#the ladrien 'you have to trust me!' 'always' scene

[litcrazh]

if mlb was a more… mature show and realistic AND THE CHARACTERS WERE OF AGE! it would be sooo much better

like here are some headcannons

ladynoir??? hooked up 100%

marichat??? SNEAKY LINK!!

ladrien… don’t get me started. HOOKED UP

adrienette but u alr know they go ham imagine new york scenes and they like sneak into each other rooms and stuff but i’m not talking about the devils tango!! no no no!

and like more realistic parts

like fucking gaberial being a little less controlling, marinette ACTUSLLY being able to speak to adrien without dying, THE FRIEND GROUP and high school parties bc adrien and nino are 100% a dynamic duo that drinks so much that alya and marinette think they are going to have to get there stomach pumped but then they are back at it again next friday

also there group dynamic?????? immaculate

nino and marinette have been friends since diapers so they have a platonic- sibling like relationship i’m just going to pretend that nino tried to go on a date to make alya and adrien jealous

alya is a sworn #adrienagrestehater but ofc they are best friends, so much so thst in interviews adrien will praise alya for her work ethic and in the same breath say how he hates her more than hawkmoth. adrien just loves how alya is so real with him bc he’s so used to being worshiped.

alya and nino are obviously “so grossly in love i want to jump off a cliff��� - marinette and adrien at some point- while adrien and mari and low key FWB

adrien specifically is low key a douche, playboy chat noiry but in the best way possible. like he flirts RELENTLESSLY with marinette after they become close, but MARINETTE FLIRTS BACK LIKE THE LEGEND SHE IS. she finds out what makes him blush and become bashful and stuff and goes OFF. they both are complétive so sometimes you would just walk into this type of conversation.

“- i thought you said you wouldn’t fall in love mari, but this blush of yours is telling me different,”

“maybe i’m just thinking of last night, hot stuff”

“what did you do? dream about us?”

“wouldn’t you like to know,”

“cmon baby, you know curiosity killed the cat. i know that i was dreaming about us,”

“who did i do, sunny. asking the wrong questions, but don’t worry! a blond head of hair was always in my mind”

“blond hair? what hot guys have hot hair?? oh? didn’t know you had a thing for chat noir,”

“you have said on national television how much you like ladybug, but ive always had a thing for lea-“

“guys we aRE RIGHT HERE”

also, the FRIEND GROUP all hate LIELA. like guys… CMON. alya is a investigation journalist and nino is the bestest friend like ever. but no one, and i mean NO ONE hates lila as much as adrien, especially if she fucks with mari.

*before class, adrian and mari and joking about something sitting rather close!! and lila walks in, seeing this, and wants to ruin it”

“wow marinette! i’m suprised adrien would be so close to you after last night”

adrien and marinette look at each other in confusion, and adrien tries (and fails) he best not to laugh at her

“what happ- PSHH- what happened- mari i rea- what happened last night lila,”

(marichat was in full effect last night)

“i saw marinette with chat noir last night on her balcony, doing less than appropriate things on the balcony”

at this point both of there cheeks burst red- because oh shit she’s not lying, well some parts at least- and people are gathering around, and some are believing her, meanwhile our two superheroes are trying to figure out if it was ACC true

adrien in his head, no doubt: did i kiss her last night? we watched that american movie and i kissed her forehead, but not mari also in her head- I WISH HE DID GIRL.

but some people in the class are dumb so they are like

“wow mari that’s low”

“didn’t know you were such a player”

“like she could pull him, ridiculous, utterly ridiculous”

mari starts to get a little stressed, her breathing picks up and adrien being adrien notices and causally slings his arm around her, a smug smile on his face

“trust me” he whispers in her ear.

“not possible”

“and how would you know?” lila has no longer trying to woo adrien, because tbh he’s so loyal it was too hard

“because i was with mari last night”

“well- well uh i was really late at night, like 2 am,”

“no no no lila, all night”

she scoffs

“and what were you doing last night,?”

“what do you think two tennagers who are very attractive and hot would be doing at 2 in the morning lila”

and that shuts everyone up real fast, and no one dares question it because his smug face with mari hiding in his chest beat red tell the whole story

“way to really tone down the situation,”

“my specialty darling,”

sarcastically she adds “nice ‘hot’ addition, btw”

he just laughs

imagine ms bustiers suprised walking into that class a minute later

also, tik tok love THE GROUP and lb and cn themselves. i imagine adrien having 10.2 mil on insta, alya 2.4 but the ladyblog 8 mil (she LOVED THAT SHE HAS MORE THEN ADRIEN combined “pucker up and kiss my ass buttercup”) nino’s producer acc has like 15 mil bc he collars with top artists like kanye, frank ocean, tyler and kendrick lamar and mari having 6.8 mil.

everyone thinks mari and adrien are ducking and post edits/ proof videos as to why.

adrien does in fact post thirst traps

mari had them all saved and downloaded.

adrien has some of maris too

they all have secret accounts where they post the funniest shit ever and comment on tiktok’s about them like “adrien i didn’t know you and mari have a child???? why didn’t you tell me!!”

don’t get me started on lb and cn on tik tok

*edit of chat being hot*

@ chatnoirfanpage : omg wow he’s so hot @ ladybugoffical you should definitely see this and marry him and have his kids

— @ ladybugoffical : omg chat get off your phone your late for patrol

[clambuoyance]

can i *coughs* can i hear more about this sb and robin love square??

maybe i should make a tag for it to group all the posts i make about it but uhhh

its basically just me playing with the lovesquare pairings and taking moments from the mlb show and applying timkon to it, like the balcony scene. its not a super detailed au or whatever.

one of the biggest things i wished the show did was explore how the different dynamics change and kind of merge into one as they get to know each other better, or how they could potentially reverse dynamics so i imagine smth like that happening w this au i guess

i guess the first one would be called superrobin? superboy and robin meet each other as heroes and become a team, and its pretty much the same as ladynoir in the show. flirting and bantering, unending trust and loyalty and adoration, but the secret identities keep them a hair apart. in the comics, SB takes a bit to come around but i do think he's always admired and cared about robin's opinion of him, and then the whole angst trust issue thing ladynoir got going on in s4 is sort of like tim and kon in the era of comics where kon had trouble trusting tim bc tim wouldnt reveal his name and was secretive.

i haven't seen the last eps of s4 but im pretty sure there's a whole thing where mari thinks felix is adrien and he gets annoyed/jealous? yeah im imagining that but with Match posing as Kon and kon being annoyed lol

then there's timkon, which i guess would be their civilian pairing? conner at first thinks tim is stuck up and acts like he's above it all, which is taken from their early dynamic in the comics and i just applied it to the civilian side. meanwhile tim is trying to deny his feelings. you know how marinette is like a fashion designer or whatever? i think tim should be a photographer

then you have...robinkon? robkon? which is the equivalent to ladrien. i guess both would be very flustered but idk what else to say about this one

and finally supertim...or timSB idkkkk. the marichat equivalent where you have tim and superboy who have the least affectionate opinion of each other in this form, but have a cool opportunity to get to see the other side of their pal. like superboy gets to see tim when he's not robin and how he's just a Kid you know trying his best, and tim gets to see that superboy isn't always bombastic and obnoxious and can be quite sweet, helping him realize that SB is a pretty good hero and a cool guy. of course in this, superboy wouldn't know tim is robin, but then he'd be nicer to tim when he's conner now that he's more understanding. also that episode where chat has to be marinette's bodyguard and she tries to hide her teasing? or the balcony scene? i like imagining those with them lol

also im pretty sure theres a theory adrien is a sentimonster or clone thingy and kon is a clone soooooo theres that too

[purrincess-chat]

Lord, I'm tired of "which ship is better" between the LS dynamics. They're the same people.

I was never a huge LS shipper. I was always either indifferent at best and annoyed at the decisions they made at most because some stuff would be done so much easier if either character took more incentive. Like, a lot of it is explained away as plot decisions, but thats neither here nor there.

I think the reason why people think it was a bad idea that Adrienette was paired now was because it feels too rushed... No, it wasn't. It feels rushed to you because all you saw was the stumbling on the words and longing stares. I guess in these people's eyes, they didn't hang out platonically enough.

I'm still indifferent to the LS in general. I find the Adrienette scenes cute, but arguing over which dynamic is best is just pointless blowing of air. Just write something if you're not happy with how something's going in the show.

You probably get asks like this all the time, so I apologize if this is kinda redundant, I just see the salt everywhere and it's just aggravating

No worries. It's valid to be frustrated with the fandom. I've always found arguments over which side is better to be moot because one side isn't better. Which side people like more is a matter of preference, but in the end, they're the same two people, so no side is intrinsically better or worse than another. It's reductive to think of the square that way, and it misses the point behind the square. I think of all the MC stans that like to post rankings of each side in the ladrien tag, and they always rank ladrien last for being boring or toxic or whatever. I think ranking them is dumb. Have a favorite, sure, but don't put down the other sides that makes no sense lol.

In the case of Adrinette "not being close friends" I'd agree, it's fundamentally misunderstanding their canon interactions. It gives the same energy as people who claimed Ladrien is only capable of standing and blushing around each other. Not only is it an intentionally shallow interpretation of their dynamic, it's also directly disproven in canon every time they come on screen. In Adrinette's case, yes, Marinette consistently fumbles around him, but she has always shown to calm down in the face of something serious. In Gorizilla, she runs around with him all day and talks to him normally because they have other shit going on. Her stammering always related to thinking of him romantically, but they have had numerous platonic interactions where she could talk to him fine, and in most of those interactions, Adrien confided in her. His trust of her has been building over each season. S1 we had the umbrella scene when he confessed he didn't have friends, we also had gamer when he expressed insecurity in his ability compared to her. S2 had a bunch, Gorizilla, Frozer, Mayura. He gave a whole fucking speech about how he was happy they were friends in Mayura. S3 we have Chameleon, Puppeteer 2, he stood up for her in Ladybug, he and Kagami begged her to run away with them in Heart Hunter.

He and Marinette have always been friends, and they have been making small strides each season. That's why she went from "just a friend" to "a very good friend" to "someone special to me." Adrien has been giving us check ins on their friendship since day 1. Their development was slower and more gradual than LN, and of course they're not as comfortable with each other as LN, but that's the point of s5. They're working through their issues. They just so happen to be doing it romantically. And to say that their love isn't as deserving because they're not entirely thick as thieves is a very narrow view of love. Just because adrinette isn't the best friends side at the beginning of s5 doesn't mean they don't deserve to be together if they want to be?? I know plenty of people irl who have best friends of the opposite gender that date people they're not as close to instead. The point of dating is to get closer to people, and that's what is happening in canon. Adrien said it himself in Transmission that he wanted things to be different with Marinette. He can't share his true feelings with anyone else because they don't understand and only see a marketing image. And we have seen that this season with people consistently brushing off their feelings in favor of their own ideas. Adrien and Marinette fall back on each other, and have been figuring out how to be an effective couple that meets each others needs. And that's incredibly sweet, and I think it's worth showing. Lots of cartoons paint this idealized version of love and put it up on a pedestal as a prize to be won. I think if this season ended with them revealing their identities and getting together, it would be perpetuating just that. That love is a prize to be won in the end, then after that you live happily ever after. But they stuck adrinette together mid season and are giving us a half season where they bumble around and figure love out. Their story isn't over just because they are together. Relationships are complicated and take work, and I appreciate that message from canon.

I think people are just looking for excuses to justify their anger, so they are twisting their interpretation of canon to suit their needs. It's a very common strategy among salters, I've seen it plenty of times. They find vague at best "evidence" of their claims that ignores tons of context and other instances that disprove their arguments. It's not new to me, honestly. I do actually feel kind of bad for them though. Sitting at home all angry and missing out on the absolute bliss that is romantic Adrinette. What a miserable existence./j

[bugabisous]

Favorite love square scenes [in no particular order]

 → ladrien in gorizilla.

“You have to trust me.” “Always.”

[miathecinnabunny]

Travel AU + Bodyguard AU + TheLoveSquare

W-why? Why would you give me this much power?

LADRIEN FTW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

So Adrien is a famous model, yeah? He's like super super super famous. Anyone who doesn't live under a rock knows who he is.

Adrien is doing a world tour. But it's dangerous. A young star like him attracts many jealous eye. And Gorilla isn't enough. Adrien needs someone who can inconspicuously stick close to him and protect him. So Gabriel says.

Adrien knows he can look after himself. He's perfectly capable of keeping himself safe. After all, he himself is a trained bodyguard with the worlds most elite security firm -- Miraculous (fight me, I haven't slept in 28.5 hours, creativity might be a lil low)

The agency is know mainly for its expertly trained and carefully masked bodyguards for hire. Not even one bodyguard knows who the other is behind a facade.

Each bodyguard has their own supervising officer, an ex-bodyguard trained with certain special abilities. The SO then passes on their specific skill set to the new bodyguard. Yep, the kwami. I told you, I'm running a bit low on creativity.

The bodyguards are trained like spies. To change merely their demeanor to become someone else. Think Clark Kent vs Superman. That scene in one of the Reeves movies I can't quite recall it, where Clark just takes his glasses off and stands a little taller and suddenly, he's Superman. It's a very subtle change, but you would never walk past either of then mistake him for the other.

So there aren't any literal masks involved. Besides, Paris is blind anyway so--

So OBVIOUSLY Gabriel has to hire a bodyguard from the world's most elite security firm and he HAS to hire their best bodyguard. Seeing as Chat Noir is unavailable due to personal reasons, the agency sends in Ladybug.

Ladybug. Who is Marinette. Who has a major crush on Adrien.

Adrien cannot believe his luck. They sent Ladybug. Who is generally his partner. Whom he is madly in love with.

Both of them have the same thoughts bouncing around their heads: This is going to be a difficult two weeks.

I WANT ALL OF THE SPICE, Y'ALL

I want them in big cities, Adrien trying so goddamn hard to channel the suave and smooth Chat Noir but it's just not working sjdjjd. Ladybug doing her level best to maintain her facade and not turn into a melted puddle of blush everytime Adrien looks at her

I want them doing stupid tourist things in other countries and for the first time, Ladybug's actually having fun on a mission and it's not due to her charming partner cracking jokes all night to lift her spirits.

I want them to like ,,, be in Venice, riding a gondola or smth ,,, that scene in the little mermaid ,,,, "kiss the girl" lmao

I want Ladybug to talk to Adrien about Chat Noir. Tell Adrien how she'd blindly trust Chat with her life. Tell Adrien about events he already knows, but from her perspective.

I want Marinette to somehow come up in conversation. I want Adrien to talk to Ladybug about Marinette. How she's so talented and brilliant and sweet. How she's been one of his few genuine friends that he made back in high school.

I want them to spend days thinking about kissing each other.

Ladybug doesn't know he's Chat, right? And if she never finds out, it'll never jeopardize their team dynamic.

And Adrien doesn't know she's Marinette, right? And since he'll never find out, it won't dangle their friendship over a shredding machine.

And then I want them both to think about the kind of dangers they regularly put themselves in for the sake of the agency. They can't let themselves get involved with someone else. What if something happens to them on the job? What if they never come back and the other is left in the dark, never knowing what really happened in the eleventh hour?

And then, in the middle of the second week, I went them to say "fuck it" and go for it.

AND THEN I WANT AN ATTEMPT TO BE MADE ON ADRIEN'S LIFE

AND I WANT LADYBUG TO TAKE THE HEAT BECAUSE SHE'S THE BODYGUARD HERE

AND I WANT ADRIEN TO LOSE HIS FUCKING MIND BECAUSE NOT ONLY IS THAT THE WOMAN HE'S IN LOVE WITH, BUT THAT IS HIS PARTNER, THE PERSON HE SWORE TO ALWAYS BACK UP NO MATTER WHAT

And I want Ladybug to get taken captive, because without his little bodyguard, surely Adrien can't be that hard to get to.

And I want to see Adrien looking at Ladybug, thinking about their vow of secrecy, looking at Ladybug, thinking about all the rules he was about to break, looking at Ladybug, and deciding "fuck it" and going feral on the attackers.

Like ,,,, no mercy, violent street cat on a murderous rampage.

And I want injured and dazed Ladybug to be witnessing all this and all her fuzzy mind can come up with is that the agency sent backup. They sent her kitty cat.

Ladybug comes to in Adrien's hotel room. Adrien has a shit-eating grin on his face and he's leafing through something, like a stack of cards, it seems.

"What are those?"

"Chanelle VanCamp, Moira Rosenburg, Erin Liu, Katherine Harrington, Sophie Busson, Laila Matveyev, Marguerite Ilya, Angeline Lee, Casey Montgomery-- oh! What's this? Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

"YOU WENT THROUGH MY STUFF?!"

"You should pick a better hiding spot than your breast pocket, bugaboo. Or maybe not, since all these ruined IDs might have just saved your life."

"Bugaboo. . .? CHAT????"

"The one and only."

"When we get back to Paris, I'm going to mash your face into the training mat until your features are unrecognisable."

"Come now, bugaboo, don't be mad.lets just agree not to tell anyone we broke every rule that was ever given to us."

"..."

"And . . . and maybe we can take another trip to the Collesseum?"

"..."

"And . . . call it a date . . . this time?"

"... fine, but from now on, wherever you go, I go -- for bodyguarding reasons, of course."

"Yes, of course. Absolutely."

[angelofthequeers]

ML Sweet-ember day 1

My top 10 list of episodes! They’re not in any particular order but these are the 10 episodes I enjoy most in the show and why.

1. Heart Hunter

Aka the episode that made me sell my soul to Adrigaminette. It’s just...perfect to highlight how well the three of them work together, and it’s got Adrien and Kagami having fun, and Marinette with her hair down, and I just love love to rewatch it whenever I’m down because of these three idiots.

2. Sapotis

Look!!! At how!!! Ecstatic!!! She is!!!

This episode is basically Alya’s time to shine and I love it, I love her, and I always go back and rewatch it when I want to be cheered up because it’s so SOFT.

3. Anansi

HE LOVES ALYA SO MUCH LOOK HOW DETERMINED HE IS TO SAVE HER I’M 🥺🥺

And she just??? Figured it out??? Right away??? This is THE DJWiFi episode for me and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve rewatched it for the softness.

4. Oblivio

“No wonder I fell in love with you.”

*screams forever*

THEY WORK SO FLUIDLY TOGETHER EVEN WITHOUT THEIR MEMORIES AND ESSENTIALLY ON A BLANK SLATE JSDFBSKDJFSD

5. Stormy Weather

The animation is just...GORGEOUS. So crisp and fluid! And the banter between Ladybug and Chat Noir! If anyone insists that Ladybug secretly hates Chat, this is the episode I aggressively point to. And Marinette’s fumbling awkardness! And as one of the very first episodes, it’s just so...nostalgic. A true feel-good episode.

6. Gorizilla

THE ADRINETTE!!!! AND LADRIEN!!!! WE WERE SO SPOILED THIS EPISODE!!!!

Adrien trusting Ladybug to save him! 🥺 And figuring out how to keep his identity a secret! 🥺 And running around Paris and then disguising themselves! 🥺 And the role reversal of Adrien of the damsel in distress kidnapped by the giant monster! 🥺 This episode is just AAAAAAAAA

7. Origins (parts 1 and 2)

THE UMBRELLA SCENE JKSHKSDJFHDSJKFSHFSDJKFSDHJK

Okay, it’s totally not cheating to smush them together, because it’s essentially one episode cut in two! Just...seeing how these two idiots fell for each other! How it wasn’t love at first sight but rather flawed first impressions that they had to work past!  Chat Noir being there for Ladybug right from the very start! The unstoppable team! It’s pretty much a sin not to include this on the list.

“Whoever she is beneath that mask...I love that girl.”

8. Ikari Gozen

RYUUUUUUUUKKKKKOOOOOOOOO

I’ve heard complaints that this made Marinette look like a bitch but actually? It showed her flaws in a really good way, like the lengths she’ll go to be with Adrien, and it wasn’t inconsistent with past moments she’s had. She’s a kind precious bean, yeah, but she’s only human, not some amazingly perfect queen that some people make her out to be.

And it delved deeper into Kagami’s psyche too! I know there was a lot of hate for Kagami before this episode for being a bitchy Ice Queen, but I had faith in her and this episode delivered. And it’s what truly kickstarted my belief that she’s autistic (like me!!!!) because I just...resonated with her. Having to use apps to make friends? At this point, I’m close to it.

ALSO KAGAMINETTE

9. Startrain

BABIES 🥺

The sleeping scene will always kick me in the gut just as hard the first time. And Alya showing that she’s got Marinette’s back, contrary to what people think! And Max becoming a superhero! And seeing him with his mother! I just...AAAAAA

10. Dark Cupid

Only love 🥺 can conquer 🥺 hate 🥺 And the poem!!!!!

There’s not much I can say beyond this being a super feel-good episode and keyboard smashing tbh. It speaks for itself.

Honorable mentions:

Riposte: the Ladrien! Kagami’s introduction! I’m so soft!

Weredad: a whole pot of Marichat awkwardness and I LOVE it

Reflekdoll: KWAMI SWAP AND BANTER AND CLOWN SUITS OH MY

The Pharaoh: aka the start of Alya being the damsel in distress and she’s already so done with it and it really shows the Ladyblog for the first time and I just love her to bits

Gamer: seeing their teamwork 🥺 And Max deserves a whole lot of love too! Not many people would openly accept their defeat and then walk away to process their emotions, rather than exploding and taking them out on others.

The Dark Owl: seeing how much they trust each other 🥺

Troublemaker: “Are you lying to me?” 😏

Chat Blanc: seeing what could have been 🥺 It just hurts too much to truly rewatch and make it into the top 10

[marrys-dream-world]

I’m captivated by you (like a firework show)

AO3 Link 

Summary: It wasn't like Adrien was excited to go out with his friends for his one dream activity in the middle of a lonely summer break, no, not at all. Of course he wasn't upset when his father took back his permission for him to go, what gave you that idea? But being alone in his room during the most antecipated holiday of the summer hadn't been on his plans, he could admit to that. Fortunately for him, he not only had friends, but one very good one.

Notes:  I watched the fireworks scene from Kaguya-sama; Love is War and thought of Adrien. I was going to use this plot bunny for Ladrien month, but it's such an Adrinette one, I couldn't help it (and I already have too many prompst I'm working on for that moth). This is mostly self-indulgent angst/fluff. The title is from Taylor Swift's Sparks Fly (which is a Ladrien song, but the title fit this fic so much).

“Your father denied your request, Adrien.”

He wasn't surprised at Nathalie’s words, exactly, but he couldn’t stop the familiar pit of disappointment from settling in his stomach. Perhaps he had been too hopeful, spending so much time picking up a nice outfit to break out from his routine, trying to style his hair a bit differently (and inevitably giving up when it made him look a touch too much like Chat Noir) and texting Nino nonstop between his breaks from practicing piano. It seemed like everytime he got too excited by something, the universe got ready to cut him down again.

“But he had already said yes.” Adrien responded, his voice soft as to not break. “I told my friends that I would meet them there.”

“He changed his mind.” Nathalie said, like it was that simple. And it was to her, wasn’t it? Just another message she was delivering from his father, like it wasn’t breaking his heart. “There’ll be too many people there and your bodyguard could lose sight of you. It’s too dangerous.”

“But — “ He tried again, but stopped when his eyes met Nathalie’s bemused stare. “I understand, Nathalie. Thank you for telling me.”

As she left silently, he closed his bedroom’s door and dropped down on his bed. It was weird to be so careless about the outfit he cared so much about before, he thought as Plagg came out of his hiding place in his pocket, speaking words that weren’t registering in his mind. He felt like his head was underwater and that he could only faintly make out that there were words being said and touches given on his head, but it was like he wasn’t really feeling it. It was dumb, right? Being upset by something so common. How many times had his father denied him the right to go out with his friends or made him cancel plans last minute because of a sudden whim? It wasn’t any different this time. 

Except… it was. When Adrien was younger, he loved to watch the fireworks in the summer. There was one holiday, particularly, that had an impressive firework display that he absolutely adored. He begged his parents to watch it more closely, but his mother had taken him into her arms and explained that it was much too dangerous for a boy as small as him and set up a picnic in the gardens so him, her and his father watched it all. Together. It still ached, a little, that he wouldn’t be able to do it with her this year and that his father certainly wouldn’t join him, but that would all be okay because he had friends to watch it with, for once.

He hadn’t seen them since the beginning of summer break. Whereas all his classmates were incredibly excited about the summer, he couldn’t help but dread it. It just meant numerous beach-themed photoshoots and being unable to meet with his friends everyday. So he watched as they all made plans to go out in groups, pairs, host slumber parties and have picnics that he wasn’t allowed to go to. He missed his friend’s trip to the beach, their party at the Couffaine’s and make-shift Mecha Strike III tourney at the Dupain-Chengs in favor of extra chinese lessons and work. So imagine his surprise when he was allowed, after begging his father during the one dinner they had together in weeks, to go with his friends to a festival in the park near Marinette’s to watch the fireworks with his friends. But of course, it just looked like his father had a “temporary lapse in judgment”.

“Just go, Adrien.” Plagg said, his miraculous wielder finally making out what he was saying. “It’s not like he’ll notice.”

“You know I can’t, Plagg.” He said. “Nathalie will probably think I’ll try to sneak to go, anyways, after she found the room empty some days ago.”

All because of an akuma, of course, but it’s not like he can say that. That must have been one of the reasons he got his permission revoked. Joy.  He grasped his phone and opened the messaging app, already receiving texts from Nino asking him if he was on the way, since he had gone to pick up Alya and they would all be meeting Marinette there. He started at the screen for a moment, willing his fingers to stop trembling. It was alright, it was just an outing, his friends were already used to him cancelling last minute…

               #1 ladybugs fans (and marinette the chat noir fangirl)

[6:45 PM]

Adrien: Sorry, guys, I won’t be able to make it. 

Nino: dude what

Nino: didn’t ur dad let u come already

Adrien: Yes, but he changed his mind, said it’s too dangerous, so I won’t be going anymore.

Alya: what a bummer, Adrien, i’m sorry.

Nino: want us to break u out?

Adrien: No, I don’t want to upset him, everyone, but thanks for the offer. Hope you enjoy the fireworks.

…. so why wasn’t the lump in his throat going away? 

He stayed on his bed, watching his phone screen, willing for something to distract him. But all that appeared the “Marinette is typing…” only for it to disappear and reappear, no new message coming. Marinette did that, she was always a bit careful with her texts. It was a little adorable and never failed to bring warmth to his chest, no matter how upset he was. Adrien only noticed that time actually passed when he noticed the fireworks starting from his window, far away from his house.

[7:15 pm]

Adrien: I wish I was there with you guys. 

When he noticed how much the screen was blurring, tears were already spilling down his cheek. He laid the phone screen-down on his chest and sobbed, Plagg curled up against his neck and comforting him more than he could ever know. It was just another disappointment down the line, but it hurt so much more. He spent so much time telling himself that this summer would be worth it if he could at least do this with his friends, just one thing. Why couldn’t he do that? It wasn’t fair at all. He just wanted… He just wanted a lot of things he couldn't get. The phone in his hand lighted up, signaling another text.

[7:25 pm]

Marinette: I wish you were here, too.

He just missed his friends so much. He wanted, just for once...

“Looks like Pigtails wants you to go.” Plagg said, casually reading over his shoulder and with a tone that Adrien couldn't quite place, between nonchalant and smirking. “You should take her up to that.”

“Should I?” And it was a bad idea, Nathalie would probably show up at any moment, but…

“There’s still time.”

“... Plagg, claws out.”

[7:27 pm]

Adrien: I’m on my way. 

What could they do anyway? Lock him up in his room? Forbid him from seeing his friends? Nothing that wasn't happening to him already. So let Nathalie come to the empty room, alert his father and have the Gorilla look for him. Let them come embarrass him by forcing him back home from the park. As long as he could get this one moment with his friends, it would be worth it. So he ran through the rooftops, the lights from the fireworks coloring everything around him. He wanted to make it worth it, watch the display with his friends, watch Alya take videos for the 15th blog she created this year, listen to the playlist Nino made for the moment, listen to Marinette talk about her latest design.

He dropped from the rooftops, going in an alley to destransform before running in the direction of the park. His face was blotchy and his eyes were puffy, hair a little messy from lying on the bed and clothes all rumpled. It would have bothered him a few hours ago, but now he couldn’t care less. He ran to the park entrance, it was so close. 

I just want to be with my friends and watch the fireworks, just this once…

So it was inevitable that as soon as he got there, it was over.

It was alright. It was fine. Just minutes ago he didn’t expect to see his friends for the night the whole summer, but the festival was still going on. He would still see them and talk to them and eat with them. Who cared if he didn’t see the fireworks? It wasn’t why he was here. At least, not the only reason. If his friends watched the show and liked it, then it was enough for him. Then why was he shaking? It didn’t make sense at all.

“Kid…” Plagg whispered to him from his jacket pocket.

“I just…” Adrien started, voice cracking a little. “I just wanted to watch the fireworks with my friends…”

“Then we’ll see them.” He heard a voice say, before a hand grabbed his wrist and started to drag him away. Adrien tried to resist out of reflex, even though the person was surprisingly strong, before recognizing them. 

“Marinette?” He said as he let himself get pulled away from the entrance. “What do you mean? How did you find me?”

“Y-you said that you were on your way.” Marinette said, keeping a fast pace. Her face was incredibly red, but she only tightened her hold on his wrist. “So I-I knew you were probably at the entrance’s park. I mean park’s entrance.”

“What do you mean about watching the show, though? It 's over.” 

“A-Adrien…” She said as looked over her shoulder to him. Whatever she saw hardened her gaze, making her look more determined, like a woman on a mission. “Trust me on this, okay?

As she finished speaking, he caught sight of Nino and Alya leaning against a cab.

“Dude!” Nino exclaimed, smiling wide. “Escape from the cage?”

“Something like that.”

“Okay, okay, you two can talk in the car.” Alya said, her teasing scolding given away by her smile. “Everyone get in.”

Adrien didn’t question it, watching Alya get into the passenger's seat. He took the right window seat, while Marinette claimed the middle and Nino sat besides her. He watched as Alya leaned in to the drivers, giving him directions and shortcuts to an address he recognized. 

“We are going to the Le Grand Paris? Why?” Adrien asked.

“You know how everyone sets off their fireworks for today at the same time?” Alya asked, tapping away frantically at her phone.

“Yes?”

“Well, Chloe decided that her fireworks display was just going to be the best in town and made her father start it 20 minutes later than usual, so there would be no competition fro which one to watch.” She continued, taking her eyes away from her phone to look at him. “She talked about it for a week straight before summer break.”

“So if it was delayed 20 minutes…” He said, heart beating faster. Did he dare hope?

“It will go till eight.” Nino completed. “We’re going to show you some fireworks, dude.”

“If we get there in time.” Marinette said, looking straight ahead. Her face was already flushed, probably from running so much, and he could feel her warmth from where their arms touched.

“If we get there in time.” Nino repeated, but he was still smiling too wide. 

“Y-you guys did it for me?” Adrien said, eyes watering. He was going to be really dehydrated after this night, huh. “I don’t even know what to say…”

“A thank you would be nice.” Nino teased, before bumping shoulders with Marinette. “But you should say especially to this dudette here, she’s the one that came up with the whole plan.”

“Marinette…?” Adrien whispered, watching as her face slowly changed between shades of red.

“I-I just… You were so excited for it.” She said, like it was a confession, barely looking at him. “I li-like the show too, but you were just… static to do it. H-how could could I watch it without you there? When you sa-said you were coming over and it was ending I…”

“She spent the whole show on her phone, texting you and then planning this.” Alya completed, when it seemed like Marinette wasn’t. “ So say ‘thank you, Marinette.’”

But how could he, when words wouldn’t be enough to express what he’s feeling?

“I hope we can make it.” Nino said as the car went through a tunnel, the only thing separating them from a close up on the fireworks show by the Le Grand Paris. 

“We will.” Marinette answered, her eyes glinting. She spoke like she wouldn’t accept anything less. “I know we will.”

The whole car was tense as they finally reached the end of the tunnel, looking out of the windows to the right side of the car. As soon as they came out of there, the dark sky lit up with the first colorful firework, followed by dozens of others. Adrien knew they were the main attraction, the reason why they came from so far across the city, why Marinette made this convoluted plan and that it was all for him. He was aware of all that, but he was so, so sorry that he wasn’t looking at them at all. How could he? All he could see was… that face. 

She was leaning over him to watch the show, face almost pressed on the glass in childlike wonder. Her hair was loose today, he noted almost absentmindedly, framing her face adorably and being the perfect dark canvas for the lights to play in. Her mouth wasn't smiling, glossy lips slightly opening as she stared at the display in awe, rosy cheeks glowing in the dark. But what captured him were her eyes, the most amazing blue he had ever seen, shining so much it overshadowed the show in front of them.

His heart was beating so loudly, he couldn’t even hear the sound of the fireworks. Could everyone in the car tell? Could they see he couldn’t take his eyes away from Marinette for even a second, that he didn’t want to do it for the rest of his life? Feeling warm around her wasn’t something new, it was expected by this point. But this familiar sensation wasn’t something he could brush aside at the moment like he often did, it wasn’t something he could ignore. It was all-consuming and amazing and— oh. Oh. That made sense. Of course that’s how he felt about Marinette, how could it be anything else?

And for the 20 minutes of the fireworks display, he didn’t take his eyes away from her even once. 

“Did you like?” Marinette asked him, after, mouth now smiling and cheeks still rosy.

“No.” Adrien admitted. “I loved it.”

[lnc2]

Ladrien 13 (discreetly)?

untouchable

summary: Prompt: Ladrien, discreetlySet during Glaciator; No Balcony Scene AU

AO3

He saw her first.

She was sitting on the ledge of a house across the street and two rooftops over. Her shoulders were slumped forward and she was kicking her legs out, one then the other, back and forth, sky then brick.  It was her I’m not upset, Chat, I’m just… thinking pose and Adrien hoped with some vindictiveness that he was the one she was thinking about.

Apparently Ladybug was too busy to meet up with Chat Noir but not too busy to lounge around on some random rooftop.  And of course she could make time for her real friends and then some while her partner sat around with candles and flowers and a picnic he never got around to eating like the hopeless idiot he was.

God, she must think I’m so stupid.

Not that Ladybug even knew the effort he’d gone to for her tonight.

Adrien sighed, feeling his resentment escaping with his breath.

It was probably his fault anyways.  Ladybug never actually said she would be able to come.  Any hopes she’d dashed with her busy schedule were ones she never meant to raise anyways. That was all on him.

“I should have just asked her if she were free a different night.”

He’s not sure he would have had better luck but there was always a chance.  He snorted, knowing how slim that chance actually was. His lady was ever the professional– she’d probably be too worried about their identities to show up no matter when he offered to bring her dinner.

Although… Adrien frowned, watching Ladybug from the window.  She doesn’t seem too busy right now.

Before he could think better of it, he reached forward and pushed his window open, the squeaking of the window catching the superheroine’s attention.  Adrien gave a wave and an awkward smile. At least, he felt it was awkward.

But he’d be damned if Chat Noir missed an opportunity to talk to his lady even if she didn’t know it was him.

Ladybug smiled and waved back.  Even from here Adrien could see it was her savior smile, her all-is-well-in-Paris smile.

But Adrien knew better.

He hesitated, glancing back at his kwami who was currently rummaging through the trash can.

“Plagg I’m going to need you to hide.”

“What? Why?”

Adrien looked back towards his lady and gestured for her to come closer. “Because I’m about to invite Ladybug inside.”

“Kid are you a glutton for punishment?  She’s not going to eyah!” Plagg’s words ended on an indignant grunt as Ladybug landed on Adrien’s window sill.  

Even as he’d watched her swing over to him he still wasn’t sure she would actually stay.  Ladybug didn’t seem too sure herself as she hung down from her yoyo attached to one of the many decorative outcroppings on the mansion.

Her eyes were wary but she smiled her savior smile all the same.

“Is everything okay?”

Adrien nodded, feeling a little embarrassed that his impulse actually brought her to him.

“I – yeah.  I was actually going to ask you the same thing.”

 “Oh?”

“It’s just usually we don’t see you around much unless there’s an akuma or you’re with Chat Noir.”

He struggled to maintain a neutral expression even as he blatantly fished for information.  He hoped whenever (because it had to be when it just had to be) they finally revealed themselves to each other this night was a forgotten blip in her memory.

Ladybug shook her head.

“Paris is safe.” She paused.  “I was actually just looking for Chat.”

A thrill shot through him.

“You were looking for Chat Noir?”

Ladybug sighed. “Yeah. He mentioned possibly meeting up tonight.  I told him I already had plans but… well, things changed. I was hoping he might still be hanging around here somewhere.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” 

Stupid.  Stupid. He should have waited longer.

Adrien wondered if it were still too late to sneak out and set everything up again.  As tempting as the idea was, he wasn’t sure how he could shake Ladybug now and ensure she was still out long enough to meet up with Chat Noir.  Adrien nearly groaned. He seemed doomed to failure either way.

Ladybug bit her lip, unaware of his inner turmoil, and watched him from beneath her lashes. 

“What about you?” She said.

“Me?”

“Yeah.  What… what brought you out here tonight.” She made a vague gesture to the window and smiled.  He blinked.

“Ah.  I um, also thought I had plans. But they fell through.”

“I’m sorry.”

She said it like she understood.  And maybe she thought she did. Gabriel Agreste made no secret of how… protective… he was over him.  She probably assumed it was his father’s fault he missed out on what he had hoped to be a romantic evening with his lady.

His lady who was looking rather put out herself.

Which made him wonder…

“These plans that fell through…” He hesitated. “They were important?”

It was Ladybug’s turn to blink.

“I- um. N-no.  Well, yes, but you- they- it– ah.” She cringed, her shoulders falling forward in defeat. Adrien was so distracted by her unusual stammering that he almost missed her next words. “The boy… the boy I like was supposed to be there.”

But when they did register boy did they register.

Something pinched deep in Adrien’s gut.

“The boy you– oh.” He said, softly.

She gave a small, sad laugh.  “Yeah. Pathetic huh?”

He shook his head even if he couldn’t quite speak yet.  Adrien had never given thought to it before – if Ladybug had someone outside the suit.   Well, that’s not entirely true, but in all of his fantasies it was a moot point because she loved him too.  Now it seemed there was a boy, some nameless idiot who held her heart and still managed to put that sad look on his lady’s face.

But still he had to ask–

“I always thought you and Chat Noir…?”

Here she laughed for real and irritation prickled his skin.  He hadn’t meant it as a joke.

“I’m sorry,” She said, catching his expression, eyes still light even as her laughter faded into a smile.  “It’s just, well, it’s Chat.  He’s a flirt but he doesn’t mean anything by it.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” He murmured, angry at the sudden turn of their conversation.  Even if he’d managed to meet up with her tonight it wouldn’t have mattered. She loved someone else and she thought Chat Noir was a joke.

“Trust me,” She said.  “He’s one of my best friends. I think I would know.”

Adrien had to smile at the way she said best friend even if she was completely and totally wrong.

“But you don’t know for sure, right?” He pressed.  Ladybug pressed her lips together, unimpressed. “You don’t know without a doubt that Chat Noir doesn’t have feelings for you?”

“I suppose not.” She watched him for a moment from suspicious eyes framed by long black lashes and Adrien shifted uneasily beneath her gaze.  Finally, she shook her head and sighed. “It wouldn’t matter either way. I’m in love with someone else.”

But it did matter.  It mattered a lot when Ladybug sounded so sad.  It mattered the world when the answer was everything he’d ever wanted.

“But if you weren’t?” 

Ladybug swayed softly with her yoyo even as she gripped his window sill with her free hand. 

Her eyes were wary as he took a step closer. “If I wasn’t what?”

“If you weren’t in love with someone else would it matter then?”

Hands trembling he reached forward to take her hand so that the only thing keeping her steady was her feet on his ledge.  He wasn’t sure what was more surprising- the fact that he was touching her at all or the fact that she let him. He ran his thumb over the spotted material covering her palm and steeled himself.  

He glanced up at his lady only to find her staring at their hands, lips parted in quiet surprise.

“Would you give him a chance?”

Would you give me a chance?

Ladybug’s eyes snapped to his. Wide and blue and stunned, she watched as he leaned forward, heart pounding, and placed a soft kiss against the inside of her wrist.  The material was cool and foreign against his lips but he could feel her pulse racing against his fingers and it gave him the confidence he needed to pull away from her and smile.

“I–” Her eyes roved him over, from silk pajama pants to his bedtime mussy hair.  She blinked, once, twice, too many times to count even as he tried. A blush nearly as vibrant as her suit spread from beneath her mask and she let out something like a squeak as she pulled her hand back from his, floundering for a response.

Coughing, he avoided his partner’s piercing stare and ran his hand over the back of his neck.

“You should ask him.” He finally said.

Ladybug’s voice was quiet.  “Ask him.”

“Yeah,” He murmured, chest aching, cheeks blazing.  “I think you’ll be surprised.”

He waited for the inevitable then, knowing he’d been more than an idiot in the last half hour and trying hard to feel anything like regret.  But at least she would know. At least she could… make an informed decision.

God how pathetic am I?

Adrien stared down at his feet and began to resign himself to a life of loneliness as the silence stretched out between them like forever.  He could only hope this one moment of stupidity didn’t ruin Ladybug and Chat Noir or that Master Fu wouldn’t take Plagg away or that Chat Noir being Adrien Agreste didn’t make it easier for her to reject him.

The whirring of her yoyo and the sight of red and black feet dropping down beside his own shook him from his spiraling thoughts.  Adrien looked up to find her, smile soft, eyes softer, staring back at him.

“You know what,” She said, voice quivering with her hands as they reached for his.  Adrien’s breath stuttered to a stop as she slowly raised them to her lips. “I think I will.”

[imreallyhereforplance]

How Multimouse Could Work

Although I’m up-to-date on all the episodes of Miraculous, I’m not so involved in the fandom, so pardon me if someone else has had this idea.

I am really excited for Multimouse. I honestly crave more Marichat content and, considering the whole Ladrien thing we got in Desperada, I think it’s safe to hope for Chat Noir giving Marinette the mouse miraculous. However, unlike Aspik, Multimouse poses an explicit issue that Marinette would notice even before taking the jewel.

If Chat Noir gives Marinette the miraculous and she accepts it, she then has to hide the fact that she’s also Ladybug, just as Adrien hid his alternate superhero identity in Desperada. The problem with Marinette becoming Multimouse is that, unfortunately, there needs to be a Ladybug to cleanse any akumas or amoks. We’ve seen from past episodes, mostly in Season 1 (Dark Cupid, Puppeteer, Princess Fragrance, etc.), that Ladybug more so than Chat Noir must consistently be present in order to save the day / cleanse the butterflies and feathers / repair all damage. Adrien knows this and, thus, figured for the majority of Desperada that Chat Noir could take a rain check.

Marinette knows that she can’t shirk her Ladybug duties, as seen in Startrain. Being a responsible Ladybug and with little or no temptation to spend time with Chat Noir as Marinette (unlike Adrien with Ladybug in Desperada), I expect that she will reject the mouse miraculous at first. I think she’ll tell Chat that she can’t, make some excuse like she’s too busy. Although, this excuse would probably be really weak during an akuma attack. What’s more likely is she’ll tell him she’s not the right choice, that she doesn’t believe she can do it and he should choose someone else.

I expect Chat to press, though, and basically tell her that she most certainly can do it. Adrien knows Marinette is competent, the “everyday Ladybug,” that she’s intelligent and honest and stands up for herself and others. I loved when Marinette took the lead in Startrain and Adrien commended her for it – this and many other scenes throughout the series would support Adrien’s thought process in choosing Marinette for a miraculous.

I think Chat’s encouragement would be reminiscent of Origins, Part 1, not necessarily in word choice but more in tone and trust. It’d probably take Marinette aback a bit.

Ultimately, she would take the miraculous. This might sound far-fetched but I honestly think it might be because of how much faith and certainty Chat has that she’s the right choice, and she doesn’t want to refuse since that would make Chat feel like he failed the first time choosing a holder.

Although Adrien is more familiar with Master Fu at this point, it’s very obvious that Fu has a closer relationship with Marinette than with Adrien. Fu is teaching Marinette to be a Guardian and has entrusted several miraculous jewels to her. Especially in Syren, we’ve seen Adrien feel left out-of-the-know, and while he and Fu have interacted, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was restricted to the end of Syren, Party Crasher, and Feast. The mouse miraculous would be Adrien’s first time entrusted with choosing a holder for a miraculous, while Ladybug’s chosen many. Naturally, Adrien would be excited over this, and determined to get it right just as Ladybug always has with the exception of him as Aspik.

I think that Marinette would probably sense that, if she turned him down, Chat would feel like he failed. Again, she knows from Syren that he feels left out, even if things have improved. And he sounds so confident in her, so sure that she’s the one for the job. So, she’d accept the mouse miraculous.

This is where things get more headcanon-y, mostly because I’ll be assuming a power for the mouse miraculous. I don’t think anyone knows for certain what the power is, but I’ve seen ideas. My favorite, and the one that will be serving our purposes here, is duplication (and given that the name is Multimouse…it doesn’t seem too improbable).

Duplication is the power that could potentially solve this problem of needing a Ladybug on the scene. Imagine a power where the miraculous holder can make two of themselves – two people, two miraculous jewels, even two kwamis. Basically, this is different from an illusion because, for one, the duplicate is tangible and, for another, the duplicate is so whole for the five minutes they exist that they can actually detransform within that timeframe, even if the original cannot without re-fusing with / destroying the duplicate (or maybe they can, not sure. If they could, though, that might be like cheating, as then they could keep detransforming and transforming again and making way more than one duplicate with each one having a five-minute lifespan). I’ll presume that the original can’t detransform without destroying the duplicate, and also that the duplicate cannot use the duplication power because just one mind-split is already messing with time and space we don’t need even more Marinettes. Other than that, the power is special since you literally have two of yourself, maybe even with a telepathic connection and little restriction on what this second one of you can do.

My thought is that this Multimouse duplicate could possibly detransform and then transform again as Ladybug. I really like this idea because it would mean that the majority of the episode would be Chat Noir and Multimouse alone. Once Multimouse uses her power of duplication, this duplicate is only going to have five minutes to get away, become Ladybug, return to the battle, use the lucky charm, cleanse the akuma or amok, and then disappear again. This means that Marinette can only use her duplication power late in the battle – all of her thinking and probing and learning about the opponent is going to have to be done as Multimouse, without Ladybug around.

I think it’d be hilarious if Ladybug and Multimouse were there at the same time for a brief while, coming up with a plan and having the same ideas since they’re just two of the same mind, and Chat hangs back in awe thinking that they’ve both got this. Of course, it’d also be annoying since they literally have the exact same voice, Chat and it’d also further Adrien’s belief that Ladybug and Marinette aren’t the same person, but frankly that sounds like something the writers would do.

Then again, he’d see how well Ladybug and Marinette work together, and his opinion of Marinette would probably go up even higher. So, yes, I like this idea. It’d mean that the Multimouse duplicate would be supposedly “missing” most of the time after it was made, but honestly, Chat would probably look past that, accepting some simple excuse cause “oh, here’s Ladybug!” I mean, in that case, maybe forget part of my description of the power’s limits and have the duplicate make a duplicate, so now there are two Multimouses and one Ladybug, though that idea is less appealing since then there are pretty much no limits to the power.

TL;DR: If Multimouse’s power is indeed duplication then the problem with there being no Ladybug is solved.                  

[nightfurylover31]

My Favorite Episodes of Miraculous (Season 2)

The Collector 

We got to know more about Master Fu, and officially confirm Gabriel was Hawkmoth (poor Adrien). Forbidding his son to go to school over a book was terrible, but I got to admit it was pretty ingenious to akumatize himself to avoid suspicion. But Cat Noir’s reaction to his father being his archenemy was intense. We don’t see him that serious very often. All in all, a good way to start off the season.  

Befana

Love learning more about Marinette’s family. And how all her friends tried to protect her too was really sweet. Cat Noir and Ladybug singing along was cute. And turns out Adrien kept the charm Marinette gave him in “Gamer,” and even made one for her. Even Tikki gave Marinette a gift. And I read that the kwagatama will play an important role in the future. 

Gigantitan

Hawkmoth dealing with a baby. Enough said. But seriously, it was hilarious to see him react like that. I’m guessing that means he didn’t take care of Adrien that much when he was a baby. But we at least know our sunshine boy will be a great dad one day. Also, so sweet for all the girl to support Marinette and help her out. 

Glaciator 

Mostly for the Balcony Scene. It was great seeing them interact in different identities. Both Marinette and Cat Noir were heartbroken when their crushes didn’t show up, but little do they know, they did get to spend time together. A good way to expand their friendship. Watching Ladybug tell the truth to Cat Noir that she’s in love with someone else, he could’ve taken it worse, but he can accept her friendship for now. And André, I don’t know why he gets so much salt. He’s a big hearted character, and it really does seem like he can pick up on love. He was able to figure out the colors that matched Marinette and Adrien’s crushes. I give him points for that. 

Sapotis 

Alya joins the team as Rena Rouge! So cool, much better Volpina. I get why she didn’t want to give up on being a superhero, but she made the right decision in the end, thanks to Trixx. And now she gained more respect for keeping Ladybug’s identity a secret. And her interactions with Cat Noir were great too. He loves the extra sass. 

Gorizilla

You know, watching this after seeing “Chat Blanc” just makes me go ‘GRR!’ at Gabriel. He finally tries to figure out if his son is Cat Noir. Don’t give us than “worried father” act when we now know you would home run him into the Eiffel Tower! We got a good amount of Adrientte in this episode, and some Ladrien. So cute!! And the trust that they have in each other is amazing. I got to say though, Wayem gave off serious creeper vibes. And people think Marinette’s obsessed; okay she is, but at least she doesn’t get in Adrien’s face about it. And poor Gorilla. He’s the only one in Adrien’s household that truly cares enough about him. 

Captain Hardrock

This is mostly because we get to meet Luka for the first time. He’s so sweet, he is easy to fall in love with. 

Frightningale 

The rhyming and dancing were great, but not as much as Marinette and Adrien freaking out about playing Ladybug and Cat Noir. They were so adorably awkward! What if Plagg was right and no one did recognize them? XD Even when forced to sing, dance and rhyme, Ladybug and Cat Noir are a perfect team. 

Zombizou 

Normally I hate zombie stuff, but I like this one. First time Marinette is almost akumatized, and the first time we see someone try to resist. It was really sweet when Nino chose to stay beside Alya even though she was already infected. And how Ladybug didn’t want to leave Cat Noir either. Chloe had a nice realization moment at near the end, but then she went back to her old ways. Good for Marinette to try to support her for that though.

Anansi 

More NinoXAlya moments, and now Nino is Carapace! Seeing Anansi lose her patience with Hawkmoth was pretty funny. And aww, Cat Noir was a bit insecure at the thought of Ladybug replacing him. Fortunately she told he was irreplaceable, and he is. 

Sandboy

We got to see a ton of Plagg and Tikki, and interacting with each other and the other Kwamis. I can’t wait to see what the others can do. It was cool seeing that Marinette and Adrien have different fears depending on if they’re superheroes or not, and both have fears of scarier versions of the one they love. And I love how both Tikki and Plagg said that they’re the best owners they ever had. It was a cool twist we got a super villain that we knew nothing about. 

Mayura (Heroes’ Day Part 2)

The French Superhero Team was awesome! Epic battle! But soon it was back down to our dynamic duo. That “You and me against the world, M’lady!” gets me every time! Adrien/Cat Noir always knows just wha to say to get her confidence back. And seeing the citizen of Paris join was amazing! We finally got a LB & CN VS Hawkmoth battle! Now that Natalie has joined his side, things are going to get hard. MARINETTE FINALLY KISSED ADRIEN *on the cheek*! But that’s still something. And his speech for her was so sweet. He really appreciates her. A nice wrap up!

[purrincess-chat]

Cat’s Updated Episode Ranking as of S4

I want you all to know that last time I did this, I titled the word doc “why did I do this” and I titled this one “why did I do this again.” 106 episodes, you guys. 106. Don’t ever ask me for anything ever again XD We didn’t give number ratings this time because I didn’t feel like braining that shit tonight, but I feel like this ranking is more accurate than the first and not just because it includes all of s4 this time. I re-evaluated my old one and moved some things around. I feel better about this one. 

As always, these are just my personal opinions, and if you don’t like them, MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN LIST

1.     Origins II

In looking back at my original ranking, a lot of episodes moved, but this one is still and I think always will be king. This was the last episode of s1 that I watched originally, and it is the one that has left the longest lasting impression. The rest of the episode is fine. It’s a good set up, but anyone who has followed me for like two days knows that I am a S I M P for the umbrella scene. In the Rain is literally on my spotify playlist. I listen to it in the car and get in my feelings. I was already on board with these two dorks, but that moment was when I went yep. We’re in it now. We’re gonna see these two nerds kiss if it’s the last thing we ever see.

2.     Riposte

As I mentioned, some episodes moved around when I went back to evaluate my original list, and I just really like Riposte. Kagami is such a compelling character. I have loved seeing her development over time. The Ladrien in this episode was just *chefs kiss* Adrien jumping in to save LB, “maybe he’s busy,” the coffin thing, the soft little way she kisses the coffin, the awkwardness at the end where Adrien is like I desperately want to say something- ANYTHING to you because I want to spend as much time with you as possible, the little kiss he blows at the end. I’m fucking whipped for this episode.

3.     Gorizilla

Okay, I feel like Riposte is a bit stronger overall, but Gorizilla still makes me absolutely feral. Don’t get me wrong, Adrinette is my favorite side, and I love loved the Adrinette here, but the motherfucking Ladrien trust fall, and the absolute awe that Adrien looks at LB with when she catches him and just the softness when they land on the ground for that split moment of “holy shit I almost died, but you’re so amazing and beautiful and I love you so much wow” just I am soft, you guys.

4.     Mr. Pigeon 72

If any of you have paid attention to anything I’ve ever said or written ever, this one being this high shouldn’t be a shock to you. It’s the umbrella scene 2.0 first of all, and don’t get me wrong I love that for us, but the Marinette and Kagami friendship this episode. Marinette just leaping onto Kagami, bribing her mom with bread and just stealing her, and Kagami being so stone faced the whole episode but just letting her wacky friend drag her along on an adventure even when she’s not listening. When Adrien BONKS HIS LITTLE HEAD. Plagg helping with the akuma! The sheer absurdity of Mr. Pigeon being akumatized 72 TIMES! Yall, we really lived in this episode.

5.     Simon Says

Is anyone surprised that all the pivotal Adrinette/Ladrien episodes are the ones I love the most? I originally ranked Simon Says higher for nostalgia’s sake, and it is still a very solid episode for being the OG Ladrien episode and giving us the ever iconic shower scene. Legit one day my niece was watching this episode in another room and I came out of the woodworks like a fucking cockroach and was like L a d r i e n???? Plus, Gabe almost played himself. Doesn’t get much better than this, folks. I watched this episode and said, yes ma’am, I’ll have one of those about Ladrien. We’ve been fighting the antis ever since.

6.     Stormy Weather

I originally ranked this one higher because it was baby’s first Miraculous episode, and this one is still super solid, but I have since come to appreciate other episodes more. Don’t get me wrong, I still adore this episode. The animation was crisp, it gave us a good intro to the characters, their relationships and dynamics, the world, the set up. Stormy Weather is a cool villain with a cool design. Just all around a good time to be had by all.

7.     Evillustrator

I feel like this episode might have surprised people in my original ranking because of my general feelings toward MC and MC stans, but like I honestly started out in s1 liking MC the most. I thought Evillustrator was funny. I loved their “introduction” to one another. I loved the sass, the pretending, the eye rolling. I like this episode. I like MC (in canon). It’s the fandom that has always been my issue with MC. Just not a lot of good takes floating around about it. But Evillustrator is good.

8.     Backwarder

So, I was chatting with Gale about this list after I did it, and I sent him my top and bottom 10 and he was most surprised by this episode. But then he remembered: I’m a Fu stan. Honestly, how he is controversial in this fandom is still beyond me, but like I really liked Fu as a character. He and Marinette had such a sweet dynamic, and this episode just brought so much more to his character. Ever since he was introduced and revealed to be super old and the last remaining guardian, there was such an air of intrigue around him. We will talk about how they botched his plot line later, but I loved getting a peep into his life here and getting to meet the girl he fell in love with and seeing that she’s a fucking badass. I enjoyed her power and the lucky charm use of this episode was one of Ladybug’s best, imo. I loved this episode. Sue me.

9.     Strike Back

I didn’t love this episode as much as Gale, but I will still agree that it is the strongest finale we’ve had so far. I plan to give my overall impressions of s4 later, but I will say that this finale made everything in s4 worth it. I think a lot of us were very worried going into this finale, but to me, the finale ebbed a lot of my fears for s5. Hawkmoth having all the Miraculous is just not a threat because we know Gabe is incompetent. I mean, it took a 14 year old literally doing all of the work for him and handing him victory for him to get anywhere. The mans is absolutely gonna get his shit kicked in in s5, and I’m here for it. I’ll talk more in depth about this finale in my s4 analysis eventually, but I liked it. It was good, and is the strongest finale we’ve had to date.

10.  Kwamibuster

I’m a Marinette stan. What else can I say?

11.  Chat Blanc

I know this one is generally the fandom’s favorite, and I do like CB. I think what I tend to look for in my favorite episodes are those moments that really grab me. This episode is interesting from a meta standpoint when you start looking at the deeper implications of it, but a lot of my enjoyment of this show can be summed up with “heheh bug girl like cat boy.” I mean, my top 5 episodes are literally all the most shippy episodes. I know what I’m about. Chat Blanc is a good episode. I will never deny that. Please, put down your pitchforks because it didn’t crack the top 10.

12.  Gang of Secrets

I originally ranked this one higher, I think because of how it initially shocked me. I was so jaded going into s4, and this episode was a breath of fresh air. I mean, them breaking up the rivals immediately at the start of the season was funny to me, but this episode really had the impact I’d been looking for. Alya learning her identity was a game changer in a way the rivals never could have been. We knew from the start that the rivals were destined to fail, but what we didn’t know was if anyone would ever learn their true identities, especially before they did. I said it before, but GoS was the episode that made me say, “Damn, is Miraculous good again?”

13.  Despair Bear

Listen, does this episode rank this high because of the Adrinette slow dance? Don’t @ me, we all know the answer. BUT I still like this episode, even retroactively knowing where Chloe ends up. Chloe’s arc being scrapped or botched or whatever you want to think/say/feel about it is another conversation, but overall, this episode was fun for more reasons than one… but ya know. It was mostly for the Adrinette slow dance…

14.  Oblivio

This one shockingly moved down for me from my original list. And like, not to say I don’t like this episode, I do. It’s ranked 14/106 for crying out loud, but I dunno. I like the implication that they will always find each other and fall in love no matter the circumstance, but all of their sweet moments get erased in the end, so they don’t remember. We remember, but I want them to remember. Ya feel me?

15.  Furious Fu

Fu stan. That’s it. That’s the tweet. This episode was controversial for a number of reasons, but idc. As angry as I am about what they did to Fu, I can’t lie and say I’m not happy to see him happy and thriving with Marianne. Fu is out here getting the rest he deserves and living his best life. Can’t be mad.

16.  Kuro Neko

This episode conflicts me. Like on one hand I like it a lot, and I objectively view it as better than the episodes that follow it, but overall I’m not as obsessed with it as the rest of the fandom. Cat Walker is fine, and this episode gave us an interesting look into Adrien and the way he approaches everything and gives us a good dive into his relationship with Plagg, but I think this episode is soured a bit by the overarching LadyNoir drama this season. It’s bittersweet. But objectively, with the function that this episode serves, I couldn’t rank it lower than this. Plus I totally called the ending.

17.  Gabriel Agreste

This episode is 100% ranked this high because Felix is the most competent bitch in this whole show. I know everyone is all on their sides about Felix. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? (personally I say neither, but that’s a convo for another day). But like Felix really was that bitch this episode. This episode really saved him for me, I think. I was originally meh about him, but he just really has his own agenda and wanted to fuck up his uncle, and we gotta respect that.

18.  Startrain

Cat, is this one ranked so high because of the Adrine- YES, IT’S RANKED THIS HIGH BECAUSE OF THE ADRINETTE. I am a weak bitch who falls for every carrot this show dangles! Let me enjoy them in peace. But that being said, I also did like that Lila gets thwarted in this episode, Alya and Nino investigate like heroes, and Max and his mom are precious and I sincerely miss when canon gave focus to the new heroes of the episodes instead of cramming them all into one.

19.  Ephemeral

Gale and I had a lengthy discussion about this one. I’ll let him voice his own comments on it, but for me, this episode was fine. I feel like of the two “reveal” episodes, Chat Blanc was better, but I was telling Gale that I see the fake reveal episodes as a kind of check point for the love square. It gives us a way of checking up on them and seeing “if the reveal happened now, what would our kids do?” Things were a lot peachier in Chat Blanc because they had less on their plates. Ephemeral was an interesting look into the love square dynamic of s4. Granted, the reveals themselves are different too between the two episodes, but it’s an interesting look at the characters and how they view each other. Marinette being Ladybug isn’t a real stretch of the imagination for Adrien because he thinks very highly of both. Ladybug, on the other hand, thinks Adrien and Chat Noir are two very separate people. She tries very hard to keep them separate in her mind, so when she finds out that the boy she is madly in love with is actually her very dorky partner that she has put a lot of mental effort into not being in love with, she needs a minute. And that’s not to say she views Chat poorly, but just that she would not have pegged him to be Adrien. It’s overall, an interesting take as well on the main conflict between them the whole season: Marinette’s mental block. The whole season she spends pushing him away, lying, trying to scrape her shit together herself, and that’s not shade at her by any means, but just a journey she needed to go on to grow. I dunno. I’ll talk more about all of it later, but this episode was interesting enough to me that I can overlook its flaws.

20.  Sandboy

This episode was chaotic, and I absolutely love Sandboy’s aesthetic. The possibilities here are endless. It was just fun.

21.  Origins I

This episode probably took the biggest hit in my re-eval, and that’s not because it’s a bad episode, but I think I ranked it far higher than I truly felt originally. I love Origins II and will die for the umbrella scene. Origins I was also good, but the umbrella scene is what really tipped II over the edge. Origins I did a good job for what it was, and I liked that the heroes were not immediately successful. But overall, this episode was just setting up for Origins II, and a lot of other episodes out rank it now for me.

22.  Gamer

People salt on Gamer, but I had a good time. There’s a lot to like about it, yall are just mean XD

23.  NY Special

Again, I had a good time. I watched this originally in Disney World, so that may have colored my opinion, but like it was fun. Good moments, cool concepts. The Adrinette was absolutely chefs kiss. We thought they were gonna hurt us with the Adrinette in s4, but really it was the LadyNoir. They did a heckin uno reverse.

24.  Risk

I liked Risk. It didn’t give the same punch as Strike Back, but as a set up episode for Strike Back, it was solid. I love the Adrinette moment and hope that continues in s5. I’d love to see Adrien leaning more on Marinette and deepening their friendship leading into a reveal. And that 100% is because I am a selfish Adrinette simp. We’ve been over this.

25.  Glaciator 2

If Adrien doesn’t tease Marinette in the future for calling him Buttercup this episode will have been for nothing. Jk, but it was pretty cute. I liked it more than the original Glaciator, and I love that it spat in the faces of all of the true selves people. Just directly into their mouths. I enjoyed that very much.

26.  The Collector

This one moved down a lot too, but it’s another one that I think I gave too much credit originally. It’s a good episode, don’t get me wrong. It started s2 off strong. I liked it. Back when we had hopes and dreams. We were so young.

27.  Sapotis

Sapotis was a solid ep. And it’s better in retrospect after GoS because Alya did in fact help Ladybug after finding out her identity.

28.  Psychomedian

I find it hilarious that the ambassadors and writers were all like ehh this episode is just okay. The others are better. And then it aired and everyone in the fandom was like YEEHAW. I love that about us. We were so torn up about the LadyNoir drama going on, so the one little taste of normalcy we got we ate up like hungry badgers. Honestly, this episode airing as late as it did was probably for the best. We needed it. I also love that no one makes Adrien laugh like Marinette Dupain-Cheng. And that Gabriel totally fucked Harry Cl-

29.  Christmaster

I still think this episode is funny. Just pure comedy. And Ladybug 100% is the best kid in the world. Facts.

30.  Weredad

I still think someone on the writing team secretly reads fanfiction. There is no other explanation for this episode.

31.  Lady Wifi

The LadyNoir moment at the end where he respects her and doesn’t look. My actual heart D:

32.  Dark Cupid

We all know why this one is here

33.  Volpina

Back when we thought Lila had potential to be something and that everyone would know she was a liar after this. What fools we were. That being said, the LadyNoir/Ladrien dooooooooooor. Second best season finale after Strike Back.

34.  Glaciator

I still cannot believe a whole ass man got akumatized because a girl didn’t want his ice cream. But the MC was nice I guess. And the LadyNoir at the end with the bluuuush

35.  Hearthunter

Just all around solid Adrigaminette pure guy and gals being pals. We love to see it.

36.  Timetagger

I actually liked Timetagger. He and Bunnix were so sassy together. Also Alix is a real one.

37.  Zombizou

People didn’t like this episode, and I still don’t know why they salt on Bustier for this? Like I do, but I don’t. Sure, she should have addressed Chloe’s behavior, but at the same time I get the impression that Bustier is trying to be a positive female role model in Chloe’s life seeing as she doesn’t get that in her mom. Had the writers actually intended to redeem Chloe fully, this episode might be more impactful, but in retrospect it does lose a bit of credibility. But this whole episode was basically every zombie apocalypse movie ever made, so it was actually kinda funny to me. All the Bustier salters need to touch grass.

38.  Shanghai

I enjoyed this special. Yeah, it was gimmicky, but I like Fei and the boy squad. And the Adrinette was adorable. Adrien was so happy to learn she was in Shanghai too. And Gabriel getting bodied by his own akuma. 10/10.

39.  Miraculer

Seeing as they uno reversed Chloe’s development, I actually felt like this episode was well done. If they wanted her to lose faith in her hero, I think they did a good job here. Plus Sabrina finally got a fucking episode to herself.

40.  Lies

This one actually moved up a lot I think from last time. Or maybe Truth just moved down. Either way. I feel like the Adrigami ship was overall better handled as a whole this entire time. They had more believable chemistry. Kagami is more rounded, and her reasons for breaking up with him were more justified I think. Plus, Adrien didn’t try to deny her accusations or invalidate her feelings. And Kagami didn’t push Adrien’s boundaries either. She could have asked why he kept running away from her, but she just accepted that maybe he didn’t feel the same way about her as she did about him. Idk. I just feel like their breakup was better rationalized and handled.

41.  Hacksan

Listen, I love LB, but I would love to see Scarabella and Chat Noir have their own adventures. Like nothing serious. Maybe Ladybug lets Alya borrow the Ladybug to go on patrols every once in a while when she’s tired or overwhelmed. That’s all I ask. Also all of Marinette’s tips for Alya XD

42.  Qilin

I liked this peep into Sabine’s character. I’ve wanted more on her parents for a while, and while Sabine is kind of a caricature of Chinese culture at times, I like that she is so aware of her daughter and seeing how she loves and takes care of her. Also we stan a queen that just wants to do the right thing and who doesn’t have time for bitch ass moth men.

43.  Rocketear

This episode ranks this high specifically for Nino and his bubble pipe calling Chat Noir a slut to his face.

44.  Mayura

Blah, blah, something something Adrinette cheek kiss. The rest of this episode was just okay.

 *This next section will be mostly one-liners that sum up my feelings cause we’re getting into the “ehh, this is fine” section:

45.  Ikari Gozen

We stan Kagami

46.  Malediktator

Chat being a cat, and Chloe was there too I guess

47.  Anansi

Didn’t care for Nora but Carapace can stay and also Alya said I see you

48.  Gigtantitan

Marinette said bone apple teeth XD

49.  Party Crasher

The true definition of boys will be boys

50.  Reflekdoll

Didn’t hate this one as much as Gale

51.  Desperada

Adrien please go to therapy

52.  Oni-chan

Kagami said: then perish

53.  Frightningale

Clara is a teen pop idol who is very gay for Marinette Dupain-Cheng thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

54.  Style Queen

Audrey is the more entertaining bitchier version of Gabriel

55.  Gamer 2

I need LadyNoir video game dates like yesterday

56.  Dark Owl

Mr. Owl is the hobby Gabriel should have gotten after his wife died instead of turning into an actual villain.

57.  Sentibubbler

Alya being a competent bitch.

58.  Troublemaker

Very cringe but in a good way?

59.  Reflekta

I would like to adopt (1) Juleka Couffaine

60.  Timebreaker

“TWO LADYBUGS” Chat keep it in your pants

61.  Dearest Family

Sabine was the only valid one this whole episode also I would like too see badass biker Marinette with tattoos and a leather jacket in the future. Thank you.

62.  Optigami

Adrien thinks Marinette is absolutely feral (affectionate)

63.  Prime Queen

Lady “of course I’m not dating my cute little kitty why would you assume that” bug

64.  Silencer

Chat Noir really sucks at charades.

65.  Syren

Ondine deserves the world and I hope she comes back from the war eventually as Kim’s gf

66.  Befana

The animation was shit but the lucky charmssssssssss

67.  Reverser

68.  I actually don’t hate Nath after this, and again Alix is a real one

69.  Mime

This episode ranking this low feels like a crime because of the iconic Ladrien stare, but overall it was just fine.

70.  Felix

Didn’t care for Felix at first, but he grew on me. Also Chat being like lol, you’re a friendless loser, aren’t ya? Was pretty funny.

71.  Mr. Pigeon

Marinette being a competent bitch

72.  Queen Banana

Chloe’s movie was better.

73.  Sole Crusher

I’d like Zoe more if she wasn’t very obviously just a Chloe replacement and they tried a little less hard to make everyone like her.

74.  Truth

The blue boy was in the wrong, but his stans aren’t ready for that convo. I had fun at the breakup bash tho

75.  Guiltrip

Julerose stans come get yalls milk

76.  Princess Fragrance

Rose is a bisexual queen

77.  Copycat

Mean Girl’s principal voice: Stay away from underaged girls!

78.  Crocoduel

Listen, I love Juleka, but I did not care about the plot of this episode.

79.  Bubbler

Nino is the goodest boy, and I had fun rewriting this one in my enemies AU.

80.  Animan

Otis, please go to therapy.

81.  Robostus

Do you guys remember when I wrote that fic where Markov marries Alix’s watch lady? I think about that sometimes.

82.  Ladybug

RIP Sentibug

83.  Catalyst

This ep was lowkey boring to me

84.  Puppeteer

One of Ladybug’s most badass moments for sure

85.  Pixelator

Jagged just get a restraining order, man

86.  Horrificator

I love Mylene, but I tend to skip this episode. It’s not bad, and I love that Adrien was 100% ready to kiss Marinette. That’s why it outranks the other s1 eps below this, but I almost always skip this one.

87.  Pharaoh

Jalil please go to therapy.

88.  Kung Food

They should have let Chloe boil in the soup. Would have saved them a looooot of problems later

89.  Megaleech

Polymouse is cute, but like I need the show to decide if Andre is good or bad.

90.  Rogercop

Roger is not a great cop tbh

91.  Guitar Villain

I think we as a fandom should talk more about how Adrien has Marinette’s autograph.

92.  Dark Blade

M. D’Argencourt please go to therapy.

93.  Penalteam

Hey, remember when they used to give the characters their own focus episode before giving them superpowers?

94.  Bakerix

Still don’t care that much about the racist grandpa.

95.  Simpleman

The kids were the best part of this episode.

96.  Christmas Special

This episode is cursed, but I kind of ironically enjoy it. Not enough to listen to Bryce “singing” again tho

Bottom 10!!! My worst of the worst

 97.  Puppeteer 2.0

I cannot stomach this episode. I am not strong enough. I even forget that there is Ladrien in it sometimes. That’s how much I’ve tried to blot the scene from my memory.

98. Frozer

I feel like this episode made no sense at times. And I know I’m not alone in this. Like everyone this episode was just off.

99.  Stormy Weather 2.0

Still didn’t need to exist. Nothing was gained.

100.  Wishmaker

Listen… Listen…. Listen. Overall, the premise was okay. My feelings for this episode will greatly depend on how the ending is handled in the future. I’ll reserve some of my comments until then.

101.  Queen Wasp

Seriously, why did we give Chloe a Miraculous after this?

102.    Animaestro

The fact that I had to watch this episode with my own two eyes is a crime. Like Thomas did not have to stroke his own dick like this. Nothing was even gained from this ep either. Forever skip. Or idk maybe watch the first half.

103. Captain Hardrock

Anyone who has been here a while or seen me talk about Birthdaygate knows why I don’t like this episode.

104.    Antibug

I’ve talked about this at length before, but this episode has always irked me. Chloe literally lied to Ladybug and stalled their investigation, so of course Ladybug wasn’t going to trust her immediately after when she decided to tell the truth. I hate that they made Ladybug apologize for “not believing” Chloe because she didn’t deserve to be believed.

105.   Miracle Queen

Worst of the season finales. For a number of reasons, but mostly for what they did to my mans Fu. Go live your best life tho, king.

106.   Chameleon

This episode has sparked so many Lila salt fics out of me, and while I do think it is in general everyone’s worst episode. Like no one had braincells in this episode. Probably the worst written episode if I had to pick one, but it didn’t fill me with quite as much rage as my worst rated episode.

107.   Feast

I feel like I expressed myself pretty well the first time, so I’ll just copy and paste my original rant: Okay, okay, okay, here we are. Bottom of the barrel. Cat’s most hated episode, and you wanna know why? You want to know why this episode fills me with rage? Because we spent two fucking seasons building up all this mystery and lore and intrigue surrounding Fu’s big mistake, and they dropped the fucking ball! They did my mans so dirty! They could have really deepened his character, deepened the Order, deepened anything other than whatever fucking affair Gabriel and Nathalie have going on, but NO. They made it some stupid, bland-ass thing that got resolved magically in the end, then just ignored it for the rest of the season. I will never not be salty about how they did my boy Fu in this show. I’m happy he found his peace, but fuck if I’m not livid about how they did it. Whatever. Chat being done with Ladybug’s shit when they’re about to get eaten was funny I guess.

[gabrielsagresticles]

Animaestro Sucked, But Here’s What It Tells Us About ML

I know the fandom is having seriously mixed feelings about season 3, and between episodes like Animaestro and Chris Master, I can see why. They feel random, pointless, and completely disconnected from the rest of the show, with regressive, out-of-character behaviour from the cast, particularly Marinette. While season 1 did an amazing job of introducing us to the characters and showing us how their worlds widen, with Adrien learning to be part of a team, and Marinette learning how to lead, season 2 showed us how the bonds between characters, even outside the lovesquare, deepened. Season 3 hasn’t made such a clear mark yet, starting off with an episode that counters the growth of season 2, and most recently giving us a Marinette & Chloe team up, only to have it be very mean-spirited and revert back to square one... yeah, I was tasting that ML salt too, and in the midst of complaining about it, landed on a point I hadn’t considered before: perhaps Miraculous Ladybug isn’t about what I thought it was about. I’ve heard before that choices I don’t like and growth I find distasteful isn’t the same as bad writing, but never did I take it to heart as much as I did in that moment. So what is ML about? What is the growth that these characters are building to?

First of all, let me disabuse you of the notion that it’s about superheroes or about defeating Hawkmoth. It’s not, and I doubt you’d still be here if you thought it was. How much has the cast discovered about Hawkmoth since the beginning of the show? Say it with me, kids: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. We have a brief moment where Marinette zones in on Gabriel, someone even the littlest of kids has known is Hawkmoth since episode 1, and then it’s rapidly dismissed and the status quo is reverted. If you’re here for the superhero plot, this looks very bad, so I assume if you stuck around this long, you know the show isn’t about that. Especially since we, the audience, have it confirmed for us in that same episode that yes, Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth, while the two titular characters are stuck trying to figure it out. Meanwhile, we have learned next to nothing about the miraculous or kwamis, despite the fact that Tikki and Plagg are literally kwamis and Master Fu has become a more regular cast member. This is not a show about discovering secret powers or defeating an external evil. If it was, we’d have gotten more information, more mysteries, more substance to chew on.

 But you knew that. That’s probably why vast majority of us in the fandom treat this show like a romance. We want to know what will happen with the lovesquare, we rejoice in seeing the infrequent indulgences into Marichat or Ladrien, we all weep for joy when DJ Wifi get screentime, and we delight in imagining how Marinette and Adrien will discover each other’s identities and fall in love. We love (or love to hate) Kagami and Luka. Besides, romance stories have been criticized for ages about their seeming lack of plot, or how the plot only serves to act as a backdrop for two characters falling in love. In a story that is ostensibly about superheroes, and yet gives us none of that superhero plot and lots of tender moments between the different sides of the lovesquare... it sure seems to be falling into that pattern, right?

 And that’s where I went wrong. I thought that if defeating Hawkmoth wasn’t the main plot of this show, that Marinette and Adrien falling in love was. But how can it be, when they’ve been in love since episode 1? If at any moment, their identities were revealed, they wouldn’t hesitate to become a couple. There is no actual will-they-won’t-they tension between the sides of the lovesquare. The only problem is that they don’t know who the other really is. And that is the problem at the heart of Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette and Adrien don’t know who they are. Not who the other is, who they are. The real focus of this show is Marinette’s growth as a person, her journey to accepting and trusting herself.

 So let’s take a look back at Animaestro: Marinette offers to distribute macarons at the premiere of Ladybug & Chat Noir: The Movie because Adrien will be there and she wants to give him a special macaron, but discovers he’s there with Kagami and even Chloe can’t get close to them. Chloe and Marinette decide to team up to humiliate Kagami to get her out of the way, and this is where the episode goes off the rails and upsets most fans. It’s a gross display of pitting girls against each other to win a man’s love, it’s contrary to how Marinette has acted in the rest of the show, and it betrays Chloe’s character development, or at least what we want from her arc.

 I tried to look at this decision in as many different ways as I could. On the surface, it betrays the message of the show, and that’s highlighted by what Chloe says to Marinette to make her join her side: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.” She reminds Marinette that she once said that to her, way back in Origins, when Chloe tried to make her sit in gum – the prank they attempt on Kagami deliberately mirrors this, forcing us to compare the two scenes. In Origins, Marinette becomes aware of the gum because Adrien is trying to take it off her seat. Even when it fails, Chloe and Sabrina laugh, and Marinette grouchily snaps at all three of them. In Animaestro, Kagami never becomes aware of the prank and avoids it by chance, but Marinette sports a guilty, surprised look at the last second. She doesn’t do anything, and later even sighs about the plan failing, but I like to hope that in that moment she didn’t feel like the good guy.

 We have to remember here that, although Chloe attributes the quote to Marinette, this isn’t an idea that came from her; she hears it first from Alya, who read it in a comic book about super heroes. Marinette becoming Ladybug initially has a lot to do with Alya: she’s so inspired by her strength and moral righteousness, she tries to hand the miraculous off to her, and only rises to the occasion when Alya is in danger. In fact, for most of the first two seasons, Marinette’s growth is lead by Alya. Who pushes her to be bolder with Adrien? To show up in places she knows he’ll be? Who pushes her to stand up to Chloe? I think Anansi made a good point in having Adrien and Marinette look longingly at the relationship Alya and Nino have: rather than look up to her own parent’s strong, cute relationship, Marinette longs to have what Alya has and to be more like Alya. But Marinette is not and never will be Alya, and the more she pines after what Alya has, the more lost she will feel, and it’s Kagami that actually points this out to her.

 “The only reason you can’t stay on your feet is your hesitation. I never hesitate.” So why are these words important, and why does Marinette hesitate? In the episode, it’s laid out quite simply: Marinette hesitates because she doesn’t know who to pick: Luka or Adrien. Except… there’s really no reason she would pick Luka, right? We know the girl is obsessed with Adrien and she barely knows Luka, so what is tempting about him at all? A lot of other fans have gone into deeper analyses of this than I will, but essentially, he’s tempting because he’s ready to return her feelings and Adrien isn’t. He might never be, and that’s a really painful thing to accept, even at 14. But who is it that insists that they’re soulmates? That there is absolutely more than friendship between them? Alya and the girls. If not for Alya, Marinette might have accepted her own words, that “maybe [they’re] just meant to be friends.” She might have gone on a date with Luka without glancing over and Adrien, and she might have had a good time. But she hesitates because Alya has always been right, she always knows what to do, she has an amazing relationship and she’s good at everything Marinette feels she isn’t (being brave, taking care of kids, romance, etc.). So she hesitates.

 And in her hesitation, she fixates on Kagami. Kagami is also good at so many things Marinette fails at: she’s coordinated, clever, and strong, but she’s not nice. She isn’t evil, she doesn’t lie, and if she hurts anyone, it’s not intentional, but she’s entirely focused on what she wants and how to get it, which certainly does hurt some feelings along the way. She sets her sights on a goal and works toward it until she gets it: failure is not an option, and you’d better move if you’re in her way. Kagami doesn’t behave like Alya and Marinette’s stereotypical idea of a hero/good person, and Marinette definitely casts her as a villain in her mind, even calling her an “ice queen,” yet Kagami reinforces the idea that “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing,” albeit in a more morally grey way. Kagami will never sit back and no nothing, she will always fight for the resolution she believes in, she’s just not really concerned with grand ideas of good and evil. She will never be a villain in the way that Lila, who lies to get what she wants, or Chloe, who hurts people to intimidate them into giving her what she wants, are and have been since their introductions. Nor do I think she resembles Hawkmoth, who thinks his wants come before others’ needs and expects the world to hand him a win. Likewise, I don’t think she will ever be as interested in abstract interpretations of truth and justice the way Alya is.

Kagami works hard, is honest, and growls before she bites. She rides a middle line between Marinette’s understanding of good and evil, yet still succeeds and is liked by Adrien, which baffles Marinette. It baffles her enough to make her lose sight of what good and evil are, because she’s never had a good innate sense of that to begin with. Marinette isn’t a morally righteous person, Alya is, but she’s a selfless person who will give herself up to help others, and that’s why she gets to be Ladybug. That is why Fu picked her, and that is what she must learn to love about herself. She never hesitated to save a life or to help an old man off the ground.

 To bring that back around to Animaestro, as much as I hate this continuing theme of pitting girls against each other to win Mr. Perfect (especially since Adrien plays into the oblivious man trope too well), I can see why and how it fits Marinette’s character to be led astray by Chloe. She doesn’t have a real sense of good and evil, or even justice, without Alya by her side. Marinette is lead by her desire to help and heal people, and in that moment, she thinks that Chloe and Adrien both need that help. No where in her plan would she have ever gotten to sit with Adrien, to supplant Kagami, or to “win” him over anyone else. She wanted to make him happy by giving him her special macaron and by getting the supposedly “evil” Kagami out of the picture, so she couldn’t hurt Adrien (or Chloe, who is obviously terrified of her). Bringing up that quote is exactly what Chloe needed to do to manipulate Marinette.

 When you think of the show as being not about becoming a hero or falling in love, but about growing into who you are as a person and learning to love yourself, the choices the writers have made for season 3 become a lot more understandable. Marinette is on a long path of self-discovery and self-acceptance, they’re not rushing her growth, and I think that’s okay. I think it’s great that her understanding of morality is becoming more complex and more personal, even if it manifested in ways I don’t like. ML going in directions I wouldn’t have taken it isn’t a bad thing, it’s not even something that will make me stop watching, it’s just a different thing, and one I’ll take pleasure in analyzing for as long as I can.

 Except Chris Master, that episode just sucked.

 (I was going to go on about Adrien, and how in both episodes, he tries to help a girl out by removing gum from a seat/shoe, but in Origins he gets snapped at, while in Animaestro he gets praised, and how that plays into his need for outside affirmations, but this is already extremely long.)

 Happy theorizing, everyone! 😊

[miraculous-romance]

Oblivio scenes

Since Oblivio caused a riot so much the fandom started writing, drawing, making edits etc, I have decided to write every scene in as much detail as possible. And also, for my own sanity since I don't want to rewatch this for the third time until they're REALLY official.

Ladynoir stuck in an elevator, remembering nothing

"Looks like you and I were at the same costume party"

"We must shop in the same jewelry store"

"Are we suppose to know each other?"

"I'd be surprised if we weren't"

Giant bugs and mice (hahahahha ohh Marinette), she went toward Adrien and held onto his shoulder

What we hadn't noticed the first time: Ladybug's FIRST Lucky Charm was A PEN so she could write a hint for her oblivious self

Kwamis get the same effect as their owners

Marinette tickling Tikki's belly while Adrien is holding Plagg (Tikki's cute laugh)

Tikki and Plagg went through the elevator doors

"we seem to be exceptional beings, unlike them"

Tikki went through the buttons and opened the doors

Adrienette running towards the stairs + Adrien slided a bit?

Trashed office

Hid in the bathroom

They both gave food to kwamis. Poor little creatures forgot how their favorite food tastes like!!

ID cards. Bowing when they introduce each other

Locked phones

They touched hands and blushed.

They were in a stall and jumped from one stall to another, finding a vent

"Wow Marinette. You seem like someone who always has the right idea at the right time."

Adrien tried helping Marinette get out of the vent. She fell on top of him. They laughed it off

"No handle. And the glass is tinted. They won't be able to see us."

Adrien tried tounlock his phone. Marinette blew on it and suddenly they could see the pattern?

Adrien thought he had a good father

While talking to her mother, Mari discovers she and Adrien are superheroes

They were going on a school trip at the Mount Pernos tower (pls somebody fix this, idk what's it called)

I have both good news and bad news. The good news is there are superheroes in the tower that will stop that supervillain. The bad news is WE'RE the superheroes and that thing that's chasing us is a supervillain! And we're supposed to be defeating it with superpowers we no longer have!!

They're sitting on the floor

"What about us? Do we know?"

I feel like we're more than just a superhero team

Do you think we're...

Marinette sees her wallpaper is Adrien. Adrien sees he has a Ladybug shrine. They both show each other their pictures.

Looks like it

Then we must've told each other everything

"I couldn't hide my identity from the girl I love" *insert blushy blushies*

Plagg leaves them. Tikki thinks he's a selfish being and a total coward.

"Ladybug. Chat Noir. We know you're in here. You won't get away this time. You remember your BFF Oblivio, don't you? Don't tell us you've forgotten us?" (funnily enough, they really ARE Ladybug's and Chat Noir's BFFs)

Purple guy with a left gun hand and right glove. Idk if this was a lazy or a genius villain design

Adrien said they should make a diversion, get out and take the emergency stairs

Marinette taped Adrien's phone so she could call him once the phone is far away enough from them

"No wonder I fell in love with you."

She used the paper to draw a donkey ahahahahah oml genius

Whar was the coffee mug for? Can someone explain it to me?

Oooh okay. Coffee talc. Like, they messed up their shoes and stuff

And Tikki opened the door below them so Dj Wi... I mean, Oblivio, would believe that they're dumb

Marinette hugged Tikki

"Lets go back to where we were. It's the last place they'll think of looking for us."

"THIS IS CALLED PSYCHOLOGICAL HARRASSEMENT!!!" says Plagg, seeing Adrien's posters everywhere

"You two make a very effective couple."

Oblivio made a big ass ball of obliviousness... I think.

"And stop calling us a couple."

Chat Noir was hit first. Ladybug gave the instructions to the Oblivio her KNOWING she will lose her memories too!!

Phone -> Turtle (I cannot believe some of you did not know what that means)

I cannot remember who I am or who you are. Oblivio has erased my memory. But I think I'm suppose to call you

You did the right thing. Is Chat Noir with you?

"Yeah. Well, Adrien actually." *Adrien is smiling!!*

Aah, you do know your true identities then.

We're not supposed to?

That's okay. The miraculous ladybugs will repair everything anyway.

*this is when they realized they are actually not a couple and are in love with each other's counterparts*

Fu told them how to transform.

Plagg felt a sense of worry for Adrien once he saw the big purple ball, remembering what Tikki told him.

The giant bubble that can erase the memory of everyone in Paris

Ladybug transforms

She accidentaly used her Lucky Charm

"What am I supposed to do with this? Make teeeaa??"

Adrien encouraging Ladybug,

Marinette. I wanna fight beside you. If we're a couple then we'll be stronger... Together.

Sadrien. He's sad he can't help her out

"But most of all I wouldn't want anything to happen to you. I'm starting to understand how much you mean to me Adrien" *Ladrien cheek kiss*

"Please stay there. Ladybug is here to protect you." (how come nobody's discussing THIS?!)

"Woaah. I don't need any memory to know that I love that girl."

Box Noir. Chat Box. Idk man, this shit was genius.

"What does your power do exactly?"

"Apparently I can destroy anything I touch."

"Then stay away from me if you don't mind."

"That's not gonna be easy Ma-lady."

*Mari laughs*

"I've got no idea what the Hakuna Matata is, but I trust you."

She used the tea... thingy to get their right hand stuck

Cataclysm on yo hand!!

Aaaand you know the rest. They realize they won't remember they fell in love, Chat says "with your permission m'lady", they kiss, held hands, Alya took a picture of them, then held each other one last time before they remembered everything, Chat teases Ladybug and laughs, Ladybug says "that's right. Laugh all you want. Hey, what sre you doing?", sees the picture, is in shock, go back home, Mari's dead, Adri's dead the rest is history!!

Oh and also Super Pinguido is a euphemism for making out!!

[words-writ-in-starlight]

for the spotify meme, what about... mmmm, either 42 or 93 for ladynoir (or adrinette or ladrien or marichat), whichever one works best?

I actually gave a plot rundown of this AU in this epic post of Tam Lin AU’s, so here is a scene instead.

93: Long and Lost - Florence + The Machine

all those bridges (now old stone)

Marinette prides herself on being a hard worker, on being someone who can be relied on and trusted, on getting things done.

However.

It’s the last gasp of summer, the sky blue barely edged with grey clouds promising rain, and her embroidery isn’t holding her attention nearly as well as it usually does.  She’s finishing a dress for the lady of the castle, the very first one she’s made entirely on her own, and she’s hoping to have the paneled skirt and the delicate red coils done in enough time to do a final check of the sizing before Alya’s birthday.  It takes some doing, keeping a secret hidden from the nobility that commands Marinette’s home, but she has eighteen days left and her best friend remains oblivious--despite the twins’ best efforts to get it out of her.

The fourth time Marinette catches herself holding the needle halfway through a stitch, staring out the window instead of focusing, she huffs in disgust and tosses the whole affair down, needle and all.  Her window is open, to bring in the sweet smell of ripening crops and the first edge of fall, but right now, as she leans out the edge, all she can smell is the heavy perfume of the roses on Carterhaugh.

The flowers bloom twice a year, once at the start of summer in June, and once just as summer dies and the leaves start to turn, in late September.  The field would be perfect for real crops--so close to the castle that it would make an ideal vegetable garden, broad and sweeping, but no one touches the roses.  Marinette doesn’t remember how old she was the first time she was told not to go to Carterhaugh, not ever, because it presses up against the trees on its far side and the Folk might creep out and steal away pretty girls and boys for their revels.  Marinette is not, entirely, convinced that she believes in the Folk, but roses have thorns and she’s never felt the need to try her luck.

Today, though--today the sky is clear and the sun is warm for what will probably be the last time all year, the air buzzing gently with the rising activity of the harvest, and the scent of the roses makes her feel restless, as if her skin is suddenly ill-fitted around her bones.  Marinette wants to do something new.

Carterhaugh is new.

She tucks away Alya’s gift before she can think better of it, pins her kirtle up to keep it from catching too much on the roses, and walks in her sturdy boots all the way out to Carterhaugh.

It’s delicate business, picking her way through the rose shrubs without walking into them.  They’re just barely shorter than she is in some places, mostly hovering around her shoulder, their handsome red heads nodding to themselves in her wake.  She’s caught her kirtle on three thorny shoots already, little scratches on her legs and arms where they’ve caught her skin, but she’s not bleeding, and when she takes a deep breath, the taste of sun-warmed earth and roses in full bloom is so heady and thick she feels like she did when she snuck some mulled wine (and then some more) last winter.

It stills the restlessness in her blood, somehow, wandering through the roses, and when the sun begins to decline, finally, when Marinette has wasted the whole day on a whim--the idea of it makes her feel guilty and delighted in equal measure--she reaches out to snap off a bloom, thinking to take it home with her.  A gift for her mother after a long day of arranging the finer points of a castle’s functioning, perhaps, or maybe just to dry in her window as a tiny sample of calm from the last days of summer.

The thorns bite her properly, this time, but not badly, slipping through the skin of her palm where the muscle curves down to her wrist so cleanly it barely even stings.  She tucks the rose into the pocket formed by pinning her kirtle to her hip and puts her mouth idly on the puncture, to keep the blood from spilling down her wrist.

This is how Marinette will always remember the moment that her life changed, with a rose at her hip and blood on her lips, on the last day of summer with the sun setting over the castle.

“I believe that’s mine,” the voice behind her says, and it sounds more amused than anything else.  

Marinette whips around, eyes wide, and feels her heart stop.

He is--not quite right, she’ll say that much.  Not quite a human being, more like a sculpture made by a master craftsman working from a careful description of what a human being should look like.  His eyes are too wide and too angled, his cheekbones and wrist bones so sharp they look imminently about to press through his skin.  The hand she can see is so long-fingered as to appear spider-like, the tilt of his stance just a touch too loose.  The gold of his hair is richer than ripe wheat or a king’s crown, and when he smiles, the teeth that flash behind perfect pink lips are as even and white as a lady’s matched string of pearls.

He is dressed in a doublet and hose and cloak, all in black, and Marinette, a seamstress at heart, can’t help but note that the fabric’s movement doesn’t match what she can see of the make--the cloak looks like thick, warm wool, she would stake her apprenticeship on it, but it ripples and falls as sweetly as fine linen.  Somehow it is this that unnerves her the most.

Any boy can be too handsome to seem quite right.  But fabric is real, something she understands and handles every day, and to see it ignore the rules she understands--she doesn’t like that much.

“These--these roses aren’t yours,” she finally manages to stammer out, when she’s collected herself enough.  “The roses belong to Lord Cesaire, and after he dies they will belong to his daughter, and they have been in their family ever since the first rose bush was planted here, and,” she adds, warming to her theme, “I think it’s fairly arrogant of you to wander out of wherever you wandered out of to spook girls and lay claim to whatever suits you!”

The stranger in black watches her rant with a look of fascination, still smiling at her, and when she stops, his smile widens and he takes a step forward.  His eyes are--very green, at close range.

“You can call me--ah,” he pauses and gives a breathless little chuckle.  “Black Cat.  It’s my pleasure to meet you.”

“Marinette,” she says, and automatically offers him a tidy curtsy, because it seems like the thing to do.  The gesture makes her sharply aware of how much like a child she must look, her kirtle tied up above her knee and tugged ragged by the thorns.  But when she rises, he’s still smiling at her, looking very much like one of the castle cats watching an interesting ladybug, and he gives her a very proper bow in return, like she’s a lady of status.  “And,” she blurts as he straightens up, “I am taking this rose.”

This time, he laughs properly, and it rolls out through the roses like a living thing as he bends over, bracing his hands on his knees as his hair tumbles loose around his eyes.  Marinette hopes very much that she has not just signed her own execution orders with this stranger, as she has an excellent view of the inhuman points of his ears at this angle.

When Black Cat finally collects himself--and it does take a moment--he reaches out and closes his hand around the stem of another rose, careless of the thorns, and breaks it off.  He offers it to her with another one of those smiles.

“I will offer you a bargain,” he says.  “You wandered into Carterhaugh and argued with a stranger, so I assume no one ever told you not to make bargains with one.”

“You assume incorrectly, but go on.”  Something wild is humming through Marinette’s chest, like the air before a lightning strike, the same restlessness that drove her out to Carterhaugh in the first place, and when he looks a bit taken aback at her rudeness, she grins fiercely at him.

“You take your rose,” he says.  “You made me laugh--that’s payment enough to be going on with.  And you can have this one, too.”

“What’s the price?”

He twirls the rose between his fingers and smiles angelically at her.  “Come back tomorrow.”

Feeling reckless and daring and very much alive, Marinette snatches the rose out of his hands and earns a matching puncture on her other hand, this time near the base of her ring finger.

“Done,” she says, and tucks the rose next to its mate in her kirtle.

[mairunette]

Fun little ML fic idea

Somehow Adrien and Marinette become better friends over time which helps a lot with Marinette's shy nature towards him

Marinette's love for Adrien only deepens while Adrien starts to see Marinette as someone more than just a friend

Eventually he realizes he has a crush on her and has this internal crisis because oh my lady I am in love with two wonderful women I am the worst

He tries to squash his feelings down for Marinette because he's been in love with Ladybug for so long. Liking Marinette almost feels like cheating

But there are little things about Marinette that he can't help but swoon over

Like the way she would light up everytime she sees him walk into a room

Or the way her cheeks would gain a rosy hue whenever they are closer than usual

Or the way her smile brightens the whole room and draws everyone towards her

Or how she assures that everything would be fine with just one reassuring squeeze on his hand

As he comes to realize that he was truly falling in love with her, he's also made aware of how he doesn't stare after Ladybug leaves far longer anymore

Certain of his feelings, he tells Ladybug and apologizes and says that he found someone else

Ladybug is understanding and assures him that if he truly loved the girl, he shouldn't feel burdened that he had loved another before her

And so Adrienette ship sails (after multiple awkward Hot Mess Adrien Agreste fumbling in his words in asking Marinette out; Marinette was surprisingly calm during this whole exchange and had even helped him gather the courage)

Ladybug and Chat Noir still get along well and trust each other's back but their fans could tell that something had happened because Chat no longer kisses her hand (he still calls her "My Lady" out of habit; Ladybug raises an eyebrow each time as he stumbles over correcting himself because Chat has his own lady now, his princess)

Now the fun part

Marinette running towards an akuma attack and Chat has a mini heart attack because that's his sweet girlfriend and oh my god she's gonna get hurt--

Chat swoops in (nearly scaring the bajeezus our of her as she was about to transform) and scolds her, carrying her away, all while berating her over how she could have gotten hurt

After the attack Chat immediately goes to check on her and all is well, bickering back and forth (I was just fine, no you were about to become fish bait) and at some point he forgets he is Chat and starts flirting with her

Marinette's like, excuse you I have a boyfriend who's the most perfect person ever

Chat is just super floored and god he loves this girl

The same thing happens with Ladrien only Adrien says "look, I liked you and all but I have a girlfriend"

After that there's awkward tension between Ladynoir because how dare she/he flirts with me when we've both established we did't have feelings for each other

Alternatively,

The Umbrella scene doesn't happen because Marinette either has her own umbrella or Alya walks her home

Adrien tries to apologize the next day but is always thwarted by Chloe or Alya

When he does apologize (with the help of Nino, who feels sorry for his new friend coz it must be horrible to have two girls dislike him while Chloe clings to him like a koala, who explains it to Alya), it somehow doesn't have that big of an impact on Marinette as the Umbrella scene did

They still become friends albeit with slight awkwardness due to a bad start

And Chloe

Either way, they hang out quite a lot because they sit close to each other and Alya and Nino become friends as well

Meanwhile Ladybug starts to develop feelings for her partner (mainly due to his trust and support in her and partly due to his incessant flirting)

So Ladynoir partly happens

Partly coz while they both know the feeling is mutual and constantly flirt with each other, they have yet to make it official

That and the fact that they still don't reveal themselves to protect their civilian lives

I'd originally intended for these to be like hilarious fics wherein one side gets along well while the other they're up in each other's throats

But then Ladynoir's team dynamic would suffer and Adrienette would only make their friends feel super awkward if they don't get along well

So I opted for a just friends but also lovers idea

Plagg and Tikki are rolling on the floor laughing and making the biggest face palm of the history, respectively at both of these situations

P.S. About the not revealing part in the second one, yeah they like each other and all but first and foremost, they're both heroes. Ladybug is shown to be someone who takes everything she is tasked to do seriously with an almost no non-sense attitude aside from her and Chat's ocassional banter and half-hearted flirting. Plus we all know that Marinette's willing to lay down her love for Adrien if necessary (Bubbler and Riposte) so while she could be in love with Chat Noir, I don't think she will reveal herself just like that

[miraculous-blackchat]

On Glaciator..

So I’m gonna focus on the things that bothered me in this post because, come on, the fandom loved the Marichat/Ladynoir things that happened (and so did I).

But while the end result was very cute and fangirl-worthy, the way the episode was planned out actually bugged me.

So here goes my (probably) unpopular opinion:

The episode was kind of choppy in terms of writing. It was definitely more unrefined than other Love Square episodes, and other episodes in general. It felt rushed and broke my suspension of disbelief a couple of times.

With that said, I’m gonna point out the biggest things/issues I want to comment on, writing and storytelling-wise:

I think both Ladybug and Chat Noir messed up. He went ahead with the plans anyway and Ladybug, while making an excuse at first, left Chat with a very wishy-washy “we’ll see” at the end of the conversation. This gave Chat false hope to go along with it anyway. But on the flip side, she always felt he flirts just to flirt, and probably assumed nothing would happen unless she contacted him. I don’t blame her for that way of thinking, because that’s how she justifies his actions towards her. So it was a disaster waiting to happen on both sides.

Sorry guys, I loved the Marichat moment. A lot. But this broke my suspension of disbelief. Only because WE know the inner workings of the love square, but in-story, no one has a clue. Chat went to Marinette because they’re friends as civilians, so it goes without saying that he trusts her. But Marinette? She’s friends with him... as Ladybug. Outside of that, though, she has little to no established*** relationship to Chat except when saving her from akumatized victims. And banter. So why didn’t she question that Chat randomly came to her civilian form? AND TRUSTED HER WITH A LADYBUG LOVE CONFESSION?? Then, Chat takes the girl he’s not “supposed” to really be close to, to the place he wanted to take Ladybug. Marinette was also very quick to trust and wrap her arms around him.. and he, as Chat, didn’t notice that? If that honestly doesn’t (believably) give away some part of their identity to each other, I don’t know what does. Don’t get me wrong, I very much adored this scene, but I think this would have rolled off the tongue better after more Marichat relationship growth. The scene felt.. a bit forced. My initial reaction had me gawking at the screen like “WTF ARE YOU DOING, CHAT?? SHE DOESN’T ‘KNOW’ YOU THAT WAY AS CHAT.”

I was also bugged about how the misunderstanding was wrapped up. Chat/Adrien’s recovery felt too quick, to be honest.

I honestly expected Adrien at the end to be heartbroken to some degree, but hopeful. It broke my suspension of disbelief here too because anyone who hears the love of their life has their eyes on someone else would be DEVASTATED. I know it’s a kid’s show, but I think Adrien coming to his senses and telling himself that everything would be okay between them would have left a greater impression ON TOP OF appreciating their friendship. Right now he comes off as a kid that isn’t worried about competition or who that other person is because, FOR SOME REASON, he is confident enough to know she’ll be his?

Uhm??

Again.. why is the writing of the episode reflecting what the AUDIENCE knows, and not what is IN-STORY?

Also: The cheek kiss during the fight honestly didn’t feel to me like anything but part of Ladybug’s plan to confuse Glaciator. I don’t think she did it out of complete affection. I mean.. they’ve done this sort of stuff before lol.

Anyway, this may not be my best post, but these things bugged me.

***last side note: I want more Marichat. Like a lot more. I think it’s the least explored of the Love Square and has a lot of potential. Out of all the ships, this one, imo, is different because Marinette/Ladybug has to rely on Chat more than she usually does, and Chat has to protect a special person of interest aside from Ladybug. They need to have an episode where Marichat is the focus. This is why I think Rispote worked so well. Because Ladrien, the opposite ship, already has a believable foundation that interactions can grow from. Marichat really deserves its own episode. Because even with “Gamer,” Adrienette took more importance. And with “The Evilustrator,” the ‘biggest’ Marichat episode to this day, I still felt the ship was lacking. All Chat does is make plans to stop Nathaniel and then cuts the interactions short. Can’t they make an episode where Marinette is forced to talk to him passed the akumatized victim? LIKE JACKADY for Ladrien??

OKAY NOW I’M DONE

I’m really not looking to argue, but a discussion is more than encouraged. Thanks for reading! :)