#anyway some people that will show up in chloe's storyline !!!

[theerurishipper]

After learning about the leaks about Paris special, I just want to say that all of the comics and headcanons fans created speculating how they would be in emoverse are much better than what we got. Wouldn't it be ironic to say that they're born evil like Chloe in ogverse and that some backstory doesn't justify their wrongdoings. They are evil and very much proud of it with either their cringe worthy fails or terrifying terrorism

Agreed. Like, I don't mind the arc they were intending for with Chloe, I don't mind them showing that some people can't change, but then they'll redeem the terrorist/abuser. And they'd rather say that Chloe is just inherently evil without exploring or acknowledging the backstory and motivations they wrote for her. That's the issue here. And now Shadybug and Claw Noir are going to get some half-assed redemption. Honestly, I would have preferred them being evil, you know, like an everyone has a good and bad side in them and who you are depends on the choices you make kind of thing, especially since Miraculous is so fond of redemptions.

I get it, that's just my wish and the show doesn't have to follow my exact preferred storyline to be good, but the information we have doesn't paint a very promising picture either way. Considering the bullshittery of the Season 5 finale and Gabriel's shitty-ass redemption, it really just feels like this special is pushing the Gabe Is Good agenda in our face, you know? I mean, Guardian Angel? For the child abuser in our main continuity? The one who doesn't seem like he did a good job in the alternate timeline either seeing as his son was so unable to process his grief that he became a magical terrorist? This guy is called Guardian Angel? I mean, maybe he did his best, but we won't know until we watch the special, and the show has a habit of blaming Adrien for Gabriel's actions anyway, so. It just feels like it's pushing the "some people are good and some people are evil no matter in what continuity, and Marinette and Adrien are good deep down, and so is Gabriel. But Chloe is just always evil lmaooooo." I don't mind it too much, but shit's still kinda weird, man.

And like, what do you mean "Shadybug and Claw Noir don't even like each other?" That's kind of the whole appeal for a lot of people lmao, and they hate each other? I mean, I'm not going to judge it based on my expectations and say it's bad just because I didn't get what I wanted, but... really? And I'm also gonna go out on a limb and say Hesperia and Claw Noir have no personal interaction despite them being father and son and Adrien's motivation being to bring Emelie back. Like, at a certain point, it crosses the line from being my insignificant expectation to being just... bad choices and an inability to create proper payoff. I think Hesperia interacts more with Marinette than Adrien in this special. Getting major Season 5 finale-esque "Marinette replaces Adrien in his arc" vibes.

But I'm not disappointed, surprising as that sounds. I never expected it to be good. I was always just here to see Claw Noir on screen so I can properly pick him up and toss him into my fanfics. I was excited for the special, sure, but I didn't have my hopes up and the leaks seem to have proved me right. Idk, maybe they'll surprise me. I doubt it though.

Thank you for your ask!

[yolowritter]

In Defense of Ladrien

Hello there everyone, and welcome to a shorter post this time. I'll be honest, I'm in a random Ladrien mood right now, so I figured I should go rewatch a few of the Season 2 episodes with it. As you do. Then I remembered...it doesn't exist. Not in canon anyway, and that's a real shame! Despite Adrien and Ladybug's mutual crushes on each other, we don't get anything except a couple times where they blush at each other and stammer through their sentences. Which okay, it's cute, but c'mon, there's so much potential here! So today I want to lay a bit of groundwork as to how Ladrien could have been improved in this show, and also (hopefully) open up a discussion about it, since I rarely see anyone bring it up in modern MLB. I guess we're all too busy with Sentimonster angst and questioning what's going on with Lila's three mothers. Still waiting to see how they'll try to write themselves out of this predicament... Anyway, today we're talking about the most underrated lovesquare ship, Ladrien!

First of all, it's worth mentioning that I won't be going over the show episode by episode. This is just a short post discussing the ship in general, not a 7.5k analysis like I did with Chloe, my keyboard still needs time to recover. So, I'm sure we all know the basics, but I'll give a simple overview of canon Ladrien just to have everyone on the same page! Ladybug (Marinette) has a crush on Adrien Agreste. Adrien (Chat Noir) has a crush on Ladybug. That's it. That's the ship. Nothing more to it!

Okay...well, things aren't so simple. Canon does give us a couple moments where this dynamic is toyed with, but they're few and far between, leading to a...less than adored ship in the fandom. Don't get me wrong, I love Ladrien! That's why I'm writing this after all, and surely there's others out there who ship it too! But when compared to Adrienette or Marichat...it falls flat on it's face due to the utter lack of content we have to work with. Thankfully, we at least have an established dynamic! And hey, with this show, even that's a bloody miracle!

However, I have seen a lot of people (in yee olden days) say they prefer other sides of the Square because Ladrien seems...a little dishonest. In their defense, it really wasn't hard to make the claim that Marinette's crush on Adrien was (by early S2) still quite superficial, considering they hadn't actually gotten to know eachother than well, and vice-versa for Adrien with Ladybug. I can see why, especially since these are the respective personas that are "least real". Adrien is forced to conform to his father's expectations and always be perfect, while Ladybug needs to be professional and has the city's safety to worry about, hence is unable to ever be genuinely "Marinette" while in the suit. Add to that all the identity shenanigans, and it's easy to see why this ship got pretty much dismissed by a large portion of fans back when it was still relevant. And given that Miraculous has since pivoted away from teen drama and more into the "crazy butterfly man wants to destroy the universe" territory, most ships except Adrienette (and Marichat in Elation) got left behind as the storyline progressed. Ladybug and Chat's relationship evoled, we had a whole arc where Adrien was depressed, etc. That's just the natural progression of storytelling. At some point, we have to move on with the plot.

Fortunately, I am here to present the opposite argument! Ladrien would actually be a very viable ship, especially because of this hero worship that afflicts both Marinette and Adrien! It makes for amazing and complicated interactions on both sides, and here's why! It's because Ladrien was misunderstood, or maybe even misrepresented by the show itself. In my humble opinion, it shouldn't (only) be about Adrien blushing the moment he sees his crush, or Ladybug stammering twenty times in a single sentence. That's all well and good, but look at that I said a moment ago. Ladrien, by the very nature of it's existence is dishonest. Neither Ladybug nor Adrien can be themselves with eachother, even if I have no doubt they would rush headfirst into some kind of secret romance if given the oppurtunity! But...that the point of this ship in my opinion. They both view each other as this perfect, can-do-no-wrong person and have placed one another on a pedestal higher than Lila's delusions! Ladrien is fundementally doomed to this flaw from the very start...but overcoming it is what's interesting!

Just...hear me out! Let's say that after Gorizilla (or some other Akuma with Adrien as a target), Ladybug goes to check on him post-battle to make sure he's okay. Maybe she visits him that night, and surprises him with her presence. They do their usual routine of blushing and stammering, and for one reason or the other, one of them confesses that they have a crush. Regardless of who it is, or how exactly this plays out, let's say for the sake of argument that they get together after another visit or two. Maybe Marinette thinks this is her chance and can't resist getting to know the boy she loves, maybe Adrien is the one to bring it up because Ladybug is his hero. The immediate first problem is that while they know eachother...they can't be honest with their partner. And this brings up an amazing character conflict!

For Marinette, it's possible she has doubts about herself and rationalizes that of course the Adrien Agreste would never see her, but be in love with Ladybug! There's a whole other can of worms here about Marinette's feelings in regards to her mask, but that's for another post. For Adrien, maybe he's a bit conflicted because Ladybug is in love with him...but not Chat Noir, who he considers to be the "real" him. And the more they interact, the more both of them realize that the other is blindsighted by the mask they wear. There's genuine moments sprinkled in between, but feelings of inadequacy keep them from truly connecting. Think "the wall between us" metaphor. But...just when it seems like neither of them is really that happy, when they start feeling like a mistake, both Ladybug and Adrien get a glimpse of the person behind the mask. She realizes that he isn't some perfect, unreachable guy, and he in turn figures out that she's trying so hard to be good enough for him. This can happen in an infinite amount of ways, and I guarantee there's at least some Ladrien fanfics out there that do it! And I'm really glad, because it means someone else gets it!

After this we have a myriad of possibilities as to how things could go, but regardless, things absolutely change in their dynamic. They slowly start to getting to know the person behind the mask. Naturally, they both find themselves even more in love, then eventualy there's a reveal somewhere there, they get together officially, etc. You get the point, right? The reason why Ladrien is interesting is the dichotomy between Maribug and Adrichat's identities. It's the idolization that blinds them slowly fading away to reveal the truth, it's the feelings of insecurity that plague their relationship until everything finally comes to a head! If Ladynoir is parters in battle to lovers, Adrienette is high school sweethears, and Marichat is friends to secret midnight visits to lovers, then Ladrien is idols to friends to lovers! And I absolutely adore their dynamic!

Now, I'm obviously not the first person to bring this up, since I distinctly recall some great Ladrien fics from back in the day with pretty much this plot. And the reason why I adore them is that they play into the inherent dishonesty so well! I hope my point has come across, and if anybody wants to add their own analysis, by all means feel free! This post is supposed to open up a new discussion after all. Anyway, I have to go take a day off and go through my old Ladrien bookmarks! I'll see you all next time, but until then, Stay Miraculous everyone!

[flowerchildasriel]

perhaps I read too much salt fic. perhaps it warps my perception of the characters and storylines. perhaps I should actually watch the show at some point

Referring to that other post I made… Am I being dramatic to say that Marinette has perhaps never enjoyed being a hero? I don’t know.As a character, she’s very complex. She’s a very responsible girl. I can you that at fourteen I certainly wasn’t anything close to her level of maturity, trying to be a fashion designer and helping in a storefront, while doing class president things and also being the 110% friend… all while dealing with interpersonal issues like bullying and harassment. And then the superhero things on top of that.

Marinette is also a girl defined by her obligations. She is obligated to help her parents as a dutiful and caring daughter. She is obligated to help her friends as someone who seems to not have had many before, she seems to think she has to be everything to keep them. As class president, she feels obligated to be the complete opposite of Chloe’s neglectful dictator style. She is also obligated to save Paris because it’s life or death on the line here, the miraculous has chosen her and no one else.

The only thing that Marinette has chosen is to be a fashion designer. That’s like the only thing that is hers alone. I mean, for the most part. Until someone asks her to make things for them, and then that becomes another obligation.

Considering how streamlined/simple her superhero outfit is, perhaps it’s something that she’s neglected in favor of everything else, on purpose or subconsciously? Maybe it’s that she doesn’t want to mix something she loves with something she has no choice in doing. You can see her outfits getting more detailed or expanded on with the merging of miraculouses, though, which may just be the bare minimum she can do at the moment.

Anyway! Back to my original point. I think salt fics are a fantastic way to interpret canon. Because it’s very honest and biting in that honesty. Oftentimes, canon events seem to happen quickly or some parts of it are implicit in meaning , or have to be connected with past episode plots to get a sense of what is going on. And when you work directly with canon, things kinda blend into each other and you get a sense of what is normal and expected in the canon framework and you kinda get numb to it. I love saltfic because it tears you away from that numbness and lays out the events in very simple and outraged words. In an episode, Marinette is told to do something and fails, and is punished by the narrative. In another, Marinette is told to do something, does so, and is punished by the narrative. You get used to that formula in episodes and only when you rear back do you think that’s not right. Marinette is trying her best, and is beset by contradictory instructions and punished no matter what! That isn’t fair. That outsider perspective helps too, that you don’t get bogged down by background characters that only matter for a single episode or a single scene, or dialogue that is way too “teenagers being written by adult men”. You only get the things that matter, the key notes of the timeline. You’re able to connect the dots a lot quicker about things that just don’t add up or things that don’t make sense anymore.

Same with characters. I know people aren’t always big fans of bashing but I think it’s also a great way to learn about characters’ traits or what people see in them that are then taken to the logical extreme. Example: Ms Bustier! A teacher who lets kids get away with just that too much and expects a lot more out of the others. Taken to the logical extreme, a neglectful lily-livered teacher who lets the bullies run her class into the ground and asks her ‘gifted’ students to lift it back up instead of taking a firm stance herself. I was going to give Alya as an example but her specific salt character is too divided. Maybe just a general overview. Alya is determined: she works hard to find out the superheroes’ identities, working on her blog, making her ships sail. In salt, taken to the extreme, she’s pushy or bossy, and doesn’t hear the word no or listen to advising against her actions, bullheaded. That’s just the salt fics I’ve read at least.

Anyway! Sorry to word blab all over your timeline again. I like thinking about salt fics and how they characterize and shape their narrative. It’s such a breath of fresh air compared to canon because it’s straight to the point, honest, and cathartic too. I even love bashing! Because it’s just like making what is implied become explicit. Like caricature! What defines this character? Oh, they’re placid and helpful to their friends? They’re a doormat. Oh, they’re happy go lucky and sweet? They’re an oblivious sunshine child. Oh, they’re short tempered? They’re a ticking time bomb for sure.

Isn’t fandom just so great? To see everyone with their own take on the same characters…

[sweetcloverheart]

Clover Rants Miraculously: Twice is a pattern... (Put under Readmore for spoilers)

I feel like the thing that bothers me about the whole “Lila and Kagami become friends so the former can turn the latter against Marinette because evil” isn’t that it isn’t a good storyline (Honestly, I’m kind of super interested in seeing what sort of dynamic they might develop through their new “friendship”) - it’s that they’ve done this with Lila like, two times already with “Chameleon” and “Ladybug”. I wanna see some new schemes from her - Where’s “Lila befriends Kagami to get an in with the rich people Illuminati/have a backup in case Gabemoth screws her over.”, or “Lila befriends Kagami because she thinks she’s friends with Ladybug and wants to learn her weaknesses” or “Lila befriends Kagami because she learns she was Adrien’s ex and wants to use her to get info on him so she can better mess with the Adrienette relationship/steal him from Marinette/get closer to him.” or even “Lila pretends to befriend Kagami because evil but then starts seeing they actually have a lot of similarities/share interests and accidentally becomes gay real friends with her”? (or maybe even “Kagami knows Lila’s trying to trick/use her to hurt Marinette and is pretending to go along with it so she can use her back because she knows she has a connection to Monarch/Hawkmoth and then also accidentally becomes gay real friends with her over unexpected similarities”)

I also, like a lot of people, feel like it’s...kind of a huge step back for Kagami’s character after all she’s been through in series and the development of her friendship with Marinette - especially when you consider how her whole breakdown in “Perfection” was related to her fearing she isn’t considered a good friend to her. Plus Kagami is established as someone who values truth (to the point she broke up with Adrien specifically because he wouldn’t be honest with her). Honestly, after what happened when she became Ryukomuri, she should have ended her friendship with Lila right then and there and would not have given her the second chance she did in “Protection” (Though considering her response to her in “Emotion”, she’s at least putting some distance in). Purposely putting the two together just so Kagami can get tricked/strung along by someone trying to take advantage of her (again) frankly seems just sort of...meanspirited to her whole character.

There’s also the whole thing about how she’s apparently now in love with Adrien again and is then going to be paired with his identical twin cousin yeah no problems there. I mean, similar to the Lila-friendship thing, I am sort of interested in seeing where they go with rekindling Adrigami (even onesidedly) - but it is kind of annoying that instead of either simply creating a new love rival (which frankly I can’t really recommend when the cast is already kind of bloated as is) or making use of the ones they still have like Chloe (Unless the crush ends after he ends their friendship - actually wait, is she still supposed to be in love with him after “Derrision”?), the show instead opted to shove Kagami back into her intro-phase role because apparently we simply can’t have her just move on from her old relationship and continue her friendship with Marinette, especially since Adrienette’s already canon anyway now that they’re dating - nah, let’s just make her a love rival again so she can act as a potential future Adrienette obstacle to give some semblance of romantic conflict. It’s like the writers ran out of idea of what to do with Kagami outside the Lila-friend plot, so they’re brought back the season 3 crush in the hopes of padding things out. And yeah, I know sometimes people fall back in love with old partners and feelings can’t be helped, but the fact that they did this so the story could (once again) have Kagami go full yandere and attack a girl over her possessiveness of Adrien, seems to be setting up some kind of pattern (or precedent) that I’m not really liking...

[lonelier-version-of-you]

I don’t even know what to say. That episode... just... wow. I thought it was completely and utterly brilliant.

The thing, as I said earlier, about an improvised Casualty episode is that it was one of those things that was either going to turn out to be really, really good, or really, really bad. Thankfully, it definitely ended up on the side of “really, really good”.

However the episode turned out, I knew one thing: I had faith in Di Botcher. I’ve always felt she’s one of the best actors Casualty’s got. Plus, since she’s an experienced actress, I thought she’d do really well with the improv stuff.

She surpassed my expectations by far. Tonight, Di Botcher cemented herself as not just one of the best actors Casualty has at the moment, but one of the best they have EVER had. I’m just... I’m in awe. She’s INCREDIBLE. She is a living MASTERCLASS in acting. She should win a BAFTA for this. I’m not even joking or exaggerating to make a point about how good she is, she genuinely should win a BAFTA for this. Her performance would be impressive enough if it were scripted, but the fact that all that was scripted were the storylines, and the dialogue and reactions were IMPROVISED?! Astounding. Just astounding. I’m still trying to wrap my head around Jan’s speech to the influencer woman being improvised, in particular.

Amidst my awe for Di Botcher, I of course also want to highly praise the other actors involved in the episode - particularly, Arin Smethurst and Milo Clarke, both of whom were absolutely FANTASTIC tonight! I wondered how they’d cope with an episode like this, since they’re younger and (as far as I know) newer to acting, and I was really, really impressed - they were a million times better than I could have imagined. The guest stars were all excellent as well.

The scenes with Teddy and Scott, the bloke who was self-harming, were very well done. I do wish there had been a trigger warning beforehand - as I have with previous patient storylines along these lines, and with Henrik’s or Chloe’s self-harm scenes on Holby - but the handling of the story itself, I thought was excellent. I worried they’d go for some “mentally ill people are evil” twist (I’m still wary thanks to the Gaskell story on Holby, I suppose), and have Scott stab Teddy and/or Iain or something, so I’m really glad they didn’t do that and instead just showed Scott as a desperate, lonely man who had no access to mental health support (tying back into the theme of the paucity of funding for the NHS).

I loved seeing Sah really step up to the plate in this episode. Their reaction when Jan accidentally hit the girl on the road was brilliantly acted, as were all the scenes regarding their and Jan’s interactions with Robbie, the man struggling with alcoholism. I definitely see what Arin Smethurst meant in all their interviews about this episode being a real point of growth, professionally, for Sah.

I really liked the little scene with Dylan and Jan near the end of the episode. As a Dylan fan, it was great to see him get something to do, especially since it wasn’t at all necessary for the episode (other doctors and nurses only appeared briefly) it was nice that they gave him a little scene anyway. Interesting seeing William Beck improvise, as well.

I’d love to be able to write the longer, more eloquent review that this episode deserves, but it took me long enough to find the words to write a review at all. I’m very interested to see where Jan’s story will go from here. It looks like this is the last episode of the year, but see you all for more reviews when the show gets back on air. May this quality continue. ❤️

[samwriter]

Chic,

As I drop out of fashion school because I do not like the design but critique clothes is my passion. That is why I applied for a job at Chic Magazine for Teen Fashion Editor. The other reason is there are two of my favorite people in high school. My best friend from high school Mimi Jackson as my assistant and my blond-haired athletic crush Jace Pepper from high school as a model. I am surprised he is working there but I have a feeling that his mother who works as a Chic receptionist gets him that job. While I get settled in my new office my new boss Carla Marie texts me my next assignment that is not important for a big meeting. The text says Chloe Mince, your first assignment in a series of assignments leading up to your first fashion show. I will be there to go to the concert and to write an article about Ruby and Pinks’s Fashion Style. Your backstage passes and concert tickets are waiting for you in the ticketing booth.

After work, I go to my apartment to get my roommate Jasmine Clark who aspired dancer to go to the concert with me because she a big fan of Ruby and the Pinks, magical girl superheroes that have a huge fanbase I ask her “Jasmine, I have a surprise for you”

Jasmine spoke “What the surprise, Chloe ?”

I spoke “The surprise is I got two tickets of your favorite band Ruby and the Pinks concert for work do want to come after work”

Jasmine “Really, is this a dream or it is reality”

I spoke “It’s a reality check”

Jasmine “Thank goodness” Then Jasmine and I go to the concert.

In the concert, While Jasmine and I watch the performances it came the part where the storyline kicks in because every Ruby and Pinks concerts have a storyline with all the effects dazzle almost amazing. I go into detail about how the story portion is truly amazing with the main singer Ruby Pink’s Pink Ruby on her belly which meant it a symbol of love that beams a pink light out of her. Next Ruby Pink got captured by an entity of darkness but Lavender Mist came swinging on her blue Aerial silk like an acrobat and using the mist that tricked Sir Darkness and get Ruby Pink back. Ruby and Lavender arrived in front of the other two Oceania blue and Solaria Flames. They took the final pose then the audience cheered including me and Jasmine.

After the show was over, I and Jasmine went backstage with our backstage passes. Backstage, Jasmine and I saw the girls in costume but someone blocked that someone looked like the band manager. Then the band manager spoke to us “I am Lexi Rinke, the band manager, and Ruby Pink Older Sister. Also, you need to get out here because if you see the girl’s true appearance and post it online. It will spoil the secret”

I spoke “Guess who I am. I am not a fan, actually my friend is. Anyway, I am the Teen Fashion Editor of Chic. So I am a professional not a fan”

Then Lexi spoke “Oh why you say that the first time”

I spoke “So you really want me come in”

Lexi laughed “Not!” Then Lexi slammed door at us.

While we are alone, Jasmine spot someone in the band out of the public and she nudged me on who she is and she spoke “That lady is Lavender Mist”

Then we chased after her until Lavender Mist noticed them and say those two words “Black Mist” That sounded like a nightclub but actually coffee shopThen she vanished. Then we goes back to apartment

Next Day, After Work when I writing the first half of the article. I goes to Black Mist with Jasmine Clark because she is curious and she thought Black Mist was nightclub not a coffee shop to meet Lavender Mist. While we are meeting her we are having some coffee and tea cakes until a Hispanic Woman in a teal hat trying to hide to somebody. I realize that must be her. Then I wave to her. Then sit down in front of us. I spoke “Lavender Mist, Why you meet with us”

She said “To tell the truth of Ruby and Pinks. First of all I am only of my band that have true abilities because I am a Bruja at least my family passed down the power to me

I said “What a Bruja?”

Lavender said “A Witch Originated in Latin America”

Then a Woman who wear a Sexy Dominatrix Outfit think it a Strip Night Club based on the named. She start dancing in sexy matter on the first table she see that is our.

I spoke “Why lady, are you doing here”

The dominatrix spoke “I am Black Lace and I thought this was a nightclu’b”

The Three of Us spoke “NO IT A COFFEE SHOP!”

Then Black Lace leave, Lavender Mist said “What was that”

I said “Anyway, what the other secrets you kept in the band”

Lavender Mist said “The other secret is my name is not Lavender Mist it is Jennifer Brujante and do not want fame like the other girls I just want to saving people with my powers. I need to change my identity into Majestic and save people like my fe,ale descendants before”

I said “You will be face of Chic as Majestic” Then everyone cheered and I meet Jennifer at Chic for her makeover tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I headed to Chic and work. Also I also to do Jennifer makeover as Majestic. After I done Jennifer makeover. I received the second assignment from Carla Maria by text. It said Right Now, you need to go the Hampton and interview

Olivia Sumner , The consume designer of Ruby and Pinks clothes.

Tomorrow, I went to the hamptons with Jennifer to see Olivia to design Jenifer new costume as Majestic. In the hamptons, I knocked on Olivia house. Olivia open it. She spoke “I expected you, come in”

In Olivia house, she welcome me in her lavish living room and she spoke “Welome, sit down, so do you have a question for me or what”

I said “do you remember you design the Ruby and pinks costume.

She said “yes, that my favorite design of the year”

I said “Oh good! So may you design Chic sponsored superhero in the style of Ruby and the Pinks”

She said joyfully “Yes, I love that style, it my signature style must now on.”

I said “You are on a time limit, you compete in day”

She said “Challenge accepted”

After, Stay all day with Olivia to design Majestic new Costume. Tomorrow is the day before the fashion show to debut Majestic that a surprise for Carla Marie. Back at my office, my assistant Mimi talk about a dilemma she have. she said “I have a friend who a hacker that hacked Our Rival magazine Couture emails they says they will try to sabotage Chic fashion show.”

Then I have another text message from my boss Carla Marie My friend Naomi Marienplatz and daughter Clara comes right now because Clara heard rumor online is one of the models she is former member of a magical girl themed girl group she really like.

Then Jennifer come to try on the costume. After she try on the costume do not worry it fit. She said “I scared cannot do the fashion show because Lexi Rink husband Quentin Rinke be there who there”

After Jennifer walk away, I am in a emotional wriiin after all the problem crashing like I am having a heart attack until Jace Pepper come along to cheer me up. He said “What going on with you, you looked stressed”

I said “Everything”

Then Jace said his usual calming words that started in high school that usually cheer me up. That are “Everything will be alright, I know you since high school. That you plan a event end up into a disaster but somehow the end result is wonderful”

Based on Jace Words Then I must realized the show must go on like it or not. So I stay up all late to deal the problem of the show to create a solution for the fashion show. Now I feel ready for the fashion show and how it turn out.

At the Fashion Show, While I and my friends get ready for the audience to see CHIC present Majestic Fashion Show. I felt my nerves again because saw a person who expect to see. Who is Tina Minx, that she is graphic artist and writer for Ruby and the Pinks comic. Then I got an idea before the show for her a opportunity to write a Majestic comic book. I decided to wait after the show because I want to focus on the fashion show.

When I walk on the stage, I introduced the star of the show “Here come Chic very own superhero Majestic” Next, Majestic comes in to take her walk and pose. Then the audience cheered. Then After Majestic walk back. Black Lace try to sabotage the show and take the stage. When she take the stage. She winked at Quentin Rink and I realized that Jane Cotour team up Quentin and Lexi pay Black Lace try to sabotage the show to ruin the reputation that I deserve because I stole a Pinks at Ruby and the Pinks that she managed. Anyway, The audiences booed because she was a bad dancer. Then she spoke “I will leave and guess us you have a bad sense of taste of dance because I am a good dancer” then she leaves.

Then I saw Black Lace begging Quentin for her check and he gave it her out her respect of the deal they are having. That I realized I know what going on Anyway After the show, I talk to Tina Minx about the comic book. Then she say “yes”. Then I cheered after Tina left.

After Tina left, my boss Carla Marie with her friend Naomi and her daughter Clara Marienplatz. Then Carla spoke “Congrats for good show it make good publicity for our company. I say ours because see you in the future of the company. Also hey you need to take Clara home because Naomi and I goes for a after party”

When I listen to that conversation that I realized Carla and I are not equal. Actually she is Number One and I am Number Two. Other things in chic and in my life are Jennifer is now the face of Chic. Jace is now my boyfriend for a second time now because of Jace calming words. Mimi is now Teen Fashion Editor and anything else. I almost forget I have a fan in Naomi Daughter in Clara because she read my posts online on the Chic Webisite because Magizine is old fashioned like a young teenager like her. I Hope you heard the story of me how I got here and Carla Eliza Marie loved me so me a promotion instead Teen Fashion Editor into Carla Number Two. See ya

[chloekwon-moved]

CHLOE KWON’S STAFF MEMEBERS !

a quick look into the team around chloe kwon and her relationship with each of them over her time in the music industry.

fc. ahn heeyeon

is her manager and has been with her since the very beginning

she worked on sixteen and the two became close during that

chloe doesn’t have any siblings but she’s pretty sure that yerim is exactly what it would be like to have one

they are super close and tend to joke all the time

can be strict with her when needed but is most of the time pretty chill

chloe goes to her with lost of problems because she gives really good advice

they share clothes a lot since their styles are so similar 

yerim gained a lot of attention for being ‘chloe’s hot manager’

fc. kim jisoo

the leader of the all of chloe’s backup dancers

has been on every single stage that chloe had performed on and doesn’t plan to leave any time soon

she worked with a few other artist during chloe’s hiatus, but was very vocal about wanting to work with chloe again soon

one of her best friends

they hang out like all the time

she’s probably closest to her out of all of her staff members

chloe always makes her (along with the other backup dancers) come onto the stage when she wins and the two of them are always super giggly and excited about the win

fc. na jaemin

the backup dancer that everyone shipped her with after her debut

he’s cute and all, but she’s never been into him in the slightest

used to be a trainee at jyp before he became a backup dancer, but decided he liked dancing better than actually being an idol after chole’s debut

they were close in their trainee days and remained close during her debut

though, their friendship has been a bit weird since chloe’s debut since so many people ship them together

they’re slowly getting over it though and have had lots of conversations about it since her hiatus started

fc. woo dohwan

like her older brother

the two are super close and often seen fooling around when they have nothing to do

fans love their friendship so much

he seems all mean and tough, but is really just a softie around chloe and its super sweet

they haven’t been seen around too much since her hiatus, but chloe has kept people updated on him since all of her fans love him so much

fc. kwon sohee

chloe loves her stylist, mostly because she has never given her an outfit that she has looked bad in

she also gets chloe’s input on the style they tend to go for to make sure she’s comfortable in it

she’s asked for her help a lot in her upcoming styling

she’s also the one that introduced chloe to her current style and she also has a similar style, often letting her barrow clothes if she needs them

she has a hard exterior, but chole has gotten her to open up in the time that they’ve known each other

fc. park jiyeon

the newest addition to her team, since her old makeup artist left during her hiatus

she really likes her though and chloe thinks she’s a lot more fun to hang around with instead of her old makeup artist

chloe’s been asking for a lot of tips and tricks about makeup and sohee’s been teaching her a lot of stuff

chloe’s super excited to be able to actually work with her soon

[chasing-posts]

Miraculous Ladybug Vlog: Queen Banana

Season 4, episode 7

"Okay, time for another day of Miraculous Ladybug, which episode am I watching toda-AaAuGh NoOoOo Fuuuuuuuu-"

My reaction to knowing I have to watch this today. I heard about how bad this episode is. And now I'm the one who's about to go bananas.

Ugh... let's not waste time. This is another Astruc self insert storyline, so it's destined to be bad. The last time he wrote hinelf into the show he said people don't like directors, and allowed multiple racist remarks to go unchallenged. At least this time he managed to avoid the second part... but that might be due to the lack of Kagami than anything intentional.

Okay being too harsh on the guy but ... this is a really dumb premise for the episode. This top tier ANIMATED director, decides to do a small short film with a group of high schoolers, gives them no budget and let's them write their own movie and he's... actually not directing either. Nino's acting as director so he's...just advising how this goes... and they have one day to film, act and edit and everything else, and the movie was shown the next day.

Okay. So ASIDES from that not being how ANYTHING works, why couldn't this have been a film event? Why would he goto a middle school instead of a college or university? Why wouldn't this be more a volunteer class or extracurricular activity for the summer that some kids signed up for but not everyone? Why not make this last for the entirety of summer break, instead of 2-3 days and boom. That would also allow other kids who aren't Zoe, to show up and shine/ have kids who wouldn't normally work together in a group.

I'm lying of course, I know the reason; it's because that would take away from Zoe's and Marinette's screen time. And wouldn't give Astruc the chance to demonize Chloe some more. Also despite the title, this episode and Sole Crusher, work as a two part episode to introduce Zoey and reaffirm her as a recurring character, and Chloe's replacement.

Which is just...so bad for a multitude of reasons...just...SO many. To name a few off the top of my head:

Removes Chloe's redemption arc, which could be argued was one of the best parts of the show.

Zoey shouldn't have had enough time with Marinette to earn a Miraculous. Marinette usually only gives those to people she knows/trusts, and she trusts Zoey way too much for how little she knows her.

Lazy writing. Rather than go through the hard and interesting path of making Chloe a better person, or maybe more an antihero to keep things interesting, they just replace her with this shiny, new, flawless sister, who will just do everything Marinette says... which makes incredibly boring.

This is a bad message, one that says that if you did bad things in your past, you are a bad person and you can't improve. And someone better than you, will replace you and all your accomplishments, and make you look worthless.

On top of all that the episode is just badly written. It's trying so hard to demonize Chloe that it makes the rest of the class look like spineless losers. Only Marinette stands up to Chloe, when in the past everyone else had their breaking points with her and they could have just walked out like "screw this. Bye Queen B!" (And say that last part so mockingly that she knows they're not calling her "queen Bee.") All of this is a student production anyways and they own the props, costumes, and allhave camera phones. There's literally nothing Asteic could provide them in the final product outside the lighting gear, and since they filmed in the day/ Sun set, they might not need that anyways. It also has this weird obsession with bananas that Chloe has NEVER had before, and will never have again. This retcon the actual CANON method she calms herself down, which is by holding her yellow bear, Mr. Cuddly.

Furthermore, let's look at some of the horrible lines/ words that go on in this episode:

The Sentimenter's name is"Banana Boom Boom." Which might be the dumbest name of any villian/ sentimonster in this show.

Chloe calling Zoey "Banana Head" unironically...while wearing that shitty costume.

"How about facing someone your own size" Zoe says to an akuma 4 times her size... ugh...

Plague's little speech singing Zoe's praises... something he has NEVER done for any Miraculous holder. NOT EVEN LADYBUG. That felt so out of character for him I actually wanted him to shut up for the first time ever.

"I'm done playing the supporting roll for the sake of our family." GIRL YOU WEREN'T EVEN A ROLL AT ALL UNTIL FIVE MINUTES AGO!!! She literally just started existing yesterday.

Maybe this will help Chloe become a better person." SHUT. UP. You guys literally rewrote her character so she went back to being a one dimensional villian, and have made repeated, official statements that you have no interest in redeeming her. So shut up. No making false hope. Just say you hate her, embrace her villainy and move on!!!

And you know what, even as a villian Chloe no longer works because she no longer fights anyone. Has anyone else noticed that Chloe hasn't been a physical fight since the episode "Miraculer" in season 3? Before this Chloe her got her hands dirty as a superhero, and as a villian when she was akumatized. We learn in season 1 how she practiced all of Ladybug's moves when she played dress up with Sabrina, and then in season 2 we learn she is actually INCREBLY SKILLED when she tries out to be Ladybug for a music video with Adrian. Performing amazing acrobatics on her own, without any powers. Then as Queen bee she is the last to be taken down in the first version of Team Miraculous in season 2's finale, AND when she fights Mayura one on one in Miraculer, she almost defeats her ALONE. Bare in mind that Natalie can fight three supervillains ON HER OWN, unarmed, while they are corrupted by Hawkmoth, and this was before her health deteriorated so much!

Chloe is actually a bad ass! And season 3/ 4 is trying to portray her as a coward who never fights her own battles which is just not Chloe. Yes she does manipulate her father to get what she wants but when he's not around, she'll take matters into her own hands to get what she wants. It's one of her best and worst qualities at the same time.

And there's just so much more in this episode! Why Zoe SPECIFICALLY have to use the bee Miraculous? Ladybug got hit by an attack that should have turned her into a banana, but the show ignores it! Chat Noir made mistakes to make Vesperion look good. Adrian confronts Chloe about being a brat and not being friends, over a conversation they had TWO SEASONS ago, and has ignored all the other bad stuff she's done since then!

This episode is OBNOXIOUSLY awful, and if I were Astruc, I'd feel ashamed of myself for releasing this into the world. Let alone putting my self insert into the story.

This episode is just rediculous. Utterly... rediculous.

[ririchanva]

Summary: Marinette gains a new ally in a student from Japan, although he’s not what he seems. Lila makes her move, proving to Marinette that her threat is real. But what she didn’t count on, was that Marinette would have a few friends that has her back. Although they are the most unexpected people. When Lila pushes too far by getting Marinette and her friends expelled, there is a certain hero that lends a hand. But wait? BECOME STUDENTS OF U.A.?

░❇┊First┊❇ ░ ❇┊Next┊❇ ░ ❇┊Masterlist┊❇ ┊AO3 ┊❇░

Chapter 2: Permanent Heroes, Animaestro

A/n: Okay, since I’ve gotten a HUGE comment from both the old story and the new, I actually DID feel bad for the crap that Adrien went through in the original story, but he was eventually gonna be redeemed, learn a few lessons in and join the team. Just was going to go through some stuff along the way (it’s what I get for reading too many salt fics with Adrien being shat on doh!). But that’s no excuse. I almost wanted to place up the tag Adrien / Chat Salt in and go with the plan I had in my head but…I guess you’re right. SO IN FAIR WARNING, Adrien is going to be going through a tiny bit of shit (as Chat, not so much as Adrien himself) BUT he shall have some back up of his own like Marinette…Might include Nino, might not.

…But this mean that another character is gonna have a bad time. 

Besides Lila, I mean.

…Whoops?

Anyways, things to know about this story:

For the My Hero Academia timeline, this is gonna take place at the very end of Season 3, which is the Shie Hassaikai Arc. I shall also follow the English Dub of the Miraculous show, meaning the kids are in high school like Deku and them. Not middle school / collége.

Most characters WILL be OOC. It’s just for the storyline to work, since this is an AU and all. It won’t be following both the Miraculous and My Hero lore. Sorry if that disappoints ya’ll.

Lila Bashing and Salt. Period. With some other salts for characters but I won’t be spoiling it. Everything happens for a reason.

Kwami swapping things. Not everyone will get the Miraculous as they did in the show. Sorry.

   “Shopping? That’s our excuse?” Marinette asked as she sat in between Chloe and Sabrina, already telling the Driver the address to Master Fu’s place.

    “What? It was a good basic excuse and no one would question it. Besides, what kind of excuses did you use whenever you had to transform into Ladybug?” Chloe asked before Marinette was opening her mouth, but then closed it with a defeated look, “Exactly,”

    “So, we’re meeting with the Guardian of the Miraculous huh?” Sabrina asked with wide eyes, looking curious and also a bit nervous, “D-do you think we’re in trouble?”

   Even Chloe looked slightly panicked but covered it up with a scoff, “Oh please, I’m sure he’s going to tell us that we’re going to have our Miraculouses. Of course I’ll be given Pollen and maybe the Master will give you something, Sabrina,”

   “Y-You think so?” The ginger’s eyes widened as she fixed her glasses a bit.

    “You won’t be as amazing as I am since I have been Queen Bee for a while…” Chloe trailed off for a moment before looking back at Marinette, “Why haven’t you been giving me a chance with being Queen Bee lately anyways? You’ve always trusted the Stupid Fox and Shellhead more than me…it’s been a while since Heroes’ day…”

    “Er…”

   Should she tell the truth?

   Tikki peeked from the bag of Marinette’s as she gave a look, telling her that it has been a long time coming.

   “I…I guess I wasn’t sure,” Marinette explained with a sigh, looking to see Chloe with a frown and Sabrina with a confused look, “Everyone knows you’re Queen Bee, Chloe. Especially Hawkmoth. Meaning that he could find ways to use your loved ones against you. Manipulate you into his clutches—“

   “I would never fall for his tricks! I’m not an idiot, Dupain-Cheng!” The blonde argued, but Marinette raised a hand up.

     “Hawkmoth is dangerous Chloe. There had been a few times even I have been almost Akumatized. May I remind you of what almost happened today?”

     Chloe and Sabrina were quiet.

    “There might be a chance you can never be Queen Bee again. Especially if there’s a chance that The Guardian knows that you guys know about me being Ladybug,” Marinette breathed out, softening a bit “I meant what I said that day, as Ladybug...you have the chance to change for the better. A-and I'm glad for it. I’ve seen you trying so hard these days it’s kinda surprising,” Although at times you tend to show off still as being Queen Bee, thus why I’m hesitating for asking help during fights, she would think solemnly.

   “Y-Yes well…That was because Ladybug believes in me,” Chloe murmured as she looked to the side, almost embarrassed, “I’m pretty sure as yourself, Dupain-Cheng, you still think I’m awful—“

   “Actually, I’ve noticed lately you haven’t been a total pain, complaining about something nor bullying anyone anymore,” The girl squeaked as Chloe growled, making Marinette laugh, “I just meant that there are moments that you do show that you are becoming a better person. Like how you don’t treat Sabrina as a servant that much anymore,”

    Sabrina chirped, “She hasn’t asked me to do any of her homework like before! Only just help on the hard subjects. But er, I just realised that day when we were all working on a project together when Nathaniel was akumatized, was the reason you didn’t meet up with me because of being Ladybug?”

    “Yeah…” Marinette laughed, remembering that day, “I still am sorry though for blowing you off without telling you,”

   “If anything, I’m the one that should sorry for jumping the gun and thinking you’d be like the old Chloe and make me do all the work on the project,” Sabrina and Marinette laughed as Chloe shouted a ‘hey!’ in offense and they soon arrived at Master Fu’s place.

   The three girls stepped out, Chloe then telling the Driver to take a drive around the city for a while until she called him. Once he left, the girls looked at each other for a moment, almost as if wondering what to expect when meeting the Guardian. Marinette soon lead the way slowly, her heart racing.

     Of course she was feeling anxious of meeting Master Fu. This was sort of the kind of day she was dreading. When she was the one that got sloppy and someone found out her identity. She would’ve thought this was the kind of scenario she would have with Chat Noir, or even Alya.

     This…this was ever more nerve-wracking.

     Once they reached the door, Marinette was knocking on the door. The door opened and the short Chinese man was standing there, smiling kindly.

     “Hello Marinette. And to you as well, Ms. Bourgeois, Ms. Raincomprix,”

     Once the girls were ushered in, it was a surprise when Chloe was the one that spoke up first. Well, it wasn’t shocking that Chloe would voice her say first. But what was the biggest unbelievable thing to happen in front of both Marinette and Sabrina was that Chloe was going on her knees, head bowed.

     “I know me being the Bee Heroine is a mistake. I know that I’m the last person to be a hero to anyone considering my…attitude,”

    Sabrina wanted to step up but Marinette held her back, shaking her head as Chloe continued to talk in front of Master Fu.

     “But,” The blonde raised her head up as she stared at the man with determination, “I won’t tell anyone Dupain-Cheng’s secret of Ladybug. She’s the only person for the job to save Paris. And probably keep that mangy cat of a sidekick in line too. So please don’t punish her because of me and Sabrina finding out who she is under the mask. If you’re going to punish someone…”

    Chloe gulped as she then closed her eyes, her head bowed again.

     “Then punish me. I’ll renounce myself from being Queen Bee forever as long as you keep Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug so she can defeat Hawkmoth once and for all….I-I just only ask…that I say my final goodbyes to Pollen. That’s all. I swear to all my Daddy’s money…”

     Marinette couldn’t believe it. Was Chloe being serious right now? What has gotten into her?

     Master Fu just smiled, as he reached out and patted Chloe’s head, making the girl look up in surprise.

    “Such bold words from someone so young. It does surprise me,”

    “So…I’m not gonna have my memories wiped or anything?” Chloe asked slowly, as Master Fu chuckled.

    “Actually, I have only asked for you and Ms. Raincomprix because I believe Marinette would need some allies to help in balancing her life both as Marinette and in her time being Ladybug,”

    Marinette’s jaws dropped. While Chloe and Sabrina looked at each other in surprise.

     “M-Master?” She stuttered as she looked worried, “I-I thought that no one should be knowing about identities and all? I mean Chat Noir still doesn’t know—“

    “He will come in due time. It is not his time to know everything just yet,” Fu almost said sagely but then sighed, looking to Marinette, “I know that I have…placed so much on you,”

    “Master Fu…” The Ladybug holder softened, as Fu was raising his hand up.

       "Marinette, I have come to realize that you have done so much as Ladybug," Fu started, guilt clouding his eyes, "So much sacrifice you have made for the greater good, I have robbed you of your normal life for the sake of saving Paris...and putting so much pressure and burden to someone as young as you. And...doing it on your own,"

  Marinette listened, as Fu touched her arm with a solemn look.

  "I have lived my life alone and not trusting anyone and look where that landed me. I will not make the same mistake with you, Marinette. Especially when you are cleaning up from my past mistakes," Fu smiled softly "At least we could have people you trust to be part of the secret and be heroes at your side,"

   “But…” Marinette looked to Chloe and Sabrina, as Chloe was stepping up with starry eyes.

   “You can count on me! I did say that I will do my best to take my second chance at being Queen Bee seriously!” She declared, placing a hand over her heart.

   Sabrina smiled shyly, placing with her index fingers a bit as her eyes casted down, “I-I’ll do my best. I’m not like Chloe, who is amazing as Queen Bee, bu-but I shall help you in any way I can, Marinette. You’re probably one of the few people t-that told me to stand up to Chloe a-and be my own self. So,”

   She finally looked up, her eyes fiery and looking just as determined as Chloe.

   “I promise to keep your secret and help you as both Marinette and Ladybug!”

    A hum came from Fu, stroking his beard as he looked at the girls.

    Marinette, on the other hand, looked a bit unsure. This has to be a mistake. If she had her own choice of having someone or two know her identity, it would’ve been someone like Alya or even Chat.

     She did promise that she would tell him of her identity when Hawkmoth was defeated.

    Sighing, she looked back at Master Fu, “So…I cannot tell Chat Noir about this?”

    Fu’s smile fell slightly, looking troubled, “I shall handle that, Marinette.”

     Marinette had a bad feeling about that. But the Master knew best…right?

    “So I can have Pollen permanently?” Chloe asked in excitement, but then looked embarrassed at how eager she sounded and coughed, “I-I mean, is it possible, Master?”

     “About that. Considering a lot of people, including Hawkmoth, know of your identity…it would be difficult to have you hold Pollen and be Queen Bee for a while. Or ever. I do not want you to endanger any loved ones you have,” Fu explained as Chloe deflated, but he then smiled, “However, just because Queen Bee cannot be a hero anymore, does not mean that Chloe Bourgeois cannot be another hero…”

    The rich blonde tilted her head as the Chinese man continued, walking to his table where his tablet was.

   “Ms. Bourgeois, I have seen you change for the better, little by little. Learning from your mistakes, showing such maturity and strength. Something I couldn't accomplish when I was your age. Your time as a hero is not over,"

   "So...what does this mean? I have to use another Miraculous?" Chloe frowned, "Sorry Master Fu, but I'm loyal to Pollen and Pollen alone!"

   Master Fu chuckled softly, "I had a feeling you'd say that, Pollen sure is lucky to be loved so much by someone as loyal as you. Which is why I'm teaching you this,"  He showed his tablet and was scrolling through the printed Grimoire, "There's still a way to be the Bee Holder, but not be Queen Bee...but first..."

   He looked to Sabrina, humming a bit.

    “Y-Yes?” The glasses wearing girl asked, looking surprised as Fu smiled.

    “We shall find a Miraculous that would suit you best as well…”

    Marinette watched as Fu talked to the girls about the history of the Miraculous and what to expect as heroes helping Ladybug, but then remembered something.

    “Master Fu? Do you know there’s a new Horse Hero running around?”

    Chloe and Sabrina looked up, gaping at her while Fu had a cheeky look in his eyes.

     “I do.”

     Marinette felt a vein pop against her head for a moment, “Master…”

     “I am sure he has explained himself?”

      The girl sighed as she looked at the man, “Well kinda? I was told he was coming here soon—“

      “There’s a new hero going around?!” Chloe was pushing in, staring at Marinette almost angrily, “What the heck!? And you didn’t tell me!”

     “I only know of him today. Kirin, was his name…” Marinette said blankly.

      Chloe huffed, folding her arms, “Well now, this is so unfair…”

      “I have my reason of giving him the Horse Miraculous temporarily, but I am sure all will be explained as soon as he arrives,” Fu hummed, but then Marinette was concerned.

    “Temporarily? Meaning he’s not gonna keep the Horse?”

     Fu smiled, “He and Kaalki are not a perfect match like you and Tikki. I only gave him the Horse so he could assist you for the time being…”

    “He said he got the Rabbit Miraculous but gave it back to you? Is that true?” Marinette asked as Fu nodded.

    “He did. I was even surprised that he would willingly give up such a powerful Miraculous like that. But I am sure that he has his reasons. He and his mentor both have told me that they needed help from the Miraculous users,”

    “He and his mentor? Why would they need help from us?” Marinette hummed, tapping her chin as she tried to think, but Fu shook his head.

     “All will be answered in due time. But for now, let us focus on training,”

    Chloe sighed, “Training huh? Is…is this going to involve sweating?” She asked, making Fu smile and making both Marinette and Sabrina giggle.

    It was then that a window opened not far from them, and everyone looked to see Kirin jumping in coolly thanks to his portal.

     Marinette paled, realising she wasn’t Ladybug at the moment but Kirin laughed a little, grinning knowingly.

    “Don’t bother looking like that, I know you’re Ladybug. Just as I know that Chloe Bourgeois is Queen Bee…but I am surprised Sabrina Raincomprix is involved,” The horse hero hummed, as he then murmured a dismount under his breath as his transformation broke, and Marinette gasped.

    “H-Hitoshi…? You’re the Horse hero?”

     “For now. Master Fu must’ve told you I’m just temporarily borrowing the Horse,” The purple haired male shrugged, as Chloe was raging behind Marinette with Sabrina trying to calm her down.

    “…I should’ve guessed. It was too coincidental that a new student came on the same day as a new hero,” The pigtailed girl folded her arms and looked at him, “I guess you’re going to explain yourself now?”

    Hitoshi nodded as he then breathed out, “My name is Hitoshi Shinso, that much I didn’t lie about. I only came to Paris to help the Miraculous Heroes and ask for them in return,”

    “So…you’re not really studying to have a good career?” Marinette asked slowly.

    “Oh, that wasn’t a lie. I am studying to be a hero,” Shinso explained and grinned lazily as he fed a sugarcane to Kaalki, “Japan has a school for young heroes like myself. It’s called—”

    “U.A. HIGH SCHOOL FOR HEROES! That’s awesome!” A voice called by the window and everyone also looked back to see Nino covering his mouth, eyes widen and looking sheepish, “W-whoops…”

    Marinette screamed, looking back at a surprised but not really surprised Shinso, her fear turning to anger, “HE FOLLOWED YOU HERE!?”

    “…I wasn’t aware he was following me,” Shinso averted his eyes, trying to look innocent but Marinette was already marching towards him and shaking him by the collar while screaming how irresponsible he was.

    Nino was jumping in, going between them while waving his hands, “L-look, it wasn’t Hitoshi’s fault!”

    Marinette turned her fury to Nino, the said DJ sweating in fear as he continued his explanation.

    “H-hear me out, Nette! Actually, a-after hanging out and showing him around the city, he said his dad called and he needed to get back home. Worried that he might get lost or something, I followed him. Wasn’t expecting him to turn into a Miraculous Hero of all things and I ran after him through his portal thing and I…ended up here and kinda heard everything? Heh heh…” Nino was rubbing the back of his head but then felt himself sweat even more as not only was Marinette angry, but so were Chloe and Sabrina.

   “You eavesdropped on us, AGAIN PEEPING LAHIFFE?!” Chloe huffed, “Maybe you’re just more than a pervert sneaking into girl bathrooms!”

    “T-that wasn’t cool, Nino! It’s really not nice to be listening into conversations that supposed to be a HUGE secret!” Sabrina agreed with a disappointed frown, as Nino was paled.

     “H-Hold on! I didn’t mean to! I just…I couldn’t stop listening and I know that’s bad but—“

    Fu just watched in amusement while the two girls were berating the poor boy, then turned to Marinette, “Actually, this could be beneficial to us…”

     Everyone just paused, as Marinette, Sabrina and Chloe looked comically confused while Hitoshi checked if Nino was okay, who was seeing his life flash before his eyes.

    “WHAT DO YOU MEAN?! This big mouth here?” Chloe pointed to Nino as she scoffed, “He totally can’t keep a secret!” She continued to argue, as Nino felt himself get pissed.

    “OH yeah!? I so can keep a secret! I mean, bet ya didn’t know I am Carapace and Alya is Rena Rouge!”

    Everyone in the room was quiet, with Fu still smiling, Shinso facepalming, Sabrina gasping, Marinette groaning with an exasperated call of his name and Chloe twice as angry.

    “CESAIRE IS THE FOX FACE?!” She screamed, and Nino looked like he sucked a lemon when he realised he outed himself and his girlfriend, “Dupain-Cheng, why did you make such poor choices in heroes, huh?!”

    “It was my decision, and—“ Turning to Nino, she pointed at him, “I’m starting to have doubts of you having any Miraculous in the future,”

   “Why don’t we explain everything to our new friend here?” Fu said calmly as he patted Marinette, smiling.

     Marinette knew that she had to come clean, not just to Nino but to Chloe and Sabrina as well. And Shinso apparently, since he was here. And so, she ended up telling them how she met Tikki, being the hero she was today and about Chat Noir. Might as well let everything out, right? Considering that Fu already considered training both Chloe and Sabrina.

    Once she was done, Nino looked understanding, and so did the other two girls. Shinso remained quiet.

    "I-I still can't believe you trusted me to be Carapace, Nette. I…” Nino felt himself tear up as he then breathed out, fanning himself from crying right there and then, “I-I’m so touched dude! T-thank you, a-and I won’t tell your secret! I solemnly swear on my DJing skills and my dreams of being a movie director!”

    Marinette looked unsure. Chloe had a point. Ever since they were toddlers, Nino had a bad habit of blabbing and can’t keep a secret to save his life. Not as bad as Ivan, but still.

  Chloe stood there for a moment, coughing to get their attention.

  Marinette looked up as Chloe stood with her arms folded and looking serious.

  "I am no longer your fan…"

  Marinette looked surprised at this, as Nino was about to say something but Chloe stopped her with a hand raised up.

  "But…" She continued, as the blonde felt her face flushed as three pairs of eyes stared at her, "I-I want to try…and be friends,"

  Shock was an understatement. Marinette was dumbfounded at first, Sabrina and Shinso being neutral about it and Nino was slowly grinning.

  "...I knew deep down behind the Queen of Mean act, you were still the same girl back in Pre-K that wanted to play with me, Nette and Kim!" Nino chirped while poking at her, Chloe blushing brightly and then waving her arms up in the air.

  "BUT DON'T THINK THIS CHANGES THINGS—" Chloe started as she was swatting at Nino, who was laughing jovially.

  Marinette tilted her head, then smiled softly, "...I'd like that Chloe,"

   And she meant it.

   Maybe this was the sort of thing from Chloe she had been waiting for since middle school.

    It almost felt like Kindergarten again.

    Marinette looked towards Shinso and huffed, “Now it’s your turn to explain yourself,”

   Shinso sighed, raising his hands up as he started his story. The only thing he told was he was joining an elite hero school and he was given a chance to join their course. His mentor was out at the moment scouting the city because he had his own mission to do and just mostly talked about how he was supposed to gather the Miraculous heroes before his mentor returned.

   Once he was done telling all they needed to know, Nino grinned wide at Hitoshi, “So~ You’re training to be a hero in Japan huh? Like All Might and Endeavor?”

    Wrinkling his nose for a moment, he nodded, “Er, in a way yes. My mentor figured that me recruiting the Heroes of Paris to come to our school would be beneficial—“

   “Wait, wait, go to a hero school?” Marinette squeaked as she folded her arms, “Ladybug can’t leave Paris. Hawkmoth is still on the loose!”

   “And that’s the deal,” Hitoshi stepped forward with a serious look, pointing at her, “Me and my mentor will help you take down Hawkmoth, and his new support, Mayura. In exchange, you give U.A. a chance,”

   Nino was bouncing up and down, “T-that sounds so cool!”

    Marinette raised a hand up for Nino to shush, as she narrowed her eyes, “Why would a hero school in Japan call for us now? I mean, we could’ve used real superheroes months ago when Hawkmoth first appeared,”

   “Hawkmoth is an issue for the European government to deal with. They never want help from outsiders like America and Japan. So it’s why people like All Might and other top heroes couldn’t come and save you guys. Blame your high officials. You and Chat Noir are the exception because you guys are citizens here. And from what I hear, there’s not much heroes active in the European division. At least, that’s what my mentor told me,” Shinso finished off with a sigh, as Marinette hummed.

   “…I don’t know. I think we’re good without going to some special school. No offence,” Marinette pursed her lips, “You wasted your time being here,”

   “On the contrary,” Shinso smirked, “I like being here. It’s way more fun than in my school,”

    Nino gasped as he then was punching Shinso’s arm, “How could you say that!? You’re so lucky to be in a school for future heroes man! What’s it like!? Ohhhh, you gotta tell me everything! Oh, oh! Wait ’til I tell Alya about all this—“

  Marinette stopped him, “You can’t tell Alya about ANY of this!”

  Nino’s eyes widened, his excitement deflating, “I…I can’t? But she’s—“

   “No one is supposed to know I’m Ladybug or anything that Hitoshi has said. Everything here is to be kept Se-Cret! You can’t tell either about Chloe and Sabrina knowing about me or that they will be permanent holders, including yourself,”

   “Wait, I get to keep Wyazz permanently?” Nino asked, his eyes shining as he didn’t catch the rest of it, and Marinette knew it with a sigh.

   “Nino, focus!”

   “Sorry!”

   “Please, please, please, understand,” Marinette spoke seriously, placing a hand over Nino’s shoulder, “To protect the ones you love, you can’t tell anyone anything about ANY of this. Not even to Alya,”

   “But…” Nino looked down, “A-alya and I never keep secrets from each other…”

   “I’m sorry. If I couldn’t tell Chat Noir all this, then you’ll have to do the same…”

   “What about Chloe? Her identity isn’t a secret!” Nino argued as Chloe huffed, flipping her hair.

   “I’m been given a second chance, Lahiffe. Unlike you, I can keep a lid on my new status as a new hero and be trusted by Dupain—I mean, Marinette by taking this seriously. So yeah~”

    Nino frowned deeply as he sighed, tipping his hat down and covering his eyes, “…Fine. Okay,”

   “I’m so sorry Nino,” Marinette whispered softly, and Nino looked back up, smiling tightly.

   “No worries dudette. You’re just being responsible is all. A-and I will keep a lid about you being Ladybug and everything else. I won’t break your trust, I promise,” He hugged Marinette tightly and breathed out, “I haven’t been a good friend lately, and we haven’t hung out as much either. But that’s all going to change!”

   Nino leaned back, grinning happily.

   “Especially since we’re heroes together!”

    Marinette smiled, as she looked to Chloe, Sabrina and Shinso, her heart relaxed.

    Maybe having some people knowing the secret and being a team permanently isn’t such a bad idea after all.

   Tikki flew out from Marinette’s purse and smiled sweetly, “I’m glad you have such good friends here, Marinette~”

   Nino’s eyes sparkled, as he then was rushing forward, “Dude! Are you Marinette’s kwami?”

  "My name is Tikki, nice to meet you," The red spotted being chirped, as Nino was shooting out question after question like 'So how old are you really?' and 'How maybe Ladybugs has she gone through before Marinette?' and many others. Might as well know before his girlfriend does. It hurts him that he can’t tell Alya all this. This would go amazingly in her Ladyblog. But he did make a promise…

 Tikki shyly floated up to Chloe, and waved, "It's nice to meet you again,"

  Getting a good look at the creature, Chloe realized this looked like the doll she had picked up and had brought to Prince Ali of Achu. Boy, she felt so stupid.

  "Likewise..." Chloe huffed, pouting a bit as Tikki giggled, knowing what Chloe was thinking.

   “Now that we have settled matters,”

   Everyone looked to Master Fu, who was holding his tablet with a smile.

   “Perhaps now we could discuss the training plans for Chloe, Sabrina and our new friends Hitoshi-san and Nino here?”

   “She’s scared of cats~ But powerless without this feline~”

   “Huh? That is so not true! I’m not scared of cats!”

    Marinette frowned as she looked at the tablet in front of her, Nino sitting behind her on the bed, leaning against her wall while Shinso was laying upside down next to her, his legs propped against the wall.

    Nino chuckled, “Never heard of a Ladybug being afraid of cats in my life. Right, Wyazz?”

    The green colored kwami hummed as he relaxed onto the boy’s lap, munching on a lettuce leaf, “In the centuries that I’ve existed? No?”

      The trio were hanging out in Marinette’s room since they have the day off from training with Master Fu. It has been two weeks since their last meeting together and Fu had already planned out the schedules to train the teens individually. Outside from training, the five of them had also tried to bond together, just for the betterment of their teamwork in the future. Luckily, there haven’t been any akumas around as of late.

     Today, Sabrina was with the Guardian to figure out which Miraculous would match with her, along with training both her physical body and her mentality. Chloe said she had plans today and couldn’t really join in hanging out with the other three.

   Speaking of, Marinette didn’t think that she would actually tolerate Chloe of all people. Actually, no. That wasn’t the right word. It was actually more of the fact it was almost too easy how close they had become. They were no longer fighting or snapping at each other. It was like their last year of being enemies had vanished. Sabrina was always a nice person, so she and Marinette got along fine.

   Shinso and Marinette still were good friends and seat buddies in class, even when Marinette was still suspicious of the purple haired teen still keeping secrets from them. But Shinso explained that one day he’ll open up when he’s ready.

   Was this what Chat felt like when she kept secrets from him?

   Thinking about the cat made Marinette still feel guilty that she hasn’t told him completely everything, but at least Master Fu had shown himself to Chat and has explained some things to him. So at least there was that.

   The biggest change though was Nino and Marinette’s friendship.

   When it was usually Nino always seen with either Adrien or Alya, lately Nino had always caught up with Marinette and walked her home, most of the time invited into the Dupain-Cheng home for dinner until he was called back home. It helps that they lived a building away from each other, so Marinette also visits the Lahiffe home other than babysitting Nino’s little brother, Chris.

    Marinette did miss hanging out with Nino like this, it almost felt like they were little kids again. When did they drift apart anyways?

    She remembered that she, Chloe and Nino had grown up together since Kindergarten, but somehow started drifting away at the end of the elementary years. And then Kim came along with others like Max, then Rose and then Juleka and Nathaniel. Then there was the start of Chloe being the Queen of Mean, and Nino fading into the background while Marinette got to be the target of bullying by Chloe and became a shy wallflower. This was before meeting Alya too.

   Speaking of Alya…

   “Does Alya know you’re here, Nino?”

    Nino turned to look at the girl finishing up the trailer for the new Ladybug and Chat Noir animated movie, and hummed, “I did tell her that I’d be meeting up with friends. She said that it’s cool and that she’s meeting with Lila today for some girl time,”

   “Aren’t you worried your girlfriend is hanging out with a pathological liar?” Hitoshi asked as he was throwing a bouncing ball to the ceiling and catching it, Kaalki watching in fascination.

   The DJ sighed, “I tried telling her, but I think Alya either tunes me out and changes subject or she tells me that I’m being unfair. That I’m basically not giving Lila a chance since she’s a new girl. She even tried to play the guilty card of I’m sure you wouldn’t have treated me this way since I was a new girl too. Or when Adrien was also a new kid in class. If you could be nice to us, why not to Lila?”

    Marinette patted Nino’s shoulder in sympathy.

    “Besides, it’s sort of better this way. Now I won’t be half tempted in exploding to her that I’m keeping a huge secret like having a miraculous permanently and knowing her best friend is Ladybug…” Nino laughed loudly then sighed, thumping his head back against the wall, “It’s really hard keeping it all in, it feels like I’m keeping myself from barfing…Is…is this how you feel sometimes?”

   Marinette was surprised when Nino looked at her sadly with guilt, and she looked sheepish, trying to assure him, “W-well…sometimes? B-But I try to just think of the positives. Like that I’m saving people everyday and that I inspire people. Like this movie,” She pointed to the screen showing the movie director of the movie talking in an interview about the movie.

   Tikki floated up as she tilted her head, “You turned down an invitation to the premiere?”

   “I’m a superhero, Tikki. Not a star~!” Marinette rolled her eyes up with a smile, then laughed, “It’s my job to protect the city and it’s people. Not sit around in a movie premiere,”

    Hitoshi coughed for a moment, and Marinette narrowed her eyes when she thought she heard bullshit under his breath.

   Tikki didn’t hear though and smiled, “Well said, Marinette!”

   “Hey, isn’t that Adrien on screen? I didn’t know he voiced Chat Noir,” Nino pointed out and Marinette’s eyes bugged out as she glued herself to her tablet screen with a squeak.

   “A-adrien?! ADRIEN IS GONNA BE THERE?!” Marinette yelled, then was crying into Nino’s lap as Wyazz moved out of the way, “Uhhhohhhnooooo, Ladybug should’ve totally said yes…”

   Nino just patted her head in sympathy this time while the kwamis giggled, and Shinso  just rolled his eyes.

   Getting a bit hungry though, the trio where heading downstairs when they heard Mister Dupain talking to his wife.

    “So! We’ve got six hundred macaroons, plus eighty hundred petit fours…not to mention the Ladybug and Chat Noir tier cakes,” The man sighed, looking at his checklist as Marinette walked passed them to get something from the fridge while the boys waited behind her.

   Sabine Cheng also looked worried as she sipped her tea, “We should’ve hired someone to help serve all these guests for the premiere,”

    Marinette’s ears perked as she looked over, “DO YOU MEAN the premiere of the Ladybug and Chat Noir animated movie?”

   Tom Dupain was nodding his head as he was still writing down things, “Yes—“

   Marinette was grinning from ear to ear as she then was waving her hands up and down in excitement, “Oh! Oh! Me! Me! Me~! I can totally help you out with that!—”

    Marinette squawked when she almost dropped the plates and snacks in her hands, juggling it for a moment before Shinso was quick to catch her before falling, at the same time easily catching the things she almost dropped with one hand.

   Both Marinette’s parents and Nino were in awe at how flexible and quick Shinso’s reflexes were.

   The girl thanked Shinso, looking embarrassed as she straightened herself up and the boy carried the stuff instead.

   “Y-You mean…as a…server?” Tom asked slowly as his daughter nodded enthusiastically.

    “Yes!” Marinette took the stuff back from Shinso, placing some fruits onto the plate, “I’ll hand the macaroons for Adrien~!….I mean ahhahaaa—”

   Marinette almost dropped the stuff again if not for Shinso being behind her and steadying her body from falling over again while quickly grabbing for the fruits that almost fell.

    Nino was starting to think this might be his quirk that he talked about. Despite Shinso saying that he has a quirk that future heroes usually have, he never said what it was. Was Shinso’s quirk just being agile like a cat? Or have Spider-Man powers?

   “I-I meant to everybody of course~!” Marinette laughed nervously and Shinso was shaking his head, “Of course not j-just to Adrien! Cause Adrien’s not the only one th-that likes macaroons~!”

   Sabine watched them for a moment with a smile, but spoke in a teasing voice, “And the fact that Adrien is going to be there has nothing to do with it, of course~?”

   “Not a thing~ Like~ Haha….Not in the slightest!” Marinette was batting her eyes prettily with a cute smile,  swaying a bit, “I just want to help out my wonderful sweet parents who I love SOOOOO much~”

   It was then the fruits, the snacks and the plates all fell over, and Shinso wasn’t quick enough to grab for them.

   ‘So much for being the next Spider-Man…’ Nino thought in dismay as he was quick to bend down and help Shinso pick the stuff up as Marinette giggled sheepishly.

   Tom and Sabine looked at each other unsurely, and she got the picture.

   “You don’t trust me…” The pigtailed girl sighed, her eyes saddened, bending down to help the boys clean up, “Then again, I’m such a klutz. Even I wouldn’t trust me…”

   Nino looked at her for a moment before he stood up and spoke with a hand raised, “W-what if me and Hitoshi helped out too?”

   Tom’s eyes widened and Sabine was surprised.

   “You’d…want to help serve? With Marinette?” Sabine asked as Nino nodded.

    “You seemed to have a lot on your plate and well, I know my man here is pretty quick on learning how to wait and stuff thanks to what you just witnessed~! And both he and I can keep an eye out on Marinette,” The DJ winked at Marinette and smiled, “Plus, she won’t be alone~! And we promise not to let her be distracted by Adrien!”

    Tom was quick to say yes as Sabine smiled.

   “That sounds like a good idea. At least you’d have friends around with you, Marinette,”

    Marinette smiled in thanks to Nino, as she was reaching to hug him and then to a surprised Shinso, “Ohhhh this is going to be great. Thank you too!” She hugged her parents before dancing off and singing to herself while going upstairs, saying something about getting prepared before tripping on herself…again…

   “This…is going to be interesting,” Shinso murmured as he looked to Nino, “You think we’ll be able to handle this?”

   Nino laughed, bringing Shinso in a one armed hug, “C’mon~! What’s the worse that could happen?”

    “This is too tight. It makes me look weird,”

    “You look fine, dude! Marinette did pretty good on these waiter outfits for us,”

    Shinso looked down at himself as he was adjusting the black tie on him, dressed as a fancy looking waiter in black and white, just as Nino was in the same attire only he forgone the hat.

   “You look different without your hat,” The purple haired teen pointed out, making Nino smiled sheepishly.

   “You think? Do I look cooler? I mean I know I grew my hair out a bit…” Nino looked around, trying to find a reflection to look at himself, as Shinso was shaking his head with an amused smile.

   The two then walked over to where the Dupain-Cheng’s were, already catching Tom telling him some last minutes things before the event starts. Marinette was already dressed in a pretty waitress attire, almost making Nino do a double take while Shinso did admit she looked nice with her hair in a bun.

  “You know if Alya wasn’t my girlfriend, I would’ve swooned,” Nino whispered in a joking manner, “I bet Adrien will fall for her for sure when he sees her~”

   Shinso’s eyes flashed for a second, but he just sighed, “I doubt that,”

   Nino looked at him with a raised brow, but then heard Marinette whine.

   “Dad! Moooom! I’m totally ready! Trust me! I’ll be super duper careful!”

   Nino walked over and smiled at the Dupain-Chengs, “Yeah, and we’ll be behind her one hundred percent!”

   Tom and Sabine looked at each other for a moment and sighed, before Tom took the empty tray that Marinette was using for practice and gave her the real tray of macaroons. Smiling brightly, she soon turned to serve some guests the treats, and Nino and Shinso were about to follow…until Marinette tripped on her own feet and was starting to comically dance around trying not to let the tray fall. Shinso was quickly on the move to catch her while Nino just saluted to the worried looking Dupain-Chengs and caught up to them.

    It took a while, but thankfully the boys managed to stop Marinette from bumping into people waiting for the premiere to start, made sure she wasn’t dropping any of the macaroons and not letting her fall over. Shinso was most of the time catching her easily, while Nino tended to lessen Marinette’s load, charmingly gave some of the treats to the guests while gussying up to any potential movie directors and other people in the biz. After all, this was his chance to learn a few things for his future career.

   Shinso, on the other hand, was getting tired running around to prevent Marientte from causing a disaster. Sure, he was doing this because Nino had dragged him into this…but he genuinely did want to help Marinette’s parents. They were nice people, and they treated Shinso so well when he was first introduced to them. Sabine thought of the boy being so skinny and pale that she treated him to a lot of their goodies while Tom was asking some questions about his life, trying to get to know him. It was not in a pushy way either, which Shinso was thankful for.  It was…natural. How caring and kind they could be.

   It made Shinso think of his own family.

   Marinette was honestly lucky to have loving parents like Tom and Sabine.

   Speaking of the girl, she was getting another tray of macaroons to serve and Nino was letting out a relieved sound as he sat down, Shinso standing beside him.

   “So far so good,” Nino panted as he gave a shaky thumbs up, “Man that girl is a typhoon. Thankfully we’re here to keep an eye out for her, huh? So far, she hasn’t dropped a single macaroon….”

   Shinso looked up for a moment, then smirked a little, “Looks like that’s gonna change…”

   “What do you…?” Nino looked up and he felt himself pale, “Oh no…”

    Coming to the red carpet was Adrien freakin’ Agreste.

    “Uh oh…” Nino gulped and whipped his head around to find Marinette, only to see her jaw-slacked and face beet red.

   “She’s seen him,” Shinso chuckled as he glanced at Nino, “Our workload just doubled,”

   “…Why did we agree to volunteer for free?” Nino grumbled but then stood up and was raising a fist to Shinso, “Looks like we’re up,”

   Shinso bumped his fist to his and grinned, “This is almost as challenging than fighting in the Sports Festival,”

   Nino snickered, “Dude, maybe even harder than beating up a bad guy!”

    Nino and Shinso laughed but soon were alert when Marinette squeaked and was now moving around like the Road Runner, her head down on the ground looking for something. Nino and Shinso chased after her, not noticing Adrien’s smile fading and his waving hand drooping, disappointed at not being seen by them.

    Adrien had waved to Marinette just a minute ago, but soon she started running off like her usual self. And to the blond model’s surprise, he noticed Nino and that new kid were here as well.

   Ah well, maybe he could go over and talk to them after greeting everyone and a few more pictures.

   ‘They look like they’re having fun…’ Adrien thought with a strange ache-y feeling in his chest.

 Nino blinked as Marinete was now on the floor, Shinso grabbing the tray from her as she started crawling away looking around like some dog sniffing for a bone.

   “Lahiffe? Shinso?”

    The two boy looked up to see Chloe folding her arms, then glancing back at Marinette frantically crawling under people’s legs while apologising.

   “Mind explaining what you three are doing here?!” She hissed at the boys, narrowing her eyes and grabbing the front of their ties, “You’re totally embarrassing me here!”

   “…So this was the “important event” that you’re attending today,” Nino huffed, “Man! You could’ve invited us, ya know?”

    Nino glanced over to see Shinso following after Marinette once he placed the tray of macaroons on the table, and Nino knew that Marinette’s in good hands.

   “And watch you three just now going around like baboons in the zoo playground?” Chloe sighed, “In case you didn’t notice, there are important figures here! A place  to social with the biggest connection and further your status and I want to make a good impression since you know, I’m the Mayor’s daughter~?”

    “Fair point. But it still would’ve been coo to know you were going to see the movie and invite a few pals~” Nino then glanced over to see Shinso helping Marinette up from the ground, the two talking as Marinette was showing something to him.

   Chloe looked at the two as she hummed, leaning to Nino, “Soooooo~? Are they, like, a thing now or…?”

   Nino snapped his eyes to her and laughed, “H-Her? And Hitoshi? Chlo, that’s…that’s crazy! Marinette likes—“ He covered his mouth, perking Chloe’s interests.

   “She likes someone? Who?”

   “I can’t tell you!”

    Chloe raised a perfect brow with a look.

     “…Really?”

   “I’m not falling for that Chloe! I ain’t gonna spill! I’m not the same kid that has a big mouth anymore!” Nino whined but soon blinked when Chloe screamed, “W-what’s wrong?”

   “Oh NO!” Chloe gasped.

    “Not her!” Marinette whined at the same time, as Shinso blinked and looked where the girl was looking.

    There, coming into the theatre was a middle aged blind Japanese woman in a kimono being escorted by a beautiful Japanese  short haired girl also dressed in a red and black attire.

   Shinso looked like he was going to faint right there and then.

   Marinette turned to look at him, her jealousy placed on hold for now as it turned to concern, “Hitoshi, are you okay?”

   Snapping out of his stupor, he turned to the girl and then smiled shakily, “Er, y-yeah…I’m fine…”

    Nino and Chloe walked over to them as Chloe huffed a little, “I despise that girl!”

    “Who is she anyways?” Nino asked as Shinso answered.

    “Kagami Tsurugi. A famous fencer from Japan,” He spoke quietly as Nino looked at him.

    “You know her personally?”

    Shinso shook his head, “Not really,” But he kept staring at her.

    It made both Nino and Marinette confused at his strange behaviour.

   The four of them watched Adrien and Kagami chatted with each other happily, until Kagami looked over to them. Narrowing her eyes, she soon was reaching to hug Adrien’s arm, the blond looking confused but smiled nonetheless. The two walked away and both Marinette and Nino had to hold Chloe back from going after them with claws and all.

   “Okay!” Chloe turned to the three and slammed her fist into her hand, “We need a plan!”

   “W-what do you mean a plan?” Marinette asked in confusion as Chloe growled.

   Soon the rich blonde was rushing around grabbing a paper from some man and stood next to Nino, “A plan! You know, a seat chart at the theatre!”

   She looked down at the plan then gasped, showing it to the trio.

   “I don’t believe this! Adrien and Kagami are going to be sitting next to each other while I am two rows behind! Utterly ridiculous!” Chloe folded her arms, tossing the paper away in a huff.

   “Well we don’t have seats ourselves so sucks to suck, Chlo,” Nino stuck his tongue out as Chloe poked at his chest.

   “I’ll get all three of you seats into the movie if you help me get Kagami away from Adrien!” She said with a smirk, as Marinette looked unsure.

   “W-we can’t do that!” She protested, and the blonde moved close to her face.

   “Remember what you told me once, Marinette? All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good guys do nothing,” Chloe then gestured to Kagami, “So today~! The evil is her! And the good guys are us!” She pointed to herself and Marinette.

   Marinette bit her lower lip, “I-I’m not sure about this…”

   Chloe sighed, “Fine. Keep being unsure. But tomorrow Adrien and Kagami would be on a plane to Japan!”

    Nino and Shinso could see the gears turning in Marinette’s head.

   Shinso sighed, “I don’t think that will happen,”

   “What makes you so sure?” Chloe asked with her hands on her hips, facing the Japanese teen.

   Shinso looked back at her and raised a brow, “Agreste doesn’t suit her,”

    A lightbulb dinged in Nino’s head as he gasped, grabbing at Shinso’s shoulder and shaking him, “Duuuude, do you like Kagami?”

   Shinso’s face morphed into shock, “W-what?” How did he get that conclusion?!

   Marinette’s eyes sparkled as she then gasped, “You do??? Is that why she was looking over at us? And you were staring at her, oh my gosh!”

   Shinso was swearing in Japanese as he shook his head, “N-no! Wait a minute—“

   A cat like grin came onto Chloe’s face as she then was tapping her fingers together like a villainess, “Alright I have a new plan~ We should get Kagami to notice Shinso here and get her to fall for him~ So that way, Adrien will be free from her clutches~”

   Shinso was paling now, waving to get their attention, “H-Hold on a moment—“

   “Aw it would be real romantic if their eyes met and had a moment~! That single connection that made their hearts beat~! That would be so sweet!” Marinette sighed, but then shook her head and coughed, “F-for Kagami and Hitoshi! N-No way I was thinking of Adrien and me— I-I mean I just don't want Adrien to leave Paris that's all ahahaha—“

   Shinso sighed, his face looking tired and knew Nino wasn’t going to listen to him as he had this look that said he was all for the plan. Something about ‘hooking up his bros with their ladies’ or something like that.

   ‘What’s the worse that could happen, my ass!’

   The plan was a failure.

   Shinso had to watch in slight fascination and tiredness as Chloe’s convoluted plan for Kagami to sit on some cake with gum stuck on her shoe so Shinso could rescue her while Marinette distracts Adrien blew up in Chloe’s face. Turned out, Marinette was gifting some passionfruit macaroon she made especially for him but somehow she ended up having it knocked out from her hand when Adrien turned frantically as his father’s assistant Nathalie was calling him, and she ended up crawling away to find the fallen macaroon. This ended up Nino trying to help her, but ended up tripping on the string when Chloe pulled to make the seat that Kagami was supposed to sit on move. Kagami ended up being called by her mother, thus the girl moved away from the spot she was supposed to be in and…well….

   It ended up the Movie Director being akumatized.

   “How did this even happen?!” Chloe screeched as she was pulling at her hair and Shinso looked at her.

   “No time, we’re gonna have to help Marinette find a place to transform,”

   Nino followed after them as he panted, “S-should we…?”

   Shinso shook his head, “Marinette should handle this for now. Let’s just help the guests out of here and not get hurt,”

   “Right!” Chloe nodded and soon she and the boys were heading off to make sure no one stayed inside the theatre and helped everyone get to safety.

     Shinso managed to get a hiding place for Marinette to use, and continued on his duty. It wasn’t a good idea to have any other heroes out for now unless it was absolutely necessary. At least that’s what Master Fu said. Better not give Hawkmoth any ideas that there might be more permanent Miraculous holders out and about besides Ladybug and Chat Noir. So for now, Nino, Shinso, Sabrina and Chloe did their best to be heroes in their civilian lives by doing the little things like this.

   Once the three were out, they looked up and saw that Chat Noir just arrived with Ladybug to fight with Animaestro.

   “Cool. I guess we head to the Master’s place until things are over with?” Nino looked at the two, as Chloe was already calling for her car to pick them up.

   “What about the movie?” Shinso asked as Chloe scoffed.

   “So not worth it if Queen Bee didn’t make it to the cut,”

    She then texted Marinette to meet up with them once she was done, deciding to just have a movie night of their own with Sabrina back at Chloe’s place.

[woodencactus]

I just finished the last season of Lucifer, and man do I have feelings about it.

Spoilers, obviously.

I loved the Maze and Eve storyline and Eve fully kicking Adam's ass, I loved Ella finally finding out and having a realistic reaction to being left in the dark for so long. I loved Amenadiel dealing with the deeply rooted racism in our society, especially in the police force. I loved Chloe becoming a Lieutenant and changing things in the prectinct.

I loved, loved, loved the Deckterstar cuteness.

Now for the things I disliked, and I warn you: I have strong feelings about this. It's totally fine if your opinion differs from mine, but these are just my feelings and opinions on this.

One thing you should know about me before I start this rant: I HATE the pregnancy trope with a passion, and I hate the "child-from-the-future" trope even more (Looking at you, 90% of DC shows that have gone on for way too long).

Why does every couple need to have a child? Especially if one of the people involved in the relationship has clearly stated, more than once, that they dislike children? I have a strong dislike for children myself, but I would have been all for it if Lucifer has become a real step-dad to Trixie and adopted the fatherly role and just left it at that. Not every couple needs their own blood-related child to be a family or to be happy.

I hated the last episode even more. If we go down the pregnancy road, why the hell did they make Lucifer essentially follow in his father's footsteps? Something that he has had made very clear hurt him to his core and never wished to do to his own child? Why the hell did that end up happening anyway? Why can Amenadiel manage being God and still be involved in his son's life, but Lucifer cannot be Hell's therapist and be involved in his daughter's life? It just feels incredibly cheap and lazy. Like they could not find a way to dig themselves out of this hole they created.

I really love this show, and it has gotten me through some tough times, but the finale left a bitter taste and I sincerely wish it ended differently.

Maybe you feel differently, and that's totally fine. But I just wish they went about this differently. I wish they had given Chloe, Lucifer and Trixie the happy ending they deserved.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Furious Fu

Well, I'm surprised this is here so quickly, but here we are. The first episode of Season 4. While I was on the fence about reviewing it even though it isn't in English (though there’s one in Spanish with English subtitles), but it seems like there are people that want to see me do it anyway, so who am I to let them down? Hopefully, I won't be regretting my decision to go over every episode of this season later on.

Will Marinette's new position as Guardian lead to more storylines other than her suffering? Will the show actually resolve the whole Love Square debacle this season? Why am I asking you all these questions?

Let's dive right into the first (actually sixth because of course it is) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season, Furious Fu.

We start off with all of the Kwamis under Marinette's care asking to see Former Master by Default Fu, before Marinette reminds them, and by extension, the audience, that he erased his memory during the events of last season, making her the new Guardian. They continue to act like hyperactive children until Marinette finally caves in and carries them in her backpack, although not before they give us one of the most unintentionally creepy images in the entire show.

I apologize in advance for your nightmares tonight.

The only Kwami who stays is the Dog Kwami, Barkk, who looks like she's going to see if Marinette's parents have any wine in the kitchen once she leaves.

Marinette heads down to the train station, where she meets up with Fu and Marianne, a former confidant/old flame who he recently reunited with. It turns out that inbetween Seasons 3 and 4, not only has Fu been living in London with Marianne while taking up painting as a hobby, but they've actually gotten married. So yeah, while Marinette has to deal with the stress of protecting some of the most dangerous artifacts on the planet, Fu's just been chilling in London, oblivious to the fact that he forced a teenage girl to do his job for him. Nothing but the best from this show's wise and lovable “mentor”.

After heading back home, Marinette sees a strange man who has broken into her room and demands to know where she got the Miracle Box from.

This is Master Su-Han, the former Guardians before Fu accidentally killed them all. He's naturally not happy with the “improper” form of the Miracle Box (he's not the only one) and wants to know how Marinette got in in the first place. When she says she got it from Fu...

Yeah... while it isn't as obvious as “Animaestro” and “Felix”, you can kind of tell that this is a “turn the critics into enemies” episode. Even though the criticism towards Master Fu isn't as prevalent as the criticism those episodes were meant to call out, there have been some fans on Tumblr and Reddit who have criticized Fu's actions in the show, calling out his decision to make Marinette a guardian in particular. Likewise, Su-Han is meant to be a strawman to mirror the complaints, and show why they are ridiculous. Though ironically, Su-Han's dialogue and rules also unintentionally highlight how incompetent the Order of the Guardians was, but we'll get to it later.

But because the script says she has to, Marinette defends Fu's decision to make her Guardian. She even refers to Fu being the reason the Guardians were all killed in the first place as a “mistake”.

NO HE DIDN'T! How was what Fu did in any way a sacrifice? When he made Marinette the new Guardian “Miracle Queen”, All Fu really did was make the box float for a bit before it immediately landed back in Chloe's hands. If the box had magically floated over to Ladybug in the process, I'd see why Fu would have done it. It'd still be reckless, but it would be a good way to escape from Hawkmoth and Mayura's trap. Hell, the Kwamis had already refused to let Chloe transform when she had their Miraculous, so there was no real threat there. We don't even know if Hawkmoth knew how to transform with the other Miraculous. So again, I raise the question: How was Fu forcing Ladybug to take his job while he gets to paint in London a heroic sacrifice? How can you even frame that as anything but cowardly?

Su-Han notices a few of the Kwamis are missing, and takes notice of Plagg, who was shown to devastate Paris with a single tap to the ground, being missing in particular. He's even more horrified to see Marinette's earrings, because, get this, Guardians aren't allowed to wear Miraculous.

You're telling me that if someone gets their hands on a Miraculous and goes rogue, the Guardians are supposed to fight them with their bare hands? They don't even explain it by saying something like how the Guardians aren't supposed to be tempted by the power of the Miraculous, we're just supposed to accept that rule as fact. How are you supposed to fight someone with superpowers like illusions, shapeshifting, teleportation, and time travel on your own?

So Su-Han orders the Kwamis back into the Miracle Box (still don't get why they have to listen to him) and lists off some of the rules Marinette broke like he was a Ferengi reading the Rules of Acquisition. He does all of this while voicing several concerns fans have about Marinette being Guardian, but rather than being out of concern or compassion for her, it's condescension.

It's pretty easy to understand Su-Han's side of the story, and if the episode actually acknowledged it, I wouldn't mind. But no, everything he says is automatically supposed to be wrong, because when has anything with a different viewpoint portrayed as a good guy in this show?

Su-Han orders Ladybug to take him to see Cat Noir before demanding they both hand over their Miraculous, and we learn something interesting about the Order of the Guardians.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

Of all the stupid Guardian rules Master Fuckup didn't blindly follow, it's the rule that Miraculous are ONLY SUPPOSED TO GO TO ADULTS!? Why the hell did he even recruit Marinette and Adrien in the first place if Miraculous for adults to use? What did he even see in them? All they did was help him once!

And again, we're supposed to see Su-Han as wrong for doing this. Why can't Ladybug simply tell Su-Han about Hawkmoth and ask for his help before she returns her Miraculous to him? That way, Hawkmoth is defeated, and Su-Han gets the Miraculous back. And it's not like Ladybug doesn't try to talk things out with Su-Han, so you can't say she didn't consider it. Oh wait, that would imply Su-Han is supposed to have a point in his claims.

Though to the show's credit, Su-Han's words do get to Ladybug, causing herself to doubt herself and her ability to stop Hawkmoth, but Cat Noir helps to reassure her, saying he'll only return his Miraculous only if she asks him to. It's a brief moment, but it's nice to see him place his faith in his partner in a platonic way.

Less nice to see is Cat Noir finding out that if Ladybug gives up her position as Guardian, she'll lose her memory like Fu. Except... Cat Noir was there when Miraculous Ladybug failed to restore Fu's memory, so why does he see this as new information? Did he only think it would happen to Fu? Did he lose some of his memory at the end of the last season?

This information is enough for Cat Noir to start a fight with Su-Han, with Ladybug abandoning any attempts at diplomacy by declaring that Cat Noir won't lose his Miraculous. It's a little frustrating to see them engage Su-Han, but again, this is meant to show Cat Noir trying to protect Ladybug so she doesn't lose her memory. This scene still does a good job showcasing the bond the two heroes have. It's far better than anything we got from the New York special.

Su-Han is trained in... Oh God... Mirakung-Fu, which somehow gives him the ability to predict Ladybug and Cat Noir's moves before they make them, comparing it to his rage “adaptating and always finding a way”. Translation: Astruc ripped off something else from Dragon Ball, Ultra Instinct. Ladybug distracts Su-Han and gets the Miracle Box, while Cat Noir gets his staff. After briefly trapping him under some rubble (which I guess doesn't kill him because of his “Mirakung-Fu”), the two heroes escape.

Meanwhile, Shadowmoth, the upgraded form of Hawkmoth that I'll talk about in his debut proper, senses Su-Han's negative emotions and sends out an Akuma after him. Su-Han sees Fu painting in the park, and steals his cane, thinking it's a Guardian's staff he can sue to track down the Miraculous. When the Akuma reaches him, Su-Han uses a technique to repel the Akuma completely. I like this idea. It makes sense that a monk would find a way to mask their emotions and achieve enough of a state of zen to ward off an Akuma. The Akuma instead reaches Fu, turning him into Furious Fu.

I like the design of this Akuma. While I personally thought it could have made for a more interesting fight if he was still short (like Yoda's fight scenes in the prequels), I think it's really clever to incorporate Fu's Hawaiian shirt into what looks like a Chinese gi. Furious Fu's powers are kind of like Evilustrator, only he has to draw down a Chinese character on a talisman before the power takes immediate effect, and lacks the weakness Evilustrator had with his tablet being easily breakable, with the corrupted object, a paintbrush on his ear, being harder to reach.

Ladybug and Cat Noir retreat to the unnamed stadium that the local school has gym class in for some reason, where they're confronted by Su-Han, who in turn, is confronted by Furious Fu. This leads to a three-way fight for the Miracle Box, which they all kick around like a soccer ball. Cat Noir even gets a goal. All around, pretty fun bit, though not for the Kwamis, I guess.

As soon as he sees Furious Fu get the Miracle Ball, Su-Han hides while Ladybug and Cat Noir get beat up by the Akuma. While he does get up eventually, he's still taken out by Furious Fu. Apparently, Su-Han's “Mirakung-Fu” is only useful against Miraculous holders, not supervillains created with the powers of a Miraculous. How the hell does that work? That's like being a trained soldier in the Marine Corps who's terrible at laser tag.

Ladybug uses her Lucky Charm (again, I'll talk about the suit change for its proper debut episode), and gets a pair of wire cutters. She uses them go get a soccer ball from a nearby container while Cat Noir keeps Furious Fu busy. Furious Fu, in turn, uses one of his talismans to predict Ladybug's plan, and manages to immobilize both heroes, but not before Ladybug traps the soccer ball underneath Cat Noir's arm before Furious Fu can use his Cataclysm against him.

How do they stop him? By having Marianne casually walk up to him and break the paintbrush while he's distracted. Honestly, that's a pretty funny payoff. Not “Puppeteer” or “Bakerix” funny, but it's still one of the funnier Akuma defeats I've seen. Another funny joke is Cat Noir using his Cataclysm on a soccer ball before he accidentally uses it on Ladybug and Marianne for their post-victory fist bump.

Later on, after Marinette sees Marianne and Fu off while the latter continues to avoid responsibility, Su-Han apologizes to her, and decides to trust her. He'll still take away the Miracle Box if she screws up, but it's a start to someone Marinette can at least consult Guardian to Guardian.

And honestly? I think this episode is a pretty good start to Season 4. It really feels like the writers are learning from their mistakes in Season 3.

Yes, Marinette is blamed by Su-Han, and while it is frustrating to turn Su-Han into a strawman, unlike other Season 3 episodes where Marinette is blamed, the blame itself is unwarranted, and by the end of the episode, it looks like Su-Han is willing to change, as he apologizes to Fu after he's de-evilized. That's a lot more than I can say for Astruc's other straw characters like Chloe and Felix. Sure, some of Su-Han's concerns are brushed off, but it's still a start.

From what little we saw of him, Cat Noir is also a lot better, really showing the character development promised towards the end of “Miracle Queen”. He's thankfully turned down the flirting, and I can only hope he keeps his promise as the season goes on. I hope we get an episode or two showing his perspective on Ladybug becoming Guardian, and how he feels less like her actual partner now. You know, something that can reinforce their bond as partners.

My biggest complaints from the episode really come from the way Fu is portrayed, and even then, it's only because of events that happen because of what he did last season and how much of a screw-up he is, despite the narrative trying to tell the audience he isn't. Then there's the revelation that Fu's cane has the ability to track down Miraculous. So... we're seriously learning this now? Why didn't Fu use it earlier to look for the two missing Miraculous? He literally has a Miraculous detector! But hopefully, the consequences of Fu's actions won't affect this season too much.

So yeah, I'm actually feeling pretty optimistic about this season so far. Maybe Season 4 won't be that bad after all.

Oh.

Oh no...

[marireadshellblazer]

Constantine TV Series Episode 4 “A Feast of Friends”

Aight, I feel the need to express some feelings about this episode. I’m not sure this is going to be terribly articulate, but I’ll do my best. Let’s do this.

First off, it’s obvious to anyone who has read Hellblazer that this episode is based off of the first two issues of the comic book series. As I wrote in my post about my experience reading it, these issues were the perfect way to start off the series. It’s like “BOOM! This is how it is! Get ready for some serious shit! This is your only warning; this is what you’re in for.” Even though they did change the story for the episode, I still absolutely loved it. The storyline from the comics is a favorite of mine, but even with the changes made in order to adapt it for TV, this was an awesome episode. In fact, it’s my favorite episode of the TV series. Here’s why!  

   Why is it episode 4?

  Unlike the comics this story was adapted to be episode 4, meaning it doesn’t start the TV series. So, why wouldn’t it start the TV series? I think that you have to look at it from a few different perspectives.

  Let’s start with the comic: Issues 1 and 2, titled Hunger and A Feast of Friends respectively, make up the first arc of the Hellblazer series. Most fans know, however, that Hellblazer is not John’s first appearance in comics; he got his own series after appearing throughout the American Gothic story arc of Swamp Thing. Consequently, many people came into Hellblazer at the time having some familiarity with the character. While this chapter does expand on John’s character some, this doesn’t serve as a major introduction to him. They just drop the reader into one of his nightmare-inducing everyday situations with little to no preparation. Those who are familiar with his role in Swamp Thing will, odds are, not find these issues to be terribly weird or particularly jarring considering it’s in a series about John; they have a good idea what they are in for.

   Here is a quick run-down: John returns to his apartment in Paddington after dealing with the horror show that is the Brujeria in the Swamp Thing comics. Exhausted, he comes back to an unwelcome guest; Gary Lester. Gary is one of the friends who was involved in the Newcastle incident (which is fully explained in issue #11), which left each of them scarred in their own way. Gary dealt with the aftermath via drugs, which have left him wide open for other issues. After foolishly releasing a demon from a sacrificial victim, Gary runs to John for help dealing with the destruction said demon is causing. In this case it’s a hunger demon that causes people to feast upon whatever they greatly desire; food, a crucifix, and even an athlete committing autocannibalism. With help from club owner and Voodoo practitioner Papa Midnight, John betrays his vulnerable and trusting friend in order to stop the demon by instead making him the new sacrifice. Trapping the demon inside of Gary, the literal and figurative ghosts of John’s past haunt and torment him mentally as his friend dies slowly and in agony, ending this arc with a melancholy feeling. John stopped a demon, but at the cost of a friend who truly trusted and cared for him.

Using this story to begin the TV series as is, however, would have been more than a little strange. In the minds of most people outside of the comic book world, John Constantine was first introduced to them via the horrifyingly inaccurate Keanu Reeves film. (I love Keanu, I really do, but that film give me agita). Or, if they were introduced to the show after it had already aired, they are introduced via Matt Ryan’s masterful work portraying him in Legends of Tomorrow. While he does an incredible job in both Constantine and Legends (to the point where I find that I may simply be unable to accept anyone else taking on the role in live action) it depresses me terribly that Legends toned down John’s character so much with all the goofiness. It did not suit John at all! If anything, I find myself feeling sorry for Matt Ryan, who tried so hard to do John’s character justice. Uhg.

   Anyway…Already, a lot of the audience is going to be more than a little taken aback by the Constantine series’ portrayal of the character, however comic book accurate he may be. This show is tailored to as wide of an audience as possible, meaning they expect that pretty much no one has read Hellblazer or Swamp Thing before. Consequently, having the series start by just dropping the audience into his crazy world, especially with this particular story arc, might not be the best idea. I’m not saying that his introduction is done super well with the first episode (it’s not a total wreak, but there are issues) but it would have been much harder to start with A Feast of Friends.

     Characterization

    Now, let’s look at it from another angle: characterization. As the 4th episode this was, odds are, done assuming that there would be a lot more episodes after this (oh, the painful reality), but really the viewers are still just getting to know John. So, these early episodes are supposed to establish his character. They see him as knowledgeable and ready to handle the weird and scary in the first episode, and in 2 and 3 you see that he is serious about his work, a loner, weirdly well prepared, and how he interacts with others. While in some situations he does come off like a douche, his douche-ness is on full display in this episode. Honestly, this is accurate to how he is in the comics; he’s a nasty piece of work, after all. A world class bastard. He gives Gary shit for his drug addiction pretty much the entire episode as well as his choice to mess with a demon and the chaos it made that he now has to fix. He, like in the comics, tricks Gary into helping him and it results in a slow, painful death for the man. Gary really did trust John, and not only did John betray him, but he was callous about it. Now, that’s not to say that the situation and Gary’s death doesn’t bother him, and this is also seen in both the episode and the comic, but John solders through a lot of it with his mask of stoic indifference; he blatantly a deliberately betrays his friend without much hesitation.

    John’s characterization in the show is really important. While fans of Hellblazer know what they are in for (John being a dick, betraying people, sacrificing friends, etc) the wide audience the show was meant to appeal to might not respond well to that. How is the audience supposed to relate to a character whose major personality trait in this arc is to basically be a douche (even if it is justified in a way)? Generally speaking, TV shows try to have a lot of characters with redeeming traits and very basic bitch personalities so that as much of the audience as possible can relate to them in some capacity. They can describe the main character as “cool, quirky, sweet, loving, etc” because that is what network television strives for. The point is for the audience to relate to and find a lot of reasons to like the character, especially the main character. The audience is supposed to be able to see the qualities of the character in themselves. An example of a douchy character being changed for network television is the titular character in TV series Lucifer. He can be an asshat at times, but his redeeming qualities shine through in pretty much every episode; he’s helpful, has a strong sense of justice, and cares about Chloe. He often goes out of his way to understand others, although he often misses the mark, and tries to fix problems and issues that he accidentally creates in order to keep relationships with others. These are things people can relate to, and although he can be rather uncouth, it’s played for laughs, and he has more redeeming qualities than not. If the Constantine series started off with John coldly betraying a friend after giving him shit for his addiction the entire episode with not a lot of his positive traits coming through, from the perspective of most people, this might not be a good way to try and connect with the audience. I’m not saying there are people who don’t/won’t, but again, this is network television and they tend to play on the safe side.

    Comic book -> TV

    Ok so let’s move onto the meat of this; the changes made to the story. People always complain when something isn’t totally accurate to the book down to every last detail (Harry Potter *cough cough*) and making story and character changes to adaptions of comic books is nothing new. However, to be fair, there are some legitimately good reasons for this. Time, money, limits technology wise, and pacing are good examples. The most important thing to consider, in my opinion, is that we are going from a comic book to television. Literally, that is the most important thing. Essentially, what the writers had to do when adapting this story for the show was carry over the plot from one medium to another, which is tricky.

    What’s a medium? A medium is a platform that allows a message to be shared or presented. So, using the medium of a comic book is how Jamie Delano was able to share his message; the story of John Constantine. The writers of the television series then had to adapt the story from comics, a visual and written medium, into a different kind of visual medium with different features to it; stage craft, voice, music, etc.

    Comic books have features for story telling; the size and placement of the panels, the writing, word bubbles, narration bubbles, colors, art style, etc. The pro’s to this are that you don’t get paragraph after paragraph describing a place or a person; they literally show them to you and the art presents those details. They also allow for the art to take in the reader emotionally through what the images convey; messy art, sudden loss of color, or even a sudden blank page after a tragic event are simple yet effective ways to convey emotion that are, at times, difficult or downright impossible to put into words. And sometimes the writer wants to leave things to interpretation or allude to something without saying it outright. While this can be done in writing, it can be done through the art as well, and depending on how skilled the artist or creative a set up can be just as effective if not more.

     In television storytelling can be done with another wide array of features. Close-ups on the actors, the actors and their performance in general, music, background narration, changes in location, lighting, ect. This allows for emotions to come across in different ways; the quality of the acting can make or break the effectiveness of the scene, and music and lighting can alter the message or feel of scene in order to change or heighten the point, pacing, the use of CGI or practical effects, etc. So, keeping this in mind, there are many features that are exclusive to film that are not in comic books, and vice versa. So, as you can imagine, adapting the stories or message from one medium to another is nowhere near as straightforward as people like to think it is. In other words, I tend to give the writers/actors/etc a break when it comes to adaption because, honestly, there is a lot that goes into it and it’s not like I could do better, honestly. I mean, there are piss poor adaptions, I’m not gunna lie, but there are a lot of them that I think don’t get enough credit simply because it’s “different” in some ways.

     Aight, let’s first refer back to what I said earlier concerning the comic; these issues aren’t so much an intro to John as they are literally following him from the end of the American Gothic arc in Swamp Thing and to his apartment where he gets involved with more shit (no rest for the wicked, amirite?). So, again, not a good way to start the TV series. In the TV show, they also have to tie in the changes they set up in the previous episodes. Continuity, my friends.

    So, what is different? Here are a few things: John having a safe house, being in the US, Chaz being American and also not involved, Zed being involved and being Latina, the new angel character Manny, and the absence of Papa Midnight really change a lot about the story. The heart of it is John’s relationship with Gary and the defeat of the demon, which thankfully remains unchanged at it’s core. This is the central idea that drives this story and I think that idea was actually done a bit better in the film medium than in the comic.

   Keeping all of these factors and all of these changes that needed in order to keep things consistent with the TV show’s changes, let’s get into why I think that this episode is good even with the changes, but why I love it.

I love It

      After taking some time to consider things, I realize that what really makes this episode great is the actors; specifically, Matt Ryan and Jonjo O'Neill. The chemistry between them is undeniable. The way they look at each other and how they talk to each other really makes you feel like, at one time at least, they were friends. The scene where Gary swipes the ID badge and says “I learned from the best” is a great example of this. The look on his face and John’s; I don’t have a real eloquent way to say it. I just sort of feel it.

The retcon of Gary’s character really helps with this. Being that Gary is introduced and then killed off in two issues, you don’t really get to know his character in the comics. He’s only in one episode of the TV series, yet he feels more fleshed out. Soul was added to the character. Showing his struggles with addiction, as well as what I suspect to be depression and PTSD, really humanized him. In the episode, he was more than just a desperate, annoying junky; he was a flawed and relatable human being. Who hasn’t made a mistake? How many people have made BIG mistakes with consequences difficult to handle? How many people are haunted by their actions from the past? Addiction and the effects is has on people is devastating. I’m glad that they kept the ending true to the comics, but the way he was portrayed in the episode really made me feel for Gary in this case. It almost made me hope that maybe he really would get better, and have the chance at redemption that he was trying so desperately to find. But it wouldn’t be a John Constantine series without an ending like this one; John loses a friend and slowly digs himself deeper into hell.

Of course, it’s the ending of the episode that people really remember best. It’s the scenes that solidified, at least for me, Matt Ryan as John Constantine. It’s what really helped me have faith in the series. Watching it now, and seeing what really could have been, makes the episode somewhat bitter sweet for me. I felt like this is when the series really found it’s footing; the acting, storytelling, and how well arcs from Hellblazer could be adapted. This is where I think Matt Ryan hit his stride and we could see what he was really capable of as an actor if they let him spread his wings. In the earlier episodes I was honestly unsure. He looked the part, but the soul of the character had not really had a chance to shine through.

How John treats Gary at the end really made a difference, too. Holding him while he was in pain, and sitting with him as he died in agony; these simple yet effective changes really drove home John’s humanity in the face of evil and the tough decisions he has to make. The look he gives many at the very end, the anger and sorrow he seems to be struggling to hold back, is haunting.

In this episode, Matt Ryan’s love and dedication to John’s character shine. Seeing the story in live action gave this story a stronger impact. Even without a lot of the social commentary that was present in the comic, the live action element is what really helps drive the story home. I think it’s because it’s real people showing these very real emotions that can be hard to translate into art. Not to say that John Ridgway did a bad job, but it’s different in live action.

I hope I was able to get these thoughts across. I wasn’t sure if I should share this or not, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I know this is sort of jumbled, but hopefully it’s not a total mess to read.

[smilingperformer]

Discussing the good and bad of Pokémon Journeys: Part “Chloe”

Time to discuss about the character that is still keeping me on board with watching Pokémon (2019)/Journeys despite having, cough, some issues with it. Let's talk about Chloe, also known as Koharu.

TLDR; I like how Koharu is handled so far, even if I somewhat wish there was more of her, and I believe I know what the intention with her is, and that is to show that the journey to finding your dream goal can be an exciting one and with possible obstacles on the way towards it. More under the cut, Journeys abverted as JN.

So. Let's start with how I became to like her character the moment JN002 aired, but also how her debut in JN001 has become interesting part of how Koharu used to love Pokémon, but then grew out of it. Which to me, reminds of people who grew with playing Pokémon games, cards, etc, but then as they got older, they grew out of it.

Anyway, as we all probably remember, both Gou and Koharu attended the Okido Camp as kids, where BOTH of the eventually meet Mew. From the very beginning, we're let known that Koharu is a daughter of a promising Professor Sakuragi, who's acquainted with Okido.

And we're also let known that the two are friends from before the camp, and I assume their games at Sakuragi's Lab involved playing as Pokémon or other stuff. She most definitely loved Pokémon and her dad's work back then.

But then when we fastforward to the present day as Satoshi, Gou and Koharu are all 10 years old, we see that this attitude has changed in Koharu. She's no longer interested in Pokémon that much, and the only Pokémon she accepts near her is their family 'mon Wanpachi. For me, this was very interesting approach, even if the "not interested in Pokémon" was done before with May/Haruka back in Advanced Generation series.

Even with this interesting approach, she was a side/supporting cast instead of main cast, which honestly felt weird to me as she definitely had a story to tell. But as I've been watching other shows lately, I kinda came to realise her approach reminds me of mid-season additions to cast, even thou her appearances nowdays are just a BIT more frequent, when before her joining the Research Fellows, she appear very seldomly.

Anyway. In JN011 we finally learn that, she pretty much has issues with people's expectations and how everyone assumes her to be very much involved with Pokémon just because of her dad's work. Truly, this would end up affecting her affection towards Pokémon, thou it's possibly not the whole reason for losing interest. She even admits here she's not sure of what she truly wants to do yet.

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of goal finding journeys, as they are very relatable to me as someone who took 20+ years to find out what I truly want to do for living, so Koharu wanting to find something instead of other people deciding it for her is very good lesson.

So what exactly is the approach with Koharu from this ep forward? Showing her see Pokémon in different, totally new lights, figuratively speaking. She's shown to take care of a Pidove who broke its wing in a runaway flight, helped her lil brother Sota's friend, Nami, attend to a small children's Contest, and went to a Fossil Exhibition with Satoshi and Gou to learn about fossils. And I feel like that, this fossil exhibition event is what truly rekindled Koharu's interest in Pokémon again. As we all remember, she truly enjoyed that trip, and she, for the first time, got to see Gou bond with a Pokémon, that was rampaging just moments ago. And this episode, accompanied with JN050, are why I am currently thinking Koharu's end goal will end up being related to fossils. It certainy would be an interesting approach for a female cast character, and I wouldn't mind her having a chat with some other character who's also involved in researching fossils... (cough Gary/Shigeru cough)

Anyway. All of this seemingly lead up to Koharu finally meeting her very apparent soul mate: Eevee. I know, that most people were somewhat (or even totally) annoyed by the fact that yet another pokegirl receives Eevee as their Pokémon, and that this is just boring. While I understand the sentiment, considering Koharu's character: Eevee is the only Pokémon that actually fits her. Koharu is out there still figuring out what she wants to be. What she wants to do. And Eevee is the most relatable Pokémon for that kind of character: Eevee can become eight, and I repeat, eight, different evolutions. That's pretty much the same as having different paths to choose from when deciding your goal. And this specific Eevee has also not yet decided what it wants to do. It refuses to evolve. While in-game one could say this is because of the g-max factor, I highly believe this is purely done for the purpose of making Koharu and Eevee relate on a very, very personal level. So instead of Eevee having the g-max factor disabling the evolution (because let's face it, it's only done so people won't accidentally evolve their Gigantamax Eevee), Eevee is kind of, constantly pressing the B button to prevent it.

Now: what has Eevee exactly given to Koharu's character? A lot actually. When before Koharu would try to deny interest in something or try to say she has something else to do instead of a trip, Eevee is there to push her forward to try things out.

Like in JN050, Koharu is trying to priotize her School instead of a Fossil trip to Galar, but thanks to Eevee, who wants to go, Koharu gets the needed push to go and try out new stuff. I very much adored this scene in this episode, due to encouraging the "try out new things" approach in life. From this point forward, we then see Koharu join in on other trips like the Diglett Farm (where she definitely shined in team leading and got to experience the farming and team leader approach) and the Glimwood Tangle trip, that Koharu herself prompted to her dad and the boys, instead of being asked to join. Which reminds me of something else btw.

While Gou is shown to be very knowledged with Pokémon, Koharu is shown to know more about other fields like how plants grows, and what kind of soil is good. This is from either school lessons or from her experience with taking care of the school flowers. She could possibly be considered a good student, and btw, I very much like the approach of not making her a school dropout once she started joining in on research trips, and instead takes homework to accomodate the fact that she's missing out on lessons. This isn't unusual in real life, so I'm glad JN is actually showcasing this approach with both Koharu and Gou. Thou with Gou, he's pretty much always absent, haha.

Now, her latest episode with Kikuna was an interesting one. While Koharu's main point in the episode was kind of to be the angel of love for Kikuna (which failed horribly, love you Kikuna <333 ), I'd say there was another reason for her being in that episode with Kikuna: it was to let her learn of the possibility of meeting possible pitfalls in one's dream goals. That lesson was in Kikuna's story about how she almost gave up in becoming a researcher due to a mess up with an important presentation for a conference, but found the strenght to try again. It's part of reaching your dream goal a lot of the time. Even Koharu's mom, Yoshino/Talia, gave her the story of how she originally wanted to be a mangaka, but gave up on the dream and instead approached something similar. These are all very important life lessons in how working toward one's goal can either fail, or come accoss obstacles. It depends on the person whether they'll end up switching the goal to something else, or strive to go forward to get past the obstacle. As someone who had exactly Koharu's mom's experience longside having to take a long while to find one, I appreciate that Koharu's journey has been about learning the good and bad experiences of working towards a dream goal.

Now: has this storyline been executed well? Imo, it has, but it ain't perfect, as there are some parts where I'd like to see some improvement on.

One of them is with how it's sometimes unclear as what kind of character she is counted as. Is the a main character alongside Gou and Satoshi now? Is the still supporting cast? Is she a lower tier main character that won't appear every episode still? The latest option would appear to be the case, but it's not often that simple to see.

There's also the case of Wanpachi seeming like it was teased to be eventually becoming Koharu's first partner, but instead it ended up being Eevee. I think for most, before JN049 aired, people assumed Wanpachi didn't belong to anyone exactly and thus was free reign. But, as JN049 confirmed, Wanpachi belonged to Sakuragi himself. Which is sorta funny, as Wanpachi clearly loves him the least, haha. So, what exactly do they intend with Wanpachi? I think, that in time it'll eventually switch owners to Koharu, as it clearly loves her the most, but the journey there is still on-going.

Now, here's something interest to think about: I think Koharu not being in every episode has actually been benefitial for her, as she never gives me the feeling that she's taking anyone's time for herself, and her involvements in stories fit quite well. My current favourites for her are definitely her team leading in Diglett episode, which is JN052, and the Galarian Ponyta episode (JN055) where she clearly showcased that she's able to handle herself in sticky situations. Which is quite a beautiful detail, at least to me.

Now to quiiickly note her dynamics quickly, let's talk a bit about how she is a big sister. Like, for real. She's got a baby brother in Sota/Parker, and the two do seem to have good relationship going on. However, I really want to see more of this! There's way too little of it going on right now, and it's mostly been typical siblinghood. I'm so glad there's still full on family aspects in JN, which is what I loved in Sun & Moon so so so much, but I want to see more. MORE! MORE-

I already talked about how I enjoy her dynamics with Gou and how their childhood friendship is showcased so well, and yet I still grave to see more. The two know each other well, and Gou always, ALWAYS respects Koharu, while Koharu ain't afraid to tell what's on her mind to Gou. Thou, she also knows that Gou would judge her if she were to ask about Pokémon bonding tips. Dyamn.

Now: I want more of Koharu and Satoshi. The two def seemed to have a bit of a "uugh who are you don't talk to me" approach, but it naturally faded as they went on their first trip to Nibi City's Fossil Exhibition. And they've been in good relations since I'd say.

Also to quickly note, I love how Koharu has been mentioned in couple scenes as being the character who's taught them first-aid or told about jealousy and how one should take Pokémon's feeling into consideration (even if this latter one should be obvious to Satoshi but, I digress, Satoshi was way too focused on Riolu and just assumed Pikachu would be fine since they've been buds since forever).

There's also so much more I still want to learn about: how exactly did she meet Gou and why she decided to be friends with him, does she have other friends besides him (because I would assume so but she's never shown with anyone else), give us an episode that's focused on Koharu & Sota, let her see Satoshi battle as well (afaik, she has NOT), let her meet Alola Squad + other past companions, and oooh there's so much I want her to do and I see so, so much potential in her character and I really really REALLY hope the writers don't screw her up.

Now is that all I wanted to talk about regarding Koharu... I guess so. As you might have figured out by now: I almost have no issues with how Koharu is written. She's enjoyable to watch and, suprisingly, I find the pace of her story-telling pleasant and not too fast nor way too slow. Could it do well with a bit faster pace? Possibly, but due to me seeing her as sort of a mid-season addition akin to how Precure or Digimon do them, I'm fine with this approach. Considering the current pace, I think she'll end up finding what she wants to end up working towards to by the end of this year, or early next year. And, despite how many might fear, I highly doubt it will be Contests. As it's pretty clear JN isn't out there to promote mainline games feature-to-feature, but instead cherry picks stuff it wants to do. I'm still quite certain, that she'll end up becoming a professor of her own fields, possibly of fossils (which, considering DP's Underground feature, could fit very well in promoting this feature of the remakes). Maybe even become a team leader of a fossil researching team, as she definitely showcases the skills for it, for knowing soil, fossil digging and again, team leading. And I totally didn't figure this out while writing this post. :'D (I totally did.)

So. I believe I'll end this post here, as this is already quite long by now and, honestly, there's not much left to talk about. It really feels good for me to talk so positively about a character in JN, as it's no secret that I ain't the biggest fan of the show. However, Koharu's approach speaks to me personally, very well, and I so, so look forward to seeing how her journey ends up going, and where it will lead her.

So who's up next on the list of discussions? I think you guys can guess it.

And it's gonna be a doozy one. Oh man oh man.

Thank you so much for reading if you came this far, have a fantastic evening/morning/whatever, and take good care of yourselves!

This was Smiling Performer aka Aleira, signing out! PEACE!

[greatghuleh]

as much fun as I had watching Lucifer Season 5, after a few days sitting on it... Gawd, it is a mess. hahaha

suffers from the same issues Season 3 had. Had some really great stuff, fantastic moments but loses itself in its bloat.  I think there was too much leeway and “extra” that the season lost focus and dragged at points and lost character in order to keep storylines dragging along because they had no other plans for the stories beyond what was already presented. 

Amazingly acted with some full on great moments but sloppy sloppy sloppy.  I love this show, have a blast watching it. But this is my Season 5 rant to criticize what I have issue with so I can just vent it out of me.

TLDR: Lucifer creatives work best in focuses contained seasons. They misstep when they are given a long leash and have to fill the gaps this creates. Hopefully a shorter Season 6 will use its time better like Season 4 did.

example.  Chloe, just like in Season 3, gets lost in the drag of the storyline. Even though there’s plenty of time to explore everything more, the story loses its focus and doesn’t know what to do with having an intelligent character actually confront the issues so they dumb Chloe down for a while. They make her blind to things for a while so she stagnates or even steps out of character to a fairly extreme degree. (marriage to Pierce in S3, worried about job but not Trixie when it comes to following wherever Lucifer is going)

and I know Michael was playing on Chloe’s fears, and she admits this much. but the fucking push and focus on Lucifer saying “I love you” specifically those words when he’s shown he has so much baggage. and that you can have a loving relationship without having to say those specific words. and that he’s already admitted to loving her like a billion times just not in those exact words. I’m dying. (I get I guess Chloe needed to hear it but also she got mad at Lucifer for not being confident in her loving him but she’s doing the same thing the whole season!?)

Ella. Like... we got 16 episodes and her entire arc is “I like bad guys” (and this is somehow suddenly almost all consuming) and “I have dark thoughts.” which like... okay??? I dunno. and none of it really gets resolved to any actual degree. These problems still exist but she had a convo with God, who basically just repeated what Amenadiel told her already ??? and she sat next to a potential nice guy at a funeral?

Maze. *Sigh*  Season 3 all over again, honestly.  ALL OVER AGAIN. Its a repeat. With less of a “redemption” really.  Her resolution with Lucifer I guess happened off screen. We set up the ring stuff so much and then that resolution just kind of fizzled. Chloe and Maze never really deal with Maze fucking her around with Michael.

You’re telling me Eve was willing to live forever as Lucifer’s queen in Hell but when Maze wants her to she’s like “nah, I don’t want to live forever. it like... fucks you up look at Cain.” even tho there are plenty of other examples of immortals in this show.... having rich meaningful lives......... HELLO.   Love me some Maze/Eve but this was just so WTF to me. (what is she saying about Maze here? she’s immortal)

Chloe never actually confronted God about being a miracle. I’m soooooooooo!!!! about it.  Like, we got a scene of her telling God he’s a bad dad. then multiple more episodes of him following her and Lucifer around and we never got this conversation??!??!?!?!?!

Lucifer went back to Hell to keep the Demons from rebelling and possessing people and hurting people.  Then God says Hell doesn’t need a warden anymore. Doesn’t say how or why.  I assume he did something to control Demons from doing bad things now????? but then the finale has Demons possessing human bodies to fight Angels sooooooooooo!??!?!?!?!!?!? What’s happening here?!

Until season 6 happens and possibly changes this, the Daniel shit is just unfulfilling.  Hit me hard and made me cry. but as a character story arc WTF ????!

If Michael was assembling the Flaming Sword to fight a War, then why do they just basically have a vote at the end???? 

You’re telling me Gabriel can travel between dimensions and communicate AND bring physical things through the dimensions. but God and Goddess cannot freely travel these dimensions as well?!?! They just have to go and be stuck in one forever now?!   WHAT. 

anyway, these are some of my gripes. Loved the season for the most part. had lots of fun. Can’t get over how good Season 4 was compared to it tho. oooop

[thenightling]

My opinion on some of the Netflix Sandman rumors

We fans don’t have much in the way of substantial news about The Sandman Netflix series.  All we have are rumors and gossip.   I have compiled some of the rumors here along with my opinions on those rumors.  Consider this a disclaimer.  I am only a fan.  I do not have any inside info.   All the rumors here are ones that can easily be found on various sites online.   Now to begin...

Rumor: Morpheus will be captured in 1916 but will not escape until present day.  

This rumor has been confirmed true by Neil Gaiman on his Tumblr account and other Social media websites.  In my opinion this was wise because it enables Morpheus’ capture to continue to overlap with the real-world sleeping sickness outbreak of Encephalitis Lethargica.  

Rumor:  Michael Sheen is playing Lucifer.

This rumor was debunked months ago by Neil Gaiman but I surmised that the one who started the rumor had found out he was playing Lucifer for The Sandman audio drama and had gotten confused.  I was right.   I DO however suspect Michael Sheen and possibly David Tennant will have roles in The Sandman Netflix series, just not the same role Michael Sheen had in the audio drama.

My Opinion: I’m all for Michael Sheen having a role in The Sandman Netflix series.  Him and David Tennant.  

Rumor: Doug Jones is going to be in The Sandman as a supporting character.

This rumor comes from two clues.  The first being that Neil Gaiman has spoken about his like of Doug Jones and Guillermo Del Toro almost did a Sandman adaptation with Doug as Morpheus.  Doug Jones even brought this up recently, which suggests that the subject might be on mind.   

My opinion:  Doug is an excellent character actor and I want this to be true.  He should be in Sandman.  I love Doug. And there are plenty of characters he could play.  Lucien, Mervyn Pumpkinhead, Doctor Destiny, various nightmares.   

Rumor:  Liam Hemsworth or Dacre Montgomery will play The Corinthian.

Opinion: I like Liam Hemsworth.  He deserves a shot but Dacre is also good.

Rumor:  Tom Sturridge is playing Morpheus.

Opinion:  I am 90% sure this rumor is true. There are a number of sources claiming the same thing.  Also just google how the man looks.  I think he’ll do a fine job.  I thought Oliver Farnworth would have been excellent too but I’m sure Tom Sturridge would be fine. 

Rumor:  The Netflix Sandman series will see Dream take many forms including a female form.

Opinion:  This isn’t really new.  We saw Dream’s feminine side in Overture.  If it bothers you to see Morpheus might have a feminine side, you probably shouldn’t be watching something like Sandman anyway.

Rumor:  Death will be played by a black woman.

The source of this rumor comes from Neil Gaiman saying something about loving the actress chosen for Death but feeling some people will complain.

Opinion:   ...So?   She’s an Endless.  She can look any way she wants.  I would have liked to have seen Jamie Chung in the role though.  She voiced her for the Death short that accompanied the Wonder Woman: Bloodlines Blu Ray.

Rumor:  Morpheus’ extended capture will effect his reunion with Hob.

My opinion:  Uhhhh Duh.

Honestly though this makes me VERY curious as to how their reunion will play out. I hope it is just as sweet as the comic. 

Rumor:  The Corinthian will appear fairly early in the series and even advise Roderick Burgess how best to contain Morpheus.

Opinion: Well, according to the leaked Corinthian audition this is true.  I don’t mind it at all.  It makes sense. It fits.

Rumor:  Alexander Burgess’ story is now more sympathetic and he as well as his father will age slower because of Morpheus’ capture.

Opinion:  This seems likely based on certain leaks.  And I kind of hope this means Morpheus will be able to punish Roderick and not Alex.

Rumor:  Alex will now have an older brother who died during World War 1, a brother that Roderick preferred, and he takes out his grief on Alex in abusive ways. it also gives Roderick a new motivation for wanting to capture Death.

Opinion: This is likely true based on certain leaks from last February.  I have mixed feelings about this because sometimes parents are just assholes.  They don’t need a tragic loss to set off their abusive behavior.  It also made Roderick worse (in the comics) that he treated his only (known) son the way he did. It’s been recently established in the comics that John Dee was actually Alex’s half-brother.  I guess it all depends on how this is done. 

I also don’t think Roderick needs to be grief stricken in order to want to control Death.   This is a cliché, a cliché we saw in Disney’s Gargoyles and even in Hercules and Xena.  Someone loses someone they love and tries to capture Death in order to bring them back.  Roderick doesn’t need this trope.  He was an occultist who wanted to be a big shot in the world of early twentieth century magick users. In my opinion that should be enough but I’ll keep an open mind. 

Rumor:   They were supposed to start filming in May but it was delayed to late October because of Covid.  

This one is true.

Opinion:  Hurry up!

Rumor:   Roderick Burgess has no real magick in the show.

Opinion: Sadly this is likely true based on a character description leak from the casting call.  I shall miss seeing Sykes’ head explode...  Honestly I kind of hope this is wrong.  I’m tired of magick being diminished in comic book TV and film.   

Rumor:  The first season of Sandman will combine Preludes and Nocturnes with The Doll’s House.

Opinion:  This is likely true.  I’m fine with it.  It might flow better for TV this way.

Rumor:   The “A game of you” storyline will have trans people writing.

Opinion:  This makes sense  And this is pretty much already confirmed true.

Rumor:  The Netflix show will have the same cast as the audio drama.

Opinion: Though I would not mind this, I know it is not true. This is likely the result of an IMDB listing for the audio drama mistakenly calling it a show and some fans mistaking that IMDB page as being the one for the Netflix series.

Rumor: The Netflix Sandman series is canceled and the audio drama is all we’re getting.

This rumor is absolutely false!    It’s a stupid rumor made by those who had no idea the audio drama was happening before the pandemic even hit.   The audio drama is not compensation because there will not be a Netflix show.  Both will exist.

Opinion:  Shame on those leaping to this conclusion and spreading it as fact. 

Rumor: A character named “Ann” is being cast and she’ll be a major recurring character. 

Opinion:  I’ve seen this sort of thing before.  It’s how you hide what character they are trying to cast.  Clearly this is a major female character for the show and probably was a name used as a place holder for Death of The Endless or even Rose Walker.  I’m not too concerned about this.  Some fans are upset and already raging that they’re making up a new character just for the show, ala Chloe Decker in Lucifer.  I don’t think there’s anything to worry about here.

Rumor:   Tom Ellis will not be playing Lucifer.

Opinion:  Tom Ellis has wanted to move on from Lucifer for a while.  He wants season six of Lucifer to be its last.   Let him move on. Neil Gaiman also wants his Lucifer to be different from the Lucifer TV show version.  The Lucifer TV series deviated heavily from the comics and it might confuse people with the big differences in lore.  It is probably for the best that Tom Ellis not play Lucifer.

Rumor:  The Sandman is why Lucifer is being canceled.

Opinion: No.  Lucifer has been canceled three times now. In fact the first time it was canceled The Sandman TV series had not been picked up by Netflix yet.  Lucifer has had six seasons.  For a paranormal police procedural that’s a good, long, run.  Not everything can be Supernatural.   Forever Knight (and most shows of that type) only had three seasons.  Lucifer out lived the norm for its type of show and survived two cancelations.   Let it go.   Do not blame Sandman.  The Sandman is what gave us Lucifer, not took it away.  The Sandman is where the story of Lucifer quitting, opening Lux, and taking up piano came from. 

Rumor:  The Sandman is the most expensive show DC has ever made.

According to Variety this is true.

Opinion:  It probably has to be expensive.  Look at all the stuff they need to show us, the sets and special effects needed.

Rumor:  Lucien might be played by a woman.

Apparently this rumor started because some of the Morpheus auditioners let slip that they auditioned with a woman as Lucien.   

Opinion: I’m not sure how I feel about this.  I love the character of Lucien.  A a woman version might take a little getting used to. I don’t hate the idea, I just prefer how he appears in canon.   Further note, I kind of hope he has a full head of hair like he does in the recent comics.  There is a very high chance she was just reading his lines since at the time the role being cast was Morpheus, not Lucien.

Rumor:  The Sandman could air as early as Summer of 2021.

Opinion:  *Insert bitter laugh here.* I wish...

Rumor:   Alexander Burgess is gay.

Opinion: And in other news water is wet!

Rumor: Desire will be played by someone who identifies as Genderfluid or nonbinary.

Opinion: This is very likely true.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Okay, I have to admit it: Henrik making Dom clinical lead and just straight up stating that he did so because “it’s your mess, you deal with it, I’ve had enough for one day” was ICONIC. It took me several minutes to stop laughing hysterically at that.

Indeed, Henrik was on form tonight, for better or worse. Seems he’s back to being the ice queen we all know and love.

I guess his storyline is probably just... over now?? I don’t know how to feel about that. On a personal level, I’m glad to not have to deal with all the triggers anymore. But as a fan of the show and someone who cares about accurate depiction of trauma and mental illness, I’m angry. They threw away Henrik and Sahira’s entire relationship and retconned it to the point Sahira was for all intents and purposes a new character, invoked all sorts of awful racist stereotypes about men of colour, wrote one of the most sickeningly exploitative abuse storylines I’ve ever seen on a soap (and that’s saying something)... all for no proper aftermath and to revert Henrik back to how he was in, like, 2015?? What was the point?

Indeed, one could say that for a number of storylines on the show these days. Nothing seems to mean anything anymore. Why should I care about what’s currently happening on the show when it won’t matter once the storyline is over anyway?

In the words of one of my favourite bands, Lord Huron - “what does it mean if it all means nothing?”

And it looks like we’re back to CEO Henrik for the long term. Why?!?! Not only is there nothing left to do with Henrik as CEO, but we know he hates the position. As funny as he was tonight (his reaction to this whole Dom trainwreck is basically my reaction), it also really says something that he’s been CEO again for about three weeks and he’s already blatantly despising it. The CEO job really harms his mental health. It always has. And it’s so ironic that they tried to put him into a “recovery” narrative while also keeping him in the CEO job, which guarantees there won’t be any recovery or healing for him. Because it’s actively putting more stress on him. It’s just not a good idea, not on an in-universe level and not on a story level.

I suppose at least we got some good stuff out of Henrik’s storyline before they rapidly wrapped it up and threw it away. We got canon confirmation that he’s queer. I never thought I’d see the day that happened. And we have as-good-as confirmation that he’s autistic, which is nice.

But other than that, and both those things could have been achieved other ways... the storyline ultimately seems to have amounted to nothing.

Also, I hope Holby are aware that if Henrik doesn’t finally get an autism diagnosis storyline within the next year or so, the stuff they’ve been doing recently will just really end up looking like baiting. Just saying.

Uh, I’m pretty sure I had more to say about Henrik but I can’t think of anything so I’ll leave it at that for now and if I remember what I was gonna say I’ll post it later.

You know what was very good tonight, though? And actually respectfully done? Max’s storyline. I had high hopes for the quality of this SL, and it has not let me down. So far, anyway. I hope it doesn’t end up letting me down after all after this strong start.

It feels more grounded than anything else Holby have done in a long time. There’s no over-the-top sensationalism, no piling things on for added misery. It actually feels like real, human drama.

The writing for Max was very good tonight, and on top of that, Jo Martin played the scenes brilliantly. She is truly an incredible actress, and I think the fandom massively underappreciates her and her talent.

I hope this storyline stays as good as it’s started out. (And as a sidenote: the official Holby Twitter actually liked a tweet where I said this was the first good storyline the show had had in ages. Sounds like even the people who run the Holby Twitter are tired of the show’s sensationalism, lol.)

Some smaller notes regarding the rest of the ep (because I always have a lot to say about Henrik, and I can’t praise Max’s storyline so far enough, but I don’t have much to say on the rest):

The Dom thing is just a mess. Like Henrik’s storyline, it’s pretending to be an issue story, while it’s actually just rampant sensationalism. And the whole Evil Dom thing is just cringeworthy.

And did anyone ask for a Chloe/Josh/Ange love triangle? I certainly didn’t. I did find it funny when Ange said she’d snog Henrik though, because I remember when she first turned up, people actually thought they were gonna get together.

I don’t have anything to say on the whole Kian, Lucky and Andrei storyline because it bores me so much I don’t pay attention to it lol.