#so that's not specifically a shipping issue it's just 'all of Adrien's loved ones start treating him like Gabriel wanted' issue.

[fernsnouveau]

Tags by @erisluna35 :

#yeah the ship cracked not cause we dont believe in teen love #but because s5 messed up their dynamic #this whole thing messed up adriens arc not because of adrienette #but because he kept getting locked out of his own narrative #which is not satisfying regardless of adrienette #reducing all these complaints to just the salters belittling teen love #the sugar side really dont get it

Tags by @generalluxun :

#as a writer I feel this #writing the LS is hard now I need to ensure there is a clear break from canon to even contemplate it #why did they turn it so toxic?

“You don’t ship the love square because you’re an adult who doesn’t believe teenage love is legitimate”

I’m going to stop you there. Yes, I am an adult person who is aware teenage romance doesn’t have a great track record of being lasting in real life. But Miraculous Ladybug: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is FICTIONAL.

If the writers decide on a convincing arc for Maribug and Adricat being “made for each other”, then yes, I will ship them. I considered them an OTP for years, actually.

UNFORTUNATELY there was a multi-season storyline of Ladybug keeping important secrets from Chat Noir that was not fully addressed and pushed aside.

UNFORTUNATELY as of the season 5 finale, we have Maribug lying to Adricat about his very existence as a son of Monarque and his status of being a Sentimonster.

So no. I don’t ship it anymore. And I’m actually kind of bummed this fictional relationship I invested in for years is dead to me.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

May i ask what your feeling of Marichat are? (I apologize if you've answered this before)

I don't think that anyone has asked for my dynamic preferences, but I'm happy to talk about them, just note that this is very much an opinion piece. I'll be doing some critical analysis, but I'm not arguing for any of the following, I'm just telling you why my feelings are what they are.

I don't dislike any side of the love square, but canon Marichat is easily the least interesting to me. It's the one side that I'll probably never touch in my own writing, though I'm happy to read Marichat fics and even have a few favorites that focus on that side of the square.

This semi-aversion isn't because the dynamic is bad. Friends-to-lovers is my bread and butter. It's what I write in most of my original fiction and even in a lot of the fanfiction I've done. But I was drawn to the love square because they're already in love. While I see the appeal of one crush switching, I don't really see the appeal of watching them both fall out of love with each other in order to fall in love again. This is especially true because the "side" that they're falling for is the side that lets them be the least open about their needs.

I'm not a fan of Adrien having to keep his home life a secret from his girlfriend, but he would absolutely have to do that if he started dating Marinette as Chat Noir. He knows that he's friends with Marinette in his civilian life, so he'd need to be extra cautious with his identity around her. That means hiding a lot of things that I want to see him open up about since all of his major struggles come from his civilian side.

That isn't true for Ladynoir, though. Ladybug and Chat Noir have no idea that they know each other in their civilian lives, so being open-but-vague with each other shouldn't be seen as a big risk since they shouldn't be worried that small personal details will reveal their identities. (This is a writing issue in the show, imo. They write Ladybug as absurdly cautious when it doesn't really make sense if she assumes that Chat Noir is a stranger. You can tell that her actions are being driven by the plot not quality characterization.)

Along similar lines, Marinette can't talk to Chat Noir about her Ladybug struggles if she's not Ladybug. That's why I prefer Ladynoir or Ladrien. Ladrien is actually the easiest to write because Marinette is pretty good at opening up to people about issues that don't effect them. I can totally buy her talking to Adrien about her Ladybug fears while being reluctant to share those same fears with Chat Noir because she doesn't want to burden him or look weak. I think you can work around that issue pretty easily by developing Ladynoir into more of a power couple, but Ladrien is the easiest one to work with without having to change anything about the canon setup. While we're on the topic of giving Marinette support, I'll point out that Adrienette often works best in fics that focus on civilian issues like the Lila conflict while playing down Marinette's Ladybug struggles specifically because it lets Adrien feel like a solid supportive boyfriend which he really can't be if she's dealing with Ladybug issues.

The other reason that I love Ladrien is that I am a massive fan of identity shenanigans and Ladrien is the comedy hi-jinks/identity shenanigans ship. While Marichat basically kills the other sides of the love square (more on that in a second), Ladrien enhances them. Marinette gets even more ridiculous around Adrien and the same goes for Chat Noir with Ladybug. Bonus points if Chat Noir knows for some reason - as in Ladybug knows that Chat Noir knows that she's dating someone - so that you can have Chat Noir slowly dying of joy and frustration while his girlfriend gushes about him or just generally talks about her crush. It's very funny. I basically can't write Ladrien without including a ton of Ladynoir moments to really flesh the ridiculousness out.

I don't include a ton of civilian moments, though, because I don't see either Marinette or Adrien being open about the fact that they're dating some mystery person. It's just a completely unnecessary risk for their civilian sides to take, though it is fun to include a few moments of Marinette being a disaster as she remembers that they were kissing less than 24 hours ago. Hero sides having a romantic partner that they have to be vague about make total sense though. (Yet another reason I like Ladrien over Marichat. Adrien is just too good an actor to be an open disaster around his secret girlfriend when they're out in public and her safety is potentially at risk. You need them one-on-one for it to feel in character.)

Meanwhile, Marichat is a friends-to-lovers dynamic, meaning that you have the slow death of the other sides of the square as the current square falls out of love. You don't get the new square dynamics until the new love square is firmly established, so there's just not much to do with the other sides in terms of hi-jinks until the story is almost done.

This is why most Marichat fics don't feature the other sides. It's just Chat Noir and Marinette hanging out on her balcony or in her room. You may eventually get some jealous Ladybug moments or see people commenting on the fact that Marinette is having a much easier time talking to Adrien at school, but that's about it because Marichat means you're starting from scratch. You have to go through the whole falling in love process all over again which take a ton of time and effort, meaning that Marichat fics generally don't have much going on beyond romance. With the other three sides, at least one of them is already in love, so you don't need to do the classic slow burn. This is why Ladynoir, Adrienette, and Ladrien fics are a lot more diverse in their content.

That's probably another reason why I prefer the other three sides. I don't write a lot of pure romance stories. I tend to have some other larger plot driving my narratives because I'm a huge fan of romance bonding a couple as they go through adversity or insanity together which, once again, Marichat doesn't really do. They don't have the ability to knowingly team up pre-reveal. On the other hand, with Ladrien, you can get Adrien involved with the hero stuff on the civilian side since he's a perfect inside man. Ladynoir is involved in the hero intrigue by default and Adrienette is involved with the civilian intrigue by default.

In summary, Marichat is a fine ship, it just lacks all of the things that I love to play with, which is why it gets the fourth spot on my tier list. Ladrien and Ladynoir are basically tied for number one, though I'd give the top spot to Ladrien if I had to pick. Adrienette is in third and Marichat comes in last.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, my absolutely favorite dynamic is a reverse crush setup where Ladybug was always in love with Chat Noir and Adrien was always in love with Marinette. In that context, Marichat is now Ladrien and, therefore, I'm all in. Though, oddly enough, Adrienette is probably my favorite to write in that setup, followed closely by Ladynoir. I just really like torturing Adrien with Marinette's crush, plus it's fun to have their friends more involved in the ways I picture them getting involved (it's a lot more holding back than pushing forward like we get with canon Adrienette. Just picture Alya, Nino, and maybe even Chloè reacting to Adrien's wooing tactics in real time and you'll probably immediately see what I mean.)

Partial-reveal canon Marichat is also a whole different story. I love a good partial reveal fic for any side because I am primarily drawn to the square because of identity shenanigans and partial reveals are identity shenanigan central!

[floraracoon]

My personal thoughts on the horrors of the miraculous timeline (multiple events in Season 1 that due to their placement make it seem like Season 1 was four years long when in chronological order) and how I would address some things.

Please keep scrolling past if you don’t want to hear about this.

1) Birthdays/Major events.

I ended up reorganizing these plot points awhile ago for a fic so I have this pre-prepared for the most part.

The most problematic ones are the birthday episodes and the ones that have mention of specific holidays or the like. Stormy Weather is the one that most bring up but Dark Cupid also has us jumping from like early September to February.

As the kids have confirmed zodiac signs to my knowledge, the birthdays will be placed accordingly. So like Timebreaker would be around April which would be late in season 1. Evillustrator would be around May, and as such would also be around there. Befana would be happening around July, so it would be more towards Stormy Weather. This continues on for awhile, and generally there are some points that needed to be grabbed from later seasons such as Befana.

2) Marinette’s stalking behavior

⚠️Spoilers for Season 5⚠️

As many have pointed out, the placement of Marinette’s whole “backstory as to why she knows a creepy and high key illegal amount about Adrien” is… very retcon like. Especially considering that she only showed this behavior with Adrien. While this can be explained as just his being friends with Chloe, I feel there is a way they could have done this better.

By pushing back when she starts doing it.

Hear me out: If we have an episode back when Kim was Chloe’s lacky where Marinette explains why she’s been freaking out around Adrien, and maybe even avoiding him by telling this story to the girl squad it fixes some things.

Does it excuse her behavior? No. But there is a way that they could turn this into a lesson for the children that are the target audience. Middle schoolers are often in love with love. They want to be in relationships without the issues that come with it. They don’t know a lot because they haven’t been around a lot. The kids are SUPPOSED to be around middle school age being about 13-14 years old. But if they have it so this scene not only shows us these girls becoming friends, but also give the girls motivation to try and make a ship happen (something that also often can happen) then there could be a slow corruption arch of sorts where Marinette is pushed by her friends to get over her fear of loving Adrien by getting to know everything.

And since they are in fact children and mob mentality exists, suddenly you have 2-3 over eager girls pushing Marinette to do this.

This could eventually culminate in her pushing back around Season 4, as due to her having dated Luca without needing everything the girls had planned to get her with Adrien (also giving explanation as to why it is that they keep trying to set her up with Adrien while she is dating Luca) she realizes that what was happening was incredibly unhealthy. Maybe she explodes due to stress and heartbreak, and they think that she is just hiding something and that she isn’t genuinely hurt by what they’ve done.

Those who were enthusiastic about it (Mylene, Rose, and Alta likely due to how Alix behaves and Juleka wanting Marinette to stay with Luka) would be akumatized into the Gang of Secrets or something similar. Maybe Alix and Juleka also get akumatized due to either proximity (lending a whole new light as we know individuals can break out of group akumatization later on) or due to realizing how much their lack of pushback on the other’s enthusiasm hurt Marinette.

We get through Gang of Secrets and Marinette asks for space from the others. They all walk out. Maybe she asks Alix to stay back as she knows Alix will one day have the bunny miraculous and will know her identity eventually. Maybe she asks Alya in a later episode to stay back and tells her.

But either way we get a way to show children that if they feel their friends are causing them harm, it is ok to ask for space and maybe even sever ties with them for awhile.

Later on Marinette will have a girl squad again. Maybe it will be the same group but in a healthier way, maybe there’s some new members.

But either way, it makes it so trauma isn’t seen as an excuse for bad behavior and gives the children a message to carry with them as they go through some of the most emotional parts of their lives.

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 1 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Miraculous Jewels

Alright! I promised you meta and now I deliver!

I feel like people mostly watch Miraculous for the romance these days. Shipping is all everyone cares about. I wonder why? Probably because writers themselves don't take their worldbuilding very seriously and because they don't put much effort into making the audience care about something other than Love Square, like the mythology behind the Miraculous, or motivations of the main villain, or some pretty heavy topics for a kid's show that they bring up and then refuse to touch again. You know, all the good things. And this is coming from someone who is a passionate multishipper. I have lived through several shipping wars in different fandoms and came out victorious after all.

I am probably the only person out there who cares about the big picture, the overall storyline and the worldbuilding of Miraculous in addition to all details and implications that could develop into fascinating plotlines relevant to the main story. It is a rather lonely fandom experience, I must confess. But, hey? Who cares? I am here to have fun and bring to the table discussions no one wants to have.

So, let's talk about the basics.

If you, as the writing team, are capable of keeping only 1 thing consistent, then please, I beg you, let it be the basic concepts of your universe. Because in this case, one has to actively put effort into writing characters and conflict resolutions badly. And also because nothing can save bad worldbuilding.

I don't have high worldbuilding standards for Miraculous. They certainly aren't as high as the ones I had for Legend of Korra (which was a badly written trainwreck, that ATLA doesn't deserve as a sequel) or the ones I currently have for Dragon Prince. Therefore I won't be too harsh in my criticisms. Granted, I think that Miraculous has better worldbuilding and lore consistency than Winx Club for example (I haven't seen the reboot yet, so writers might have fixed their worldbuilding at least a little bit). Even though I enjoyed Winx when I was younger and some elements of this story still attract me.

Both serialised and episodic shows as well as movies to the lesser extent must have some flexibility in worldbuilding and plot because you can never be 100% sure where your story is going. Maybe, you'll get money for more seasons, maybe not. However, you must never lose sight of your basic concepts. They have to stay the same no matter what, because rewriting lore and retconning major developments every new season is not and never will be called good writing.

Forgive me for using architectural metaphors, but you need a solid foundation to build any kind of structure. Otherwise, everything falls apart.

I like to apply this logic to writing as well. When designing a world where your story takes place, you must lay a few ground rules. It's especially important if you have a magic system. What kind of ideas absolutely must exist? What kind of conclusion do you want your story to have? Does your magic system has limitations? Where is the grey area? Could you introduce new elements later on?

And I feel like the writing team of Miraculous Ladybug did not ask these questions. This may feel like I am nit-picking canon material and looking for problems that simply aren't there, but I promise that I am not. You see, things that I am about to point out only seem small at first glance. But these details are actually the source of the largest plotholes in the series. And their presence negatively affects character development, conflicts and resolutions of said conflicts.

That doesn't mean that I have nothing good to say about the magic system of the show and its elements. There are a lot of great ideas and concepts. And some of them have the potential to contribute to the delightful story.

Let's dive right into it, shall we?

Camouflage

I have to give credit where it's due because the idea of camouflage and shapeshifting for Miraculouses is brilliant. It seems like Miraculous can't fundamentally change its type of jewellery or accessory. The ring will always be the ring but with a different ornament, colour or shape. This is true most of the time (Monkey Miraculous is an exception since it transformed into earplugs/headphones/headband/circlet) It makes sense and avoids plotholes. Grimoire doesn't have the pictures of each Miraculous in disguise for identity protection. That was very neat too. I have no comments. This concept was very good.

Also, since Marinette wore a nose ring of the Ox in "Kwamibuster" without any problem and Adrien wore Ladybug's earrings in "Reflekdoll", we can assume that you don't need to have piercings to wear a Miraculous. Miraculous just magically passes through your skin.

I'm interested to know the following. Can Kwamis recognise a camouflaged Miraculous on a person? Can the holder order them to confess the identity of this person? This shouldn't be possible for identity protection just like with Kwamis sensing each other. But more on that in later posts.

Power Levels

For a long time, we assume that there are only 7 Miraculouses. Turtle belongs to Master Fu, Gabriel has Butterfly and Peacock, Marinette and Adrien have Ladybug and Black Cat. Everything is pretty straightforward. Then it's revealed that there are more jewels and more boxes. It makes the worldbuilding interesting, but it also majorly complicates things, making them inconsistent.

Their position in the Miracle Box implies their power levels. Creation and destruction are the most powerful forces in existence, therefore they are at the top. Moreover, it makes this Box the most important, the most powerful out of all others. Su Han in "Furious Fu" calls it "Mother Miracle Box". Fox, Turtle, Bee, Butterfly and Peacock have less power than the main pair, but more than the Miraculous of the lower Zodiac tier (since they correspond with animals of the Chinese Zodiac).

1. Ladybug can create anything out of nothing (Lucky Charm, which gives what you need the most at the moment). This Miraculous can resurrect the dead, reverse the effects of the Cataclysm. The power of Miraculous Cure or Miraculous Ladybug can work in several ways:

it simply repairs the damage (puts stuff back together, heals injuries and so on)

it reverses time for the matter, restoring things back to the state they were before the destruction occurred (however, the Cure doesn't erase people's memories of everything that happened unless they were mind-controlled, frozen in place or transformed by Akuma into something else - this is an important point that I'll discuss some other time)

How does Miraculous Cure work when there are no supervillians? In NY Special Marinette just says this.

Excuse me, what? What was that? You can't do anything when the villain is gone? What the hell?

*insert here every scene where Ladybug fixed Paris after destroying akumatized/amokized object (this action causes the Akuma victim to detransform/sentimonster to disappear - villain is gone) and purifying butterfly and feather*

It was such cheap angst. I couldn't even be upset when Adrien gave up his Miraculous, because that whole situation is just stupid. But, never mind. We aren't talking about that today.

Apparently, Lucky Charm and Miraculous Cure only work when summoned to battle a specific villain. What is the point then? Huh? You can't tell me that Ladybug has the power of unlimited creation and then say that she can't repair the damage without a special Lucky Charm that was magically synchronised with specific big bad of the week.

Ladybug also can purify Akumas. It makes sense for Ladybug to have the ability to reverse the magic of less powerful Miraculous. But this power can't be applied universally. How does this power of reversal apply to different situations where there is no evil Butterfly holder? Can Ladybug reverse the magic of any Miraculous?

The unlimited power of creation introduced in season 4 ("Mr. Pidgeon 72") is another fascinating thing. On one hand, it's logical and proves the status of this Miraculous as the most powerful. On the other hand, by introducing this power, you have created a plothole. Look, Marinette can create the charm which repels Akumas. If Ladybug can create anything then what stops her from creating a tool for finding Hawkmoth (like special glasses for discovering identities or a compass)? I mean, the show says that the power of creation is unlimited, it means that the creation of such tool is possible.

2. Black Cat can destroy anything with Cataclysm, even other Miraculous. He can kill living things and turn them into ash, but not himself. This Miraculous is supposed to have other special abilities that we don't see. And they should be equal to powers of Ladybug, both in number and in potency. Unfortunately, after 3 seasons writers didn't give us anything. It makes laughable the idea of balance between Ladybug and Black Cat.

Now, to the second tier. These Miraculouses have a singular ability, but they need a second one to keep the power balanced between Zodiac and the main pair.

3. Butterfly creates champions with different superpowers. But how does the time limit of children work for Butterfly? In theory, the countdown should start right after the creation of the Akuma since for Ladybug and Chat Noir countdown starts after activation of their powers even if they don't use them. However, if the countdown of the Butterfly begins after Akuma creation then there's no point because the holder has to stay transformed to guide their champion. The charged butterfly won't have time to even grant powers before the transformation of the child-holder drops. This issue is never explored because Gabriel doesn't have a time limit. However, I feel like it should be addressed in flashbacks of past Butterfly holders for example.

This Miraculous should be less powerful than Ladybug and Black Cat. It's often not. Some Akumas are too overpowered. Stormy Weather can move the Earth away from the Sun, Timetagger can send people through time and jump through time as well, Chat Blanc destroyed the world with a single energy blast, Miraculer could steal powers of those more powerful than her by default. These are the most notable examples. One could argue that Chat Blanc was a different case. Hawkmoth simply gave the most powerful Miraculous a boost. However, we know that even without a holder (the wildest and the most powerful form of uncontrolled Miraculous magic) Plagg's Cataclysm can't destroy the universe just like that (he presumably wiped out dinosaurs and sunk Atlantis on his own without a holder). I think that the less powerful Miraculous (Butterfly) shouldn't be able to increase the power of destruction to such a degree and give Black Cat the power to destroy celestial bodies and galaxies.

Writers want us to see Hawkmoth as the formidable villain. But it's not easy because he is less powerful than your main heroes by default of your worldbuilding. Sometimes writers make the Butterfly more powerful than creation and destruction to raise the stakes, breaking the laws of their magic system. So, how do you solve this? Let Ladybug and Black Cat keep their status as the most powerful and instead of giving Hawkmoth more magical power, make him smarter, more cunning, inventive. Gabriel is a fashion designer, whose creativity makes him a very good Butterfly holder. He has a life full of experience, he knows much more about things than the main teenage characters. Catalyst was very interesting for this very reason. Gabriel sort of discovered a cheat code to boost his powers. Show us how he experiments with his powers, how he analyses his past Akumas and tries to find the most effective ones. Maybe Gabriel tries to design Akumas that can specifically neutralise Ladybug and Chat Noir. This exploration could also give writers an opportunity to explain how the powers of Butterfly work. Can he control the type of powers he grants? Can he control the appearance of Akumas? There are many things to be explored.

4. Peacock creates sentimonsters. I remember that fans were very disappointed when the power of the Peacock was revealed at the end of season 2. I was one of them. The concept of Amoks is far too similar to akumatized butterflies. Other Miraculouses have unique abilities and keywords for their powers, while Peacock just looks like Butterfly 2.0. That glowing mask effect just adds insult to injury.

You have to start by figuring out the powers of the Peacock in a normal situation. If a holder is a good person, then how does their power work? For example, make them related to sight (because of the "eye" pattern on feathers). Maybe, Peacock grants the ability to see the several possibilities of the future, but only a few minutes ahead. Maybe, this Miraculous gives you the ability to see through someone's eyes for a few minutes (and the victim is completely unaware of the intrusion). Perhaps, Peacock allows the holder to use feathers (or tiny peacocks) as cameras one at a time and be all-seeing. These feather-spies can be destroyed by the holder or disappear on their own after some time. Such power could be devastating when used against heroes in canon.

5. Bee can paralyze. This power is pretty straightforward. Once I read a fanfiction focused on very vell done Chloe Redemption, where she fights alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir. Eventually, she grows and becomes a better person. This fic ends with an Akuma battle, where LB and CN are trapped and Akuma is ready to kill them. But Chloe uses a second power of the Bee on the villain - Miraculous Stinger. It's deadly both for the holder and for the victim (because bees die when they sting someone). Chloe kills the Akuma with a Stinger before it can get LB and CN, but she too dies making the ultimate irreversible sacrifice. I will add a link if I find it again.

6. Turtle can create a shield. I don't have much to say on this either. It feels underpowered compared to others in the second tier. Maybe Turtle can also slow down opponents (because turtles aren't the fasters animals out there).

7. Fox creates illusions and acts as their puppeteer. In order to create a balance between other powers, these illusions must hold for as long as the holder needs them to. I propose this mostly because we see that Venom of the Bee lasts very long, the shield of the Turtle lasts either until it's destroyed or the holder wants to remove it, same goes for Akumas and sentimonsters who disappear only when the holder wants them to or their affected object is destroyed.

Let's talk about Zodiac tier. Miraculous of the third tier shouldn't have the second ability like more powerful ones. These powers are the most inconsistent. Even if we haven't seen all of them yet.

8. Mouse can create many small clones of the holder. It is unclear how these clones communicate with each other and how many of them this Miraculous can create. The holder can control the number of clones. This power was very convenient in "Kwamibuster" and it makes sense symbolically for the mouse. What activates the time-limit for children? Marinette didn't have any problems with it when she became Multimouse.

9. Snake can create a 5-minute time loop and has the ability to come back in time. This Miraculous feels a bit overpowered for the Miraculous of the Zodiac Tier. The holder can reset the time as many times as he/she needs to. It's was a good source of drama and trauma in "Desperada". I was honestly surprised that Adrien was capable of fighting after spending months in a loop. But this doesn't change the fact that Snake is overpowered. You can give this Miraculous the power to hypnotise or keep the time ability but place a limit on the number of resets. How does the lyre work as a weapon? Who knows? No one!

10. Dragon can shapeshift into elements: water, wind and lightning. It has the coolest transformation words hands down (Bring the Storm and Open Sky). Apparently this Miraculous doesn't have the time limit.

11. Rabbit can time travel or jump through alternative realities, even writers aren't sure. Time-travel in this show is so badly written it gives me a headache. This Miraculous shouldn't exist just like its powers. Snake belongs to the same tier, but 5 minutes and whole centuries of time jumps aren't comparable in power levels. They are not and this is the hill I will die on. Give the Rabbit powers related to its symbolism in China like an ability to de-age people, heal them or give them a speed boost in contrast with Turtle who might have the ability to slow down.

This Miraculous is so special that its Kwami - Fluff can live separately from his Miraculous in a Miracle Box for millennia (Fluff lives in the Box in "Sandboy", but his Miraculous, pocket watch, was passed down for generations in Alix's family). This is a discussion for a separate post, however. There's a lot to unpack. We'll do that some other time. You will suffer with me but at a later date.

12. Horse can create portals. They could lead anywhere, which is pretty cool. On the other hand, this power is not very useful in direct combat, especially when it's used by a child since we can have only one portal per transformation.

13. Monkey can cause a malfunction in powers of other people. What is the point of this? This power was specifically created by writers to defeat Akuma in "Party Crasher". That's it. What if your target is not magical? How does this Miraculous work in different circumstances?

14. Pig shows people their greatest desire. Both the holder and the recipient of this power can see this desire. Chat Noir wasn't impressed in "Guiltrip" and neither was I. It's underpowered compared to other Miraculous in this tier. Also, why does the tambourine can shoot energy beams? Why?

That's all I have to say on the matter. I'll update the power analysis as needed.

[storybook-with-a-hug]

Fix-It Miraculously

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067214

This is my baby, a rewrite of the series where I try to correct some of the issues I’ve seen in the show. Things like pacing of the seasons, character investment and growth, relationships, and more. This story was started in response to the problems I saw developing in season 3 that the writers weren’t addressing, and that with greater observation I found to be baked into the story from the get-go. 

Problems like the relationship between the main LoveSquare, how Marinette is dismissive and even rude to Chat Noir, instead of supportive and caring like she’s shown to be with everyone else, even people she barely knows. By season 3 she’s hitting him and telling him he’s a waste of space and basically treats him like if he’s not doing what she tells him to do then he’s just in the way. But those seeds took root in season 1 where she looks down at Chat Noir as being useless without her and basically treats him like a joke. As Ladybug, she may treat him as more of a partner and a friend still, but outside the mask she openly insults him  following their interactions. 

On the other side of the mask is Marinette’s inability to hold a conversation with Adrien, despite supposedly being one of his best friends. Yet somehow, in specific episodes, she could talk to him? And then couldn’t again the very next episode and for the rest of the series all the way into season 4? Sure, at first it was cute and funny, how completely head-over-heels she was over him, but it doesn’t give way to many interesting shipping moments and definitely doesn’t give any opportunity to deepen their relationship so that it’s believable that they end up together by the end of the series for anything more than “gee, that person there sure is purdy...” 

And in regards to getting to know characters better, let’s take Marinette out of Suedom and let other people have thoughts and feelings and lives that don’t revolve around Marinette and Ladybug? I mean, I don’t think I can even name 10 facts about Alya that aren’t related to Marinette in any way, let alone Nino, and they’re supporting cast that have been around since season 1! They’re the best friends of the main characters, or should I say main character and main character’s love interest because let’s face it, even though Chat Noir’s name is in the title of the show and he’s the one with all the interesting story beats happening around him (his mother’s disappearance, his father being the main villain, his secondary-mother-figure being the other main villain, etc.) he’s nothing more than a supporting cast member. Season 4 even went so far as to officially brand him “just another member of the team”, a team comprised of MINOR characters who don’t always even get speaking lines in an episode or even make physical appearances in them, all following our shining glory that is Ladybug-the-Mary-Sue. 

So to correct that, I give the supporting casts their own story arcs, make them actually relevant with lives of their own and their own agency in the story, and watch things grow. While Ladybug/Marinette stays the primary protagonist, not every chapter is about her, and even when it is other characters get their moments to shine and do their own things. A real friendship grows between her and Chat Noir/Adrien where it’s clear how and why these two complete each other and chose to be together. Everyone grows and changes, and relationships develop naturally. 

But to manage this, there has to be consequences that last longer than the end title card, and lessons that need to stick and actually start changing how characters behave. This also extends to Chat Noir getting the credit and fans he deserves in universe, instead of the whole city just being “Ladybug! Ladybug! Let’s not care about interviewing Chat Noir. Let’s never thank Chat Noir for saving the day. It’s just Ladybug! Ladybug! All the way, all the time, only Ladybug! Ladybug!” 

And yes, some of those changes might not be for the best at first, and there does exist such things as back-sliding and people refusing to take accountability or to change their ways to correct their mistakes. Sometimes people might not even be willing to acknowledge that they made a mistake in the first place. I’m just trying to make the characters realistic and consistent. Enough of these one-off episodes where the characters are suddenly completely OOC, only to go back to normal the next episode as if nothing were the problem. 

Some episodes Chat’s flirting is “SO annoying” and “totally the problem and why they were struggling against the akuma!” and other episodes Ladybug’s flirting right back and even initializing the flirty behaviour. Some episodes Alya “totally has Marinette’s back, girl! They’re BFFs 4Eva!” and others she’s dismissive of all of Marinette’s thoughts and concerns and feelings. Some episodes Nino actually cares about Adrien’s wants and thoughts and desires and welfare, other episodes he’s just an extension of Alya and only interested in making Adrinette a thing no matter how many times Adrien insists he only wants friendship from Marinette.

And that’s not even getting into the problems of the timeline of the show, or the lore of the universe, or all those cases where the show actively contradicts itself. Seriously, how could Alya--Ladybug’s supposed biggest fan and the one civilian who knows everything there is to know about her--forget that in Ladybug’s big debut she saved Chloe from certain death, only to then go on to believe Chloe was Ladybug herself? It feels so often like if the writers just had one more person read through the whole season’s episode synopsis and beats they’d have caught so many of these inconsistencies! I swear the staff didn’t know the Origins episodes were going to exist or what they were going to have in them when they were making season 1...

So far my story is only about half-way through season 1. Each chapter is an episode on it’s own right, and there are OC Akuma that show up as well. In further chapters, there’s intention of adding a larger rogues gallery to Paris so it’s not just Team Miraculous vs Papillon and Mayura. There’s also OC supporting casts because Paris is bigger than just the Akuma class and their immediate family members. There’s friends from other classes and grades, there’s employees of the businesses parents own, there’s celebrities on social media, there’s other schools and friend groups and out-of-school extra curriculars. Some OCs are random one-offs there just to be the akuma-of-the-day. Some are there more permanently to fill out the world and make it feel more lived in. 

[me4ml]

Why don't you like Maribat? Why do you think it's a spite or salt ship?

This is presumably because of my Adrigaminette post or the whole Maribat being on the ship list thing.

Quick disclaimer: if you read/ship/write/like Maribat, cool! This is not an attack. This is me answering why I, personally, do not like it. It’s tagged anti, and salt, so it should be filtered. Please don’t harass me over it.

Another note before we start: a lot of what I’m about to write is based on what I’ve read, fic wise or meta, and I blocked off the Maribat tag and fandom a long time ago. It may have changed over there-I doubt it, and I have zero desire to go and look-but this is based on what I’ve seen and read about.

There are, principally, three reasons I can’t stand Maribat, why I think it’s a spite/salt ship.

1). I don’t like Damian Wayne.

2). I don’t like how Damian and the DCU are written in Maribat.

3). Maribat is a mutated salt fic.

If you want to see my reasons why, the rest is under the read more.

1). I don’t like Damian Wayne.

Damian’s not just my least favorite Robin, ranking behind any of the others who have born the name. He’s my least favorite Batfam sidekick overall.

Part of this is his introduction, where he’s a violent, murderous, arrogant, entitled, snotty little brat of a thug. Lest we forget, one of his first acts is to go out, kill a guy, cut off his head, stuff a grenade into the decapitated head’s mouth, and try to blow up Tim. This is his introduction! There are a number of other occasions, including how he treats Jon, his best friend, and the rest of his siblings.

Another part is that he believes that he deserves to be Robin simply because he’s Bruce’s son, and therefore has the blood right to be Robin, to become Batman, and damn anyone else, who are all pretenders. Doesn’t matter that those characters might have a right to become Robin, or the future Batman, he’s the bio son, he deserves it!

Additionally, Damian feels.....not unnecessary, but repetitive, in his actions/characterization. There are other characters who can perform pretty much the same way for whatever storyline is necessary, without including Damian.

Trained by an abusive family to be the best, as an assassin and warrior? Cassandra.

A killer who breaks the main rule of his mentor, which causes tension and strain in the family? Jason.

Incredibly intelligent and talented? Tim.

Damian isn’t unique in what he does, and while that can make him an interesting character, it can also make the focus on him unnecessary.

As well, so much of Damian’s actions and motivations feels like he gets away with stuff, in-universe, because he’s Bruce’s biological son, and so Bruce gives him too much slack, and out-universe, because the writers let him/the fans will defend him. He gets woobified, or leather pantsed. Which leads to:

2). I don’t like how Damian and the DCU are written for Maribat.

For all his (numerous) faults, when written well, Damian can be an interesting character. For example: How does he deal with being deeply insecure? By putting on a mask of arrogance and overconfidence.

Some more examples: How does Damian act like an actual child, when he’s never had a childhood? How can he be a hero, if he’s been trained to be a killer? Can he ever catch up to his siblings, or will he feel like they’re always better than him?

Damian’s sense of being Batman’s son, of being the heir to the Cowl, slams right up against the idea of the Batfam: that there are people who have just as much of a right to call Batman their father/father figure, people who are just as talented and skilled and capable as Damian himself is, if not more. Watching Damian develop, when he’s written right, is actually enjoyable; mainly because when it’s done right, it shows Damian actually progressing and growing, becoming more of a person, with friends and interests. Most times, seeing Damian with his pets can be adorable, same with when he hangs out with Jon.

Is he still a brat? Still sometimes a bit too much of a Demon, an al-Ghul? Yes, but that’s always going to be part of him, and as long as he’s shown to try and grow, or gets called out on that, it’s less of an issue (There’s a completely different rant to be written about how DC likes to chuck character development or backstory into the trash when it suits them for a new run. Damian gets hit with this, as does Tim, or they get handed the idiot/conflict ball, but not the space for it).

Maribat hurls this all out the window. Damian’s bad traits are all “fixed” offscreen-he’s developed, matured, gotten better, whatever you want to call it. It’s basically a writer’s hand wave to make Damian into the character who will be the lead of the story, perfectly suited for his main role of being Marinette’s boyfriend and utterly devoted to her every whim and will. He’s enchanted by her at first glimpse, and defends her against everyone who hates her, because no one can understand her like he can!

Uh, what? This is not Damian Wayne. Even at his best, he’s no broody boy, pulled from his “dark path” by the love of a gentle girl. He’s a Jerk with a Heart of Gold-emphasis on the Jerk. There’s a reason his nickname usually involves “Demon.” Is Damian trying to get better? Yes. But even then, he’s not the type to immediately fall in love. He takes a while to warm up to people, for them to earn his trust, and Marinette would not be like that?

Let’s say that Robin is in Paris for a case, he runs into Ladybug and Chat, and after they explains what’s going on, Robin gives them a stare over his mask, and goes “TT! What a worthless hero, I would have caught him already.” LB and Chat would probably want to deck him, and that’s before he keeps talking.

Same with if Damian transfers to the class, or they meet on a field trip to Gotham. Damian’s not gonna care about some random French teenagers on a tour, or if he was transferred he’s gonna be trying to figure out why his father sent him to Paris, and be focused on the mission, not making friends.

Of all of the Robins, the ones that would be the most likely to capture Marinette’s interest would be Dick or Tim, not Damian. He would remind her too much of Chloe, as Damian, and as Robin, he would be dismissive of Ladybug’s abilities, which would absolutely piss her, and Chat Noir, off.

In characters that aren’t Damian, no one seems to be written properly over in Maribatland. One huge example is that Marinette is so beloved, so pure, that she can make any character fall in love with her, and reform by her pure goodness, including a fic where the Joker-THE JOKER!-becomes her “Uncle J,” and pranks Lila on her behalf.

Uh-huh. Sure. Completely and totally something that one of the biggest, most sadistic twisted, notorious villains in pop culture would do. Maribat winds up worshipping the ground that Marinette walks on, cause she’s “Teh best evar!”

Which then leads to my third and final point:

3). The whole Maribat concept is a mutated salt fic.

Most of the themes you’ll find in Maribat? You will find in nearly every salt fic.

Maybe my biggest issue with the whole Maribat idea is that it doesn’t feel like a proper crossover, which, at their best, explore how characters from one universe and their rules would interact with characters from another universe, and the rules of that one. Putting ML and DC together is a rich opportunity to play with concepts in both worlds!

And yet, it’s mainly used to bash ML characters who the writers despise, predominantly Adrien, Alya, and Lila, with members of the class thrown in depending on feeling, and potentially even Marinette’s parents! The only “good” ML characters are the ones who are on Marinette’s side, usually Luka, Kagami, a Chloe who for some reason has been redeemed and is now Marinette’s best friend, and whatever members of the class the writer decides to throw in there.

You’ll notice it’s not called “MiracuBat”, or LadyBat and Bat Noir-it’s MariBat. It’s meant as a focus on Marinette, making her-the hero of the Miraculous Ladybug franchise, someone in-story in story who is incredibly smart and talented and the leader of her team, future Guardian-even more awesome.....by beating down everyone else around her.

Marinette is simultaneously treated as an beaten-up, beaten-down walked-on carpet, and the best person to ever exist ever, go who only needs a group of new, different, better people to recognize that and save her from the clutches of those greedy and ungrateful assholes! That doesn’t include the fics where she’s the unknown child of a superhero or supervillain, making her even more special.

It’s Chameleon salt, class salt, with pointy ears and a cape on.

Some specific examples.

Adrien: Adrien is a spineless doormat who prioritizes Lila over Marinette, or an entitled bastard sexual harasser, only fixated on Ladybug, or even both. Sometimes it’ll get worse, as Adrien will threaten or abandon Marinette if she steps off of his “high road,” and Chat will be a budding rapist, stalking or capturing Marinette after he’s learned she’s Ladybug, while ignoring her prior to that. He will, of course, have his ring stripped and handed off to Damian, who is the “true” soul of Destruction and so therefore a “perfect match” to Marinette’s Creation soul. Occasionally it will be Jason, or Tim, or Dick, but the key thing is that it’s not Adrien!

While Damian’s issues are magically fixed, Adrien gets no such courtesy. Adrien has been abused, just like Damian, and while Damian’s abuse is more extensive and extreme, abuse is abuse. If anything, if Damian met Adrien, he would probably see another abused kid, and want to be his friend/have his “adopt stray person!” Instincts go off. I can much more imagine Damian dragging a bewildered Adrien into the Batcave and yelling “Father I’ve found another one for you to adopt!” than I can Damian immediately hating Adrien, or Chat, simply for breathing.

We never see Clark taking Adrien under his wing, or Bruce, or any of the other Batfam; nor any of the other Justice Leaguers. We never see Selina try to fight Bruce over the kid, because he’s cat-themed, and Selina can train him, this one’s hers Bat, get off!

Adrien’s never treated as a kid, or given actual development. A major complaint among salters is that Adrien is treated as perfect and never develops, and in fic, rather than developing him, Adrien either remains static, with his flaws narratively exploded, or is developed negatively. He’s there to be beaten up on and punished by the writers, if not actually physically beaten up by characters in the fic.

Alya: the not-so-good friend, the cheap excuse for a journalist, the awful person who abandons Marinette for Lila and her “connections.” Never mind that Alya was Marinette’s friend from the beginning, or that Marinette’s chosen her multiple times for a Miraculous. One instance of questioning Marinette about Lila, and Alya’s a backstabbing bitch.

Maribat treats Alya as neglectful, bossy, domineering and submissive at the same time to Marinette and Lila respectively, and as a journalist, the worst of the worst. She’s played as a two-bit paparazzo, and once again, the DCU is used to punish her. We don’t see Alya get mentored by Lois or Clark-indeed, if they notice her, it’s with disdain or disappointment. Often, they’re crushing her under their heel, calling her not only a bad journalist, but a bad friend/person. This forgetting, of course, that Alya runs her blog as a hobby so far, she’s only a teenager, and that she’s had Marinette’s back against Chloe and Lila.

The Class: the dupes or allies as needed. Class salt levels depend on what the writer needs. If they’re pro-class, they’re all on Marinette’s side, aside from Alya Adrien and Lila. Chloe, for some ungodly reason, is “redeemed” nigh instantaneously, and often will become Marinette’s best friend, if that isn’t Kagami already. Kagami will drop Adrien like a wet tissue, never trying to reconcile him with the clas, or encourage him to stand up for himself, or if she does, Adrien, of course, will not listen.

If the writer is anti-class, whoo boy. Openly mentally, emotionally, physically abusive to Marinette, the worst gang of people you would ever have the displeasure of meeting, they all need to be in Arkham.

We never see any of the class make friends with the Batfam, the Titans, Young Justice-unless they’re on Marinette’s side, of course. There’s no Alix stopping Selina at the Louvre, for instance, or Max hanging out with Babs. It’s all based on how Marinette is treated as to whether or not the class is portrayed as being worse than the worst of the Rogues Gallery.

Wrapping it all up, Maribat has made me dislike the entire concept of a DC/ML crossover.

Even if someone had written an non-salt, in-character crossover, I don’t know if I would read it, simply because the well has been that poisoned.

[adrinoir]

Lukanette ALSO has its issues

So, of course I need to analyze ✨Lukanette✨ there’s a lot to unpack here, so I’m gonna jump right into it.

How it started

Marinette meets Luka on the boat in Captain Hardrock. They instantaneously have good chemistry as soon as they look at each other. Luka is being very chill and showing off his guitar skills, and Marinette clearly finds him dreamy.

Luka is passionate & caring

I’ve heard people say Luka is specifically used as a love interest for Marinette and has no personality....

...That’s bullshit because we do start to see some of his personality come out.

Luka has a strong passion for music and he’s very soft-spoken which is why he typically likes communicating through music more so. He also is very laidback but extremely caring at the same time. Not just by how he acts with Marinette but also how he treats his sister, Juleka. He encourages her to follow her dreams and model in Reflekdoll, which is super wholesome seeing as how not too many siblings have a bond like that.

He also puts himself in the superhero role as Viperion to keep his family and friends out of harm’s way.

*But, obviously, I’m here to talk about the relationship between Luka and Marinette*

Even from the very first episode he’s in, he worries about Marinette being in danger when Captain Hardrock attacks.

Luka also fends for Marinette in Silencer when her costume ideas are stolen by XY, and gets angry enough to get himself akumatized. And what makes me cry every time is how his goal isn’t to necessarily hurt people but make sure Bob Roth and XY to learn their lesson. AND how he manages to confess his love for Marinette despite being akumatized and not even remembering what happened afterwards.

Additionally, he apologizes to Marinette if he caused any harm and says the same exact confession to her AFTER the akumatization. Can we just talk about that? It’s way too precious.

We also can’t forget how he will drop whatever he’s doing just to help Marinette.

One of my all time favorite scenes between these two is when he drops his bike and holds her when she’s crying about pretending to be someone else (*ahem* Ladybug) and handle so many responsibilities.

I’ve never seen Marinette that vulnerable until this episode (Heart Hunter), and it makes my heart happy that she opened up to Luka about not feeling okay.

There’s also a theory that he knows she’s Ladybug just based on how he talks to Ladybug and how he looks at her - both the same way as he is with Marinette. (I’m totally on board with this theory.)

It feels one-sided

Similar to the Adrigami ship, there’s some one-sidedness.

Marinette definitely has some feelings for Luka BUT she still very clearly likes Adrien more, to a point where Luka knows and accepts that she likes him more (which is REALLY sad).

Luka has confessed his love for Marinette and consistently shows he cares about her. But, of course, Marinette is much more open about her feelings for Adrien, and just seems unsure about making any moves on Luka.

At times I also feel like Marinette uses Luka a little bit at times, and I don’t feel like that’s talked about enough. Like the time Adrien dragged her along on his date with Kagami, and Marinette invites Luka as backup so things aren’t awkward. The whole date started because of Adrien, and the fact that Marinette still having feelings for him.

It’s obvious that Luka has hope that Marinette will realize that he’s good enough for her, and is just waiting on her to make a decision (as shown in the NY special when he tells her he hopes she’ll have some clarity after the trip).

I feel so bad for both Luka and Kagami since Marinette and Adrien are so indecisive.

Final thoughts

1) Marinette and Luka wouldn’t work for one of the same reasons as Adrien and Kagami - there is too much ones-sidedness. Luka cares but Marinette doesn’t do or show a lot in return for his actions.

2) ALSO like Adrigami, they are not a complete flop because the friendship works, and at the end of the day, Luka just wants Marinette to be happy, no matter who she chooses.

3) I’ll never be able to stress this enough: Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Cat Noir are end game. That’s a main plot in the show. So it doesn’t even make a difference if Adrigami and Lukanette become canon - they won’t last, EVERY FAN knows this.

[angelofthequeers]

hi! So I have being thinking (or observing) lately, how people prefer lu//ka over ni//no (I mean lu//ka is shoved everywhere but thats not the point). Like lu//ka is praised for being chill, akumatized for someone else, being 'musical', protective, etc (honestly ni//no has more qualities unlike... Yeah). And it just bothers me so much idk. I mean pocs are always side eyed in favour of white characters that's not new but I guess the is-ni//no-actually-lu//ka (though a v fun crack idea) (1/n)

Not at all! I’ve also noticed how Nino is increasingly shoved to the side to make room for Luka, aka a generic “rebellious” white boy who looks like he never showers and his mum dresses him and whose interest in a younger girl is so creepy that he had to be retconned to be her age. And I don’t get it, because Nino has an actual fleshed-out personality considering his lack of screentime:

he’s impulsive and super protective of those he loves, to the point where he jumps into battle repeatedly against a literal supervillain who could crush him into a paper ball without effort if she really wanted to

but he can also be stubborn and drag his heels in, like in ‘Horrificator’ over the kiss scene that Alya didn’t include

he also got akumatised over his impulsiveness because he was so angry for his best friend

and yes, that’s different to Luka getting angry for Marinette in ‘Silencer’ because

he didn’t give a flying damn about the rest of the band, just the girl whose pants he wanted in

he didn’t actually??? Confront XY and Roth directly??? He just stood there trying to get Marinette to leave and then when she was threatened, he just stood there and stewed. Compare that to Nino, who actively went on the attack at Gabriel to try and fight for Adrien and damn the consequences

he’s got varied interests and personality outside of his DJing. He loves filmmaking, he’s goofy (think ‘Puppeteer 2’), he gets flustered easily, he parkours with Alya in their free time, he loves Just Dance...there’s so much more to him than just ‘plays an instrument and makes fun of a pretty girl for stuttering’

his self-worth issues! He didn’t think he was worthy of being a superhero, that he could defend Alya in an arm wrestle... I don’t know what Luka thinks of himself. I don’t even know if he thinks

he’s so selfless and loyal! Remember ‘Zombizou’, where he stayed behind so Alya wouldn’t be a zombie alone even though she wouldn’t have a clue once everything was fixed? Where he went in to bat for Adrien in ‘Bubbler’ even knowing he could be making an enemy out of a powerful and influential man? Where he stuck by Adrien in ‘Jackady’ and made sure he was safe? What has Luka done in comparison? And before people insist that he’s barely had any screentime, they also insist that Nino has no personality because he’s hardly ever on screen too and yet I can pick all of this about Nino, so they can’t have it both ways

And you’re bang-on with characters of colour being shoved aside for white ones. You see it in how Chloé replaces Alya as Marinette’s best friend despite being a literal horrific bully while Alya has been there for Marinette through thick and thin and is the literal reason why Marinette became Ladybug not just once but twice. You see it in the colourism (preferring lighter skin shades and features over darker ones) where Kagami has all but replaced Alya as a love interest for Marinette and sometimes even as her best friend because Alya is Lila’s new bestie. And that’s not to say that Kagaminette ship and friendship are bad! I love love LOVE them to bits and Kagami is one of my favourite characters of all time. But I hardly ever see Alyanette anymore in favour of Kagaminette, and even just Alya and Marinette best friend stuff because Kagami has essentially replaced Alya. And that’s also a common salt thing too; if it’s not Chloé replacing Alya, it’s Kagami.

Don’t get me wrong, Kagami is very much a POC. She’s faced a hell of a lot of undeserved backlash and awful treatment for being the “bitchy ice queen” and even fetishisation (don’t get me started please or I won’t shut up but some of the stuff I’ve seen has made me physically nauseous at the Asian fetishisation). But at the end of the day, I’ve personally seen her treated “better” than Alya...if by “better” you mean fetishised, which is a large part of why I don’t trust 90% of other Adrigaminette and Kagaminette fans. The way she’s treated compared to Alya looks more positive but it’s still fetishism and racism. She’s just not outright bashed as much as Alya because colourism and specifically anti-Black racism, as subconscious as it might sometimes be.

And that racism and colourism (which I most definitely had a point with I swear) is something that ties into the Luka and Nino thing, where people with lighter features are preferred over people with darker features. Luka has 1/100 the personality that Nino does and get he gets 100 times the love that Nino does. He also has people gushing over his appearance and how he’s a “hot bad boy” but I never see people loving Nino for his dark skin, for his brown eyes, for his prominent nose...for anything, really.

(Not to get personal but as a fellow Arab who also has brown eyes and a nose that’s not thin and dainty and is very obviously non-white and something I hated for years, that shit hurts)

Like, if someone doesn’t like Kagami, most of the time she’s just ignored as a character and the author/artist doesn’t touch on her. But if someone doesn’t like Alya? Instead of just having her be friends with other girls instead or just naturally drift apart from Marinette (which uh is still not cool), they go wild on her, turning her into an aggressive bitch who’s obsessed with her scoops and getting Adrien and Marinette together even at the cost of Marinette’s happiness. They take her flaws and wildly exaggerate them to justify hating her (don’t ask about the sheer vitriol I saw in the aftermath of ‘Feast’ over a mistake that Luka would just be coddled for). And while it’s not as prominent, because Alya is at the intersection of being a girl and a POC - especially a Black girl - and cops double the crap, I’ve also seen Nino demonised into a spineless idiot who just stands by and lets things happen instead of...you know, the boy who literally rushed a spider supervillain to save his girlfriend, knowing he could die very easily.

I just want some wholesome Adrino 😔 There’s all this “Luka would show Adrien how to rebel and just gets how he feels” and blah but like...Adrien already knows how to rebel. He just does it in little safe ways because he’s an abused kid, rather than doing what the salters think he should do and turning into a generic copy of Luka without a thought for the consequences that Gabriel can inflict on him because he’s still a kid under his parent’s “care”. And Nino already gets how Adrien feels! He’s Adrien’s best friend! He knows what to say to Adrien and how to be there for him without having to resort to strumming a guitar and telling Adrien how he feels like Luka does to Marinette.

Nino was Adrien’s first friend. Nino’s been there for Adrien through thick and thin, through having an arse of a parent who forces him to be flaky and unreliable with hangouts. Nino is physically affectionate with Adrien without throwing himself all over him like Chloé and Lila do. Nino’s actions as an akuma were to make his best friend happy. And yet people still seem to think that Luka both loves Adrien more and is a better choice for him. Why??? All Luka would do is sit there and play his guitar. Luka is his music and nothing else but Nino...Nino has so much more to him than just his DJing.

I feel like part of it is not wanting to break up DJWiFi, which...okay, valid. That’s one of my favourite ships of all time because they’re so darn happy and cute together and it makes me melt to see two POC happy together. I personally would turn to polyamory because I want massive cuddle piles. But if you don’t want that and you’re deadset on Lukadrien (😬) then just...don’t shove Nino to the side. Continue to include Nino as Adrien’s best friend and give him appropriate screentime and character growth outside of being a cardboard cutout friend. It’s not an either-or thing like so many people seem to think, and platonic friendships are just as important as romantic relationships.

[alexiethymia]

Love Square as of Love Eater (or me rambling through my feelings)

Hoo boy, so that finale eh? Anyway, this is an attempt for me to process through my thoughts. Definitely spoilery and slightly heading into headcanon territory.

I was wondering why when Marinette and Chat Noir ‘gave up’, why they didn’t choose the other? That would have solved the Love Square like solving a complicated rubiks cube. 

After all, hadn’t Marinette said (in one of the specials regarding Chat Noir) that if Adrien wasn’t around...? And another poster said it best, how they were so confused because Adrien’s body language kept indicating how he was falling in love with Marinette?

Well for me, it’s because of two factors, timing and safety. As in Luka and Kagami were the safer options. No doubt that both Marinette and Adrien are attracted to the latter two and could definitely love them, but let me explain.

Marinette and Luka

It’s obvious for Marinette. I don’t think she can ever bring herself to reciprocate Chat Noir’s feelings because of her self-confidence issues. For her she’ll never be as good as ladybug (and that was even starkly shown to her when Chat Noir ‘rejected’ ‘Marinette’ in Weredad), but even without that she is such a responsible girl that she’ll never put her own wants over that of Paris’ so there’ll always be those complications of secret identities and tangled emotions. So for Marinette, Luka is the safer option, and she feels her heart is safer with him because at least he sees or better yet ‘hears’ a part of her, even if not the whole part. 

So for this reason, as much as it would be a lovely development, I don’t think Marinette will reveal her identity as Ladybug to Luka if she couldn’t even reveal it to Chat Noir, her most trusted partner. For the same reason as above, her sense of responsibility, but also because of that desire of safety. She’ll always know that Luka’s feelings are for her and there’s no Ladybug to ‘interfere’ with that. But on the flip side, it’s unfortunate because Luka would never get to know her fully as she is, two sides of the same coin, Marinette and Ladybug. 

Adrien and Kagami

So how about Adrien and Kagami? Yes, I definitely see the attraction, but more than anything I see the understanding. It’s the same thing that Adrien shares with Lila and Chloe, that complicated family background and loneliness of being raised in a rich family, but unlike the former two, Kagami is principled and strong. With those two factors - a place of understanding borne from shared backgrounds, and traits that Adrien admires greatly as shown by how much he admires them in Ladybug (and also in Marinette to an extent), it’s no wonder that Adrien would choose her after ‘giving up’ on Ladybug. But like I said, it’s more of understanding, rather than passion.

So why do I consider Luka and Kagami the safer options? It’s because of their similarities to Marinette and Adrien respectively, the similar background, the similar interests and to an extent Marinette and Adrien know the latter two have feelings for them, and for those two who have been in unrequited love for so long, the feeling of the chance to have it requited must be a soothing balm to their egos and bruised hearts. 

Marinette and Adrien and that complicated thing called Timing

Truth be told, when it comes to the Love Square, I’m more heartbroken over the Lukanette development rather than the Adrigami side, because of the reason why I believe Kagami is the safer option rather than Marinette for Adrien.

As to the love square, Adrienette has always been my favorite ship (Marichat is a close second), and the side that has always fascinated me is Adrien ---> Marinette, because it’s always subconscious. 

Kagami is the safer option for Adrien because Adrien can fall in love with Marinette and will fall in love hard and fast given the chance (as can be seen in Oblivio, Adrien is the one to fall first). Personally, I think he’s already in the process, but what he lacks is awareness. 

Their problem is timing. Adrien was still in love with Ladybug when he told Marinette about the girl he likes, and Marinette thinks that girl is Kagami.

And can we just all give a hand to Marinette for her wonderful development?? She’s still in love with Adrien and she has her friendship with Kagami, but push comes to shove because she thinks they like each other, she makes the decision to back off because she believes it’s what’s best for the both of them. It’s both a good and bad development because it shows she’s matured from her time with Chloe and Lila (and really just wants what’s best for Adrien), but part of it has to do with her self-confidence issues because she doesn’t even put herself in the running, she doesn’t give Adrien a choice.

Because that’s the thing isn’t it? If Marinette hadn’t heard Adrien liked another girl, if she had confessed, if Adrien heard that confession...? What if right? Because I think it’s important that it’s not as if Marinette moved on because her feelings were rejected by Adrien. Because I think that there was a high chance of reciprocation had Adrien heard her feelings as if thinking, ‘oh, that’s it’ and feeling everything falling into place.

Because Adrien seemed hopeful when he thought Marinette was Ladybug in Kwamibuster. After all, hadn’t he said he’d love whoever was under the mask? But even that development is good (and isn’t it cute that ‘Marinette’s’ alter-ego is a mouse? it still matches with a cat, and I hope there’s an episode where Chat has to work with Multi Mouse, I think it’d be a funny scenario where Adrien is the one to know the latter’s identity instead of the other way around haha) because now that Marinette and Ladybug are two separate entities in Adrien’s mind, Marinette would have that comfort that if and when Adrien falls in love with Marinette, it’ll be for her rather than Ladybug (even though I don’t think Adrien thinks that way). It’d be more poignant, because it’s as if Adrien chose to fall in love with her twice, both as Ladybug and as Marinette. 

Marinette doesn’t give herself credit. She doesn’t see how Adrien can fall in love her, but Adrien can and is probably falling (rather than the simple attraction he has with Kagami). He didn’t/doesn’t know how Marinette feels towards him, because Marinette has always denied it and has never given him a straight answer, unlike with Kagami whose feelings he does know, and he knows where he stands, like a safe harbor, which is why I think as deeply as he was hurt with Ladybug, there’s always that unconscious break in Adrien’s mind when it comes to Marinette, that he never sees beyond what she tells him on the surface because it’d be that much more painful to be rejected by Marinette (a Ladybug redux) on the off chance that he’s wrong about her feelings and there’s that added danger of losing her friendship which he’s already desperate to keep because of his preconceived thoughts of its fragility. So for him, wouldn’t it be better not to rock the boat and keep her friendship? But as with Marinette, who hurts only so deeply, precisely because it’s Adrien, Marinette is not just a safe habor like how Kagami is for him and how Luka is a safe space for Marinette, but his ‘something more’.

Because while Chat Noir expresses his love for Ladybug in words, Adrien expresses his love for Marinette through his actions and his gestures, unlike the former, they’re in ways he cannot control, or even realize.

Because as he was consciously loving Ladybug or consciously choosing between Ladybug and Kagami, he was unconsciously loving Marinette all this time. 

It’s in the way Chloe (because I believe part of the reason why she targets Marinette specifically is how as Adrien’s childhood friend, she notices his attention or ‘something’ towards her), Lila, and Kagami, three separate girls who holds affection for him all pinpointed Marinette as someone he liked (so even as Adrien denies it, pfft ‘she’s just a friend’, there must be something in his actions that give off those signals). 

It’s in the way he was off his balance when he thought Marinette ‘liked’ Chat Noir, as compared to how cool and collected he is when it comes to Chloe, Lila, and even Kagami. How in Weredad, he was equal parts both Adrien the boy, not Adrien the model, and Chat Noir, how unsteady and unsure and off-balance even as he was resolute to ‘reject’ Marinette for Ladybug. 

It’s how he unconsciously holds her and wants to keep her with them. In Love Eater, he was the one who wanted Marinette to stay with them and Kagami was the one to look at him after his slight outburst (and Marinette in her melancholy didn’t even realize the attention he was paying to her, as if reversing the dynamics, Adrien chasing her rather than the other way around), and holding her hand, but not Kagami’s while running away.

It’s in his soft gaze and how it’s especially when she’s not looking at him that he looks at her in that way, meaning it’s something he wants to do while not being conscious that he’s doing it (Startrain for example). Even when he says ‘wow’ and agrees with Kagami that ‘she’s right’ that Marinette looks beautiful. It’s not with the same expression and voice that she says it which means that that’s not a way a friend is supposed to say it. From the start of Season 3, Adrien has been gazing like Marinette in a way that a ‘friend’ doesn’t usually gaze at another friend. 

It’s in the way he’s so desperate to make her laugh and be for her what Plagg is for him, someone who saved him from his loneliness.

It’s in the way he wants to keep her safe whether from Akuma or backstabbing classmates, and the way he feels safe with her, falling asleep so easily and so comfortably when they’re together. 

So far, from everything I’ve seen Marinette continues to be a special and different existence for Adrien, different from his other friends and different from other girls who like him (Chloe, Lila) or who he likes (Kagami, Ladybug). It’s just in a way he hasn’t, can’t, or won’t define yet. 

Destiny and Choice

I really do appreciate this development because we have things like destiny and choice come into play. Ladybug and Chat Noir are yin and yang, so perhaps all this time Adrien thought it was inevitable that they end up together, that they were destined, but on a meta-level and one must really appreciate Tikki and Plagg for this, the two kwamis don’t push Marinette and Adrien together as if they’re the only ones that should end up with the other. Because even in the real world. such a thing isn’t healthy. As much as they recognize the burden put onto the two’s young shoulders, the two kwamis don’t want their lives to be dictated by the miraculous. They encourage them to make their own choices, whether liking each other or other people. And that’s something important that Adrien, and to an extent Marinette, has to learn. If they do end up coming back together, it’s more meaningful that they do it by choice.

On the other side, on the surface, Luka and Kagami are people who seem made for Marinette and Adrien respectively, as if destined for them, even as they still have that inexplicable link between the both of them. So ultimately do Adrien and Marinette choose what’s safe and perfect for them? Or do they choose a more painful path for that ‘something more’? Because as much as I believe Adrien has those feelings in him, they’ll remain skinny love if he doesn’t let them develop. As for Marinette, she has to open her heart to the possibility that the person she loves can love her back. 

I really do love how developed it is, because Kagami and Luka are people Adrien and Marinette can fall in love with and have happy relationships with. And in the meantime that they’re in this situation they can better develop as friends, which is what Adrien has always wanted. But here’s the thing, as much as Marinette has her self-confidence issues, she is Ladybug and Ladybug is her. Without her stuttering and after deciding to be friends, she’s starting to show her confident side to him (as shown in Love Eater when she used her hair ties for a distraction) and as we know in Oblivio, Adrien is helplessly attracted to that part of her, with or without her mask. We’ve already seen him slowly ‘fall’ for her sweetness and righteousness, so only time and Season 4 will tell how he will react to her boldness and banter, a Marinette that isn’t stuttering but is his friend. Hoo boy, is that boy in trouuuuuble~

It’s less clear for Marinette for me because while Adrien is in the newborn stage of love towards Marinette or will be (at least for me), Marinette is already in the worn-weary and heartbroken stage towards him. Can she be a bit more selfish and start to see herself as worthy? 

I can easily see is it as being between Lukanette and Adrienette. The seeds are already there. Although not exactly jealousy, there was something about Adrien’s face when Luka was the one to catch Marinette and not him. So I think it’s this point that will be the determining factor of everything changing in the safe status quo they’ve all established. How will Adrien feel with a Marinette who is his friend yes, but a Marinette that has chosen Luka? I think Adrien will find that he isn’t as satisfied as he thought he’d be at being ‘just friends’ with Marinette. And irony of ironies, it’s at a time when Marinette has decided herself not to be jealous of Kagami. Ultimately what’ll happen to the four of them is what they choose it to be. More than timing or destiny, it’s the choices they make that matter.

[heizerux]

About Stormy Weather 2

Let’s cut to the chase. This was a filler/recap episode.

Is it disappointing? Yes 😞

They did my girl Aurore wrong with the episode title and not even giving her the attention she deserves. And about nothing new happened. Chloe still hasn’t learned to actually be better. There’s more. But those are about a few things that REALLY got to me (to be brief).

Is it bad that they even have this episode? Not exactly. It just wasn’t done well.

Now that I’ve briefly got out of my system on why I was disappointed, now let’s look at the details and minor brightsides of it (I guess?) and more on why I’m disappointed.

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This was an episode to establish the questions we’ve had. (Honestly did we even need these? Actually, not really. But it’s nice they even bothered.) Some of these questions are:

How’s Aurore?

Is Chloe really fully changed?

How does Nathalie REALLY feel? Like with her own words? How LONG has she been with the Agrestes? And will Gabriel keep this shit up?

How’s the dynamic between Ladybug and Chat Noir now since they’ve been fighting for a while?

How’s everyone else (Alya and Nino specifically) doing?

Will Marinette ever tell Adrien that she’s interested in him?

Will Adrien pick up on that???

Pretty much here’s how they answered these, as well as what I took from these answers:

How’s Aurore? Naturally I’m gonna open up with Aurore here since this was supposed to be HER episode again. We see her being bullied by Chloe and then she get it’s gets to her. THAT’S how Aurore is doing. The only few things I liked about her here is learning she and Marinette are friends. But that’s IT. This could have been HER moment. HER episode again. We could of known more about HER. Instead what do we get? Just like 3 minutes tops of her and boom. Defeated, and not even checked up on. I know she’s a side misc character but damnit *slaps table*. . . We really were cheated with her comeback. This wasn’t her episode and it shouldn’t have been titled “Stormy Weather 2”. I’m sad about this.

Is Chloe really fully changed? Nope. So I knew her development wasn’t even started yet (as we’ve seen), but like damn. We see how being hero twice has gotten to her head. It’s disappointing, it really is. The only “bright side” is that at least they’re establishing here that she clearly still has changing to do instead of saying she’s fully changed, which she isn’t. Probably even alluding to what we’re gonna see next with her. Obviously by that last glare, Marinette (as Ladybug) isn’t giving into her shit anymore. (That or she’s disappointed in how Chloe doubled back too.)

How does Nathalie REALLY feel? And so we see. She, as expected, hates her fucking job because it’s too demanding, but LOVES the Agreste family. We now, with her own words, which are rare, learn just how long she’s been with them, her feelings for the family, and that she canonically cared for Emilie and has now fallen for Gabriel. She’s also still sick from Heroes Day (so they didn’t forget that’s a thing, thankfully). Which now only implies that from this point forward, she’ll be Mayura more often, and get even sicker (a life for a life, anyone?)

How’s everyone else doing? That Ninalya (Djwifi) content. . . My heart! 💕💖💕💖😭💖💕💖💕 So they show us Nino is pretty much now a Césaire (lol), and that they both do talk about their hero duties when they’re alone. The good in seeing this? They can actually keep it a secret from the public and this shows their hero potential (unlike Chloe). The bad about it? It’s their disadvantage (as we already know.) Now what we didn’t need is all that recap footage. (That time slot could have been used for my bby Aurore 💜💙💜)

How’s the dynamic between Ladybug and Chat Noir now since they’ve been fighting for a while? Well :) (Filler aside) We see that Ladybug is A LOT more fonder of Chat Noir than before. This time she’s loosening up her humor during battle when she used to be all “stop joking! This is serious!” Then they go on to recap on shit that we already know like that they trust each other and *yawn*. But one thing I did notice, and like about this, is that look she gives him as he runs off.

It’s almost a look of that says “I’m starting to view you as more than a partner. . .” (Will they show it in the following episodes. Boy do I hope.)

Will Marinette ever tell Adrien that she’s interested in him? Okay so not only does she drop off Adrien’s homework, but you notice something? Not only did she volunteer, but she didn’t fluster while doing so. When she delivers it, she’s not panicked about it, instead she’s just nervous about talking to Nathalie and disappointed she couldn’t give it to him in person. Then what happens next? She FINALLY takes Kagami’s advice and does something. Once she’s done, she’s not regretful and doubtful about it anymore when she used to be. Sure, we went over shit that marks she “changed”, but it’s really around this part in the episode that she ACTUALLY changes. From here she’s a new confident Marinette, pretty much. The recap was still unecessary.

Will Adrien pick up on that??? *sigh* no lol.

Okay, real quick, BIG APPRECIATION for Plagg’s “Oh shit” face when he sees Adrien notices the handwriting.

So into Adrien and his love life, we see that his head is too in the clouds to fully notice the amazing girl that is MARINETTE. I will say I love that Plagg keeps trying to steer him in the direction to LOOK AT MARINETTE. (Mentioning how Gabriel wasn’t mad Adrien was with her when he snuck out and hinting that she’s VERY available more than once.) When he finally notices the handwriting, he’s SO close to putting it together. Plagg for a sec is shook about it (since it hints he’s closer to piecing she’s LB), but then he re-tracts because he’s a clueless child and now is left on the conclusion that it’s not her. Okay -_-

So now that that’s done, let me just add on why I think that last part where he retracts marks something.

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Anyone find it odd that the episode ended specifically with Adrien noting that “Marinette couldn’t have written the letter (can’t be in love with me) because she’s just a friend that’s into fashion. Besides there’s Luka.”

Luka. . .

. . .

You guys hear that?

Right as soon as he says that, sad music plays. Like he “lost” something.

Then Adrien as if slightly disappointed, insists it was probably “someone else”. . . Because there’s Luka. . .

And then the episode ends.

(My own thought: I think this is here to mark off that not only Luka is coming more into play, but maybe that it’ll affect Adrien more than he thinks? It may be that his change to come is that he stops looking “up in the clouds” and starts looking in front of him.)

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haaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!

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And that’s about one of the few things that got me in this episode (among Nino and Alya and Mari getting confident for once). Because it means shits gonna get interesting among the ships👀. . . *sips tea*

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I’d touch the development issue but after carefully going over the fact that both season 2 and 3 were written around the same time, I do have a hunch stuff is kind of out of order there. But that’s a topic for another day. (Probably one I’ll rethink and retouch fully after this season is done.) So let’s get back to the real question:

So wtf was this episode?

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Well, this is just my take, but judging by the brief glances at Stormy Weather 2’s LEVEL of power, it’s there to set what we’re gonna be seeing from the episodes forward. If this looks intense, then we haven’t seen intense, yet (ya feel?)

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For certain ppl (I’m one of these ppl) Stormy Weather from S1 was THE pilot episode to the whole show and the first episode seen. It set up what we were going to be seeing of the show. So if there had to be an explanation, my take is that’s why they picked her again to mark off a recap and brand new starting point for what’s to come.

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TLDR: This episode probably wasn’t just meant to show what’s changed, but to mark of what WILL change moving forward.

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It’s not perfect, I’m still not happy with how it was delivered, but that’s probably what they were going for.

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They probably should of just called it “The Story So Far” or something, honestly. Not Stormy Weather 2. Aurore did amazing. Her screentime didn’t :( But in the end, it’s probably there to mark the start of real change.

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Since that’s maybe the deal, then changes we may see here moving forward and so on are:

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It’s probably gonna mark Marinette as being comfortable around Adrien and no longer hesitating as much as she did, but of course Luka will be more in her life (and Adrien may or may not realize he isn’t as okay with it?? That’s just what I wanna see honestly lol). Chloe will probably realize that she can’t keep expecting to be handed a miraculous just because she says so, which then could mark her to ACTUALLY start changing. And so on.

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Anyway we’ll see what the next episodes bring. I noticed they’ve only been showing us the uneventful episode first and leaving the more “juicy” ones for later dates. . .

As long as this is, I actually kind of rushed through it so my apologies if it’s all over the place :(

[zoe-oneesama]

I'm sorry if this seems rude, but your treatment of Alya makes me very uncomfortable. This isn't something you're entirely to blame for, as a good chunk of the fandom treats her very poorly (with either ignoring her or reducing her role to "ships the lovesquare"), but the amount of comics and posts you've made about punishing Alya feels a little extreme to me at this point. I understand the salt after chameleon, but everyone was ooc in that ep. Also it's been over a month. (1/2)

I will start by saying thank you for coming to me with your complaints in honestly the nicest way you possibly could, I really appreciate you taking a very calm and critical tone in approaching me with a genuine concern.

I will also point out I can’t think of any comics I’ve made attacking Alya or punishing her, so I’m not sure what you mean by that, but maybe I’ve re blogged someone else’s comic and it’s not coming to mind right now. But I also try hard to tag stuff so people can block the rants they don’t want to see. I guess the probelm is I use the #alya salt tag instead of #anti alya.

And I can agree that Alya’s characterization has gotten out of hand in the fanon vs canon, particularly when we had that long hiatus so fanon Alya bled into the consciousness and confused what actually is canon Alya.

However I won’t apologize for being critical of Alya. I will try to explain my own reasoning for you though so maybe you can understand where I’m coming from. 

My two main criticisms of Alya are 1) She’s not a good journalist and 2) She disregards Marinette’s feelings even though she’s her best friend.

The Good Journalist is something that I personally think is a fanon idea. Her being an ethical, searches only for the truth reporter who has integrity about the facts came from the hiatus, and my position on this is supported in canon.

When Marinette’s identity, the secret she holds most dear, is in jeopardy, because it’s Alya who is making the claim, she is unconcerned. If Alya was a threat to her identity (i.e. someone who often had evidence to support their claims) she would be worried, but instead she brushes it off. Like it’s not the first time Alya’s pitched a theory from left field at her. Even Nino laughs right in her face.

Volpina backs this up with her posting an unverified video of Lila claiming to be best friends with Ladybug without getting any sources or evidence that it could be true. In doing this, not only is she reducing her blog to a gossip column, but she is directly endangering this girl by blasting her relationship with a Superhero where anyone could see it. Because her scoop is more important that truth.

There’s also her crusade to find out Ladybug’s secret identity, something that, having established she’s a huge superhero comic fan, she should know the repercussions of. Endangerment of self, friends, and family in the face of a very dangerous super villain. It continues to prove where Alya’s priorities are.

But I actually want to make something clear: Being a bad journalist is not something I hate Alya for. She’s a young, immature girl. She’s wrapped in the excitement of magic and superheroes and is riding the hype to it’s conclusion. It’s partially Ladybug’s fault for indulging in Alya and being biased towards her friend that Alya has the platform she has and the belief in her abilities. And Alya does put a lot of hard work into her journalism, she just needs to do more growing and get a better understanding of what ethical journalism is.

I’m just critical of it because of the fanon warping her into this amazing journalist when she’s just a kid with no self preservation and tenacity. 

The Bad Friend thing is what imagine you mostly came here for. And I want to make it clear here as well: I don’t think Alya is a terrible friend. Most of the time I don’t think she’s even a bad friend. But what happened in Volpina, Heroes Day, and Chameleon hit me in a bad way.

In Volpina, we see Marinette express concern about Lila hanging over Adrien and Alya dismisses her to gush over her blog.

I didn’t have a problem with this when it first came out. Marinette knows Lila is a liar only because she is Ladybug and so she knows Lila is lying in her interview. Marinette has a problem with liars AND a jealousy problem that has gone unchecked by Volpina. But from Alya’s perspective, Marinette is being unreasonably possessive and is prone to over reacting. She has no obligation to interfere with Adrien and Lila just because Marinette is feeling territorial.

This only becomes an issue in addition to the other two episodes. 

In Heroes Day we get this gem of a line, which is really irritating, esPECIALLY because as a series finale it had to come after Frozer, which proved that Marinette has made great strides in overcoming her jealousy. As her best friend, Alya should be giving Marinette the benefit of the doubt, not Lila. But instead, she doesn’t ask what Marinette’s problem is with Lila she just assumes it without opening discussion about what could be bothering her usually kind and accommodating best friend. Compound it with her dismissal of Marinette in Volpina, and I’m beginning to get weary. 

But then Chameleon. Ooooooh Chameleon. Let me count the ways Alya specifically failed as a friend:

1) Kicked Marinette out if her seat without asking

2) Replaced Marinette as her seatmate with her boyfriend without asking

3) Pushing Marinette to the back row seat alone without asking

4) When Marinette claims Lila is lying, Alya asks for Marinette to prove Lila isn’t telling the truth instead of investigating if Lila is telling the truth.

5) Pulls that not apology apology that puts the blame on Marinette for getting upset about the situation. 

(gif by @oui-ladybug)

That last on is subject to interpretation, but look at it closely, There’s no “I’m sorry for putting you in that situation without your consent.” No “I’m sorry for not taking your feelings into account.” 

This throw away line is like someone saying “I’m sorry YOU got upset.” Like you overreacted. Like it’s your fault you got hurt.

You may say I’m reaching, and I’ll admit my interpretation is probably not a universal one. I’ve made no secret of it in past posts. I have a personal issue with how Alya acts in regard to Marinette’s feelings. 

I had a best friend from the age of 5 to 20. Looking back I can find a lot of flaws in our friendship but at the time I thought it was great, mutually supportive and filled with love. Until she started dating. She had a boyfriend her last two years of high school and up to around the time we stopped being friends. She was attached at the hip to him, spending all her free time with him instead of me and bringing him to outings with us without asking me first. I tried to hide my discomfort because I had already almost lost her friendship by throwing up a fuss over her dating him - because he was my ex (first!) boyfriend. But I put my feelings aside because she was really into him and I valued our friendship more than this dumb guy. But apparently I was the only one.

Things went downhill fast when we graduated high school. She and her boyfriend stayed at home and went to a local college (no shame there) and I went to a university 3 hours away. We weren’t going to see each other near as often obviously, but we had always been very good at texting and calling each other so I wasn’t worried. But she didn’t text me anymore. She never called. All contact I had to initiate first. She never made the drive up to see me unless she needed something (she stayed at my place when she wanted to go to the Renaissance Fair nearby my college). 

But what hurt most is when I would drive down to see her. I’d drive the three hours, having made plans weeks in advance to make sure it worked around our schedules, only for her to cancel last minute on me. Because she wanted to hang out with her boyfriend instead. The same boyfriend she saw LITERALLY everyday. And it happened multiple times.

She didn’t care what I did for her. She didn’t respect my time or effort or feelings. She assumed I’d be fine with it. She assumed I wouldn’t mind or if I did I’d “get over it” like I always do (get over it as in grin and bear it). She made decisions for me and without regard to what I thought. She just wanted a cardboard cutout to call Best Friend without actually putting in any of the work.

There are plenty of other things that started to bother me about our friendship, but because this is what ultimately ended it it’s what bothers me the most. So I take personal offense with Alya making assumptions about Marinette’s feelings and justifications without asking. I have issues with Alya making decisions for Marinette without asking. And I especially have issues with Alya choosing her boyfriend over her best friend because that hits me personally.

I know Chameleon was OOc for the characters…for MOST of the characters. But Alya? This has been building up. It’s not the first time. It’s just the most egregious time.

And a bonus it’s really annoying that Alya assumes Marinette is crazy jealous when a few of Marinette’s craziest moments are a result of Alya’s insistence or pushing OR Alya tries to steer her away from making mature decisions.

Marinette stealing Adrien’s phone?

Marinette making an elaborate scheme to separate Adrien from his bodyguard to go on a date with him?

Marinette tries to be realistic and help Adrien on his date while simultaneously letting him go?

Alya was one of those cases where one event made me think back really hard about her role as Marinette’s best friend and just what kind of hand she’s had in shaping Marinette’s behavior, and honestly? She’s not the amazing friend I remembered her as in Season 1. Which sucks! Because I lOVEd Alya. A sassy mom friend who takes no shit and gets shit done? A gorgeous POC that pushed her friend to make things happen for herself?! Yes please!

So I still hate on Chameleon, not just for the episode, but for the wakeup call I DIDN’t ask for!!

p.s. the reason I’m still salting on it is because the episode totally failed to resolve Alya’s issues in this episode. i.e. being a hypocrite.

[miraculouscontent]

Always.

“Truth” is just... I mean, I want to say “garbage” but that doesn’t even do how bad it is justice? Like, okay, I take four major issues with it (my followers be like: just four? :P):

First is the writing in general and the continuity of it all. This episode looks like it’s been through multiple drafts and the final product is an amalgamation of a bunch of them with no coherency between any of them. I already could kind of guess it from the Adrimi kiss that the finale removed, but it’s obvious that there were going to be Adrimi/Lukanette arcs in Season 4 but then stuff happened (i.e: the staff being cowards) and they got cut. It’s totally possible that the plot with Jagged Stone being the father and Marinette having to keep secrets from Luka were still the same episode even in the original draft, but I imagine it at least wasn’t episode one.

There are other, more subtle hints as well, like the episode giving no time to Luka learning that Jagged is his father (making the fandom wonder if Luka remembered when he was Truth) and Ladybug being shocked when she realizes that the akuma is Luka as if she didn’t already see him be akumatized. Juleka also gets weirdly sidelined in the episode despite being Luka’s twin (Astruc has stated that both Luka and Juleka are older and Juleka got held back, which is why she’s in Marinette’s grade but Luka isn’t), so she’s Jagged’s offspring as well. One might presume that Juleka just never cared at all but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be allowed to interact directly with the guy or have any involvement at all. All it would’ve taken is for Luka to mention that Juleka never cared about who their father was but he did, thereby implying that Juleka’s reaction to Jagged would probably be more like, “oh okay.”

You know, if they didn’t reduce her to incoherent mumbling.

Second is the timing of this episode. We had the New York special with Paris being destroyed, but it’s clearly fine here (so I guess it isn’t canon now; thank God honestly), and while it’s technically possible that enough time has passed (supported by the vague implication that Marinette having to miss out on dates with Luka has gone on for a while, given Tom and Sabine’s lack of reaction to them dating), it’s not supported by Marinette examining the Miracle Box as if she’s only just gotten it.

There’s also Shadow Moth, where we’re shown an extended version of the scene from the end of “Miracle Queen” where Gabriel repairs the peacock miraculous, giving the episode a “Volpina”->”The Collector” vibe but then why are the events lining up the way they do???

The narrative also does a really bad job at showing us why Marinette is so strapped for time. She has guardian duties now but you’d think it’d balance out with her not having to go to Fu anymore for guardian training (you know, that thing we never saw but was said to be happening or at least that it was Fu’s intent to have it happen). You could argue that maybe Shadow Moth is more active, but then Chat Noir should be affected by this too; Ladybug states outright that she’s been busy and Chat Noir responds with something akin to, “oh I know, because you’re guardian,” which implies that it’s her guardian duties keeping her busy and Shadow Moth is just interrupting her dates specifically.

But we don’t even see what responsibilities she has added on as guardian. I knew the writers would make it so her being guardian was a hassle, but it’s the first episode of the series and we’ve gotten next to no answers for what being guardian actually adds.

It’s almost like this was a rushed first episode to break up the only thing that unambiguously made Marinette happy for the sake of bringing the love square back and needlessly making her suffer because the writers think it’s hilarious.

Speaking of which, the third thing thing is the comedy because--just--I hate the comedy in this show.

Like, just to start, there’s the kwami, who clearly begin with their mob mentality from the later episode of “Furious Fu” and all proceed to act like children. No, I didn’t expect them to all be wise (I mean, Xuppu exists and is very much not that, having been implied to be a fit for Kim who is known for being a total himbo), but I don’t expect them to all scatter like they do. Kaalki in particular, who was shown to be more poised and refined, blatantly reveals herself to a bunch of civilians just for the sake of Marinette freaking out and needing to make up an excuse.

Same with Alya and her friends. Marinette is panicking because of the kwami and Alya “deduces” (while shading Marinette so blatantly that it’s insulting) that Adrien must be there in her house which--maybe don’t SAY THAT OUT LOUD in case Adrien is literally in her room???). Then Marinette gets a call from Luka, shouts his name, and the girls do a complete 180 in support of Lukentte. It’s not like I’m not for them supporting whatever Marinette wants to do, but the shift is so sudden (and contradicts “Frozer”) that it gave me whiplash and the entire scene ends up being pointless since the girls still go with the “Marinette is in love with Adrien” thing when Truth asks them what Marinette’s secret is. Like, we could’ve gotten small, stupid secrets that everyone thought only they knew about Marinette, but instead it’s just the same thing over and over again (which makes no sense since, by the time Alya blabs the secret - which Alya has already told Nino before anyway - it’s no longer a secret therefore making the answer invalid).

Heck, the whole “secret” thing could’ve even been the people Truth shoots finding ways of answering his questions in a way that is technically telling the truth but also not really, such as if Anarka had answered the, “Who’s my father?” question with, “someone you know/someone famous,” so as to avoid saying that it’s Jagged Stone. It’s just boring seeing characters answer with whatever the asker wants to hear instead of being able to find a way around it.

And then there’s Chat Noir, who’s just--ugh.

Like--okay, I’m going to be extremely petty for a moment and just go off because I hate Chat Noir’s role in this entire episode. The Season 3 finale went out of its way to have Chat Noir be all like, “I have a girlfriend,” when it was a lie, and then Season 4 just parkours around Ladybug telling him that she’s dating (Ladybug clearly took no issue with Chat Noir telling her he’s dating so it’s not like she’s worried about issues there; she’s gotten on his case before in episodes like “Startrain” so there are exceptions) because they want to keep having him flirt and not be sAd because this is Marinette’s episode of suffering and Chat Noir actually having to face the reality that Ladybug is dating (not just in love with someone else) would’ve actually been interesting. Chat Noir gets tons of unnecessary screentime in the episode - mostly for the show to shove in LadyNoir shipping fuel - and then actively avoids telling him the obvious thing because he would’ve actually been forced to grow/develop/stop flirting.

It would’ve been so cute and sweet to see him awkwardly trying to flirt without overstepping boundaries (so more like banter than flirt) or - you know - actually try to support Ladybug and want her to be able to finish her dates by him offering to keep akuma/sentimonsters busy, but no, he’s just left in the dark.

The finale had Chat Noir supporting her (terribly but I digress) and then doesn’t do anything with it at the start of Season 4, meaning his support of her was completely meaningless and just there.

His first appearance is him pranking Ladybug when she’s already overstressed and busy, which comes off as super poor taste and I’m both glad he got splatted into that window for it but also upset because it’s screentime completely gone to waste, and of course it’s just a lead up to him guilting her by being like, “nooo the only thing that hurts me is when you leave me alone during patrol!”

I know he’s teasing (...probably) but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth because we know (well, I knew because I know how this show works) that Luka and Marinette were going to break up because of Marinette’s hectic schedule, so it just comes off as insensitive to joke about it, especially when Ladybug’s busy guardian status just serves as a reminder that Fu is gone.

Even when he’s protecting Ladybug from Truth’s questions by cutting in and asking a question of his own, of course he asks about himself to forcibly fish compliments out of Ladybug because she can’t lie to him, and of course they have Ladybug compliment his humor most of all as if that trait hasn’t nearly gotten them in danger multiple times and she’s been repeatedly annoyed when he decides to joke during the worst possible times. It’s as if the writers wanted to pat themselves on the back for their own comedy, so they had Ladybug be a mouthpiece to stroke Chat Noir’s ego.

He claims he won’t force a truth out of her and then literally forces her to say what her favorite things about him are. I acknowledge that this can be seen as me nitpicking but we went from the finale where Chat Noir actually stepped up and took charge (because Ladybug was stressed but I guess him doing anything useful is just whenever it serves the plot) to this where he’s back to flirting constantly and jamming in as much LadyNoir shipping fuel as physically possible. It’s not that he’s useless but he’s annoying and takes up space in an episode that’s supposed to be about Luka and Marinette.

And that leads us into the fourth thing, which is the break-up and just the treatment of Luka and Marinette in general. I could go on and on about how the Season 3 finale built up their relationship just to tear it down in the first episode of Season 4, but that’s not the main issue here.

Luka brought Marinette comfort. He made her happy. He never judged her. He was happy to just date her regardless of any conflicted feelings she might have because hey, who is he to complain if she wants to give him a try and who knows what’ll happen?

And the season couldn’t even give one moment of them being unambiguously happy without ruining or interrupting it. I was ready for the break-up and I was even ready for it to be the first episode but I wasn’t ready for it to be so bad.

Marinette’s Adrien pictures appear out of nowhere (again, makes no sense for the timeline) when they’ve been gone for basically all of Season 3 and even “The Puppeteer 2″ specifically which makes a direct reference to “Troublemaker,” the episode that purposefully overdid it with her pictures (”Truth” has more hanging up and clearly used “Troublemaker” as a reference, by the way). They’re just there for force the love square and Adrien into the episode as much as possible to remind the audience that Adrien breathes. There is literally no purpose to any mention of Adrien and bringing him up isn’t even relevant to Marinette and Luka’s break-up.

It’s just upsetting to know that the umbrella scene from “Origins” (which is already flawed in and of itself) kickstarts this whole thing. Adrien did basically nothing there except for clear up a misunderstanding and give Marinette an umbrella when his ride was a few meters away and Marinette’s house was just across the street, but that actives Marinette’s absolutely crippling crush on him that lasts for 3-4 seasons. Marinette is in this eternal struggle of not being allowed to grow and change because the writers think her stammering/crushing on Adrien is funny while actively punishing her for having this crush in the first place (again, like in the scene with Alya, which insults Marinette for her crush when she wasn’t even panicking over her crush).

It’s the same with Luka, and I can’t believe that it took me until this episode to realize that he and Marinette are both treated the same way: tormented by episodes for having a crush on someone. Episodes will go out of their way to forcibly insert Adrien into the plot to both humiliate Marinette and make Luka feel awkward when the episode isn’t supposed to be about Adrien at all. “Truth” is just “Desperada 2.0″ except Adrien is barely on screen at all and they still felt the need to name drop him constantly. The writers are so sensitive to the idea of people jumping onto another ship or forgetting that Adrien exists that they’ll find any possible way to include him.

“Silencer” knew better. “Silencer” knew that Marinette’s life didn’t have to revolve around the mere mention of Adrien’s name and that she had other interests/desires/traits outside of him. Adrien isn’t brought up once and it was great because the show didn’t feel the need (for once) to throw Adrien into an episode that he had nothing to do with.

Even if I was a love square shipper, I would feel insulted by “Truth” because one half of my ship kept getting name dropped and used as a tool to humiliate the other half, which makes it all the more eyeroll-worthy when the love square stans of the fandom praise this episode for breaking Lukanette up when--oh, wait, they didn’t even break up “because Adrien.”

And that ends up being the real thing here. The writers had to invent a reason for Marinette and Luka to break up. We already know that Jagged Stone being Luka’s dad is a retcon (not technically in the show’s canon but in information we heard about outside of it), so they shoved in Luka having issues about not knowing his father specifically so that he would be pushed over the edge when Marinette couldn’t tell him about her being Ladybug.

When Luka and Marinette were just together and hanging out, Adrien wasn’t mentioned once. Say whatever about the Adrien pictures being on the wall and Marinette’s stammering (she always says stupid stuff when she panics - especially stuff she doesn’t mean - so I’m not upset with her so much as the writing for having her mess up in that specific way), but the only time Marinette talks about Adrien at all in the episode is when someone else brings him up.

She goes on a date with Luka to the cinema and they were having a great time without Adrien involved at all. I know I already stressed this point in a previous post, but one of the reasons that I find Lukanette to be so amazing is because the show actually focuses on Marinette’s interests and doesn’t force her to be the writer’s mouthpiece for gushing about their sunshine boy a punching bag for comedy. In every Lukanette scene that doesn’t bring up Adrien/before Adrien shows up, Marinette is either praised, able to be happy, or is showing one of her interests that isn’t aDrIeN, and whereas Adrien being on-screen around Marinette usually just means that she’s gushing about/stammering around him with no development, Lukanette features us actually learning more about Luka or other characters.

“Captain Hardrock” - lets her bond with Luka over a shared interest in Jagged Stone, and Luka is established as a sort of empath who uses music as a way to speak for himself

“Frozer” - gets to practice ice skating with Luka, who is actually good at ice skating and also can tie laces despite not tying his own because he’s a rebel

“Desperada” - gets to try out guitar with Luka and we learn that Luka has been playing guitar for as long as he can remember

“Silencer” - showcases Marinette’s interest in fashion and properly introduces Kitty Section; has a plot featuring all of them together doing something not even remotely love-related and we get actual confirmation of Luka’s crush on Marinette, along with Marinette’s reaction (blushy+happy; just saying, idk how anyone could watch “Silencer” and not think that Marinette was crushing on Luka)

“Heart Hunter” - Marinette gets a song written for/about her and Luka is established to have a job

“Truth” - brings up Lukanette’s shared interest in Jagged Stone, features Marinette’s interest in fashion when she gives him a gift she made + had Jagged Stone sign, and shows her raising her voice but not being judged by Luka for it, who’s happy with her just the way he is

When the show focuses on Lukanette, it’s all about lifting Marinette up, praising her, and making her feel good. When Adrien is involved or it’s hyper-fixating on Marinette’s crush on him, it’s about bringing her down and making her feel bad for a crush they keep forcing her to hold onto and humiliating her for.

Point being, the writers had to force their way into getting Lukanette broken up because of their precious love square and the fact that Marinette and Luka being happy is the opposite of what they want.

It’s embarrassing to watch a team full of old white guys (I’m convinced at this point that they just hang their female writer on a coat hanger so they can point to her whenever someone says that their staff is too male-dominated) treat their female biracial lead with such disrespect, and I can only presume that the mistreatment of Luka is because he’s supportive of her and they don’t like that, meaning that the way she’s treated ends up rubbing off on him.

It doesn’t come off as a fun or interesting plot; it comes off as cruel. When Adrien is sad, he usually gets people rushing to comfort him (”Party Crasher,” “Gamer”), but “Truth” has Marinette in tears over the fact that she can’t have a boyfriend due to being Ladybug and the writing has the gall to crack jokes about Kaalki not knowing what tears are, and then Marinette has to ask for the kwami to hug her for comfort.

When Luka gets akumatized into Truth, the episode doesn’t even hesitate at bashing away at him, from everyone saying that Marinette’s secret is that she “loves Adrien” (which, as Truth points out, isn’t a secret, and they could’ve had this somehow lead up to a twist ending where Marinette actually isn’t into Adrien anymore and the Adrien pictures were genuinely for reference, but she stammered about it because it was embarrassing that her boyfriend got sent it with no context) to one of Luka’s favorite songs actually being about how Jagged abandoned him to go on tour. Luka has to deal with Marinette ditching him constantly (not that I blame her) and not knowing who his father is despite wanting to know, and the episode treats him like trash for... what? Having a crush on a girl who’s secretly Ladybug? Because that’s all it seems to come down to in the end.

I also have serious gripes with the fact that Marinette has this huge schedule established in “Gamer 2.0″ and they don’t even try to explain why she can’t use it to keep track of her obligations. The episode has her say (in a roundabout way but still) that she’s forgetting stuff constantly because of all of her emergencies (the emergencies of which are not stated and I hate the subtle implication that forgetting something means you don’t care about it when that’s clearly not how things work and also not what Marinette comes off as because - again - they establish that she’s overworked) but fails to properly explain it. The episode hammers away at Marinette having all these issues and even has Tikki chide Marinette by asking her about leaving Luka alone while apparently neglecting the fact that Marinette HAS to go be Ladybug right now and what else is there to even do??

Both Luka and Marinette are punished for just having a crush and wanting to be together and I hate that the episode forces a break-up instead of coming up with a solution to the problem. Instead of “Marinette isn’t ready for a romantic relationship,” it feels more like she’s just not allowed to be happy.

Long-distance relationships are a thing. Relationships where people don’t get to go on dates frequently are a thing. Instead of forcing a break-up, the episode could’ve had a lesson/development where Marinette is told that she’s allowed to pursue a relationship and just needs to plan accordingly. but they just didn’t want to.

For example: instead of planning dates, Marinette could wait until an akuma/sentimonster is defeated to call Luka and ask him out, because Hawk Moth usually doesn’t strike immediately after one is dealt with. I’m positive that Luka would happily take impromptu/sudden dates over planned-but-inconsclusive ones. Heck, they don’t even have to date specifically and can just stick to phone calls (kwami can’t be picked up on technology) or hanging out in Marinette’s room/on Marinette’s balcony while they do their thing.

Relationships are a commitment, but that doesn’t mean they have to be a burden, and the episode absolutely drags Marinette over it. The whole thing with the kwami being released and stressing her out when they’re not supposed to be able to just come out normally is explained away by, “oh, the new box must be like you, Marinette; full of surprises!” when the reality is just that the show wants to take away everything that’s sacred to Marinette. The Season 3 finale had Fu’s letter telling Marinette that “life doesn’t always give you what you want, but the real gift is life itself,” then proceeds to turn Marinette’s life into a living hell.

Her room? She has to say good-bye to her privacy because now the kwami are always going to be around. The first thing one of them (Trixx) did was start reading her diary, showing that they have absolutely no shame or regard for Marinette’s feelings.

Her schedule? Conveniently pops away into the realm of non-existence so she can look bad for ditching Chat Noir on patrol and neglecting dates with Luka due to her responsibilities/stress.

Her boyfriend, the one person in the entire show who loved her, respected her agency, never judged her, actually apologized when he made her sad, and who she was genuinely in love with rather than just having the equivalent of a celebrity crush for? She had to break up with him because plot and needing to force her to go back to fawning over the guy who has only made her life worse by her crushing on him.

When I say the universe hates Marinette, this is what I mean. It created random akuma to attack Paris all for the sake of forcing Marinette away from Luka, and apparently didn’t realize what they were doing in the scene where Marinette hurries back to the Liberty when Kitty Section and Adrien are playing together when Adrien is Chat Noir so he should’ve been late too.

(Oh, and Marinette completely ignores Adrien in favor of waving at Luka and even tells Luka outright that Adrien isn’t even a factor in their relationship issues, further proving the “multiple drafts smashed together” and “the Adrien name drops are pointless” points.)

The whole thing in “Backwarder” where it was basically outright stated that Marianne could’ve been Fu’s confidant had Marianne not been outed by Ladybug’s mistake? Completely forgotten and left to the wayside. Marinette could’ve told Luka that she was watching the Miracle Box in Ladybug’s place (for any number of reasons, really: either Ladybug thinks it’s too dangerous to keep with her, or if the public doesn’t know that Ladybug is guardian, then Marinette can just say that she’s guardian) and that she has to run off to keep guard of the Miracle Box when an akuma/sentimonster happens in case Ladybug needs a miraculous.

Boom, done, episode solved. Luka gets to help Marinette with the kwami, Marinette is less stressed because someone knows half of her secret, and Luka and Marinette continue to date but are able to plan around akuma attacks.

But no. That whole thing in “Backwarder” where guardians (or at least Fu) can have a confidant was just there so Marinette could feel guilty about screwing it all up, because she’s not able to take advantage of that perk herself.

How convenient.

[bananagreste]

If you don’t understand why certain events are held on certain months, please ask for the fandom history before making assumption for the wrong reasons.

Adrinette April, Marichat May, Ladrien June and Ladynoir July are four ship events held between the months of, you guess it, April, May, June and July.

Why these months are selected? Who knows, but I’m guessing it’s due to how Adrinette April and Marichat May have good rhymes. However, since there’s no month starting with ‘L’, the rest are held on the following months.

Who run these events? I can’t recall since this is all the way back in 2016, but I believe someone made a post with the prompts list and that’s all. There’s no specific blog to promote the events, track the tags and reblog contributions.

Basically, it’s do what you want with what you have been given.

However, on the following year or the next following year, people ask if there’s interests for the events to be more organized since it would be nice to be able to keep track of the contributions.

Please understand one thing about running fandom events: it’s a stressful job.

It’s not easy to come up with 30 prompts when figuring out 7 is already torture. You have to figure out the suitable time if you haven’t figured that out yet. You also have to set up a blog and maybe get extra help to manage the blog. Then, you have to promote the event in advance so people are aware of its existence bc the last thing you want is for the event to flop.

What’s the issue? I’ve seen people asking why Ladrien June is held on June since Pride is celebrated on June so it feels out of touch and not appropriate.

I’m sorry, but why are people bothered when multiple events happen during the same month? It’s not as if one event will take the attention of another event. It’s also not like you can’t do multiple events if you are up to the challenge.

It’s a ‘do whatever you want’ event.

.

Fandom events exist so fandom can have fun together and it helps especially during the long hiatus of 2016-2017 where there’s no canon content for one year and a half so we rely on fan content to survive. However, these events work on voluntary basis so fandom support is always appreciated.

I may only mention the Love Square here but there are other events, such as:

Rare Pair Month @mlrarepairmonth

Miraculous Fluff Month @miraculousfluffmonth

Various events organized by @wearemiraculous and @mlshipfleet

Marinette March @marinettemarch

Adrien August @adrienaugust

DJWifi December @djwifi-december and @djwifidecember

Note: Some of these events are held later in the year so if you check out their blogs, their latest posts are from last year’s event. I’m not sure if they will run again this year so wait for the necessary announcements.

For June, I know of two other events besides Ladrien June and it’s ChloNath Week @chlonathweek and Lukadrien June @miraculouschallenges.

While I don’t always join the events since I have my own projects (which exist bc I get creative block the moment I see the prompts), I try to contribute when I can since I know it’s not easy to run events.

So, rather than question why certain events are held on certain months, try to support the events or just continue your days as usual. Also, if you are still going to question, don’t wait until the event is already up and running.

[sincerelymarinette]

A Recorded Life - Miraculous Ladybug (5/50)

Words: 1046 Chapter Summary: After the last video with Adrien, Marinette was amused at how her fans reacted to the "If We Were Dating." There was one person Marinette was surprised to see enjoy the video: Chat Noir. After a busy day, Marinette has Ladybug duties to attend to. Author's Note: I really wanted to update every Sunday, but I missed last week because of how busy I was and I didn't want to post on another day and mess up the schedule. Oops! But here's this!!

Prev / Next 

You Can’t Just Be A “Casual” Fashion Fan

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Alya was right, Marinette's fans loved seeing Adrien in her videos. Her comments blew up, and the video was high on the trending page, views growing by the second.

Marinette reads the comments! She knows Adrienette- and I'm sure she supports it! They would make such a cute couple.

At first, I didn't think Adrien liked Marinette that way, but after seeing this video, it's so clear they're meant to be together!!

I still think Marinette doesn't need a man, but Adrien is very attractive and quite funny.

Alya is the hero we need but don't deserve! All hail Alya!

I've never shipped two people more. I don't care if it's a platonic or romantic ship, just do more videos together! You guys have such an awesome dynamic that just plays off one another, and I love it. And Alya's interfering comments are literally me, and I love her. Third wheel Alya for the win!

Yin and yang. They're so different but so alike. Maybe it's fate they're together. I just know it's perfect.

If you guys start dating, I demand a couple vs. couple video. Adrien and Marinette v. Nino and Alya!

Marinette snickered behind the screen as she scrolled through the comments. While her crush on Adrien was still very relevant, she has learned how to deal with it. Even if Adrien himself made it very hard to hide it, she thinks she hides it well enough. And she was sure the comments were mostly jokes, as people will ship any two people they see together in an instant. Frankly, Alya was just asking for it with this video. But luckily, the video turned out well, and her fans were loving it.

But she was exhausted. With pumping out videos almost every day, school, and helping a specific cat, she just wanted to sleep for a week straight. Of course, she loved everything she does, but at times it was a little much for one girl to handle.

Alas, she still had to meet up with Chat Noir tonight. She had spent all Sunday editing videos, and she had already rainchecked on Chat Noir last night, she couldn't do it again.

Against her sleepy self, she called out her transformation words and left her house, running around to check on Paris and the cat. Honestly, she was expecting to find him messing around like normal. He's mentioned before he doesn't get out much so when he gets the chance as Chat Noir, he goes a little overboard. But recently, he's been more reserved with his messing around.

Instead of finding Chat Noir pretending to right rope walk or jumping from roof to roof, she found him sitting on the Eiffel Tower, giggling to himself.

"Chat Noir?" Ladybug said, careful not to scare him as she approached.

"Ah, my lady!" Chat Noir smiled at her. "Come sit; I'm watching a video. It's so good," He complimented.

Ladybug's eyes widened as she peered over into his baton playing the video. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, again?"

"Yes!" He replied. "This one's still pretty new; I love it."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "It's about if she were dating a guy...?"

"Yeah, it's adorable. They seem like really good friends."

Ladybug chuckled and sat down next to him. "So, are we going to watch over Pairs tonight, or watch videos?"

Chat Noir shrugged. "Honestly, I'm perfectly fine just watching videos."

Nudging his shoulder, she rolled her eyes. "I don't think watching videos is in the description of superhero or protector of Paris."

"There's a description for that? Why didn't I read it before accepting the job?" He smirked.

Groaning, Ladybug was about to give up. "I'm still surprised you find her videos interesting. I've never taken you as someone interested in fashion."

"What, I can't be a casual fashion fan?" Chat Noir asked, a joking tone in his voice.

"Casual?" Ladybug asked. "I don't believe there's a casual way to be a fashion fan. You're either all in, or not at all," She played back with his joking.

"Then I'm all in!" Chat Noir stood up. "I could model for you someday, my lady,"

Standing up, she chuckled. "I'd love to see you be a model."

Chat Noir shrugged. "I could do it. I think I'd be the best out there."

"Yeah, right," Ladybug replied. "Should we, I don't know, maybe watch over Paris?"

With a groan, Chat Noir turned off the video on his baton. "That's so much less fun, but I guess you have a point. I'll be back here in just a few minutes!"

"It's not a race, Chat!" Ladybug yelled as he ran off in his direction, Ladybug going off in the opposite direction. They've been friends for a few years now, and they may be closer, but their dynamic is still the same. They would be considered best friends, yet they still barely know anything about each other.

Ladybug's yo-yo began to ring with Chat Noir's picture showing up. "What? We just saw each other."

"Just thought you missed me," Chat Noir joked. "No, I found something kinda...weird; wanna come take a look?" He asked.

"Be right there," Ladybug said and got to Chat Noir as fast as possible. She was expecting an Akuma, something Miraculous related, or just an ordinary citizen having issues.

She was wrong. Instead, she followed Chat Noir's tracker all the way back to the Eiffel Tower. "I won," He said with a smirk, sitting on the edge, and had the video playing again.

"We are not here to mess around!" Ladybug groaned. "Look, I'm so sleep deprived right now. If you're not going to take this seriously, then I'm going home to get some sleep. I have school tomorrow."

Chat Noir nodded. "I do, too," He closed his baton again. "Sorry, Ladybug, I've had a long week. It's been good, just long, and I was treating this as a break. You go home; I'll finish your route."

Her eyes widened at his sincerity. "Are you sure? I can finish my route, but-"

"I'm sure," He stood up with a smile. "If I hadn't played games, you'd be done by now. Go home and get some rest," Chat Noir shooed her, his smile growing.

"Thanks, Chat," She grinned. "I'll see you around."

---

tags

@lady-of-the-roses-and-lilies@bookishserendipity03@avatheexceed @gkz10  @coccinellegirl@kat-thatoneweirdo@strawberryblondish @snow-swordswoman

[calliecat93]

My Top 10 (Current) Favorite Ships

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I am once again single and have still never so much as held hands with another person! GO ME AND HOW MUCH I SUCK AT LOVE! HAHA... wow I just made myself sad. But hey, just because my love life sucks doesn’t mean that I can’t celebrate it. So to celebrate the holidays, I am going to talk about my Top 10 Favorite Ships... at the current time anyways.

I have a... complicated relationship with ships. I don’t like getting into them much. I have several, don’t get me wrong, but they’re normally either canon ones or ones teased hard enough. But because of shipping wars and stuff, shipping has become a tainted subject for me. The A:TLA and Voltron fandoms alone have made me concerned about creators personal safety cause how dare these two specific characters not bang. But this isn’t about that, this is about the ships I have enjoyed. Ones I grew up on, ones I got into recently, and ones that have stuck with me throughout the highs and lows. Which can perfectly describe true love, sticking together through everything throughout the good and the bad.

So without further ado, let us begin!

#10. Tommy Oliver and Kimberly Hart (MMPR)

Even before I knew what shipping was, I loved these two. Like a lot of 90′s kids, I grew up on Power Rangers, and I still keep up with it form time to time. Even with my faded childhood memories (MMPR came out when I was like... six months old), I remember adoring these two. No specific reasons why, I just remember seeing them to all the stuff that even as a kid, I knew that couples did. GO on dates, give gifts, kiss each other, all that cute stuff. They were happy together and while the characters are kinda bland, their chemistry worked really well. Even now as an adult, as cheesy as the original show was, I still squeel whenever I see Tommy and Kimberly just talking or kissing. It was just sweet, and I loved them... even if after Tommy became the leader, Kim fell into damsel in distress mode more and more, but hey she still had her awesome moments.

It was also the first ship I had that got royally screwed up by the writers! Kim left the show because her actress wanted to quit, which is fair enough and it was handled very well. What wasn't handled well was in the Zeo season, they had Kim send a Dear John letter and break up with Tommy off-screen cause she found another guy. Why? To That Tommy can hook up with the current Pink Rangers. Now I have nothing against Cat, she was a perfectly fine character... bUT THIS WAS STUPID. No build-up, it’s done out of nowhere off-screen, it caused a rushed/forced romance that no one wanted, and considering Tommy appeared in the future and was single, it went NOWHERE. If they wanted a romance, they had plenty of other options. This was a HUGE middle finger to everyone who cared about the characters imo, and I am still bitter about it. In my mind years later, Tommy and Kim hooked up again and IDC what that one Christmas episode said. That is my headcanon, and I am sticking to it until I die.

So yeah, Tommy and Kimberly. My very first ship and it still holds a special place in my heart. Couldn’t make this list and not mention it.

#9. Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable (Kim Possible)

Tommy/Kimberly was my first ship... but as a little kid, I wasn't that invested in it. I just saw them do cute couple stuff and found it cute. But Kim and Ron? I watched Kim Possible since the day it premiered. I got to watch their relationship form beginning to end. I imagine that most have seen KP, but for those who don’t, Kim is a spy why can do anything while Ron is her buffon best friend/sidekick. Kim is confident, strong, and popular while Ron is goofy, easily scared, and very clumsy. But Ron is also more grounded to reality and capable of normal things like working in fast food or cooking, while Kim constantly stresses over things like romance and at accomplishing everything. Two very different people, yet they complete each other. Kim can get Ron to stand up for himself, and Ron can bring Kim down back to earth. It’s really funny when we see how they met, where Kim was very insecure and Ron stood up for her, and it was that act that provoked Kim to fight back.

Throughout the series, they bicker a lot but are there for each other. Ron helps Kim on her missions despite his incompetence, and Kim appreciates him for that. Ron supports Kim through situations like talking to a boy, even if he doesn't necessarily get what she sees in them. There’s always been this underlying theme that they might have feelings for each other with things like A Sitch in TIme and the episode Emotion Sickness really emphasizing their relationship/potential feelings. It finally came to a head in So the Drama where Ron fully realized his feelings when Kim got a ‘perfect’ boyfriend. It has Kim stressing over prom and not wanting to go with he r’just a friend’ Ron, Ron feeling alone cause Kim barley pays him attention in a way that’s sympathetic and not asshole-ish, and it ends with Ron helping Kim back up at her lowest point, Kim realizing how Ron had always been there, and... well look at the screencap I used to see how it ended.

Kim and Ron complete each other. They bring out the best in each other and bring them back down when they go too far. They bicker, but they also support each other, even if they don’t always like what the other is doing. We get to see them together at their best and their worst, and it ends on a very satisfying note... and then S4 happened, but meh. It’s still a great ship with two really good characters, and ho boy do i still love it.

#8. Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste + all other subsequent combos (Miraculous Ladybug)

Probably no surprise to my followers that this is on here... but some may raise a brow that it’s only at eight. To put it simply, with how the show has been going as of late, I have a LOOOOT of issues with it right now. But I want to use this to praise ships I like, not break them down so I’ll save that for another day.

This one is cute. Marinette is a good-hearted girl who has a huge crush on Adrien, while Adrien is in love with Mari’s superhero identity Ladybug. And with his hero identity of Cat Noir, we have one of the most insane love triangles in history. Adrinette, Maricat, Ladynoir, Ladrien, you get so many flavors of ships with just these two people! My favorite version is Ladrien since it’s the most natural imo and the one with equal pining, but they’re all the same two people so IDT it matters.

The show is about these two’s relationship. That is the heart of the show. Again, there are problems that I’m not going to go into, but overall I like them together. Marinette can get a little... too into her crush, but we do see that her feelings are genuine and it’s because Adrien showed her some kindness. While Adrien doesn't know that Mari is Ladybug, his feelings for Ladybug are because of her confidence and strength, which he starts to see in Mari too. This is the longest Slow Burn story ever and tbh, I want them to just go ahead and get on with it. But hey, I will find them cute and I like their interactions, so there’s that~

So of course a TMNT ship was going to end up on here. Now I almost put Apritello on here... but nowadays after all the recent stuff in the news, it’s... a little hard to look back on. So I tried to think of someone else, and while I considered Ramona... I decided to go with this:

#7. Hamato Yoshi/Master Splinter and Tang-Shen (TMNT 2012)

One episode.

The show had one episode to show these two’s relationship. Shen had been mentioned in the past, but this was the one and only time we’d get to see her. And OMG, did they pull it off perfectly.

They sold me on this romance in a single episode. Yoshi is a loving husband, but also tied to his fmaily loyalties even if it contradicts what Shen wants. Shen wants a happy life with her husband and child, but has to put up with Yoshi’s indecisiveness and she’s understandably fed up. They do a very good job of showing Shen as a strong-willed woman whose first priority is her daughter but that she does love Yoshi and is understanding. Yoshi is a very flawed person, but he does try to make it work and his love for his wife and daughter are very clear. It’s not perfect, no marriage is. But that love is so clear, and you can feel it every second that Tale of the Yokai plays.

TMNT 2012 has received many critiques in how it handled romance. It went too quick, the girls were reverted to just love interests, the boys are creepers, plenty of things. And they are understandable. But they clearly recognized that if they wanted this episode to leave the impact that they wanted, they had to make YOshi and Shen’s relationship strong. And they did. From beginning to end, you feel for both of them. Shen isn’t just some woman that existed for backstory, she had a personality and independence, which makes you care for her and about her relationship with Yoshi. And therefore, even though you know how it’s going to end, when Shen inevitably gets killed and you hear Yoshi just sob in despair, you’re sobbing right along with him. 

So yeah, I love these two. It’s tragic, but beautifully done. I love it~

#6. Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell (FMA: Brotherhood)

For the record, I am specifically talking about the Brotherhood version, not the 2003 version where their relationship went nowhere.

Okay, Ed and Winry. God I LOOOVE them. I know that Roy/Hawkeye is the favorite... but most of their relationship is left implied and open-ended with no actual ‘I love you’ or anything. So even if it was obvious what Arakawa was saying, I... felt like there wasn’t enough to make me care about them as a ship. Not the case with these two!

Their relationship is just so sweet. They’re childhood friends who both go through crap. Winry lost her parents at a young age, and Ed and Al’s mother died of illness and then the alchemy stuff happened and.. yeah. Throughout it all, Winry supported Ed and Al, helping Ed with his automail even when he keeps breaking t and supporting him through his quest to restore his and Al’s bodies. Throughout the series, Ed tries to support and protect Winry, especially when she tries to kill her parents killer and he talks her down. Overtime, they start recognizing their feelings and it was funny, cute, and after all the Hell everyne goes through, something that they deserved. 

The ending to Brotherhood, with Ed’s dorky proposal, is still one of the most heartwarming moments in anime period. Ed got the happy ending that he earned, Winry got to be with the boy that she supported through Hell and back, and it felt natural and super satisfying. It promised a happy future for everyone, and like everyone had truly earned their happy ending. We had gotten to see these two together, through both the good and bad, and how far they were willing to go for each other and their well-being. It’s just a super sweet romance, and I thank Brotherhood for existing so that we could have it.

I REALLY wish that I had more same-sex ships on here. But many of the more popular ones either are fetishisized, the actual work never had that intention, or the fandom got so rabid over it that it killed any potential enjoyment for me (looking at you Voltron). Doesn't help that in animation, there’s so few same-sex couples even if stuff like Steven Universe has been helping. But... I was able to think of one that I liked.

#5. Avatar Korra and Asami Sato (The Legend of Korra)

YOu have NO IDEA how happy I was when this became canon. Okay yes, I know that it wans’t said in the show, but Bryke confirmed it and explained why they couldn’t do anything more explict (Nick didn’t want to anger international audiences). As such, I am forgiving of it and still happy that it’s a thing.

While I liked The Legend of Korra (more than A:TLA even if it is the better show), they... sucked at romances. Dear God everything they did with Mako in S1 and 2, I do NOT even want to think over it. Let sput it this way, I got tired of the live triangle so much that I started crackshipping Korra and Asami together because they deserved SOMETHING happy. When S3 had them getting closer, I liked it as I liked seeing two girls just be friends and not over a boy... but I didn’t see it as shippy since I thought that there was no way that Nickelodoen would allow it, plus after the previous mess I didn’t want them to touch romance EVERY again with this series.

Then the S3 finale and start of S4 happened... and I seriously started wondering. Asami was the one specifically reaching out to and helping Korra after what the Red Lotus did. Asami was the only one that Korra tried to reach out to after she went home. They both seemed very happy to see each other again, and much of S4 is focuse don them together as well as the previous one. And, of course, the series ended specifically with them, just as A:TLA specifically ended with Aang and Katata. Like... when Korra suggsted jus tthe two of them went away for awhile and them just looking into each others eyes... yeah, it was obvious what they were trying to do. And I was sold.

I love these two together. Even if it started sour int he beginning, the two grew into close friends as things went on. They were supportive, protective, and caring towards one another at their best and worst moments. They’re booth strong young women who play a huge part in the world and can take care of themselves. Korra may be more tomboyish and Asami feminine, but they learn to respect each other and that slowly shifted into friendship, and ended with two former ‘rivals’ (it was pretty one-sided on Korra’s part tbf) over Mako becoming lovers. For what they were able to do, I thinkt hat Bryke did a good job, and I still love these two to this day.

Alright, I have to put a Disney Princess ship in here. But of course which one to pick? There’s Ariel/Eric, Tiana/Naveen, Aladdin/Jasmine, plenty to choose from. Since Mulan is my favorite, you’d think I’d go with her and Shang... but that really doesn't play a huge part in the movie imo. I did some thinking... and I finally made a conclusion.

#4. Rapunzel and Eugene (Tangled franchise)

Words cannot describe how much I love them. I’ll even go ahead and say it, they are THE best developed couple in any Disney film. Why?

In the original film, they play off each other well. Rapunzel is a naive girl who wants to see the lanterns, Flynn is a smug thief who bolsters himself up. Rapunzel is idealistic and positive, Flynn is sarcastic and more grounded to reality. They’re interactions in the beginning, such as Rapunzel freaking out and Flynn just looking stoic throughout is hilarious. But the movie shows has them grow to understand each other and learn form each other. Rapunzel becomes braver and more independent, while Flynn becomes more selfless and honest, even going back to being Eugene. They both are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for each other’s happiness, their love for each other shining brighter than the sun. THat love saves them both, and that alone is just beautifully done int he film.

Then the series happened, and it became better. Eugene is ready to take the next step, but Rapunzel is scared to and then her hair becomes magic again. Eugene? He accept sit. He’s willing to wait for however long it takes because he loves Rapunzel, and he’ll support her through everything. Even in the series, they both go out of their way for each other and try to support each other in any way that they can. There’s the occasional argument/disagreement, as with any couple, but it’s never devolves into sitcom-esque antics where you wonder why the hell they’re still together. At the end of the day, they are there for one another. Int he S2 premiere, Rapunzel goes to Hell and back to save Eugene form a forced marriage while Eugene makes it clear that he loves her and only her. It’s just SO GOOD to see a couple in a modern cartoon that I like together. Now since Happily Ever After exists, we know that they’ll get married eventually, but I can wait for the show to get there. I love seeing them, and God I aspire to have a romance like theirs one day.

#3. Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos (RWBY)

TIME FOR ONE OF THOSE TRAGIC SHIPS AGAIN

God this ship... THIS SHIP. This was probably THE biggest ship (that isn’t Bumblebee) during RWBY’s early days. Jaune is a loser who forged his way into Beacon and feels like a constant failure... and his lack of fighting skill doesn’t help. As such, he ends up attracting the attention of Pyrrha, a well known and tainted fighter who helps him start to grow out of the kindness of her heart. It became clear that Pyrrha was growing feelings for Jaune... but Jaune was oblivious and crushing on another girl. Despite this, Jaune respected and cared for Pyrrha as he started to learn to recognize others feelings and during a school dance, Pyrrha expressed how Jaune not knowing of her fame and talking to her like a normal person is what attracted her to him. He didn’t treat her like a celebrity who was above anyone’s expectations, but just as some other girl, and that was what she wanted more than anything. And it ended with Jaune asking her... and wearing a dress. It makes sense in context.

Their relation was mutually supportive and provided growth for both of them. Jaune grew into not just a better fighter, but a better person as Pyrrha taught him to be more considerate and to recognize others feelings outside his own. Pyrrha had someone who made her feel normal and accepted as she pursued her goals of being a Huntress to help people. Which resulted in V3 when the Maiden offer comes, and for Pyrrha makes her doubtful and scared of her fate. She can’t tell Jaune, but he realizes that something is wrong and he tries to provide comfort, even telling her that she was the first and only person to believe in him, even over his own family. While it sadly ended badly when Pyrrha’s fears make her hurt him on accident and Jaune feeling like he messed up, it still really showed how much their relationship had grown, and after the Battle for Beacon commenced, Jaune comforted Pyrrha and got her back onto her feet.

But of course, as we know, Pyrrha ended up being killed... but not before kissing Jaune before launching him to safety. It left Jaune not only losing his friend and mentor, but realizing what Pyrrha’s true feelings were as well as recognizing his own. As we see, he struggles with this. How his closest friend lost her life and how much pains he was really in, how he now has to pick up the pieces as he gets lead into something much larger than anyone thought, and having to accept that Pyrhha knew fully well that she wasn't coming back. Thankfully, by V6, he came to realize that Pyrrha did what she did because she was a Huntress and regained his will to continue on, thanking her for making him a better person.

Arkos, to this day, makes me cry if I just so much as think about the end of V3. The two’s relationship was super sweet, Jaune’s idiocy throughout aside, and it was just nice to see these two grow from each other. It’s sad that Pyrrha died, but she went out doing what was right, and Jaune came out as a better person who will keep living his life. If he finds love again, I’m okay with that and it’ll show how he’s moving on as Pyrrha would want him to. But no one is ever going to forget Arkos, and for what we had of it, I’ll always cherish it.

#2. Dexter Grif and Richard ‘D*ck’ Simmons (Red vs Blue)

Okay, we all knew that this was going to be on here. It’s the ship I’m currently most focused on, and even the first I think that I gave a shipping tag to. I have talked about them multiple times. IDK if there’s anything new that I can add because I’ve said just about everything. But I guess in the spirit of things, I’ll go over it again.

This ship has broken every issue with shipping I’ve ever had. I normally don’t ship non-canon pairs, but Dear God I love them. I don’t normally seems fandoms use them just to have hot boy/boy stuff and I have NEVER seen any shipping wars concerning it that turned me off. In fact, fandom is what got me into this ship. When I binged it, I just saw them as two guys who love to hate each other... but the fandom did a really good job in convincing me that they were in love. S15 helped with that with how Simmons reacted to Grif quitting, and Grif clearly missing Simmons more than anyone and even leaving him out when he says he hates everyone later. But since until then the writers seemed uninterested in developing Red Team, I had to turn to fanficiton for it. And many gave them so much depth and their relationship as a result felt so much stronger and meaningful to me. This is the very rare time where fandom concerted me.

These guys are assholes. Grif is a lazy jerk, and Simmons is a kissassing rule-follower. Yet they compliment each other perfectly. They argue and bicker frequently, but it feels so natural and it just... works. And overtime, we see their relationship go from just kinda being stuck together to being actual friends. S16 really showed how much healthier and positive it was as the two matured, Simmons becoming more independent and Grif starting to actually try and work through stuff. Their characters got stronger, and as such theyre bond got stronger. Even if that doesn't necessarily have a spotlight put on it, form just their interactions, you can just see it.

I cannot imagine these two without each other, at least for an extended period. They work great as individual characters, but are even better when together. They balance each other. They, in their weird way, support each other. They have been through nearly EVERYTHING in the series together and they’d absolutely do anything to protect each other. They may suck at expressing all of that, but it’s okay. We all know. I love them, and I just hope that RT will allow it to be canon one of these days... I’ll wait~

Honorable Mentions

Sakura Kinomoto/Syaoran Li (Cardcaptor Sakura)

Greg Universe/Rose (Steven Universe)

Ichigo Kurosaki/Orihime Inoue (Bleach)

Arnold Shortman/Helga Pataki (Hey Arnold)

Candace Flynn/Jeremy Johnson (Phineas and Ferb)

Yugi Mutou/Anzu Masaki (Yu-Gi-Oh)

Ash Ketchum/Misty (Pokemon)

Max Goof/Roxanne (A Goofy Movie)

Mickey/Minnie (Disney)

Various other Disney ships

Inuyasha/Kagome Higurashi (Inuyasha)

Jake Long/Rose (American Dragon: Jake Long)

Superman aka Clark Kent/Lois Lane (Superman franchise)

Robin/Starfire (Teen Titans)

April O’Neil/Casey Jones (TMNT 2003)

Chris Kratt/Aviva Corocvado (Wild Kratts)

Sunset Shimmer/Human Twilight Sparkle (Equestria Girls)

Shining Armor/Princess Cadence (MLP:FIM)

And I’m probably forgetting a lot but this post is already super long and I can’t remember everything, so... onto Number One!

Grimmons was VERY close to being Number One since it is my current obsession. But then I remembered one other... and I HAD to make it Number One. It is something that I have followed along since I learned what fandoms were, and whenever I think of true love... this is the couple that appears in my mind. I could not leave it off, or not give it the top spot. So my friends, I present to you my Favorite Ship:

#1. Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon and Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask (Sailor Moon)

Ah, Sailor Moon, my first fandom. My childhood. My love. The series that taught me about love... even when I didn’t care about Usagi and Mamoru’s relaitonship. So it being Number 1 is probably a surprise... but I shall explain.

As a kid... and for the most part as an adult, I am more invested in the girls relationships than about Usagi and Mamoru. It doesn't help that in the 90′s anime, it was the standard ‘these two bicker a lot’ scenario and then it felt more like they only loved each other cause they did in the past. Then R had that stupid break-up plot that I still despise to this very day. Fortunately it was better in the following seasons, S was especially overall super sweet, but... well, it felt forced, stereotypical, and like their love existed because of past memories. Even as a little girl... it just didn’t feel right.

Then I read the manga. And it was SOOOO much better!

While I do still find the romance rushed int he manga, it felt much mroe natural. The two don’t argue like five year olds. They took at least a little time to get to know each other, and uncovered each other’s identities BEFORE the memories came back. As such, when they did regain them after Mamoru got hurt, it felt more like the past just strengthened the love. it showed that it would last throughout the ages. They already recognized their feelings prior, rushed as it was imo, and made it feel more genuine. In the subsequent arcs, they don’t have stupid breakup arcs or a forced love triangle in the final arc. There are issues, very stupid opens (Usagi getting jealous of her future daughter for example), but their love stands strong, they support and protect each other, and they just grow stronger as a result.

This is probably THE most famous anime romance in existence, and it’s not hard to see why. Even if I have issues in how it came to be, their relationship is shown as equal and supportive. It has been something that I’ve followed since I was five years old. Flr what I said about the 90′s anime, I did still like it and I’ve only grown to care about it more over the years... even if I still care more about the Senshi. Still, it’s a classic and to me, is still the one and only Miracle Romance

And that is the list! Trying to go through every fandom I was ever into to remember what I shipped was HAAARD. But I really enjoyed making this list and getting to revisit all of them again. I might do more Top 10′s in the future, so if you guys would like to see me do anything specific, feel free to reply/ask me! Thank you all for reading, and Happy Valentines Day everyone! 💕💕💕

[simplystefanie-rae]

Marichat isn’t the only problem in the love square

Yeah, seriously. It’s not. 

I consistently fail to understand why marichat specifically is the ship of the love square that always called out as portraying them as being out of character, as if these fanon traits don’t extend to any of the other corners. Frankly, I’m getting annoyed now at the comments I’ll see here and there throwing that ship under the bus, as if there isn’t a problem with Marinette and Adrien’s character portrayal in general all across the board. 

People’s problem with Marichat is usually centered around two things, the first being is that it’s apparently over sexualized. I say ‘apparently’ because, with the exception of a few fics that are specifically meant to be smut, there’s barely anything to be found beyond some kissing action. The ‘sin’ title it has is either a joke or an exaggeration. People complain that they would be the friends dynamic and be teasing towards each other, and that there isn’t enough of that. Guess what? That is practically all there is when it comes to marichat. Those two being dorks and falling in love. Can the romance move fast? Yes, but usually those fics are short, or oneshots where there’s already an established dynamic bordering on romance. The longer fics tend to take time with it. You can take my word for it because guess what else, I actually read marichat fics. I find that a lot of the ones who call marichat out for having a bad fanon dynamic are also the ones who tend to not actually bother reading it.

The other problem people have with Marichat is that a lot people who support this side of the love square think that it’s the truest corner of it, and I agree 100% that this just isn’t accurate. Except, getting to my point made earlier, this problem is not a Marichat problem and we really need to stop pretending that only this ship has this dynamic. 

It’s not even a ship dynamic problem. It comes down to mischaracterization.

Marinette is written as an insecure girl who thinks she’s unworthy of being Ladybug in nearly everything I have ever read. Seriously, the ‘I’m just plain, clumsy Marinette’ line should be a bingo piece because of how often it’s used. The interpretation of her is basically considered canon at this point and is particularly prevalent in reveal scenarios. Marinette will freak out at the reveal, thinking Chat won’t like her because she’s ‘not really Ladybug, just Marinette’. 

Adrien is written as a boy who thinks he’s truly free and truly himself as Chat Noir, while everything else about him is fake, though it’s less common than Marinette’s mischaracterization. Then there’s the added insecurities that comes with Adrien being given an eating disorder he doesn’t actually have, and because it’s a wildly popular fanon theory, the self loathing in Adrien is usually very prevalent. 

Because both characters are often written as wearing this metaphorical mask hiding the real deal, naturally every ship dynamic is going to reflect that. And they do. Ladynoir is not innocent of this, nor Ladrien, nor Adrienette. I’ve read it all, and I can say without a doubt that Marichat is not the only dynamic that likes to delve into these characters having massive insecurities and identity issues. Why fandom acts like it is, I have no idea. Because some big names of the fandom said so?

Also, Marichat is not the only ship to have it’s own particular brand of fanon.

Ladrien? Overly sexualized. Want to talk about OOC, explain to me why Ladybug is suddenly turned into a dominatrix when she and Adrien can barely say a sentence without blushing and getting very shy. I’m not saying this happens all the time, but it’s become a bit of a trope. 

Ladynoir? Ladybug can be written as a real bitch to Chat a lot of the time in these fics. A bitch, or just standoffish and protective of herself. She’s shown none of this resistance in the actual show, but it’s a staple of Ladynoir fics to have Ladybug keep these walls up around herself. Rarely do I see this being called out. 

Can 2017 be the year where we stop pretending Marichat is the only aspect of the love square with a wrong fanon dynamic? There is a ton of stuff in this fandom that has it’s issues, and we really need to start paying more attention to Adrien and Marinette’s character on a broader scale than just one side of the love square if we want to see better canon portrayals all around.