#extra funny if its like post defeat adrien saying this

[adrienbaedrien]

they're outside the courthouse pressing charges

nathalie is dying and he's like idc idc i need to be an asshole father

[amimons]

Miraculous Sweet-ember (Sept. 23rd)

September 23rd: Chameleon, Animaestro & Bakerix

Chameleon brings the official return of Lila causing more trouble for Marinette. Lila has a personal vendetta against Marinette and Ladybug so on top of being extremely good at manipulating and lying we knew she was coming back as a more serious antagonist for our protagonist. Her lies are so good that she has the ability to get away with whatever she wants, which deeply angers Marinette since she believes in honesty and justice. Lila made sure to spare no expense towards Marinette once she arrived back at school and immediately work to isolate Marinette from her peers. Her classmates are oblivious to Lila’s true nature because they believe she has the best intentions. Therefore, when Marinette tries to prove Lila is nothing but a liar they are skeptical of her claims of dishonesty because Marinette cannot disprove anything Lila is saying.   

Lila tries to work her charm on Marinette and offer a fake gesture of friendship. Lila told Marinette that she caught onto why Marinette was acting harsh towards her and it was because of Adrien. She extended a false olive branch to Marinette suggesting they should patch things up and she can even help her with Adrien. But Marinette is a clever girl and sees past her fake persona. She tells Lila that the real reason she doesn’t like her is because she lies and although she knows what she saids isn’t true she cannot prove it. Once Marinette called her out, Lila  dropped her façade. Lila threatens Marinette saying if she doesn’t chose to stand alongside her then she will work to tear down Marinette’s reputation with her classmates. Now alone, Marinette rushes into a bathroom stall full of pain and anger. 

Throughout the school day Hawkmoth has been targeting Marinette as his next akuma but every chance he gotten she would let go of her negative emotions before he could manipulate them. Hawkmoth finally had the opportunity to akumatized Marinette who was now face to face with said akuma. Tikki encourage her to overcome her negative emotions, telling her that she has the ability to find a solution to her situation. The affect of Tikki’s words worked. Feeling self-assured she announces that she is proud, confident, she's Marinette! Which ward off the akuma. Lila as a plot device is suppose to create the ripple in Marinette’s civilian life giving her an enemy outside of Hawkmoth. Unfortunately, people fall victims to convincing liars all the time and even though her classmates appreciate Marinette greatly they are blinded by the concept of who they think Lila is. Even though Marinette has a new obstacle to face in class, as long as she believes in herself and her abilities she can work to overcome it. 

Another thing about this episode is that it works on the slow buildup of a potential akumatized Marinette. This is the second time Marinette almost became akumatized and both times was when she felt justice was not being served. Marinette needs an ally to offer their support in this situation, someone that also can see through Lila and she found that support in Adrien. Chameleon was a good step up for a new antagonist in the school. Together Ladybug and Chat Noir work together to fight against Hawkmoth and now Marinette and Adrien have the opportunity to work together to defeat another common enemy outside their super suits. 

Animaestro made Marinette team up with someone we least expected. Chloe Bourgeois. Even though the intention of the two of them joining forces wasn’t a good one, it was still pretty enjoyable to see due to the comedic value of it. Besides Marinette learns by the end that it was a bad idea to follow Chloe and join in on her schemes. This episode also narrows in on what Marinette will need to work while the season progresses. Which involved her feelings towards Adrien and his potential relationship with Kagami.

It’s nice to look at this episode as a starting point of Marinette’s development on that subject. She feels threatened by Kagami’s role in Adrien’s life but as the season progress she comes to terms with it and even offers her friendship to Kagami. But at this point in time we have Marinette up to her whacky antics which includes Chloe tagging along...well more like Chloe bossing Marinette along. This also give an opportunity to compare and contrast how these two characters treat their relationship with Adrien. Chloe centers the relationship around herself at least on the surface level while Marinette does go to extremes to get a chance to be with Adrien, she will always put Adrien’s happiness over her own. Chloe and Marinette have such an interesting dynamic so it was great to see them attempting to become temporary allies. 

Bakerix is dedicated to learning about Marinette’s father side the family. Specifically her estranged grandpa. Due to a family fall out, Marinette never got the chance to meet Grandpa Rolland Dupain and for her father’s birthday she makes it her mission to rekindle that father and son relationship. Thats easier said than done because Rolland is a man who is very caught up in the past. It’s even hard for her to get the chance to come inside his house since he is so closed off from everyone. She didn’t want to ruin a potential opportunity of talking to her grandpa by admitting she was his granddaughter so she tried to come up with other excuses to get inside. Her attempts to get in are funny and emphasizes why I love Marinette as a character. Several attempts later she was still not welcomed in his house. 

Lucky for her, Rolland is opening his home up for the flour delivery person. She immediately takes the opportunity and tells the delivery man that she is Rolland’s granddaughter and she would love to pull a funny joke on her him by pretending to be the delivery person. The flour guy lets her take the bag and to top it off she asks for the hat to make it more convincing. Marinette wearing the flour hat was just adorable. Even though reconnecting her father with his father became a bigger task than she could imagine (especially since he ended up getting akumatized) Marinette is always willing to go the extra mile for the ones she loves. She will take on any tasks and figure out solutions to any problem just so those in her life have the very best. Thats very telling of just the type of person Marinette is. 

About Sweet-ember:

For the month of September I wanted to spread some positivity and praise Miraculous Ladybug on the things I’ve appreciated/enjoyed from the show.

Everyday I’m going to select one particular moment, event, theme, etc. from an episode of Miraculous and shared what I liked from that episode. Each post will discuss 2-3 episodes (from season 1-3; 78 episodes in total).

Whether its something big or small there is something positive that I can take away from every single episode of Miraculous.

Please feel free to add a moment from these particular episodes that you loved to this post as well!

Salt towards the show, characters, ships will not be tolerated!

Sweet-ember posts

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

[18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31]

[persephonescat]

Birds and other supernatural phenomenons

Okay, so I have no control over my life. Fine.

The characters are so out of character it’s funny. I’ve little to no idea about Batman, so I should apologize but I won’t, because I just lost all my remaining brain cells and I blame Tumblr.

Big thanks for LucyyJ26 on AO3 for fixing the Lucky Charm-problem, you should read her work too, its grammar is probably better than mine will ever be, and her stories are amazing. A little explanation: she took the Lucky Charm out of the story and instead, Ladybug’s power is the Miraculous Cure, which can re-do the destruction done during an Akuma-attack and can bring back the ones fallen by the villain’s actions. She’s changed other things in the Miraculous-world too, but this is the only one I’m going to use, except that in this story, it’s called Lucky Cure (don’t ask). For further explanation, visit her story: Miraculous: Darker Origins. The Daminette AU.

This is also posted on my AO3 account, under the same name.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21187025/chapters/50433170

Follow #Birds and Other Supernatural Phenomenons if you don’t want to miss any of the new chapters. ;) 

Anyway, enjoy, I guess.

Next    Masterpost    AO3

————————————————

Ch. 1: The Inevitable Doom

Field trips should be fun.

Except if you’re Marinette Dupain-Cheng, of course.

The Dupon was the best high school in Paris, so the fact that they managed to plan a school trip to freaking Gotham out of all of America had to say a lot about Parisian schools. Or so Marinette thought. (Apparently, she was the only one.)

The best of all? Her classmates didn’t even notice the irony of it all. Well, Adrien did, but she was way more bitter than to give him that.

“Kids, I have great news!” - clapped Mrs. Bustier (happily married since last summer) cheerfully. “We’ve won the competition! We’re going to Gotham!”

The whole class broke out into excited chattering as Marinette glanced at Adrien sitting next to her. He was the only one besides from Marinette who didn’t seem very happy from the news. They locked eyes, and the girl could see the worry and exhaustion on his face.

***

/Two months, seventeen days and nine hours earlier/

With every day passing, the weather in Paris got colder. The Ladybug suit provided enough warmth even on the most algid nights but walking to school in the mornings or going home in the afternoons was getting more and more difficult for Marinette. She really didn’t understand why out of all things a ladybug could do, the only thing she got was the urge to hibernate. She didn’t have wings. No antennas. No four extra legs. Even Tikki wasn’t anywhere near similar to a ladybug. Basically, other than her name and the colors, Marinette was just as far from resembling a ladybug as one could be.

But no, she had to get ill and tired every time the weather was cool. Fantastic.

“Ladybug?”

Chat’s voice brought her back to reality. She was sitting on the roof of Adrien’s house, at one in the morning, with the stars shining at them brightly from the sky’s soft black. The stars always calmed Marinette. They reminded her that there was a whole universe out there, that she was small and didn’t matter compared to the real world. These kinds of thoughts usually terrified people, but not her. If nothing really matters then the best you can do is making sure you’re happy, right?

She turned towards her partner’s shadowy figure standing on the other side of the roof.

“Hi,” she started with a barely visible smile. “Is everything okay? You weren’t there yesterday when Glassterix attacked and it’s okay, but you missed school too and we were getting a little worried.” Well, it wasn’t entirely ‘okay’. It took her over two hours to defeat the Akuma and her Lucky Cure had to bring back twenty-three people from the dead, but she wasn’t mad at him. It wasn’t the first time one of them couldn’t show up, they learned to be patient with each other a long time ago. After all, they were best friends, especially since they knew each other’s identity.

About that: yeah, it was a wild ride. It happened the month before, and it still caused her nightmares sometimes. The way Ryuko was crying as a group of civilians fell from the Eiffel tower right before her eyes (she couldn’t save them) and Carapace’s screams when the Champs Elysées’ asphalt shattered into pieces sending flying cars all over the place was haunting her every time she closed her eyes. At some point, Rena Rouge’s costume was splattered with someone else’s blood and she freaked out so bad, she took a wrong step off the roof, dislocated her ankle and fell five stories before Ladybug could catch her. Marinette swore she was never going to ask for the other heroes’ help again unless it was absolutely necessary. When Chat’s ring started ticking in the middle of the fight and she saw the fear creeping to his face, making all his anger disappear, she grabbed his arm and took him to a relatively safe alley. For a moment, the green light made the shadows look like long, faceless opponents, but is passed just as fast as it came and Adrien was left standing there, panicking. Marinette wasn’t too surprised, she’s suspected it for a while and judging from Adrien’s face after she transformed back to her plain old self, he did too. She succeeded in calming him down enough so his breathing was mostly even and she told him to get Plagg something to eat (that seemed to clear his mind a little), but then she had to go back to fight. Half an hour later Chat was once again helping Viperion evacuate the civilians.

She stood up and took a step towards Chat Noir, who for some reason seemed to stop far away from her.

“There’s something I have to talk to you about,” he said, and Marinette once again felt the smell of inevitable doom lingering around them, but she stayed calm.

“Okay,” she told him carefully.

He stepped out of the shadows and now she could see he wasn’t wearing his costume. She felt a little panic in her throat, but he seemed fine, just… hesitant, maybe.

“I was thinking about… everything, really, and the thing is, I want to go to college. I would like to go to Cambridge, or maybe Yale, I haven’t actually decided yet, but the point is, that wherever I go, it won’t be in Paris. It won’t be in France.”

Marinette’s heart sunk and for the first time in months, her eyes started stinging a little. She hated to cry, but she didn’t want him to leave. All year, she kept telling herself that they were just in eleventh grade, that college was far, but she knew it wasn’t entirely true. Almost everyone in her class has already decided where they were going to go. The United Kingdom? America? No, these places were too far, too big, too scary to think about. Why would he want to go there?

“I know it sounds a bit overconfident, but I think I can make it. However, I’ve to learn. A lot. And I’ve to make sure I do enough work outside of school that I can put in my applications and I have to do a lot of things, I still don’t exactly know everything about it but the point is…” he stopped speaking and took a few steps towards her, so now the distance between them was normal but he was still avoiding her gaze.

“The point is,” he continued cautiously, “-that I thought long and hard about it, and I can’t be Chat Noir anymore.” He looked her in the eyes for a moment, but seeing her expression, he turned his gaze to the ground.

For a second that seemed like a lifetime, Marinette was just staring at him. She thought it was a joke, or a dream, or a fucked-up prank because it couldn’t have been real. It wasn’t possible, right?

Then she slowly opened her mouth to protest, to do anything, but Adrien was quicker.

“And it isn’t just that. I mean, the college.” He shook his head and sighed, annoyed at himself. In different circumstances, it would’ve been satisfying to see him not finding the right words for once. “It isn’t just about college. Marinette, I would like to live an actual life. It’s selfish, I know, but if I don’t quit now, I’m never going to be able to. I won’t be able to have a family, a job I like, I’m never going to have a dog because there’s always going to be something that keeps me from being home. I love being Chat Noir, but during the past two years, I learned, that the main reason that I like it is that it helps people. But it’s not the life I want to live in. I’m going to find another way to help, one that lets me be happy.”

It was a promise, and they both knew it. 'I’m going to be a good person. I’m going to help. I’m going to be happy. I promise.’

Marinette saw the world shatter all around them as he spoke. Her world. She knew that at the same time, he saw it grow and evolve, and the irony didn’t go over her head.

“I’m not going to leave you alone,” he told her, looking into her eyes. “In fact, I’m happy to help you or Ladybug anytime you want, but only as Adrien.” He grabbed her hand softly and dropped the Black Cat ring into her palm. “I’m sorry.”

And with that, he was gone, leaving Marinette standing on his roof at one in the morning under the black blanket of the night. She wiped the tears that never fell out of her eyes and welcomed the numbness in her soul. She looked up to the sky one last time before swinging around the city until dawn. The stars no longer seemed so bright.

Later that night, wandering back and forth in his room, Adrien wondered if Marinette picked up everything he meant, but left unsaid.

'I’m going to be a good person. I’m going to help. I’m going to be happy. I’m here for you. I want you to be happy. I promise.’

He decided, that probably not.

_________________

Next    Masterpost    AO3

[breeeliss]

In defense of Lila Rossi and other “bitchy” characters

Look. I get it. Lila screwed up in “Volpina.” Her entire narrative in that episode was set up in a way so that we weren’t meant to sympathize with her. She lied in order to get her way, and objectively speaking, lying isn’t okay. 

Now that being said: I’ve had it up to here with this fandom villainizing her. 

You do not have to like Lila. Hell, I even understand if you have personal reasons for not liking her. But the disrespect of her character is what really gets me. It isn’t even that people have unfavorable opinions of her. I’ve seen her be depicted as mindlessly cruel and evil in fanfiction to the point where it seems her sole motivation is to ruin the lives of our main characters. If that isn’t already bad enough, people in this fandom also like to call this 14/15 year old girl a bitch and a whole other slew of insults that are frankly undeserved. 

This happens to Chloe as well. But I’ve seen many posts that address this issue with Chloe, and not too many on Lila. 

I’m not demanding you like her or demanding you sympathize with her. But I do hope that I can at least help people understand her motivations a little better, and draw attention to a very worrying trend that’s infected this fandom and many others, i.e. taking teenage girls who have made human mistakes and turning them into bitchy, irredeemable, evil characters. 

So! I present you with a very long post complete with screenshots from the one episode she was featured in (lol) to try and help shed some light on her character and her treatment in fandom. Let’s go!

Back to Canon: Quick Character Analysis of Lila

I think it’s important to acknowledge that most of the scenes where we learn about Lila are all happening from Marinette’s point of view. She bursts into school amidst gossip about this person named Lila and looks more confused than anything else. It isn’t until Alya tells her that she’s the new girl and points up into the balcony to show Lila talking with Adrien that Marinette starts to get peeved. First words out of her mouth are: “Who is this girl and what is she doing with the love of my life?” So of course when Alya goes on about how awesome she is and shows her the Ladyblog interview, Marinette is very jealous because Lila has become an immediate threat to her crush on Adrien, and she knows she’s dishonest. So of course Marinette assumes bad intent from the start. 

Because she’s our heroine and we have spent the whole season sympathizing with her crush.....we sort of assume bad intent from Lila too. It’s natural. But, for the sake of this, let’s step away from that interpretation. Let’s give Lila the benefit of the doubt. What do we get?

Well, first off, we have a girl trying to impress a boy she likes. Lila’s leading them into the library to do homework together because it’s obvious she likes him. And it seems really harmless at first. She’s trying to bond with him over a “superhero” book he has (”I love superheroes!”) so that she can get close to him. 

Where is starts going south is when she recognizes Ladybug and sees how Adrien reacts to the mention of Ladybug. 

“She’s amazing....”

Immediately shocked and goes on the defensive. She’s lost him. He’s gushing about another girl. She’s gotta get him back. So what does she do? She reframes her strategy and uses his fascination with Ladybug to her advantage. Lila tells him, “A girl doesn’t have to wear a costume to be amazing, you know,” which is basically a muted “hey, look, there’s an amazing girl right here in front of you.” (nudge nudge) But then this is where fans start to really lose sympathy for her: she lies to Adrien. 

“You know I actually happen to be very close friends with Ladybug. We can chat about it if you want!”

Listen, we already know at this point that she’s lied. The Ladyblog interview was a lie. But hey. You’re the new kid going to school in Paris. What’s one thing that will get any Parisian kid to like you? Say you know Ladybug. Ladybug’s a celebrity in Paris, and if Lila says she’s close friends with her? Instant like from everyone in school. Now, opinions about lying aside, that’s a very understandable reason to lie. You may not agree with the methods, but the intent is not necessarily malicious. She just wants people to like her. She wants to be accepted. She’s new. She has no friends. It’s a small lie that’s hard to prove wrong, and it does the job of helping her meld into the school. 

That’s evidenced by this scene with Adrien here. She’s not trying to screw anyone over. She’s not trying to ruin Marinette’s chances with Adrien. She’s not trying to mess with Adrien’s head. Lila’s trying to get Adrien to like her. That’s it! A very normal teenage motivation. So when she hears that Adrien likes Ladybug, she figures “hey, if I go on about how much I know about Ladybug, maybe he’ll like me more!” It’s not uncommon for people to tell lies to get others to like them. Hell, when I was a new kid at a new school, I did that too. It’s a very normal response, and certainly not a reason to outright villainze her for and accuse her of being a manipulative bitch. 

Now admittedly, Lila’s very ambitious and very resourceful. She takes this even further. She steals his book. 

While this is intense, let’s also please acknowledge that Marinette has stolen Adrien’s cell phone to ensure he didn’t listen to an embarrassing voicemail she left him. Not that this excuses what Lila’s done, but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking this is evil. Marinette’s done something similar. 

Lila doesn’t want to be one upped by Ladybug. So she sees a perfect opportunity to make herself seem even better than Ladybug: let’s pretend that I’m actually a superhero. Better yet. Let’s pretend that I’m a superhero that’s better than Ladybug. That’ll win Adrien over for sure. This is a huuuuuuuge lie. And without Ladybug’s intervention, she was definitely about to get found out. But I cite that as a flaw on Lila’s part: she takes things too far and doesn’t know when to dial back on the lies she tells. But I digress. Lila has an opening! She’s found this book and found another heroine besides Ladybug. Time to go necklace shopping!

“[Volpina’s] one of the most important superheroes. More powerful and celebrated than Ladybug!”

It’s funny that while Marinette’s staking her out, Tikki mutter’s “She’s good...” because....yeah, she is. This is fucking clever. Where she got that necklace we’ll never know, but this is a very good and very elaborate lie. Adding in the whole “my grandmother gave me this necklace” was a top notch touch. But she’s really selling this whole “I’m better than Ladybug” thing. Adrien is fascinated by superheroes so she basically said to herself, “Alright, let’s pretend to be a superhero.” Honestly, while a very extra method, this is still understandable. This is still to its core an attempt to impress Adrien. And then, Ladybug jumps in and completely tells her off. 

Now people like to say that Lila was faking the tears, but honestly, I don’t think she was. I don’t think Lila expected Ladybug to come call her out. No one knows who Ladybug is, so lying about her seemed safe. So of course she’s absolutely shocked to see Ladybug completely rip her to shreds....for what seems to be for no reason. Ladybug’s call out is personal. Her primary motivation for this was because she needed to get back Adrien. She says this before she transforms. So because it’s a personal attack, it also comes off very cruel, and Ladybug herself later admits this. Just picture this: you’re here trying to impress a boy, and someone comes and completely humiliates you in front of him and outs you as a liar. That’d be enough to make me cry too. This is genuine. She was horrified. She got caught. She was humiliated. And now Adrien knows that she was lying to him the whole time. Adrien could potentially go and tell everyone what happened. Her reputation is shot. Now she can’t fit in. 

Lila strikes me as a person who’s very concerned about how others perceive her. There’s no other reason for her to want to make friends and give a good impression so soon after her coming to school. So to lose face like this in front of someone -- and worse yet to get caught in a lie -- must feel terrible. 

Now another thing that I see people mention is that Lila shouldn’t be mad at Ladybug because Ladybug did nothing wrong. Lila was the one who was in the wrong and she had no reason to be upset. Now, I repeat, Ladybug was too harsh. Sure, call out a person for the wrong that they’ve done, but there’s a way to do that without publicly humiliating them. Ladybug screwed up. But I find it interesting that we are followed up with this scene. 

Something tells me this isn’t the first time this girl has been outshined. Having her on the ground in defeat in front of a looming Ladybug poster? That’s purposeful. It suggests a failure to measure up to other people’s expectations. It suggests a failure to seem impressive to others. It suggests a failure to be well liked and to make a good impression. Something tells me that Lila showed up to school in this episode and lied about herself so much because she was so desperate to keep something like this from happening. She didn’t want to be outshined. She didn’t want to be second-rate or second place. She wanted people to find her cool. And it all fell apart. All because some superhero swooped in and embarrassed her. I’d hate Ladybug too. 

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I respect Lila’s decision to not forgive Ladybug. 

“Forget it Ladybug. You were right. We’ll never be friends.”

This is a girl that is probably used to people outshining her. So why would she be so quick to forgive and befriend someone who not only outshines her and has what she doesn’t, but embarrassed her so awfully? An apology isn’t good enough. Remember, Lila values how others perceive her. This doesn’t fix that she lost her chances with Adrien. This doesn’t fix that now everyone might realize she was lying. Her reputation is shot. She doesn’t give two figs about Ladybug’s apology and doesn’t want it. I don’t blame her for not accepting it. 

She has a lot of deeply seated resentment for people like Ladybug: people who are well liked and universally loved. I think that’s why Hawkmoth suggests that she’ll return. I think he happened to pick an akuma victim who’s anger was particularly deeply rooted. It’s almost sad to think about how this deep mistrust started. 

The “Bitchy” Character: Fandom Interpretations

I highly recommend you all to read up on “Fandom Misogyny” if you haven’t already or don’t know what the term means. There’s a good article here that you can look at to get a quick read up on it. Now what’s relevant to this conversation is the ways in which fans interact with the canon content we’re given, i.e. fandom interpretations, fandom meta, fandom conversations, fandom content, etc. 

This takes the form of many aspects of fandom culture. An example of this is the fact that because predominantly female fans like to fetishize and sexualize mlm pairings, the female characters who are potential love interests for either one of these characters are immediatley reduced to bitchy, mean, cruel characters in fandom interpretations. This is pretty rampant, and also explains the lack of wlw content. But another prevailing instance of fandom misogyny is this: flawed female characters are immediately condemned for their actions, while male characters who act similarly are not. 

Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter is a really good example that I like to bring up, mainly because fans love the hell out of him. Female fans in particular are “in love” with Draco and want to protect him and say that he’s misunderstood and just needs support and love. Now, while it may be true that he’s a misunderstood character, he is still a flawed character who has done wrong and has hurt others. But fandom tends to excuse this in favor of celebrating him. 

Now you can make a very good argument for why someone like, say, Chloe is very similar to Malfoy. Rich kid. Sheltered. Self-absorbed. Committed to making the main character’s life hell. Says some pretty fucked up stuff to the main character. A bully. I can go on. But what’s the fandom response to Chloe? “She’s a bitch. She’s a terrible character. She doesn’t deserve redemption. She doesn’t deserve to be celebrated. I don’t know why people like her.” It’s hypocritical. Here you have two characters that I think are very similar indeed. One is protected by legions of fans, and one is tossed aside. This isn’t a coincidence. Orihime from Bleach. Sakura from Naruto. Rei from Sailor Moon. Pearl from Steven Universe. It keeps going. 

Same thing has happened to Lila. 

This all started when our hopes and dreams were crushed and it turned out that Volpina was a villain/akuma and not a new hero for the miraculous team. We were getting teased with little snippets of a brand new character and we were all coming up with theories and headcanons about who she was and what she could end up being. The majority of us were wrong, and I think this hit us hard. 

Now this hard hit got ridiculously heated. People said they hated her. She was evil. She was a bitch. She was manipulative. She didn’t deserve to be redeemed. She didn’t deserve to return. People couldn’t stand the sight of her. Out of all the akumatized victims we’ve come across in this show, Volpina is by far the most hated. Hands down. Why? Because of the reasons cited above. Because fandoms will enthusiastically jump on the opportunity to shit on a flawed female character. It is a consistent trend. 

Now the best (perhaps worst?) part of this? Lila’s 14-15 years old. She’s a child. She’s inherently immature. Children make mistakes because they’re still growing and learning. And we’re still going to use her mistakes and flaws to turn around and call her a bitch.

Specific to the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, I also think it has a lot to do with the fact that many fans are violently protective of the Love Square. Threats to the Love Square do not tide over well in this fandom. That’s why pairings like Alyanette and Adrinino and Ninette and Aldrien are often criticized. It gets in the way of the Love Square! And I think that’s also why people had/have issues with Lila. She was muscling in on Adrien. She was getting in the way of Marinette’s crush. Notice how people don’t seem to mind her when she’s paired with Nathanael. When does the issue of her being a bitch come up? When she’s shipped with Adrien, with Chat Noir, with Marinette, etc. She’s a threat to the fandom. So we vilify her for it. 

What’s even more worrying is the way we’ve started to characterize her in fanfiction. She is frequently depicted as a mindlessly cruel character, and by that I mean that writers needed a villain/bad guy to place into a story for the sake of creating a drama or creating a plot point, and Lila and Chloe are often the first people tapped for that role. There is no depth to a lot of these depictions and that’s what upsets me. It is clear that Lila’s one defining trait/purpose is to be evil, disruptive, cruel, bitchy, what have you. 

The really funny thing is that this is the case in popular stories. Writers are lauded for this because we’ve made it so easy to hate Lila. We don’t bat a lash when Lila is turned into this evil, cruel, super villain who hurts people, manipulates people, assaults people, fucking kills people for the sake of a story. Let’s leave alone the fact that I personally believe this to be an example of lazy writing (unless your villain is darkness itself, you need to give your bad guys logical motivations for the things they do) but it’s also another perfect example of how this fandom misogyny has bled into how we interpret and characterize someone. We’ve lost touch with canon, and we’ve perpetuated harmful stereotypes about women in the process. 

Any woman that makes a mistake is now a bitch. Any woman that goes after what she wants is now a bitch. Any woman who offends/hurts another character is unfeeling and evil. This stuff is not new. This has been pervasive in fandoms long before this one and in many more than just this one. We’re just the ones keeping it up. 

Again, I’m not suggesting you turn around and start liking her. It’s not necessary to like her as a person in order to respect her as a character. Award her the depth and the benefit of the doubt that we are willing to award other characters. Try to step away from this instinct to slot her away as the evil character. Stop these constant shallow depictions of her where Lila’s evil just to be evil and is given no depth or analysis past that. It’s bad enough that misogynistic creators are things that fans have to deal with. Let’s not go further with perpetuating that kind of rhetoric ourselves. 

Let’s stop villainizing Lila. Let’s stop calling her a bitch. 

[hystericalcherries]

Spring Cleaning

This is part of my Camp Kwami series. Check out the rest here!

Nino walks in one morning looking ragged as he slumps in the seat next to Adrien.

The blonde takes one looks at him and asks, “What’s wrong? You look terrible.”

Alix spears a sausage on her fork. “Yeah, you look like you just crawled out of a grave.”

There’s a low groan just before the DJ unceremoniously drops his head onto the table, forehead making a impressive thud when it meets wood. Adrien winces sympathetically and offers a light clap of the shoulder, it turning into a comforting rub and a soft offer of food when his best friend groans louder.

“Oh, yeah,” Alya agrees sympathetically, “I spent all yesterday afternoon cleaning up too.”

Marinette finally looks from her meal, brows furrowed. “Cleaning up?”

Her best friend sends her a look, borderline on surprise and… pity? “Yeah, cleaning up. You know, for the cabin inspection- the one that's, you know, today.”

Nino finally extracts his face from the wood and absently reaches across the table and snatches a muffin from her plate. “Oh man, that's right- I forgot you got the art cabin, Marinette. It must have totally tanked trying to clean that mess up. How'd you even manage, anyway?”

“I don't-” she stops before she has a chance to start, her mind putting one and two together in record time.

Her friends undoubtedly see the exact minute when realization hits, her face opening up like one of Margot and Camille’s books. She claps her hands on her cheeks and abruptly stands, silverware shaking as she nearly knocks the entire table over. But Marinette is far from noticing, head whipping to the small table where her kids sit, already done eating and chatting among themselves, and to the clock bolted to the wall in rapid succession.

“The inspection- oh no, I totally forgot!”

Then she is flying, at her cabin’s table and leaning over them to urge them up and back to the cabin. They sense her urgency and quickly scramble to clean up their table, allowing her to usher them out of the mess hall with frantic hands and tripping feet.

When they finally get to the cabin Marinette wants to scream.

It looks like a disaster zone, taped off and full of hazard signs.

There is glitter everywhere and not a thing in its place; books and loose papers cover the floor, bed sheets still stretched in their makeshift fort, paint splattered across a few windows, and articles of clothing draped across every surface.

Before she has time to process her hopeless despair, her mouth opens and she's rattling off orders like a drill sergeant.

“Camille, you're in charge of making the beds. Liam and Nicholas, the windows have to be wiped- no paint or anything on them. Spotless.” The boys give her a salute, serious expressions on their chubby faces. “Margot- the books, they need to be off the floor and back in the bookshelf. Émilia, you and Milo get to organize the art supplies- crayons out of the sink and into their boxes.” Floorboards creak as the kids run to follow her directions. “Camille, you're on laundry duty- remember, anything that smells like dead fish goes in the basket. Léo, help her. Oh, and Victoire, you'll need to pick up all the excess trash.”

They all burst into action, following her orders as if their lives depended on it.

When the dreaded call comes from outside half an hour later Marinette nearly jumps out of her skin.

“Keep cleaning,” she whispers loudly, taking her time to walk the distance to the entrance. “We can't fail the inspection- we'll lose points if we do. I'll try to buy some time.”

There are calls of understanding from the kids, still running about like ants who've just had their hill squashed. Margot’s foot gets caught on a bed post and she trips, the pile of books in her hands crashing to the floor with a thud loud enough it has Marinette wincing. Léo quickly bends over and helps the girl to her feet, sorting out the mess by the time Marinette reaches the door. She edges the screen door open and slithers her way out of the tiny crack of space, breathless as she takes in her arbiters.

What she sees has her eyes popping out of their sockets.

The entirety of the camp is outside, following the counsellors and head appointees in a sort of procession. She all but groans because great, now everyone will have a front row seat to watch her fail spectacularly.

She spots Alya, at the front of the group, and sidles up next to her. With a quick look to the inspectors, who, thankfully, seem to still be processing the paperwork of the previous cabin, she leans in close and asks, “Um, why is everyone here? Isn't it just a regular inspection?”

Alya follows her lead and leans in until her head touches Marinette’s, stage whispering, “It's because of your little show in the mess hall- very eye catching, as per usual- and, well, everyone wanted to see if you'd make it in time. It's all very exciting.”

Blue eyes trail over the counsellors, pausing a second too long on a particular blond head and having to look away quickly in fear of turning to mush. She swallows nervously, voice contracting a squeaky quality, “Oh.”

“Ah, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, there you are.” The camp secretary, a woman with a neat bun and glasses, walks the three precise steps to the bottom of the stairs, clipboard in hand. “Let us begin the inspection of your cabin.”

The counsellor in question forces a smile, skipping a step to bar their way into the sure-to-still-be war ground. “Um, why don't we start outside? I mean, you've all seen the inside of these cabins- they're all the same and so boring. We could just glance around out here and wow, would you look at those flower beds- I don't get extra points for those, do I?”

The woman takes one look at the flowers, in full bloom and all but bursting out of the box they're rooted in, and says in a clipped tone, “No.”

Then, without further ado, the group steps past her and into the cabin. Marinette makes a surprised nose, something in between a squeal and a shriek, and runs after them. Excuses are already spilling from her lips, colorful in their exaggeration. “So, funny story! A rogue baboon found its way into the cabin last night and-”

But her words die when they meet air, because what in the world, this is not her cabin.

Firstly, it’s too clean. Secondly, it’s too clean.

Her kids stand in a line, posed in, what she assumes they individually believe to be, a respectable salute to the camp heads. All around them is a shocking scene- beds made, suitcases tucked neatly under bunks, dressers scrubbed, and mountains of glitter mysteriously banished to some other realm. It’s not perfect- for there is still some melted crayons sticking to the lone table’s surface and army of pine cones standing guard at the foot of the backdoor- but, by all that is lucky in the world, it is to her.

“This place is a pigsty,” Chloé says, signifying the arrival of the other counselors, wrinkling her nose in disgust as she eyes the walls and the pictures decorating them. “It looks like a paintbrush got the flu and sneezed all over everything.”

Marinette ignores the girl’s words, harsh and semi truthful as they are, and instead looks to the proclaimed camp director.

M. Damocles is as unreadable as ever and she despairs, already imaging the punishment she'll receive for having the dirtiest cabin in all the world (probably a lifetime sentence to mess hall duty). Thick eyebrows looms over wide eyes, giving him a surprised look that is, seemingly, permanently edged into his face, as he silently takes in his surroundings, turning in a slow circle to better survey it all. Her body hunches into itself as she leans in, holding her breath.

Finally, he stops, straightening his jacket with a small harrumph. Leveling her with a stare, he states, “You pass, but only just.”

It's enough for her and the rest of Cabin Ladybug, and they erupt into instantaneous cheers.

The sound of joy is echoed by the many still lingering outside. The camp heads make their leave when the call is made, four more cabins still in need of their judgement, and leave them to their celebration.

Alya whoops and gives Marinette a side hug while simultaneously high fiving Nino. Chloé leaves with a huff, hands waving a fist pumping Kim out of her way; though no one can hear her snapping remarks, drowned as they are in the cheers.

Her kids are the loudest. Liam, Nicholas and David let out matching yells, deafening and animalistic in quality. Behind them, Margaret and Camille are hugging, nearly toppling over when Milo barrels into them in an effort to join. Léo flops onto a bed, slinking to the floor with an exhausted sigh, and sends Victoire, who claps her hands together happily, a victorious grin. Thomas wraps her left leg in a hug, vibrating with excitement and giggles.

“Congrats, Marinette.” She somehow hears Adrien over the triumphant screech Émilia sings to her right. A hand lands on her shoulder, the weight of it making her feel like she's floating.

Normally, she would smile and leave it at that, but she's feeling strong after this win. She was given the impossible and had pulled out on top- granted, it wasn't as impressive as defeating an Akuma, but the fire running through her body in the afterglow of battle is the same. It leaves her feeling lucky.

So, she surges forward and throws herself at him, arms wrapping around his neck in a hug. He stumbles for a moment, surprised, but the blimp is passed over with the light laugh that bursts out her mouth. Eventually his hands encircle her waist, squeezing, and an answering smile graces his lips.

She's never felt happier.