#post timetagger

[that-was-anticlimactic]

[ID: a screenshot of a tweet and quote tweet. the original tweet is by ladyblognews spoilers. it says: "[two police car's light emojis] Breaking: The first story arc of 'Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir' has officially ended.". the word "breaking" title of the show are in all caps. beneath it is a promotional picture of Ladybug and Chat Noir. the quote tweet is by user @/SO0u0o. it reads: "one piece for French people". /End ID.]

[maddascanbe-blog]

Ladies and Gentlemen. I give you Little Vesperia. She's a powerful punch in a petite package! I posted her design in sketches ages ago but I was SO jazzed to finally do it digital. And I finally could do Teen Zoé and Vesperia.

Buckle up folks this is a long one.

I won't go into too much detail on Teen Zoé's fit, since I already talked about it in here. But Vesperia is where things get more interesting.

Little Vesperia obviously takes more inspiration from Queen Bee since in my rewrite Zoé idolizes Chloé so much. Zoé's father couldn't really be bothered to care about Zoé, she's been at every boarding school and summer camp he could afford while still keeping most of the money Audrey sends him. She rarely sees him, and when they are stuck together he wants her out of sight and out of mind.

Then Zoé is uprooted entirely when Audrey's infidelity is exposed. To save face she gets brought to Paris, to play at being one big happy family. She may be young, but she's wise enough to know this is just another person using her for their gain. She did face bullying at her schools, and a whole lot of nothing done about it from the teachers.

She also does not speak french. Which means that a good 70% of people have no idea how to communicate with her. And Audrey was no help. Zoé vas given so little information she didn't even KNOW she had an older sister when the was taken to France. Chloé was a complete blindside to her.

And she especially doesn't expect this intimidating teenager to kneel down to her level, and in perfect english explain that it's okay to be scared and she'll make sure Zoé won't be stuck wondering what's gonna happen next.

They spend the rest of the day learning where everyone is, and what certain things are called in french so that Zoé has a better way to communicate. They also sit down and order decorations for Zoé's room.

Zoé fully anticipated André to ignore her, but he is kind like he is in cannon. Just very busy so can only get in small conversations with her. Still, he's shown her more care than her own father had in the 9 years she's been alive. Since he'll ask her about her day, anything she may need, how school has been, etc. He also manages to get a free day to show her all the cool things in the hotel that most people don't know are there. He tries to have dinner with Chloé and Zoé as often as possible and they eat lunch together at the hotel at least once a week.

Now to Teen Zoé. I'll probably write this down in a separate post but my Idea for her is because of the limits I put on the rabbit miraculous Bunnix is no longer able to fight Timetagger, but she IS able to bring someone from that point in time to help instead. And since bringing anyone that could be recognized could potentially cause a paradox, the best solution is to bring in someone who they haven't met yet.

Design wise I like Vesperia's cannon design but it does look more like a wasp than a bee. I based her top on these biker jackets that had segments on the sides and just made the segments alternate black and yellow. I originally planned to keep the black top and yellow bottoms, but it just didn't look the way I wanted it too. I think making the jacket yellow makes it look much more like a bee. Also black mask because I like how those look better.

I think Little Vesperia looks good too, different enough from Queen Bee while still looking like she took inspiration, my favorite part was making it look like she had striped socks. While Teen Zoé looks like a logical progression while also dipping into badass as opposed to cute. Also her pupils turn gold to further differentiate her from Queen Bee.

(Bonus- Verpseria with colors closer to her originals)

[fabseg-creator]

Future Chrysabug: Private Lesson + Cheating and Jealousy (Chrysalis Vs the Marilix Date)

I've made new Cerisette/Chrysabug sketches. They still are adults.

First (tw: BDSM): Future Ladybug and Future Chrysalis/Future Hawk Moth have an intimate moment. A seductive Butterfly Cerise is going to learn a BDSM lesson to an unzipped and tied-up Ladybug.

Second: Marilix/Marialix/Alixnette/ladybunnyx Date (Marinette/Ladybug × Alix/Bunnyx). Ladybug and Bunnyx hang out together. A lovesick Bunnyx flirts with an exalted Ladybug.

Meanwhile, Adult Chrysalis watches the two women in a beginning of sensual relationship. She is really and fully jealous of Bunnyx. The Rabbit is stealing her romantic date with Ladybug.

So, she calls for an akumatized person in order to get rid of Bunnyx: She recruits Chris (turned into Timetagger).

"Timetagger. I am Hawkmoth..."

It happens in the same universe than these posts:

[jacquesthepigeon]

it is so funny to me that bunnyx was livid when marinette “caused” chat blanc according to her, or when chat noir almost did that thing i don’t remember in timetagger, but apparently in the london special when marinette consults her about gabriel she goes “idk girl your choice”. i assume she can’t give marinette any kind of advice because itz not da time!!1

my new theory is that she’s actually working for gabriel because every time he’s about to make a wish (ephemeral, kwami’s choice, the s5 finale where he actually made it) she doesn’t care to show up but when EVIL lila does it suddenly it’s a horrible emergency marinette specifically must attend and fix immediately

I made a post about it fairly recently but I’m too lazy to look it up but basically

I’m just gonna start pretending Bunnyx is also a villain

She’s only protecting timelines where she gets to keep her access to time traveling even if it means countless innocents suffer as a result

[character-fan19]

Optimizing Viewing Experience for Love Square Shippers

You guys have previously seen me make a post on the love square screen time records based on the data I collected on how much screen time each love square ship has in each episode and special and in each season exactly and now we're going to be putting that data to more practical use and using it to figure out what are the best seasons, episodes and specials for shippers of certain sides of the love square to watch when binging through Miraculous.

Adrienette

You don't need to know the exact screen time for Adrienette in every season to know that season 5 is the best season for Adrienette shippers to watch. Not only is it the season with the most Adrienette screen time, but it's also the season where Adrienette finally becomes canon which is yet another plus.

For episodes that feature particularly large amounts of Adrienette screen time you can look to "Gamer" (6 min 28 sec) in season 1; "Riposte" (4 min 14 sec), "Gorizilla" (4 min 11 sec) and "Frozer" (4 min 10 sec) in season 2; "Oblivio" (9 min 3 sec) and "The Puppeteer 2" (4 min 27 sec) in season 3; "Mr. Pigeon 72" (2 min 23 sec), "Psycomedian" (2 min 19 sec) and "Simpleman" (2 min 8 sec) in season 4; and "Determination" (4 min 46 sec), "Transmission" (4 min 49 sec) and "Protection" (4 min 19 sec) in season 5.

In terms of Miraculous World specials, you're best bet is the New York Special which has 7 min 40 sec of screen time which has the whole storyline of Marinette trying remain friends with Adrien.

Ladynoir

Really you can pick any season since Ladynoir dominates all of them but the best season for Ladynoir shippers would be season 1 which not only has the most Ladynoir out of all the seasons but also has that classic Ladynoir dynamic I've seen certain Ladynoir fans crave in the later seasons: fighting villains and just being a dynamic duo in general, Cat Noir making the puns and Ladybug getting annoyed with him, those kind of stuff.

For episodes with particularly high amounts of Ladynoir check out "Stormy Weather" (6 min 7 sec), "Mr. Pigeon" (6 min 10 sec), "Horrificator" (6 min 8 sec), "Kung Food" (7 min 3 sec), "Animan" (8 min 28 sec), and "Volpina" (6 min 7 sec) in season 1; "Prime Queen" (8 min 19 sec), "The Dark Owl" (8 min 14 sec), and "Mayura" (8 min 32 sec) in season 2; "Reflekdoll" (7 min 19 sec), "Timetagger" (6 min 22 sec), and "Cat Blanc" (6 min 35 sec) in season 3; "Truth" (4 min 4 sec), "Psycomedian" (5 min 40 sec), "Furious Fu" (4 min 57 sec), "Kuro Neko" (7 min 23 sec), and "Strikeback" (4 min 14 sec) in season 4; and "Evolution" (7 min 50 sec), "Multiplication" (7 min 36 sec), and "Passion" (7 min 4 sec) in season 5.

In terms of Miraculous World specials, you can go for the New York special which has 6 min 29 sec of screen time and gives us some good Ladynoir angst with Cat Noir betraying Ladybug's trust and feeling so guilty about that he gave up his Miraculous.

Maricat

For Maricat, the season of you're choice would be season 4, even though most of the screen time there is concentrated in "Glaciator 2". This season even has the episode with the most Maricat screen time in all of the show so far, that is, "Glaciator 2".

Episodes with particularly high amounts of Maricat screen time include "Evillustrator" (2 min 17 sec) and "Gamer" (54 sec) in season 1, "Glaciator" (3 min 29 sec) and "Befana" (36 sec) in season 2, "Weredad" (3 min 57 sec) and "Kwamibuster" (44 sec) in season 3, "Sentibubbler" (1 min 24 sec) and "Glaciator 2" (8 min 14 sec) in season 4, and "Elation" (5 min 37 sec) and "Protection" (48 sec) in season 5.

Ladrien

For Ladrien shippers, the best seasons for you guys to watch are seasons 2 and 3, moreso season 2, where Ladrien was at the peak of its screen time until it dwindled into nothingness in seasons 4 and 5.

For episodes with a particularly large amount of screen time we have "Simon Says" (1 min 22 sec) and "Volpina" (1 min 23 sec) in season 1, "Riposte" (3 min 42 sec) and "Gorizilla" (3 min 58 sec) in season 2, "Oblivio" (1 min 40 sec) and "Desparada" (5 min 35 sec) in season 3, "Strikeback" (37 sec) in season 4, and "Passion" (17 sec) in season 5.

Conclusion

Well, that's it. Hope this was helpful to some love square shippers who want to binge through Miraculous.

[into-september]

"Destruction" is the worst episode of Miraculous Ladybug

Oh hey guys, remember way back in April or something when I said I was doing this? Well, the one year anniversary of its premiere is a suitable time to post this, particularly since yesterday saw the airing of the last piece of canon to come out in a while, which happened to be set immediately after these events.

With the always obligatory reminder in place that I generally think that “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir” is in fact a good TV show whose appeal potentially reaches beyond its merchandise-mandated target group, it has an unflattering pattern of introducing the juiciest story threads and then just… do nothing about them.

The topic of today’s sermon isn't in isolation the worst offender. But it is thanks to this that the worst offender happens at all, so I'm not gonna be nice about it.

Scroll past to skip the negativity.

So, “Destruction”, possibly the most eagerly awaited episodes of out S5 if you don’t count all the false advertisement that was “Revelation”. I remember finding this episode uncharacteristically charmless for this show when I first watched it. They've been onto heavy topics before, but those episodes still had that je ne sais quoi that gives this show such heart. But re-watching "Destruction" I found it lacking already from the first scene, and felt it only in glimpses. It's just not fun.

The episode is also poorly paced, no way around it. It is inexplicably a flashback to two episodes ago which is not evident from the start. More than half the runtime technically consists of Marinette and Alya having a sleepover. The battle and its game-changing outcome is over at 12 minutes into the episode, which is barely past the halfway point. After that, we spend five minutes - a quarter of the episode's full runtime - on a flashback re-playing the same battle but now with verbal exposition explaining Marinette's clever plan. Mind that the confrontation between Marinette and Gabriel lasts for all of seven minutes, meaning that the flashback is nearing the length of the battle itself.

To top it of, it's bogged down with lengthy exchange between Gabriel and the kwamis just to make clear that the haters on the twitter were totally wrong when they bitched about Orikko being OP because actually its powers were something else than we established last season. Here's a bonus plot hole which has nothing to do with everything else I'm going to nag about: Orikko allegedly can't give out the powers of time-travel because no kwami can replicate another kwami's powers. Except for Nooroo and Duusu, I guess, who have done so on several occasions. One of the more remarkable being the episode which first heralded the event that "Destruction" set in motion: "Timetagger".

And who can forget that this was the second time in three episodes where Ladybug and Cat Noir had Monarch at their mercy but spent so much time giving triumphant speeches that he gets away.

Or that that in fact was the second time on the same night.

But while those things certainly make the episode poor, they are not what makes it the worst.

What makes this episode the worst isn't its technical failures, but about the way it leaves its feces all over the themes and the character arcs it seemed like the show had been building up until this point. Moreover: in the role it plays in S5 and the Agreste storyline, and how the show's refusal to touch it again creates a black hole in the season at large, and arguably in the show as a whole.

I. THE INESCAPABLE CONTEXT OF WHAT CAME BEFORE IT

The art of telling a story is the art of highlighting what matters and leaving out what doesn’t. In a well-crafted story, no matter the medium, no detail is insignificant. Every word is carefully chosen, every line or hue made with intention. The curtains aren’t blue just because, and Miraculous Ladybug has made too many meta jokes to hide behind the claim that it’s just a silly rom-com for kids. It has trained its older audience into looking for context and connections; after “Mr. Pigeon 72”, you can’t insist that nothing that happened earlier in this show matters for what happens later. Titles matter a lot in a show where episodes are titled after the villain-of-the-week who usually is the thematic mirror to what our heroes are going through.

“Destruction” is the fourth episode somehow named after Adrien, and the third somehow named after Plagg. You bet this matters.

As some might know, "Kuro Neko" is not my favourite episode. That's not to say I don't like it! It's cute! It's playing a really interesting scenario! We get Plagg hanging out at chez Marinette! But to enjoy it, I have to willfully ignore the storytelling incompetence it flagrantly displays. Because the moment you peek beneath the surface of the events happening to consider theme, motifs, and narrative parallels, it's just

"Kuro Neko" is the second episode that is named after Cat Noir. The first one was "Cat Blanc". There is a thematic connection between the two; not a very clear one and probably not an intentional one, but all the same: both episodes are about an alternative to Cat Noir. One is the result of his father's violence; the other is Adrien's own attempt to become more like the person he presents around his father. They also both show us Plagg and Adrien negotiation Adrien's relationship to Ladybug, and how Ladybug and Cat Noir negotiate that same thing.

"Cat Blanc", for all its apocalyptic visions, starts and ends with hope. It starts with Marinette’s hope at confessing to Adrien, to Adrien’s hope in finally knowing Ladybug’s identity and knowing her like he’s yearned for for three seasons. Those hopes lead to disaster, but the episode ends with Ladybug finding Cat Noir on the Montparnasse Tower, where he is singing his lullaby about the kitty being "all alone without his Lady". As is fitting, Marinette breaks the pattern: after having just witnessed a world turned to destruction because the two of them loved each other, she leans her head on his shoulder in perhaps the most romantic gesture she's ever given him.

"Kuro Neko", in contrast, starts with Adrien resigning the job when he realises that Ladybug no longer needs him and that makes him feel bad. It ends with him coming back and verbally accepting that Ladybug doesn't owe him any exclusive treatment; he isn't her unique partner, just one of many. Where the final scene of "Cat Blanc" seemed to confirm that Ladybug is indeed the answer to Adrien's solitude, the final scene of "Kuro Neko" and its continuation in the first scene in "Risk" both make clear that the opposite is now status: Adrien has to accept the painful fact that as much as Ladybug might be the most important person in his life, Cat Noir does not hold a similar space in Ladybug's.

(The end of “Strike Back” of course claims to remedy this, but those words don’t ring very true when to Marinette’s knowledge, nothing of what went wrong today had anything to do with her keeping secrets from Cat Noir. More damning: Marinette never follows up on her purported regret. In all of S5, she never once sits down to share all those secrets with Cat Noir. Status from "Kuro Neko" still stands, and Adrien is fine with that now. This has nothing to do with the many problems “Destruction” creates, but talking about “Kuro Neko” by necessity means talking about how it wasn’t fixed even if they put the words in Marinette’s mouth. And now back to our scheduled programming)

"Cat Blanc" and "Kuro Neko" by their very existence bring up a thorny topic: That Adrien being Cat Noir isn't wholly unproblematic, and that both Adrien as an individual and Ladybug as the Guardian might have legitimate reasons to question that choice. This has always been obvious to the viewer who knows Hawkmoth’s identity, but the show itself eventually starts calling attention to that from an entirely different angle - namely that of his powers.

Lest we forget: The first episode of S4 that aired wasn't the first episode chronologically: It was "Furious Fu", wherein we learn that The Order of the Guardians has it out for Plagg specifically, and where Ladybug's status as The Guardian is almost revoked on the grounds that she's letting him run around unsupervised. This question of Plagg's whereabouts comes up again in the only episode that is named after Adrien sans Plagg: "Ephemeral", a re-play of “Cat Blanc” except not good. This whole subplot is quickly forgotten, though it being the only one of Su-Han's complaints that weren't about him being a boomer, it's also worth remember that "Destruction" technically happens a couple of hours after he made his last appearance. One might expect that his one consistent lesson would be important enough to echo a bit in the episode where it’s proven to be justified.

"Destruction", as not only one very early episode of the season promising to finally bring about some significant and not the least permanent changes to their lives, but indeed an episode happening on the same night as Ladybug's declaration of regret and Cat Noir's renewed declaration to be her partner, would by its title and its topic seem like the obvious place to finally resolve what "Cat Blanc" and "Kuro Neko" both asked us to question: The existential terror of Plagg's powers, why it is that Adrien is uniquely chosen to temper them at Ladybug’s side, and how Adrien feels about being the one to carry that responsibility.

Yeah. Well.

II. ADRIEN'S PRESENCE IN "DESTRUCTION"

Where "Kuro Neko" and "Cat Blanc" place significant focus on Adrien Agreste in his civillian life, in "Destruction" he appears on screen for a total of 25 seconds - most of which are another flashback to a previous episode, and whose purpose is to highlight Gabriel's hurt from the cataclysm, not Adrien's thoughts about what is happening.

Cat Noir's presence is also marginal. Three minutes of screentime pass from his first appearance until the battle is over. Said battle is the turning point in the war between the heroes and Monarch, thanks to neither Ladybug's powers nor Monarch and all the kwamis, but Monarch using Cat Noir's powers for an impulsive act of self-mutilation. Cat Noir is distraught over this, turning desperate when Monarch first start toying with the idea and being near tears after he carries it out.

I'll get back to the impact of this event, but for now I'll point out that the aftermath is brief: After Monarch escapes, our heroes have this exchange:

LB: We had him, we almost had him! The kwamis were safe, they were right here! CN: I cataclysmed him! I can't believe this, I just cataclysmed someone! Granted it was Monarch, but - there was a real person behind that mask, and it must have hurt him terribly! Milady, you gotta fix this! LB: Cat Noir, Monarch just ran away with my lucky charm! Without it, I can't fix anything. I can't call on my powers and undo the effect of the cataclysm. There's nothing I can do...

We then cut to the slumber party, where Marinette tells Alya that she and Cat Noir "split up" immediately after, and Alya comforts her. From this point in the episode, Cat Noir and Adrien only appear in flashbacks. First a fifty-second flashback wherein Marinette sets up her convoluted plans, then a few seconds of him moving his statue in the wax museum before Monarch appears.

In the episode that more than anything should thematise Adrien, Plagg's powers, and his relationship to his father, Adrien is on screen for a whooping four minutes and twenty seconds.

And because I am that devoted to proving my point, I went and timed all of Alya's on-and-off appearances, which clocked in at a total of five minutes and six seconds.

Alya is of course core to the slumber party which frames the setting of the entire episodes. Moreover, it is with Alya that the emotional arc of the episode ends: it starts with Marinette tormenting hersef watching a Ladyblog report about Monarch's recent win, for which Alya chastises her. The last scene (before Gabriel pulverises the miraculous) has Alya reassure Marinette that she will get the kwamis back. When she regrets her lack of superpowers, Marinette in turn reassures her that Alyas true superpower is being her friend. The journey of the episode was for Marinette to stop blaming herself for messing up, and learning to rely on Alya's support in the new turn the war has taken.

...

IN THE EPISODE WHERE ADRIEN KILLS HIS FATHER.

III. SIR NOT-APPEARING-IN-THIS-FILM

In the episode where Gabriel commits suicide on his son's miraculous, here are some things that got more screentime than the son forced into using his only source of liberation to kill his father:

Flashbacks to past events (four minutes and fourty-five seconds)

Alya (five minutes six seconds)

The kwamis (six minutes and nine seconds)

Bet you can't guess which one is the only kwami who doesn't appear in this episode!

...okay, and Duusu, but you get the point. In the episode detonating the nuke that is the gruesome potential of Plagg's powers, and the potential damage Adrien might deal with them, Plagg never appears on screen.

In the episode highlighting the presence of the kwamis and their importance to their holders, the kwami whose presence is the most thematically tied to his holder's character arc is completely absent.

In the episode irreparably going into the only kwami whose powers is straight up murder, the kwami who The Guardians have singled out specifically as particularly dangerous, the kwami whose irresponsible nature has previously caused problems both to Adrien privately and Cat Noir professionally, said kwami is never even mentioned.

It's almost as if we're not supposed to remember that it is because of his presence that this whole tragedy was possible.

IV. THE EXISTENCE-DEFINING HORROR OF A CATACLYSM GONE WRONG

And ain’t that a funny one, when the gruesome potential in Plagg’s powers was the driving factor in Adrien’s first true crisis as a hero?

Marinette faced her moment in "Origins", where she gave up on her miraculous after the first disastrous attempt. She knows that she is the only one who can do something about the situation, but refuses out of her own lacking courage. She only becomes Ladybug of her own choice when she realises that she can save Alya's life. After this, Marinette never again questioned her place. She would grieve the burden on occasion, but she never once thought anyone else could do better.

Adrien, as we all know, was the polar opposite: he jumped right into it without reading the manual, had to have Ladybug pick up the pieces after a rash cataclysm, and never doubted his calling again until he realised what Plagg’s powers could do when used on a living being.

The NYC special has Adrien quit for reasons that had nothing to do with being unsatisfied with Ladybug's HR policies. It is in part because he effed up his duty as Paris' substitute guardian, but it's certainly also because of the recent horror he just witnessed: his hand forced by someone else nearly killed Ladybug, and killed Uncanny Valley instead as she stepped between them. Adrien just saw a mother weeping over her daughter's corpse, and how only the lucky presence of Ladybug's powers could undo the damage caused by his, unintentional thought it might have been. Adrien would of course never kill anyone on purpose, but Uncanny Valley’s temporary malfunction was a brutal display of what would happen if he stumbled the wrong direction with the gun loaded. Ladybug might have the duty to protect Paris, but Cat Noir has the duty to not to disintegrate people on touch.

The show never before discussed the weight of this burden in Adrien’s presence. “Cat Blanc” did it from Marinette’s side, but this never was a consistent story thread, only briefly brought up as her remembering why his knowing her identity is a bad idea. The sabbatical in “Kuro Neko” has nothing to do with Plagg or with Adrien’s sense of duty, and where you’d think this would be where Marinette finally brings up the issue bridging the NYC special and “Cat Blanc”, neither of the two are as much as alluded to. That Adrien has the power of murder has yet to be explicitly discussed in the show proper, but in combination with his personal relationship to Hawkmoth being a ticking irony bomb, the question of can he even bear it is inevitable.

That Adrien’s post as Cat Noir wasn’t as given as Marinette’s as Ladybug is echoed in the amount of times that Adrien has either quit or at least contemplated doing so (“Syren”, NYC special, “Wishmaker”, “Kuro Neko”). He likes being Cat Noir more than Marinette likes being Ladybug, but he lacks her iron certainty in the role. It is notable, then, that THE ONE TIME where Marinette questions her part, it is after Cat Noir has quit. She says this, out loud, in words. When Cat Noir’s powers become too heavy for Adrien to carry, then Ladybug, too, disappears.

So surely "Destruction" must be the point where this is finally comes together - where Adrien's history of quitting meets his ultimate crisis, where his powers abused on a human being of flesh and blood forces him into confronting the potential cost of being this particular hero, which will foreshadow the ultimate choice he’ll have to take: between being Cat Noir and being his father’s son. And where his choice, in turn, will define whether Ladybug can exist.

Or not.

Maybe we'll never again have Adrien think about how he probably murdered a man. Maybe we'll just - oh I don't know.

Have him start trying to cataclysm people?

Repeatedly?

While showing none of the horror at himself which he clearly had in the aftermath of accidentally cataclysming the villain responsible for his later victims’ possession?

And in the end, after never calling attention to Adrien’s new and trigger happy ways, we’ll have him give in to his fear, claim that he isn’t strong enough to responsibly use Plagg’s powers, and send his miraculous away for Ladybug to use alone, because it turns out that “Kuro Neko” was right and the NYC special was wrong: she can be Ladybug without him.

Growth, amirite.

V. IN THIS HOUSE WE DON’T TALK ABOUT PATRICIDE

Dramatic irony was the main engine driving "Miraculous Ladybug" from the start, and it was Adrien who bore the brunt of it. Not only did he spend four and a half seasons in unrequited love with a girl who rejected him for himself; he spent five seasons doing weekly battle against his own father.

The superpower war between father and son isn't just a source of story tension, however: it is inextricably mirrored in their relationship as family, where the father is openly abusive and the son is magically incapable of protesting. The show repeatedly makes A Point about how the freedom Adrien so wants, is one that he only gets through being Cat Noir, and the only way Adrien is capable of fighting his father - albeit ignorant of it - is with Plagg's powers.

Cat Noir defeating Hawkmoth was necessary not just for his story as a superhero, but as his character arc as a normal boy.

And in "Destruction", this is exactly what happens. Thanks to Plagg's powers, the path to Adrien's freedom is finally paved, in the most gruesome and unwanted manner possible. Adrien might not get the big cathartic show-down with his evil father, but technically he was the one to bring him down.

But we don't talk about that. Except for his one (1) line after Monarch escapes with Ladybug's lucky charm, Adrien never again brings up the fact that his being careless with a cataclysm certainly maimed a man, by precedent (Aeon) possibly killed him. Rather than a story arc about Adrien being afraid of his own powers, it’s only now that he starts aiming it at people when he’s under emotional duress. This could of course have been one hell of a story point if it was intentional, but by all accounts, it wasn’t. When Adrien never again reflects on his having probably murdered a man, or reasons that Monarch is probably fine since he’s clearly still around so maybe a cataclysm isn’t so bad, and he never dwells on his nearly murdering two of his friends, there can’t have been any connection intended here. Moreover: when Adrien is scared of his miraculous towards the end, it’s not about its capacity for normal murder when he’s having a bad day, but its capacity of ending the world if he happens to be akumatised.

Gabriel is likewise disinterested in the cause of his impending disintegration. You’d think the man would feel some kind of special resentment towards Cat Noir and his powers, you could think this was where he’d get to re-thinking his relationship to the two people who are sitting on the keys to solving all his problems. Maybe he’d start doubting himself now, bearing the ultimate testament to his magical hubris. But no. The cataclysm wound is there and it’s a problem, but the reason it happened is completely irrelevant to the man who did this to himself and unknowingly, to his son.

That is almost as mind-blowing as the fact that they really had a straight up patricide happen on screen. Sure, death was never the intention of either of the two parties, and Adrien certainly holds no blame for what happened. But Gabriel must have at least known what he was risking, and even if the soft-hearted Adrien would somehow reason away the gravity, Plagg would certainly now. By its very nature, this one cataclysm drags out and distils a plethora of questions about both Adrien’s role as Cat Noir, about Gabriel’s vision of himself and his goals, and about their relationship not as father and son, but as villain and hero. The gruesome narrative irony looming over all this is in that regard just the icing on the cake.

There is certainly an Oedipal layer to the drama of Gabriel and Adrien, though the often more scandalous incestuous angle is considerably downplayed here. Even so: By the denouement of S5, Adrien has successfully killed his father and set up a home with his mother. That really happened, but we’re sure not going to investigate how this influenced the relationship between two nemesis, between father and son, between Adrien and his kwami.

The cataclysm in “Destruction” turned Adrien from anguished shoujo love interest to the hero of a greek tragedy, but the show is dead set on pretending that it didn’t.

VI. SO THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT

In isolation, "Destruction" comes across as weird more than anything. It's named after Adrien's kwami, it spends an inordinate amount of screentime on Adrien's father, it reaches back to Adrien's perhaps most defining moment as Cat Noir as it fundamentally changes the game between our heroes and our villains as one of them is finally dealt a damaging blow - which in turn sets Adrien's life down a path towards tragedy that must be interfered with for him to have a happy ending by the end of the season.

And yet, Adrien is a peripheral presence in it. Marinette and Gabriel dominate the screentime, Alya and the kwamis are consistently present as the thematic chorus at their respective sides throughout, the episode plays its events twice in order to make it clear that Ladybug is too clever for Monarch's miraculous, the emotional arcs that are followed are the follow-up on where Marinette and Alya stand after the disaster in "Strike Back" as well as Gabriel's renewed vigour. Adrien's only contribution to the episode is to follow Ladybug's instructions and to make clear that his relationship with his father is still awkward. The episode depicts probably THE most important event of the show, but this event is treated almost as an afterthought, and the horrors of it are confined to one (1) line of dialogue from Cat Noir.

The only thing in “Destruction” that is brought up in later episodes is that Gabriel is now actively dying. If they wanted for Gabriel to live on a countdown for his date with the grim reaper, there were countless other ways about it: Have it be his use of too many miraculous which backfires, have him having used the peacock before it was fixed, have it be too much evil on the hands of Nooroo, have him get a serious call from his doctor, have him screw up Tomoe's machinery, have him develop a drug problem. This is a fictional narrative; its twists and turns are absolutely in the hands of the writers, teenage girls being irredeemable or not. It was never vital that this happened by cataclysm specifically.

So what was the point, then? Did we truly turn our magical girl show into a Greek tragedy for the shocked pikachu faces only?

The one thing I somehow haven't seen people bring up, is that "Destruction" makes it impossible for Adrien to learn Monarch's identity. According to the writers themselves, the reason lies in two of the other episodes named after him: "Cat Blanc" and "Ephemeral", wherein he learns his father's identity and is promptly akumatised. This is of course bullshit: both these cases relied not on Adrien learning his father's identity, but on Gabriel specifically scheming to traumatise Adrien with both the Hawkmoth reveal AND the fact that he's been living in the same house as his mother's dead body for the last year or two (timeline here is spectacularly contradictory). There was anothing inevitable about this. You're the writers. You could've set up a scenario where Adrien didn't learn about his father's crimes as an act of psychological warfare, and where he'd have the time to absorb it, to grieve and to find support by the time he'd confront him with it. Having every person close to Adrien keep life-defining secrets from him “for his own good” is, by god, not a good look on anyone involved here. Still it’s understanable, at least for those who aren't either adults or gods of destruction.

"Destruction", however, serves as an explanation for the gaping plot hole in the epilogue: Marinette tells Alya, she tells Su-Han. The one she doesn't tell, though?

The partner who was at her side before Alya or Su-Han ever appeared, and stood by her in far worse storms. Because telling Cat Noir the truth would mean telling Cat Noir that he dealt Gabriel Agreste the killing blow, and ain't that a nifty way to ensure that Marinette won't. Because if Adrien does learn Monarch's identity and the truth about his fall in future seasons, Emilie better hide those garment pins.

The truly damning part of "Destruction" isn't so much what the episode itself does. It's what it doesn't do. It's the storylines it cuts short and leaves behind, and it is the storyline it by its very existence introduces, but which the show refuses to touch.

Per title and content both, "Destruction" should be the culmination of thematic storylines from "Cat Blanc", the NYC special and "Kuro Neko". It’s not; it’s not even about Adrien, and Plagg isn’t even present in it. Moreover: its lacking presence on future episodes make it painfully evident that ambitions, there were none. Those storylines were either aborted like Adrien picking up Felix's spyglass in the S4 finale, or the show never did mean for there to be such a thing as "layers" to this story about a boy who becomes a hero to unknowingly break free from his superhero father.

The real reason why "Destruction" is the worst episode of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is that it obliterates the most cohesive character arc this show had going for it, and that this was done on purpose.

[mcsm-confessions]

-Miraculous Ladybug Au lets go Part 2.

I said in the last post that this Au also doubles as a Modern/High School Au. This Au takes place in Stockholm, Sweden in 2015.

Jesse and the Main Gang attend a Gymnasieskola (Swedish High School), Jesse, Axel and Olivia are 1rst Graders (Freshmen), Lukas is a 2nd Grader (Junior) and Petra is a 3rd Grader (Senior).

Jesse and Axel are in the Building and Construction Programme, Olivia is in the Technology Programme, Lukas is in the Restaurant Management and Food Programme and Petra is in the Health and Social Care Programme.

Radar attends a Compulsory school as an 8th Grader. He met Jesse by chance on his way back from school one day (about 2 years prior to the main story) and really looks up to him. I'm keeping the "Rabbit Miraculous is a family heirloom" story beat but adding more too it: Fluff has been hibernating/Dormant in the Rabbit Miraculous for the last 60 years and wakes up after Radar accidentally drops the Miraculous and breaks it ( That got Radar akumatized into this Au's version of Timetagger) (Don't worry Gabriel ends up fixing it)

Fluff does end up revealing her presence to Radar Mid- to late Season 2 (Like in the Penultimate episode to the Two-Part Season finale) and keeps the fact that she's a kwami secret from him (She just lets him assume that she's some kind of Pixie/Fairy creature, She dosen't tell him the true nature of the Miraculous because she wants to make sure that she's in good hands and that he's responsible enough to handle the Rabbit Miraculous)

So Season 3 finale rolls around and everything has gone to shit so Fluff spills the beans and goes "Hey this dude stole the Bee Miraculous, got his ass akumatized and is currently about to snuff Swineheart, do you wanna transform into a superhero and save the day?" and Radar goes "Yippie! I get to be a Superhero!" and He has this epic fight with Aiden (Who's currently the Akuma Hornet), goes through multiple points of time to get the other hero's and helps kick his ass.

----------

I wanted to do more but i dont have any time left to write so ill do a part 3 later byes~

~~~

[yubellia]

Miraculous season 6

Did the writers write themselves into a corner?

Yeah, that’s a question we might wanna discuss. Why? Let me tell you.

In the episode Timetagger, we were introduced to a lot of stuff.

First, the rabbit miraculous and the concept of time traveling.

We also learned that the show would not be over, after Gabriel got defeated. That’s already confirmed.

They ‚hinted‘ that Lila would be the new Hawk Moth. That too is already confirmed and happened by the end of season 5.

We learned that Ladybug would have a team of miraculous users behind her and apparently, they have to be active, even after reaching adulthood. Alix was already in her 20‘s after all.

So… where is there a problem? Easy.

If we assume that it is still Lila, now Cerise, being Hawk Moth when they are all adults, how will the writers keep this interesting?

Don‘t get me wrong! With the miraculous London special, they started out very strong! Cerise had won first try! But like I said before, since adult and granny Bunnix both knew about this, we can be sure that it was supposed to happen and it was supposed to fail. Meaning….. there was no real danger to begin with even if it was very close.

Which is why I hope that Cerise will use all the knowledge she got in her notebook against ladybug and Marinette. She didn’t just write down the name of ladybug. Stuff about Nathalie, Miss tsurugi. She got blackmail material on a lot of people. Not to mention the fact that ladybug lies to everyone.

There has to be some real danger. A real problem to keep things interesting. I mean Gabriel got pretty much all the miraculous. But it was still Gabriel at the end so…. He still failed despite getting close sometimes.

In the past, Marinette almost got akumatized multiple times. It was always thanks to good luck or this one time Chat Noir talking her out of it, that it didn’t happen.

Which is also why I….. am part of the group of people who hope, that ‚Lady Chaos‘ will be the episode were it finally happens. Many people pointed out how the exciting stuff always seems to happen in episode number 22. so fingers crossed.

However, the problem for me is, that Marinette seems to have too much plot armor. She didn’t get akumatized once despite being close. Adrien was akumatized twice (the times I remember). If I am forgetting one incident, I am sorry but the two times I remember, either bunnix or sass had to step in. Even if something goes really wrong Bunnix can come in and save the day. The time travel thing is too powerful.

But remember, as long as it’s part of the timeline, she won‘t stop it. She even pointed out how fighting Gabriel like this wasn’t smart at all. But she didn’t stop it.

Which means, every time bunnix shows up, we can be sure that something didn’t go as planned. And if she doesn’t, it’s part of the plan and the issue might be fixed soon.

See my problem? Because of time traveling, the excitement is almost completely gone.

——————————————————

You probably noticed how I am a lot more active now. Well, work isn’t as tiring now thanks to Christmas being close and I wanted to get stuff I think about out of my head.

My next post will be about Adrien and the writing decisions at the end season 5. see you soon!

[kari-go]

You mentioned in a recent post that some akumas wouldn't work due to your rules. What are those rules, if you don't mind me asking?

The post anon is referencing

uh, I tried to actually explain the entire Metamorphosis process but gave up so have these bullet points instead (with the akuma that breaks the rule)

only a being with a soul can be transformed (Robostus, Feast)

the transformation cannot create an additional object (Dark Cupid, Rogercop, Gamer...), that would only be possible by unifying with the ladybug.

the holder cannot transform themselves (Collector)

only the infused object and the affected person can be transformed, nothing more (Guitar Villain, Captain Hardrock, Santa Claws)

the transformed person is the one who decides their appearance and power

the meta cannot resurrect someone

the meta cannot create a being with a soul, only affect it (Sandboy? I guess)

no time travel (Timebreaker, Timetagger)

the holder cannot transform multiple people with one akuma (Oblivio, Gang of Secrets, Heart Hunter...)

the meta cannot change the miraculous magic (Wishmaker, Reflekta, Catalyst, Kwamibuster...)

a miraculous holder can get transformed but it’s difficult and risky for everyone involved

I don’t like the akumas that are a direct copy of a miraculous, they’re just overpowered, so they’d be more limited in my version (Volpina, Copycat, Antibug)

the meta cannot go far away from their object, they get weaker if they do so (Dark Owl, Risk)

[spiceynoodls]

MLB Episodes Chronological

Some of these aren’t released yet (according to the wiki) but there will be links posted as I go

beware. This is a LONG ASS LIST.

Season 1:

Origins 

Stormy Weather

Lady Wifi

The Evillustrator

Princess Fragrance

Dark Cupid

Mr. Pigeon 

Pixelator 

Copycat

The Bubbler

Simon Says

Timebreaker 

Roger cop

Animan

Dark blade

Gamer

The Pharaoh

Horrifactor

The Puppeteer

The Mime

Guitar Villain 

Reflekta 

Antibug

Kung Food

Santa Claws

Volpina 

Season 2

The Collector

Prime Queen

Glaciator

Despair Bear

Troublemaker

Gigantitan

Riposte

Gorizilla

Robostus 

Sapotis 

The Dark Owl

Syren 

Zombizou

Captain Hardrock

Queen’s Battle

Befana

Reverser

Frightningale

Frozer

Anansi

Malediktator

Sandboy 

Heroes’ Day

Season 3

Chameleon

Miraculous World: Shanghai - The Legend of Ladydragon

Animaestro

Bakerix 

Backwarder

Reflekdoll

Weredad 

Silencer

Oni-chan 

Miraculer

Oblivio

Desperada 

Christmaster 

Startrain

Kwamibuster

Feast 

Gamer 2.0

Stormy Weather 2

Ikari Gozen

Timetagger

Party Crasher

The Puppeteer 2

Cat Blanc

Felix

Ladybug

The Battle of the Miraculous 

Miraculous World: New York - United Heroez

Season 4

Truth

Lies

Gang of Secrets

Mr. Pigeon 72

Psycomedian

Furious Fu

Sole Crusher

Queen Banana

Gabriel Agreste

Mega Leech

Guiltrip

Crocoduel

Optigami

Sentibubbler

Glaciator 2

Hack-San

Rocketear

Wishmaker

Simpleman

Qilin 

Dearest Family

Ephemeral

Kuro Neko

Penalteam

Shadow Moth’s Final Attack

Season 5

Evolution 

Multiplication 

Jubilation 

Illusion 

Determination 

Passion

Reunion

Elation  

The Kwamis’ choice

Perfection 

Migration

Derision 

Intuition 

Protection

Adoration

Emotion

Pretension

Revelation 

Confrontation 

Action

Collusion 

Revolution 

Representation 

The Final Day

Miraculous World: London - At The Edge of Time 

[nothingtherefornow]

A fan may have spotted Lila real name

I like to watch Miraculous content on Instagram sometimes, and I've had the pleasure to find a very interertsing post on Miraculous Ladybug about what Lila's real name could be. Here it is :

I'm not gonna talk about the "Lila is Marinette's half sister from Tom's side" theory because while it could be a nice plot twist and explain why Lila got so close to Sabine outside of a future plot to harm Marinette, it could also be a terrible and useless revelation for the narrative.

But I defintly beleive in the theory that Marina is Lila's real name. Why else would that name be tagged on Lila's secet lair walls in the catacombs ? And being spelled by one of Timetagger tags ? Knowing that in the script of the Timetagger epsiode, the akuma proclaimed loud and clear that the future Hawkmoth was the "woman he loves", while seeing later in the same episode that a young Chris (the one who would be akumatized in Timetagger in the future) would have a crush on Lila

[pisoprano]

This is an ML salt post, particularly about Lila Rossi. If you are actually excited about Lila being the main villain in future season(s), this post isn't for you, I just need to rant. A lot.

I hate Lila Rossi. I hate her with a burning passion. Literally every episode where she shows up, my hatred for this character will manifest in me saying "I hate her" the moment she opens her mouth, followed by seething throughout every moment she spends onscreen.

In prior seasons, this wasn't much of an issue--she'd show up for a couple episodes and then she'd disappear 90% of the time, so I could usually just focus on literally anything else in the show. With season 5, however, she started showing up much more. I knew it was coming, of course--the foreshadowing that she would be the successor to Hawkmoth has been visible since season 3, and it was announced that he'd be gone after this season. But if the show had ended at season 5 as originally intended, butterfly!Lila could have been a theoretical problem for adult!Ladybug and adult!Chat Noir in 10 years. But since the powers that be have decided to have the show continue past Gabriel Agreste, Lila is a problem now and will be a problem at least until Chris Lahiffe is a teenage boy, if "Timetagger" is any indication. And we, the audience, will be forced to suffer through all of it.

Why, though, do I hate the idea of Lila being the main villain? I was fine with having Gabriel in the villain seat for five seasons despite him being a terrible father and manipulative git, after all. With Gabriel, there was a particular humanity to him that made him interesting--this entire show is about love and Gabe's love was so overwhelming and myopic and self-serving that he resorted to villainy while convincing himself that he was secretly the hero all along, sacrificing everything (even his morality) for the woman he loved. He used his love as an excuse to justify the harm he caused Paris and his very own son. As he continually reached for forbidden means to get what he wanted, his dreams ballooned in scope--he'd defied the odds when he'd married above his station, he'd defied the odds when he'd become a world-renowned designer, he'd defied the odds when he found the miraculous and created the perfect son--and so it became all too natural for him to fight the impossible fight as Hawkmoth because he deserved to win this too. And the whole time, unbeknownst to either of them, he's fighting against the son who he's been neglecting and controlling in his fight to save someone who never wanted to be saved? That stuff is fascinating.

Lila, though? She's got none of that complexity. She's a consummate liar who hates the protagonists and literally nothing else. In other shows, she'd be the transfer student who shows up for an episode, gets exposed as a fraud by the end of that episode, and then literally never be seen again. This show, however, has Lila overstay the welcome that her character archetype is built for and instead be a recurring problem. And, because a liar can only get away with lying if the surrounding characters don't know she's lying, Lila is made untouchable by the plot. Other villainous characters have some plot immunity to their evilness--Chloe, obviously, has the automatic win condition of demanding her father to get her out of trouble whenever she wants. But Lila's plot immunity comes from an inexplicable ability to manipulate everyone around her (besides our main protagonists, who are forced to only cry wolf). She makes all the supporting cast love her without help, she does so even to characters we'd expect to know better. When she first showed up, her lies weren't even good and still she gets away with her reputation in tact basically every time. The one time where she does get exposed to everyone, she gets to have an easy redo by making up a completely new identity to try again. She's a Villain Sue. And her very presence weakens the story she's in.

Lila only exists because the writers decided to make an absolute hate sink. They absolutely succeeded in doing so. And frankly, that's a problem. Most of the time, if you're going to have a character in a show for any length of time, they should be likeable on some level. They could be sympathetic or competent or proactive or even just have a personality that's fun to watch, but the audience shouldn't feel like the character is a waste of viewing time. Lila isn't someone the audience can identify with, her competence is largely in name only (I will allow that her manipulative skills during season 5 are stronger, but her ludicrously bad prior lying and the unexplained nature of her sudden hypercompetence now aren't nearly enough to make me forgive her here). Lila's sometimes doing things behind the scenes, sure, but she has the laughably petty objectives of "be famous" and "ruin classmate's life" and I cannot take her actions towards achieving these goals seriously as a bit villain, let alone a primary antagonist. And--worst of all--her voice is extremely annoying. I will suffer through a myriad of things, but I can only listen to nails on a chalkboard so long before need to leave the room.

And this might be a bit of a hot take, but honestly? I don't think Lila was even necessary in the first place. In episodes like "Volpina" or "Oni-Chan," she could have been replaced with Chloe (our original mean girl who's clingy with Adrien--she might not be my favorite character either, but at least she's funny). I'm positive that the plot of "Catalyst" and "Miraculer" could have been reworked to happen without Lila's involvement without much effort. The entire subplot of Lila being Adrien's modelling partner was more about Gabriel controlling his son--it could have been easily about forcing Adrien to be alone instead of forcing him to be with someone he didn't like. The fact that Lila shows up so little in the first four seasons just goes to prove how unnecessary she is. She only becomes important in season 5 because the writers now know that they need to prepare for a new supervillain to fill Gabriel's shoes after he leaves--and she's the only one who comes anywhere close to fitting. So, suddenly, she's being far more active than she ever was (almost half of her total appearances are in season 5 alone), but her motivations are less clear than ever, so I'm left assuming that this hollow character must still have the hollowest of motivations--popularity, power, getting back at the kids who rebuffed her... after having 5 seasons of truly delicious drama, why on earth would I want to turn the worst thing about those 5 seasons into main course?

I know I am far from being alone in hating Lila Rossi's character. There are literally thousands of fics tagged with "Lila's Lies Are Exposed" because so many readers want to see her be punished for her actions. I'm actually not really a fan of these--I don't take joy in seeing Lila being taken down. I want her to disappear from the narrative entirely. If the current state of United States politics has taught me anything, it's that that watching a terrible person get their comeuppance is never as satisfying as you think it will be because that terrible person will keep popping up and keep being terrible and keep forcing you to think about them. The best possible punishment I can think of for Lila is to act like she's just an OC made from some background character that never mattered in the first place--and then never have to think about her existence in the show again.

I was happy to watch the first 5 seasons of Miraculous Ladybug. I wish it had only been those 5 seasons (side note: Chat deserved to go up against his father in the final battle. I get that he couldn't since the mandate for more seasons requires the identities to be intact, but this was the point in the narrative when the reveal was meant to happen and it has weakened the story to move it elsewhere). I haven't decided to not watch season 6 at this point, but knowing who I will have to deal with in every episode? It's making it very difficult for me to want to continue any further.

[coq-courage]

Season 6 in 13 days--

you know what i realized would be silly? if i had miscounted and it's really 12....

......yeah i've been informed that I miscounted by accident--

TWELVE (12) days until Season 6

today i will speak on my favorite topic! time travel!

i mentioned it vaguely to someone else on their post some days ago but recently I sat down two people in my life, my fiance and my brother, and I had them watch specifically the episodes about Time and Space Travel (ergo, Multiverses). These were the episodes we watched, and, spoiler, my brother ended up pulling out a sketchbook to make sense of it all:

Timebreaker

Timetagger

Desperada

Feast

Cat Blanc

Wishmaker

Ephemeral

Risk

Strikeback

Evolution

Intuition

Paris

London

To my surprise, three heads were better than one and I was able to knock out some details about how Space/Time Travel works in Miraculous

Only with the aid of other Kwamis can Bunnyx (not Fluff) travel to worlds outside of her own Time Possibilities, this restriction applies to any and all Holders, not just Bunnies, but Rabbit Holders, due to their experience with Local Timelines, tend to be better suited to Multiversal Travel

yes, Local Timelines, that's what I'm calling it when you can travel to any point of time as long as you do or will exist fairly unchanged within that Timeline

We hadn't decided on an exact point, but we DID agree that for a Local Timeline to be considered Another World (example: Shadybug's world), there needed to be a large enough change that happened long enough ago that you can't just undo it

after a lot of discussion, we believe that the turning point in Shadybug's world, the Point of No Return that made it into Another World, was Master Fu as a child, and him NOT accidentally destroying the Temple

to have a world where the Temple still stood proud and tall, but people like Original Su-Han existed? That didn't learn their lesson? And very likely fell into a cycle of blatant power-hungry negligence, ignorance, and possible kwami-abuse? whilst existing in the shadows of the world?

that would allow for a similar but inherently different world

one that Marinette could see herself in Shadybug very easily, but still acknowledge the life choices that led to their differences

this is, in counter to Cat Blanc and London

which happened RECENTLY in universe, and while both could be Points of No Return, Bunnyx and Ladybug had been able to counter them, because they knew about it soon enough

in Shadybug's world? there's a heavy chance Bunnyx never existed, because of the events that would lead up to her being, eventually, thrown into the far flung past in Egypt and encased in an obelisk, well those events just wouldn't happen UNLESS they were able to, before too long passes, secure the Rabbit Miraculous away from the Supreme, give it to Alix, and then she hops into the Burrow for safety, but they would have to do that before her next birthday if they want to stay on time

another time I'll speak more about my thoughts of the Paris Special, but this post is getting a tad long so imma out, peace

[fabseg-creator]

Chloenette AU season 3 (Sneek Peak/Spoiler) WIP

The shoots you read are parts of my Chloenette AU Season 3 upcoming post. It's a part of the Miraculer rewritten script.

I have actually completed Chameleon, Animaestro, Reflektdoll, Silencer, Oni-Chan, Miraculer, Oblivio, Desperada, Kwamibuster, Gamer 2.0.

It remains Stormy Weather 2 (still on writing), Star Train (on writing), Timetagger, Party Crasher, Feast (on writing), Cat Blanc Fallen Bee, Felix, Ladybug and The Battle of Miraculous and the New York Special.

[nixthelapin]

What if Adrien never went to school?

I love those “what if” fics where Adrien never went to public school (then LB and CN become a couple bc Marinette doesn’t have Adrien to crush on). I like seeing a slightly different dynamic to the show’s main couple (plus seeing how no love square changes things). There are a lot of variations I could obsess over, but I’ll spare the text space.

Because one thing that doesn’t usually get discussed (not saying never, I haven’t read every single fic in this category), at least in depth, is how much Adrien going to public school in Origins actually affects the plot. Not just the love square, but the actual plot of the show.

There are, of course, single episode stories that wouldn’t happen- The Bubbler, possibly Timetagger, Rogercop, and Gamer, just to name a few that he was directly involved in from season 1 (not even including ones he indirectly influenced because of Marinette or some other classmate).

But then we get to the end of s1: Volpina. Adrien finds the Guardian book at home while getting ready for school, then brings it with him, where Lila and Marinette both see it. Lila uses that as inspiration to pretend to be a superhero’s descendant (*more on her later). Then Tikki has Marinette take the book, causing her to officially meet Master Fu! Without Adrien going to public school, she would only have met Fu as some mystery healer when Tikki got sick in Princess Fragrance. That’s major! (And I wonder if Adrien would’ve even found the book in the first place since he wouldn’t have had school to get ready for- he’d just be home). That’s the start of the whole Guardian Marinette plot line right there! And the catalyst for a lot of events in future seasons: the power ups, the other heroes, Natalie getting desperate and using the peacock miraculous, which would then remove Félix’s part in the plot (beyond wanting a family heirloom for his mom). And probably so much more!!

There could be some reason down the line for Marinette (or both her and Adrien) to meet Fu, but Tikki has only done it when the situation is serious (sickness and a lead on Hawkmoth’s identity), so there would have to be something else to be serious enough to actually go to him.

[*And a small aside about Lila: her crush on Adrien (or on his fame) is a major part of Marinette’s hatred for Lila. Yeah, she’d still hate her lies, like being friends with LB, but it wouldn’t be all mixed up in her feelings for Adrien, nothing for her friends to brush her frustrations on as an excuse- “you’re just saying that because of your feelings for Adrien.” So Lila would still be a self absorbed liar, but wouldn’t have any avenue to Adrien, and therefore no connection to Gabriel, and not a major player with Hawkmoth. So many layers!]

There are just so many things I could go off on about (I’ve barely touched on how his absence would affect other relationships in the class, like Alya and Nino dating), but thinking out these implications really makes you realize just how much Adrien’s position are school affects how the story goes.

If you guys can think of other major things, or want to expand on anything I’ve said in this quick post (or even if you disagree with anything), I’d love to hear it! It’s a fascinating concept to play with, so I’m all ears!

[character-fan19]

So I calculated the exact screen time for all the love square ships in season 3...

I'm back again. Season 3 is finally complete. If you'd like to see my previous post, click here. Before we get into this, for newcomers and old faces (since there are new rules)...

Some Ground Rules

What I did and didn't count as screen time for the love square ships:

Both characters of the ship must be present in the scene for it to count as screen time for that ship and by that I mean the real versions of them. So Felix pretending to Adrien doesn't count.

At least one of the characters must be interacting with the other or both of them need to be doing something together for it to count because we can't have them acting like background characters and call that screen time.

If one of the characters believes that they are interacting with the alter ego of the character, it will count as screen time for that ship. Meaning Aspik with Ladybug will be counted as Ladrien because Ladybug knows that this is Adrien.

In case of group interactions, the screen time will only count if the interaction is specifically between the two characters or if one of the character's reaction to the other is given focus.

In case of reveal scenarios, screen time will be counted as whatever alter ego they are in. I debated with myself whether to count Box Noir and Ladybug as Ladynoir or Ladrien but I ultimately decided on Ladrien as Adrien isn't using the actual Cat Miraculous.

Now on to the data.

Screen Time Distribution

It seems that with every season, Ladynoir decreases in screen time as in season 1, it was 76 %, in season 2, it was 71.5 % and now in season 3, it's 68.7 %. Will this trend continue in future seasons? I guess will just have to see. But as usual it still has the most screen time. Also as usual, Adrienette follows behind, having improved in screen time from 19.7 % to 21.2 %. Similar to last season Ladrien comes in 3rd, having the same 6 % of screen time it did last season but being above Maricat by much less, it's screen time having been increased from 2.8 % to 4.2 %.

In terms of the overall distribution up until now, Adrienette has increased by 0.4 %, Ladynoir has decreased by 1.3 %, Maricat increased by 0.3 % and Ladrien increased by 0.5 %. So now we have Ladynoir still on top with 72 % of the screen time which is 5 hr 16 min 55 sec, Adrienette 19.8 % of the screen time with h is 1 hr 26 min 38 sec, Ladrien with 4.7 % of the screen time which is 20 min 35 sec, and Maricat 3.2 % of the screen time which is 14 min 10 sec.

Screen Time Trend

Similar to last season, Ladynoir took some hits, from 6 episodes, two of them being right next to each other, that is, "Oblivio" and "Desparada". Also similar to last season we had a string of Ladynoir exclusive episodes from "Gamer 2.0" to "Timetagger" which helped to prop up Ladynoir in the screen time distribution department. It's average screen time per episode is much less than the previous 2 seasons, with it being 3 min 34 sec.

Adrienette made love square screen time history in "Oblivio" by having more screen time than any ship has ever had in an episode with 9 min 3 sec of it. It one-upped Ladynoir in other episodes as well such as "Chameleon" and "The Puppeteer 2", but not by as much as it did in "Oblivio". It had an average screen time of 1 min 6 sec.

The designated Maricat episode of the season finally dethroned Ladynoir for the episode, with it having 3 min 57 sec of screen time in "Weredad", the most screen time it's ever gotten. It's average screen time per episode has slightly increased from the last 2 seasons, with it now being 13 sec.

Ladrien had also gotten more screen time than it's ever gotten before, having 5 min 35 sec of screen time in "Desparada" which also made it the ship with the most screen time in that episode. It's average screen time per episode is 19 sec.

We also had the first episode to ever include screen time for all the love square ships and what better episode to hold that title than "Cat Blanc".

Conclusion

That's it for now. Feel free to make your own observations with this data. Until next time!