#miraculous: magical connections backstories

[miraculous-magicalconnections]

The Agreste Family (and friends) Rewritten

Below are my rewritten backstories for Gabriel, Nathalie, Félix, Adrien, and Kagami

Adrien Agreste:

CW: Vague Description of Loss of Limb and Death

Adrien Agreste was born on September 7th to his parents Gabriel and Emilie Agreste Being born into a rich family forced Adrien to live a life others planned for him, namely his job, his friends, and worst of all, his time spent being a normal child When he was young, his friends were his cousin Félix, a family friends daughter Chloé, and a business partners daughter Kagami as these were the only people who Gabriel thought Adrien should be friends with For his sake, he at the very least enjoyed hanging out with them and even met Sabrina through Chloé, and while they didn't talk often, she was one of Adrien's friends However, when he was 13, and his father forcing him to model for a few months at that point, Emilie decided that they shouldn't force their lives onto their son and snuck him out of the photoshoot one day Emilie took Adrien to a little run down and abandoned building she and her old friends used to hang out at when they were kids, but what she didn't account for was the age of the building adding to it's instability It collapsed with them inside Adrien came out with his life, but the loss of his right arm Emilie wasn't as lucky… Adrien slowly grew more rebellious as he healed and grew older, hating that due to his father's instance that he be just like him was ultimately the cause for his mother's death But Adrien didn't hate his father, he didn't actively disobey him, because he knew he was grieving but Adrien wished his father would just accept that there was no way to bring Emilie back to them

Gabriel Agreste:

Gabriel never expected his wife to die, let alone for his son to suffer in that same accident because of how he pushed Adrien to be the face before he was even 13 He spent years of his life hunting magical artifacts and he knew of two that could reshape reality from the stories in his travels, and now he needed them, no matter how long that took And luckily for him, it didn't take as long as he'd thought, as within 5 years he found two, granted they weren't what he needed, but now that he had these? Adrien would be given self-defense lessons to keep him safe…

Nathalie Sancoeur:

CW: Brief Mention of Murder

Nathalie was born on April 1st, how ironic given most of her life At a young age she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue, something that slowly worsened as she aged and pushed her body further than she should By the time her adventures with Gabriel and Emilie came to a close, she had pushed her body too fair, and while she slowly healed with time, her body is in a state of near permanent exhaustion She can go about her everyday life like she could before, but to go on an adventure again is a fairytale But then Gabriel asked for her help to retrieve magical jewels that could not only help her but bring back Emilie and, of course, she agreed She didn't think she'd kill someone to get a brooch…

Félix Fathom:

CW: Past Child Abuse/Neglect

Félix was born on March 26th to his parents Colt and Amelie Fathom and from that moment onward, his life was a living hell Even at a young age, Félix didn't understand how or why Colt would want a child if he treated Félix like he did, especially given Félix was treated more like a pet than a child Félix's entire childhood was filled with bruises, blood, and broken promises Colt Fathom, who had long before last the title of Félix's dad, died when he was 16 Félix had never been so glad that someone had died than the day his mother told him of Colt's death Because of Colt, Félix didn't have a proper childhood; he didn't have friends, he was forced to focus almost exclusively on school, and all the while Amelie sat by and didn't act Félix moved to Paris to attend Université and told his mother not to contact him unless dire and he never told his cousin or uncle, as they weren't any better to him in his life He met several people in school, Allegra, Claude, Allan, Luka, Socqueline, and perhaps in time, he'll one day call them his friends…

Kagami Tsurugi:

CW: Non-Graphic Violence, Mention of Loss of Eye

Kagami Tsurugi was born on September 1st to Tomoe Tsurugi and a man whom she never met Throughout Kagami's entire life, she lived in her mother's shadow, and all she ever wanted was to prove to her, just once, that she could be as good as her She constantly pushed herself, she pushed and pushed and pushed and then… She broke During a fencing competition, she, and her longtime friend Adrien, were in a fencing competition together and they were the final two She was distracted because she wanted to impress her mother but she knew that Adrien needed to impress his father, she was distracted because she wanted them to both get what they wanted, needed, she was distracted because of the pain… She lost her eye due to her being distracted, and when she was released from the hospital, Adrien apologized until he was out of breath but her mother? The one who was supposed to be concerned? "The Tsurugi's have a curse that make us go blind," Her mother had told her instead of comforting her, "Very few of our family has kept their vision and you are a lucky one to keep an eye." She cursed her family name from that day on

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

If I were writing the show, I would make it so only Adrien and Felix were sentis, and the peacock miraculous broke from Emilie misusing it to create them. She created two beings at one time, outside of the traditional way sentis are made, without an amok, so she and Amelie could get pregnant. It doesn't make sense to me that the two of them were pregnant and have amoks for their children, since all other sentis were fully formed, and it would explain how the miraculous broke, which canon fails to answer.

If you have to keep the senti BS, then I think that's a good way to do it. It still blows my mind that canon really said, "Emilie and Gabriel had no idea that using the broken peacock would hurt her! They were so oblivious that they even gave it to Colt to use a second time! (And some random third person since Kagami exists.)"

I don't believe that nonsense for a second because the miraculous aren't just inanimate magical objects that people wield based on external training. They're magical objects that connect you to a magical creature who trains and guides you and that magical creature should know this shit!

The idea that the kwamis wouldn't warn them about the danger of using a broken miraculous only works if Nooroo wasn't around because Duusu was kinda out of it, so I could possibly buy that he wasn't able to warn them. But that fix would imply that Nooroo and Duusu were found at separate times which is nonsense. Why would Gabriel think to go back and look for another miraculous months or even years later? How would he even learn that he'd missed one? He basically had to know that there were two of them right from the start and - if he knew that there were two of them - then why would he grab them one at a time? It's not like archaeological digs or getting to Tibet are simple tasks! And how did they even learn about the miraculous or know where to look? Why use the peacock to make a senti and not the butterfly to heal infertility? I need answers!

This shit is why I'm so annoyed by the play. If you're going to give us backstory that doesn't move the plot forward, then give us backstory that explains all of the plot holes that you keep introducing!!! Don't waste my time with your completely unbelievable humble origins story. I don't love the movie, but it gets full credit for ignoring that nonsense and making Gabriel come from a wealthy family, too.

Anyway, back to the senti stuff.

If you go with the idea that creating real life broke the peacock and also do a variant where the amok was just a womb so the kids are real humans, then that would allow the peacock breaking idea to work without the pesky free will issue. You could also have one of the boys be a real human and the other be a senti. Maybe Adrien is a senti because Emilie didn't want to ruin her figure and Felix is real because Colt didn't care or vise versa with Colt wanting his wife to stay hott and Emilie wanting to experience the magic of childbirth. (I still can't believe that Emilie and Amilie were actually pregnant. If you're going to make a magic baby, then why not skip the life-threatening, body-destroying part?)

I also fully agree that Kagami being a senti only makes sense if they were going to do some big conspiracy plot with all the rich families being involved. Her being a random third senti without some major plot to back it up raises so many questions such as: how did Tomoe get involved with the Agrestes? Why did they break off contact and then reestablish it years later? Was the arranged marriage thing always the plan? If so, then why were Adrien and Kagami raised on different continents? Why did free spirited Emilie agree to this after seeing how unhappy her sister's marriage was? Why didn't Gabriel just use the ring to order Adrien to fall in love with Kagami? Was Adrien supposed to be programmed to love Kagami, but Marinette was similar enough to kick off the programing, making him imprint on the wrong girl? Was Kagami similarly programmed and that's why she latched onto Felix out of nowhere?

Hopefully it's obvious that those final two questions are jokes, but at the same time, I don't think I'd be shocked if they were somehow canon. They make about as much sense as everything else involved with the senti plot.

[uptoolateart]

How the Heart Learns to Break Again

Summary:

Once upon a time, Nathalie Sancoeur was an Adventuress Extraordinaire. Now, she’s been living with the Agrestes for more than 14 years, reduced to a career as Gabriel’s PA and looking after Adrien more than his parents ever do. But when Emilie becomes a victim of the miraculous, Nathalie will be forced to reassess her role in the Agrestes’ lives – and reclaim the magical heritage she scorned all those years ago. * A backstory focusing on the ML adults. Covers Emilie’s and Colt’s passing, how Gabriel became Hawk Moth, and how Nathalie became Mayura. *

Chapter 1 Preview:

Nathalie opened her eyes, letting the details of the room return to her. Her skin was vibrating, her chest warm with power. Still not quite connected to this world, she picked up the tarot cards and began shuffling. A question burned in her mind.

What do I need to know right now?

She carried on shuffling, until cards fell out of her clumsy hands. Perhaps an accident. Perhaps fate. Collecting the three cards, she lay them face down in a row. Instinct niggled at her, urging her to turn the middle card around – and she listened. Not because the cards were psychic but because she’d learned to trust her intuition.

One by one, she turned the cards over. Then she stared at them, motionless with shock. It seemed her intuition had betrayed her.

Her hands itched to swipe the cards away. To slot them back in the deck and try again. But that would defeat the point. What lay before her was what she was meant to see. There was a reason for things. If she stopped believing in this, what else did she have?

Swallowing, she examined the cards more closely.

The first was Death. 

Read at Ao3

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Thoughts on the Miraculous: Re-verse thing?

ooh! What about the video game?

I might do a review of the video game once I get around to playing it, so I'll focus on the first question for now. And believe me, I have a lot to say.

First off, the title for the next Miraculous World special. "Into the Re-Verse"? Seriously? You're calling it that, and you announced it a few weeks after Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiered in theaters, so what did you think was going to happen?

Of course, Astruc had to make the wrong assumption and act like he isn't ripping anything off because people have been using the multiverse as a concept since 1961.

That's not what people are saying, Astruc! The reason people are accusing this upcoming special of ripping off Into the Spider-Verse is because of how similar the title sounds to that movie and that it was announced at the height of Across the Spider-Verse's popularity. People are obviously going to make connections.

It'd be like if there was a Spider-Man movie called The Miraculous Spider-Man, where Peter Parker got a magic ring that gave him the ability to create random objects from his webbing while fighting a new villain called The Butterfly. By that logic, you can't call it a rip-off because superheroes have been using magic rings since 1940.

But hey, at least Astruc isn't saying Miguel O'Hara and the canon event memes ripped off Bunnix in "Cat Blanc".

As for the special itself? It looks boring as sin.

From what little the trailer showed us, it looks like it's going to be your average "mirror universe" plot with the idea of Ladybug and Cat Noir being evil while Hawkmoth is a good guy. We've seen this done before hundreds of times in superhero media and unless they do something with the alternate universe that doesn't just make Paris the same kind of dystopian Blade Runner-esque hellscape, I don't have high hopes.

And just like the last two Miraculous World specials, this is just jumping the gun. You've barely established the backstory of your own show, you also just introduced the idea of there being superheroes around the world, and now you're going to dive into the multiverse? You people really need to slow down for a change.

[sneak-a-cat]

I continue to be sososo mad about how miraculous cooked for the character backstory’s and the concepts and the base ideas-

only to proceed to trip and stumble and then willingly leap out a window when they were about to serve the food.

nearly a year ago now I made a silly post about making a private school au which, uh, spiralled to say the least. I’ll post that long haul fic eventually once I’ve ironed out all the kinks in the plans and can finally write the damn thing.

one of the characters who surprised me with how much I liked planning them out was Zoe. I’d always thought she fell flat in the show and it was unfortunate but because of how the plot in the fic works she’s ended up being one of my favourites :3

something about that fact that she moved to Paris with her mother (who she doesn’t know very well) only to be rejected by her mother again when it turns out this was a publicity move and not an attempt at forming a real relationship. Plus her sister is just completely not having it despite how hard she’s trying to bond with her (maybe how hard she’s pushing the sister thing is part of the problem…). so she has no family even though she’s just moved to a foreign country, she has no support system, she has a different accent and can struggle to keep up with the speed people speak at when she’s acclimating. Basically she’s having a shit time.

originally I focussed on Chloes perspective about Zoe and Audrey’s presence and how that affected her / changed things. The complex relationship between Chloe and Zoe is so much fun to dig into it can get sooo sad. It’s important to me that Zoe knew Chloe existed her whole life, but Chloe only found out she had a half sister (from an affair her mother had thus why Zoe knows and she does not) recently. So Zoe is totally down and pushing the sister narrative hard in a desperate bid for connection and Chloe shuts down because this is so fucking weird to her and she just can’t deal so she snaps.

It’s just so much fun figuring out how to lean into the meagre character stuff we were given (she is a good actor, she’s a lesbian… she’s nice? I think that’s it.) and pushing it further when looking at her circumstances. Plus how she gets fucked sideways by the plot the poor thing, to be fair most of the fun characters do :3

This is leaving out SO much bullshit because it would be major major spoilers. it’s all basically turned into a huge project where the school aspect is changed up and has interesting stuff going on which relates to the political climate created by a magical terrorist, said magical terrorist and how the miraculous properly function and formed, and then that turned into having a lot of fun with magical lore.

it’s difficult to plan because I want to utilise as many characters as possible lmao

Which makes no sense but to be fair! It’s confusing. It’s basically just for me for funsies but I’m sure other people may glean joy from it so I’ll post it

[starryknightwrites]

I love how unflinchingly earnest Miraculous Awakening is. It’s refreshing after seeing how much the show became bogged down by criticism.

(Light Spoilers Ahead)

Ladybug and Chat Noir arguing like actual children who hit the magic powers jackpot would. Name calling and arguing over who gets to be the leader. One step away from using “you INFINITY” as an argument.

Teenage angst and romance/infatuation are embraced with zero shame. Just out here falling in love after 30 minutes, complete with a ballad. Meetcute in the library. Spying in the library. Trust falling off of rooftops. Badly timed confessions. Dancing in the air. Being sulky. “Dad, you’re so embarrassing!” “I hate you, Dad!” Sobbing in bed to George Michael.

Nino and Alya are so great. Especially Nino. I heart Nino.

Love my daughter of food service entrepreneurs, practical and anxious softhearted disaster girl. Learning to be brave in the face of her fears and trust herself. Seeking who she really is and finding self respect.

Love my son of a moody creative and a thespian, theatrical and impulsive sassy sad boy. Tries to be low-key to protect himself but can’t help but shine. Learning to open his heart again after childhood grief. Seeking a reason and finding connection and healing.

Gabriel! This is the Agreste backstory/resolution we deserve.

Chloe’s hair.

ELSA EMILIE!

BABRIEN ❤️

Overall, I’m a fan.

[flightfoot]

The fiction question got me to thinking. Some folks claim MLB is inspired by this or that. Now that I think about it I am inclined to agree. Why? Because it feels like that first fanfic project we all have somewhere.

-Tons of characters

-hyper detailed and convoluted magic/power system that trips over itself now and then.

-Everyone has a backstory, missing parents, or both .

-Everything is connected!

-That one character who's that person who sits behind you in math and won't shut up, ugh!

-oh wait, I forgot, I have to have a plot!

-plot phases in and out as suits you. You will willingly spend entire chapters going down rabbit holes.

-wait, did I use this plot already?

-New character, woo hoo! Old characters to the back lf the bus!

-So cringe, but also, you love it.

Does that sound about right?

Mostly, yeah, except for the new character bit. We've only gotten a handful of those, and I don't think that the original cast is generally sidelined for them.

Like, I think the grand total of characters who were introduced post-S1 who maintained some sort of relevance (so not just the akuma victim of the week) are:

S2: Kagami, Tomoe, Luka, Marc, and Audrey.

S3: Felix... Amelie too I guess.

S4: Zoe and Su Han

S5: Soqueline

The cast list ain't exactly blowing up, which I think is a good thing. It means that the cast we already have can still get a lot of spotlight and interactions.

Anyway, Miraculous is a bit of a mess, but it's a compelling mess XD

[kawaiilizzie]

Yumeko was created with this girl in mind in terms of backstory and deeper lore. Look below the tab for more information on Yukari aka Arch Seirei Artemis, the Seirei of the Haouken Xross Saber.

Name: Artemis

Kanji: アルテミス

Gender: Female

Age: Unknown, 23 (Physically)

Aliases: Yukari (ゆかり), Arch Seirei (大聖霊, Dai Seirei)

Ally Type: Seirei

Occupation: None

Affiliation: Seirei, Sword of Logos, Touma Kamiyama’s team, Hunters of Artemis (formerly)

Homeworld: Wonder World

Talents/Abilities: Indomitable will, Expert magic user

Powers: Seirei physiology (Shapeshifting and longevity), Seiken empowerment, Elemental magic manipulation, Energy arrow, Seiken summoning

Equipment: Haouken Xross Saber (Personal weapon), Book Gate Wonder Ride Book (Uses it as a transporter to the Northern and Southern Bases)

Description: Arch Seirei Artemis, also known under the alias Yukari, is one of the creators of elemental magic and the Seirei of the Haouken Xross Saber who is connected to the Elegant Moonlight Element and Miraculous Star Element. Having been trusted with watching over the Sword of Logos to witness her connected Seiken's reemergence, Artemis acts as an observer and helps guide the swordsmen towards the right path so one day when all the swordsmen stand united as one, her Seiken would appear to them stronger than before. However, Artemis is also looking for Yumeko, who has escaped from her crystal prison and is looking for revenge on her after Artemis had sealed her away for her betrayal.

Notes: Her ideal actress is Amane Tsukiashi from the J-Pop group FRUITS ZIPPER and former member of HKT48 and is based off the Greek goddess of the same name

[rainbowxocs]

Name: Juliette Delisle.

Special Titles: Ladybug.

Username: @ladybirdwrites

Nicknames: Jules.

Age: 14.

Pronouns: She/Her.

Sexuality: Still Figuring It Out.

Gender: Same as Above.

Species: Totally Human. Don’t even worry about it. She’s the most human girl I know.

Disorders: CPTSD, Autism, Anxiety, Perfection OCD, Afrid.

Religion: N/A.

Job: Superhero.

Grade: 9th Grade.

Lives in: Paris, France, 2024.

Languages: French, Spanish, English.

Height: 5’1”

Race: Mixed Race.

Ethnicity: French, Spanish.

Accent: French.

Vehicle: Old, Red Bicycle.

Miraculous: Ladybug.

Powers: Lucky Charm, Miraculous Ladybug, De-Evilization, Magical Charms, I Spy, Creation Magic.

Weapons: Yo-Yo, Umbrella.

Alignment: Lawful Good.

Text Color: Red.

Main Animal: Ladybug.

Main Hobbies: Reading, Drawing.

Favorite Food: Macaroons, Ratatouille, Mint Peach Icecream.

Favorite Flower: Roses.

Scent: Cherry Paradise by Guerrero.

Handedness: Right Handed.

Blood Color: None.

Awareness: Not Aware. (Effect: None.)

Birthday: Unknown.

Theme:

Playlist:

Fun Facts: She’s just a normal girl with a normal life, but there’s something about her nobody knows yet- she has a secret- MIRACULOUS- SIMPLY TH-

Special Interests: She isn’t allowed to have interests.

Stims: Fidgets with her sweater, playing with her hair. All of her stimming is really subtle, most people wouldn’t notice she is stimming. She also scribbles, draws, and writes a lot.

Stimboard: Coming Soon.

Moodboard: Coming Soon.

Fashion Board: LINK

Comfort Objects: Journal, Her Locket, Old Teddy Bear.

Family: Unknown Birth Parents.

Several Sets of Foster Families over the years.

Friends: Nyx (BFF), Emilio, Jose.

Romance: Emilio, Chat Noir. (Crushing on both of them. She however doesn’t realize she has a crush on them.)

Enemies: Lilith, Clementine, Selene.

Kwami: Tikki.

Brief Personality: Juliette is incredibly awkward, she seems to have a heavy burden on her shoulders at all times, she has a tendency to be in her own little world, not paying mind to other people much, not out of callousness but she genuinely doesn’t quite know how to connect with people. Mostly because she hasn’t been allowed too for most of her life. She just wants to be good, even to her own detriment.

Brief Backstory: [THIS BACKSTORY HAS BEEN REDACTED DUE TO A NDA.]

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V3 10

From Me To You - Things are now taking their time, with random fluff and incidents such as Sawako, as her one good deed of the day, sheltering a hilariously ungrateful and angry puppy from the rain, and the dog later gets adopted by Kazehaya. Then there's the start of the new school term where seatings have to be changed via drawing numbers, with almost no one wanting to sit next to, behind, in front of, or across from Sawako. Kazehaya ends up going "fuck it, I'm going to take some initiative here!" and physically moves his table and seat next to Sawako's. Yano, Yoshida, and this guy named Ryuu also sit in that end of the classroom, so I guess this is our main cast. My main takeaway is how our two leads are sort of inversions of one another - Sawako is introverted yet easily lets her emotions show, while Kazehaya is extroverted yet is good at being hard to read.

Hunter x Hunter - The Hunters' assault on the royal palace finally begins and with a great big bang. Netero and Zeno did this huge, shiny strike from the sky and Netero let out a display of his full power that hits Neferpitou, who is miraculously able to survive this. Most of the episode was filled with narration and there's even a glimpse into Netero's backstory for how he attained the strength he has now.

SHUFFLE! - Well on one hand, I've warmed up to Primula enough to give a damn when it's revealed what she really is and the focus gets put on her falling ill and needing to be taken back to the demon world and possibly out of the main casts' lives forever. On the other hand, I'm not sure I welcome this sudden swerve into drama. I'm pretty sure I was expecting it at some point given similar works like CLANNAD, but I was enjoying the fun, breezy and laid-back feel the show had going, and now even the opening card, mid-episode eyecatches, and next episode previews aren't the same as they were before! I'm going to be hopeful that this goes somewhere to make this trade worth it and that the charm doesn't completely fade away.

The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II - Had a real locked room mystery this time, one set at an estate that holds a magical workshop in the midst of a storm and had to be covered in two episodes rather than one! To make the case stranger, the client has some special eyes that allow him to see and visually communicate with a human-sized fairy that seems to be haunting the place. I loved that Reines actually got to come along in person for this one, as we got to see some good reactive comedy from her and some precious interaction between her and Gray, showing she's got more range to her than simply an evil girlboss. Also got to meet Ms. Hishiri Adashino, who Waver can barely stand, and Kairi Shishigou, a burly, shades and jacket wearing, gun-toting necromacer. Gray is confirmed to have a connection to Saber as she becomes instrumental in the fight against these terrifying black dogs. I think the one part that was iffy for me is that it repeated the "the father is the posthumous mastermind!" twist from Episode 3, only this time there was no actual ghost in the works. But it did lead to us learning of Rail Zeppelin, an underworld group that sells mystic eyes, paving the way for an unfolding story arc.

KonoSuba - The OVA episode was all kinds of priceless, if not a little bit aggrivating at points due to the characters' stupidity. Got to meet Megumin's self-proclaimed rival Yunyun, though the relationship seems to actually be one of a bully and her victim who've become friends/rivals/secret lovers. Her presence at Wiz's shop leads to Kazuma putting on a cursed choker that will drain him of his life unless his heart's wish from when it was first put on is granted. Since Kazuma is the fucking worst, he milks this situation and gets the girls to do whatever he wants them to do, hoping they'll pleasure him enough for it to be considered wish fulfillment. It doesn't pan out, so he has to confess all his sins before he goes, and long story short, he does end up dying again but it's not the choker that does him in.

Symphogear XV - With the main Symphogear girls at the lunar ruins and Shem-Ha planning on using the Curse of Balal to activate Yggdrasil so that she can distort all life on Earth, repopulate it with her own monstrous spawn, and become a true goddess, the final season is at its climax. Tsubasa and Maria work together and put up a great fight against Noble Red, but are too late to stop Shem-Ha from activating Yggdrasil, which is forming towers all over the planet!

Eureka Seven - Aside from some character growth moments for Talho and Holland, and the reassertion of Gecko State's goal, not much happened here! Basically just prepping for the fight ahead.

Gintama - OK, calling this arc "Yakuza VS Aliens" is either the most misleading thing the series could've done or it's secretly genius. The first of the three episodes sees a freak alien parasite running amuck in Edo City and famed alien hunter Umibozu arriving to exterminate it, and in the process talk his daughter Kagura into returning with him to their homeworld. Yeah, he's Kagura's father and there's a more complicated history behind Kagura's clan and why Kagura wanted to break away from it to live a normal, fun life on Earth, Kagura gets more seriously angered than we've seen her get to this point and has a fight against her old man that's settled by Gintoki making a save and....telling Kagura she should leave Earth with her father. He just gives Kagura up and walks away. What in the blazing HELL, Gin?!?

[52stories]

Notes and Thoughts on An Idea for 2024: 52 stories in 52 weeks

Beginnings are always hard.

This is not news to anyone. This is clichéd, hallmark-card, stitched-on-cushion, hanging-on-frame corniness, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less true.

What makes it worse is that we’re all usually starting out with the heavy weight of our New Year's Resolutions hanging around our necks. This year I swore to myself I wouldn’t make any, but what I didn’t realize was that I had been putting into motion plans that all revolved around 1st January.

Once it’s January 1st, I’m going to write everyday. 

Once it’s January 1st, I’m not going to skip writing even once.

So on and so forth.

You know how it goes. It’s always easier to plan for the next day, or the next week, or, in the blissful, peak-procrastination days of December, next year. January carries with it the possibility of this magical, new me who’s going to miraculously become less lazier. I’m going to stick to my goals and respect my resolutions and any daily task list will be easy to complete. And best of all, none of that is going to be hindered by my inherently lazy, dawdling self.

Of course, we don’t get up on January 1st as a changed person. It just doesn’t happen, unless you've had a particularly huge hit of some drug the rest of us could do with, because otherwise it’s the same old you, slothful and avoidant and telling yourself at the end of the night ‘I’ll definitely do it tomorrow’.

And we all know when that tomorrow is coming.

That’s been me when it comes to writing, which is funny because usually writing brings me so much joy. When I’m in the midst of it, it’s like I’m on a high, creating characters and motivations and convoluted backstories which I can then leave hints about and allow for connections to be made. One of the best parts of reading anything is finding out how something you noticed on the second page of the third chapter foreshadows a major event in the future, and when you’re the one writing the story, you get to control that! As the writer, I am in a state of bliss when I’m elbows deep in a scene, knowing what happened in the past and what’s going to happen in the future. The act of creation is a high sweeter than anything else, an absolute delight, a pleasure bar none.

It’s also something I avoid constantly.

This plan here — writing a story per week — is an attempt to remedy that. If I can force myself to write, force myself to think in a new genre and work with a word count, that still doesn’t fulfill my purpose of writing a full-length novel.

But it gets me somewhere.

Join me if you can. Let’s see how consistent we can be throughout the year. Let’s see how many characters we can come up with and genres we can struggle through.

At best, we’ll have the time of our lives. At worst, we’ll fail spectacularly. 

But at least we tried.

Goodbye for today, and I’ll see you next week, with a new story, and some ideas on how bad it was, or how brilliant.

Keep on writing!

Anushah

[miraculous-magicalconnections]

The Bourgeois Family (and friends) Rewritten

Below are my rewritten backstories for Chloé, Sabrina, Zoé

Chloé Bourgeois:

Chloé was born of May 21st to her parents André and Audrey Bourgeois While Chloé was young, Audrey would come and go as she pleased, never staying Paris longer than a few weeks at a time and being gone for upwards of several months, and by the time Chloé was 10, Audrey never returned to Paris for longer than a few days, and only ever for business Chloé loved, and still loves her father, but Chloé looked up to Audrey as this powerful and successful businesswoman and so, she did everything in her power to be just like her mom Chloé met Sabrina fairly young and treated her as though Audrey would, like a personal servant Chloé, no matter what, would continue to do so and scoff at those who told her it was "wrong" or "immoral" especially since, if it was truly as bad as they said, why would her mom do it?

Zoé Lee:

CW: Child Neglect

Zoé was born on November 10th to Audrey Bourgeois and Roberto Lee Although being her biological parents, she only ever saw Audrey as a person who gave her father money and Roberto as more of a roommate she was related too rather than the parents they should've been to her Zoé's life was filled with disappointment after disappointment; Audrey left her and her dad, the only friend she had, she barely saw, she was constantly bullied, she was alone Zoé wished she was Chloé Chloé didn't know Zoé existed, most people didn't, at least not as the daughter of Audrey Bourgeois She just wanted a normal life, but how can you have a normal life when your the product of an affair and neither parent were ever really around?

Sabrina Raincomprix:

CW: Manipulation

Sabrina Raincomprix was born on September 25th to her parents Roger and Noémie Raincomprix Sabrina had always been helpful to others from a young age, wanting to emulate her father's kind actions through his job but this lead to her kindness being abused by others to make her do things for them that got her in trouble, but they'd always buy back her loyalty That was until Chloé See, whereas everyone before would treat Sabrina as nothing but a slave, Chloé actually treated her as human and while to everyone else it was clear Chloé was still just as manipulative as Sabrina's other "friends" Sabrina didn't see it that way So from the moment they became "friends" Sabrina did everything Chloé asked her to do, within reason of course, it wasn't like Chloé forced her to do any of the things she did, after all, that's what friends do for each other… right?

[actually-factually-anonymous]

Largely agreed upon the distinct disappointment the sheer Marinette-centred approach brought. But on the topic of Marinette's lack of connection:

Because let's be real here, there ain't much linking Marinette to the actual plot apart from her being Ladybug...

...Marinette has literally zero connection to them, sure she's Adrien's classmate and has a crush on him, but that doesn't connect her to the plot because she's too shy or busy running away from Adrien the moment she's embarassed too much. Heck in the Origin episode she literally didn't know who Adrien freaking was.

So zero connection there.

She's a complete random citizen who got voted for the role of hero for one selfless deed that she did,

Indeed. But the saddest apart about Marinette having or actual ties or pathos to the Agreste Arc is that once upon a time that was not the case.

In previous Miraculous proposals, before the PV, Marinette Cheng was at least as part of the main story as Felix/Adrien was. There were various versions of how the story would go, with one echoing Cardcaptor's plot, and the later proposals looking more like what we got in the final product.

But all had Marinette having a personal stake in the story. In the Cardcaptor-esque plot, Marinette was Fu's granddaughter (or granddaughter figure), and Fu was the caretaker of the The Orb. A crystal that contained all the "fairies" (beings that served both the roles Kwamis and Akumas would later take). The story kicked off because Marinette brought her crush Felix into her Grandfather's store and accidentally broke The Orb, shattering it and allowing the Fairies to escape across Paris and empower countless people- heroes and villains both.

It was her mission to retrieve the Fairies, because she was the one who had released them. She was Fu's granddaughter and it was her responsibility to clean up her mess. It was her story, and Felix/Adrien was the one with less direct connection.

Later proposals ditched The Orb as the Kwamis were developed, but up until the most recent and final versions of the story Marinette retained Fu as either her blood Grandfather outright or at least a mentor so close from her childhood that she thought of him as a Grandfather. She also was usually being trained to be a Guardian or something like it herself.

She wasn't just a girl Fu found on the side of the road. She had as much connection to the Guardians and their world as Felix/Adrien did to Papillion. It even added a certain Montague-Capulet tragic element to the romance, since if Felix/Adrien and Marinette ever got together it would mean one having to choose between their partner and their family.

But for some reason, in the product Marinette is stripped of all pre-series personal connections to the Miraculous. Adrien meanwhile had his reinforced to an insane degree, becoming the very axis of the plot by the apparent desire for a designer child seeming being the very reason Gabriel and Emile sought the Miraculous all those years ago, and the consequences of his creation being the very reason that Gabriel devolves into magical terrorism.

The question is why? Was there really so great a need for Martinette to be "a girl like any other" that all of the plot relevance needed to be stripped out of her and added to Adrien, only to then completely ignore all that potential pathos by sidelining Adrien at every turn?

Because if you weren't going to do anything with Adrien, then all you've done is undermine Marinette's narrative potential.

Seriously, if you gave me the backstory of these two characters and asked which one was the main character: there would have been no chance I would have selected Marinette. Because all the writers have given her backstory is side-character material, whereas Adrien's very existence, as well as his relationship to his family and the Miraculous is at the heart of the story.

Ladybug Vs Avatar's use of the supporting cast and the problem thereof.

I'm not sure if this has been covered before, but there's a serious problem with Marinette being the be-all end-all of everything in Miaculous.

And it's not just because "she's stressed" or "it's all on her". Her being the most important, talented and plot-relevant character in every situation is.

Let's make a comparison to the Gold Standard:

In Avatar the Last Airbender, Aang is the axis of the story. He holds incredible powers beyond anyone else, can bend every element and could conceivably end the entire conflict that plagues his world with relative ease- which he eventually does.

However, for 99% of the story he cannot do so. Because Aang is untrained, he cannot access that divine win-button of the Avatar State at will, and using it carried enormous risks to himself and those around him- making it functionally unusable for common conflicts. Furthermore while he does technically have the capacity to use all four elements, he had only mastered one and needed to learn the remaining three.

Indeed, Aang has outright difficulty with learning Earthbending despite his innate talents and while he's a quick study for the other two, he doesn't demonstrate the same effectiveness with water and fire as Katara and Zuko.

This means that Aang cannot do certain things as well as the others in his team. This means that for the majority of the story, even though his first and preferred element provides him with useful abilities" Aang has weaknesses that he needs others to cover and provide for.

Enter Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko.

Katara is a waterbender who teaches Aang and later advances her powers to include the all-important power of healing and the disturbingly effective (though situational) Bloodbending.

Toph is an earthbender who is also one of Aang's teachers, and whose tremor sense later allows her to both detect liars and invent Metalbending.

Sokka is seemingly just the comic relief normie. However his technical mindset allows him to serve as the general of the group, and even plan and lead in that role for entire armies later in the show.

Even Zuko who joins later and becomes less a teacher but a fellow student alongside Aaang in firebending is a skilled infiltrator and melee weapon expert. (This is less of a case than the others since it's not used as much, but it's more of a concrete example than his insights into the fire nation and his potential utility as a replacement Fire Lord).

They each provide far more than those short summaries, but it's important to note that in each case, even when Aang does learn the elements and starts growing into his role as the Avatar: he never gains the full range of abilities that his team offers. He never assumes the fully strategic mindset of Sokka, and even though it's downright implausible that no Avatar before him never learnt healing, he never demonstrates that ability or any Metalbending prowess even in the Avatar state.

There's also the enemy trio of Azula, Ty Lee and Mai. Azula is a powerful firebending genius, but Mai's prowess with her throwing weapons are a close match- and Ty Lee's chi-blocking can outright cripple enemy benders for any given fight when combined with her insane agility: something that not even Azula can do with her firebending. They are an incredibly dangerous combination and when Azula loses them, she becomes far less effective for their absence.

In both teams despite the leader being a powerful, talented bender who is objectively the strongst person on their respective side: there's no doubt about each member of the team contributing something that said leader cannot.

-

Now let's look at Miraculous:

Marinette is the "Greatest Ladybug" of all time despite being fourteen, only having had the earrings for less than a year, and having a list of predecessors that go back literally thousands of years and include Joan of Arc.

She is also the Guardian of the Miracle Box. Specifically she is the Guardian of The Mother Box that is the most important of all the boxes, despite there being at least a full Temple's worth of actually trained candidates somewhere in Tibet who should be far and above more capable than her or her mentor Fu. However, her supposed superior Su-Han seems entirely convinced that she's already surpassed any teachings his order has by how often she breaks said teachings in his face only for him to roll over like a dog. There's not been a single time when Marinette has been confronted by some shortcoming in her responsibilities as a Guardian where she has had to learn anything from the multi-millennia old Order of Gurdians.

Marinette has also worn almost every single Miraculous in her Box at the same time, a feat that supposedly risked serious harm to her but merely made her woozy for an afternoon (if that). As of the season five Finale, she has also unified her earrings with her partner's ring: a scenario that in earlier seasons seemed to imply great risk: yet she was able to use the powers flawlessly.

As Ladybug, she is also the lone hero who has unlocked any new advanced powers with her Miraculous (unless you also include the arbitrary "adulthood" that she and Chat Noir achieved that allows them multiple uses of their Miraculous before detransforming), and on the occasions when she's used anyone else's powers has shown no sign of being any less capable than they are with them.

Ladybug does everything as well if not better than everyone else.

Marinette can not only unify with any Miraculous she needs for a given mission, she can use the powers as effectively as their "dedicated holder" can and without any restrictions. Unlike the majority of the cast who are still under the child-power limit. She can even unify with multiple miraculous at the same time without any drawbacks.

And without those drawbacks, without anyone on the cast being able to use the power of their Miraculous more effectively than Marinette: everyone else on the team is more or less superfluous.

Sure, Marinette has tossed out the Miraculous to her team like candy now. But when you get down to it: the real lesson that she should have learnt from Strikeback to just put some damn security on her Yo-yo/The Box. Because this just means that she has to wait for the hero in question to show up when she could have just pulled off whatever plan she has in mind herself.

And that superfluous label includes Chat Noir.

As frustrating as it is to come to the this conclusion: as of right now, there's no real reason for Adrien Agreste to be anything but a temporary holder. Certainly you can point to his experience with Plagg's power, and a few examples that seem to imply he can do more with it (in his second outing he was able to reconstruct part of the Eiffel Tower into a makeshift extension to catch someone from). Things that imply that if he perhaps received any actual training in the show like Marinette did from Fu, any guidance whatsoever from the Order or their Grimoire he might be able to achieve more.

But there's no solid evidence to expect that Marinette wouldn't be as effective, and the narrative precedent does not lend itself to the idea that anyone could overshadow Ladybug as a holder even of their own Miraculous. If anything, the sheer ability Marinette showed as Bug Noire implies that her having a partner instead of just keeping the ring herself is a detriment to any given situation.

If you can justify exposing the ring to potential capture in the first place considering that there seems to be no requirement to do. By all rights the practical thing to do is just keeping Plagg in the box instead of risking reality.

Of course we wanted to be generous, Adrien could still be of some use. He's the resident meatshield and narrative jobber. So long as he has a Miraculous he could continue faithfully serving in those roles, eating up mind-control beams and taking hits for Bug Noire so she can save the day as usual.

But everyone else on the Miraculous team might as well turn in their furry super-suits and go home.

-

You couldn't get a more black white depiction of the value of others outside of the protagonist. in Avatar, Aang is literally a semi-divine being who still needs to be humble and learn while the others around him still have useful special talents and prowess that he can't simply attain at will.

While in Miraculous, there's only one person of actual true competence. From Paris to Shanghai, Marinette alone is the capable one- barring the odd episode in the limelight (Alya and Felix stand up and take a bow. Adrien can stay seated).

There is a word for a character that is impossibly more capable than any other in spite of all reason and logic. And Marinette is increasingly fitting that mold as the show goes on. There's also a term for characters that ultimately contribute nothing good or bad to a story; wasted space. You can't have an entire ensemble of characters as part of the cast and have them provide nothing if they're supposed to have even a smidge of narrative value without making them something the story would be better off without.

Just as you can't just have one person at the centre of everything, make them capable of everything and not eventually have the story they're in turn into (at best) a power fantasy.

And it's a shame. Because Miraculous seemed like it could have been a lot more.

[eddo-tensei]

Miraculous Ninja Bio #3: Alya Cesaire

Gonna push myself a bit more and go over more characters for this MLB/RC9GN crossover. This time, we’re talking about Alya. Don’t worry, I’ll get to the Norrisville crew eventually. Just need to go over the main Miraculous crew coming here...and the villains. If anyone’s interested from reading the biography, here’s the fic:

Miraculous Ninja: Tales of Heroes and Magic (MLB x RC9GN crossover)

Alright, let’s put this blog on blast.

Backstory: Alya’s life wasn’t extraordinary. She wasn’t born to a family of bakers nor was she brought into the world of luxury. She simply came from a family hailing from the French-controlled Caribbean island of Martinique. With her zooologist father, a culinary expert for a mother, along with her three sisters, Alya spent most of her life in her home province studying in a private school. She found herself running a lot of the technical side of the school system and by middle school, she was dabbling in online maintenance. She was also a frequent member of her school’s comic book club where they would discuss all kinds of superheroes. For the most part, it felt like life was going to be simple. That was until her mother managed to secure a job in one of the most prestigious hotels in Paris. Thus, her family relocated there as Alya now found herself in Collège Françoise Dupont. There, as a new student, she ended up meeting a lot of new people including a lonely girl by the name of Marinette. Seeing the sort of trouble Marinette was going through, Alya took it upon herself to be Marinette’s friend and help her through whatever life throws at her. Soon, however, Alya found herself in the midst of what could be described as a seemingly neverending battle of good and evil as Hawk Moth emerged from the shadows to cause chaos only for the heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, to come out and stomp that chaos into nothing. Feeling her two childhood hobbies unifying, Alya started up the Ladyblog and vowed to do what she can to document all the heroic acts of these two glorious saviors of her new home.

This would be one of Alya’s defaults as when she wasn’t focused on the blog, she was helping Marinette with anything that would come up. Babysitting, coming up with designs, trying to win over Adrien, homework, Adrien, parties, Adrien. In case you can’t tell, a good amount of their hangouts involve trying to figure out ways for Marinette to win Adrien’s heart. That said, these hangouts didn’t come with their own perks. Alya and Marinette both end up connecting to more of the people in College Dupont, even garnering their own circle of friends through this. Alya was even able to find her own love in Nino Lahiffe. It was clear that just as she was able to help Marinette open up and gain friends even when facing obstacles like Chloe, Marinette was helping Alya connect to her new home more and more. She even recently found the courage to sign up for a program that saw her connected to a pen-pal. A kind girl named Theresa who she would exchange letters with every now and then, mostly about the heroic exploits going on in Paris as well as some of the interesting stuff that occurs in Norrisville.

That said, this wasn’t without strife. She found herself being one of the earliest villains created by Hawk Moth’s Akumas during her quest to find out who Ladybug was. As Lady Wi-Fi, she ended up being one of the more difficult adversaries to fight and someone who would frequently return due to Hawk Moth finding her powers quite helpful. Even so, she was able to find some brilliance as when her younger sisters fell under the spell of an Akuma, she had a fateful encounter with Ladybug who entrusted her with the Fox Miraculous. Gaining a fast friend in the Kwami of Illusion, Trixx, Alya ended up with the identity of Rena Rouge. Even if it was technically a temporary gig, Alya relished her time as Rena and she found herself blessed time and time again as Ladybug would come to her for help multiple times. Still, no matter what, even with all the reports and vlogs she had done, Alya could never really figure the one thing that she felt like she needed to figure out and that was Ladybug’s identity. Even if she knew she couldn’t report on it due to the threat of Hawk Moth, she still wanted to know who was behind the mask, but it seemed like an unattainable thing...

...That was until through becoming part of a Akuma group and being saved that Alya would end up being hit with a massive secret from her friend, Marinette. That Marinette and Ladybug were one and the same. Through this, Alya was then entrusted with the secrets of the Miraculouses and thus became Marinette’s sole confidant in figuring out the truth for not only the Miraculouses, but also how to take down Hawk Moth. In fact, it was Alya’s own intuition that led to the creation of the Prosperity Charms which would ensure that a dangerous Akuma would never be created again. This ingenuity would actually be enough for Marinette to grant Alya full ownership of the Fox Miraculous. It was clear that the two were getting somewhere. With this one secret being learned, Alya could now focus on other things with Marinette.

Then came the news about Adrien’s move to Norrisville. Having heard this from Nino, Alya was hesitant at first, but ultimately decided to go for three reasons. 1) She didn’t want Nino to feel forced to stay behind if she didn’t go, 2) She wanted to make sure Marinette was doing okay since she knew the girl would follow Adrien to the edge of the Earth, and 3) That was where her penpal lived and with that in mind, why would she pass up the opportunity to meet up with a good friend? Thus, albeit with some unexpected guests, Alya found herself moving to Norrisville.

Appearance: With tan skin and hair styled into an ombre of brown and red, Alya is also distinguishable by her gold eyes and the mole on her forehead. Donning a pair of glasses, Alya would frequently be seen in a plaid shirt with a tank-top underneath along with some light-blue jeans and some white-and-black sneakers courtesy of Style Queen. She also wears a fanny pack for stuff like her phone and more importantly, Trixx. She’s also a bit taller than Marinette.

As Rena Rouge, her hair becomes a three-color ombre going from bright red to orange all the way to pure white at the tips as it’s all styled in a ponytail. On top of the bodysuit that most holders have, Rena dons a orange overcoat with white coattails on the back to mimic the tail of a fox. The Miraculous, normally a necklace, becomes a zipper to the suit and she gains some fox ears to go with the orange and white domino mask. Standing with her signature flute on her back and wearing tall black boots with fox prints on the bottom, Rena Rouge is certainly one of the more dapper looking heroes on Ladybug’s side.

Personality: It was clear that the comics that Alya grew up with instilled plenty of positive values in her. Namely those of loyalty and friendship, which shines through with her friendship with Marinette as well as all of the other students in College Dupont. As a relatively new student, Alya found herself being more than happy to reach out to as many people as she could. She found that one way she could reach people was through the reports on her blog where she would give updates on Ladybug’s exploits in hopes that her heroism would rub off onto others. She genuinely cherishes the people in her life, whether it’d be her family, Marinette, Nino, or just any of their friends. Comics taught her a lot of things and it’s clear that these positive values were just some of them.

That said, when you raise yourself on what you see on comics and TV, some things can get mixed up. Alya has a bad habit of trying to do things that seemed to be cool in comics, but don’t always translate well into reality. Her plans for Marinette to help her win Adrien’s heart tend to get rather cartoonish and when Marinette comes up with a plan that’s just as cartoonish, Alya always goes along with it. While that is proof of her loyalty, it’s also a sign that Alya doesn’t always know what’s right, hence why her hunt for Ladybug’s identity was questionable. Also, while she is very willing to reach out to others, she also finds it hard to forgive those who would actively cause harm, Chloe being one such example. Even so, when Alya realizes what she does is wrong, she’s quick to correct herself and does what she can to fix it.

Powers: At this point, it should be routine what a Miraculous does to someone. It improves their skills a lot and gives them a great amount of durability with its usage depending greatly on the user. In Rena’s case, she’s very much a planner and with her main ability, she had to figure out what works.

Mirage: Playing a tune on her flute, Rena is able to conjure up an Illusion that she could control through said flute. The Illusion can range from massive spectacles to merely impersonating individuals to fool others. Not only can she create visual illusions, but also auditory illusions.

Being predisposed to superheroes, Alya is quickly learning the ropes on how her powers work, but with a certain leak resulting from a certain bully, only time will tell if she’ll be able to keep it.

Current Events (SPOILERS FOR THE FANFIC TOWARDS THE END):

(IN CASE THIS NEEDS TO BE REPEATED, THIS IS GOING TO CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE EVENTS OF THE FANFIC! IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE, PLEASE READ THAT SO YOU DON’T END UP SPOILING YOURSELF. LINK’S AT THE TOP!)

At Norrisville High, Alya was able to meet up with Theresa as well as the owner of the school blog, Heidi Weinerman. Quickly getting some strong connections with them, Alya would do what she can to help them out. That said, it didn’t mean she would miss out on heroics as not only did Ladybug and Chat Nor come out to save the local hero, the Norrisville Ninja, from getting his head ripped off, but Shadow Moth would make himself known to the town. With these threats all around them, Alya would end up helping Marinette hide and warn her about incoming threats. Aside from that, she would hang out with Nino and even give him a save from some bullies as Rena Rouge.

This stay would not come without strife either, however, and her first real test would come in the form of having to save an Akumatized Theresa after Marinette basically tore the poor twirler a new one for a romance scheme gone awry. Upon finding out what Marinette had told Theresa as well as how badly it affected Theresa, Alya had to confront Marinette on this and basically tell her off for doing these things. Thankfully, Theresa was saved and through some more chewing out, Alya was able to help Marinette and Theresa reconcile these issues. That said, through Shadow Moth, Theresa ended up gaining the knowledge of Alya’s identity as Rena Rouge.

Her second test would come in the form of King Arthurpod. With Ladybug and Chat Noir having a hard time with the evolved insects created from this Akuma, she would end up teaming up with the Ninja in order to come up with a sneaky Mirage that would cause infighting amongst the humanoid insects and secure another victory for the heroes. For the most part, Alya had proven herself to be a great heroine and success was all there.

Unfortunately, there was a problem and that problem was named Heidi. Ever since Alya and her friends got here, Heidi had been pressing Alya for a way to get an interview with Adrien. While Alya didn’t want to say no, she couldn’t think of a way to make it happen. Unfortunately, as this gets pushed back more and more, Heidi would end up going behind Alya’s back to interview Marinette instead. This led to a chain of events that would mess up a lot.

Alya woke up to see a video from Heidi talking about Marinette’s crush. While initially skimming it, Alya discovered that this video was recorded by Heidi without any consent from Marinette and with how it was edited, she recognized it as a smear campaign of her friend. Needless to say, Alya was FURIOUS and dragged all of her friends to verbally eviscerate Heidi for what she had done to her friend. Unfortunately, it only got worse as Heidi became Newsflash and through extracting the memories of Theresa, she would end up exposing Alya as Rena Rouge to the whole school. This initially shook Alya up, but she ultimately decided to face Newsflash anyways and ultimately defeat her with one last Mirage. In the fallout, despite Heidi showing regret, Alya could not bring herself to forgive Heidi for what she done and ultimately refused to make amends. She had also resigned from her position as the holder of the Fox Miraculous and with how Marinette’s confession with Adrien panned out, it was clear that a lot of changes were ahead of her. Ahead of everyone, really. Even so, she’ll do what she can to make sure things would be okay.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

I always felt the way Gabriel got the miraculouses (peacock and butterfly) was very… underwhelming, to certain extent

The idea of him hiring someone to find them and going on a epic quest is kinda good, but I also expected something more. What if Gabriel hired someone very dangerous like a kind of Evil organization which wanted to exploit the power of the miraculouses or at least a evil organization which only got the grasp of the miraculous after making a deal with the agreste since they promised a lot of money, and at the end they saw the great powers of the miraculous and said “maybe I want more for this deal”, Nathalie could still be the ones who helped find them like a retired member of said organization. Imagine if after Gabriel was defeated in like season 3, the leader of said organization appeared asking for the miraculouses since he’s deal with Gabriel was to get Akumas to make weapons with in exchange of keeping the secret of Gabriel having the miraculouses, and when the villain arrives he takes Gabriel’s place has the ‘big bad’ by changing the Akumas with Robots or something similar. It would connect with the past events, making it feel like the universe is more grounded and actions have consequences (I always love when details which could be look over like “how did this war between humans and monsters start?” Get fleshed out to explain a future threat like “oh it was the fault of this man which manipulated both sides so he could gain ultimate power”, but miraculous always takes this concepts like the ‘what destroyed the order of the guardians’ or ‘what broke the peacock’ and then proceeds to give the most simple and boring answer to return to the status quo)

But something so crucial has “the way Gabriel found the miraculouses” feels very unimportant, that adds nothing to Nathalie’s character, Heck it even makes her even less interesting to me.

I always saw this small parallel between Marinette and Nathalie (fell in love with this rich boy and did everything for them in blind love) and then it results the way Nathalie and Gabriel meet was when Gabriel was married and searching for magical jewels to impregnate he’s wife. Why Nathalie fell in love with Gabriel? I always thought they were childhood friends to parallel Adrien’s and Marinette’s relationship in earlier seasons, but current seasons make Nathalie slightly interesting and deep, but kinda take away what kinda made me interest even in the slightest on the character, specially when Gabriel became a Abusive father all of the sudden which turned their relationship also suddenly into the joker and Harley Quinn and just because she surpassed the Harley Quinn syndrome doesn’t mean she became more of a endearing character (mainly because she didn’t do much or actually tried to stop Gabriel outside of a couple scenes which didn’t actually add nothing to the plot), specially since the appeal to me was how Gabriel didn’t want Nathalie to risk herself, a lot of people say Gabriel was abusive but at first (before Gabriel became a psycho) Nathalie did brought herself a lot of pain when Gabriel openly asked her not to do that (heck, 70% of the time she was Mayura is because of her own choice against Gabriel’s wishes. Until suddenly Gabriel stopped acting like a character with deep who cared for her like showed before, and actually asked her to use it which completely contradicts heroes day part 2. So this ’abusive to Nathalie’ Gabriel was a mix of character assassination for both)

I just feel how Nathalie wasn’t handled well, and the way Gabriel got the miraculouses wasn’t very climatic or even interesting since we don’t even know very well how Gabriel even discovered the existence of this jewels

I don't really expect a big flashback episode, but if this backstory is something you're using to build the entire show's conflict on, I'd at least expect more than "Kid Fu broke the Peacock Miraculous, lost it and the Butterfly, and then they were found by Gabriel and Nathalie a long time later".

Then again, this is the same show that decided to put the scene showing why Gabriel decided to become Hawkmoth in the video game of all things. Believe me, when I get the time to cover that, I'll have a lot to say about that decision.

[anistarrose]

King really was the King of Artists, and Belos stole his job: a mostly-serious TOH theory

First of all, a disclaimer: a lot of this is speculation for the sake of having fun speculating, and might be reaching a little, but I do think there’s a real chance of being partially correct! Also, I’ll be dividing this post into subheadings to make it a little more manageable, because I got a little obsessed with being thorough and it got long.

Part 1: Can King use magic?

The cold open in YBOS describes: “The Boiling Isles, born from the flesh and bones of a fallen Titan. This original magic was so potent, all life on the Isles evolved to wield magic too.” Now, the use of “wield” implies a conscious use of magic for attack, defense, and general betterment of an individual’s wellbeing — as opposed to creatures whose existence was made possible by magic, but cannot wield or benefit from it. (It’s debatable if Abominations fit that definition, but they are a logical exception, being constructs rather than lifeforms that evolved naturally.)

The implication here? Demons, like King, should be able to harness the Titan’s magic just like witches can. We receive corroboration in Witches Before Wizards, where Adegast the puppeteer demon uses potent illusion magic, and in Agony of a Witch, where Kikimora states that witches and demons both used to practice wild magic up until 50 years ago.

But King, of all characters, is by all accounts magicless. There are recurring references to how powerless he is — most notably in Once Upon a Swap, when Eda in King’s body tries to cast a spell and fails. (Even Hooty has powers in the form of Getting Long, but King’s best bet at self-defense is looking cute and hoping to cross paths with someone benevolent.)

In The Intruder, King can’t see the Light glyph as the Titan’s favor reveals it to Luz. This is probably Luz having a unique ability to see glyphs in nature, not King having a unique inability to see them — but one way or another, King is not a beneficiary of the magic the Titan shares with its inhabitants, even with those who can’t cast spell circles naturally.

Or rather, I would propose that he isn’t a beneficiary anymore.

Conclusion: King is unusually devoid of magic. Something happened that sealed his potential away.

Part 2: Well, why can’t King do magic?

At the time of writing this post (May 2021), we know two important-ish elements of King’s backstory will be addressed in S2 — his broken horn and his collar, which were both promised explanations by Dana in the AMA. I’m going to focus on his broken horn, for now.

But to connect that dot to anything, I need to establish a crucial worldbuilding detail: when demons are injured, they can revert to a less mature and less powerful form.

How do we know this? We’ve seen a couple examples: in Witches Before Wizards, Adegast shrinks after taking a sword to the head, and in I Was a Teenage Abomination, the Trash Slug reverts to its younger form after King pours salt on it. 

There’s also the curious case of the Snaggleback — there’s a taxidermied snout in Eda’s hallway that looks identical to the one in King’s book about demons, confirming the book is accurate after all.

This could mean the Snaggleback we met wasn’t fully grown, but just look at that Snaggleback’s cracked shell:

It’s a sign of another injury, just like what we saw happen to Adegast and the slug… and very reminiscent of King, with his damaged horn.

So what can these other demons tell us about King’s situation? Well, the Snaggleback had no idea about the species’ fearsome reputation and was surprised by the entry in King’s book, suggesting some kind of amnesia — aligning with King’s vague, inconsistent backstory. 

There’s also Adegast, who had magic before transforming but shows no sign of it afterwards — if he could still use magic in that form, he could’ve tried to escape with an illusory distraction, for example. And miraculously, that tiny detail from a dead one-off antagonist could actually explain so much about King and what happened to him.

Conclusion: King had magic, but he lost it when he was badly hurt, and reverted to his current form — left with only hazy memories of the power and influence he used to wield.

Or, if you’re not sold on him changing form: it’s his collar keeping his magic (and memories) sealed, like a pseudo-coven binding.

Part 3: What was King like before?

Let’s compare King to a different leader we all know and love/hate/fear. You know who replaces King in the intro, burning up a tableau of three other characters to reveal themself?

You know who else wears a mask with two horns, evoking the Titan’s skull, like King does? Or who else has a gold, circular emblem on their chest like King does? 

You know who has a tan color scheme with blue eyes, remarkably similar to what King looked like in concept art? 

Belos is a Greek word meaning “lord” or “master” that Wikipedia describes as “a title rather than a genuine name,” meaning that going around referring to yourself as “Belos” is an awful lot like going around referring to yourself as “King.”

King claims, in Covention, that his followers used to leave him offerings in fear of him. Belos debuts in a scene where one of his followers presents him an offering of a palisman on a platter. 

King uses teaching (especially in the early episodes, but as recently as The First Day) as an avenue to gain respect and subservience. Belos spread his “teachings” (literally referred to as such in YBOS) about magic and the Titan’s will to assert himself as a revered leader, and restrict the power of his subjects.

Allegedly, Belos speaks to the Titan, but the character we’ve really seen come closest to doing such a thing is Luz. She strikes up a dialogue not with words, but by carefully observing nature for glyphs, and experimenting with them to express herself — in other words, by exchanging works of art with the island.

And King doesn’t just claim to have been the King of Demons. He also claims to have been the King of Artists.

He draws all the time, clearly having a ton of fun with it, and even asks Luz for drawing advice in one of the Owl Pellets shorts. If there’s even a hint of truth to him being the former King of Artists, what would make more sense than him having spoken to the Titan, not just through innate magic but through recognizing and responding to the Titan’s messages in nature?

Conclusion: King was once what Belos now claims to be — the ruler of the Boiling Isles, and interpreter and executor of the Titan’s will.

Part 4: What happened between King, Belos, and the Titan?

This is the part where the timeline of events gets fuzzy (looking at you, Dana’s AMA response that King was “???” years old), but I still have some educated guesses.

King, and I say this with love, was not the greatest person at the start of the show. He was adorable and sympathetic and easy to forgive, but he had a habit of being cruel towards his students/servants (the Trash Slug in I Was a Teenage Abomination, the boot camp “recruits” in Adventures in the Elements, etc.) and just being selfish in general (ie, refusing to compromise with Luz on conflicting creative visions).

So, we can imagine why the Titan might cast King aside… or perhaps, be easily manipulated by someone like Belos into casting King aside, and try a new, “better” way of doing things.

Maybe Belos, with concealed ulterior motives, convinced the Titan to help him dethrone King, breaking his horn and forcing him back into a childlike state. Or maybe the Titan rebuked King without help, stripping him of his ability to see glyphs long before anyone dared to imagine forming covens, and the power vacuum remained in place for years before Belos seized the opportunity.

But King — no doubt with Luz’s help — redeeming himself, making amends with the Titan, and regaining the powers that made him the true King of Artists? That may just be one of the only things that can stop the Day of Unity, and put an end to the reign of Belos.

Part 5: Loose Ends and Alternate Possibilities

One detail that didn’t fit in here naturally is a book from Understanding Willow, with a title that translated from runes as “The Titan and His Spawn.” If King was descended from the Titan, that could explain both his importance to it and his resemblance to its skull.

I also want to give an alternative explanation for King’s lack of magic — he could just be really, really old, so old that he was born in the era when witches and demons only used glyphs because they’d yet to evolve spell circles. In this case, King’s role might’ve even been to facilitate the discovery of glyphs and teaching of wild magic, reinforcing his status as the most important person on the Isles.

And if King’s reign was, say, over a few thousand years ago, we’ve got a potential connection to the Bat Queen! She’s much too small to have been the Titan’s palisman, but would be perfectly sized for a giant, ancient, fully grown King.

Finally — on the off chance that King was a reincarnation of an ancient king, rather than a directly transformed one, then wouldn’t it be viscerally horrifying (in a very on-brand way for Dana and TOH) if the heart in Belos’s castle belonged to King’s original form? It’s a stretch, but Season 2 is confirmed to be so much darker that I feel like it’s not off the table, and that excites and terrifies me.

If you’ve made it this far, then thank you so much for reading! I’d love to know what you thought!

(I don’t think it’ll come up, but just in case, please don’t respond to this post with any spoilers for the Ep. 1-2 early releases! I’m trying to go in to those episodes unspoiled outside of trailers)