#i think my ideal ending is that hawky wins

[hehe-etc]

part of me craves and yearns for gabriel to have won because i want to see emilie alive.

i want to see her so bad, learn who she is, how she interacts with adrien, give him the love and support he needs or even just be the worst and control him in sneakier ways. would she hate gabriel for what hes done or try to get him to change, would she use the miraculous herself to undo all of the damage? would adrien have been given a chance to say goodbye? i just want to know whats shes like, the person that gabriel fights so hard for and adrien longs for.

But i guess her legacy will always be that of a legend trapped in camera angles and paint strokes. At least she can rest peacefully now.

[me4ml]

Hide Under Your Shell: Master Fu, and Why He Isn’t a Good Mentor

The Wise Old Mentor is a well-known trope for any Hero’s Journey: the older, usually male figure who appears with guidance, knowledge, insight, who starts the hero on the path to their destiny. From Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda to Albus Dumbledore to Mister Miyagi, they appear across cultures and through out stories of all mediums. 

In Miraculous Ladybug, Master Fu is presented as one of these. He is a wise old Asian man who guards the Miraculous, chooses the Wielders, the last of an ancient order destroyed. Sounds like he’s the exact ideal of a Wise Old Mentor, right? Except there’s just one problem. 

Fu sucks at his job.

(Long post, so I’ve stuck the rest in a read more underneath). 

There’s about three ways to view Fu that make sense in his character, at least to my mind.

The Overwhelmed Apprentice: From my point of view, the most likely option. Fu is implied to be very young when he made his mistake leading to the destruction of the Order of the Guardians, and it’s canonically stated that he hadn’t completed his training. So Fu, in his old age, has been alone for a long time, reeling from his mistake(s), and hasn’t trained a replacement Guardian until Marinette (unless he had, and that’s part of his backstory, but again-We don’t KNOW that, and it’s frustrating). So Fu doesn’t know entirely how to use the grimoire, or provide the support needed for Marinette and Adrien, because he either doesn’t remember being their age, and the world has changed so much since his time; or he does, and he doesn’t want them to repeat his mistakes. But Fu doesn’t know enough to know differently, so he’s running on half-knowledge, things guessed at, surmised. Also, if the master-apprentice system in the Order of the Guardians, with one teacher and one pupil, was how Fu was taught, and he’s duplicating that system with Marinette, it would make sense as to why he hasn’t interacted with Adrien. Is it fair? No, not at all! But it would make sense.

The Dumbledore: Fu is much less benevolent than he appears. He’s haunted by his actions that led to the destruction of his entire way of life, and is seeking his redemption. He’ll do whatever it takes to achieve it. This Fu is less trusting, giving Marinette, and Adrien, just enough to keep them in line with his goals. This Fu was suspicious of Gabriel Agreste from the beginning (perhaps due to previous experience), and picked Adrien for that reason: to have a chance to put an agent within the enemy’s camp. Because if Adrien figures out Gabriel is Hawkmoth, or Gabriel figures out Adrien is Chat Noir, it’s a move forward. And if Fu loses a pawn? Well, he’s still got the Ladybug on his side, no skin off of his nose! Chat Noirs are a dime a dozen-after all, cats have nine lives don’t they? Fu picks Adrien, offers him freedom, a chance to be a hero, tells him Chat Noir has to protect Ladybug, she’s the only one who can fix everything, he’s the only one who can defend her, he has to sacrificee himself for her. This Fu feels the need to hide his mistakes from Marinette and Adrien, not revealing them unless he has to, and then only in the most general of terms, again, enough to make them trust him, to take his “wisdom.” In this, Adrien, and utimately even Marinette, can be sacrificed, traded to bring back the lost Butterfly. Heck, maybe this Fu is even thinking that he could use the Ladybug and Black Cat to wish them back to life if they don’t make it, he won’t be around to deal with the consequences anyways!

The Turtle Approach: Might be what we get closest to in terms of Fu’s canon decision making, the gentlest and more generous interpretation of his character. Turtles are slow-they take time to gather information, getting to places, content to wait and watch. Fu could have been waiting for the right time to reveal himself to Marinette and Adrien, but Tikki’s illness forces his hand. He’s not used to being hurried, so Fu still waits to see what will happen with his chosen heroes, until Marinette shows back up with the book. Ah, patience paying off! So Fu continues to be patient, after all, he’s nearly two centuries old, he has the time! He’s got the time to get to Adrien, to train Marinette properly, to fix his mistakes, so why worry about it? He’ll get around to it, when the time feels right to him. This is why he needs Marinette around really: youth gives age a kick up the butt, to tell them that the time is now, not later, and people need you on an immediate basis, not in some distant future, but imminently.

Moving on from Fu’s character and motivation, let’s go to his actual actions.

First thing Fu fails as a master is the matter of perspective. When Hawkmoth activates the Butterfly Miraculous, Wayzz senses it, and Fu immediately hauls out the box, pulling out the two most powerful Miraculii. 

Which just so happen to be the Miraculii Hawkmoth wants the most. Meaning if they lose even once, Hawkmoth wins an instant victory, and Fu failed again. 

At this point in time, Fu can activate anyone of sixteen other Miraculous, excluding his own Turtle. Rather than hauling out his biggest guns early, why doesn’t he send out two of the Zodiac to see what they can do against the Butterfly? If something does happen, Fu has learned from it, and then he can activate the Black Cat and the Ladybug later, with more information.  

Now, hauling out your biggest guns early makes sense, if you’re trying to end the fight. But if the Ladybug and Black Cat are the most powerful, they should be able to squash the Butterfly with ease. Instead, Hawkmoth has run rings around Chat and Ladybug, and they’re no closer to figuring out the idenity or location then they were at the start, and Hawkmoth has beaten them face-to-face. 

Now, the show says this is due to the fact that Hawky is an adult, while Chat and LB are kids. 

Then why did Fu choose to give the Miraculous out to kids in the first place?!?!?!

You’re gonna tell me that there isn’t a single pair of trustworthy adults in the whole of Paris that are compatible for this? Not one? 

Or, if Fu was actually smart, why not deploy all of the Miraculous at once, or at least the top tier? Even if they’re kids, he could find at least two others out there who he could give the Fox and the Bee to! Start off with four from the beginning, that way they can bond and develop from the start, rather than dragging people in piecemeal as needed. That way at least there’s some field backup for Ladybug and Chat Noir. Heck, give the Fox or the Bee to actual adults whom Fu has tested and vetted, so they can give some backup to the younger heroes, and some actual power to their battles!

Next, Fu doesn’t actually mentor the people he’s chosen to be heroes. He administers the tests, such as they are, puts the boxes in the right places for them to be discovered, and then just sits back to watch. There’s no explanation of how the powers work, what the mission is, what the kwami are. Nope, that gets left to Tikki and Plagg! Which, if the kwami were going to be spirit guides, let them actually guide! Tikki does a better job, but she’s more scolding with Marinette that I think she needs to be, and Plagg is lazy as the day is long, and that’s if Adrien bothers to listen! It would be an interesting counterpoint to Gabriel and Nooroo if the kwami were actually partners, who could, for example, not transform if they disapproved of what their Chosen was doing, while Nooroo is, through magical means, enslaved to Gabriel’s will.

Anyways, so the kids are left to figure out their abilities on their own. All well and good, but what happens if the test fails? What happens if Marinette had given up the earrings in Stoneheart to Alya, and all of a sudden there’s a Ladybug running around, unchosen by the actual Guardian, and Fu has no idea of how she’ll react? What happens if Chat had accidentally used his Cataclysm on Stoneheart himself instead of the soccer net, and killed Ivan? How would he live with the guilt of that? What does Fu do then? Or what if Ladybug or Chat Noir become corrupted by evil, or akumatized? Fu himself can’t go out, so he has to pick new Wielders, who will be less strong than the Wielders of the Black Cat and Ladybug, and probably lose, thereby repeating the cycle, and that’s all before Hawkmoth sticks his proboscis into the mess and takes advantage of the situation. 

Fu additionally is useless as actual field support, where he could be the most useful, giving the occasional assist and actively combating akuma. Since he can’t transform into Jade Turtle, he can’t help LB and Chat when they need it the most. So it would make sense if he became a supply character, healing the heroes as necessary, giving them advice and wisdom, training them, supporting them, even providing them excuses. But he’s not even that at the start of the series! He just hands out the gems and vanishes! He’s a resource that Marinette and Adrien could have used in their lives as civilians and heroes

Marinette meets in a circumstance of forced necessity, when Tikki gets sick (from the rain, which just screams “CONTRIVED COINCIDENCE!” Really?! The ageless goddess of creation gets sick from the rain?! You’ve got to be kidding me. Make it from an akuma battle where Tikki absorbs a hard hit for Marinette, and they need to find a healer because her energy is misaligned, something more mystical or plot filling than she has a cold!). Fu flat out later says that none of the Wielders would have met him if not under extraordinary circumstances, which makes me want to scream. You gave two teenagers ultimate power, and NO supervision! It could turn out so badly!

More to the point, if the show was actually balanced, Adrien should have met Fu in similar circumstances as Marinette’s. Let’s use Rogercop  as the example here: Plagg gets trapped in Chloe’s bracelet, and can’t phase out (again: “CONTRIVED COINCIDENCE!” Have some form of explanation please? Maybe the materials specifically used in the bracelet can’t be phased out of by kwami’s, and that’s how Nooroo is being imprisoned, or that’s what the Miraculous items themselves are made of, or something!). Adrien is very clever actually, which is rare for him to be shown as that, and sprinkles pepper on some camembert, causing Plagg to sneeze himself out. Well, say that doesn’t actually happen, and Plagg ends up telling Adrien to take him to a “healer” who can figure out a way to get this boy’s “cat” out of the bracelet he had his head stuck in! A parallel to Marinette’s storyline, and a way to show the audience that this is not just some random old man. 

I understand that Marinette is the protagonist, and she’s meant to be the driving character of the show, Ladybug the only one who can purify akuma and fix the damage, the next Guardian. But if you’re going to make a show featuring two leads who are supposed to be partners, please make them actual partners. Have Adrien have lessons with Fu, not Guardian lessons, but lessons of some kind! Hell, if all Adrien does is talk to Fu in Mandarin I’d be happy! But more, Fu easily could have been a mentor to Adrien, especially with the grimoire storyline, and figuring out his mom/dad’s involvement with the Miraculous! That’s a storyline that runs parallel to Marinette’s, supporting her without stepping on her toes! Instead, Fu ignores Adrien, if not outright neglecting him. That’s bad from a storytelling perspective, and it’s bad from an internal perspective: Adrien is the Wielder of the Black Cat, holder of Destruction and Bad Luck. Of any of the Miraculous users so far, he’s the one who needs trained the most, given the most guidance, because his power could be so lethal, and the edge he has to walk so sharp!

This leads to a personal headcanon of mine: Syren takes place much later in the season than its premiere date/episode order, reasons as follows. It’s set right behind Sapotis, and that’s Rena Rouge’s first appearance, and it’s implied that the opening to Syren is just her second, maybe third outing? Chat having a freakout over not being told where Rena has come from two or three times is....really extreme. 

However, if you take Anansi into account, where Chat is extremely worried about being replaced as Ladybug’s partner by Carapace, it makes so much more sense.  Chat sees that since he’s been trapped, Ladybug had to go for help, and there’s a new guy, not even the Fox hero he’s worked with before. So that’s two new people that Ladybug has called on that Chat knows nothing about. No matter how much Ladybug tells him he’s her partner and he can’t be replaced, Chat can’t get over his insecurities. If he’s irreplaceable, why isn’t Ladybug telling him this stuff? Where’s she getting the Miraculous to give to these new people? If they’re partners, why doesn’t she trust him? 

The timeline works less well, but if possible, I might even stick Queen’s Battle ahead of Syren. That way, you’ve got the Chloe reveal, Chat getting scorched by Ladybug when he says she lost a Miraculous, and the whole akumatization thing. About the only thing that would make me think that Wasp Queen comes post-Syren is that Chat seems to take his scolding over the lost Miraculous, implying that he’s aware of Fu’s existence, because where else might Ladybug have learned that? 

OH! Which reminds me, another reason why Fu is a shit master: In Style Queen, Fu and Plagg fling Adrien under the bus. Not even a second thought. They immediately tell Marinette when she shows up at Fu’s that Chat lost his Miraculous. Plagg even says it’s the most irresponsible thing that he’s seen in 5000 years. And Plagg seems to have been there for awhile, if left straight for Fu’s shop right after Adrien got glitter-zapped, and gotten enough time to get cheese. 

What! The! Hell! 

That’s honestly the best they could come up with?! There were other reasons, other excuses that they could have come up with!  How about, “Chat Noir had to unexpectedly leave town,” or maybe “Chat Noir is extremely ill,” possibly even “Chat Noir’s civilian self has been glittered by Style Queen,” because there’s not a single person on this show that has any sort of investigative inclination to actually look and see who might have gotten glittered. Nope! It’s straight to Chat lost his Miraculous, how irresponsible! And Marinette believes them, because what else is she supposed to think? Is the keeping of Adrien’s identity really that critical in that moment, that it requires that Ladybug think less of her partner? Do they really need to crap all over Chat like that, when Fu himself specifically said to Marinette that it is important that Ladybug and Chat Noir don’t lose their Miraculii? So Chat Noir’s so-called Master and his own kwami essentially knife him in the back. IF there was any actual development or sense of continuity on the show, that would have made a great thread to pick up with! Chat’s sense of betrayal, Ladybug’s sense of abandonment, Fu’s actions coming back to bite him yet again! But no, it’s dropped, with not even a clang, just the grimoire storyline.

Anyways, so Syren makes a lot more sense if it’s later, at least after Anansi. 

Speaking of Syren: this is only the second time (as of Gamer 2.0) Adrien and Fu interact face-to-face, of three times total: once in Origins, and twice here. Fu is implied to be keeping an eye on Adrien and Marinette prior to meeting Marinette in Princess Fragrance, revealing himself in Volpina/The Collector, and then watching Adrien afterwards. What we don’t get in Syren is an answer as to why the hell Fu hasn’t openly contacted and is mentoring Adrien yet. He’s told Marinette a silly ice-cream koan about noodles, and Marinette just-accepts it? And I get why, because she’s fourteen, and an adult that she trusts, one who presumably knows more, is telling her what’s happening, but it’s aggravating! We don’t learn Fu’s reason for not telling Adrien about himself yet! We get a metaphor, and that’s it. It goes back to plot contrivance, and so we’re left to come up with reasons. 

Does Fu not trust Adrien? If so why? And why was he given a Miraculous in the first place then? Does he not like Adrien? Does Marinette remind him of someone? Does Adrien remind him of himself? Was Marinette always meant to be the Guardian, and Adrien simply the person who could keep her alive long enough to take on that role? Silence, and the sound of crickets, because there’s no answer. 

A lot of people have pointed to Adrien’s maturity, not being ready to know about the Guardian, but if that the case, to use Fu’s own metaphor, then the pot has boiled over and the noodles are burnt. If this was a test of Adrien’s maturity-and I say this as an Adrien fan-Adrien failed. But Fu gives him the power-ups anyways, because the city’s flooded, and there’s no time to do anything else. Only there’s no consequence later, no teaching moment, no warnings, no first strike lecture, no nothing. 

My point is this: It never should have gotten that far to begin with. Adrien never should have been forced into that position of not knowing and feeling like he had to threaten to take his ring off to know something, because Fu should have been revealing himself a long time ago. And Fu, again, failed as a mentor, because all we see is him showing Adrien the powerups later. Why not have Fu sitting down and lecturing Adrien about what he did and why that was wrong? Why not have Adrien break down, and yell at Fu, asking him where he’s been all this time, why is he just now having to learn about a Guardian? He could have used a Master! It shouldn’t have had to get to “the city’s flooded” for Adrien to learn about Fu!

If you give Adrien a mentor figure early, a willing, responsible adult, who will listen to him, advise him, guide him, how much of what he does might be mitigated? If Adrien can talk to Fu, maybe he’s less obsessed with Ladybug, more willing to explore other romantic options, more willing to be graceful when faced with denial. Maybe he gains a willingness to buck up against his father’s wishes, because he knows that he’s got a sense of support in his corner, more willing to slip the leash and be free as Adrien. Maybe Adrien actually buckles down, and learns to be more focused on the job, on the mission, because someone has said that you need to be more than just the comic relief, more than just the shield and the sidekick, and here’s how.

(Brief side rant):

Part of the reason Fu doesn’t mentor Adrien is the writer’s insistence on Adrien being “perfect,” which is a concept I despise. Perfection is not a thing that exists in anyone in real life, and perfect characters are A) stupid, B) boring, and C) impractical. I would mind less if Adrien actually acted as perfect as he is described, if he did the right thing at every moment, but he would be less interesting because of it. If Adrien is a brat, that’s good, that’s showing him with character. If he’s pissed off at his dad, awesome, he should be. If Adrien-as-Chat is frustrated because Ladybug won’t tell him anything and Fu has kept him in the dark? Good, he can express that. But show, if not the consequences, at least the effects of Adrien being bratty, pissed, or frustrated. 

More to the point, please, for the love of everything, grant Adrien the courtesy of development. It’s one thing for his father to see Adrien as perfect, but the characters in the series shouldn’t, the writers definitely shouldn’t, and the audience absolutely doesn’t. We won’t hate Adrien if he’s not perfect, but this insistence on treating him like such, protecting him from any consequence or push back, treating him like he’s a moral authority, and refusing to allow him the grace of his mistakes is honestly what’s driving a lot of the backlash towards him. The rise in salt fics, in Lukanette and Felinette shipping, has spiked recently, and there’s a correlation between those and how Adrien’s been portrayed. That should not be the case for the show’s co-hero and male lead. 

(Back to the Fu stuff, sorry for the brief side rant). 

And honestly, Fu isn’t just screwing Adrien over, he’s screwing Marinette over too! He tells Marinette that she’ll be the next Guardian, and what exactly has he done, that we are shown, to help her with that? Has he saw down with her and begun to teach her how to decipher the grimoire? Has he taught her about the Miraculous and the kwami, the nature of them? Has Fu told Marinette how to choose new Miraculous holders if there isn’t someone she can trust around, what tests she should give? Is there additional magic to the kwami’s and the Miraculous that affects them, a resonance theory to how each kwami matches with a Holder? Has Fu taught Marinette about her partner, about the power of the Black Cat, about why he chose the boy under the mask, and the reasons that he did so? Most importantly, has Fu explored any of the powers of the Ladybug Miraculous with Marinette, so she can be stronger, gain new abilities? Nope! Haven’t seen it!

Marinette is already shown to be burdened with responsibilities-she’s Ladybug, she’s got school, she’s trying to break into a tough, vicious field in fashion design, she helps her parents, and y’know, tries to have a life outside of all of that. And now Fu tells her, “Oh yeah, when I pass on, which could be any moment ‘cause I’m ridiculously old, you’re gonna be the next Guardian, and have to protect an additional fifteen hyper-powered magical beings! Have fun kiddo!” No wonder she’s stressed! Y’know what might help? If her partner was just as updated as she was!

Adrien is shown to be good with languages: he can speak Japanese, and is learning Mandarin. Why isn’t Fu calling him into learn about deciphering the grimoirie? Why isn’t Fu teaching Adrien anything at all? 

What Fu should be doing is training Marinette to be the next official Guardian, and Adrien should be right there at her side, learning how to support her, balancing her, as her partner. One person is not going to rebuild the Guardians by themself, no matter how talented; Fu is wrong if he thinks that’s the case. Two people, trained for the job, can get it started, and pass down the legacy. Fu is right to believe in Marinette-she’s going to make a wonderful Guardian-but he’s wrong to only believe in Marinette. She needs help! Informed, capable, knowledgeable help. And Chat Noir can be that help, if Fu is willing to move in and actually do his damn job and mentor Adrien/Chat Noir. 

Fu has the ability, like most every single character on the show, to be an interesting character. But the refusal of the writers to explore his back story, develop more of the lore surrounding him and the kwami, and actually use him in the way that would be both helpful and plot advancing, is aggravating. And worse, it make the person we’re supposed to view as the mentor in this situation look like he doesn’t know what’s going on. Fu doesn’t support his pupils in the proper way, he doesn’t help them the way they need to be helped, he ignores if not outright neglects the training of one of his responsibilities. He’s not a good mentor, or a suitable master.