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flightfoot · 2 months ago

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Miraculous Halloween Fic Recs

It's Halloween, so I figured that people might be in the mood for some spooky, supernatural, or just plain Halloween-related fics! All of these are complete.

Herbs And Steam by @liiinerle

Juleka le Flor Blef, nature witch from near the forest of Couffaine, arrives at Eiffel Castle so she can partake in the Queen's Trials - a contest to determine the strongest witch in all of France. She wants to prove the strength of her magic, but when she arrives, her attention is quickly distracted by two very interesting women: Kagami, the princess, who seems to act nothing like a princess should; and Marinette, the blacksmith, who has created a magic all her own through metal, steam, and ingenuity. Juleka is immediately besotted with both of them, and needs to work extra hard to focus on her magic. Juleka also soon becomes aware that there is stronger magic at Eiffel castle than she had expected. For one thing, there's a tree in the courtyard put there years ago by a witch whose powers seem to surpass hers; for another, there's Alya la Pluvie Versaunt, who must be the most powerful mage Juleka has ever met...

Unusual poly here, there aren't a lot of Juleka/Kagami/Marinette fics! I love the world here, getting to see all these different witches honing their craft, and Juleka making friends with many of them - though especially the nonwitches Kagami and Marinette, of course XD. If you like some femslash or a good fantasy AU, this fic should scratch that itch!

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Soul Seeker by hislittlelady

After a shooting on her 6th birthday, Marinette Dupain-Cheng died. She was brought to the afterlife by her grandmother. She was content. Until the paramedics did their jobs and suddenly she wasn’t dead anymore. Waking up to find that half of her soul had remained tethered to the afterlife, allowing her the ability to see things others can’t, Marinette grows up an outcast. It isn’t until she moves in with her only friend, a detective she’s known since preschool, that she finds her purpose, solving his harder cases with the help of her spiritual connections. Three years later, she’s thriving. Her own business, two best friends, a K-9 drop out as a companion- life couldn’t get better. Until she meets Chat. A ghost with amnesia and a mask to match, Chat isn’t sure what he needs to move on to the afterlife (and, considering he’s stuck around for another three years, he doesn’t seem in all that much of a hurry to figure it out either!) When Amelie Agreste, a socialite from out of town, comes to Marinette for help locating her missing nephew, Marinette knows her career and her life will be on the line. But even a murderer intent on silencing her forever can’t keep Marinette from seeking the truth.

This is a really fun detective story. You can probably guess one or two of the major twists (not counting the twist of "Adrien is Chat Noir" which I certainly HOPE isn't a spoiler to anyone reading this), but that doesn't make it any less satisfying, especially with how Marinette's and Chat's relationship is developed. Or well, what interactions we see from them, since they've known each other for years by the time the story starts. I adore the "my friend is a ghost" trope, and the identity shenanigans and mystery around what actually happened to Adrien kept me wondering.

It's an M-rated fic, which I'm guessing is mostly due to an attempted sexual assault at one point in the story, though it doesn't get very far before it's stopped. I also want to warn Luka fans that he's not shown in the best light in this fic, though it's not too extreme.

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Through Yellow Eyes by @echo-has-queries

"Nooroo bleeds and Paris drowns in his blood." The day of the Blight, Paris bore witness to a horror too grand to comprehend. Only Chloé Bourgeois bore witness to a miracle. Marinette, Alya and the rest of Paris will need more than faith in Gimmi to survive. As the city's sanity hangs by a thread, bodies, minds, and souls are traded with the unknown in order to hold on to the things they each treasure most. Written for the AU Roulette Challenge 2024 with the prompt: Cosmic Horror AU

If you like Cosmic Horror (Lovecraftian I think? Though this isn't really my wheelhouse), then this is the story for you! I love seeing how Paris copes with the madness seeping through its streets, somehow going about daily life despite it all.

Kwamis here are more inhuman, more separated from humanity. There's no cute little miniature form to help bridge the gap. While humans can still meld with kwami, it's not all quite as firmly in the human's control as it normally is, and the side effects are worse. It doesn't help that the kwamis can't fully understand squishy little humans' wants, needs, or morality.

Like, as Ladybug, Marinette can't remember her human name, and her human concerns are somewhat muted. While as Marinette, she can't remember certain aspects of her time as Ladybug, and only regains those memories when she transforms again. She also has to be careful about restoring everything, as she can't just give Tikki a cookie and call it a day. Instead, she herself needs to eat enough to compensate for the lost energy, which can be a substantial portion of the goods in her parents' bakery.

As for Adrien... well, this is still going off of Sentimonster Adrien, though the ritual to create him went differently... and went wrong. But he is still Adrien.

Chloe's interesting as well, she's this sort of priest, this missionary for the kwamis, but her methods are... well, not the best. She still has a bunch of her canonical hangups, even though she IS somewhat helpful.

I love Alya in here, she's just desperately trying to figure out what's going on so that she can try to fix it, especially since Nino's one of the people who's been driven mad by the Blight. She does find some answers, and even ends up being partially responsible for Ladybug's creation and Chat's and Ladybug's subsequent fight against the worst effects of the Blight, but the risks, danger, and side effects she suffers are still significant. Though some of those side effects can be used to her advantage.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this AU and thought it was an interesting take on the subject, I highly recommend checking it out!

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Centuries Overdue by @rosie-b

Long ago, an evil Darkness spread across Europe, claiming the lives of many in the magic community. Trained by Plagg himself, Adrien made it his mission to stop the Darkness before it snuffed out the lives of more Mages and Talents, as it did to his own parents. Though he seemed to succeed in his mission, the pages of his old journals tell a different tale. In the modern world, Marinette is a fashion student, working at a small library for the summer to earn extra credit. She’s never believed in magic before, but when she finds the old Agreste journals in her library, her beliefs about reality begin to crumble. Determined to find the truth, both about magic and the unsolved death of one Adrien Agreste, Marinette begins on a journey that will eventually lead her deep into the city’s catacombs, where an ancient force sleeps, but is ready to awaken once more…

If you want a nice Magic AU, this is your jam! I slowly became more invested with Adrien's fate as Marinette did, and I loved seeing bits of this magic society. And of course, Adrien and Marinette always find their way to each other, even if Marinette happens to be a few centuries overdue.

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the monster who loves you by @purplecatghostposts

Mum nods, clapping her hands together. “Your brother is finally feeling better and is coming home today! Isn’t that so exciting?” Félix pauses mid-bite, processing her words. Mum waits expectantly, as if expecting him to jump for joy, or his equivalent of it. But… Félix doesn’t have a brother. (Or Félix’s brother is a monster, but only in the most literal sense. Félix’s father is a monster despite being very, very human. He learns to navigate the world through these two truths.)

I loved how this story emphasized the differences between different kinds of monsters - the type who inhabit horror stories, who look terrifying, and the mundane, human sorts of monsters who are often the most dangerous. And how monsters can choose to act humanely, while humans can choose to act monstrously.

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See This Chance by @19thsentry-blog

Luka died in 2016. Yep. Crushed by the Arc de Triumph when Mayura’s Robustus slammed into it. It was kind of a big deal, but once you’re dead, you’re dead—especially when there’s no Lucky Charm to bring you back. Luka’s been dealing with it in the typical ways. Written for FeLuka week 2023.

Yes, this is FeLuka. Not one of the typical ships I read, but I ain’t opposed to it, and this is a nice foray into the pairing. I love ghost AUs! Luka’s just fumbling around, unsure what to do with his incorporeal existence, until he starts haunting Felix. It’s an intriguing plot and I gotta admit, I wish it was longer so it could be fleshed out more, but what’s here is good.

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Attack of the Crystal Zombies by @trainsinanime

Kagami had spent more and more time hanging out with Zoé, talking about things like families, expectations and crushes on Marinette. It was only natural, probably, that she would help Zoé practice flirting. That was definitely a great idea. Granted, the deadly Akuma battle around them was a bit of an issue…

Quality Zoegami fic here! I loved how Kagami kept thinking she was bad at flirting, but it was sure working on Zoe XD. The akuma attack going on around them, interweaving with their conversation, added a bit of spice to the whole affair!

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Anchor by @liiinerle

“Marinette. Please take that sabre out of your neck.” “Right. Thanks. I forgot it was there.” She grabbed hold of the guard and pulled; the blade slid out like it had only been run through butter. After dropping it on the floor, she picked up one of the teacups and picked up a biscuit from a tin she’d brought in; she placed the biscuit on the saucer plate and handed the whole thing to Kagami, who could only really resign herself to accepting it. —– Marinette has raised Kagami from the dead, and also happens to be dead herself. It turns out some bad choices were made in the past. But that doesn’t mean they’ll lead to bad outcomes for them now.

I love this, Marinette’s incredibly blase about being a zombie - which makes sense, given how long she’s had to get used to the idea. And she’s waited so long, tried so hard to bring Kagami back as well, though if she didn’t WANT to be back, she’d accede to that request. Luckily, Kagami doesn’t seem to mind as long as she’s with Marinette XD.

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delicate in every way but one by katrinette

When Marinette finds a wanted ad that provokes just enough questions in her mind that she can’t help answering it, the reward is sweeter than she could have imagined.

I love the little bit of worldbuilding we get here about vampire society, and Adrien’s usual awkward adorableness in asking Marinette for a certain necessary favor. It’s always neat to see such familiar characterization in a supernatural setting like this.

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How Marinette Learned to Stop Worrying And Love The Ball by @rosie-b

Hidden from the crowds thronging around the busy fairy portal in Paris’s town square, a fae gate sits at the edge of the forest, locked, rusty, and full of ancient magic. Marinette thinks that this abandoned gate must not work anymore… but one day, a fairy disguised as a black cat steps through it.

Ah, Fantasy Soulmate AUs, my beloved XD. This ain’t the only one of this fic type I’m gonna be recommending. This is just a cute fluff fic without much strife. I love Marinette and Chat Noir being able to be childhood friends via his visits, even if he has to pretend to be her cat whenever he comes over, and I ESPECIALLY adore Alya being his chaperone and quickly becoming friends with Marinette in her own right. It ain’t a complicated plot, but it is a nice and warm fic.

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a winter so warm by @rosekasa

winters were hard for even the best of vampires, but at least adrien had marinette to keep him warm with her cuddles. december was going to suck without her. so it was only to be expected to get extra cuddles in before she left, right? (well, not really, considering those heating supplements he was taking, but she didn’t need to know about that).

This one’s mostly just cute cuddly adorableness! It’s basically like all those “Marinette gets the Ladybug trait of needing to cuddle up to someone for warmth”, but with Adrien instead. And of course featuring Marinette being a very talented witch who just wants to help Adrien stay warm when she isn’t there XD.

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Stitched Together by @nedjsmlfavs

Stitch Witch Marinette was just supposed to be having a nice, terrifying outing with her best friends. She never expected to find a magically trapped kitten, but here we are! Whatever happened to this poor little guy?

Poor Adrien, being transformed and chained up for ages, having no idea that he was gonna be rescued. But at least he got to have fun at Marinette’s place as a cat!

Most of this fic is adorable, though with some dark undertones lying in wait. After all, SOMEONE chained up that poor little kitty…

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I Put A Spell On You by dazaimaru

Friday, October 25. 6 days until Halloween.

It’s their first high school Halloween dance, and Marinette and Adrien are ready to throw on some non-superhero costumes for once--that is, until an akumatized witch spoils the party and threatens to reveal what lies underneath everyone’s disguise.

With Hawkmoth taking full advantage of the spooky season, the days leading up to Halloween are certainly going to be thrilling! Especially considering Marinette’s growing feelings for a certain black cat…

This one’s mostly just some really cute Lovesquare shenanigans around Halloween, with some really fun sequences like Marinette and Adrien getting body-swapped and Marinette temporarily becoming a vampire (and also Marinette repeatedly stunning Adrien with her outfits. I was just waiting for him to pass out from blood loss from a nosebleed).

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don't you worry child by @mexicancat-girl

Marc and Nathaniel have a good life, married and living together in a cottage in the woods. But they consider having children at some point. Marc in particular really wants to start a family with his husband. He knows the fey are real, so he goes searching in the woods to find one to strike a deal. He may get a bit more than he bargained for in the process.

This is based on a tumblr post that’s been going around, which I think a lot of people will recognize as they continue going through the story. That post is credited at the end of the fic, so as not to spoil the plot.

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The Convention by Peppermint_Shamrock

“Oh, sure, when Ladybug comes up with unusual solutions, it’s “clever” and “inspiring”. But when I do it, it’s “oh no” and “you’re going to get us all killed, Marinette”,” she grumbled. “At least Adrien believes in me.” When an Akuma rages through a comic convention, everyone is forcibly transformed into their own cosplays. Unable to transform into Ladybug, Marinette has no choice but to fight as a civilian alongside her friends. At least she was dressed as her partner. Written for Miraculous Spooktober Day 5 Prompt - Costume Party

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Ghost of You by its_just_lori

It finally happened. The akuma attacked at the wrong time. They weren't prepared. For the first time, there was a casualty. Someone was killed. Marinette didn't care that her identity was exposed to the world; she couldn't stop blaming herself for what happened. If only she'd been ready... if only she'd done more... There's nothing for Adrien to say. There's nothing he can do other than stay by her side and help her through this pain.

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The Pink Lady: Marichat May 2018 by @seasonofthegeek

In this story, Chat Noir, Carapace, Rena Rouge, Queen B, and Paon are the heroes of Paris. The Ladybug Miraculous has been lost for almost a century and it takes all of their combined power to cleanse akumas sometimes but they’ve found something that works since they don’t have another option. Hawkmoth is one of their villains, but not the only one plaguing Paris. Chat Noir happens upon an old hotel one night on patrol and discovers something and someone he didn't expect.

#ml fanfic rec #halloween #miraculous ladybug

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neoncherryblossom · 8 months ago

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Y'all have no idea how mean ao3 was to me while I was trying to post this. Like LOOK AT THIS PRETTY ART. LOOK AT THE DETAILS. I'VE HAD THIS IMAGE FOR SO LONG AND AO3 REALLY DO BE PRETENDING THE IMAGE ISN'T ON ANOTHER TAB AND MY MOTIVATOR.

The details make me go insane. Nooroo giving Sass a little half hug because he can't stand normal hugs. Look at how tired Sass looks in this. Look at how Nooroo is trying to comfort him but can't hold eye contact to save his life. Look at how skinny Nooroo is compared to Sass. LOOK AT HOW NOOROO'S BLANKET IS OVER BOTH OF THEM, BUT STILL GIVES SASS A LITTLE PLACE TO HIDE AWAY!

LOOK AT IT I'VE BEEN EATING THIS ART FOR MONTHS LOOK AT IT!

Me to you @not-someone-who-matters THANK YOU SO SO MUCH FOR THIS!

After quite a lot of effort from both @neoncherryblossom and me to try and get these to upload, i can finally present an illustration for their fic "a ripple of a butterfly's wings" which is a very good fic if you're a nooroo fan like the both of us (which, btw, if you're a nooroo fan, dm me so we can exchange hcs!) And also has very realistic portrayals of trauma and conflict. The other kwamis are quite important to the plot too! Anyway generally a very good fic go give it a read. Here's the fanart

#i stared at this for so long dude you have no idea #saved on 2 different devices so i can stare forever #fanart #people being nice to me #the details still kill me man #love this so very much #nooroo #sass #mlb #miraculous ladybug #A Ripple of A Butterfly's Wings

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chocostrwberry · 7 months ago

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does nooroo communicate with his welder by using butterflys to mind talk with them?

Also what's the relationship between chat & ladybug like, is it kinda like canon or is it more trusting.

Sorry I am just really interested in this AU

OKAY OKAY-

So Nooroo does use telepathy to talk with his wielder, but only once he warms up to you. For Gabriel, he barely talks to him, kind of just glares and listens to him rant. But I would imagine for someone he likes, he flutters his wings all happy and chimes/twinkles when he’s talking to them (like Tinkerbell) and they can understand him but no one else does!!

And the relationship for Chat Noir and Ladybug is way more trusting, since the love square is flipped in this au Ladybug is in love with Chat Noir (like a teen girl crush on a boy band member) because she finds him mysterious and he’s protective, but Chat Noir is just doing his duty to help her and take down the Akuma. The charming aspect of him that she likes so much is just who he is as a personality.

Chat Noir thinks Ladybug is a little clumsy and ditsy, but he’s willing to do what she says because he knows she’s clever and has a strong moral compass, which he admires. Secretly, he probably likes her back but doesn’t realize it because he’s too focused on getting Marinette to like him.

I like to think that they have TONS of fun taking down the akuma, like sometimes they don’t take it seriously and just share one brain cell- and when they’re fighting they’re in sync, kind of like combat dance partners!!

#Thank you for the ask!!#chocoau #AND TY FOR BEING INTERESTED IN MY AU-#miraculous ladybug #mlb au #mlb #ml #miraculous au #miraculous lb #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir

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imthepunchlord · 3 months ago

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God, I REALLY hope Juleka wins the Butterfly poll when it’s time for it - she’s the only one out of ALL the girls whose main color is actually Violet (as opposed to Pink or Indigo), and I feel like her character development wasn’t handled as well as it could’ve been (NONE of the character arcs were, but she sticks out to me in that she’s one of the more recurring supporting characters due to being Luka’s sister yet is simultaneously forgotten by both the canon show and the fandom in how things would affect HER SPECIFICALLY instead of adjacently through the people around her). I also feel like she would be a good match with whatever you’re going to solidify for Bugettes!Nooroo based on the tiny hints you’ve teased about him, both in itself and compared to Roaar, with whom I feel there were existing avenues for it to work but could’ve been sold to us much better in-show. Plus, I’d really just like to see her in a hero suit that’s actually purple; it still bugs me personally that PURPLE Tigress is far more magenta in actuality, almost red even, and very much like REFLEKTA’S main color at that.

Yeah we will see, as ultimately it'll come down to how the polls go, and I know Marinette and Rose have also gotten mentioned for Butterfly.

Juleka will also appear in the poll for Mantis, as Indigo is that in between blue and violet. So it's all kinda up in the air on how it'll go.

I also do agree. Juleka is one of the classmates that does stand out to me in her potential, and yeah it's butchered. So badly. This is primarily on the writers, but one of the things I dislike about Luka is the factor that, for the Couffaines, he's the priority. You could cut out Juleka and you wouldn't miss much. Like, the worst aspect is learning Jagged is their dad, but it was more Jagged and Luka's story than Jagged with both kids. Like, what was the point of making them both his kids when only kid really got priority in this revelation?

And yeah... Juleka with Tiger isn't really my go to pick either. I get her whole thing is trying to find her voice, to be heard and stand out. And with a kwami named Roaar, that does technically work off that agenda, but the power is One Punch Man vs doing something tied to vocals or sound. Which kinda makes the kwami's name a little random (honestly all Zodiac kwamis have really strange names that don't relate to their powers or themes).

The other odd detail is that, when you think of felines that are about roaring, tigers aren't what immediately come to mind, it's the lion. They roar to establish territory, to be heard and say "I'm here!", unless Roaar is meant to be a sort of mix of a tiger and lion? As she doesn't have a body covered in stripes?

I know that, supposedly, there's a Lion Miraculous coming, but it's not official yet.

Either way, tigers I more associate with hunting, stealthy ambush. Not really speaking out. I'll give it, tigers can be tied to leadership which does involve being heard, but it's more military leadership. They're more tied to war, aggression, and strength.

As for the kwami, to me, Roaar came off a bit of a bully. Which maybe Juleka just needs that tough love/push to speak up, but I personally didn't really care for their interactions. Though I still say Mullo and Mylene were the worst paired characters out of all kwamis and humans.

And yeah, Roaar visually doesn't really match with Juleka.

Technically, she matches with Cat the most.

Her main color is black, with bits of purple and green.

While Plagg is meant to be a black cat, there are times he's purple. And of course he has them big green eyes.

I could also see Juleka visually working with Kaalki. I see a hue of purple in her gray, and there is the green eyes to work off as well.

There's also the intrigue that Juleka wants to be a model and Kaalki expects someone famous or wealthy, getting a holder who isn't but wants to be, Kaalki would have to work with them to get them to where they both want Juleka to be; though I do see them butting heads a bit as it's pairing two of high and low status, but that could be fun. Plus, there's the pun potential of Juleka learning to be a show pony with Kaalki's help (she could've also called herself Knightmare).

And yeah, with Butterfly, Juleka could've done well. You do have to communicate with others, so Juleka would have to work at talking with others, to express her thoughts and to be heard, and there's some pressure to be taken off as it's more long range communication vs close, but the option is there for close range communication whenever Juleka is ready for it. And Nooroo would be a gentle and patient guide.

We'll have to see if it happens though.

#ask Punchie #slight luka salt #ml salt #juleka couffaine #bugettes au

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princess-of-the-corner · 3 months ago

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Chloe & Zoe Good ending:

Chloe: & you'll want to get yourself a beard- I mean boyfriend. Zoe: You're gay too?! Chloe: Don't shout it, but yes.

Zoe: Sorry, sorrybut uh, cool, very cool. Adrien: What's happening here? Chloe: I was just explaining how you're my beard.

Adrien: .... I thought you were suggesting I grow a beard? Chloe & Zoe: .... Chloe: Adrien, Adrikins, Adrien Agreste, my dear and oldest friend. Please for the love of all that is good in this world tell me you did not believe I have been trying to seduce you for the last nine months.

Adrien: ... Well- Chloe: (Screams into her handbag before pulling back and pinching the bridge of her nose) Chloe: Great, great, fantastic, this whole thing is just going great. So much so that I am going to fling myself off a bridge.

Zoe: Would it help if I said this was very humanizing for you both?

Chloe: No. Adrien: Yes. Akuma: (Gay Queen, I-AH!)

Chloe grabbed the Akuma from the air and with more force than one would expect from her frame hurled the magical beast to the floor, stark shite shoes violently slamming down against the Akuma.

"Not! Letting! You! Out! Me! Stupid!" Chloe ranted as she stomped the Akuma into aa purple smear on the floor.

Elsewhere in Paris Nathalie was drawn to Gabriel's secret chamber only to find the man unconscious and a bloody nose.

Nooroo looked at her and shrugged, "The results of violent feedback. He'll survive... Maybe."

RIP

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yolowritter · 8 months ago

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In Defense of Chloe Bourgeois Part 2: Why is Chloe?

Hello everyone! In case it wasn't obvious by the title, this is a part 2 to this post right there! I'd sincerely recommend reading it since you'll need the context. Anyhow, moving right onto where I left off!

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Okay...deep breath. In and out. I'm...totally fine. Anyway, considering all of the above, it's pretty clear that Chloe has a lot of problems. Mental Health problems, to be exact. And natually, this circles back to her bigget fault in this entire show. Bullying the main character. Now, bullying sucks. It's bad, don't do it. This is coming from a person who got relentlessly bullied for years on end by the way, so I'm on Marinette's side here! She's right not to trust Chloe in Vanisher, because she's fourteen and has years worth of trauma related to this girl! In her experience Chloe is never helpful, and often the antithesis of that word. Sure, Ladybug should have looked past that as part of her job, but Chat Noir doesn't either! The only reason he ever gives her the benefit of the doubt is because it's Adrien under the mask! So as far as I'm concerned, Marinette didn't do anything wrong (yet) with how she handled Chloe. And any mistakes she does make are if not justifiable then at least understadable given their history. But on the Chloe side of things, she has every reason to hate Marinette. From all the classmates we have info on, Marinette is the only one with a happy, complete and loving family in the way that Chloe has always wished her's way. Obligatory reminder that Alya wasn't in their class until Origins. We never see Alix or Sabrina's moms, I'm half convinced Nino's parents don't exist because they've never been mentioned once the whole show, Max and Juleka only have their moms and possinly daddy issies, etc. Something ain't right with any of the familial situations here. So obviously, when Chloe sees someone who she's been taught by Audrey (again, her role model in formative years) is "beneath" her, as in, fundementally inferior to their own existence, and Marinette has a loving family that adores her unconditionally, is it any fucking wonder she acts out???

Again! And this is the last time I'll say it! So sing along, everyone! ~Bullying is bad! Don't do it kids!~ What Chloe does (even without that horrendous spider-pool-thing of a retcon) is obviously wrong!!! Okay??? It's bad!!! Because hurting other to feel better is a shitty thing to do! Nevermind that it doesn't work!!! I am not going to repeat myself again! But the root of Chloe's problems is her family. She's been raised by two (barely one, but let's pretend) people who make me wonder if parenting licences should be a thing, and are prime examples of the fact while every kid deserves a parent, the opposite is very much not true! Marinette effortlessly has what Chloe craves, parental love! And at the time they first meet, they should both be like 9 or 10! Obviously Chloe takes things too far, but considering she's emotionally stunted and the people around her have to do as she says, no wonder she's royally pissed the moment she encounters something that she can't throw daddy's money at and win! That's what Audrey taught her is correct, and what Andre constantly encourages!

Understanding all of this, we circle back to Style Queen. Fucking Style Queen, man. Chloe accidentally finds the Bee Miraculous. And honestly? The argument of "Marinette shouldn't have dropped it" is fucking ridiculous. Listen, the coffee cup in Sentibubbler I can understand, but don't grasp at straws like this. For Nooroo's sake! Moving right along, dear God does this go badly. Up to this point, we've got a vague idea that Chloe is willing to help Ladybug and Chat Noir (aside from just being a self-proclaimed superfan), given that she did so in Vanisher, Despair Bear, and possibly another episode that I'm forgetting about. Doesn't matter. So now, Chloe Bourgeois is in possession of a magical macguffin that gives her heroes their superpowers. Naturally, this is a pretty big thing. Unfortunately, Chloe doesn't even get the chance to be responsible here, because Audrey immediately goes on a rant about how useless she is and how she could never be "exceptional". Aka: hits all of Chloe's trauma buttons with a Greathammer. Wonderful job, local Karen! This immediately prompts Chloe to take what she knows is exceptional (superpowers) and flaunt it in her mother's face. She transforms in a room full of people, including Gabriel Agreste, but I don't care about him in this rant, and runs out to try and find a crime to stop!

Because of course, heroes do good things! But you know, helping an old lady cross the street or rescuing a kitten isn't exactly "exceptional material" so Chloe instantly goes for the heavy hitters. And has the incredibly stupid idea of the whole train wreck bs. Yes, I know it was a subway or something, I don't care. The point stands. Naturally, stupidity attracts dumbassery, and so the local watermelon and her furry companion show up to put a stop to Chloe's shenanigans. Kudos to Ladybug by the way, for recognizing the situation for the problematic mess that it was and trying to comfort Chloe. Excellent character delevopment from Marinette here. Unironically I love that she still does this even though she doesn't have to. Nowhere in the superhero manual does it say "talk to your bully because she's having a shitty moment with her abusive mother", but Marinette does it anyway because she's cool like that. And then...a miracle happens! Praise Nooroo, because Chloe "Queen B" Bourgeois apologizes for causing a mess! I can't believe it! And then...Nadja does what reporters do best, and screws everything up. As an aside, can you tell I don't like "reporter" characters? This goes for Alya too, I hate it when they insert themselves in clearly private situations for the sake of a "scoop". My sister in Nooroo, if it's a scoop you want then go interview Andre Glacier! I do like Alya, got a whole "In Offense to..." post about her in the works. And I promise not to bash her. It's the writing's fault.

Anyway, back to Nadja being an idiot. Because naturally, a child is in emotional distress! And even more naturally, she decides the best way to handle a clearly fragile situation in a city where people get turned into violent supervillains for feeding the goddamn pigeons (lookin' at you, Xavier!) is to...live stream it on television. For the entire country of France! And even more naturally, she also gets Chloe's abusive mother on the line so the child in question can be belittled on NATIONAL TELEVISION for what she already knows is wrong, and has been handled by the proper authority. Because I don't trust a single adult in this universe, Ladybug is a thousand times more reliable! Like seriously, she's just been Akumatized!

Does Nadja want it to happen again? Anyway, this utter debacle marks the beginning of Chloe's career as Queen Bee, the superhero Ladybug brings in when she needs to and then puts back in the box until next time! Mind you, I do not blame Marinette for this, considering that she acknowledges Chloe is capable and willing to help, even says so to her at one point. Then we go through Maledictator, Heart Hunter, Miraculer, etc. And it becomes pretty clear that Hawkmoth is actively targeting Chloe. Because, you know, she's the only Miraculous Holder whose identity was public. All the while, Chloe actually seems to mellow out a little bit in her civilian life. Sure, she does that hillarious thing where interviews Queen Bee which is honestly just funny and should have been given extra points for the effort of doing it herself instead of forcing Sabrina to do it for her. I mean that instead of encouraging Chloe's bad behavior by being unreasonably permissive, miss Bustier should encourage her good behavior little by little, like doing things on her own and the compliments thing she has the class do. To her credit, Chloe does seem to be trying, and slowly finding her footing with all these new dynamics. Even with Sabrina, she seems to be treating her better now. They play "Ladybug and Chat Noir" together, and all that stuff. I won't get into it here because I want to move onto the actual conclussion of this rant, but you get my point.

Despite all this, Chloe is still very...Chloe. But she does seem to be doing a little better. I'm fairly sure Marinette or at least Adrien acknowledges that at some point, but anyway. The reason why I think Chloe's behavior improves is because she finally feels like she belongs. In Team Miraculous, I mean. Sure, Ladybug is their leader who she listens to, but that's just the thing. Ladybug leads, she doesn't boss people around. And Chloe already looked up to her, and willingly chooses to follow. It's good for her, even if we're taking baby steps here. And then...Miracle Queen happens. I'll honestly be damned as to why Marinette got butchered here, because this is a fault of the writing. Like, I'm sorry, they build up this understanding that Chloe can't be Queen Bee anymore between her and Ladybug, and then just...take it away? H-how do you take away an established dynamic??? Not like this, that's how! People are saying Marinette should have sat Chloe down and explained things better, and yeah okay that would have helped, but you guys realize Gabriel was actively praying on her worst feelings, right? Gabriel who knows Chloe's family and also has emotional manipulation powers? All he had to do was feed into all these doubts one last time and get her to agree for like, five seconds. Akuma goes in, and she's on his side now!

And hot take? I like Miracle Queen! I like the direction they tried to take this in! Because it's clearly a "battling your inner demons" storyline, which fits perfectly with the fact that Chloe needs a good support system to function properly. She's still so deeply steeped into the crap that Andre and Audrey taught her that she needs help, and that's okay! For Nooroo's sake, needing help from your friends is completely okay! You should ask for it when you can't do something on your own! And Chloe does try to! She has a fucking Batman Signal knock-off on her rooftop! It's...certainly a method. Then again she doesn't have Ladybug's phone number, so... Anyway yeah. The thing is that I think it's okay for Chloe to need a support system, and then Gabriel takes advantage of her when said network isn't there. He's actively manipulating a child here. Yes, Chloe does give into his manipulation and by extension her own darker self, but I think that's the point. Or at least I perceive it as a "healing is hard, takes time, mistakes will be made alone the way" kinda thing. Which works regarldess of a "Redemption Arc" or no! if they wanted to redeem Chloe, then here's another huge conflict to work through! Here's something that ruined the trust she had with Ladybug and left them both vulnerable! Here's a really cool plot thread that can be explored between Chloe and Adrien, because he's the only who as far as Chloe knows, doesn't hate her (which would be logical to assume for Ladybug given what she did). You want to go "Corruption Arc"? Welp, here's a tale of caution! Here's a display of Hawkmoth as a competent villain who utterly decimated Ladybug's team! Here's a reason for Chloe to defensively slip back into old patterns and emphasize that she's bitter towards her friends because nobody helped her! Again, great character conflict! Beautiful idea, a fine message even!

Surpring absolutely nobody, Thomas Astruc does neither of these. Or rather, he tries to do both, and fails at both. Let's keep the Chloe point for a bit longer before we bring Zoe into this mess, okay? The problem I have with Miracle Queen is that it fundementally half-asses the above, in quite possibly the stupidest way possible. Like I said above, it was previously established (I'm fairly sure in Miraculer) that Chloe understood she couldn't be Queen Bee anymore. And yeah okay she seemed bummed, but still got Ladybug's reasoning. Because you know, Marinette talked to her about it! And then the show just...forgets this happened??? I get that Chloe wants to be a hero, which I think is probably her only halfway healthy coping mechanism for all the crap she's dealing with, but she's clearly shown to agree with Ladybug's decision, even begrudgingly. And suddenly, with almost no fanfare or buildup, Gabriel "Mothballs" Agreste swoops in for a glory kill and manipulates Chloe into getting Akumatized. Again, I know this is a "battle with her inner demons" thing, but it genuinely doesn't matter! Because Hawkmoth is grooming her right now! Aside from the horrible connotation of the word, it also refers to general manipulation of a person's mental state. But you know what peeves me greatly? This seems to happen instantly! I would have loved it if we took two or three episodes to show Chloe being upset over losing the one place (Team Miraculous) where she felt accepted, I would have liked to see her talk to Sabrina about how she feels like shit because she can't help Ladybug anymore. Even better, an outburst where despite logically understanding that she's right, Chloe blames Ladybug for taking the easy way out of the Queen Bee problem.

Let's face it, Ladybug did take the easy solution here. Now, I don't blame Marinette at all for this. She's fourteen, has the world's weight on her shoulders, a very poor history with Chloe, and took the Bee Miraculous away because she thought that this would keep her teammate safe. Marinette did the best she could, with good intentions! Personally I think Fu should have stepped in here at least indirectly, but he's a poor mentor to Ladybug anyway (yes I have a "In Offense to..." post for him in mind) so of course paranoid Fu wouldn't involve himself. The point is that neither Marinette or Chloe are actually at fault for Queen Bee getting benched. It's a shitty situation that only delays the inevitable bomb from dropping on the heroes' heads by just a bit longer. Now, during this lull in storytelling, Hawkmoth should have tried approaching Chloe again. You know, send another Akuma maybe as she's venting to Sabrina about how she hates the situation she's been placed in. As a reminder, Chloe is the first person to reject an Akuma in this entire show. So for her to again (if more reluctantly) refuse Gabriel's offer to team up would be in character. A second interaction here could have forshadowed Miracle Queen better. Maybe Chloe pauses after Hawkmoth is done pitching his plan, and then after a second or two, she throws him out of her head. Give us another episode where's struggling, and I think her "turn to the Dark Side" in Miracle Queen would have been received much less poorly than it actually did.

This isn't to say that Chloe shouldn't have accepted Hawkmoth's offer. In my opinion, it's a good thing that she did, because it builds character. Even if I "Redemption Arc" had always been the goal, they absolutely could have still done this, so long as it got even a little bit of buildup. And...we again to the fundemental problem I have with Astruc's writing. I know there's other people in the room as well, but it's he who is the "lead writer" and who also made the most buzz about this choice online after Miracle Queen first released. Thomas just...doesn't know how to build up major events. With the sole exception of Shadowmoth's Last Attack, which I have nothing but praise for as a finale, Thomas literally never bothers showing us anything. This is also a problem I have with Gabriel's eventual spiral of insanity, because while "show don't tell" is a good policy to have, even "tell" is a much better option than nothing at all! The reason why Miracle Queen feels so bloody jarring is because for the first and last time in this show's history...they mostly managed to build up a proper Character Arc. Except Thomas and Co. fumbled at the end, and didn't devote almost any time to the entire Season's payoff!

I unironically believe this is just a targeted attack meant to drive anyone with common sense completely and utterly mad, because they spent twenty-something episodes building up to Miracle Queen...and failed to explain why it even happened. I mean yeah, "Gabriel bad, he has a plan, it actually works for once" is what we get, but this is a logical fallacy in and of itself, because if it was the plan from the beginning, then why isn't there any buildup for the final part of this character development? Thomas' failure to properly show the aftermath of Chloe's benching, and make it clear that she is falling into her bad habits again, therefore reverting to a "villain" character because she lacks the support system which helped her be a better person, is the exact reason why anyone is even arguing that there "should" have been a Redemption Arc in the first place!

Note again: Time for part 3, I promise I'm nearly done! Not like this took two weeks to write or something!

< previous post | next post >

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garnettfox · 9 months ago

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Miracubots AU

Sooooo, me and a friend reconnected after a few years of silence (Thanks depression) and discovered not only do we still share similar old fandom brainrot, but we share NEW fandom brain rot and have very similar opinions about the Miraculous series, which lead into the brainrots fusing and with their permission. I present. THE MIRACUBOTS AU

AKA What if we took the cool and interesting magic system and initial set up of Miraculous....AKA the only good bits, and put it in a show with great writing and characters who we love and who deserve to go feral on a villain every now and again?

The AU takes place instead of the canon season four, Cody is aged up a little to 14/15, Doctor Morroco never lost his Verns device to Madeline Pynch so he's still around to be a menace, and the Prime bots...We haven't fully established if Prime is still happening, or if it's after RiD but the Autobots are still around and mentioned occasionally. And since it's a different version of season 4, the bots are still undercover to the town, only the family knowing they are sentient.

Madeline takes stage as the main villain of the series having acquired the Butterfly Miraculous and after discovering Nooroo and it's power, forcing the Kwami to tell her all about the other Miraculous, including the fact that using two of them, the Ladybug and Black Cat together gives one the power to alter reality.

Seeing an easy way to get her goal of being the riches and most powerful person on the planet, she forces Nooroo to tell her where the Miracle box is, but the poor Kwami can only confirm he senses it on Griffin Rock. With her goal in mind Pynch uses the Butterfly to become Swallowtail creating her first Akuma to draw out the guardian and hopefully the Miraculous she seeks.

Master Fu once he realizes what is happening, charges Tikki and Plagg to find two children they resinate strongly with to become the new holders of their Miraculous, reasoning that Children will be easy to teach and control, and he'd be better able to take the Miraculous back from children if the pair chose poorly.

To no one in this fandom's surprise, Cody Burns is who's picked by Tikki to be her holder. He does try to convince her to go to his dad or siblings so they can protect her after she tells him she's what the Akuma is after. But Tikki insists that she picked the right person to be her holder able to sence Cody having a loving heart full of courage.

Cody becomes the new Ladybug Hero Beetletron! looking very much like a miniature version of one of the Rescuebots, though one with a beetle Altmord, when he asks about it Tikki explains that it's because well, the Rescuebots have more or lest become his mental image of what a hero should *be* and thus the Miraculous copied their form. The name comes from Cody trying to think of a Cybertronian sounding name and vaguely remembering hearing the bots talk about some important mech from Cybertron....something-tron? Well it sounds robotic and he's a beetle so, Beetletron!

Fighting against the Akuma he's joined by another hero, a girl in a cyber punk looking get up, dark leathers and neon greens with a head covering mask, she even has a USB cable acting as a tail that she can use with her tech knowhow to hack! The new Black Cat introduces herself as Felidae Fatale, named for the scientific cat family Felidae, and well, she might not be the classic version of a Femme Fatale, she'll prove she can be just as badass as they can be.

Working together feeling like they've known each other for years though they just met, they beat the Akuma, and when Swallowtail makes her threat to claim their Miraculous's they confidently announce they'll make sure a villain like her, never wins.

In the aftermath the pair meet up and agree, keeping a secret identity from the other would be pretty silly considering the life and death danger their in, so. Reveal themselves.

And Cody laughs crying as he hugs his best friend Frankie, as there really could be no other person it would be.

Feel free to tell me or ask me about this AU, We have a TON of stuff planned out, what Miraculous's people get, Akuma forms for almost everyone. Admitedly have some self-indulgent stuff like putting in OC's we love to use XD but it's all in good fun

#rescue bots #transformers #transformers rescue bots #cody burns #frankie greene #miraculous ladybug #miraculous au #ladybug miraculous #black cat miraculous #miraculous tikki #madeline pynch #tf #Transformers rescue bots humans #maccadam #rb

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yubellia · 22 days ago

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The reason why Nooroo acted so different with Cerise compared to how he acted with Gabriel.

I think that for this, the two specials ‚Miraculous London‘ and ‚Miraculous Paris‘ would be very important. In miraculous Paris, we got the information that kwamis exist in multiple universes and at any point in time.

Nooroo did try to talk Gabriel out of certain things and he did try to flee too. But from what I can remember, he was never outright scared like he was with Cerise in the London special.

I don‘t want to shame Cerise. If you know my blog, you know that I love this character. But I just want to state what I noticed.

Unlike with Gabriel, Nooroo was terrified with Cerise and her plan. That means that Nooroo did witness what her wish would do and Cerise succeeded.

This also means that Nooroo probably knew that Gabriel would die. That’s why…. „It wasn’t too urgent“? I don‘t know.

However, with Gabriel, I think the miraculous Paris special would be important too. Nooroo knew, that Gabriel has some good in him. Nooroo knew that Gabriel could use his power for good and be a noble hero. He was just too blinded by his love for Emily and his obsession with his revenge. This Gabriel was too far gone and it was hopeless anyway. So Nooroo tried once in a while but never too much.

Remember how Gabriel got beaten up by ladybug in pretty much all other universes? At the end, he detransformed. And all the kwamis just floated in front of him. Looking down on him. They ALL knew what would happen one day.

But with Cerise? Like Ladybug said herself, Cerise is far better and more dangerous than Gabriel was. Nooroo must know that too. Maybe, I hope not, they pull a Chloe here. You know? How Shadybug said that Chloe is horrible even in her universe? Where good end evil seem to be reversed? (Well at least when we look at the main heroes and villains?) so what does this mean for Cerise?

I mean, I can‘t remember Nooroo cheering like he did with Cerise when Gabriel was around.

They always claim that whatever they do in the show, is intentional and important.

(Hell, this even fueled the Cerise is Manon theory. All because they talked about the flowers on a jumpsuit. Like ‚yeah of course that’s super important.‘ wtf?)

So what does this mean here for Cerise? Is she a lost cause or just too dangerous? I mean, what was Nooroo planning to do once he escaped? Take his miraculous and leave? Try to get help? If everything really is important, than so is Nooroo really being scared of Cerise. She must be worse than Gabriel in all aspects.

I really hope by now, that they are not building too much hype for her as a villain by portraying her like this. We know how the writing of the show is. I hope she will meet our expectations.

#miraculous ladybug #lila rossi #miraculous cerise #miraculous lila #cerise bianca #miraculous london #miraculous ladybug theory #miraculous theory #nooroo #miraculous Nooroo

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shtosh-ka · 5 months ago

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"You and I are alike, Nooroo.. It’s Ladybug who is to blame for our fate.. do you understand? We both became villains because of her.."

My headcanons on the relationship between Lila and Nooroo:

Lila will always be different personalitys in front of Nooroo - Lila, Iris, Ceris.

In their relationship, Lila applies a tough emotional swing to Nooroo :(

In each personality, Lila will behave differently towards Nooroo:

Lila's personality: blames Nooroo for all "his" atrocities, instills in him a feeling of guilt.

Personality Ceris: convinces Nooroo that they are similar, supposedly Ladybug forced them both to become villains.

Iris Personality: Friendly with Nooroo, she interacts nicely with him.

Nooroo does not understand which of his owner's personalities is real.

Ceris's personality causes Nooroo a strong feeling of anxiety

Nooroo prefers to see his owner in the form of Iris - after all, she is very sweet and caring with him - this is what he wanted so much: a kind and sweet holder.

Nooroo understands that Iris's identity is most likely a lie, but he harbors hope that she really loves him and cares about him.

For Lila, Nooroo is nothing more than a tool to achieve her goals. She understands that he has a personality and feelings, which is why she manipulates him, but she treats him in a consumer way.

When Lila plays the role of Iris in front of Nooroo, she deliberately acts friendly towards him in order to create dissonance in him so that Nooroo does not protest.

And although Lila uses her personalities to bring down Nooroo, she believes that he is incapable of protest. She considers him a weak creature.

The phrase Lila(Ceris) at the beginning that I wrote reminds me of the conversation between Eren Yeager and Reiner at the beginning of the fourth season of AOT hahahahaha

#artists on tumblr #art #digital art #illustrators on tumblr #nooroo #miraculous kwamis #miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanart #miraculous lila #lila rossi #lila miraculous #headcanon

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bigfatbreak · 1 year ago

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If you were to ever give advice on how to make an AU of Ladybug (as someone who’s madly impressed with Feralnette and the Scarlet Lady webcomic) what would such advice be?

have as much fun as possible and dont stress the details. its a playground for your brain! if you WANT to go ham on all the little plot elements and potential plot holes, sure, dig it up and flesh it out, but have a concept you wanna PLAY WITH. it doesn't have to be profound or world altering. you can clearly see I have a bias towards the butterfly miraculous aus, i love nooroo and love hating gabriel, so i play with those.

that's how i tend to play with it. change a single element and see what would change, domino effect style going forward - change how someone responds to something, change their hairstyle. have a good time!

(though in scarlet lady's case my GOD that is well planned out. jesus christ. you guys should be on her patreon she is meticulous)

in my case im very much shooting from the hip going sicko mode 99% of the time. i have an idea and i put it on the stove and start throwing spices in. its one of the reasons i dont answer EVERY plot detail related question in my askbox. when everything else fails, go by mst3k's main theme

youtube

#replies #I SHOULD REALLLY JUST RELAAAAAX

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 10 months ago

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Hello! I've been reading through all your posts so far and even though I am personally an ML fan and not a salter, I love media analysis and I'm sad that there isn't much of them in the fandom. There are directions in the show that I'm not satisfied with and I'm currently working on a rewrite for a future comic.

I'm curious about your ideas and takes on how you would personally rewrite ML, right now one of my issues is figuring out how the Peacock Miraculous works bcuz of sentimonsters. How would you write them?

I'm glad that you're enjoying my stuff! I label it all as salt because - as best I can tell - this fandom defines that as anything even slightly negative, but my goal is more analysis and discussion than angry ranting. Talking about what a piece of media did wrong and how you would improve it is a fantastic way to improve your own writing. It's why I got into media analysis in the first place!

Funnily enough, I do have a massive rewrite out there somewhere on AO3, so I DO have thought about how to handle sentimonsters. Or, more specifically, I've thought about how to handle the peacock. I'll give those first, then circle back to sentis.

In my humble opinion, the idea of sentimonsters should be scrapped for the following reasons, all of which existed long before the sentitheory was even on my radar:

Sentimonsters are too derivative. They feel like akuma clones and not a unique power. You can tell that the power was only created because they wanted/needed a power that would let the peacock be used at a distance the same way the butterfly is even though no other miraculous works this way.

If you want to do a slavery plot, the kwamis are right there being enslaved. You don't need to add human-looking slaves to the mix. Especially given that many of those human-looking slaves are apparently fine to kill off? Just, the ethics around the way the show does sentimonsters will always make me feel icky. Meanwhile the kwamis don't have the awkward element of being magical constructs that were made to serve. They were a free people before the miraculous. The one way I've played with using Felix is as a kwamis freedom fighter instead of a senti one.

Sentimonsters have too nebulous of a lore. In what way are they emotions brought to life? Outside of Feast, emotions don't seem to effect them at all. Nooroo's powers feel far more emotion based than Dusuu's and it bothers me.

There's also the fact that one of the show's biggest problems is character bloat. No writer alive can write a satisfying story that features a team of 36 characters! (18 humans + 18 kwamis) This is why the kwamis act as a hive mind once Marinette becomes the Guardian. You just can't write that many characters into a scene and keep their personalities straight, so they're now a single unit even though it makes Sass and Wayzz feel out of character.

Give all of that and the way the miracle box is kinda... well, it feels a little too cultural appropriation-ish for my tastes. I won't go on a full rant here, but to give two highlights: the zodiac miraculous don't seem to have a thing to do with the real Chinese zodiac and a box based on Chinese lore would NOT use a black cat for the symbol of bad luck. Black cats being bad luck is relatively modern European lore. In other words, the Chinese stuff is just there for ascetics and not actually representative of Chinese culture, so I had no moral issues scrapping the miracle box and making a much smaller version and neither should you if you're so inclined!

The thing about lore is that it only matters as much as the show makes it matter and, outside of a few key miraculous, I really do think you can change them without most readers caring because of how little the powers actually matter to the show's lore. Like they have completely scrapped the idea of making a person match their miraculous even though that was supposedly a big thing back in season two. This is extra true because it took us so long to learn all the powers in canon, so there are a lot of fics that pre-date the canon reveal and do different things.

But if you want to keep sentimonsters to be more canon accurate, I would consider all of the following as options or things to keep in mind. Feel free to use all or none of them as I'm probably never touching this plot and, if I do, it will doubtless be different from whatever you do:

Doing something to make the difference between valid and non-valid sentimonsters abundantly clear and not just "the creator decides who is valid" OR just don't make any sentimonster valid and have Emilie have used the miraculous out of a desire to help people because she didn't know it would kill her

Have Gabriel be more conflicted about the use of sentimonsters since, you know, his kid is one and Adrien, Felix, and Kagami are the only sentimonsters he dealt with for many, many years

Consider having Nathalie make one sentimonster (maybe even present it as her own child) in order to help Gabriel so it's not a slew of akuma 2.0 on the battlefield. Instead its someone at the school looking for Ladybug and Chat Noir after the villains realize that they're teenagers. (This could be a good way to use Lila and make her powers make sense)

Redo Dusuu's Force or make the tie between sentimonsters and emotions more clear. Like Felix is made from jealousy and Adrien is made from love so that's the source of their conflict

Use Felix as a third, morally neutral party who only cares about sentimonsters and have him act toward those goals like we all thought he was going to after season five. Magneto from X-men should be your template for him not whatever canon did.

Consider letting Kagami know from the start and let her know that she and Adrien are meant to be, but she's not allowed to tell him the truth or something. If you don't go that route then, at the very least, have her finding out be a big deal for her relationship with her mother.

Go all in with Adrien's commands. Gabriel wants Adrien to date Kagami? He's going to date Kagami. None of this Y-7 undo button BS. Go big or go home.

Give the sentimonsters a way to break free. That's what the power of love is supposed to be about. You could go super cheesy with this if you combined it with Adrien's source emotion being love. The literal love child using the thing that made him to overcome what he was made to be to be what he wants to be sounds very fun to me.

Consider giving the senti kids superpowers. It's honestly kinda weird how relatively normal they are. Like, sure, Felix is supposed to be super smart, but we only know that from his Wikipedia and that's about it.

I could go on, but that's a lot, so we'll stop here. Feel free to send additional asks or message me. I have many, many thoughts about how to fix canon while trying to stay true to the core ideas of the story. Or, at least, the things I consider to be the core. I legitimately enjoy the adaption process and think the fun of fanfiction is largely trying to fit alternate takes on canon into the base framework so it still appeals to fans of the source.

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical

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milarqui · 14 days ago

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Scarlet Lady: Sandboy

Directory | Gorizilla

“Congrats on being discharged!” everyone shouted, and the party poppers and blowers flew around, confetti showering over the young boy that was the center of this particular party.

Said boy was now happily smiling at everyone, enjoying the warm feeling surrounding him.

“Thanks, everyone!” he cheered, as Rose gently approached, him, a pillow in her arms, as Ali watched from afar.

“I made you this special pillow,” she said, smiling and holding out the pillow. “It's scented to help you sleep! With the doctor's approval!”

“Wow!” the boy exclaimed and grabbed the pillow, smelling it to find the truth of her words. “Thank you Rose! I'll take good care of it!”

----

That night, the boy couldn't sleep. So he went to the TV room and put it on, wanting to find some cartoons.

Unfortunately... he picked the wrong channel.

And now he definitely couldn't sleep.

----

“I. Am. Bushed,” Plagg said as he put the covers over the sock he had turned into a double (it wasn't very good, but sue him, he wasn't the Kwami of Creation!). “I'm off to bed!”

“Mhmm, g'night, Plagg,” Adrien said, distracted with his homework.

He quickly flew off grounds, wondering how Tikki and Pollen were doing.

----

As Chloé turned once more the room into a sawmill, Tikki flew out with Chloé's diamond scrunchie in her tiny hands, eager to reach the place where the party was going to be held.

“I hope Pollen managed to come up with a cover story,” she told herself in the dark Parisian night. “She's not a very good liar.”

----

“Good night, My Queen. And thank you for allowing me to venture out this evening.”

Pollen wasn't a very good liar, and she knew it.

So she hadn't bothered with trying.

And Marinette had been more than alright with it.

“Don't forget your gift!”

----

“Goodnight, sir,” Nooroo casually said, as he attempted to sneak away.

“Hn.”

Which was when he forgot that perhaps he shouldn't have bothered with saying anything, as he hit the barrier.

“Going somewhere, Nooroo?” Gabriel Agreste mockingly asked.

“Uhh–” Nooroo said, but he knew it would be useless to try.

“Seems you've forgotten the rules,” he continued, acting as if he were a rebellious child. As if those 'rules' were just something he did to keep him safe, as opposed to prevent him from doing anything that might expose him.

“B–But Master, it's my birthday–”

“Silence,” he said, like the jerk he was. “I sense an emotion of great intensity. Tonight we strike again! Bwahahaha–”

Happy birthday to me I guess, Nooroo thought, almost crying.

----

“Hey Sugarcube!” Plagg exclaimed, smirking, and ignoring the glare Tikki was returning.

“I already told you not to call me that,” the other Kwami said. “What if I called you 'stinky sock'?”

“I'd love it, obviously~” Plagg replied, still smirking, much to Tikki's disgust.

“Ugh. And where's your gift?” she asked, although she was certain she already knew the truth.

“Well, see, I brought some delicious cheese, but I had to sacrifice it to feed a poor, starving kitten.”

Tikki rolled her eyes. It was the exact same excuse he'd made the last time they'd gathered like this, just sixty years before.

“Greetings, noble Kwami of Creation and Destruction!”

“Oh, here you are Poll --” Tikki started to say, turning around to greet their friend – only to see Pollen carrying a sack that was easily five times her size. “WHOA, WHAT IS ALL THAT?!”

“Generous offerings to the Kwamis from my most esteemed Queen!”

Wow, Marinette had taken the time to make something for everyone? That had to take a lot of time, but she was sure they would all love what she made.

Such as Wayzz, whom they met on the way to the meeting point, and who received a Kwami-sized pair of earmuffs with turtle-shell-shaped decorations.

“I'll be right here in case of an Akuma,” he said, picking the gift Pollen was handing him. “Wish Nooroo a happy 3500 cycles for me!”

The three Kwami flew to meet the rest of the group, who greeted them with happiness – it had been a while since they saw them.

“Hey, everybody, we're here!” Plagg announced.

“They made it!”

“Woohoo!”

“We'll get in touch with Nooroo for sure!”

Then, the others saw the sack Pollen had brought, and approached her.

“Ooo, what'dya bring, what'dya bring?!” Roarr asked, eager.

“My Queen made everyone gifts when I asked to come!” Pollen said, and everyone's eyes lighted up.

“Woooow!”

“It was good of your holders to allow you to come,” Sass said, as the Kwami of Subjugation started to hand out the gifts.

“This mirror is for Kaalki.”

Meanwhile, Plagg and Tikki looked at each other, feeling awkward.

“Yeaaaaah, 'allow',” the former replied.

“The pen is for Ziggy.”

“By the way, won't Scarlet Lady miss your offering, Tikki?” Sass asked, and Tikki grinned at the thought.

“Heh. I sure hope so.”

----

All over Paris, the latest Akuma was now unleashing his attack, and three people suddenly noticed the strange dust falling over their heads.

----

“Hm?” Marinette grumbled, waking up from her slumber – only to be shocked to see Chat Noir in her room!

“Marinette, wanna know my secret? I'm in love with Scarlet Lady now!”

“KYAAAAAAH!”

----

“Wha–?”

Adrien lifted his head from the book he had been studying... but all of a sudden he was surrounded by bars!

His room had turned into a jail!

“W-What's going on?! Plagg, where are you?!”

----

“Hah?!”

As for Chloé, who lifted her sleeping mask...

… she was suddenly struck by her shoes and cosmetics.

“Ow! Hey! STOP! AH! Haven't I always been good to you?! OW!”

----

Marinette ran out of her room, trying to escape what couldn't possibly Chat Noir, and just in time as a boy riding a flying carpet passed over her head.

“The Sandboy just checked in~ Now nightmares can begin~” he sang, making it obvious what was going on.

“So that's the culprit behind these terrors!” she said. She needed to transform, quickly!

“Please come back!”

She turned, and saw Rose... running behind a group of suddenly animated stuffed assorted creatures.

“Rose!” she called out, and her friend turned to look at her.

“Oh, Marinette!”

“Rose, what are you doing?” Marinette asked, surprised, as Rose huffed: the girl had never had the best stamina. “Everyone else is running from stuff.”

“Oh, it's an absolute tragedy, Marinette!” Rose replied... and began to cry. “My stuffed animals came to life and they hate me!”

Marinette blinked. She wasn't sure what to make of that.

“T-There, there,” she tried to calm her friend down.

“Marineeeette~”

Scratch that.

“EEP!”

She had her own nightmare to deal with.

“Chat Noir?” Rose asked, bemused.

“You broke your promise and now I'm in love with Scarleeeet–”

“Stay away from Marinette!” Rose suddenly yelled, kicking the false Chat Noir in the face.

“GAH!”

“She's the sweetest person ever, don't talk bad about her!”

And before the false Chat Noir could reply, Rose was now full-on wrestling with him, and Marinette blanched at the sight of her friend brutally beating the crap out of the fake.

“Run, Marinette!” Rose declared. “I'll hold off this big meanie!”

Marinette made to do that... but first, she couldn't hold back the need to salute.

Bless you, Rose, you violent angel.

----

As Plagg made his case, Wayzz felt conflicted. What he was saying was true, but there was still a risk.

“I can't–”

“This could be our only chance of finding Nooroo!” Plagg begged. “And Hawkmoth! We need you!”

“... let's do it.”

----

Reaching Master Fu's home was easy, as well as entering (thank goodness the man had thought to provide them with keys for emergencies). Seeing that Fu wasn't awake, she quickly made her way to the old gramophone, and began to fiddle with the wheels.

“C'mon, c'mon–” and then realized something else. “Crap, what's the code?!”

She only had one thing to resort to.

“Master, you have to wake up!” she shouted, shaking the old man awake.

“Wha–a–a–a, Marinette –”

“Fuuuuuu–!” a voice sounded behind her, and she turned to see...

“We are the ghosts of the Order of the Guardians of the Miraculous! You caused our downfall and lost the Miraculouses!”

“No! It wasn't my fault! I didn't do it on purpose!” Fu replied, terrified.

“It was you fault, your fault, your fault–”

Marinette was... underwhelmed.

“Your nightmare is talking handkerchiefs?” she asked. That... wasn't that scary.

----

“Where are the heroes–?”

RING!

The unexpected, strident phone-like sound made him cringe in pain.

“What the fuck, who's calling me?!”

----

“Noo-roo, Noo-roo!” Roarr shouted.

“We did it, we did–” Stompp said as they waited for –

“Who is this?! How'd you get on this line?!”

A voice that definitely wasn't Nooroo's sounded out.

All the Kwamis became terrified as they realized they had made a critical mistake.

“Whoops, wrong number!” Plagg yelled, then turned to whisper. “Hang up, hang up, hang up!”

The connection disappeared, but it was too late. Still, they all knew what was happening now.

“If Nooroo is powering Hawkmoth, there must be an akuma!” Wayzz said.

“You four have got to go, now!” Kaalki begged, and the four Kwami who had permanent holders quickly left the room... only to encounter Marinette stuck to the wall, while Master Fu ran, persecuted by three tiny bedsheet ghosts.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!” the man yelled.

“Master, keep it together!” Marinette begged – not that Fu paid attention to her.

“It's your faaault!” one of the ghosts said.

“I was just hungry!” Fu said, as Plagg, Tikki, and Wayzz awkwardly looked at each other.

“'Hungry'?” Marinette said. “Master, what does that mean–”

“It wasn't intentional, okay?” Fu replied, defensively, as Plagg and Tikki decided to make themselves scarce and left.

----

With Wayzz to keep him on task, Fu was finally able to open up the Miraculous Box, and Marinette transformed so she could finally help stop the Akuma, grabbing one of the Miraculouses.

“This Akuma feels like a 'special case' Akuma, and I know exactly who can use this 'special case' Miraculous!” she said, eager to go.

“Marigold, wait, use Bee Balm and get ride of these nightmares first, please!” Master Fu begged, but... well, she didn't exactly see why that was so much a problem...

----

“Adrien!” Plagg asked (actually worried) when he saw his charge surrounded by large cell bars. “Are you okay?!”

“Oh thank God you're not a sock anymore, Plagg!” Adrien said, almost crying at the relief.

“'Anymore'?” he asked... before he realized what he meant. That was going to take a bit of work to explain...

Still, he helped Adrien pry himself out of the cell, and waited.

“Plagg, Claws Out!”

----

“Chloé!” Tikki said (for once, actually worried) as she saw the chaos that had been unleashed.

“Tikki! My stuff got jealous of me and came to life to over throw me!”

Never mind. Months in, and she still didn't consider Akumas as a cause.

“Or it's an Akuma...” she pointed out.

“Akuma? Spots On!”

----

The moment she returned to where she had left Rose... well, she felt a bit of pity for the fake Chat Noir, who was being grappled by a furious Rose in what looked to be a very painful position.

“Marineette!” the fake actually begged, unable to escape the surprisingly strong grip of her friend.

“I'm not letting you go you jerky sandwich!” said friend said.

At this point, acting would be more of a mercy kill than anything else.

“Bee Balm!”

The bees flew around, and the fake Chat Noir vanished, causing Rose to fall a few centimeters down to the ground.

“Marigold!” she exclaimed, quickly standing up.

“That should hold off the nightmares for now,” Marigold replied, “but this Akuma is tricky, being able to pull out our weaknesses.”

She pulled the Miraculous out from the pocket.

“We're going to need help with this one! Are you up to it?”

Rose... looked horrified.

“You want me to fight a child?!”

“No, no, no, this 'help' is different, I swear!” she replied, extending the hand holding the box. “Rose Lavillant, this is the Pig Miraculous, which grants the power of Jubilation.”

“Ooo!” Rose said, gingerly picking the box and opening it. The light spectacle that ensued brought a smile to her face. “Oh, so pretty!”

“Oh!” the pig Kwami said as he appeared.

“You're so cute!” Rose gushed. “What's your name?”

“I'm Daizzi and I'm your Kwami!” the Kwami said. “Just say 'Daizzi',”

----

“REJOICE!”

----

“Just because you got rid of my nightmares doesn't mean I can't make new ones!” the Akuma shouted.

“This brat,” Scar mumbled, irritated.

“Sorry I'm late!” Marigold exclaimed, as she landed on the roof.

“Honeybee!” Chat Noir replied, grateful that he wouldn't have to endure Scar for much longer.

“I got us some back up! May I introduce–”

“Pigella!” the new heroine replied.

“If anyone can create sweet dreams, it's her!” Marigold helpfully added, making Chat Noir smile.

“Aww!”

“STOP IGNORING ME!” the Akuma yelled, throwing a veritable cloud of dust.

“Whoops!” Marigold said, having realized too late that she was still in the middle of a fight.

----

“The Sanboy just checked in! Now nightmares can begin!” the Akuma sang again, as Scarlet Lady cowered again: she definitely didn't want to be pummeled by her jealous stuff.

“No–! Not again!” she said... before she heard something completely unexpected.

“Boo Scarlet Lady! What are you doing?! The other heroes are way cooler!” a crowd yelled out, one that really shouldn't have been there.

“What?!” Scarlet Lady yelled. “This can't be real, right?!”

She turned to Marigold, who was frantically trying to swing her top.

“Get rid of them already, bug face!”

“I–I can't!” Marigold exclaimed, scared. “Nothing's working! I'm powerless!”

“Chatooooon~” a poisonously sweet voice said, and Chat Noir felt a shiver going up his spine.

“EEEK! Oh god no!” he said, turning to see...

“M–Marinette?”

But this wasn't Marinette. It was...

“Naughty kitty, you let your princess get Akumatized!”

… an Akumatized Marinette. She was cute... but she looked like a devil, complete with horns, tail, and red and black all over.

“And now,” the other Akuma declared, turning to Marigold, and swinging the HUGE sword she was carrying around at her, “I'll destroy you!”

“Eek!” Chat Noir screamed as he tackled Marigold out of the way.

“Ah!” Marigold said, shocked by the sudden turn of events. “It's okay, Minou! There's no way that'd happen! I won't let it!”

Chat Noir took a side glance at his partner... yet another clue landing in place.

----

And, elsewhere in the battlefield, Pigella was holding Scarlet Lady in her arms... while struggling not to freak out.

“It's not real, it's not real, it's not real–” she told herself, while Scarlet Lady looked down in derision.

“This is your nightmare?”

Given that what was happening was a bunch of stuffed animals ineffectually hitting and kicking Pigella in the legs (which, given their size and composition, meant it was truly ineffectual), she had a bit of a point.

“No fair, that's lame!” Sandboy complained. “How come your nightmare's so weak?! That's cheating! Don't you have any real problems?!”

“I have plenty of problems!” Pigella replied, letting Scarlet Lady go and wielding her tambourine. “But if I only focused on what could go wrong, I'd never move forward!”

As Sandboy looked at her with shock, Pigella persevered.

“I want to think of the good things in my life! Just like I know there are good things in yours! You just need a reminder! GIFT!”

A large box, resembling a present, popped in the air in front of Pigella, who gently threw it at Sandboy. The box opened mid-flight, washing everything in a pink and white light.

“This is... when I was discharged...” Sandboy said, looking at the images in front of him. “There was a party... I got to go home... Rose made me a special present... I was so happy...”

He saw himself, hugging the scented pillow the girl had made for him.

“When I remember that... I don't want to be scared anymore!” he shouted.

And ripped the pillow he used to fly around, freeing a black butterfly.

“Wow, Pigella got him to reject the Akuma!” Chat Noir exclaimed, amazed.

“Whatever, I could do that too,” Scarlet Lady grumbled as she released the Miraculous Cure.

Nobody cared.

“Not every battle is won by fighting,” Marigold stated, as Pigella made sure the boy was alright.

“Whoa, who are you?” he asked.

“I'm Pigella!” the heroine replied. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“I watched a scary movie and had a nightmare! Then there was a black butterfly in my room, and a weird man was talking to me!”

“I see, I see,” Pigella said, giving the boy a hug and then releasing him. “We'll have to make sure the weird man never bothers you again, won't we, Marigold?”

Marigold raised an eyebrow.

Better hope Pigella never finds you, Hawkmoth.

After what she had seen her do to the false Chat Noir, Hawkmoth would probably rather surrender to the police...

----

With the little boy returned to his grateful parents, and the heroes now scampering to return to their homes, Marigold brought Pigella aside so she could return the Miraculous she wielded.

“Great work, Rose,” Marigold congratulated her friend.

“I'm glad I could help! No hitting required!” Rose replied, giving her the anklet and the box.

“It feels so good to spread joy like that!” Daizzi said, drawing a gasp from Rose.

“I think so too!”

“You're the perfect little piglet for my Miraculous!” Daizzi declared as she smooshed her cheek on Rose's.

“And you're the perfect little cutie for me!” Rose replied. “So what's your favorite color? Food? What about music–”

“Stop stop stop, this isn't an adoption!” Marigold declared. She had already had to deal with enough of her friends wanting to keep their Kwami partners permanently!

----

Returning to Master Fu's house to return the Miraculous, the present Kwami (or at least most of them) were showing contrite faces.

“It's all my fault, Master,” Wayzz said.

“No, it's mine,” Tikki said.

“No, mine!” Marinette added.

“But My Queen said it was okay, and she's never wrong,” Pollen said, shocked.

“That's sweet, Pollen, but definitely not true. Like here where I didn't consider the risks of you going alone,” Marinette gently told her Kwami. “It's okay to poing out that I was wrong. Even you're allowed to scold me now and then, Pollen.”

Pollen's eyes whited out as she attempted to accept a point that directly contradicted everything in her life.

“Scold... My Queen?”

And she began to drift.

Like, literally drift.

“Me scold... My Queen... scold...”

“I think you broke her, Pigtails,” Plagg joked.

“POLLEN!”

----

“Thank you, Adrien!” Plagg said, tackling his human's arm with enthusiasm.

“Huh? For what, Plagg?”

“Oh! Uh, you know, for mostly letting me do what I want and stuff,” the Kwami replied, scratching the back of his head.

“Hm. The last thing I want to do is restrict your freedom, Plagg,” Adrien replied. “You don't have to pretend to bbe a sock to get your way.”

Plagg decided to answer by hugging him (as best as he could, with his tiny arms).

“You're the best Black Cat I've ever had, Adrien!”

“I'm choosing to be flattered, but that's a little concerning, Plagg,” Adrien said, hugging him back.

“Just enjoy the praise.”

----

“I'm back,” Tikki declared as she floated into the room.

“And where were you?” Chloé asked, angry.

“Out.”

Chloé was definitely not happy with the answer.

“How dare you–”

“I won't apologize,” Tikki interrupted. “It was none of your business and would've led to Hawkmoth's location if not for the Akuma.”

“No! I don't want you to find Hawkmoth!” Chloé shouted. “If you do that, I won't get to be a hero anymo–”

“Chloé,” Tikki interrupted again, and in the blink of an eye, Tikki had seemingly grown to such a size that it might be dwarfing Chloé. “Are you refusing this god's right to stop a great evil for the sake of your ego?”

“Um...” Chloé mumbled. She might have remembered a tad too late who she was talking too...

----

“I hope you enjoyed your birthday gift, Nooroo,” Gabriel said, clearly not caring at all about the Kwami. “Thanks to your little friends, I know exactly how many of them are in Paris. I'll find them all and their Miraculouses! Then I'll have unlimited power at my disposal! Then nothing will stop me! Bwahahaha!”

Nooroo rolled his eyes.

You haven't even managed to get the Miraculouses you're invested in, you flop.

----

A/N: Like... sorry?

It's been half a year since I did Gorizilla. Sorry for that, I've been busy with my other personal projects, and I just couldn't take the time nor the inspiration to continue this.

But I'm not going to drop out of the race! I'll reach the end, whatever it takes!

Also, that's 545 pages, 218217 words, 1177635 characters.

#scarlet lady the novel #scarlet lady is better than canon #adrien agreste #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #marigold #rose lavillant #pigella #sandboy

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flightfoot · 11 months ago

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Top Ten Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2023

So I've made reclists for a ton of the Miraculous fics and series I recommend that finished in 2023, but as you may have noticed, those are rather expansive. So I decided to do a ranking of the ten best Miraculous fics from 2023 as well! (at least in my eyes). These naturally trend towards longer fics, though there are some that are on the shorter end. The shortest is under 30,000 words!

A lot of these you could swap around the order on, but the top fic... yeah the top fic is top for a reason.

Some of these fics were really popular, while others are virtually unknown, they run the entire gamut. I hope everyone checks these out though if they haven't already, there's both some hidden gems and some very well recognized gems in here!

All of these were part of earlier reclists that I made. All of those fics are in this collection I set up on AO3 called "Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics of 2023". I really hope everyone checks it out, I've got commentary/reviews for every entry in the collection, and there are over 150 entries!

I'm gonna just be copying the descriptions I wrote for the fics on the earlier reclists, as I wrote those shortly after finishing reading the fics when they were fresh in my mind, and as great as these fics are, I don't have the time nor bandwidth to reread them all.

10.

Found by @trishacollins

Chat Noir and Ladybug need to tie up some loose ends. Unfortunately, one of those ends is Felix.

This is a fantastic fic! It’s part of a wider series wherein Adrien and Felix were friends with Nooroo and Duusu from a younger age, but Adrien’s memory was wiped of it by his parents, but this is the first fic you really need to read. Basically, after the events of Emotion, Chat confronts Felix about what he did, and Felix confesses to being a Sentibeing, and Duusu reveals to Chat that he is one as well, leading to Felix cooperating with the heroes.

Of all the fics I’ve read that tackle the subject, this one does the best job of giving Felix a redemption arc for his actions in the season 4 finale, focusing not only on how he hurt the heroes, but the kwamis. I loved that he truly understood how much he fucked up with the situation he put the kwamis in, how much suffering he put them through, and that the kwamis were allowed to be angry at him for awhile afterwards, to be suspicious and untrusting towards him at first (and that Marinette was allowed to do the same). Felix screwed up and hurt people, and he had to really show that he understood what he did was wrong, why it was wrong, and try to help the people he hurt.

---

The Ghost in the Machine by @jheqiawrites

As part of this function, Adrien knew about Monarch, the akuma butterflies, the victims, and, of course Ladybug and Cat Noir, the heroes of Paris. He was authorized to contact the Ladyblog as well as the citywide alert system if one of his platforms was active during an akuma manifestation, allowing his friends to get somewhere safe until Ladybug and Cat Noir could deal with the situation

While the necessity of these functions was disconcerting, it was programmed to be his routine so he gradually grew used to the inconsistencies. After all, humans tended to be selfish, highly inconsistent, and often flighty, but once you had observed them for a while an intelligence such as his could begin to see the patterns.

That is until she came online.

This is just a beautiful, though bittersweet story. I adore how Alliance!Adrien grows and changes throughout the story, how he develops as a person. He starts off not being able to figure out what he’s feeling, needing to make new modules in order to try to process the emotions he has welling up, and not totally understanding his own reactions. But as time goes on he grows and gets a better handle on himself. This isn’t an “evil AI” story, he’s just a person who’s slowly figuring out who he is and how to handle himself.

Not that it’s entirely about Adrien Alliance figuring out his own emotions, there’s other things going on as well. He’s worried about why there seems to be weird surges in the Alliance Network right before akumas attack, for instance, and why the details about the reason for that seem to be hidden from him, making him more paranoid about the Alliance system the more he looks into it...

It’s just... it’s really good and absolutely worth a read.

---

Kwami Magi Homura Magica by Crossoverpairinglover

After eighty-four loops in time, Homura Akemi takes a new path to Paris to save her friends.

The sixty-third loop after that, Homura arrived at the Agreste Mansion.

After clash after clash with the heroes of Paris and its greatest menace, events have reached a tipping point.

Ladybug faces someone verging on a second wish, a wish that endangers space and time to save a friend.

This was an absolutely AMAZING story that crossoverpairinglover dropped out of NOWHERE. Seriously, if you like Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Miraculous Ladybug, this is a real treat - but be prepared to sit down and binge, because it’s over 100,000 words and only has three chapters.

Anyway, I adore the care that’s taken with going through Homura’s mindset here, she gets a lot of character focus. And the lore! There’s some good explanations here for the history behind kwamis and Incubators’ interactions, and the Order of the Guardians normally treats Magical Girls, and why the Incubators are wrong in their assessment of the universe needing more energy to stave off entropy (hint: it involves Plagg), and just... there was a lot of love put into this.

And the action! Most Miraculous fics don’t have much in the way of fight scenes, and what they do have is mostly just functional. This is one of the rare exceptions. There’s some really long, detailed fight scenes in this (roughly the entire second half of the second chapter has one between Ladybug and Homura), which are a treat to read!

We also get some glimpses into a variety of other universes here, other timelines, alternate ways things could have gone down - I’m especially partial to the rather detailed view we get of one where Homura sent a message asking for help to the Ladyblog on her third time loop, and how things progressed from there.

The ending I also thought was really good, a happy ending that generally made sense and dealt with the issue of the Incubators.

If you can’t tell I’m really happy with this fic, it was incredible and unexpected. The length of the individual chapters can be daunting, but if you’re up for the task, I highly recommend giving it a shot!

---

you made me a hero - reverse crush short stories series by @non-fantasy

This series is just plain fun! Like the title says, it’s a reverse crush AU, so Adrien’s head-over-heels for Marinette, while Ladybug’s smitten with Chat Noir. Which means that Adrien’s constantly trying to woo Marinette while Ladybug’s attempting to have normal conversations with Chat Noir (and failing), and both of them are oblivious to each other’s feelings.

I love the way non-fantasy executes it, with Alya literally carrying around a spray bottle because of how eager Adrien is, and Ladybug being VERY SCARY if you ever lay a finger on Chat Noir (seriously akumas will literally beg for their akumatized object to be broken just to escape her wrath).

Oh, also, Ladybug regularly stops by Adrien’s room so they can both lament how difficult of a time they’re having wooing their crushes, and just have fun together.

There’s a lot of entries in this series - 29 of them in fact - but most of them are pretty short, making it great if you want to devour some quick, cute, hilarious romcom action!

Some stuff does actually change over the course of the series, it’s not just slice-of-life. Like identity reveals, dating, and even Hawkmoth’s defeat, so there’s clear progression and changes in circumstances as well.

---

The Parable of the Caller by @nemaliwrites

A week after Hawk Moth’s identity has been revealed, Adrien finds himself with nowhere to go, nothing he can do, and worst of all, strange gaps in his memory he can’t explain. In a stroke of luck, he stumbles upon a burner phone filled with voicemails from one of the Saviors of Paris: Chat Noir himself, who disappeared following Hawk Moth’s arrest.

But with each new voicemail Adrien listens to, he’s forced to confront the fact that there might be some kind of connection between himself and Chat Noir — and discovering it might leave him more broken than before.

I absolutely adore this fic, it’s a fantastic character study for Adrien! Basically in this universe, Ladybug and Chat Noir talked about who should be Guardian, with Chat eventually convincing her that he should be the one to take it on, primarily due to the whole “the Guardian gets amnesia about Miraculous-related matters” situation, and wanting to protect Ladybug from that. Then he finds out Gabriel is Hawk Moth, they take him down, and he relinquishes the Miracle Box and his guardianship to Su Han - all without having a Reveal with Ladybug, since well, he’s not in the greatest shape mentally at the time.

It’s a real treat to see Adrien’s thoughts and feelings about one of the Heroes of Paris leaving him all these voicemails, treating him like this close friend for reasons he doesn’t understand, and just seeing Chat Noir as this outside person. He’s got a very different viewpoint on Chat when looking from the outside than he would from the inside, with being able to see his heroic and good qualities far more easily when he doesn’t know that he is Chat.

Also Marinette’s struggling in the background of the fic with the loss of her partner and guilt over sending Adrien’s father to prison. It gets touched on at various points, and you can tell that she’s having her own story off to the side that we’re just not entirely privy to, what with this tale being told entirely from Adrien’s perspective.

---

Dreams of You by @chocoluckchipz

Dreams had long been his only escape. Dreams of Ladybug, the girl who had always been there for him.

If only in his dreams. And only while she was also sleeping.

Because with the first rays of sunshine gliding over her skin, with the first fluttering of her eyelashes, from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning, memories of Adrien would vanish from her mind.

She would go on living her life.

He would always be the only one who remembered.

At least until they meet in the real world and fall in love all over again, something that would’ve been easier to do if Adrien wasn't a prisoner in his own home.

Chocoluckchipz has some of the most beautifully executed lovesquare fics I’ve read, and this is no exception. Most of the fic is dedicated to Adrien wooing Marinette, spending time with her, with her own dream self acting as his wingman, giving her tips on how to get her to fall for him, all the while frustrated that she can’t share memories with her waking self, and that she and Adrien can’t share as much information as they’d like while asleep, due to limitations of the “curse” that allows Adrien to share dreams with his soulmate.

It’s not all cute Adrienette fluff though. There’s a threat in the background waiting to erupt, as the weirdness of Gabriel’s ultimatum to Adrien about finding Ladybug or else being forced to marry Lila keeps on gnawing at him - and with good reason. This is a world with magic and kwamis still, and that fact makes itself very relevant in the last third of the story.

It’s a well-written tale and very much worth a read!

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Accidents Are Also Miracles by @liiinerle

After a few turbulent days where four new people discover her secret identity, Marinette loses faith in her ability to keep the secret hidden. Wracked with doubts and insecurities, she pleads with Alya to take over as Scarabella, but she still can't let those worries go. Especially not once Monarch starts taking a particular, and personal, interest in her.

Along the way, she also starts to date Kagami, and has to deal with changing feelings about herself, Adrien, Alya, Kagami, and the idea of being Ladybug. At the same time, Alya works to uncover Monarch's secret identity, while Kagami struggles against a controlling parent, and a girlfriend who seems bent on destroying herself - with or without Monarch's involvement.

Fantastic Marigami fic here! You’ve got three major POVs in this fic: Marinette, Kagami, and to my delight, Alya. I loved getting to see Alya cope with taking over as Scarabella especially.

But of course, this fic centers more around Marinette and Kagami, with Marinette struggling with Monarch targeting her, and Kagami struggling against her abusive parent, as well as both of them trying to navigate their relationship together when they know that not everyone will approve.

There’s also some other plots going on in here, like Sabrina breaking away from Chloe and becoming more independent (and closer to Adrien in fact), as well as a Lila takedown plot, though thankfully not one that involves demonizing other characters. While there are conversations about people believing Lila and siding with her, no one’s actually attacked for it except for Lila herself.

Oh yeah, and while this fic may not have much focus on Adrien, he’s still treated fairly and with respect, even when he messes up. He can make mistakes, but people understand where he’s coming from, and are still kind to him and want things to be okay, and to help him escape his abusive circumstances.

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Between the Heavens and the Embers by @readersmoon

Everyone in Paris remembers the fateful night of January 16, when the city was attacked by the most powerful and destructive akuma ever created. The assault, which lasted for hours, resulted in the death of 439 people.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was among the casualties.

Years later, Adrien hasn't been able to move on, haunted by the memories of her broken body. So, when the opportunity to leave Paris for a while presents itself, he doesn't hesitate. But this trip might end up giving him more than he ever dreamt of.

This is a fantastic fic, though a serious and a dark one - make sure to mind the tags, and it’s M-rated for a reason. Vee - or rather, Marinette - is going through a horror story here. Imagine finding out that your life is a lie, that everyone you thought you could trust was manipulating you, that you were just being continually gaslit for years.

As for Adrien, Alya, and Nino... well, none of them took Marinette’s “death” all that well, especially Adrien. Finding out that she’s been alive all this time, in these horrible circumstances, and they had no clue... it’s hard on them as well.

I love how this fic goes into how much trauma everyone has even after the immediate danger’s dealt with, you don’t just walk off this kind of experience, especially with how many years this lasted.

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drowning (in plain sight) by @buggachat

Everybody had expected Monarch's defeat to be a moment of triumph. Nobody had expected Gabriel Agreste, unmasked and mind frayed from continual abuse of the miraculous, crying out to all who would listen and making Paris certain of one thing:

His son, Adrien Agreste, is one of his sentimonsters.

And now he's missing.

Nobody can find him— not even the superheroes, and not even his closest friends. But Marinette, Nino, and Alya aren't ones to give up so easily. They'll find him, no matter what it takes.

(But, geez, would it kill Chat Noir to lend a hand?)

I’m sure everyone saw this one coming. If there’s one thing buggachat’s good at, storywise, it’s capturing raw, tumultuous emotions, frantic breakdowns as the characters desperately try to navigate bad situations. This was a real treat to read, as I’m betting most people reading this will agree, given just how popular the fic has been. It also has a ton of fanart, both by buggachat and by random fans, if you go looking for it (there’s a drowning in plain sight tag which I’d advise perusing).

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one does not love breathing by @wackus-bonkus-maximus

All of Paris watched as Hawkmoth murdered Chat Noir, taking the Black Cat Miraculous for himself. Ladybug swears revenge, but her enemy—and every miraculous in his possession—disappear without a trace.

Six years later, a new team of villains launches an attack for the last remaining Miraculous: Volpina, armed with new powers; Queen Bee, with questionable loyalty; Argos, the new holder of the Peacock Miraculous; and Cat Walker, who Ladybug hates the most.

Takes place after S4 - Strike Back.

This is a simply phenomenal fic. You get to explore a lot of different perspectives, like Felix, Kagami, Marinette, and Adrien’s, just to name a few, and see their different thought processes and plans and priorities, and how it can cause their plans to collide with each other, even when they all ultimately are aiming for a good outcome for everyone. The characters are pretty complex and can mess up at times, even when they’re doing things (or not doing things, looking at you Luka) with the best of intentions. It was a joy to read and a real nail-biter the whole time, I actually wrote a fic for it halfway through just to resolve some of the tension for myself, One Does Not Love Shadows.

It also features the version of Luka I’ve connected best with to date, as he feels like Luka, but also is a lot more fleshed out, and can make some major errors while simply trying to avoid missteps. It’s helped me get a better handle on a character who I’ve generally had a lot of problems with really understanding.

It is an M-rated fic, though I think Wackus is being overly cautious on that front. There’s no sexual content and I wouldn’t put the violence or gore above a T-rating, so I wouldn’t let the rating scare you off.

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So that's my list! I'm sure many people will disagree with me (especially since most of these fics haven't even cracked 1000 kudos, so there are a lot of other fics out there that people have read more of), but these fics made the biggest impression on me this year, and I hope they make an impression on you as well!

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic rec #drowning in plain sight #one does not love breathing

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