#ml tibet

[asukiess]

this woman has never had the sweet taste of adultery in her life. or murder

[sparklesthefatcat]

looking through the tag and saw a tankie complaining about the book’s politics….most positive review yet :)

finally @ clayton pov in exordia and hoooooly fuck he’s also nuts, erik pov was already nuts but like??? dear god they’re BOTH like this?? the world is going to end & also u are both violent imperialist morally bankrupt military scum but u can’t pay attention to any of that u r too busy being gay…….

[princess-of-the-corner]

Sorry for an ML submission but I was musing on the Renlings again and also the Kwami animal designates in general. Cos if they wanted to so specifically tie their origin to China (Technically Tibet given the Orders location but I am unsure they did that on purpose) there's a ton of great creature designs.

Off the cuff there are the Nine sons of the dragon, one dragon and 8 other hybrids from turtles, to fish, to dog like critters mixed with dragons, all with different domains and duties.

Then you have the

Xiezhi, which would tie into the Miraculous Special Well as a ox/goat-lion hybrid with the innate ability to detect right from wrong and a penchant for ramming wrongdoers.

"I know, I should give up my vengeance." "Nope, we need to ram these fuckers!"

Pixiu, winged lion-dragons whom are powerful protectors of the souls of the dead that can only eat wealth for complicated reasons as well as guard against disease.

Fenghuang, with strong sun associations, its essentially a phoenix minus the coming back from the dead trope.

Shíshī, stone lion-dogs, IE guardian lions, meant to protect against harmful material and spiritual elements.

Qilin, a deer/horse-dragon with associations to benevolence and the birth and death of sages.

Honestly yeah a lot of them would've worked well

[yolowritter]

Can I give you my rant about the absolute MESS Astruc and the rest of the staff did with the background of ML? Because it's infuriating to a history buff and cultural appreciator like me. Especially after the episode Darkblade shows they CAN do a good job (the story of the ancestor Darkblade is the last years of Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac and Conestable of France, just with names filed off), they just choose to be lazy. And infuriating.

Side material references the Fox, Bee, Turtle, Peacock, and Butterfly Miraculous as the Elemental Miraculous, drawing in the Wuxing... And they never explored that.

The Miraculous Order was based in Tibet... Except the Wuxing link above and everything else we see of the Order say they're Daoist-adiacent, and the Tibetan monasteries are Buddhist. And let's not go on the fact Tibet was a different and often rival civilization to China (even the CCP admits that, and bases their control on how China had CONQUERED Tibet before the British got involved) yet the Order is quite obviously Chinese...

Gabi Gassette changed name in Gabriel Agreste... Except this is impossible under French law. Changing one's personal name is already hard enough, and changing the family name requires a petition to the PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC proving you have a good reason under French law (and by what is shown, he didn't have one).

Joan of Arc never user her sword in combat, and in fact created her famous banner to have an excuse to not fight. So the scene of her getting time displaced and drawing a sword to fight is utterly ahistorical.

Lila Rossi is coded as an Italian, and I say that as an actual Italian. Her gestures, her expressivity, her hamminess, even her vindicativeness ("vendetta" is actually the generic Italian word for "revenge", but in English it became the word for "horrific revenge" because we're THAT vindicative), everything says she's an Italian teenaged girl. So all the "Cerise" nonsense is frankly ridiculous...

Now the really infuriating one, their take on Joan of Arc, of how she and the English bearer of the Black Cat were manipulated by the ambition of the Kings of France and England. Except Charles of France was the Dauphin, that is the heir to the throne, and grasping at straws to save France from the invasion when Joan showed up and requested he gave her an army to throw the English out of France and couldn't get crowned until Joan reconquered Reims, the city of the coronation. As for Henry VI of England, he was SIX (almost seven) when Joan entered the war (hence why Charles had a chance to reclaim the throne, to be crowned King of France one had to be a knight, and that meant one had to be an adult). These guys claimed Joan and Dark Grimalkin were manipulated by a desperate prince who was considering giving up and by a six years old child.

Sorry for the rant... But seriously, why did they do all of that?!

Because it's Thomas Astruc, and frankly I have no idea! Don't worry, rants are always welcome! By all means, I'm sure there's more stuff if we look for it! As a fellow history nerd, and also with Joan being my single favorite French historical figure ever, I have been seething ever since I saw their take on her. Henry the VI was literally just a child, and Charles was dependant on Joan because the English were demolishing France at the time! There is a perfectly good story in real history as to what could have happened to her and Dark Grimalkin! Just do an "partners on opposide sides of a war", slap in the iconic banner as her Miraculous weapon and call it a day! It would have been so much easier to follow real history! They didn't even need to do any work!

And as for the Cerise nonsense...that "explanation" better be really good. It better be Dark Souls-level deep lore with an interconnected backstory that ties up every single mystery in Lila's character better than Scooby Doo ever could, or I am going to lose my mind! I've already said this in my Lila post, but it's genuinely offensive that they had such a great idea for a character, and built her up so much...just to say "oh well actually she has three moms who don't even know eachother, and her name is Cerise, or Iris, or...something else". Lile c'mon! For Nooroo's sake here, it's a blatantly poor attempt to make her interesting again and it only worked because the fandom is grasping at straws for theory material because of the hiatus!

Any side material for the show just doesn't do a good enough job at actually giving us something new, or at the very least something interesting. The Miraculous and Kwami are constantly sidelined because why bother talking about this extremely high-potential universe you have in your show's Lore...if you didn't bother to fill in the blanks? Kwami are supposed to be Gods, Season 2 has references to Plagg blowing up Atlantis! Myths are apparently real in this universe! Please do something with that Thomas, it's free money! But nope, of course they ignore it.

The Guardian Order...well, I call them "The Jedi from Wish" for a reason. Like okay, religious order that has conservative thinking and backwards methods in a new world that is rapidly and constantly evolving. Cool concept! Unfortunately they don't even get their designs right, can't be consistent with which religion they're even based on, contradict themselves all the time, and make them utterly irrelevant after Su Han's first appearence. His only job in the story is to show up, yell at the protagonists, and then be proven wrong because "Ladybug is always right", only to apologize and then yeet himself to Brazil or something! I have an entire rant about this guy, but I'll refrain atm.

And lastly abt Gabriel's name change, I honestly didn't know that. Cool info, I'll add to my list of "times the writers didn't do their 5-minute google search". But like, c'mon. You're choosing to incorporate an important detail about your main villain into his backstory. Shouldn't you have somebody do the research to see if that's even possible? Even the intern is better than no one! I swear...and then us fanfic authors spend hours upon hours looking up obscure stuff just so one sentence/joke can be factually correct.

[itsawritblr]

Exactly how old is this photo supposed to be?

I haven’t seen the episode in which this appears, so I’m basing this post only on this photo.

ML is teasing that Gabriel, Nathalie and Emilie were treasure hunters who found the butterfly and peacock miraculous in Tibet.  Sure.  OK.  Did this happen before or after Gabriel became an unknown designer living in, as Audrey says, a cramped, dirty studio?

Anyway, I digress.

The above photo is made to look like it’s old.  Very old.  It looks like the photos taken of the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922.

How old are Gabriel, Nathalie and Emilie supposed to be?  How long ago were they treasure hunters, or whatever the fuck they were?

At the series’ start Adrien is 13.  By the Christmas special his mother has been missing for one year; it’s Adrien’s first Christmas without her.

Let’s guess that, during Season 1, Gabriel is 34-40 years old.  Which means he was 21-27 when Gabriel was born. Pretty young.  We can’t know how long he and Emilie were married before that.  Or when Gabriel was discovered by Audrey Bourgeois.  I seem to recall hearing, dunno in what ep, Adrien say his mother became “sick” after their trip to Tibet.  So it couldn’t have been long before Season 1, when Adrien was 13.  Given the tech in ML’s world, the story’s happening about the same time as real life, so it’s the 2010s.

Then why does the photo look like it was taken in the 1920s?  Or is it just dirty?

Why not have the photo look recent?  I assume it’s because they want to create the aura of Old Time Indiana Jones Style Treasure Hunters.  Unless they want to introduce a weird slant, like the three were young in the 20s and time-traveled via miraculous to modern day or some such shit.

And no one “treasure hunts” these days, except illegally.  Because countries now are very protective about their antiquities being stolen.  Not “found” or “discovered”  or “hunted.” In the modern day, the three wouldn’t be allowed to hunt, only excavate as members of an official archeological team, and only with the country’s permission and a shit-ton of government paperwork.

But yeah, this is ML’s world, so they can pretty much do what they want, I guess.  They’ve already messed up the canon timeline with the ML game scene between Gabriel and Nathalie, in which Gabe says they’ve been searching for the Ladybug and Cat Noir miraculous for “years.”  When in the show Emilie was only gone for a little less than one year.

Naturally the show’s creators are teasing things to keep viewers on edge, waiting for more.  I don’t like the way the writing is now, but out of intensely irritated curiousity I want to know where they’re going to take this story line.  It’s already shifted (as previously ranted) from Magical Girl to SF MCU.

[ray-moo]

If there is no irredentism, then on what justification did the PRC annex Tibet, and on what justification does the PRC regard Taiwan as it's rightful territory?

It's funny that as a ML you give any weight or legitimacy to the UN which is basically the Imperialist Country club. If the UN decided to recognize ISIS as a country, would you back it? Or if India decided to pursue unification with Pakistan by force? Source on the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests being organized by the US.

Ling Fushun, Chinaʼs Communist revolutionary leader moments before his public execution by the KMT nationalists in 1936.

His last words were:

“Folks, do not fear death, my family branch may end, but the revolution will live on!”

The reactionaries killed him slowly by Lingchi (death by a thousand cuts).

The execution lasted for 2 hours.

The barbarity of the KMT nationalists knew no boundaries. Today, the KMT is located in Taiwan and recieves weaponry mainly from the United States.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Theory on the guardian Temple: Mount Kailash

Every since "The Collector" I was convinced that the guardian mountain in Miraculous is most likely inspired by a real life counterpart. Then "Feast" came around and confirmed it to me. So I started to do some research and here we are with my answer and a new theory: Mount Kailash.

This mountain is surrounded by mysteries GALORE and its was such an interesting research to do! The more I read up on it the more I was convinced that this is indeed the inspiration of the guardian mountain in Tibet (and its entire society) we see in the show.

So let's not waste any more time and let's dive in. As always, I have alot to say ^^

As always, starting with the basics:

Just like in the show, Mount Kailash is located in Tibet and is part of the Himalaya. Its shape is a bit tricky to compare but even if it wouldn’t add up I think it wouldn’t matter that much. As long as the Ml mountains shape isn’t completely off and unrecognizable let a mountain be a mountain, the shape is not what’s most important about it anyway (not in this theory at least). The height on the other hand adds up very nicely. As we see in the flashbacks the guardian mountain may have been up high but also wasn't the highest mountain in the region by far.

This also applies to Mount Kailash. It is “only” 6,638 m (21,778 ft) high, which is small in comparison to several other mountains that go up to 8,850 metres (29,035 ft). So just like in the show, its not the highest mountain but definitely high enough to sometimes be above a cloud layer.

Next is the lake. Just like we saw in Fu’s flashback, mount Kailash also has a lake. Two to be correct. Lake Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal.

The lake seen in the flashback I believe to be Lake Manasarovar (right)

The lake is located right by Mount Kailash and is believed to be the most sacred one in Tibet and has the most transparent water among all the lakes in China. In Hinduism, Lake Manasarovar is a personification of purity and bathing in it and drinking its water is believed to cleanse all sins. That sounds definitely like a perfect fit for the ancient, mystical guardian mountain lake we are looking for here.

Of course, the show hasn’t given us any indications yet that the mountain lake has such a high status (how could it? We saw it in one picture) and for all it is, the one in the show doesn’t have to. If the lake(s) end up having such qualities as well (which I believe and I’m also convinced the second lake will be of great importance as well but all of this is an extended theory for a very different day) than that’s wonderful and I’m more than happy, but if not then I’m convinced as well that it was not just a random lake they put in there but one with a mighty cultural significance.

Beside that, the lake happens to be a fresh water lake. This would also explain how a squid or kraken was shown to us to have been there, since those are freshwater animals.

Next is the whole temple thing in general. In real life there is of course no temple on Mount Kailash, but this doesn't mean that the concept of a temple for this mountain is anything new. In fact, it's really, totally, utterly not. There may be no temple on our mountain but we still do have a Kailasa temple and MY is this one important as well!

Comparing these two makes it quite obvious right away, they do have big differences. The material, the design etc. But once again, inspiration doesn't mean copy paste.

What caught my attention here were for example the big stone circle in the middle that mirrors the guardian symbol and the big tower right beside it reminds of the biggest building from the guardian temple. While the Kailasa temple is not built on Kailash, it's shape is supposed to reflect and honor the mountain because the temple was built for the greatest of the hindu gods, lord Shiva (the main God who is supposed to life on top of kailash's peak) and therefore it was supposed to resemble his home.

Meaning what Miraculous did here in my opinion, is that they simply combined Mount kailash and the Kailasa temple to make their own version for the show that is unique enough to stand on its own but also stays close enough to its roots to properly honor and portray them.

I LOVE this.

(Okay I'm gonna take this little section to gush a little about this temple because my GOSH this temple is a beauty to behold!

You are not just looking at any temple here, all of this was CARVED out of the stonewall in ONE PIECE! This is one of the greatest architectural masterpieces in human history and today no one can actually tell how the ancient local people even DID this.

I mean LOOK at this! This is of pure stone, all in one piece and there is even a gigantic underground section!

And each and every wall is full of smaller carvings from the bottom to the top, telling the stories of their culture, their mythology and believes. And even those are little pieces of art for themselves! This is marvellous! I hope that one day I will be able to see this place in person because... wow!)

Alright, leaving the materialistic basics behind us, lets take a look at its religious and cultural significance and its mystical reputation because those are *chef kiss* just beautiful.

Here is an important thing to keep in mind that since the Miraculous mountain is not going to be straight up real life Kailash, only inspired by it, this also means the show would be able to include some of its myths and folklores a lot more directly. Therefore I’m also including them here in my theory.

Coming back to what I said earlier, that apparently Mount Kailash is the holiest mountain on earth. And well, that's no exaggeration of mine. Mount Kailash is the center point of 4(!) religions, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Tibetan Bön. These religions also make the fact that the guardians are portrayed as monks a perfect fit. The fact that Mount Kailash has such an immense significance for the regional religions also led to one of the greatest check points for this theory:

Mount Kailash is to this day unclimbed. For several reasons I will cut down to the 3 most important for my theory:

1. As Mount Kailash is believed by 4 religions to be the center point/or a place of great significance, it is also a place that people hold in alot of honor, respect and fear as well. It's peak is believed to be place were their gods rest and/or where basically the divine energies of Existence are residing and therefore you don't just CLIMB that mountain.

Regional people and believers go an incredibly long way to honor it even to this day and therefore, no, regional people never dared to claim this mountain for themselves and its forbidden by the law to dishonor this sacred place by doing so. Bringing this back to miraculous I’m sure you already see why this fits like a glove.

If there is any real life mystical mountain the guardians of the miraculous would be located on, it's this one! The Miraculous are the origins of the in-universe world and as we know from Fu it is an unspeakable honor to be chosen as one of their guardians. The guardian society was/is located off of the normal society and at least the local people from Fu's childhood knew of their existence. Meaning here again, the miraculous mountain as well holds a great cultural significance and only the chosen guardians were allowed to climb it but for that they also had to dedicate their lives to the miraculous and life in isolation from the rest of the world.

This in combination with:

2. When I say it is forbidden to climb that mountain I mean FORBIDDEN. Not only by regionals and believers because of religion reasons. No. Between the 50s and the 70s Chinese authorities have officially managed to declare this sacred mountain as off limits, keeping it unclimbed and under protection with all means needed. Meaning no climbing by foot (beyond the free area that has always been allowed) or by any machine. It's peak is to be remained untouched. And this also means any footage taken from the mountain needs to be done from far away, no matter how ouf of the world the happening on the mountain may be. And that's precisely what we saw in "Feast"

One would think that the reappearance of a long-lost temple on a fuck high mountain would get the immediate reaction of storming and exploring it like hell. But that's not what's happening here and I don't think it's just for plot convenience at all. If we are indeed talking about a mountain in miraculous here that is just as protected by the law as mount Kailash in real life, then THIS reporting here is as close as anyone can officially/legally get in that moment without serious consequences with the law and Chinese government.

They didn't NOT storm the temple because of plot reasons, they didn't because they are legally aren't allowed to set foot on a sacred unclimbed mountain that is supposed to stay that way. What a great and subtle way of telling us more and more about the significance of the guardian mountain. Wonderful Miraculous, I applause you ^^

But there is still another reason why Mount kailash's unclimbed status convinced me that this is indeed the mountain we are (at least in an inspired way) being presented with in the show.

My point 3. is the reason why Kailash remained unclimbed by (the native) people in the first place which highly influenced its immense religious status although history to the point where it is believed to be the center place of GODS, THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE and ALL OF EXISTENCE.

Cause its not like no one ever tried to climb it. Naturally people did, just like with any other mountain on earth. But here is the thing: somehow no one was able to actually DO it. Odd how humans were and are able to reach the peak of freaking Mount Everest even though it's ALOT higher and objectively deadlier by a long shot but "small" and "easy" Kailash is the one still unclimbed.

Kailash didn't get its godly, mystical and fear-striking reputation for no reason. We are now officially stepping into folklore and myth terrain which is actually exactly what we are looking for because a show called "Miraculous" is going to REGALE in the supernatural stories of its influences. And when I say supernatural, I do indeed mean SUPERNATURAL. The climbers who survived their trip reported of unearthly happenings and situations that made claiming Kailash simply impossible. I'm not sure if saying Kailash seems to have a mind on its own is appropriate but it surely seems to try to defend itself from people who aren't worthy or not supposed to be there with means from another layer of existence.

Sudden weather extremes that come out of nowhere to stop the mountaineering and a seemingly changing environment that leads the climbers into confusion, the wrong direction (away from the peak) and even their end are two of the greatest examples and they fit perfectly into the nature of the Miraculous.

Another myth I’ve read quite a lot about is that on Mount Kailash time works… differently.

This also goes back to its defence mechanism of intruders because it is said that trying to climb it will let hair, nails etc grow a lot faster or fasten up the aging process all together to the point were relatively young climbers died the very next year of freaking OLD AGE! This is not only interesting for the miraculous mountain because it’s a supernatural coping mechanism of the Miraculous origin place using a power we are already familiar with (Bunnix time powers) but also because Kailash’s very same time anomalies are also said to grand a longer life (to those who are worthy if I’m not wrong). And do tell, what’s Fu’s age again? That’s right, a very impossible 186.

BUT, when the Miraculous guardian mountain does grand those who are chosen to be guardian (probably through a ritual or something like that to ultimately seal their “decision” to dedicate their lives to the Miraculous) a much longer life through its magical nature, that would definitely make Fu’s age much more plausible.

And yet still, even after everything I brought up one can still raises the questions “Yes but why THIS mountain? What’s so special about it that all of the miraculous things would happen there? Real-life and Miraculous. For all it is, is it just a coincidence?”

You all know me well enough by now that NOPE, I’m sure as heck not done yet :D Lets get to my last point and this one is what sold this entire idea to me 100%, without a single doubt left behind. This is the HEART of this theory.

Let me explain to you Mount Kailash’s status as Axis Mundi.

Trying to keep this as easy as possible, I do think its concept is comparable to the medieval believe that the earth is the centre of the universe. That everything from the sun to every known planet circles around us and we were the first and most important thing created. Axis Mundi is somewhat like this.

Axis Mundi means “earth axis” in latin and is basically the center point of the earth. It has several ways to approach its meaning from religion, astrology to geography. Good thing for us, Mount Kailash is a complete jackpot in this regard, so this makes it easy! (This is probably the reason why Kailash is seen as THE Axis Mundi for many people, even if there are several others that fit under certain categories as well)

Astrologically Mount Kailash is an Axis Mundi because of its location between the two celestial poles. Its distance to the north pole is 6666km and to the south pole LITERALLY the double: 13332km. Its wild, but it gets even better!

The geographical point of view only supports the astrological because Mount Kailash is said to be part of a several-linked-monuments-line with the exact same km-count of 6666km in between all of them.

And maybe this is the right time to remind you that the height of Mount Kailash that I have mentioned in the beginning is 6638m.

Although this is a point, I wouldn’t bet my hand on for 100% legitimacy, since when I double checked the Kailash to Stonehenge UK distance on Google Earth, I ended up with a distance of 6.900-something km. But at the same time the measurement system there can get quite off in such mountainy terrains so that doesn’t mean its officially wrong. Just in question. Luckily it isn’t even that important if this is true or not in real-life, because even if it isn’t, then Miraculous as a TV show can still incorporate and work with this myth/conspiracy(?) no problem.

Another geographical but more local reason for why Kailash is seen as Axis Mundi in China is because there 4 main Asian rivers find their source: Shiquan (Lion!) river, Maquan (Horse!!) river, Xiangquan (Elephant) river and Kongqu (Peacock!!!) river. now that’s something to keep in mind in future. Each on one of the 4 sides of the mountain, making it indeed a source of life for all of China and therefore a “center point” as well.

And last but definitely not least and my, this one if my favourite!

As I explained earlier, Mount Kailash is seen by 4 religions as the center place of their gods, the entire universe and all of creation. But not only that. Because since it is the place where literal gods can manifest, it is also the place where our material world meets the spiritual one and they overlap (Hence the supernatural nature and abilities of the mountain).

Do you see what this means for Miraculous?

It means that the guardians didn’t chose their mountain by sheer coincidence. It means that this very mountain peak is the place where humans where/ARE able to get access to the Kwamis!

A while ago Thomas Astruc posted this on Twitter

He describes the nature of the Kwamis as not actual living creatures per se but more like the embodiments of abstract concepts found in this universe’s existence. Humans can only interact with them through the ml jewelleries but even if these get destroyed (bee miraculous in “Queen Wasp”) the Kwami doesn’t “die”, it just goes back to its original abstract (bodyless) form and can be brought back with their Miraculous because, logically, destroying the bee miraculous for example didn’t wipe out the entire concept of Submission. Duh. Therefore, Pollen was still “there”.

So if the Kwamis are more embodiments of abstract concepts which need a specific item to physically materialize in the, well, MATERIAL world then this means there needed to be a place of transition between these two layers of reality to seal the Kwamis to the Miraculous’ in the first place. And BOY, this is it!

I’m so convinced that the guardian mountain is the Miraculous inequivalent of our Mount Kailash, everything fits like a glove and explains so many questions I haven’t even considered to ask before now!

Especially the last part about the origins and nature of the Kwamis and how their transition into the real world happened is such a gigantic lore aspect! There is so much to be discovered and connected here and I’m already reworking everything about the lore I have so far and MAN I’m glad I picked up on theorizing about Ml again! I am EXCITED!

But for now, this is it :D

[peraphelic]

*In Tibet*

Gabriel: We never should've come in the temple.

Nathalie: No guts, no glory.

Gabriel: Are you ever scared of anything?

Emilie: Yeah, dying alone, that's why I brought you two here.

[cobraonthecob]

my hatred of ml stems partially from the characters but also because of the racism. even if the show was well written (i wish) i’d still be ripping into it for the racism

[jacquesthepigeon]

Still can’t believe how hard the crew goes for colonization like they made a miraculous box based on Native American lore but made the only known user a white man during colonial times and tried to make it sound heroic and literally anyone with basic knowledge about colonialism can figure out what really happened there lmao

[brokenroyalderringer]

Hawkmoth is a very season 1 villain to me, I want more evil miraculous users that don’t have to make villains ú m ù

[princess-of-the-corner]

ML Plot Points: The Agreste Family Part 2.

Nathalie is the one who I had to think about the longest, and the reason this took me so long. I wanted all three of the Agreste family adults to reflect another character by having the same issues, but different reactions to it, and I couldn’t choose a character to make her a reflection of. I wanted her to have issues taking responsibility and being the one who is in charge, as well as having confidence issues. I also wanted the character she’s linked to to be one of the teen Miraculous holders.

I quickly discarded Alya and Nino because they have no relation to the Agrestes. Same thing with Luka. I thought about making it Chloe, but I didn’t because I couldn’t come up with a way to link them that I really liked. I even thought about making it Sabrina due to their similarities (assistant to another character, fades into the background easily), but I didn’t like that option either. Then it hit me.

There is a character who’s also been in the background, but who took center stage for S5 due to Gabriel getting wounded by Felix. Another character who has issues with control and who is linked very thoroughly with the Agreste household. A character who, if I link Nathalie’s backstory with, gives me full leeway to make her childhood fucked. And less importantly but kind of amusingly, continues the trend of the adults being a different gender from teens they are linked with.

Felix.

I won’t go too into Nathalie’s backstory with her parents, but the long and short of it is that they were extremely abusive both physically and emotionally and that she grew up thinking that she was useless and that deserving of that treatment. At some point in her late teens, but before she went to college, her parents died.

Naturally, when she was in college, she was a complete nervous wreck. Gabriel somehow managed to befriend her through sheer introvert solidarity and through him, she met Emilie. Slowly, but surely, they got her to come out of her shell. Turns out, she’s actually a hardcore conspiracy theorist and is into occult stuff. She also loves travelling and seing different places.

After they finished college, she ended up staying with Gabriel and Emilie and lived in their house. Wanting her to come out of her shell more, they agreed to help her with her travels and accompanied her to places all around the world. She was just as surprised as them when it turned out one of her conspiracy theories was right. There was a weird temple in Tibet that disappeared for seemingly no reason 200-ish years ago. And there were two magical artifacts that were spared and which they could track down. After a few years of research, she successfully got her hands on one of the two brooches and gave it to the most important woman in her life. All was good. Professionally, she had become Gabriel’s assistant and lived a comfortable life. Personally, she spent almost all her time either with her girlfriend or her boyfriend. She is loved, she is cared for, and she works at keepin things neat and tidy for them while helping Emilie take care of their son. Life is good. 

Two years later, she tracked down another of the artifacts and gave it to the most important man in her life. Then it turned out the magical artifact she gave Emilie was killing her. They only found out about this thanks to Nooroo and after she made Amelie’s sentimonster child, so she’s already screwed.

Obviously, they panic a bit. They had all noticed Emilie was a bit more lethargic, but they didn’t think too much of it. So, they do everything they can to help her. They have Hawkmoth akumatise her to create the glass coffin that would keep her in stasis should her condition get beyond control. They keep three year old Adrien from noticing how sick she is because they can fix this. She can fix this.

After a decade of attempts and dead ends, she finally tracks down the guardian. Finally, someone who can actually, genuinely help them. They recognize that the prize for his help will probably be their brooches, but her life is more important, even if they’ll miss Nooroo and Duusu.

And then he betrayed them.

They have to force his hand.

They thought of trying to sell themselves as the heroes and the Guardian as some villain who just wants power, but for that they would have had to go public a long time ago to build up trust with the people. They never intended to be heroes, they just wanted to use their powers in peace. If they try now, it’s just going to raise doubts.

So instead, they sell themselves as supervillains. They lean into all the tropes to make people think they’re actually ruthless. It doesn’t matter. If they get their hands on the miraculi and heal Emilie, they will never appear publicly as Hawkmoth and Mayura again.

It will be worth it. 

It must be worth it.

She doesn’t know what she’ll do if it’s not.

I got kinda invested in that one, not sure why tbh. 

Like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, Nathalie as an adult is a reflection of Felix. They both spent their childhoods with parents that treated them awfully and grew up with problems about control. But whereas Nathalie is extremely unwilling to be the one in control, getting nervous and uncomfortable having to make decisions, Felix is violently opposed to giving anyone even the slightest control over him.

-

 Oh I love that actually!

[alexseanchai]

truth!

#getting realistic with ML ends up in very odd places #is Chat a nuclear deterrent? #how did Majestics existence change the politics of the US #do you think she is publicly out? as Majestic #not as a private citizen #and how would that change the overall culture in the States #not to mention the geopolitics involved if the order starts distribution More jewelry #is the Chinese government sieging the temple?

I want all these fanfics

though re the Temple, to sum up the summary of the summary that's on Wikipedia, Tibet was under Qing Dynasty authority from over a hundred years before the Temple fell to nearly seventy years after, and has been under People's Republic of China authority since well before the Temple was restored—and the Qing rule bit neatly explains why all two of the Temple's people we know of have Mandarin names—so it's possible no siege would be necessary for the Temple to recognize China's current government as the local authorities. I don't think that's likely, especially since the point of the Guardians seems to be preventing misuse of the Miraculouses, but it's possible. more likely, I think, is that the Temple would figure out some combination of barriers, misdirection, and evacuation to do at least two of keep both cameras and eyes from seeing the Temple grounds, keep both hikers and drones from getting near the Temple grounds, and get the Miraculouses and the Temple population and anything else important (other grimoire copies, for instance) to somewhere safer or at least unknown.

that said, the one to really be concerned about is Fei. especially since putting "Shanghai" before "New York" means either Fei dropping Cash in front of the courthouse while transformed with the Prodigious did not result in Cash and his goons going to jail, or someone got them back out again real quick. ("Shanghai" can't be earlier than "Kwamibuster", so there's at most half a season between "Shanghai" and "New York", which probably works out to less than three months.)

also like, ML US elected a Black woman to the presidency in 2012. RL US didn't manage a president of color until 2016 and hasn't managed a president who isn't a cis man yet. the culture is already plainly different, and the obvious reasons have to do with the abundance, at least in NYC, of superheroes.

I think I just worked out what Victory's superpower is

by which I mean this is a far less disturbing explanation than either "a bunch of random buildings in NYC have missile launchers" or "nobody in the US government has thought of failsafes to avoid launching missiles accidentally or under duress"

and this being the less disturbing explanation is itself disturbing, because I think Victory's superpower is magic missiles

[umbrellatori13]

Unpopular opinion but Fu was an inconsiderate coward, could’ve executed his release of guardianship better, and proved that old saying of “secrets are no fun, secrets hurt someone” pretty darn right most of the time.

[frigidlyauthorial]

hawkmoth taunting ladybug and chat noir saying “you can’t even stay in your true form after using your powers” or w/ever brings up two pressing concerns.

1) They can do that????

2) “true form” implies that Gabe sees Miraculous holders as being lesser in their civilian lives and should ideally never detransform, which might explain the whole “i have nothing to lose” if he sees “Gabriel Agreste” as being expendable.    

[miracu-less]

Gabriel and Mama Agreste

Little photo op in Tibet~

Also, @wintermoth made a post-> about how Mama Agreste disappeared at the ruined temple, and I totally have a small comic idea about it, nothing major, but some illustrated idea of how it could have POSSIBLY gone down~ Getting the two Miraculous in his possession today, and the Grimoire that Master Fu described. Look forward to that! Also, Gabriel is a hard ass, but he’s such a cinnamon roll when around her~

Background rotoscoped from google search for Tibet.

Instagram-> FireStarAnimationstumblr-> Deviantart-> Twitter-> Candasaurus~