#except marinette of course

[i-like-anything-water]

princess and the frog chloenette except it's princess and the bug.

Spoiled princess of the Bourgeois clan gets turned into a bee after being rude to an old man (Fu) and must find the cursed hair comb to turn her back. Or, well, you know find true love's kiss but she was single and stuck in Paris so....

She stumbles upon a party hosted by another rich person like her, Adrien Agreste! Son of famous designer Gabriel Agreste. Ooh, maybe he could work except...

She's gay.

Good thing Adrien seemed to have invited other rich people. There's even this cute blue haired girl whose smile is too cute and pretty to miss. Chloe tried to look as decent as possible as a bee.

Almost getting killed by a book trying to squash her have deducted cute girl's pretty points but she was desperate and she doesn't wanna fly around trying to find a damn comb. Couldn't that old man just buy a new one?! She could buy him hundreds!

Blue haired girl stops trying to squish her - thank God - and listens. She's not believing her so she has no choice but to pull out the big guns.

Money.

Chloe doesn't know if she should be disappointed or not that this seemed to waver the girl's response. How idiotic of her to think...that...true love....no, she saw what happened to her parents.

Anyways, enough moping. Cute girl already said yes so she puckers up. Hey, at least it came with a kiss from a cute girl right?

They kissed and Chloe feels herself buzzing intensely and there's glitter everywhere and something shiny and-

A fucking ladybug stares at her. Oh, shit.

[sillysiluriforme]

So fairy au question (as to be expected), does everyone who is of fae origins know each other? Except for the Agrestes of course. I like to think they have at least met right??

Sabine and Tom are aware of every fairy in the area (unless they’re hiding very hard) and vice versa but marinette and Chloe are generally really out of the loop so neither of them knew the other were non-humans.

[sizzleissues]

Its May.

Okay so this is in the same AU I had last year its just changed and evolved while also being the exact same. Except now I have 15,000 words of it written, like 7,000 words of planning and lore and hours upon hours of research that I will be pointedly ignoring. Will be posting more stuff this month about the AU and my hopes and dreams for it

Also slight art improvement check? I’ll put their original mermaid designs below the cut.

It’s Marinette as a mermaid and … its not Adrien or Chat Noir but a third worse thing (Catwalker but in the purest manifestation of it being a curse and not who he wants to be) I will be making designs for mer!Ladybug, and mer!Adrien as its own thing later on.

Okay if you want to indulge me look below the cut

Old mermaid designs first. I am going to be talking about my design thoughts, thoughts and ramblings about this AU and what I’ve been up to. You have been warned

As you can see, some things have changed but neither design I hated, I just wanted to go further with it.

My brain is quite specific about mermaids and how I want them to generally look. I wanted to distinguish biological merfolk from transformed humans by having them being anatomically different. So Adrien has a vertical tail instead which is also way faster underwater. His transformation is quite distressing for him and very chaotic. Of course when he accepts it he’s not so raggedy.

Marinette similarly avoids her life as a mermaid by becoming human and I wanted her mermaid design to hint toward her fascination with humans. She wears a top she fashioned from human fabric she found in a sunken merchant vessel. In general all other merfolk either forgo clothes or wear things fashioned from materials available to them. There’s deep fear of humans and human things so even though human clothes are available to them (off dead bodies but…. Whatever) they choose to difference themselves as much as possible. The same taboos don’t exist for them and their bodies are already adapted from the temperature of their environment. Adrien has stray bits of netting and seaweed on him because he’s not exactly the best at controlling his speed and often crash’s through fishing nets and patches of seaweed resulting in stuff being caught on him.

A lot of their designs are still being worked but I’ve definitely pushed them the right direction!

On to the AU. You might have seem me cryptically talk about something I’m writing the past few weeks. This is because it’s been in my brain since last May and been on and off writing it since then. I decided I’d talk about it once May came back around but and then when I finished writing it, start posting sneak peaks and more spoilery art until it was fully edited and I felt confident in it to post with an aim for it to finish posting once May rolled around again. Oh god.

It’s set in the late 1700s in a fictional version of France that’s actually fragmented over a bunch of islands. I have done more fashion research than I ever thought I’d do and in the end we will still be taking creative license but know I do know what they actually wore! I ALSO did a butt tonne of research about sailing ships and turns out they are super complicated and now I know too much and yet too little still about them. It should be super fun and action packed if I can manage. Have some really good scenes already in my head I know you’ll love. We’re already three ships battle deep and I’ve only written four chapters. (It chills out for a bit after that)

This is entirely self-indulgent by the way. I’m writing this for me, you guys are just a bonus. I literally don’t care as long as it satiates my rabid need for the fic that only lives in my brain at the moment. Saying that, I do want to put my best foot forward.

The next thing I will be posting for this is their human forms and more blabblerings about that. For I am insane and all.

[starsfic]

Kagami, the Best Ladybug Girlfriend

Summary: When Marinette breaks her foot, her wonderful girlfriend Kagami steps in as Ladybug. This leads to Paris being interested in Marinette's love life. Notes: A request by @wombatking, inspired by my fic Marinette, Girlfriend of Ladybug.

Marinette would more than love to blame the situation on Lila.

She had been the one to brag about her expertise in gymnastics (while also coming with a convenient excuse about why there was no video or pictures at the Olympics when Alix pried), to the point that gym class had been switched to minor gymnastics. She had been the one to insist Marinette go next after Juleka and Rose had both performed perfect flips on the front beam.

Except Marinette’s clumsiness had been there before Lila.

"I’m fine," she said, her entire body shaking despite her words.

Kim held her hand with a very pale look. "You are not fine."

"I’m fine," she said, trying not to freak out.

Alya held her other hand and looked ready to throw up. "You are not fine."

"I’m fine. It doesn’t even hurt."

"I don’t think your foot is meant to look like that, Marinette!" Alya’s nails dug into her skin. The sensation grounded her.

The rest of the class was gathered around with pale and horror struck faces. Even Lila and Chloe were there, looking ready to either faint or throw up. All except for Ivan and Alix, who had run the minute Kim and Alya had rushed over. The former soon returned with a big water bottle, while the latter had sprinted to get the nurse. There was no sign of the teacher anywhere.

Maybe he was worried that Damocles would fire him.

"Does it hurt?" Sabrina asked, worrying the hem of her gym shirt between her fingers.

"I can’t see her foot’s shape!" Chloe barked. "Of course it hurts."

"It doesn’t, actually," Marinette said, which was partly the reason why Alya and Kim were holding onto her. Logically, she knew she was hurt. Her foot was enough proof of that. But she didn’t feel it.

"That might be the shock," Kim admitted as Alix pushed her way through, with the nurse following close behind.

The next few minutes were a blur. An ambulance came. Marinette was wheeled out. Then she was sitting in a hospital room with her parents on either side, practically shielding her. There was a cast on her foot.

The doctor walked in, holding an X-ray. "So, I have good news and bad news," she said as she held up the X-ray, pointing to a spot on the foot. "The bad news is that your foot is definitely broken. The good news is, your foot looks worse than it actually is." Marinette felt her entire body sink with relief, alongside her parents. But she couldn’t soak up that feeling for long.

"So, it won’t take long to heal, right?" she asked. 

Her answer came when the doctor winced.

-_-

"So, I’m in a cast for a month and a half," Marinette said, hefting up said cast so her girlfriend could take a good look at it. At least the wrapping could be done in a cute pink. At least. She was struggling to find a bright spot in all of this.

"That is awful," Kagami said, raising a hand to stroke it. Despite her flat expression, sympathy filled her voice. "How do you feel?"

"Slightly better," she admitted. "Apparently, I was in a lot of shock, which blocked out a lot of the pain. But…"

Tikki rose up. "She can’t be Ladybug while she’s healing," The kwami looked glum at the admittance. She hated the idea when Marinette presented it, mostly at being separated for a month and a half. "The suit will disappear the cast, but her foot will still be broken."

"Which will put pressure and hinder her recovery," Kagami said, putting together the pieces that Marinette had in the doctor’s office. "So, what can you do?"

That was when Marinette held out her earrings.

"I need you to be Ladybug," she said when Kagami’s eyes went wide. "I trust you. Plus, we look similar enough at first glance. Chat Noir might notice, but…"

"He has a history of failing to notice important things," Kagami said, taking the earrings. She looked awestruck at even being allowed to touch them. Ever since she had learned of Marinette’s role as the guardian, she had been careful with the Miraculouses, especially the ones she was entrusted with. "If you feel that I can take your place, then I respect your opinion."

"The phrase is Tikki, spots on," Marinette said as Kagami clipped them on. "You can transform and we can see if we need to change anything." If they could pass Kagami’s suit off as a recent remodel, then that would be less stress when Marinette returned to work.

"Alright… Tikki, spots on!"

Pink consumed Kagami’s form, whirling around her. Marinette had never seen the Ladybug transformation on someone else and found herself holding her breath, leaning forward until the pink finally vanished. She felt her own smile vanish as well.

"Your suit looks better than mine," she said, definitely not in a whine.

Unlike her skin-tight onesie, Kagami wore what looked like a solid black leotard. Layered on top was the red and black, with solid-looking boots and a top piece that resembled ancient samurai armor. Her hair was arranged in a high bun with red ribbon. And, of course, the domino mask. It looked like Kagami was ready to march into battle. It looked good.

Logically, Marinette knew she should be focusing on the differences, redefining it so it would look more like something she would wear, but annoyance was blocking it out.

"Hm," Kagami said, turning to look in the mirror. "I did not notice it, but it does." She raised a brow. "Why is that? You have a greater sense of fashion than I do."

"It’s based on what the wielder thinks when they transform," Marinette said, getting up and unable to help a smile as Kagami immediately offered her arm. It allowed her to tap the armor, which felt like leather but sounded like wood under her nails. "I think it looks great, though."

Kagami’s smile lit up the room.

-_-

Thankfully, few people noticed that Marinette had switched up her regular black studs for pink flower earrings. When Alya asked, she told the truth about missing her old earrings. She could rarely wear different ones, not when an akuma attack could happen at any minute.

The next few weeks passed smoothly. She and Kagami visited each other’s house on a near-daily basis already, and Tikki had nothing but kind gushing about Kagami’s hospitality. The time off actually gave Marinette time to catch up on homework and sleep and even break into Miraculous research and fashion. Lila was even surprisingly quiet about her "injuries" in class. Marinette had to wonder if it was seeing an actual broken foot, or the suspicious glances that others were shooting her. Adrien had tried to say something about how staying quiet was clearly right, but she ignored him. So far, so good.

And then the school had gotten attacked by an akuma.

Marinette was surprised it had been so long. She was pretty sure she saw Max erasing a whiteboard that said "DAYS SINCE AKUMA ATTACK ON OUR SCHOOL."

She unfortunately couldn’t question him about it because she was running for her life.

The akuma had revealed itself to be Rachel, a girl from the other class, known for an explosive temper. Hawkmoth had turned that into Dyna-Gal, with the ability to make cartoon-style bombs that, unfortunately, had very real power. 

It was one of those times when Marinette wanted to throttle Lila. She couldn’t run with the cast on her foot and getting down the stairs was a nightmare even when things were normal. Dyna-Gal had clearly noticed her hindrance, cackling freely as she lobbed bomb after bomb around. Marinette ducked and weaved, jolting every time one went off, very glad that her hero job had taught her how to stand through an explosion. However, this time, she didn’t have a super suit.

"Lucky strike!" Dyna-Gal cackled and Marinette dared to look back. She felt herself pale as the akuma lobbed a bomb like a bowling ball, headed directly in her. She tried to speed up, but the cast and her crutches were useless in that effort. If the bomb even just knocked her off her feet-

The sound of wire buzzing was her only warning before she was yanked off her feet, barely managing to hold onto her crutches.

"I have you, miss," Kagami, Musha Aka in the earrings, said, her voice determined. She had the same voice when she was preparing to win a fencing match. Marinette resisted a swoon and instead held on as Musha Aka zipped from building to building. It wasn’t until Dyna-Gal’s cackling had disappeared that she headed to the street, landing on the sidewalk in an empty street. "Are you alright?" she asked, the sun catching in her dark curls.

Marinette suddenly understood all of Alya’s fantasies.

She couldn’t help it. She leaned up and pressed her lips to Kagami’s own. It was more of a cheek kiss than an actual kiss, but it was still a kiss that made her entire body warm. When she pulled back, Kagami’s eyes sparkled. "For good luck," she said as she pulled away.

Neither noticed the snap of a camera.

-_-

The next morning, Marinette woke up early.

She found herself dazed and confused, looking around. The sky was still dark and her clock said it was only seven. That was way earlier than she usually woke up. When she turned her head, Wayzz was hovering in front of her, holding her phone. "Miss Marinette," he said, the title they compromised on thick with worry. "There is something you should see." 

"What is it, Wayzz?" Marinette asked as she took her phone. When she looked down, she realized two things. One, Wayzz had pulled up the Ladyblog. Second, her social media notifications were exploding.

Marinette took one look at the webpage and felt herself go pale.

The main picture was of her and Musha Aka. The picture was slightly blurry, suggesting that it had been taken far away, but it was close enough to catch their kiss. Over it was a bold title: THE REAL REASON FOR NO LADYNOIR.

"...well, shit."

-_-

The few hours between her waking up and getting to school both felt too fast and too slow. Marinette didn't answer any calls or texts and was too terrified to even look at her social media notifications.

When it was time for her to leave for school, she was torn between a drag and a run, not helped by her crutches. Thankfully, no reporters had popped up yet, but she was willing to bet that they would be coming soon.

Once she was there, she found herself pausing. Many of the people she saw were wearing Ladybug’s spots or LGBTQIA+ merch, from full outfits to hair clips. Several stopped to smile and give her friendly waves, while others looked starstruck. This was a bigger reaction than she was expecting.

She was, however, expecting Alya, marching up with Nino close behind, both wearing the colors of the pan and bi flags. Alya looked torn between absolute delight and anger, and Marinette found herself tense.

"Can you explain this?" Alya demanded, pulling up the photo. Once again, Marinette resisted the urge to scream at the sight of that private moment. "I thought you and Kagami were a thing? Is this why the Ladybug suit suddenly looks better?"

Shit. She should have thought of an excuse.

"We’re poly… Alya."

Alya blinked. Marinette tried to resist the urge to scream as she stared at her.

"...and you didn’t invite me to be part of your polycule?"

…what.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, I would ditch Nino for you and Ladybug."

Marinette glanced at Nino. He blinked and then shrugged. "Eh, I can’t blame her," he said. "You and Ladybug have been on our passes ever since we started dating."

Marinette was torn between laughing and screaming, instead settling on a "Good to know?" Like usual ever since she had broken her foot, Alya took her bag, and the trio started walking to the classroom. "So, um, what’s up with all the pride stuff? If I had known, I would have put on some stuff."

"Well, the Internet has been blowing up ever since I got sent the picture," Alya admitted. "People have been debating on whether or not this makes sense. A lot of people agree on it, but there's been shippers that have been pretty upset."

"Like you?" She couldn’t help it. "I mean, you’ve been pretty hard about the Ladynoir ship forever."

Alya sighed as they walked in. Chloe was sitting in her usual seat, rocking back and forth with mascara-stained cheeks. Lila sat in the back, looking very pale. Adrien looked normal, although an anger she had never seen aimed at her flashed in his eyes. "I mean, I was. For a bit. It just…made sense, in my head. But then I started thinking about it."

Marinette raised a brow. "Really?"

"Yeah. I realized I was acting like a tabloid reporter," Alya sounded pained at the very idea. "It wasn’t any of my business. Ladybug and Chat Noir aren’t dolls to be shoved together. I’m thinking of maybe revamping the blog, especially since a certain someone," Lila scooted down in her seat as Alya turned to aim a nasty glare at her. "Made me think I could trust her."

…actually, you know what? Breaking her foot had been the best thing ever.

-_-

Marinette finally started looking at her social media after dinner, with her dad pressing her about possibly bringing Ladybug and Kagami over. Her mom thankfully stopped that by pointing out that Ladybug cared more about security than Chat Noir. It was a good excuse.

Most of it was actually rather kind. Many people were excited at the idea that Paris’s heroine was like them. Fanart with her and the pride flag was everywhere. A few podcasters and YouTubers had sent her emails, wanting to talk to Ladybug or at least Marinette, hoping to learn about queer heroes. A few were nasty- the texts Chloe had sent her were ruder than anything she had ever said before- but that didn’t diminish the warmth in her chest at the love and kindness.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Then it was gone.

Marinette felt her heart jump when she realized that the burner phone that Chat Noir had bought them was buzzing. She had taken the gift reluctantly. Chat had claimed it was to avoid the disaster that had been the field trip to New York, but given his other actions, she had doubted it. Thankfully, so far, he had kept interactions limited to brief texts.

She picked it up and answered the call. "Hello?"

"When were you planning on telling me that you had a girlfriend?" His voice sounded weirdly shaky. The unease that had consumed Marinette eased off, replaced by a burn of pity. Thanks to his persistence in admitting his romantic affections, she would barely categorize Chat in the friend category, but she didn’t want him to hurt.

"...Never," she admitted. "You already know too many details about my life."

There was silence on the other end. She nearly hung up before there was a soft "...can I at least ask how long?"

Marinette breathed out air through her nose. "I’m sorry, no," she said finally. "Because I know you’ll torture yourself with that information."

There was a longer moment of silence. "...I see," he finally said. She could imagine him sitting on the roof, running his fingers through his hair. "...does she know who you are?"

"No," she said. "We’ve agreed on waiting until Hawkmoth is gone. I…I’m not a good girlfriend to her, Chat." Old guilt rose up in her chest. It was old because Kagami knew who she was, but she could never forgive herself for the first few months of their relationship. "I…I miss dates. I can’t brag about her to my family. I can barely share any details about my life. I know so much about her, but she barely knows anything about me, and it sucks."

Chat sighed. "I…Hm." There was a sigh. "Okay. Okay. I’ll see you next fight."

He hung up and Marinette collapsed against the chair with a sigh.

"I forgave you for that, you know." She nearly fell out of her chair at Kagami’s voice, turning to see her girlfriend, still clad in the Ladybug suit, rise up from her chaise. Her eyes were soft as she cupped her face, making sure Marinette understood her words. It sounded like a speech she had rehearsed. "Every time you had to go, I could see it in your face that you didn’t want to leave."

"And I still leave you behind," Marinette groaned, leaning into Kagami’s hands. "Remind me to beat up Hawkmoth for crashing our dates when we finally catch him."

Kagami leaned forward, pressing her lips to Marinette’s head.

"Assume I am already there."

[etradio]

The Love Square is where Marinette & Adrien fall in love with all sides of each other.

In my AU, (which I’m gonna call the Miracle Workers AU because that’s what I wanted the hero team to be called) there’s still the Love Square of course, but there’s also this.

THE HATE SQUARE.

Alya and Lila hating every side of each other💖

When Lila first appears, Alya is the first to figure out she’s lying, and she exposes/humiliates Lila. Lila is akumatized into the Chameleon, and then later saved by Ladybug & Chat Noir.

No one really wants to befriend Lila after finding out she’s a phony- except for Marinette, who empathizes with her, being a former social outcast herself.

Lila & Marinette become best friends- which means she has to put up with Alya (who hates her cause she’s a liar.) They can tolerate each other in front of Marinette- but when she’s not around… yikes.

————————————————————————

Even though Ladybug didn’t humiliate Lila in the Miracle Workers AU, she still hates Ladybug.

Lila envies the attention and adoration Ladybug has, and ends up working for Hawkmoth under the agreement that after he makes his wish, Lila will wear the earrings- becoming Paris’s new Ladybug. (There is also a henchmen who wants to be the new Chat Noir)

Lila dawns the persona of Volpina, claiming to wield the Arctic Fox Miraculous. Volpina is the traitor of the hero team. Rena Rouge is immediately sus of her.

Rena Rouge & Volpina represent the positive and negative traits associated with foxes. Since the view of foxes tends to be largely negative (conniving tricksters) Volpina ends up garnering more influence in the hearts & minds of Parisians.

————————————————————————

Alya still does become Rena Furtive at some point, and Lila becomes Volpe Ombra (meaning Shadow Fox) sleuthing for their respective sides.

Rena Furtive & Volpe Ombra don’t recognize each other, but still hate each other on sight.

Volpina — White Lie costume

Volpe Ombra — Black Lie costume

[killervelveteenrabbit]

Reaction to “The Ruler” (S6, E15)

As I mentioned previously, this is the episode that prompted me to start reacting to the .to drops rather than the Disney broadcasts. This episode indirectly calls out some sins of Disney's own, so I strongly expect “The Ruler” to become a “lost” episode, like “The Gatekeeper” ep of “Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur”. This would disappoint me because the Nathmarc/Marcaniel dynamic is exactly what I needed to see when I was younger. Seeing a passionate, uplifting, and wholesome relationship between two boys would have helped me understand that love was not out of reach for someone like me… or at least, it would have made me feel like less of a freak.

We see relatively little of the Anciel household, except that it’s as colorful as Marc himself and it’s a supportive environment. Mostly, we see Nathaniel’s home, which quite frankly gives off Gabriel Agreste vibes: a monochrome palette with one parent holed up to themselves, lost in their design work.

As for the boys’ updated looks, Marc’s eighties-inspired eye make-up slays (and as we later discover, it’s waterproof). As for Nathaniel, people have already commented on the color symbolism of the paint-spattered overalls, but I’m more interested in how his hair still looks good even though Alix isn’t there to touch up the red. And here’s something I noticed not just with Nath, but with Ivan in “El Toro de Piedras”: the new animation engine allows for the rendering of realistic freckles.

Mr. Kurtzberg cluelessly suggests having the knights fight for the affections of Deep Darkness, an obvious villain, claiming it’s “what people want to see.” Rather, it’s what he thinks people want to see. Like many corporate executives and self-appointed cultural arbiters, he doesn’t understand the value of stories told from a minority or niche viewpoint because they think most viewers or readers outside that community won't accept the premise. They don’t understand the transcendent power of a strong narrative to break down barriers and resonate with people, as demonstrated by how much Nathmarc's classmates love their comic, even though not all of them are LGBTQ+.

Some critics of this ep have called the subplot of Marinette’s cold distracting, even gross. But it makes a valuable point about brand-new romance. We try to show our partners our best and most attractive selves at all times, but no one can maintain the illusion forever. Eventually, you will see them (or they will see you) doing something inelegantly, unflatteringly human, and if there's anything to your relationship, it will withstand that shock. (Even so, you’d think Marinette would consider sewing herself a cute surgical mask for hygiene’s sake.)

Frankly, the metaphor associated with Nath and Marc’s comic hits harder than Mjolnir; it’s more than a little on the nose. Perhaps it was the best way the writers could articulate the angst caused by Shirel’s opposition to their relationship within the context of what is supposedly a children’s show.

Speaking of angst, the ending of Nathaniel and Marc’s comic foreshadows harrowing developments for Ladybug and Chat Noir. Rain-Piercer and Sun-Heart risk losing their powers if they reveal their identities, just like LB and CN. Will they also end up in a position where they must choose between their powers and their relationship? And if that happens, will someone be there to rewrite the narrative?

Nathaniel’s bedroom features a huge picture window, filling the space with morning light. But it only emphasizes the muted colors within that room, with only a few hints of color. It’s certainly not as cheerful as Marinette’s room, or Adrien’s, or Alya’s. It symbolizes how Nathaniel is trying to find some light of his own despite his parents’ influence.

Continuing the metaphor, plenty of LGBTQ+ people have accidentally outed themselves by leaving incriminating evidence where the wrong person found it.

Shirel shredding Marc’s manuscript is, of course, a karmic callback to Nathaniel tearing up Marc’s journal back in “Reverser”, the episode that introduced the latter. More upsetting is Nath’s attempt to destroy every trace of his comic, even badgering Marinette to hand over the proofs. Here we see one of the tragedies of homophobia: it forces people to self-censor the best parts of themselves, to destroy the things that bring them joy and make them special, to deprive themselves and the world of all they have to share.

Nathaniel and Marc, aside from Adrien, are the only people who ever figure out that Marinette is the “jet plane”. I can’t tell if this is more foreshadowing or just incidental.

When Shirel drags Nathaniel out of school, she makes at least two references to Nathaniel “going straight,” at least according to the subtitles. No comment.

I guess Shirel never heard about the comics collection the Louvre Collection co-published and showcased in 2009.

Not Nathaniel transforming and bursting out of a closet!

Shirel says she’s making Nathaniel give up comics “for his own good”. It's an argument too many parents have used to justify “tough love” approaches to their queer children, up to and including conversion therapy.

At the end of the episode, Cerise mentions Nathaniel by name, suggesting she’s figured out he’s a Miraculous holder. Honestly, it wouldn’t have been that hard. Ladybug yelled out his whole government name when she told him to scram. And then a Miraculer showed up, fighting the villain du jour with art supplies, going after her like he had a personal stake in the fight. Between all that, I fear Caprikid has tipped his hoof.

The scene on Marinette’s roof gives “Adrien: The Fragrance” a brand new meaning.

Shirel’s tearful reaction to her son’s comic suggests she didn’t even read Marc’s manuscript before destroying it, not unlike moral guardians who try to ban books they haven’t even read. The epilogue continues that theme, with Marc's observations about how their comic had “effects in real life” and how they were “attacked for talking about love.”

In that context, the mutual reveal of Nath and Marc’s superhero identities does more than parallel the events in their comic. It symbolizes the power of queer visibility. Marc helps Nath discover his bisexuality; later, Nath gives Marc the courage to reveal himself as Rooster Bold. Coming out does more than assert our autonomy; it supports other people who aren’t out yet, showing them that they are not alone and giving them the confidence to live their own truth, to follow their own path.

[spookierdeer]

my internet was down recently so i redesigned some miraculous ladybug characters from memory. details of this spur of the moment au below ⬇️⬇️⬇️

this is kind of off the cuff and wordy as hell, but it was what i was thinking about while drawing. i ran out of steam to draw anyone else but if i were to revisit i would probably do this in a different art style lol i tried to make them match but it's too samey to me and got boring working on this fast </3

marinette is 16-17ish instead of 13-15, most of the cast are this age except a few like luka who are 17-18

ignore that marinette isn't fully colored in the first image, i saved it before deciding to fully color everyone LOL

instead of general education, they go to an arts school the first akuma attack was focused on a private school nearby which adrien, kagami, and chloe attend with adrien and chloe being transferred afterwards to the art school (adrien and chloe both put in the fashion design course by their dads)

marinette is in the fashion track, alya in photography/video editing, nino, luka, and rose are in music, juleka and marc in writing, and nathaniel is in illustration/animation. other characters either fall into other tracks as well, attend the private school, or another nearby school that isn't arts focused. if a character fits something else better than what i said then pretend i said that instead 👍

marinette's interest in fashion design takes more of a front seat, i feel like it isn't brought up much in the show for how important it seems to her. instead of a 14 year old designing an album cover and whatever other insane opportunities she's gotten, i think those opportunities might come from businesses and celebrities working with the art school and marinette having a track record of lucking out in her work catching the eye of the people interested

kagami in canon is extremely autistic teen girl coded to me and therefore my favorite so i double down on that here

-her hair is short because in one of the only times she's actively rebelled against her mother's wishes, years prior to this au, she cut her hair short on her own because the feeling of it touching her neck and shoulders was constantly upsetting her. when her mom finally noticed she took control over this act of rebellion and took kagami to a hair stylist to get a haircut she found more appropriate; kagami has been getting it cut this same way since then.

-after moving to paris she had to give up a lot of the norms she found comfort in. i think she would have taken incredible care of the backpack she was given when she first started school and it's become somewhat of a comfort item. the private school would be pretty strict about dress code, but as long as the backpack didn't look sloppy and was in one of the allowed colors, she could use it- so even if she didn't use it much in middle school i could see her returning to it to have as a piece of home in a new place that's otherwise incredibly overwhelming.

-even if she isn't interested in it, she listens to her mom and does as she says which has her even more quiet and reserved than she would be normally. shes good friends with adrien, he's actually one of her closest friends, but she doesn't open up much more around him and he can tell. she meets marinette through him and while she doesn't magically blossom into a different person, she definitely speaks her mind more when around her and eventually adrien- marinette's personality connecting with her own just right and that makes her feel safe in a deep way.

-marinette inspires her to push boundaries, one of the first ways she rebels (considered so in her own mind) is wearing a friendship bracelet marinette makes for her despite her school not allowing jewelry like that. another is a "good luck" charm key chain she keeps latched to a zipper inside her backpack.

-i don't remember, but in the show i think kagami might model with agreste brand in some way? she might do that here too since her mom and adrien's dad are close, but she prefers modelling for marinette's projects even if she's shy about it at first. they're usually alone during this and kagami sometimes helps by wearing marinette's WIPs as she works and during those times kagami finds she laughs and smiles the most.

-i'm rambling now, but kagami reflects marinette in a lot of similar-but-opposite ways i didn't get into here and i need to stop talking about kagami and marinette or i'll be here all day.

idk what all to write for adrien bc i dont keep up with the show anymore so idk what his deal is rn, BUT here i would explore his experience with unspecified depression- he would have so much lust for life and joy but between his mom recently passing and his dad being a quiet megalomaniac with his only real parental support being his dad's assistant and his own bodyguard- he just doesn't feel much excitement with life despite how he might express himself in front of his friends. i think getting transferred would be, unintentionally on his dad's part, the biggest boon possible for adrien bc he would slowly regain that excitement in regards to just living his life- even if gabriel squashes it often with rules and tiring modelling work. becoming friends w nino, marinette, and everyone else would bring him out of his shell just like kagami even if it's in a different way.

luka is one of my faves too so he was one of the first i designed; he's not incredibly more important in this au, but i'd want to focus more on the eldest sibling in a single parent household stress of his character. a wonderful son and brother with a lot of skill and patience who's willing to lend an ear to any friend. lot of stress would pile up and i like thinking about him finally finding out who his dad is- that he's met the guy and it's one of his musical idols. and the man never said anything. and how that would upset him. and being the backbone of not only his family, but his friend group as he's stressed about going out into the world on his own soon in an unstable field and now he has to cope with that too...

instead of meeting alya at school, marinette and alya have been best friends since childhood which brings a bigger stress on marinette when she can't even tell the one person in the whole world her biggest secret- especially since alya IMMEDIATELY becomes ladybug's biggest fan and defender and they never would keep secrets before- and alya could tell she wasn't saying something. i like imagining the added stress of losing that confidant marinette would have had for years and years and having to handle some of the most stressful things she's ever experienced on her own save for tikki with alya slowly worrying more and she can't say a thing. alya got into photography in middle school during projects with marinette and ended up wanting to study it, but seeing ladybug only fuels her love of it- running the ladyblog and social medias about the hero while marinette watches on wishing she could tell alya for the longest time. eventually she does but that's down the line lol

nino is still adrien's first friend in the new school and he meets everyone else through him. i think nino and luka would be fairly close in this au with them working together whenever the other needed help on projects or just helping the other out with learning new skills. i'm not sure how to write it here but i like thinking about alya and nino's dynamic as a couple since what i remember of the show was mostly them together then talking about adrienette instead lmao

one of the biggest examples of missed potential in mlb to me is chloe, so shes rewritten as bully with hero worship of ladybug(/baby's first lesbian crush) only to have her dreams crushed when ladybug takes back her miraculous and says she doesn't think she'll be able to trust her with it again. not sure if she would let it fully go to her head here or if she just suddenly found comfort in pollen only to have ladybug take the kwami away without listening to her side of things. i have a whole thing written for her in my notes app that ill never share just know shes fleshed out here way more than in canon- i already rambled too much about kagami so i'll hold myself back here LOL

marc is such a fun character to me but i REALLY don't like his look in canon and he's one of the main characters i wanted to redesign so i let myself have a lot of fun with him to make up for the years of looking at his canon one

nathaniel is similar, i don't want to change too much about him but i think he's a fun character and his blazer/tshirt/skinny jeans/converse fit in canon pissed me off for years on the back burner lmfao... i think i might've leaned too far away from a style his canon counterpart might choose, but he goes to an art school and if his multiple of his friends being in the fashion track and his partner being an alt kid can't stop him from wearing a plain tshirt and blazer then idk what could

JULEKA..... why does her first saga design look like a sims 4 townie that's goth and into track? not even current sims 4, 2014 sims 4. sims 4 fitness stuff. i'm getting to the characters i wouldn't change a ton about story wise now clearly, i just think their drip is nonexistent, barren. i think her going from near full coverage purple and black goth to bright pink clown when akumatized is a fun dichotomy. i don't think i'll be redesigning any other outfits (or characters for that matter), but that drastic of a change is very fun. i could see her occasionally wearing a privacy mask like marc on days she feels too socially anxious.

i think a modern take on rose would almost inevitably lean into lovecore, but i tried to keep her more simple. i will always love purple/pink ships and the tall, dark, and broody looking juleka who's mostly just quiet and shy and rose who's short, bombastic, and kind with a huge heart is a very sweet and fun pair. in the show she has an unspecified illness which could be any number of things, so i thought maybe she would need to bundle up more than the others (granted there's a lot of long sleeves here lol)- more layers than usual to regulate in the cooler months and the opposite during the warmer ones. i kind of drew these with spring in mind, so she'd probably be wearing thicker leggings or something here- she still REALLY wants to look cute even if her body is mad at her (relatable).

i'm intentionally not getting into the miraculouses or akuma or kwami or the whole (gestures vaguely to gabriel and lila and everything else) here since i'm already yapping more than this justifies for an au i'm not doing anything with. just had a lot of thoughts while designing these. i didn't get a ton into ships here aside from the last few, but i also don't really know how i'd deal with the "love square" since i was never invested in that and instead liked lukadrienette and marigami more lol... i'd also want to explore marinette finding out about chloe's one sided crush on ladybug and her reaction vs chloe dealing with the fallout of hero worship. if you read all of this thank you ilu mwah mwah

[thecoolcatstuff]

Miraculous Chat Noir was a great addition but I really wish it had been presented under different circunstances.

Arenyou telling me he simply somewhat always had that power, and noone mentioned it to him? Not Fu, not Plagg, not Su Han, not Ladybug NOONE. And when Ladybug did tell him, it was only because SHE needed it??

I wish we had an episode where he just finds this power out by accident. Like they are fighting an akuma while he is upset about all the harassment he goes through as Adrien and he goes for a cataclysm and then BAM. Suddenly he finds himself in a world where noone knows who he is. Everything is the same, except noone knows Adrien Agreste, and noone can remember Ladybug had a partner.

He detransforms in panic and Plagg explains nonchalantly his new power, and he didnt bother to tell him because it normaly leads to disasters.

"last time someone used Miraculous Chat Noir, everyone in the universe forgot what a torkret was."

"A what?"

"Exactly."

Curious, Adrien decides to flake out the battle and bask into this new world for a little while of course, the unfamiliar but nice feeling of going somewhere and not be treated as a delicated and rare ornament. Of not having people follow him around, or ask autographs and photos and just be an ordinary guy.

But then he is reminded that noone remembers him. Not Nathalie, not Nino, not Marinette, not Ladybug. He decides he needs to reverse this otherwise he will be TRULY alone forever.

Then he remembers there is an akuma on the loose, and he needs to go back to the task at hand and somehow CONVINCE Ladybug that she always had a partner, and that she is supposed to trust him to defeat the akuma and finally undo what he had done.

She is initially wary of course because who the hell is this guy with the black cat miraculous that she is supposed to guard? He is flamboyant, unserious and hot-headed, how could ahe have a partner like that? But their dynamic is so easy and... Almost familiar? Also he is strong and surprisingly competent in reading the battle. Then she throws him a bone. They work together, defeat the akuma yadayadayada.

Things go back to normal, and we have a moment where Adrien ponders the importance of being remembered. Happy ending!

[onlyvinegar]

I genuinely do not get why S6 is making "Adrien should be told" a recurring story point (according to the internet), because Adrien Being Told will not be the catharsis people want unless they for some godawful reason will be doing the identity reveal now rather than the seasone where it by all narrative rules belonged.

The thing haunting Marinette is lying to her boyfriend, but she's lying in her office as Ladybug. It was Ladybug who was present as Gabriel went down; Marinette, to Adrien's knowlege, had no reason to be involved, far less having any influence on what Ladybug tells the press.

If Ladybug tells Adrien the truth, Adrien might (should) be rightfully angry at his friendly neighborhood superhero, who unbeknownst to her is also his superhero boss. Maybe ranting and raving, and some of it presumably at his girlfriend, who obviously can't tell him that that's her he's cussing out. No catharsis, because Adrien still doesn't know his girlfriend was the one who lied.

Moreover: Ladybug lying to Adrien means Ladybug lying to Cat Noir too, except Cat Noir can't let his just rage out at her lest he betray his identity.

The obvious solution to both of these is of course for there to be an identity reveal, but two of the writers have gone out and more or less said that that's not happening anytime soon. Which means that if Adrien is told, it will not be a source of bitter feelings between him and Ladybug, somehow. Watch this be the season of "Adrien learns to accept what he's dealt and move on" or something equally anticlimatic.

[seekinghelp-adhd]

Chance Encounters (Maribat idea I'm throwing around)

Marinette moves to Gotham to pursue fashion. She has to finish her last year of high school at Gotham Academy and do an internship over the summer, but if she does she gets a massive scholarship to Gotham University. They were more than happy to help out Jagged Stone's famously young personal designer. Obviously, this puts her in classes with Damien Wayne, who barely talks and only ever calls his brothers by their last names.

Jagged insists on setting her up in a penthouse for her stay in Gotham, but Marinette argues that being a single girl living in a fancy penthouse is like asking one of the Gotham rogues to kidnap or rob her. They compromise on a nice apartment with a state of the art security system, one owned by Wayne Enterprises. Another tenant on her same floor, Jason Todd, stops by to scope out the new neighbor. He seems nice enough, but he keeps calling his older brother "Dick" and Marinette can't tell if that's his name or just an insult. Apparently he does this whenever someone new moves in to see if he’ll have to move. Marinette tells him to let her know if he does, Because she says if he doesn’t feel safe living in this building anymore, she definitely wants to leave. Jason is amused by this and decides she can stay.

It doesn't take long for Marinette to encounter Gotham's bad side. After a few months of living there she's seen plenty of rogue attacks. She's been lucky enough to stay out of it. After all, if the villains aren't magical there's nothing her Miraculous Cure could do anyway. Her luck is apparently starting to run out though, because now she's being held up at knife point in an alley. She obviously takes the guy down after years of being Ladybug and calls the cops. Dick Greyson is the officer on scene. He's incredibly friendly and is super impressed that she managed to take the guy down, but Dick has seen corrupt cops take people in for self-defense if it means someone else owes them a favor. He gives her his personal cell in case anything like this ever happens again.

Through all of this, Marinette has been spending more and more time with Damien at school. Marinette is hesitant to trust all the smiles and niceties around her after Lila's manipulation and wants to truly get to know someone before she puts any trust in them. Damien is the only exception. She was warned of his reputation as the "Ice Prince" of GA before meeting him and found talking with him to be incredibly refreshing. There was absolutely nothing fake or over the top about him. He was straightforward and down to earth and Marinette found comfort in that. She decided that she trusted him on day one. Likewise, Damien finds her skeptical attitude toward the other students to be incredibly validating. Growing up in the League, everyone was always pretending, even to the other assassins. You had to act a certain way around the right people, and manipulation was the key to survival. Marinette seems to notice people trying to take advantage of her and recognize when someone just wants a favor, and he respects that. Regretfully, and to Jon's great joy, Damien finds that he thinks of her as a friend.

Word eventually gets out that Marinette is Jagged's designer. This is, of course, entirely Jagged's fault. Some good comes out of all the extra attention, though, when she learns that the co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises is a fan of hers. He makes a commission for a new suit and, upon learning of her situation, offers her a position as his families personal designer over the summer to meet her internship qualifications for GU. They set up a meeting in person for her to take measurements once her midterms are over.

When everything is going well though, something has to throw a wrench into things. The Batfamily raids one of Black Mask's warehouses late one night, and Red Hood takes a few too many bullets and a pretty big hit to the head. The kevlar took most of the hits for him, but he's badly bruised and nursing a concussion. It's the concussion that causes him to stumble into the wrong window of his apartment building and scare his new neighbor half to death. Marinette does what she always does and helps the vigilante without question. To do that though, she has to take off his helmet. She assumed he would have a mask underneath or something. He does not. Marinette is not as surprised as she probably should be, and Jason is pissed when he wakes up. He realizes after a while that this isn't her fault. She's been taking care of him since he was too stubborn to go to Bruce, and if she wanted him or his family dead she could have done something about it by now. He decides to put a little trust in her, but keeps an eye on her just in case. This is what clues him into the situation. In her time here in Gotham, she's managed to meet all of the Wayne brothers aside from Duke, and she has no idea they're even related.

Jason, of course, finds this absolutely hilarious and wants to see just how far this madness can go. He sends Duke to her favorite coffee shop. He refers Marinette to the same dance studio as Cass. Marinette, completely on her own to Jason's disbelief, enters the same Ultimate Mecha Strike tournament as Stephanie and absolutely destroys her. Jason lives for the chaos and Marinette is completely oblivious.

Eventually, after a few AO3 tags (slow burn, feelings realization) Marinette and Damien start dating. Damien feels guilty for hiding that he's Robin from Marinette, but he knows that he'd be sharing more than just his own secret and doesn't want to betray his family's trust. He realizes that if he wants to share everything with her, his family has to trust her as well. She'll have to meet them. He tells Marinette all of this, and she shares that she's been keeping her own secret as well. Marinette hasn't told him about Ladybug even after Tikki has given her blessing, and she's been feeling guilty about it as well. She encourages him to tell her whenever he feels ready and assures him that she can wait until then. She trusts him, and she asks for that same trust in return.

Damien trusts her of course, and everything goes back to normal for about 30 seconds. Then, Damien starts trying to prepare her for the chaos she's about to find in his dining room that night. Little by little, Marinette starts to realize that she already knows every single person he's talking about. Only, that means so much more than she could have realized, because if Jason is Red Hood and his brother "the Dick" is Nightwing, then that means Dick Greyson is Nightwing and Damien's older brother, which makes Damien Robin, and oh no she thinks she knows exactly what that secret is that he didn't want to share yet.

[nobodyfamousposts]

Do you think people cling on too much to Adrien's high road advice as a reason to salt on him?

Yes, especially when there are plenty of other reasons to salt him that have previously been ignored. But to that end, it DOES serve as the final straw for people after a SERIES of problems that had previously gone unaddressed.

Much like many aspects of the show, Adrien has displayed problematic behaviors that have been overlooked and waved off in the earlier seasons. This is likely or especially due to the way how in each and every incident, Adrien was narratively shown to be correct. In his stance. In his choices. In his behaviors. He was always right. It doesn't matter if he shouldn't be, because he is.

Now unless you're a hater or anti or salter or whatever negative name people tend to get for not liking a story as it's presented, readers and watchers tend to follow along with the narrative as it presents things and how it presents things. It's a common setup in any story. Protagonist Centered Morality, I feel framed best by Susan in the Discord series:

Susan: ...and then Jack chopped down the beanstalk, adding murder and ecological vandalism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, but he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.

Pretty much this. Most people will follow what the narrative says because it's the narrative. If the narrative wants you to focus on Marinette being embarrassed, you're going to focus on how much she's cringe. And if the narrative wants you to view Adrien as a perfect sunshine boy who never does anything wrong, anything he does is going to be framed through that lens and it's difficult to break from that view and call out the times when he is wrong. Not unless he does something particularly severe.

It should be noted that outside of Chameleon, Adrien had, among other things: lied to his partner, caused someone to get akumatized and had his partner take the blame, was messing around during life-threatening and city-threatening situations, did nothing as Chloe tormented people right in front of him, DEFENDED Chloe after she tormented people right in front of him, bailed on an event with friends to set up a date with someone who said she had other plans and then got mad at HER for it, tried to flirt or confess in the middle of an active crisis which took necessary attention away from said crisis, caused himself AND his partner to get hit by akuma powers and needlessly be taken out of commission.

And yet people could mostly overlook these instances. They weren't his fault. Chloe is his friend. Marinette is worse. He's just a kid. He has a tragic backstory. So on and so forth. Easy to overlook. Easy to ignore in favor of the Sunshine Boy setup people were given and want to believe in.

But there were three major instances that really grabbed people's attention and stayed:

His attitude in Frozer. It probably wouldn't have been so bad except this rejection already happened in Glaciator, where he was supposed to have learned a lesson and accepted just being Ladybug's friend and now apparently didn't, despite it happening earlier that very season. Then in response, he decides to date Kagami as a rebound, drags Marinette with him on his date (without realizing how he's asking his friend to be a third wheel on a DATE) and focuses on her when he's supposed to be with Kagami, throws another tantrum in the middle of an akuma fight and refuses to work with his partner when the city is literally frozen, and requires Ladybug to apologize to him for hurting his feelings before he finally working with her. Again. But okay, he's a teenage boy in love. Not used to rejection and got his feelings hurt. Lovesquare is endgame so of course it'll work out anyway, so it's not like this bump in the road is really going to matter long term so we shouldn't hold it against him. Fine. Dumb, but fine. We've forgiven it in other shows and other poorly done teen romances, we can forgive it here.

His behavior in Syren in which he demanded to know secrets from people when the secrets were not theirs to tell him, and went so far as to attempt to blackmail his kwami (which was funny) and threaten to quit and abandon the Ring that the big bad is after while the city is flooded and people were trying to not drown (which was decidedly less humorous). But it was played for wholesome when Plagg reassured him and he got what he wanted by Fu revealed himself even if Adrien did nothing to actually show he earned it, so all's well that ends well, I guess? And people could justify it because "they're partners" and "part of a team" and "she should trust him" and "it's not fair he's the only one left out of the loop" and "he has a right to know" and just general "Fu is an idiot" (which is admittedly hard to argue). So people were disgruntled, but most were willing to overlook it.

His holier than thou lecture to Marinette in Maledictator over everyone being happy Chloe was leaving. When all Marinette was doing at the time was watching everyone else have fun. When Adrien specifically guilted Marinette and not any of the other actual partiers involved who were literally throwing a party over his friend leaving and probably should have warranted a lecture more than the girl just standing there. When the girl in question was also Chloe's main target and out of everyone had valid reasons to be happy that her bully won't be around to bully her anymore. When Adrien himself has historically been present to witness Marinette being targeted including twice he witnessed Chloe attempt to steal from Marinette, once he witnessed her try to blackmail Marinette, and numerous other times when she actively caused harm to Marinette and others. When Adrien then proceeded to sit in a corner and pout rather than do anything else or just leave if the party really bothered him. When Adrien, if he really cared so damn much, could have gone after Chloe himself! Or y'know...have stood up for Chloe earlier when she got upset in the first place. But fine, okay, Chloe is his childhood friend. So maybe he's just being biased and oblivious to the fact that his "friend" is a horrible person. But people can excuse and justify it in that they are friends and friends support each other, and the longer someone is friends with someone else, the harder it is to break from them. And that Marinette was probably just the target of his lecture because she was the one there in the moment (and the only one who would listen without arguing). And her calling Chloe useless was "mean" despite it being quite frankly the least of what she could have said about her in the moment (coughcough theft cough blackmail cough punished the entire school cough TRIED TO CRASH A TRAIN AND NEARLY KILLED HER AND HER PARENTS COUGH-FREAKINGCOUGH). Fine. Childhood friend means Adrien supports her in all her horrible and even deadly actions. Frustrating, but again, able to be explained and you can see where he's coming from.

These are all things that definitely got Adrien some side eye at best and some detractors at worst.

BUT if you really think about it, all of these examples are objectively worse than his lecture to Marinette in Chameleon. Not accepting being told "no" and continuing to chase a girl who isn't that in to him (while leading on another). Putting lives at risk over personal wants that could quite honestly wait until AFTER the crisis is over. Defending someone who is harmful and guilt tripping the victims. Compared to those, telling someone to leave a liar to their lying seems relatively minor.

So why this? Why here? Why is it Chameleon that has people saying enough is enough? Why is it this episode that is causing the sunshine boy to be so tarnished and the subject of salt in fan fiction?

Because this is the time when it couldn't be rationalized. There wasn't even a valid sensible canon-based reason for his stance. The arguments that Adrien "knew confronting her wouldn't work" or that he "handled her like paparazzi" or that he "knew Marinette previously failed when she tried" (even though he wasn't there and didn't know) or that he "didn't think anyone would believe him" don't come from canon. Those were fan arguments made after the fact to justify him after the base was broken and the outcry became too much to ignore.

This case didn't have any of the ties or rationales of the previous incidents. Adrien wasn't defending himself or his place in a partnership. He wasn't fighting for his love or his dream or an outcome he wanted and that we all knew was coming—if anything, he was fighting against her. He wasn't defending a friend like he did with Chloe—I mean, it's pretty evident he doesn't even really know or like Lila at this point, and for all intents and purposes, this is apparently only the second day he actually had any interaction with her. There was no notable reason Adrien really had for why he essentially chose to protect Lila over literally anyone else as she wasn't a friend and it wasn't in his interests to protect her from a consequence that wouldn't hurt her short term as much as it would likely harm everyone else long term.

And yet, he still defended her and her freedom to lie. Over Marinette. Over Ladybug. Over his friends. Over any sense of right and wrong he seems to have no problem throwing around when it comes to Marinette/Ladybug. Which seems like he targets her 9 times out of 10 compared to pretty much anyone else by this point. So it's little wonder then that people who didn't already hate the lovesquare because of the cringe factor from Marinette started to hate it for being incredibly unhealthy given that their relatively limited interactions tend to involve him lecturing her for failing to live up to his double standards that only seem to apply to her in any given situation.

This incident by itself doesn't seem like much, but when looked at as part of the series as a whole, it's when people couldn't keep overlooking this trend. Where he seems to admonish the wrong person. Where he acts like a mouthpiece rather than a person. Talks like he’s wise in a situation he seems to have a childish and one-sided view of. Acts like a brat but is treated as though he has no accountability in the situation he causes. Where he is wrong but no one and certainly not the narrative acknowledges it (not until season five and two seasons too late when it doesn't matter and he's still not the one facing consequences for it).

And it's not like he actually follows the stances he himself promotes. In Chameleon, canon presents him with this idealistic stance that Lila could change if given a chance, except he doesn't give her a chance. He doesn't push her to be a better person. He doesn't support or in any way help her to be the better person he insisted to Marinette she could be. He also doesn't do anything or warn anyone when she keeps lying and actively harms the people he says he cares about. He doesn't do anything one way or the other other than some lackluster encouragement to stop lying and a warning that goes nowhere. It just further gives credit to the argument that Adrien either simply doesn't care about other people, or that he doesn't care for Marinette specifically. Neither is conducive to the lovesquare or the increasingly tarnished view of the "sunshine boy".

And it could have worked. Canonically and intrinsically to his character. His idealism and trust in the wrong person comes back to bite him. He learns and grows from it. Except that, much like with nearly everything he does in canon, Chameleon set it up that Adrien was the writers' mouthpiece and thus was not "wrong". I'll grant that they did have him admit it and apologize to Marinette for it two seasons later, but it is pretty evident that during Chameleon, they intended his lecture to be right, with no foreshadowing and no implication otherwise. And I'm fairly certain they only backtracked and had him do that much because of the amount of fan outrage over the episode.

So yes, I think his lecture in Chameleon was really a final straw since unlike Chloe, Adrien has NO relationship with Lila to justify his defense of her. Especially when the argument is in favor of letting her lie to the people he's supposed to care about. That combined with how jarring it was how most of the class just sided with Lila over the seat issue in the first place, and I think people were less inclined to just ignore the problems in the episode specifically and with the series as a whole as they were compared to the first and second seasons. Not just with Adrien, as we see that Alya also started getting more callout and salt since then as well as more retrospective scrutiny over her behavior in earlier seasons.

But yeah...Chameleon was where things seemed to take a 180, so it's bound to be the deciding episode and deciding incident that sticks out in people's minds with these characters. That's probably why it ends up the go-to for salt and complaints on the characters involved instead of any of the other incidents that would arguably warrant it more.

[zoe-oneesama]

I also think the recent ep where Mari is scolded for not improving Chloe's behavior as a class rep, is not fair. A class rep is there to be the voice for the students and act as a form of communication, not mentor or educate another child. Mari also became class rep to stop Chloe's bullying, not reform her or give her therapy. I can't believe they (the class) actually gave the class rep position to Lila, even Marinette has done so much for them, and little Miss Liar is only full of hot air. Side eye

The Class Rep thing in "Revelation" was so dumb in all aspects, like, FIRST of all-

Lila cannot seriously be bringing up that it's "undiplomatic" that they held elections without her when she wasn't even going to Francois Dupont yet, are you trying to look me in the face and tell me "Volpina" happened before FREAKING "Darkblade"?! (And obviously no one brings up this fact when she's talking nonsense)

WHY is Bustier even entertaining this garbage when there's two weeks of school left?! Like, sorry Lila, try again in high school if you can even get in with your attendance record. The only things left for the Class Rep to even do is the Student -Teacher Career Course planning which sounds super important and like a really dumb thing to suddenly hand over to two people who haven't been preparing for it in the slightest!

Marinette is running on the "Actually this is pointless, I've done great as a class president because it's actually not my job to change Chloe for the better, especially when Bustier, her parents, and Ladybug herself couldn't get her to pull her head out of her ass, so I'm going to spend my time on things that actually matter and will have results" and legit why does anyone care about "improving Chloe" when in TWO WEEKS they will be at TOTALLY DIFFERENT SCHOOLS and hopefully NEVER have to see her in person again?! Though realistically she should be running on the "we have two weeks left why are we even here" campaign.

And Lila is running on the "Chloe can change if someone just worked with her instead of spending all their time on their own romance like a selfish jerk" platform and the class eats this up just because Chloe is "willing" to be Lila's deputy. Except Lila has been hanging out with and being friends with Chloe since freaking "Penalteam"! And guess who's still an asshole despite your "influence" Lila?! OH RIGHT, YOUR NEW DEPUTY! Hell, "Adoration" JUST happened 3 episodes ago where Chloe was framing Marinette for theft! Your "influence" isn't worth SHIT to anyone paying attention!

Now, Lila's only going for the President role so she can fuck everyone over in "Confrontation", so obviously this stupid campaign was going to happen and Lila was going to win just to set up the Big Bang where Lila exposes herself. Who cares that it stretches suspension of belief past it's limits, that's just the Gold Standard when it comes to Lila schemes.

Anyway, can't wait for her grand plans as The Villain of the next arc. -_-

[sillysiluriforme]

On the la terreur AU might I ask what's the situation regarding Multimouse, scarabella and Ladybug since it seems Mari is posing as both supers? Why Is she doing so and how? What does everyone else think on LB giving her miraculous to Scarabella? Thank you and sorry if this was too long or already answered! I'm just curious :)

Hi ! Since the hawkmoth situation is a little more serious than in the show ladybug’s miracle cure ability becomes absolutely mandatory. Marinette, being a major preper, anticipated that she might need a ladybug replacement one day. Who would it be ? Alya of course.

In short ladybug is training scarabella to take her place if something were to happen to her ! She starts out accompanying her as multimouse under the guise of also being trained by ladybug.

It works well for a time even if Marinette has some complicated feelings on the matter.

The rest of the team respect ladybug’s decision but they all have pretty high standards for scarabella. Except chat noir, who is a bitch. The entire time.

He’s not a big fan of the idea that his partner might get replaced. Or that he might get replaced !

[little-mari-on-a-roof]

Frenglish differences in Miraculous - Episode 14

Animan

Adrien - Nino

En: FYI, Marinette's never gonna fall in love with a statue. - Shh! You know im no good with the ladies, especially this one all of a sudden. I mean, dude, do I go up to her and crack a joke? Shoot her a compliment? Invite her to the zoo, play it serious?

Fr: Dis moi Nino, je trouve que tu louches un peu trop souvent sur Marinette ces derniers temps. - Chuuut, oui bon bah c'est vrai je la trouve super mignonne. Tu trouves pas, toi ? Oh, comment je pourrais faire pour qu'elle me remarque ? Je dois faire quoi ? Lui sortir une blague ? Lui faire des compliments ? L'inviter au zoo, la jouer façon tombeur ?

Tell me Nino, I think you're squinting a little too often at Marinette these days. - Shhhh, well yeah it's true that I find her super cute. Don't you think so too? Oh, how could I get her to notice me? What do I need to do? Crack a joke? Compliment her? Invite her to the zoo, play it like a stud?

"Marinette's never gonna fall in love with a statue." Sure dude. Very rich coming from the person who tried to get her to like him by, doing what exactly? Ah yes. Masquerading as a wax statue. Anyway. Adrien's line in French might sound a bit like some kind of jealousy when reading it but it's not, he's just teasing Nino.

Nino after Adrien teases him for wanting to invite a girl to the zoo

En: Well, they have this really cool new exhibit there.

Fr: Bah quoi, il paraît qu'ils viennent de recevoir une nouvelle panthère.

Well, I heard they just received a new panther.

Nino - Adrien

En: What if I act like a Moron-a-saurus? Or she disses me, or thinks I'm lame or... - Okay, I got your back.

Fr: Et je fais quoi moi après si elle me jette si elle me met un vent ou qu'elle me traite de gros lourd ?! - Ok, viens, je vais t'aider.

And what do I do after if she rejects me or if she ignores me or calls me a lump. - Ok, come, I'm gonna help you.

The saying Nino uses is "gros lourd", which literally means "big heavy". It is used to refer to guys who are very insistent and annoying.

Marinette (talking about Adrien) - Alya

En: Oh, he's such a... - Smarty, hottie, suavissimo, yummytastic, spellbinder. - All of the above.

Fr: Hhhhha, il est tellement... - Intelligent, gentil, beau comme un dieu, irrésistible, drôle et sensible ? - Tellement plus que ça.

*Very big sigh*, he's so... - Intelligent, kind, handsome as a god, irresistible, funny and tenderhearted? - So much more than that.

French Marinette really is infatuated lmao.

Nino to Adrien

En: If I could be yourself. Myself don't work that way.

Fr: Sauf que pour toi c'est trop facile. Moi avec les filles c'est une galère.

Except that for you it's too easy. For me, with girls, it's a mess.

Here, Nino says it's "une galère", which is the French word for galley. It is used to refer to a tricky and hard to get through situation, just like you need a lot of strength to row a galley.

After Nino said to Marinette that there's no need for Adrien to hang out at the zoo: Alya replies in her earpiece

En: Of course we do, you Dumbo.

Fr: Bien sûr que si grosse nouille.

Of course we do, you big noodle.

Noodle can be used as an insult in French, it makes the whole scene very funny.

Max

En: Typical diet for a feline species requiring the strength to run at speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour.

Fr: C'est l'aliment principale de ce carnivore féliforme capable d'atteindre la vitesse de 65km/h.

It is the main food item of this feliform carnivore capable of reaching the speed of 65km per hour.

Who tf uses the word féliforme like ever. But the main problem is the speed. 65km/h is only about 40mph. 60mph, like the English dub says, is actually closer to 95km/h. And according to science, the English dub is bullshit. Panthers can't run that fast.

Kim

En: What place did your cat come in at the county Athletics tournament?

Fr: Il a fini combien votre chaton au championnat intercollège d'Île-de-France ?

What place did your kitten come in at the inter middle school championship of Île-de-France?

Île-de-France is the French région that Paris belongs to. County would probably rather be used to refer to what we call a département which, in the case of Paris, is the city itself. There are currently 18 French régions, and around a hundred départements.

Kim, comparing himself to the panther

En: No need to, I'm obviously the better-looking one. Hey, kitty-kitty. How about a little race with me, huh? Last ones a rotten egg.

Fr: Ha ! Ça ne risque pas ! C'est clair que je suis le plus canon des deux. Hey, boule de poils. Ça te dirait de faire une course avec moi, hein ? Le dernier arrivé aura un gage.

Ah! There's no risk! It's clear that I am the more gorgeous of the two. Hey, furball. What would you say about having a race with me, huh? The last one there gets a dare/has to pay a forfeit.

I'm not 100% sure about the translation here since it seems there's no direct translation of "avoir un gage", but basically, the loser has to pay a forfeit by completing a dare.

Max

En: Let's see. With a 6-feet-per-second wind behind you, and the sun at a 45 degrees to the northeast, I don't think you'd be a rotten egg, you'd be lunch.

Fr: Voyons voir. En considérant un vent favorable de 2 mètres par seconde et avec le soleil dans le dos, je sens que c'est toi qui aura le gage, et elle, elle te dévorera.

Let's see. Considering a rear wind of 2 meters per second and with the sun in your back, I can feel that you're the one who's gonna have to do the dare (/pay the forfeit) while she will devour you.

2 meters per second corresponds to about 6.5 feet, so this conversion is quite accurate.

Chat Noir - Ladybug

En: I dont think he can "bear" to listen to that noise. - You're almost too much to "bear". Now we wait.

Fr: Il en a plein les oreilles, le bruit le rend chèvre. - C'est toi qui me rends chèvre avec ton humour. Regarde il est épuisé !

He's getting an earful, the noise is driving him nuts (lit. driving him goat). - You're the one driving me goat with your humour. Look, he's exhausted!

In French, to "drive somebody goat" means you're making them enraged/lose their patience or annoying them a lot. It's obviously a hilarious pun coming from Chat Noir and Ladybug teasing him in return.

Chat Noir hugging Ladybug after she got eaten by the dinosaur

En: That was a wild ride.

Fr: J'ai cru que je t'avais perdue.

I thought I'd lost you.

The emotioooon!!

[kathrahender]

Why Miraculous Ladybug movie is better than the show: An analysis

One of the questions some people ask to themselves in this fandom is whether the movie is good or bad. But in a lot of ways, the movie is definitely better than the show.

Marinette's character

In the show, she's a clumsy girl who is supposed to be "shy" and not loved by anyone in the school. But the thing is that she isn't: she is perfectly capable of talking to every classmate, except for Adrien who is her crush. And everyone loves her. If anything, Chloe is the one hated by her classmates. In the movie? Marinette's still a clumsy girl. But her clumsiness doesn't make you cringe, it makes you feel bad for her. And like the premise of the movie says, she actually is a shy person, who struggles to talk to her classmates. All of them.

Besides, there's also a difference between show's Marinette and movie's Marinette: their approach to Adrien. In the show, Marinette begins to be obsessed with Adrien, to the point that she memorizes his schedule, breaks into his house without permission, takes his mobile to delete a message, and travels to another country just to spy on him (amongst other things). In the movie? Her crush on him is normal. She doesn't memorize his schedule, she doesn't have photos of him in her bedroom... Basically, she doesn't stalk him like in the show.

2) Gabriel's character.

In the show, he's a villain who attacks the city every day to get the miraculous and awake his wife. In the movie, he still wants to bring back his wife, but his motives for being a villain and behavior towards Adrien are very different.

Show's Gabriel "seemed" to care about his son, and he would probably have said he loved him, but the way he treated him says otherwise. He forced Adrien to do things he didn't want to do (be a model, play the piano, do fencing), neglected him because he didn't pay attention to him (Gabriel cared more about the miraculous than about Adrien), and akumatized him twice without caring about his son's emotions. In the movie? He doesn't force him to do things he doesn't want to do, and although he doesn't pay enough attention to him either, movie's Gabriel showed he cared about Adrien. The moment he sees Adrien -after Adrien didn't come back home the day before- he doesn't get angry (like show's Gabriel would have) but worried.

And when he discovers his son is Chat Noir? He stops fighting and apologizes for failing him. And the best thing? He says that he didn't want to awake Emilie for himself, but for Adrien. Because Gabriel wanted Adrien to have his mother back. Gabriel loved Emilie, and for sure wanted her to be alive again, but his main reason to use the miraculous was because he couldn't handle Adrien's grief.

3) Adrien's character

In the show, he is a character who seems to have overcomed the death of his mother: he is able to smile, laugh and have a good time without problems. Sometimes he seems by her mother being gone (when he looks at the wallpaper in his computer) but it doesn't determinate his life. In the movie? Adrien seems really affected by her death. He doesn't smile much, and although it isn't said in the movie, sometimes he almost looks depressed. And what he says as Chat Noir "Behind this mask, there's just an empty heart" proves he isn't mentally okay. Now this just might be my opinion, but I loved how the trauma for losing his mother is more present in movie's Adrien.

Another thing that changes between Adrien from the show and from the movie is how they act towards Gabriel. In the show, Adrien just does what his father tells him to do, without disagreeing with him (most of the times). But movie Adrien? The moment Gabriel says "Of course I worry. I'm your father", instead of just accepting his words, Adrien faces him and tells him "I lost my dad long time ago", proving that he is done with Gabriel being a bad parent (unlike show's Adrien).

4) Ladybug and Chat Noir's relationship

In the show, Ladybug and Chat Noir's relationship is complicated. They seem to be allies and friends, but a lot of times it's showed that they don't exactly connect. Ladybug is in love with Adrien, so she doesn't like how Chat Noir seems to be interested in her. And Chat Noir keeps hitting on her without seeming to care about her "No".

In the movie, that's different.

Ladybug and Chat Noir start being more "antagonistic" towards each other, until they learn to fight together and start working as a team. But when Chat Noir confess to Ladybug and she tells him that she's in love with another guy, Chat Noir doesn't react like in the show. When he sees her getting away from him, he doesn't follow her, he just looks heartbroken. Movie's Adrien is capable of accepting her love rejection, without insisting to make her love him back. That's very mature of him, and although he is still in love with her after her rejection, his way of handling it is better than in the show (even if he acts kinda defensive with her when they are about to fight Hawk Moth).

5) Ladybug and Chat Noir's powers

The show used to be called "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir", but it is clear that the writers cared more about Marinette than they cared about Adrien. Marinette was extremely powerful, and although Chat Noir was his supposed "partner", it almost looked like he was only her assistant. Ladybug was always the best of the heroes, the one with the Lucky Charm and with the Miraculous Ladybug powers, the one who could fix everything after a villain attack. And Chat Noir? "Oh, yeah, he can use Cataclysm but doesn't really do something"

In the movie that's different. Both start being a disaster with their powers. Both start being weak. And when they start being more powerful? Their powers grow together. They are equally powerful, without highlighting one or the other. Both are useful to the plot, and like Master Fu said, they need to work together to save the world. Adrien's importance in the show is much less compared to Adrien's importance in the movie.

6) Marinette becoming Ladybug

In the show, Master Fu decides to give her the Ladybug miraculous because she helped her cross the street, and that's all. Now helping an old person cross the street is something a lot of people would have done, and it's really not a way of deciding who is worthy of being a hero. But in the movie it's very different.

In the movie, Master Fu cross the street to catch the Ladybug miraculous, without looking. And just when a car is about to hit him, Marinette runs to him and covers him with her body. She put herself in danger to save Master Fu's life, or at least to make him be less wounded, without caring about herself. And that's something not all people would do. Movie's Marinette didn't "help an old man cross the street", no. She got in the way of a car to try to protect him.

7) The themes

In the movie, it's clear that they wanted to tell a more mature story, including things like Marinette having a bad time in school (not only with the exams but also with making friends) and Adrien's dealing with the grief of losing his mother. Things they seemed to want to include in the show, but never adressed properly because "it's a kids show".

Conclusion

The movie might have some flaws like other media, but it's better than the show, not only for the characters themselves, but also for the platonic and romantic relationships. Of course, you can disagree with me, but the movie will always be 10 times better than the show for me.

[flightfoot]

Top Ten Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2024

So here it is, my top ten list for the year. I'm gonna be adding this as a bookmark subcollection inside of the full collection. That way, people will still be able to see which fics I recommend most highly for the year, even if they can't find this particular tumblr post.

I've got a real range in popularity here. The most popular fic has over 2000 kudos, while the least popular hasn't even hit 20 yet, at the time of my writing this. Just goes to show that popularity doesn't necessarily track with quality, especially for fics that have more niche appeal to begin with.

All of these are over 40K this time. Longer fics just have more going on, so they dominate lists like this. Which is one reason I have the regular lists that are separated by wordcount, to let fics of every length have a chance to shine.

A lot of the lower entries here bounced around in placement. The top five remained pretty stable though, once entered.

Here's the subcollection I set up for them!

10.

Each Hum And Click by @echo-has-queries

Kagami thought her understandably high standards for a match in marriage would mean she could avoid being paired with a man by her mother. That she could keep perfecting her flying-machine skills and eventually take over her mother’s place in leading the Tsurugi steam engine manufacturing company without having to defer to a man. She would have thought that when her mother told her to test the Agreste boy as a marriage match she had been kidding - if her mother ever kid. But she was serious and there truly was no fault to be found with Gabriel Agreste's son - except for the small detail of course, that he was not human. So Kagami must turn to the only fine mechanic she knows in Paris to find a solution to this new dilemma. But perhaps the dilemma could turn out to be the solution itself. Written for the AU Roulette Challenge 2024 with the prompt: Steampunk AU

So this fic is entirely from Kagami's POV, and it is a treat! It's an Adrigaminette fic, which you slowly figure out from reading the fic, if you didn't check the tags - Kagami may have tried not to like Adrien, but he grew on her regardless, and then a few chapters in you find out about hers and Marinette's failed relationship. I loved slowly finding out why the two of them broke up, when there are clearly still strong feelings between them, and how it ties into Kagami's character arc and the overall themes of the story: standing up for yourself, breaking free from those who would control you, and forging your own path.

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9.

Do You Read Me? by @19thsentry-blog

The problem with being a Couffaine was the hereditary bits. The stubbornness. The weird need to pick a fight with authority for no reason besides the principle of it. The way being a Couffaine meant falling in love, fast as a car crash, and just as deadly. It ruined you forever.

So basically, this takes place a few years after Season 5, in the post-Wish world. Luka takes over as the Ladybug Holder, battling Chrysalis in Marinette's place. It's causing him some strain, since it's hard to hold down a job when you need to vanish randomly for long periods of time while on the clock, and it doesn't help that Chrysalis is a lot sneakier than Monarch was.

That's not the core of the story though. No, the real story starts up at chapter 3, when Luka suddenly wakes up in 19th century London, supposedly having always been there, and talking to a 19th century version of Max. From there, he soon gets escorted to Felix, who is a detective around those parts and agrees to host him for awhile.

This is a Sherlock Holmes inspired story, with the setting ripped straight out of those old stories, and I think it does a great job of that! Felix feels natural as Sherlock, with his deductive abilities, and the mystery really does read a lot like a Sherlock story. Though of course, the ultimate cause is more magical in nature.

I love Luka's perspective in this story and his and Felix's dynamic, it just feels very natural and well done!

I was satisfied with how the mystery wrapped up, 19thsentry did a good job of making things make sense at the end, and it felt satisfying. If you want a story with some great characterization for Luka or Felix, or just feel like a mystery, this is the story for you!

8.

A Breach In The Brooch by @piromina

Ladybug and Chat Noir are the heroes of Paris. Hawkmoth is Chat Noir's father. Chat Noir is aware of this. Hawkmoth is not.

So this is an interesting spin on the classic "Gabriel recruits Adrien early on to help him" plotline. Mostly because Adrien is still Chat Noir in this AND still helping Ladybug as a superhero - Gabriel has no clue about his secret identity.

Plagg, unsurprisingly, isn't thrilled about Adrien refusing to tell Ladybug what he knows about Hawkmoth's identity, and that Adrien keeps following Gabriel's orders, even when he knows they're wrong. Though he figures out before Adrien does that Adrien's compulsion to follow his father's orders isn't just a psychological thing...

I really love Plagg in this especially, he's the MVP. He knows what it's like to be compelled to do or not to do certain things, so he's good at comforting Adrien over it and at finding loopholes for him.

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7.

Phantom Pains (and other hints of you) by @buggachat

She couldn't remember anything. Not where she was going, where she'd been, why she was in this stairwell, or even her own name. But as she watched the blood pool at the base of the steps, she at least knew one thing for certain: the corpse was hers. Getting used to being dead was going to have its growing pains. — “Well, unlucky lady,” Chat Noir greeted with a bow, “Can I get your name?” “Didn’t we just talk about this? I told you, I don’t remember it.” “And I told you,” he reminded, “that you can just pick whatever fits you best.” — Ladybug and Chat Noir may not remember who they once were, but at least the two lost souls can find comfort in each other's company. But as Ladybug starts uncovering more and more memories of her life, letting the past go doesn't seem as easy as Chat Noir claims it to be.

So this is a beautiful, sweet, tragic love story of two lost souls wandering around with each other, yet with Ladybug still desperately wanting to be found, to remember who she was - and wanting to know why Chat so adamantly wanted to stay amnesiac. It's got some neat worldbuilding, and some fantastic prose. It's just a really nice little story!

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6.

A Small but Stubborn Fire by @cardiac-agreste

What if you were the parent of a teenage superhero, but didn't know they were? All you know is the nightmares, the panic attacks, and the bruises. She's missing school, she's disappearing on you, and she's not telling you anything. So you assume the worst: Assault. Depression. A permanent rift in the family. And what do you do when you realize you weren't thinking dark enough? Because your fourteen-year old daughter is the hero who flirts with death on the nightly news. -- Come inside and read about one mother's struggles to raise her daughter in a dangerous world while avoiding the mistakes her own mother made with her.

This is a more serious take on the consequences of Hawk Moth's war on Paris, with actual bloody, painful deaths as a consequence of many akumas, and Parisians developing PTSD because of what they've gone through. Ladybug can fix all the physical scars, but not the mental ones, including her own.

I love the focus on Sabine here. She's not just presented as being a mom - though of course that IS an important role she has. But she's explored as a character in her own right, one with a lot of emotional baggage as a result of her abusive mother, and trying to not fall into her mistakes, but sometimes doing so anyway out of fear for Marinette's safety. She's a really fleshed out, humanly flawed character, sometimes admitting that she would do something selfish if it means protecting the people she cares most about, like her daughter, even if its at others expense. She grows and changes a lot throughout the course of the story, her perspective on many matters changing multiple times as a result of getting new information or seeing the consequences of her previous approaches, and adjusting as a result.

If you want a fic that more realistically explores the dark consequences of Miraculous's setting, that fleshes out Sabine, or just develops a character in a complex way, then I highly recommend you check "A Small but Stubborn Fire" out!

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5.

Finding A Way by @uptoolateart

Collège is nearly over! And what better way to celebrate than a class trip to Costa Rica? But with only a month left to tell Adrien she loves him, Marinette is feeling the pressure. Then – an accident at sea leaves them stranded together on a tropical island…alone. Or are they? Because those footprints in the sand don’t resemble any bird they’ve seen before. And what’s that roaring sound coming from the jungle? ‘Adrien…where ARE we??’ ***** A Jurassic Park / Camp Cretaceous AU that’s been kicking around in my head for over a year

I love the sense of danger permeating this fic, it really feels like Adrien and Marinette are stranded on Jurassic Park (well it's called something else in order to integrate it better into the ML universe, but it operates like Jurassic Park). They're making the best of it though, doing their best to survive - and along the way, getting closer together.

I like that it's not JUST them though, Gabriel and Nathalie find out where they ended up pretty early on and go to rescue them, with Alya and Nino stowing away. It was cool to see that side of things as well.

Oh yeah, this fic is rated M for violence and gore. It's because dinosaurs eat people alive and leave their body parts everywhere. If you can handle the Jurassic Park movie (or presumably the book the movie was based on, but I haven't read that), then you should be just fine.

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4.

Boulangerella by @aidanchaser

Once upon a time, magic was wild. The two princes of the kingdom have been tasked with choosing their brides by the end of their 21st birthday celebrations. Crown Prince Adrien Agreste will have to choose between a woman who can protect his kingdom, a woman offering the power to wake his sleeping mother, and the woman he has loved and admired for the past year. Then there's also the seamstress that he is suddenly falling for. By the time he realizes he doesn't have the power to choose at all, it may be too late.

I love a good fairy tale AU, and this is no exception. Aidanchaser started writing it before Season 5 came out, so it's wrong about some things. Most notably, Felix's posthumous father was a good and decent person here, and one of the twin rings is Felix's Amok while the other one is Adrien's Amok, instead of both of them being Adrien's Amok.

This was a well-crafted tale, with kwamis operating as Fae: they can give power, but only if the wielder gives something up to pay for it. For temporary usage of their power, it can be something small and innocuous, such as giving Plagg cheese in exchange for his help. More expansive uses of their power requires greater sacrifices however, even sacrificing more nebulous things such as memories or hope.

The kingdom's currently being terrorized by this unknown villain, Hawk Moth, as in the show. Ladybug and Chat Noir emerge to battle him, but for some reason (*cough, cough*), King Gabriel isn't fond of the superheroes and wants them captured.

Gabriel isn't the only threat out there, Lila's skulking around, hinting that she knows how to wake up Emilie from her mysterious illness, if only Adrien marries her. And she's not about to take no for an answer.

If you've been wanting a fairy tale/fantasy Miraculous AU, I recommend giving Boulangerella a shot!

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3.

He Couldn't Remember (Falling For Her) by @purpleautumnvision

"If I was given a choice in who Chat Noir would be, I would've chosen you." "And there's nobody else in the whole world I'd rather have as my little bug." Without secret identities in the way, Marinette and Adrien get to live out their love story and put their heads together to discover the identity of Hawk Moth... but an unforeseen twist puts the Miraculouses in Gabriel's hands. When he makes his wish for a world where his wife never became sick from using the broken Peacock Miraculous, the universe requires someone else to become sick in order to maintain balance. Who better than his greatest enemy, Ladybug herself? Adrien, with his memories rewritten by the wish, wakes up in a world without superheroes, without Hawk Moth, without Marinette, without friends, and without a clue as to why everything feels so wrong. Something's missing, but he's gonna find out what. Then he'll put his world back into place.

So this was a fascinating scenario, with Adrien waking up in a world where Marinette was dead while his mother was alive, a world that as far as he knew had always been the case... but having weird feelings he can't explain. And not just him, I love how much focus Alya gets here as well! Turns out that the memories are kind of hidden, but still present, and since Adrien and Alya never got to meet Marinette in this universe (she died just before the new school year began, at the same time that Emilie did in the normal universe) AND Adrien and Alya were her closest friends in the previous universe, their feelings towards her are closest to the surface and least impacted by the memories from this universe.

The other people in this universe... well, the class isn't taking Marinette's death well. It's fascinating to see just how much her death effects them, to see how it haunts them, and I loved seeing their reactions to Adrien's weird behavior about their dead classmate who he never got a chance to meet, it shows how strange some of this can look to the outside, and it doesn't help that these are grieving kids.

Just... this is a great fic, I highly recommend checking it out!

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2.

Symbiotic Whiskers by B1ackout

Adrien Agreste aka Cat Noir was given the cat ring miraculous to help Ladybug in protecting Paris. But something had found him first, a silent companion that granted him strength and power he never knew existed. Bonded with a symbiote, Cat Noir faces Paris alongside Ladybug without even knowing that someone left a magical ring in his room. (Canon Divergence)

This is a phenomenal fic that deserves more attention. It's kind of funny how he just goes "hey I've got superpowers, she says that the thing we have that gives superpowers is called the Black Cat Miraculous and that the being that gives them is called a kwami, obviously that must be what I have!" though that gets stretched more and more as Adrien's experiences with the symbiote contradict what he's heard about how kwamis work, and Tikki gets increasingly worried about "Plagg's" weird behavior. It's a dark, somewhat brutal fic (people die permanently, and they're not always villains), and it's absolutely worth a read, this is an excellent crossover!

1.

Withered Wings by @11jj11

Nino wasn’t sure if anyone had ever willingly took the akuma butterfly before him, but with his mind completely open to this apparent son of Hawk Moth he knew that he couldn’t turn him away. Not someone that was so afraid, not someone who would be left at the mercy of Hawk Moth.

This fic is amazing! Just... some absolutely stellar Adrino, with some nice Alyanette on the side, AND it's one of the best Enemies AU (well, sort of. Adrien's on Hawkmoth's side, but Nino isn't, exactly), in the fandom! I love how much we get of Nino's perspective, his determination to save this boy who's been thrown into these battles, who clearly doesn't want to hurt people but is compelled to do so, while balancing it with trying to prevent damage to anyone else as well. He has to be the one to look after Adrien, because no one else will do so.

I also love the focus Alya gets here, as Marinette's partner. She does an amazing job in the role, with every Miraculous she gets, even though she isn't a perfect wielder.

That's something else, I like the bits of worldbuilding this adds in, with people who fully embody the aspect a kwami represents being able to transform more fully. That does not mean, however, that an imperfect match is a bad thing, the kwami and wielder can still be very strong together and get along well, even if they don't perfectly align.

I adore how Nino had to balance his roles in this, helping Adrien without hurting others, even fighting back against the heroes as needed, as much as he didn't want to. And how understanding people were when they found out the full story of what was going on. It's a truly fantastic story that anyone who likes Enemies AU, Adrino, or just want to read a good Miraculous fic should check out.

I do want to warn that Gabriel and Nathalie are significantly OOC in this. Gabriel's even more abusive and colder than he is in canon, and Nathalie is WAY worse. This fic started before season 5, so it wasn't known what Nathalie's red line would be. As a result, Adrien's more downtrodden than he is in canon, since the consequences of disobedience are worse than being cut off from friends, or even being made to sit in a blank white room indefinitely.