#no he and kagami are not an item she does not deserve a boyfriend like that

[nebulardrip]

don't mind me just salting over cartoons

trying to get through another li.la-centric episode like "why, oh why, do they keep writing Al.ya out of character and dumbing down the entire class just so li.la can get her way again?" you expect me to believe that someone like al.ya ce.saire is more willing to take li.la's side than mari.nette's? mari.nette dup.ain-ch.eng whom she's known for far longer than li.la??? what reason does she have to believe what li.la says over mari.nette? i refuse to believe her behavior in lila-centric episodes are consistent with her previously established character. it just isn't. and for al.ya and ni.no to just brush off what their friends have to say because they're in love??? make it make sense!!!

[kisilinramblings]

I don't know if it's just me but it feels like the writers deliberately thrown out Adrien's support system so he's become dependent on Marinette and Marinette alone and I don't think it's good for him.

I don't think it is ill-intentioned. I think it is more the writers team wanting to keep the story focused, but in S5 especially, it is truth there is a lack of narratives involving Adrien considering other aspects of his life other than his love life which is probably why you feel that way (and I'm pretty sure you aren't the only one).

It's not like during S4. The narrative during that season did "put aside" Chat Noir to better illustrate what Ladybug was doing to him and as viewers, we better understand his sentiment of feeling left out. And this lead him to get this interesting arc of questioning himself. Who is he inside Ladybug's team? Who is he as Adrien? What about his future? What does he want to do later? The scenes he got as so important and critical in his evolution during this arc of his.

In S5, it feels like Adrien is more out to figure how he can be a good boyfriend and setting an example for the young audience.

Not a bad thing by itself. Not to mention I don't often see male characters having this kind of narrative in fiction. That is when the characters do become an item before the end of the show/season and that we don't got that couple broke up the next following. We notably didn't have the chance to have this when Marinette and Adrien were respectively dating Luka and Kagami. Though I do like that Kagami, in her case, point out how envious she is that Adrien has now put up the work and fell back in love with him. For me, this is candy.

Anyway, relationship is work. From both sides. And I really like that Miraculous is giving it attention.

Though it is true that once Adrien starts officially dating Marinette, we don't see much scenes of him with Plagg, with Nino, with the other boys alone or any other character than doesn't revolved of him talking about Marinette. Even with Ladynoir interactions are very few now. (sorry, I am missing them).

Marinette has also a lot of focus on her love life as well this season again, but it is a least a bit more balanced with side stories. Like the miscommunication with Kagami during Perfection. Her trauma. The organization of the bal with Zoé during Adoration. Both Chloé and Lila causing her problems. Whatever is happening with Félix/Argos.

For Adrien, it was different at the beginning of the season. Especially with Evolution or even better Illusion in which we got that story involving how Adrien felt about his image used like that for Alliance, Gabriel trying now to be "involved" in his son's life, La Résistance.

Or in Passion, we got a bit of his relationship with Nathalie where he is reacting about the fact she is sick and don't know what he can do to help.

In Intuition, we do see Adrien gets a bit preoccupied by his father's health, but then Gabriel says to him that he is just overworked and wants to work less and be more present for his son, only for to answer his phone and leave the room with his father's permission. Like Karma right back at Gabriel, but at the same time, I hope this will go somewhere. There was an opportunity there even if Gabriel doesn't deserve it.

And we do get this scene in Pretension where Adrien goes to his room as ordered by his father but is paralyzed and cannot go back to support Marinette. Or have Adrien react with disgust at Gabriel after learning that he will move to London once the school year is over. Illustrating how Adrien is still at Gabriel's mercy, feels he is scared or furious at his father. But hey! At least, we have Adrien keeping out this thing about having to move to London a secret to Marinette for now.

So there is tension in the father and son, and I'm glad there is, but Marinette is the only catalyst when it isn't Nathalie backing up and protecting Adrien behind the scene. And on top of that, Félix decides to switch his attention to Kagami instead of Adrien and hasn't yet told him anything.

Like, please, have someone in this household tell this boy the freaking truth about what is going on so we can see him react a bit and contribute to move things out as well in the best of his abilities.

Anyway, despite this, with 7 episodes left to conclude the Agreste Arc. I'm still interested to see where this is going. And with Season 6 and 7, I'm curious to see what will be next.