh my god, I was just save by Ladybug!” Alya said, speaking to her phone camera excitedly.

“Let’s get you out of the way.” Ladybug said, trying to not seem to familiar with the blogger. 

Ladybug jumped onto the closet rooftop and set Alya down. “You should be safe here.” She took off running across the rooftops, but not before grabbing Chat Noir’s baton. Her Chaton would be every so sad if she lost that. 

She turned around the street corner that the stone beings had gone, dropping to swing through the buildings, jumping off a stone beings head, before bouncing off a wall and throwing Chat Noir baton towards him where he was trapped in the one stone beings fist. 

“Chat Noir, extend it!” she ordered, before she landed on a lamp post. 

Chat Noir did as she said, extending the baton, forcing the stone beings hand to open, releasing him. As he dropped to the ground, she wrapped her yoyo string around the lamp post before throwing her yoyo out, wrapping it around his leg and pulling him out of the way of being squashed by the same stone being he had just escaped. 

“Milady, fancy seeing you here,” Chat Noir greeted her even as he dangled upside down. “Have I ever told you you turn my world upside down?”

Ladybug went to make a quip back but was interrupted by the stone beings roaring. She glanced over and saw the three pissed off stone being approaching them. 

“Now’s not the time,” she said, glancing up to the rooftops. “Hold on.” 

Not waiting for him to say anything, she jumped into the air, dragging him behind her, and onto the rooftops. She got enough air that she was able to retract her yoyo, releasing her partner, without worrying about him falling off the roof. As the two bound across the rooftops, Ladybug pulled her yoyo and and slid the top half off to bring up the screen. She pulls dup the news to see what they were saying about Stoneheart, knowing that Chat Noir would let her know if she was in any danger, or close to running straight off a roof, which she did once and they will not speak of it again. 

“Got a plan Milady?” her partner asked her.

She glanced down at the yoyo screen which showed Stoneheart standing on the second platform of the Eiffel Tower. “I have a few ideas but nothing solid.” she said. “We need to get to the source first.”

The two of them took a moment to survey the situation happening around the Eiffel Tower from the safety of steps of the Trocadéro. It hit Ladybug as she looked at the scene, that Lieutenant Roux was no longer in charge of Akuma cases. She knew that she had heard that on the news, but watching how the police stayed back, not attacking Stoneheart or risking civilian lives, really made it a reality to her. She just hoped they were staying back because they knew attacking would just make the situation worse and not just because Stoneheart had the mayors daughter. 

The police had sectioned off the area around the Eiffel Tower, blocking off a large radius along with the entirety of Pont d’Inna, likely either evacuating the surrounding buildings and stores, or sending out a shelter and place order. Or she at least hope they did, sometimes they forgot to give out warnings so people who didn’t watch the news would sometimes wondering into the middle of fights, though the Eiffel Tower was enough of an Akuma hot spot that the police and news helicopters should be enough to keep people away. 

“I demand my daughter’s safe return!” Mayor Bourgeois was saying through a megaphone as the two heroes approached. 

“Daddy!” Chloe yelled, her voice carrying all the way down to them on the other side of the bridge from the tower. 

“You’re welcome to her!” Stoneheart bellowed.

Oh, that wasn’t good.

Ladybug rushed forward as Chloe was thrown from the tower towards the mayor and the police that waited with him. As the mayor and Chloe screamed, Ladybug threw her yoyo forward, wrapping it around a part of the tower and pulling herself forward. She slammed into Chloe, skitter a stop a couple meters away form the mayor, landing on one knee, holding Chloe bridal style. 

“I didn’t promise.” Chloe said.

“What?” 

Chloe didn’t answer her, instead rushing towards her father, who met her half way and pulled her into a big hug. “My little princess,” he muttered.

“We’re clear to attack!” Lieutenant Raincomprix yelled from atop one father police cars. So much for have an officer in charge that wasn’t going to be more of a problem then a solution. 

“Wait! Don’t attack! You’ll only make it worse.” Ladybug said, turning to the officers. Did they not pay attention to yesterday's battle at all. “Look what happened yesterday when Lieutenant Roux attacked instead of letting us do our jobs.”

“You mean where you failed to stop Stoneheart from continuing to attack the city?” Lieutenant Roux demanded. “You failed us yesterday and its time for the pros to step in and do our jobs of keeping Paris safe.”

“Attacking him directly is only going to make him more powerful.” Ladybug insisted. “And you run the risk of injuring a innocent civilian, an innocent school child. Just because Stoneheart release Chloe, didn’t mean he release the other civilian.”

“What about all those innocent civilians that were turned into rock monsters last night? We take Stoneheart down and they’ll return to normal.”

“But you don’t know that. Let Chat Noir and I deal with this, and in an hour, if everything isn’t back to normal, then you can do it your way.” Ladybug tried bargaining. 

Roger Raincomprix seemed to think over her offer. “You have half an hour.” he finally said. 

Ladybug nodded, turning around to face her partner. Before she could come up with a plan with him, Stoneheart started coughing, falling back from where her stood to the actual Platform. Ladybug felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. The last time an akuma had started coughing was when, during their first akuma battle, when Hawkmoth had contacting them, and informed all of Paris of his presence, via a giant face of baffled up butterflies. Purifying all of those had been a pain in the ass, and Ladybug wasn’t looking forward to doing again. 

She tried not to sigh out loud when a face of dark purple and black butterflies had been caught out by Stoneheart, forming Hawkmoths face. There were almost triple the amount of butterflies as the last time, creating an even larger face.

“For months now,” Hawkmoth said through his butterfly face. A part of her wondered if she could use ladybugs in the same way, or if Chat Noir could do it with a bunch of cats. “You have lived in fear, unable to express you emotions. Ladybug and Chat Noir could have out an end to all of this that first day. All they had to do was hand over their Miraculouses, the ladybug earrings and car ring now, and you’d no longer have to live in fear. Ladybug and Chat Noir, the two of you have done enough damage to the people of Paris.”

Oh, Ladybug felt anger building inside her, no way was he going to let the blame fall on them when he was the one terrorizing Paris. She took a calming breath before starting to slow clap, as she slowly walked closer to the floating face. “Nice try,” she said, “but we know who the bad guy is.”

She wasn’t going to let Hawkmoth radicalize the people who were already iffy on her and Chat Noir and create a divide in Paris, allowing Hawkmoth to have more victims to akumatize. 

“Let’s not reverse the roles.” she continued. “You turned these innocent victims into villains. You have taken people who have rightfully felt upset or angry, something every human should be allowed to do, and made it into something people fear. You are the true villain here, not us and not the people of Paris. Hawkmoth, I make this promise to you, and to the people of Paris, no matter how long it takes, we will find you and you’ll hand us your Miraculous!”

She rushed forward, twirling her yoyo in the air as she went before flinging it out and wrapping it around two streetlights and slingshotting herself into the air and towards the floating butterfly face. She wasn’t going to put up with this BS. She twisted herself in the air, her yoyo flinging and twisting out around her, catching each and every butterfly with a yell of her now iconic saying, ‘time to de-evilize’. Hawkmoth didn’t even try to fight back against her attack making her think that the only capabilities of the butterfly face was as a communication form. 

She landed on the first viewing platform of the Tower and turned to face the people of Paris, either the officers and officials that were down below or to all the people of the Paris watching from the safety of their homes. 

“Let me make this promise!” She called out to them. “Whoever wants to harm you, Chat Noir and I will do all we can to keep you safe.” She took out her yoyo and released the mass of purified butterflies. She made a silent promise to herself to never let herself get distracted again, to never fail again. 

“Ok, Hawkmoth,” Ladybug turned around and saw the neon purple butterfly outline on Stonehearts face. Seemed like since Hawkmoth failed to intimidate them, he was falling back on  trying to beat the Miraculouses off of them. 

Chat Noir joined her into jumping in front of Stoneheart. 

“Help me!” Mylène called, unfortunately not having been released from Stonehearts hand when he had collapsed.

“You’ll never take Mylène from me!” Stoneheart yelled. He jumped across the platform, shaking the entire tower as he landed, causing her and Chat Noir to fall down. “Come to me, my stone beings!”

“We’re surrounded.” Chat Noir said as he glanced over the towers edge. “What are we going to do now? Attacking him is only going to make him more powerful.”

“At least we know where his object is,” Ladybug said, happy they had one less thing to worry about. 

“In the fist he’s got Mylène in,” Chat Noir finished for her. 

“Exactly,” she frowned in thought. “So, he’s in love with her… That’s it! We don’t separate them, we bring them closer together. They’re made for each other, they just don’t know it.”

“Sure.” Chat Noir said, as she flew off. She knew he didn’t quite get what she meant yet, but if there was one thing her partner was good at, it was going with the flow until her plan became more obvious. It’s one of the things that made them such great partners. She was a strategist, coming up with the ideas, while he was the muscles, executing the important part of the plan most of them time, while keeping her on her feet and from getting too stuck in her head.

She flung her yoyo up the tower, hopping up the side of it, as she started to plan the smaller details of how she was going to get Ivan and Mylène closer. Chat Noir followed behind her, able to scale the tower without the use of his baton. Once she was past the bulk of the tower, she flung her yoyo up, using it to propel herself all the way to the top of the tower, past Stoneheart and Mylène and the news helicopters that Stoneheart was swatting at. 

“Help! I’m scared of heights!” Mylène called out to her, seeing her land land at the very top of the tower. 

“It’ll be alright!” she called back, trying to reassure her classmate. It wasn’t like she was trying to be stealthy at the moment. 

Stoneheart didn’t like that, throwing his head back and roaring at her. 

“Anything you need to me to do yet?” Chat Noir called out, as he prepared to fight off the stone beings which had quickly scaled the tower and were closing in. 

“Not quite yet.” she yelled down at him. She was missing a key element. Good thing she had the perfect thing to get said element. “Lucky Charm!”

A parachute fell down to her. At least this was a lucky charm that made sense right off the bat. She slipped the parachute onto her back, ignoring Chat Noir flying through the air behind her back. She knew he hand things under control and could handle the stone beings, especially when he looked on form and determined as he flew through the air. 

She stood straight up from where she had been perched, flinging her yoyo around in the air in the same manor she would if she were trying to shield herself. She studied Stonehearts body position before flinging her yoyo down at him, wrapping it under his arm and torso, leveraging it so that when her pulled, quite hard, stone wasn’t light after all, his fist went towards his body, pulling Mylène closer until her lips gently pressed against Stonehearts. She retracting her yoyo as Stonehearts had flew out in surprise, releasing Mylène, who just managed to grab onto one of Stonehearts fingers to keep from plummeting to the ground. 

Chat Noir, the clever kitty, threw himself off the edge of the tower, using his baton as a bungee cord, falling just far enough to smack the akumatize object back up to her, without her even asking. She caught the akumatized object with her yoyo, wrapping the cord around it and pulling tight, cracking it. She slipped the piece of paper that was left, into her yoyo to give back later. 

She ran her finger along her yoyo face, opening it up to catch to yoyo. She started swinging it, “No more evil-doing for you, little Akuma.” she stopped though, before she could catch it as she saw Stoneheart turn back into Ivan, something that wouldn’t sometime happen until she casted the cure which was something she was hoping for. He and Mylène started plummeting to the ground. 

She set her face in determination, taking a moment to glance at where the Akuma was before diving from the tower. “Chat Noir, take care of Ivan,” she order, focused on Mylène as she pressed her legs and arms tightly in, allowing her to fall faster then both of her classmates who were flailing around.

She saw Chat Noir call for his power, jumping from his baton and grabbing onto a piece of rusty Eiffel Tower that had extruded from the tower when he touched it with his hand. It extended until he was under Ivan, catching him easily. Satisfied that Ivan was safe, she dropped down to Mylène, grabbing her around her torso before turning around and shooting her yoyo up in the air catching the akuma before it could get any farther away. “Gotcha,” she said as her yoyo returned to her. She yanked on her parachutes cord before they could fall any farther. They sailed gently to the ground, handing at the base of the tower. Mylène fell to her knees, mostly likely shaky from the days events. 

Ladybug pulled her yoyo back out and opened it up. “Bye bye, little butterfly,” she said as the pure white butterfly flew away. She grabbed the parachute and tossed it in the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” The parachute instantly dissolved into thousands of little ladybugs. She loved watching the cure fly about the city as the little ladybugs fixed everything that had been damaged or changed throughout the last two days. 

“I don’t think I’m ever going to find this not beautiful,” Chat Noir said as he helped Ivan over to them.

“Yeah. It’s the best part of doing this.” There was something just so magical, so miraculous about watching the cure work.

She stood by Ivan and Mylène as the police started breaking down their barricade, and helping the people who had been turned into stone beings down from the tower. Chat Noir stood a couple feet away, letting Ivan and Mylène have their privacy, while keeping his eyes on them, making sure none of the police tried to harass or grab Ivan to interrogate him. It hadn’t happened in awhile, but was still a worry that the two of them had. 

“I think you two need to talk,” she said to her classmates. 

“I-I,” Ivan stuttered. He glanced away, embarrassed.

She turned to Mylène, deciding to help out her larger classmate. “It may help if you read the lyrics to Ivan’s song.” she told the shorter girl. She pulled out the piece of paper that the song was written on, handing it to Mylène before heading over to her partner, leaving the two to figure out their feelings by theirselves. She’s meddled enough for the day.

She watched as the two talked before Mylène hugged Ivan tightly, causing the bigger boy to blush. Smiling she turned to her partner. “They’re made for each other.” she announced. 

“Like us too,” Chat Noir said, leaning to put an arm around her. 

She grabbed his arm, pulling him forward and pointing to his ring. “See that? You’re out of time,” she told him. She may of let him put his arm around her had them been out of public eye but she wanted to stay professional when they were being watching and a relationship wasn’t professional. Not that she and Chat Noir were in a romantic relationship. She couldn’t be in one with someone who she didn't know beneath the mask they wore, whom she couldn’t share most of her life with. She cared for her partner dearly, but she wouldn’t allow her emotions to go there. 

She turned and started to head away as her earrings let out their own beep. “Time to split. See you soon, Chat Noir,” she said to him. She glanced back in time to see him waving to her before she flew off, heading home to see whether or not school was going to reopen for the day though it likely was. She wonder as Akuma attacks became more often if the school board would decided to force kids back to school right after attacks whether they were in a traumatizing situation or not so that they didn’t fall behind on their studies.

The next day she, once again on time, heading to school and met Alya right outside of the building. She was really liking having a civilian friend. 

“How’d the akuma attack go? Get some good footage?” she asked Alya. She had been too tired, and her parents had wanted to spend extra time together the night before, and hadn’t been able to check the Ladyblog. 

Alya let out a dramatic sigh. “By the time I biked to the Eiffel Tower, it was all over. I’m way bummed.” she said. Marinette wasn’t. She was glad her friend hadn’t been in any danger besides almost being pinned by a flying car. She didn’t get how Alya could be so gung ho about putting herself into dangerous situations. 

“On the plus side,” Alya continued. “I did get rescued by Ladybug which was amazing.”

“You’ll get your scoop eventually,” Marinette reassured her friend. Hopefully it’d be from a safe distance. 

“You’re right,” Alya agreed. “Next target; ‘Ladybug: An Exclusive Interview.’”

“Sounds exciting,” and Chat Noir had been insisting that they do more interviews to connect better with the people of Paris and make themselves more relatable to try and battle the officers and officials that had been speaking out against them, saying they should leave the akumas to the police. 

“Oh, wait, even better,” Alya said, looking excited. “Finding out who’s really under that mask!”

And that was a lot less exciting. “Good luck with that one,” Marinette said nervously trying to keep Alya from sensing anything off about her. She’d have to warn Chat Noir about this development. So far they hadn’t had any press trying to follow them but that may change. Alya trying to figure their identities out them spark a fire under professional reports and the two of them find themselves in sticky situations. 

The two of them heading into class, Marinette taking a moment to deal with Chloe for a day. The second Marinette walked into the classroom though, she felt a spike of anger overtake her calmness. She was Ladybug. Why did she let Chloe walk all over her? Alya had proved that she wasn’t all powerful and she defiantly wasn’t scarier then any Akuma. 

“No, wait.” Marinette said as Alya went to their seat, determined. She hopped up the steps and gestured to the seat she had sat in last year and the years before, smiling at her friend. Alya smiled back up at her, joining her on the second platform, sliding in first so she sat close to the wall. Marinette slid in after her, both of them smiling to each other as they sat down. They fist bumped each other before Chloe walked in, Sabrina trailing behind her. 

“You’re in the wrong seats,” Chloe said, turning to the angrily. She pointed to where the two of them had been forced to sit before. “Go on, get lost.”

Marinette looked down at Chloe, determined. “All that’s necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good people do nothing,” she quoted. 

“That’s that supposed to mean?” Chloe asked, puffing her shoulders up in a little huffed laugh.

“It means I’m not putting up with your crus anymore, either is anyone else.” Marinette informed her. She stood up and pointed to the seat that had previously been hers and Alya’s. “So take your attitude and go and get lost!”

The rest of the class started laughing at the sight of Chloe being told off, not exactly what she had wanted but at least it showed Chloe that she wasn’t by herself with being done with the heiresses BS. 

Chloe glared but the laughing seemed to deter her from doing anything at the moment. She stomped off the seats Marinette had pointed to, all while still glaring at her. Marinette just confidently put her hands on her hips and smiled at her, refusing to let the blond get to her. If she couldn’t handle Chloe, how could she be expected to handle Hawkmoth.

She sat back down and Alya gently pushed her shoulder. “Good job,” she said.

She smiled softly at her friend before looking up to see the blond boy, Adrien, who had put the piece of gum on her seat. He gave her a little wave as if she was going to remember what had happened the other day. She turned to look away from him with a huff. At least Chloe had the decently to act like the bitch she was. 

She spent the rest of the day ignoring the models existence. She just got Chloe out of her life, she wasn’t about to invite new trouble in.

Marinette headed out of the school building at the end of the day, disappointed that she couldn’t use the Ladybug miraculous to get herself home, especially when she had forgotten her umbrella and it was raining cats and dogs. She stood under the roof and stretched her hand out before dropping it with a sigh. She was so going to get soaked. She pulled her backpack off, knowing she would have to wait for the rain to die down a bit. Knowing her she trip on a wet step, break her leg, and then who would be Ladybug?

“Hey,” She turned around to see Adrien standing behind her, an umbrella grasped in his hand. 

She huffed, looking away from him. Why couldn’t he just act more like Chloe? Why did he have to act like everything was okay.

He extending his umbrella and took a step out into the rain. He took a step, maybe two, before stoping. “I just want you to know,” he said, not turning to face her. “I was only trying to get the gum off, I swear.” Marinette just starred at him, sensing no dishonesty from him. “I’ve never been to school before. I’ve never had friends. it’s all sort of new to me.” He glanced back at her, shrugging as if to say he didn’t care if she forgave him, that he just wanted her to know the truth.  He stared at her a second before handing her his umbrella.

Marinette stared at him, glancing between the umbrella and his face, which showed genuine emotion. Either he wasn’t playing with her, or he was the best actor she had ever seen. She hesitantly reached out and took hold of the umbrella. No one had ever apologized to her, especially not for something Chloe had done. They just expected her to get over it. They met each others eyes for just a moment before her world went dark. it took her a second to realize the umbrella had collapsed, just her luck.

Adrien started to laugh, but it wasn’t one full of venom, it was one that was surprised that the umbrella had collapsed and didn’t know how else to react. Marinette pulled up one edge of the umbrella to peak up at him, her heart beating as her cheeks warmed. She couldn’t help it, she started laughing with him. 

“I’m Marinette by the way,” she introduced her self. “Sorry that I jumped to conclusions the other day.”

Adrien look at her surprised on his face. “Well Marinette,” he said with a familiar smirk on his face. “My name is Adrien, but you can call me Prince Charming.”

Marinette felt her world come to a halt. She flashback to several months ago when she and Chat Noir had made the decision to share first names. She had gone first, surprising her partner but when he shared his name he had said the exact same thing.

“It’s nice to meet you Adrien,” she said numbly. 

“It’s nice to meet you as well, Maribug.” 

And she was an idiot. The person she thought was a massive jerk was actually her very kind and well meaning partner. 

Before she could say anything else a car horn sounded from the road in front of the school steps.

“That’s my ride,” Adrien said as if they hadn’t just discovered each others identities. “I’ll see you later.”

“S-see you l-later,” she stammered. She watch him approached the car, unable to tell if she felt numb or was about to have a panic attack. “I think I’m in trouble, Tikki,” she muttered.

Tikki flew up and pressed against her cheek. “Things all happen for a reason. Maybe there’s a reason that the two of you have met like this. You just don’t have all the pieces to see the bigger picture yet.”

That made her feel a bit better. At least Tikki didn’t think them meeting was the end of the world. 

Marinette watched Adrien drive off, or well be driven away, before she made her way home. Today had been a day, yesterday had been a day, and she couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would bring, especially with Adrien, her Chaton, in her everyday life. 

Next

[aurantia-ignis]

First impression

That fuchsia is terrifyingly saturated, why is it so saturated. Actually every character in this game is terrifyingly saturated. ^^; This designer just wants everything to be saturated and bright lol

Impression now

He’s potentially a good boy with all of the set up and his supposed character development IF ONLY THEY MANAGED TO DO IT PROPERLY. I very much enjoy him as a character though =D

Favorite moment

When Rose was all “You screwed up kid, get out of my house” and he was all “DDDDDD:!!!!” and I’m just excitedly going YES because there’s the character development arc I’ve been anticipating for him! <3

Idea for a story

I don’t have any ideas for continuations, but I DO have a lot of ideas for… fix-it fics =w=;;

Because Bede, like Hop (and basically half the Galar crew), had so much potential already written in the game, but he was never allowed to fully reach it. Instead, he was given funny, barely logical scenes to end his supposed character development.

To sum up the points of Bede’s character arc in game: (under a read more)

- Bede was an orphan whom Rose took a minor shine to. He gave him a pokemon and endorsed him. Bede threw himself into the life of a trainer, working hard to gain the approval of Rose

- Oleana orders him to collect Wishing Stars for Rose, and he does so, to the point of doing bad things like destroying an important mural. Rose disowns him, kicks him out of the gym challenge. Bede is devastated and has an existential crisis.

- Opal picks him up because she sees that he is Pink

- Opal starts training Bede ‘harshly’ to succeed her as the Fairy gym leader. Bede put aside Gothorita and Duosion in favour of Fairy type pokemon.

- When he sees the player character, he pleads for a chance to fight them because he thinks that ‘ever since he met said character things have gone wrong’. Even though the player character has done absolutely nothing except defeat Bede in various battles. Bede wants to risk his entire career as a trainer on the battle, promising to retire if he loses.

- Bede loses, and the audience cheers him on asking him to continue. Bede does so as the Fairy Gym Leader.

The problems I have are:

(1) Him just abandoning his psychic pokemon in favour of the fairy aesthetic. One of Gen VIII’s biggest failing, I feel, is how the pokemon, in general, seem more an accessory to the plot than a part of the plot itself. Everyone says they love pokemon, but how many times is that actually shown in what they do?

Both Hop and Bede are shown to abandon their original team mates, and while Hop goes back to use Dubwool and Corviknight, Bede never does. And if he continues his life as the fairy gym leader, he never will (unless he does like Raihan, which. Hey GF, if Raihan is allowed to have a non-dragon Torkoal why can’t Bede use his psychic mons??). And while you might argue ‘Oh they’re just living in Ballonlea with him, he still loves them’, imagine how it feels for the two of them. Having fought with Bede for so long, aiming to become the best trainer with him, protecting him and supporting his goals, suddenly they’re relegated to ‘pet’ status instead of being his battle partners, while he goes off fighting with his fairies. Of course, maybe his mons are happier enjoying the pampered life, but still… The possibility exists. :’(

(2) Bede never gets a chance to play any part in the battle against Eternatus, despite having been a part of bringing that about. His role is supposed to be a pawn used by the villain, who gets a redemption arc, but honestly, it would be a much stronger narrative if Bede is given the chance to make decisions towards his own redemption, instead of being dragged into it by someone else (especially when the way Opal does it looks very much like she isn’t giving him a choice).

(3) Staking his entire career as a trainer sounds like Great Determination, but the fact is, him stepping down a trainer has absolutely no impact on anyone (except his pokemon, poor souls) and is therefore pointless as a threat.

Now, if you’ve gotten to this part, it might sound like I dislike Bede, but I don’t! I actually really like the potential he carries, and I think he’s got a fascinating story and personality! With that said, here’s how I would have wanted to see his character arc executed:

- Bede was an orphan whom Rose took a minor shine to. He gave him a pokemon and endorsed him. Bede threw himself into the life of a trainer, working hard to gain the approval of Rose. His team included Hatenna and Ralts.

- Oleana orders him to collect Wishing Stars for Rose, and he does so, to the point of doing bad things like destroying an important mural. Rose disowns him, kicks him out of the gym challenge. Bede is devastated and has an existential crisis.

- Opal picks him up because she sees that he is Pink (but also she briefly saw him in gym battles and knows that he uses two Fairy/Psychic pokemon). Bede puts up more of an argument along the lines of ‘I don’t know you, you’re weird, just leave me be, I am a failure’, and Opal tells him ‘you can sit here and sulk, or you can come with me and I will MAKE you a success’. Bede is hesitant and uncertain, but chooses to go with her in the end.

- Opal starts training Bede ‘harshly’ to succeed her as the Fairy gym leader. Bede is pushed, but also shown true kindness for the first time in his life. (As the player character, you see him and Opal in Ballonlea in a small cutscene)

- Rose and Eternatus happens. Feeling guilty that he had collected half of the wishing stars that contributed to its awakening, Bede runs away from Ballonlea and goes to the tower. Despite his efforts, he loses to Oleana/Rose, which is where Hop and the player character come in. When player character talks to him, he apologises and asks them to stop Rose and Eternatus.

- After Eternatus events clear up, before the battle with Leon, Bede asks player character for a battle (in the stadium?), because he thinks that having run away from Ballonlea, Opal won’t want to be bothered with him, so he needs a chance to prove that he’s of some use to somebody.

- Bede loses, but Opal has been watching their battle. She pokes him with her umbrella for running away, but praises him for his use of his fairies, and a few other unexpected spectators also cheer for him and how he showed off the fairies. Bede agrees to go back to Ballonlea and continue as the Fairy Gym Leader.

Bede’s character arc was always based on the fact that he wanted to be acknowledged, to gain approval, to be loved like he had never been before, and I’d really have loved to see it come to a satisfying close.

Unpopular opinion

Everything I said above I guess? HAHA. Maybe the fact that he often seems to be seen as the Mean Rival stereotype, but he actually has elements that could have made him shine. He’s unrepentantly mean, he thinks he’s better than everyone which reflects in his attitude and design. Even as a fairy trainer he has a mean streak (which is cool because fae are known to be mean too =D).

I love the fact that he realises he doesn’t need to be the most powerful to be loved; that he finds that measure of peace, which later reflects in the fact that he evolved Sylveon (a mon that evolves from affection). He still wants to beat the player character, but not because he thinks that it’s the only way he can be loved. Rather, it stems from his own desire to be strong, and to show off fairy type pokemon, because after spending time with Opal, he had realised that he does love what he’s doing as gym leader.

Unfortunately the story screwed him over by not committing and giving him the closure he needed in his arc. ;w; Poor Bede.

Favorite relationship

With no one, because none of it was allowed to properly flourish ;w; But I’d have liked Opal and Bede’s relationship if it had been written well! I really, really do like the concept of it ;w;

Favorite headcanon

Everything I said above again LOL. Uhhh I guess on the subject of Pokemon, I’d either have liked him to not have Gothorita and Duosion at all, or he gets to use them in his gym battles like Raihan and Torkoal, or just take out the Psychic pokemon part entirely and he always had a liking for Fairy types, which is another reason why Opal took an interest in him.

(*Special thanks to artpharos for helping to get some of my thoughts out more clearly!)

[xb-squaredx]

Pokémon Sword and Shield: A Franchise Turning Point

The Pokémon franchise has been around for over 20 years, and in that time it has proven to be more than a passing fad and has carved out a massive multi-media empire. Outside of some rare spinoffs like the Pokémon Stadium games or the likes of Colosseum or Pokken Tournament, the series has stayed primarily on handheld consoles. For years fans dreamed of what a true, mainline Pokémon game could be like on a home console. During E3 2017 when Game Freak announced that such a title was in development for Switch, people got excited. The resulted games, Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee were not quite the main leap people expected, instead being a strange hybrid of Pokémon GO and remakes of Pokémon Yellow. However, the announcement that a true new generation of Pokémon would hit the Switch in 2019 reignited that hype. While at first excitement was high, over time a dark cloud hung over the titles, Pokémon Sword and Shield. Controversies erupted over the announcement that not every little critter would be featured or transferable to the game, and as time went on any new announcement was met with pushback. Everything from visuals to new features was criticized all the way up to launch day. Now that Sword and Shield are in players’ hands, at the end of the day…how did it all turn out?

A WHOLE NEW WORLD

This time around, trainers embark across the Galar region, basically the Pokémon equivalent to the UK. I do like Galar as a setting; it has a ton of character, with probably the most interesting aspect to it that Pokémon battles are treated as a major spectator sport. If you want to join in the Gym Challenge, you need a sponsor, and your Gym battles take place in massive stadiums filled to the brim with roaring fans. It’s an interesting deviation from past games, even if the basic formula is about the same. The characters within Galar also have a fair amount of charm from your main rivals to the Gym Leaders, to the undefeated Champion. A lot of people give Hop, your main rival, a lot of flak, but I found he had a lot of hidden depth to him and he has a satisfying arc as the story goes on. As he loses to you again and again, he doubts himself and subsequent battles have him throwing in random Pokémon and strangely his signature partner, the adorable Wooloo, is absent. Once he gets his act together, however, he forms a pretty balanced team, and Wooloo’s back front-and-center. It was a neat moment of character growth shown off through gameplay. As far as Champions go, Leon has a lot more presence throughout the game than a lot of past Champions. His flair, his awful fashion sense, his inability to follow directions…it all made him a bit more endearing. Most of the Gym Leaders are pretty much just there as stepping stones, but they all are fairly memorable either for designs or flashes of personality. It helps that everyone gives you neato trading cards too!

Galar’s main claim-to-fame is the Wild Area, a huge collection of different biomes located smack in the middle of the map. It has far and away the largest collection of Pokémon within, with different monsters appearing depending on the weather or time of day. It’s a place you’ll be returning to time and time again, and it made a big impact. It’s the only area in the game with a controllable camera, for one, and rather than follow a linear balance curve, the Pokémon you encounter in the Wild Area are often far too strong to handle. You’re even forbidden from catching Pokémon if you lack a certain number of Gym Badges, so the place is full of Pokémon you can only really admire from afar until you’re “worthy” of getting them.

Take the Wild Area away though, and Galar feels pretty small. With only ten Routes in the game, Galar is among the smaller regions. Most Routes are very straightforward, not many branching paths or hidden goodies, and there isn’t any neat new areas opened up after beating the game either. The Wild Area, from a franchise standpoint at least, is pretty impressive, but looking at the game on the whole it feels a little lacking. That’s not to say Sword and Shield don’t bring in new mechanics to mess around with, but whether they make up for what’s been taken away is going to vary with people.

GO BIG OR GO HOME

Since the games went 3D, each region tends to have its own core “gimmick” to differentiate it with older titles. X and Y had Mega Evolution, Sun and Moon had Z-Moves and for Sword and Shield we have Dynamax. Something in the air in Galar can allow Pokémon to grow to colossal size for a short time, granting them extremely powerful Max Moves for its duration. While Dynamaxing seems cool at first, the spectacle kinda wears off after your first few uses of it (not to mention the animation lasts forever), and upon further inspection it’s not as great of an upgrade as you’d think. For one, a Dynamaxed Pokémon only gets a health increase, and all other stats stay the same. Abilities and their elemental types stay the same too, so it’s not a game-changer like Mega Evolution was and it really has more in common with Z-Moves. The Max Moves can be nice, as they’re usually a good deal more powerful when it comes to raw damage, and can come with nice side-effects, but it’s kinda inconsistent. The stronger Fighting-type moves actually become weaker as Max Moves, for one. On top of the base Dynamax ability, some Pokémon can use “Gigantamaxing” instead. This changes their look overall and grants them a unique G-Max Move, though considering how hard they can be to acquire I’m not sure it’s all that satisfying. It doesn’t help that rather than having a certain species of Pokémon capable of Gigantamaxing, it comes down to unique Pokémon themselves that have the trait and it can’t be passed down through breeding either. Overall, Dynamaxing has its uses but I highly doubt it’ll become a staple of the series and will likely be replaced with something else for the Generation 9 games, and I can’t say I’ll miss the mechanic much.

One big addition to the series is Max Raid Battles, found in dens littered all over the Wild Area. Teaming up with up to three other players, locally or online (or team up with awful CPUs if alone), your goal is to take out a permanently Dynamaxed Pokémon. You get a limited amount of turns and if you suffer more than four knockouts, the Raid will end in failure. Victory, however, enables you to get rare and powerful Pokémon, some even coming with really great stats and difficult-to-obtain Abilities, and it’s practically the only way to get Gigantamax Pokémon. The difficulty of the Raids increases as you progress through the game, however, and the Five Star Raids can be brutal. The rewards are great though, getting a lot of extra loot. Bonus moves to teach Pokémon, EXP candies that eliminate a lot of grinding, and more, even if the capture attempt fails. The one real issue with Raids is that some Pokémon can be pretty stingy with appearing in Raids, and you’ll have to use somewhat rare items, Wishing Pieces, to kick some Raids off. There are also the occasional connection issues, but I have more to say on that later.

Outside of these new features, there are the standard quality-of-life changes that each game has, though some can be harder to notice and appreciate than others. You can send Pokémon in storage out on Jobs, to get some neat rewards and some EXP for them, though I find them to be a bit underwhelming. Being able to swap Pokémon on the fly now is a godsend, and together with the EXP Share built into the game, it allowed me the freedom to switch up the monsters in my party and get newcomers up to speed quickly. Most games I barely bother with more than the maximum six, but the sheer variety of Pokémon in Galar let me feel more comfortable with constantly swapping around. On that same note, no National Dex aside, there’s a LOT of choices in Galar. Route 1 alone has over ten Pokémon you can catch right at the start, as opposed to the common mammal, common bug and common bird. It was nice to see some under-represented Pokémon make the cut, but I won’t argue with anyone bummed that their favorites aren’t allowed in. It is a regrettable decision overall, even if it might have been unavoidable here.

Now, you’ll notice I didn’t mention the story much at all because…there isn’t much of one. Pokémon as a franchise isn’t known for its storytelling, despite the Black and White and Sun and Moon games existing and having very well-done stories. Overall, Sword and Shield seems to focus more on characters than an overarching plot and that isn’t too bad overall, but it makes the eventual climax more than a little disappointing. Team Yell, our villainous organization this time around, are just a bunch of hardcore fans for another rival of yours, a girl named Marnie. The conclusion to their story felt very flat, and the eventual main problem involving the Legendary Pokémon is tacked onto the end of the game with little build-up. It doesn’t help that the main villain’s motivation doesn’t make sense. He wants to avert an energy crisis that’s 1000 years from actually happening, and for some reason he refuses to let you get your shot at fighting the Champion because apparently putting things off for one day is unacceptable. It’s just very sloppy. And honestly, “sloppy” can describe a lot of this game, sadly.

WHY Y-COMM WHY

No game is without flaws, and Sword and Shield are far from the first Pokémon games to have their fair share of issues, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that these games in particular are a victim of compromise. Game Freak doesn’t have the luxury of delaying games and polishing them up to a fine sheen, not when the multimedia empire has merch and anime to launch at the same time. I’m also certain that working on this game alongside the Let’s Go games AND Little Town Hero did them no favors. So there are areas in the game that lack polish. The story’s abrupt conclusion, the visuals in general, and Galar itself feeling a tad empty; these are all compromises that had to be made to get this game to ship on the date decided well in advance. I can sympathize with the developers here, and really they’re in an un-enviable position. But at the same time, I’ve been playing Pokémon games for over twenty years, and I kind of expect better, you know? Far too many times I have to shake my head and question why something is designed the way it is, or why it feels at times like the games are going backwards in quality. Problems that were solved several games ago rear their ugly heads again, and for this being a brand new generation and the “proper” debut on a powerful home console, I can’t help but feel that this is just a 3DS game that’s been blown up onto my TV.

NPC character models and the Pokémon themselves look fine, as does the sleek UI, but environments look kinda rough. The Wild Area itself, I say with no exaggeration, looks like it was ripped out of a GameCube game. Those trees are a meme, but at the same time, they also look that bad. Some of the main towns are pretty grandiose, be it the giant castle theme of Hammerlocke, or the steampunk designs of Motostoke, while others feel incredibly barren. It’s kind of intentional with Spikemuth, but I was more than a little disappointed with how small towns feel. While it’s great that HMs have been officially retired (starting from Sun and Moon), Galar itself feels like it has little to offer those that want to explore. You don’t get access to a way to cross water until near the endgame, but there are only a small handful of areas you’d need to backtrack to with that ability. There’s not even a Victory Road in this game, or a rough equivalent.

Sword and Shield, from a competitive standpoint, seems to be trying to make strides in breaking down barriers and allowing more casual fans to dip their toes into competitive play, which I really appreciate, but I think there’s still room for improvement. While on the one hand, it’s never been easier to tweak and customize your Pokémon to your heart’s desire, the game is still not as transparent on certain subjects. You can view a Pokémon’s Effort Values, extra points you can place towards stats, on their stat screen, but only if you hit the X button on that screen, and there’s no indication that’s a thing you can even do. I was more than fifty hours into the game before a friend even told me that! There have been some pretty major strides to reduce the time commitment however, so I have to give the game credit there. As far as game balance goes, having less Pokémon to choose from does inspire creativity, though from what I hear, a fair few Pokémon are a bit of a problem, but that’s no different than any other game. Honestly, even attempting to balance a game with so many moving parts and possible strategies is pretty admirable. I’m not deep into the meta of competitive Pokémon though, so I feel there’s not much I can add to the conversation. If there’s one thing I can’t defend however, it’s this game’s connectivity features.

Starting from the DS era, Pokémon has had online features, but Sword and Shield marks the first time that the Global Trade Station, or GTS, has not been available. This means it’s impossible to put up a posting for a desired Pokémon, or fulfill other’s requests. This wouldn’t be so bad if the way to trade with friends wasn’t such a chore. Rather than being able to freely select a friend and initiate a trade or battle with them, players must enter four-digit codes and HOPE the game pairs them up. This is in every way a downgrade from the past several games. X and Y released over SIX years ago and solved this very issue with the Player Search System. Y-Comm, as it stands, is an awful replacement and there’s not one thing about it that other systems didn’t do better.

If you connect online, the game will have “stamps” appear that show you what friends are doing, alongside broadcasting trade or battle requests from random people, but often those requests are out of date, and trying to join in will result in error messages, the requests fulfilled long ago. Trying to join friends in Raid Battles is an exercise in trial and error, and if online in the Wild Area, other players constantly appear within it and as a result the game begins to chug along. What could have been a neat way to interact with other players across the world results in the game becoming worse to play, so I mostly left it off. Connecting with others has always been a franchise selling point, way back to the days of the Game Boy Link Cables. To see this game drop the ball so severely is worrying. I care about this far more than the graphical issues, far more than the National Dex, and it makes me hesitant to try out the next titles if they can’t solve these issues and KEEP them solved.

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Pokémon Sword and Shield are not bad games; they’re in fact filled with charm and fun. I’ve logged over 80 hours into the game over the past few weeks and the hours flew by. There’s a lot of work that’s clearly been put into the game. The Pokémon designs and concepts this time around are really creative, for one. There’s the Applin line, dragons that hide in apples, and the abominations that are this game’s fossils; carelessly stitched together pieces of incompatible fossils resulting in a freak of nature. I love them. My heart goes out to Game Freak, because it’s clear people worked hard here, but this simply can’t be the game they wanted to make. I think Sword and Shield are turning points for the series, but it’s unclear if that’s a good thing or not.

For all the backlash and negativity surrounding these games, they’re still the fastest-selling Switch games ever. Many fans are pretty satisfied with the game as-is, and the real bitter pill disgruntled fans need to swallow is that…these games have no real reason to improve in quality. Think about it; sales aren’t down, and there’s not a true rival to these games anymore, so why would the hire-ups at Nintendo and The Pokémon Company give these games more time and resources? On top of this, remember that these games are only one part of the massive whole that is the Pokémon brand. Pokémon GO makes a frankly disgusting amount of money, the anime has been going strong for two decades, merch is in no short supply, and now we can likely add major Hollywood films to the list as well. If Game Freak was any other developer, behind any other franchise, they’d likely be able to delay the games to polish them up and add in content that would otherwise be cut, but they can’t do that when they MUST launch simultaneously with the anime, the card games, the merchandise, etc.

The series has been around for so long now as well, while many fans have likely moved on from the franchise, new ones are lining up to take their place. On top of that, there are Pokémon diehards that will likely always support the series. Pokémon is a constant for them; it’s almost like comfort food in game form. They’re not WRONG for feeling that way, and I’m kinda in that same boat. I knew going in that these games were going to be somewhat disappointing, but I still bought the thing! For all the rage directed at these games, many people still gave them their money, and I think the message has been read loud and clear: Pokémon can get away with cutting Pokémon, so it’s unlikely Game Freak will change course any time soon.

Now, of course, that’s one way to look at things. A negative way to be sure. It’s also possible that Game Freak can learn from issues they had with developing these games and push past them. As they get used to console development, to HD development, and get a better idea of what fans want, the next games might actually surpass all expectations. Pokémon as a franchise has always had feature creep to deal with, and Sword and Shield is clearly where it all boiled over. So maybe if they don’t have to worry about accommodating nearly 1000 critters in every single game, they can make larger strives towards higher quality. I don’t want to count them out, but at the same time, I won’t hold my breath either. I’ll always be open to what path this franchise takes, even if they stumble a bit to get there.

In the end, Sword and Shield feel more than a little rough, but there’s some real bright spots glimmering in what might be the franchise’s Darkest Day. The Pokémon themselves are still fun to use and capture, the characters and world of the games are still wholesome fun, and I’ll reiterate that pumping over 80 hours into this game didn’t feel like a chore and I was largely engaged for the entirety of that time. Here’s to hoping that brighter days lie ahead, and a few years from now we can look back at the Dexit controversy and laugh.

-B