#i really love miraculous ladybug but the plot just annoys the heck out of me

[telltalejem]

Give Marinette some credit pls!!

This is me ranting about Oblivio, and the characterization of Marinette. Enjoy lol

My main points:

Mari is smart;

She is so smart she is completely capable of figuring out herself that Adrien is Chat Noir, and coming up with a plan to let the cat out of the bag;

But she is also aware of the dangers of knowing who Chat is so while she is capable of figuring it out, she is in a dilemma (more on the dangers in @bingespammy​‘s post)

There is a huge potential in diving into these dangers more explicitly and this dilemma of Mari, and I am actually contemplating quitting the show if these issues are not going to be addressed at any point in the future

+ embedded ranting about Backwarder, and about how the miraculous ladybug in Oblivio doesn’t make sense at all

I just really wanted to put down my main points before I start off this rant/analysis because I have no idea where it is going but I will be trying to reign myself so it can make sense to anyone. Still, this is probably going to be a really long post...

Marinette is an incredibly smart girl. Like Backwarder smart, for one instance. Of course, we all know how clumsy she is (again, Backwarder clumsy. Seriously, that episode has been the black sheep of the whole series since it was aired, I just have so many problems with the characterization of Marinette in that, I can’t--). However, despite her clumsiness, she is still one of the brightest and clearest minds of the show, especially if the issue has nothing to do with Adrien. And Ladybug and Chat Noir kissing in Oblivio obviously doesn’t have anything to do with Adrien, not for a Marinette who is not aware of the identity of Chat.

My point is that if the creators have any respect left for the character of Marinette, and her smarts, and if they are just slightly interested in redeeming themselves from the mistake the Backwarder is, then she is going to figure out who Chat really is. And she is going to have a huge dilemma about it and leading up to it, because keeping their secret identities is a serious issue, and we and the creators better start treating it so (@bingespammy​ has already made a post on why it already is a serious issue).

In the last minutes of Oblivio, we see how Marinette deals with the whole issue of kissing Chat. She even asks, “How could this have happened?” And Tikki brushes it off with a “Who knows, maybe you still have things to learn about him?” (which is a concerning issue in itself, because it suggests in between the lines that Tikki is encouraging her to find out who is under the mask of Chat Noir). But while Tikki is seemingly so casual about it, I think Marinette is troubled by the issue, because she realizes how this event affects her image as a superheroine not only in the eyes of the public but for Papillon too (”The love you both secretly have for each other will be your downfall”). She sees all the risks, and troubles knowing this information will bring upon them as the saviours of Paris. I think she is/will be just so troubled by the mere fact that she kissed Chat that she just cannot get over it. She is thinking about it day and night - whenever she sees Chat, whenever they work together, whenever she is reminded of it. And the reason for it affecting her so much is because it was her choice to kiss him. It wasn’t for saving Paris. It wasn’t a necessity, as their first kiss was. She knows she has to stop, she shouldn’t try to figure out why the kiss happened, but she cannot stop herself thinking about it either, because she is just so self-conscious about it happening. She will eventually figure out that Adrien is Chat, not because she wanted to know it, because obviously, she knows all the risks, she knows that knowing who Chat is is the last thing she should know, but she will still figure it out, simply because she cannot help herself.

But why cannot she stop thinking about kissing Chat Noir? Because (1), as I have already said, she knows it was her conscious decision to kiss him. I imagine Mari sitting over the picture of her and Chat kissing and thinking. She knows Oblivio made people forget everything prior, and that they had already been defeated by the time of the kiss. Thus, it did not happen because she needed to kiss Chat to save him. And to support all this, she knows Oblivio was Alya and Nino, because unlike other akumatized people they stupidly miraculously remember that they were akumatized which doesn’t make any sense at all!! why the heck would everyone who was hit by Oblivio forget about what happened during the time between they were hit and the miraculous ladybug restored everything, but the akumatized people suddenly remember that they were akumatized, and even, the reason they were akumatized?!! It just doesn’t make no sense aaargggh. She knows Alya took the picture. She knows that the kiss happened before miraculous ladybug, and even if she is not entirely sure about, she can just ask Alya (or Nino) - boom, fact. And (2), she is 14. I don’t know how other teens are at 14 today, but I don’t think this changed that a kiss is not a small thing unless you are playing truth or dare. Marinette comes off to me as a sensitive person, who at times worries about how others see her, especially if that ‘others’ is Adrien. She doesn’t dwell too much on the past, but she is quite troubled with her actions, she worries that she will screw up. She think about things really carefully: she has been baking a single macaron every Sunday, hoping that one day she will have the courage to go up to Adrien and give it to him! I am aware that these are not the best arguments, and that actually I was really bad at arguing for this second point, as to why she would be so troubled over a kiss, but I do think that a kiss would be quite significant for Marinette and not something that she would be able to just brush off as if it was nothing.

The next question is, how is she going to figure out who Chat is? Again, as I said before, Mari is smart. And honestly, I think this is a really straight-forward deduction that just needs proving. Chat is in love with LB, which means that the person under the mask is in love with LB too. She is LB, that is, she kissed Chat. She is in love with Adrien, she cannot imagine herself kissing anyone else than Adrien, but let’s move away from this for the sake of the argument. So Marinette kissed Chat Noir, which she would not have done otherwise. If she reflects on what happened during the akumatization of Oblivio, she can figure out that she and Chat both used their superpowers by the time they were hit by Oblivio. From which she can conclude that they knew each others’ secret identity before the miraculous ladybug. Which means that she knew who Chat was and still decided to kiss him. Which means that Chat is probably a boy she would kiss. Which is Adrien only at the moment, or maybe potentially Luka. From here on out she just needs to test her hypothesis by outsmarting Adrien/Chat (which is honestly not that difficult in my opinion because that guy is head over heals over LB XD). She could for example seemingly roam around the city as LB and “accidentally” run into Adrien and tell him she has a meeting with Chat at X place at Z time and then just wait for Chat to show up. She could try the same trick as Marinette, telling Adrien she has a meeting with Chat. In both scenarios, she would first have to look for the reaction of Adrien, coz I bet ya he will be super confused about having arranged a meeting as Chat while he hasn’t actually, but he cannot say anything, because ya know, he is not Chat Noir *wink wink*. So calling Mari or LB out as liars would give him away. Also, I just can only imagine him being super confused over LB/Marinette lying to a degree where he actually thinks that he did agree on a meeting just forgot about it. So the first clue would be his reaction. The second would be him actually showing up. Or Marinette could come up with a smarter plan since she is such a smarty pants, and I am not lol

[flightfoot]

Yeah, now that you brought it up, that’s definitely what was irking me about the whole thing: it feels like they’re having Alya trend back towards the Black Best Friend trope. And it’s even more annoying to me because it’s just? A really easy fix? Alya renounced Trixx minutes before he was taken by Monarch. How is she holding up after this? Does she feel guilty, does she blame herself for the fox in particular being gone? We see she still wears his bag; is it out of hope she’ll see him again or does it help her feel better about losing him? Heck, they even had her comment on her insecurities in Destruction(?) when she told Marinette she felt like she wasn’t much of a help when it comes to stolen Miraculous.

I’m hoping that maybe we’ll get to see this kind of thing in the Kwami’s Choice. In that little scene snippet that we got, Nino had asked Alya if she was okay, and if Alya’s about to use a miraculous for the first time since losing Trixx and the fox miraculous to Monarch, maybe she’ll be telling Nino about it? Maybe Alya lamenting over Trixx, and Tikki hearing this, is what leads her to select Alya as her chosen? I just hope they intend to give our girl some relevancy and not leave her in the spot she is right now.

Agreed. There are some threads to pull on to explore Alya's own feelings and insecurities, to focus on her emotions and problems. Trixx is an obvious one (pleeeeease let that come up in Kwami's Choice. Don't think it'd motivate Tikki choosing Alya though, that just makes sense based on Alya using the Ladybug Miraculous previously), but there are other things to explore as well.

Like in the video Alya made for the Ladyblog immediately after Monarch's first announcement, the one we saw in Destruction, she seemed worried. Maybe explore some of the general angst that comes from Monarch being on the loose, with all these Miraculous, and Alya not even having a Miraculous of his own to help counter him? Especially since he's gone after her family before. She couldn't pull a Sentibubbler move anymore.

Or even in Exaltation, there's an opportunity to explore her personality and character development more. Alya talks to Tikki about how she's not sure why she was getting so riled up about Marinette pursuing Chat Noir, as that's her right - to the point that when Glaciator attacked, she defended Marinette's right to choose who to love, that it was none of Andre's business. While the thread there is still based on Marinette's personal issues, it does present an opportunity for Alya to have some character exploration and development. Why DOES Marinette going after Chat Noir and trying to push her feelings for Adrien to the side frustrate her? Intellectually, she admits that Marinette has every right to do that. So why does it affect her like this emotionally? It's a great way to look more deeply at what makes Alya tick, what she values.

This season has been focused very heavily on Lovesquare development and on the Agreste plot, with a TON happening, so I don't expect a huge focus on Alya right now - I like her a lot, but she isn't as central to the plot as Marinette, Adrien, Gabriel, and Nathalie are. But there are some little ways, some short scenes that could help give her some more depth and identity outside of just supporting Marinette, even if not a lot of screentime can be devoted to her right now.

[miraculouscontent]

Always.

“Truth” is just... I mean, I want to say “garbage” but that doesn’t even do how bad it is justice? Like, okay, I take four major issues with it (my followers be like: just four? :P):

First is the writing in general and the continuity of it all. This episode looks like it’s been through multiple drafts and the final product is an amalgamation of a bunch of them with no coherency between any of them. I already could kind of guess it from the Adrimi kiss that the finale removed, but it’s obvious that there were going to be Adrimi/Lukanette arcs in Season 4 but then stuff happened (i.e: the staff being cowards) and they got cut. It’s totally possible that the plot with Jagged Stone being the father and Marinette having to keep secrets from Luka were still the same episode even in the original draft, but I imagine it at least wasn’t episode one.

There are other, more subtle hints as well, like the episode giving no time to Luka learning that Jagged is his father (making the fandom wonder if Luka remembered when he was Truth) and Ladybug being shocked when she realizes that the akuma is Luka as if she didn’t already see him be akumatized. Juleka also gets weirdly sidelined in the episode despite being Luka’s twin (Astruc has stated that both Luka and Juleka are older and Juleka got held back, which is why she’s in Marinette’s grade but Luka isn’t), so she’s Jagged’s offspring as well. One might presume that Juleka just never cared at all but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be allowed to interact directly with the guy or have any involvement at all. All it would’ve taken is for Luka to mention that Juleka never cared about who their father was but he did, thereby implying that Juleka’s reaction to Jagged would probably be more like, “oh okay.”

You know, if they didn’t reduce her to incoherent mumbling.

Second is the timing of this episode. We had the New York special with Paris being destroyed, but it’s clearly fine here (so I guess it isn’t canon now; thank God honestly), and while it’s technically possible that enough time has passed (supported by the vague implication that Marinette having to miss out on dates with Luka has gone on for a while, given Tom and Sabine’s lack of reaction to them dating), it’s not supported by Marinette examining the Miracle Box as if she’s only just gotten it.

There’s also Shadow Moth, where we’re shown an extended version of the scene from the end of “Miracle Queen” where Gabriel repairs the peacock miraculous, giving the episode a “Volpina”->”The Collector” vibe but then why are the events lining up the way they do???

The narrative also does a really bad job at showing us why Marinette is so strapped for time. She has guardian duties now but you’d think it’d balance out with her not having to go to Fu anymore for guardian training (you know, that thing we never saw but was said to be happening or at least that it was Fu’s intent to have it happen). You could argue that maybe Shadow Moth is more active, but then Chat Noir should be affected by this too; Ladybug states outright that she’s been busy and Chat Noir responds with something akin to, “oh I know, because you’re guardian,” which implies that it’s her guardian duties keeping her busy and Shadow Moth is just interrupting her dates specifically.

But we don’t even see what responsibilities she has added on as guardian. I knew the writers would make it so her being guardian was a hassle, but it’s the first episode of the series and we’ve gotten next to no answers for what being guardian actually adds.

It’s almost like this was a rushed first episode to break up the only thing that unambiguously made Marinette happy for the sake of bringing the love square back and needlessly making her suffer because the writers think it’s hilarious.

Speaking of which, the third thing thing is the comedy because--just--I hate the comedy in this show.

Like, just to start, there’s the kwami, who clearly begin with their mob mentality from the later episode of “Furious Fu” and all proceed to act like children. No, I didn’t expect them to all be wise (I mean, Xuppu exists and is very much not that, having been implied to be a fit for Kim who is known for being a total himbo), but I don’t expect them to all scatter like they do. Kaalki in particular, who was shown to be more poised and refined, blatantly reveals herself to a bunch of civilians just for the sake of Marinette freaking out and needing to make up an excuse.

Same with Alya and her friends. Marinette is panicking because of the kwami and Alya “deduces” (while shading Marinette so blatantly that it’s insulting) that Adrien must be there in her house which--maybe don’t SAY THAT OUT LOUD in case Adrien is literally in her room???). Then Marinette gets a call from Luka, shouts his name, and the girls do a complete 180 in support of Lukentte. It’s not like I’m not for them supporting whatever Marinette wants to do, but the shift is so sudden (and contradicts “Frozer”) that it gave me whiplash and the entire scene ends up being pointless since the girls still go with the “Marinette is in love with Adrien” thing when Truth asks them what Marinette’s secret is. Like, we could’ve gotten small, stupid secrets that everyone thought only they knew about Marinette, but instead it’s just the same thing over and over again (which makes no sense since, by the time Alya blabs the secret - which Alya has already told Nino before anyway - it’s no longer a secret therefore making the answer invalid).

Heck, the whole “secret” thing could’ve even been the people Truth shoots finding ways of answering his questions in a way that is technically telling the truth but also not really, such as if Anarka had answered the, “Who’s my father?” question with, “someone you know/someone famous,” so as to avoid saying that it’s Jagged Stone. It’s just boring seeing characters answer with whatever the asker wants to hear instead of being able to find a way around it.

And then there’s Chat Noir, who’s just--ugh.

Like--okay, I’m going to be extremely petty for a moment and just go off because I hate Chat Noir’s role in this entire episode. The Season 3 finale went out of its way to have Chat Noir be all like, “I have a girlfriend,” when it was a lie, and then Season 4 just parkours around Ladybug telling him that she’s dating (Ladybug clearly took no issue with Chat Noir telling her he’s dating so it’s not like she’s worried about issues there; she’s gotten on his case before in episodes like “Startrain” so there are exceptions) because they want to keep having him flirt and not be sAd because this is Marinette’s episode of suffering and Chat Noir actually having to face the reality that Ladybug is dating (not just in love with someone else) would’ve actually been interesting. Chat Noir gets tons of unnecessary screentime in the episode - mostly for the show to shove in LadyNoir shipping fuel - and then actively avoids telling him the obvious thing because he would’ve actually been forced to grow/develop/stop flirting.

It would’ve been so cute and sweet to see him awkwardly trying to flirt without overstepping boundaries (so more like banter than flirt) or - you know - actually try to support Ladybug and want her to be able to finish her dates by him offering to keep akuma/sentimonsters busy, but no, he’s just left in the dark.

The finale had Chat Noir supporting her (terribly but I digress) and then doesn’t do anything with it at the start of Season 4, meaning his support of her was completely meaningless and just there.

His first appearance is him pranking Ladybug when she’s already overstressed and busy, which comes off as super poor taste and I’m both glad he got splatted into that window for it but also upset because it’s screentime completely gone to waste, and of course it’s just a lead up to him guilting her by being like, “nooo the only thing that hurts me is when you leave me alone during patrol!”

I know he’s teasing (...probably) but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth because we know (well, I knew because I know how this show works) that Luka and Marinette were going to break up because of Marinette’s hectic schedule, so it just comes off as insensitive to joke about it, especially when Ladybug’s busy guardian status just serves as a reminder that Fu is gone.

Even when he’s protecting Ladybug from Truth’s questions by cutting in and asking a question of his own, of course he asks about himself to forcibly fish compliments out of Ladybug because she can’t lie to him, and of course they have Ladybug compliment his humor most of all as if that trait hasn’t nearly gotten them in danger multiple times and she’s been repeatedly annoyed when he decides to joke during the worst possible times. It’s as if the writers wanted to pat themselves on the back for their own comedy, so they had Ladybug be a mouthpiece to stroke Chat Noir’s ego.

He claims he won’t force a truth out of her and then literally forces her to say what her favorite things about him are. I acknowledge that this can be seen as me nitpicking but we went from the finale where Chat Noir actually stepped up and took charge (because Ladybug was stressed but I guess him doing anything useful is just whenever it serves the plot) to this where he’s back to flirting constantly and jamming in as much LadyNoir shipping fuel as physically possible. It’s not that he’s useless but he’s annoying and takes up space in an episode that’s supposed to be about Luka and Marinette.

And that leads us into the fourth thing, which is the break-up and just the treatment of Luka and Marinette in general. I could go on and on about how the Season 3 finale built up their relationship just to tear it down in the first episode of Season 4, but that’s not the main issue here.

Luka brought Marinette comfort. He made her happy. He never judged her. He was happy to just date her regardless of any conflicted feelings she might have because hey, who is he to complain if she wants to give him a try and who knows what’ll happen?

And the season couldn’t even give one moment of them being unambiguously happy without ruining or interrupting it. I was ready for the break-up and I was even ready for it to be the first episode but I wasn’t ready for it to be so bad.

Marinette’s Adrien pictures appear out of nowhere (again, makes no sense for the timeline) when they’ve been gone for basically all of Season 3 and even “The Puppeteer 2″ specifically which makes a direct reference to “Troublemaker,” the episode that purposefully overdid it with her pictures (”Truth” has more hanging up and clearly used “Troublemaker” as a reference, by the way). They’re just there for force the love square and Adrien into the episode as much as possible to remind the audience that Adrien breathes. There is literally no purpose to any mention of Adrien and bringing him up isn’t even relevant to Marinette and Luka’s break-up.

It’s just upsetting to know that the umbrella scene from “Origins” (which is already flawed in and of itself) kickstarts this whole thing. Adrien did basically nothing there except for clear up a misunderstanding and give Marinette an umbrella when his ride was a few meters away and Marinette’s house was just across the street, but that actives Marinette’s absolutely crippling crush on him that lasts for 3-4 seasons. Marinette is in this eternal struggle of not being allowed to grow and change because the writers think her stammering/crushing on Adrien is funny while actively punishing her for having this crush in the first place (again, like in the scene with Alya, which insults Marinette for her crush when she wasn’t even panicking over her crush).

It’s the same with Luka, and I can’t believe that it took me until this episode to realize that he and Marinette are both treated the same way: tormented by episodes for having a crush on someone. Episodes will go out of their way to forcibly insert Adrien into the plot to both humiliate Marinette and make Luka feel awkward when the episode isn’t supposed to be about Adrien at all. “Truth” is just “Desperada 2.0″ except Adrien is barely on screen at all and they still felt the need to name drop him constantly. The writers are so sensitive to the idea of people jumping onto another ship or forgetting that Adrien exists that they’ll find any possible way to include him.

“Silencer” knew better. “Silencer” knew that Marinette’s life didn’t have to revolve around the mere mention of Adrien’s name and that she had other interests/desires/traits outside of him. Adrien isn’t brought up once and it was great because the show didn’t feel the need (for once) to throw Adrien into an episode that he had nothing to do with.

Even if I was a love square shipper, I would feel insulted by “Truth” because one half of my ship kept getting name dropped and used as a tool to humiliate the other half, which makes it all the more eyeroll-worthy when the love square stans of the fandom praise this episode for breaking Lukanette up when--oh, wait, they didn’t even break up “because Adrien.”

And that ends up being the real thing here. The writers had to invent a reason for Marinette and Luka to break up. We already know that Jagged Stone being Luka’s dad is a retcon (not technically in the show’s canon but in information we heard about outside of it), so they shoved in Luka having issues about not knowing his father specifically so that he would be pushed over the edge when Marinette couldn’t tell him about her being Ladybug.

When Luka and Marinette were just together and hanging out, Adrien wasn’t mentioned once. Say whatever about the Adrien pictures being on the wall and Marinette’s stammering (she always says stupid stuff when she panics - especially stuff she doesn’t mean - so I’m not upset with her so much as the writing for having her mess up in that specific way), but the only time Marinette talks about Adrien at all in the episode is when someone else brings him up.

She goes on a date with Luka to the cinema and they were having a great time without Adrien involved at all. I know I already stressed this point in a previous post, but one of the reasons that I find Lukanette to be so amazing is because the show actually focuses on Marinette’s interests and doesn’t force her to be the writer’s mouthpiece for gushing about their sunshine boy a punching bag for comedy. In every Lukanette scene that doesn’t bring up Adrien/before Adrien shows up, Marinette is either praised, able to be happy, or is showing one of her interests that isn’t aDrIeN, and whereas Adrien being on-screen around Marinette usually just means that she’s gushing about/stammering around him with no development, Lukanette features us actually learning more about Luka or other characters.

“Captain Hardrock” - lets her bond with Luka over a shared interest in Jagged Stone, and Luka is established as a sort of empath who uses music as a way to speak for himself

“Frozer” - gets to practice ice skating with Luka, who is actually good at ice skating and also can tie laces despite not tying his own because he’s a rebel

“Desperada” - gets to try out guitar with Luka and we learn that Luka has been playing guitar for as long as he can remember

“Silencer” - showcases Marinette’s interest in fashion and properly introduces Kitty Section; has a plot featuring all of them together doing something not even remotely love-related and we get actual confirmation of Luka’s crush on Marinette, along with Marinette’s reaction (blushy+happy; just saying, idk how anyone could watch “Silencer” and not think that Marinette was crushing on Luka)

“Heart Hunter” - Marinette gets a song written for/about her and Luka is established to have a job

“Truth” - brings up Lukanette’s shared interest in Jagged Stone, features Marinette’s interest in fashion when she gives him a gift she made + had Jagged Stone sign, and shows her raising her voice but not being judged by Luka for it, who’s happy with her just the way he is

When the show focuses on Lukanette, it’s all about lifting Marinette up, praising her, and making her feel good. When Adrien is involved or it’s hyper-fixating on Marinette’s crush on him, it’s about bringing her down and making her feel bad for a crush they keep forcing her to hold onto and humiliating her for.

Point being, the writers had to force their way into getting Lukanette broken up because of their precious love square and the fact that Marinette and Luka being happy is the opposite of what they want.

It’s embarrassing to watch a team full of old white guys (I’m convinced at this point that they just hang their female writer on a coat hanger so they can point to her whenever someone says that their staff is too male-dominated) treat their female biracial lead with such disrespect, and I can only presume that the mistreatment of Luka is because he’s supportive of her and they don’t like that, meaning that the way she’s treated ends up rubbing off on him.

It doesn’t come off as a fun or interesting plot; it comes off as cruel. When Adrien is sad, he usually gets people rushing to comfort him (”Party Crasher,” “Gamer”), but “Truth” has Marinette in tears over the fact that she can’t have a boyfriend due to being Ladybug and the writing has the gall to crack jokes about Kaalki not knowing what tears are, and then Marinette has to ask for the kwami to hug her for comfort.

When Luka gets akumatized into Truth, the episode doesn’t even hesitate at bashing away at him, from everyone saying that Marinette’s secret is that she “loves Adrien” (which, as Truth points out, isn’t a secret, and they could’ve had this somehow lead up to a twist ending where Marinette actually isn’t into Adrien anymore and the Adrien pictures were genuinely for reference, but she stammered about it because it was embarrassing that her boyfriend got sent it with no context) to one of Luka’s favorite songs actually being about how Jagged abandoned him to go on tour. Luka has to deal with Marinette ditching him constantly (not that I blame her) and not knowing who his father is despite wanting to know, and the episode treats him like trash for... what? Having a crush on a girl who’s secretly Ladybug? Because that’s all it seems to come down to in the end.

I also have serious gripes with the fact that Marinette has this huge schedule established in “Gamer 2.0″ and they don’t even try to explain why she can’t use it to keep track of her obligations. The episode has her say (in a roundabout way but still) that she’s forgetting stuff constantly because of all of her emergencies (the emergencies of which are not stated and I hate the subtle implication that forgetting something means you don’t care about it when that’s clearly not how things work and also not what Marinette comes off as because - again - they establish that she’s overworked) but fails to properly explain it. The episode hammers away at Marinette having all these issues and even has Tikki chide Marinette by asking her about leaving Luka alone while apparently neglecting the fact that Marinette HAS to go be Ladybug right now and what else is there to even do??

Both Luka and Marinette are punished for just having a crush and wanting to be together and I hate that the episode forces a break-up instead of coming up with a solution to the problem. Instead of “Marinette isn’t ready for a romantic relationship,” it feels more like she’s just not allowed to be happy.

Long-distance relationships are a thing. Relationships where people don’t get to go on dates frequently are a thing. Instead of forcing a break-up, the episode could’ve had a lesson/development where Marinette is told that she’s allowed to pursue a relationship and just needs to plan accordingly. but they just didn’t want to.

For example: instead of planning dates, Marinette could wait until an akuma/sentimonster is defeated to call Luka and ask him out, because Hawk Moth usually doesn’t strike immediately after one is dealt with. I’m positive that Luka would happily take impromptu/sudden dates over planned-but-inconsclusive ones. Heck, they don’t even have to date specifically and can just stick to phone calls (kwami can’t be picked up on technology) or hanging out in Marinette’s room/on Marinette’s balcony while they do their thing.

Relationships are a commitment, but that doesn’t mean they have to be a burden, and the episode absolutely drags Marinette over it. The whole thing with the kwami being released and stressing her out when they’re not supposed to be able to just come out normally is explained away by, “oh, the new box must be like you, Marinette; full of surprises!” when the reality is just that the show wants to take away everything that’s sacred to Marinette. The Season 3 finale had Fu’s letter telling Marinette that “life doesn’t always give you what you want, but the real gift is life itself,” then proceeds to turn Marinette’s life into a living hell.

Her room? She has to say good-bye to her privacy because now the kwami are always going to be around. The first thing one of them (Trixx) did was start reading her diary, showing that they have absolutely no shame or regard for Marinette’s feelings.

Her schedule? Conveniently pops away into the realm of non-existence so she can look bad for ditching Chat Noir on patrol and neglecting dates with Luka due to her responsibilities/stress.

Her boyfriend, the one person in the entire show who loved her, respected her agency, never judged her, actually apologized when he made her sad, and who she was genuinely in love with rather than just having the equivalent of a celebrity crush for? She had to break up with him because plot and needing to force her to go back to fawning over the guy who has only made her life worse by her crushing on him.

When I say the universe hates Marinette, this is what I mean. It created random akuma to attack Paris all for the sake of forcing Marinette away from Luka, and apparently didn’t realize what they were doing in the scene where Marinette hurries back to the Liberty when Kitty Section and Adrien are playing together when Adrien is Chat Noir so he should’ve been late too.

(Oh, and Marinette completely ignores Adrien in favor of waving at Luka and even tells Luka outright that Adrien isn’t even a factor in their relationship issues, further proving the “multiple drafts smashed together” and “the Adrien name drops are pointless” points.)

The whole thing in “Backwarder” where it was basically outright stated that Marianne could’ve been Fu’s confidant had Marianne not been outed by Ladybug’s mistake? Completely forgotten and left to the wayside. Marinette could’ve told Luka that she was watching the Miracle Box in Ladybug’s place (for any number of reasons, really: either Ladybug thinks it’s too dangerous to keep with her, or if the public doesn’t know that Ladybug is guardian, then Marinette can just say that she’s guardian) and that she has to run off to keep guard of the Miracle Box when an akuma/sentimonster happens in case Ladybug needs a miraculous.

Boom, done, episode solved. Luka gets to help Marinette with the kwami, Marinette is less stressed because someone knows half of her secret, and Luka and Marinette continue to date but are able to plan around akuma attacks.

But no. That whole thing in “Backwarder” where guardians (or at least Fu) can have a confidant was just there so Marinette could feel guilty about screwing it all up, because she’s not able to take advantage of that perk herself.

How convenient.

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reaction to ROCKETEAR!

It's a long post, but when are these ever really short? xD Seeing Carapace first made me so excited. I've been sad we haven't had much of him in the show. And then I saw that it seemed like Ladynoir was doing pretty good as they only had Carapace helping them this time. More S2 & S3 like. So I was like cool, cool, this is great. But what the heck scientist WHY ARE YOU BRINGING TYRANNOSAURUS REX'S BACK! Obviously she's going to be something big later on, she's too nicely animated not to be back. Not to mention Bob Roth's plans. Anyone else both intrigued but also scared at what that could do later? Big upcoming plot point, I think.

I screamed awwww because this is everything. I've wanted a LB/Carapace and Marinette/Nino friendship bond in this show since season 1. This scene made me incredibly happy! I'm a huge Nino fan, for those that don't know, so you can imagine how much I love this episode. Even though sad Nino.

"Alya, everyone has to believe that you will never use the Miraculous again!" End of episode: So anyway... So what I'm seeing here is, Alya's not fond of the idea of being just a spy, not being in on the action. Even though it's Ladybug's plan. Chat Noir isn't fond of what's going on right now either, where he thinks what's going on is all Ladybug's plans. Alya makes the decision to not do what Ladybug wants and tells Nino she's still Rena Rouge. So what's Chat Noir going to do to go against her? Because that's coming up on the horizon. Despite everything being easier for Marinette since everything's not just on her shoulders now, she's still been unable to play video games with her dad, and we know how much she loves doing that. :c That's really sad she doesn't even have time for her family anymore. DJWifi over here being all adorable. "You don't love me anymore!" Me: *Chat Blanc flashbacks* Alya suggests her new content could be Chat Noir edits and Marinette's like YES DO THOSE. Then those edits helped push Nino into thinking she was into Chat. Big oops. Not gonna lie, the rewind freaked me out for a moment. Last time I saw that was Chat Blanc so I thought something big was up. But nope, it's just like that scene in Puppeteer 2. Ugh poor Nino! He knows something's bothering Alya, but she won't say what it is and her behavior's too off from how she normally is. Poor guy. x.x Grumpy Nino that Carapace doesn't get attention and then they wrote his girlfriend with Chat Noir. I remember when Alya was grumpy for a bit about Rena Rouge not getting a party to celebrate her. Movie Ladybug telling Movie Chat Noir that he's better with Movie Rena Rouge. Is this a reference to the episode in Avatar, The Ember Island Players? Getting strong vibes when Play Aang and Play Katara were like, we're just friends nothing more and it's great! Play Katara was extremely into Play Zuko. I can see why Ladybug dismissed the movie (or was it the previous one since it's been awhile? Maybe?) because Rena Rouge and Chat Noir???? The writers (of the movie) just wanted to be different because everyone can see Ladynoir, unless they're blind. Alya and Nino are Andre's favorite couple. YES THANK YOU. I mean they're not my favorite because Love Square. BUT they're my second favorite next to them. Those kids are super adorable but definitely that kid playing Chat wasn't doing Nino any favors. First picture Alya shows. Chat with a heart tail. Yeah that's not doing her any favors lol. Nino: UGH CHAT NOIR'S COMING IN BETWEEN ME AND MY GIRLFRIEND. I KNOW, I'LL CALL MY BEST FRIEND TO VENT TO ABOUT IT. Best Friend Chat Noir: Best Friend Chat Noir: Welp maybe I should see what's up. Maybe I went a little to hard on the cat charm and she's fallen in love with me. Me: Oh oof here we go. Also can I ask, if anyone knows, who animated this episode? The fluidity is great and it looks really pretty. But it doesn't quite look like SAMG's work either. Whoever did it, I love it. S2 Chat Noir: You're not replacing me with a turtle, are you? :c S4 Nino: Who would want a reckless turtle as a partner? BOYS STOP. But yeah this whole scene had me laughing so hard XD Very dramatic and I love it. Nino's hilarious even when he's worried and sad! I would've absolutely loved to have heard this in English with the old English voice of Nino, but the new one worries me on whether or not he'll do a good job sounding like Nino and less high-pitched and whiny. :/ New York Nino was great but S4 Nino....x.x THE TRANSITION BETWEEN HIS INNER MONOLOGUE AND SPEAKING REGULARLY AGAIN 😂😂😂😂 Brilliant! It doesn't really feel like Miraculous Ladybug this episode, and I love it. Not that I don't love the show as usual but wow this is great. Okay, I want to point out that Chat Noir

probably was more worried about it than he would've been otherwise because of what happened with Marinette in Weredad. It probably made him more cautious about this sort of thing.

LOL Chat's sulking because Alya's laughing at the idea of being interested in him. 😂😂 I know that's a blow to one's ego and all, and he's dealt with this kind of thing a lot so I do feel bad for him, but that is his best friend's girlfriend and he definitely doesn't want her to like him. Alya: With him it's not just ❤️it's *makes massive hand gesture indicating she loves him deeply* SO SO SO CUTE OKAY ALL THIS DJWIFI 😭 Alya: And I don't even know your secret identity! I would never fall in love with someone I don't know. Chat Noir, literally fell in love with Ladybug, whose identity he doesn't know. Well Alya, I wonder if you saying that matters for later somehow.... o.O Nino running away crying is honestly one of the things that hurts me most in the entire show. Ugh. Adrien over here being all, I'm having a good day. I'm happy and smiling and it's great. And then it wasn't. Adrien, if Nino let him and didn't interrupt, would've told him about how Alya really doesn't love Chat Noir, and that would've seriously led up to his identity being exposed since Nino was watching and filmed them. o.o Did you notice how he was going to tell him about it? S4, the basement is where it's at. Adrien: Uhh, when did you arrange all this? Nino: *pounds fist on desk* I ASK THE QUESTIONS! 😂 So like. Why is Nino interrogating Adrien when he's after Chat Noir? He doesn't know they're the same person. XD He's looking at him like Adrien has info he's keeping or something omg.

Also again this animation is so nice. Adrien, feeling uncomfortable and so turns the music off. Nino, wanting his dramatic music on while he interrogates Adrien, turns it back on. Adrien, feeling even more irritated and uncomfortable, wants the music OFF and turns it off. Nino, turns the music back on. This may be a reference to something, I don't know, but lolol it's so funny. This episode is both super hilarious and super angsty! Honestly they've done such a good job in my opinion. Nino: I'm talking about something that I shouldn't tell you! ...but I'm going to tell you anyway! Alya's Rena Rouge and I'm Carapace! Okay but the way Adrien went from shock to utter anger, knocked his chair back and grabbed Nino's shoulders like "Tell me the truth. You two know about each other?" Aw man, my poor sunshine boy. A lot of the stuff bothering Adrien is all circumstantial, none of it is to purposefully keep him in the dark. And yet from his perspective, that's how it looks. "I thought secret identities must be protected at all times! If that was the truth, you would never tell me this!" Alright so three things. If he's referring to him saying that Nino and Alya know about each other, that was situational and important info for him to know now that this is out. It wasn't important to know before this. The time it happened was dire and was really no time to get around it. If he's talking about Nino telling him the secrets, well yeah that's not supposed to happen and Nino broke that trust. But also, I get the feeling pretty strongly at this point Adrien's going to be breaking some rules too and one of which is he's going to tell Nino who he is. Adrien's being too emotional in this scene to not be involved in it all, I'm wondering if that's going to be questioned later by Nino. He's acting like he knows too much to be a random viewer of the heroes like the rest of Paris. Also Adrien's best friend just totally dissed Chat Noir and went off about how he throws himself at Ladybug whenever he sees her with roses and love confessions. 😂😂😂 This is just too funny! "But he's always rejected because Ladybug finds him annoying! And she's completely right!" Omg Nino, that's not the reason anymore, shush! "And then Rena Rouge appears and he goes *tickles under Adrien's chin* hey pretty lady! You look elegant and you have great perfume." OMG does Chat Noir actually say and do stuff like that to Rena Rouge or is he just exaggerating here XD "If I could I would shut his mouth forever!" Yeah Nino, say what you really think about your best friend in the entire world. Yikes poor Adrien though. I never imagined he'd hear all these bad things about himself from his best friend directly like that. :/ That's a major misunderstanding of him. Which kind of pushes me more towards the "he's going to tell Nino" theory. Sad Adrien transformation DDDX Alya: *explained everything about why Chat Noir went over to her house in the middle of the night* Marinette *facepalm* Ugh that Chat Noir... Well at least there will be no misunderstandings there! xD "Chat Noir, you stole Alya from me! I will steal your life from you." Good lord man calm down. You can't just kill a man! Fanon: Chat Noir gets attacked by a guy over Marinette. Canon: Chat Noir gets attacked by a guy over Alya. Time to go back to the basement! lol Nino's music's still playing xD And the video is left with it paused on Chat Noir hugging Alya. Marinette looked a bit sad, but it was probably more about the situation being a mess rather than being sad he'd hug her. Meanwhile, Chat Noir's fighting Nino and would rather get beaten up by him than fight. x.x "I can't believe that I doubted you." "I can't believe I chose to do anything but be with you!" She wiped away akumatized Nino's tear just like how Ladybug wiped away akumatized Chat Noir's. ALL THE PARALLELS 😭😭😭 But that hug is so sweet!! Nino broke off the akumatization just like Alya did :o Dang, I wonder if that means something later too. "Love and secrets do not go well together, Ladybug. And I'm sure you have a lot of

them!" Secrets = from Chat Noir. Love = for Chat Noir. Yeah even Shadow Moth knows at this point. xP Thanks for that foreshadowing. Nino's charm is my favorite charm so far! It's my favorite shade of blue. Chat Noir: Everybody has doubts sometimes...even me." Ladybug: Is everything okay, Chat Noir? Chat: Oh yes...pound it!

So um. The placemet of Adrien's poster in between Chat Noir, Ladybug, and just with this entire situation feels very strange. Very intentional. But no clue exactly what that could mean..... Nino and Alya are happy over there watching those two, like they're waiting for them to figure things out or something. But really, Adrien should've talked to Ladybug when he could still do so calmly and be reasonable. I doubt that's going to be the case later on. And honestly Ladybug doesn't even know what's going on. Every episode we've seen really either has them working together or she's unable to be Ladybug when he's unable to be Chat Noir most of the time. I've said it before but these two really need to communicate. Nino and Alya are like a less adorably romantic version of what they'd be. "But they're a couple and they know their secret identities, so why does that rule exist for us but they can know?" Very simple. Because they were temporary holders and the Miraculous they had, Hawk Moth hasn't made it his life's mission to obtain, unlike them, who are permanent holders and Hawk Moth's been after them fiercely to make a Wish that could destroy everything. But. The fact he's asking this, and Marinette's Chat Blanc nightmare, really points in the direction that he's going to eventually find out that while she's thought about telling him all along, Chat Blanc's kept her from doing so.

Okay, so while it looks like he's staring up at the moon, if you notice, it really is just one of the pink bubbles.

Now, they could be making it seem like it's the moon though to give it a double meaning. But poor Kitty, he's feeling so awful right now over in that dark corner Dx Nino felt bad for only two episodes? and it got resolved, so hopefully this all won't last too much longer for him! Marinette had a few shaky episodes so hopefully he'll have a few before it gets resolved. But somehow I think that may be wishful thinking. This episode was so amazing, honestly. Wonderful writing, made me laugh a lot, aw a lot, and hurt a lot. It focused on the core 4 characters which I've wanted more of for a long time. The animation was beautiful. And it just felt so different in such a good way. Chat Noir's having a hard time right now, and I know there's a lot of anger and hate about it going around. But please, think of this as him hitting a rough spot in the road to a much better and brighter future. He's going to end up okay, he'll understand it all someday. And that day's honestly not that far for him if you think about it.

[ravenclaw-questions-gone-writing]

Ven’s Idea Outline #1 (Maribat)

Remember that MariDamiJon fic that I mentioned I was going to do for the gift exchange? It’s still bouncing around in my head and Luka decided to join in so I’ve decided to at least make an outline in (assuredly vain) hopes that it will leave me alone for a bit.

Ao3

Part 1

Typical Daminette but Hanahaki style bc I can’t find any Maribat hanahaki fics and I need one and I can’t find any.

Dick and Damian sent to scope out Paris for Hawkmoth related reasons

Jon goes with bc he’s Damian’s emotional support kryptonian but he might arrive later This idea has been removed but I like it so I will share it.

Damian is getting familiar with the new battlegrounds  taking a walk in the park when a girl falls from a tree and lands on top of him

The girl apologizes profusely before explaining that she’s really clumsy and she was just trying to help a kitten stuck in the tree

It’s not love at first sight but Damian appreciates an animal lover and is slightly less of an ass than he would usually be

Might mix this with my Blossom Soulmate AU that I never got around to finishing and posting, now that I think about it

Anyway, Damian helps her get the cat down from the tree

He latches onto this potential information source who is not as annoying as most other people and sticks with her

They become friends friendly acquaintances and he drops by her school to pick up her up after she agreed to show him around Paris.

Debating Lila salt...

Debating Class salt...

If yes: Damian walks into a scene where Marinette  and sweeps Marinette away without a word to the rest of her class

If no: Damian arrives and proceeds to wait for her outside by his motorcycle

Either way, his appearance makes waves in Dupont’s rumor mills

They do not know he’s Damian Wayne, just that there’s a dude who attractive enough to be model with a motorcycle waiting for the schools (tragic, if salt) sunshine fashion princess.

Robin and Nightwing meet up with Ladybug and Chat Noir to offer their help in figuring out who Hawkmoth is, as well as fighting and training.

Full Miraculous court meeting with Ryuko, Viperion, Queen Bee, Carapace, Rena Rouge, Pegasus, Bunnyx, and Monkey king. (Rena Rouge is removed if Class salt. Replaced with Fox!Nath or Fox!Julieka)

Ladybug and Robin get along

About two weeks in Adrien starts officially dating Kagami.

Another week passes and Damian finds out Marinette has been coughing flower petals and her unrequited love is her classmate Adrien Agreste.

She refuses to remove the hanahaki - this version is the standard they can’t fall in love ever again if they remove it.

This revelation makes him oddly uneasy, it isn’t until his own Hanahaki shows up later that night that realizes he understands why.

Damian does a pretty good job of hiding it.

Dick knows something is up but he’s trying to give Damian more space so he doesn’t look into it and trusts Damian would ask him if it’s life threatening

Ladybug notices his discomfort on patrol and they talk

He is surprised to learn Ladybug also has it and Robin comes up with the brilliant idea that they should fall in love with each other.

There is precedent that if you fall out of love with the person, the Hanahaki will go away. But falling out of love is difficult and not easily done. There must be no lingering romantic feelings at all.

Ladybug encourages Robin to chase his crush first, because he at least has a chance if the girl he likes also has it.

Cue the debates

If Ladybug wins: Enter Damian going all out in flirty assassin seduction techniques from his mother - Good Talia that kills rapists, none of that she raped Bruce bs, she actually had a good relationship with Bruce and a mutual breakup because of differing views on killing people - that he’s barely used since his lessons on it in the league and romantic advice from Dick.

He goes full on Bitch-sensei from assassination classroom.

He’s commissioned a shirt from Marinette. She gets to design it however she wants.

It is a long sleeved button up, specifically made to accentuate his muscles without being too revealing.

That’s the shirt he wears when he asks her out with flowers and a stuffed kitten holding a stuffed wood board that says “please date me” He has his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, top button undone. Collar and hair ruffled up for maximum sensuality. He’s got a lot of references between all the people he knows (Bruce, Talia, Selina, Dick, and really his whole family is full of objectively attractive, seductive people he can reference. Just as long as he avoids mimicking their failing romantic habits, he should be fine.)

He tries to be suave about it but is a little too nervous to completely pull it off. It doesn’t matter because Marinette finds it endearing.

On the date, he’s more confident and is able to pull off suave bastard much better but only at the end. He’s a gentleman until the very end, when he leaves her in the bakery

He goes in, and twirls her admittedly short hair around his finger, maintaining eye contact as he presses his lips against her hair - it’s admittedly harder than he expected given how short it is but being so close made it more intimate and the blush on her face was definitely worth it

He leaves in the bakery slightly dazed and counts the date as a success.

Marinette’s mind shut down bc damn that boy is fine and smooth af is flustered and confused as heck but she’s willing to give him a shot

Alternatively: Marinette’s not sure about dating Damian because she feels like she’s just using him to get rid of her hanahaki bc of the idea that Robin had proposed.

Dick is ecstatic that Damian was acting weird because he had a crush and loved helping his brother out with this date planning in the city of love

He doesn’t report it back to the batfam yet because they had a small argument about it and Damian pulled away with the small victory of Dick has to wait until after the first date to tell them.

Damian is glad he Marinette’s willing to give him a chance but he’s worried about Ladybug

he wonders if he should set her up with Tim or Duke, it’d be a shame to lose a friend and hero like her.

Robin brings up his success to Ladybug and asks if there’s anything he can do to help her.

She notes that a friend had actually confessed to her and she’s giving them a chance.

They accidentally compare notes on their dates and that’s their reveal.

If Robin wins: An awkward start that smooths into moonlit dates on the Eiffel tower, dancing on rooftops, an increase in flirting but only after battles, never before it bc they have a professional reputation to keep, increasingly physical training routines, stolen kisses but not on lips until they’re more comfortable with each other.

Fast tracked mutual slow burn which kinda defeats the purpose of a slow burn but whatever

I have realized these ideas are not mutually exclusive.

Maybe Ladybug wins first but Damian fails to seduce Marinette because she has the doubts so they go with plan B and date each other. Ladybug is more comfortable with the idea of dating Robin because they both have Hanahaki and are knowingly using each other to get rid of it?

There is no identity reveal in this version

Complaint Break time: I was writing this to get it out but it keeps growing, wtf.  This is so long and I haven’t even gotten to the main part.

It was supposed to be an established Daminette but I wanted to show how they got together, this was supposed to be like 5 bullet points, 10 tops.

At some point, I’m going to have to mention the rumor that people with Hanahaki are being kidnapped because the flowers that bloom after their death make great medicine but that cures most illnesses and are good potions ingredient whatever, something along those lines. It’s not the ones they cough up but the flowers that grow on the vines constricting their lungs after until they die and only blossom after death. Those flowers that spread the pollen into the air that makes the Hanahaki disease possible.

That’s why people keep it a secret unless they’re going to get the surgery as there’s not other way to treat it.

But that’s a plot point for part 2.

I feel like this is already longer than anything I’ve put out at this point in time.

Back to the story:

Even though they’re dating, the Hanahaki doesn’t go away immediately. It slows and becomes less frequent but there are times when they think of how their love doesn’t return their feelings and the flowers come back with a vengeance and they’re down for the day, possibly the entire week, hacking up flower petals and buds.

(Ladybug Wins version until otherwise stated) It’s during one of these fits that Dick finds out and is angry at this girl playing with his brother’s feelings.

Damian is too busy hacking up bloody flower petals to correct him

The entire batfam and subsequently Superfam now know the batfam’s youngest has hanahaki

Jon is called in and flies in to help keep an eye on his best friend

Bruce, Jason, Tim, and Duke are shocked but they pack up and are ready to go in guns blazing to have a talk with this girl bc the boys might not be on the best terms but that’s their baby brother. The girls stay behind to hold down the fort (because I need more time to get familiar with them before I can confidently write their characters. I’m not too confident about Duke either but I already mentioned him and it’s too late to back out now.)

So, Damian’s brothers and his father track her down to a different park in Paris where Marinette’s hanging out with her friends

They’re incised to find their brother’s girlfriend with another guy’s arm around her, leading her away from the main group of friends

It’s Luka, he’s helping her hide her hanahaki because she assures him that she has it under control and will go with him to the hospital if it becomes too much

They confront the couple

There’s a lot of intimidating posturing and accusations

Batfam is absolutely not prepared for the bloody flowers that spill from her lips - her hanahaki is even worse than Damian’s

Detective bats (correctly or incorrectly, depending on which version happens) put the pieces together and figure they’re dating to get rid of the hanahaki, that is something Damian would absolutely propose

and oh shit, this time it’s not just Bruce that’s adopting someone. They have a little sister now.

Luka explains what he knows about the situation and basically confirms what they’d deduced.

Welp, since they’re here, Hawkmoth has become top priority.

Hawkmoth takes one look at the Miraculous circle and the new set of bats and just- nopes out plus super boy and just nopes out.

Like, he tries but he has no expectation of winning and tries to run instead. It doesn’t work, they have all grounds covered.

I should probably make use of Mayura if I ever do write everything out but she didn’t really leave much of an impression on me tbh and I don’t have a lot of ideas. Maybe if I ever go back and watch it.

Celebratory, on-the-spot kiss between Robin and Ladybug where they do “oh“ and realize the pressure in their chest is finally gone and the Hanahaki is no more.

(Robin Wins) Dick is obliviously happy about little Robin leaving the nest and finding a mate until he finds out both the little heroes coughing up flower petals on their date

then he goes in and mother hens them both, before demanding answers

He’s also less happy about this whole dating thing

Dick can’t do much about Ladybug without revealing her identity but Damian isn’t getting out of it so easily

Dick figures out who Damian’s crushing on and goes to do a little investigating. He is very surprised to see it’s a bubbly, energetic designer girl and not someone... calmer. But then he thinks of Jon and it makes a little more sense

He talks to her, asks about what she thinks of Damian and is pleasantly surprised by her positive view of his brother. He asks if she would go out with him and she coughs up some petals

Now, Dick’s freaking out and why are there so many children with Hanahaki? This is the third one in two days!

fast forward because I’m finally out of ideas for this part

Ladybug knows she��s fallen for Robin, which was the entire point of them dating but she not sure he actually reciprocates or is still trying to forget that other girl.

Or if you went the other way, Robin’s still chasing Marinette but Ladybug now likes Robin and is aware that he’s trying to woo her. So, out of the frying pan and into another for her.

Robin is absolutely having regrets bc he is an emotional wreck and crushing on two girls and this was not supposed to happen, damnit.

A meta gets akumatized and takes out half the miraculous court but turns out the meta’s psychic ability can help track Hawkmoth so its all cool, now that they know what Hawkmoth feels like

Ladybug, Chat Noir, Ryuko, and Robin vs Hawkmoth and Mayura

Nightwing stayed behind to watch the other heroes are no longer brain dead from the battle but boy are they out of it and he has to make sure they get home safe

that does not mean he’s not extremely put out and worried about it since he knows half the team has hanahaki and it may interfere with the fight

Even if the Ladybug suit lessens the hanahaki attacks, they still happen from time to time

For two people who don’t  show up to fight often Hawkmoth and Mayura put up a good fight

Ladybug has an hanahaki attack and Hawkmoth tried to take advantage of it, only to get knocked out by Chat Noir who’s still pissed at his dad for causing this whole thing

Chat Noir and Ryuko are pretty shocked Ladybug has hanahaki, even more her timer runs out and she choses to present it to Robin

Robin is shook

He gets it together and pulls her into a kiss that cures their hanahaki and makes their brains melt

Now Marinette’s kinda confused bc what the other girl

Damian, slightly shifting his mask so she can see who he is: That other girl was YOU

Now Marinette’s the one who’s shook

Note: Chat Noir and Ryuko have both de-transformed at this point and are watching with wide eyes but they do not see who is under that mask. Also, no cameras in this section of the manor bc that would be proof.

They have a lot to talk about but it works out in the end.

the outline above was written out of order bc I had to go back everytime a new idea hit and I cannot be bothered to go back and dodeca-check this thing again just to make sure everything makes sense.

Part 2 (that was supposed to be the main story- finally made it, the starting point. I cry.)

Ok, so, now that Daminette is established and the evil is defeated

Damian returns to Gotham with his girlfriend in tow to introduce her to the rest of his family, despite his better judgement

Jon is happy that Damian is in happy, loving relationship but he’s a bit sad that it’s not him and oop, sunshine kryptonian boy got hanahaki’d.

Same for Luka. (Yes, Jagged will be his dad and a Gothamite.)

Jagged and his kids join them in Gotham bc he has to be there to show his favorite designer niece around to all the best places of his hometown.

Luka finds out Jon has Hanahaki and they bond over the experience

They make a pact to cover each other and get the other to the hospital when it gets to that point

Pining/Simping meetings over their best friends that for some unknown reason seem to lessen the flower coughing over time even though these meetings probably make things worse but they also need vent before it increases again.

Luka and Jon beginning to fall for each other but they think the other is still in love with Marinette/Damian and it’s true that they still hold feelings for their best friends that aren’t diminishing in the sleightest and it’s all very confusing.

It’s even more confusing when we add the new hero in Gotham, Viperion who’s there to continue training with the bats since he’s visiting the area, rescues and lightly flirts with Jon who ended up developing a small crush and Jon realizes he has a type.

So, poor Jon’s now crushing on Damian, Luka, and Viperion

Viperion meets Superboy and the kryptonian doesn’t seem to like him?

Luka’s crushing on Marinette, Jon - still doesn’t know that Damian is Robin. And is kinda curious and a little hurt that the Robin’s oddly familiar kryptonian is actively and obviously avoiding him and that heart song is kind of familiar but different.

Viperion also gains a crush on Robin after watching him take down a thug in a very graceful way - the bird was showing off for his bug and decided to make it a little showier, he accidentally also caught a snake

Ladybug and Robin still flirt but the court - aside from Ryuko and Chat, depending on which version - think that’s just their dynamic, though they do pull Robin aside for a bit to tell him she has a boyfriend now. He assured them it’s fine and he knows, oddly amused at their attempt.

man, I am not original with this identity porn thing

It isn’t until Luka sees Jon again that he puts it together.

Marinette suspiciously notes Luka and Jon been hanging out an awful lot she’s making connections to the time she had hanahaki and Luka covered for her

The pains of befriending deductive genii.

Cue the panic and they accidentally claim they’re dating but it throws Marinette off for now, so it kinda worked?

Hanahaki fic with a fake dating AU. Oops.

Mari decides since she and Damian don’t know this, they must have been neglecting their best friends and double dates are the way to go.

Cue more panic

Unlike Marinette who is willing to trust their word, Damian’s a suspicious bastard who’s kind of dubious and a little salty that Jon didn’t tell him earlier if they’re telling the truth but Mari’s all gung ho about it so he lets it go for now

They go on the date and it is an emotional mess for everyone involved

It starts out fine

Jon and Luka act a bit weird because they have to cover for each other randomly coughing up petals, not to mention they’re on a date with their original crushes without actually dating their original crushes not even mentioning their new crushes and the secret identity reveal that Luka still hasn’t confronted Jon on and Jon’s guiltily thinking about Viperion half the time he thinks about Luka and shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Yeah, so they’re a mess

Damian’s watching them like he’s trying to figure them out and it is not helping but thank god Mari’s distracting him totally on accident

Marinette? She found a random lost kid in Gotham looking for their parents

So now the double date’s been temporarily derailed to help the lost kid

While Damian’s watching Marinette try pass the crying kid off to Jon for a  moment so she can make a phone call to report a lost child but the kid’s clinging onto Marinette, and they exchange looks so Jon calls in the lost kid instead and he’s just struck with the idea of a family with the three of them and some kids

Cue panic time (again)

Ignoring the thought of children, why was Jon in his fantasy?

Luka’s just watching a smitten boy go into panic mode over the trio and while doesn’t quite know what’s going on in Damian’s head, but that was really cute and oh not again

They find the kid’s parents, and the date moves on

Jon’s more comfortable, Marinette wasn’t really bothered in the first place. Luka and Damian are now having crises

Luka makes a joke under his breath in an attempt to calm down before his Hanahaki acts up

It did not help bc Damian overhears and gives a small amused snort that made his heart stutter but hey positive interaction!

Both Marinette and Jon but end up having feelings very similar to the one Damian had earlier when they look over at Damian and Luka’s little interaction - Damian’s giving Luka a small smirk and Luka is entirely embarassed at being heard when he wasn’t hadn’t meant to be.

But then Luka gives Jon a small sign before he excuses himself to the restroom so Luka can run off and cough up his flower petals

You remember that whole thing about the kidnapping people with hanahaki so they die and medicine and things can be collected from the flowers springing up from their corpse thing? Yeah, the kids are in Gotham and there is definitely a group there that has dealings with the trade and someone saw Luka hacking up flowers

but they mark him and pull back to plan instead of kidnapping him then and there bc drama and Jon followed him to the restroom to check on him

Date ends ok and everyone’s kind of an emotional wreck

Damian has surprisingly learned his lesson on miscommunication and guiltily confides his fantasy to her like a parishioner to his priest

Marinette basically goes same and confesses about the moment she and Jon saw his interaction with Luka.

“So, We’re together, and they’re together...and I might be in love with Jon, you think you might be in love with Luka... What now?“ Damian asked, trying to make sense of it all

“We could...” Marinette swallows, “um, all four of us? together?“ she offered meekly. Seeing that Damian seemed to like the idea, she continued. “Y’know, feel out how receptive they are to the idea and then just seduce them?”

Ok, so the temporary communication skills were nice.

Because instead of talking it out with their best friends, they decide to seduce them but to be fair, there’s at least one version of this where Damian got where he did because of seduction.

Between both Damian and Marinette’s phsyical attractiveness, their combined determination and stubbornness, Damian’s assassin seduction knowledge, and Marinette’s fashion ability and tactical knowledge of where to accentuate what, Jon and Luka have no chance of leaving pining hell for the foreseeable future.

Marinette doubles down on the “double dates” aka, seduction plans in action and group hang outs, aka much more softer, subtle seduction plans

Marinette and Damian do not do much seeing how receptive they are and really just jump right into the seduction, except they adjust the plans so Luka and Jon don’t catch on so Daminette couple thinks it’s ok to go all out.

Cue seduction and pining hijinks, and a whole lot of bloodly flowers and plenty of internal screaming

Damian learns that Luka might not be too bad in the group and Jon is panicking because oh shit he’s got another crush and it’s his best friend’s girlfriend.

the quartet’s love issues are really full circle... or whatever this shape is supposed to be. Because there’s still the whole Viperion/superboy thing and - i just... I’m not going to keep analyzing this.

Somewhere during this, Jon confesses his feelings this particular friend group to Con, leaving out the whole Hanahaki thing. Con tells Tim for advice on being a big brother and things happen but I’m not sure what. I just want TimCon and the Superboys bonding

So a couple weeks pass by the Hanahaki’s getting pretty bad and Luka suddenly goes missing

Ladybug and the bats are on it as soon as they realize he’s gone

Except they are missing one, very important piece of information

Luka’s hanahaki

So, for the next few days, they don’t get anywhere until Jon slips up and ends up coughing up a shitton of bloody flowers which leads to panic, confusion and explanation, bc wtf Jon, you’re supposed to be dating Luka and that’s definitely not unrequited

So everyone gets the full explanation, the final piece of the puzzle snaps into place and the bats are on it.

Marinette and Damian have to put aside that whole revelation in order to track and save Luka before he dies of Hanahaki

They both make sure to kiss Jon first so he doesn’t get handicapped by his hanahaki like Ladybug did but he and Luka will be on thin ice once they get Luka back

So it’s pretty much a race against time bc they don’t know how bad Luka’s hanahaki is

Tracking, beat up bad guys, possible magic related villain(s) searching for potion ingredients that may take harm Superboy more than than if they weren’t there

They rescue Luka or Luka and Ssass break out as Viperion and meet them halfway.

Hey, the identity reveals!

 Either way, at the end of it, Luka ends up with Ladybug and the unconscious and they have to wait until he wakes up to administer the kiss/cure bc it doesn’t work if one party is unconscious

which sparks an interesting idea of a sleeping beauty-cinderella style hanahaki fic where it would work if they’re unconscious, and the patient has to find go out to find who cured them and I’ll have to adjust some other rules of the hanahaki disease such as who can cure it but goddamn it

So while Luka’s out, Marinette and Damian confront the possibly injured but very much awake Jon

Once Luka wakes up and is brought up to speed, they take care of his hanahaki and work out the new boundaries of their new relationship

Part one is longer and I’m a bit put out by that. This made much more sense in my head but if you got this far, my rambling must have made some sort of sense.

[angelofthequeers]

City of Ashes thoughts

Got bored, devoured an entire book in a few hours like back in the good old days of a happy little autistic kid with hopes and dreams and no burnout 🙃 Tagging @repulsolife again for the lolz.

Prologues normally make me wary but this one worked. It set up the main mystery in the story in a way that wasn’t immediately obvious and made me want to read more to see why Valentine needed Elias’ blood and why he needed to summon a demon in the first place.

I can’t tell whether it’s me being aro as hell, knowing that Clary and Jace have to be endgame and can’t be if they’re siblings, or just not being invested in the Clary/Jace relationship. Maybe a mix of all three. I just found myself not really caring about the whole incest/forbidden love thing while also questioning the appeal of it. But I did appreciate that it was Legitimate Relationship Drama instead of the tired old cliched misunderstandings or “we can’t be together for arbitrary plot reason” (which is why I don’t read romances in the first place), so point to Cassandra Clare there. Miraculous Ladybug also has legitimate reasons for the love square not being together, which is why I’m so invested in them.

Still like Clary. She’s annoying at times in the way that teenage girls can be annoying and self-centred while trying to figure themselves out, and she’s explicitly called out in the story by Jace and Simon and the people she hurts, so she’s nowhere near the perfect goddess that people who accuse her of being a Mary Sue call her. I did feel for her trying to lie to herself and tearing her hair out trying to figure out who exactly she was, because her stable identity as Clary Fray was ripped away not too long ago and she hasn’t had the time to really sit down and think about who the heck she is. She’s just a pretty typical teenage girl trying to figure out her place in the world, when the world happens to be full of deadly threats that are out for her and her friends and family.

I also liked that her affinity with runes was expanded on and further hinted at. There’s an actual reason for her having a special gift, and she’s not the only one, and I want to know more.

Still don’t like Jace. I feel for him. I get the inner torment he went through. I get that trauma makes you act in fucked-up ways. But if he’s able to look at a kid and laugh and say that the kid basically got what he deserved, it’s gonna take a hell of a lot more than a troubled past and an identity crisis after being rejected by his adoptive mother to make me like him. He’s an arse.

And especially because no one calls him out for that. They rag on him for being reckless enough to pick a fight with werewolves, but literally no one apart from the wolves themselves calls out Jace for pretty much laughing at the death of a child. Even Luke is just like “kk guys he’s our ally so like chill” and covers Jace’s rear, when he could have also at least tried to scold Jace for mocking the death of a kid.

I hate Jace right now, if you couldn’t tell.

I hope that changes, because otherwise I’m really not gonna care about the Clary/Jace drama that seems to be driving these books.

I both like Simon more in this book and also dislike him more. I like him because Clary was giving him mixed signals and I don’t blame him for interpreting them the way he wanted, because he’s only human. Or, well, he was. I dislike him because he’s basically acting like he’s entitled to Clary as his girlfriend, carrying on about how long he’s loved her and acting as though being her oldest friend is enough to stake a claim on her.

Clary was kind of just along for the ride when it came to the relationship part of this book; and I get she was trying to figure herself out, and that it’s a normal human thing to try and “settle” for what they think they want and to have things both ways, but she didn’t really do anything. It was Simon and Jace calling the shots by breaking up with her or storming off in a fit of rage or whatever.

But I did like Simon outside of the relationship drama. And even though I think (????) I’ve read this book like literally years ago and knew he became a vampire, it was still a shock when it happened, and the scene where Valentine ‘killed’ him made me stop reading for a few minutes to process, even though I knew Clare wouldn’t kill off one of the main characters. Especially after he already had a ‘death’ scene earlier.

I also liked the nods to him being Jewish. I know Clare is Jewish herself, so it was a delight to read about these little things, especially how Jewish vampires might work.

Isabelle was same as always. Her banter with Meliorn was amusing, and I loved how furious she got in defence of Jace, but she was kind of just...there.

Max was cute. I like Max. He’s totally going to die later on.

Alec got some real growth this book and I actually like him a lot now. He’s still himself but he’s not a raging prick to everyone.

Loved Maia. I hope she’s a more major character later on, because I’d really like to see more of her.

Imogen was meh. I knew as soon as Stephen was mentioned that she was going to have a change of heart and die defending Jace somehow, and I was right. She was a solid antagonist and her motives were understandable and she was a good foil to Valentine; I just didn’t really care much about her.

Valentine is very suitably creepy. He’s excellent at emotional manipulation, especially when he left Jace alone in the Bone City after killing the Silent Brothers, and I actually know about the plot twist regarding Valentine and Jace because I’ve seen Jace’s real name floating around since this series came out like a decade ago. So that makes this even more chilling, because Valentine knows that Jace and Clary aren’t siblings and he still perpetuates that lie to mess around with both their heads and still continue to claim that he’s Jace’s real father to try and persuade him to the dark side.

He really reminds me of Gabriel Agreste from ML, and I would hurl Gabriel into the sun, so Clare’s done a good job with him. And just like Gabriel, he’s a pretty standard villain who’s willing to do anything to achieve his goals, even if that means being a hypocrite and sacrificing his morals and beliefs. I’m not so much invested in the Evil Plan part of him as I am in the Horrifically Manipulative Jerk part of him, and I did enjoy reading more about how he charmed the Circle to his side in the first place.

The worldbuilding is still as alluring as always. I was so invested in every little bit I learned about Clare’s world, and I liked how the Clave was established as theoretically on the side of good but in practice kind of...lacking. It really enhances the idea in these books that good and evil are both clear, solid positions but are also hazy and can’t be that easily defined.

I enjoyed City of Ashes more than City of Bones. It had a good deal more action and the murder mystery was intriguing, and the world was also fleshed out a good deal more. Now I just have to hold off on City of Glass until I get City of Fallen Angels (😭), which is where I think I stopped reading the series back when I was like 13 if I did read it? I don’t recognise the last two titles in the series like I do the first four. Idk, it’s been a decade so I don’t remember anything.

[zhrx]

Onichan, what an episode.

Spoilers ahead hun, go watch the episode before read this post. Thankyou💕💕

So let's break this episode, kay?

Mainly, i felt two strong emotion regarding this particular episode. The first is a really huge major breakdown and the second is more like between great-but-really?-but-okay kind of thing.

First of i'm going to talk about the second one actually haha

So we get to see Lila first thing the episode air. Not gonna lie, i kinda hate her because of her manipulative behavior and really was annoyed when she pops up. My mood for watch this episode went from "omg there is a new episode omg omg omg" to "ah what a buzzkill, i don't want to watch the rest of it" but well of course i still watch it.

And again, although i don't understand what is she saying, we all know it's lies, sooo yeah. Killjoy.

After that wee see Marinette being her first season behavior, which i kinda, eugh, what is this called, disapointment? Not quite that. But not to Mari, but to the one who wrote the plot instead, like "I thought Mari's not going to be like this again but now we back to square one? Where are the development from season 2? Where are Marinette from the gorizilla i fell in love with? And what is all this jealousy came from?? I mean okay this is a cartoon but pls this is taking too far to the point is not amusing anymore (like the first season)."

So we watched the first quarter of the episode and i'm not amused at all. Great.

But then we saw Kagami. Seriously, i don't hate her for liking (loving?) Adrien. After all the Adrien they saw really is a gentlemen, i mean who wouldn't? They just didn't know the Adrien we all know (Jealous cat, an oblivious sheltered kid, 😭). So really, i still think that this kind of reaction (For all the girls liking Adrien) is still appropriate, just like how we love and support our Oppa ;)

But i did not, i repeat, DID NOT expected her to crying over all of this. I am an Adrienette fangirl, and to the extend, am a love square supporter by heart. Heck, i'm joining this fandom because i'm intrigued by how this love square gonna go. But even i'm still hurt for Kagami's part.

She, unlike other girl, have shared things with Adrien these days. Like how they both go to London and fencing. So for her to really fall in love with Adrien kinda compared to Marinette and her feelings for Luka. What she doesn't see is that, Adrien acts kindly to everyone else he sees. And for Lila's part, Adrien behavior to act kindly to aLL PEOPLE really a perfect opportunities to create drama. So for Kagami to cry over all of this really is really heartbreaking, even tho i'm a HUGE Adrienette shipper.

And then the plot. I don't know if this is a development or what, but now we have to deal with this plot guys. We have to accept the fact that Adrien is seriously putting Kagami before Ladybug (boy omg i'm so mad rn, THATS RUDE BRO, NOT COOL AT ALL). Again, i'm not mad with Kagami. She just a girl with feelings, but Adrien, boi, really, i'm speechless rn. I'm sooooooo disappointed with this kind of behavior.

Andd then we have the more mature marinette's back at the end of episode after they defeated the akuma. Really? So they have a character development, and then the next episode air, she went to square one, and back to character development square again? What is this?? Care to explain it to me ????? :(

Oh, the Adrien and Lila part at the end? Hahah finally. This is what i've been waiting since Chameleon aired. Although again i don't understand France, i still kinda guessed where is this conversation going. Finally. But ah ah, don't feel satisfied, Adrien, you still have a lot more things to do to redeem yourself worthy to my eyes (hahahahhahaha-.-). I'm still mad at you to smiling (even tho that smile is forced but u could have just shoved her or smthing heuh) when lila kiss your cheeks, still mad at you to just rudely doing the bien joue moment.

Again folks, i'm not mad at Kagami, please, she's not the one we should hate for ruining the Adrienette AND Ladynoir ships. I feel like we are all here because of Adrien's doing in Frozer, which is, again, not cool bro. You reallly should ask Mari those question AND make her come to your date ONLY for you ditching Kagami and goes to Mari instead when her fall????????????????? What are you? A two timer? If you are real, you've already hurt two persons heart, Adrien. You hurt Marinette feelings with your obliviousness, and you hurt Kagami's feeling for your behaviour on your own date, ffs why did you do that? And don't get me started with your attitude in Chameleon. Like Nino says, "not cool bro, not cool."

Sorryy OMG i am still salty with Adrien. I mean if Oblivio never appear, i'm seriously considering what i really feels with Adrien character last two season. Okay maybe the producer wants to show us that Adrien is not perfect, but does it really have to take it this far?

Oh and the "everyone chasing Adrien but not moi, chat?" Thing. I feel like i'm going to talk about this topics when i review bakerix soo yeah.

The last part. The deal between two manipulators. So when i'm on ig, i saw that someone translate this scene. And to put it simply, Gabriel and Lila both thought that the others are getting roped into their lies, when in reality they both getting lied and seal a deal with too much lies.

So, the plot we have so far

1. Luka "confessed" to Mari and Mari start to considering some possibilities

2. Adrien start to move on from Ladybug to Kagami

3. The whole "Why is Adrien more loved than Chat" saga

4. Adrien started to have backbone with the whole Lila situation.

5. The deal between two manipulators.

Is there something i missed?

OKAYY onto the heartbreaking part.

Eh, actually it kinda pointed out throughout that rant *cough* thoughts.

So yeah the heartbreaking part is more to the love square shipper tho. I mean, i knew this is going to be happen somewhere between this season, but knowing and actually watching it kinda have a different effects. Because of oni-chan, i'm just, sad, because he went to Kagami instead of Marinette. When i joined this fandom, i thought that this kind of drama will never happen to miraculous ladybug. Guess i was wrong.

See, i'm a person who hates love triangle or love square between 4 people or more. And i obviously hate harem, it's just not my kind of thing. So when i see Adrien and Marinette falling for the more "perfect" side of their selves, well, i thought this is new and exciting. How we ended up like this again is kinda a question.

I believe that every person has their own "wow" moment and their own "human" moment. Like Ladybug is Marinette at her best and Marinette just being her normal human behavior self. If i was a character, is like i am the person who gained the job being a manager at some company, get some responsibilities, and be my best 24/7 when i was working. But after that, after all oh the work, i'm back to my house and be myself 100% without worrying manners, and other people talking.

And Adrien, we all know this, is kinda the reversed situation. Adrien is born with his last name to protect, responsibilities, expectation, and other things normal people get when they got higher responsibilities at their job. But while he is chat, he get to let out all his imperfection, because he can't do that in his Adrien self. So really, human is like that.

OKAYY that was taking too far i wonder if anyone really read this, if you read this until the end, thank you very much for sticking with my poor grammar, because english isn't my first language and i hate grammar :(

[purrincess-chat]

For the unpopular opinion thing again. Jeluka x Rose, Sabrinath, Sabrina or Rose as the bee miraculous instead of Chloe, Nathaniel as the fox miraculous instead of Ayla, Chloe x Marinette, Chloe x Ayla, your full opinion on Lila, Antibug. Nino getting the turtle miraculous, Adrien and Chloe's friendship and your full opinion on Sabrina.

Haha! I didn’t forget about these. I just had to focus on finals and then take some time to be a vegetable. So, let’s dive in!

Juleka/Rose: Cute. I love it. Needs to be canon.

Sabrinath: Basically the only Nath ship I really like.

Sabeena or bee!rose: I think it could be cute. Sabrina would be adorable, and it could do wonders for her confidence. 

No.

Chlonette: Personally, even though I’ve written Chlonette, and still have Chlonette ideas, it’s not my favorite. I still vastly prefer the brotp version cause I think even if Chloe knew Marinette was LB in canon and even if Chloe got better, I don’t see them wanting to date each other. Friends, a definite maybe, lovers, highly unlikely. I can’t get behind some of the popular tropes surrounding the ship either namely that Chloe bullies Marinette because she has a crush on her. I just don’t see that at all, nor do I like what it implies/teaches. I think if they were going to be a couple, they’d have to grow into it and develop their feelings slowly. I’m more okay with Chlonette than I was when I first stumbled upon it, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that I ship it. I’ll write it, but it is more of a brotp for me.

Chlolya: Yes. Good. It can stay. I think Chloe needs someone new, someone she doesn’t have a history with. It’s why I’m not a fan of her with really any of the other classmates as much. I much prefer her with people like Alya or Lila or Kagami because if Chloe were to change and improve, they wouldn’t have an image of who she used to be still haunting them, and I feel like she could fully move past it with them and become someone better. 

My full opinion on Lila: I think she gets a lot more hate from the fandom than she deserves, and I know most of that is because a lot of people automatically side with the protagonist instead of thinking for themselves. People buy into what the show tells them they should and shouldn’t like, and since Marinette was instantly defensive and antagonistic toward Lila, a lot of the fandom is too. After all, she was trying to disrupt the love square. Can’t have that even though literally all of us know it’s end game and nothing is ever going to really get in the way of that. Sure, lying is bad, but I think I can say with surety that all of us are guilty of lying every now and then. I will admit, when I first joined the fandom, I was one of the individuals that just bought canon at face-value, but as time has worn on, I’ve formed my own opinions of characters, and I have to say that I do like Lila. I think particularly as a fic-writer, she has a lot of potential because we don’t know that much about her, so you can make her just about anything that you want. She’s fun to explore.

Things get a little salty under the cut.

My opinion of Antibug? Like the episode as a whole or just the akuma? I think as a whole, the episode kind of bothered me because Chloe always outshines Sabrina. Every other classmate got a whole episode dedicated to them when they got akumatized. The episode was titled after their akuma, we usually got a look into their character and what things get under their skin. Antibug was an exception. Sabrina had a very legitimate reason for being akumatized. Her best friend was engaging in purposefully abusive and manipulative behavior over something super silly, and given that Sabrina doesn’t have the best sense of identity or any notable self-esteem, it’s understandable that she’d become akumatized. And what does she become? Invisible. Just like she always is, and not only does she become invisible, the only purpose of her akuma is to serve as a gateway for Chloe to become akumatized. So, not only did they make Sabrina literally invisible, they also didn’t even name the episode after her. They named it after Chloe who, in my opinion, was being a brat and was akumatized for a very stupid reason.

Because Chloe was lying to Ladybug and Chat Noir before. Ladybug was right not to trust her, and I am still salty that they turned that into Marinette’s fault because it wasn’t. Chloe was being a brat, and she lied. Ladybug knew this, and she shouldn’t have been punished for not listening to Chloe. She shouldn’t have had to apologize in the end because she wasn’t in the wrong. Chloe was. So, I guess if I had to pick a least favorite episode from season 1, Antibug would probably be it because not only did they mistreat Sabrina horribly, but they also victimized someone who wasn’t even a victim in the first place and who got what she deserved by being ignored and not taken seriously. 

I have to admit, Nino getting the turtle in canon didn’t thrill me for a number of reasons. Turtle!Nino is a cool concept in fanon, and I do enjoy me some turtle!Nino art because I didn’t really think it would become canon. But since it is canon now, I have to say I’m not excited? Like, Chloe and Alya were one thing, but now throw in Nino and I feel like there’s just a lot happening here. Maybe it’s because Nino has literally been a ghost this season with next to no development, or maybe it’s because I worry about what it means for my favorite little old man, but I just can’t get myself excited about it? I’m overwhelmed by a sense of ‘meh’ whenever I see it. I think it’s mostly because we don’t have that much on Nino as a character, even from season 1, and season 2 hasn’t exactly done wonders for him as a character either. At least with Alya, we’ve seen her helping Marinette out, plotting to help her get with a boy she likes, calling her out on her problematic behavior, insisting she think stuff through first, but what has Nino done? DJ-ed a couple parties, said maybe two things, mostly in the background, and just kinda been there. If Nino is going to become a hero, I’d like to see him grow and actually convince me that he deserves one. Same with Chloe and Alya.

I think that Chloe and Adrien’s friendship is only still a thing in canon because they’ve known each other for a long time. Adrien often displays expressions of discomfort whenever Chloe is around being her usual self, and I applauded him in Despair Bear when he called her out. It’s kind of why that episode annoyed me a little because in the end, she goes back to being the way she was, having clearly manipulated and tricked him, and instead of being mad, he’s just like ‘Oh well.’ However, I do enjoy writing them post-redemption for Chloe. I think they would take on a very cute, sibling-like relationship and be more of a family. 

My full opinion on Sabrina: I’m actually fairly neutral to her as a character herself, though I have been appreciating her more lately as I’ve contemplated more ships for her besides just Sabrinath. someone got me hecked up with SabriKim and Sabrinadrien, but that’s for another day And I think that the show has been doing her a disservice. I think she really needs to distance herself from Chloe and form her own identity which is kind of why I liked her with Nath initially, and why I also have come to like the idea of her with Kim or Adrien. All of these people have been hurt by Chloe, and I think that they would give Sabrina room to discover herself without smothering her or influencing her to be someone she isn’t. She certainly wouldn’t just be their servant, and I think putting her in a healthy relationship could do her wonders. Thomas said her relationship with Chloe improves, but truthfully, I think a big improvement for them would be to split up. It would be better for Sabrina mentally and emotionally, and I think it would be better for Chloe in the long-run too. It would force her to do things herself and stop taking advantage of someone else.

[alittleagreste]

hey just another miraculous AU

JUST A PSA IM ON MOBILE AND IT WONT LET ME PUT A READ MORE??? I went all out I wrote like the entire plot of the movie Has a tangled AU been done??? Probably ??? Who cares ??? Okay so -“this is the story of how I died… OH DONT WORRY ITS A FUN STORY HAHA!! and it starts with a magic, golden flower” -Queen Momma Agreste gets hella sick and she’s gotta have this baby right, so King Gabriel sends for the ‘mythical’ golden flower -surprise surprise they find the flower, which completely enrages a forest wizard named Hawkmoth who has been using it for its intense power and the immortality it grants -Queen Momma Agreste drinks the flower tea and boom we have a baby prince, Adrien, with a full head of blonde locks and he’s just cute and all is good -of course Hawkmoth wants to join the fun so he kidnaps Adrien for the powers his hair possesses -so Hawkmoth and Adrien are living up in this tower in the woods now and Adrien learns to recite this poem to use his power (the song basically but spoken) -King Gabe and Queen Momma Agreste light off these little butterfly lanterns on his birthday and there’s just a swarm of glowing butterflies on his birthday and he knows its for him -also important Adrien befriends a little chameleon that he names Plagg ;) -So fast forward like nearly 17-ish years and cut to scene with Marinette, Chloé and Sabrina all pulling off a sick heist to steal the Crown of the Black Cat, which is basically Adrien’s crown he was supposed to get on his coronation day -(So if you haven’t caught it yet, Adrien is Rapunzel and Marinette is Flynn Ryder) -So basically Marinette’s nom de plume is Ladybug, its what she goes by on all her heists and what she’s wanted as -So anyway Her and Chlo and Sab all break into the castle and snatch the crown, they get chased by the guards, including the best guard Alya, and the best horse Tikki -Cue a joke by Mari with her wanted poster about how they “ just can’t get my ____ right” each time it’s a different thing -after this, ur girl Ladybug totally is selfish at this point in the story and takes the crown and leaves Chloé and Sabrina for the guards -Alya gets thrown off of Tikki but Tikki still chases after Marinette. Until Marinette finds a hidden lil cave, that’s more like a lil rock hallway that leads to a meadow with a fairly nice tower -So what should Marinette do?? Climb the tower of course! -Don’t worry Adrien doesn’t hit her with a frying pan, she literally eats shit when she walks in and knocks herself out. Clumsy Girl y’know. -Adrien is just like ???? Wt F wHo thE heCk just smacked their face on my floo- ITS A FEMALE WHAT PLAGG HELP WHAT DO I DO IVE NEVER SEEN A REAL LIVE GIRL ONLY IN THOSE BOOKS -Plagg is very obviously annoyed and is like “boi put her somewhere and show hawkmoth you can handle yourself (even though she knocked herself out)” -Adrien kinda catches on so he literally just pulls her to a closet and puts her in -her bag falls open as he’s moving her to an upright position and the black crystals of the crown catch his attention -basically an “ooh shiny!” moment,,And he takes it and looks in the mirror and tries to figure out what it is -he puts it on his arm and looks through it and then puts it on his head -and he’s like “woah I look like those princes from my book” “haha as if” -(LIKE BOI YOU ARE SHHSHDJS) -anyway so hawkmoth comes home from wherever the hell he went, town or whatever idk, and Adrien is like !! FATHER LOOK WHAT I DID!! -Hawkmoth does not care literally at all he’s like “Adrien please recite your poem for me it calms me” and Adrien rushes through it and HM is just like ??? bOI -Adrien tries to show him our girl Lady Luck -Hawkmoth will have None of That -“You can’t handle yourself, the world is dangerous” -He literally doesn’t listen to Adrien’s pleas to leave the tower at all either -“you are NOT like anyone else! You are my son!” (u thought) -so what does Adrien do?? Plan an escape plan, and sends HM on a mission that will take like 3 days or smth -Adrien has long hair btw I forgot to mention just not nearly as long as rapunzel’s was -His is more like maybe brushing the floor -and hawk moth climbs a rope ladder or smth to get in there’s plot holes leave me be -ANYwaY after hawkmoth leaves, he tapes Mari to a chair or ties her or something -and Plagg wakes her up by sticking Camembert in her mouth -and she’s like !!! WHAt the HEck Ew -after she wakes up Adrien is like “what you want why you here please don’t kill me” -When he steps into the light and she sees him she’s literally rendered speechless like she can’t form words bc he is actually so beautiful -“h-hi-I mean hello- I mean-uh-why are you in this-uh-tower, who are you???” -Adrien doesn’t trust her at all bc the wanted poster in her bag and the crown literally screams criminal -he’s desperate though so he’s like “alright listen up, whoever you are, something brought you to me. Call it fate, destiny-” “A horse” “Im not finished… you were brought to me today for a reason, and that’s to help me. You’re going to be my guide” -Marinette is like “awh man I wish I could but see I have to get this cro-OH NO, WHERE IS MY BAG?” -Adrien holds it up like ;) and she’s just so done -“If you take me to see the lights tomorrow, I will return it to you, if you refuse, I’ll turn you in.” -“wait the stupid butterfly lanterns they light off for the lost prince?” -Adrien is totally in awe that they’re not some weird star thing, they’re butterflies -she shakes her head and knows she can’t really refuse so she plans it out in her head on how she can cheat the system -Adrien’s already covered that in his head though she can’t get away with anytHing -(except maybe making him fall in love with her ;)))) -So she agrees and she’s like “The names Ladybug” -he’s kinda like ¿ strange name but Okay!! “My name is Adrien!” -ANYWAy they leave the tower and Adrien is like 👀👀 this is no bueno I should not be doing this but omg I’ve never felt so FREE!!! -he has a blast omg that boy goes running through the woods and he’s laughing and he’s like “FATHER WOULD BE SO ANGRY BUT I DONT CARE” -meanwhile hawkmoth sees Tikki in the woods and has an “oh SHIT Adrien” moment -Runs back home, there’s nothing and no one there, aside from Mari’s wanted poster that fell out of the bag -meanwhile with the Lovebirds™ -He and Mari end up at this pub with some Angry men, including the bar owner Nino, and Adrien ends up singing about his dreams and everyone has fun -the scene that stemmed this idea happens with Mari singing about how her dream involves her being rich on an island -and surprise surprise Hawkmoth finds them but so do the guards and they escape through a tunnel under the pub that Nino shows them, and it leads out into the dry side of a dam -Intense Battle Scene™ -Mari is a badass but then Adrien totally comes out of nowhere like “I came here to attack and I’m honestly having a good time” -They get trapped in a cave that’s filling with water post battle bc they broke shit -they’re literally lowkey going to die and Adrien is like “I’m so sorry I got you into this mess. We’re going to die here and I’m so sorry Ladybug” -and she just softly says “Marinette” -Adrien is like “????? what” -and Marinette starts crying and she’s like -“my name isn’t Ladybug if you couldn’t tell. It’s Marinette. I called myself Ladybug because I always wanted to be like a superhero. I never was one though. All I am is an orphan with a permanent record.” -and here we have Adrien “Actual Adoration” Agreste because if we wasn’t in love with her before, he is most certainly in love with her now -and then he remembers!! -HIS HAIR GLOWS WHEN HE SAYS THE POEM THEY CAN LOOK UNDERWATER -so he’s like “marinette please go with the flow” and he recites the poem in his head and his hair just illuminates -she’s like “WHAT THE FUCJTN” -but she’s not ready for death so they dig rocks out and they end up dropping into a river -they come up on the bank gasping like “oh fuck dude” -“MARINETTE WE’RE ALIVE!!!” -“his hair glows? His hair glows! Plagg why does his hair glow???” -“Marinette?” “this is surreal. I’m dead we died” “Marinette” “what the hell is going on” “MARINETTE!” “What!” -he’s standing there dripping water and extending his hand to her -and she’s like “oh no” because he looks so hot standing there dripping water and she maybe has the tiniest crush on him -oh who am I kidding the sun rays behind him and his radiant smile sends her head over heels into complete love for this ray of light -so he pulls Marinette out of the river and they go find a lil clearing and they make a campfire -and Adrien looks at Marinette and frowns -and she’s like “What what what’s wrong is something wrong with me??” -and he just laughs a bit, “no no you just have a cut on your knee” -she looks down at her knee and winces at the long, deep cut and just shrugs it off because it’ll heal eventually -Adrien trusts Marinette to the point now that he can show her the reason he’s hidden away -“don’t freak out okay” -he holds a lock of hair in his hands and presses it to her cut and recites the poem -and Marinette is like ¿ wth boI -and once he’s done he just grins and he’s like “good as new” -Mari is confused as hell and when he moves his hand away and the cuts not there she literally opens her mouth to shriek -and Adrien is like “PLEASE DONT FREAK OUT IM SORRY” -and she’s like “hahahaha why would I freak out I’m just curious whydoesyourhairglowandwhydoesithavemagicalhealingpowershowlonghasitdonethat?” -and Adrien is sheepishly just like “forever I guess,,, that’s why I was hidden away, because people want my hair for its power.” -He moves some hair to the side to show a pale blonde lock of hair cut off at the nape of his neck and explains that if it’s cut it turns pale and loses its power -Marinette is like really shook but she pushes it down and suggests they sleep so they can be ready for the butterfly lights tomorrow -cut to scene of Hawkmoth pissed as hell in the woods as he fades into the shadows -he’s now talking to Chloé and Sabrina and making a Plan -so next day Adrien wakes up to Marinette screaming and is very confused to see her literally trying to fight a horse -like she literally almost has Tikki in a headlock and Tikki has a hoof pushing on her shoulder and shit -Adrien has never been more confused but he goes and breaks it up and he’s like “hey there girly what’s your name” and he looks at her name thing and he’s like “Tikki!! That’s a nice name!” -And Tikki whines or something and Mari chuckles or something and Tikki is back at it with trying to capture her -But Adrien hits her with these kitten eyes and is like “I realllyyyyyyy need her to take me to the kingdom so I can see the butterflies, please let me have that, then you can fight her until you can’t stand!” -Marinette is so very thankful for that one -so they head to the Kingdom, now with Tikki coming along with them -They’re having a blast and when they get to the kingdom they have all sorts of fun -Adrien shows Marinette some of the books he has at home and she shows him the books that inspired Ladybug -they get food from the market -and Adrien keeps seeing images of this baby boy with bright green eyes and golden locks and theres something familiar about everything -and then, oh boy and then, someone starts playing music and Adrien is like !! “mari come dance with me” -and she’s like “nah I’m okay you go” -and he starts dancing and soon a ton of people have joined in and Adrien comes around the circle and grabs Marinette -and they dance around with people and they’re desperately hoping it works out so they can dance together -surprise!!! They do but they join hands as the song ends and they’re like “awh damn” -so after that ends Marinette and Adrien are both blushing and she points out that it’s almost sundown and they have somewhere to go -they go out into the middle of the lake in a lil boat and Adrien is so so so excited and so is Mari bc Adrien is so happy -the sun goes down and Adrien looks at Marinette completely giddy like !! :DD -and she just smiles so wide back at him because holy fuck she’s never felt so in love in her whole life -Adrien is flicking the surface of the water and watching the waves when he sees the first light -suddenly literally thousands of butterfly lanterns are floating all around them and Adrien is just in complete awe -Marinette clears her throat and he turns to look at her and she has two lanterns in her hand -and Adrien smiles and turn behind him and grabs the bag with the crown and he’s like “I should’ve given this to you sooner, but I was scared… I’m not scared anymore. You know what I mean?” -and she just pushes it down, “I’m starting to” -AND AT LAST I SEE THE LIGHT -And they’re literally a centimeter away from locking lips when Marinette can see Chloé on the beach -and she decides right then to give Chloé the crown and go wherever with Adrien -Adrien of course thinks at first that she’s betraying his trust but doesn’t believe that because he loves her okay? -Cue Adrien getting worried and going to look for her -Hawkmoth fighting Chloé or something and she passes out and he sees Adrien -and he’s like “I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD IM SO HAPPY YOU’RE OKAY” (he says as he takes handfuls of his hair) -Adrien is like “yea okay but Marinette” -And hawkmoth, fricken rat, points to the boat heading toward the kingdom -and he’s like “I think she’s got something better to do” -Adrien is broke af how could this happen how could they love each other so much and just have her break the trust so easily -he’s just kinda done with it so he’s accepted it and goes back to the tower with HM -Meanwhile Marinette wakes up from getting knocked tf out and Tikki is whining super loud bc Marinette is in danger and she can tell -some guards are drawn bc of the whines and Mari has the crown tied to her hand and she’s like “shit” -they throw her in jail and she’s gonna be hung then next morning -Tikki is on a mission and she books it to Nino’s pub -back in the tower Hawkmoth has finished lecturing Adrien and leave him to himself -Adrien takes out the little kingdom flag he got and looks at it -and suddenly he starts to see the symbol everywhere -it’s hidden in all his paintings around his room -and suddenly now he knows -that baby boy is Him -he leaves his room determined to get somewhere -Hawkmoth is like ?? “What’s wrong Adrien?” -“I’m the lost Prince” -“what?” -“I’m the lost Prince! Aren’t I father? Or should I even call you that?” -oh hawkmoth is Pissed -Adrien tries to leave to go find Marinette and Hawkmoth is like “she’s going to be dead when you get there, she’s due to hang for her crimes” -and Adrien is screwed and he can’t do anything so he surrenders -back at the castle -Nino and his bar mates have arrived and they’re kicking ass for Marinette -And she ends up on Tikki’s back and is like all sappy like “thank you for saving me it means a lot really” -Tikki doesn’t care she just needs to get Mari to Adrien like now -so sick montage of tikki running to the tower -and Marinette scales the tower -and she’s in! And there’s Adrien! Chained to the wall with tape on his mouth? -and suddenly Marinette has a sharp pain in her side where Hawkmoth totally just stabbed her -she slams into a mirror and breaks it and just kinda slumps against the wall with all the shards -Adrien is flipping shit,,, he’s taking on the chains and screaming into the tape and he’s crying and she’s crying and hawkmoth is just standing over her like -“poor little thief got what was coming to her” -Hawmoth goes to grab Adrien and take him to a new area, where no one could find them -but Adrien fights him so hard -he’s yanking back and kicking -and Hawkmoth yells “STOP FIGHTING” -Adrien gets the tape off enough so he can speak -“I WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING YOU, I WILL FIGHT UNTIL THE DAY I DIE” -he glances at Mari and she’s staring at him with tears in her eyes, clenching her side -“unless…unless you let me heal her. If you just let me heal her I will go wherever with you, no fighting” -Hawkmoth doesn’t want to deal with his crap so he’s like “whatever” -he chains Marinette to the staircase banister, “in case you get any ideas” he says -Adrien runs over to her and he’s brushing her hair back from her face and he’s crying and she’s crying -and he presses some hair and his hands to her wound and he’s like “shhhh shhhh it’s okay you’ll be okay we’ll be okay” -and she’s crying so much and she’s like “no you won’t be you can’t just go be a slave to him” -and it’s in slow motion when she grabs his hair and swings a jagged piece of the mirror up and slices it at the base of his neck -Hawkmoth is y e l l i n g because there goes all the power he was able to have -Adrien is completely shocked, he doesn’t really understand what the hell just happened -all he can see is Hawkmoth drastically aging into a very very old man and stumbling until Plagg trips him and sends him falling out of the window -it takes him a whole second to realize Marinette is still in his arms, dying with no way for him to save her -“no no no Marinette stay with me, please please you can’t go” -she just weakly smiles at him and she’s like “I never got to tell you” -and she winces and tries to sit up more to reach for him -“you were my new dream” -“you were mine” -cue gross ugly sobs from me because Marinette slowly slips away -Adrien cries out in complete anguish and just holds her limp body, crying because he loved her so much oh my god -his tears fall on her face and he’s too broken to notice the golden rays coming off of her until they completely consume the room -and Adrien is so confused,,, why are all these golden rays surrounding Marinette -and she shifts in his arms and he’s like !!!!!! -he looks down at her and her eyes open and she’s like -“have I ever told you I’ve got a thing for green eyes” -Adrien barely has time to laugh before they’re slamming their lips together, crying and just so so so happy that they’re okay -they leave the tower and go back to the kingdom, because Adrien knows now that he is the lost Prince -also Marinette sort of needs to make amends with the kingdom bc she’s in love with Adrien dammit and she’s not gonna lose him -Adrien sees Momma Agreste and Gabriel -and everyone is So Happy!!! And they’re hugging!!! -And Marinette is just standing off to the side content that he’s with his family -and then momma yanks her into the hug circle -and then there’s a mini fast forward and Look at That!!! We’re at a celebration !!! -and we have some Cute ass scenes of Prince Adrien talking to the citizens of the kingdom -and Mari snatches his crown off his head -and he just rolls his eyes and they kiss -and the camera slowly pans up onto an announcement -For a royal wedding

AHHHHH THIS TOOK ME THREE DAYS TO WRITE ITS SO LONG I AM SO SORRY I LITERALLY WROTE OUT THE ENTIRE MOVIE

[calliecat93]

Miraculous Review #2: The Bubbler

Here’s an issue I have with Season One. One that’s not the production team’s fault, but it’s still annoying. That issue is the inconsistent airing order. With every country, the episodes have all been aired in various orders. For example, the episode that I am covering today is The Bubbler. It was the second aired episode in South Korea and, iirc, France. Here in the states though it was the first one and Stormy Weather was aired third. Now Astruc HAS said that the episodes can be aired in any order, which is normal for a show lie this so that viewers can join in at any point and not be lost. But there IS a continuity and the season finale, Volpina, is meant to be the last episode you view in the season for... reasons. So not having an order when you are doing reviews is kind of a pain in the neck.

Due to this, I had to make my own order. It’ll go based off a mix of the order I saw the episodes in, the order on the DVD’s, and when I feel what episode goes where. I’m not going in chronological order, otherwise I’d have done the Origin episodes first. but I think that is better viewed after you see where the characters are now. Volpina will be the last one I do. So ow that I got that pointless exposition out of the way, lets discuss The Bubbler.

Overview

It’s Adrien’s birthday! Whoo! Marinette has made a gift for her dream boy, but she’s too nervous to give it to him. When Alya gets her to finally try, her attempt is foiled by the local mean girl, Chloe Bourgeois. Chloe is my absolute least favorite character in the series and you’ll see why as these reviews continue on. Oh boy do I have things that I want to say. Since Marinette can’t give Adrien the gift in person, she instead drops it off at his mansion... too bad that she forgot to sign it. It’s okay Marinette, I’m sure plenty of people have been in your position.

At the same time, Adrien’s best friend, Nino Lahiffe, wants to throw Adrien a birthday party. But Adrien is dismissive of the idea. Not because he doesn’t want on, on the contrary he would love one, but he feels that his workaholic father, Gabriel, would never allow it. Nino decides to try anyways, going to the mansion on his own accord to talk to Gabriel personally. Now that’s friendship people! Sadly, it fails and Nino is kicked out. Adrien tries to ease things over, but Nino is understandably upset and goes to the park. When he sees a parent taking a child home due to needing to do chores, he complains about adults being controlling. Cue the akuma!

Nino becomes The Bubbler and kidnaps all of the adults, sending them into the sky. This includes Marinette’s parents, provoking her into Ladybug immediately. Bubbler forces his classmates tot he Agreste household, intending to throw Adrien’s birthday party whether anyone wants it or not. When Adrien realizes this, he runs off to transform... but hesitates. His Kwami Plagg, that I stupidly forgot to mention in the last review along with Tikki, convinces him to hold off. The party is for him after all, why can’t he enjoy it for a little while? So the party goes on with Chloe talking Bubbler into putting on the slow music so that she can get close to Adrien. Just as Ladybug arrives too.

Jealous, Ladybug wastes her Lucky Charm to get the party music back on and ruin Chloe’s plans. But as a result, her transformation is undone and she reverts back to Marinette. When she enters the party to get Tikki rejuvenated, Alya finds her and drags her inside to that she can sign the gift. She finishes just as Bubbler traps a student who refused to comply to join the adults and she finally gets back into action. Ladybug’s appearance makes Adrien realize that made the wrong decision and to transform.

Bubbler traps the two heroes and sends them into the sky. As such, Cat Noir is forced to use Cataclysm to break them out. That gives them only a few minutes to defeat Bubbler. Their reappearance and the students becoming defiant provokes Bubbler to trap them as the fight heads for the Eiffle Tower. Soon, the heroes get the cursed bubble wand away from Bubbler and destroy it, getting rid of the akuma and setting everything back to normal. Later, Adrien is presented with a gift seemingly from Gabriel. 

In actuality, the gift is Marinette’s. Gabriel’s PA Natalie just took the name off cause she was too lazy to go and get something else. As such, Marinette is understandably confused the next day when she sees Adrien wearing the scarf that she made. Adrien, still feeling bad, tries to apologize to Nino for Gabriel’s actions, but Nino holds nothing against him and is just glad that he’s happy. Although Alya urges Marinette to tell Adrien the truth, Marinette decides not too. Adrien is happy after all, and she can’t bring herself to ruin that for him. Aww! One day Marinette, after that you deserve his recognition.

Review

Man, this episode. Compared to Stormy Weather, this one has a major improvement in storytelling. As such the animation, while still very good especially int he final fight, is not as impressive as last time. I will say this though, the amount of background characters and the well done settings make the world feel all the more real so defenite props there. But this episode is more focus on it’s plot of Adrien’s birthday and how it affects the main characters. It’s the opposite of the last episode, butting the story first and the animation second. 

Story

The episode revolves around Adrien’s birthday and follows the characters of Marinette, Adrien, and Nino. Everyone is given something to do and no one feels that they get too much focus or not enough of it. The pacing is very well done and went as long as it needed to. Marinette struggles to give Adrien her gift, Adrien is completely unhappy with his won birthday, and Nino tries to give Adrien a party to make it a good day for him, leading to his akumatization. All very well done and make for one heck of a time when we hit the second half.

We also get more added to the cast. We get several new characters such as Marinette’s parents Sabine and Tom, Nino, Chloe, Sabrina, Natalie, and Gabriel. We get to see the classmates too, but they’ll get more proper introductions in later episodes. We also get mroe glimpses into the everyday lives of Marinette and Adrien, and boy do they contrast big time. Marinette’s family is happy and functional while Adrien’s is... not. Marinette talks to her mom before heading off to school, Adrien is handed a schedule from Natalie and that’s about it. Sabine is sweet and warm to Marinette, even teasing her a little, while Gabriel is cold and harsh. The show really hammers in the differences between the two heroes lives and the contrasts are staggering. The beginning scenes where they prepare for school just really drives it home.

Overall, the story is solid. It’s funny with Marinette’s inability to deliver her gift, it’s heartbreaking with nearly all of Adrien’s scenes, it delves into the characters more as we’ll discuss in a bit, and the DBZ-level action continues to impress. We are also introduced to some consequences with the Miraculous powers. When you use the main power (Lucky Charm and Cataclysm), you have five minutes before the transformation is undone and the Kwamis have to be re-energized. As such, the powers have to be used when ti is 100% necessary, which is nice and gives an excuse on why they can’t just go for the final move immediately. If it fails,t hey’re screwed. The episode’s ending is incredibly bittersweet, but fitting for the episode and it still ends on a happy note, so it’s still satisfying. 

Characters

The rough draft had four whole pages devoted to character analysis out of seven. So this is gonna be lengthy. You’ve been warned.

I don’t think theat the plot would have been nearly as good if ot for the characters. They are what made this episode for me. We got basic introductions of the main cast over with last episode, so now the writers can play with them more. They also expanded the cast and they fit in naturally with the show, also making the world feel all the larger. There is a lot of character stuff to discuss here, so since I like to save the good for last, we’ll go into the bad first. As such...

We’re going to start with Chloe. I already said that she’s my least favorite character and there are many reasons why. First is how stereotypical she is. She’s the usual ‘mean rich girl’ type, like Mandy from Totally Spies which Astruc also worked on, so... anyways! She’s selfish and rude, treats her best friend Sabrina like a slave, and her behavior around Adrien is... well...

Pretty dang creepy! Yeah we learn later that they’re childhood friends, which I guess can explain why she’s able to be so touchy feely with Adrien, but he’s clearly uncomfortable here and friend or not, trying to force him into kissing her is wrong. Plus you don’t know that in this episode, so... yeah... she doesn’t give a good first impression. She is presented with zero redeeming qualities, and this isn’t even her worst episode. Just wait until we reach Reflekta, ho BOY do I have loads to say about that episode. So you can only imagine how thrilled I am for certain things that are coming soon... but hey, I’ll say this, Chloe is definitely intended to be unlikable here, and the writers nailed that. So good job for doing the job right guys!

Nino Lahiffe is Adrien’s best friend and becomes the villain of the episode. He’s presented as a very laidback and carefree kid, someone who relishes in fun and freedom. It’s something that the more shy, sheltered Adrien needs just as the awkward Marinette needs the more grounded Alya. Like Alya, Nino is very loyal and dedicated to his friend and wants to make his birthday something good. When Adrien discusses never having a birthday party, Nino decides to talk Gabriel into allowing one to make his friend happy. Yeah it fails... badly, but that’s not due to any fault on his own. You really feel for him since he didn’t do anything wrong and got treated horribly by Gabriel just for asking if his friend can ave a party. Yeah blaming all adults may have been a little harsh, but you can understand where he was coming from. We’ve all bee there at one point or another.

Due to the above, Nino getting akumatized into The Bubbler is very understandable, You feel more for him than you did Aurore last episode anyways. The Bubbler is the personification of Nino’s frustrations, getting rid of the adults and forcing his friends to give Adrien a party. All that he was feeling when his bubble wand became possessed. Akuma take what you are feeling int hat moment and amplify it, so it’s a LOT more than just simple mind control. At first The Bubbler’s gimmick of using... well, bubbles may seem kind of dumb. But they use it in really good was. Impenetrable prisons, using smaller ones to encase the victim in the prisons, using them as explosives of all things! Bubbler’s powers aren’t the most impressive of the villains, but dang do the writers put it to good use to make him a credible threat. And during the party, heck! Just throwing the party shows that Nino IS still in there, so it makes you feel relieve when he is finally de-evilized. The design is also really nice, making him look all the more inhuman. It’s a really nice!

My only real complaint is that Nino gets no resolution after wards. He gets de-evilied and... that’s it. Next day, he’s his usual self. So did he get over his hatred for adults? We don’t know, I’m assuming so since it never gets brought back up. But I can’t lie, the ending with him making it clear that h doens’t blame Adrien at all for before is super sweet and made me love him. He’s a really good friend and the kind pf perosn that Adrien needs in his life. So forget my gripes, Ia m happy with how Nino ended up in this episode! Also it’s kinda funny with the whole ‘hate adults’ thing since Nino’s dub actor, Ben Diskin, was the VA for Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2 in Codename: Kids Next Door. If that isn’t irony, IDK what is!

Now we move onto Adrien, and OH MAN...

One complaint I had last episode was that the only thing that we learn about Adrien is that he is Cat Noir. Well this episode made up for that! Although it’s his birthday, Adrien is far form happy and we very quickly learn the reason why.He looks like the kid who has everything. His family is wealthy, he’s famous due to being a teen model, lives in a nice house, but none of that means anything to him. Truth is his family life is in complete tatters. His mother is nowhere to be seen and his father is both cold and distant. Last episode followed Marinette’s perspective mainly, so he seemed perfect because that’s how she viewed him. But that’s as far from true as it can be. He’s really a sad, lonely kid who doesn’t think that his own father cares about him. Even as Cat Noir, while he mostly acts like you’d expect, he’s still pretty downcast. I mean this scene says it all:

Ladybug: [Adults] care for their kids! They love them!

Cat Noir: Most adults do anyhow...

Ouch. What sells that is both the sad look on his face and the pure bitterness in his voice. Bryce Papenbrook nailed that line. Now Adrien knows better than to blame every ault and assume that they’re all like his father but still it really shows how bad his relationship with his father is. Later episodes hint that it wasn’t always that way, which makes it worst. Because of this, while we all knwo that it was a bad idea, you can 100% understand why Adrien listened to Plagg and tried to enjoy the party despite Nino being akumatized. He clearly realizes that it was a bad idea the longer it goes on, but because of how little freedom he has and how bad his family life is, the kid trying to enjoy himself just this once really hits you hard.

Then we get the ending. Man the ending. He thinks that he finally got some kind of proof that is dad does care about him. Okay in fairness, Gabriel didn’t forget his son’s birthday and did try to make sure he got something, but the asshole couldn’t go and get it himself. So not much better. But he’s so happy, even shocked, to have some kind of recognition even if it wasn’t in person. He is much happier int he end scene than he was through the other 99% of the episode. And even then, he feels guilty for how his father treated Nino even though he didn’t do anything wrong. But while he’s ignorant to the fact that Natalie just used Marinette’s gift and presented it cause she forgot to get something, he’s just so happy that you both feel bad that he has no clue about the truth, but relieved to see him doing better. Ignorance is bliss after all.

Finally we have our heroine, Marinette. The episode revolves around her trying to give Adrien a birthday gift that she made for him. The whole first half with her is comedy gold. It’s super relateable because many of us had crushes and tried to give them something, but were nervous as a as all Hell. IDT anyone had Marinette-levels of bad luck trying, but we know how it feels. But it’s really cute and her groan of despair when she realizes that she forgot to put her name on the package made both feel pity for her and laugh out loud. Poor girl XD

We get to see of Marinette’s home life as well. Unlike Adrien, who is more or less alone and has a very rough family life, Marinette’s is essentially normal. Her mother, Sabine, is friendly and light-hearted and Marinette has a good relationship with her. While Tom only appears briefly in this episode, we’ll see later that she is also close to him. They love her and she loves them back. Which them getting kidnapped really sells that fact in. For example, this is what Marinette normally looks like at the end of the transformation sequence:

In this episode’s case, she looks like this:

In other words, messing with her family is a very bad idea.

We also get to see what is Marinette’s biggest character flaw, her feelings for Adrien. While she’s not the possessive type, she can get jealous of other girls pursue Adrien. Volpina is the largest example of that, but this episode has it as well. When she sees Chloe trying to kiss Adrien, she wastes her Lucky Charm to put an end to it despite knowing that it’ll drain Tikki when she can’t afford that right now. Then instead of transforming the second Tikki was energized, she instead went to sign the gift... okay we can Alya for that one, but Marinette could have easily made up an excuse. She realized it pretty quickly. but it’s still going to be something that continues to effect her judgement as the show goes on. But that make her all the more complex of a character who has problems that she has to overcome, so that’s actually a good thing.

The final scene is by far one of Marinette’s best. She sees Adrien wearing her scarf and is ecstatic that he got it. But then she hears him talk about it being form his father and she is understandably confused. But when Alya tells her to go and tell Adrien that it was her who made it, she decides against it. Why? Because Adrien is happy. While she’s unaware of Adrien’s strained relationship with his father, him getting a gift form him clearly made him happy. And that matters far more to her than him recognizing her. Her crush isn’t hollow. It’s not because he is a cute teen model. She genuinely cares about him and is placing his happiness above ehr own. That is love and it shows just how selfless of a person that Marinette really is. She truly is a hero.

Conclusion

This is one of my favorite episodes and really sold me on the show. It brings in more characters, fleshes out the ones that we already have, and makes the world feel all the more broad. It was a perfect follow-up to Stormy Weather and showed the writers can tell emotional, but still fun and engaging stories. Everything it did right before, suck as the fight sequences, they carried over while taking the writing to the net level. It got us to care about these characters and for that, it gets an A+. Very well done!

[miraculouscontent]

Did you ever give your thoughts on Gamer 2.0? If not, would you mind sharing?

I haven’t given my thoughts, no, and I wouldn’t mind sharing!

(Firstly, just throwing this out there: I have no comment on the fact that we’re clearly missing an episode, so “sad trombone akuma” being there doesn’t strike me in any particular way. I complain about the order that episodes are released in, but I don’t feel that an episode being aired “out-of-order” should count towards what I view as its quality.)

(Also going to ignore Marinette’s much more intense love of gaming because it makes more sense than what she had in “Gamer”. I don’t mind retcons if they’re doing so to make more sense.)

(…though I do wish this had been the episode where Sabine gets into gaming rather than her already liking it)

Anyway, Gamer 2.0 is certainly… something. It asks the question of “what if each villain-of-the-day could duke it out with each other?” It also shows us how Ladybug and Chat would use them if they could take control. Seeing these guys come back in an interesting way (even though some akuma have an inherent disadvantage due to the battlefield, which is admittedly kinda dumb) is very interesting (also adore some of the references there).

I also like the ending, where Marinette brings Max to her parents and they literally drag him away to go play video games together. Her parents getting all excited and the hilarity of Max just being helplessly dragged off was funny. Max also gives up his akumatized object willingly (after Ladybug nails yet another lucky charm), which was a good moment (Chris doesn’t even remotely count for me because they were threatening to destroy his robot).

…That said, I really don’t like the rest of this episode. Now, admittedly, part of it is me judging the episode for what it isn’t rather than what it is, but I’ll get there.

[Level 1 - Max Attack]

Alright, so… Max.

Like, look, I get it. Max is hurting because he put all this work into this game and no one has time to play it for him.

But at the same time, this is one of the weakest akumatizations I’ve ever seen, at least in terms of the set-up.

For example, characters like Kim didn’t establish that they’d be gone for a long time. All Kim said that he was going to the pool. His activity would take the rest of the day at worst.

It’s the same with Kitty Section, who are only planning to try on Marinette’s T-shirts (by the way, completely unrelated, but having that happen before this scene and giving them a different excuse would’ve been way better considering that Kitty Section could’ve suggested Marinette because they know she’s been stressed, but I digress).

If Max is so invested in this game, he can just do small touches while he waits for someone to be free, whether it’s Kim or Kitty Section. It’s one thing to be really excited about it, but it’s another thing (especially for Max) to not even consider asking people when they would be free, because then he could just excitedly work on his game while he waits for that person to be available.

Now, if people had to keep bailing on Max due to obligations, continuously saying that they’d do it but having to cancel due to getting wrapped up in other things, that’d be different. It would be a frustrating (however understandable) situation for Max, where he can’t exactly be angry at his friends, but he has a right to be disappointed.

I simply just don’t buy that he spent maybe an hour asking everyone and then got sad enough to be akumatized because they had prior arrangements they’d already agreed to. If asking people to play with him was just to playtest his game, then he can simply continue working on it while he waits.

Heck, if he made this whole game himself, why not talk to people about design choices instead, which takes up a lot less time? Surely he has beta designs or things he wasn’t sure about. I can’t imagine many of his friends minding if he just showed them some concepts and asked for their opinion, which would only take a few seconds. If he’s aiming to make his game the best it can be, then–

…I’m getting too deep into this.

*ahem* Point being, his game is likely not perfect yet and it would’ve been more believable for his disappointment to be built up more. It’s great that he was a good sport when Ladybug beat him fair and square, but when the episode prioritizes his problems over Marinette’s (which I’ll get to), I want to understand the feelings he has when he gets akumatized, and I don’t.

Even if one were to say that it was Chloe’s insult who caused it…

Max, think for half a second.

Chloe is a bully who lies just to rile people up, and if Max honestly believes that his friends are lying to him (which makes zero sense, since Marinette verified what Kitty Section Minus One™ told Max without him asking), then he needs to have a little more faith in himself and his relationships, because yikes.

[Level 2 - The Pavement of Predictability]

People who have been following me for a long time know how much it irritates me when an episode lays out its plot from the word “go”. I definitely filled my sarcasm quota for the day–for the week, really–as this episode hammered how stressed Marinette was and how much she had to resist gaming, followed by someone being akumatized with a gaming theme.

Like, gee, I wonder what will happen?

I wonder if Ladybug will try to go through this as quickly as possible.

I wonder if her usual gaming skill will vanish when she does so.

I wonder if none of this will be blamed on the fact that she’s likely lacking sleep (she fell asleep during her test even though she managed to fill it out), is stressed beyond belief, and needs a freaking hug.

I wonder if that schedule Adrien mentioned will go completely disregarded as Chat is unbothered skipping out his obligations because being a hero is “fun” for him, further making this all pointless considering that Adrien doesn’t care about his schedule and Marinette does because most of the things she’s doing are things for people she cares about.

I wonder if Chat will continue goofing off as he practically ignores the fact that Ladybug told him that she had things to do, only worsening Ladybug’s mood.

I wonder if Ladybug will be mocked viciously just because she’s in a hurry.

This entire akuma fight played out exactly how I thought it would, right down to Chat purposefully throwing himself off the edge to let Ladybug deal with the final battle alone. The only thing I was happy to be right about predicting was Ladybug’s win over Gamer 2.0, which was legitimately awesome of her as usual.

The problem with this whole fight (more the conversations during the fights, really) is that it’s standard. It’s too easy to see where it’s going, and where it’s going isn’t pleasant.

Marinette wanted to play with Max. She didn’t maliciously deny him or try to lie her way out of it. She just had too many things to do.

And for that, she’s punished by being forced to play a long, drawn-out game with him.

She didn’t do anything to deserve this happening to her, but the narrative is clearly setting this up for comedy because anger is often seen as more funny than sadness and Ladybug is mostly frustrated and nothing else.

But, in this situation, I don’t think that either would be funny, and Gamer 2.0 being a smug akuma who makes fun of Ladybug when she loses just pours salt in a wound that he caused.

Even if the mocking is a punishment for how Ladybug is unable to handle the situation well, it doesn’t work because I can see how she’s not taking it well. She is fourteen years old and has the burden of a miraculous placed upon her without her asking for it. She struggles to say “no”, she still has to go to school and do well, and she has friends and celebrities who unintentionally request things for her at the same time.

And it’s not like this whole “punishment” thing hasn’t happened before. There have been episodes like “Antibug” where Marinette has to learn a “”””lesson“””” because she snapped at Chloe for interfering with her job, and now it’s just the same thing but Marinette how dare you be busy alongside everyone else and how dare you not ignore your obligations to have fun instead.

It’s cruel, plain and simple. It’s the “working-on-actually-important-things” Ladybug versus the person who got akumatized because everyone had too many obligations one day to playtest his game.

Just… whyyyyyy.

[Level 3 - Chat Cove]

We’re gonna have to have another “look, I get it” moment here because… look, I get it, Chat’s character is there to be the goofball while Ladybug is a lot more serious.

But Chat here absolutely cannot catch onto Ladybug’s mood, and the only reason he’s helpful at all is because he likes gaming.

Let’s look at the facts, scene by scene.

Firstly, the one thing I did like, which was him being concerned about Gamer 2.0 laying a trap out for them when Ladybug was clearly stressed and perhaps not thinking straight. Good moment, bravo, and all that, because Chat should be ready to have a little restraint to cover for Ladybug when she doesn’t.

…But then all of that is immediately thrown out the window by the time they step into the game itself.

Here’s what happens: Ladybug picks the Mime for one of her fights. While she’s busy, Chat makes a teasing (or perhaps semi-serious) comment to her, which Ladybug replies to and thus loses what she’d been miming.

Chat then feels the need to tell her that she loses what she mimes if she talks.

…Well then maybe you shouldn’t have said anything that warranted a reply, Chat.

Chat also is aware that Ladybug is stressed (she basically said it to his face), yet when it’s his turn to play the game, he waffles around as he tries to decide on which character to use, cracking jokes about using Copycat but it being “too easy if it’s basically himself” until Ladybug gets irritated by this. He then picks Mr. Pigeon and continues goofing off.

Am I meant to be annoyed that Ladybug snapped at him? Because I’m not. I don’t mind if he’s still his jokester self but he shouldn’t be wasting time when Ladybug stressed how many things she has to do. What he did as Mr. Pigeon was legitimately funny, but the fact that he seems to almost intentionally waste time despite what Ladybug said makes it frustrating.

Theeeen we get to Gamer 2.0’s comment on Ladybug’s rushing and Chat trying to teach Ladybug a lesson.

First, Gamer 2.0, because the problem is not that Ladybug is trying to rush. I mean, speedrunning is a thing that exists. The problem is that she’s not thinking due to intense stress and an increasing lack of interest.

(Not only that, but why is Gamer 2.0 smug and not sad/annoyed by this? That would be actually INTERESTING if he was trying to make the game as fun as possible and was disappointed that Ladybug was just irritated by it. This is supposed to be HIS game, so how can he be satisfied with someone not enjoying it(he’s even glad later that she’s enjoying herself, but he’d been enjoying her frustration, so…???)? And regardless, no self-respecting gamer would get smug at winning because their opponent wasn’t trying or wasn’t into it.)

Second, Chat, and this bizarre lesson of “it’s not about not knowing how to play, it’s because you’re not having fun!”

Like, okay, it’s great that he asked her if she was alright instead of being upset that she lost multiple times, but to then turn around and give her non-advice?

Yeah, no. Just no.

Firstly, knowing how to play IS actually important (can’t believe I have to say this) and whether someone’s having fun or not doesn’t matter.

On the contrary, some people have fun regardless of if they win or not. Some people may not even try to win and just do whatever they want. If two people have the same amount of skill but one of them has more fun, then yes, theoretically the fun person could win, but they could just as easily lose if they’re not focused enough due to having too much fun.

The advice should not be to “have fun;” it should be to remain calm and focus on a plan, because that’s what Ladybug does best at.

Chat is applying his own logic to Ladybug, which only works because plot. Chat and Ladybug have two completely different styles and Chat is only thinking of himself and what he does. It’s as if Chat doesn’t even understand Ladybug or how she works.

Heck, this episode could’ve even been a compromise! Maybe Ladybug is too stressed and Chat goofs off too much, so they’d have to find a happy middle-ground where they’re focused but still having enough fun to not be stressed.

The only reason Chat is on any sort of high-ground here is because this is a game. I mean, we all remember “Stormy Weather” where he was so nonchalant with the akuma that he got flung fifty feet in the air and slammed his face into a car, right? His tendency to have fun and goof off is just convenient here and only here.

Anyway though, back to the actual episode, Chat then feels the need to sacrifice himself so that Ladybug can fight Gamer 2.0 which, coming right after Chat’s so-called “lesson,” just makes me think that he has no communication skills whatsoever (not that it doesn’t make sense, but the show shouldn’t present him as doing the right thing).

The fact that only one of them can face Gamer 2.0 isn’t the problem, because that’s logical given that Gamer’s failure the first time around was due to him going up against two people (since Chat manned the controls while Ladybug dealt with the real Gamer inside the robot).

The problem isn’t even the fact that Chat has sacrificed himself before. I mean, yes, not all of those sacrifices were necessary, and yes, it puts undue pressure on Ladybug every single time. That’s a reasonable frustration and I will never deny that.

The problem then is that Chat failed to convey his sacrifice to Ladybug. They have all the time in the world to talk and Chat is hardly there for a few seconds before just being like “lol bye i trust you.”

This is what I mean when I talk about Chat’s communication problems. I have no issue with him throwing himself off the edge, but only if he and Ladybug had agreed on it.

Ladybug is the planner. She usually gets the akuma. It makes perfect sense why she’d be the one to face Gamer 2.0.

But why did Chat have to be so dramatic about it? Ladybug felt horrified and pressured at his sacrifice because he decided to do it without her consent. All it would’ve taken is a “let’s be real here, you’re the most qualified to do this and neither of us want to fight each other, so is it okay if I just knock myself out of the ring so you can do that, or do you have a reason why I’d be better at fighting this time?” and that would be it.

It’s just an unnecessary way to create drama/tension while needlessly making Chat look bad.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, the narrative has Gamer 2.0 mock Ladybug over Chat’s sacrifice because she was the one who said she wanted to get the game over quickly.

Seriously? She’d been having fun for the last few rounds and the narrative still wants to get on her case for having obligations that she wanted to take care of? She gets told a phony lesson, manages to work with it, and then still has to be criticized for something that isn’t even a factor anymore.

(Also, I simply do not believe that the Gamer 2.0 who mocked Ladybug relentlessly and was unbearably smug during this whole thing would be so respectful and nice after Ladybug beat him.)

There’s also Chat’s line after Ladybug asks him how he manages to have fun between his superhero and civilian life, which he again brushes off in a very Chat-way.

It’s yet another situation where Chat doesn’t know Ladybug enough to give her advice. Chat simplifies his answer to “I have fun when I’m being a superhero” yet fails to mention that he has fun because his life is boring (due to his schedule) and he enjoys the freedom that being Chat Noir gives him.

Also, it’s a non-answer considering that Ladybug had also asked more specifically if he’s afraid that he’ll have to give everything up to be a superhero someday. Chat clearly isn’t thinking as seriously about his answer as she wanted and their situations aren’t comparable.

Adrien’s obligations are things that often annoy him since they disrupt his plans with others, so I can see why his immediate reaction would be “oh, you mean getting away from my father, never having to do photoshoots again, and being able to spend all my time with you? Heck yeah, sign me up, I’ll sacrifice all of that!” (I know that sounds bad considering he’d be giving up his friends too, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of a doubt and say that he’s only thinking about his obligations and trying to say something flirty to Ladybug at the same time).

But Marinette’s obligations are typically things that she wanted to do.

She wanted to make Kitty Section T-shirts.

She wanted to make Jagged Stone a poster.

And she also wanted to have time to play a game with her father.

Chat’s answer doesn’t apply to her, because Marinette’s happiness doesn’t come from being Ladybug. The show tries to present Chat’s line as something romantic, but ignores the fact that it doesn’t help her.

And, y’know, the fact that Chat “enjoying his time with Ladybug” often involves him throwing himself into danger and falling under an akuma’s influence, further stressing exactly why Ladybug can’t find enjoyment in fights at times.

Just… what did Ladybug do to you, show? Did she spill hot coffee on the lap of one of your writers or what?

Geez.

[Level 4 - I’m Already Sick of Making Level Names And This Episode Doesn’t Understand Focus So Why Should I Bother?]

Okay, so here’s where I talk more about what the episode isn’t, and it all comes back to how the show is portraying Marinette’s struggle and how the characters around her react.

Marinette has a “thousand” things to do. Her week is chock full of stuff and she’s miserable over it. Tikki is helping however she can (kinda), which is something, but what does Tom do?

He gives Marinette non-advice. Like, I legitimately don’t know if this man understands his daughter whatsoever.

It is far too late to talk to Marinette about having “too many cakes in the oven,” and even if it wasn’t, has Tom honestly forgotten the thing that we learned in the first episode ever?

Marinette struggles to say “no.” It’s a character flaw of hers. Whether she knew she had “too many cakes” is pointless because what likely happened is that Marinette knew that she was overloaded and could not control herself when she agreed to “more cakes.”

Tom and Sabine are utterly useless when it comes to Marinette’s conflict. Yet again, they babble about things that aren’t even remotely going to help their daughter (with Sabine focusing more on making Tom feel better than thinking how they can help Marinette). They have no idea of the struggle she’s going through, nor do they try to understand.

They just bury themselves in video games while Marinette suffers. Tom saying something to her is a step up from “Weredad,” but it’s a similar situation to that episode when Tom and Sabine talk to each other about it and then proceed to not do anything.

I’m not asking Tom and Sabine to completely solve Marinette’s problems. Obviously, that’s impossible. A lot of what Marinette needs to do can’t be done by another person.

But, they don’t know that Tikki exists. They could’ve offered to help her with her history. They could’ve offered her advice on how they remembered things when they used to be in school (which doesn’t solve everything but that’s kind of the point when they appear so early in the episode; they also could’ve been busy in the bakery at the start and then gave Marinette better advice later instead).

But they don’t, and that shows a huge problem in the episode. The moral of this episode is garbage because it’s not offering Marinette any actual solutions to her problems.

Some activities are just not fun. That’s an inevitability. “Making things fun” is a worthless, meaningless concept that waffles around the issue and ignores the fact that “having fun” could very well mean that Marinette could slip up by not focusing enough or being too relaxed in the situation of needing to get a lot of things done at once.

And, yet again, the show says that Marinette has a problem without actually giving her a solution.

Where are the people trying to give her strategies for time crunches? Where in this episode do people actually offer help concerning Marinette’s issue of being unable to say “no”? Where is the person who swoops in at the end to at least give actual advice on the issue (which I honestly thought they were going to do with Luka when I first saw that he was strangely absent from Kitty Section; it had nothing to do with me wanting Lukanette, I just thought there was a reason for him not being there)?

Heck, Max is even in the episode and is the focus in terms of getting akumatized and getting his freaking problems actually resolved in the end. With how smart he supposedly is, why not have Max care about Marinette’s problems and offer solutions based on facts and logic instead of something that Chat “feels” is correct?

Maybe he knows the exact time to take breaks and how long to take them so to both avoid burn-out and also refresh Marinette enough for her to remain at her best working speed? Maybe he could’ve even suggested a schedule that would show her how long each activity would realistically take given her usual speed, and how much she would have to work/relax based on that?

Like, just saying, I would hope that the students would want to help their “everyday Ladybug” (I know that phrase is meaningless now, but roll with me here) in any way they can.

Tom sings when he makes bread. He could suggest that Marinette sing/hum while doing her projects to help her relax.

Kitty Section (again, minus Luka for some reason) could all be productive based on music (Rose is even wearing headphones in “Reverser” while she’s in the art club), so each of them would offer Marinette the type of music they use to help them keep calm while still working hard.

Just something. Even on Marinette’s issue of saying “no,” maybe Sabine could suggest that Marinette use a handheld schedule to show all her activities and, when someone asks Marinette to do something, Marinette would check her schedule and “inadvertently” show it to them so they’d be able to see how busy she is. It won’t stop everyone from insisting that she still do it, but it would at least make some people be like “no, it’s okay, I see you’re busy” or “I can wait” while Marinette works on being able to say “no” right to their face (so it’s at least a minor solution to her problem while she works on the major solution).

But no. Marinette helps with someone else’s problems while her issues are brushed aside.

Again.

By the end of the episode, her issue is brushed away with “Well, surely her obligations can wait a while! She can go play with Max, it’s fiiiine! It’s not as if she said that she was overloaded and that breaks were absolutely not an option or anything! Surely, this was just a scenario where Marinette overreacted and it’s all her fault for freaking out so much instead of taking a break!”

This episode isn’t about helping Marinette. It’s about watching Marinette be miserable for minutes on end with no one able to actually help her. For a show that’s supposed to teach lessons, it’s woefully pathetic about it, preferring to make up solutions that don’t actually help anyone.

Just… ugh. I’d rather watch the original “Gamer”, and that’s saying something because I don’t like that episode either. Seeing the akuma fight was cool but it’s just not worth it.

[miraculouscontent]

Have you seen Backwarder yet? What are your thoughts?

This episode’s priorities are backwards.

[What’s in a friend?]

I really don’t care for the behavior of Marinette’s friends in this episode. I’m tired of this back and forth with Marinette’s friends either supporting Marinette or mocking her behavior.

Yes, they came to her house, but that’s the exact problem when they immediately criticize Marinette for her fantasies.

And what did they do to actually help? Juleka at least tried in her own Juleka way, but then there’s Alya’s non-advice of “just confess to Adrien.”

There’s no understanding of the issue here and looks even worse on Marinette’s friends when taking into account that “Frozer” aired before this.

Regardless of where this takes place in the timeline (personally, I think its before “Frozer” since Marinette is so frantic and also because Adrien and Kagami don’t seem to be very friendly on the train; Season 2 and 3 were also written at the same time so episodes are probably jumbled about), Marinette has every right to be scared that Kagami will take Adrien. “Riposte” had Adrien value Kagami’s place in fencing over Marinette’s and “Frozer” likely gave her hope when Adrien ditched Kagami repeatedly to go see her.

Yet, instead of offering actually comfort, Marinette doesn’t get any actual support. Her friends agreed to come only to then invalidate her feelings.

I’ve said this before and I’ll continue to say it: if Marinette’s friends are so tired of Marinette and her freak-outs, they need to stop supporting her.

They keep going to see her. They keep mocking her. They keep teasing her. They never address the real issue.

And what’s Marinette supposed to take from that? I honestly can’t even blame her for stressing out all the time because her friends and Tikki either are unhelpful or just make it worse 75% of the time (and even that might be too lenient).

This half-hearted and inconsistent support will only confuse Marinette. It will never help her. They can’t keep jerking Marinette around and pretend they have her back when they don’t. They did the bare minimum to make Marinette believe they were invested in her struggle and then proceeded to not put in any extra effort.

Yet, despite that… despite the fact that Marinette had to do everything herself, they feel the need to open the bag that Adrien gave to Marinette without Marinette’s consent.

They were annoyed when Marinette admitted all of her struggles and anxieties, but then act all supportive and cheerful when they believe she’s made progress.

They can’t do that. It’s all part of this half-hearted system. They don’t care when Marinette is freaking out over a very real concern but then turn around and cheer for her when it no longer matters.

It doesn’t even occur to them that Marinette might want the opening of this “gift” to be a private matter. They don’t even consider that Marinette might want to cherish this victory by opening this bag herself.

Instead, they knock the bag out of her hands and open it up without Marinette’s permission.

Marinette no longer has any privacy. She’s not allowed privacy anymore. She ended up having to admit what was in the chest to Chris (when she shouldn’t have had to), got her Adrien wall caught on live TV, and now had to watch in horror as her own friends invaded her personal space to open something that a boy she loved gave to her.

I would’ve dropped them right there. They’re the problem and one of the contributing factors in Marinette being unable to move on from her current standing with Adrien.

[Letter Go]

As soon as Marinette gets more than one slip of paper in her pocket, it’s almost impossible not to see what’s about to go wrong. Of course Marinette is about to mix up the letters. Of course all the letters look pretty much the exact same.

Firstly, I highly doubt that a prescription would be virtually the same size as two letters, and Master Fu would’ve at least put his letter in an envelope considering how prepared he was for Marinette to show up.

Also, don’t prescriptions have names on them? Wouldn’t Adrien have seen that this is for a “Mr. Chan” and not Marinette? Adrien certainly seems like the medicine is for Marinette when he gives it to her.

And the medicine in question is yet again, nothing more than a set up to make Marinette nearly die of embarrassment. I was in shock when I realized that Marinette had given Adrien had the prescription.

The writers do not know how to make embarrassing Marinette not look cliche or done-to-death anymore, so they just try to top themselves by making this as embarrassing as possible for her.

Not to mention how contrived it is that Master Fu gets ill on the same day that Marinette needs a way to tell Adrien her feelings before he goes on the train. I simply do not buy that.

Here’s an idea: Fu had seen Marianne the day before and stressed himself out so much over what to do about her that he gives himself a serious headache. The woman then gives Marinette a prescription for headache medicine that Marinette accidentally gives to Adrien. (still doesn’t excuse the name thing but roll with me for a bit here)

When Adrien approaches Marinette at the end of the episode, he expresses that he’s been worried about her due to her clumsiness and how much she stutters, but now that he knows she has headache issues, he’ll help her out and keep a close eye on her.

Heck, what if Adrien knows Master Fu’s full alias name (he at least knows the “Chan” part) and he’s surprised and curious when he finds out that Marinette knows him in some way?

That’s something. Both of these ideas would’ve been something to move things forward even if it wasn’t romantic development.

The dialog in this is just so forced to make sure this letter subplot goes off exactly the way it needs it to. There is no way Marinette would start her letter with “You” instead of “Adrien”.

She’s a romantic. She loves making stuff dramatic and fantastical. “You” would be too impersonal.

And the episode can’t just leave it with Marinette forgetting to sign the card because of a distracting noise from the train, or having Marianne give up reading partway through the letter instead.

That apparently wasn’t enough, because the episode has Marinette stop writing due to the relentless mocking of two rude boys behind her on the train who mock her for her crush (and two more people who are laughing as she runs off the train). Why in any sense of reality was this necessary and why did Marinette deserve it? Why do we have to cater to the stereotype that teenage boys are insensitive jerks who mock the very concept of love?

(Plus, factoring in the nurse’s comment on “you know men”, that’s two male stereotypes so… okay, show.)

And I’m sick and tired of Tikki just doing nothing when Marinette is ashamed or upset. She’s so rarely helpful that I honestly wonder why Marinette couldn’t have had the cat miraculous instead so she’d have Plagg. Tikki just floated there in “The Collector” as Marinette was sobbing over Lila, and now she doesn’t even have any words of comfort to offer as Marinette runs off the train in embarrassment.

Secondly, speaking of Tikki, how did Tikki not pass the letter to Marinette to ensure Marinette gave Adrien the right one? Tikki has been with Marinette for over two seasons now but she doesn’t see any warning signs with the fact that Marinette has three letters that look almost exactly the same? Marinette is unlucky by nature and Tikki never bothers to make sure that Marinette gives the right one to Adrien.

This is even more insulting given that Tikki talks about being proud of Marinette for giving the letter when the entire audience knows that Marinette didn’t give him the right one and Tikki should know that there was a 2/3 chance that Marinette grabbed the wrong letter.

Thirdly, okay, maybe in some realm of possibility, Marinette could conceivably give Adrien the wrong letter. Maybe she was just that flustered that she dug into her purse without thought and without making sure that it was her letter.

But are we really to believe that Ladybug’s own yoyo gave her the wrong letter? After all, she pulls it out of her yoyo to give it to Marianne, but are we meant to believe that the yoyo (being supposedly lucky and all) wouldn’t give her what she thinks she needs?

If this was just the yoyo not having any sort of sentience, why couldn’t Ladybug have pulled out the other objects in her purse first? Maybe she pulls out her phone first, then her pen, then gets so frustrated that she just gives Marianne the first letter she grabs out.

Yet, even Ladybug’s own yoyo conspires against her.

The thing that Ladybug uses for LUCKY CHARM gave her the wrong letter when Ladybug had every reason to believe that it would give her what she wanted.

They could’ve even played this off as divine intervention on the yoyo’s part. Marinette could’ve talked about it to Fu and Fu could’ve told her that, if Ladybug pulled out the wrong letter from the yoyo, it was a sign that it wasn’t time for Marianne to get Fu’s letter.

But we don’t get that, and the consequences for it are severe. I don’t blame Ladybug in the slightest, but because she gave Marianne the wrong letter, Hawk Moth knows more about Fu while Marianne has to wait even longer to be together with Fu.

Heck, why did Fu even have to be romantically attracted to Marianne in terms of the letter plot? Why not have Fu’s letter be about being “good friends” with Marianne and that’s the letter that Marinette gives Adrien? The episode could’ve even kept its comedic ending that way.

I wouldn’t even be against disregarding the fact that Marinette and Fu would’ve had completely different handwriting because that’s exactly what the episode already does anyway and just about anything would’ve been better than this!

Even taking it a step further, it could’ve been Marianne’s own fault that she was akumatized. She could’ve been a flawed character who got upset that Fu took so long to tell her anything and sent a messenger girl to do it for him. That would’ve been actually interesting and not boiled her down to “Fu’s arm candy that just waits for him forever without question”.

[Plot Me Not]

I’m baffled. I’m disappointed. I’m upset that they keep doing this to Marinette when she’s done basically nothing wrong.

If the problem was having her friends come over when they were tired, her friends chose to do that. They were under no obligation to show up (and I already expressed how I felt about that).

Despite all the good that Marinette does, despite Marinette being so clever that she had an entire plan laid out in no time with an insane lucky charm, and despite how nice her and Fu’s reactions are, the episode doesn’t care about any of it because Marinette is their comic relief while simultaneously being their protagonist.

And when Marinette makes an effort to confess to Adrien, it blows up in her face. It keeps blowing up in her face. The narrative, the universe, and Marinette’s own friends rag on her constantly for being unable to confess to Adrien, but when she makes an attempt, the show knocks her down and “puts her in her place” by reminding her that any effort she makes is just going to embarrass her.

This episode did not need a letter subplot that goes nowhere. It didn’t need to embarrass Marinette and make her subplot about Adrien.

Further, because this is a Fu-centric episode and it focuses on Hawk Moth learning more about Fu, this episode almost acts like a sequel to “Sandboy”, which is an insult because “Sandboy” was actually good.

“Sandboy” didn’t need a subplot. “Sandboy” was good because it knew that the Miracle Box and Nooroo’s birthday were important and that they couldn’t waste their time meandering around a subplot about Marinette trying and failing to confess to Adrien again.

This means that any time that could’ve been spent talking about things actually related to Fu get shunted aside because he’s sick (and apparently never gets his medication, which the episode ignores because Marinette never goes back to talk to Fu about it, proving that this detail was for no other reason than to embarrass Marinette at the end). Marianne has next to no time to be treated well by the narrative and actually build her character because she has to share screen time with a pointless subplot.

But I guess that’s what happens in this show when one’s name starts with “Mari”.