#proof that gabrielle has always been 'the main character'

[marinetteplztakeabreak]

Another little essay on the mls5 finale

Tl;dr Gabriel Agreste Was Not Redeemed but it Makes Sense to feel weird and gross about it! And i think it was definitely Designed that way and did a very cool job of showing some complicated things

(Under a cut for ml s5 finale spoilers and also She-Ra spoilers because i’m comparing arcs, you dont have to have seen she-ra for this to make sense just, you will get spoilers)

Gabriel Agreste’s death reminded me IMMENSELY of shadow weaver’s death in she-ra. it left me with the same emotions. and i think they’re both Clearly trying to show the same thing

In both, there is this, almost *parody* of a heroic sacrifice??? There is a villain/abusive parent who is SHOWN repeatedly to be evil and to Cause Repeated Harm to their child/main character. But the main character can never quite renounce them because they’re always thrown the tiniest scraps at the very last minute. And this main character is trapped in a never ending cycle of needing to crawl back for help because despite it all they WANT to believe that there is some Pure Underlying Motive behind it all and that actually their parent DOES love them and IS good. Because who WOULDN’T want to believe that, especially in moments of terror and lonliness and the world falling to pieces???

And BOTH of these villains die by a “heroic sacrifice” that THEY think redeems them. They both die as a sacrifice ONLY when it’s a last resort and they’re going to die ANYWAYS if they DONT do anything. and they both make SURE that a child they’ve traumatized On Purpose is Watching Them Die Heroically. For both of them there’s this element of… their death is one last act of traumatizing the person they’re saving and ALSO one last act of making them feel Trapped and like they are In Debt and Have To Stay Loyal to their abusive parent?????

Like???? Gabriel LITERALLY does those tears that may or may not have been fake but were Definitely weaponized to play with marinette’s moral compass and catch her off guard. followed by the like… cackling evil villain act. Istg he was like Playing with marinette like a little ragdoll and Relishing in how Helpless she was as he made the wish. He KNEW he had her trapped, not just By The Miraculous but also Emotionally. He KNEW she had no one else to turn to. He KNEW he held the cards and he could say “make sure adrien remembers me as a hero” and that she’d HAVE to do it. Because he was about to die in front of her and she was going to be messed up by the whole thing and all these secrets and she wasn’t gonna have much choice other than to just Believe He Was Right And Good. As a coping mechanism.

And i think,,, there’s this aura of… he Genuinely thinks he has won. He thinks that he has succeeded in being a Good Father. He thinks that he has Manipulated and Snared his way into being a Hero and Right because he thinks that’s a thing you can do!!!! He doesn’t even consider changing his ways, not when natalie AND adrien AND ladybug all BEG him to listen. He doesnt consider treating anyone else as a person or admitting he could be wrong????? He just doubles down Harder and goes “hahaaaa i have manipulated and traumatized this teenager into continuing my lies and making up a narrative for me where im the hero… this is the same as being a genuienly good parent.”

And i GET the feelings of grossness bc that was a gross thing he did!!!! I agree!!!

But i DONT think he got to get away free or be redeemed????

If anything, it gave me the same gut feeling as shadow weaver’s death in she ra????? Like????? This is the Final Proof that he’s beyond saving because he cant even DIE without using it as one last opportunity to hurt someone he should be protecting????? And he doesnt even Realize that’s messed up he’s just like “heehee i win at tricking those stupid little teenagers into thinking im a hero” with no sense of self reflection.

After watching through that scene a few times i am CONFIDENT it was meant to come off that way and im not actually Sure how much they’ll address it??????

(And im also a teensy bit confused because??? I dont know who the target audience is at this point??? If it really is little kids as the target i am Sure they’ll address it blatantly but the show’s been getting darker and more Nuanced lately. But this is a different point)

but even if they DON’T!!!!! This is just!!! So similar to shadow weaver’s death in she-ra, another cartoon theoretically aimed at children and they DIDNT even address that one at all because it was just,,,,,, SO obvious that even if she DID save the main characters with her death she also used it as a way to twist the knife?????

And so far ive just been talking about Recreation Specifically???? But the REASON gane was dying was bc he literally CATACLYSMED HIMSELF with chat’s hand as a way to trauamtize ladynoir because he thought it would catch them off guard and screw with them!!!!!!!!!!

This is not the narrative saying “oh he had good intentions and was right all along uwu” to me, this was very clearly the narrative saying “sometimes people are so far convinced that theyre the only one that matters that they cant even DIE without using it as a way to hurt and manipulate everyone they should be supporting and wow can that screw people up when they’re left to pick up those pieces and leave them with a complicated mess of emotions.”

and also its saying that it is in fact okay to hate your dead parents if they sucked . And its okay to be have complicated feelings about it, u dont have to be able to make an opinion immediately or seperate yourself from the situation. Sometimes it hurts and you mourn what you shouldve had Anyway.

And i think just like she ra, this is a very Mature and Complicated take and its Okay to have mixed feelings about it, but i just wanted to reassure people that the ending absolutely did not say that gabe was a good person.

It MIGHT have said that the wish actually helped make the world better!!! We don’t know that part yet!!!!

But we DO know that it said,,,,, even IF gabe made One Good Decision, he did it at the cost of everyone he should have been supporting and died with everyone he loved hating him for Good Reason and he used his last seconds of life to traumatize and manipulate a scared little kid into telling everyone he was A Hero . And he was not above beating up and hurting said little kid (ladybug) for funsies. I think even IF his wish IS proven to be A Good Thing (big if) there will STILL be a very valid question of “was it worth it.” There will still be tons of trauma on adrien and marinette’s part that Isnt going away. And that is on him and him alone

[princess-of-the-corner]

Also, sorry last ask XD But remember that alt 3 ending I sent you?

I realized I vastly over complicated so here's the easier version:

Party Crasher: There is still the seemingly jokey subplot of Chloe wanting to 'ambush' Kagami over her being a hero. That suddenly becomes serious when the 'episode' ends on Chloe luring her into a meeting with Adrien's phone and very grimly says they need to talk.

Ensuing episodes: We don't see the conversation, but there's always 'a' scene that shows they are still having private exchanges of some sort.

Ladybug: Lila's plan is very changed up.

First she lured Marinette to an isolated stairwell and when Marinette shows up, she genuinely flings herself down and suffers a genuine injury. Her cry of pain draws a teacher & she accuses Marinette who denies it but is sent to the principle while Lila's taken to the nurse.

Damocles kind of does his job, finding it sus a student who dropped put for six months is making wild accusations & he still can't contact her mother. Sadly, this was part of the plan. A 'distraught' Lila bursts in & says she has proof Marinette has it out for her & limps out.

The students ae still in the locker rom when they all arrive & Lila reveals a video on her phone of Marinette breaking into her locker & stealing a necklace. She claims she wanted to talk to Marinette about it in private when Marinette instead attacked her!

The necklace is indeed in Marinette's locker.

Some find this deeply out of character, others start arguing in favor of Lila because 'evidence doesn't lie'. Alya is clearly torn, Nino is stressed, Chloe is oddly speculative & Adrien is looking for an AKumatized object on Lila. As Damocles starts shouting -Boom!

In bursts Kagami who changes the tone of things by accusing Lila of trying to Akumatize her in the past, and of setting Marinette up to perhaps create an Akuma that forces the truth out of people.

Even insinuating that Lila might be Chameleon and that being how she framed Marinette for theft. Also that Ladybug told her to be on the look out for her after Miracular.

This has Lila suspecting Chloe whos is recording the event.

Butterfly swarm happens & Lila fucking dips when it doesn't work out. (This could predate Kagami's arrival) & Damocles sort of handwaves the issue seeing as Lila is gone. Adrien's missing too.

Main points after this are:

Alya is fretting over Marinette & as Kagami explains her theories she begins to suspect Marinette's true identity.

Chloe noticed Adrien sneaking off to pursue Lila & realizes he ight be Chat & calls him explaining some of her & Kagami's theories are rooted in fears of what Hawk Moth is doing to 'them'. Also that Mari & Lila may be victims of it too. Nino verhears this side of the conversation.

The rest of the episode is much the same, save Ladybug & Chat conferring on Lila at the end, theorizing she's allied with Hawk Moth. Cut to Lila having a panic attack in her apartment:

"It was meant to be done, it was meant to be over, its not my fault, he can't blame me for this, its not my fault!" Cue a voice 'like' hers whispering "Oh yes, its never our fault" in her ears & Lila's face being distorted but only in the mirror.

She screams & the episode ends.

Heart Hunter:

This episode is very similar at first glance but has some notable changes.

1: We see more of Hawk Moth's side of the plan.

A disguised Lila acting as the Agreste representative at the anniversary party. She expresses doubt that Chloe will break given she suspects her involvement in Kagami.

Gabriel dismisses her, not thinking highly enough of Chloe for that & saying she can be disposed of if she continues to disrespect him as an implied threat to both girls.

He, Mayura & his Senitmonster are already active in the city. Having been using all their staged battles at the hotel to narrow down a broad area they think the Guardian will be.

Finally, Lila is the one to sabotage the Bee Signal.

2: Marinette is a bit less iffy here

Marinette initially picks the Bee Miraculous, reflecting on what Kagami told her about the girls mutual discussions. But decides against it remebering Heart unter eats love.

She picks Kagami instead but while it does interrupt the date, is more so she can have a "No baggage" confrontation with Kagami about it to decide if she should back off forever.

Kagami is fine with this pretext right up until she hears its Chloe's parents Akumatized & says it is likely a trap to get to her. They both realize there'd need to be more to it & realize Fu is in danger.

3: Climax/Cliffhanger

Marinette sends Kagami to rescue Chloe, starts racing to Fu & calls Chat who reveals Heart Hunter seemingly just De-Akumatized. & we start flashing through scenes as the plan starts coming together.

We see Alya & Nino were in the same park as Fu comparing notes interrupted by the battle and them watching the battle & trying to get word out via the Ladyblog.

We see Fu beginning to fade as his stamina gives out as Ladybug & Chat race desperately to his location while Kagami can see the Le Grand Paris Hotel.

We see Lila fiddling with the Fox Miraculous and finally end on Hawk Moth with the Miracle Box, standing before Chloe as Queen Bee as an Akuma approaches her.

End episode.

Finale - The Miraculous Monster!

We open with seeing a quick flashback covering how we got here then see Hawk Moth & Chloe's confrontation. Its like canon, though HK has to rely more on subterfuge & subtle jabs with no Ryuko seen.

Chloe, without the Ryuko scene & aware Hawk Moth is trying to fuck with her, while very stressed & a little unstable does more than keep her head, & so while it looks like she's playing into things, she's not.

Chloe either A, manages to get the Bee Miraculous & while snagging back the box fails to land a venom and instead gets hit with HK's sword. Or B, he realizes she doesn't have the supreme hatred and despair he wanted and loses his shit and attacks her, intent on ending her now.

Either way Ryuko appears and wind dragons Hawk Moth into the Sein before racing back to keep Chloe alive. Who is crouched & injured over the box, then scooped up & carried off.

We cut to Chat & Ladybug dealing with the Sentimonsters, Mayura, & Fu's body nearly giving out from the strain, its bad, especially when they realize Mayura has another Miraculous with Alya & Nino present.

Kagami's arrival with an injured Chloe sends Chat feral & Mayura into kill defensive mode

We see Lila trying to escape the situation and trying to get the Miraculous to work cutting to an enraged Hawk Moth. He has come too far, sacraficed too much to lose it all here.

With a furious roar he activates his back up plan and Lila collapsed on the street, body pulsing violently with violet Akuma light as shadows draw out from her skin and bleed into the Miraculous.

Trixx emerges and seeing how bad things are tells Lila how to transform.

A swirl of passionate orange and puerile purple suffuse the Miraculous and Lila's form is obscured in darkness as she begins to scream and roar as her body shifts and twists into a new state.

If you've seen Dungeon Meshi, Falin's Chimera is a good example.

The legs & of a vicious chameleon, the torso of a fox, with a human upper body hanging from the head. As large at least as a bus, the Kyubi-Chimera-Lila begins its rampage.

Hallucinations flood the minds of Paris's citizens, illusions spring to life from nightmares spreading havoc. The twisted creatures howls in abandon as it tears across the city in a maddened dash.

An approaching Hawk Moth thinks he's won, only for his efforts to commune with and control the creature to turn illusions of Emilie and all his victims on him. Leaving him to fight them off with blade alone as the beast comes bearing down upon him.

As this was happening, the heroes have managed to mostly Miracle Cure Chloe's wound but having been delivered by a Miraculous weapon its not perfect, still she insists she can fight.

As Mayura cries out to her master and flees on the great moth, Fu collapses, too exhausted and worn to even stand as he surrenders Wayss to Nino and Alya has to find a replacement Miraculous, while the others recharge.

Then they see the chaos spreading and Fu realizes what's happened, a Miraculous has been truly Akumatized.

At first they think it can be handled, Queen Wasp was.

But both Pollin & Chloe on a subconcious level resisted Queen Wasp, capping her powers. Lila is in a maddened, primal defensive state, Trixx only wants to kill Hawk Moth while the Akuma wishes to simply spread its power everhwere.

So as strong as Gabriel was in the movie but utterly unhinged.

What happens next is up in the air, but Nathalie's identity is revealed and with it Hawk Moth's Adrien nearly shuts down and Hawk Moth realizes it is his son. Freaking out, he flees the battle with Nathalie in denial, only to find his manor empty, Nathalie dying and himself farther from his goal.

Save that he still has some pilfered Miraculous, and the tablet.

The battle meanwhile is a nightmare, destructive, epic, terrifying. Even at the end when Miracle Cure is released, not all the mental anguish is undone, nore are necessarily all the horrors unleashed banished.

Worse still, Lila & Trixx have one of several fates:

Separate but dormant, Lila is in a coma, Trixx cannot awaken.

Stuck fused together but still primal & needing to be locked up until they can be cured.

Or, escaping but regaining their minds, or a mind that has its own agenda if the Akuma is a dominant influence.

A combination there-of.

The heroes do, after recovering investigate Gabriel but they find the basement empty and all signs of his presence gone. Meaning at least two more Miraculous are missing, the tablet is gone & Hawk Moth remains at large. Though only the heroes know his identity.

Fu sticks around, only because he's needed to finish translating & resolve the Lila situation. & if she is in a coma maybe not even then. Regardless, his fighting days are over, meaning Nino is Carapace full time.

Also all the identities are now known between the current main group as they look towards an uncertain future.

OH FANTASTIC

[vennyvenadito]

🦋💜Hawkmoth/Gabriel deserves better💜🦋

Ok

This is gonna be controversial but I can’t keep my mount shut anymore

This is an unpopular opinion but I have to say it

Gabriel aka Hawkmoth can be a good villain but the show don’t let him to be one and they are also the reason why his character is so over the place

First I would say our moth boy is smart and he really show it a lot

Now I know what you gonna say

“But his ideas are always bad and he is really dumb”

I know but hear me out

I don’t denied that he can be dumb and mess up a lot but I think this isn’t entirely his fault…it’s actually the writers

Why? Well

I would definitely say that Hawkmoth is not only a victim of bad writing, but he is also a victim of plot armor

There are episodes where he almost won but for some lame reason lose

And in fact not all of his ideas are but

You would say is because of Mayura and yeah, you guys are right on that but I��m talking about when he didn’t have her on his side

Episode like

-Puppeteer

-Animaestro

-Oblivion

-Sentibubbler

-Volpina

-Jubilation

-Illusion

-Stormy Whether

-Catalyst

-Ephemeral

-Risk

-Strike Back

-The Owl

-Malediktator

-Troublemaker

-Miraculer

-Antibug/Vanisher

-Derision (I still hate this episode)

-Collector

-Optigami

That’s proof to me that he can be smart and a treat but again, is the show who don’t let him be

And in fact, it’s also show that the show don’t know what direction go with him

In one episode is a broken man who lost his way and is trying to bring back the love of his life but no in the right way of course and he is also trying to hold it back for his son, but keeps himself away from him for his grief and still show humanity and maybe the change there’s still some hope of salvation for him

And then he is this horrible monster without feelings and he can go as far even to destroy humanity and can’t barely care about his own child and neglect him a lot

In one episode he can come out with the most smartest plan to archive his goal and almost got it, but then again, villain always loses

And then in another episode has the most dumbest plan ever

And then he is this goofy and cartoonist villain

Don’t saying that silliness can’t work with a villain

Look Bill from Gravity Falls and Discord from MLP

They are goofy and chaotic but they are still a treat and dangerous to everyone (with one already redeem)

If they want him to be a treat or an irredeemable villain than they could done something like Belos from The Owl House

Those two parallels each other a lot

-They lost an important person of their life with one of them killing them out of rage

-They have this little child on their care but neglected them (and also they didn’t born in the traditional way one being an sentimonster and the other an grimwalker)

-They are willing to destroy everything to archive their goals

-Both are also broken and lost their ways in their life and instead of trying to fix their mistakes and move on, is already to late for both of them, their path become dark

The difference here is at least in The Owl House the writers did know what to do with Belos unlike Miraculous, Belos did have moments of sympathy and moments of guilt about killing his older brother, of the little they show about his past we can have an idea how was his life before become this horrible monster, but the show let it clear there’s not salvation for him anymore and he is way far to be redeem

I insist his dead could be handled a little better, but even tho, they did an awesome job with him

But with Gabe, look, they did had good ideas but the execution wasn’t great

I mean, come on, a villain who can take advantage of the persons feelings and transform them in monsters, that’s a cool concept

He been the father of one of the main characters, also a good concept there

But the writers did a terrible and miserable job with those concept and don’t do anything interesting with them, if they do, then they go with time travel or memory erase because this show has something towards consequences and show progression

And the fact in the leaks is show that Adrien won’t be in the final battle with his father and is only Marinette it’s make me angry

And speaking of our bug girl, let’s go back with the plot armor problem

This girl doesn’t has the power of creation, instead she has the power of plot armor in her hands

And Intuition is the prove for that

Is basically

“Gabriel v.s Plot armor” the episode

In this episode is show that Gabriel in fact, did use the power of second chance a lot of times, all the episode we saw he did used it

But the problem was that the lucky charm of Ladybug always change, isn’t the same object, didn’t matter what he do or change something about his plan, the lucky charm always manage to change and give Ladybug the opportunity of win

So yeah, this is prove enough to me that no matter how smart his plan can be, the show is always against him

He is even more of a wasted potential than Chloe is

And I would say it, he is much of a punching bag as Chloe as well

But at least with her they kinda know what to do with her (I say kinda because they did a terrible job, and is mostly because Thomas’s hate boner for her), they want to keep her as a brat, I hate that, but you know what, ok, good for you guys, keep going

But come on, why you keep Gabriel like that??

You want him to be a good villain or not??

The poor man is goin on circles because you don’t know what to do with him

In fact, you know what, I’m happy he is leaving in the season five finale, not like he deserve this or I’m happy he got what he wanted, but more like “you know, good for him, he can finally rest from this mess that this show is, he can be free for now”

Good for you Gabe in that, good for you my dude, hope you enjoy your freedom

And look, I’m not saying this beacuse, who those who don’t know, he is my favorite character (yeah you can kill me for that), but mostly I’m saying this because I want his character to make sense, to be consistent and has deep, which he has but the show act like he doesn’t sometimes

It’s make me sad seeing my favorite character been treated like this, because I know in the right hands he can be a great character

I wouldn’t care is they wanted him to be redeem or not, at least, make him a great an iconic villain

Belos is one of the best villains a I have never seen in a while

And this is why I starting to work in AUs about Hawkmoth, because I know he has potential and there’s a lot of fun things you can do with him, if no anyone can sees it that way, than I can because I care about this character

Let me show some love for my moth boy please if no one wouldn’t do it

I wanted to vent a lot about this main problem I have with the show and why Hawky deserves a lot better like the other characters in this show

I would like to see your opinions about this

Deer out

[decafdino]

Get to know your fic authors

tagged by @lemonlyman-dot-com, thank you so much!

When did you post your first ever fanfic?

Good lord, some time in 2018 (I believe it was may)

First character(s) you wrote for:

Gavin Reed and Nines (Upgraded RK800) both are from Detroit: Become Human (which I uh.... orphaned from my account because my old fics gave me the ick)

Main character(s) you’re currently writing for:

Carlos Reyes, TK Strand

Character(s) you haven’t written about before but plan on writing about soon:

My blorbos continue to be TK and Carlos, but I really like writing Carlos & Gabriel because I think there's so much fic potential there

Fandom(s) you’re currently writing for:

9-1-1: Lone Star

Platonic pairing(s) you currently write for:

Carlos and the 126 (in particular Paul & Carlos)

Tarlos and their parents... just so much to unpack there and I love it

Romantic pairing(s) you currently write for:

Tarlos

Your top 3 tags on AO3 (if you post your works on AO3):

Whump, Kidnapping, Hurt Carlos Reyes

Your current platform where you post your works:

Ao3

Snippet of the wip you’re currently working on:

"So…you really don't come from the Wilds?"

TK forces a smile for what feels like the millionth time tonight. Around him, the town orchestra swells its sound, and men and women dance joyously across the ballroom. He'd prefer to be on the floor with the rest of them, most likely making a fool out of himself, rather than stay here and dodge question after question.

"I'm afraid not," he says.

"You're sure?" the woman, some special guest of the clergy, pushes. She has on a ridiculously large hat with the bright tail feather of some exotic bird sticking out.

"I believe one would know if one spent their childhood in a completely different realm." Carlos appears at his side, and TK's knees could buckle then and there in relief. He nods at the woman. "Lady Veronica," he says cordially.

She smiles, and it's all teeth. "Is that you, Sir Reyes? Oh, how long it's been."

"Yes, it has," he replies. He takes another step between her and TK, redirecting their conversation. "I see that you've been well."

"Your father simply goes on and on about you, you know? We're all so very happy for your opportunity to go on this little…" She looks him up and down, almost like a predator in disgust of its emaciated prey, "…excursion."

"Speaking of my father, he's been looking for you. He needs to discuss some dates with you and your husband." He's fully blocking her off from TK.

Thankfully, she seems delighted by the prospect of blabbing passive aggressively to the general, and it doesn't take much more coaxing to get her sauntering off. TK's shoulders fall. "I thought she'd never leave," he groans.

"Quite a character, isn't she?"

He smirks. "You two seem to have some history."

"She always suspected me of courting her son."

"And did you?" TK asks a little too quickly for someone trying to be as nonchalant as he is.

Carlos shrugs. "She never had any proof." He leans in and whispers, "and neither do you."

leaving an open tag for anyone that wants it! Tag me back please :)

[friendfromdsmp]

Sorry for the long ramble but I’ve been saying for so long that only the villains actually get the ‘power of love’! Even Chloé benefited in earlier seasons, what with Kim and Sabrina being all over her even when they were treated horribly by her, and of course Andre trying to have a happy family without ever addressing the issues in the way of that! And the reason that, as you said, Lila is able to jump from family to family is because they still love her, or at least the versions of her she’s created, so these versions of her still get to exist whereas the ‘Lila’ persona appears to have been literally trashed the moment she was exposed

Meanwhile, love is nothing but a hinderance to the heroes. There have been multiple episodes where the Love Square have come to the conclusion that their love either to each other or in general is dangerous or wrong or problematic or otherwise bad (Frozer, Truth, Lies, Kuro Neko, Glaciator 2, Kwamis’ Choice, Gang of Secrets, etc etc), with the line “It was our love that did this to the world” in Chat Blanc while gesturing to an apocalyptic genocide being a trauma-inducing, accurately called-back moment for multiple seasons (and given MLB’s reputation with consistency and Marinette’s trauma, this is a big deal)

Gabriel was already a recluse who didn’t have to hide his identity from loved ones - Adrien never saw him anyway and Nathalie was in on it from the start, with Nathalie’s struggle to hide her time as Mayura mostly ending up being assuring Adrien her sickness wasn’t that bad as opposed to actually covering for her villainy, giving her a built-in excuse for frequent solitude and retiring to her room early. Lila telling lies is second nature to her, it’s more foreign to her to actually tell the truth. Chloé’s best-kept secret is her teddy bear and even that’s poorly hidden (granted Armand came in clutch there for max humiliation). Felix’s mum has clearly been in on at least his general plan this whole time too and supports his villainy when he needs her to, as well as him rarely showing up, which allows his struggles to go wholly unnoticed by anyone who cares

But the heroes have had a plethora of episodes detailing their struggles at maintaining civilian relationships without their superheroics getting in the way. It’s not even just the main duo; Chloé’s parents and Sabrina were exploited by Hawkmoth and Mayura on multiple occasions in order to get to either her or the Bee Miraculous, literally every single temp hero was targeted in Optigami, Alya specifically was targeted in Sentibubbler with her entire family, Marinette and Nino all being taken hostage, Alya and Nino’s relationship was thrown into question with their hero identities being a direct influence in Rocketear and the consequences of this lasted all the way up to the season finale and resulting in Alya having to give up her Miraculous for good. All of the heroes are screwed over when their hero identities clash with their relationships, the temp heroes included, and it has resulted in multiple akumatisations

The biggest question of ‘love’ Gabriel ever had to face was whether to let Adrien splat to the pavement and die in Gorizilla just to prove he wasn’t Chat Noir - and people (Austruc) are saying it was proof that he truly loved Adrien that he didn’t allow his teenage son to fall to a very preventable death by pretty much his own hand. The biggest question of love Felix had to face was ‘why aren’t Adrien and Kagami happy that I committed a genocide but spared them? OH WAIT NOW I GET IT SHOOT I’M SO SORRY I’M TOTALLY ON YOUR SIDE NOW I’M SO SORRY!!!’. Lila and Chloé never really faced any sort of love-based challenge - Chloé was SUPPOSED to, and several plot-lines for that with multiple characters were raised, but her ‘being Queen Bee will result in you and your loved ones being targeted’ thing was always waved off by her despite it coming true multiple times and all the other options were never anything more than a one-off. She ended up severing all her relationships on her own terms post-S3 and the biggest we got beforehand was ‘Why don’t you love me, mom? Oh, it’s because I’m not enough of a jerk around you? Okay, I can do that, I’m sure this is Real Love and a Bonding Moment’

TL;DR is that the heroes had several episodes detailing how hard it is to maintain relationships with and protect your loved ones as a superhero, including the temp heroes - but while the heroes frequently suffered from love and rarely reaped the benefits, the villains were the ones who were truly empowered by it

The Power of Love according to Season 5 of Miraculous

Something disturbing dawned on me concerning...a lot of the development in Season 5 and it comes down to one thing: Love.

At first, Andre and Felix getting redeemed while Chloe gets sent off to the worst fate the show would allow didn't make a lot of sense. The only thing I could get from the writers was just that "Chloe bad, so everyone else good." It was stupid, but it wasn't insidious. At least, not that insidious at first. And then the finale with Gabriel happened and while it took me a while to process my frustrations with this, something finally clicked. Not only concerning that, but some of the other developments I've seen.

Felix getting another chance to the point of JOINING the heroes in the new universe seemed like nonsense until you look at what happened before that. He was someone who Astruc went out of his way to bury in the narrative and was exclusively causing trouble for everyone up to and including GENOCIDE...until he showed his love to Kagami. Suddenly, his actions are seen as righteous and his backstory of being abused by his father was justification for his actions. You see, he loved Kagami and he also apparently loved Adrien too because they were "the same."

Andre was basically just some corrupt politician who was also a pathetic snob. Then when Zoe came in, we suddenly get all of these humanizing bits about how Chloe totally mistreated him (because apparently, not having the guts to say no to your daughter is mistreatment) and when he divorced Audrey, he gets Zoe because he's someone he could be happy with. A true familial love unlike the one he had with Chloe.

Chloe, meanwhile, doesn't love anyone as far as the writers are concerned. Any genuine connection she might have in either the platonic, familial, or the romantic sense, whether it'd be to Adrien, Sabrina, Zoe or Ladybug, are shown to be either fake or so utterly shallow, it doesn't count as "love." With that, everything she does is absolutely reprehensible and doesn't deserve a shred of forgiveness even if it's clear she's a neglected child who needed help. BUT, because she "doesn't love anyone", she doesn't get redemption and deserves to be sent away with a parent who doesn't love her either. Same with Lila, she doesn't love anyone at all and in fact, just jumps from family to family purely to keep up her manipulations.

Finally, we have Gabriel, who had done nothing but sheltered, belittled, and outright ABUSED Adrien as well as commit a multitude of horrid crimes throughout the series. His actions constantly escalated in awfulness throughout the series, even showing that he doesn't care if he destroys the universe to get what he wants. Yet there was always this trait he possessed. His love for Emilie and that ended up coming to the forefront in the finale. Marinette, who had Gabriel dead to rights, decided at the last moment to try and appeal to his humanity because she knows he loved Emilie and in her mind, that love is enough grounds for her to offer him one chance to step up and help. Then when Gabriel opts to betray Marinette and starts the wish, he tells her at the last moment to try and help Adrien remember all of the times he "tried to be a good father," which is apparently an indicator that he actually LOVED Adrien too. THAT ended up being why Marinette decided to lie about Gabriel by saying he died fighting Monarch and went as far as to try and tell Adrien to remember him as a good man. All because she knew Gabriel "loved" him.

This tells me something distressing. Now, the concept of "Love Redeems" is something I'm not at all against and is in fact common in a lot of stories I like. However, it's what Miraculous does with this concept in Season 5 that angers me. The message of Miraculous ends up giving in its grand finale for the Agreste arc isn't that love can help people find the way to kindness. It's that anything you do can be justified as long as you do it for "love." It doesn't matter if you purposely get a cab driver in trouble, attempt to sabotage a date that your crush is in, put together a project that tries to commercialize air, betray someone to help a terrorist, commit genocide, cause untold amounts of damage to your town and beyond, or even destroy the universe! As long as you love someone, everything you do can be justified. Except when we decide that you don't love ANYONE, then we'll do everything in our power to show that all of your connections don't count as love so you can have the worst punishment we could possibly muster. Regardless of intent, that's how the writers ended up describing the Power of Love in Season Five of Miraculous and that's wretched to me.

[filmmakerdreamst]

Gabrielle, Xena, and their wlw legacy 25 years later

“Before I met you, no one saw me for who I was. I felt invisible. You saw all the things that I could be. You saved me, Xena.” – Gabrielle, “The Ides of March”

The story of Xena is remembered as many different things. A heroic saga, a tale of redemption, a campy romp. It’s a series that truly had it all, and that’s why it remains iconic a quarter of a century later. Yet it is perhaps best remembered for the series-long slow burn subtextual love affair between Xena and her “traveling companion” Gabrielle.

While Xena and Gabrielle never became a canonical couple throughout the show’s run, producer Liz Friedman was (and is) an out lesbian and she, along with many of the writers, are on record as having worked to push queer themes throughout the series. Though studio executives refused to allow an openly queer relationship to flourish in late 1990s all-ages programming, looking back, they got away with a lot. While the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle remains the most talked about element of the show with good reason, something that stands out during a rewatch is that Gabrielle’s story is a queer narrative from the very start.

In the pilot episode, Gabrielle and her fellow villagers are taken hostage by henchmen of the villainous Draco. Despite being “only a bard,” Gabrielle is a brave young woman, and tries to stand up for the others, but to no avail. She is, after all, a storyteller, not a warrior. At that fortuitous moment, Xena arrives and defeats the warlords effortlessly, and it changes Gabrielle’s life forever. Not only is her life spared, she has found a new purpose – Xena.

Gabrielle is immediately smitten and attempts to follow Xena out of town when the other villagers, knowing her reputation as a ruthless killer, demand that she move on. Xena is jaded and prefers to travel alone, but Gabrielle trails her. She is committed to proving to Xena that they need each other. She even saves Xena’s life by thinking on her feet and keeping her cool under pressure so that Xena finally, grudgingly feels compelled to hear her out. When Xena threatens to send her back home, Gabrielle immediately replies, “I won’t stay there,” and makes an impassioned plea to Xena to allow her to accompany her on adventures.

“Gabrielle doesn’t elaborate on the details of her alienation, but any queer viewer would be able to relate.”

Even from the very first episode, Gabrielle knows she does not belong in her hometown. She knows she does not fit in, and the heteronormative plan that has been laid out for her by the people in her life seems akin to torture. She doesn’t elaborate on the details of her alienation, but any queer viewer would be able to relate. Xena is moved by this, and she finally agrees to accept Gabrielle into her life. For both of them, this proves to be the most important decision either of them would ever make.

This is all within the very first of the one hundred thirty-four episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, and it truly set the standard for what we would see going forward. Gabrielle would have some romantic interests outside of Xena over the course of the series, but there is no questioning that her life revolved around the Warrior Princess from the moment she met her. Xena struggles with myriad romantic attachments throughout the show, conflicted over her past loves like Marcus, and the god of war, Ares, who sees the bond between her and Gabrielle as a threat and consistently attempts to break them up. For Gabrielle, she is briefly married, but her husband is little more than a plot device who is then almost immediately killed. She is trailed after by Joxer, but has no interest in him. In contrast, she is dedicated to Xena, and rarely questions the strength of their connection. Though it isn’t always explicit, by the end of the series, it’s difficult to view their relationship as anything but a love story.

Looking back, what was mandated a platonic relationship by censorship comes across more like a highly successful polyamorous relationship, in which the two grant each other space and understanding while remaining fully committed to one another. By the end of the story, they appear to be in a more monogamous arrangement, with Xena ultimately choosing Gabrielle as her one true partner, but it’s important that they allowed each other to express outside interests without anger as they grew together.

Indeed, though Xena’s affairs are many, Gabrielle’s strongest outside interest is with the Amazons. This, of course, is not without its own subtext. In the episode “Hooves & Harlots”, Xena focuses on trying to solve a murder mystery while Gabrielle trains and bonds with the Amazons. The Amazons emphasize sisterhood and they give Gabrielle a greater understanding of who she is as an entity separate from Xena. In “The Quest,” we learn that if Xena were to perish, Gabrielle would go to live with the Amazons rather than rejoining her old village or even pursuing her career as a bard. Though the Amazons are also never confirmed as queer despite the obvious queer elements of their story, Gabrielle’s emphasis on surrounding herself with a community of other queer people is important. In the Amazon episodes, the Gabrielle-specific subtext is as strong as it ever gets. In “To Helicon and Back,” Gabrielle politely notes that Xena will have to leave because a pending ceremony is Amazon-only, and Xena graciously agrees with only a trace of apprehension, quipping, “Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do.” Xena supports Gabrielle and encourages her to form close bonds with other women, but they always come back to each other.

In “The Ides of March,” the villainous Callisto teams up with Xena’s cruel ex Caesar to usurp rulership of Rome from its tenuous democracy. Xena has seen a prophecy warning her to never set foot within Rome lest she risk her own death, but when Gabrielle is captured, she feels she has no choice. They nearly escape, but she is paralyzed by Callisto in the middle of a fight to free Caesar’s prisoners. Gabrielle spent much of the last season on a quest for peace, but when she sees Xena fall, she does not hesitate to unleash her full rage on the Roman guards. She fights valiantly while Xena begs her not to, fearing the cost to Gabrielle’s spirit. After they are both captured, they are imprisoned together and sentenced to death. When Xena weakly apologizes to Gabrielle, asking her forgiveness for making her break her vow of non-violence, Gabrielle insists that it’s meaningless, as nothing has ever mattered to her besides her life with Xena. The two of them are crucified together, and they die gazing into each other’s eyes. Though they return to life in the next season, we see that even in death, their souls were just as intertwined as their lives had become.

Gabrielle’s struggle with violence and the inner peace she ultimately achieves in concern to it is generally what people focus on when talking about the importance of her story, but that all happens alongside her journey to acceptance of herself as a queer person. She and Xena are not an immediate item but rather a slow burn love story in which they both must prove their love and devotion while struggling with their own inner demons. Yet still, at any time throughout the series when the two become separated, Gabrielle is not well until she is reunited with her partner. Xena, for her part, grows to depend on Gabrielle in a way that is, at first, completely alien to her. Though Xena has had many loves, none of them went to the lengths that Gabrielle went to in order to be with her. Leading up to her catastrophic death in the final episodes, her commitment to Gabrielle is agonizingly apparent. Even in death, the two of them will never be separated.

Without Gabrielle’s queer subplot, textual or not, Xena would not have been the show it was. Xena’s story involves a lot of conflicting feelings and ends with her making amends for who she was before ultimately letting go of it all and finding her own peace. Gabrielle’s story is about holding on to her faith and her kindness regardless of what she goes through. Together, these stories combined to be one of the greatest love stories in television history. Though the comics would later portray their relationship as openly queer, the fact that it didn’t need to be canonical within the show to be as important as it is to queer audiences only further proves the impact of the series, the vitality of Gabrielle’s story, and the poetic beauty of her complicated, but all-encompassing, love for Xena.

- Gabrielle, Xena, and their wlw legacy 25 years later by Sara Century

[familyagrestefanblog]

Honestly I think Adrien is much more likely going to find ShadowMoths empty lair in "Strike back" than his mother in the basement (bruh what a sentence).

Adrien and Félix are two narrative halves leading together to get through this. Félix may be spoiled by the narrative with all the inside knowledge and proof of their family's situation but at the end of the day how much does it actually MATTER that Félix knows all of this when he has hardly any significance in the important Agreste family bonds and has even less presence in Paris all together.

Because Félix can know as much as he wants but he simply isn't the emotional core of this family and its mystery that Adrien is. There is a reason why Adrien is shielded from knowing all of this but Félix gets it served on a silver plate. Because even if Félix has all of this information what can Félix actually affectively DO with it? He himself hardly matters in this. The narrative literally had to spoil him THIS hard with all the inside knowledge and proof any character in this show could possibly wish for regarding the bad guys to even HAVE Adriens cousin from England gain enough significant importance to the Agreste family to legitimately MATTER.

Adrien is the complete opposite of him. Adrien is and has always been right in the middle of this horror shows mess with no way out to escape because he is THIS important as the emotional core. The extent of Félixs knowledge equals Adriens importance in the Agreste family and its mystery, "Risk" showed this absolutely BEAUTIFULLY.

This is why I think Adrien will find ShadowMoths lair in "Strike back" (since Gabriel is conveniently out as well) rather than finding his mother in the basement. It comes right back to "The Collector" where Adrien was given the weakest amount of proofs by Ladybug to explain to him why she thinks Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth (since she couldn't tell him about the ACTUAL reasons why she thinks so, Master Fu and the freaking Grimoire Adrien himself stole)

but Adrien in his heart knew his father so well that he knew 100% that Gabriel being Hawkmoth is definitely likely and he took it VERY serious, it even baffled Ladybug.

He only ended up being convinced of his fathers innocence because the weak proofs Ladybug gave him that triggered his strong gut feeling simply didn't hold up against the "evidences" going against them in the akuma fight against his father.

Doesn't change the fact though that Adrien only needs very little evidence to unleash the strong gut feeling towards his father that leads him to the right direction (Im actually writing an analysis post about this but now will wait to see how "Strike back" plays out) to figure his father out. And this would beautifully come to a climax with Adrien finding ShadowMoths empty butterfly lair through the same lift via Emilie portrait as Félix found Emilie in the basement in "Risk".

Both boys have a different but now equal narrative significance regarding our main villain (Adrien and Félix are now equals like Ladybug and Rena Furtive I just noticed), and I want to see this come together by Adrien finding the butterfly lair and figuring his father out by sheer emotional GUT FEELING the way father and son always end up relying primarily on regarding each other, as a parallel and complimenting narrative piece to Félix in "Risk"

[etherealxgenie]

Why Lila is Marinette’s Own Fault || Miraculous Why?

(Before I begin, note that this is my opinion over the topic and am no way am bashing anyone’s love for the ship and/or character. I respect who and what you like, therefore expect the same courtesy. However, if this is something you cannot handle, please click the back button as this will be a heavily discussed topic. No flames allowed. Other than that, enjoy.)

So usually in the story, there’s always one or two mean girls who is out to get the main character for some kind of superior reasons to justify. And there’s no reason as to why they act this way just for the sake of being mean.

Like the Ashleys from “Recess”, who tend to pick on kids just for the fun of it sometimes or cause they’re popular.

Same can go for Libby from “Sabrina The Teenage Witch” who was out to get something for what she wants or just to be superior to the other kids in school.

For Miraculous, we already have that kind of character, Chloe Bourgeois, who is the daddy’s girl of the Mayor to get what she wants. And until we had some small character development in season two (which season 3 took it away!!), we had no reason feeling sorry for her and she was just for the convenient plot in the social life for Marinette in the series.

And then… there’s Lila.

Before I get into hand in this, let me note that Lila is not a good person at all in the show. She’s a liar, a manipulator and will do whatever she can to get what she wants. She breaks into homes, steals and molests pretty models. She’s been pretty shown to be just selfish without consequences and unless we get a background story of why she acts this way, she has no excuse. Especially when she teams up with hawkdaddy to now have permission to invade and spy on Adrien whenever she wants? Fuck that.

So in Volpina, Lila is introduced as this pathological liar to get attention in season one. She obviously goes for Adrien cause he’s the famous model after all. Reasonable considering as the new person looking for attention, you seek out the most popular/famous person in the school. That would Adrien.

Though considering with her connections, it would’ve been smarter to try and impress Marinette instead if Lila did her research before she came into the scene. But of course, new person so she wouldn’t know, but whatever.

And we can see Lila easily just says things just to get Adrien’s approval and such.

And so, Marinette follows them around (stalking? really?) because Tikki points out Lila has the book Adrien took from his father’s vault and threw it in the trash.

Now the SMART thing to do would’ve been to see how Adrien would handle the situation and wait for him to leave, if to acknowledge Adrien has a mind of his own and knows when to walk away (which he does). Or at the very least, try to distract them as Marinette while Tikki retrieved the book.

But… no. You transform into Ladybug to lash out at a girl PUBLICALLY, for anyone including Adrien to hear, just to embarrass her and call her out on her lying because she… “hates liars”.

Marinette, you fucking lie ALL the time! Most of those times to Adrien! And I’m not just talking about when in regard to being Ladybug, you hypocritical- (groans)

I can list plenty of episodes: Gamer, Aninmaestro, Ikari Gozen and hell, even Reverser counts! If she hadn’t lied about Marc’s book, Nathaniel wouldn’t have torn it! (sighs)

And before you all start jumping at me saying Lila got what she deserves, I only agree partially. Ladybug, as a public figure and heroine, practically the face of Paris, acted irrationally lashing out at a bystander because of lies which were or were not believable. Lila was broadcasting a post or making the news, she was trying (poorly) to impress a boy. Ladybug gave Lila the Regina George treatment.

Yeah, so you caused an akumatized situation and Lila hates your guts. Hell, I would hate you too. That’s like a celebrity jumping at an innocent bystander when they’re whispering to their friend about a rumor that only the two of them were talking about. You can’t jump to try and stop them and should just let it dispel on its own. At that point, Lila had no real power but you just influenced her.

And… oh boy did things get worse because of this.

Look season 3 was trash (except for moments in certain episodes) and I feel talking about the infamous ‘Chameleon’ physically hurts me but… yeah gotta point out a few things. The whole episode was unrealistic, and it was an obvious ploy to be sympathetic to Marinette with Lila back… but… you’re not fooling me.

So, Lila is still on her lying game, being able to fool the students and the staff?! Okay if you believe a student has so many disabilities without any paperwork proof, you can actually get fired for that for fraud. As someone who worked with education before, that’s just pure incompetence.

So yeah, Marinette comes to school seeing the seats changes to accommodate Lila and upright begins to plot to discredit her for her lies. UM… what happened to trying to start over with Lila after failing to do so the first time?

Oh, that’s right. She gets that way (at least partly) because Lila is sitting next to Adrien. I can understand if it was because they rearranged the seating without her say so but let’s face it. Lila sitting next to Adrien was her real trigger.

So since Marinette failed to acknowledge her mistake the first time, she spends all day trying to prove Lila is lying and in return the class is angry at her. Alya even comes to point out that Marinette is jealous of Lila.

And you know what? Alya is right.

Alya knows at least what Marinette is capable of doing so when it comes to Adrien and how far she’s willing to go. Remember that Alya is the one who encouraged her to break into his locker and steal his phone. So of course, she’s worried Marinette is gonna do something to the new girl.

I don’t blame Alya for doing one of the most competent things in the show: Warning Marinette to NOT go off the handle without proof and not make herself look bad in the process.

And because Marinette failed to do so… she made Lila her enemy AGAIN. It was bad enough you had her as your enemy as Ladybug, but now you get to deal with twice the drama!

Your own fucking fault, Marinette.

Also, the advice Adrien gave? I don’t blame for him for it and neither should you. Yes, his advice is not perfect, but with the options he has on his plate, its hard to do something otherwise.

For every encounter Adrien has had with Lila, it ended up with her being akumatized or a disaster no matter how he tried to handle her. We didn’t get to see how he would resolve in Volpina because of Ladybug’s intervention, but he would try at least in Chameleon and try to get her to see she didn’t need to lie and actually tried to befriend her. At this point, Lila was already triggered by Ladybug and Marinette so she just might have to take Adrien by force instead.

At that point, Adrien just wants to stay away and which he was trying to tell Marinette don’t interact with Lila or confront her cause there’s no way to do so at this point. Maybe he was trying to tell her to wait until her rumors got discredited, but he didn’t say it clear enough for her to understand.

And keep in mind, Adrien is a sheltered child with little to zero social skills taught to him by Nathalie and Gabriel. Hell, we don’t know how his childhood was really like even with Emelie around either and Adrien seems more like the pacifist unless he needs to absolutely step in. And he did by cleaning up Marinette’s mess in ‘Ladybug’. So now he’s gotta suffer being around Lila more because of Marinette making Lila her enemy.

But once again, this is bad writing as the writers of the show obviously forgot what it’s like to live in reality. In the real world, Lila would be immediately discredited without any proof the moment she came back. Not to mention, some of the class have their own connections and have more braincells proven in the previous episodes. Google search and such. A 5-year-old wouldn’t believe these lies in these times. Hey, I believe that because I once had a kid in kindergarten during my time as an afterschool art teacher look at one of my books I illustrated before and said they liked the ‘graphics’.

Kids are fucking smarter nowadays than you think.

The only reason anyone would believe Lila’s lies is if she’s magically influenced with some kind of ‘silver tongue’ spell or something and honestly? It looks like that’s the reason.

I dunno if Thomas Astruc or Zag is trying to insult the kids/adults or insult themselves to say Paris people aren’t that smart. If it’s the latter, you should see what you are doing because I don’t want to believe that because that’s disrespectful.

I know it seems I’m trying to stand up for Lila this portion, but I’m just looking things in a  more realistic and logical way. Did Lila take things too far? Yes, waaaayyy too far and should be arrested for it since she works for Hawkmoth. But it could’ve been handled better and that makes Marinette at fault too.

Part of me wonders if she’s done this before because in Zombiezou, she also causes Chloe to ruin her gift for Ms. bustier. If Marinette didn’t antagonize Chloe in the locker in front of the class, maybe she wouldn’t have done anything. Again, I’m not saying Chloe was justified, but if that was the reason, yeah I can see her doing it for payback.

So to all those fics where I’m supposed to be ‘Boo-hoo’ for Marinette because of what Lila did? Fuck you guys because you need to dig deeper into the story to see both sides and not just make it a pity party where Marinette is the innocent victim.

It’s called “Cause and Effect”.

And considering she made Lila her enemy, Marinette is gonna get effected enough because that’s how karma works.

[miraculouscontent]

Didn’t Need Burrow (May 23rd-25th)

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Astruc admitted Sabine was based on an ex and Marinette is what he imagined their daughter to be like. He later admits Audrey was based on an ex and Chloe is what he imagined their daughter would be like. Despite moving on, he still bitter and created two teen girls as "payback" against his exes.

The whole “virtual daughter” thing still squicks me out.

Also, I don’t actually take “Didn’t Need Burrows” referring specifically to the staff/fandom since that’s outside of the show, but I also definitely think about them all the time and like sticking them in here.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Building off of the "Adrien knows about Marinette's crush on him and tells Plagg about it" Burrow, Plagg will point out to Adrien that this is a bad idea and what he is doing is wrong and that Adrien is leading Marinette on so as to stroke his own ego. He will not be listened to, and the show portray him as in the wrong, despite him being right, because anybody who stands up for Marinette's agency deserves to be shut down. In the meantime, Adrien will be allowed to continue

Bonus if Plagg will be considered “wrong” because Adrien not leading Marinette on would lead to him being sAd because Marinette isn’t fawning over him anymore (as if he doesn’t have a million fans).

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Zoe will be presented not only as "Chloe if she was good person", but also as "Marinette if she wasn't constantly making mistakes"

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Zoe will be basically  Marinette if "Marinette's Mistake of the Week" formula never existed.

Sounds about right.

Amazing what can happen when the show doesn’t have a gun to your head telling you to make mistakes in every episode.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: The show delves into a shitty harem as the writers forget that Adrien is not the main character. Who knows, maybe Zoe will join the harem.

The only reason I feel like Zoe wouldn’t be a part of Adrien’s harem is so she can ship the love square.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: There will be Animaestro-type episode where Marinette "makes alliance" with (read: is manipulated by) Chloe or Lila against Zoe. In the end she is only one punished, while her "partner in crime"  (or rather person who manipulated her) walks away completely scot-free.

To the surprise of no one. Can’t have the antagonists be punished, because that would make sense.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: (narrative-wise) Agreste's family drama and Bourgeois's sisters drama will overshadow whatever Marinette character arc will be in season 4.

I’m taking this a step further and saying that Marinette in generall will keep having her plots/”arcs” overshadowed by everyone else.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Marinette will be akumatized. She will be easily defeated due to "bond" between Chat Noir and Temporary Ladybug Zoe. This will be presented like Ladybug's constant refuse to "bond" with Chat Noir was reason why their fights with Akumatized Villains are so hard. (bonus: This episode will be followed by a group of fans that would state that Zoe should replace Marinette as Ladybug Miraculous Holder and not Chloe as Bee Miraculous Holder.)

Uggggh, I’m always waiting for the “love square magical bond” garbage.

Also, the bonus reminds me of the fact that I don’t understand people who hate on both Marinette and Luka but continue to ship the love square. Like, wouldn’t they want to ship Adrien with someone “””worthy””” of him??

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: If Marinette akumatization has Miracle Queen-type set-up, Chat Noir will quickly defeat her and whatever all other Miraculous Holders alone (or optionally supported by Temporary Ladybug Zoe). This will be presented by narrattive as proof of why Chat Noir is Brawn in Ladybug-Chat Noir duo. (Bonus: After that episode Adrien stans will make mass of "I hope this will shut up everyone who think that Chat Noir is useless/weaker than Ladybug/etc." type posts)

At this point, I’ve just grown numb to Chat suddenly being able to do things that don’t make sense for him.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Temporary Ladybug Zoe

Okay but is she keeping the black highlights or do they turn red. These are important questions.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Kagami will be changed (ret-conned) into  Adrienette (or other Love Square's part) shipper after "Lies"

Something similar is already on the card so that’s fun. :’3

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Zoe, not Marinette, will be wearing that dress from the Season 4 Concept Art.

*eye twitch*

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Rena Rogue will be appearing even when she isn't needed to defeat Akuma of the Week. This will be probably used to justify Chat Noir's increasing resent up towards Ladybug and (probably) consequent reversal of Love Square.

anything: *happens*

Chat Noir: bad Ladybug

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Ending: Marinette will willingly sacrifice herself to wake up from coma/ressurect Emilie. Both Adrien and Gabriel will be happy that Emilie is back. Adrien will have his happy relationship/ending with Zoe whom personality is (or was ret-conned into) "Marinette in anything but name". (Bonus points: if everyone behave like Marinette never existed after Emilie revival)

I’m sad.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: If Akuma of the Week isn't Reflekta/Mr Pigeon/Gigantitan/etc,.Pig Miraculous"s "Gift" power will basically fail and only make current Akumatized Villain angrier and more determined to achieve his goal, basically restarting whole fight against Akuma.

PIGELLA NO

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Lila will never react to Zoe becoming more popular than her

I imagine Zoe isn’t the same age as Chloe since they’re not twins, so Zoe at least won’t be in Bustier’s class.

Now, if they make her a Lila slave, then we’ll see.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow to know that Marinette is going to hate Zoe for being related to Chloe and this will be limited to her or she'll be the only one scolded for it (likely by Adrien), because you can't hate someone for who they're related to (which actually is a good lesson but ml will probably f it up somehow).

I feel like the writers just look at a character and go, “okay, how can we engineer them in a way for Marinette to mess up around them?

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need Burrow - Chat will find out Rena Rouge knows her identity and becomes angry bc "You and me against the world, m'lady." This will cause one episode of Adrienette becoming closer and Ladynoir drifting apart before Chat magically forgives her like it was no big deal after she makes a huge gesture to get him back.

You’d think they’d have worn out the reset button by now...

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need burrow: one of two things will happen, either Adrien will try to help Luka get back together with Marinette (basically the same plot as Mr. pigeon 72) or the relationship will not be brought up ever again and Mari and Luka don't really directly interact with each other anymore

“Bonus” if Adrien is “taught a lesson” that he shouldn’t meddle, and it’s only because he chose to meddle in Lukanette. “Double bonus” if his attempts actually get Lukanette back together but this is presented as a bad thing (for some reason)..

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Zoe will be(e)come pernament Bee Miraculous Holder.

This won’t be added because I think we already got official confirmation on this?

Oh, or do you mean “permanent” as in her keeping the miraculous eventually?

edit: yes, that’s what they meant (also, A+ pun)

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Every Miraculous Holder introduced in Season 4 will be will lose right to their Miraculous, except Zoe/Vesperia.

lol me just imagining them struggling over either making models or trying to not use those miraculouses anymore.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Luka will be forced to say Adrien and Marinette are perfect for each other in "Optigami".

Wow, show, why don’t you just prove more that you’re purposefully pointing out that you’re giving Marinette a grand total of One “Obvious” Option.

Anonymous asked:

Unsure if this one has been sent yet but | Didn't Need Burrow: Alya is going to continue Marinette to pursue Adrien even after Marinette broke down and said she doesn't have time for love right now.

We have some similar ones I think.

“Marinette’s feelings towards moving on are invalidated/ignored by one of her “friends” to push for the Love Square“

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Sandboy 2.0: Ladybug's nightmare will be about Chat Noir abandoning/hating her

I was dumb enough to raise an eyebrow at this like, “Would they really reuse akum--oh wait.”

Anonymous asked:

I'm gonna try and go for a good Didn't Need Burrow: WHen Sole Crusher gets Marinette we'll either get a lovely King Kong moment between them, or Chat Noir will come in and save her (and it'll possibly be a moment of reverse love square).

If they have Marinette doing the cliche “crushing because they got saved” I’m gonna throw hands.

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to burrow:

Marinette will never have a heart to heart with Luka revealing she's Ladybug or even explain the reason for their breakup.

Just gonna slap a big asterisk on this because it’s like:

*despite Luka being an obvious choice and they could’ve worked out the issue but the show is afraid of the side ship they’ve created working out better than the love square itself

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to Burrow: For Optigami, the episode will barely or never acknowledge Luka's and Marinette's relationship/breakup. It will be ignored and we won't have any cute Lukanette moments. As long as Adrien is in the picture, Luka will be always sidelined.

Honestly that last one is basically one of the commandments of this show.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Lila will now only appear in cameos (probably without even any voice lines).

show writers, shoving Lila under a rug: Leela Ransai?? Never heard of him.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Since Lukanette is over, Luka can be ret-conned from show. Everyone will behave like he never existed at all (and Lukanette never hapenned).

We at least know that Luka now appears in a later episode, but this could easily be worded as “Luka can be retconned away from being Marinette’s love interest and everyone will act like he and Marinette aren’t that close or never made soft eyes at each other.”

Except I wouldn’t count on Lukanette being retconned because that would stop the show from being allowed to make Marinette feel bad and guilty and possibly cause another akuma over it, plus possibly Luka “rejecting” his feelings for her and thus making her feel worse that he sees her in a lesser light.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: There will be an episode that will break "Mr Pigeon" episode record of  "Don't Need a Burrow" and close calls.

Not gonna lie, I would be legitimately impressed if that happened. I’m just wondering what predictions would be mashed together to make it as such.

Anonymous asked:

Didn’t Need Burrow to know that Zoey (I heard somewhere that that’s how her name is going to be in America, it might be wrong), is going to get involved in the love square somehow.

Bonus:

Or she will replace Kagami’s role as Marinette’s friendly rival, and when her heart gets broken Marinette will be the one to blame, for no reason, like always. Or she will have an interest in Marinette, since it seems they are going to be close friends, only for Marinette to put her in the friend zone, and she gets akumatized. People will blame Marinette for giving false hopes to the girl, even though, she never acted different than how a friend would act.

All girls exist to comment/have an opinion on the love square, obviously, and they’re antagonists/villains if they have a negative opinion on it.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Writers will use Alya bashing concept of Alya proposing Lila as potential new Miraculous Holder. Marinette will obviously refuse, but due to fact that Lila is suddenly ret-conned into being good person this is Marinette's Mistake of the Week. She will repair it by making Lila pernament Miraulous Holder

Waiting for the one episode long Lila redemption...

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Sabrina will be redeemed. She will change from Chloe's servant... to Zoe's servant.

and it’s fine of course because Zoe and Sabrina are best friends and Sabrina is doing this all happily and willingly.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Alya will be changed into basically Marinette's Guardianship mentor

Somehow, this is one of the ones I hate the most because it seems accurate so far.

[wanna-b-poet31]

Aziraphale and Food

So, stick with me for a moment: Why do we almost universally essentialize Aziraphale into a glutton? 

Like yes, he eats, and yes, to our knowledge he’s the only known celestial creature (Christs and Anti-Christs notwithstanding) to eat on screen, but he never really eats to excess. In fact, I don’t think he eats food because he’s a hedonist (I mean he is a hedonist, but maybe not for this), BUT rather because it provides him an excuse to be with Crowley. 

Sounds ridiculous right? It shouldn’t be right, right? We see Aziraphale eat alot over the course of the show, we see him enjoy eating, and we never see Crowley eat ever. So, it can’t all just be a ploy to be with Crowley?  Right?

I mean he certainly enjoys eating, I’m not fool enough to say he isn’t getting any pleasure from dining out.  Just look at his face as he appreciates the sushi! Joy! 

And this calm, happiness follows Aziraphale when later in Ep. 1, Crowley takes him to the Ritz in an attempt to persuade him to save the world.  And, to celebrate surviving the end of the world with his boyfriend best friend, the first thing they do once they’re free, really free of Heaven and Hell and their abusers, is going to the Ritz. 

So I’m not proposing that Aziraphale doesn’t eat, or that he doesn’t get any enjoyment from eating >I mean look at how his face falls he is When Gabriel asks why he’s eating food, proceeding to call it “gross matter”, and eating it “sullies” his heavenly temple.  It’s straight-up heartbreak, as Aziraphale glances down at his spicy tuna roll.  (and let’s not forget or excuse that what Gabriel is doing here is abusive) <

However, if Aziraphale’s interest in food is simply selfish or gluttonous, then we must have seen him eat plenty of times without Crowley or the expectation that eating would be a vehicle for their social interaction.

We don’t.

AZIRAPHALE + SUSHI

Just think back to the above scene that establishes Aziraphale’s character. 

This is the only scene with Aziraphale and food that does not include Crowley. And sure, he is alone in a sushi place, before being rudely interrupted by Gabriel’s garbage attitude. Crowley doesn’t isn’t there now, he’s not ducking under the table, or jumping out the window, or materializing himself anywhere else but there to avoid being seen by Heaven. So, clearly, this must be proof of Aziraphale’s undying attachment to food. 

Case Closed.  Diagnosis: Gluttony plain and simple.

However, if this is true, how do we explain his peculiar behavior in this restaurant? 

For starters, immediately after receiving his food, he’s striking a conversation with the chef -- a chef who knows his NAMEd, not Mr. Fell, not some pseudonym, not simply addressing him like another customer, but as a friend (at least an acquaintance).  Perhaps even more telling is not that Aziraphale and the Chef know each other, but that Aziraphale -- I’m a bit out of Practice is French IN FRANCE -- has gone out of his way to learn Japanese to converse with this person, treating him with the respect of a friend, not someone who is here simply for food alone. This is social. 

Then there is a small chime, indicating a supernatural presence has entered the building. (We hear the same chime when Crowley rescues his ass from a guillotine) And notice how unsurprised he is by the sudden supernatural presence. He’s expecting a guest.

Couple this information with Crowley’s behavior at the graveyard (he acts like he wants to get the hell out of Dodge even before he’s tasked with delivering the Anti-christ like he’s got a prior engagement) and the knowledge that the A40 goes straight through Soho.  

I think it’s reasonable to conclude that he’s expecting Crowley. 

Notice how he pointedly looks to his left upon hearing the magical chime.  We see in the next (below) shot, that he’s not turning to the door, but to a mirror.  So why look there if not because Crowley always is on his right?

His face instantly drops and an overjoyed expectant look turns to a terse, forced polite smile when he sees Gabriel, not Crowley, has joined him. And while he defends eating, we don’t see him eat (even after Gabriel leaves). I think, perhaps unintentionally, this is the scene that tells us why Aziraphale eats. 

Pretext.

AZIRAPHALE’S SOCIAL CALL, CROWLEY’S BUSINESS DEAL

Let’s look at the first time (temporally) we see Aziraphale broach the idea of food. In the early years and in Heaven, Aziraphale doesn’t volunteer any interest in food or social interaction. However, in Rome, things are clearly different.

>check out where I purpose Aziraphale falls in love with Crowley in Rome here<.

Notice how in the opening shot, Aziraphale isn’t eating. There’s no drink in his hand, no grapes in his mouth, nothing to indicate that he has been eating, or socializing.  When suddenly!! He hears a voice, and stops, his game piece hovering over the board as he realizes Crowley is nearby. 

Only when after he approaches Crowley, does food enter the conversation Hearing Crowley order gives him the perfect in, the clearly acceptable, casual social relationship that no one could question.  He can see that Crowley, like him, has changed and that the demon is giving him limited responses, barely joining the conversation. 

Aziraphale tries-- he honest to God tries -- to start a conversation without pretext, without some kind of excuse to join in the welcome, and frankly comforting, company.  He asks “still a demon” trying, oh so haphazardly, to make it about work, kind of like when someone is asking you about the weather, and it blows up in his face, earning him the wrath of his friend. He simply can’t be the one to initiate business conversations because it, as a pretext for their relationship, is always off the mark, and comes across as dismissive of Crowley’s demon identity. 

Only when he talks about food does he manage to get Crowley to open up, and accept his presence. He gives Aziraphale the all-clear to continue talking to him, and Aziraphale fucking jumps on it.  It’s extra fascinating how both parties leave this scene with two radically different uses for food. For Aziraphale, it is a safe pretext to get Crowley to open up, but for Crowley, it seems to be Aziraphale’s main interest, not him. 

Crowley also doesn’t seem to get that Aziraphale is not equipped to talk shop, and needs the security in being in a sanctioned social interaction.  Friendly talks like the ones they’d shared earlier were comforting to Aziraphale, getting him to open up in a way that no other character had successfully managed.  He means for this, and more importantly, he NEEDS this to be social. To be a kind of friendship, partnership, that he doesn’t get from Heaven. There’s security in being casual, social, and nothing more than that. 

However, Crowley can’t talk about himself in any meaningful way. He mentions he’s never had oysters before, his sarcasm missing Aziraphale only to have him be surprised when Aziraphale tries one last jab at the business talk. The “let me tempt you” gets his attention, but he doesn’t relax until Aziraphale, “no, I suppose that’s your job”, or when Aziraphale diverts the conversation back into their work.  

Both walk away from this conversation thinking “yes, I know how to talk to him now” Except, they don’t. Aziraphale doesn’t recognize Crowley uses their work as a catalyst, and Crowley doesn’t recognize that for Aziraphale food is a catalyst, not the product, he desires. 

A MISCOMMUNICATION

When Crowley asks for a “favor”, a work lunch, we can see how the two fundamentally misunderstand how food is being used, and how the other thinks food is being used.

The whole exchange about the crepes, boils down to Crowley opening the door with “remember that work favor?” and Aziraphale responding with “I don’t remember the work pretext, but I remember sharing crepes with you”. 

Notice it’s not I had crepes, nor is it a focus on the food itself. It is Aziraphale emphasizing the shared part of the shared experience, not the details (which we get to see by the way) of being rescued or of accusing Crowley of starting the revolution, and Crowley explaining that neither side had started it, but the humans had.  All Aziraphale cares about is their relationship, but can only safely use food as his point of reference because it allows him to share time with Crowley.  

Contrast this with how Crowley’s perspective. Even just asking if it was one of Heaven’s or Hell’s is cementing the conversation as a work lunch, reminding Aziraphale (and perhaps himself) that they’re only allowed a professional relationship, not a social one, and he gives himself the pretext of work.  Neither recognizes that there is a cross in the symbolism. 

THE SHIFT

Things do shift, at least for Aziraphale, and food works a second role. Romance.

In the 60′s Aziraphale doubles down on using food to facilitate his relationship with Crowley because now he explicitly us that, “He can’t have [Crowley] risking [his] life, not even for something dangerous” which I think means “I’m afraid of our relationship without the pretext and safety that food has provided us me.” The danger is having their mutual feelings of love being discovered, so he’ll give Crowley the holy water as a symbol of that trust.  

But when he continues as uses food to roadmap a relationship free of the pretext, “Maybe one day we’ll go for a picnic, dine at the Ritz” is indeed a literal example of what their relationship could be but it also acts as a promise that “Maybe, one day we can go on a picnic, or dine at the Ritz without the excuses, and simply be us enjoying food, not us using food as a safety net”. It’s a road map that he will continue with the pretext, and he’s alright if Crowley is tired of using it to be around each other, but he needs it, not always, not forever, but for now, it allows him the comfort that he is protecting Crowley’s safety (as well as himself). 

Crowley counters this moment with, “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go”  which I argue translates into “I will dismiss the pretext now in a heartbeat, I’m not afraid of the consequences, I could ‘eat’ with you now”, but Aziraphale can’t risk it. “You Go too Fast for me Crowley” is a warning that he can’t have Crowley risking his life for him. We talk often about how Crowley has self-esteem issues, but so does Aziraphale, he does not see himself as being worthy of such a risk. So, he needs the pretense of food to function without (much) worry about what Hell would do to Crowley if they were discovered. 

Unfortunately, they’re not speaking the same symbolic language, and as pointed out earlier, their wires are crossed. 

CONCLUSION 

In the beginning of the show, Crowley uses “no more fascinating little restaurants where everyone knows your name” specifically as a selling point, appealing to his presumption that Aziraphale’s love of food outweighs his love of the demon. He’s seen Aziraphale eat, and enjoy himself, clearly, at least Crowley thinks this tactic is reason enough to get Aziraphale to stay.  Which points to the fatal flaw of Crowley’s reasoning.  He only uses it because saying “we’ll never be able to talk to each other again” doesn’t even register as something he can say because he doesn’t value himself as enough for Aziraphale to consider saving the world. Food, however? Food has acted as a catalyst for understanding, but Crowley mistranslates “catalyst” for “produce” and presumes that because Aziraphale uses food to talk to him, he must love food, and not him. He’s wrong.

It’s not until they both throw out pretext and realize “shit, the song and dances we’ve been doing have not allowed us to rely on each other in the way we need” that they can move forward. And, after Armagedon’t they do just that, leaving the garden, and the remnants of their loyalties to other parties, and dropping all pretext, and just enjoying each other’s company as equals. 

Ending the series at the Ritz, celebrating their closeness is likely not the last time they’ll ever share a meal, but it is likely the last time they will under the pretense that food is Aziraphale’s central desire and not Crowley.  Sure, food is something Aziraphale mostly enjoys, but it no longer is an excuse. If he eats, it’s for enjoyment and personal choice, not a means for hiding or protecting Crowley anymore. And for Crowley, “tempting” Aziraphale to a bite of lunch without the expectation of a favor, or repaying a favor, removes his similar reservations about pretext. He no longer has to rely on work to simply “be” with Aziraphale. 

TLDR: Aziraphale uses food as a social excuse to spend time with Crowley

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk, next time I’ll write too much about Crowley and retraumatization

[ghostiewriter]

meet james maybank | character inspection

This is an insight into James Maybank, a character commonly used within my outer bank fanfictions. He’s portrayed as JJ and Kiara’s firstborn and eldest son. This is just to give you an idea on what he’s like rather than having to explain in each one-shot he shows up in!

James Maybank is the eldest child and first son to JJ and Kiara, in the little second generation I’ve created. The couple had him when they were twenty-three years old, he was admittedly unplanned. Most of their early 20s were spent travelling and the pregnancy with James did change their plans a little, but they loved him relentless. In fact, it gave JJ an excuse to finally convince Kie to go to a bunch of different theme parks since they had a kid and it was “basically a law” for them to do so. Yet, despite the fact he was an accident, it didn’t make him any less loved. It was nerve-wracking, he was the first venture into parenthood that the couple had ever had but James was also just the perfect little mix of his parents (whether that made the situation better or worse is debatable).

The name James was chosen by JJ, a little nod of respect to his mother (something that will be explained further in a certain one shot). He was the perfect little summer baby, born on 31st July, smack middle of summer. Despite being born at peak summer time, James isn’t the surfer boy you’d expect him to be. He loved the beach, don’t get me wrong. He enjoyed all the memories he had growing up, learning how to surf and building sandcastles with his little siblings but much to JJ’s disappointment, James wasn’t much of a surfing fan.

But where JJ’s love for the ocean lacked in his eldest son, his skill and interest in mechanics did not. Ever since he was a young child, James had the oddest fascinations with cars. Maybe it started from JJ taking him to work on the few days Kie would be on the mainland for her own work or maybe it was because he grew up watching old episodes of Top Gear, but James Maybank became a motorhead. The second he was old enough, he would be at his father’s side, oil and grease on his hands as he learnt everything he could. It started as a hyper-fixation and ended up being a passion. And just like his mother, James has a bit of a ‘do it yourself’ attitude. He is stubborn as hell, so when he was young and his grandparents (mostly Anna Carrera) was openly against his fascination and passion to be a mechanic, well you can guess how much it fuelled him to pursue this career further.

Like mentioned above, he is a healthy mix of his parents but maybe the combination is more dangerous. Whilst he has the wit and quick-thinking of his mother, the boy has the schemer ways and knack for trouble just like his father has. Again, a dangerous combination. James is a charmer, he has a way with words that just traps people in and make them want to be around him. He is a natural extrovert, a social butterfly if you will. You can throw him in a room with anybody and he would come out of it with new friends, it’s just the way James is. Even as a child, he just seemed to hold a charm over people that could not be explained.

Though, sometimes it can be mistake for arrogance and this is where the trouble slips in. James is a very self-aware person. He knows that he is a good-looking guy, he is quite intelligent and a bit of a natural flirt. But by god does it make his ego unbearable at times. Kiara claims this is something he gets from his father, but James seems to have an issue in letting his mouth run sometimes and it gets him into trouble with others. He is a friendly, flirty guy—you can imagine how many times he might have accidentally spoken to the wrong person and how many times he has realised his charming words won’t get him out of a fight with a very pissed off significant other (James seems to have a habit of flirting with people that are already taken, again not on purpose but more just because he can’t help it). His ego is definitely one of his fatal flaws that will come to bite him in the ass later on.

Despite this, James is one of the most loyal people you can ever have in your life. As a brother, as a friend, as a son. This boy is just the epitome of blind loyalty. Once you are in his life, you are under the protection of James Maybank, I don’t make the rules. The people he cares about mean the world to him, and though he may have a lot of friends, his inner circle is smaller than you would think. These are the people he can let loose around, not worry about reputation or appearance. He can be his usual loveable but goofy self. James thrives on making people smile and laugh, especially those in his inner circle. So although he may be an egotistical bastard at times, he can be quite the sweetheart too.

There are a lot of relationships to go through so I’ll focus on the main ones in James’s life. The main one being his relationship with his parents. Much to Kiara’s dismay, James is a daddy’s boy. Since he could crawl, he would always be at his father’s side. It was nerve-wracking for JJ considering his fears of fatherhood and walking into the unknown, but he was the best dad you could ever think of. James has a very healthy relationship with his parents, a very open one too. He has grown up in an environment that he knows is a safe place and wouldn’t be judged so there was very little he had to hide from his parents. Plus the fact they were a part of an illegal heist when they were his age does help him get away with quite a lot of stuff. James was a bit of a tester though, considering he was the first child and his parents were only 23 when they had him, but it did mean that everyone was learning together. With his short temper (courtesy of his father), James can get quite heated in argument very quickly which was a pain during his early teen years, but after reaching that eventual maturity, his relationship with his parents was a breeze.

His relationship with each of his siblings is quite different. He probably gets on the easiest with Gabriel, purely because his younger brother is a fairly chilled guy and avoids conflict as much as he can. Gabriel tends to be the first person James would go to whenever he needs to rant or get advise (his younger brother is oddly wise) and he tries to be the same.

Whereas, James’s relationship with the other twin is much more complicated. James and Zack are similar in many ways and that tends to be the problem. Both hot-headed and stubborn, they tend to clash and bicker the most. Deep down, James knows he would do anything for his brother but that doesn’t take away from the fact his youngest brother can be a right pain in his ass at some points.

Now James is an overprotective bastard, this can be seen by anyone. But his overbearing ass is definitely the strongest when it comes to his little sister Elliot. He promptly chooses to ignore the fact she could kick everyone’s ass and plays the part of ‘protective big brother’ as a badge of honour. She learnt quite quickly to just let him play his part, and though it can be irritating at some points, it means he cares so Elliot doesn’t mind too much. James just sees all his younger siblings as his responsibility to keep as happy and protected as he can. He loves his siblings, he would do anything for them just as they would for him.

The second generation of pogues are a big bunch and whilst James is friendly with most of them (maybe going as far as considering them to be his siblings too) his best friend is most definitely Charlotte Routledge. Being the first kids in the group, it was hard for James to not be around Charlie most of his life. She was born a couple of months after he was and a lot of their childhood photos are proof that the two of them were rarely seen without each other. Charlie is like a sister to him, someone he would trust with his life. She probably knows him better than she knows herself, and vice versa. One would very rarely be seen without the other growing up, and they became quite the troublesome duo. However, Charlie is also one of the few people that isn’t afraid to put James in his place. He can be cocky and arrogant and she is happy to knock him down a few notches. She is the slap of reality in his life (something James quite often needs) and after so many years of friendship, she soon learnt to help him avoid trouble by scheming with him rather than trying to stop him. Charlie Routledge is one of the most important people in his life, just like her father was to his own.

Now, the last important relationship I should tell you about is with Clover Martelle. Depending on who you ask, the view of their relationship can be very different. For Clover, James is nothing but an arrogant asshole who always gets what he wants. To James, Clover is the best thing to ever walk this earth. It’s a long story for these two, a long history that goes back all the way to their first day of school together. You could jokingly say that James is his father’s son, falling for a stubborn girl who happily put him in his place and resisted the charming smile he gave everyone else. But that is just what James loves about her. She is beautiful, but James fell for so much more than that. She was strong and kind and stood up for what she believed in. Little James Maybank has been whipped since he was 5 years old. Their story and Clover’s eventual realisation that his feelings are requited is one that will eventually be explored.

Physically, James is healthy and fit. Except for the fact he had to be kept in hospital for an extra few days after he was born. But in every other aspect, he is generally quite normal and well. The only thing that he does need aid for is his eyesight. Since he was around 4 years old, James has always worn glasses. He wears glasses because he has a “lazy eye” (medically known as amblyopia) which just means one eye is weaker than the other. In James’s case, it is his left eye. Glasses were a bit of a menace for him as a child, he hated it and usually did his best to avoid wearing them. But by the age of 8, he had grown up a bit and accepted his glasses and he has never really had an issue with them since. Growing up with his parents being Potterheads, James distinguishably has worn round glasses like the main protagonist since he had first watched the movies. It helped a lot with his confidence to wear them.

Mentally, James’s health is also quite good. Like mentioned earlier, growing up in an open environment where you were aware that you could talk to your parents and not be judged really did help. He has always been open with his feelings and thoughts, always been given healthy solutions to deal with his issues. The fact that his parents respect his privacy and space and give James the time he needs to open up is also a big help. Like his father, he can sometimes get lost in his own head and use other things to distract him but he will eventually talk to someone about what is bothering him—whether that be his parents, his siblings or his friends. He knows he will always have someone there for him.

JJ and Kiara had no plans to settle down anytime soon. They were young and adventurous and had the whole world at their feet. It was no surprise to anyone that the second they graduated, they hopped on a plane and visited all the places they only dreamed of going. They would go back and forth between a new place and returning home for a few weeks to visit the other pogues, and have a few dinners with the Carreras to keep Anna happy. It just so happened that during one of their trips back to the island, there was a massive rager at the Boneyard for Halloween. Seeing no harm in this, the couple went and had the time of their lives. Little did they know that one little night would change their lives.

James wasn’t planned or necessarily expected at least for a couple of years. Unlike John B and Sarah who had a wedding pretty soon after they graduated, JJ and Kiara saw no rush in doing so. They had all the time in the world. However, a wrench was thrown into their plans when that positive pregnancy test showed up in their lives. Despite the fear and uncertainty the couple shared on the path of parenthood, they decided to keep the baby and venture forward with this unexpected path. It became one of the best decisions in their lives.

James was the sweetest young boy, a healthy mix of his parents both in attitude and in appearance. He was energetic and bubbly and charming. He loved people and loved making new friends. He was also the catalyst to the large family the young couple would have.

James knows of his parents’ background, where the two of them came from and how they got to the place they are now. In classic JJ fashion, of course his son follows through in the teasing and mocking of the other kooks. To keep Anna happy, they would attend the odd party here or there at the country club and James would do everything in his power to seem like the most charming man and simultaneously the kook parents worst nightmare. James is protective of his family, and knowing how they treated his father, he doesn’t plan on giving them the time of day to get under his skin.

Being the eldest, he also feels as though he holds a responsibility over his siblings to be a role model. Unfortunately, his big mouth can get him into a lot of trouble and usually it’s one of his siblings that will be helping him out of trouble. He’s a prankster, he can’t help it. He always has something up his sleeve, and this just so happens to be the exact thing that gets him on Clover’s bad list the first time they meet.

His relationship—or lack thereof—with Clover Martelle began when young James Maybank decided it would be hilarious to put gum on one of the chairs in the classroom. That chair just so happened to belong to Clover who did not find it very funny and in retaliation humiliated him in front of the class by doing the same back to him. It was the day James Maybank became absolutely whipped for her.

She was the person all the kook bastards thought they were entitled to tell him to stay away from. Even Clover herself made it pretty clear she didn’t want to be near James but that didn’t stop him. And eventually, years of pining and being like a love-sick puppy would finally blossom into a beautiful relationship between the two—but not without its hardships and bumps in the road (but you’ll just have to stay tuned to see how their story plays out!).

Being the oldest means that James is also the first to go through everything, including school. He knew pretty early on that he wanted to be a mechanic, his love for cars and motorcycles and boats proved this passion this further. In fact, by the age of 16, he had managed to build his own motorbike along with the help of his father and it’s his most prized possession and greatest accomplishment to this day.

James is a fairly laid back guy, he doesn’t like to plan too much into the future or dwindle on what is going to happen. He is definitely more of a “go with the flow” type of guy and that perfectly describes his outlook on life. Though his arrogance may be his fatal flaw, it also fuels the confidence that makes James who is and it’s a part of him you will grow to love.

[ywhiterain]

Jack in the Box/Moriah

I’ve been sitting in the season fourteen finale. As always, my interpretation of SPN views the big plot points as a metaphor for intense/toxic/abusive family dynamics.  Reading the finale as God coming around and fucking up things for the lulz.... okay, yeah. I get that. But the bigger point is about the unification of the two big SPN families - Winchesters+God and the Archangels.

Cut because this is TL:DR even for me lol.

In a happier story, Jack would have been the starting point to unify these two families. And, to a certain extent, he did. Jack tied Castiel more deeply to the Sam/Mary/Dean family unit. The best of times were the five of them together. Gabriel didn’t get to bond with Jack much, but he chose to side with the Winchester and rejected Lucifer’s pity party.

And, make no mistake, Lucifer’s, er, ‘redemption arc’ was never really about him becoming a better person. It was nice for the world that he wasn’t actively trying to end it, but he spent all of his time whining about how God just scapegoated him. Yeah, he did. But Lucifer made a lot of choices that hurt a lot of people. He ended up being the beginning of Jack’s eventual downfall.

In the start, Jack was bright and brimming with life. Like any baby, he was brimming with potential. Anything was possible. Literally, in his case. But no baby comes into the world without baggage. Jack’s father was a problem, but the real start of his tragedy was that his first day alive ended with his father’s funeral.

This brings us to Sam. His feelings for Jack have always been multifaceted and complicated. He wanted to use Jack to save his mom, he saw himself in Jack and wanted to help him grow up to be a good person, and the shadow of Lucifer always lingered between them. But, here’s the thing, when Jack was dying, Sam stayed by his side the entire time. Dean walked away, Cas followed.

Sam took his first death the hardest. The thing that brought him to his knees was the fact his stupid ax broke so he couldn’t put together a proper wake for him. Sam’s the one who figured out how to save Jack. His mourning of Mary is tied with Jack, not only because Jack accidently killed her, but because the relationship he was building with Mary was, in part, ABOUT Jack. 

Sam wanted a unique relationship with his mother. He wanted to know her as a person and have what he’d been missing his entire life. The one he got to build, however briefly, was tied to Jack. She was proud of the man, the father, that Sam had become. To Jack. Who mimics Castiel in instinct and Dean though effort, but whose destiny and heart are as similar to Sam’s.

The only thing that Jack wanted was to be a good person. To use his powers to to help people.. To prove to everyone (and himself) that the source of his power wasn’t a defining aspect of who he was. It’s not to different than season two Sam keeping a list of everyone he was able to save as proof that maybe he wasn’t destined to be evil.

Jack, when killing Michael, declares himself a Winchester. In saving the world (worlds, really, because Michael would tear though every universe until Chuck finally showed his face), in saving his family, Jack doomed his soul.

Later, Jack wanted Mary to go away. He was just a kid yelling a caretaker to leave him alone. Typical, normal behavior any child sometimes experiences. But the curse of Jack’s powers is that are taken to literal extremes. He kills Mary. He forces a world without lying to come into being.

The emotional crux of the finale was Dean, who wanted to kill Jack; Cas who wanted to save him, and Sam who was torn. Cas and Dean have no doubts about what the right thing, they don’t waver on what they want emotionally. Sam is angry at Jack, but he thinks Jack deserves to be saved.

Dean tells Sam to prey to Jack. To be as sincere as possible. All Puppy Dog Eyes, All The Time. And here’s how the scene is framed: two adults tricking a child who trusts them to be locked up in a box for eternity. Whatever Jack’s crimes, the camera is asking us to sympathize with Jack’s pain. Sam is pained the entire time and when Jack looks to him for reassurance - Sam giving him the okay is one of his worst moments.

Jack in his box declares he doesn’t like it. Like a child with a limited vocabulary. He screams for Sam and Dean, but has to break himself out.  

Chuck comes back, all but eating popcorn.

Dean plans to kill Jack. The bright side: the magical gun that he’d use would kill him, too. So he’d leave Sam alone, with his brother and his kid both dead. Dean does the ugly dirty deeds, but forces Sam to live with the fallout. Like the end of season two.

To Dean’s credit, when Jack falls to his knees and agrees to die (mirroring Sam when Dean traded his life in a ploy with Death), he wavers. He realized Mary wouldn’t want Dean to kill Jack. Her revival at Jack’s expense might have actually been unforgivable. Mary’s last actions alive was reaching out to a troubled Jack, a boy she loved. Her death was an accident and blame and punishment won’t fix what happened, much less address the underlining reasons why it happened, Jack lost his soul saving the people (he took down Michael, who spent most of the season terrorizing Dean specifically). 

The fractured remains of our main family might have survived. But then Chuck kills Jack

Toxic and abusive family dynamics killed a child. Every adults around Jack played their part in his downfall and death. It feels like the most fitting end for his character. A baby can sometimes bring a families together, but they can’t fix what’s broken. They, more often than not, become victimized by the broken family dynamic.

But that’s not the only way to look at Jack’s story. He did get to live. He loved and was loved. He spent his brief life trying to make the world a better place. He saved the world. And he’s going to come back.

Children born in broken families aren’t a cautionary tale. They are people, filled with potential. A kid can’t fix a family, that kid can make the world better. Families that are broken, twisted, toxic, abusive - they still produce people whose stories and are as varied as any other type of person.

In this case, a better god.

[dragolianx]

How I’d rewrite Miraculous Ladybug a.k.a Miraculous Ladybug Final Mix

Before I start I just want to say, I actually loved this show. I always appreciate shows that establish their own universe separate from the big publishers. Ben 10, Generator Rex, Big Hero 6, hell My Life as a Teenage Robot does this well.

When I started Miraculous I had high hopes and season 1 definitely delivered. However, season 2 had some issues and season 3 only made it worse.

Say what you want about the show, but there was a noticeable shift in quality between season’s 1 and 2 and an even bigger drop in season 3.

I won’t touch season 1 since it did its job well. It established the world and explained some of the rules and lore about Kwami and Miraculous powers.

Now the end of season 1 gave us new antagonist in Lila. Her arrival shook up the established flow of the school. She was the new kid so she hooked everyone with stories of traveling around the world. However she had a habit of lying about herself to make herself seem interesting.

She lied about knowing ladybug and about being the latest in a family of superheroes.

Marinette knows that she’s lying because Lila claims to be Ladybug’s BFF, but she never met Lila before that day.

We then get the episode Volpina and so far this was the closest Ladybug came to surrendering. The only other akuma to get close to getting her earrings was Lady Wifi at this point. She knew how to manipulate people, even if she was sloppy with her lies at first.

When season 2 starts however she’s no where to  be seen until the season finale, Hero’s Day. This is where I’d make my first change.

Season 2

Make Lila stick around for season 2 instead of adding her back at the end of the season

Her absence is attributed to her “Traveling around the world” when she’d really just at home skipping school.

Her mom believes that the school is closed due to constant akuma attacks. The problem with this is that the school would most definitely have called her about her daughter’s absence. Or at the every least gave her a courtesy call about how the trip is going. It also make’s Lila’s mom seem incompetent because she doesn’t bother to go her kid’s school.

If there’s ever a parent teacher conference this lie would be easily dealt with.

Instead have the season 3 premiere episode “Chameleon” be the season 2 premiere. Instead of having the class change the seating order because she came back have her manipulate it so that she’s sitting next to Adrian and that Marinette is sent to the back.

Instead of Adrian telling Marinette to take the high road, have him warn her that without actual proof she’d just be isolated even more by the class. Adrian then promises to help Marinette whenever he can.

This worked in the episode because it showed just how persuasive she could be and how she could sway people she barely knows.

The episode would play out the same way, except at the end Bustier has Adrian stay where he is because she insists that he be a “good role model” and help Lila because of her “Disabilities”

In the end, the seating order is changed permanently and Marinette is moved to the back of the class. Lila begins to wedge herself between Marinette and the class.

Other big changes I’d make to season 2 would be moving Zombizou closer to the episode Despair Bear. At least make them be within an episode of each other. These will be the seeds for Chloe’s redemption, which can work in the show if Astruc would get his head out of his ass and learn how to write his damn characters.

Going off topic for a bit, but Kevin Levin from Ben 10 has tried to kill Ben for most of the original series run. After his mutation he tries to frame Ben for crimes and then off him when they were dragged into a gladiator match. He even teamed up with Vilgax to trap Ben in the Null Void and take the Omnitrix.

When Alien Force rolls around Kevin still tries to kill Ben, but when he meets a Majester Plumber and witnesses him die because of weapon deal gone bad, the same deal that Kevin set up, he realizes that he could be good and teams up with Ben and Gwen.

The same can be said for Chloe.

The most she’s done was prank Marinette, get Alya suspended, and plagiarize Marinette’s work.

As an antagonist she sucked. Hard.

Over the course of season 2 Chloe should steadily get better at not bossing people around and stop playing the “Mayor’s Daughter” card for her own selfish reasons.

At the same time, we should get small hints at Lila driving a wedge between Marinette and the class.

It could just be her mentioning how flaky Marinette can be because she’s never on time for events or just disappears sometimes.

It’d be hard for Marinette to counter this without revealing herself so the class begins to question her.

The season plays differently with Chloe mellowing out and Lila planting seeds of doubt.

Another thing worth mentioning is how Adrian/Chat Noir factors into the show.

In season 3 we see him miss his mom more, but it comes out of nowhere. We the audience know his mom is dead and assume he’s sad about it, but we don’t get actual scenes about this until Gorizilla and it’s not touched again until Felix.

In season 2 we should get more of how Adrian handles his isolation and how the loss of his mom affects him.

Have him lean on Marinette for support like how he asked her to lean on him for help with Lila.

Also have Chat Noir more involved with the whole temp hero thing and have Master Fu keep him in the loop.

Balance seems to be a central theme to the show, but Ladybug seems to be holding all the cards between the duo and Chat Noir is just in the background.

This makes him seem more like a sidekick instead of a partner since he’s almost never consulted when it comes to choosing heroes.

When Anansi happens have Adrian pick Nino to use the Turtle Miraculous and save Alya

The same can be said for how Chloe gets the Bee Miraculous in Style Queen.

He’s known her the longest and sees that she’s been making an honest effort to change, so as Chat Noir her gives her the Bee Miraculous.

This way Chloe gets to have her secret identity and prove herself to Ladybug and Chat Noir as a worthy hero.

Queen Wasp is removed from the series entirely

Maledictator happens because Audrey threatens to go back to New York and Chloe doesn’t know if she wants to go with her or not because she knows she wants a better relationship with her mom, but she’s also making progress at being a better person at school.

Lila sets off the celebration for Chloe leaving and that make Chloe want to leave because she thought she was getting better, but it seems as if her efforts weren’t good enough. Marinette doesn’t participate and defends Chloe since she hasn’t bothered Marinette or anyone else for the last few weeks and Lila takes this opportunity to make it seem like Marinette wants Chloe to stick around and bully the class.

Instead of defending herself Marinette chases after Chloe, and Adrian follows soon after once he hears the news.

The episode play nearly the same way until Chat Noir get whammied by Maledictator and becomes an actual cat.

Ladybug then gives Chloe the Bee Miraculous again and the episode plays out the same way until the end where Marinette offers to be Chloe’s friend and she accepts

Event play out the same leading up to heroes day and the season ends the same way. However, as a reward for their bravery in facing Hawkmoth and Mayura: Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee get to keep their Miraculous

Season 3

Since we moved Chameleon up a season and removed Queen Wasp, we’ll give those two episodes to season 3 as exposition episodes. One where Fu explains in detail to the current holders what happened to the order.

Have it be different from Feast sense the whole reason was Ludacris to begin with. Introduce the concept of an order dedicated to chaos that wants to use the Mirculous for various reasons.  The temple is attacked and Fu managed to get away with the main miracle box with the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous in it.

We also get Fu choosing Ladybug to be the new guardian if something should happen to him with the other heroes agreeing that it should be her.

She begins her training after this episode

In another episode explain what happened to Adrian’s mom

We know that she has some sort of sickness keeping her in a coma and that only the Miraculous can fix it. We know because Adrian mentions how Natalie showed the same symptoms his mom did before she “died”

Have Gabriel remember what caused her to use the Peacock and how he found them to begin with. Have him study the grimoire to learn how to use Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous to save his wife.

Remove Animaestro since it adds nothing to the plot and was just an excuse for Astruc to shamelessly insert himself into his own show.

As a writer this is a major sin if done wrong. And while other cartoon creators have done this, the make their appearances cameos and don’t take up a majority of the episode complaining

The love Hexagon remains mostly the same, but Marinette doesn’t get super jealous of Kagami and ends becoming friends with her after getting to know her better. Meanwhile have Adrian subconsciously react to Luka’s presence around Marinette and have him question why when he thinks he’s dead set on loving Ladybug.

The episodes leading up to Ikari Gozen remain the same except Kagami doesn’t reveal her identity in the fight and Chat Noir gives her the Dragon Miraculous before she get captured by her mother.

Chat Blanc would be completely different. Instead of a what if episode, we have Chat Noir gets akumatized because it’s the anniversary of his mother’s death and he can’t hide how sad he is. Hawkmoth capitalizes on this and Chat Blanc is born. The other heroes show up to deal with the threat and the new reserves show up to help as well.

Chat Blanc almost sets off a world wide Cataclysm, but Viperion uses second chance to warn them. Have Monkey King disrupt Chat Blanc’s powers and then have Queen Wasp paralyze him so Ladybug can find the Akuma and cure it.

Felix plays differently as well. For starters have him not be related to Adrian and make him look different from him entirely. Felix and the other Quantic kids can be in a different class altogether. His introduction can play into the whole Lila situation as he and the other quantic kids don’t buy into her lies, but they can’t prove any of them are false.

For this to work even more, Lila’s lie of knowing Prince Ali doesn’t come up since she didn’t leave the school.

Now comes the big episode of the season, Ladybug.

This episode was good for so many reasons, but this time we’ll up the ante.

Lila still plants the necklace and test answers, but this time she goes further.

When they’re sent to the principal’s office she throws herself down the stairs can then claims that Marinette pushed her.

This time the evidence is damning and Lila’s mom is called. With the actual scrapes and bruises to help sell the story along with the test answers being put in Marinette’s bag and the Lila’s necklace in her locker Marinette is expelled and the same events as the episode take place, but this time Nino isn’t akumatized because it’s implied that he’s known Marinette for a long time so he should know she’d never get physical with someone or cheat (But she has taken the occasional cell phone)

Alya looks for clues to prove that Marinette is innocent and Nino joins along with Adrian.

The trail goes cold and then the episode pans out the same way. In the end Chloe makes a big scene about Marinette being expelled and find proof that she didn’t cheat on the test and didn’t steal the necklace, but can’t ultimately prove that Marinette didn’t push Lila. She then uses the “Mayor’s Daughter” card to get Marinette back in school, but the damage has been done. Most of the class believes Lila over Marinette and begin to isolate her. Although, Alya decides to finally do some fact checking on Lila after the string of incidents that morning and finds out that she’s been lying. She apologizes for how she’s been acting and nukes the ladyblog since she deems it “tainted” and commits to the school blog.

This shows a great deal of growth for Alya since he doesn’t feel the need to follow superheroes since she is one, and is willing to give up something for her friend’s sake.

After all of this happens Marinette is stripped of her class rep title and the Class nominates Lila.

Hearthunter and Miracle Queen don’t happen at all sense Chloe is fully redeemed at this point. Instead, Lila returns as Volpina to lure out Fu since Hawkmoth managed to figure out that he was in town after Hero’s Day.

Volpina creates an illusion to lure him out, but Fu realizes this and runs to find Marinette while in disguise. He gives her the Miracle Box and he loses his memories. Marinette stashes the box in her room before trying to get him somewhere safe, but when he gets to the train station he’s Akumatized by Hawkmoth and Ladybug and the other heroes must fight their mentor.

After the battle Marinette calls Marianne to take care of Fu and the two leave Paris while the other heroes watch the train depart with heavy hearts.

My biggest gripes with the show are how the character are never allowed to grow and how much the status quo remains mostly the same at the end of each episode.  

Almost none of what happens in a regular episode changes the flow of the story, and only the season premieres and finales seem to hold any weight. Not to mention Astruc’s obvious bias towards certain characters. He expects Marinette to be super mature, but she’s 14. He stated that he hates Chloe and Felix and goes out of his way to treat them like garbage.

In Felix’s debut episode he had him make an enemy with damn near the entire cast and even had Ladybug deck him.

Astruc for the most part doesn’t change anything and plays things too safe, unless it’s pointless fanservice that just serves to anger the fans even more.

I rewrote the last two season of Miraculous because for the most part, it’s become a sinking ship that could have easily been fixed.

[afaimscorner]

Bellamy Blake Story-Arc in Season 7

So, now it’s time to look at this narrative mess, I guess. Which actually, if you look closer, isn’t such a great mess at all. The problem is that the ending of 7x13 was rewritten - this is not the point where Bellamy’s Arc was originally supposed to end, which is very obvious, when you look closer. However they decided to bump him off in order to elevate Clarke (who actually was Character Assassinated in 7x13 and whom I don’t care for anymore right now. As far as I am concerned she is a lunatic who should be put down rather sooner then later, so ... yeah, good job, you succeeded in making your audience hate your Lead, dear 100 Writer’s Room), because appearently a show is only allowed to have one Main Character and everyone else is just spare.

But back to Bellamy.

The thing is Season 7 wasn’t really about getting Octativa back, it was about getting Bellamy back thanks to his unforseen abduction in 7x01 and the fact that we got Octavia back by 7x02. Which is why 7x13 is so frustrating, it just killed of the main story arc of the season - quite literally.

Now, the Bellamy Arc we got in the last three episodes and the couple of scenes we had with him in the other three eps or so was in was actually pretty interesting. Mainly because it was obviously leading somewhere, however we never got to see where.

But it is pretty obvious. It is all about the Vision Bellamy had on Etherea, the Vision that was a shared vision, Cadogan was in it, and obviously could remember after. Remember when Bellamy told Clarke he couldn’t lie to Cadogan? It was pretty strongly implied he meant that literally. Because Cadogan was somehow in his head thanks to the shared vision and would know if he lied. This connection obviously went both ways because Bellamy seemed to know thinks he was not told On-Screen. Now of course Cadogan could have just told him all this stuff Off-Screen, but this is not the impression I got. Bellamy was acting very self concsious around Cadogan in those  to episodes, always catching himself when he was acting normal (like in the scene with Emori) as soon as he was looking at Cadogan. Which could just be “holy cult leader” stuff of course, but it clearly wasn’t. He was submissive in a way no one else was, almost seemed to be afraid of Cadogan, always appeasing him, and at the same time he is  the one that pointed out the flaw in the Disciples logic to Ducette just an episode before.

It is also strange that Bellamy seems to exist outside the ranks of the Disciples. Everyone else, who was recruted, had to ungerdo training, achieve Levels, get numbers painted in their face - Bellamy was just in the minute he stepped foot on Bardo again, because he took a Leap of Faith, but how would anyone know if he wasn’t just faking it? Cadogan was the one, who declared him his honored side-kick, and Co-Messiah if you will, mainly because he was on Etherea and went through the Pilgrimage. But so did Ducette. Now Bellamy is the one who had the Vision and whose prayer did make the storm go away, which means he was touched by .... the Transcendents (I don’t know what they are called yet), which means he is higher up in the ranks of the Disciples than Ducette, howvever it was Ducette who became the new First Disciple, not Bellamy. But what did Bellamy became then? The Second Shepherd? Appearantly. But again: Why? Cadogan wouldn’t trust him, if he wouldn’t have a very good reason to.

So assuming the reason is that he was touched by the Transcendents, this is the reason why Bellamy is suddenly Number Two on Bardo. And maybe he always was supposed to.

Now, I never understood why Bellamy was kidnapped in the first place in 7x01. It could not have been to have leverage against Octavia, not really, because they already had her, and had leverage against her anyways, it could not have been to draw out Clarke, because ... honestly why did the just not kidnap Clarke in the first place, when they wanted Clarke? They ordered this as soon as the found out Clarke had the Key, but Bellamy was abducted sooner, so we are back to the leverage against Octavia theory, which makes no real sense given that they had Diyoza and a machine which could go into Octavia ‘s mind. I thinkt that is what they claimed the reason to be a some point, but as soon as Bellamy showed up, Anders said the did not actually need him. And he claimed to send him back to Sanctum, but did send him to Etherea instead. Why?

I think because Cadogan had always known Bellamy would come to Bardo and eventually become his Co-Shepherd. He knew since he had his own Vision on Etherea all those time ago. That is why there was a Standing Order to get Bellamy Blake as soon as someone with pictures of him in his mind would show up on Bardo. This happend when Levitt saw Bellamy in Octavia’s mind, therefore a team was send out to fetch him, and therefore Anders send him to Etherea because that also was a Standing Order or maybe Cadogan actually told him that flat out when he woke him.

So yeah, Bellamy is special because he has a connection to the Transcendents.

But that does not mean, he was really on Cadogan’s Side. Yes, he sincerly wanted to end all wars and knew the test was coming and was calling it the last war, however I think he actually understood it wasn’t an actual war but a war against oneself and one’s better nature.

Now, for some reason everyone assumed Bellamy was not undercover but had really joined the Cult. I am not sure why because this is exactly what Echo, Octavia and Gabriel themselves did: They pretended to join, even went as far as to betray their friends to proof their loyalty and played that charade for months. Bellamy was on Bardo for a much shorter period of time.

For some reason everyone always wanted him to say out loud he was only pretending. Again I am not sure why, because we know there a cameras and I never got why those don’t record sound, but after what Echo and Hope pulled, I sure as hell would record what my hostages are saying at this point. Also they own a mind reading device, so yeah, even if Cadogan weren’t in Bellamy’s mind, I would not go around and admit that everything is an act out loud if I were Bellamy.

Moving on to the bad things Bellamy did, which made him deseve death in Clarke’s Eyes: Well he did not do anything. He told Cadogan Clarke did not have the Flame, which would have come out eventually anyways, because that bluff had been stupid from the first moment on, and Cadogan might have even known at that point already, beause as you might recall Niylah did slip up and more or less told him Callie was the First Flamekeeper after Clarke had claimed she was a Heda, since then Cadogan was suspicious and might have shared this suspicion with Bellamy just before he presented him to his friends at the end of Etherea. The next thing was that Bellamy picked who to mind scan, which again would have happened anyway, since no one was cooperating any more. All Bellamy did was point at the persons who could know where the Flame was so that not all of his friends would get mind scanned but only two. And finally the reason Clarke murderd him: A fucking Book of Drawings, he had not even given to Cadogan at this point. Clarke did it to keep Madi safe, but who says Bellamy would have told Cadogan who made the drawings or that he would have let them mind scan Madi? He told Clarke and the others several times to trust him, and they decided just not to. Why? Mainly because he did not storm Bardo gunblazing but used his head instead of his heart to save everyone, just like Clarke told him to at the end of Season 5.

His last words were also: “This is how we do better” just like Kane:s were. Not killing and maiming anymore is how we do better - same message.

What’s more: Why the hell did Clarke assume she could keep Madi a secret from the Disciples anyway? And why did she not just shoot all the Disciples like she threatend to, took Bellamy hostage and with her through the Anamoaly or took the drawings instead? She already had Madi, she could have just kept her daughter save at her side, no matter what Bellamy might do with the drawings.

And of course: Why would she need to kill him? The threat was the book with the drawings, not Bellamy. She is a much better shot than that: Arms, Legs, fucking stomage, which is bad but not necessary deadly - she could have shot Bellamy, but did not need to kill him.

He was no threat to her or Madi at this point. The whole scene would have worked if Bellamy would have done anything bad before or during the scene, but like I said he did not! He was not holding a gun to Madi’s head, he was holding a book with drawings!

Also: Shedheda, Madi, Cadogan and Bellamy all seemed to know something important about the Anomaly/the Transcendents - and three out of four more or less worked together because of this. Knowing what those Aliens can do, maybe it would not be such a bad idea to listen to them? For Humanity’s Sake?

So overall: Bellamy was on principle right in those episodes, while his methodes might have been wrong and working with Cadogan might have been too, but I am not so sure that was what he was really doing. Maybe the overall Arc was going towards Bellamy replacing Cadogan as the Shepherd to get the Disciples on their side. Ducette certainly would have gotten along with this. (By the way: Why did Ducette have Night Blood? This was the most confusing thing about that horrible 7x13 ending scene to me, because I could make no sense out of it. The Disciples are the Second Dawn Spawns and therefore those without Night Blood, are they not?) Maybe the two even started planing that on Etherea.

It certainly would make sense with the theme of the season and Murphy’s and Emori’s and Shedheda’s Storyline about pretending to be a god. Why should Bellamy not pretend to be a Messiah, especially given that he actually is one by the definition of this Cult?

Whatever, I guess we will never know, because the writer’s decided they needed Clarke to go insane. Maybe it’s because they wanted her to do something unforgivebale and this it why they staged the whole moment that stupid, but at this point it just makes no sense.

Overall I also have to say that I am starting to find it worrying that as the season progresses the Disciples seem to become the ones that are actually right, and Clarke and the others are the monsters here. I mean of course the whole Final War, No Family, and No Individual Love is nonsense, but somehow the other are the ones who are doing the real horrible things here - killing of people for no good reason, planning mass murder out of revenge etc. It’s probably on purpose (by the writers), but everyone had come so far before, and now Nikki is the one who acts more sensible than Clarke by sparing Raven’s life, while Clarke murders Bellamy without good reason? Something has gone very wrong in the Writer’s Room in this season.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Ml Meta analysis: Adriens current absents, season 4 structure and theory on whats to come

Here I am back again with my endless rambling.

I'm just as worried for our cat son as everyone else (maybe even more) which is why I tried figuring out for my own sanity why he is so absent currently.

Upfront I wanna warn yall that I wrote this post in one rush this night and therefore had no time to do alot of editing. So things can probably get a bit more messy than usual but I tried to write it clearly, while writing 2 other ml essays as well. This is the one drawback of having so many episodes in such a short time, I have no time to write my posts x3 I had another theory planned for before Optigami airs but I don't think I can manage before tomorrow.

But let's not waste any more time. Grab a snack and here we go:

It's 2am right now but I think I just realized why Adrien/Chat Noir is being sidelined so much recently.

Sure, yes, it'll come into play in the very obviously set up Ladynoir drama later on but what I wanna talk about now is more the structure of how s4 is most likely written in terms of both Marinettes and Adriens side of the story. And then deep dive a little on why I think so.

You see season 4 is now reaping what has been built up from s1-s3, but this also includes that you have to take the time now to properly recreate the new possibilities out of the loose pieces of the broken status quo.

Seriously, season 4 has to handle and reinvent ALOT. The show got now officially announced to have 7 seasons, which is exactly the amount of seasons Astruc said they have story for. I couldnt find the official tweet from Thomas himself but I one from another source:

And now look take a look at the possible shows structure:

- s1-s3 was the first status quo and built up everything so now they can pay off after pay off while...

-... S4 is now the transitional season where the old status quo gets left behind as we work towards the new one.

-I have nothing to proof this of course, but in the same sense it would now make sense that s5-s7 where/are planned to play out under the final status quo. If I'm not wrong at first the show was under contract for 5 seasons, which would mean that after the transitional season 4 there was only 1 season of the final status quo for sure. Still, done right it could have been worth the wait. But this isn't where Miraculous will end. The show actually got the 7 seasons the creator wanted and THIS is how I think the long term plan makes the most sense. Nothing all too complicated but still hella effective in its execution.

But now back to our two main characters, because Marinettes and Adriens development are the two aspects that will raise the show to the intense heights of the s5-s7 status quo.

From s1-s3 Marinette was the active player but she was hardly involved with the actual PLOT of the show, since most of the plot and backstory of the show lies directly with the Agreste family. She only started to get her own plot when she literally created a new one by getting involved with the miraculous lore, because the closest Marinette got to the Agreste plot was "The collector".

Adrien in the other hand was always literally right in the middle of the plot but he wasn't enough of an active player to bring us further either.

Season 4 is now going to add the missing parts for both of them and as the very beginning of the season showed us: there are going to do it SEPERATLY.

This is why "Truth" and "Lies" have been structured the way they are (One Marinette-centric the other Adrien-centric). Yes, Marinette and Adrien are meant to end their story victoriously together, but they are simply not the people they have to be to become such a powerful team. Certain aspects of their journey they have to do... basically disconnected from the other one. The "Miracle Queen" endcard shows it quite nicely as well where they are heading now: away from each other.

Obviously the season started with Marinette growing into her new guardian status including everything miraculous related, since she is the main lead and because the new ways the episodes can now utilize everything Miraculous need to be established first before we deep dive into the messed up Agreste mystery.

So while I totally agree that it is annoying to get so little Adrien/Chat Noir content currently I also understand the practicality behind it. As I said, before s4 Marinette was the active main character who mostly didn't really have her own plot. So now adding her plot aspect and have her ACTIVELY figure everything needed out means that right now Marinette/Ladybug is the active focus main character who is solving a huge part of her s4 character arc. That simply drowns out Adrien as the currently still mostly-inactive secondary main character who, yes, may be right in the middle of the shows emotional + villain plot/lore/backstory, but that side of the story simply isn't in focus at the moment.

And I gotta say, I'm kinda glad they're doing it this way. Because I'm gonna be honest, when the season starts giving us Adrien/family Agreste episodes like "Lies" and "The collector" (in this case "Gabriel Agreste" for example) again, I don't want the narrative to be forced to spend time with something guardian lore based just because they didn't took their time to do it earlier.

So, as we see on the s4 episode raster "Gabriel Agreste" is episode 9. Honestly, I expect most of it (especially the ones near the beginning, so ep. 5 included) til that episode to be Marinette based the way everything else til now did (besides Lies obviously and Guilt trip didn't hardcore focus on Marinette/Ladybug either and that's because it's after "Gabriel Agreste") in the spirit of "Truth". It's just the needed set up from Marinettes side of the story and I can live with that.

Because we actually saw the change after "Gabriel Agreste" already in "Guilt trip".

I don't know why some people pretend like Chat almost cataclysming himself after hearing how guilt-eaten Nino is for Adriens sake isn't a huge indicator that the episodes afterwards will not only acknowledge but also DEAL with Adriens/Chats situation and problems. Remember, we are talking about CHAT NOIR here not Adrien Agreste. The show has always portrayed and acknowledged ADRIENS issues very straight forward and with the proper seriousness (especially when it comes to his family), whereas Chat Noir was often mostly used for comedic purposes with some exceptions of his problems being properly delt with (since Marinette/Ladybug was mostly oblivious to them, since Adrien keeps them hidden so well). But now in "Guilt trip" LADYBUG was confronted head-on with just how much negativity Chat has inside and how quickly and extremely he drowns in it.

Sure, correct, the episode also has his negativity "washed away" rather quickly by Ladybug opening up to him on how important he is to her

But this is in character for both of them as "Lies" very clearly showed us that the way BOTH OF THEM behave here is where the problem lies. There Ladybug was freaked out after Chat threw his life away once again but quickly accepted Chats very direct avoidance of the confrontation, since he seemed to be alright to her.

Something I also find noteworthy here is that Ladybugs dialog is "Seriously, you need to stop doing this to me!", which is.... a VERY Marinette-centric way of acknowledging the problem.

It completely shifts the issue away from Adriens extremely alarming self-harmful/suicidal tendencies and instead only calls out how it affects Marinette (whose feelings here are definitely valid, don't get me wrong!). It showcases perfectly how unaware Marinette still is of her partners inner tumult at that point and also parallels how Marinette called Adriens life "perfect" at the beginning of the episode (This is no shade towards Marinette, in general the entirety of "Lies" is about showing us just how harmful Adriens Chat Noir persona actually IS to him so these two moments of her being oblivious to Adriens and Chats immense problems very much fits into that episodes narrative and sets up what's about to come. I still have an entire essay in the making for "Lies" but, guys, it's just getting longer and longer. I suck xD).

So the fact that an episode after "Gabriel Agreste" brings this scenario back, just a little different but ALOT more revealing of Adriens immense problems to his partner, is VERY telling. Besides other things it tells us that this happens at the beginning of the arc that deals with (at least) Chats issues since Ladybug is still way too quickly too ready to accept her partner as "completely fine" again just because Chat makes it seem that way (while some negativity increasing guilt bubbles still to stick to him.).

And yet, others have already pointed it out that Ladybug IS noticing what Chat wanted to do and reacted accordingly...

she just didn't speak of it the way it is because it overwhelmed her, which calls back to Ladybugs "You have to stop doing this to me!" dialog.( For a great breakdown of her dialog HERE is a link to @flightfoot​ post)

In "Lies" Marinette was way too stressed by her new guardian role to even consider Chats side of it and therefore only spoke of her own, but in "Guilt trip" she's already past that stressful arc. So here she is immediately able to recognize Chats suicidal action for what it is, come to his (much needed) aid and lift her partners spirit the best she can by emotionally opening up to him (which is something we KNOW is incredibly hart for Marinette).

The difference between her reaction in "Lies" and in "Guilt trip" shows that Marinette has her guardian role already mostly handled and is now mentally able to be there for others again, so the extremely Marinette-centric "Truth"-like episodes are mostly passed. Now the episodes can bring Adrien/Chat Noir more into the game again and even shift to "Lies" - like episodes because MARINETTE can pay more attention to him again and isn't faced with something new, important and overwhelming Miraculous related every step she takes.

And THAT is extremely fair from a narrative standpoint.

---

I really need to stop elaborating so much on these posts because I'm only NOW actually getting to the point of where Adriens journey will disconnect for a while from Ladybugs. Sorry guys.

Okay, to understand where I'm going with this I will have to quickly explain how I always saw Chat Noirs place in the Ladybug+Chat Noir vs Hawkmoth war ever since s1.

Because here is the thing: Adrien wasn't able to truly leave the battle field ONCE since the origins. Marinette was completely out of Hawkmoths and Gabriels reach once she detransformed, which balances out her basically being the personification of the good sides force. And Gabriel literally decided whenever or not the battle is even ACTIVE right now! Besides that he is in complete control of his own actions and environment, which gives him all the necessary time, safety and downtime he needs to act as the personification of the evil sides force.

Marinette and Gabriel always knew when they were safe and off the battle field, but ADRIEN never had that and it left him LITERALLY right in the middle of both Ladybugs and Hawkmoths sides.

You see, because before Adrien became Chat Noir he basically was part of Hawkmoths side just by default. He was born into this family, that's his father and lost mother and everything he knows. Adrien didn't/doesn't even have to KNOW that he is part of Hawkmoths side, he's his son at some level he just IS! And I'm not saying this as anything negative, Adrien coming from Hawkmoths side is literally the reason why he became Chat Noir!

Because whereas Gabriel is having the time of his damn life as evil terrorist, created out of tragic and sinister circumstances, ADRIEN on the other hand couldn't handle his families environment and very same circumstances anymore and accepted the role as Paris' hero to escape his heritage for a while.

Keywords being: a WHILE.

Something unique about Adrien I always loved is the fact that he is the villains abused, isolated and overworked SON, who becomes a hero to escape his depressing life and YET it was never Adriens intention to LEAVE IT. Adrien merely wanted to use his time as Chat Noir to let of some steam and breath freely while doing some hero work so he can go back into his civilian life and try to one day successfully ment his broken family. He couldn't handle the current situation anymore but he still always saw worth in his family/father. I have SO MUCH respect for that!

But him not intending to leave his family and instead regaining strength as Chat Noir to continue to hold onto it came with the downside of him not being able to fully become part of the good sides people/force either. Hence why Adriens/Chats place always felt so lost in comparison to Ladybugs and Hawkmoths clear positions. He's caught in between their extremes trying to balance out BOTH at the same time. What an impossible task!

So he couldn't put in the same focus as Ladybug into being the good sides force because he is literally burned out from his civilian life on Hawkmoths evil side. But he also couldn't be involved as an ACTIVE member of his fathers evil force, because he chose to find refuge in his friends and as a hero on Ladybugs side.

Adrien unknowingly is part of BOTH the shows two extreme moral sides of good and evil and this season we will see Adrien/Chat Noir grow into his own within BOTH sides as well.

Because he simply couldn't have done so right away in s1. Now after 3 seasons Chat Noir is more than solidly established as one of Paris Heros and his time with Ladybug, the other heros and his normal friends helped him greatly to find his place on the good side. "Lies" set this up as Chat Noirs arcs starting point that now he has to stop connecting "being heroic" strictly with following Ladybug (as Marinette is the STAND IN personification for the good side, she's still a flawed human being like everyone else and not the ultimate force of perfect and good. Big difference.) just as he has to start looking past his fathers sympathetic moments/qualities to see that Hawkmoth isn't a 100%, inhumane monster just because he is the stand-in personification of evil in their fight, but the man he calls Father and still needs to be taken down. (I talked about this in more detail on THIS post)

Adrien has to seperat himself from Ladybugs path and focus on his family and I believe it'll start with the much dreaded (but expected) Ladynoir fight.

Funnily enough, what I'm talking about was actually already set up in "Frozer" I just didn't remember that for a bit. In "Frozer" we saw Ladynoir having a fight which caused Chat Noir to go his own way in the episodes battle.

I always found it interesting that the episode didn't had Chats decision, to not follow Ladybugs lead here, turn out to be a huge mistake. Almost every other show would have done so but now I think I understand. This episode and s2 in general SET UP the s4 conflict, s3 LEAD UP to it and now s4 DELIVERS it.

So what happened in "Frozer" is a direct parallel to what about to go down:

Ladynoirs fight will cause Chat Noir to not simply  follow Ladybugs side anymore the way he used to, but note, he DOESN'T leave the good side AND they make up again in the end after Chat saves Ladybug from the akuma. He just does things on his own because he isn't on great terms with her for a while. "Frozer" showed Chats decision to not only NOT be a mistake but also a necessary part of defeating the akuma, just the way it'll be in s4. Damn, Adrien breaking away from Ladybugs side, the way she (unintentionally tho) did at the beginning of the season, to focus more on himself and his family will be the game changing factor, when Adrien will have his completing arc where he goes from "not active character within the villain/backstory plot" to "ACTIVE character within the villain/backstory plot".

And we already saw with Marinette how many fast breakthroughs we get through these completing arcs. Which is also a reason for why Adriens/ Chats arc comes later in the season, because BUDDY. Once Adrien starts to actively uncover his families mystery and fathers secrets Gabriel is SCREWED! Adrien will gain the needed inside knowledge that complements Marinettes Miraculous power; and reunited they can take on whatever the hell kind of scale the Agrestes plan actually is.

So how to end this post? My biggest intention was to raise hope for everybody (myself included lol) who is right now very concerned and upset about how side-lined our boy is at the moment. But I prefer doing so in a way that actually works with canons context instead of sugarcoating what I don't like. And Adriens/Chats current position I definitely do NOT like but accepting it as realistic outcome from s1-s3 and set up for the escalation for both Ladynoir and his home situation gives it the proper purpose and pay off (narrative and character wise) that it SHOULD have.

Basically, the endcards of "Truth" and "Lies" show it perfectly.

It looks like ShadowMoth is turning a blind eye towards Adrien/Chat Noir because of Ladybugs new guardian status and "greater importance". But Gabriels tunnel vision on Ladybug will leave him vulnerable to his own sons secret actions against him and Gabriel won't see it coming until its already too late.

[miraculouscontent]

Ask Explosion #6

Asks answering previous posts:

Oh, okay! I’m glad, thank you!

(the post this anon is referring to)

Ohhhh.

And fjbgjnfkjgfg thanks >////<

I don’t think there’s much wrong with liking the design itself; I prefer Riposte personally, but that’s just me.

The best way I could put the “insensitive” part (I’m sort of dumb when it comes to this stuff and I talked about it before when I was working on that 3D model of Marinette) is that it’s so heavy on Japanese. I mean, they already have Kagami constantly wear what looks like a school uniform and Tomoe is just like--super heavy Japanese. It’s like the show doesn’t know how to balance “can’t tell at all” (with Marinette) and then “okay this is WAY strong” (with Kagami+Tomoe+Kung Food).

That makes sense! I guess the only problem then would be that the kwami can’t really act as mentors of any kind because “you’re saying this just because that’s all you can say” (like Sass, hypothetically, always willing to give someone a second chance, no matter what; I know that’s not what his power specifically entails but it’s just an example).

I would however definitely lean towards kwami being very strict in one alignment, so Tikki would always be on the path of pure good and thus never want to take/steal/whatever, whereas Plagg is always on the path of “bad,” but there are times where Marinette will have to ignore Tikki while Adrien will have to listen to Plagg.

And yeah, the guardians existing and the kwami not having so much control... not a huge fan.

Someone asked about Chat Noir’s flirting and he claimed that it was “on purpose” (you know, while throwing episodes like “Felix” at us but okay) and then he followed up with this:

There was also this other comment he made a while back when someone tried to make a suggestion to him:

Except he’s missing the point completely. When he talks about constructive criticism, he acts like it doesn’t matter, especially not anymore now that they’re working on Seasons 4 and 5:

(I mean, personally, I don’t think I need “engineering knowledge” to know when a rollercoaster I’d ridden nearly tossed the cart off the tracks and had questionable design decisions, but you do you, Astruc.)

Yes, constructive criticism is mainly for seeing a product improve, but that doesn’t mean ignoring it because, “well you haven’t seen the full product.”

“Animaestro” even has a bit of commentary on it:

Ladybug: What's with that trailer too? I am not scared of cats, at all.

Animaestro: You haven't even seen the movie and you're already slamming it?

Chat Noir: He does have a point, you know.

Ladybug: I wasn't slamming it. It's called constructive criticism!

(firstly, of course Chat Noir bows to Astruc on that one because he’s Astruc’s sunshine boy, ugh)

Ignoring the fact that a movie/printed book is usually a “full product,” criticism is also to say “you did this thing wrong, don’t do this in the future.” It doesn’t have to be referring strictly to the show. It’s just, “you did this thing wrong and here’s why, try to catch yourself if you accidentally do it again in the future, whether in what you’re working on now or otherwise.”

(He’s also talked about “unsolicited critique” before and I don’t know what that means? Like, dude, this isn’t someone’s fanfiction where I’d actually agree that you can’t go after them for their work. This is professional work.)

Anyway, remember “Chameleon”? When everyone saw the trailer and absolutely flipped out over it, then there were people who were like, “Wait for the full episode!!”?

Guess what? The full episode came out and people were either just as mad or even madder than before.

Astruc wants to have his cake and eat it to. He wants to say that his episodes are “stand-alone,” and that the order isn’t that important, but when people start pointing out issues, it becomes, “No! You have to wait for the rest of the episodes to come out!” and when people do that, it’s gonna be like, “Well, we already did the whole show so it’s not like I can change anything. *shrug*”

Also, just blaming it on “the industry” when everything else has been exhausted:

(He’s literally brought up before that the New York special was meant to have subplots about other characters, so it’s not like he can never say anything when something didn’t fit the “original vision”; I’m not asking him to get on his knees and say he’s sorry - plus, I do recognize that a lot of influence comes from the industry and people like Jeremy - but I expect a little more than the “whoops” he gave when people pointed out that “Weredad” contradicted his statement on Miraculous Ladybug.)

I think the reason people see it the way they do is because of Fu’s line in “Robostus” seems to imply the exact opposite thing happening.

Master Fu: Universe must always stay in balance. For every action, there is a reaction. For every wish, a price to pay in return. Had your robotic friend asked to become a real boy, someone would have lost his humanity in return.

New Asks:

Marigami is acceptable. I’m not crazy about it but it’s likable enough.

Lukadrien though... no, absolutely not. On a conceptual level, because it’s such a slap in the face for Marinette, and on a fanon level, because most of the jokes around it is Luka going to Marinette like he’s about to ask her out and then just asks for Adrien’s details. It’s just... ugh. I hate it (throwing Marinette into the ship still doesn’t help for me though because I’m not into the love square).

Bi erasure is my least favorite thing.

And yeah, it’s like--they set the love square ship(s?) out onto the water, then the Lukanette ship later with the plan to either sink it or just kinda... return it to the harbor if they don’t make a huge fuss about it?

Meanwhile, the love square ship has been in piece this whole time, and instead of letting it sink, they put it on a raft to keep it floating.

Depends.

In LadyBugOut? It’s already written and I haven’t posted it.

For canon? Like, Marinette being super disappointed at her view of Adrien being shattered or? :P

That’s accurate. I dislike about a fourth-ish of Season 1,then about half-ish of Season 2, then like... almost all of Season 3.

So we’ll just have to see what happens in Season 4.

I like Adrimi, but I’m not crazy about it and I don’t really write for it unless Lukanette is already the main ship (making Adrimi just a background ship). Adrien tends to dismiss Kagami a lot (like in “Frozer” and then “Miracle Queen” with him not committing) and I don’t want to see Kagami hurting like that (I agree with the anon completely that Adrien is more at fault than she is). They’re both emotionally-stunted so I usually have them wait it out or something to have them get together.

My ideal endgame is Lukanette while Adrimi is more like “let’s wait, let’s work on ourselves (especially Adrien; Kagami at least has on firm crush and wants to commit to it), and we’ll see where we go down the line.”

I don’t know if they really have the guts to arrest Gabriel. I also think that Lila might pick up the butterfly at the end of Season 5 or something after she’s been “dealt with.”

Chloe also is the mayor’s daughter so even if the law was that strict on teens, nothing would happen to her unless Andre got replaced.

Big yikes.

Maybe that the thing forcing Marinette away from Adrien and causing things to go wrong is the part of the curse trying to prevent the ladybug and cat miraculous from coming together?

So, close enough to be attracted and want to work together, but forcing the ladybug away from the cat to prevent the miraculouses from being used to make a wish?

I CHOKED ON MY DRINK.

ugh

ugh

ugggggggh

I’m 100% sure that Marinette wouldn’t be as uncomfortable around Adrien if Alya hadn’t constantly intervened. She’s the enabler of both Marinette’s anxiety and her crush on Adrien.

I went back and looked at the scene and it does kinda look like it, yes, because it basically goes from the intersection Marinette is in to another intersection that looks very, extremely similar and I don’t see Marinette in that intersection.

It was just a really, really bad transition. I remember being thrown off for a second too so I don’t blame you, anon.

I think Bob Roth’s intent was to scare Marinette away from showing that proof? He probably knows very well that Marinette has all the evidence she needs to make a case and already had a story planned for the press about how “the young talents they found didn’t measure up and the people deserved better.”

He just needed enough pressure on them for them to believe that he had enough authority to silence them.

And then Silencer tried to silence him instead. :3

I don’t think Marinette’s relationship with her parents would change too much. Like, they already let her just go out whenever she wants which obviously Plagg approves off, although Marinette might become more numb to the idea of being grounded because Plagg just teaches her, “hey lol Ladybug isn’t grounded tho,” so Marinette sneaks out all the time.

Yeah, Tikki would probably justify Gabriel’s behavior, and she wouldn’t really be able to get on his case for flirting as Mister Bug because she’s not aware of it.

lol it helps no one to have Tikki I guess.

Adrien overall and then honorable mention to Alya for Winny’s comment about her being Marinette’s conscience (which is probably why they almost never nail Alya for stuff she does).

KHNJFDNGFD THE LUKANETTE QUEEN MONIKER RETURNS >///<

And ugh, the absolute level of bias in that. Even if the video was made in, like, Season 2 (don’t know, didn’t see it), Season 2 still gives examples of why Adrienette isn’t making Marinette happy at all (and has some of the love square failings too).

The name and the fact that they gave it that name tells me everything I need to know.

Goodness gracious.

Yeah, people can talk about character’s flaws. I mean, we talk a lot here about Marinette’s struggles in getting over Adrien (partly brought on by a lot of outside factors but still).

Also, sure, Luka is a “pushover” because he’s one of the few characters who understands Marinette’s tunnel vision and isn’t bothered by it, okay. :P (Interesting that the topic of Chat’s entitlement towards Ladybug but Luka respecting her choices and just enjoying being around her makes him her punching bag).

Every time I hear, “Adrien needs more spotlight!!!” I lose a part of my soul. How people can’t see that Marinette is the show’s true punching bag is beyond me.