#don’t get me started on the shanghai poster discourse

[ladyofthenoodle]

i’ve a little more energy now and want to revisit some of the Discourse™️ i received via ask that i wasn’t going to engage with. but now i am engaging with the very specific take of “the show is misleading about ladybug and chat noir being equals because of the title!”

i (and others) have already made the point that chat noir was probably added to the title in a desperate attempt to convince little boys to watch. now, one could argue that it’s still a misleading title choice, regardless of their motivations, and that holds some weight. but you know what’s not misleading?

the fact that no one calls it that. i don’t see anyone tagging their posts as “miraculous: the tales of ladybug and chat noir.” it’s always shortened, somehow, and the shortened versions? don’t mention chat noir. ml, mlb, miraculous ladybug, even just miraculous. as of season 4, most of the official promotional material has dropped the “tales of ladybug and chat noir” in favor of “zag heroez: miraculous” which yes, may be mostly about zag’s ego, but it’s also the show very clearly telling us what they’re focusing on. and, of course, when we take out the subtitle and keep only the word “miraculous,” we are left with this:

pretty unambiguous who the main character is here. nothing about this implies chat noir is going to get equal attention from the narrative. of course, in season 4, we also have this version:

which features the yin yang symbol, yes, but the ladybug and chat noir symbols are nowhere to be seen on it. it’s representing the whole miracle box, which marinette has responsibility of, and is once again saying (maybe slightly more ambiguously): this is marinette’s story. it’s the story of guardian marinette instead of ladybug marinette, but it’s still marinette’s story through and through.

so why are we getting so hung up on a subtitle?