#chat blanc my beloathed

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Since you’ve talked about the secret between Adrien and Mari and how Adrien has no agency, back when the s5 bible leaked, there was a part where it said that „Adrien will never find out about his father being Hawkmoth“ or something like that.

Do you think the writers will actually stick with that rule? Because I just can‘t see how this is supposed to be narratively satisfying…

I have no idea and that's not a compliment. It's a condemnation. Adrien should absolutely find out about his father. The story isn't satisfying if he doesn't. But Miraculous doesn't seem to care about being satisfying. It cares about being shocking and that's a terrible thing. To explain why, let's talk about the topic of predictability in narratives and why it's generally a good thing.

We'll start with a quote from a famous George R.R. Martin interview where he perfectly explains why you want your stories to make logical sense with the final line of the quote being the most important part:

Before the Internet, one reader could guess the ending you wanna do for your novel, but the other 10.000 wouldn’t know anything and they would be surprised. However, now, those 10.000 people use the Internet and read the right theories. They say: “Oh God, the butler did it!”, to use an example of a mystery novel. Then, you think: “I have to change the ending! The maiden would be the criminal!” To my mind that way is a disaster because if you are doing well you work, the books are full of clues that point to the butler doing it and help you to figure up the butler did it, but if you change the ending to point the maiden, the clues make no sense anymore; they are wrong or are lies, and I am not a liar.

This is a writing rule that I believe in my soul, but that the Miraculous writers don't seem to care about. Miraculous will introduce things that should be important to the story, but they end up meaning nothing.

A great - and relevant - example of this is the Chat Blanc stuff. Chat Blanc comes near the end of season three, early season four sees Marinette have a nightmare about Chat Blanc, and late season four is all about Chat Noir feeling left out as Marinette trusts Alya over him. Many viewers looked at these story beats and went, "Oh, okay, so Chat Blanc is causing Marinette to push Chat Noir away. Got it." because it honestly was the only thing that made any sense.

But that's not what was going on. The official word is that Marinette was just stressed over her new role as the guardian even though nothing in the text really explains why that would strain her relationship with Chat Noir. It actively improves her relationship with Alya! Why wouldn't it do the same with her long-term partner? As we've discussed several times, he was fine with the status quo at the start of the season and didn't even ask for more responsibility until Kuro Neko so it's not like he was doing anything to stress her out until he randomly quit on her.

This begs the question: if Chat Blanc isn't haunting Marinette and Chat Noir isn't stressing her, then why doesn't she share things with Chat Noir? Why go with Alya when Alya's identity was revealed to the villain requiring Alya to go into "hiding" as Rena Furtive? There's really nothing in the text to answer those incredibly important questions. Question that are only incredibly important because the writers actively chose to have multiple episodes dedicated to Chat Noir feeling left out. Why that happened really isn't clear so there's also no clear resolution. What needs to change? No clue! Did that thing change? Once again, no clue! It's all set up with no pay off!

Or, at least, we don't get the kind of pay off you'd expect to see. Aka the big dramatic moment where Ladybug finally confesses what happened to her. Instead, Chat Blanc's big pay off is Adrien missing the season five fight because he just magically knows that Chat Blanc happened:

During the scene that leads to Adrien wearing the Alliance ring after being reticent to it, [the writers] say that they had a conflict when writing it as they had to find a way for Adrien to not become his superhero self, cataclysm the walls and go help his lady in Paris. The end result is that Adrien is reminded of the devastating effect of his power by the nightmare and would therefore do anything to avoid hurting people, and so he wears the ring. Mélanie says that he "could become Chat Blanc" and the others add that even though he does not remember and has never lived it, Chat Blanc still has an influence on his actions.

So Chat Blanc doesn't matter to the person who actually met him, but it does matter to the person who was Chat Blanc an alternate timeline even though this show has never once showed another akuma victim to be haunted by their akumatization. Does that make any sense? No, it's frustrating and confusing, but it does tell us the way these writers think and that insight doesn't bode well for Adrien learning the truth about his father. It's not enough for me to say with certainty that it will never happen, but I would not assume that it will happen. The show has an active pattern of avoiding these kinds of payoffs:

Example 1: Multiple Lila appearances had her claiming to be Ladybug's BFF and she was even interviewed for the Ladyblog based on this lie, but as soon as Alya learns Ladybug's identity, the show conveniently forgets about this ongoing lie because then Alya would be against Lila and the writers didn't want that.

Example 2: Marinette gave Alya the Fox without telling Chat Noir that they had a new full-time teammate, but Chat Noir never learns about this development. The most he gets is that Ladybug revealed her identity to someone, which is nowhere near as important as the Rena thing in terms of the ongoing fight against Paris' resident supervillain. The fact that Rena Rouge is now Rena Furtive is literally never revealed to him. He learns that she's active in the final fight, but the name change and her status are forever a secret. Alya being Rena Furtive also leads to nothing useful for the heroes. You could remove that from season four and it would play almost exactly the same same for a few minor tweaks.

Example 3: Luka learns Ladybug and Chat Noir's identities in Wishmaker, but this reveal is just used as an excuse to write Luka off the show in season five. The episode that gets him written off shows Monarch realizing that Luka knows the identities because of some mental connection that happens during akumatization. This is damning because Kagami was akumatized twice in season five (Perfection and Protection) and we later learn that Kagami learned Marinette's secret identity during Perfection, the first of the two episodes. In fact, Kagami learned the secret mere minutes before getting akumatized and she was akumatized because Marinette wasn't talking to her so Marinette being Ladybug should have been on her mind and yet Monarch didn't get so much as a hint of any of this!!!!!

That's not even getting into the issue of the fact that nothing in Perfection so much as hints that Kagami knows even though the episode is all about her relationship with Marinette or the issue of Marinette keeping her secret identity safe even though she was almost akumatized the freaking times! SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!! WHY IS IT WRITTEN LIKE THIS??? How is anyone supposed to follow such shitty lore? The audience can't text appropriately if they don't know what the stakes are.

So, yeah, I'd put a small amount of money on Adrien never learning because that would be way too satisfying and Miraculous hates being satisfying or logical. The times we do get big reveals are generally terrible like with freaking Andre the Ice Cream Man being the one to tell Adrien about Marinette's crush or Lila being outed because of a plan Sabrina and Marinette made up off screen or Adrien finding out about Chat Blanc because magic. Watch Andre the Ice Cream Man be the one to tell Adrien about his dad for some reason. Nothing would surprise me at this point.

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The writers had full control of this scene and everything leading up to it. They could have just had Gabriel watching from above, leaving Nathalie out of it like they did in Ephemeral. Instead they made Nathalie be the one responsible for the reveal and placed that scene AFTER letting her support the Adrienette breakup. They then did nothing to show Nathalie regretting her actions or trying to protect Adrien.

In other words, nothing in this episode presents Nathalie as giving a flying fuck about Adrien. I'm not going to headcanon her into a good person when that means ignoring the things that actually happened in the actual show. I'm going to treat her as the monster canon made her.

Nathalie tattling on Adrien’s identity to Gabriel in CB would’ve been so much more understandable if she didn’t know Gabriel was Hawkmoth and a genuine threat to Adrien’s physical safety

[thecoolcatstuff]

Top 5 Early Miraculous Episodes That Aged Like Fine Milk

So here is my list of episodes that, looking back, have absolutely not aged well. Id like to remind people yhat this is an Early Episodes list. As so, fan beloathes like Kuro Neko or Derision wont be figuring out, or anything past s03 for that matter.

#5.Chat Blanc

I remember when Chat Blanc came out the hype was out if this world,people saw it as the episode that would "distinguish children from men" in terms of lore and writing . An episode about Chat Noir akumatized? A villain reveal? A betrayal? The world-ending apocalypse? God, its every edgelord's wet dream.

As soon as it came out theories started poping out on the developments of that episode. When would Adrien know? How affected would Ladybug be by it? And Gabriel, what would be his reaction if he found out about it?

However, as we look back now what do we see? An episode that didnt really ammount to anything. Adrien and Gabriel were still unaware of the Chat Blanc timeline, Marinette seems to have forgotten the issue at all, except when it comes as an excuse to keep identities hidden.

The whole drama was set up, and there seems to be literally nothing to talk about now, killing all of its hype.

#4.Pupeteer 2

The episode seems pretty fine if not for one measily detail: we later learn how that was the moment Adrien fell for Marinette.

Which, as we rewatch the episode, makes little to no sense. In the episode, Adrien was nothing beyond eager to improve his platonic relationship with Marinette, still unsure why she couldnt stand talking to him. Even in the almost kiss moment, there is no blush, no flirt, not any sign whatsoever that he might have been remotely attracted to her.

And an important detail: If Adrien had felt anything romantic at all youd think he would be thinking twice about confiding to her about the other girl he loves. Not to say how he immediately started courting Kagami after, so Marinette wasnt even his second choice at that moment.

#3.Miraculer

Many may say that that Queen's Battle are the episodes that best describe Chloe's failed redemption arc. I disagree, saying that the one that better represent it is Miraculer. Here, we see chloe's redemption at its peak. Chloe rejecting akumas, pulling his weight against mayura, and even with her own issues working together with the whole team to win over the villain. And all just episodes from Chloe inexplicably just turn a 180 and going for the Evilest Person Ever position.

#2. Ladybug

If you ever want to prove to someone that the Sentimonster Theory was a retcon, just show them this episode. Ladybug disregards most of sentilife philosophicsl debates and just treats sentibeings as expendable life. We have Gabriel and Nathalie completely disregarding Sentimonster Life even with Adrien supposedly a sentimonster. Even Ladybug and Chat Noir give us little regarding sentibug's death, just a sad-face-with-tear reaction and moving on, and I really doubt the reaction would have been the same if a flesh-and-bone human had died. The narrative clearly doesnt aknowledge that Senti Ladybug's life was as inportant, what makes the whole claim that "sentimonster lives matter" later on nonsensical

#1.Chameleon

Remember when Miraculous was a fun and go-lucky superhero show about a girl and her cat fighting villains? Chameleon is the catalyst for when things started to go wrong. The whole Lila plot tapped into the insecurities of many people and brough out the worst in the fandom. Salt against Adrien, Alya, Bustier and the class started popping out, people who just wanted to prioritize Marinette's needs above all else started coming in. Class salt became a subgenre of the fandom and extremely popular.Chameleon may look innocent but awoke the worst of this fandom.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Fun challenge idea: You have to make a 26 episode season of ML using the episodes from all 5 seasons, that goes from beginning to end of the series so far. (Operate under assumption that two parters are just one longer episode, that way it burns less episodes)

The episodes I feel have to be used are:

Origins, Heroes Day, Miracle Queen, Risk/Strikeback, Finale (Duh)

Sapotis, Anansi, Style Queen, Malediktator (S2 Heroes Important)

Volpina + Collector (Fu + HM)

Feast, Representation (Important Backstory shit)

Those are what O had off the top of my head.

Ah. Hm. Yeah the openings/finales of every episode is needed. And at least the Main 5 Hero Debuts. A lot of the Zodiac Heroes would get shafted, but I think we could have the Luka, Kagami and Alix episodes. So uh.

Origins

Pharoh(establishes how old the Miraculous are)

Volpina

The Collector

Sapotis

Queen's Battle(we're condensing the trio)

Anansi

Heroes' Day

Chameleon (Lila's return and shows she's being a threat)

Feast

Desperada (Luka's Hero Debut)

Miraculer (more on Chloé, whether you want redemption or downfall. First example of someone rejecting Akumatization)

Ikari Gozen (Kagami's Hero Debut)

Timetagger (Bunnyx appears)

Chat Blanc(Establishes Mari's trauma re: Identities)

Ladybug (Lila being a threat again plus if they wrote it better could set up Sentiplot)

Miracle Queen (My beloathed)

Gang of Secrets (Alya knows now)

Wishmaker(Luka knows now)

Queen Banana (make this Zoé's intro + her replacing Chloé)

Gabriel Agreste (Make this Felix's debut. Establishes him/his knowledge and skill, his future plans)

Risk/Strikeback

Destruction(Gabe getting Cataclysmed)

Emotion (Felix's whole plan. Maybe combine this with Pretension?)

Confrontation/Collusion/Revolution(Combining these three because they're basically a long episode even if they're not officially a multi=parter)

Confirmation/Recreation

[everythings-a-feather]

ok so now that we have the whole season I redid the tier list (I belive by @polkadotbrat)

and very quick thoughts, these were supposed to be a sentence each but I couldnt help myself

ma poule tier- its all the felix episodes cuz I am only invested in him at this point) strike back may be my overall fav this season cuz I was torn between wanting felix to be the dog and the peacock but strike back let me have my cake and eat it too also ik that felix giving hawkie the whole miracle box is like an awful betrayal or whatever but the miraculous zoo is gone thank god tho the ladynoir moment had me feeling empty and I just cant empathise with marinette at all at this point because none of the things she actually fucked up this whole season blew up in her face she just got played by felix and honestly good for felix. Also isnt lucky charms whole thing "it gives you what you need not what you want" and it pointed at felix, when Marinette could have picked up Adrien from the past TM before risk was active instead of Felix whos just unaffected. tho maybe its just that in Felix the episode its established that he can throw with dead accuracy so the lucky charm lead her to felix because hes good at throwing??? idk man ML is weird with this stuff

silver medal- Psychomedian almost made it to ma poule because ladynoir my formerly beloved but as my investment in them as of end of season 4 is dead its getting knocked down a tier. Crocoduel, purple tigress my beloved. Glaciator 2, Marichat shenanigans were very fun. WIshmaker, I like luka in this one and if the show pretends ephemeral never happened and he gets to do actual things I might actually like luka overall. Rocketear, angst my beloved, spawned good fics, detective nino was funny.

did something for someone- Gang of Secrets, eh honestly idc but the adressing of Marinette being stressed is nice, Hack-san, I liked scarabella and chats dynamic, please let there be canon bridgette so that felila is guaranteed to never happen tho canon bri will also need a personality shift (maybe be more Lawful Good than she already was to balance Felix being chaos energy?). Optigami- smart plan ig. Mister Pigeon 72, all it did was convince me that it should have been Marigami and Lukeadrien not Adrigami and Lukanette tbh, Hawkmoth x Mr Pigeon my... I wanna say crack ship beloved but I seriously think Feluka could work and Im not sure if theyre aware of each others existence since Luka isnt in Adriens class (Im not rewatching "Felix" to confirm this). Sentibubbler, congrats Alya stans? closest to being in the next tier

(un) bothered- Dearest family, I had hopes but the episode is eh. Furious Fu- Order of the guardians should have stayed dead. Guilt trip- Marinette... please Adrien almost has this covered. Penalteam, eh, powers underutilised here, tho I really like Penalty. Megaleech, SAMG was wasted on this episode. Truth and Lies- (total deadpan) oh no Lukanette and Adrigami the two ships we saw develop so much on screen and I was completely emotionally invested in and that the NY special didnt tell us broke up immediately after they started dating, seriously tho I cant take lukanette seriously as a pairing and Adrigami has potential but im kinda eh also Kagami literally has the "I will lose the love triangle" hair so.

Incredible anger- EPHEMERAL MY BELOATHED "BUT I DONT LIKE CHAT NOIR" GIRL WDYM WE SEE THE WAY YOU TWO LOOK AT EACH OTHER LUKA SPEEDRAN MY BELOVED TO MY BELOATHED EPHEMERAL LOOKED UGLY THE WRITERS DIDNT UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE LIKE CHAT BLANC. Kuro neko, almost everything @parismystere has said about this episode, I was clowning and hoping it would be a "adrien I need you to be a temp cat while I find Chat Noir" while Felix is in town idc about the middle but Adrien does tell felix he is chat so Felix as adrien says "oh well I happen to know chat noirs identity-" and gives the ring back to adrien while also solving the "we cant reach chat cuz no one knows his identity" problem cuz 'Adrien' knows who chat is, also this would tip them off to something fishy going on with Felix' well... Id say betrayal but for that Felix would have had to have been on their side and Felix doesnt seem to be interested in LB and CNs miraculous anyway. Sole Crusher and Queen Banana- Zoe my beloathed, also Id watch Chloes movie over whatever garbage they were actually filming any day, a chaotic bad movie is always better than a boring one.

I couldnt finish Qilin or simpleman and I dont wanna waste energy on them

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Is it just me, or does miraculous seemingly exist in this weird in-between where it's trying to be a standard superhero story and a deconstruction of superhero stories at the same time?

I don't know. All your trappings for a classic Superman run are there: goofy costumes, secret identities, villainous monologues, stories about friendship and teamwork and saving the city from knights and mimes and all other sorts...

But then it's like, randomly, it'll decide to pull elements from Watchmen or Worm instead. Chat Blanc and Recreation stand out as especially egregious on this front. A broken world destroyed by a monstrous hero? Ladybug standing back as the villain wins, keeping his secret to protect the fragile new order? These are famous plot beats from stories where morality goes to die, and I just can't fathom why they're showing up in a kids cartoon, of all places.

It's not just you. Miraculous has a lot of really weird elements for a standard superhero show, but before we get into that, let's quickly define what we mean by deconstruction for the folks who don't know that term (source):

"Deconstruction" literally means "to take something apart". When applied to tropes or other aspects of fiction, deconstruction means to take apart a trope in a way that exposes its inherent contradictions, often by exploring the difference between how the trope appears in this one work and how it compares to other relevant tropes or ideas both in fiction and real life. ...Note that while deconstructions often end up darker, edgier, sadder, and more cynical than the normal version, there is no reason they have to be. While the deconstruction process can reveal things we weren't thinking about for a reason — a major contributing factor in why it tends to be depressing — deconstructions are free to exist anywhere on the sliding scale of idealism versus cynicism.

As an example, Disney's Frozen deconstructions the idea of romantic love being the most powerful thing by having True Love's Kiss be a platonic kiss between sisters and not a romantic kiss between the leading lady and her love interest even though Ana still gets a love interest that she barely knows, but let's not get into that here. Just know that I don't like Frozen. I'm only using it as an example because it's obnoxiously popular and aimed at kids which is important because it shows us that you can have good deconstruction in media aimed at families and children. The message that your sister's love is just as powerful as your boyfriend's is a good one for kids to internalize. It's also one that you can understand without knowing the genre. Frozen might be funnier and more satisfying for those of us who know the classic fairytale standard of True Love's Kiss, but you don't need to know that standard to enjoy the film and walk away feeling like it had a good message.

This is Miraculous' problem.

Miraculous is not playing with genre conventions in a way that lets you enjoy the story even if you don't know the genre conventions. It is doing dark and edgy deconstruction that requires you to know the classic way things play out so that you might want to see something different. In Frozen, True Love still wins, it just takes a different form. In Miraculous, True Love fails.

Is it more realistic for an abused teenage boy to be overwhelmed and lose all hope because of the reveal that his abusive father is the supervillain and his mother's body is hiding in the basement? Yes. Is it a better message for kids who relate to Adrien?

No. Seeing Adrien give into despair is not empowering to the people who relate to him.

That's why I don't like Chat Blanc and Ephemeral and the season five final. They may be realistic, but episodic superhero shows for five-year-olds aren't the place for that kind of genre-desconstructuon-based realism. Kids shows are fundamentally incompatible with this type of deconstruction because this type of deconstructions only work if the audience understands the tropes and other genre conventions that the story is playing with. The first hero media you watch should not be a deconstruction of the genre that dismisses the idea of love and friendship conquering all. Little kids don't have the framework to get what's going on. They're not looking at Chat Blanc and viewing this as some interesting and realistic take on the standard genre conventions. They just see Adrien killing Marinette and what's the lesson of that?

Even from a deconstruction point of view these episodes were dumb because the story isn't saying something interesting about victims of abuse and the support they need since the story doesn't go on to give Adrien support. As I've mentioned before, if Chat Blanc's moral was ultimately that Adrien needed to know the truth before the final fight, then I could see it having value even though I think that's too complex for the target audience. That's not the moral, though. The moral is apparently that Adrien needs to be coddled and kept in the dark which I am never going to agree with.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

A thing that kinda bugged me about Chat blanc among other things is that Marinette‘s reaction to Adrien revealing his identity to her and then telling her he knows hers seems a little underwhelming? Like we‘re talking about the girl who keeps bringing up how important secret identities are between her an CN. But her reaction doesn‘t really reflect that at all.

Sure, she was already stressed out bc of just having broken up with Adrien and the limited time the episode has, but it just makes her feel a little ooc to me.

What are your thoughts?

Marinette's reaction does feel weirdly underwhelming, but I'd bet real money that this wasn't a deliberate choice for her character. It's way more likely that she was underplayed because the episode didn't have enough time to let her properly react, so they just wrote her poorly instead and called it a day. An issue that is not unique to her.

Chat Blanc had an insane amount of ground to cover and no where near enough time to do it in, so it's more of a highlight reel than a functional episode with proper story beats and character arcs. That's why we go directly from the reveal to Ladybug and Chat Noir confronting Hawk Moth in his layer with no explanation as to how they found him or the layer.

I'm assuming that it was a trap that he set up, but that's just a logical guess. We don't actually see Gabriel planning any of this or even just setting the plan in motion with a vague line about there being a plan. Were the heroes lured in by an akuma? Told where the layer was by a double agent? Who knows! All I can say for sure is that Adrien and Marinette clearly didn't know that they were facing Gabriel here, making me deeply curious as to how they found the layer without learning that Gabriel was involved. Is there a secret entrance that lets you get in without going through the Agreste mansion? If so, then why was that secret entrance never used again? You'd think that would be how Lila gets the butterfly, but she goes through the front door.

I could go on listing the issues with this episode being so insanely rushed and even point out other episodes that had similar problems, but I think you get the picture.

Of course, the timing explanation doesn't make Marinette's writing magically good. This was a bad - or at least lackluster - scene. Marinette feels out of character here! She's way too calm about this massive reveal, but the writers decided that telling this depressing story was more important than good character beats (or even good story beats) and this was the result. Just another example to add to the list of times when Miraculous showcased just how poorly suited its writing was to its chosen format (episodic formula show where every episode stands alone).

If you want to be a professional writer, then you have to own the medium you're working with and stick to plots that you can tell well. If the writers really wanted to do something like Chat Blanc while being true to the characters and telling a story that made sense, then they needed to sell it as a special or get permission to cut it into two parts. I'd personally go with cutting it entirely or even making it the show's grand finale where the heroes win for the reasons laid out in my power of love rant.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Honestly it‘s so weird that the first explanation LB comes up with for her exposed identity in Chat blanc is „Adrien prob snitched lol“ like she literally said before Alya amd Nino would never but Adrien would??

To be fair, Bunnyx does push her down that path for some reason:

Bunnyx: Do you know how Cat Noir found out about your secret identity? Ladybug: I think so. When I went into Adrien's house as Ladybug, he probably saw me. He figured out that Ladybug is Marinette because of the note written on the gift. But I'm not sure what happened next. Bunnyx: He probably told his friend Nino, who told Alya, who wrote about it on the Ladyblog. Ladybug: Mm.. They would never do that. But Adrien probably told someone, who told someone else, and so on, until it was all over the news! The best-kept secrets are the ones you never share.

But you're right about this being a weird thing for Marinette to believe. She trusted Adrien with a miraculous in Desperada and will go on to trust "Adrien" with the dog in the season four final. Those aren't the kind of moves you make if you don't think the person in question can keep a secret! I swear that these writers seem to think that "every episode stands alone" means "every episode takes place in a random AU where you don't know what is considered canon today."

If I were writing this episode, then I would have just never addressed this issue because there's not really a great explanation for what happened outside of the truth. It's one of the many disappointing things about this episode. In a better show, Chat Blanc would have lead Marinette to try to figure out what happened so she could keep it from happening again. In the process of that investigation, she would learn Gabriel's identity, leading to his big defeat! Let the asshole pay for his crimes! Let his plans blow up in his face! Let Chat Blanc backfire on the villain in every possible way! Instead, canon has Chat Blanc backfire on Adrien because that's so much more satisfying, right? (That was sarcasm)

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I spotted interesting thing:

When people post analyses of "Chat Blanc" and its aftermarth, most usually Bunnyx isn't mentioned even once.

This is rather ironic, given that Bunnyx is one of three most important characters of the episode (alongside Ladybug & Chat Blanc)

Also, one thing. Marinette salters like to claim that "Ladybug wasn't traumatized by Chat Blanc". They're somewhat right... and completely wrong.

That's because Ladybug wasn't traumatized by Chat Blanc himself (since he is "Adrien from Alternate universe", there is no connection between them), but by what Bunnyx told to her afterwards.

Like, she could mention True reason why Chat Blanc was Akumatized or not, and just say "Thanks for the help, Ladybug", and each of them would go separate ways. Instead, she decided to straight-up lie, and say "Your love caused this", which caused Marinette to take this personally and believe that she was one responsible.

This resulted in awful situation, where Marinette "protects the World" from danger that don't exist and will never appear... except Bunnyx herself (because among information that Marinette hides from everyone, is information that Bunnyx exists at all)

P.S. Obviously, I meant Adult!Bunnyx, in whole ask

I completely agree. It's one of my many issues with the episode. This dialogue was terrible!

Bunnyx: Do you know how Cat Noir found out about your secret identity? Ladybug: I think so. When I went into Adrien's house as Ladybug, he probably saw me. He figured out that Ladybug is Marinette because of the note written on the gift. But I'm not sure what happened next. Bunnyx: He probably told his friend Nino, who told Alya, who wrote about it on the Ladyblog. Ladybug: Mm.. They would never do that. But Adrien probably told someone, who told someone else, and so on, until it was all over the news! The best-kept secrets are the ones you never share.

In a better show, Bunnyx would have told Marinette that this was all just a matter of poor timing, reassuring Marinette that she doesn't need to be terrified of identity reveals. She just needs to be smart about them.

But we can't have that because that would give Marinette a reason to be more open with Chat Noir and the show has a rule that Marinette and Adrien must always have a secret between them so everything will be written to keep their relationship surface level no matter how much it poisons the show.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

The thing about them making Gabriel seem like a good parent by making Colt an abusive parent to Felix is that's it way too late to do that. We already seen that the moment Gabriel finds out his son is Chat Noir, he will barely hesitate to mentally break his son to akumatize him, even resorting to beating him up.

The fact they still expect us to buy this narrative in Season 5 that Gabriel was a good parent to Adrien after all of that is quite frankly insulting.

Chat Blanc and Ephemeral were mistakes by pretty much every conceivable metric. The only good thing they added was angst fodder for the fandom and it wasn't even really needed because the fandom was WAY ahead of canon on the rather obvious idea of Chat Blanc.

Fun fact: before we got the canon look, the popular idea in fanon was that Chat Blanc would have pink eyes because, if you invert the colors on something, green becomes pink just like black becomes white. Meanwhile green to blue seemed like the obvious default to me because I've always loved Danny Phantom and, well, just look at his human form vs his ghost form:

So that is one point I will give canon. Blue eyes was totally the right design choice in my book. Props to the art team for the extra effort.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I will forever hold the opinion that Chat Blanc should’ve been a nightmare, hallucination, or otherwise hypothetical/not real scenario rather than a real event.

I can get behind something happening that causes a rift between Ladybug and Chat Noir, these kind of character plots can be interesting if done right, but they never should’ve given a legitimate reason that Adrien shouldn’t wield the power of Destruction or that Ladybug can’t actually trust him with information (or at all). Because the potential of Chat Noir actually becoming Blanc because he knows her identity (while not the full reason, that’s the big one to Ladybug) makes him way too big of a risk to keep on the team, and therefore almost justifies her distancing him (narratively at least, I don’t actually think that was the right move, even in this context, kinda like how she didn’t tell Chloe she couldn’t be Queen Bee anymore right away).

I will never get why the writers are so intent on making one of their main heroes seem unfit for the job. If he’s not fit for it, then he never should’ve been a hero in the first place! And yet that’s somehow not the story they’re trying to tell here? Oh, he is a good fit for the Miraculous? Then stop trying to make him incompetent or dangerous!!!

I actually don't mind Chat Blanc being a thing. I even have an ideal version of it that I'd love to see play out with pretty visuals for all the big dramatic scenes.

The idea that Chat Noir can be akumatized doesn't make him a bad hero because the message should be that everyone is capable of being akumatized. Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, and Carapace were all akumatized during the season two final, but they kept their roles on the team. I have no problem with that. Marinette has almost been akumatized multiple times and she never considered giving up her miraculous, nor should she. Everyone is going to have dark moments. It's not some massive failing.

The problems with Chat Blanc are:

The way time travel is used, making Bunnyx god

Adrien being able to lose while Marinette is there, which should never happen in a power of love show

The fact that the writers are using Chat Blanc to argue that Adrien can't be trusted with the truth

The fact that the writers present Chat Blanc as Marinette's failing/an identity reveal problem

I think the first two issues are self explanatory, so let's focus on the final two as they're insane writing choices.

Adrien learning the truth during a fight with his father is a great setup for him being akumatized! I don't have any issues with it. Remove Marinette from the scene and Adrien going full Chat Blanc is fine by me! The problem is that this isn't being presented as a warning that Adrien needs to learn the truth outside of the final battle (reasonable and what I thought this episode was doing at first). It's being presented as an argument that Adrien can never be told the truth because he's just too weak and unstable to handle the truth (asinine). If that's really what they're going for, and it does seem to be, then Adrien is completely unqualified to be a hero.

Similarly, past Marinette being the one to stop Chat Blanc doesn't bother me. The problem is that adult Bunnyx does nothing to contradict Marinette's conclusion that this means that Chat Noir can never be told the truth. That's not the right takeaway here, but Bunnyx doesn't contradict it. She actually goes so far as to throw Alya under the bus. Rude, Alix! Rude. And really weird since Marinette will willingly tell Alya her secret identity within a few episodes, which Alix should know? Alix's knowledge of the future is really confusing.

Bunnyx: Do you know how Cat Noir found out about your secret identity? Ladybug: I think so. When I went into Adrien's house as Ladybug, he probably saw me. He figured out that Ladybug is Marinette because of the note written on the gift. But I'm not sure what happened next. Bunnyx: He probably told his friend Nino, who told Alya, who wrote about it on the Ladyblog. Ladybug: Mm.. They would never do that. But Adrien probably told someone, who told someone else, and so on, until it was all over the news! The best-kept secrets are the ones you never share.

That final line from Ladybug should have been met with Bunnyx saying something like,

"There are times when it's good to share a secret! This just happened to not be one of those times, but this outcome isn't guaranteed. It's just what happened in this specific scenario. Another time, not sharing could lead us here. Don't let fear of the future keep you from doing what logic says is right."

Something, anything, to imply that Marinette wasn't at fault and that secrets are complex things. Instead we get yet another wacky implication that an identity reveal will destroy Ladybug and Chat Noir, so they have to keep their secrets or give up their miraculous. Yay!

All that being said, my ideal Chat Blanc would not work in canon's padded-to-shit writing, so I do agree that it was a bad call. Chat Blanc only makes sense if the end goal is plot progression. Instead, it's used for plot stagnation and I hate it!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

One person said that Adrien being so afraid of his father in Cat Blanc and Ephemeral despite being brave most of the time is a good depiction of an abuse victim, what can you say to counter that?

I wouldn't counter that because they're correct. It's one of the many reasons I think those episodes were huge missteps. Chat Blanc was the episode that made canon Gabriel irredeemable in my eyes. I wouldn't trust a show aimed at adults to pull off such a complex redemption let alone one aimed at kids!

If they wanted season five's ending to work, then Chat Blanc and Ephemeral needed Gabriel to be played WAY more remorseful. Less gleefully torturing his son and more "I'm sorry, Adrien, but I have to do this for the greater good and you won't remember if anyway."

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Honestly akumatization was turned into a joke at this point. Cause in the first 3 and half seasons it was treated as a corruption that was almost impossible to resist/break free of. Only incredibly strong willed like Chloe, Alya and Felix managed to do it. But by S5 they literally had Alix's Reddit conspirator brother, an AI and the teacher break free from the akumatization even easier than the previously much more plot important characters. At this point literally everyone except Adrien are capable of shrugging off an akumatization whenever they want to, even the literal background characters.

Also they had Kagami get akumatized over Lila's lies about Marinette and break free through the power of friendship ... just to then have Kagami get akumatized over Lila's lies about Marinette AGAIN but this time not even being able to break free, like what even was the point of that previous akumatization if you were just gonna have her character regress from it.

Every time someone breaks free of an akuma, I die a little inside because it's just such terrible writing on so many levels as you rightly pointed out.

The one that really gets me is the power of love one. Chat Blanc kind of worked back when we thought akumas couldn't be escaped. It was still a terrible idea to have any reality where Adrien could kill Marinette after they'd started dating, but at least it did kind of fit the lore.

Now that basically anyone can resist an akuma? I can not think of a better way to foreshadow the love square not being the end game than to have Adrien completely fail to overcome an akuma when the supposed love of his life was on the line. And then they repeated the issue in Ephemeral! Writers, is the power of love a joke to you? I really don't get how anyone can enjoy those episodes while shipping the square or why the writers ever thought they were good ideas.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Okay so a thing that has bothered me ever since I first watched Chat Blanc was Bunnyx and the general time travel stuff because tghis makes no sense. In the Chat Blanc time line, after Chat Blanc destroyes the universe, everyone is dead. Including adult!Alix aka Bunnyx. So the Bunnyx fron the Chat Blanc timeline doesn'rt exist anymore, meaning that the Bunnyx fron the episode is from a parallel timeline where Chat Blanc didn't destroy the universe. That however raises the question why she would even care about that other timeline. Is her quest to assure victory over Monarch in every single timeline because that sounds exhausting as hell. I also don't understand the deal with her leg disappearing while she witnesses the fight between LB and CB, it has no reason to, because LB defeating CB doesn't have any effect on Bunnyx because, as stated earlier, the Bunnyx from that timeline is already dead! And honestly, the fact that Lb even had to fight CB makes no sense. They could've just went back in time 2 minutes so LB can erase her name from the letter (or just be quicker so Adrien doesn't see her) and CB doesn't happen in the first place!

Like, genuine question, what was the point of the whole thing? I mean other than the concept is cool and the writers wanted to give LB trauma (which never really plays a significant part in the overall story anyway??)

Sorry for rambling so much, I don't know if this makes any sense, the episode was really confusing to me and idk if it's just because the episode actually doesn't make sense or because I just don't understand it bc time travel is really confusing. Would really love to hear your opinion!

You're fine and you're not missing a thing. The episode simply doesn't make sense nor am I sure why it even exists. I know a lot of people love it, but I really don't get the hype. It runs off of nonsense logic and makes most of the characters look really bad.

Let's start with the lore.

The canon lore is that Bunnyx only travels through time, not universes, so it makes no freaking sense that an adult Bunnyx would be able to stop Chat Blanc since the existence of Chat Blanc should stop her from existing. It's a total paradox that goes against everything we'd been told about her powers. Of course, she's also supposed to be the hero of last resort, yet we hear about her hanging out with famous historical figures and the season five final sees her acting as a substitute for the horse miraculous even though the people she portals in don't do a thing to help with the final battle, so it's not like Chat Blanc is the only time her powers and role get ignored. Any time I use the rabbit, I have to completely rework its lore because canon is just so bad at time travel. I like Alix and her adult design is awesome, but any time Bunnyx shows up, I expect to be annoyed.

Also, I will never forgive her for just dumping Ladybug back in our time without so much as a word of encouragement or any reassurance that the Chat Blanc stuff was only a maybe. And Ladybug was the one to figure out how to fix time!!! Alix, you suck at your job! Or this is just another case of the writers refusing to let someone other than Marinette save the day even though the poor girl really needs a day off.

As for why this episode exists? I don't even know, dude. It makes no sense. Back when we thought it was going to be a driving force in the season four conflict - an assumption that was backed up by Marinette's nightmare in sentibubbler - the episode kinda made sense in spite of its flaws. But we're two seasons past Chat Blanc and the only person who is apparently traumatized by it is Adrien.

Yes, the writers actually said this. No, you didn't miss an episode where Adrien learned about Chat Blanc. They were talking about the nightmares from the final:

Mélanie says that he "could become Chat Blanc" and the others add that even though he does not remember and has never lived it, Chat Blanc still has an influence on his actions.

Yes, this is embarrassingly bad writing. The character who never saw or even heard of Chat Blanc is somehow the one who is traumatized and effected by it while Marinette's trauma has nothing do to with Chat Blanc or the events of the season four final. Instead, it's random BS that was never even hinted at until season five. I just... what?

In case it wasn't obvious - which I guess it isn't given that professional writers missed this - the logical way to write this to have the season four conflict be about Chat Blanc from Ladybug's side. After the conflict ends, she reveals everything to Chat Noir who becomes terrified of hurting people with his powers. This is only exacerbated by the events of Destruction. But then the show would have had to let Chat Noir have a character arc that didn't revolve around Ladynette and the series seems allergic to that as a concept, so instead Adrien gets magical trauma that keeps him from the final fight. And I thought the Derision retcon was bad!

Other issues with Chat Blanc in no particular order:

It cements Nathalie as just as bad a Gabriel since she's the one who tells him Adrien's secret identity and we then see her do nothing to try to protect Adrien.

It makes Gabriel irredeemable by showing him gleefully hurting his child. Dude punts his son across the city with a smile on his face!

It makes Adrien look slimy since he asks Marinette out without telling her that he knows her secret identity. This one is in a bit of a grey area for me because the secret identity stuff is complicated, but Adrien has never been the one who cared about secret identities AND he's the one who has been directly turned down in hero form. The episode takes none of that into consideration with its writing and it really needed to for Adrien to feel like he had a valid point of view here. As is, he's taking advantage of a situation and putting his Lady love at risk for his own wants.

The pillow sniff scene makes Marinette look unhinged.

It spits in the face of The Power of Love by having Adrien's love fail to be enough to stop him from killing Marinette.

Marinette's parents should have gotten involved after Gabriel threatened her. There is no way in hell that I'd let my kid go over to the Agreste mansion after that. If the writers were once again determined to not let Tom and Sabine parent, then the threat should have come when Marinette was alone.

Why did Ladybug even need to go to the future if Bunnyx could have just gone back in time and stopped Ladybug from leaving the present for Adrien? Why did Chat Blanc even need to be defeated? What did Ladybug's ladybug actually fix when she cast her charm?

This is minor, but it bothers me: Chat Noir should not have been smiling and happy when he was freed from his akuma. That boy should have been in the middle of a breakdown.

I know people forgive some of the above because Chat Blanc is sort of an AU and I'm not going to say that's wrong, I just can't look at it that way because there's nothing that sets Chat Blanc apart from the normal timeline. The Paris special gives us an AU. Chat Blanc (and Ephemeral) are what the writers told us would happen in the canon timeline if Gabriel ever discovered his son's secrets. Canon Gabriel was the one doing those things and would have done them again if given the chance. This is who the writers said he is. Same goes for all the other characters who come across less than stellar here.

There's a reason why I love a good Chat Blanc rewrite. It's an idea with a lot of potential, but canon capitalizes on almost none of it.

[doctorkidemonas]

Great post! 10/10, loved it, because you're absolutely right. Amor Vincit Omnia, you have to mean that when you say it.

Chat Blanc is so incredibly frustrating to me because it really could've been something special. Black Mirror evil versions of characters, are, by nature, interesting. The Evil Superman is such a popular archetype for a reason. If they'd handled it literally any other way, I might've actually loved it. But no. It's an episode about bad time travel, about the power of love losing, about justifying robbing Adrien from any sort of agency in the fight against his father. Bleh.

If I personally wanted to fix Chat Blanc, I think I might do it like this: In an alternate universe (ala Paris special) Chat and Ladybug are having a fight (implied to be a common thing. Maybe for additional salt, Syren, Kuro Neko, etc take place in this universe instead of being canon) and Chat storms off in a snit. While Adrien is shirking his duty, Hawkmoth fights Ladybug and wins, leaving her comatose with little hope of waking up. Alt!Chat goes mad with grief, breaks his limiter, and is consumed by the power of destruction, turning into Chat Blanc. He manages to defeat his father, but, in the process, accidentally destroys the earrings (He also can't turn back into Adrien, because humans arent meant to bond so closely with kwami). He eventually learns about other worlds, ones where Ladybug is still alive (maybe through Bunnyx failing to meddle?) And becomes obsessed with regaining what's been taken from him. Chat Blanc shows up in the main timeline, trying to claim Ladybug's earrings and wish it all never happened, and, here's the important difference, Chat Noir is *there*. He's *always* there for his partner when she needs him. Ladybug and Chat Noir together prove that their partnership is stronger than all the unchecked power of a god, and manage to talk Blanc down, make him return to normal, send him home. Special ends on a scene of Alt!Adrien visiting Alt!Marinette in a hospital, confessing that he wishes he had been a better partner and that he loves her, wholeheartedly, before she begins to stir.

Miraculous vs The Power of Love

I've written several posts where I talked about Miraculous' poor use of the power of love trope and how that massively turned me off to canon. Three strikes and you're out! When this topic comes up I usually bring up Adrien and only Adrien. This has led to some anger at the fact that I didn't mention love failing anyone else as it absolutely has. I've also seen some anger over my desire for Adrien to defeat Gabriel's control and win the day since Adrien is a victim and that means that it's perfectly fine if he fails to beat his father's control no matter what the consequences of that failure are. After all, the failure isn't really on Adrien. It's on Gabriel. A sentiment I understand, but don't agree with since this is a writing blog. I'm discussing the message the writing is sending not which character gets the in-universe blame.

I'm not going to change how I discuss this topic since it is my honest opinion, but I can explain that opinion in depth to hopefully save us all from miscommunication! That's why I'm making this post! It addresses all of the above. I'll be linking to this whenever the topic comes up so that I can include some nuance without having to go into all of the detail I'm about to go into because - as you'll see - this is a long one which is why I don't go into this depth in other posts. It would just totally derail them. I'm also not going to go into the deconstruction aspect of things here because this is already really long, but I do have a post on that for even more nuance!

If you disagree with any of this, that's totally fine! I just ask that you keep the your counter arguments civil. Remember, we're talking about a badly written kids show that none of us have the power to change and the magical power of love isn't real so it doesn't actually matter if I'm right about this. Nor is Adrien going to thank you for coming to his aid. He doesn't exist and, as always, my issue is not him as a person. My issue is the way the narrative uses him as a storytelling tool.

What Is the Power of Love?

The power of love is a trope where either platonic or romantic love saves the hero from some type of conflict or upsetting situation. It's a rather broad trope that can be used in conflicts of any size, but even TV tropes acknowledges that it's primarily "applied in dire situations to make things better. In fact, in many Disney movies it's the solution to everything." That definition is how I approach the power of love.

To put it more bluntly, unless we're talking about a specific example, when I say "the power of love" I am thinking of a story's climax or, in the case of something like a multi-season show, one of the climaxes. More specifically, I'm thinking of the lyrics to one of my favorite cheesy pop songs:

There comes a time When you face the toughest of fights Searching for a sign Lost in the darkest of nights The wind blows so cold Standing alone Before the battle's begun But deep in your soul The future unfolds As bright as the rays of the sun You've got to believe In the power of love

If it's not the toughest of fights or the darkest of nights, then the power of love failing may disappoint me, but I don't consider it an unforgivable sin. In some cases, I'd even be disappointed if the power of love was brought in before the climax! The power of love is the ultimate cheesy move so it makes sense to save it for the last minute if using it earlier would lessen or even ruin that last minute epic save.

To show what I mean, let's talk about another trope that Miraculous has failed to use well, but that doesn't ruin the show for me. A trope that has led the show to do the exact thing we just discussed: ignore a small moment when love should have won to allow for a bigger win when all hope seems lost.

The Evil Clone Thing

[Image description: the Buzz and Woody meme with the words "Evil Clones. Evil Clones Everywhere"]

There have been an absurd number of episodes where the evil clone/evil twin trope came into play, but the three big ones are Ladybug, Optigami, and the season four final. In each of these episodes, we see a good character replaced by an identical evil version. We also see the good character's love interest fail to recognize that their crush/romantic partner has been replaced. That means that all three of these episodes see the power of romantic love failing. We also don't see a more platonic version of love show up to save the day.

The worst of these episode is the season four final where Marinette doesn't recognize that Felix has taken Adrien's place. That deception is how Gabriel steals the miraculous so it's obviously a pretty big deal and can be argued as a major fail for the power of love. I don't disagree. I think that Marinette's love should have let her see through the lies and dislike that the writers took this route to make her lose. However, I don't have this on my list of moments when the power of love needed to win for the story to work.

While Marinette failing to recognize Felix leads to her darkest hour, it does not happen in her darkest hour. Her darkest hour comes when she actually loses the miraculous which happens in a completely different scene from the one where she's deceived. It's also worth noting that Felix is not present in this moment of loss so there was no opportunity for the power of love to pull off a last minute win.

The loss of the miraculous leads to a scene where Ladybug is sitting alone in the rain, ready to give up all hope. And what happens next?

[Image description: Chat Noir standing in the rain, smiling, holding out his hand to Ladybug]

Chat Noir shows up to reignite Ladybug's will to fight via his love and support. She takes his hand, he draws her into a hug, and they stand together as one, ready to once again face their enemy:

Cat Noir: We're gonna get them back one by one…until the very last. And we'll make sure this never happens again. Ladybug: You...and me? Cat Noir: You, the best superhero there ever was... and me, your loyal partner.

A lot of people love this scene and it led to some major hype for season five which means that it's time to quote some more of that cheesy song that I brought up at the start:

Stand by my side There's nothing to hide Together we'll fight to the end Take hold of my hand And you'll understand What it truly means to be friends You've got to believe (you've got to believe) In the power of love

While I don't love the season four final, it is a B-tier execution of the thing I was talking about earlier. Canon let love fail in a small moment to increase tension and give Ladybug a "darkest night" moment. That darkest night moment then led to a semi-epic power-of-love comeback that understandably got a lot of fans super excited for season five because they assumed that it was going to be the season of Ladynoir. In other words, for a lot of fans, the power of love did its job in the season four final!

All of this is why I don't bring up Marinette when I talk about the power of love failing. It does fail her, but not in her darkest nights and toughest fights. Any time she's overwhelmed and ready to give up all hope, someone comes along to give her the will to fight on. That person is usually Chat Noir because he's her end game love interest so of course the writers use him! His "you and me against the world" moments may not be the most epic example of the power of love winning, but they are the power of love winning, so saying that the power of love fails Marinette feels like an overstatement of harm. She's never had a total loss.

The closest we get to Marinette truly losing is the season five final. That episode feels like an ultimate-level failure to many of us, on par with Ephemeral, but the writers clearly don't agree. For them, season five had a happy ending which makes critiquing that final fight tricky. I'll be arguing that Adrien lost hard in the next section, but I can't say the same for Marinette and this section is about her so let's focus on that for now.

No matter how much I hate the final, I can't look at the picture below this paragraph and argue that love failed Marinette because what did losing cost her? This isn't the season four final where she genuinely suffered. This is her getting everything she's ever wanted! The miraculous are back in her hands, she won the heart of the boy she loves, and no one is actively messing with her love life anymore. That's a pretty solid win even if she didn't win the actual fight.

[Image description: Adrien and Marinette at the end of the season five final, kissing in the spot that used to house Emilie's statue.]

This is further complicated by the fact that - as written - the season five final doesn't put Marinette in a position to use the power of love. She's never given a chance to save Adrien or even just talk to him. She doesn't know that's he's in trouble, locked up in a padded cell, suffering all alone! And Adrien's love can't rally her in her darkest moment when all hope seems lost because - for the first time ever in a season final - she never got one of those! She was a badass in the final fight! No pep talk or supportive teammates necessary! She would have had a total victory if the writers hasn't made her try to talk sense to the villain or sent her Adrien's ring just so Gabriel could make the wish, further adding to the problem of this show's absolutely vile messaging around love.

In other words, lack of love isn't why Marinette loses the final fight. She loses because the writers wanted love to empower Gabriel in his darkest moment, a move the writers have the audacity to call a mutual victory. (Gross. Abusive terrorist should not get power of love moments without a massive redemption arc first. It's yet another insult to the trope. Gabriel did not deserve peace while his son goes on to suffer.)

If you think about the episodes Ladybug and Optigami you'll notice a similar problem. The power of love failed to let Chat Noir and Alya recognize that their romantic interests had been replaced, but that failure didn't lead to their ultimate defeat. It didn't even lead the villains to a minor victory! Both episodes maintain the status quo.

This doesn't mean that I like those episodes. I would rewrite both of them to let love win because they're good examples of small moments where love can win without cheapening or ruining the season's big climax. I just don't view these episodes as times when the show needed to use the power of love if it wanted to honor its chosen genre. That requirement only applies when it's a darkest night or toughest fight.

Before we move on, please note that Ladybug was the power of Adrien's love failing, yet I never mention it when I'm complaining about the power of love failing. That's because I'm never purposefully listing every time Adrien's love failed and ignoring everyone else. I'm simply listing the moments when love needed to let the heroes win because we were in one of the show's darkest hours and that is the only time when I consider the power of love a true requirement. Love can fail in small moments to increase the tension, but if love fails at the moment when all hope seems lost, then why are we even here?

There are only three episodes that get that level of criticism from me and each one had a single character whose writing infuriated me: Adrien.

Adrien vs The Power of Love

There are three episodes where Gabriel's identity is revealed and the final fight goes down. Those episodes are Chat Blanc, Ephemeral, and the season five final. In each of these episodes, Adrien suffers on a scale that no other character has had to suffer:

In Chat Blanc he is akumatized and forced to use his cataclysm to kill both his father and the love of his life, dooming him to spend eternity alone in a dead word.

In Ephemeral he is akumatized and forced to use his powers to hand the love of his life over to his father, thereby allowing Gabriel to win and rewrite reality.

In the season five final, Adrien is left alone in a jail cell, tormented by nightmares while his father dies leaving Adrien an orphan. Adrien is then told some truly colossal lies about what actually happened, leading him to believe that Gabriel scarified himself to save Ladybug's life. Since Chat Noir's usual role in fights is protecting Ladybug, this is arguably the equivalent of Adrien being told that his failure to show up killed his father. I'm not even sure if that's the wrong message because Gabriel did die from a cataclysm and Adrien would understandably blame himself for that, too, so maybe this was a way to address that without going too dark for kids and why does that argument hold water? Wtf was this trash fire of a story line???

When you compare Adrien's treatment in these episodes to something like Marinette's treatment in season four final you can hopefully see why it feels like comparing a broken arm to a mortal blow. It's not that Marinette doesn't suffer. In terms of individual moments of suffering, Marinette beats out every other character! But while she may beat Adrien in breadth, he is the clear winner in terms of depth and the only one who never gets a true power of love moment.

Marinette's darkest nights and toughest fights ultimately work out so that she can go on to some new type of suffering, the old suffering fading away to nothing more than memory. Adrien's darkest nights and toughest fights lead to loss and suffering for which there is no cure other than rewinding time or rewriting reality. The season five final even has Adrien directly state that he's not worthy of Marinette's love:

Adrien: I'm not in my right mind. I'm too angry — at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and these rings that use my image... it makes me sick! This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm — Marinette, Ladybug... (Takes off the ring and hands it to Plagg.) Plagg: Surely Ladybug can help you. Adrien: If I ask her for help, I'd have to give her information that would jeopardize my secret identity... and I can't.

This is literally Adrien's last scene in the main story line. He doesn't show up again until the happily ever after epilogue where he and Marinette kiss. In other words, the show had Adrien directly state that he's unworthy of Marinette's love and then did nothing to counter that statement. I guess this poor unfortunate soul is just lucky that Marinette likes him enough to keep him around in spite of his many failings...

Writers, seriously, what the hell are you doing? This is the kind of dialogue that should lead into a power of love moment! How is thinking about Marinette leading Adrien to despair instead of strength? Why is Plagg just accepting this? Plagg is a magical being who was assigned to watch over Adrien. Shouldn't a character like that help Adrien rally in his darkest night? Where's Adrien's you and me against the world pep talk? That should go both ways!!! Have him break out, call Ladybug to tell her that he's not coming, only for her to rally him so he comes and at least fights outside in the city while she does her solo fight! Don't leave him alone to rot while almost every other character in the freaking show gets to fight!

It would be one thing if Adrien gave up because he was alone and scared, but Plagg is there and the writers directly bring up Marinette and love only to do nothing to show those as positive forces in Adrien's life!!! Instead, Marinette is the thing that keeps him from the fight because Adrien's nightmare is him getting akumatized and killing Marinette even though Adrien knows nothing about Chat Blanc.

[Image description: Adrien's nightmare where he's a blue haired version of Chat Blanc, holding Marinette's body in his arms having killed her with a cataclysm]

To be clear, in each of the three episodes I listed above, Adrien is undeniably a victim suffering at the hands of his main abuser. They're also some of the worst moments of abuse in the entire show. It would be perfectly reasonable for a real life person to give into despair if they were put into this situation, but real life people don't transform into magical cat boys who wield the raw power of Destruction. I was not looking for realism here. I was looking for hope and inspiration!

I wanted to see Adrien win! I wanted his love for Marinette and/or his friends to give him the strength to overpower his father's control because that's what the power of love is all about! When all hope seems lost, it's there to let the hero win because love is stronger than despair, hatred, fear, and magical remote controls! It is the bright light that blasts away the darkness in your darkest night! Unless your name is Adrien Agreste, then no love for you! Suffer, feather boy, suffer!

Example of what I wanted from canon

There are many ways to fix these three episodes so love wins, but to keep this simple let's focus on Chat Blanc and what the power of love winning might look like if we let canon play unchanged up until the moment where Adrien loses control of his powers:

Hawk Moth: Cat Blanc, I'm giving you the infinite power of destruction!! Together, you and I will seize Ladybug's Miraculous and awaken your mother!!! Obey!!! Cat Noir: (tries to fight back but fails) I'm sorry, Ladybug! (He succumbs his akumatization and transforms into Cat Blanc. Ladybug watches in horror at his transformation.) Hawk Moth: Seize her Miraculous, My Son!!! (Cat Blanc lifts his right arm to Ladybug, activating Mega Cataclysm.) Ladybug: No, Adrien! You have to resist!! (Cat Blanc whimpers as he changes his mind and points his arm to Hawk Moth.) Hawk Moth: How dare you!? Not me, Adrien!! Cat Blanc: (whimpering while looking to both of them) I... I don't know what to do!!!!!!

Instead of having the mega cataclysm go off here, we instead see this: Ladybug and Hawk Moth both realize that Chat Blanc is incapable of listening to either of them. Hawk Moth's reaction is to turn and run away, desperate to save himself. Ladybug's reaction is to run to her boyfriend's side, not caring about the danger. She wraps her arms around him, closes her eyes, and tells him that it's okay. That she's here and she loves him and she'll stay here and love him no matter what. It doesn't matter who his father is, it's still him and her against the world now and forever.

The more she talks, the weaker the mega cataclysm grows. By the time she makes her final vow, the mega cataclysm is little more than a flickering glow. A black clad hand touches both of her hair ties, disintegrating them, leaving her hair to fall free around her face since that was a thing in this episode. The minor wardrobe change makes her pull back and look at her boyfriend to see that he's back to Chat Noir, a purified akumas fluttering off in the distance. Chat Noir is crying, clearly distraught, but he's himself again because Marinette's presence allowed him to focus on her love over his father's poison. They won. Love won. Fear and abuse lost.

The couple embraces. Hawk Moth's big gambit failed and they now know his identity so the fight is almost over. Paris will soon be free.

From there you can have an epic battle with the temp holders where the butterfly and the peacock are recovered. Nino gets to punch Gabriel in the face a dozen times or so as a treat and Adrien gets to cuddle up with some treats, sitting the fight out since he's already done his part by surviving the reveal of his father's identity.

You could also have Gabriel just give up because he doesn't have any moves left and the full implications of what he did are smacking him in the face, sapping him of the will to fight. Anything that lets this asshole suffer is fine by me! Emilie's fate is up to you. I like to make her at least semi-decent and revive her to give Adrien a happier ending and Gabriel the horror of divorce papers, but that's just me.

Final Thoughts

As I said at the top, I'm going to continue to complain about the way that Adrien was written in these episodes. I don't consider his victim status a reasonable excuse for the way these episodes played out. If anything, his victim status is an even bigger black mark against the writing!

I come to family-oriented media for hope and happy endings! I want stories about victims being empowered! I want Gabriel's controlling nature to totally backfire on him and not in a mutually-assured-destruction way like we saw in Chat Blanc. I want Gabriel's choice to cost him everything and for him to suffer that loss for the rest of his life while Adrien gets endless love and support, allowing him to survive the reveal and go on to live a happy life. If that's not what you're selling, then I'm not buying thus me giving up on canon after the season five final. There's just no coming back from that kind of colossal writing failure.

I will try to remember to use the word "forced" when describing the problems (as in "forced to kill"), but that's the only thing I can change while still sharing my honest opinion since my main problem with these episodes isn't Gabriel's treatment of Adrien. While I don't like how far these episodes took Gabriel, you don't need to rewrite him to make the episodes work. It doesn't matter how far the writing takes Gabriel, he should never be able to successfully manipulate Adrien while threatening Adrien's supposed True Love.

As soon as Adrien knows that Marinette/Ladybug is in danger, it should be game over for Gabriel because love is supposed to be stronger than all of the awful things that Gabriel has done up to and including the sentimonster crap. In fact, the sentimonster crap just make it even more important for Adrien to win! Gabriel should think he has victory in the bag because he views Adrien as a perfect doll, but love proves Gabriel wrong letting Adrien overpower his amok and win. The trope is called "love conquers all" not "love conquers the mildly inconvenient." The more dire the straits, the more important the win!

Unfortunately, that's not the message Miraculous is sending. By letting Adrien give into his father's control in the show's darkest hours, the message is that Gabriel's control is stronger than love. That Adrien will never be free. That he was Gabriel's perfect doll and you were silly if you ever expected him to be more than that. That's not a message that I'm that ever going to agree with and is yet another reason why I only bring up Adrien + these three episodes when I talk about the power of love failing.

You are never going to convince me that Adrien being allowed to give into despair was a good thing unless you pair that argument with some major changes to canon like love square not being together and/or Adrien not knowing that his actions would endanger Marinette. Even then you need to design that fix in a way that ultimately allows Adrien to win otherwise you are sending a terrible message to the audience. There should never be a scenario where the final battle ends the way canon had it end.

Gabriel is the show's big bad, Adrien is his main victim, and the theme of their relationship has been control. That means that, when it comes to the final fight with Gabriel, Adrien needs to be involved in a way that gives him agency. I'm not saying he needs to fight his father on his own or even at all! I'm okay with him sitting out the fight so long as you pair it with something big like Adrien being the one to learn Gabriel's identity or something more dramatic like my simple Chat Blanc fix.

However, Adrien sitting out only works if it's his own, freely-made choice. As soon as you pair it with something like magic nightmare dust you are once again sending the message that Gabriel's control is the strongest force in Adrien's life. I truly don't understand how anyone can embrace that message and call it good, especially when canon didn't ultimately do something positive with it like letting Adrien become stronger as time went on. He actually got weaker as the show went on!

Chat Blanc saw everyone lose because Adrien was able to at least try to fight back, denying his father total victory. Ephemeral saw none of that fighting spirit and Gabriel just outright won. Season five once again saw Gabriel win only, this time, the show didn't even let Adrien be part of the fight. What an uplifting character arc for Adrien! (That was sarcasm.) Play the episodes in reverse order and you might actually have something if you add a fourth one where he finally wins!

If you want to talk about more minor conflicts where the power of love should have won then I'm happy to do that! Canon has lots of options to pick from! But unless you specify that you want to talk about something minor, these three episodes are going to be my only examples of the power of love failing because they are the only times when love completely failed the character in question. Total loss, no silver lining, writers wtf are you doing?

Listing times when love failed Marinette or Alya in the same list as these three episodes just feels insulting to Adrien unless the context is something like a list ranking the failures from smallest to largest. I'll once again point out that I don't even list the other times when love failed Adrien because my issue isn't Adrien as a person. My issue is Adrien as a tool of the narrative and the asinine message that the Agreste arc sends to the young children this show is aimed at. I wouldn't even be okay with this in a show aimed at adults unless it was clearly marketed as a grimdark take on superheroes. Miraculous should not feel like a kiddiefied version of The Boys and yet here we are.

Why was Adrien granted magical powers and allowed to fight his controlling father for five seasons if Gabriel was just going to die without Adrien getting a decisive victory? Why focus season five on Gabriel controlling Adrien to such an extreme if Adrien was never going to be allowed to break free? Why make Adrien the main love interest and focus the entire show on romantic love if you don't have anything positive to say about romantic love? Why bother getting the love square together before every single final showdown in the freaking show if their relationship status was going to mean nothing? Where is my power of love always so strong?

(Btw, that song I kept quoting is from the original English dub soundtrack to Sailor Moon R - The Promise of the Rose. It plays as love and friendship save the planet Earth from an asteroid. The updated dub replaced the song with the original Japanese soundtrack and the comments are full of people complaining about the change because the song just takes this scene to the next level! I bring this up because Sailor Moon set many people's standards for the magical girl team show genre that Miraculous is clearly taking inspiration from, but failing to fully embrace. If you don't want love and friendship to be on par with nuclear weapons and asteroid attacks, then don't write a show about love and magic aimed at kids.)

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Moment One: Chat Blanc

Adrienette almost breaks up because of Gabriel, but appear to immediately get back together once Adrien revels he's Chat Noir (honestly not totally clear, but the dialogue doesn't fit a breakup). During that reveal, he's also unknowingly outed to his father:

(Completely panicked, Adrien transforms into Cat Noir. Marinette is shocked to learn that Adrien was Cat Noir all along) Cat Noir: CATACLYSM!!!!!!! (cataclysms the Akuma, destroying it) Marinette: Adrien! Cat Noir: You were about to be akumatized. I didn't have a choice, m'lady. Marinette: M'lady? But how did you know? I thought our identities were supposed to remain a secret! (drops umbrella and hugs Cat Noir tearfully) Cat Noir: Everything will be okay, I promise. Hawk Moth: (from phone) Nathalie? Nathalie! Nathalie: (on phone) It's Adrien. Your son... he's... he's Cat Noir

We have no idea what passes between this moment and the next, but at some point after the reveal, a seemingly fine Ladynoir confront Hawkmoth, only for it to be revealed to be a trap for Adrien. It's also no longer raining in this scene, all of which heavily implies that at least a few hours pass between scene one and scene two:

(Hawk Moth falls in through the ceiling and Ladybug and Cat Noir jump down.) Ladybug: You're done, Hawk Moth! Give us back your Miraculous! Cat Noir: (throws Hawk Moth's cane in the water) You know what they say. The wave of a moth's wing can set off a cataclysm! Hawk Moth: I would put that Cataclysm away if I were you... Adrien. Cat Noir: How do you…? (the lid of Émilie's coffin opens and he sees Émilie) Mother? Hawk Moth: I'm doing it for her, Adrien. For you. For us. Cat Noir: Father? (Ladybug looks at him in shock) Why? Why? WHY?!?! (angrily runs up to Hawk Moth with cataclysm's power increased) Why...?

During this confrontation, Adrien gives into his father's power, turning into Chat Blanc. Adrien tries to fight back, but he's unable to totally resist his father's control while staring Ladybug - who he knows is in love with him - in the face.

Cat Noir: (tries to fight back but fails) I'm sorry, Ladybug! (He succumbs his akumatization and transforms into Cat Blanc. Ladybug watches in horror at his transformation.) Hawk Moth: Seize her Miraculous, My Son!!! (Cat Blanc lifts his right arm to Ladybug, activating Mega Cataclysm.) Ladybug: No, Adrien! You have to resist!! (Cat Blanc whimpers as he changes his mind and points his arm to Hawk Moth.) Hawk Moth: How dare you!? Not me, Adrien!! Cat Blanc: (whimpering while looking to both of them) I... I don't know what to do!!!!!! (Cat Blanc groans and screams, then his negative emotions and sadness that caused him so much pain and torn, not knowing to choose between his mother or girlfriend, makes him to create the huge cataclysm. He completely loses control and unleashes mega cataclysm that slowly gets closer to Ladybug and Hawk Moth.) Cat Blanc: M'lady! Ladybug: (last words, moments before her death) My prince!

Verdict: Adrien's love for his Lady was not enough to let him overcome his father even when they were fully revealed, she was physically present, and he knew that failure would let the enemy win. The best Adrien could do was kill both his father and his girlfriend instead of just his father. True love, folks!

The only possible mitigating factor here is that they may possibly be broken up? It doesn't seem like it and we don't know how much time pass between the "breakup" and Hawkmoth's trap, but it is possible that the love square wasn't at its strongest. That excuse goes away for moment two.

Moment Two: Ephemeral

The love square is fully revealed and happily dating with no complicating breakup. And yet, when Gabriel akumatizes Adrien, Adrien doesn't even TRY to resist. He obeys his father without question, leaving Luka to save the day.

(Marinette sits in the front row. Shadow Noir enters in the back. Thinking that it was Adrien who entered, Marinette looks back in delight, before realizing it was Shadow Noir.) Shadow Noir: Hello, Ladybug. Marinette: Tikki, spots on! (transforms into Ladybug) Ladybug: Lucky Charm! (receives a watch with the time at 1:00) Shadow Noir: (laughs) Could this be the hour of your defeat!? Ephemeral: (touches Ladybug) I'm sorry, I promise this won't take long. (inserts the energy into his chest, speeding up Ladybug's de-transformation) Shadow Noir: Time flies when we're having fun!!! (Ladybug runs away) Running is pointless!! In just a few seconds you'll be a simple young girl without powers again!!! (Ladybug takes a picture of the watch and sends it to Luka right before she de-transforms.)

Verdict: Adrien's love for his Lady was not enough to let him overcome his father even when they were fully revealed, she was physically present, and he knew that failure would let the villain win. If anything, the episode has Luka feeling like Marinette's true love. He's the one who saves the day.

Moment Three: The Season Five Final

Alya and co are able to break out of the control of the nightmare dust because Alya knows that Ladybug needs her:

Alya: Ladybug would never do that! (Takes off her Alliance.) Kim: You saw what we all saw! Alya: Trust me, we all know Ladybug because she saved each and every one of us at least once! We all owe something to Ladybug and we know she would never kidnap anyone, and neither would... (Notices Plagg on the ship.) Cat Noir?

Meanwhile Adrien isn't strong enough to resist the dust even though he knows that Ladybug needs him. In spite of his catch phrase about him and her being against the world, he gives into the nightmare dust and sends Plagg off to help Ladybug fight the world. Adrien even straight up says that he's not worthy of Marinette's love in the English version:

Adrien:(Covers his ears.) I cannot transform... (Looks at his ring and tries taking it off.) Plagg: What are you doing?! Adrien: I'm not in my right mind. I'm too angry — at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and these rings that use my image... it makes me sick! This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm — Marinette, Ladybug... (Takes off the ring and hands it to Plagg.) Plagg: Surely Ladybug can help you. Adrien: If I ask her for help, I'd have to give her information that would jeopardize my secret identity... and I can't. (Plagg grabs the ring.) Adrien: We'll see each other again, my friend. I know it. In the meantime, the only thing I can do is not get akumatized. (Plagg flies out of the room through the vent.) Adrien:(Defeated, finally puts on the Alliance.) Perfect Alliance.

Don't worry, Adrien. It's actually good that you're not there. Whenever you are, Gabriel wins hands down. If the writers hadn't chosen to make Marinette detransform and trust the villain for some reason, she would have actually won this one since you weren't there to help your father!

Verdict: Adrien's love for Marinette isn't strong enough to help him stand up against the villain even when he doesn't know that the villain is his father. If anyone feels like Marinette's true love here, it's Alya.

Final Thoughts

The running message of the show is that Adrien's love isn't enough. He's actually a massive liability who is best suited to be weak, pretty arm candy. Between his pitiful love and easily-stolen remote control, he should probably give up his miraculous and just own his spot as Marinette's perfect boyfriend since that's all the narrative will ever let him be.

This nonsense writing choice is extra weird when you remember that Dark Cupid and Passion let kisses save Chat Noir and Marinette from akumas so it's not like the show is totally avoiding the power of love as a concept. It's in the text, but only for one-off episodes that could be cut from the show. The big dramatic episodes that the writers hook to the running narrative never see love win (Chat Blanc is apparently why Adrien doesn't go to the season five fight, Ephemeral establishes that Adrien is a sentimonster, and the season five final will hopefully mean something for the ongoing plot).

And of course, Gabriel's love for Emilie gets to drive him forward throughout the entire show. Which would be fine if it was shown as unhealthy to contrast the love square's healthy love, but it's not. Gabriel wins. The love square fails. What the lesson of that is, I can't begin to understand.

I do think there are ways to make Adrien being akumatized work, they just all involve Ladybug not being there. I was even willing to tolerate Chat Blanc and Ephemeral when I thought the message was "Gabriel can't know Adrien's identity going into the fight" or even "Adrien can't learn during the final fight, he needs to know beforehand." Still less than ideal writing, but understandable. That's not where canon went, though. The season five final tripled down on the message being that Adrien just isn't enough. His father's influence is just too great. What a wonderful message for children!

Miraculous Ladybug, or as I like to call it, "Baby's First Ship of Theseus Paradox".

The more canon assassinates the characters, the harder it is to watch. How many times can you make a character do something that feels wildly out of character before you bow and just say, "okay, I guess this is who they are and all those good moments were the out of character ones." How many times can the power of love fail before you give up hope? (Three. My answer is three apparently.)