#ml zombizou

[bittersweetresilience]

knock knock trick or treat

UH UM OH NO *shoves my piles of félix out of sight* how about some custom flavor djwifi for ladyofthenoodle

thank you to @lesbitorte for providing the song 💕

(halloween ask game)

[ijustliketoreadstuff]

Miss Bustier and the teachers responses to Marinette’s struggles with Chloe.

In the “Derision” flashback, we discover that throughout the school years, Marinette had faced a problematic dilemma where the teachers would side with Chloe in any given situation. Of course the biggest question in terms of this was why the teachers were not doing more to tackle the situations surrounding their students. Now, their lack of attempting to properly tackle such situations, had primarily revolved around fear and an unwillingness to spend more time to uncover the hidden truth as their lives revolved around managing numerous students, each one with their own individual issues.

 In the past, Chloe had ensured her actions remained as hidden as possible if and whenever she carried out a plan, something we have also seen her do throughout the series, in the new school year. 

(In “Mr. Pigeon”, Chloe attempted to steal Marinette’s hat design without anyone knowing, but was proven guilty as a result of Marinette sneakily incorporating her signature into the design. )

But in order to ensure the teachers would not consider Marinette’s word in the years prior, we discover that Chloe had spent time building Marinette a reputation where she would always be considered the tardy student who would be quick to disrupt class. Of course, Marinette was tardy and disruptive in class because she had trouble avoiding the pranks Chloe left her. 

(The principle, Mr. Damocles, and teachers like Ms. Mendeleiev, would only see and focus on Marinette, as well as her reaction in any given situation. Chloe would regularly direct the principle in Marinette’s direction anytime she knew her plans would stall Marinette long enough to leave her tardy.)

(Chloe’s pranks would delay Marinette from arriving to class on time while also prompting her to react and appear as the one who was insinuating conflict, leaving Chloe as just another spectator in the crowd for the majority of the time)

If any situation would result in a possible confrontation, Chloe was quick to make up any story necessary to make it seem she was being falsely accused and was not being considered in the matter, but on the chance the teachers did not comply, she was more than willing to threaten to call her father, the mayor, to have them fired through her word alone. 

Although teachers like Miss Bustier attempted to resolve any conflict between her students as best she could, her attempts to correct their behavior primarily revolved around being caring in any situation and finding the positives to things that would ordinarily be wrong through her students eyes. 

(Miss. Bustier  attempted to look at the positive in Chloe drawing on Marinette's handmade gift back in "Zombizou") 

Miss. Bustier is perfectly aware of Chloe's behavior towards others, however, she did not have the heart to be more commanding and strict towards others in order to enforce stricter rules and punishment, instead, her attempts primarily focused on attempting to teach her students compassion and finding a way to defuse a situation before things could spiral. Miss Bustier’s lessons would be upheld by many of her students, but were words Chloe was only rarely willing to take into consideration as she was not very interested in learning to uphold the lessons others taught her in her day to day life.

(In “Zombizou”, Chloe was willing to apologize to Miss. Bustier near the end, but her willingness to apologize to her, did not mean she was willing to do the same for everyone she wronged.)

Knowing that Chloe was not easy to talk to about her behavior and the things she did towards others, as Miss.Bustier explained back in "Zombizou" that people like Chloe only think of themselves and couldn't properly understand the meaning of love, Miss. Bustier had instead focused her attention on the people around Chloe, expecting students such as Marinette to be the bigger person in a situation by being the ones to set an example for others of how to properly behave in situations with people like Chloe. Miss. Bustier's attempts were to inspire students like Marinette to potentially show others like Chloe the wrong in their actions by simultaneously giving a little kindness their way, all in the hopes that people like Marinette could additionally set a good example to those like Chloe and help inspire them to acknowledge their own behavior and be willing to put in the effort and sacrifice to change themselves.

And as we saw throughout the series, Marinette would attempt to take Miss. Bustier’s words and believe in Chloe as best she could. 

Only to realize as time went by that she now faced the same struggles the teachers had as Chloe was not very willing to listen and had continued to prioritize herself despite her moments of good and despite everyone's willingness to give her multiple chances to better herself.

(In “Malediktator”, Marinette attempts to let go of her past with Chloe to give her a chance to better herself by throwing her a party to show her support and kindness. Those who attended were all willing to do the same. Unfortunately, Chloe had decided to  focus on the benefits of a hero rather than the the lessons the heroes taught her, having no interest in committing to the work and sacrifice needed to be better. Instead concluding that the power of the miraculous and her new title as a hero was something she was entitled to and was now her right to use whenever she wished)

For the teachers, Marinette was the easiest to correct and punish, however, Chloe's behavior had sadly become to difficult to correct on their own as Chloe had presented consequences to anyone who attempted to punish her and fail to meet her demands. While teachers like Miss. Bustier attempted to work around those consequences by providing as much love and compassion towards her students as she could, other teachers had accepted that it was simply out of their hands as their attempts to prevent and sort through such situations would only result in them suffering the consequences and potentially loosing their jobs.

[mcheang]

You reap what you sow

Marinette may have agreed to forgive Chloe but when Bustier’s birthday arrives next year, Alya is surprised when Marinette says she is giving her one of her family’s cakes on display. Usually her gifts are more designer-themed. The only effort Marinette is putting in this time is icing the words “Happy Birthday”.

Marinette: yeah, but on the chance that either Chloe or Lila ruins it, at least I didn’t waste any effort over it.

Alya realizes how hurt Marinette must still be over how her hard work had all been for nothing. Bustier didn’t care.

It made Alya rethink her birthday plans, and soon word spread throughout their class.

When the day came, Caline was as delighted as ever with her presents.

Marinette gave her a delicious cake which everyone shared.

Alya and Nino gave her a slightly messy homemade (cheap) photo frame they made with their siblings (it entertained the kids at the same time. 2 birds, one stone)

Kitty Section gave her their music CD. It cost them nothing. They have like a dozen of these. Though Rose pasted pretty stickers all over the case.

Lila gave her a cheap scarf she claimed to have gotten somewhere overseas.

Mylène gave her plant seeds (and this helps her cause for saving the earth in a small way)

Max gave her one of his thumb drives. What? It was practical, and he had so many.

Kim and Alix bought a gift shop teacher trophy together and split the cost.

Chloe dumped a brooch she didn’t want anymore as it was out of fashion.

Sabrina gave her a notebook. Also practical.

Caline was so touched that she did not notice that the amount of her gifts had decreased in quantity and quality.

[nixthelapin]

Anyone else deeply disturbed that at middle school teacher in a kids show was named after a type of underwear? A type of underwear known to enhance the bust I might add

(Mme Caline Bustier)

A bustier:

…yikes

[bugoutreviewgirlie]

I just wanna say Ms. Bustier's outfit slayed for no good reason. Girl, the golden helmet?? The body armor with the bump for the baby?? Her old school slacks and giant hand-held guillitone that glowed pink?? She's on a hot streak with Zombizou, now this outfit!!

[galahadwilder]

The Paris Horror

Monarch recreates Zombizou and gives her the power of Multiplication from Mullo to maximize the number of people she can kiss.

This ends up being a horrific mistake. Mullo's power has no lower bound. Seventeen divisions later, Zombizou is too small to see, and her swarm is too large for anyone to track--not even Monarch. At which point her connection to him is effectively severed, as he can't control more than two of her at once, can't recall the Akuma from this many divisions, and there are nearly three hundred Zombizous and growing.

With the Zombizou infection now effectively airborne, anyone could turn at any moment, with no warning--the kiss marks are too small to see and it just takes the tiniest bit of exposed skin. Outbreaks start at random, with one person in a crowd suddenly turning pink and leaping on others. Terrified Parisians, locked in their homes, have no defense against a zombie small enough to slip through the cracks in their windows, as previously-safe areas are suddenly and without warning compromised by erupting kiss zombies. Paris is quarantined, which does nothing, as Zombizous are sneaking onto trucks and airplanes and infecting the passengers, with the infection rapidly spanning across the country and even beyond.

Forced into their airtight spacesuits, Cosmobug, Astrocat, and Lunamoth have to work together for the first time to contain an infection they can't see, and to break thousands of microscopic copies of the Akumatized object, knowing that if they miss even one then it could spell doom for the entire human race.

[plumsaffron]

Just doing an experiment (there's something similar that these have in common).

Regardless. I'm expecting what's similar in common to probably be ignored (or never found) so I'm unfortunately the ones with Lila or Felix in the episode to get the highest probably.

[fabseg-creator]

My last Terminabug sketch from this year 2022.

That focus on battles against Akumas but featuring the Terminator. It's talking about What if the Terminator (in support of Ladybug and Cat Noir) fought against akumatized villains.

Happy New Year 2023.

Bonus (don't try to laugh):

[wonderwoman6199]

Chat: How did you do it?!?🤩

Marigold:

Just…just let her rest for a second, Chaton.

Episode 41 Part 16

First < Previous > Next

Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5

Ko-fi | Patreon

[generalluxun]

Mylène in “Derision”: “Having an abusive mom doesn’t excuse your bullying of others”

Sabrina in “Zombizou”: “Chloe doesn’t remember birthdays because her mom doesn’t remember hers”

Brand new HC: Every episode of ML takes place in a different multiverse. This is why they all seem to be slightly disjointed.

[heidi891]

Rewatching ML Season 2

The Collector: When Ladybug says she thinks Gabriel is Hawk Moth, Chat Noir is taken aback, but rather calm. Ladybug is shocked when Chat Noir suggests that the Collector could make Adrien disappear, while Chat’s expression says that he believes it’s totally possible. Gabriel lets Adrien go to school again and Adrien hugs him.

Prime Queen: Chat Noir purrs when Ladybug is close.

Glaciator: Poor Adrien, his father makes him wait for him at that big table and then doesn’t let him leave the house. Marichat on the balcony! I believed Marinette didn’t take Chat Noir’s declarations of love seriously, so it’s nice to have it confirmed. She must have thought he’s like that with many girls and now she knows he’s really in love with her. I like how sincere they are with each other at the end.

Despair Bear: Adrien stands up for Marinette when Chloé accuses her of being responsible for the false alarm. He is again annoyed with Chloé and threatens to end their friendship. Chloé does something good, but for the wrong reasons. Marinette and Adrien are dancing. Chat Noir is AGAIN possessed by the villain.

Troublemaker: Adrien is so happy to see Marinette on TV. Poor Marinette, everyone can see her hundreds of photos of Adrien and he’s so shocked. Chat Noir again uses his good hearing. Marinette friendzoned herself.

Gigantitan: Gabriel tries to reason with a baby, he couldn’t have been an involved father when Adrien was little. Chat Noir says he’s a great singer and promises to sing Ladybug a song.

Riposte: Hi, Kagami! Was she sent to the fencing class to impress Adrien? Ladrien scenes. Adrien saves Ladybug, forgetting that he isn’t invincible when he isn’t transformed. He says he doesn’t like being locked.

Befana: Marinette resorts to lies when she’s afraid the truth might hurt someone. Short Marichat scene. Chat Noir says Marinette must be a very cool girl. Ladybug joins Chat Noir in singing. Adrien says he’s always carrying Marinette’s lucky bracelet and gives her one that he made himself. I wonder what the chicken bead is supposed to mean.

Frightningale: Adrien tells Chloé that everyone in the queue should have a chance. He’s impressed with her skills, but is not thrilled to work with her.

Gorizilla: Gabriel again suspects that Adrien is Chat Noir. (Gabriel, haven’t you heard him yell ‘PLAGG, CLAWS OUT!’ every now and then?) Adrien wants to ask his father if he could go to the cinema, but Gabriel doesn’t have time for him. Adrien hates being famous and is still carrying Marinette’s lucky bracelet. Adrienette and Ladrien scenes. Adrien notices that Marinette repeats words from the perfume advertisment and isn’t sure what to make of it. Adrien’s falling from the skyscraper and Gabriel in the last moment orders Gorizilla to release Ladybug to save Adrien (though his first impulse was to wait until Adrien transforms, risking his death). Ladybug says she trusts Chat Noir and Adrien is happy. Gabriel watches the film with Adrien. At the end for the first time we see dead Emilie in the glass coffin from afar.

Robostus: Adrien knows Morse code. Master Fu explains that when you have both Ladybug earrings and Cat ring, you can make a wish, but comes with a price—you exchange your wish for something opposite.

Sapotis: Marinette has a DVD with “Ladybug PV”. Chat Noir flirts with Rena Rouge.

Syren: Chat Noir is fed up with being left in the dark. Ladybug not trusting him seems to be his biggest concern. He threatens to give up the ring for the first time. He finally meets Master Fu.

Dark Owl: Ladybug and Chat Noir trust each other so much that they can detransform in front of each other, having their eyes closed.

Zombizou: Chat Noir sacrifices himself AND is possessed by the villain. Chloé sacrifices herself fo Ladybug, but without Ladybug she would be caught, so it isn’t entirely selfless. Later she is vulnerable and sincere with Ms Bustier.

Captain Hardrock: Gabriel wants Adrien to play the piano perfectly. No one is surprised that he is grounded again. Hi, Luka! Adrien asks his father to play the piano with him, Gabriel lets him go to his friends, Adrien hugs him.

Frozer: Chat Noir has a romantic fantasy involving Ladybug and a hamster and later Marinette has a similar fantasy about Adrien. Adrien thinks about asking Gorilla, Nathalie and his father about girls, but ends up asking Marinette about Kagami. Kagami and Plagg think Adrien cares about Marinette romantically. When Marinette tells him they should go ice-skating again, he thinks she means just the two of them. She almost confesses her feelings to him, but ends up friendzoning herself again.

Reverser: Terrified Chat Noir is hilarious.

Style Queen: Gabriel, why are you surprised that Adrien fell victim to your Akumatised villain? Have you thought it through? Nathalie is not happy about it at the end. Chloé is worried about Adrien. Short Ladrien scene.

Queen Wasp: Gabriel has some regrets about putting Adrien at risk. Nathalie hugs Gabriel. Gabriel hugs Adrien publically. It’s the first time he appears publically after Emilie’s death. Chloé is abused, but it doesn’t excuse her acting like a villain and pretending to be a hero.

Malediktator: Chloé gives a ridiculous presentation, but the class shouldn’t bully her for that. Adrien is the only one who doesn’t laugh and later isn’t happy when Chloé’s leaving Paris. Adrien says that she was his only friend when he was little and didn’t leave the house. (When exactly did problems in his family start?) Thanks to Adrien Marinette decides to give the Bee Miraculous to Chloé and give her a second chance. Chloé admits that she hurt her father. Chat Noir is AGAIN possessed by the villain. My Disney+ must have a wrong order of the episodes, because Alya mentions Carapace.

Anansi: Adrien says his father is overprotective and hopes it’ll change. Hi, Carapace, here you are. Chat Noir is a bit worried about being replaced by other superheroes, but Ladybug reassures him he’s irreplaceable.

Sandboy: Nightmare Adrien is both scary and funny. Poor Adrien’s nightmare is being locked out without escape. Chat Noir saves Ladybug, how romantic. I love that bad Ladybug always gets this crazy, enormous weapon.

Catalyst: Lila returns! I think that Alya can’t see through Lila’s lies, because she’s too focused on Marinette’s crush on Adrien.

Mayura: I must agree with Chloé that Hawk Moth’s outfit is ridiculous. Nathalie wants to help Gabriel so much that not only does she let herself be Akumatised, but also she risks her life by using the Peacock Miraculous. Gabriel is shocked by this. At this point he still seems to care about Adrien and Nathalie to some extent. Adrien says that Marinette is their school Ladybug. (Will Adrien ever be called their local Chat Noir?)

A Christmas Special: Snow, songs and that terrible old man in a red suit. Gabriel’s gone mad and thrown a Christmas party. More serious observation: Adrien openly talks sings about his pain and anger.

Miraculous World: Shanghai: ‘Did Jet just die?’ moment, Hawk Moth edition. Chat Noir too, but it isn’t as surprising.

Previous: Rewatching ML Season 1

Next: Rewatching ML Season 3

[nothingtherefornow]

“B-BUT CHLOE APOLOGIZED IN XOMBIZOU AND QUEEN WASP!”

1. Zombizou she only apologized to Bustier. Not the people who were ACTUALLY wronged by her. Ie marinette for destroying her gift.

2. She only apologized to ladybug because she admired her.

“BUT FELIX AND NATHALIE NEVER APOLOGIIIZED”

3. You’re right, they didn’t apologize directly, but the greatest apology is changed behavior. They changed their behavior. Nathalie went out of her way to protect Adrien afterwards. And Felix chose to do right by them afterwards. Also yes both Chloe and Felix stole miraculi from Ladybug but the latters motives weren’t just “I GOT TOLD NO HISSSS”

“BUT GABRIEL WAS REDEEMED!”

4. Lol no. Gabriel was never sorry for what he did. He took the easy way out. He didn’t regret anything.

I could argue about Gabriel not regretting what he did but I think there's a higher chance that in the end, after Bug Noir beat him and made him listen to Emilie's recording, that he realized his wife would hate him for what he did. What the point of bringing Emilie back if the only thing he gets out of it is a Divorce ? Gabriel may be able to control Adrien, but he wouldn't be able to do the same with his wife once she realized how far he went to bring her back

Maybe Gabriel also realized that no matter how much control he has over Adrien with his amok, his son would still hate him and their relationship was truly ruined. An awake Emilie would also easily spot Gabriel using the rings to subdue their son and not be alright with it. Even if Gabriel made his wish and used it to kill Marinette by making her the sacrifice, he would only end up with a wife and a son hating him for life. Not to forget, Gabriel was also still planning to heal Nathalie with his original wish, yet she was almost ready to kill him to stop him. Had Gabriel actually succeeded, who know if Nathalie wouldn't have tried to take Adrien's amok from Garbage Agreste in order to free Adrien, and reveal all the truth to him and Emilie about the terrible Gabriel did ?

So yeah in a way, If Gabriel finally realized through his madness that both Nathalie and Emilie would be against him in the new world he wanted to create, it makes sense that he would want to take the easy way out and join his wife in death by trying to fix part of his mess and giving up his own life for that.

But like I said, there's also a reason why the ML writting team made Gabriel formulate his wish in a manner that does not make it clear what he truly wished for. We know that Nathalie being healed was part of Gabriel's wish, but was it the only thing ? Was he actually sincere when he asked Marinette to not tell Adrien about the monster that was his father ? Or was he manipulating her ? What if what Lila saw and was scared of at the end of Re creation was actually another consequence of Gabriel's wish ?

[elina-sakura]

Okay, I had to reblog this in order to respond to some of the comments I got because for some reason it is not showing up in the comments, and that is just frustrating for me. So I’m just gonna reblog here not just to respond to the comments, but also so other people who has the same claims can see as well (and I don’t have to repeat myself over and over).

NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT ATTACK ANYONE WHO HAS A DIFFERENT OPINION THAN MINE OR YOURS. AND PLEASE DO NOT ATTACK THE PERSON I’M RESPONDING TOO; THEY��RE ALLOW TO HAVE A DIFFERENT OPINION THAN OURS, EVEN IF WE DON’T AGREE WITH THEM.

Okay, let me start with the responses.

“Marinette became confident after she became Ladybug.”

While that is true, that is not what I was referring too. I was referring to way before Marinette got the Ladybug Miraculous. In Origins Part 1, when we first see the two interact, Marinette didn’t seem all that scared of her. More like annoyed and just done with her, like she’s an annoying fly she has to tolerate with.

Now you could argue that maybe Marinette has hyped herself to build a backbone for herself by Socqueline’s words, and that could be the case. However, the problem is that you don’t just go from being scared of an abuser to having an attitude of just being done with her. It’s not like a straight line of improvement and changes, especially when it’s toward a girl whose goal seems to be to make her life miserable no matter what Marinette does, and (according to the timeline) almost got her drowned just a few months ago. You would think there would at least be some sort of apprehensiveness when meeting her bully again.

“Chloé toned down her attitude for Adrien.”

Here is where I disagree with your point. We have seen throughout the show that Chloé is completely fine with bullying others in front of Adrien, or admitting her wrongdoings to Adrien immediately. Like in Origins Part 2, Adrien sees Chloé and Sabrina putting gum on one of the seats and confronts her on it, and she just explains it to him and say “he has a lot to learn about school culture,” like this is normal behavior that they should be exhibiting. Considering how we later explore more on their social class, this kind of attitude seems to be uncommon and expected actually, so it’s not really unexpected from Chloé’s character. And Chloé continues to exhibit her awful behavior in front of Adrien and not try to hide it, like in Horrificator with insulting Mylène, Reflekta when she tried to force herself next to Adrien, and Despair Bear when she called the fire department, tried to frame Marinette for it, and lets the whole school get punish for her action while she gets out of it scot-free. And all those times, Adrien has called Chloé out on her behavior, but she doesn’t try to hide it or cover up her actions to make herself look good. She even won’t hide when she does something so big like Despair Bear when Adrien asks if she was the one who called the fire department, and instead of hiding it in risk it could upset Adrien, she just flats out admit to it like she expects him to not be bothered by it and share the same feelings as her. So it wouldn’t make sense why Chloé would tone down her attitude for Adrien when she doesn’t seem to try to hide it from him.

“Marinette has forgiven Kim for the prank, and knows Kim didn’t mean to hurt her.”

Now again, I can see where the idea comes from. Marinette’s forgiving nature is both a strength and a flaw of hers. While she is willing to forgive others when they hurt her, that doesn’t mean their actions hasn’t harmed her. She just tends to brush aside her misgivings when she learns they didn’t mean to hurt her. Now you could speculate maybe after Marinette learned how nice of a person Adrien is, maybe she decided to give Kim a second chance, believing he is still a nice person deep down.

However, there are a couple of problems that contradicts these statements.

First is that we have never seen Marinette and Kim talk to each other about the event. If this is such a big deal considering the flashback is suppose to be important (like a turning point in Marinette’s backstory), then we should see a moment of Marinette realizing maybe Kim isn’t that bad as she might have thought (despite what he did was more horrible than gum on her seat). However, what Derision shows is that Marinette still subconsciously believes that Kim was pretending to be nice to hurt her, as shown with her outburst towards Adrien. So if that’s the case, she should still have apprehensions with Kim at this point of time (which is suppose to be the end of the school year), which contradicts their interactions beforehand.

The second thing to point out, while following up on my last point, is that the whole point of the event that happened is to explain why Marinette is so overly-cautious of her crush with Adrien by getting to know every details about him, and one of the biggest emphasis she makes on making sure she knows about her crush is making sure they aren’t friends with Chloé. Now you can argue she decides to accept her feelings for Adrien is because she has seen him be kind in words and actions and vulnerable about his feelings, and she has acted on what she said in the flashback as well to know everything about him. But if she still believes her claims that she won’t interact with those who are friends with Chloé, she should still be apprehensive to be around Kim. After all, it’s Kim helping Chloé to humiliate Marinette that created her apprehension of anybody who are friends with Chloé.

My final point argues against the follow-up of the claim that Marinette knew Kim didn’t know. By that knowledge, it would mean Marinette have to know Chloé was solely at fault and she should be more wary of Chloé interfering with her love life again than being obsessed with knowing every details about her crush. Plus, it seems that Marinette only realizes that Kim wasn’t intending to hurt her after having gotten to know him over the school year and reflecting on her past trauma. Earlier in the episode, with how Marinette is still subconsciously worried Adrien could hurt her, then by extension, she should still believe Kim was in on Chloé’s prank, so that means their interaction, again, should be tensed.

“Marinette did try to give Chloé a second chance.”

Now this, I have to agree with Eris from the comments on. Marinette didn’t actually choose to give Chloé a second chance of her own will; she had to be nudged by both the narrative and the characters to do so in the episodes Despair Bear, Zombizou, and Malediktator. And in those episodes, the narrative frames it as Marinette was being unreasonable with Chloé (despite narratively having good reasons to not trust her) and learned to hold out hope that Chloé can change, so that’s why she gets that hope. But the episode Derision ends up proving Marinette’s apprehension right as she was practically abused by Chloé, and could have died by one of her pranks. She was making Marinette’s life miserable beforehand, it was even her goal. At least that’s what Derision tried to frame Chloé’s bullying as. Now it makes the characters look bad and the narrative even that you just forgive your abusers (and almost makes me glad Astruc actually stopped the redemption arc. Keyword being almost because this narrative was never introduced until years later audience-wise and the last season of the first narrative arc).

Now let me clarify, Marinette is in no way have to forgive Chloé even if she did get a redemption arc. Whatever Chloé did in the past, whether it’s petty teasing or making her life miserable everyday, it still affected Marinette to this day. So she does not owe Chloé any forgiveness unless she truly sees Chloé make an effort to change and sticks to it over the years.

So these are all my responses to the comments. I hope these arguments are critically valid, and you are free to try to argue back. I don’t really mind, it allows me to do critical thinking when it comes my argument. And thanks to the commenter for their comments, even if I don’t agree with you, it was nice to practice critical counterarguments. And again, please do not attack the commenter, they are free to disagree with me.

So after watching a YouTube video yesterday, I finally realized why I have such an issue with Derision, or more specifically the backstory it provided: it just doesn’t fit.

Let’s say that the Miraculous narrative is a set of puzzles, and we’re getting the full picture of the backstory before the series, or more specifically, the characters like Marinette and Chloé. We’ve already been established that the two girls have a history with each for at least three-four years, that Chloé has been a bully towards Marinette, and that in results worsens her anxiety. Yet it has never been shown anything more than Chloé being petty against Marinette, and eventually becoming a rival that clash because of their beliefs and personalities.

Then Derision comes along, and reveals that Chloé has actually been more an abuser who did harmful pranks, isolated her from her peers, ruined her reputation to be made out as a bad kid, and masterminded a prank that could have literally killed Marinette and caused everlasting trauma for her. Now let me be clear, what happened was terrible and Chloé is a terrible person for it. If this is the narrative they have been trying to paint, that is the truth we unfortunately accept.

But it is hard to accept it, because this goes against the narrative we’ve seen for the past years, and contradicts a lot of stuff in both backstory and character interactions, again focusing on Chloé and Marinette. If Chloé has been so terrible this whole time as shown in Derision, why is Marinette just more annoyed with Chloé and able to take her on so easily?You could say it may have been the words of encouragement from Socqueline, but Marinette should still be anxious and scared of Chloé still. Chloé has tormented Marinette for years, Marinette has no support to help back her up, and now that she doesn’t have Socqueline by her side to defend her, she’s on her own (at least that should be her thought process the whole time before meeting Alya).

Also, we have seen multiple times Marinette and Kim interacting with each other, and it’s always been at least friendly with each other. Marinette has never been shown to be uncomfortable around him, especially in Dark Cupid where they most interacted. If they had a bad history this whole time with each other, then why are they acting like nothing happened. I know people are going to say “maybe she subconsciously repressed the memories,” and that might be the case, especially with Kim. It seemed to imply she tried to forget it. But I’m not sure if that is the case in real life, so please take what I said with a grain of salt and I’m sorry if it was offensive.

However, it still doesn’t explain the very different dynamic relationship with Marinette and Chloé. Chloé has done much more things besides the prank/near-death experience she masterminded in, and that should have Marinette more apprehensive and scared of Chloé. Heck, it would make her willing to give Chloé a second chance all the more weirder because why would she ever give back the Bee Miraculous to Chloé, and always keep opening her mind to thinking “maybe she’ll change.”

In conclusion, Derision is like a puzzle piece that the writers are trying to fit into Marinette’s and Chloé’s backstory. However, it does not fit as it contradicts with the narrative they already set up. But instead of trying to move this backstory idea somewhere else like for another story, they forced it in, not caring that it’ll upset the picture they were putting together.

[princess-of-the-corner]

To be fair, I remember a scene from S1 or S2 episode, where Ladybug judo-throws Chloe in a way that should result in latter's neck spine snapping like dry twig (due to it resulting in her hitting a floor head-first). In that case Ladybug did that due to thinking that Chloe was Akumatized Villain's minion trying to sneak up on her from behind.

Fair yeah!

But also like. Again:

Shows like this will usually have... proper context clues. To let us know if this sort of violence is supposed to be cartoony or not.

I've talked on this before, both with ML but also shows like fma or bnha. Where some of the 'we are sparring I am not trying to kill you' moments or even the straight up slapstick comedy can look just as life-threatening as the actual fighting.

But the context around the scenes give the audience a clue to know what we should think of these actions. Should we take it as some comedy? As them safely sparring? As them trying to murder each other?

And ML.... used to do that. So yeah scenes like the above(iirc it's Zombizou?) are slapstick comedy. Scenes like Adrien and Kagami's match in Riposte? Intense but no danger. Most of the Akuma fights? That's the danger.

But ML now has three problems for the whole scene of Ladybug attacking Chloé.

1.) Canon has shifted to say that the cartoony actions should be taken seriously. This was mostly focused on the whole thing with Marinette's overdramatic anxiety stuff and stalker tendancies with Adrien are to be taken seriously. But once you cross that threshold of 'this stuff you brushed off as comedy? Yeah no that's serious and fucked up!' it mixes everything.

2.) That scene of Monarch throwing Marinette into a wall so hard it cracks. Because by all of the context clues, that should be a serious fight with a serious injury. Even if she's just 'vaguely injured' because it's a kid show, at least show her limping instead of getting back up. But yeah no that is just brushed off.

3.) Due to the surrounding circumstances of the whole 'Ladybug attacking Chloé' thing, if the lines weren't blurred by the previous things, then the context says that things happening here /should/ be taken seriously.

[sirani-8927]

Fuck it. My old Reverser predictions

I’ve been on Tumblr, lurking around the ML fandom since Season 2 was on hiatus. So the predictions of certain episodes and the old theories and ideas, I miss them. So this is a bit of nostalgia, back to when it was a little more fun.

I don't know when the leaks happened, but I do remember that the leaks of Reverser we got released sometime between Zombizou and Frightingale. The synopsis of the episode was released on Twitter shortly after. The only reason I remember this is that Nathaniel just disappeared in Zombizou and a few people made jokes about him heading to Marc.

But regardless, we only ever saw his akuma form for a while so there were various predictions of what he was like and what it meant that he was "made a fool of" by Nathaniel and Marinette. Some people, myself included, assumed that he liked origami or that his akumatization was based on or surrounding paper planes in some way. Similar to how Nino blew bubbles when he was angry and that was the theme for his powers. Just a matter of circumstance.

Obviously, a lot of us speculated that his relationship with Nathaniel was involved and we were excited to ship him with someone new. There was some speculation that he might've known Marc for some time already (I can't find Tumblr posts for this so trust me please) and, I actually had the thought that he might've had a crush on Marinette, like so many other guys beforehand. So my first idea was Marc thought Nath and Marinette were making fun of him and his feelings, but then the first teaser of the episode came out and I figured that doesn't correlate to his powerset. His being teased for a crush felt more Dark Cupid-esque than "change-your-skills".

My next assumption was that Nath and he threw paper planes at each other, sending messages and notes to each other, maybe it was in class or the library and Marc either decided to send a very personal note to Nath about Marinette and never got a reply, or his message was read and answered by Chloe/Sabrina (as a callback to Sabrina's forging skills). Either way, it felt more fitting that they both had humiliation involved in their akumatizations in my opinion. (It's not that I hate Reverser or was disappointed in it when I first watched it. I do like the episode, but it'd be nice if Marc as a person was focused on separate from Nathaniel.)

I mostly just did this to try and remain neutral about the show right now. I'm more excited about the movie and it feels like it'll bring a lot of love back to the fandom, but if it doesn't, I'm worried the series will just fall into obscurity. I'm not a fan of the writing in S4, and I stopped watching S5 after the first episode. I don't think I've ever felt this disappointed in a piece of media before.

[flightfoot]

Marinette getting gaslit in Revelation? And her friends don't realize because Lilas Anti-IQ AOE? Miss Bustier giving Chloe every excuse like in Zombizou, except that even in Zombizou she got pissed off at Chloes nonsense. Marinette declaring that she's done with Chloe and Lila's toxicity and getting shamed for it? This will not end well in the fandom. Miracuclass is cancelled.

You guys have been doing this since Chameleon. It's been four years nonstop. I've been on ML AO3 daily for most of that time. I've seen more of it than I ever cared to see. I honestly don't think things are gonna change that much in the fandom, because it's already been going at max for so long.

Also I'd say that Marinette was less getting shamed for being done with Chloe, and more just that people were more on board with the idea that maybe Lila could change Chloe. They didn't seem all that upset about Marinette saying she's done with Chloe and that she won't change, and more that Lila responded in such a way that Marinette's words were perceived as an attack on Lila, rather than just on Chloe. As for Lila's toxicity... well, she's an expert manipulator, so everyone else just wasn't perceiving that.