#miraculous holder luka

[haphira]

Miraculous Ladybug and the Valiant Annuler     By: Haphira

33. Ladybug’s Changes - Ladybug shows off her new outfit, and Chat... throws a hissy fit.

Marinette stood facing the mirror in her room, glancing at the two designs she had left to pick from for her new suit. Tikki hovered nearby watching with interest. Marinette sighed and held both up to Tikki.

“What do you think? Which one should I go with?” she asked the little goddess. Tikki looked back and forth at the two before flying up the right-hand design.

“Can I ask what the inspiration was about?” Tikki asked.

Marinette smiled, “Yeah, I started thinking hard about it after I saw Hachi’s outfit. The kimono sleeves and hood with the layered skirt and fighter pants looked good! And those side cut outs?! Mwah, Chef kiss. So, it got me thinking about my roots.”  

Tikki looked over the two drawings again.  

“I like this one more, it playing to your heritage more and I think it looks very cute!”  

Marinette smiled, “Yeah I really like that one too, are you ready for the new design?”  

“You know it!” Tikki squealed excitedly. “Just say the words!”  

Marinette took a deep breath, closing her eyes before saying the transformation words. A bright pink light flashed, enveloping Marinette and leaving the newly dressed Ladybug.

Padded black leggings, and slip on red grippy shoes, with the top being a short version of a Hanfu that reached the top of her thighs, the base red with black spots on the belt, black reinforced opera gloves, and over her shoulder trailed two see through wing shaped scarves. Her hair was up in a bun with two ribbon ends that looked like antenna. Overall, a more grown-up look with modern take on some of her traditional heritage clothing.  

Marinette felt powerful and couldn’t help the absolute blissful happy smile on her face. She took to the rooftops, the Eiffel tower as her destination. She flew over the Couffaine boat giving Luka a breath-taking smile as she passed, focusing once more on her destination.  

Luka was just strumming not really playing anything. When he saw a shadow pass overhead, he glanced up to see Ladybug. Although, dressed differently, and had a different air about her. Luka couldn’t help but drop his jaw when she smiled at him. Her smile was beautiful, yes, but it was so relaxed and hopeful, something that he realized he hadn’t been seeing lately unless it was with him and the other teammates. Without any hesitation, he called out to his Ma to tell her he was leaving for a while. He didn’t wait to hear her reply. Just shoving his guitar back into her case and jumping off the boat to run into an alley to transform. He followed Ladybug at a distance before catching up to her shortly after she dropped onto the observation deck of the Eiffel tower.  

Meanwhile, Adrien was playing a video game when he spotted a familiar figure leaping over rooftops, he grinned and called Plagg to transform ignoring the Kwami’s pleas to not, turning around to set up a dummy to show that he was still in his room, in doing so he missed Dìonadair leaping after Ladybug. Satisfied that everything was set up he opened his bedroom window and jumped into the air to follow Ladybug. Soon he was flying over roof tops running to the Eiffel tower, he knew it was ‘their’ spot to meet up at. However, the closer Chat Noir got to the tower the more he saw, like that fact that Ladybug wasn’t alone. Anger burned in his chest, he landed silently behind Ladybug, he reached out a hand to grab her but was smacked away by ...scarf wings?

------

Ladybug was thrilled that Dìonadair joined her. She smiled happily as soon as he touched the deck, she reached out to him for a hug, which he gladly returned.  

“Dìonadair! I didn’t expect to see you!” Ladybug gushed. She had secretly hoped that Luka would join her but as soon as she saw that he was on his guitar she didn’t want to bother him.

Dìonadair just smiled, “You look exceptionally happy Ladybug, that have to do with the outfit change?”  

Ladybug twirled slowly, laughing and smiled. “It might.” Dìonadair smirked, eyes sparking with amusement.

“Well, you look fantastic. I like the new look, Ladybug, it fits you well.” Dìonadair commented. Ladybug smiled happily.  

“Thanks.” Neither noticed Chat Noir land behind Ladybug until the wings on Ladybug’s outfit moved to smack Chat’s hand away. Ladybug whirled around to face the danger and Dìonadair got into a fighting stance.  

“Hey, what the heck, M’lady?” Chat Noir demanded. Staring daggers at Dìonadair, who looked unimpressed. Ladybug’s smile fell into a frown as she relaxed her stance, realizing the danger was just Chat Noir.  

“What are you doing Chat Noir?” Ladybug, annoyed at his actions, asked. Chat pouted, with his lower lip jutted out and everything.

“I saw you pass by and figured we should get some alone time.” Chat whined. Still glaring with hostility, Chat attempted to grab her hand, but Ladybug moved closer to Dìonadair, making her a step out of reach from Chat Noir. Ladybug crossed her arms and Chat finally noticed the outfit change.

“Wha- Bugaboo?! What’s with the getup? I loved your old suit; this new look is-”

“Amazing.” Dìonadair cut in firmly. He had straightened out of the fighting stance he was in but kept his legs shoulder width apart in case of the need for quick movement. Chat frowned and opened his mouth to speak.  

“Agreed.” Another voice called out, cutting off Chat Noir. Both Ladybug and Dìonadair turned and saw Sionnach together with Hachi, they touched down and walked up to the group.  

Chat’s tail was thrashing around behind him, an extremely displeased expression on his face. “M’lady, who are these people?” he asked curtly, obvious anger in his eyes.

Ladybug looked at Chat Noir coolly, “These are my team members. Hachi and Sionnach respectively,” Both nodded when their names were called, “And Dìonadair behind me.” Oh, he remembered Dìonadair alright.

“New teammates?! What happened to the old ones? What’s with all the changes Bugaboo? And why didn’t you talk to me about it?!” Chat seethed. His eyes narrowed into slits. First, it was the fake hero showing up and now new teammates?!

“Because you didn’t show up. Because of your attitude. Because you still treat this as a game, it’s not a game Chat Noir! People get hurt, and they remember. That scares and scars people, Chat. And that creates more Akuma to fight. Which makes my job harder.” Ladybug hissed. Her ��wings’ rose behind her as she took a step forward making Ladybug look especially intimidating.  

Chat Noir scoffed, he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “You don’t have that hard of a job-”

“I spoke to the Guardian about you.” Ladybug cut off, stopping Chat in a frozen look of surprise.  

“I’m sick of your attitude and games and you not respecting me as a person. I’m tired of always correcting you and telling you to stop calling me ‘Bugaboo’. It’s not cute, Chat, it’s demeaning and unprofessional.” Ladybug continued. She stared at Chat Noir with a flat expression of someone who was completely over the bullshit.  

“I’m done.”  

“Wha- What do you mean?” Chat asked, he looked slightly panicked.  

“I mean that I’m done dealing with you and your bullshit.” Ladybug replied with that same flat voice.  

“Ladybug cursed?” Someone commented softly. Ladybug had forgotten that they had an audience.  

“Leave, Chat Noir, I don’t want to see your face.” Ladybug dismissed. She turned from Chat to face the others and walked away. The group parted to let her through, giving one last glance to Chat Noir, the group also turned from Chat and followed their leader to the other side of the observation deck.  

Chat Noir watched his Lady walk away with the three newcomers. He was in shock. Ladybug just did that. His Lady just Did That. Anger engulfed him, he flung himself into the air away from the tower, away from Ladybug, away from the posers that pretended to be superheroes like him. He wouldn’t come to the next couple of Akuma fights. Let Ladybug deal without him and see how much she needs him, (him not realizing she already has). He nodded to himself. Yeah, that was the plan. Let Ladybug see how much she actually needs him and accept the apologies that Ladybug will give when she realized her mistakes. He huffed as he headed home for the night.  

Ladybug watched Chat leave but couldn’t get herself to care. She was done trying to bend over backwards to please him. It was time to focus on things that would help and change this status quo with Hawkmoth. Ladybug faced her team and smiled.  

“Let’s get to work.”  

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34663405/chapters/117322843

Chapter 34

[a-flaming-idiot]

Title: A Kwami's Plus One

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Warnings: No Warnings Apply

Word Count: 3,212 words

Number of Chapters: Oneshot

Main Tags: Fluff, Kwamis & Their holders, kwamis love their holders, true form kwamis, the kids are adorable, rewriting miraculous lore, Kwamis are gods, Kwami Shenanigans

Summary:  “Every one hundred years, all the active kwamis are to come together in a pocket dimension beyond space and time to discuss official matters. Trixx, absolutely despises these Kwami Coalescences. So to help with that frustration, they sneak along their favorite human. The only issue comes when their plan goes oh so shockingly off-course…”

[wren-em]

Party Crasher is mixed for me. Therefore, I'm just rant about the episode in general.

The episode was the final nail in the coffin of me switching questioning why the two leads haven't figured out each other's identities to questioning most of Fu's existence. I understand that he's there to fill in the role of a mentor but him heavily interacting more with Marinette than the kid he gave the powers of literal destruction does not help is case in me questioning what on earth he is doing. As for the two leads figuring out each others identies, at this point its a case of me having no hope of them figuring it out accidentally. If Marinette isn't recognised as Marino, then I have no hope of her being connected to Ladybug beyond Multimouse, and that just bleeds into Adrien and Chat Noir as a consequence.

I'm conflicted about Adrien having a party. On one hand, I love Adrien having joy. On the other hand, Bubbler kinda already did the party thing, so I would have preferred the episode to mostly just feature the guys from Mrs Bustier's class and Marc. Communication is lacking in this show, so I would have loved an episode that just had communication central. My two main things I would have loved them to talk about would be their parents and Felix. If the show takes place before the episode, we can have Adrien warn the guys about Felix's tricks and if it takes place after the episode, then we can have the guys talking about the events of the episode. Parents wise, the show is focused on teenagers but I would like to know more about these kids' parents even if it's only mentioned.

Master Fu giving Kim a Miraculous and immediately wondering if he made the right choice ìs hilarious to me. It also got me thinkìng of other ways that Kim could have gotten the his miraculous, and I've come up with two ways that it could happen. Both ways contain Xuppu bugging Fu for the location of Plagg's holder, flying off to said location after getting it, causing Kwami shenanigans and the getting caught. The first way has Stompp noticing Xuppu leaving and following him to only have to reveal themselves when Xuppu gets caught by Kim in front of the guys there. Cue either Marc, Nathaniel or Ivan questioning the whole Miraculous thing, and Stompp having to give a more straightforward answer than the riddley sort of way that Xuppu is answering the questions. We can even tbrow Adrien and Kim asking really weird questions because Adrien isn't really mentored by Fu and Kim is Kim. Cue villain attack, Kim transforming in front of the guys, a Party Crasher vs Ladybug and King Monkey fight, Stompp refusing to tranform any of them and hitching a ride in Ivan's bag, and Adrien being blocked from transforming via the power of numbers and a lack of hiding spot. The second way lacks Stompp and has Xuppu instead be caught by Adrien with none of the other guys noticing. Cue villain attack, and Adrien drags Kim off to most likely an alleyway near the Agreste mansion. In the tags of a Sabrina reblog that I would have wanted her to gain a Miraculous via Adrien when they're both in civilian form and then Adrien revealing he's Chat after Sabrina agreed to hekp the superhero team. Swap Sabrina with Kim and thus ensues a Party Crasher vs Ladybug, Chat and King Monkey fight. Since this show needs more communication, the episode ends with Chat and Ladybug talking with King Monkey about how he got a miraculous and the whole Chat or Kim's schoolmates knowing Kim's identity and obviously Ladybug ends up accepting Kim as part of the team.

Party Crasher himself looks ridiculous enough for me to think that he looks cool. He doesn't look Maledictator levels bad, but he's also not one of my top 3 looking akumas. I think I would have preferred his reason to relate to friends that weren't Adrien even if they have to be one dimensional characters.

I also want to rant about Penalteam, which means that's probably going to happen in either the next 24 hours or next year, so stay tuned, I guess.

[some--dingus]

Ok so I stopped watching Miraculous after... I think the season before disney. I'm not completely sure I was just sick of Chloe being written HORRENDOUSLY (you cannot change my mind) and did not like Zoe.

BUT I keep seeing screenshots and posts of the newest epsiodes of Miraculous and I just need to know what the actual fuck is going on over there

[revolutionary-thoy]

Like i mentioned a few times, Chloe's family has been training her to be the new Bee miraculous holder since Zoe and her were kids. Unlike Kagami who was basically raised by the Supreme, Chloe didn't really know about the Supreme or what exactly her parents were preparing her for. She just knew that her parents were involved in some shady organization, but not any details.

Zoe was the Supreme's original choice for the Bee Miraculous, but due to her running away from home, it was given to the second candidate. Chloe got what she wanted, but she has to deal with lots of angst about being the second choice and constantly getting compared to her sister who excelled at everything. Basically Tahani and Kamilah Al-Jamil, but with magic bee jewels.

As Hornet Queen / Sting (can't pick between those two names) she doesn't usually fight alongside Kagami, Luka and Felix. She usually does her own solo thing, but would occasionally be assigned to missions with the trio, or with Lila, much to their annoyance.

Full Re-Verse lineup below

[jelreth]

sorry sorry im just thinking about. selfishness vs selflessness and honesty vs safety in mlb

[laterreurofficial]

LT Doodle Stream Recap/Questions!

(Part 1/Part 2)

Hello everyone! Wisteriasymphony here. Yesterday the LT hivemind had the wonderful experience of our first doodle stream together!

For the purposes of cataloging all of the questions we answered on our stream (because somebody doesn't know how streaming works yet *COUGH COUGH*), I'm going to be answering them all here!

La Terreur takes place in 2002, and the events of the timeline last about a year. Of course, it's a retrofuturistic cyberpunk-y 2002, which explains later developments like the alliance ring and so on.

They're the same au! Miracle Exposure has just been a tag Silu has used to categorize talking about the effects of the miraculous, but it all happens within LT.

Hawkmoth is already a pretty solid design as is. Shadowmoth and Monarch will probably get overhauls later on, but why fix what isn't broken? Hawkmoth is already just the right amount of gross and creepy and fancy and bald, so no need to revamp that.

The consensus to far is that Felix arrived before the quarantine was instated, but he could easily have bribed officials into letting him into Paris if he needed to. The quarantine is mostly to keep people in, and if some idiot with a death wish high-paying member of the british aristocracy is willing to give money to a dying city just for a ticket in, then why wouldn't they let him?

@gaussiansphere put it quite nicely in the stream when he said that the heroes aren't trapped in Paris physically, but mentally. There's nothing theoretically stopping Ladybug from blowing a hole in the defenses of Paris and going on the run, but she has a moral obligation to protect her city. Everyone else feels roughly the same way, though we did discuss the idea of having the concept of migration fit Max better by virtue of his big goals in life involving getting out of Paris.

Also, the miraculous will likely be passed out differently. We're not following exact episodes, only storylines.

On a similar note....

Ladybug will probably alternate who she gives all of the minor miraculous to multiple times over the course of the story. She would find it ridiculous to pass them out to people "for keeps", as @sillysiluriforme put it, and before a certain point in the story will favor adult holders over teen holders. (Not saying why this changes though heehee, spoilers.)

MUCHAS GRACIAS!!!!!!!!!! Los ships no son un foco de La Terreur, pero.. Adrigaminette 100% mejor del mundo JAJAJAJA XP. de lo contrario es lo mismo que el canon.

Opinions de los kwamis hacia sus portadores es q los ven como niños. Son indiferentes a la humanidad en realidad. Los kwamis también los vicios q usan sus portadores para obtener. (Adrien huele a tabaco Y queso apestoso :/ Marinette no se afectada porque Tikki quiere el sabores dulces en su vaporizador).

#wispanol arc hehe. also YES you saw that right English audience, the kwamis are smokers. Marinette has to ask Luka's bandmates for vapes because the closest bodega to her house is run by a sweet Chinese grandma who her mom likes talking to, so if she bought from there she'd be absolutely screwed. Adrien just buys all of the tobacco as Chat, though.

We're not planning on having Aspik show up in LT, at least as far as we have planned. If he did, however, his rat eating desire would definitely go through the roof. He'd probably try and time his rat-eating specifically for when he's Chat Noir, just to make things easier for himself. (Until he eats one as Adrien by accident and has to live with the mental baggage for the rest of his miserable little life...)

Well.. there are a lot of characters that really don't need redesigns! Or where redesigns would be extremely minimal. Marinette's dad only really needs to get proportional legs and then that's it, and the same philosophy extends to most of the other minor characters.

Here are some of @clemnoir's designs for the rest of the class, though!

In fact, her lovely annotations somewhat answer another question we received....

We haven't figured out everyone yet, but the scholarships group so far is: Kim, Max, Ivan, Rose, Nathaniel, and Mylene. Adrien, Chloe, Sabrina, Alix, and Marinette are all paid tuition.

There could be! The ancient miraculous are indeed destroyed, much like the infinite amount of others like them, Bearinette and Lambdrien are just explorations of what it would be like if they hadn't been. The bear and lamb miraculous are not canon to LT, nor would any future ancients be. If we get any good ideas, you'll see them.

[wis is biting all of her fingers to prevent herself from talking about the coyote....]

The big issue Marinette has with being Multimouse is that she's no longer respected as the leader, at least as much as she's used to. Because she sees Ladybug as more of a responsibility than fun superpowers, her side effects are more psychological by consequence, whereas Adrien's are more physical. She also feels some sense of jealousy towards Scarabella, as well as general insecurity over not being the leader when she's Multimouse... but despite this she continues to use the Mouse Miraculous more often than in canon just for the sake of "training" Alya.

Silu dice muchas gracias!!!!! ...No conocen sus identidades fsgdss. Exposición al milagros del raton causa disocociación, duplicación no literal para Marinette jajaj. (Pero, no puedo decir si dos Marinettes aparecen en LT..... tal vez, tal vez no? huummmm)

Tambien, ellos comiendo ratones en privado. Nadie los trae en su almuerzo. Todos ellos tratan con sus síntomas en secreto.

Violence and misery and horror and class dynamics. I'll get into it more in Part 2, but characters' relationships to power is a huge part of this AU, both of the magical and non-magical variety.

[chocostrwberry]

If yall have noticed, I often mention “seasons” when describing the timeline of my AU.

“Choco?? What are these seasons you are talking about? Why are there only three when the show has five??”

Sit down, little one, and let me tell you a story…

AHDKWHSJ JK JK

But anyways-

I have split the events that happen in my AU into seasons because then it’s easier for me to keep my facts and timeline in order! All episodes are in exact order/sequence of events!

Season 1: Gabriel can create sentimonsters.

In this season, it’s establishing the world of Miraculous. Marinette and Adrien is learning how to be miraculous holders while navigating their own lives.

Origins: Marinette becomes Ladybug for the first time alongside Chat Noir to defeat Stormy Weather.

Ladybug and Chat Noir defeat an Akumatized Mylène, Animelle. Together, they visit Master Fu for more information on their new duties.

Marinette has a hard time balancing being Ladybug and her civilian self. Ladybug and Chat Noir have to team up to defeat a game-themed teenage akuma.

Sweetpea: Marinette enters a design challenge with Alix, and Adrien is her model! Rose is akumatized into Sweetpea after a health scare makes her unable to help her team with their design.

To Be or Not to Be: There is a school play, and Chloe will stop at nothing to get the main lead. Ladybug struggles to win over Chat Noir, who seems oblivious to her attempts at flirting.

Boy meets Girl: Marinette develops a crush on the class’s most popular boy after defending Juleka against Chloe. LB and CN battle Reflekta.

Princess Justice: Marinette is chosen to submit a dress design to high-fashion company represented by Chloe’s mother. Jealous of her success, Chloe destroys her project, causing Marinette to be Akumatized.

Fish Food: Ladybug and Chat Noir have to defeat an akuma who goes by the name of Captain Kraken. For the Winter Ball, Marinette makes plans to ask Luka to be her date.

Winter Formal: The winter formal is here, but Marinette is worried about an akuma attack that might ruin her chances with Luka.

Be My Lover: Now that Marinette is officially dating Luka, Adrien’s jealousy becomes more apparent. Chloe’s repetitive and harsh rejections of Kim turns him into Dark Cupid.

Road Rage: Adrien has a fight with Chloe about her behavior towards others, and she acts out once again and Nino is akumatized into a foul-mouthed biker with a vendetta against her.

New Girl: A transfer student is introduced to the class, but Marinette is suspicious of her two-faced behavior.

Prophetica: Marinette’s constant lying and lack of trust makes her and Alya have a fight after she fails to bring cupcakes to her sisters’ birthday party.

Primadonna: After Chloe’s mother decides to take her half-sister to her movie premiere debut instead of her last-minute, Chloe becomes Primadonna and turns Paris into her own personal black-and-white film.

Sabrina seeks Marinette’s help to expose Lila after she comes between Sabrina and Chloe’s friendship.

King of Music: Jagged Stone is akumatized and it is revealed that Luka and Juleka are his children. Marinette’s duties as Ladybug become more demanding and her relationship with Luka strains.

Winter Wonderland: After Chloe misses one of Sabrina’s recitals, she is Akumatized into Ice Queen and turns Paris into an eternal winter.

Marinette misses one of Luka’s concerts, where he was going to debut a song he wrote for her. They break up and he is Akumatized into Heartrocker.

Liar, Liar: Marinette finally tells the class who Lila really is, but they have a hard time believing her. Lila is Akumatized into Miss Miracle and offers her services to Hawkmoth in order to take down Ladybug.

Lila strikes a deal with Gabriel when Adrien invites her over to his home out of pity. Hawkmoth’s identity and motives are revealed. Chat Noir takes Ladybug to see Master Fu for help because of Plagg’s warning against Lila.

A New Guardian: Master Fu makes Ladybug the new Guardian before Lila can get to the Miracle Box.

Goldbug: The peacock miraculous is fixed. Hawkmoth unifies the miraculous to become Shadowmoth. He creates Miss Miracle’s first sentimonster: Goldbug. Marinette becomes Firefly to defeat them both.

The time span for this season is about 4 months, starting in the beginning of Junior year.

Season 2: Emelie wakes up.

This season focuses on the lore of the miraculous. Ladybug unifies miraculous every other episode to defeat both akumas and sentimonsters. Lots of kwami-swaps and unified ladybug happen in this season! (Scarabella, Queen Bee, Carapace, Ladybee, etc.) Marinette is also warming up to Adrien.

Chat Noir is skeptical she’s the right pick to be guardian, and she takes that personally. She decides to unify against Reflekta and her sentimonster, Reflekdoll.

Mr. Midas: After rejecting an expensive present, Chloe’s father is Akumatized into Mr. Midas and wants to turn everything into gold for his beloved daughter. Tigerbug and Chat Noir try and defeat him and his sentimonster.

Sweet Dreams: Ladybug becomes Hercula after a sleepy akuma discreetly puts Paris into an eternal slumber.

A Spider’s Web: Ladybug becomes Mantigirl to defeat Arachnia, a kindergarten teacher who is Akumatized at the Paris Zoo and trapped Adrien and others.

Marinette comes down with a mysterious illness, and so it’s up to Scarabella and Chat Noir to save Paris from an Akumatized grandmother and her gang of angry sentidogs!

The Wailing Lady: Firefly and CN battle against a grieving widow and her sentimonster, a giant willow tree in the middle of Paris who she believes is her deceased spouse.

Sugar and Spice: Marinette faints while working at the bakery. This makes Sabine anxious, and she is Akumatized into Mother Desserts. Marinette and Chat Noir work together to save her.

Tikki suggests giving others different miraculous to help her fight the akumas and sentimonsters. Adrien tells Chloe about his crush on Marinette thanks to Plagg. Chat Noir visits Marinette and takes her on a trip around Paris.

Operation Ladybug: Luka suspects Marinette is Ladybug, and he recruits Alya to help him figure out the truth. Chloe starts treating Marinette with less disdain, much to everyone’s surprise. Firefly and Chat Noir fight another akuma and sentimonster.

Bon Appétit!: Alya’s mother becomes akumatized while working at the hotel. Ladybug and Alya work together while Chat Noir tries to keep Chloe and Sabrina. Alya’s suspicions are confirmed, but she tells Luka to stop digging.

Kwami Captor: After some mischevious kwami escape the miracle box with their jewels, Marinette becomes Multimouse to hunt them all down.

Queen Bee: Chloe decides to use the Bee miraculous she found to try and help Mantigirl and Chat Noir. Her need for attention makes the mission not go according to plan. Chat Noir and Marinette have an argument about his secret identity.

Protector of All: Nino and Adrien are in charge of elitist children for a day while Marinette and the class set up a school sponsor event. When an akuma attacks, it’s up to Nino to protect the kids while Tigerbug and Chat Noir defends them. Luka finally gives up his suspicions.

Miracle Team: The Miracle Team meet up for the first time to take down an akuma. But they struggle to actually work together! Chat Noir breaks up with Marinette, leaving them both devastated.

Soulmates: Marinette and Adrien spend the day together to find a gift for Chloe’s birthday. Nathalie finds out about Gabriel and Lila’s dark deeds with Hawkmoth.

Happy Birthday Chloe!: Chloe’s birthday party goes awry, thanks to Lila’s sabotage, and Chloe is Akumatized.

Sick Day: Marinette is too sick to go to school most days and struggles with night terrors. She is worried about her health, and talks to Tikki about it. Alya, Nino, Luka, and Sabrina try to clear Marinette’s name. Adrien visits Marinette at the bakery.

Marinette vs The World: Marinette’s friends finally has what they need to prove Lila is terrible once and for all. But Adrien isn’t sure it’s the best idea.

Cheer up, Marinette: After unifying once again to defeat an akuma, Marinette’s condition is so bad she is bedridden and cannot celebrate Chinese New Year with her family. The kwamis try to cheer her up. Adrien is growing worried about his father’s health and seeks comfort in Nathalie.

Like Mother, Like Daughter: Chloe’s influencer half-sister, Zoe, comes to Paris. Chloe humiliates her out of hurt and anger, and Zoe is Akumatized into Delightfulee.

Reign of Bourgeois: Chloe’s mother arrives in Paris after hearing about her outburst against Zoe. She is then promptly akumatized into Stylix and takes over the city. What’s worse, she has put a bounty on Chloe’s head.

A Sunny Day: The Miracle Team accepts Vesperia as the new Bee miraculous holder. Her outgoing positivity is welcomed, but her hesitation puts them in danger.

Never Trust a Fox: Trixx abandons Alya and runs away with the fox miraculous, pledging his loyalty to Lila instead. Volpina tricks LB and Chat Noir into thinking she’s on their side. Ladybug has to unify once again in order to defeat her and the akuma once she betrays them.

The Wish, Pt. 1: Because Marinette is out of commission, Scarabella, Vesperia, Carapace, and Chat Noir have to fight against Volpina, The Wailing Lady, and her sentimonster.

The Wish, Pt 2: Gabriel now has the Ladybug and Cat miraculous. Marinette and Adrien follow Volpina to the Agreste mansion, and Adrien learns the hard truth about his father.

By the end of the season, Shadowmoth has completed his mission and trades his life for Emelie’s. A part of Lila’s backstory is revealed.

This season ends at the end of Junior year, breaching into summer.

Season 3: Marinette’s Sacrifice

This is the final season of my AU!

Summer Break: Adrien’s doppelgänger cousin Felix attends the school after visiting with his aunt and uncle over the summer to help Emelie readjust. Lila now has a new name, Cerise Blanc, a woman sent by The Order. Emelie decides to give Cerise the butterfly and peacock miraculous in exchange for her having The Order keep an eye on Adrien. Cerise unifies the Peacock and Butterfly miraculous to become The Empress.

Return of the Butterfly: Rose is akumatized into Sweetpea once again after receiving devastating news about her condition. The Miracle Team return to take it down.

The Emperor’s Daughter: Adrien’s mother surprises him with his fiancé, Kagami, who he hasn’t seen in years. Her social class proves difficult for her to make friends.

Paper Flowers: Because of his shy nature, Felix makes an origami flower with a romantic poem written inside of it for Kagami. However, Kagami believes it was Adrien and becomes determined to make their relationship work.

Felix becomes depressed over Adrien and Kagami’s relationship while going out with them for the upcoming winter formal. Emelie grows jealous of how close Nathalie is with Adrien and sends her on a business trip abroad.

Boys’ Night: Emelie’s hovering nature makes Nino worried for Adrien. He starts to encourage Adrien to rebel a bit, but Nino didn’t expect Adrien to become so out of control when he’s off a leash. Meanwhile, the girls on the Miracle Team are having a sleepover to buy exclusive Jagged Stone tickets.

The Star: Adrien is akumatized into The Star after Emelie tells him she will unenroll him from school and return to homeschooling because of his recent behavior. She also fires Nathalie.

Tales of Scarabella and Kitty Noire: Adrien is under house arrest and Marinette’s sickness is coming back, so Scarabella and Kitty Noire have to keep Paris safe!

Hanabira: Kagami witnesses Adrien and Marinette together while waiting for their date at the Louvre, and is Akumatized and takes over the museum.

The Masked Lady and Me: When Cerise catches Felix looking for the peacock miraculous, Cerise later introduces herself as Madame Morphosis and makes a deal with him to avoid unification sickness. Felix’s backstory is revealed.

Our Frozen Hearts: Felix and Marinette find an unexpected common ground when they are forced to watch Adrien and Kagami dance together as Winter King and Queen.

Sentimaggedon: Madame Morphosis tests Felix to see whether or not she should let him keep the peacock miraculous she gave to him. In a desperate attempt to prove himself, Felix as Argos creates multiple sentimonsters that accidentally bring about the apocalypse. It’s up to the Miracle Team, with Dragonbug, to save the city.

Cat and Mouse: Marinette uses the Mouse miraculous once again to be undercover while dealing with akuma-related disappearances. But Chat Noir won’t take any chances and hunts her down to bring her miraculous to Ladybug.

The End of Us: Kagami breaks off the engagement with Adrien. Adrien then asks out Marinette, who delightfully says yes.

Motherbird: Emelie willingly becomes Akumatized by Madame Morphosis in order to keep her son Adrien under her watchful eye.

Sing a Little Song: Clara Nightingale, an American popstar and a close friend to Zoe, comes to Paris to shoot a music video. But her overbearing manager and strict schedule causes her to become akumatized into Frightingale.

Birds of Prey: While hanging out with Marinette, Kagami is kidnapped by Argos. The Miracle Team have to defeat Argos’s sentimonsters in order to rescue her.

Frenemies: Adrien is trying to get Chloe to warm up more to the idea of Marinette and him being together. Marinette helps Felix overcome his fears and talk to Kagami.

Bonded by Our Sins: After getting closer to Kagami, Felix tries to back away from Madame Morphosis’s control. However, she scares him into submission by threatening to hurt Kagami.

Who is Lila Rossi?: Argos is sent by Madame Morphosis to take Marinette’s miracle box after being informed by Trixx. But him and Marinette devise a plan to trick her.

True Love: Felix confesses his feelings to Kagami at the fashion show and shares his secret with her. Volpina hunts Marinette’s classmates one by one for the scattered miraculous, using extreme measures to get what she wants.

Let’s Do This, Together: The miracle team, along with Argos, has to defend Paris against Lila, who has unified most of the miraculous and become a magical hybrid monster.

Always and Forever: Ladybug and Chat Noir decide to take one last stand against Lila.

Happily Ever After: Marion, a 12 year old girl, discovers small magical creatures who live in her favorite music box!

Quick explanation for episodes 22-24:

Lila collects and unifies most of the miraculous, becoming a monster-animal hybrid and losing herself and all sense of rational. Marinette exposes her identity to all of Paris because of her, and Marinette is aware in a few hours everyone she’s ever known will forget her. Chat Noir reveals himself as Adrien to her before she takes his and the Ladybug miraculous, and unifies them to become Gimmi Marinette and destroy her for good!

Marinette feels Senti-Queen’s mixed emotions of betrayal and hate and loneliness, and her kindness shines through. She uses the Lucky Charm to rebirth Ah Lam as a child, giving her the opportunity to live a normal and love-filled life, the one she never had.

The time span is towards the end of Senior Year, when they were suppose to graduate.

AFTERMATH

So Marinette no longer exists, no one remembers her, and there’s a child version of Lila now.

Now what??

Child Lila is adopted by Marinette’s parents, who have always wanted to have a child. They rename her Marion. It means “wished for child” :,) But also “sea of sorrows”, symbolizing Lila’s life and the pain she caused!

After reading Marinette’s diary, the city knows she was Ladybug. They create a new park called “Ladybug Park” in memory of Marinette.

The Order of the Guardians come to reclaim the jewels unified by Lila, but the kwami refuse to be captured again and flee with their jewels. They all go back to the miracle box for safety. Marion finds the miracle box in Marinette’s old room, and unknowingly becomes the next Guardian.

Adrien only remembers Ladybug, and believes she was the one to unify the miraculous. He has no real recollection of Marinette, but subconsciously feels the loss.

Congrats for making it to the end heheh!

Have some cake! 🍰

Eat it under this rainbow for a break! You deserve it!

🌈

“BUT CHOCO!!”

“You still haven’t explained why there are only three seasons!”

Oh yeah! Sorry!

It’s because I feel like it took 5 seasons in canon to explain what happened in 3. I imagine my AU to be a Disney-owned show that was about to cancelled.

How can I sum up the plot of Miraculous Ladybug in 3 seasons, 12-15 episodes each?

LMAOSJW-

But yup! That’s it! Hope you had fun reading!!

[mc-lukanette]

Marinette held the butterfly miraculous up towards the ceiling, leaning back in her chair thoughtfully. It was amazing, really, how harmless it looked, yet it'd been so disastrous in the wrong hands. She felt lucky that she got it back before anything seriously bad happened, like Hawk Moth - Gabriel Agreste - finding Master Fu and getting his hands on the Miracle Box.

Nooroo hovered nearby, saying for what must've been the tenth time now, "Thank you so much for saving me, Ladybug, really."

"You can just call me Marinette," she assured, as being called by her hero name was too formal for her tastes. Too used to having a kwami of her own around, she unconsciously pet his head, though he at least didn't seem to mind. "Besides, you shouldn't have been held captive in the first place. You deserved to be free."

She'd already decided to hold onto him for a while to let him heal. Even being as ancient as he was, it couldn't have been pleasant dealing with the situation he'd been forced into.

She frowned, bringing the miraculous back down to chest level and thinking over the situation. Under Gabriel Agreste's ascot the whole time was the butterfly miraculous, and inside that was the woman who led up to all of—

"...Huh?"

Nooroo flew closer, peering over her shoulder. "What is it, La—Marinette?"

She blinked. She remembered the moment she tore the miraculous from Hawk Moth, the way it flew across the room as the man detransformed in front of her. She'd hurried to retrieve it before even seeing who he was and caught the image of Adrien's mother inside, the miraculous having popped open during the fall.

However, in her possession, the picture of Emilie was gone and in its place was Luka Couffaine. It was a simple shot of him looking delicately at the "camera," his eyelids relaxed and a soft smile on his face.

"It changed..." she muttered.

"Yes," Nooroo replied casually. "He feels like a sweet boy. I'm glad you have someone like that. Not all heroes do."

She raised a brow at him, puzzled, and not just from the comment about Luka "feeling" like a sweet boy; it must've made sense to kwami, or maybe just Nooroo specifically.

"Oh." He went over to float next to the miraculous, placing a hand next to the image. "I'm the kwami of emotion, and my miraculous reflects that. The person inside changes based on what's in the holder's heart."

"But..." She hesitated, lips pressed into a tight line as she considered the information. "What about Adrien?"

Nooroo placed a paw to his chin, thoughtful. "Yes, he could have been in my mas—" He tensed. "—ah, in Gabriel Agreste's miraculous."

She wanted to correct him - to say that it wasn't what she'd meant - but the answer he'd given did go down a similar path to what she'd been wondering. "What do you mean?"

"Some of my holders had their lovers inside, some had their best friends, and other had their child or children." His eyes grew briefly distant in his reminiscing. "Even when they already had lovers, there were holders who had their best friend here instead."

That... well, it was interesting, but it didn't explain what she was experiencing. Adrien had been the crush everyone had (unfortunately) known her for, and Alya was always someone she considered her best friend, so what did that make Luka? If she was honest with herself, she never got to think about it; whenever she'd tried to, there were interruptions or other matters to tend to.

Nooroo stared at the mix of emotions on her face, eyes too intelligent for someone so small and cute. Offering her a comforting smile, he reminded her, "You have time to think about it now if you wish to. That's what many holders do after everything's over, even if I can't be there for it."

The statement was so obvious, yet it'd never occurred to her before. She'd been so deep into the monotony of being Ladybug, of chasing Adrien, of making time for everyone and everything she wanted to do, that it didn't feel real for it to be over. He was right though: there were still loose ends to tie up, but she finally had time for herself and for her own thoughts.

She felt... reassured.

—————

One of said loose ends to deal with after the two lost miraculouses were retrieved was Master Fu and Marianne. Now that Gabriel was in prison where he belonged, they were free to be together as much as they wished.

Part of that wish was to travel the world in order to do all of the things they'd once planned to long ago. The Miracle Box would go with him as well as Duusu, who was getting her own well-deserved vacation after having her miraculous broken for so long. Beyond the butterfly, Marinette kept the ladybug miraculous with her in case of emergencies, promising to call if Marianne needed to don the horse and bring her a miraculous or two.

It was bittersweet, heartwarming but confusing. She'd seen them together only for a moment before, but they really did make a charming couple. Despite years apart, they touched each other like it was instinctive and were like a pair straight out of a wedding, ready to jump into their honeymoon phase.

She wanted that. She had wanted that for a long time, ever since she was a child. Someone to grow old with, to share secrets with, and to be comfortable around.

It was uncomfortable realizing that she didn't have anything close to that with Adrien. She'd worked towards something like it, and where had it gotten her? She'd almost managed it and got humiliated in front of her friends.

It hurt worse to see Master Fu and Marianne so thankful to her, when she felt like she was the cause of them being apart for even longer. No matter how many assurances she had that it was an accident, it didn't change what happened. Emotions she hadn't felt before began to bubble to the surface; ones that she either hadn't focused on or simply hadn't had time to feel.

Sure, she would meet up with them again someday, but she wondered if it could've been different. Even seeing them off, it was difficult to say what her relationship with Master Fu even was. He lured her into running in front of a car to save him, but simultaneously cared for her well-being and trusted her abilities. He mentored her and the plan had originally been to make her the next guardian, but it wasn't like she'd really wanted it, or to be Ladybug in the first place.

She hadn't asked for any of this.

As for Marianne, Marinette barely knew her at all. Had the letters not been mixed up, they might've gotten to know each other better. Maybe she would've had a positive female role model in her life, or she could've come to see her like a grandmother figure, someone who stuck around more than her actual one.

She should be thankful, she told herself. Ladybug gave her the strength to stand up to her bully, and she was such a screw-up that it was a miracle she hadn't made things worse for them. It wasn't fair for her to be lonely, jealous, or resentful of them.

"Negative emotions don't have to be ugly," Nooroo whispered from her bag when he caught her wringing her hands together. He touched her with a paw, trying to soothe her. "It's how you work through them that matters."

All in all, she felt... conflicted.

—————

Marinette's friends were the first to learn of her identity, almost as soon she'd been given the okay to do so.

It wasn't all of them, of course, but figuring out which ones she could tell had ended up being more difficult than she'd thought. Her secret had been kept safe for so long and it was precious to her, so even if she was largely out of the weeds of risk, she didn't want it getting out into the public.

Thus came the natural conclusion that she could only tell people she truly trusted, and it would be pointless to tell those who she barely ever hung out with. The latter alone left out most of the boys in her class barring Ivan, who she'd interacted with plenty during the two weeks of preparation for their Kitty Section video.

While Nooroo munched away peacefully on some snacks, she had to resort to writing down all the people she considered "friends," a list that ended up surprisingly long. The Marinette of the past swelled with pride at the sight but, upon closer inspection, there were only a handful she could say she'd genuinely bonded with.

It was then that she realized she didn't really know what having a friend meant. Her parents had always encouraged her to talk to people, make friends, and had been the ones who gave her the box of macarons on her first day of the new year.

A bribe, essentially, or a conversation starter if she was being generous; reel people in with the prospect of sweets and then try to make some sort of connection with them. It never really worked, and the basis for most of the friendships she had nowadays came down to them being nice to or doing something for each other.

Reluctantly, she'd had to scratch most names out and write them on a more proper list, like acquaintances. She was also just as reluctant, if not more so, to recognize that she couldn't come up with a valid reason to tell friends like Alix, Rose, or Alya about her identity.

Alix was for reasons unrelated to Alix herself, as Marinette associated Alix knowing her identity with Bunnyx and therefore the traumatic events of Chat Blanc. Rose, meanwhile, was too likely to let the secret slip by accident.

Alya though, had already spilled a secret of hers before: she'd told Nino about her crush on Adrien, then tried to lie about it. How could she have counted on her to keep her big secret if she couldn't keep the (relatively) smaller one? They spent the most time together, certainly, and Marinette didn't dislike her, but could she say that Alya was her "best friend" if she couldn't keep her secrets safe?

Not really.

In the end, she'd picked four people: Juleka, Ivan, Mylene, and Luka. Juleka was too quiet to care about telling people, Ivan would be fine so long as he could talk to Mylene about it, and Luka was—well, Luka, the most mature out of all her friends to the point where people went to him for advice.

When she pointed out what she felt was a pathetic number to Nooroo, he replied, "It's good not to spread yourself too thin. Even my most caring holders only had so much love and trust to give before they exhausted themselves."

The word resonated with her. She felt... exhausted.

—————

It was, perhaps, inevitable that Chat Noir would want reveal their identities to each other. He'd wanted to since the very beginning and there was little danger to worry about anymore.

Hesitantly, she agreed, but hadn't been mentally or emotionally prepared to see Adrien Agreste standing in Chat Noir's place. He was equally surprised to see her own identity, but she couldn't make out his excitement about them already knowing each other or the actual words he was saying with everything going on in her head.

She put her arms behind her back, allowing her to pinch herself without being seen. She could see the appeal of it, in a way: she'd been crushing on Adrien and Chat had been crushing on Ladybug, so it sounded perfect on the surface that revealing their identities would "solve" things.

Yet, to Marinette, it sounded like a sick joke, like a prank Chloe would've set up so she could laugh while watching Marinette spin in circles over it. Her life had been complicated enough without throwing in something straight out of a cheap drama that tried to keep the characters apart for as long as possible. After all of that embarrassment she'd been through, she'd apparently been "loved" by him all along?

Except she wasn't interested in Chat. Technically, she wasn't even interested in Adrien either until he gave her that umbrella. Was Adrien the "real" Adrien, or was it Chat Noir? Was it half-and-half? If so, what did it say if she wasn't crushing on both of them?

She could still recall that rainy afternoon after having finally stood up for Chloe after multiple years. It was so picturesque, with the sound of thunder punctuating the emotion as Adrien offered her his umbrella. It was the first act of kindness any boy had really—

Oh God, did she really fall for the first boy to show any semblance of kindness to her as Marinette? Had she been that desperate for someone to cherish? How could she go back in time and offer the Marinette who felt like she had nothing a hug?

She tried to focus on what Chat—Adrien was saying, and to respond with her own questions in kind. Why did he notice Ladybug and not Marinette? Why did he tell her that he had no friends when he'd known Chloe as a friend for years? Why...

just why?

But it all came out scrambled, too many thoughts stumbling about to form into anything coherent. Her brain ached at the onslaught of everything she wanted to say and everything she wished so badly to forget about while struggling with the knowledge that Adrien lost his dad and she should be gentle with him.

"It's okay to take a step back," Nooroo had told her sometime before, "You don't owe anyone your time if you're not ready to talk yourself."

Had he known or suspected something like this might happen? Regardless, she took the advice and left for home.

The revelations had left her feeling... disappointed.

—————

Marinette ate meals at home without needing to rush, she finished projects that she'd had to drop due to having no time before, and she slept soundly with the knowledge that an akuma wouldn't appear in the middle of the night to disturb her.

Refreshing was an understatement: it was healing. The ache in her feet and the pain in her spine that no fourteen-year-old should have to deal with disappeared, and she hadn't even noticed how much it had hurt until they were gone.

She could finally make time for herself, going off to an art museum for inspiration or taking a stop to eat just because. She shared food with Nooroo when no one was looking and pretended to be on the phone with someone when she wanted to talk to him. The small things she'd taken for granted before becoming Ladybug felt like a luxury now: like a princess spoiling herself, not with a shopping spree or servants but a hot cup of tea and a midday nap.

When she could enjoy the act of doing nothing in particular, she found herself pulling out the butterfly miraculous to look at. Luka's face continued to stare back at her, the same gentle gaze as always.

While Adrien had been at the forefront of her romantic pursuits, she couldn't dismiss Luka's presence either. Her heart skipped a beat when their eyes first met, they bonded over a mutual appreciation for Jagged Stone, and he gave her what both her and Tikki agreed was a tender and very real love confession.

At the same time, Luka was her friend. Alya had teased her a couple times over being attracted to him, but then wasn't happy with her letting Adrien go date Kagami. She didn't really get it and, as she reminded herself again, there always seemed to be something in the way when she tried to make sense of it.

People rarely batted an eye or said anything when she called Luka a friend, like they didn't even take the idea of him being anything more seriously. Calling Adrien a friend, on the other hand, earned her snickers and sarcastic comments.

It was ridiculous, wasn't it? Either they mocked the idea because she'd made so little progress that they weren't even friends at all (which she wouldn't have disagreed with), it was such an unimportant step on the road to being a couple that it was laughable, or she couldn't see him as a friend so long as she was crushing on him, which was—

Marinette's eyelids flew wide open. She sat up in her seat, taking her first gasp post-epiphany.

"Nooroo, I'm so stupid!"

He blinked at her, gently admonishing, "You're not stupid, Marinette, and you shouldn't say things like that about yourself. If you feel like you have to, try something softer, like silly."

"Then I'm REALLY silly!"

—————

The weather as Marinette waited near the Liberty was only average. Clouds filled the sky, not storm clouds but ones that covered the sun enough to where it felt later than it really was. It wasn't exactly the making a grand statement kind of atmosphere, but the weather had never worked how she'd wanted it to anyway, apparently.

There was no one home, so she lingered around, reclined on the stairs going back up to the city, and idled on her phone. She'd shown up wholly unannounced in her haste to get there, so she was fine being left to her thoughts for a while.

It could've been anywhere from five to thirty minutes before she heard a familiar, "Marinette?"

She looked up. Luka was standing there with his bike, understandably surprised to see her.

"You should've called me to tell me you were coming. I could've been here sooner."

She giggled when he pulled out his phone, just to make sure she didn't text him while he was doing his job and failed to notice. "It's okay. I didn't want you to rush."

"We love having you here," he added with a frown, putting his bike aside so he could make the awkward leap onto the Liberty. Setting up the gangplank for her, he added, "You can invite yourself in any time."

"It felt too empty when there wasn't anyone here." She shrugged, stepping up the little walkway to go across. At the Liberty's side, she sat down on the steps and looked up at him expectantly. "And I came to talk to you?"

It came out like a question because she had considered that he could've have prior plans or some such but, because it was Luka, he smiled and sat down next to her.

He didn't even go back to get his bike.

"Okay." He undid the straps to his helmet and put it aside. "What did you want to talk about?"

It was oddly casual, all things considered. The others that she'd told her secret still were a bit star-struck after she told them that she was Ladybug. It wasn't at all a bad thing - Nooroo encouraged the boost to her ego it gave her - but it was also nice to have someone who didn't care: who just saw Marinette.

Her eyes flicked up to the top of his head. The signature strand of hair there had been pressed down by the helmet he'd had on from his job, and she unconsciously reached out to fix it. His face remained carefully neutral and he was entirely still for all of it.

It only registered with her what she'd done when she pulled back to check her "work." Blushing faintly, she dropped her focus to the brooch clipped to her jacket.

"Do you remember when I told you I was Ladybug—I mean, of course you do—but..." She fidgeted with the brooch, then gently pulled it off. "...how I was keeping the butterfly miraculous for a while?"

He nodded. "Its kwami must've been through a lot. Are they feeling any better?"

"A little." She smiled, impressed and touched that he'd thought about some kwami he hadn't even met. "But I was surprised. There was a picture inside, and it changed when it became my miraculous."

She took a deep breath before handing it over; Nooroo had told her to imagine her own nerves as if they were beings that needed oxygen in the same way she did, and they could only breathe if she did as well. The thoughts raced through her mind from "What if he thinks it's weird?" to "You mean weirder than anything else you've ever done? Please."

Luka turned the brooch over in his hands, Marinette suppressing a giggle as she noted that it wasn't unlike what she'd done when she first got it. Nevertheless, he eventually popped it open, staring at the image of himself inside.

She kept speaking before he could ask any questions, the words rushing forth from her throat, "I didn't get it. I didn't even know it did that. Nooroo - he's the kwami - told me that it could mean anything. Other holders had friends or crushes in theirs, but all I knew for sure was that..." She swallowed, watching his expression carefully. "...you’re important to me."

His head jerked to the side to look at her, mouth dropping open like he might say something, but nothing came out. In the background, she could still see the sky, overcast and gray, but Luka's eyes were blue and appeared even brighter than usual.

"Y—" He exhaled, almost chuckling, but not in any mean way. He was charmed. "You're important to me too, Marinette."

Her heart fluttered pleasantly and she sat a bit straighter from how light she felt. In a way, she already knew that - he'd confessed to her, after all - but it was so soothing to hear it out loud. She threw her arms out, gesticulating left and right as she added, "But I felt like I couldn't just come here and tell you that. I wanted to be sure, instead of saying, hey, Luka, my vaguely important something-or-other!"

That got him chuckling for real. Whatever he expected her to say next, it didn't seem to be what she was going to say. Being "important" to her really seemed to be enough to make him happy all on its own.

She hadn't thought about it before, but all those loose ends had been leading up to this. The kind of romance she hoped to have for herself, the people she could trust, the phrase "just a friend" thrown around almost like an insult.

Luka.

She turned her body towards him, her knee bumping lightly against his. Extending an arm towards him, she gently held the hand that he wasn't holding the brooch with. He quieted, noting the change in atmosphere.

"I'm comfortable around you. I trust you," she told him. "Those two weeks together were probably the most me I've ever been."

He squeezed her hand.

"You're such a great friend—" She hurriedly waved her free hand about. "—and I don't mean it that way, but you are! So I thought it meant we shouldn't be not friends because you wouldn't be that great friend anymore!"

It was a little disjointed, but the underlying message was there. Her experience (or lack thereof) had told her that there was being friends and being together with no in-between and no overlap. When it came to a romantic relationship, friendship was a pathway and nothing more. Following that logic and what she'd interpreted from Nooroo's teaching, she thought that meant that Luka had to be her friend or her crush.

"But... I want it to be both," Marinette concluded. She held onto his other hand too, their thumbs touching just above the picture in the brooch. "I want to be friends with you, Luka, and I want you too. I—" She averted her gaze, voice almost inaudible as she added, "I want to kiss you."

It was perhaps - no, definitely - a bold declaration, but she'd been holding it in ever since she left the house. It was so obvious when it clicked, like the solution to a Lucky Charm finally coming together.

Only this was her life, not the distant life of her superhero self, and the only thing she was fighting was time; time that she wasn't going to waste now that she had it back.

"...Marinette," Luka finally spoke.

Oh. She shuddered, catching onto the heightened emotion in his voice. Not turning her head, she peeked up at him hopefully.

He'd closed his eyes and leaned towards her just slightly, but otherwise didn't move from his spot. In other words, he was opening himself up to be kissed. She nearly uttered a "wow," but it couldn't make it past her lips.

She couldn't believe it was really happening. Was it really so easy, or did it being easy make it all the more real? In a life where everything had been so complicated - making friends, being Ladybug, coming up with grand plans for anything and everything - wasn't it perfect for the love she'd longed for to be so simple by contrast?

Luka loved her. She loved him. That was it, and she just had to embrace the chance.

She slowly took her hands off of his. Then, remembering the thing that got her there, she took the brooch out of his hand. Holding his jacket in place, she clipped the brooch onto it, smiling to herself over the little visual metaphor for their shared feelings.

Luka's eyes stayed closed, but his twitching smile told her he understood.

The miraculous had been kept open, so she saw it change in real time. Light that didn't exist reflected off of the surface, turning it so white that she couldn't see Luka's image anymore. When it faded away, she was the one pictured there, her teeth showing in a beaming grin and eyes glowing in the same way the rest of her face was.

Hands free, she looked up affectionately at who she felt she could properly consider her boyfriend. She cupped his face, her thumbs caressing the tiny lines caused by the straps of the helmet he'd had on. She would've even been happy to continue doing just that, fascinated by the intimate bubble they'd created for themselves.

Still, she eased herself towards him, pulling him in. She tilted her head to the side and encouraged his to tilt to the other, which he followed along to without a word.

She kissed him, and felt Luka's previously stationary body move with purpose. He kissed her back as his hands went from his lap to her sides, holding her tenderly. The sensation was strong enough that it made her squeak, a sound that made Luka let go in alarm.

She took a hand off his cheek to grip his sleeve tight and keep him in place, assuring him that he was doing fine; fantastic, actually. He took the message exactly as intended, sliding himself closer so he could fully wrap his arms around her.

At some point, she climbed onto his lap, or maybe he lifted her there. It didn't really matter. They were kissing, and her whole world made sense at that very moment.

She felt loved, and was finally able to give it right back.

[maddascanbe-blog]

Huh, I expected to get my drawing of Teen Zoé done for the redesigns first. Oh well... Only Kwami-swaps of the Lifeswap AU!

Meet Amaranth and Cerastes!

For no reason at all I decided to give Swap-Zoé long hair and Swap-Chloé shorter hair. Which is the exact opposite of my normal redesigns for them.

André won the custody battle for Zoé, and put his best foot forward into raising her and Chloé. Zoé is similar to how she is in cannon, late season 5. But she still learned how to mirror people, convincing them to lower their guard around her. She is a politicians daughter after all, and having people on your side is most important when convincing people to follow you. Zoé ultimately wants to do good for Paris, and is good friends with Ivan and the other members of Kitty section due to their activist mindsets.

Zoé's biggest fear is the secret of her being not André's biological daughter coming to light. He told her when she was 13 because he worried her biological father might try and regain custody in order to extort André for money. He made it clear in no uncertain terms that she is Zoé Bourgeois, the youngest of the family, Chloé's sister, and his daughter.

While she is happy André won't give her up for anything, she finds a new resentment for Audrey. And lives in fear this will harm her father's reputation, change how her relationship with her sister works, and effect how her friends see her, should it ever come to light.

Chloé's know for years that Zoé was the result of Audrey's cheating, she knew that one of the contentions during the divorce was that Audrey was barely in Paris the entire first 2 years of Chloé's life. The math didn't math, so she pieced together the truth. This only added fuel to her burning hatred for Audrey, Zoé is her little sister.

As Amaranth, Zoé makes her voice Heard! There is no stopping her once she's set her mind to it. I based her outfit on a womens power suit, and those asymmetrically colored biker jackets.

Juleka meanwhile, grew up with Anarka. She remembered her brother from when they were little, and is a tad horrified at who he's grown up to be. With Luka gone, Juleka lost her spark and her voice. She almost never talks, and doesn't stand up for anything. She just goes through the motions most days. Anarka tried to bring that light back to her daughters eyes, but every step forward has two steps back taken by Juleka's bullies. Being a quiet kid, who's mom can't keep a job, wears hand me downs, and whose dad ran off didn't leave much to be desired when it came to options of being harrassed.

Finally Anarka broke and asked Jagged to let the twins reunite. She hoped this might be a chance for Juleka to find herself again. And while Luka had changed too much from her caring and strong twin, she did find Zoé, Marinette, Adrien, and the members of Kitty Section.

Do you remember Juleka helping Zoé dye her hair in Sole Crusher? Well this time it happens in reverse. After getting comfortable with the group, she approaches Zoé about getting her hair colored. Naturally, Zoé's gotta help her girly out.

After Luka is deemed no longer suitable to be a miraculous holder, Ladybug and Chat Noir decide to give Juleka a chance. Cerastes isn't flashy, or confident. She's stealthy, sharp, and attentive.

Juleka's spent years just adapting to new situations and learning to read people for the sake of surviving, and it comes in handy when it comes to figuring out Akuma's.

Unshockingly, Luka isn't happy to see his miraculous used by someone else, though it does take a while to get there since Cerastes doesn't even get properly seen for ages. She's very good at disappearing.

Anarka is so relieved that Juleka finally found her people, that she's even willing to stay in Paris to keep her close to her friends. She still struggles to keep a normal job, but anything to see her little girl smile again.

[frickingnerd]

Adrien Agreste Masterlist

oneshots

cuddles & movies on a lazy afternoon

you watch a movie with your boyfriend but the two of you end up falling asleep while cuddling

an unexpected identity reveal

“just friends?”

the last thing you expected when you turned on the tv, was to see chat noir detransform into none other than your boyfriend adrien agreste

chat noir's weakness

ever since chat noir kissed you, he's been avoiding you. when you confront him after an akuma attack, you find out why…

after your break up with luka, adrien is there to comfort you! even if he's in love with you himself…

what the heart wants (but can't have)

despite your crush on adrien, you help him get ready for his date with marinette. after all, you just want him to be happy…

the princess and her white knight

after your boyfriend gets akumatized, becoming the villain chat blanc, you try to hide from him. but cats are good at catching their prey...

a game of cat and mouse

as the holder of the mouse miraculous, you try to stop claw noir's reign of chaos. but he doesn't seem to take you very seriously, instead proposing that you join him!

drabbles

secretly making out with chat noir

your secret make out session with your superhero boyfriend gets cut short due to an akuma attack...

we could've had it all

seeing you with luka is enough to finally make adrien realize his feelings for you. only that it's too late now...

headcanons

dating adrien agreste

fake dating chat noir

arranged marriage with adrien

sleeping with(out) adrien

adrien breaking up with his s/o

adrien with a younger sister

adrien dating the new holder of the butterfly miraculous

polyamorous

poly relationship with adrien, marinette & luka

poly relationship with shadybug & claw noir

love triangles

love triangle with adrien & luka

love triangle with adrien & felix

love triangle with shadybug & claw noir

love triangle with chat noir & claw noir

[malereadermaniac]

Bug-a-boy ~ Luka & Adrien x Male Reader

Idk about this one... but I wanted to write it. Basically a miraculous holder reader x adrien and luka College Au: Luka - 19 / Adrien - 18 / Reader - 18 word count: 1.2k m!reader (no genitalia mentioned) / FDNI

Your college class is huge

But it's to be expected, you do go to the most popular college in Paris

You share the class with a group of friends that came from Francoise Dupont

Luckily, the groups appointed leader befriended you pretty early into the year

Marrientte Dupain-cheng was the kindest girl you knew

And her friends: Alya, Nino, Adrien and Sabrina weren't too bad either

Actually, you liked them a lot, and you were glad that they wanted to be friends with you

There was also this other guy from the year above, Luka

You didn't talk to him much, but the others were fond of him

But the few times you two did talk, he was nothing but calm and welcoming

All in all, you love your college and your friends

However...

The one setback to coming to Paris for school, was the Akuma's

After Hawk-moth's fall, a new owner of the Butterfly miraculous came to power

But to counteract that, Paris has its own team of Miraculous bearers

The only problem was, currently, Paris has no ladybug...

During a massive fight against a very powerful, akumatized villain, Ladybug was hit, and her powers disappeared

Well, not literally, she remained transformed, however the villains power made it as if she were a regular adult wearing a superhero costume...

After sending Chat Noir, Rena Rouge and Viperion off to distract the villain, a now powerless Ladybug was running over to your college

After swapping out her miraculous from the Ladybug to another one, "Ladybug" finds you, hidden inside of a locker

"AHHHH! ANOTHER VILLAIN!" You shout, not recognising Ladybug with a new miraculous

"Not quite, (y/n)" she chuckles

"It's me, Ladybug. But my miraculous has been rendered useless..."

"Oh... I'm so sorry, Ladybug, wish I could help you somehow" you sympathise

"There is." Ladybug looks into your eyes with determination

"(Y/n) (L/n), here is the miraculous of the Ladybug, it offers the power of creation. I entrust you with this miraculous to fulfill my role while I can't, after that, you're to return these earrings to me - understood?" Ladybug explains with a grin

"Yes, Ladybug! I won't disappoint you"

After putting on the earrings the kwamii appears, explains the whole shtick and you get going

"Tikki, Spots on!" You shout and then you're set

"Once I'm fixed by the miraculous ladybugs, I'll use the horse miraculous to teleport you back to me, okay?"

"Of course Ladybug!"

And you were off, using your yo-yo to swing around the streets of Paris until you reached the action

A now powerless Rena Rouge trying to distract the villain as Chat Noir and Viperion try to figure out a plan while fighting the thing

"What the fuck..." Chat mumbles when you catch his eye, waving at him in a coy manner from a roof top

Both men watch you, confused as you jump down to them

"Who are you? Where's Ladybug??" Viperion questions frantically

"She decided to pass her miraculous onto me for a little while until we solve this little issue"

"Fine by me as long as you know what you're doing, bug-a-boy" Chat noir slyly remarks as he leans on his pole

"Bug-a-boy... I like that" you giggle and then get to business

Immediately you call on your lucky charm

"Yep, defiantly a real Ladybug holder haha! What you gonna do with that bugg-a-boy" Chat noir laughs as you hold onto a seemingly useless looking lucky charm

"I do, actually!" You say with a smile

"Just follow my lead boys, if you can keep up" you chuckle as you use your yo-yo to swing into action

"Damn, that boy has more charisma than you Chat Noir" viperion chuckles

"He does, doesn't he..."

The two of them follow you quickly

"Rena! I'm gonna need you to get that thing under the arc-de-triumph!" You shout as you wizz past

"I'm on it"

"Viperion, once that villain" is under the Arc, use your second chance immediately please"

"Of course bug-a-boy" viperion smirks

Chat Noir looks at you smugly

You start to mark X's on the Arc using the bucket of paint your lucky-charm gave you

"I can see where this is going" the black cat chuckles

"Then you know when and where to use your cataclysm, kitty noir" you tease and spring into action when you see Rena Rouge and the villain coming your way

Once the villain is under the Arc, you use shout for Chat noir

He heads to one of the marks but before Chat can call his power, Viperion shouts

"Not that one! Try the one below it"

And so, once Chat Noir cataclysm's the Arc, it crumbles to pieces and buries the villain, one of the pieces crushing his akumatized item

"Bye bye little butterfly" you say with a chuckle, as the 3 other hero's watch you

The 2 men chuckling as a faint blush cover their faces

"Not a bad job for your first time, bug-a-boy"

"Do you really need to flirt with every Ladybug holder, Chat?" Rena jokes

"Yeah! Look at him, he's creeped out by you, he'd much prefer a snake over a cat" Viperion joins in

"What is up with you two"

"Haha, I like this team.... Miraculous Bug-a-boy!" You shout as you throw up the lucky-charm

5 seconds later, a portal appears next to you

"Good work, everyone!" A horse miraculous bearing Ladybug pops out

"Ladybug?!" Everyone questions

"Good job picking this one, Ladybug" Viperion chuckles as he puts an arm on your shoulder

"I look forward to seeing you soon again, mi'lord~" Chat Noir teases as he kisses your hand

"That's enough Chat Noir, you'll see him soon enough!" Ladybug chuckles as she brings you through the portal after your goodbyes

After handing back the miraculous, life went back to normal, except that Ladybug started to call on you more often, but with a different miraculous this time

Life at school was normal as always

However when you were out with the hero gang, you'd noticed Chat Noir and Viperion becoming cosier to you than they were to the others...

Like when Chat Noir started bringing you roses every time you were called on

Or one time, Viperion used his second chance to have "a perfect conversation" with you during patrol with you

You were flattered, but a little worried that the two were taking it too far

It had gotten to the point where the two of them were fighting, passive aggressive remarks and even disrupting fights against villains with their arguing

That was until Ladybug struck then a deal

"I will tell you his identity if you both stop this bickering, its becoming a problem. If you don't, I will take your miraculous"

Of course they both agreed

And that's when your school life changed as well

Because Adrien and Luka started bombarding you during your school day

Adrien already sat next to you in class, but during lunch Luka was on you like a snake to a rat

You were getting overwhelmed, but then again you loved the attention you were getting from them

After all, you hadn't ever had a boyfriend, this could be a nice change

Soon, the two of them started noticing that the other liked you

So they decided to combine their efforts

"Which one of us do you like the most!?!?" The two of them shout at you in frustration after weeks of trying to win you over

"I... I don't know! Okay?! I like you both... I don't wanna hurt one of you by rejecting you for the other"

"Then.... date us both?" Luka suggests with a smile

It took some convincing but the two of them managed to convince you

And life has been so much better since

[lukaslosteyelashes]

Why is it important that Luka trained with Su-Han

Luka found out Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s true identity in "Whishmaker". He might feigned ignorance for a short amount of time and also tried to play it cool, but knowing this secret surely weighting on him.

He not only has to play the therapist to basically everyone and be emotionally there for them and give them advices while he just wants to play his music; but he also have to be careful with his emotions if he is not intending to get akumatized and spitting out Paris's iconic superhero duo's civil identity.

Just look at what happened in "Migration".

He almost got akumatized because he felt that what happened between Kitty Section and Bob Ross was his fault. Not only that, but his emotions also told Monarch that he knows Ladybug's and Chat Noir's identity. And because of all that he couldn't calm down to resist the akuma, the only way he saw to escape from that dreadful situation was to break his precious guitar. At the end of the episode he had to flee Paris; he didn't trust himself, his emotions enough to stay, he was afraid that Monarch might try to akumatize him again. Furthermore, he wasn't safe from other akumatized villain's attack either, he couldn't became Viperion, and he didn't want to rely on Ladybug and Chat Noir to protect him.

That's what so frustrating in akumatization. People can't feel their negative emotions and they have to bottle it up or forcefully resist them, which is really unhealthy. Our emotions, be it positive or negative, they're essentially not our enemy we just have to find methods to deal with them.

And that's where Su-Han comes in the picture.

Do you remember what he did in "Furious Fu"?

"My anger is mine, but I'm not my anger."

This dude just got snaped back to existance into a time when everything is completely different from his time, and the first thing he did was to search for the Miracle box. A dutiful guy, indeed. Obviously, he was angry at Fu for a lot of thing, but as soon as he saw the Akuma, he didn't fall into despair or started panicking. No, instead he started chanting the line above to himself, as if he was casting a spell that chases off the butterfly.

What I think he actually did, was that, he controlled his emotions. He accepted his anger, not suppressing it and transformed it into protective barrier, instead of letting it take a hold of him. This method looks more effective than Ladybug's Magical Charms that Shadowmoth easily overpowered.

So, there's a boy who can't seem to cope with his strong emotions; what could be the best solution for him? Mastering the ancient teachings of a guy from an ancient time (I know he's actually not that old). I can't imagine how could they've met or if they know about each other (that Luka's the Holder of that Snake Miraculous and that Su-Han is a celestial guardian of the Miraculous); but Luka's time in Tibet could be very important for his character. He could've learned, not just kung-fu, but also how to repel Akumas, and knowing this technique allows him to return to Paris and become Viperion again since the chances for him to get akumatized lowered.

Last but not least, his Holder friends could take lessons from him for free (he might as well charge them tho) to further decreasing the possibility of any Holders getting akumatized. Jagged, Penny and Fang also learned kung-fu, and they might as well learned the Akuma repelling stuff too, how cool would that be! They could also open studio or something where they could teach those things.

Anyways, I really hope we'll see more Luka in season 6 and that he actually learned how to repel Akumas.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Every Episode of Miraculous Ladybug Season 5 Ranked (Part 2)

Part 1

(This site's stupid 30 images per post forced me to do this, so thanks for nothing, Tumblr)

#14: Transmission

I swear, I'm not doing these on purpose. This is just how I've been ranking the episodes.

Like I said in the last part, this episode just did not need to happen. The first half is cheap melodrama between Marinette and Adrien and the second half is a run of the mill Akuma fight with two different heroes. This is the story that seriously warranted two parts this season?

I just can't stand the fact that Marinette and Adrien gave up their Miraculous so easily here. Maybe if it was Season 2, Season 3 at the latest, I'd buy it, but near the middle of Season 5? They honestly view their love lives as more important than the battle with Monarch. If it was anything else like the stress or physical danger, I'd also be understanding, but Tikki and Plagg decide that Marinette and Adrien are so miserable that they need to be happy by losing their Miraculous without a fight. Remember, this was just two episodes after “Reunion”, which showed Joan of Arc was a Miraculous holder. So fighting in the Hundred Years' War didn't get so much as an ounce of concern from Tikki, but teenage angst is too much for her little heart to bear?

Maybe it's the benefit of knowing this won't be permanent, but the issue I have is how much the show draws this out for so long, as if the audience is supposed to buy it. “It's really happening, guys! Ladybug and Cat Noir won't be the stars anymore, we swear!” This kind of plot can work under the right circumstances. All you needed to do is at the very least, make it something they choose to do instead of their Kwamis taking their Miraculous away so we can see them weigh the benefits of giving up life as a superhero in ways that aren't exclusively about their love lives. I'd even buy it if it's something Ladybug and Cat Noir actually agreed on before quitting.

While I can sort of get Alya becoming Scarabella due to her experience with the Ladybug (even if she chose to give up using any Miraculous at the end of Season 4), Zoe getting the Cat just feels like the writers put a bunch of names in a hat and picked hers. The two just don't have as compelling a dynamic as Ladybug and Cat Noir do, because they don't get a lot of time to know each other. Alya and Zoe have almost never interact with each other, so the masks don't really shake up their relationship, because there's no relationship to speak of.

Also, the Akuma here was really forced. We know nothing about this new character while the show acts like we're supposed to know who he is based on some minor hints with Nora calling earlier. While I will give the show credit for arguably giving us the most powerful Akuma of all time due to being both a man and a bear, he's as forgettable as a villain as Kitty Noire is as a hero.

Just about nobody here comes out smelling like roses in this episode. The Kwamis are morons for caring about one ship becoming canon, Marinette and Adrien are selfish cowards for giving up their Miraculous with little hesitation, their friends are ignorant buffoons for thinking some random attempt to get Marinette and Adrien to talk will somehow seal the deal, and Alya and Zoe are idiots for not thinking that they should take off the shiny ring that tracks their every movement. It's a terrible episode, and the only reason why “Deflagration” is ranked higher is because it didn't irritate me as much as this one did.

#15: Determination

And now we're onto the really bad episodes this season.

This episode is pretty much what you've come to expect by Season 5. People keep forcing Marinette into situations she's clearly uncomfortable, and we're supposed to just laugh at her anxiety, because we still have eight episodes to go before the show decides to take her mental health seriously.

What makes this episode really sting for me is that it's Luka and Kagami that are forcing Marinette into these unfunny antics this time. For the most part, they never really stooped to this level and didn't try to force anything with their respective love interests until they had trouble in their relationships that required them to communicate. But now, even though one knows Marinette and Adrien are superheroes while the other is usually very blunt with her feelings (at least, before she became this season's next victim), they're going to try forcing Marinette and Adrien to spend time together even they both know they have feelings for each other and MY GOD, THIS IS SO STUPID! It's just a cheap excuse for more pointless shenanigans that stopped being funny years ago.

Yet somehow, that's not the worst of the Love Square drama this episode. It's here where we learn that Adrien fell in love with Marinette over a season ago, during a scene where she violated his personal space. In addition, Adrien somehow showed no signs of attraction to Marinette until the plot demanded it, and came right after another episode showing him falling for her. Why not make it the fake confession Marinette practiced with Cat Noir in “Glaciator 2”? The kiss Marinette gave Adrien at the end of “Heroes' Day”? I'd even take another umbrella scene callback like in “Mr. Pigeon 72”. But no, it's the statue scene that the writers decided on. It's like they noticed all the criticism Marinette got in that episode and were like “Joke's on you! Adrien actually liked being lusted over like an object!”.

And then the masks come on and make things even more convoluted. Adrien at least got to reflect on the events of a previous episode to explain his new feelings for Marinette, but what caused Ladybug to suddenly fall for Cat Noir after four seasons?

The writers don't even bother with an explanation for this. Ladybug spontaneously becomes attracted to Cat Noir with absolutely no foreshadowing, buildup, or even callbacks to earlier episodes. The writers either wanted to complicate things one last time before Adrienette became canon, they wanted to bury the Ladynoir conflict arc from last season in the sand, or the most likely option, a combination of both.

The idea of the public turning on Ladybug was an interesting one to take, seeing how she's been universally beloved for the past four seasons. But despite hinting at it in “Multiplication”, this is the farthest is goes, and even then, guess who's behind it? You can't keep raising points against the main characters if it's only Chloe who does it. It doesn't open debate on the story and essentially tells the audience that they're wrong to agree with her, no matter what kind of point she makes.

As dumb as the way it happened was, Ladybug still screwed up and endangered the city by losing the other Miraculous, but we can't actually challenge children by acknowledging that the hero actually did something wrong and needs to grow as a person. We need to use a recurring character as a strawman to tell the audience that only bad people think this way! Way to remove any interesting internal conflict, writers.

The Akuma was pretty weak, just being an older Puppeteer, down to using wax statues like what happened in “Puppeteer 2”. The army of wax heroes could have been interesting, but there wasn't enough time to do much with the idea. The one thing I liked was how the Ox Miraculous' Resistance was used. It felt like an upgrade instead of a core power Manipula got.

This episode pretty much set the stage for a new level of frustrating Love Square drama this season, and it was one of the season's first outright awful episodes.

#16: Conformation

The only reason this episode isn't at the bottom is because the rest of the ones on this list are far worse by comparison. Make of that what you will.

Like most season finales, this one continues the tradition of being better at buildup than actual execution. Gabriel's plan is pretty decent, even if it's just Heroes Day on a global scale. He utilizes his public influence and business skills to plan out a plan to get almost all of humanity working for him. While I don't like the Miraculized, I still think Gabriel being on top works here, especially since he's not going out into the field like the last three finales.

But other than an okay evil plan, this episode is still pretty bad. Marinette being infected with nightmare dust only happens to get her to the Agreste manor because the writers forgot that Marinette learned Gabriel was Monarch last episode. It could have been a decent way to up the stakes by showing Ladybug not being at 100%, but like everyone else, she just fights off the nightmare dust and doesn't have a single problem during her fight with Monarch. In general, the nightmare dust isn't really utilized well, only being an excuse to bring out the Miraculized. It doesn't impact everyone fighting off the Miraculized, and there's no lesson or theme about fear that's conveyed here.

Speaking of nightmare dust, I'm pretty sure the only reason why it was introduced in the first place was to bench Adrien, which is still easily one of the dumbest decisions the show has ever made. While everyone else had no problem resisting the nightmare dust, Adrien is just physically incapable of doing so because of some half-assed character arc the show pretended happened. So either Adrien got a more potent dosage of the nightmare dust, or Adrien's just too weak to actually overcome his fears. “Sandboy”? Never heard of it! The fact that the writers also tried to claim they were being subversive with fairy tale tropes and cliches didn't help, since it devalues Adrien as a character even further. He's not a superhero and Ladybug's closest ally. He's just some damsel in distress who needs to be saved. Let me just remind you, if the genders were reversed, this would not be seen as some bold move, but the same overused cliche trying to be something new.

I already talked about my problems with Nathalie in “Passion”, and the stuff she does here isn't really different. Despite enabling Gabriel for five seasons, the episode has the balls to act like Nathalie always had morals and is appalled by Gabriel planning to sacrifice someone to save his wife. Just remember, “Passion” established that Nathalie had a history as a treasure hunter, so this is like Indiana Jones not knowing what the Holy Grail does. Nathalie only got dumber than in “Passion” because she somehow thought she could take on a supervillain with nothing but a crossbow and a body that already has one foot in the grave. And just like Felix, Nathalie can't even apologize to Ladybug for the aiding and abetting a terrorist thing. Between Nathalie, Felix, and Gabriel, does using the Peacock Miraculous just make you an idiot?

While the buildup is decent, it's just not enough to really get audiences excited for the second part.

#17: Representation

This episode is yet another example of the show's double standards.

Without going into detail too much, this episode came right after “Revolution”, the one that essentially portrayed Audrey taking control of Chloe's life as a karmic punishment. What happens in this episode? We learn Felix's father literally took control of his life and it's portrayed as wrong as child abuse should be. That's why this episode is still better than “Revolution”. It at the very least understands how serious child abuse is, and tries to tell Felix's story with as much dignity as two teenagers in white onesies can have.

With that being said, there's a reason why this episode is as low as it is. The Sentimonster play used to tell Marinette about Felix is just so stupid. The sets and costumes look ridiculous, it's hard to take the story seriously with Felix and Kagami doing all the voices, and most of it is unnecessary since the whole point is to tell Marinette that Gabriel is Monarch... something that the writers decided she needed to find out on her own in the next episode. It comes across less like Felix trying to alert Ladybug to who Monarch really is and more like he's just trying to justify his own actions. Hell, the actual reason he decided to tell Marinette about Gabriel was because he and Kagami were worried about their own relationship being ruined by him. And yet somehow, Ladybug lets him on the team at the end of the season.

The stuff with Adrien was also pretty dumb. It's cheap fanservice that reminds the audience of Cat Blanc when none of the characters should know who Cat Blanc is. You can call him Anticat all you want, but everyone can see that he's just Cat Blanc with blue hair. It's bad enough that this was what all the times Cat Noir almost Cataclysming people this season was meant to lead up to, but this is pretty much the reason why Adrien is benched during the finale.

This episode really shows how desperate the writers are to make people take this show seriously by showing serious topics like genocide and child abuse, as if the show didn't already ignore the horrible implications previous episodes (like the very last one before this) raised and will continue to raise during the season finale. So much of the episode is just dark for the sake of being dark. It's nothing too horrifying for children, of course, but the issue is how obvious it is that the writers are trying to raise the stakes right before the season finale and show how mature the show's writing is. For lack of a better term, it's this show's equivalent to “Ow The Edge”.

#18: Revelation

Get ready for the episode where the writers abandon all attempts to be subtle and create an episode specifically to attack people who think Chloe isn't the most evil character on the show. Because how dare they be optimistic and try to see the good in people! What do they think this is, a kids' show?

While a big problem with the Lila episodes was how stupid the class is, this episode made it so Marinette got to join in on losing brain cells too. Despite outright admitting to neglecting her duties as class representative (as absurd as it is to be in charge of notifying teachers about student progress they should be aware of), we're supposed to agree with her for not telling her teacher about Chloe cheating. Not only does this make no sense since you'd think Marinette would want to see Chloe get punished, but her claiming that all Chloe does is abuse her privileges loses any point to it because Marinette admitted to not doing her job as class representative, making her just as lazy as Chloe and unintentionally helping her through not telling the teachers. And that's not even getting into how many times Marinette has broken the secret identity rule despite also being the one to enforce it the most as the Guardian.

If the episode at least admitted to Marinette having personal issues that prevented her from displaying any form of professionalism towards Chloe (especially since this episode takes place after “Derision”), that'd be fine. Sometimes, people just can't let bygones be bygones and let their emotions dictate how they handle things. If she willingly resigned from her position by admitting she was just as at fault for Chloe getting as far as she did with her cheating, that would have worked. Instead, the episode does the same things it did with Adrien for the last few seasons: Go out of its way to vindicate Marinette's complaining and never even consider the idea of her being wrong in the slightest.

It's also hilarious to see Ms. Bustier act like an actual teacher for once and plan to work with Chloe to help make up her missed work, but portray it as a bad thing because in Marinette's eyes, that's not a punishment. Since the school year is almost over, Chloe will have to attend summer school at best and be held back or even expelled at worst. How the hell does that not count as a punishment, Marinette?

And don't forget how she gets not one, but two separate scenes insulting people for being idealistic and not wanting to write off people as beyond saving, the second one being copied from Astruc's Twittter.

And remember, this was right before a string of episodes where characters were able to change their ways, including Sabrina (Chloe's accomplice), Andre (Chloe's enabler), and Gabriel (Chloe's supervillain contact). How the hell is Chloe the only one being written off as irredeemable when she didn't pull off any of her evil plans without help? You can still punish Chloe. All I want is for the other characters to be punished as well.

But let's talk about the main event for this episode: Lila. In one of the most confusing “twists” in the show's history, she's now an identity thief who lives with three different mothers. Why? Because the writers have no idea how to hype people up for her being the main villain for Season 6, so they think just making her mysterious for the sake of making her mysterious is enough to build her up as a villain. It's like the writers realized Lila had absolutely zero resources of her own, so they felt like they needed to establish her as an evil genius to compensate. “Who cares if there's no logical explanation for how she's gotten as far as she has despite constantly boasting about her celebrity connections in public? We have to make her vague and mysterious, damn it! It worked for Judas Traveller and Kaine, didn't it?”

This episode takes multiple shots at fans and tries to make Lila seem more compelling than she actually is. It feels more like damage control than an actual plot-relevant episode.

#19: Illusion

Want to see the main characters acting like idiots for almost a half-hour? No? Too bad!

So much of this episode's conflict, the characters trying to investigate a possible lead related to Monarch, comes from everyone making stupid decisions. Nino tries to get one of the most influencial men in Paris akumatized, talks about it in public, falls for his trick, and lets him into his secret alliance. This season really cemented his role as the Zapp Brannigan of Miraculous Ladybug with how incompetent he is. If you really want to start portraying Nino as a tactical genius, maybe you should actually show him doing something smart instead of getting outsmarted by obvious tricks.

Of course, the other characters aren't immune to Nino's stupidity either. Marinette, Adrien, and Alya just go along with his asinine plan to get Gabriel akumatized, never question his logic, and ultimately still go along with the Resistance despite how obnoxious their leader is. The worst part is Ladybug not recognizing her own partner being stung by Venom... when they're fighting someone with access to over a dozen Miraculous. I know Cat Noir was born with glass bones and paper skin, but I don't think he literally freezes in terror when he's scared. And of course, Ladybug never questions the tiny invisible men who stunned Cat Noir after this scene.

The cafeteria scene is something that should really be cited as an example of how terrible this show is with acknowledging continuity. You thought there would be some compelling drama discussing the secret identity rule and all the double standards it has? NOPE! It's a funny joke about how confusing the identity stuff is at this point. The fact that Nino somehow doesn't understand the concept of secret identities in this scene is yet another reason as to why he isn't even qualified to lead an anime club, much less a resistance against Monarch.

The idea of Monarch using an illusion to fight Ladybug and Cat Noir was an interesting one, but it still had some holes. For one thing, what if the two heroes can't dodge one of the illusion Collector's attacks? What if they're fast enough to try tying him up, only to dispel the illusion? The entire plan pretty much relies on the fact that Ladybug and Cat Noir are too slow to catch the Collector.

But one scene that has only become more questionable after the finale is Ladybug trying to reach through to the illusion Collector. Like several episodes this season, it comes across like the show is spitting on idealism and wanting to solve problems peacefully because Monarch tricked Ladybug into believing he willingly rejected an Akuma. Remember kids, if someone says they want to change, it's really a trick as part of an evil supervillain's plan to maintain his secret identity.

This episode is like a microcosm of everything wrong with Season 5. Poor morals, characters acting like idiots, shooting down any potential for plot development, and being told characters are right when their actions say otherwise.

#20: Confrontation

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the episode where the writers just gave up.

There is just so much that happens in this episode that the writers cram in. There's Marinette's “final” confrontation with Lila, the battle with Reflekta, Sabrina's redemption, Juleka's character development, Ms. Bustier's character development, Mr. Damocles' character development, and the reveal of Lila's true nature. I don't think I need to tell you that the writers struggle to make all of these plot threads work in less than a half-hour.

First off, Marinette and Lila. The previous episode implied that Marinette let Lila have this short-term victory because she had her own plan to expose her. This episode puts that plan into action. See, she has the genius idea of going along with submitting school application forms to Lila and Chloe with no actual countermeasure in place, waiting for Sabrina to have a sudden change of heart so they can work together to expose Lila and Chloe through a bathroom peephole. This is the kind of tactical intelligence that will be studied in the history books, let me tell you. There's just no weight to Marinette and Lila's final battle of wits because there isn't any. There's no series of gambits or scenarios that actually pit their minds against each other, so you don't get a lot of satisfaction from Marinette's triumph over Lila. It doesn't help that there's more focus on Sabrina than on Marinette, but I'll get to that later. Even the actual payoff is anti-climactic. Most of the class' apology to Marinette was deleted because Mr. Damocles using a Magical Charm shield was just too important to leave on the cutting room floor according to the writers.

This episode really shows just how Marinette's classmates are like NPCs in the Lila-centric stories. They don't second guess Lila's accusations due to their past experiences with Marinette, and as soon as Marinette's name is cleared, they instantly apologize to her and don't even think about how easily they were fooled by Lila and Chloe. The worst example is Alya, Marinette's confidant and someone who was trusted to temporarily use the Ladybug Miraculous last episode, falling for this and not trusting Marinette. My sister in Christ, your friend goes out and saves lives on a weekly basis at least. How can you fall for Lila's story? This is why I think the Lila episodes should have all been set pre-Season 4, so Alya falling for Lila's lies is a little more believable since she isn't already in on Marinette's biggest secret.

I also have to roll my eyes at how melodramatic the talk about everyone's “futures” is. Yes, I don't know a lot about the French education system (If there's anything I'm getting wrong here, don't hesitate to let me know), but I don't get why they're treating their high school choices like such a big deal. Maybe if it was college, I'd get it, but high school? Why can't you just transfer if it doesn't work out? But then again, this is the same show created by a man who thinks school uniforms are a sign of fascism.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES.

Speaking of futures, this episode also showed just how little the writers cared about Adrien at this point, with how a supposedly heartwaming moment is him having no plan in life other than Marinette. I know this might seem weird given my problem with him last season was his refusal to think about anyone but himself, but there's a difference between wanting someone to follow orders without complaining and giving them absolutely no motivation outside of their significant other. And once again, if you swap the genders, this becomes sexist as hell.

But the big problem comes in the form of how the side characters are utilized. I don't know why the writers decided to focus on developing characters like Sabrina, Juleka, Ms. Bustier, and Mr. Damocles with five episodes left in the season. This should have been done in earlier episodes, not in the middle of a major story arc. I'm just left not caring about the development because it takes away from the conflict between Marinette and Lila, to say nothing about how little Adrien and Alya contribute to the story.

To me, this episode feels like the writers had no idea how to make Marinette outsmarting Lila into an episode, so they crammed in all these half-assed character arcs to pad out the runtime. While “Revelation” personally upset me more, I personally think this is the worse episode of the two from a writing standpoint.

#21: Revolution

Given how often I've criticized the way Chloe has been handled over the years, I bet you're surprised that this one isn't at the bottom of the list. You'll be even more surprised to learn that I think Chloe is one of this episode's saving graces.

This episode (along with “Derision”) provide an example of the Chloe we should have gotten ever since Season 3 ended: A villain who's allowed to be a threat while still being funny. So much of the past two seasons have done nothing but portray Chloe as nothing but an incompetent joke, but here, near the end of the season, she's in a position of power and is taken seriously. The episode does a good job showing how tyrannical Chloe's rule as Mayor is while still making it funny and in-character for her. She uses her power on frivolous things because she's a teenage girl who doesn't understand the complicated issues that come with politics. It's also why her idea of punishment involves detention, because it's something she's more familiar with as someone in middle school. Of course, even the episode all about Chloe ruling Paris with an iron fist isn't stupid enough to actually let Chloe be a compelling antagonist. No, we need to constantly remind the audience that Chloe is being played, as if we're supposed to see her as nothing more than a pawn even though the show still wants us to see her as an irredeemable monster.

Putting aside that one speck of something interesting, this episode is still incredibly bad. So much of the story is dependent not on how smart the villains' plan is, but rather, how lazy the heroes are. Not only is there not a single moment where Ladybug and Cat Noir acknowledge that the whole reason why Chloe was able to take over as Mayor was their fault, they act as if Chloe abusing her power to make everyone's life a living hell isn't enough of a reason to stop her. What kind of Prime Directive bullshit is this? YOU JUST HELPED SOMEONE LEAD AN INSURRECTION AGAINST A POWERLESS CIVILIAN! HOW IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT?! If there was at least something involving Ladybug and Cat Noir taking responsibility for what happened or at least showing that they played a part in this (especially since they “grow up” in this episode), I'd get it. Instead, because this is Season 5, our heroes are perfection incarnate, and can't ever be wrong. Even when they finally decide to get off their asses and stop Chloe, they didn't know she was akumatized, and nobody seemed to care before Chloe blurted it out, so Ladybug and Cat Noir have no excuses for slacking off.

The final battle is just a joke. Not only is it another excuse to force the Resistance into the plot, it shows Ladybug and Cat Noir unlocking the full power of their Miraculous in the most anti-climactic way possible. Even though they spent most of the episode caring more about their personal lives than actually stopping the obvious threat, somehow, this means they “grew up”. There's no buildup, no explanation, and no catharsis gained from this achievement. All of a sudden, Ladybug and Cat Noir are adults now. There's one decent scene with Adrien, but that's far from an actual explanation. What, did you actually expect an explanation for something this huge? Too bad! We need to have Marinette tell Chloe she's not afraid of her anymore even though she was never afraid of her prior to this season. Of all the things that happened this season, this is the one that makes it clear that Season 5 was supposed to be the end. There is no way Season 6 can happen unless the writers come up with some crap that undoes this, because Ladybug and Cat Noir have essentially unlocked god mode.

But I saved the worst for last, and you all know what it is: Chloe's punishment. I still can't get over the fact that there's actually a scene heavily implying we're supposed to be happy Chloe is going to live with her emotionally abusive mother in the same season that's trying to tell a serious story about child abuse. There's already been so much said about all the horrible things this implies, so I'm going to try and bring up something else. Specifically, how everyone is just okay with this. I can buy Ladybug given all the things Chloe has done to her, but it's pretty odd that Cat Noir, Andre, and Zoe all decide to wash their hands of their association with Chloe as if they never knew her. They don't even feel bad that it had to come to this, and feel absolutely no sympathy for her. Remember in episodes like “Malediktator” and “Queen Banana” that showed Adrien and Zoe still cared for Chloe despite all the terrible things she's done, teaching kids a lesson about trying to show compassion to your enemies? The writers sure didn't, because Adrien and Zoe don't get to say a thing about Chloe after she's defeated. Way to establish connections between characters and do nothing with them, writers!

This episode had so many things wrong with it, and it only got worse the longer it went on, to the point where the ending is essentially condoning child abuse. It's disgusting, but at the very least, it means we're not going to have to deal with Chloe in Season 6.

.....

#22: Adoration

This is one of those episodes I honestly didn't think would hate as much as I did.

I think of all the episodes this season, this is the one that shows how frustratingly inconsistent the characterization is. Characters will either announce how much someone has changed or will take a complete 180 while the show makes it clear this is how things have always been. Not only does the show say Zoe has somehow changed and suddenly developed feelings for Marinette, but Chloe's view of Sabrina has gotten even lower, to the point where she calls her an underling to her face. Because actually showing character development and changing interpersonal relationships is too hard for these writers. It's like that rule everyone knows: Tell, don't show. That's how it goes, right?

Before anyone gets on my case about this, I'm not trying to say that Zoe having a crush on Marinette was a bad idea. The issue is more how it comes across like the show is trying to earn brownie points with LGBT+ audiences with the reveal. The issue is that this major revelation isn't about Zoe, but rather, Marinette. It's from a Marinette-focused episode all about her heterosexual feelings for Adrien while Zoe's coming out story is nothing more than a cautionary tale to get Marinette to finally try kissing Adrien. I'm not saying Marinette should have dumped Adrien to be with Zoe. The point I'm trying to make is if you want to show something as huge as a character coming out as sapphic, maybe put more focus on that character's struggles than the struggles the straight main character goes through. Maybe instead of being an afterthought in the story, make the episode about Marinette helping Zoe confess her feelings to a girl she likes.

This was also the episode that laid the groundwork for Andre and Sabrina's “redemption arcs”. Normally, I wouldn't mind something like them changing, but it's less to show a character becoming a better person and more to vilify a different character. Andre went from a corrupt politician who abuses his power to please his daughter to an honest politician who is forced to abuse his power to please his daughter. Sabrina went from Chloe's loyal friend who chooses to help her make people miserable to Chloe's underling who is being forced to help make people miserable. Both of them were perfectly willing to go along with Chloe's acts in the past, and as we saw in “Revolution”, being a pawn didn't excuse her from being punished, so by that logic, they shouldn't get a free pass either. It's also strange how this wasn't the episode where Andre and Sabrina officially cut ties with Chloe, considering they already had issues with them. There wasn't really a reason to wait if they already made their issues clear, especially Sabrina. Somehow framing Marinette here is okay but doing it a few episodes later is too much for her?

Also, Lila served no purpose in the episode. Just like in “Collusion” and “Revolution”, all she does is tell Chloe to do things she was perfectly capable of doing in earlier episodes. We're supposed to see her as a mastermind, but I don't get why she has to hold Chloe's hand here. Why can't Lila come up with her own plan or manipulate different people from behind the scenes? It only further highlights the double standards because while Sabrina being a lackey to Chloe earns her sympathy, Chloe being a lackey to Lila doesn't for some reason.

I am getting really tired of the whole “Nobody believes Marinette” formula that every Lila episode relies on (Chameleon, Ladybug, Risk, Revelation, Confrontation). It's the exact same story. Everyone who has known Marinette for the past four seasons suddenly loses all trust in her, only instead of instantly believing Lila, it's Chloe. CHLOE. This is worse than Lila, because she's at least in good graces with other people, but this is the same season that solidified the idea of nobody liking her at all. They seriously take her words at face value over Marinette, someone whose friends know has tormented her for a year at least (Derision)? Put aside how I feel about Chloe, this is a story that depends on trusting someone nobody has any reason to trust, and it makes no sense.

There are just so many minor issues in this episode that pile up enough to really piss me off. It's like a death by a thousand cuts.

#23: Collusion

I normally don't try to get political on this blog unless I absolutely have to, and talking about this episode is one of those occasions.

If you've been around since the early days of this blog, you'll remember that Astruc once compared Chloe to Donald Trump, and not too long after the January 6th attack on the Capitol Building at that.

Even before that thread, Astruc made a joke comparing Trump to Chloe less than a week after the attack.

Whether you agree with Astruc's views on Trump or not, the point is that he kept up with American politics and strongly opposes him. So anyway, let's get to the episode where the heroes let someone lead a small army to storm the mayor's office and force him to resign, which is totally different from what Trump did.

I cannot get over just how confusing this episode is. For a show created by someone who usually keeps up with American politics, this is such a tone-deaf episode. I get that the story is trying to lean into French history, and I'm not sure how far into production the crew was when the attack on the Capitol happened, but given how Astruc was aware of the drama, he and his team should have at least considered the implications this episode could raise. The problem with the discussion around January 6th is that the supporters see it in as righteous a light as Miss Sans-Culotte is. As far as they know, what happened wasn't a violent invasion of government property, but a peaceful demonstration. Sure, none of the talking balloons said “Hang Andre Bourgeois!”, but it still brings similar imagery to mind.

Something that also harms the French Revolution narrative is the fact that all of Miss Sans-Culotte's supporters are helping her against her will. Much like countless Akumas throughout the show's history (Darkblade, Kung Food, The Puppeteer, Princess Fragrance, Despair Bear, Befana, Zombizou, Malediktator, Gamer 2.0, Mr. Pigeon 72, Hack-San, Revelation, Confrontation), Miss Sans-Culotte brainwashes innocent civilians so they can help her cause. This goes against the idea that she's speaking for the people, because her victims don't have a say in this. She's not reenacting the French Revolution, she's reenacting Order 66!

Also, this is something I've neglected to discuss. Why make Miss Bustier pregnant at all, much less akumatize her while pregnant? Outside of her students telling Chloe not to make a scene because the stress caused from dealing that is bad for the baby, Ms. Bustier's pregnancy adds nothing to the story. Seriously, the story thinks Chloe annoying the class is more dangerous for Ms. Bustier's baby than Ms. Bustier herself running around and getting into fights with her baby inside. It could have made for some interesting drama where Ladybug and Cat Noir are hesitant to hurt a pregnant woman, even if she's been akumatized. While the writers do try to work around it by giving her minions to do the fighting (as much as it mucks up the themes of this episode), it still doesn't explain why she needed to be pregnant during this episode in the first place.

Putting aside how unlikable Miss Sans-Culotte is in this episode, you can't even enjoy seeing Andre getting kicked out of office because this is the same episode where the writers really want us to feel bad for him. Look at how sad the rich white politician is. Let's ignore the fact that he's a big part of the reason why Chloe is as bad as she is, has abused his power multiple times, and is all around the cause of his own problems. But even though this is a show that tries to take an anti-capitalist stance (which I'll get to more in “Emotion”), we're supposed to side with one of the biggest symbols of everything wrong with capitalism and political corruption. Even then, Andre is framed for corruption instead of the several instances he actually abused his power, as if they're trying to say he was never a corrupt man. He just loves his daughter. Is that too much to ask for? His daughter herself? Eh, who cares? You really need to support the rich white man. Are we sure this show was created by a liberal?

But the biggest issue is the moral. It's impossible to frame Miss Sans-Culotte storming the mayor's office as a peaceful protest because she's clearly inspired by one of the bloodiest and most violent revolutions in history. If she was supposed to be a violent warrior who needed to learn there was a better way, that would work, but instead, the show downplays how dangerous she is... when she has a guillotine blade for a weapon. You can't claim Miss Sans-Culotte is non-violently protesting Andre's administration when she brainwashes innocent civilians, storms into the building, and demands he resign without any question. Even taking all that into consideration, the moral ends up backfiring because forcing Andre out of office caused an even bigger problem with Chloe taking over, and the very next episode threw the non-violence message out the window.

Whether or not you want to consider the political implications here, this is still a terrible episode with a terrible moral.

#24: Pretension

I've always had issues with Felix, and after the trainwreck that was “Emotion”, let's just say this didn't exactly do anything to raise my opinion of him. Just like his other appearances for the last few seasons, he did absolutely nothing to help Ladybug, focused on only doing things that benefited him, and making everyone's lives worse due to his incompetence. And somehow, this idiot is the one who moves the plot along the most.

The entire conflict happened because Felix kidnapped Kagami without even coming up with a plan. Even when he believes that Kagami is a Sentimonster (I apologize for saying that word Felix hates, but once again, the show provides no alternative to it), he doesn't think of Tomoe being able to track her or command her to leave even at a far distance. He doesn't even try to explain himself to Ladybug and Cat Noir and spends more time running away from everyone who wants to kick his ass. But by the show's logic, he just needs friends, even though his entire deal is that he works alone to get what he wants.

It's bad enough that Felix has to screw up everything he touches, but now he's dragging Kagami to his level. Kagami has cemented her role as Felix's lackey/girlfriend and nothing more. People give Marinette crap for the way the behaves around Adrien in and out of universe, but Kagami knows nothing about Felix, yet a single conversation about his past is enough for her to fall head over heels in love with him. She went from someone not willing to take any bullcrap from Marinette and Adrien to believing Felix's story in a fraction of a heartbeat. This season really likes ruining the few likable characters the show has left.

I also have to roll my eyes at the conversation Marinette and Gabriel have about fashion. For one thing, it's one of the few times the entire season remembers that Marinette wants to be a fashion designer and doesn't really factor into her rivalry with Gabriel. This season made their conflict revolve around how to treat Adrien, not their views on fashion. It feels like they only brought it up to remind viewers that Marinette is still into fashion. Well, that, and also to take a stance on artistic integrity... supposedly.

And on that note, it's amazing how the writers display little to no self-awareness during this scene. The show that embraces sticking to the status quo and rejecting almost any attempt at keeping consistent continuity is now trying to teach children about the importance of being willing to take risks when creating something. This is like Hannibal Lecter trying to promote veganism. I get the message, but the messenger's history is keeping me from buying it. It doesn't help that for a scene trying to point out how outdated certain views are, the show ultimately chooses to take the side of the man with the “wrong” mindset by the end of the season.

The pancake metaphor really confuses me too. It's meant to be a running gag that the only thing Gabriel knows how to cook is pancakes, but A) Nothing is really indicated to show how terrible they are as a metaphor for how bad his outdated views are other than Marinette's verbal assessment of them, and B) We later learn Gabriel used to be poor, so either he never knew how to cook prior to earning his fortune or being rich somehow made him forget basic living skills. I'm just saying, when an episode of Sid the Science Kid manages to better convey someone doing a terrible job making pancakes, you might need to put in a little more effort to show how bad Gabriel's pancakes supposedly are.

Finally, Tomoe. This episode didn't really do much to show her as a compelling threat, given all she did was nag Gabriel and try to shoot her daughter when she didn't even try commanding her to fight back when she was kidnapped. She's nothing more than a female Gabriel and is another example of how overstuffed this show's cast is,

This episode is awful, plain and simple. It took aspects from previous episodes that were already questionable, and doubled down on them while acting like there weren't any problems at all.

#25: Derision

And now we're onto the really, REALLY bad episodes this season. One of the reasons why this post took so long to make was that I wasn't sure how to rank these last three episodes. Thankfully, I managed to find a way to rank them based on the morals are executed. With that being said, let's start scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Ah, “Derision”. You're the only episode that makes the backlash caused by “Chameleon” seem like a pleasant breeze. It's incredible to see just how much negative a reputation this episode has in the fandom. Virtually nobody likes it because it manages to upset everyone with its poor characterization. I'm talking Marinette fans, Adrien fans, Chloe fans, Kim fans, and pretty much every other character's fans. I've only seen a few die hard fans defend this episode, and they're the people on Tumblr who defend pretty much everything done this season.

I have just one question to ask about this episode: Why did it need to happen? We didn't learn anything new that we didn't know already. We know Chloe is mean, and we know Marinette used to be more timid and had no friends. We didn't even need that much of an explanation for why Marinette acts the way she does around Adrien, seeing how it was usually played for laughs

Speaking of which, let's talk about the fact that the episode tries to shame the audience for laughing at the jokes about Marinette's reactions to Adrien. You know, something that was the show's primary running gag ever since Season 1? A running gag the writers ran into the ground by the end of Season 3 but still chose to go with it? Now we're not supposed to have laughed at it, assuming we laughed at it all. Way to insult even the small portion of viewers who didn't get on your case about this, writers.

I only have about two positive things to say about this episode. For one thing, Chloe actually served as a pretty decent antagonist in the flashbacks. Much like in “Revolution”, when the writers actually let her be a villain on her own without being made a pawn, she can be somewhat entertaining. If this was the Chloe we got after Season 3, I don't I would have been as upset at the direction Astruc's team took with the character.

In addition, the thing that saves this episode from being at the bottom is that unlike the next two, it actually understands that what the antagonist did was wrong. They don't make up excuses for what Chloe did and she actually gets called out as a result. It doesn't lead to anything major, but it's something.

Like with “Queen Banana”, there's not much else I can say that hasn't already been said. There's plenty of retcons, the characterization for everyone is off, it attacks the audience, and the message about trauma got fumbled by the show's usual double standards. It's been said over and over again, and it's become a symbol of how much the show's quality has degraded.

#26: Emotion

I think if you've kept up with my reviews of this season, you should know by now that I don't exactly like Felix, and most of the problems I have with him can be attributed to this episode. In fact, for a while, this was going to be my choice for the bottom slot.

It's clear that the writers want to make Felix this wild card who's only in it for himself, but like most of the show's antagonists, they want to show Felix as this devious mastermind... but he's also not really evil, and you should feel bad for him. For most of the episode, Felix does nothing but make everyone's lives worse during his first outing as Argos. He smears his cousin's reputation yet again, tricks his girlfriend into dancing with him, condemns some rich kids for the crime of being rich when he's just as rich, and eventually wipes out all life on the face of the earth. But he's just doing it for his cousin, we swear!

While Felix has understandable motivations for what he does, wanting to free Adrien and Kagami, the way he tries to achieve his goal makes it hard to sympathize with him. If the whole point was that what he did was wrong and that he needs to find a different way, that could work. Instead, we're supposed to see him as this tragic figure who was forced to do terrible things when the episode shows him happily singing while causing chaos. It's the same problem with Gabriel, wanting a sympathetic character to do unapologetically evil things. The fact that he has to be told that genocide is bad doesn't make us want to sympathize with him when he breaks down crying. It paints a picture that he's crazy but the show wants to act like he isn't.

Even putting all the crap with Felix aside, the episode is still unbearable. The stuff with Marinette was poorly executed and was just done to get her involved in the plot, and later become the first one to excuse Felix for betraying her. Other than the dance scene, you could easily just have Marinette swing in as Ladybug when Argos starts his rampage and nothing would really change. The episode tries to make jokes about how unnecessary this is, but as usual, its attempts to be self-aware come across like its saying “What we're doing it wrong, we know it's wrong, but we're gonna do it anyway!”

Speaking of the dance scene, I can't stop rolling my eyes whenever Felix tries to be all “We live in a society” to Marinette. Forget the corrupt politicians, corporate moguls, human traffickers, and despotic rulers of foreign nations. The absolute worst section of humanity is composed of the teenage children of the 1%. Sure, you'd have to break my legs before I'd agree to supervise them at this party, but I don't get why these are the people we're supposed to see as irredeemable monsters. Do the writers think because these kids associate themselves with Chloe, we'll automatically hate them? Newsflash, but if I had to choose between hanging out with some annoying kids and a mass murderer, I'd stick with the annoying kids.

Rewatching this episode was what helped me finally realize just what my problem with the show's anti-capitalist message is. How the hell am I supposed to hate the villains on this show for being rich when several characters are rich or at the very least, are successful thanks to their connections to the rich? Think about it for a second. Putting aside Adrien and Kagami, you have Marinette, the daughter of two of the most popular bakers in Paris and earned the respect of multiple celebrities, Alya, the daughter of a chef who works at a five-star hotel, Nino, someone who got to DJ at a major fashion show, Rose, who is friends with a literal prince, Luka and Juleka, the children of a popular rock star, and Max, the son of an astronaut with access to cutting-edge technology. Somehow, these people are supposed to be poor? They make Monica from Friends look like Oscar the Grouch. It's why I can't take the message seriously. You can't write a story about a class struggle when both classes are shown to be pretty well-off.

The only thing that saves this episode from being at the bottom of the list is the fact that despite committing genocide while singing, Felix at least gets what he did was wrong and makes up for it. It doesn't fix everything else he did in this episode, but that's better than nothing. As for the villain featured in the episode that's at the bottom of this list? If you've been keeping track, I think you know who I mean.

#27: Re-Creation

I'll admit, I'm sort of cheating here. I'm judging this episode more as a finale than an individual episode, but I'm making an exception because the plot is tied to wrapping up all the loose ends this season.

I'm mentioning this because for a season finale, the stakes just feel so low. The fight between Bug Noire and Monarch doesn't have any weight to it because they've barely interacted at all for the last five seasons. These are supposed to be two mortal enemies, but you can't really buy the enmity between them. It ultimately cheapens the moment of Bug Noire triumphing over Monarch in the end... before Monarch triumphs over her not long afterwards, but we'll get to that.

The stuff with the Miraculized doesn't help either. We already know that the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous are in the Agreste manor, so the Miraculized's goal is impossible to achieve. It's never even explained why the Miraculized don't go back to the manor to help Monarch beat Bug Noire, since they should still be able to track the Miraculous. All of the fights with them just come across like filler, and there's no real sense of danger or hopelessness to be found. Whether the Miraculized win or lose is irrelevant. Nothing will happen either way because the important stuff is happening in the Agreste manor.

This extends to the part where all the heroes appear to help. It doesn't come across as an Avengers-esque moment for the climax, because it doesn't change anything. The episode never explains what any of these characters were doing prior to the events of this episode and why only now they're helping out. The United Heroes are the most egregious example because unlike Fei or Su-Han, they're a major organization whose members include the president, and they didn't do a damn thing when Monarch stole all of the other Miraculous. Speaking of, there is no way in hell that Su-Han taught Mirakung-Fu to three random people over Ladybug and Cat Noir, much less that those three people are actual masters after about two months at best. Maybe they got to train in Bunnix's Burrow? After all, she's not doing anything else to stop the end of the world other than sending four people over to Paris. This whole sequence really highlights how bland the other heroes of this universe are. If they're not slacking off when they're needed, they're criminally underdeveloped because there's a slim chance they'll get spin-offs to flesh them out.

But I think the biggest issue me and other people have with this finale is the resolution. In what is easily one of the most baffling decisions the show has made, Bug Noire doesn't defeat Monarch, and Monarch gets to make his wish. I don't care how many times the writers technically say she won because she beat him in a fight. Gabriel backstabbed her at the last minute and got her Miraculous to make his wish. Yeah, he died, but he succeed in achieving his goal, never faced any real consequences, didn't get any closure with his son (much less apologize for abusing him), told Marinette to lie about the monster he was to him, and was turned into a martyr with a statue made of the same things he used to control the world.

This ending infuriates me because it not only makes Marinette out to be a terrible hero for failing to do the one thing she was chosen to do (get the Butterfly Miraculous back), but it also ultimately makes Gabriel out to be a decent person even though he destroyed and recreated the world. All Marinette did was take credit for saving the world, and even then, Gabriel got more celebration in the end. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! She got outsmarted by an abusive parent and didn't even get a new statue in her honor!

But the most damning thing of all this is the fact that this finale retroactively makes everything that's happened over the last five seasons completely pointless. If Gabriel making a wish wasn't as bad as it was supposed to be, why didn't Ladybug and Cat Noir let him borrow their Miraculous? Why make the stakes this high if you're going to downplay the impact of a madman recreating the world in his own image? Follow-up question: why make the stakes this high if the wish being made is ultimately shown to have huge benefits for society? In an attempt to wrap things up with a happy ending, the writers accidentally made the conflict completely meaningless.

That's why this resolution is the ultimate example of the writers refusing to allow any major changes to happen. If they're willing to treat the end of the universe as less important than Ms. Bustier becoming mayor, why should we assume they'll ever take their story seriously? For God's sake, every character you know and love is essentially dead, and we're supposed to act like that isn't a big deal? That's how you wanted to end the show originally? Then again, at least they tried to resolve something, unlike the Love Square. We still haven't gotten a reveal, and I don't think we ever will at this point. These writers will drag out the story until the show stops becoming profitable, which won't be for a long time.

And with that, I am officially done with Season 5. Honestly, after having to rewatch this season again, I'm not sure if it's even worth giving Season 6 a shot. There's nothing to look forward to, and Lila becoming the main villain isn't really appealing to me. At the very least, I have the movie review to look forward to, meaning I can watch something good for a change.

[ilikekidsshows]

Hello. :)

Can I asked for your opinion? I've talked with some of my friends and they said ladybug miraculous is exclusively a leader miraculous while I think it's more strategy related miraculous, not necessarily a sign of a leader, just like the snake.

This discussion is started when I want to write a story about Adrien take over as a leader of the miraculous team after Marinette got vetoed as a not good leader by the team (the story take place three years after s5 finale and they're all adults, Adrien also take times to heal and not Marinette boyfriend). so while she remain as a guardian and strategist, Adrien will be the one leading the team and my friends said it won't work because of the reason that I stated above.

I've seen some example where the leader and the strategist are two different people that's why I think it will work, that ladybug miraculous isn't an exclusive leader miraculous. What do you think? I'm confused because while I was pretty confident before about my opinion that any holder can be the leader, my friends keep saying the same thing that only ladybug holder can lead because the lucky charm ability and it make me doubt myself now.

Thank you and take care.

---

You are absolutely correct, the fact that you can find examples of the team strategist and team leader being two different people with the team still functioning proves it. Your friend has simply fallen into the trap of thinking that, since one thing is what we mostly see, it's therefore the only way to do things. The team leader and the strategist being interchangeable is what we more commonly see, which is why I, too, used to think Marinette's strategic thinking made her a good leader back during the pretool era.

Furthermore, the Lucky Charm ability is not what makes the Ladybug hero indispensable, since Luka has also shown that he can strategize with the Snake Miraculous, it's the Miraculous Ladybug and purification abilities. The reason Marinette is the most important member of the team is because only she can purify Akumas and fix the damage caused by any fights. Basically, Marinette has three times the amount of abilities any other Miraculous, outside of the Dragon.

Regardless, post-retool Marinette has repeatedly failed at everything else a leader should do outside of strategy. What Miraculous she's holding can't change that. Who cares that you can purify Akumas when you lead your team like a dictatorship and are inconsistent with what the rules that you yourself alone enforce are? That's extremely stressful for the team members. Who cares that you can fix the buildings after the fight when you play favorites on your team and never listen to any dissenting opinions even when they're absolutely correct? This tendency has caused problems that could have been avoided if Marinette just stopped viewing her teammates as drones.

Her go-to tactic in a fight is “keep my distance and think of a plan while others actually fight the Akuma”, which makes it obvious she should be more of a strategist instead of a front-lines leader. But, I’ve even grown disillusioned with Marinette's strategic ability. It's one thing to, in a desperate situation, after deep deliberation, make the sacrifice play, to sacrifice something or someone else so that more can be saved. Even with the Miraculous Ladybug ability, Marinette treats sacrifice plays extremely casually and she's very willing to make them when they're her idea. Way too often, Marinette comes up with a convoluted plan that can still be summed up as “sacrifice Cat Noir and fix him with my Miraculous Ladybug later”. Backwarder is the most obvious example, but whatever she was doing to him in Reverser is pretty up there too, never mind how casually she leaves him as the sole cambatant every single time she's getting backup and whenever she's busy implementing a plan. Way too many of Marinette's plans rely on having Cat Noir do most of the heavy lifting for her to sacrifice his well-being so casually even from a logical perspective.

Frankly, the only reason to argue that Marinette should still remain the leader after all this is if you want her to keep doing a bad job or shield her from criticism. Like, her tendency to treat Cat Noir as expendable cannon fodder would be brought to question by everyone on the team if Cat Noir was the leader instead of one of her drones. Marinette's standard for leadership can only be maintained in a team where only she's allowed to do any of the thinking, with everyone else going “Well, she's Ladybug, and she can do no wrong”. If she loses this cover, she's far more likely to get called out on her willingness to sacrifice anything or anyone but herself.

Meanwhile, Cat Noir brings a lot more to the table as a potential leader. He’s friendly to new team members even when he doesn't pick them (contrast how these two greet Volpina, who they had no reason to be suspicious of the time), he considers how their team members might be feeling (even when they aren't on the team anymore like Chloé) and he's concerned over things like having consistent rules for everyone on the team instead of playing favorites for his favorite team members (he was appalled when the found out Nino and Alya were being held to a lower standard than anyone else even though Nino is his best friend). He’s also far more open to perspectives other than his own and he'd never hold others to standards he doesn't also hold himself to.

[revolutionary-thoy]

Here they are! The two edgelords you've all been waiting for, Re-verse Kagami and Luka

I had a lot of different interpretations of these two, but the one I ended up settling on is them as villains. They're the current Dragon and Snake miraculous holders and they've been working for the Supreme longer than Marinette and Adrien (hence the even more pronounced scars on their faces). They were Marinette and Adrien's superiors and trained them when they first joined, and they would also be Shadybug and Claw Noir's replacements after the two of them left.

Kagami's family has been involved with the Supreme for centuries, so her mom has been training her since birth to be the next Dragon user. Since she was basically raised by the Supreme and an even more controlling version of Tomoe, this version of Kagami is way more cold and calculated. She usually doesn't speak more words than she absolutely has to.

Luka was approached by the Supreme in a similar way to Marinette. He was at a lowpoint in his life and they took advantage of that. In this universe, he lives with Jagged, while Juleka lives with Anarka. They know about their parents divorce and of each other's existence, but they almost never see each other. Juleka has no idea about all the sketchy stuff her brother is up to. Personality-wise, he's very slimy and manipulative... snakelike even

I was debating whether I should post these along with their transformed designs, or seperately, but Evil!Viperion is taking forever to draw, so I'll probably post those later this week when they're done. I also need names for Evil Ryuko and Evil Viperion, so if you have any ideas, please tell me!

Full Re-verse cast below!