#the other thing is that i have absolutely zero hand independence -- as in i can't play with both my right and left hands simultaneously

[safetycar-restart]

i wanna give subby lando a handjob to jus ease his mind. maybe it’s before an event and he’s all jittery and you don’t have enough time to take care of him fully by laying him down telling him to breathe through his anxiety so he has to settle for a hand down his pants (bonus point for when he sits on your lap, breathing into your neck and letting out the softest lil whines)

I... oh my god? I am ALWAYS down for soft hurt/comfort vibes and with lando? Absolute perfection. Anon you are a visionary.

So firstly, I think Lando loves to pretend he's all independent and strong (and bratty) but the moment you ask him if anything is wrong he will just crawl into your lap.

And another thing about Lando, he won't actually verbalise what's wrong until you've made him feel better. Until then he will just whine and snuggle against you and shake a little. He will give you absolutely zero clues as to what exactly he's feeling or what's wrong or what needs to be done to make him feel better. You must find all of this out by yourself.

Luckily, there is two fullproof methods that will always work with lando: laying him down and just kissing and cuddling his entire body and then letting him cuddle against you while you hold a vibrator to his cock and whisper praise into his ear. Or, if there isnt enough time for that, a hand down his pants. A hand down his pants will always make him feel better.

It especially works if he's nervous about an event, because often Lando's nervousness and anxiety will manifest in him just having this uncomfortable nervous energy that he just can't get rid of? You'll walk into the bedroom, expecting to Lando all dressed and ready for his event and instead he's just sitting on the bed, bouncing his leg and whining a little cause he's so scared and it's all wrong and he can't get himself out of this.

You don't have much time, so you have to go to for the hand down his pants option.

I also think when he gets like that, it's best to not even speak to him at first? Like you don't bother actually giving Lando an order, instead you just manhandle him. He's like putty in your hands, letting you move him however you want.

At first you position him next to you on the bed, wrapping a hand around his shoulders to hold him close and lowering your other hand to palm him through his sweatpants. He whines and buries his head in your shoulder, widening his legs so you can have better access.

You play with him like this until he starts begging for more, until you hear quiet little 'please...''s mumbled against your shoulder. Then you remove your hand and tell him to come sit on your lap.

He moves as fast as his little horny mind can make him and he just sits on your lap, his legs on either side of you. Naturally his head goes right back to hiding against your shoulder, because of course it does you must just allow him to hide at all times.

You slip your hand down his sweatpants then, stroking him and he lets out the cutest noises against your neck. Of course you would have far better leverage if you could take his sweatpants off, but you know from experience that if you ask Lando to do that then he will start crying.

So you just make do, playing with his cock in his sweatpants as he whines and shakes in your arms. At some point you start praising him, telling him how cute he is and how much you love him and how good he's being by letting you play with him.

You always know he's going to cum because his hips start moving against your hand. And then when he does cum, his whole body goes stiff and he goes dead silent, making a mess in his pants. The moment it's done though, he's shaking and moaning against you, mumbling thank you over and over again.

You have to clean him up quite quickly, because Lando doesn't like the feeling of drying cum in his pants. So you take off his sweatpants and clean him with a warm facecloth and then give him proper cuddles.

Once he calms down, he'll be ready to get ready for the event.

(And also he'll want another hand down his pants when he gets back because he was very brave at the event and now he deserves a reward)

[tagedeszorns]

I can't get on board with Threads. The sure amount of data-mining Threads does, along with the fact if you delete it you also delete your instragram account as well are instant bad vibes. Twitter might suck but a LOT of indie devs, small businesses and tons of artists relay on it. Having to pack up and try to get the same amount of attention on other social media sites isn't easy, livelihoods would be at risk if it does die.

Absolutely! Threads is just datamining.

But if it is drawing attention to the Fediverse, which has exactly zero datamining and zero ads, because it's not commercial and it's decentralised but connected, it's a good bridge for people still clinging to Twitter, to get off of Musks horrorshow.

The internet needs to go back to being publicly owned and non-commercial. If you are not the product (like you are on Twitter or anything Meta owns), you are independent.

The Fediverse has non-commercial alternatives for a lot of things: Lemmy for Reddit, Pixelfed for Instagram, Mastodon for Twitter, Peertube for YouTube, alternatives for Facebook or Wordpress, too. It's a decentralised internet but you can connect with everybody on any platform that uses the ActivityPub.

For example, people following me on Mastodon can also see, share, comment on my stuff on my Pixelfed-account or my bookreviews on Bookwyrm (the goodreads-alternative). As soon as Tumblr activates ActivityPub I will share my Tumblr-Posts as well. Or my Mastodon-posts on Tumblr. Whatever I want to.

So this whole decentralised web is a giant opportunity for small businesses to showcase their stuff to a very wide audience. But of course the big companies have not much interest in losing their advertisment-cattle to self-governed places, so there is a lot of marketing-fearmongering going on. It'll be hard to break this chokehold, but it is necessary, else small businesses and artists will be forever at the mercy of big money.

Also, the Fediverse is based on accessibility. It's made with disabled folks in mind - most people over at Mastodon use image descriptions, for example. Lots of space for queer folks, too. Plus - mostly European, so no "no nudity!!111"-religious-crap either! And the privacy-settings of the EU, that are much stricter than in the US.

Yes, I'm promoting this very hard, because I'm believing in the values of a free, accessible, anti-capitalist, non-religious internet. I want anarchy back. I don't want to be the milking cow of some corporations harvesting my data. The Fediverse has lots of risks, too. But they are minimal compared to putting your art, your thoughts, or - in case of a lot of transfolks - safety in the hand of some greedy billionaires.

Some links:

[animehouse-moe]

How I'm Tracking My Manga Reading Backlog

I'm bad at keeping up with reading sometimes. I'll read newer releases while still forgetting about some, want to re-read something even though I haven't started on another series, and leave droves of titles sitting on my shelves staring at me.

I got tired of that, and also tired of all these different tracking websites and apps that don't do what I want. So, with Notion and a few other tools, I've set out to make my own, and I like it! So I thought, hey, why not share how I'm doing it and see how other people keep track of their lists, so that's why I'm here. Enough rambling though, let me lead you through why I decided to make my own.

So, the number 1 challenge: Automation. In truth, it's far from perfect and is the price I pay for being lazy. But, I can automate a significant chunk of the adding process. I've yet to find a proper way to go from barcode scanning on my phone to my reading list, but I can go pretty easily from an amazon listing to the reading list. With it I grab: title, author, publisher, page count, and cover image.

So what do I use?

Well, it's a funky and interesting thing called 'Bardeen' that allows you to scrape webpages (among other things), collect and properly structure the desired information, and then feed it right into your Notion database. It's a little odd to try and figure out at first, but it's surprisingly intuitive in how it works! Once you have your template setup, you just head to the webpage (I've found Amazon the best option) and hit the button for the scraper you've built, and it puts it into Notion.

It saves an inordinate amount of time in populating fields by hand, and with the help of templates from Notion, means that the only fields left "empty" are the dated fields for tracking reading.

Thanks to Bardeen, the hardest (and really only) challenge is basically solved. Not "as" simple as a barcode, but still impressively close. Now, since the challenge is out of the way, how about some fun stuff?

Data visualization is incredibly fun for all sorts of people. Getting to see a breakdown of all the little pieces that make up your reading habits is very interesting. Sadly, Notion doesn't have the ability to build charts from your own databases, so you need a tool.

The one I ended up settling on was 'Grid.is', as it has a "direct" integration/embed with Notion.

Sure, it has its own "limitations", but they pose absolutely zero concern as to how I want to set up my own data visualization. You can have (as far as I know) an unlimited number of graphs/charts on a single page, and you can choose to embed that page as a single entity, or go along and embed them as independent links. Either way, the graphs are really great and there's a lot of customization and options in regards to them. Also, incredibly thankful for the fact that there's an AI assistant to create the charts for you. The way that Notion data's read in is horrendous, so the AI makes it infinitely easier than what it appears as at first.

And yes, all those little popups and hover behaviors are preserved in the embeds.

Well, I suppose rather than talking about the tertiary tools, I should talk about what I'm doing with Notion itself, no?

Alright, so, like all Notion pages it starts with a database. It's the central core to keeping track of data and you can't do without it. Of course, data is no good if you can't have it properly organized, so how do I organize it?

With tags, of course! I don't have a massive amount of tags in place for the database, but I am considering adding more in terms of genre and whatnot. Regardless, what I have for the entries currently is: Title, Reading Status (TBR, Reading, Read, etc.), Author, Format (manga or LN), Date Started, Date Completed, Pages, and Publisher.

In addition to those "displayed" tags, I have two tertiary fields. The first is an image link so that entries can display an image in the appropriate view. The second, and a bit more of a pain, is a formula field used to create a proper "title" field so that Notion can sort effectively (they use lexicographic, so numbers end up sorted as letters instead). This is the poorly optimized Notion formula I used, as I don't have much experience with how they approach stuff like this. It just adds a leading zero to numbers less than 10 so that it can be properly sorted.

Of course this list view isn't my default view though, the calendar from the top of this post is. Most of the time though, I don't have it set to the monthly view, but rather weekly. Following up that view though, I've got my "up next" tab. This tab's meant to track all the titles/entries that I'm about to read. Things I'm planning to read today, tomorrow, or the day after. Sorta a three day sliding window to help me keep on top of the larger backlog and avoid being paralyzed by choice. It's also the only view that uses images currently.

Following that, I've got my "To Be Read" gallery. I wanted to use a kanban board but notion will only display each category as a single column, so I chose this view instead, which makes it much easier to get a better grasp of what's in the list. I've been considering adding images to this view, but I need to toy around with it some more. Either way, the point is to be able to take a wider look at what I've got left in my TBR and where I might go next.

So overall, I've ordered these views (though the list view I touch on "first" is actually the last of the views) in order from "most recent" to "least recent", if that makes any sense. Starting with where I've finished, moving to where I go next, what I have left, and then a grouping of everything for just in case.

It's certainly far from a perfect execution on a reading list/catalogue, but I think personally speaking that it checks off basically all of the boxes I required it to, and it gives me all the freedom that I could ever want - even if it means I have to put in a bit of elbow grease to make things work.

[oaxleaf]

mag 117 - testament

if i were to rank all the episodes of tma, this would no doubt be in the top ten, maybe top five. i'm the kinda person who tends relistens to my favourite parts of things rather than the whole thing, and i have listened to this a good ten times. thus, expect this to be stupidly long

jon is showing a somewhat uncharacteristic display of spiteful self-destruction here, hoping that elias' plan doesn't work. he definitely has tendency to be spiteful and bitter, and as is pretty clear he doesn't exactly value his own life and safety very highly, but it's not very often those two traits are combined. what is significantly more characteristic, though, is extreme feelings of responsibility (which inevitably leads to guilt)

jon choosing to trust the others is one of my absolute favourite scenes throughout the whole show. there is such an emphasis on how the choices we don't know we make can end up destorying us, a sort of butterfly effect, but this is a total different type of choice. very deliberate, and something that is actually good for him. even before his breakdown he wasn't exactly a trusting person, so, like i have pointed out before in other posts, it's only really this trauma that drives him to this development

basira here has an odd type of self-realization. she finally snaps out of the type of mindless apathy she's been in for so long, the one that makes her bury herself in a book and ignore the world. she is so so close to understanding her flaws and comabtting them, since she does actually take more action from here on forward. yet, she does seem to miss the core of her issues, which is her unwillingness to be in anyway sentimental about or look deeper into things. she'll keep on moving with the same straight focus and practicality, something that will save her in the short hand but holds her back more and more as she is directly faced with more morally complex situations that she can't us logic or rationality to get out of

melanie is, in quite a few ways, pretty similar to tim here. a mixture of anger and depression and slowly giving up that really manages to capture me. i find a lot of relatable things in how she seems so used to things, but that doesn't make her less angry. just because she's been scrabbling and being trampled at the bottom of the ladder her whole life doesn't make things hurt less

she does, however, seem to try and find an identity beyond that. something which is really hard when the whole world seems to be against you. she tries to go beyond her anger and bitterness, and i think that is why she chooses to tell jon about her trip to india. she's not being compelled, after all, and has no actual reason to tell him. i think she just wants to try being vulnerable. at the end though, she retreats back to herself, defensive as always - a pattern she's repeated many times

martin really is on the verge of breaking. just like jon, he is someone who really prefers action to doing nothing, even if that's a trait he represses for a long time. here, for once, he gets to be independent. i think the most interesting parts of this are displayed in the next episode

daisy remains practical and uninterested as ever. even basira indulges jon in the tape recorders, but daisy never becomes all that captured with them. which i think is also part of why she makes such a good companion to him later on, but that's another tangent. simply, she acknowledges it but has zero interest in venting to it

the 'i have a feeling i'm not coming back from this' trope is one i always go feral for. it hurts so much but it's so good. tim has already pretty much given up here and there isn't much more to say about it. it's bitter and painful and we all know the end is near. i think the most interesting part is that, near the end, tim presents jon with a proper, head-on moral dilemma: will he have the guts to do what it takes? a question that sort of becomes meaningless when in the end jon is stuck in the unknowing and tim takes action into his own hands, but an interesting question nontheless. would he be able to do it?

and, finally, to me, jon burning gerry's page reads like a final act of rebellion before jon 'officially' looses his humanity to the eye post-unknowing. i don't think he would have been able to burn that page after waking up from his coma

[eolewyn1010]

For the OC Ask game: Willas and Vior - 🌻💐☄️

🌻 What little things do they notice about people or the world around them that make them happy? What tiny little treasures do they find in the normal every day that makes the world seem a little brighter for them?

That question is easy for Vior and difficult for Willas. Vior is a sunshine; he loves everyone and everything. He simply enjoys kindness, and travelling with the Roaming People for a while who lead a pretty simple life, he has witnessed and received a lot of small kindnesses and joys - people making blankets and repairing clothes for each other, sharing food, singing and playing each other's favorite songs by the fires, making up after an argument. He's a very social guy, and seeing / participating in people being fundamentally good just makes him feel all the fluffy feelings.

Willas doesn't really have an eye for small treasures in everyday. It comes with being this super-focused, highly professional general who's pretty single-minded regarding his duties. He would never admit it, but he's an absolute teddy bear for children; first the king's little sister Ninith and then the king's bunch of kids have wormed their way into his heart. He just likes seeing them carefree and playing, especially considering that being a royal kid comes with more than just privilege, and it makes him happy that Ninith is growing up a free spirit who develops a sense of right and wrong independently from strict etiquette and stipulations - Willas has a soft spot for headstrong people, and Ninith has always been his little princess.

💐 How does your OC handle being unwell or forced to rest in bed? Who cares for them and in what ways? Does your OC enjoy being doted on or are they a terrible patient? Reversed: is your OC good at taking care of others who are ill or in need?

Heh, that's one point where they actually may be similar - they are both terrible patients, albeit for different reasons. Vior simply can't sit still; it drives Willas insane to the point of, "can you just FUCKING lie in bed and drink your tea, or I'll sic a nurse on you!" Vior mopes not so much about being doted on and more about missing out on shit.

Willas, on the other hand, hates being taken care of. Also, who's gonna keep up the discipline among the soldiers, who's gonna do the paperwork in his absence!? Willas has zero chill, but lucky for him, he now has Vior in his life who is a very stern caretaker. (Ninith, the little bag of fleas, would rather keep him up even when he shouldn't be.) Incidentally, Willas is still a good caretaker in his own right. He doesn't have Vior's innate healer instincts or lighthearted attitude and is way more socially awkward, but he'll do anything for a loved one without hesitating, and he's good at acquiring whatever needed provisions.

☄️ Does this OC deserve better treatment from you? Do you make them suffer just a little bit too much? Be nice to them!

Vior is fine. He doesn't have many burdens, aside from the latent healer empathy occasionally being a lil' much, but he has a grip on that. I have put him into one seriously traumatizing situation, but he's gotten away without the worst possible consequences and is coping. He starts to take some aspects of life more seriously after that, so no, I don't think I make him suffer too much.

Willas... eh, yeah, I've definitely put A Lot on him. The war was long, his family is not great, and that religious conflict reinforced by his shithead of a brother was harsh. Sorry, Willas! Here, have a loving boyfriend and a Chosen Family.

[mushygreybrainmatter]

I always have more to say about Miles' disappearance, however you choose to interpret it. Obviously, for Miles, it was good, it was healing, and he was able to come to terms with himself in a way he was never able to before. That's great. Good for him. And don't get me wrong, I too am one of those people who will project onto Miles like no one's fucking business. That doesn't mean I won't acknowledge his faults.

Leaving might have been good for him, but it was hell for everyone else. Like. I can hardly stand it when someone I know just isn't as responsive as they have been in the past, let alone if they just dropped off the face of the earth. Phoenix has every right to be mad. He should be mad. Especially in the games where Miles has absolutely zero humanizing moments during Farewell, My Turnabout. It is something that the anime did better, but even in the anime, where Miles takes the time to speak to Phoenix like he's a person, and Miles takes a moment to step down from his high horse, it doesn't excuse his actions.

Miles may have overcome some of his own personal issues while he was gone, but after his return, there is so much rebuilding he has to do if he ever wants his friends to trust him again. And they do get there, as is implied by later cases, but because of the way the Ace Attorney games are structured, we never see any of that. More than likely, after coming to terms with himself--a long, uphill battle--he would have to come to terms with the hurt he caused in his desperation--another long, uphill battle. And Miles would have to support himself through it because heaven knows his friends, who he abandoned, are all still trying to cope with his return. They can't be there for him in his quest for redemption while they are still grappling with his actions and the ways he's hurt them.

I've run across so many fics where Phoenix forgives Miles almost immediately after Farewell, My Turnabout. It's understandable, I think, to want Miles to be forgiven. To a point, it might even be in character for Phoenix to accept Miles back more readily than other characters in the franchise. Personally, though, I don't see it happening. Phoenix, for all his virtues (though I hesitate to call them that. many of his traits are the definition of "too much of a good thing"), is bitter, angry, and cynical. Completely reasonable coming from him given his experiences. He his anger towards Miles, his rationalizing Miles' disappearance as a result of a lost win record, is a defense mechanism.

The way I see it, Phoenix cannot rationalize Miles' disappearance as a result of anything else because this is the only way Phoenix is (mostly) absolved of guilt. He tends to take others' pain onto himself, blame himself for things that couldn't be helped, and claim responsibility for people and actions that, by all rights and purposes, are independent of him entirely. In his efforts to "save" Miles, Phoenix uncovered new horrors in Miles' history, horrors that drove Miles to cut himself off completely from the legal profession at home to try and find a new path abroad. Phoenix thought Miles was dead, at least in every way that matters, and in Phoenix's mind, it was his fault.

However, Phoenix is a master of denial and lacks proper coping mechanisms, so of course he gets stuck in the anger and denial stages of the grieving process. In his shoes, it makes sense. Of course, Phoenix is angry. Not just at Miles, I'm sure, but at himself. But he can't be angry at himself, because he cannot have his friend's life on his conscience for the same reason he cannot try to win a not-guilty verdict for a killer. If he gets a murderer off the hook, how is he any better than them? If, in his mission to reach Miles, he pushed the man over the edge, is he any better than the criminals he weeds out while protecting the innocent? How can he go on to protect the innocent when he himself has blood on his hands?

its honestly just like so fucking insane to me that anyone in their right mind would defend miles' choosing death and i think it again speaks to a greater problem the ace attorney fandom has with projecting on him so thoroughly that they forget to hold him accountable and examine the nuance in his character.

i think miles is a fave for the traumatized/otherwise neurodivergent and a lot of people who suffer from suicidal ideation probably latched onto him, his canon PTSD, and his guilt complex long before he chose death. and i think for that reason he is REALLY hard to hold accountable for his wrongdoings, especially the ones he does out of a place of trauma. i think a lot of people in the AA fanbase are young and too.. idek the word... hurt? hurt themselves to want to think about the fact that wrongdoings done out of trauma are still wrongdoings.

i think its more likely that miles' choosing death in jfa was meant, in the original concept, to be 蒸発, jouhatsu, a japanese concept of "disappearing/evaporating persons" who leave their former lives without a trace due to a number of cultural factors. but that doesn't change the fact that it works as a very heavy suicide allegory, and in that regard it is a bit of wish fulfillment for the suicidally idealized crowd. i think everyone who suffers from suicidal ideation dreams of getting to watch like a ghost at the aftermath of their death, watching people mourn them, watching people finally, finally care.

and i think that is in large part why people do not ever really talk about how cruel and fucked up what miles did is. because they are living a fantasy through him. a fantasy where they die or disappear, and they are loved and missed and wanted. speaking as someone who has experienced this myself, i get it.

but in reality that is not how suicide works, at all. your loved ones will not all sit in a circle and excuse you of yourself because they miss you so bad and you were in so much pain. in reality, they will be thrust into a whirlwind of complex and tangled emotions as they struggle to process the loss of you. it will not be pretty. it is a horrible thing to go through, and it is a horrible thing to do to people, and these concepts coexist.

i have attempted more times than i can count. i have also been close to people who attempted. some survived. some did not. that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. what matters is my response, every time, was anger. so much so that i could not be there for my friends who survived theirs because i was so furious that they would do something like that to me that i knew being around them would only make the situation worse. i have had to say, i am sorry you are going through this horrible thing, but i cannot face it right now. do you have people who can help you through it? i cannot be one of those people.

suicide is not a cleanse. it is not a button you can press to make all the pain stop and make everyone suddenly care. the only way you can do that is with courage, perseverance, patience, and yes, a little bit of luck. it sucks and it's worth it, but that's not what i came here to say.

i came here to talk about miles edgeworth i think. and how it is whack to me that people defend what he did. it is a miracle that phoenix and franziska forgave him. as i am now, i don't think i would have.

[mashkaroom]

local man once generously described as “a new accordionist in town” by local klezmer musician kinda fucking bad at accordion

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 2 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Kwami

Kwamis are a fun concept and one of the main draws of the series. They make sense story-wise because, firstly, our characters need some support system. And since a lot of conflicts are centred around secret identities, characters should be able to discuss their double life with someone. As magical beings they could also be used to expand the lore, introduce new concepts and drive forward both the plot and character development. It doesn't always happen but Kwamis are a good idea. Some people who write AU's think that Kwamis are redundant, but I have to disagree.

Origins and nature

Where do Kwamis come from? What are they? It's never explained. Oh wait, it was explained in a comic people can accidentally find. You decide to explain the origins and nature of magical beings who are one of the key elements in your magic system and worldbuilding IN A SIDE COMIC, which has zero effect on your main story. Sounds legit.

Here it is.

So, Kwamis are abstract creatures. They can become tangible and interact with the world because of the miraculous jewels. Essentially, each Miraculous acts as an anchor to the material world for Kwami. They existed since the beginning of time and were invisible observers of the universe. Until they settled on Earth and observed how humanity came to be. This is where things get interesting.

Kwamis are the embodiment of abstract concepts. But, some abstract concepts were created by people (like everything mentioned in the comic: beauty, math, love, etc).

Kwamis wanted to help humans. And then, a human, who couldn't see, hear or touch a Kwami creates miraculous jewels. And now these beings can interact with the world, use their powers and grant them to humans. Yet, they are completely under control of their holder. I'll discuss it later, but why did Kwamis accept this deal? They are practically enslaved. At the same time they care about people and generally love humanity.

According to the wiki Kwamis grant powers because of "the privilege of having the ability to be perceived by mortals". What? Did I read that right? Kwamis agreed to be enslaved and used as a power source, because they wanted to interact with material world. That's it, guys, end of the story.

We also know these things about nature and abilities of Kwamis from the show:

1) need food, but only to provide the power for the holder;

2) can't phase through precious metals (Chloe's bracelet in "Rogercop"), their own miraculous and humans;

3) they can control if they phase through things or not – meaning that if they want to, they can (this way Tikki can stay in Marinette’s purse without much trouble and Plagg sleeps on Adrien’s pillow);

4) they can perform magic without a holder but they don’t control it very well, there are certain types of things that they can’t do without a holder;

5) they are immortal but can get sick for some reason, a non-magical reason mind you;

6) technology can't detect them in any way, you can't film, photograph or record their voices (writers establish this many times, but promptly forget all about their own rules in "Optigami", where Marinette talks with Kwamis over the phone without any problems).

If I missed something important, then let me know.

Look, the questions related to origins and motivations of Kwamis might not be very prominent in your story right now, but you must answer them in case you might need to involve these facts in the plot down the line. It's important to avoid contradictions in the serialised story with liquid plot, that can't be set in stone. It's a made up world for the sake of everything sacred! You can make up explanations and rules, of course as long as they don't contradict common sense.

Plausible ideas for origins and nature of Kwamis:

1) Kwamis are immortal spirits, whom humans accidentally summoned and bound with spells to Miraculous stones. They remember their existence before this. This version doesn't really explain their desire to serve people and love for humanity, however. It would be more logical for Kwamis to resent people for enslaving them. It doesn't explain how humans could create those spells and Miraculous stones either.

2) Kwamis are physical manifestations of abstract concepts who existed simply as fragments of matter for a very long time without sentience, until they were accidentally summoned through the Miraculous stones and bound by humans to serve them. Kwamis do not remember their existence before Miraculous. In this version Kwamis serve humans and love them because they have never known a different kind of existence. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any explanation on the creation of Miraculous and spells.

3) Kwamis are gods, who created the universe with all its elements and concepts including humanity (similar to Valar and Maiar in Tolkien's Legendarium). They wanted to help their creations but discovered that their power was too wild and unpredictable for that. So, Kwamis decided to give up their free will and magical independence to help humanity. Together they created Miraculous stones for humans to use and sealed themselves inside. Kwamis as gods were abstract concepts, who didn't have a body. The act of sealing their power in the Miraculous gave them an opportunity to interact with outside world (an anchor) and each Kwami chose an small animal form (because humans easily formed bonds with animals, had animal companions (pets), small animals look non-threatening and familiar). Kwamis intentionally choose certain animal forms to suit the human symbolism. Humans later used magic that Kwamis discovered for them to place spells upon small gods (spells related to identity protection and so on). This version answers most questions, but if Kwamis are gods then powers they grant to people seem to be rather small.

Feel free to add more. I would be interested to hear your ideas.

Identity Protection

In "Origins" we learn that Wayzz can sense the aura of Butterfly Miraculous, a negative aura of activated Butterfly Miraculous, to be more precise. And yet, Tikki and Plagg are genuinely surprised to discover the identities of their holders in "Dark Owl". There are several things wrong with that.

Can Kwamis sense each other's presence? They shouldn't be able to do this to protect the identities of their holders. On the other hand, they are ancient spirits. So, their inability to sense each other seems weird. Unless it's the same situation as with the spell that does not allow them to speak the name of their holder aloud.

But if they can sense each other like Wayzz did, then it means that Plagg and Nooroo were living in the same house for over a year and nothing happened. I mean, Plagg could have just come upstairs, take off the brooch from Gabriel, while he is asleep and return it back to Fu.

This question lies right here, on the surface. And that's only one massive and very obvious plothole. How to fix it? Establish that Kwami can't sense each other for identity protection. In "Origins" Fu meditates on his balcony and Wayzz sees a charged Akuma flying by. That's how they discover that Butterfly is in Paris and the Miraculous is in the wrong hands. Perhaps, Gabriel akumatizes someone for the first time to survey the surroundings and general public is not aware of this. This works better in the narrative, giving Fu time to select holders for Ladybug and Black Cat. It also establishes whether Hawkmoth can remove the Akuma from someone without Ladybug and discharge it. Maybe it depends on the circumstances (sometimes he can, but if this person was akumatized many times or their emotions are too strong and their mind doesn't want to let Akuma go then Hawkmoth can't pull the butterfly out with his magic). This scenario allows for Volpina to happen on "Heroes' Day". Silly recurring Akumas like Gigantitan and Mr. Pigeon could still happen. In this case Gabriel didn't want to akumatize the guy more than 70 times on purpose. It just keeps happening against his better judgement because evil butterflies are automatically attracted to Mr. Ramier. This way repeated attacks of Mr. Pigeon annoy Hawkmoth just as much as they do the heroic duo of Paris (I did not sign up for this Nathalie!).

Let's come back to the spell mentioned earlier for a moment. Kwamis can't say the name of their current holder out loud, but apparently, they can exploit a loophole in the spell by confirming the identity of their holder in another way. The spell doesn't work with other holders. Kwami can say the names of other holders if they know their identity. That being said, can the holder order the Kwami to tell them the identities of other heroes if they know them?

Kwamis know how each Miraculous looks with or without camouflage. Can the holder order the Kwami to tell them how each Miraculous looks in disguise (I liked that Grimoire doesn't have pictures of camouflage for identity protection)? Guardians can recognise Miraculous in any mode (Su Han). Did Fu teach Marinette this? Does she know how each Miraculous looks like unactivated?

Oh! Since we are discussing camouflage, let's take a moment to appreciate the Mother Of All Plotholes. Plagg didn't recognise Peacock because of the plot.

Relationship with Holder

I absolutely loved the idea that Kwamis must obey their holder introduced in "Sandboy". This concept opens tons of plot opportunities. It's such a great idea that makes sense, has potential, can create conflict. Why, oh, why didn't writers develop it more?

Like, it was so good. It can be a great push for character development. This concept resolves so many existing inconsistencies within the plot. It's mind-blowing.

Why can't Nooroo simply leave Gabriel, so that he wouldn't be able to transform? Because Gabriel bound him with Miraculous to always stay near.

In "Sandboy" Tikki asks Marinette's permission before going to the meeting. Plagg lies to Adrien instead. This implies that usually Plagg's holders weren't kind to him or feared his power (Su Han's remark in "Furious Fu"). Perhaps, his holders were taught to keep the Kwami of destruction under constant control. So, Plagg in turn has learned not to ask, because if he doesn't ask permission then his holder can't deny him freedom with magic.

Can Kwami lie to their holder? Maybe they can't lie to their holder about their nature, origins and powers and other Miraculous (but Kwamis can't reveal the location of Miracle Box, Guardian's identity and can't confirm identities of other holders known to them in any way). Kwami would be forced to speak even if they don't want to. That's why Nooroo told Gabriel everything about the abilities of the Butterfly Miraculous and the wish secret of Ladybug and Black Cat.

But Kwamis can lie to their holder according to Plagg in "Sandboy". If Kwamis can lie about everything (including powers) then Nooroo didn't have any reason to be honest with Gabriel way back in "Origins".

Speaking of Gabriel and Nooroo. Can Kwamis harm their holder? Maybe doing so would harm the Kwami as well. Can they do it only when the holder is not wearing the Miraculous? Can Kwami take their Miraculous from their holder? Will they disappear if they try to do so? It seems like Kwami disappears only when the holder takes off the Miraculous with the intention of renouncing power, the words "I renounce you" are not necessary.

Other Kwamis can take the Miraculous from people if it's not their own (Wayzz in "Feast"). But what if it wasn't possible. Imagine what could happen if it's not possible to take the Miraculous by force from the transformed or untransformed hero. Just like Lady WiFi couldn't remove Ladybug's mask. A person has to willingly give up the Miraculous. Only in this case, it's possible to take it. For example, somewhere around the middle of season 3 Hawkmoth could have trapped Ladybug and Chat Noir and cut off any escape routes. His Akuma tries to take both Miraculous, but they don't budge. Then afterwards, every Akuma tries to manipulate the heroes using hostages, illusions or mind control. It's hard to say whether this version will be better than canon, but it's a fascinating theory.

You can use the idea of obedience to create more situations contrasting the relationship of Plagg and Adrien, Gabriel and Nooroo. I liked how canon created a storyline about Plagg learning to control his powers without a holder and Adrien helping him. However, why would you stop here? Give us some flashbacks about Plagg's previous holders, tell us what kind of people they were. Expand the lore and add some character development for Plagg and Adrien. The same thing goes for Marinette. What kind of battles did they have in the past? What kind of people past holders were? Did Ladybug and Black Cat heroes always get along well? Were they allies or enemies? Were they always lovers?

Give us more information about Butterfly and Peacock holders. Perhaps Nooroo has dreams about his past holders who were good people. Show us what kind of things a Butterfly holder with good intentions can do. Tell us more about Duusu and her past holders, sprinkle in a few bits of info about Emilie and Duusu's relationship, just a few vague hints to preserve the mystery. You have a lot of screentime each season and instead of doing filler episodes dedicated to love drama, you can use them for developing minor characters, relationships between them and lore.