#anti ML

[punkeropercyjackson]

Inspired by a convo with a friend who is blasian

[starlight-bread-blog]

I am no longer in need for Adrienette to know each other's identities. They have made me wait for too long. I have a new passion now.

[plumsaffron]

As long as Adrien:

Is consistently deceived, he isn’t free. Is not aware that he’s still caged, he’s isn’t free. Crawls back towards a cage, he isn’t free.

[ultraericthered]

Narrator: But it was, in fact, objectively written better.

Listen, you don't like the movie better than the show because it was objectively written better, you like the movie because it has tropes you like that the show will not do and that doesn't mean it's objectively written better

[starlight-bread-blog]

To mature is to stop waiting for the reveal because it won't happen until the last episode anyway.

[plumsaffron]

Never forget. The smug statue is a reminder of what Buffoonette did.

[mrstellmeafuckingsecret]

"remus lupin isn't for the bookworms, he's-" just because you can't read a book that isn't 80% porn doesn't mean he can't. he IS for the bookworms. he's for the girlfailures and self diagnosed freaks and he is not for the sex addicted booktok biketok teenage girls

[ultraericthered]

Let's make this or next year the year we all get the fuck over all the Lila salt already. Shouldn't have to hate a person who isn't real (and I mean that applies in-universe just as much as it does out of it!)

Me in 2018: God, I hate Lila. How does ANYONE like this bitch?

Me in 2024: How does anyone still hate Lila instead of the writers? She's not even a character at this point. She deserves justice.

[lc-holy]

Wedding

[red-balloon12]

Hot Take:

We can argue about Chloe’s “scrapped” redemption forever. But I think Thomas and his thoughts towards Chloe about parental abuse should be talked about MUCH more.

[starlight-bread-blog]

When a there is an outside factor building up to romantic leads not ending up together, while also wrecking the pacing of the ship...

And the red herring's being toxic but the writers just hope you pick up on the vibe without holding anyone accountable...

Is when it's time to check your bias.

[pagonmoon]

The ironic thing about ML is that they write the adults who wronged their own children ( Jagged Stone, Andre Bourgeois and Gabriel Agreste ) as the 'victims' ( in JS case, is his fight with his ex-wife ) and they somehow got 'redemption arcs' without any kind of effort to see that they have done something wrong and never seems to receive any consequences whatsoever.

This show could've just been targeted for incompetent 'parents' who want to feel like victims, so they won't be blamed for the wrong things they've done to save their own pride and ego.

"AnDrE iS a GoOd FaThEr!"

Newsflash: Disowning your child all because they're a brat that you refuse to discipline and help them, and forcing them to live with an abusive parent or family member, which FYI, she literally calls her own daughter "a loser" in the end, isn't good parenting.

Oh and to any Chloe haters that think this is karma for all the bullying she did, do it yourself a favor and fuck off from my page now.

Abuse isn't discipline. Get the fuck over it.

[jennrypan]

Really wish I could feel bad for Marinette and all but..this has been a plot point for what..two..three seasons now??

At this point..maybe you should idk..stop lying to the ones you love. Cuz at first you were scared Adrien would get akumatized or some shit but that doesn't seem to be the issue anymore??? Now you can't tell him cuz he'll be sad and alone?? That's completely forgetting the fact..he has fucking friends to help him?? Like. God.

Modern problems require modern solutions. I'm sick of Marinette making her own damn problems and everyone in this show as to coddle her and make her feel better for shit she did to her damn self cuz she can't think for one MOMENT outside of her intense love for Adrien.

Adrien should be given the grace to deal with his damn problems. So no I don't feel bad for Marinette, it was a choice she made and everyone else just let's her do it. Soo..if Adrien finds out, I hope he loses his damn shit. I hope he gets angry, I WANT him to get angry at her. Idc. If they break up..oh well. They weren't together that long anyways.

THIS COULD BE AN INTERESTING PLOT POINT. CHAT AND LADYBUG WORKING AGAINST EACH OTHER COULD BE SOOO GOOD.. lord. Marinette is acting a lot like Gabriel and if this was a better show..it'd be cool to see her deal with that and actually own up to it and apologize properly.

[percki]

loveybug is too busy thinking about kissing to fight supervillains... anytime an akuma shows up she hits it with a comically large hammer harley quinn style until it's flat and she can go back to unsubtly flirting with chat noir

[angelshizuka]

How some people are capable of looking at a teenage boy crawling away in absolute terror from his own father (who's literally in the middle of physically, mentally AND emotionally abusing the superhero he now knows is his own son) and still think Adrien's the problem is totally beyond me...

It's like some of y'all WANT to victim blame.

[ultraericthered]

I would've much prefered Lila and Marinette had settled into being occasional frenemies at best, with Lila's supervillain antics making her just another villain to Ladybug. The actual narrative foil rivalry with Lila absolutely should've gone to Alya. I think Alya's character greatly suffered from not catching onto the truth about Lila and engaging with her as a rival, and Lila's character greatly suffered.... well, for a lot of reasons her character suffered, to the point where we now can't even say much of what we've seen of her IS her character.

The Real Lila Rivalry We Wanted

Here’s a good question: Why did Lila need to be Marinette’s rival?

If we were going for character foils, we already had that in the form of Chloe. It’s a bit of a reach in ways, but both Chloe and Marinette have been arguably selfish and both have caused people harm, and usually without realizing or in Chloe’s case comprehending just what they were doing. The major difference between the two has been that Marinette would do so while reacting emotionally while Chloe would act out with malevolence. The other aspect of note is that they both act out based on their emotional states, it’s just that Marinette would actually acknowledge the effects of her actions whereas Chloe needed a good few smacks from reality to finally get there. This is what makes them a good foil for one another: these similarities with the difference being based more in how they handle the situations they face.

But then they brought in Lila and all I can ask is “why?”

Lila lies. Marinette doesn’t. Lila is manipulative and self serving. Marinette is honest and helpful. Whatever Lila could offer in terms of a foil, Chloe already did. And better, because of the two, Chloe is the one who makes Marinette WANT to be a better person. Lila doesn’t offer that. If anything, the most she offers is yet another rival for Adrien’s affections, because clearly there aren’t enough “evil” girls interested in him.

If we’re looking at foils, why not have Alya be Lila’s rival?

Look at their akumas. LadyWifi was all about finding “truth”—from exposing the school’s blatant favoritism to attempting to reveal Ladybug. She may have been akumatized over being expelled, but even that only happened because she was looking for evidence that Chloe was Ladybug. She was looking for “truth”. Volpina, conversely, was all about illusions and lying—exactly what she was doing as her normal self as Lila. It was being exposed as a liar by someone she didn’t expect to intervene that caused her to become akumatized. She was all about hiding the truth, or rather making up her own.

And no, I don’t think it’s the fact that she was revealed to Adrien specifically that did it. I think it was the fact that she was revealed at all by anyone. She called Ladybug a “traitor”, as if Ladybug had actually betrayed her in some way by revealing her, or that she owed it to Lila somehow NOT to reveal her. Then the way she responded to Adrien and Marinette both in Chameleon, she seemed to take issue with anyone who called her out. When she was akumatized here, she didn’t go after Marinette who she previously seemed to cow, she went after ADRIEN, the boy she was interested in whom she had no control over. Because he was the bigger threat to her.

Alya and Lila are almost perfect foils for each other in terms of the very basis of their personalities, their ideologies, and their connection to the Fox Miraculous.

Imagine if you would, what Volpina would have been like if we had pulled the central character focus that episode from Marinette to Alya. As the resident Ladyblogger, Alya would of course be the investigator who would want to be all over any new information about Ladybug. And as a self-made reporter with good standing, she would want to ensure that she only had truthful information. Then imagine Lila coming in with her false claims, drawing everyone into her web with pretty lies. Since Alya is an investigative journalist who is always seeking truth, this would have to grate on her. And the worst part would be that for all her efforts, she wouldn’t be able to prove anything.

How does Alya know Lila’s lying about any of her claims? How does she know Lila ISN’T best friends with Laybug? Anything she could try to say to refute the claim would only be thrown back against her. Because of COURSE Lila can’t just pull out pictures or proof of their friendship, it would endanger Ladybug! Why would you want to put your own hero in danger, Alya? And it’s not like Alya could just call Ladybug down for an interview to confirm anything, either.

Sure, Marinette knows the truth. And sure, she’s kind of miffed about this new girl making false claims about her superhero identity to make herself look good, but she can’t just come out and SAY that because Marinette is supposed to have no way of knowing that Lila is lying about Ladybug. So she has to stay quiet as Lila continues lying and feeling guilty as heck because she wants nothing more than support Alya, but she can’t just come out and do so without a good reason unless she wants to risk revealing herself. This may be the episode that forces her to question if she should confide in someone and if Alya is the person she can confide in.

So Alya is frustrated because she KNOWS Lila is a liar but no one will believe her, and she just can’t call her out on her lies. So she starts to track her, and sure enough, she’s there to witness the interaction between Adrien and Lila. And more importantly, she sees the book about the Miraculous heroes. She trails Lila and records her going to the store she buys the fake Miraculous at and witnesses Lila throwing the book in the garbage. When Lila actually tries to claim to be a hero, that’s when she has enough and steps in, revealing Lila not only to Adrien but to the Ladyblog as well. And after Lila runs off “crying”, she’s the one to pull the book from the trash and look through it.

This is amazing. This is astounding! These are some major secrets she’s just stumbled across and Lila went and threw this in the trash? Not only is she a fake, she’s a fool too.

The first thing Alya does is look over the book and attempt to decipher its secrets. She doesn’t get very far, but she’s pleased with the find nonetheless. Naturally, the first person she’s going to share this find with is Marinette, which sets Tikki off in a panic to retrieve the book and get it to the Guardian. And this leaves Marinette in a difficult position. Her kwami is telling her this is important, but it’s Alya, her best friend who really needs her support right now. Can she really just go and steal from her? And how would she even try to?

She doesn’t get a chance to do anything before Lila bursts in as the “Fox Hero Volpina” and kidnaps Alya to attempt to prove on the Ladyblog that she is the true thing while getting revenge on Alya. Marinette quickly deduces Volpina is actually an akuma and transforms. Chat is not as inclined to agree, but quickly comes around. Alya is trapped in the middle of this akuma battle, but helps by revealing that Vopina’s power is based in illusions.

At the end, Ladybug confronts Alya on what happened and validates her feelings though not necessarily how she acted. Alya would decide at this point that some things are better left unknown and willingly gives the book to Ladybug. This would open Marinette to getting the book to Fu and to the start of Season 2 with the possibility of a return from Lila as well as introducing Alya to the world of the Miraculous and maybe making a step forward in eventually getting one of her own.

Then when Ladybug and Chat Noir are facing their nemesis of Hawk Moth and eventually Mayura, Alya as Rena Rouge would have to deal with her own rival/foil of Volpina.