#since i recognized how drenched in sexism and gender roles that view is i cant unsee it

[sunfoxfic]

Adrien didn't fall in love with Marinette's superhero self on accident. Marinette didn't fall in love with Adrien's civilian self on accident.

Reversing the love square without seriously developing their characters from where they started (or, often, outright changing their characters) is to fundamentally change what the love square is.

Adrien fell in love with Ladybug because he saw her at her most stressed out, where she felt like all eyes were on her and she'd never be able to fix her mistake, and then you know what she did? She picked herself back up and fixed her mistake.

Adrien went to school after that and fixed his mistake, too, by making things right with Marinette.

Marinette fell in love with Adrien because she saw his persistent kindness even after she'd decided she didn't like him. She saw the way he refused to reflect back the worst of her and decided to do the same. She made things right, too, by not judging him based on their first impressions (not to mention how that likely impacted her relationships with Chloé and Kagami).

They fell in love with the person they needed the most. The one they needed to be more like. If you change who they initially fell in love with, you change a fundamental part of why they fell in love, and you fundamentally change the love square.

But some of y'all aren't ready for that talk.