#ml relevator

[sparklycamembert]

i must preface that i LOVE adrinette

however. i think between all the secrets that marinette is keeping and adrien still learning to navigate his new life, it’s not so far fetched that they begin to drift apart, all coming to a head in a falling out as the two struggle to open up?

not that they’d be angry with each other, just that they’d feel… unsettled. mutual understanding that they’re keeping things from each other until they can’t take it anymore. even in the illustrhater, we already see how marinette and adrien maintain the illusion of communication without really communicating, what with marinette admitting that she “tries to control everything” when she’s around adrien, while still fully meaning to keep his secrets from him. adrien even says, in the same scene(!!), that he’ll understand if marinette “no longer wants to be his girlfriend,” almost as if foreshadowing something?

personally, i want an adrinette break up sometime this season and i want it to TEAR MY HEART OUT. i’m talking a ridiculously dramatic sequence with rain, tears, near akumatisations, make them inconsolable. because gabriel’s gone and they should finally be free to love each other, except they’re not, they’re just burdened by different things now. meanwhile, ladynoir could be heartbroken Together, and maybe even confide in each other. aside from the ladynoir agenda, i think that’s also what’s best for adrinette’s long term relationship health because man do they both need to let off some steam.

and a good place to put the break up could be the habitual mid-season 2 parter… episode 11 revelator anybody? albeit it might be a little early on in the season, the foundation for it to work is already there and imagine the transmission parallels!

[anna-scribbles]

and if i could give you the moon,

[buggachat]

Sometimes I think about how Adrien, throughout the series, constantly grapples with his fear of abandonment. Gabriel conditioned him to believe that any love he receives is purely transactional, and that to earn affection he has to prove his utility. Adrien is constantly trying to prove his worth to his father for scraps of affection, and Chat Noir infamously crumbles on-screen any time he feels as though he is replaceable to Ladybug. It's a constant insecurity of his, like everyone will just dump him like a sack of potatoes the moment they find out how useless he is.

Meanwhile, all Marinette wants to is ensure that Adrien is happy. Because she loves him. She doesn't give two shits about how """useful""" he is. She holds him and tells him that she will never abandon him (both as Ladynoir and as Adrienette), and her fantasies are about saving him, not about him being "useful" to her. Throughout their relationship, Adrien is forced to disappoint Marinette constantly for reasons outside of his control (amok commands), and yet Marinette is still there for him.

At Adrien's lowest point, when he is forcibly torn away from everyone who had ever showed him genuine care, locked away in an all-white room and at his most "useless", right after disappointing Marinette and unable to even join the final battle or contribute in any way, she still saves him. She still loves him. Because he doesn't have to prove anything to her. Because he is loved and cherished for who he is, not for what he does, and that love is not conditional. Adrien's "happy ending" at the end of the first arc wasn't about him finally proving how useful he can be, because he never actually cared about being useful — he just saw it as the only means to feel loved and needed. Instead, in the end, he found out that he was loved and needed no matter what.

[mamayura]

Adrien not knowing what he wants

Hot take about Werepapas, I guess:

I actually like that Adrien said "I don't know" when asked what he wants/ who he wants to go with at the end of "Werepapas"

Cause the people who had to learn and come around in this episode's conflict were the ADULTS, not Adrien.

Adrien has already said that he isn't alone, he's living with Nathalie,

and Milly, too, acknowledged right away that Adrien has known her for most of his life so for Adrien she should count as more much than just an employee by now.

And he has not been trying to hide it whatsoever from Nathalie how much she means to him and that he wants to keep living with her. Literally the first thing we see in the episode's present time is Adrien running to Nathalie for comfort when hes crying over his dead mom, but she's pulling back so he does too eventually.

Marinette as pretty much unrelated main character doesnt know about this when she enters the conflict. Hence why she can effectively bring about development in Nathalie by challenging her long-established mind set and dynamic with Adrien due to Marinette's perspective adding a new angle and shacking things up:

Nathalie's inner conflict is one of my favourite things about the episode (and needs its own post if I get around to it), but for the context of this post, yes, she was the one who needed to come around. Not Adrien. He was already there from the get-go as we can see by him repeating the hug he started the episode with. Just now, Nathalie hugged back:

It was nice seeing Marinette help Nathalie take on her role in the end because Nathalie did the same thing Marinette did in Illustrhater for example. Acting like and saying things that eventually made Adrien accept that they don't want to be with him because, duh, that's now interactions work.

That's why he initially didn't say that he wants to stay with Nathalie in Paris when asked in the end. Nathalie too made him feel like he has to accept that that won't be an option, so he knew he had to decide between his grandparents:

The same Grandparents who had to come around in the end, too, and allow for Adrien to stay with Nathalie in Paris, even though both pairs of Grandparents are still the ones to officially hold the legal custody of Adrien (which I'm glad about that they did it like this and didn't bullshit some reason for Nathalie to get custody cause the episode is right, Nathalie has NO right to Adrien's custody whatsoever. They went with a very reasonable way to resolve this)

Its the ADULTS who had to come around. Not Adrien. Adrien already made it clear all episode what he wanted. But because all involved adults declared the outcome he wanted as a non-option, well, he honestly says that he doesn't know what else he wants (who he wants to go with).

And I- I just really like that Adrien was taking the situation serious enough to say "I don't know". That was very mature of him. To not just go with SOMETHING or go on about how unfair the situation is. Cause it definitely was, but this is a very serious legal matter that COULDN'T stay unresolved. He's an orphaned minor currently living alone with a person who's said to neither be an option as his guardian nor does she herself treat it like an option. This day COULDN'T end without at least some kind of temporary solution where he would stay now. It just couldn't.

I LIKE that he didn't repeat his denied desire that was already known to everyone around and instead seriously thought about the options he had.

I like that he loves and respects Nathalie enough to be the one person amongst Emilie, Gabriel, and now Marinette, too, who left the decision to HER if she wants to take on the position of his new mother:

As much as he wants to be with her, Adrien was characterized to understand that this is a massive thing to ask of Nathalie. He knows he means alot to her too but Nathalie was, by all accounts, objectively forced into this:

But especially by Emilie (look, I know she was literally dying slowly and painfully, I'm not judging her for wanting Adrien to be loved and taken care of. But I gotta ackowlegde that Emilie put alot on Nathalie without giving her a choice first):

In that regard I can't fault Nathalie for not having acted on her motherly feelings for Adrien and Emilie's last wish earlier than s5 (but God DAMN Nathalie, there is a difference between not doing it and actively making everything so much fucking worse!).

Adrien is the one person in this who respected how much was asked of Nathalie, so when she continuously acted like she didn't wanted to take on the role, he respected that. But this also means that the person who's responsible for Adrien coming to this "wrong" conclusion was Nathalie. Not Adrien. He's only acting accordingly to her actions and words:

So I like that Marinette got to help her in the end, because this is passive development that's very relevant to Marinette's character too. Even if I wished the show would hold Marinette to the same standards since both in Adrinette and especially Ladynoir Adrien gets mostly blamed for coming to the logical conclusions that Maribug doesn't like him or being with him in any way doesn't mean much to her because that's how she constantly acts like in almost every conflict ever. Over and over again. So I like that it was done properly this time around even if it's obvious that that was only possible because it was Nathalie and not Marinette.

And yes, I totally get not liking that Marinette is taking over the whole moment again. I'm not much of a fan of it either, to put it nicely. But it is wrong to say that Marinette is the one making the decision here and Adrien had no agency in deciding who he's staying with. Marinette is merely repeating old news she knows are true because that's what Adrien has been saying and acting like the whole episode and even already since season 5.

The decision was long made by Adrien. It were the adults who had to come around.

And beyond that,

I LIKE that Adrien said "I don't know" to the question which grandparents he wants to go with instead of the show having him make it all about his friends, girlfriend, or Ladybug. He only brings that up when he gets to stay:

Cause the question of where he would feel more at home and what is best for his future, when he has to completely start anew, is not just about his current friends, girlfriend, or his secret hero partner (who has made every precaution and decision possible to not actually have or need him in her life and job and he was made to accept that fully because that's her "rightful professionalism" same as killing your bf Ig)

I like that it was "I don't know" instead of "but my friends!", "but my girlfriend!", or "but I can't leave!".

Adrien saying "I don't know" means he thought of himself first and foremost and not everyone else:

I even like that "I don't know" means that he took the Graham de Vanilys into consideration despite how awful Emil was. Cause when the outcome Adrien WANTED (keeping his life in Paris by living with Nathalie) isn't an option, then he's perfectly in his right to not write off the possibilities he has with the Graham de Vanilys in London (and good heavens, I'm glad nothing ever brought up "but Chloé is in London! YIKES!").

I like that Adrien didnt write anything off when the decision was possibly about to change his whole future. Yes, saying "I dont know what I want" is a perfectly valid and even mature answer for a 14 year old orphan to give when they were JUST this day confronted with this situation that denied him the option he actually wanted:

And I also like that Marinette in the end didn't wasnt made to make Adrien's answer about herself in an usual moment of panic (in general, I truly LOVED how supportive Marinette was in Werepapas, even if the akuma battle incident is forever burnt in my love square heart in a very negative way. Yes, I think being willing to kill your boyfriend without trying any other solution first is bad, sue me ig. if that's what I'll be judged for, then I can live with it).

It is a far cry from Marinette in Representation for example being mostly written to make not getting to have her boyfriend near her out to be the biggest tragedy of Adrien being send to another country for good. I'm glad she got to be the supportive girlfriend for once instead of the show forcibly trying to falsely make her out to be the most important person affected by Adrien's tragic life. It was so refreshing and wonderful to watch Marinette getting to be in the lovingly supporting role of the relationship for a change, and it does WONDERS for her characterization.

While, of course, Marinette was motivated all episode to help Adrien not having to leave, when Adrien said "I don't know" Marinette knew that he's only taking the other options this seriously now because he can't have the option he actually wants.

She wasn't written to go into panic mode the second she heard Adrien NOT saying that staying in Paris is the most important thing on his mind. She knew the problem was laying elsewhere, even if I wished she hadnt made it abuut the Grandparents, but Adrien's right to CHOOSE (and yes, I'm fully aware that people will write this whole post off as salt because I didnt ignore or handwave away Marinette's consistent CANON characterization, even though that's not how salt works. I stand to what I said. More of Marinette as supportive girlfriend please, then we wouldnt have these problems)

I don't know how to end this with a nice little bow to wrap it up. I just REALLY like that Adrien said "I don't know", and how the episode treated the custody conflict for 95% of the plot which is very good for Miraculous.

[motherofplatypus]

Felix: "Oh, Adrien, you remind me so much of your mom! Your hair, your eyes, your irrelevance to the story, your chin."

Adrien: "Wait, what did you said in the middle?"

Felix: "Your eyes :)."

[flightfoot]

You know, you've been shitting on Marinette a lot over this situation.

Yet, Felix could have told Adrien the truth months prior to all of this and unlike Marinette he doesn't feel any guilt about it. And you haven't been nearly as critical of him.

I don't want to call you biased, but you're starting to sound like a Marinette salter.

Oh Felix absolutely should have told Adrien everything as well. But he doesn't come up as much, since he's a more minor character, plus he's not exactly supposed to be a squeaky clean character anyway, he was literally responsible for handing over the kwamis to Gabriel. Though I'm willing to chalk more of that up to Felix just having ISSUES than I am for Marinette, considering what we've seen of how his father abused him.

But yeah. Felix is also to blame, but Marinette's the one who's in the spotlight more often. Felix hasn't even appeared in season 6 yet. Generally I'm bringing up Marinette lying or hiding Gabriel being Monarch or Adrien being a sentimonster when it's relevant to what's going on in the episode, like it being relevant concerning her decision to break Adrien's Amoks in Werepapas. It wouldn't make sense to bring Felix up there, he may ALSO know about Adrien being a sentimonster and also be involved with keeping that secret from him, but he's got nothing to do with Marinette's decision in that episode.

[descendant-of-truth]

If I may throw my hat into the ring here, I think the source of a lot of problems in the writing of Miraculous can be boiled down to its confusion over its target demographic.

There are two very clear audiences the show is trying to cater to:

Grade school girls around 5-10

Teens/young adults around 15-20

And this results in some. unique conflicts in the show's internal logic.

Because it's a superhero show for little kids, it's full of fun, bright colors, wacky villain-of-the-week designs, and the characters are all very straightforward with exaggerated personality traits. The cheerful, clumsy, scatterbrained girl protagonist, her utterly charming and goofy (but slightly clueless) love interest, her cool best friend, her mean bully, etc.

This extends to the romance; the show is so comedic that Marinette's nervous crush and Cat Noir's flirting are played up for laughs. Their more "problematic" behaviors read as cartoon shenanigans first and foremost, which I do think was the intention - they're both shown as being more than a little ridiculous for acting this way, so they're not exactly trying to encourage people to emulate them. They're allowed to be genuinely wholesome, too, because it's nice to give the kids something to go "aww!" at, but it's not meant to be more complicated or deep than that.

And of course, it's gotta follow a sweet and simple episodic formula! A conflict in Marinette's civilian life, an inciting incident to get a side character upset enough for Hawk Moth to turn into a villain, Ladybug and Cat Noir show up, there's fun banter, Ladybug uses her Lucky Charm to figure out a wacky solution to the problem, and boom! The day is saved, Marinette and/or someone else learns a moral, and we get a cute little end screen showing all the key players of the episode.

The one aspect of the show's setup that's a little more serious is the fact that Adrien has a super controlling and distant father, but even this is something that doesn't necessarily break the kid-friendly tone for the first season or two. Superhero shows in particular like to put in some stuff that's a little more emotionally challenging for the viewers, even when they're mostly comedic, so it's not totally out of place here.

For example, while they tend to have more grounded tones overall, Spider-Man cartoons are aimed at kids and regularly keep the conflict between Harry Osborn and his father, Norman, intact; often including the plot point of Norman being the Green Goblin, a notorious villain. It's a similar deal with Adrien, and his dad secretly being Hawk Moth.

You can easily anticipate drama coming from this, but the show primes you to expect it to work out fine in the end because every other conflict so far has been wrapped up in a nice little bow once the episode's over. Though I will say, the choice to have Hawk Moth be Gabriel instead of his own, separate character is perhaps the first sign of the tone shift to come.

And, uh. it sure is a shift.

See, Miraculous does not start out with what you'd call a... plot. It vaguely alludes to there being more going on behind the scenes, but the only thing it really tries to get you invested in is the Love Square dynamic. Marinette and Adrien dancing around each other while fighting crime IS the plot, and it's clearly going to end with a cool final confrontation with Hawk Moth.

You expect it to end like... well, like the movie. Identities are revealed, Gabriel realizes the error of his ways when he finds out he's been fighting his son this whole time, and they may or may not make up but he almost definitely gets arrested. Marinette and Adrien kiss, roll credits.

This is not what happens, because the plot the writers actually had in mind is complex in a way that I would argue is meant for the same audience as YA novels. And with that plot comes a lot of darker, weightier traits to these otherwise silly characters.

Marinette isn't just scatterbrained and nervous, she has debilitating anxiety and an increasing need to be in control of everything due to the stress she's under. She has panic attacks on-screen. She's not just great at strategizing, she also knows how to manipulate people, and does so with increasing frequency - and to Cat Noir at times, no less. Her positive traits haven't gone anywhere, she's still loving and creative and sweet and doing her best to help everyone she can, she just. has all of that other stuff going on, now.

Adrien isn't just a charming, goofy, clueless love interest with a gazillion skills and a controlling father, he's like. actively being abused, and in some cases straight-up mind controlled. His tendency to heroically sacrifice himself so that Ladybug can do her Cool Protagonist Thing is gradually but unmistakably reframed as being a sign of suicidal inclinations. He has identity issues out the wazoo and he doesn't even know he's an artificially created human yet, because everyone in his life is keeping secrets from him and/or lying to his face about crucial information.

Information like, uh. how his dad died???

Yeah, so we're at a point in the story now where there was no satisfying conclusion to the Gabriel plot, no team-up, no moment where he realizes he's been fighting his son, none of that. He still has something akin to a change of heart, but he also still kind of gets what he wants - the Miraculous of the Ladybug and Black Cat, which he uses to rewrite the universe with a wish. It's just that instead of reviving his wife, he trades his life for Natalie's. Of course, he was already dying anyway, which was his own fault but he did force Cat Noir's Cataclysm onto himself, so, that's another thing poor Adrien is going to have to deal with at some point.

And because there's all these astronomically messed up things in Adrien's life, and Marinette's the one who got to learn about all of it before him, she decides that maybe it would be better if he just. didn't know about it. Which is understandable, if I was 14 and had all this information about my boyfriend's life that he didn't, I wouldn't know how to begin telling him about it, either.

But. can you see how we've maybe lost the plot, here?

Here's the thing: starting with a simple framework and gradually getting more complex and subverting the audience's expectations for how the main villain is going to be dealt with is not a bad thing. The fact that it gets darker over time is not an issue. I actually think that all these developments are, themselves, pretty cool! I'm a sucker for angst and complex character dynamics and the show is absolutely giving me those things.

The problem is that it didn't just start with a simple framework, it started with the framework for a different demographic entirely, and perhaps just as importantly, it never actually... stopped.

For as much complexity and intensity they're injecting this story with, they're still working under the logic of it being "for young kids." We still get goofy villain-of-the-week designs with equally goofy motivations, and the supporting cast is stuck remaining two-dimensional no matter their circumstances. Chloe is the most blatant example of this - she was made to be a simple bully first, so no matter what else they do with her, she has to remain straightforwardly evil.

This, I think, is the reason that Gabriel is a more nuanced and "sympathetic" antagonist than her, and why so much care goes into Adrien's character as a victim of abuse while Chloe is just a Problem Child despite suffering similar neglect; she wasn't made to be interesting, and so the show is resistant to changing that. Gabriel and Adrien, however, were already made with nuance in mind, and so they're allowed to develop as characters. And at the same time, it's a kid's show! We need to teach the kids what kind of behavior is acceptable, and Chloe's home life isn't an excuse to treat people badly, so--!

...Oh crap we're supposed to be teaching kids about acceptable behavior. Uh. Um. Quick, bring back the ice cream akuma who cares way too much about his ships so that Cat Noir can learn about consent! Uhh, but don't change his character too much afterwards, he's only marketable because of his silly flirting, and we can't lose that.

Yeah, remember when I said that the romance having problematic elements to it used to work well enough because it was clearly just exaggerated cartooniness? It wasn't free from criticism or anything, but you could see how it was intended to be endearing and silly, right? You were supposed to point and laugh at Marinette's convoluted plans to spend time with Adrien, at Cat Noir's dramatic flirting attempts that Ladybug herself fondly rolled her eyes at.

The tonal shift into deep character exploration kinda paints the previous stuff in a worse light, and to an extent, I think the writers know that. It's hard to laugh at Cat Noir being flirty all the time when he's also supposed to be taken completely seriously, and the more Ladybug rejects him, the more it turns into harassment, and it. kinda just stops being funny, even with the comedic framing.

It's also hard to laugh at Marinette's crush being so all-consuming when they try to tell us (in what I can only assume was an attempt to get people to stop complaining) that she's like this because it's fueled by an event in her past, one that made her so scared of loving the wrong person that she now needs to know Everything about them before asking them out. Her cartoon antics aren't funny under that light, it's just concerning, but they're dedicated to keeping it up anyway.

The show runs on straightforward cartoon logic where you're not supposed to think about it too hard just as much as it runs on grounded, closer-to-real-life logic where people are messy and complicated and actions have consequences. It's so divided that you can hand-pick parts of the story that are influenced by one or the other pretty easily, and depending on the episode you can find instances of both in the same 20-minute time span. Maybe even multiple times!

Neither thing they're trying to go for is bad, and neither is a better approach than the other, but forcing them into the same show makes both sides suffer.

It's not just hard to laugh at the parts I mentioned earlier, it's hard to take Gabriel seriously as a villain whenever you rewatch an episode and remember that he has a once-per-episode pun-based speech that he says so self-seriously that you can't help but laugh at. It's hard to take him seriously when you remember that he repeatedly akumatized a Literal Baby and practically threw a tantrum every time it didn't work, or when he randomly steals (and enthusiastically performs) his nephew's musical dance number, or something similar that you would only do for a cartoon villain aimed at five-year-olds.

And I can only imagine this whole show is a marketing nightmare, too. Hey, little girls, here's your cool role model! She's cute and smart and talented and powerful and can fix anything by shouting the title of the show! Hope you're having fun watching her tell her boyfriend that his newly-deceased father (who used deepfakes of him to sell merchandise that's built to enslave the population and then locked him in a solitary confinement chamber in another country) was actually a hero who sacrificed himself to stop the main villain instead of, y'know, being the main villain! Aren't you excited to watch her wrestle with the guilt of this lie for the next season or so? Doesn't it just make you want to buy her merchandise??

Like. what is even happening right now. what am I watching. how did we get here and why did we start where we did if this was what the story was going to be about

[angelshizuka]

Me: *grew up loving "damsel in distress" type characters* (which was generally reserved for female characters back then)

Modern media: We're "woke" now, we've flipped the gender stereotype tables, because "girl power", we're such "feminists" despite shitting on "the wrong women" we don't like at the same time, and now male characters are the damsel in distress!

Also modern media when I generally like the male characters now, because I think "strong independent characters" are boring no matter the gender:

I love the damsel in distress trope (when done right) no matter the gender, I'll just take what I'm served and it's not my fault modern media is determined to only give it to guys, because giving it to girls is "not woke"... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[howmanyepsofmlseason6areleft]

I forget if you said you watch episodes as they air, but if you have watched Illustrhater, would you say it's safe to watch without watching the first episode for those who are concerned about chronological order?

I do watch them as they air! As per your question, it's a little hard to say- to be honest watching the episode I forgot until more than halfway through that this wasn't the first episode chronologically, since it seemed to be setting things up great in conjunction to where we left off last season.

However, they do reference akumatizations I assume were shown in episode one, and obviously there were probably some things built on from the first episode I wouldn't know about/ didn't take note of. Overall though, I would say it's a pretty safe bet to watch the episode! Nothing crazy is referenced, it works great as a first episode imo, and honestly the only way I can imagine it taking away from your first episode viewing experience is if there's any crazy conflict introduced that episode, you would already know it works out having seen episode 2, but I doubt anything like that happens tbh.

Obviously watch at your own risk, but I'd say ur totally good to go!

[runawaycatwalker]

Part 27. Safely Seen (Oni-Chan 2.0, part D)

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Description below the cut

Astrowalker flies toward a mountain, near the base of which is a small clearing at the top of a sheer cliff.

Astrowalker (internally): Good, she's not here yet.

Adrien detransforms as he drops to the ground and reaches for the shoe that he previously cut a hole in.

Adrien: Claws in.

Adrien puts on his hat, pulls up the hood of his hoodie, and pulls out Rolland’s knife.  Plagg gestures towards the knife incredulously.

Plagg: A knife?  You came all the way out here to pull out a knife?

Adrien: I'm here because this is where Cosmobug is going to be.

Adrien peeks from behind the tree towards the sky, where Cosmobug is flying in.

Adrien: And there she is.

Adrien holds up the knife, where he looks at his own reflection.

Adrien: So here I am.

Adrien walks out from behind the tree as Oni-Chan teleports in.

Adrien starts to petrify as he grabs Oni-Chan’s sword and stabs his knife between the branches in the sword, locking it in place.

Adrien: Gotcha.

Oni-Chan tries to jiggle the sword out of the frozen Adrien’s grasp.

Oni-Chan: Some boy seizing my sword isn't going to stop me from...

A close-up of Oni-Chan’s face as she realizes who this boy is.

Oni-Chan: Wait.

Oni-Chan reaches a hand towards Adrien’s frozen face.

Oni-Chan: You're...

Cosmobug (wearing the red glove side of her Lucky Charm, still attached to the black glove part) flies towards the akuma and throws her yo-yo.

Cosmobug: Get away from him!

Oni-Chan teleports behind Cosmobug, attacking her with her sword.  Cosmobug, her yo-yo having gone too far to immediately be of use, blocks the strike with her Lucky Charm gloves.

Oni-Chan: Ladybug, you don't understand!  That boy down there is—

Cosmobug slips the black glove of the Lucky Charm into Adrien’s frozen hand so that they’re holding hands together.

Cosmobug: Adrien Agreste!  I know!

Cosmobug uses her grasp on Adrien to give her leverage as she simultaneously kicks Oni-Chan in the chest and uses her yo-yo to grab the sword and (using Adrien's arm as a way to redirect the yo-yo string) and yank it away.

Cosmobug: I figured out he was going to be here!  And I'm going to save him!

Oni-Chan goes flying off the cliff and into the trees below.

Oni-Chan: Aaahhhh!

Cosmobug: No more evil doing for you, little akuma!

Cosmobug breaks the sword with her yo-yo and captures the akuma in one smooth motion, then throws the Lucky Charm gloves into the sky to cast her cure.

Cosmobug: Time to de-evilize!  Miraculous Ladybug!

As the magical ladybugs restore Adrien to normal, he is startled (to the point to dropping his knife) as Cosmobug jumps on him, hugging him with her arms and legs as she wears a ginormous grin on her face.

Cosmobug: Adrien!!!!!!!  I found you!

As Adrien and Cosmobug fall together, he lets himself wrap his arms around her, relishing this moment where he can accept her embrace again.

Cosmobug: I can't even explain how worried I've been, Adrien!  I'm just so glad that you're alive!  I searched everywhere trying to find out where you'd really gone!  And now you're here!

Adrien: I'm here.

Adrien smiles sheepishly as Cosmobug pins him to the ground.  Cosmobug’s eyes bug out in embarrassment at the position she has him in.

Adrien: But, uh, Cosmobug?  Can I sit up please?

Cosmobug: Waaahh...?

Adrien: I don't mind being like this!  But I think I fell on something pointy...?

Cosmobug jolts up and flings the knife straight behind her.  Adrien holds up his hands and tries to laugh off his situation.

Cosmobug: Eep!  Sorry!  I didn't mean—!

Adrien: It's fine!  No harm done!

Cosmobug: It's not all fine!

Adrien leans into Cosmobug’s touch as she caresses his cheek, wiping her thumb at the tears that have started forming in his eyes.  With her other hand, she points her fingers towards the bruise on his neck, stopping short of touching it.

Cosmobug: I can't bear the thought of you getting hurt, Adrien.  Whatever you've been through?  You didn't deserve it.  None of your suffering was okay.  Which is why I refuse to let it happen again.

Cosmobug holds up her hands theatrically as she starts dreaming up the perfect plan.  Adrien is shown from behind, expression unseen.

Cosmobug: I'll personally see to it that you have someone who cares about you by your side 24/7, so you'll be completely safe!  I know you have some amazing friends who would do anything for you!

Adrien (talked over): Cosmobug, I don't think I—

Cosmobug: And since I know it can be hard to ask people for help, I'll ask them for you!

Cosmobug smiles and raises her hand towards her earring as it starts beeping loudly.

Cosmobug: I just know Marinette would love to—

Adrien (talked over): Really, I—

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Cosmobug: Sorry!  I'm about to detransform!  Be right back!

Cosmobug hovers off the edge of the cliff, giving a wave and a thumbs up.  Adrien kneels, reaching his finger towards the ring he stashed through the hole in his shoe.

Cosmobug: The end is in sight!  Just sit tight for a second and you'll be home free!

Marinette, all starry-eyed, touches the sides of her face in glee.  Tikki is mostly focused on eating the space power up cookie.

Marinette: Adrien's here, Tikki!  Thank you thank you thank you for giving me that Lucky Charm!  It led me right to him!

Tikki: Lucky Charms are more the universe providing you what you need than me...

Marinette: Close enough!  If it weren't for you, I'd still be powerless to help Adrien.  But now I can protect him!

Tikki, halfway through her cookie, looks away uneasily.

Tikki: Aren't you forgetting to ask Adrien what he wants?

Marinette: I know what he wants: to be with the people he cares about.  His friends are all dying to help, so we'll be perfect for giving Adrien everything he needs to feel that he's safely home!

Tikki: I guess... but maybe you should first make sure that your other friend gets home too?

Marinette grabs the side of her head in distress at the reminder.

Marinette: I FORGOT ALL ABOUT KAGAMI!

Somewhere in the trees at the bottom of the cliff, Cosmobug finds Kagami and waves to her.  Kagami shows Cosmobug the knife she found.

Cosmobug: Hey, Kagami!  I totally didn't forget to come get you!  I've just got a... surprise for you!

Kagami: Was the surprise this knife that almost hit me in the head?

Cosmobug: No!  I mean... The real surprise is going to be much better than a knife, ha ha!  Let me show you!

Cosmobug, having picked up Kagami to bring her to the clearing at the top of the cliff, gestures in front of them cheerfully.  Kagami looks confused.

Cosmobug: Tada!

Kagami: ...I am confused.  There seems to be nothing here?

Cosmobug turns her head in shock.

Cosmobug: What?  No!

Cosmobug kneels prone on the ground of the empty clearing, Kagami watching from behind at the cliff’s edge.

Cosmobug: Adrien was right here...  He was...

Below is the same image as above, only without text:

[little-red-book-daily]

U.S. imperialism invaded China's territory of Taiwan and has occupied it for the past nine years. A short while ago it sent its armed forces to invade and occupy Lebanon. The United States has set up hundreds of military bases in many countries all over the world. China's territory of Taiwan, Lebanon and all military bases of the United States on foreign soil are so many nooses round the neck of U.S. imperialism. The nooses have been fashioned by the Americans themselves and by nobody else, and it is they themselves who have put these nooses round their own necks, handing the ends of the ropes to the Chinese people, the peoples of the Arab countries and all the peoples of the world who love peace and oppose aggression. The longer the U.S. aggressors remain in those places, the tighter the nooses round their necks will become.

Speech at the Supreme State Conference (September 8, 1958).

[anna-scribbles]

Thirteen gutted me. You’re such an amazing writer. Your Emilie is one of the best I’ve read. It’s difficult to reconcile the woman who allowed or even promoted Adrien’s isolation and the perfect, loving mother that Adrien remembers. You reconcile that so amazingly that I’m a bit ashamed of ever having trouble reconciling it in the first place. Of course she is this way. It falls so naturally even though it must have taken great care and thought for you to form these conclusions about her. You really bring out the horror in Adrien’s childhood- not just from an onlookers perspective- but by focusing on the subjective experience of someone treated as a doll and not knowing any better but to be satisfied with it. You write better than many published authors I’ve read. I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your story. I write too and every once in a while I come across a fic writer who really makes me feel this humbling sting of awe and envy. You’re definitely one of those people ❤️ Keep doing what you’re doing. You have a gift.

PS: now that you watched/read Ouran, are you considering writing any Tamaki centered stories? No pressure but he is my pre-Adrien blorbo so I would love to read your prose on him!

this ask is so so special to me i've just been like. keeping it safe in my heart and my inbox 😂 thank you so so so much, I don't even have the words!! i've (shockingly) spent a lot of time over the last several months trying to reconcile everything emilie must have been (which is hard!! it's so hard i spent a long time before i landed somewhere I liked) and it means so much that the way i've written her in thirteen rings true to you!! and AUGH "focusing on the subjective experience of someone treated as a doll and not knowing any better but to be satisfied with it" YES YES that's exactly it!!! yes!! so much of writing young adrien to me is about him genuinely not knowing that this isn't normal, that he deserves better, that it's okay for him to want better. I can tell just from this ask that you are a wonderful writer and I have to urge you to keep doing what you're doing too!! and thank you so much for the kind words and encouragement, it honestly means the world. <33

(ps I don't plan on writing any tamaki centered stories but SHAMELESS PLUG my dearest friend @marimbles has and I cant recommend it enough. honestly.)

[spark-circuit]

THE LUCK IS INSANE TONIGHT

[trashart00]

The kitchen scene from Intuition

[baenyth]

It's Chameleon Time, and I Don't Mean the Cool Lizard

I decided to watch Miraculous Season 3 Episode 1: Chameleon, the salt episode, because I suddenly decided I wanted to know how real the salt was again. Here's my thoughts:

Damn, Lila's good. She has backdoors for her lies and the only one I'd really call bad was the napkin one, but then again these are 14-15-year-olds in 2015-2016. They probably believe in the secret Grillby boss fight after beating Sans in genocide.

Despite being the two biggest targets for the salters, Adrien and Alya were incredibly chill here. Adrien was doing what he thought was best for the context and would defnitely change is mind if he heard Lila threatened Marinette, while Alya was one one most on Marinette's side. They're besties.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Marinette was just jealous of Lila at first until she threatened Marinette in the bathroom stall. Her grievances were more at Lila throughout the episode than what she was doing to the class.

Marinette, all you had to do was excuse yourself to the bathroom, transform, and explain the situation to Nino and Alya.

In general the closest thing to hostile the class was to Marinette was Kim and Mylene calling her out for throwing stuff at Lila (a major no-no there,) and a few moments where they all looked mad at her, probably because it would be cheaper instead of giving them all different reactions.

I have to wonder if a lot of the stuff Lila does in fics is real or not. I know she makes people do the work she doesn't want to do, but do future episodes showcase her as a con artist like in the fics? It wouldn't be surprising, at the very least.

Did anyone seriously believe Chameleon's ruse as Adrien? It's like she was trying to be horrible. I could do a better job at both lying to appeal to the class and posing as Adrien.

If Lila continues to be as evil as I think she's gonna be, I hope she gets turned into a clam more often even though I know that won't happen.

So yeah, that was the salt episode. Here's my beliefs on how the class views Lila with one bonus:

And also @flightfoot because I know you were curious.