#don't know which is worse. just Gabe as a magical catboy

[angrybatart]

BEHOLD! THE DUMBEST ABOMINATION FANART/COMIC I'VE EVER DRAWN!!!

Not there yet.

Ugh. Here we go...it gets worse...

And there you have it. Catboy Gabriel. Enjoy.

Based on this:

[gentil-minou]

Hey! So first things first: I absolutely love your Senti-Adrien analysises! They are really well written and explain everything clearly:)

So I happened to come across a post which summed up the problems that people had with the theory pretty well, and I wanted to know your opinion about it. (Note that I don't really agree with some of them, but I do understand their concerns).

So one problem they have is that the target audience wouldn't understand the abuse Adrien is going through. What children would see is that Adrien could escape the situation because he is a magical catboy (If he gets a powerup and destroys his limits binding him to his amok). And probably also that the problem never was Gabriel’s “normal” treatment of Adrien (ie him abusing him) in the first place since the sentimonster magic is a hundred times worse. I don't really understand this claim but yeah...

Thanks for thinking of me, anon!

I think I understand the meaning of that post. If I am guessing correctly, the claim is that (1) children will misconstrue Adrien's senti-status as being too complicated and that Adrien potentially breaking his own bonds would be a magical escape? (2) Gabriel's abuse is okay because being a senti is worse?

For the (2) I am gonna go ahead and say, once again, abuse is abuse no matter what it is. Also, if he is a senti than his creation is tied closely with Gabriel's abuse and neglect. Yes, being a senti means that Adrien is more susceptible to being manipulated and controlled, but as we've seen with Felix it is entirely possible to have a senti-kid and not treat them like a perfect obedient princess to lock in a tower. They are the same, to say one thing is the issue but the other is meaningless is completely unwarranted.

As for (1) this I think could be made a legitiamte issue because the question here is would this make a child think there's an easy way out when the reality is much harder? Well to that I say we still don't know how his story would play out if he is a senti. What we can infer, just by how dark the scene with Gabe and Felix in Gabriel Agreste and the scene in Ephemeral, that the show is willing to go darker than we expect. By that I mean I have full faith they aren't going to make it appear easy for Adrien to get his freedom (from both his dad's abuse and his senti-ties) and also that we will likely have some time watching him come to terms with what he is.

But the most important thing is that he will come to terms.

By and by, the hardest thing I have to deal with when working with kids who experience trauma is seeing if they know what they've been through is trauma. To a lot of them, they see it as the way they grew up or in some cases even as their own faults. It is so hard for kids to recognize being abused, especially easier to conceal abuse like the emotional abuse Adrien undergoes. We see it in Adrien all the time, he just wants to please his dad. He doesn't yet see it as abuse, and that's because he thinks it's normal and that it's warranted if he displeases his father.

I wouldn't call Adrien breaking his chains by being a magical cat boy an easy way out. It is going to take a lot to get from point A to point B. In the process, he is going to have to face who he is, accept that he was abused/traumatized, unlearn learned behaviors/fear of his father, find safety with friends and those who do love him, confront his father (not recommended in abuse victims, but we can compare this to a trauma narrative in CBT and it's a better visual cue that 8 months of therapy lol), and finally break his chains and be who he is, free and safe of mind.

That doesn't sound like an escape to me, it sounds like a fight.

The one thing you need when treating a kid who is going through this type of thing is hope. They need the hope that things will get better. Once that is gone, it becomes 100000 times harder. I think Adrien's story if he is a senti has the potential for giving someone hope, and that is why I am 100% in its corner.