#hawkmoth is a dick

[staab]

I lost motivation very quickly…

[meliake]

One of the saddest things about mlb to me is how Marinette and Adrien are affected by their positions as Ladybug and Chat Noir in vastly different ways.

For Marinette, being Ladybug is such a source of stress and pressure she's destroying herself from the inside, constantly worrying over if every decision she makes is best for the city. She's 14 and unable to cope with the stress that comes with patrolling the city every day, or deciding who is trustworthy enough to hold a miraculous. Every move that backfires is immediatly her own fault and her own responsibility. That's her main conflict with her identity throughout the series.

Adrien is the opposite. While being Chat Noir can still be a source of stress, it's more like his get out of jail free card. He gets to leave his house and just exist in an environment absent of rules and restrictions. Everyday he chooses to become Chat Noir because between being Adrien and Chat, it's an easy choice. He walks on eggshells constantly in an attempt to not be pulled out of school or anything more extreme and isolating. (ie being locked in a gridded prison cell in season 5) Adrien is so caught up in trying to appease his father in his civilian life he's unable to actually live. He chooses risking his life over and over as Chat instead of never really living a life at all.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

This is a anon member of Gabe Nwagbala's Team Lifelights Fandubs do you think Chloe did the same thing as robin from Batman The Animated series and has she gone the same route as what Robin did in that show?

I really wouldn’t go that far.

That incarnation of Robin’s relationship with Batman is more of a father and son dynamic, like most versions of the Dynamic Duo, while Chloe saw Ladybug as a paragon to look up to and didn’t know her personally. In the actual episode where Dick quit being Robin, the feeling of betrayal was more personal due to all of the secrets Bruce was keeping from him, the breaking point being the fact that he didn’t know his girlfriend Barbara was actually Batgirl while Bruce knew for a while.

Dick’s falling out with Bruce came from years of gradual distrust and being kept in the dark about certain things, while Chloe’s falling out with Ladybug, even coming from someone who is in favor of her redemption, came from a more selfish motivation that she wasn’t able to be Queen Bee again. Even with Dick, he never sided with any villain like the Joker, while Chloe betrayed Ladybug at the first chance she got (albeit, with Hawkmoth using her akumatized parents as a little leverage).

[strawbeariefaerie]

Miraculous DR: Me

Name: Astya

Well kinda, Astya is a diminutive.

Age: 18

Height: 5'8"

Occupation: Ballerina, principal dancer

Hobbies: Modeling, design, photography, drawing

Realtionship status: single and definitely not in love with my best friend

About me:

I spend most of my time dancing. It's my lifeblood. If I spend too much time without dancing my body feels drained like I'm missing something. There are times where I've fucked up sad performances because it's hard for me to stop smiling when I dance. It makes me SO happy.

I go through pointe shoes quickly because I love to put them on in my free time. It doesn't help that I have really high arches and if the shank is too hard I have to break it in 🥲.

I think ballet is the only community where people compliment your feet constantly and it isn't weird.

Also, I scripted that me and my boyfriend (who doesn't know he's my boyfriend yet) always get paired together for partner work which is cute, but it's also because I don't want someone I'm not comfortable with picking me up lol.

Favorite thing to do: Italian fouettés, I love how they look

Least favorite: plies, I don't want to do squats I want to spin around like a little fairy

Tattoos:

I have an insect wing tattoo on my back. It's actually technically not a tattoo everyone just thinks it is. I was born with them, they turn into real functional wings.

"that doesn't fit the DR!" Womp womp. I'm a fairy.

Alter ego:

Name: Ladybug

Powers: creation, reversing the damage caused by hawkmoth, healing and flight

Costume: similar to Shadybugs but less edgy. I have retractable wings that aren't technically part of the costume but nobody knows that they're really mine.

Relationship status: complicated

About:

Admittedly I could be better at PR. The first time I was heard speaking was me announcing Hawkmoth could quote "suck my dick" if he wanted my miraculous.

When it comes to reporters I have that whole deer in the headlights thing going on.

I did it to Chat Noir too at first, because I didn't know how to talk to him. When he said something I'd just: 👁️ 👁️

[stormiclown]

What I truly love most about the DC universe is how stupidly large it is. There are so many different Earths and timelines that you can merge it with another pic of media, and you can justify it by saying it's an entirely different timeline. The DCU is so diverse and wide that its compatible with literally everything.

The MCU? Bruce and Tony know each other due to being billionaire playboys with genius intellect and using their skills to become formidable heroes. Thor and Diana know each other, the League of Assassins is aware of Hydra and the Red Room, etc.

Miraculous Ladybug? Diana and Queen Hyppolita (a former ladybug) know all about the Miraculous and Marinette goes to the Justice League for assistance with Hawkmoth. Given the people they've been up against before, Hawkmoth would fit right in. The addition of the miraculous would be very natural to the DCU.

Danny Phantom? A teenaged boy with ghost powers from another realm ends up in Gotham and starts trolling people is something that would definitely happen in Gotham at some point. It was only a matter of time.

I swear the next DCU & Batman crossover fandom is going to be Avatar the Last Airbender or something. With the Justice League adopting these gremlin children. Bruce "I adopt strays every other week" Wayne would see Katara, Aang, Toph, Zuko, Sokka, and Suki and go "Mine." Sokka cracking jokes with Dick, Zuko and Damian getting on each other's nerves, Katara and Alfred bonding over how they have to keep feral children in check, Toph and Jason trying to declare dominance over each other every other second. Aang going around Gotham and following Bruce while he does Batman things, and surprisingly getting along great with Damian over their love for animals (Damian refuses to admit he got excited when Aang allowed him to ride Appa). The spirits in the atla world won't be so far off base in a world where there are aliens, demons, and demigods walking the earth.

Gothamite criminals everywhere would be getting their asses kicked. Soon Gotham has six more vigilantes, four of which have terrifying elemental abilities and the other two can throw hands. Blue Spirit Zuko throwing hands, Painted Lady Katara thrashing people with water and healing innocents, Blind Bandit Toph crushing people into the dirt, Kyoshi Warrior Suki striking fear in the hearts of hundreds, Boomerang Sokka coming up with these crazy but effective plans that give Batman a whiplash, Avatar Aang greasing anyone who hurts his friends.

And the rest of the Justice League are terrified.

Actually you know what?

alta x dc anyone?

[princess-of-the-corner]

How a true Batman would see the miraculous class.

Bruce: ...

Dick: No you can't adopt all of them.

Damien: Please, he can't adopt ANY of them! I refuse!

Bruce: 5 words. Audrey Bourgeois and Gabriel Agreste.

Damien: You mean that horrible women who had the audacity to try and fire Alfred!?

Dick: And the guy who I'm like 99% sure is Hawkmoth? What about... fuck they have kids in the class don't they.

Damien: Tch, I'll tell Alfred to prepare 2 rooms.

tbh the ML kids could double his child count because you have Adrien, Chloé, Zoé, Sabrina, Lila, Kagami and Felix.

And that's just the kids in need of better parental figures that we know about!

[starwarsmum]

Day 7 of Maribat BioFamily September! I managed a whole week! Prompt of the day is Love Languages

@maribat-calendar-events

The manor has been quiet ever since Marinette had gone home after the trial of Hawkmoth had ended. Damian had resorted to his usual grouchy manner and everyone was much less physically affectionate with one another.

The change hadn't been immediate. Tim had made a point to do a daily video call to begin with, and anyone who was available would crowd around the laptop to say hello. But as they all fell back into their routines, video calls became phone calls, which became texts. And the thing with texts, at least for the Batfamily, was that there were certain times they couldn't answer.

So now, after two months, the family were back to their emotionally constipated ways and Dick hated it. As another person who thrived from physical affection, he missed the way his new little sister would launch herself at him to say hello. Or the way she would spend quiet time with Damian, which seemed to mellow him out more than anything else anyone had tried.

Or how, when Tim was crashing from a caffeine high and needed more to keep going, she magically appeared with a fresh cup, and some cookies she'd baked with Jason who, surprisingly, found a sense of calm in kneading dough and learning something new. Even Steph, exuberant as she was, had withdrawn somewhat, no longer having Marinette to watch sappy romcoms with.

So when Bruce suggested they invite Marinette back for the summer, Dick had been overjoyed. He had immediately booked off two weeks so that he could fully immerse himself in the experience of Time with MarinetteTM. He even decided he would live in the manor with everyone else as much as he could.

They all made a special effort to be at the manor when Alfred told them that he would be collecting Marinette from the airport. Well, all except Damian who everyone said would probably do better picking her up than helping with the welcome party effort. To everyone's surprise, Damian agreed to go without any argument.

Dick was charged with getting the decorations up, given he was the most able to climb. Steph and Jason were choosing music, having agreed that they would both add songs into a playlist and go from there. Tim was arranging some party games - karaoke, a few board games some cards - while Cass stayed out of the way. 

Duke was still on the day patrol, although they planned for him to arrive back while the festivities were still happening and swap out with Bruce and Steph. Barbara was due to arrive any second with a trivia quiz to round out the night, and Dick couldn't wait.

_ _ _

When Marinette landed in the airport, she had so much energy that she practically vibrated while going through customs. Everyone who spoke with her gave her indulgent smiles, and she dragged her luggage into arrivals. Looking around, she squealed as she spotted the green eyed boy that she had been steadily falling in love with over the past couple of months.

He caught her up as she flung her arms around him, tucking his face into the crook of her neck. He had grown a little taller in her absence and her toes scraped the floor as she clung to him. He put her down after several moments, smirking down at her before she pulled him down into a kiss.

“Alfred is waiting for us, Angel,” Damian said at last, brushing a hand against her cheek gently. She beamed up at him, heart full of joy, but she let him pull away and take her luggage. “You have brought a lot with you, were you planning on staying for longer than the summer?”

“No, silly,” she giggled, picking up one of her bags. Damian grabbed her rolling suitcase and the other bag, motioning towards the door. “I brought the gifts I've been making for everyone. It's been kind of…lonely without you all in Paris.”

Damian hummed in agreement before pulling her to a stop just before they stepped into the open air. He leaned towards her, kissing her softly and she melted into him again. They had agreed that they would keep their budding relationship to themselves for now, not wanting the others to meddle before they knew if it would work.

While they had been long distance, they had gotten to know each other fairly well; Marinette asked questions about his favourite classes, hobbies, his friends, and Damian asked about her dreams for the future now that there was no supervillain terrorising Paris. They'd watched films for date nights, streaming things at the same time and chatting about them. 

In spite of that, it just wasn't the same as being in the same city. So before they were sucked back into the family dynamics, it was nice to reconnect by themselves. And when she pulled back again, he chased her for a moment which filled her with warmth.

“Hi, Monsieur Alfred,” she said as they approached the car. The butler smiled at her, helping to put her luggage in the trunk before opening the door for Damian and her. They talked quietly in the backseat, not touching but not leaving a lot of distance between them. When they pulled up to the manor, Damian stepped out of the car first and offered his hand back to her. She giggled as she let him pull her out and said softly, “Thank you, Dami.”

Inside the manor, everyone cheered when she came in, and Marinette was overwhelmed with happiness at how much effort they'd gone to for her. They spent the next few hours playing games and catching up until Dick excitedly said that they had set up karaoke.

“Before we move over to that, I need to give you all something!” Marinette trilled, grabbing one of the bags and pulling out delicately wrapped parcels. She moved around the room, handing them out and she could see the surprised faces of everyone except Damian. When someone asked what the occasion was, she merely shrugged and blushed lightly. “I just like making things for people, and since you all are basically family now, I wanted you to have something from me.”

There was a moment of silence before Steph impatiently ripped open her parcel. She stopped short as she pulled out a pair of pyjamas that was reminiscent of her Spoiler suit. Nobody else having waited to open the gifts once they heard Steph do so, they all similarly pulled up short as their alter-ego personas were put into sleepwear form. One by one they all swung back to stare at Marinette, although Damian merely looked amused.

“Was I not supposed to work out that Jason and Tim, who are exactly the same size and shape as the two vigilantes I met on the Watchtower, were Red Hood and Red Robin? Please, I'm a designer, measuring people by sight is kind of my thing. None of you even have magic to disguise you, how no-one has worked out that the Batfamily just so happens to be the same number of people as all of you is absurd.”

There was silence throughout the room until Tim pulled the rest of his gift out of the wrapping and gasped. Marinette giggled when he turned back to her, gaping. His hands were gripping the clothes tightly and the rest of the family were watching him with concern in their eyes.

“I figured if I was telling you I knew your identities, you deserved to know my other secret,” she said, the words making Tim stare at her wordlessly for several more minutes. “I mean, aren't you all supposed to be the world's greatest detectives? Kind of embarrassing that I had to spell it out for you, my initials are literally MDC.”

Her words were met with stunned silence as everyone immediately turned over their gifts to find her signature stitched into the tags. She was then buried under a pile of loving people.

[ledalasombra]

The Granddaughter - Chapter 5 - The Pain of Loss

Mari: I'm home. I'm sorry if I said something I shouldn't have.

Mari: See you tomorrow. Goodnight.

Alfred sighed when he received the message. Marinette tried to show that everything was fine during the night, but the fact that she couldn't keep her emotions in order only showed that she was more and more on edge. He didn't want to have to leave her alone, but he knew she wouldn't want anyone after her before she felt more emotionally stable. As much as he wanted to, he would have to wait.

Grandpa Al: Don't worry about it sweetheart.

Grandpa Al: sleep well my dear.

After send a reply, he finished arranging the things that were still pending in the kitchen, going down to the cave, to check if the family still needed anything else. The older one heard some voices in addition to the sound coming from the computer. He couldn't help being surprised when he saw the video that showed what appeared to be the last meeting between Ladybug, Chat Noir and some other heroes with Hawkmoth.

Everything happened very fast. The group was fighting Hawkmoth, Mayura and some Akumas, when the butler could see Multimouse being attacked by Hawkmoth's sword. Ladybug managed to pull the sword that was hidden in the villain's staff to her, disarming him and starting to fight him, while Chat Noir runs after the heroine who was on the ground.

Alfred immediately caught his breath, freezing as he watched Multimouse die in the video in front of him.

Ladybug approached Chat Noir, putting her hand on his friend's shoulder:

“We need to go, she'll be fine once the cure is called. If we stay here, we'll lose it... Mayura has fallen and the others have defeated the Akumas, only Hawkmoth is missing."

Chat Noir placed a light kiss on the forehead of Multimouse's lifeless body, passing his trembling hands over her face.

“I will return my princess…”

For a long ten minutes, all the videos went black. The cameras were broken and were back up and running once the cure was called. Multimouse who was on the ground, sucked in air quickly, trying to breathe as she looked around frantically. She had a lost look, not understanding what was going on. A few minutes later, Chat Noir runs across the room and hugs her, helping her to get up. The recording ends right after.

---------------------

Dick was in the cave, talking with the others about the strange encounter he had with Marinette and how she and Alfred seemed to have a connection beyond what was seen. Everyone was waiting for the butler to arrive to try to clarify the whole situation.

“What is Tim doing?” Dick asked when he saw the youngest opening different files on the computer and selecting a specific video.

“Searching for information… maybe the files will give us some clue as to what happened. If she's connected to Adrien Agreste, there's a good chance she knew what was going on." Tim commented without taking his eyes off the screen.

“It's pretty obvious that she knows something about what happened. Let's wait for Alfred and ask him to explain” Damian commented, making his presence visible already in his uniform.

“We're not sure what she knows or if Alfred knows… We can't just assume the worst. Besides, if it was something Alfred didn't agree with, he would have intervened a long time ago." Dick commented, moving away a little to get the gloves and mask, while Tim opened the video. In a few minutes, Dick was able to realize that the video was indeed of the last battle, seeing Alfred enter the place.

"Shit" muttered the vigilant, noticing Alfred stop in front of the screen apprehensively. It was impossible not to notice how the older one became rigid and tense in relation to the video or how erratic his breathing became. In a few moments Dick was beside him, holding him lightly. The youngest can see a tear running down his adoptive grandfather's face. Alfred had seen videos like these before and he was never affected the way he was now. Dick noticed that Damian and Bruce were watching what was happening from afar, but that they didn't interfere. Everyone watched the video and Alfred's reaction, watching the footage come to an end and the butler put his hand to his chest as he tried to visually recover.

—----------------------

Alfred put his hand on his chest as he tried to compose himself about what he had seen. Marinette had told him that she was present at the last battle, but she didn't say details... He knew she was Multimouse and seeing her granddaughter die in the video was beyond what he could bear. He felt Dick put a hand on his shoulder and guide him to the nearest chair, seeing everyone looking at him with some concern.

“Alfred, did something happen? Everything is fine?" Dick asked, eyeing him with concern.

“I'm fine Master Dick. I just didn't expect to get here and see everything…” Alfred replied, still visibly shaken. The butler had always been in full control of everything, but at the moment he was trying to get his thoughts in order.

“Alfred, maybe you better rest…” Tim commented, handing the older man a glass of water.

 "I'm on my way, I just came to make sure you don't need anything else..." he commented seeing Bruce approaching.

"Alfred, did something happen? You were visibly shaken by the video.” Bruce commented, visibly worried. “What caused you so much stress? Do you want me to ask Leslie to come look at you and check if everything is ok?" 

Alfred took a deep breath looking into his eyes. "I'm fine Master Bruce. There's no need to call Leslie out for that. I was just a little shocked by what I saw. I didn't realize there was footage of what happened…"

"Alfred, I know this is not the time, but what does Marinette know about all this? Did she know about Agreste being Chat Noir?" Damian asked, which caused everyone in the room to look at him in silent questioning what he was doing.

Dick sighed, turning his attention back to Alfred, remembering what he heard Marinette say in the kitchen earlier ‘He thinks that because he couldn't protect me on the last day, because he saw me... he thinks that being by my side is putting me in danger.’

“I overheard part of your conversation in the kitchen, sorry about that. But why would Adrien Agreste or Chat Noir need to protect her?” Dick asked, looking the butler in the eye.

Alfred sighed heavily before replying "Because he saw her die in the last akuma"

"But according to the reports, the last akuma were in the last battle and as far as is described there were no civilians caught during the attack." Tim looked at him, pausing briefly and taking a deep breath "All the akumas created were directed to the team..." Tim commented looking at Alfred directly. He knew that magic was preventing him from making the necessary connections to understand what was going on.

Alfred sighed looking around at everyone. He pondered what to say, he couldn't say much, but he knew he would need to answer something… "What do you want to know Master Tim?" he replied after some time.

“What do you know, Alfred? She knows more than she says and played a more important role than she lets on…” Damian completed looking at the person he had the most respect for in the house “Magic is involved and as obvious as it is, we can't connect the dots….”

“Holy Shit!” they all heard Jason scream from somewhere in the cave. Calmer now, Alfred took a deep breath looking at them. "Was she Multimouse?" Jason asked looking at him in shock.

The butler was silent for a few minutes, pondering what to say. Taking another deep breath, Alfred sat back in his chair, looking Bruce in the eye. "Yes and I won't talk about it again."

“ How long did you know everything that was happening in Paris? We could have brought her here…” bruce argued

“I don't believe she would come, being directly involved. Let's just say I've known about her being involved with all of this some time.” Alfred replied. “She is stubborn and somewhat hard-headed like you Master Bruce.”

"You could have told us, we could have helped in some way" Damian commented, visibly shaken by the events, seeing the butler look him straight in the eye.

"She asked me to keep a secret. She confided the whole situation to me in a very stressful moment and made me promise that I would not interfere or comment with anyone." He stopped looking at each of them weighing what he would say "She is my only blood family and I respect her decisions, right or wrong, just as I respect everyone in this family. Talking about it with any of you would not be right with her. Now tell me, Master Damian, would it be all right if I talked about all this with her?” the butler gestured around him as he spoke. "Trust and loyalty is something we earn. I will not lose hers or each of this family by talking about other people's secrets." He ended up seeing everyone silent. He looked at each one of them, giving a slight smile. "So, if you'll excuse me, I'll go to bed and call my granddaughter to make sure she is fine before she goes to sleep." He got up and headed for the stairs, pausing and turning his attention back to his family. "I will not ask this again, please avoid any discussion of the Paris situation with her. She is recovering from everything that has happened and deserves time. And Master Dick" he turned his attention to him "I would greatly appreciate it if you could just avoid listening behind the doors again. I'm sure that wasn't the education I gave you." Alfred didn't wait for any kind of answer, leaving the place in total silence.

_______________________________________________________________

Hi everyone, thanks for the coments! Again, english is not my first language, so if something is wrong let me know!

I’m sorry if I forget to tag someone. 

@sknerd101 @kathygene @waffleyunsure @nightfallsthings @taewinterbear95 @occulta-lacrimarum13  @kathygene  @tinybrie​  @kitsun369​  @iglowinggemma28​  @crazylittlemunchkin​  @nightfallsthings  @fangirlingfanatic​  @nightmarewasteland​   @laydeekrayzee  @the-ruler-of-death​ @sarcasticbambi @fusser90  @night-ngale  @missmadwoman  @prettylittlebutterflie @babylovebug18 @its-maemain @iglowinggemma28 @the-church-grimm @kp-names @iamablinkmarvelarmy​ @starling218  @battybatbat  @atiredartistandacat @serasvictoria02 @read-fantasy-to-escape-reality @alice-hazelwood @maybeanalien0-0 @stella17luna

[confusedandghostly]

Entirely self indulgent dp x dc x mlb prompt

—

-Danny & Adrien know each other, maybe via Magic Stuff, maybe it’s the classic “event in a convenient spot”, doesn’t really matter. Point is they’re hero friends who both know each other’s secret identities and keep in touch.

-At some point, Danny is forced to relocate from Amity park because of a reveal gone horribly wrong. He bolts and keeps going until he can’t anymore. He’s picked up by a stranger.

-(Generally he doesn’t drop his transformations by accident anymore but thank the ancients he did this time because he would’ve had one hell of a time explaining to this stranger why his blood was bright neon green. As it stands, the biggest question is what the hell happened to him.)

-Nightwing is just vibing, doing his nightly patrols in Bludhaven, when he finds this kid half unconscious in an alleyway, bleeding out. They more or less beg not to be taken to a hospital when Dick suggests it, so instead he takes them to one of his safe houses and patches him up there (This kid is 16? Maybe? Why’s there an open autopsy incision-)

-Danny is not in any shape to be going anywhere and on top of that, his accelerated healing is working at a third of the speed it should be because of the materials that were used to hurt him being anti ghost, so Dick manages to convince him to stay in his misc safehouses - he doesn’t need to stay in just one, he’s allowed to move between them, just please don’t leave entirely.

-Danny explicitly requests that as few people as possible get involved in this, and yes that means the rest of the bats. If he can leave once he’s healed without anyone but Nightwing ever knowing he was there then that’s for the best.

-Except, as it often goes, Danny gets attached to Dick and Dick gets attached to Danny and the Reveal happens, etc.

-While he’s still healing and can’t do much of anything, a story runs on the news. Dick doesn’t think too much of it at first, but Danny gets really concerned when he sees it.

-“-Paris’ supervillain Hawkmoth has finally been taken down. Secretly the popular fashion designer Gabriel Agreste, many people who have heard the news are devastated. His home is currently being searched….”

-Danny goes “oh shit!!! I know that guy!!!” and immediately calls up Adrien and asks if he’s alright, what he’s doing, etc and the resounding answer is no, Adrien’s having an existential crisis, and he’s staying with friends while he figures out what to do with himself.

-Danny explains his own situation, specifically that he was displaced but found a safe (and at this point he really doesn’t want to leave anymore) home with another hero, and Dick, who’s only heard half of the conversation but understands that someone Danny knows and trusts with his own identity needs a place to stay, and offers Adrien a place here.

-Adrien decides to take him up on that offer. He’s being harassed, moreso than he ever was simply for being Adrien the model, because now he’s Adrien, the supervillain’s son, and since Hawkmoth was pretty localized he’s hoping that it won’t be near as bad in a different country.

-Now Dick has two kids in his care and he’s feeling more and more like Bruce by the day because he’s just gone from living alone save for whatever times he visits the manor to having two kids in his house, relying on him for safety and emotional support in the span of like. Two weeks.

-Reveal x2 with Adrien, all that Bonding Stuff™️

-Adrien and Danny get to talking and they’re both experiencing some cabin fever and so they decide “yk what?? We could help Nightwing with his hero work!! The area already has a metric fuckton of heroes, what’s two more?”

-It’s actually rather easy for Adrien to convince Nightwing because he gets why Adrien wants to be back out on the field. Danny, on the other hand, is finding it way harder, because Dick is already worried about Danny’s injuries.

-They both manage it though, under two conditions.

-1. They can’t be Phantom and Cat Noir. Not only is it going to be incredibly obvious if/when they make any public appearances as civilians, but also it’s going to raise questions and unwanted attention.

-2. Minimal magic and ghostly powers. This ties back to the previous stipulation, technically. Cataclysm is too recognizable as a miraculous thing, and it could be detrimental in a fight where Adrien can’t get away to recharge. If Danny used too many of his ghostly powers, he could give himself away as a ghost and become a target for hunters.

-Cue a montage of Dick hiding his two new protégés from the rest of the bats because he wants it to be a surprise and also he wants their debut to be on their terms for safety and damage control reasons while trying to set them up with the appropriate training and gear (moreso Danny who needs a whole new suit than Adrien who can just redesign his magic suit)

-The other bats are absolutely certain something is up with Nightwing and they’re proven right when two new players make their debut.

[theerurishipper]

The Issue with Felix Fathom

So, I'm not a fan of this character. I think there was a lot that could be done with him. I think he was done really dirty by the writing (but what's new there XD). He had a lot of potential; he was genuinely entertaining when he showed up and he slayed in that musical number. And that he was the only one to actually advance the plot meaningfully? Respect. But Season 5, as Season 5 does, ruined his character. And I don't like when bad writing ruins good characters. So I took it upon myself to break down his character and how Season 5 took a sledgehammer to it. I divided it into three parts.

A) Inconsistent motivations

B) Half-assed Redemption

C) Feligami is a bad ship

This gets long, so here we go.

A) Inconsistent motivations

The first time we're introduced to Felix in the episode named after him, he seems to just be a grade A dick, going out of his way to ruin his cousin's life and making deals with Hawkmoth to get his hands on some rings (which we now know are Adrien's amok) and the natural assumption is that he's just a spiteful asshole who's angry that Adrien didn't attend his father's funeral. Then he comes back in the finale of Season 4 (after a not really noteworthy return in Gabriel Agreste the episode) and proceeds to spend that time betraying Ladybug and giving all the Miraculous to Gabe, along with Adrien's Amok in exchange for the Peacock Miraculous. Then he shows up again in Season 5 as an advocate for Sentimonster rights and commits genocide, only going back on it when Adrien and Kagami called him out. Then he spends a while stalking Kagami and saving her from her mother, and then reveals his tragic backstory to her, instantly earning her trust. Then they get together, and the next time we see them, Kagami is declaring that they're doing this to stop their parents from getting in the way of their love. Then he is straight up missing from the finale, so that really did go somewhere.

So, let's take a look at his motivations through all these episodes one more time.

Felix: Just seems to want to ruin Adrien's life and get his hands on the rings that have his Amok in them.

Strikeback: Wants the Peacock Miraculous in exchange for the rest of the Miraculous and Adrien's Amok.

Emotion: Wants to rid the world of humans in an effort to create a better world for his fellow Sentimonsters.

Representation: Wants to stop Monarch so that he and Kagami can love each other freely without their parents' interference.

Recreation: Is a part of the hero team.

That's five different motivations within the course of, what, 8-9 episodes? And it causes some major inconsistencies in his characterization.

For an example, the episode Emotion introduces his whole Senti-rights thing, and he starts snapping the world away so that he and Adrien, and later Kagami can live happily ever after. He only let Kagami stick around because he realized she was also a Senti later (and Marinette too was only spared after he realized the relationship between her and Adrien), so we assume it was just going to be him and Adrien. He goes as far as to say he did this all for them, showing that he really cares about their opinion and well-being. And considering that Kagami and Marinette only factored into this later, we assume he was originally doing this just for Adrien.

Then why did he treat Adrien like such absolute shit over his past appearances? Let's review exactly what Felix has done to the cousin he claims he loves enough to snap out the world to protect him.

Victim blamed him for not standing up to Gabriel (despite knowing he was being mind-controlled and had no way of standing up to him).

Took on his identity to ruin his relationships with others he cared about.

Sent a cruel response to his friends' kind video to isolate him from his friends.

Stole his Amok from Gabe.

Realized his father was Shadow Moth and didn't tell him of the danger he was living under, or you know, give him back his Amok which holds his very autonomy in it.

Didn't try even a little to help Adrien when he realized the danger he was in.

Didn't tell Adrien he was a Sentimonster.

Gave Adrien's Amok back to Gabe without a hint of regret or hesitation.

Snapped everyone he cared about out of existence.

And yet, he loves him so much.

For someone who supposedly cares about Adrien, he sure did go out of his way to bully him and treat him like garbage. A clear example of how his motivations were retconned. He went from being a grade-A douchebag to Adrien to supposedly caring deeply about Adrien and wishing only for his well-being. He went from screwing over Adrien to doing everything for him apparently. He traded his Amok with no hesitation and with a grin on his face, and yet he supposedly did all this for Adrien.

Then the next time we see him, he's a Senti-rights advocate and is committing genocide for that cause. Which, fine. It was set up in the Season 4 finale that he seemed to care about Sentis. Still doesn't explain him caring about Adrien suddenly, but okay. Then we see him get into a relationship with Kagami, and the next time we see him, he's completely over his Senti-rights phase, and is now focusing on making sure Gabe gets taken down so that he and Kagami can love each other. There is no mention of his earlier motivation that he would not shut up about, and the only motivation is Kagami stating that they can't love each other unless they take care of Monarch. Sentimonster rights? Who cares about that? All that they need is to protect their love, because they're all that matters right? Not like there's a third Sentimonster still being controlled by his supervillain father that might need rescuing. Which is something Felix should probably care about if he's such an advocate for Senti-rights and freedom. Instead of, you know, focusing only on one girl he met less than a month ago.

And I'm not saying that wanting to protect his love can't be his motivation. Except when you make Senti-rights his motivation and then forget all about it to push an already rushed ship, it just ruins his character. Constantly retconning character motivations doesn't make for good storytelling, who woulda thunk it.

And just to drive in this complete reversal, the episode Emotion where Felix begins his quest for Senti-rights ends with him breaking down over having to destroy the Red Moon. And what do you know, this complete change in his motivation makes him create a Senti-projector for no reason and destroy it with no hesitation! Almost like the writers forgot what he was all about in the first half of the season! That they established him as someone who fought for giving Sentimonsters agency and treating them like people, and who would break down at having to destroy them, and only created Red Moon because he thought he wouldn't have to destroy her! But when his motivation changed to being in love with Kagami, I guess that all just up and vanished. And it just makes him come off as a hypocrite.

(Which is honestly what he is. Felix is a hypocrite. Despite not having been able to break free of his abusive father until his death, he mocks Adrien for not doing the same. To be clear, this is not criticism of Felix for not being able to fight back against Colt. He is not to blame for that whatsoever, and he did not deserve that treatment. This is criticism of him blaming Adrien for not fighting Gabriel, which is pretty hypocritical of him. And as I mentioned before, he says that he's not like others and that he wouldn't bring a Sentimonster to life just to destroy it later. Senti-projector would beg to differ.

These moments are transparently hypocritical. But the thing is, the narrative doesn't portray these as hypocritical moments, and never seems to acknowledge this aspect of his character. Instead, it's played straight and never addressed. You'd think that Felix doing the one thing he swore never to do would be addressed, but nah.)

And then Felix, the most proactive character in the series, whose whole appeal is that he gets shit done, decides to leave it to Ladybug to handle and fucks off to who knows where. And then he joins the team at the end despite having shown nothing but disdain for these people the last time he saw them, and despite having never shown the desire to work in a team.

B) Half-assed Redemption

That is, if it can even be called one.

So, yeah, let's start by listing all the awful shit Felix has done. We've already covered the list of things he did to Adrien specifically. But we can move onto the rest of his awful actions.

Tried to kiss Ladybug without her consent.

Betrayed Ladybug and gave all the Miraculous to Shadow Moth, putting Paris in grave danger.

Committed literal genocide.

That's it, pretty much. Until you consider the magnitude of what he's done, and then it all becomes a whole lot worse.

Like, he gave all the Miraculous to Gabe. He directly enabled a terrorist for personal gain. He actively put the lives of countless people in danger for his own desires. He betrayed Ladybug's trust and caused her great suffering. And did I mention he enabled a terrorist?

And his defense for this?

Argos: True, except I work for no one. (kicks Ladybug, causing her to crash onto a building) I only helped Monarch cause it served my plans! (charges in to punch her and she dodges) I needed the Peacock Miraculous and today I need yours and Cat Noir's so I can make my wish! (makes another attempt to attack Ladybug with his heel as Ladybug rolls away to evade it)

Oh yeah, so sadness, much remorse. Very redeemable.

But the funny part is, this isn't even the worst of it. He then goes on to commit literal genocide. I know I brought this up more casually before, but I need to emphasize how actually fucked up this is. Felix, of his own free will and of completely sound mind, killed all the people in Paris and possibly in other parts of the world, whilst singing a peppy song and enjoying himself.

And yeah, I got a good laugh out of that scene too. Doesn't make it any less fucked up. He committed genocide without a care in the world. Mf literally pulled an Eren Yeager, but even Eren had some remorse or something. And he didn't even bring them back because he realized mass murder was wrong, he did it because the people he did it for turned on him, and he realized that maybe people with morals don't appreciate him killing everyone in the world including the people they love.

And what does that episode do? Have Ladybug blindly trust that Felix would fix things himself, with no reason for her to do so. He literally just admitted he feels no remorse or regret for helping Monarch, that he wants their Miraculous to make a wish and that he has nothing to lose. And she just... decides to trust him because... the Lucky Charm said so? Because she was able to feel positive vibes coming from deep within him even though he has proven to be nothing but a self-absorbed piece of shit? Even though he's betrayed her trust so much and caused her a great deal of pain and suffering? And it's not even like it was right, because he didn't change and fix things because he could be trusted. He did it because his plan failed to please Adrien and Kagami and he realized he had fucked up with them. Not the people he killed, just them.

Okay.

After this, we see him in Pretension. To his credit, he seems to have given up on genocide, and has taken up stalking as a new hobby to keep himself busy. And then he kidnaps Kagami, yadda yadda, Sentimonsters are people, we don't abuse them in my house, all that. And then, this is what gets Kagami to start advocating for Felix.

Like, he just not too long ago snapped her mother out of existence right in front of her. He just snapped the entire fucking world out of existence. He should be publicly despised. People should be out for his head. Ladybug and Chat Noir should have made getting his Miraculous back one of their top priorities. But no one does anything. And hearing one speech about how Sentimonsters should be protected makes Kagami just flip her whole tune about Felix, as though he didn't commit unimaginable horrors. One hint at a tragic backstory and a passionate speech about Sentimonster rights, and suddenly he didn't do anything wrong. He was actually a good guy all along! There's certainly no reason for anyone to distrust him! He may have done all that awful shit, but he had good intentions! That makes it all okay!

Like, I get it. I get that his motivations are sympathetic. But that does not absolve him of wrongdoing. He doesn't get a free pass from consequences and accountability just because he had good reasons and a bad childhood. Kagami goes from being unbelievably hurt by him essentially murdering her mother, to being okay around him when he kidnaps her, to literally shielding him from consequences a short while later, and ends the episode by going on a date with him. As though she doesn't remember what he did.

Really. Kagami would do that. Kagami Tsurugi. You expect me to believe she'd do that? That she'd be swayed by one passionate speech and start coddling and protecting people from facing justice? Kagami would do that? Sure Jan.

Seriously, this is like listening to a terrorist go on about how animals deserve to be treated well and shouldn't be abused and deciding that their fervor for animal rights means they're a good person at heart. They aren't completely insane, cool. Doesn't mean they still aren't a horrible, monstrous person! And yes, I am comparing the two situations. Just because Felix brought all the people back doesn't change the fact that he first did it with the intention of having it be permanent, only brought everyone back because it was hurting the people he tried to please and not because he realized genocide was wrong, and then never expressed remorse for it. The writers aren't good enough to properly explore the implications of what just happened, but it doesn't mean I'm gonna brush by it, especially since they want to be taken seriously this season.

But Felix had a bad childhood, and he had good reasons, and his heart was in the right place. So naturally, he doesn't need to be called out, and Kagami's word is enough for Ladybug and Chat Noir to just... straight up forget that he happily gave up the Miraculous to Monarch and let him do whatever he wants. Sure, he betrayed them horribly and said he wasn't sorry at all about it, but this girl who's known him for a few hours at best says he's a good guy, so it must be true! The show tells us that he's not bad really, he's just misunderstood! Even if he never really apologized or expressed regret and remorse. Ladybug and Chat Noir have valid and justifiable reasons for going after Felix, and the narrative hasn't yet proven them wrong. And yet, him simply having sympathetic motivations is enough for him to be considered a good person and have all his mistakes forgotten. That's not how a redemption works.

Forgive me for being a basic bitch, but look at ATLA and how it handled Zuko's arc. Yeah, Zuko had sympathetic motivations, but that was never used as an excuse. He had to go through a whole arc of realizing the error of his ways, and no one coddles him through it. He actively owns up to his mistakes, accepts blame and responsibility for them, and works hard to earn the Gaang's forgiveness and trust. They don't forgive him immediately either, and he literally puts his life at risk to be accepted by them. He openly calls himself out and apologizes. Contrast that to Felix's "redemption," where his sympathetic motivations are used not to explain his actions, but to excuse them. Him having sympathetic motivations makes another character start to like him enough to shield him from being called out. He gets sympathy and understanding despite having done nothing to earn it. He never apologizes or tries to fix what he did, he never even admits that he hurt people and made mistakes, and yet just because he showed that he's not a heartless monster, the people he hurt are just supposed to accept that he's not a bad person. He's done so many awful things, but he's shown that he can potentially have a compassionate side (for very a specific thing but okay) so all is forgiven and forgotten.

The thing is, having sympathetic motivations and qualities that indicate that he's not completely cruel don't mean a thing if he doesn't act on them. It doesn't matter that he says he loves Adrien if he treats him like shit anyway. It doesn't matter if Felix cares about things and isn't actually as untrustworthy and selfish as he came off if he never shows those qualities in his actions. Sure, Kagami might trust him for whatever reason, but Ladybug and Chat Noir (as Adrien) are victims of his toxic actions, and Kagami's word about how he's not their enemy shouldn't be enough for them to just blindly let it go. Because they have no reason to trust him, and he has not shown any sign that he wants to make up for what he did or even that he feels bad about it at all (again, he literally says he doesn't).

Sympathetic backstories are supposed to help us recontextualize a character's actions, yes. Zuko too came off as a lot more sympathetic after we learnt of his past. That didn't mean he didn't have to make up for what he did. He had to work to change and grow, and actively states that he was wrong and that he wants to make up for it. Where does Felix do this? All he does is start talking about Senti-rights and suddenly all he's done is water under the bridge? All the things he's done can be forgotten because he did them for good reasons? One emotional moment means he's not that bad after all and means they can trust him, even though he's done nothing to prove that? Him having sympathetic motivations means he's now justified in what he did and doesn't need to make up for it?

That's not redemption. That's excusing bad people because they did what they did for "good reasons". He never admits to his mistakes, and he never takes accountability. Instead, Kagami is there to vouch for him despite not being the one most affected by him. And then no one calls him out anymore. And according to that little play, he still thinks it was justified for him to do those things because he had a good reason, and the show agrees with him!

A good heart is not enough for a redemption. It involves learning and growing and taking accountability. It means showing regret and remorse and the desire to do better. It means apologizing and accepting consequences. In canon, Felix has done none of those things. He expresses some kind of noble reason and is immediately validated and entitled to understanding and forgiveness. The characters don't bring up his past crimes, and he joins the team with no issue in the finale, as though he didn't snap these people out of existence gleefully, or as though he wasn't the reason they all suffered under Monarch.

You want me to believe Felix is a good guy? Give him an actual arc of growth. Actually make him confront the things he did. Actually let him face consequences and make it up to the people he hurt. Let him admit to his faults and learn how to be better. Don't give him a girlfriend who acts as a shield to exonerate him of all fault. That's not how a redemption arc works. That's not how any of this works.

C) Feligami is a bad ship

Imma say it. This is not a good ship.

Yeah, in concept it's fine, even good. I always love me some enemies to lovers. But the execution is so rushed and so poor that I really can't understand why they even got together.

The short version? It actively detracts from both of their characters.

The long version? Here we go.

It's so rushed.

We get Felix and Kagami together in Emotion, Pretension, and Representation. They go from enemies to lovers in three episodes, and in about a week in canon. In Emotion, they are very assuredly not friends. Felix only spares her because she's a Senti like him, and she straight up attacks him for killing everyone.

In Pretension, he stalks her for a while, saves her from her mother, reveals his sympathetic motivations leading her to start trusting him, and they go on a date at the end of the episode.

A few problems:

Kagami seems to have forgotten everything Felix did to her and the rest of the world just... a few days ago.

Kagami just admitted to still being in love with Adrien.

So for her to just... go along with him with no distrust or hatred is so strange. She called him out for stalking her, but what about the mass murder? Surely she hasn't forgotten about that?

And also, she literally just admitted to still being in love with Adrien. And she's immediately going on a date with Felix? I'm not saying she can't or that she shouldn't but... why have her still being in love with Adrien be such a big part of her arc this season, so much so that it had an episode dedicated to it, if it's going to be resolved in no time at all? Where did her feelings for Adrien go? They are never brought up again. Did they disappear off screen? And Felix and Kagami end up together in one single episode! They barely know each other! And by the time the next episode with them in it rolls around, Kagami is saying shit like "My mother and Gabriel Agreste will never allow us to love each other freely." Baby girl you've barely known him for a week, slow down please.

So yeah, rushed. But that's not all the problems I have with it. In their effort to pair these two together, there are some problems with the very concept of this ship. Now, the reason I said earlier that it's conceptually a good ship is because there are a few minor issues in it, but nothing that cannot be fixed with time and good writing. So overall it's a good concept. Problem is, we have the end product but the writing is shitty and ruins the whole thing.

It damages Felix's arc.

At least, whatever Felix's arc was supposed to be in Season 5. It started out with him trying to create a better world for Sentimonsters like himself. There are two aspects of his arc that the writers were trying to go for here. To integrate him into the protagonists' side from his role as an antagonist (his seasonal arc), and to flesh out his goal of getting more freedom for Sentis (his overall character arc).

Feligami as a ship undermines both these goals. Introducing Kagami as a love interest for Felix makes her more or less a shield for him to protect him from consequences, undercutting the "redemption" part of his arc. It stops him from having to face consequences or make amends or take accountability, because having a good person be in love with him is an easier way of painting him as also "good," thereby reducing the need to have him go through any actual growth. Having Kagami love Felix instantly prevents him from having to grow. It makes it cliche "Guy changes with the love of a girl" trope, except done poorly because he never really changed, she just started making it seem like he did by excusing him.

And as for his goal of freedom for Sentimonsters, his relationship with Kagami switches the focus from developing him, developing the lore of Sentimonsters (because the previous seasons did a piss poor job of it) and his goal into developing Feligami, which changes his goal from what was previously established to Being In Love With Kagami. He goes from wanting all Sentimonsters to be free to wanting to protect his relationship with Kagami and only that. You could say that he and Kagami are Sentimonsters and therefore saving their relationship falls under this, but that's not how it's framed. It's not framed as something Felix thinks furthers his goal, it's something else entirely. Felix spares no more thought to the freedom of Sentimonsters and does not mention it again, or else he would have thought about the other Sentimonster, his cousin, whom he damned in the previous season. He spent his reintroduction in Season 5 professing how deeply he cares for him, and yet after Feligami becomes a thing, he barely spares a thought to the only other Sentimonster (whose free will he traded for personal gain) even though he's such an advocate for Senti-rights.

It ruins Kagami's arc.

Kagami's overall arc is to win back her free will from her mother and find her own path in life, and this arc this season focuses on Kagami learning how to allow herself to be more passionate and emotional and want more from her life, both in terms of companionship and freedom, which is a step on her way to freeing herself from her mother's control. A big part of this arc is her still being in love with Adrien. She's also a Sentimonster, making her arc about autonomy and freeing herself from the control of her mother, finding new relationships and forging a new path for herself. This is something that has always been a part of Kagami's character. She's stubborn and headstrong. She finds her own way. And with the introduction of the plot point of her being a Sentimonster, you'd expect a pivotal moment to be her reclaiming her own agency. Except that's not what happens.

In Pretension, Tomoe asks for her Amok, and Kagami gives it to her. And at the end of the episode, it's revealed that Felix stole her actual Amok, and gives it back to her, thereby being the actual one who saves Kagami from being controlled by her mother. And it undercuts Kagami's arc of standing up to her mother and asserting her independence, because it's not her asserting herself, it's Felix sneakily saving her Amok for her. Kagami, who paves her own way, has a pivotal part of her arc where she reclaims her autonomy done for her by someone else. And we never see anything related to them again. So it makes an important moment which the episode has been building to, of Kagami standing up for herself and progressing her character arc into her being saved by a guy. She basically becomes a damsel in distress. And her arc never progresses beyond that, so her character journey in Season 5 which was supposed to be about freeing herself ends up being Kagami Finds A Boyfriend.

The episodes before this were building up her relationship with Marinette and Adrien, showing that Kagami is progressing in her social life, making friends and opening up to more people as a part of her development. Her development happened mostly starting from Season 3 and since she was only in a handful of episodes, we only saw it progress slowly. But we see a progression in her relationship with Mari and Adrien as she becomes more comfortable, open and vulnerable with them. And episodes like Perfection show how she is making more friends, that she is loved by many people. We see her start to want more friends, more freedom. And this is emphasized more than in the previous seasons. But once Felix enters the picture and Feligami happens, it's like her other relationships go out of the window. All she cares about is Felix. She doesn't want to assert herself to protect her other friendships too. All she cares about is that she and Felix won't be able to love each other. This straight up ruins her arc about finding many lasting relationships that she values and wants to fight for, because now she has one boyfriend to focus on over the many friends she was making and wanted to make, which was one of the things I actually liked about the Season. Kagami started the season with wanting to fight for all her relationships, and ended it with only caring about one guy she met a week ago. Thanks, I hate it.

It makes them both act OOC.

Feligami as a ship alters both Felix and Kagami's characters to revolve around their romance, even if it means they act in ways that are out of character. It drastically changes their personalities and their roles in the story.

For Kagami, it manifests itself the worst in Representation. Kagami is a very direct, to the point individual. If she wants to say something, she says it. If she wants to do something, she does it, or at least tries her best to do it. And Kagami hates lying. She broke up with Adrien for this very reason, because he wasn't being honest with her. So for her to go through this elaborate scheme to trick Marinette into going to the school by following Felix disguised as Adrien is unnecessary and... kind of cruel. And for her to have discovered Marinette's identity as Ladybug, and to go behind her back and tell Felix without informing Marinette herself, is so out of character for her. Felix is not entitled to this information. In fact, he is the last person Mari would want to reveal this to, other than Monarch and his lackeys. And for Kagami to betray Mari like this when she hates secrets and lies is so out of character for her.

And it's the same thing with Adrien. This is someone she loves so much that breaking up with him hurt her so badly, and she chooses to not tell him vital information that she knows about him, that he is a Sentimonster and his father is Monarch. Anyone who is keeping this secret from Adrien by thinking they know what's best for him is actively denying his ability to break free of his abusive father, whom Kagami is already trying to fight against, and yet the thought of telling Adrien the truth never crosses her mind. Even after she pushed him to assert himself and stand up for himself. She called him out for this in Risk, and yet now she is complicit in denying him the information he needs to do that. Kagami, who told Adrien to stick up for himself, is denying him what he needs to do that and making decisions for him.

It undercuts her personality in other ways too. Kagami is a very stubborn and very straightforward person. And so, for her to coddle Felix when Ladybug and Chat Noir come to rightfully take back the Peacock Miraculous and call Felix out is so against how she usually is. She is reduced to being Felix's protector. Kagami does not take shit lying down, and she does not shy away from calling people out, even if she loves them. For her to validate Felix just because he said and did a few nice things makes her come off very differently from who she is.

So basically, her personality changes. Since she is around Felix, whose MO is usually being tricky and sneaky, Kagami also goes along with it to advance the relationship and the plot, even though it is the antithesis of her character. She willfully abandons all her principles so that this plot can progress. Because Feligami can't happen as fast as it needs to if the writers have to explore this drastic difference between their values, as it would make them incompatible with each other. It could be resolved, but it needs time which the writers don't have because Feligami needs to happen quickly before the season ends for plot purposes. So this lack of exploration of their dynamic makes the ship seem very shallow, and so they would rather remove their defining traits altogether than take the time to flesh out their dynamic and reconcile their contradictory values which would make their relationship more natural.

The relationship also hurts Kagami's role in the story. The first half focused on her relationships with her friends and her mother. But once Felix came along, like I said, her arc switched to revolve around him. Not only does this hurt Kagami's arc, but it also removes her from the plot. Her mother is now part of the main conflict, and yet Kagami is separated from her at this crucial time and put into a romance with Felix to keep them busy and away from the main plot. Them being Sentimonsters too only really matters for exposition purposes and to force a relationship between them. And her arc of breaking free from her mother is abandoned, because now her relationship with Tomoe barely matters to the story. Only Feligami matters now.

And as for Felix, one of his greatest appeals as a character is his proactiveness. He pushes the story forward, he gets things done. He is interesting and engaging to watch because he doesn't sit around and let other characters make a move before he does something. And this romance arc with Kagami makes him do just that. Once his romance arc with Kagami begins, Felix's character is resigned to this arc, and therefore his pivotal role in the story proper ends. The relationships that were developed for him that gave him an active role in the story, such as his relationship with Adrien and his enmity with Gabe were all pushed to the side. These are the main characters in the show, and Felix's relationship to them was what allowed him to be close to the conflict. But after Feligami became a thing, Felix's connection to the main plot was severed, and all that he could contribute to it was the information he had figured out about it. So that's why his main contribution to the conflict this season was just telling Mari that Gabe is Monarch.

Basically, he was a mouthpiece for exposition. Compare this to his role in Strikeback, where he was an active part of the conflict because of his connection to Gabe and Adrien. And him being cut off from everyone except Kagami, who is by no means anything but a side character and who is certainly not as involved in the final conflict as she should be, his role also moves with hers because his arc is written around her. And his role only extends as far as hers, which is why he is barely in the finale except for a few seconds at the end. He goes from an active character to a passive one, which massively reduces his appeal in the story. He goes from proactive to complacent, which is so different from the type of person he was established as. Look me in the eye and tell me that Felix from Season 4 would let Ladybug handle things instead of marching up to Gabe and snapping him out of existence himself.

Feligami as a ship alters Felix's personality (the very little of it that was left after Season 4 ended). He was introduced as conniving and cruel and selfish. Him caring about Sentimonsters doesn't change that about him. But once Feligami becomes a thing, that aspect of his personality straight up disappears. From a writing standpoint, there is a reason for this which I'll get into later, but suffice to say that in order for Feligami to happen, they had to retool Felix's personality to be more appealing, and tone down his cruelty and lack of morals.

And as I've already mentioned, him destroying the Senti-projector without any sort of hesitation or guilt when he completely broke down about having to kill Red Moon shows how much his character had to change, even withing the season for this to happen. Felix being willing to kill a Sentimonster for any reason is completely unfathomable (lol) and yet he does it in order to save his relationship with Kagami without a hint of remorse.

Once again, the romance messes with their fundamental character traits and roles in the story.

Their relationship is diet Adrienette.

It is. Kagami is introduced to Felix when he is masquerading as Adrien. She later compares him to Marinette. Kagami is the reserved, isolated kid, like Adrien. Felix takes on the role of the "awkward" Marinette. Kagami is locked away by her parent like Adrien, Felix comes to her rescue like Marinette is supposed to for Adrien.

The thing is, these similarities are extremely superficial. Kagami and Adrien share a similar situation as abused children who are currently being controlled by their parent, but that's about where it ends. And Felix's awkwardness and shyness remind Kagami of Marinette, but that's about where their similarities end. And yet, their relationship is not built up much beyond that. There are some differences, but again, a lot of the concept is the same, and with so less screentime, it ends up coming off as a less compelling and way more rushed version of the main couple. Especially since the writers clearly didn't know what to do with Kagami and Felix, so the obvious solution was to give them each other and end that plot line. This relationship is literally just "Pair the Spares."

Of course, there are also differences, plenty in fact, but all things considered, it seems like the writers wanted to make Kagami and Felix prominent but didn't know how to end their seasonal arcs. Kagami's of finding lasting relationships (the plural being important actually)/being in love with Adrien, and Felix's of redemption and coming over to the good side. So they threw Felix at Kagami as a consolation prize and Kagami at Felix as a convenient excuse. Of course, this is a really poor conclusion to their seasonal arcs, and also warps their overall character arcs, Kagami's of asserting her individuality and Felix's of Senti-rights. It twists it into becoming all about their love when they could continue working on progressing those like they've been doing in the episodes prior to Feligami becoming canon.

And it seems to also be trying to compensate for Adrienette. Adrien and Marinette are having trouble kissing? Felix and Kagami can't stop. Adrienette took literally forever to happen? Feligami happened in a single episode. This relationship is built around the main couple with not much of a leg to stand on its own. They have no organic, natural build up. It just happens because the plot demands it. The reason I say their relationship is built around Adrienette because it is clearly only happening because they needed to get Felix and Kagami out of the way, and they try to make up for some of the criticisms levelled against Adrienette with this ship.

But speaking of differences...

They don't know each other.

Quite frankly, they do not know each other at all. They've barely known each other for a week. That's not enough to fall in love with someone, not enough that someone like Kagami is talking about it like they're soulmates, star-crossed lovers who are fighting the world or something. Their relationship is extremely superficial, and the only reason they are together is because the plot demanded it to be so. We've seen how it warps their characters to be involved in a romance and how them even falling in love necessitates that their personalities be altered. And there are a few other contrivances that leads to the conclusion that this is clearly less a natural and organic relationship and more a set of conveniences that are needed to give them something to do in the season.

Why do I say they don't know each other? Why do I say they aren't in love with each other? Well...

Felix only likes Kagami because she's a Sentimonster.

Because that's the reason he ever even noticed her. He only noticed her because she was a Sentimonster. That's why he spared her. That's why he followed her. That's why he likes her. Because she's just like him.

Ask yourself, what else does Felix know about Kagami? What does he like about her explicitly? Does he appreciate her character? Does he enjoy her interests? What would they talk about other than them being Sentimonsters? And the answer to that is we don't know. We don't know why Felix likes Kagami, aside from the fact that she's a Sentimonster like him and that she stuck up for him. The rest is inference, because they only appear in what, one more episode after that, and they spend all that time putting on that cringy play for Marinette (which does fuck all because Mari doesn't figure out that Gabe is Monarch from that anyway lmfao).

Kagami only likes Felix because he's similar to Adrien.

On the most superficial level, of course. Felix looks like Adrien, he sounds like Adrien. The reason Kagami broke up with Adrien is because she wanted him to be more assertive, and Felix has that in spades. He's kind of like Adrien... the way Kagami wants him.

Puts things in a different context, huh?

Adrien is kind and compassionate, he's empathetic and selfless. He cares about her. Kagami was drawn to that nature of his. And on the surface, Felix exhibits these traits as well. He's kind to Kagami, he seems to have a great deal of compassion and empathy for Sentimonsters. And it was only previously revealed that Kagami still has feelings for Adrien. And here she sees a boy who looks and sounds like her old boyfriend, who seems to share some of the same qualities as him, even doing things like drawing hearts on her window, which is something a romantic like Adrien would do...

Seems like Kagami is trying to replace Adrien with someone who seems to be just like him. She's projecting her feelings for Adrien onto someone who meets the criteria.

Of course, that's where these superficial similarities end. Felix and Adrien couldn't be more different. Adrien is a hero. He's Chat Noir, who risks his life on the daily to battle Monarch. Felix... directly enabled Monarch's rise to power.

And that's just it. Kagami has not seen this. Kagami does not know this. She sees that Felix is, on some level, similar to Adrien, and seems to like him for that reason. But she doesn't know Felix as he is. She's only ever seen his "nice" side. She doesn't know who he truly is and what he's done. She doesn't know him. She's never seen him at his worst, she doesn't know just how badly he's fucked up, she doesn't know that he wasn't sorry for it at all. And what he did do, she never brings up and never acknowledges it, so it's like she forgot. At least for the whole genocide thing, we can at least make the excuse that he brought everyone back to explain her not trying to cut him into tiny pieces the moment she sees him (again, it's a bad excuse, it should not have been glossed over and forgotten, but if I have to do the writers' work for them...). But she doesn't know him beyond that. All she's seen is his "good" side. She doesn't know how he betrayed Ladybug. How he allied himself with Monarch. How he treated his cousin. She doesn't know him at all.

How do you think she'd react if she knew all this? Would she still be in a relationship with him? No. And that's why the writers had to make sure she never found out, and only saw the "good" side of him. So that she could fall for him without having to deal with the atrocities that he committed. So that they could come up with justifications for why she liked him without having to have him face consequences and actually deal with what he's done. They had to erase the worst of his actions so that Kagami could come to protect his feelings from his victims. They had to alter his personality and ignore some of his more unsavory personality traits so that they could justify someone like Kagami falling for him. The moment Kagami is in the picture and the Feligami arc happens, all Felix's traits like his cunning, his selfishness... it's all gone. All to make him more appealing.

She liked Adrien because he was nice to her. Not just to her, but to everyone around him. Felix is also nice to her. But that's all she's seen. She doesn't know Felix. So she doesn't know that he's only nice to her (and his mom). She's only seen him in situations where he comes off as good and nice, and she hasn't known him long enough to get the whole picture (people will point to the events of Emotion, but it doesn't count if she never seems to hold it against him or indicate that she even remembers it). Which leads to Kagami having a fundamental misunderstanding of who Felix is, not knowing that he's selfish and cruel, and not like Adrien. They had to hide this side of him when he was with Kagami to make him seem more nicer, kinder and sweeter, more like Adrien. And this is the Felix that Kagami falls for. Not for who he is as himself, flaws and all, but only the positive aspects of him, the qualities that got her to fall for Adrien.

There is a fundamental lack of understanding between them because they don't know a lot about each other. Their relationship isn't built on acceptance of the other person, they only like each other because they meet their superficial expectations and haven't known each other long enough to understand each other deeper, which would make them realize how different they are, who the other person truly is. This is the kind of relationship that ends in a mess. Once Kagami finds out about Felix being a tricky and scheming person, more than what he showed in Emotion, and that he's selfish enough to damn them all for personal gain, do you think she'd stay with him?

Kagami has a strong sense of justice and right or wrong, while Felix is... morally ambiguous, to say the least. And so, it begs the question, how were Kagami "I hate deception" Tsurugi and Felix "serial manipulator" Fathom able to reconcile this fundamental difference in their principles that is a very defining part of who they are? The answer is they didn't. And that does not make for a sustainable relationship. They need to get to know each other better before acting like they're fated lovers straight outta Shakespeare. But as of now, they don't know each other, they don't know some very important things about each other that could cause conflict in their relationship. But dealing with that would take away from other important things such as Adrien and Marinette trying to kiss for the thousandth time, and so the writers fail to explore it and ignore it, opting to write Kagami and Felix both OOC to make it seem like they are totally made for each other and have a great relationship and are super in love.

It wouldn't matter if it was implied that Feligami have this conflict and the writers chose to hint at it and address it later. But they're portrayed as a perfect couple with only cute moments and stuff. And it really seems like there was no effort put into writing them at all. The relationship is only there to give them something to do. Watch as they never address any of this, watch as they just keep giving them cute moments instead of addressing some important issues with this relationship. Watch as they keep writing them OOC because they would hate each other if their personalities were left as they were.

Because it's not perfect. Quite frankly, it's not good.

Edit: Apparently she does know about Monarch. I forgot that play they did, and he mentions that he gave the Miraculous to Monarch. My bad. But my point still stands. In fact, it makes it worse. They made him justify himself in that play and Kagami just accepts it. Kagami accepts and willingly allies herself with someone who is the reason everyone is in such danger. She willingly allies with someone who hurt her friend in such a cruel way. It literally goes against her character to exonerate people just because they have a tragic backstory. And Felix's character and personality is still changed to be more appealing so that they don't have to deal with all this. You expect me to believe that Kagami, anyone really, would just brush over the fact that Felix sold them all out to Monarch? She knows about it, but they still had to brush over it in order for the ship to work. The writers knew that if they actually made Felix face consequences and acknowledged his actions, they could never get Feligami together, or even get anyone to associate with Felix for that matter.

And even if Kagami does know about Monarch, that doesn't change much of my criticism. She still doesn't know how he treated Adrien, she still hasn't seen his manipulative and cruel side. His personality was still made more appealing so that she could get together with him, which includes glossing over his flaws and unsavory character traits and erasing his mistakes. Kagami still doesn't know who Felix is as a person because she has never been exposed to that side of him. The show tries to sell it to us that he does everything for a good reason, and that's why Kagami decides to trust him (which I already addressed), but she hasn't seen all the shit he did to his cousin out of sheer spite. I stand by my point that Kagami would never associate herself with Felix if she knew who he really was, and the writers knew this. So, the show goes out of its way to downplay his mistakes and make it seem like they are noble heroics, and it literally changes his personality so that Kagami can like him. The way it's written, she might as well not know and nothing would be different, so really, none of my criticism is actually moot.

The writers couldn't find a way to have Feligami happen if Kagami held Felix accountable, so they just made Kagami brush over it/forget about it and had Felix justify himself. Their relationship isn't built on Felix genuinely regretting his mistakes and wanting to fix it, it's built on him getting a personality retool and justifying himself, and on Kagami miraculously (sorry) forgetting how egregious his mistakes are and excusing him because of his tragic backstory. Instead of dealing with his unsavory traits and acknowledging his mistakes, the show erases those traits and justifies his mistakes to make him seem better than he is. His awful actions are retconned into being noble deeds that were necessary and correct, so really, Kagami still doesn't know him because the story changed what he actually did into something else entirely. She doesn't truly know what he did, just the watered down, sanitized version of it. But to an audience who watched Felix remorselessly bargain with Gabriel and doom so many people to be victims of Monarch, it makes Kagami look bad by association for allying with someone who sold them all out to a terrorist and doesn't regret it.

Again, this is still changing his personality. Making a clearly bad act to be justified, thereby portraying it as some moral act instead of the scummy shit it was makes him seem better than he really is. I may have been wrong about Kagami not knowing about Monarch, but she still doesn't know him, because now he doesn't have those bad qualities and his mistakes aren't really mistakes. So, Kagami doesn't know who he truly is and thinks he and his actions are better than they really are. She doesn't accept him flaws and all, she doesn't realize he's changed or that he's trying to change. She's written so that she thinks that what he did wasn't so bad that he has to be held accountable for it. The writers couldn't put in the effort to actually deal with what he did, so they tried to justify him by having characters like Kagami not bring up his mistakes, and rather accept and agree with what he did. Which is just... yikes.

In conclusion...

Felix's character was stripped of his intrigue and plot relevance. He was turned from a compelling character and villain into a glorified love interest who barely mattered to the plot. His "redemption" was half-assed because the writers couldn't bother to put in the effort, instead choosing to drastically alter his personality. His motivations were retconned in twice in the season itself, and his story ultimately went nowhere. He was ruined so badly that he took Kagami down with him. And it's sad, because despite his villainous role in the story, he was a genuinely interesting character. He had a great presence and he actually acted and did stuff. He was fresh and fun. Sure, he was an asshole, but he was enjoyable and entertaining to watch. But once you take away what makes him so appealing, all that's left is a husk.

Thing is, most of the problems with Felix can be traced back to Feligami. And sure, maybe that handful of Feligami shippers who spawned after Gabriel Agreste were gratified, and you know what? Good for them. But I really didn't like it, and I thought it was a massive disservice to both Felix and Kagami's characters. For Felix to be reduced to a simp and a glorified trophy, and for Kagami to be reduced to "girl who fixes the guy" (which they didn't do well lol) and the damsel in distress for him to save. I didn't like how their characters were changed for this ship to happen all because the plot demanded that it had to happen.

I am not against a relationship between Felix and Kagami. I love enemies to lovers. But it has to be good. It shouldn't rely on the characters' personalities being changed and their past interactions and mistakes being forgotten in order to force a ship to happen within a single episode. It shouldn't gloss over their genuine incompatible qualities. And I've said it before, having opposing personalities isn't a sign that your relationship is fated to be doomed or something. Not at all. People can put in effort and work on their relationship to reconcile their differences. But it's not dealt with. Rather, it's ignored in favor of making them seem like the perfect couple just a week or so after they met? As though they are already like such a healthy and loving couple who know each other soooooo well. The show chooses to change their personalities rather than figure out a way for them to reconcile their actual personalities. And this hurts both their characters and makes them do things they would never do if it were not for the ship. And if you have to change your characters' personalities for a ship to happen... then no offense, but maybe it shouldn't happen.

And most of this problem with the ship is because of the lack of screentime. Maybe they could have cut down on the Chloe hatefest to, idk, give these important characters some more screentime? Maybe we didn't need Derision and we could have gotten some more of Felix and Kagami there? No hate to the people who like Derision, I'm happy that others got joy out of it, but was it really necessary? Maybe they could have given Felix and Kagami the time they gave to Socqueline, who is the most unnecessary character ever? And again, no hate to her fans, but was she really needed? Did she contribute anything that could not have been and wasn't already being contributed by an established character (Alya)? Does she have any plot relevance aside from being there?

Maybe if they had cut down on some of these useless decisions which no one really asked for (did anyone really look at Mari's awkwardness and think "oh I wonder what specific trauma she went through to be like this, it can't be that she's just nervous around her crush or anything"), they could have made Feligami a more natural and believable romance and had Felix develop as a character and join the team in the end without having to change their characters completely.

But Felix's character is riddled with inconsistency and hypocrisy, and he is the farthest thing from redeemed, even at the end of the season. And frankly, it baffles me that they decided to include him in the team at the end. The writing choices surrounding him did not help his character develop in any meaningful way. He was less a character with a story and an arc and more a plot device that the writers changed up whenever they needed him to do something. His personality and motivations changed according to the needs and demands of the plot. But it also went out of its way to justify and make the audience sympathize with him. So, Felix's writing is in this weird grey area where he's a victim of bad writing but it's used to his advantage more often than not.

(To get a little more into my personal feelings here, unlike characters like Chloe for whom I can get rightfully angry about her mistreatment by the narrative, I don't feel that way for Felix because the narrative favors him, and his personality is changed to make him look good in whatever plot he's in. His moments are at the expense of other characters. So, his character is inconsistent and poorly written, but it's often to his favor, and that makes it less... outrageous? to me than for characters like Chloe and Adrien. Idk, this is one of my most subjective points, feel free to disagree.)

But bad writing is still bad writing. Ultimately, the decisions made in Season 5 were detrimental to Felix's character and made him far less compelling than he was, and it's a damn shame. But hey, that's just me.

[subacctformaribat]

A Challange Worth Takeing On!

It has been four years since Hawkmoth’s defeat (Chat gave up his Miraculous after the defeat and then disappeared) and Marinette traveled to Gotham to get away from her past. After Hawkmoth’s defeat Marinette, being the guardian of the miraculous, decided to take the miraculous elsewhere(and also get away from Lila and her old friends). Where she found herself was in Gotham where she met a tall dark haired boy that she now calls her Husband, his name is Damian Wayne. Now after three years of marriage (even though Damian’s brothers still don’t believe that their younger brother could find love and keep a girl long enough to marry) Marinette and Damian now have another challenge ahead of them.

This is one challenge that they both are new too but won’t be as hard as fighting a villain and one that will bring much joy to them both and the family. 

Marinette is four months pregnant and the only person who knows that are the Kawmis and Damian the challenge they have is that they have still yet to tell either of their families and still live in the Wayne manor which was quite a feat to keep the news from Alfred and Bruce for as long as they have. Damian and Marinette found out in the first month of her being pregnant and have kept it a secret for three months ,and now they have to tell their families before they find out for themselves and have to deal with another mess. The reason they have kept it a secret is because they wanted a chance to prepare for the smothering of the family once they found out about the soon to be new addition to the family.

Which brings us to now where they have gathered the family in the dining room full of shenanigans and two expecting parents wondering if they should keep their secret or not.  

XXXXX

“Hey little D why does pixie pop look like she is about to run away , did you finally scare her off.”Jason teased 

“No Todd, if anything would deter my Angel it would be you being rambunctious ” Damian glared at Jason.

Tim decided to pop up in the conversation a little intrigued by Damian’s response “Why would us being rambunctious be the cause when she has never been bothered by it before unless you are hiding something from us?”

“Yeah baby bird , ‘Nette has been avoiding seeing anyone besides Sabine, Alfred , or Bruce for about three months now!” Dick exclaimed   

Marinette decided now was a good time to speak up and give a glare to her three brother-in-laws  “ I have not been avoiding anyone Dick , I was simply protecting myself from being in a crushing hug or someone crashing into me”

From that the room went silent as everyones’ worries began to grow as this was an unusual statement from the girl.

Everyone was worried about their favorite little designer and demon tamer wondering if she was  injured somehow or if something bad happened.

Sabine was the first to speak “ are you okay honey why are you avoiding crushing hugs?”

Her mother was properly worried because she knew her daughter was never one to shy away from hugging a family member.

“Well mamma the reason why Dami and I have stayed after the monthly dinner and joined everyone in the living room this time around is because we have big news for everyone.”Mari said 

***Damian’s family and Marinette’s family have a monthly dinner to catch up and whatnot with each other , then they usually gather in the living room after to play games or to try and embarrass one another ,which it was usually the latter so Marinette and Damian did not hang around after dinner often.*****

Jason popped up and said “ You're not finally leaving demon spawn are you?”

Damian was about to retort to Jason when Marinette jumped up and yelled at Jason, surprising and worrying Damian due to how fast she got up ,and the others worried due to her actually yelling at all.  

“No, Jay, I will not be leaving Dami as I am four months pregnant and don’t enjoy you calling the father of my unborn child demon spawn!”  (that nickname always hit a cord with Marinette and she has not corrected it but she is hormonal due to being pregnant and just sort of lashed out at Jason) 

“Angel! You should not get up so fast! You could hurt yourself and our baby!”,Damian scolded 

Mari for her rashness and that did not go unnoticed by the family and put it away to tease him about it later for when he was not around Marinette. Which was wise on their part as they did not want to aggravate the pregnant Mari more.

After they got over the shock of Mari yelling at Jason and Damian scolding her they finally let what was yelled at Jason to sink in!

[ggomos-maribat]

6 | lost

Part 6 of Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Dead | Masterlist

CW: Depressive thoughts

After Alfred's badgering, Bruce finally retreated from the dark confines of the Batcave and brought his work up to the manor's dining room. The stack of papers rustled as he spread them on the wooden surface, and his laptop lit up again with the dust on the screen more evident in the light. Bruce rolled up his sleeves and began to read again.

In entered Duke.

"Hey B. Coffee?" His second youngest offered.

"A cup please, Duke. Thank you," said Bruce without looking up.

"What's that?"

Bruce let himself lean back a little. Perhaps Duke could give his thoughts on his search? "Remember the akumas from Paris?" He stretched his arms. "After Hawkmoth's defeat, the two heroes Ladybug and Chat Noir disappeared from the public's eye without prior notice. The League tried to track them down for a short while, but we came up with nothing."

"Why do you need to find them?" Duke quizzed.

Bruce stared at the photos of two blurs: one in red, one in black. It was no mistake that the two heroes had been on the younger side when they first started, and yet they lasted through the long battle with a terrorist. "Firstly, we barely know anything about the Miraculous and Hawkmoth's actual motives. Ladybug did announce that Hawkmoth had been caught and promised that he would be facing consequences, but she denied everyone of any other information. Secondly, we want to be allies with them, or associates at least."

Bruce heard the clinking of metal to ceramic as Duke stirred the drinks. "It's not the first time a set of magical powers are hidden away to protect those powers, right?"

"Right." Bruce nodded. "Our problem with the Paris situation is that it happened under our noses for years, and we hadn't caught on until it was over. We want to keep the same thing from happening again."

It's mostly regret. Guilt, Bruce wanted to say. It was too late when we noticed an entire city suffering. The things they dealt with were in the levels of world threats. He remembered waking up to the news that shook the entire world, not having time to register it since the Justice League needed to take immediate action.

"Is that the same thing Dick's going crazy about since he came back here?" Duke set down the cups on the table, pulling a seat for himself beside Bruce.

"It's a different but not completely unrelated issue," Bruce replied. He was also hoping some clue from the case would turn up for the benefit of his search. It was partly the reason he let Tim and Jason go to Paris.

"Hm. Any leads from Constantine?"

"Only chunks of indecipherable texts related to the Miraculi." Bruce showed him a picture of the strange symbols from a book called 'the Grimoire'. "He's convinced that the current Guardian of the Miraculous is Ladybug herself."

"What about Aunt Diana?"

"Her mother has had prior connections with the Ladybug Miraculous before, but they lost contact a long time ago. Diana's helping with my search as well."

"Sounds like a dead end." Duke sipped on his drink.

"It's not strictly an urgent case, but it's important nonetheless." Bruce skimmed over his notes. "Even with the thousands of photos of Ladybug and Chat Noir, the Miraculous Magic is able to hide their real identities very well and no existing accounts of a civilian contact exist. Well, briefly there was one about Lilia Ross, but she denied it after a while."

"What if you retrace the heroes' steps and try to figure out Hawkmoth's identity instead? If the heroes found him out, maybe that's an easier angle," Duke suggested.

It's a good strategy. But how far will it actually take the search?

"Thank you, Duke," Bruce cleared his throat. "I'll give Tim a call."

***

Meanwhile, deep under the manor, Damian strolled into the cave to find Dick finishing the call with their brother. The youngest Wayne took a seat in front of him. "What did you tell Drake?"

"I asked them to ask Adrien Agreste about his cousin, Felix Fathom," Dick answered. "He was in Paris on the day Marinette was found."

"Are you suspecting him for murder?"

"What? No," Dick said, "I'm just considering him to be someone with information, since he has been involved with Hawkmoth and akumas before."

". . . And what does that have to do with her death?"

"It's all part of Tim's theory, that maybe Hawkmoth was targeting Marinette. Felix had a lot of trips to Paris at the time with unclear purposes. Sure, we can say he's just there to visit Adrien but the timing is off."

Damian raised an eyebrow. "Would he not be comforting his cousin because Adrien lost a friend?"

"Call it a hunch, okay? It's a lead . . . aha!"

Dick held his breath—he'd just received a response from Barbara, from a request he made for the investigation. She was able to dig up the lost evidence and compile the translated file and send it to him. Oracle, you're a godsend, Dick praised.

"What's that?" Damian asked.

"I snooped around in the digital archives of the investigation team at that time." He anxiously tapped on the tablet, and sent the file to the Batcomputer for viewing. "Turns out they lost file of a key evidence to Marinette's death: her diary. The original copy went missing from the office some time ago."

The screen showed scanned pages of the diary—the words were written on lined pages in Marinette's neat handwriting, and the shape of the paper was somewhat curved. On the side of the photo was the re-typed French text, and then the translated English. The first entry was dated about three years before her death. Dick scrolled down to the last page and found that the last entry was on April fifteenth, just before her body was found by the bridge.

"Why didn't you tell Todd and Drake about this?" Damian leaned on the table to get a good look at the entry.

"I want to put together my findings here before I tell them." Dick sighed in frustration. "I really should've went to Paris too."

I have no choice but to help with the investigation from afar. He slowly and carefully read through the last entry, guessing that it should give them the most clues about her death.

15 April

These days I've been feeling 'free'. T says it's because I've been liberated at last and I've only begun feeling it now. I don't know if it's supposed to be like this. Maybe it's my way of adjusting to something new. Yes, it's a big leap, I know, but T will be there for me. T's strangely very optimistic about it. Years ago I wouldn't have thought that this will be the person I'll be. I guess time passes faster when you're older?

Dick stopped reading. Her writing is unexpectedly . . . heavy. It was like she'd already seen so much horrors in her life. He almost felt like an intruder in her thoughts.

He forced himself to keep reading.

'Freedom' feels a bit empty? Or lonely? T says it's the trauma. Adrien says that emptiness will get filled in soon. Apparently, it's the same thing he felt when his mother disappeared. If this is exactly it, I want to go back in time and comfort the younger Adrien. Maybe if you stay too long in chaos, you get used to it and find the calm strange. I hope that turns around for me soon.

The words cut off at that part.

"That's it?" Dick blinked a few times. "That's the end of it?"

"T . . . This 'T' person," Damian thought out loud. "There isn't anyone close to Marinette whose name starts with 'T', except for her father." He took over briefly and scrolled through the other pages. "But in other entries she only refers to her father as 'papa'."

"It could be 'T' for Kagami Tsurugi but the entries started way before they met," Dick added, "Also, she refers to Kagami as just 'Kagami' here, it looks like."

"So this person is another confidant of Marinette's that her friends and family likely had no idea about, and could be involved in her death."

"Assisted suicide? Is this why the police declared it a suicide?"

"It's not exactly a suicide note," Damian crossed his arms. "No farewell, or mentions of leaving possessions behind . . . If anything, it seems like she was actually hopeful for recovery, maybe from the emotional distress caused by Hawkmoth's actions in Paris."

Did we actually end up with more questions than answers? Dick wondered.

"Tim said something about Lilia Ross' transfer to their school having an effect on her that time. Let's see . . . " Dick skimmed through the entries to find a handful written a few years back:

8 November

They left me alone  in downtown Gotham.

I can't believe they'd do that. I told them I had to fill out some forms in the museum and...they got on the bus without me. I wish Adrien were here. I had to ask help from the front desk and they kindly got a taxi for me back to the hotel. What is Bustier thinking? Will anyone be on my side if I speak up about it?

No.

Probably not.

It will be more of a burden if I do. I keep telling T I'll be fine. I just have to get through one more day and we'll be back in Paris soon. Someday I'll visit Gotham on my own again and dispel these bad memories.

"What the fuck?" Dick whispered. Even if the class or Lilia Ross had nothing to do with her death, this proved that they weren't faultless either. How could this have happened without anyone from WE noticing? Who the hell leaves a teenager alone in an unfamiliar crime-ridden city?

"Grayson," Damian snapped him back to reality.

He sighed and switched to another entry.

13 May

T says I have to go to bed but I almost forgot to write here. Nothing new happened today but my body feels so heavy. If I try to rest I either can't fall asleep or I end up dreading the days to come in my dreams  nightmares. Hawkmoth has been getting ruthless each week, it's crazy. Why can't he just stop? How much do we have to give him? Yesterday I had to fend off a butterfly. Then the day before that. Then the day before that. Then the month before. I don't know what to do.

Is being brave something inherent or does it come after I face my fears? T says I look brave. I don't feel like it though. Each risk I take, I actually get very scared. I'm not actually sure what would happen. I might look confident but I'm not. I wonder what everyone would think if they found that out about me. What would they say? Will they sympathize with me or will they refuse to believe it?

21 July

I'm happy to have Adrien to talk to now. I know he still has his hands tied, but it's getting easier to talk to him since last week. We both told each other that it had been a huge weight off our backs. This feels too good to be true. The younger me would've been ecstatic. I'm ecstatic now too, but for different reasons. I hugged Adrien very tightly this morning and told him 'thank you'. He hugged me back and whispered more 'thank yous'. It was sudden but we both knew what it was for. T helped me wipe my tears after.

Things are going to change from now on. Is it bad that I feel ready to face those changes because I have Adrien on my side now? I used to think he put too much faith in me before. No, even now. I used to be scared I won't live up to his perfect image of me. But now his trust is something I really need. I'll put my faith in him too.

How can her words be so vulnerable but so secretive at the same time? Marinette didn't seem to be straightforward in her writing, and yet she completely conveyed her thoughts and feelings. How much more do we have to read to get a clearer picture?

"This mystery person is strange," Damian concluded, "Our best chance at figuring their identity is to ask Agreste."

Dick nodded in agreement. "Looks like he has the most answers right now. It says she was almost akumatized multiple times too, which supports Tim's theory."

"Wasn't Hawkmoth caught before her death?"

"He might still have other ways," Dick considered. "Ladybug never clarified what exactly happened to him. How was he punished? Imprisonment? Weird magic ritual? Death? We don't know."

His phone suddenly buzzed at the same time that a notification appeared on the computer.

Another Lilia Ross scandal has blown up.

***

The first few rumors were matches being lit, and the one that assumed Lilia Ross to be a killer started a forest fire. This one was gasoline, Tim thought. Just as the internet was getting quiet, posts showed up again, this time attacking Lilia's company.

"So, someone saw pictures of Marinette's old clothes designs that she submitted for competitions," Tim recapped, while Jason listened beside him and Dick and Damian watched from the screen. "And compared them to Lilia Ross' current brand's designs. They look like carbon copies, but with just a few tweaks. Now Lilia's being accused as a thief. Others are saying more of the designs were stolen by Lilia, based on the accounts of their old schoolmates."

"It should be recounted in her diary if there was theft," Damian chimed in.

"Diary, what diary?" Jason asked.

The screen pinged, receiving an encrypted file from Dick. "Babs found a digital copy of her diary that the police used to keep, but the original one went missing. There's a lot of things here, including accounts of what Lila did and said in their class."

"There. February first," Dick pointed out as soon as Jason scrolled to it on their screen.

1 February

My missing sketchbook returned to me in my locker. There were tears on the paper and burn marks and liquid stains and pages ripped out and pages crossed over with a black marker. It was one of the first sketchbooks I've ever completed and it's full of draft designs. How do I prove it's Lila's fault? I knew I shouldn't have left my bag in the room for that short while. I knew I shouldn't have brought it to school.

I want to throw it out.

T says I should keep it, and use it to finally shed the truth on her.

But what evidence do I have? Is this enough to make her face the consequences?

I locked it away under my bed. Whatever. I'll fill up another sketchbook. I'll remake the designs. If Lila sees me crying over it, she wins. If the world sees me crying, Hawkmoth wins. If I fight back, they get the upper hand anyway. I just have to be more careful next time. It was just hard not to let my emotions spill when I found it. Lila was nearby waiting for my reaction earlier, I know it. She seemed proud of what she had done.

"What the fuck?" Jason seethed, "She stole her designs!"

Tim's lips drew into a thin line. Was this what Marinette had been feeling the whole time? He couldn't imagine it . . . the suppressed emotions, the feelings of helplessness, the manipulation. She readily gave up.

"Who's 'T'?" Tim brought up the other point about the diary entry nagging at him.

"Some friend of Marinette's who's always mentioned in this diary," Damian replied, "They seem to be very close."

"Does that ring a bell for you?" Dick leaned in.

"No, not at all. Is it a codename? An online friend maybe?"

"Based on this diary, T is always close to her, like, physically."

"Is it . . . a psychological thing?" Jason said softly.

"I wouldn't immediately conclude that." It was already in Tim's jumbled thoughts—a guess. A wild guess. "With the Miraculi in Paris . . . " He sucked in a breath. "Fuck. Ladybug's kwami's name was . . ."

The others seemed to realize it too at that second.

A muffled buzz rang out.

"I got a message," Dick suddenly said, frowning. "It's Babs. She says she found who ordered the investigation to be closed."

"Who?"

"Adrien . . . it was Adrien Agreste." 

Taglist: @hammalammadamdam @toodaloo-kangaroo@missmadwoman@afanofmanyships@atomicherringpersonjudge-blog@wheredostarsgowhenyoudie

[meduarts]

SECRETARY!MARINETTE part 3

I'm here, I'm queer and I have appear with some... idea. Yea that doesn't rhyme. ANYWAYS! On to the bullet points! Also, thanks to @mysnis for their input and ideas! That brainstorming session was ridiculously fun!

Perhaps in this AU Marinette left Paris with bitter memories. Lila managed to alienate her from her class and her parents became colder towards her to the same effect. After the defeat of Hawkmoth, the only people she is still in contact with are Chloe, Luka, and Gami. She had a rocky relationship with Adrien after the guy founds out that his dad was the villain this whole time. Adrien needed space and Marinette gave him one.

So, after Hawkmoth's demise, she took back the miraculous jewelry and continued her training as a guardian, and took an internship as head of design in Audrey Bourgeois' company before landing herself as a secretary for the big boss lady.

Bruce was having a crisis since his last secretary wanted to quit and he needs to find a replacement. Fast. So, during a gala or something, he met with Audrey, and the Style Queen just has to brag about her amazing secretary.

After hearing how this girl works, Bruce wanted to steal her almost right away. Fortunately enough, Marinette was in the gala as well.

She somehow knew that Audrey was going to need her at some point and decided to make herself known.

Audrey introduces Marinette to Bruce and she knew for a while that working under her has made Marinette's growth a bit stagnant. So, after some discussion, she lets Mari go and get an interview with Bruce.

During the interview, Mari became a bit nervous while waiting. Classic meeting with either Dick or Tim in the hallway while she spirals down into her anxiety.

Marinette stutters a lot and was fiddling with her thumbs which left a not-so-good impression on Tim. Tim sarcastically told her good luck while Dick tries to give her an encouraging smile.

The interview went great. Marinette surprises Bruce with how efficient and reliable she was.

She starts as a temporary secretary first, shadowing her predecessor, and somehow manages to get the hang of it by the end of the day.

Yep, that's all I had for now. But hey, it's coming along quite nicely! I'm definitely expanding this idea more. I am so excited to write this!

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

About that earlier question about Felix being upset about Adrien not coming to Colt’s funeral… did we ever actually get confirmation that Felix cared about that? Or was that just what Adrien assumed the attitude was about?

I’ve been thinking he was acting like Adrien pissed in his cornflakes because he already knew Gabe was Hawkmoth (or at very least that it’s highly likely since he definitely has the Peacock Miraculous) and he was trying to work out of Adrien was in on it or aware of it in any way without giving himself up on the off chance that Adrien would unintentionally alert Gabe one way or another

Also I’m now just imagining Felix and Amilie sitting in front of a grave wearing party hats and eating cake

If Felix really didn't care about Adrien not coming to his father's funeral, it makes even less sense for him to be such a dick to him, especially with Season 5 retconning him into acting like he's always been looking out for him.

Also, if I could draw, I would totally draw Felix and Amelie recreating the "Oliver Queen's gravestone" meme at Colt's gravestone.

Has anyone drawn something like this yet?

[verymuchimmortalcat]

I'll be summer sun for you forever

For Bio Dad! Bruce Wayne Month, Prompt: Meeting for the first time ao3 @maribat-bdbwm

Ladybug is sitting on the roof of the WE building, swinging her legs over the ledge. Somewhere off in the distance she hears the sound of guns and she briefly wonders whether it’s one of the several criminals of Gotham or just Jason. There’s noise behind her and Marinette turns around to find her father.

“Ladybug.”

Marinette grins, “Batman.”

She can see the sigh he’s trying to hold back. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Ladybug. I wasn’t expecting to see you in Gotham.” His voice is so weird and gravelly she almost laughs. No wonder her siblings endlessly tease him about the Batman voice. She’d always thought the comms made it worse than it actually was.

She only hums, still grinning. “Really, I was sure I’d told you.”

Ladybug definitely did not tell him. Marinette on the other hand told him months ago that she’d come to Gotham during summer break.

He really does sigh this time. How surprising, she never thought he’d do that around heroes he barely knew. “No, you did not. There’s a rule about no metas.”

She snorts. What a hypocrite. “Have you not noticed that Signal’s a meta or are you just ignoring that?”

Marinette can’t actually tell but she’s pretty certain his eye is twitching. This is so much fun, she should have made the trip to Gotham earlier. But regardless that’s not why she decided to come out on a little night run. Before he can reply she says, “Besides, Batman and Robin were in Paris last month even after the Justice League promised not to set foot in Paris. I’m only returning the favour.”

She’d already chewed out her dad during their visit. He’d ignored her, insisting that it was necessary for him to check and once again trying to talk Marinette into moving back home. Not that he was any good at it, her father isn’t really capable of carrying such conversations. Plus, it wasn’t like Gotham was much safer.

Batman remains expressionless. “We weren’t spotted. Neither by civilians or the Parisian heroes.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” she replies coolly, “You weren’t spotted by any civilians who felt the need to announce it to the rest of the city.” Adrien had seen them and mentioned it the next day in school. Marinette had been ready to storm back to the bakery and start yelling at them again. Instead, she had taken a deep breath, thanked Tikki that Alya was absent, put on her best confused expression and faked interest.

Marinette gets why her siblings hate the cowl. It’s hard enough to figure out what her father is thinking without half his face hidden. “You and Chat Noir are teenagers. You can’t take care of the whole city on your own-”

Marinette snaps. She’d only wanted to mess with her dad for what he’d done not listen to him question her capability.

“Last I checked you’re the only adult in this city.”

“Nightwing-”

“Started out as a child vigilante in a crime ridden city. All Chat Noir and I do is take care of akumas and spend our free time trying to figure out Hawkmoth’s identity. You really do not need to worry.”

She doesn’t wait for his reply. She swings away to the next building, pulling out the horse miraculous to portal back to her room in the manor. She detransforms and falls face down onto her bed trying extremely hard to cry.

It’s quite a while later that there’s a knock on her door. “Come in,” she calls not bothering to get up. The door opens and closes and Dick says, “Hey Nettie.” She feels the bed dip as he sits next to her.

“Apparently B had a very interesting first meeting with Ladybug today.” He sounds nonchalant but Marinette knows better.

She lifts her head up and glares at him, “So?”

He shrugs, “Just thought you should know.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Dick sighs, “I went through the footage to see where exactly B messed up.”

She looks at him incredulously, “You needed footage for that? He almost definitely messed up the second he opened his mouth.”

Her brother chuckles, looking away from her, “That’s true. But I figured it’s better to know, if only to ensure Ladybug doesn’t yell at me the next time I see her.”

She frowns, confused with where he’s heading with this.

“Nettie, did you know that Nightwing and the first Robin being the same person is a conspiracy theory? One of Bernard’s in fact. It’s considered just that insane.” She inhales sharply, but Dick continues as if he doesn’t notice, “So, imagine my surprise when Ladybug threw that fact in B’s face, after all we both know she isn’t the kind to believe in baseless theories.”

Marinette squeezes her eyes shut. “Shit. Does B know?”

Dick is still speaking casually, “About the conspiracy theory or about you being Ladybug?”

The confirmation that her brother now knows her identity doesn’t help at all. “Both.”

“He’s too paranoid to not know about the conspiracy theory but he doesn’t know you’re Ladybug-” she sighs in relief “- he thinks you heard it from one of the other JL members.”

She gets up to sit beside him, looking at him in confusion. He finally meets her eyes when Marinette asks, “How?”

“I told him so. I was the only one who was there every single time you were at the Watch Tower.”

Her mouth opens in shock. He smiles softly at her, “The audio on the security tapes isn’t perfect even if he gets Babs or Uncle Clark to check, both of them would lie for you. Even if he checks himself, Babs can alter it.”

She throws her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Continuously whispering thank you. He laughs and ruffles her hair, “Don’t worry about it. I get it.”

Marinette laughs a bit at that. She doesn’t really miss when B and Dick argued all the time because of how overprotective their father could be. Before he slips out her room, he ruffles her hair more and grins as he says, “Be early to breakfast tomorrow. Alfred’s making chocolate chip pancakes.”

She smirks, “Don’t worry. I’ll be there first.”

There’s a laughing call of, “You’re on,” from the hallway and Marinette grins. Sometimes, she’s really thankful that she has siblings.

[rayraygo1267]

Gabenath Incorrect Quotes because it’s better than crying over my anxiety

Note: I need Nathalie Sancouer in my life rn

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nathalie: *talking to Gabriel on the phone* Gabriel, did you preheat the oven like I told you to

Gabriel: Of course I did!

Nathalie: Okay, at what temperature?

Gabriel: 535

Nathalie: Gabriel…that’s the clock…

Gabriel:…

Nathalie:…

Gabriel: 536

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gabriel: Nathalie, I have a black belt

Nathalie: Like…from karate?

Gabriel: No, from Gucci

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gabriel: Please, Nathalie I’m begging you to go to a doctor

Nathalie: Pfft I’m sorry is this OUR illness? Stay out of it

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adrien: *watching the news* Nathalie, guess what, Hawkmoth tried to akumatize a squid at the aquarium today

Gabriel: *walks in covered in ink* Well, maybe that squid was being a dick

Adrien:…

Nathalie:…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gabriel: *kicks down the door looking panicked*

Nathalie: Gabriel, what did you do?

Gabriel: Nobody died

Nathalie: WHAT KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT?!