#this never interacting with alya

[nightshadeplant]

What if I fuck around and rewrite miraculous but swapping marinette and Adrian’s gender…

[fandomofone]

I saw this screenshot today and this didn't really register to me at the time I was watching the episode, but now that I've had time to digest it, it's all I can see.

Look at how brightly colored Alya & Nino are compared to Adrien, and how far he is standing from them.

They're all standing around at the bus stop, and Alya & Nino are focused on each other, just enjoying a casual moment of flirtation while they wait for Marinette. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. But Adrien is standing several feet from them, behind them even, off to the side- and not interacting with them at all. Someone who wasn't familiar with these characters and their relationship with one another would never even know he was part of this group. He looks like just some random guy behind them waiting for the bus, while they are the focal point of the scene. He is completely dissociated from his friend group and he's looking off into the distance with a smile that doesn't really seem genuine. (presumably watching what he perceives as the one, maybe the only, good part of his life that he still has left, approach)

With his wrinkled clothes and his limp hair and his bright shoes gone, his visual personality is stripped. Adrien is nothing more than wallpaper. He's faded into the background, as colorless and bland as he can possibly be (even the background is brighter than him), and he doesn't seem like he wants to be noticed. His posture is slouchy and despondent looking, but also like he's trying to put on a cheerful face. I think most of us who have watched the episode by now have all come to a similar conclusion- Adrien is in his depression era. (And honestly, not unwarranted or unexpected even)

There are the obvious signs, but every time I rewatch the episode, I see more subtle signs of it too. He's always had a kind of underlying sadness about him- how could he not, in his situation? And he's experienced bouts of depression before but they're usually shown as fairly short-lived. Temporal events that are a reaction to his environment in the moment and are handled in one or two episodes before his normally sunny personality takes back over.

This... feels long-term.

Adrien and Marinette are putting on a show of being happy together, but the chasm between them right now is huge, bigger than it's ever been... And he doesn't even know the full extent of it. He seems like he's just there existing, lost in his own head and pasting on a vapid smile, while Marinette has retreated into her anxieties and is more chaotic than ever.

I think this season is going to crush my soul. 😭💔

[copdog1234]

Man, I was watching the movie and the entire time I was thinking "Wow. This would've been so much more satisfying in the show" because the show has earned it. The show's writing is far from perfect, it has many, many flaws, but my god is it far better than Miraculous Awakening will ever be. And I'll tell you why.

I will preface by saying, yes, an hour and a half movie has way less time than a TV show with several episodes to build up characters and relationships, so time constraints will make it so we may not get as much depth in the on-screen relationships.

You know what, though? The time they spent playing mediocre songs could've been used better to show us all the things the songs had to outright tell us. Cause that was the problem.

The movie sure liked telling us how the characters were feeling. It rarely showed it. Like could you tell me why movie Marinette liked Adrien? Because I couldn't. What did he do to earn her affection beside look pretty? Why did we only get a montage of them getting closer instead of actually seeing it? Or how we never really see much of Gabriel and Adrien's struggles with the loss of Emilie, we simply get glimpses. How am I supposed to feel anything when Gabriel stops being Hawk Moth when this movie showed us literally nothing of their strained relationship? And then there's Gabriel's claim that he did absolutely everything to get Emilie back. No he didn't. He did actually nothing. He freed a couple of criminals and then akumatized himself. That's it. That's all he did.

Could you tell me why Alya decided to befriend Marinette? Could you tell me why Adrien "who decided not to get close to anyone" was friends with Nino? Could you tell me why Chloe was so confident Adrien had any interest in her when they never actually interacted?

And then there wasnt enough explanation on how anything that we should've been told worked. Could anyone really tell me how these versions of the miraculous work? Or why Master Fu was in possession of them? Or why they really chose their holders? Could you tell me if the kwami had much personality and were necessary?

Like, I will say, there were funny moments, the animation was nice, and there were cool set pieces, but where was the substance?? It was nonexistent. If you don't watch the show, would you know or feel anything for what was going on in this movie?

Cause even for me, who does watch the show, I didn't.

Think about this. The show has even faked out multiple reveals to me and every time I was hyped and screaming, I have read fanfiction of these same to characters falling in love and confessing every which way and I've swooned, but we get reveals and love confessions that are real and permanent in this movie and I felt. Nothing.

It's okay if yall disagree with me, but I just needed to get this off my chest. I'm hard on this movie because I wanted it to be good because I love the characters and story from the show.

[whousestypewriters]

──── ୨ৎ THE BOOK CLUB — GRAYSON HAWTHORNE + READER ‧₊˚

a/n: pt two here we are!!! do i have any idea where this plot is going??? no. but you're along for the ride bitches so enjoy!! also if this is shit its bc im sleep deprived :)

[part one] i'm a fan

"it all happened so fast. everyone was happy... and then something happened... and now... now he's dead!" alya sobs from her spot on the couch.

"did you just spoil the book we're all reading together??" kira shrieks from her position on the mattress.

"i think the bitch actually just spoiled the entire book," pheobe rolls her eyes from underneath her blanket on the mattress next to kira's.

"oh come on you knew something like this was gonna happen!"

"yeah but i wasn't expecting it to be screamed aloud while i'm halfway through," kira says exasperated. "i mean please its not even five thirty yet, we got here an hour ago, how are you already finished?"

"alya, this is why we don't come over anymore," pheobe groans. "none of us were expecting that and now you've spoiled it."

"oh cry about it, i'm moving onto my next book anyway, does anyone want some snacks while i'm in the kitchen?" alya smiles nodding her head when kira requests some food and a bottle of water.

"so we're clearly never having a book club sleepover again guys," you say looking at the camera.

"no we're gonna have another," pheobe says shuffling over into the frame. "alya's just not invited."

────

yn.books

liked by alya.green, maxine.liu.loo, pheobethereader, kirasbooknook, graysonhawthorne and 672, 983 others

yn.books the book girlies unite!! for a sleepover a trip and a readathon (alya will not be invited back) stay tuned for the yt video!

tagged: alya.green, pheobethereader, kirasbooknook

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alya.green I AM OFFENDED

kirasbooknook good

pheobethereader had a lovely time with you girls can't wait to do it again (except for you alya)

alya.green u guys are so mean wtf

user1 im desperate to know why alya's in trouble lmaooo

user2 and im desperate to know why grayson is still in the likes

user3 THE GIRLIES ARE IN TEXAS I SAW THEN TODAY AND ASKED FOR A PHOTO!!!!

user4 they're in texas you say 😏😏

user5 divine rivals crushed me oh my goshhhh

graysonhawthorne divine rivals was a enticing read, thank you for the recommendation.

user6 ok so i died-

user7 OH OH OK SO WTF WHO WAS GONNA TELL ME GRAYSON IS HERE???

maxine.liu.loo the book girlies are together again!!! (invite me next time)

yn.books already done ;)

────

"they're mine," max's voice snips through the quiet of the room. she's staring directly at grayson and clearly referring to the book girls she watches.

"i'm not trying to steal anyone," grayson tries to reassure her.

"you're obsessed with my favorite one! why couldn't you have gone for pheobe or kira?" max huffs, you were her favorite. grayson had no right to become - rightfully - infatuated with you, and no matter how much he tries to deny it everyone can see he likes you. its painfully obvious.

"again i'm not stealing anyone, i've interacted like three times with-"

"grayson! the girl you're obsessed with posted another youtube video," jameson's extremely loud voice cuts through the room and emits a groan from grayson.

"i'm not obsessed with anyone," he says rising from his spot on the couch and picking up ruthless vows, which by the way he definitely went out and bought after he read divine rivals. what? he wanted to know what happened.

"oh my gosh they're in texas!!!" max screeches clearly watching the video. "they're in texas for a red carpet that they've been invited to!" she pauses watching for more conext. "they been invited to ask the people on the red carpet about books! oh my god- XANDER. we have to go to this event oh my gosh please?"

"sure and you can bring grayson along so he can officially join the book club, and meet his new idol," jameson smirks from the doorway

grayson responds by flipping him off.

────

graysonhawthorne

liked by thehawthorneheiress, ticking.time.bomb, yn.books, kirasbooknook and 4, 892, 647 others

graysonhawthorne a nice day out

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user1 i need him religiously

user2 NO BOOK THIS TIME???

user3 oh he is scrumptious isn't he

ticking.time.bomb i saw you obsessing over what photos to choose in case a certain someone saw this gray.....

user4 PLS TELL ME ITS WHO I THINK IT IS

thexanderhawthorne oh it is...

user4 OH MY GODDDD

user5 IN THE LIKES LOOK WHOS IN THE LIKES!!!!!!

user6 they're so into each other

alya.green we gotta catch up and talk about this whole situation buddy boy

user7 ALYA 😭💀

user8 i need him to go to the red carpet so they can meet!!!

────

maybe grayson should go to that red carpet... i mean he was invited. whats the worst that could happen?

𐔌 . ⋮ 🏷️ tags .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱

@arqbella, @midiosaamor, @maybxlle @reminiscentreader, @sweetreveriee

@elysianwayy77 @tornqdowarnings, @catapparently, @zenikswaffleshop, @thelov3lybookworm

[kermdoeswriting]

Hero Bloggers

Hear me out.

Tim Drake secretly has owned a hero blog since before he had even first started out as Robin and maintained it long after he dropped the mantel for his own, Red Robin.

The blog itself consists mostly of theories and absurd candid shots of heroes he was able to grab discretely through the years. Nothing exposing or anything but still enough to generate interest to make his blog relatively popular.

Through this, he meets Alya Cesaire.

Another popular hero blogger who had the most INSANE theories for heroes he'd ever seen. Nothing Bernard worthy but more so insane because they were almost always right.

She also had extremely well taken videos of hero fights she collected and online interviews with small-time heroes.

The two become friends pretty quickly through their mutual love of blogging about heroes but often bump heads on who their favorite heroes are, how Tim keeps meeting all these heroes before she could even interview them and any theories they have.

With Tim trying his best to steer her away from being right and Alya being headstrong on her ideas and how they couldn't be anything but true.

(For Tim, his favorite hero is Nightwing, but for Alya, it's definitely Black Canary)

Anyways, after blogging together for a while and being annoying with each other, Alya eventually admits to her friend that she and her family are moving to France and she wouldn't be able to contact him for a bit due to the move.

Tim of course is understanding and wishes her well and the time passes as it usually does. He isn't really worried at first about his best friend, too used to her shenanigans as it is but the more time that seems to pass without any word from her, the more concerned he gets.

At some point, after a long case, Tim decides to check in on her and make sure everything is alright. And that's when he sees that suddenly, her account is just gone.

Tim panics.

Not only would Alya have never deleted her blog, but there would have been some traces of it at least somewhere despite it being deleted just from how much people interacted with her account.

But Tim just finds nothing.

Nada. Zip.

He's quick to go searching into Paris as a whole in search of her and runs into an even bigger problem. Paris as a whole city is completely ripped off the map as if it never existed at all.

And there seemed to be no way to get in touch with anyone there at all.

Tim has never been more distressed in his life and he practically pulls his hair out at not knowing anything about where his best friend is beyond the city.

Meanwhile, Alya is having the time of her life!

She's got new friends, a boyfriend, and she now lives in a city with a real life superhero duo and villian!

Yes, it sucked that the villain was an emotional terrorist and Paris is basically under military level lock down until the situation could be taken care of, but now she finally had something to hold over Tim's head.

Interviews and pictures with brand new heroes that Tim had never met!

She had never felt more excited in her life as she posted updates each time on Paris hero situation to her blog.

Alya has absolutely no clue the panic she just put Tim Drake through when he finally manages to bypass through Paris servers on the batcomputer to see a live feed video of her running towards a dangerous monster destroying the Eiffle tower on her blog.

_________________________________________

Or basically

Alya Cesaire and Tim Drake are online besties and (slightly) rival hero bloggers for like over 4 years, and when Paris goes on lockdown due to an emotional terrorist Alya lowkey forgets to tell him she's alive and that there's a reason why she has been basically blipped out of existence entirely

Her bad ig

[coffeebanana]

Here's a list of my random thoughts and observations from the special that I don't see anyone else talking about:

WHAT DID MARINETTE WRITE IN HER DIARY? WAS IT THE WHOLE TRUTH? WHAT HAPPENS IF SOMEONE FINDS THAT? WILL SOMEONE FIND THAT? (my god there had better at least be fics about this...)

akumamatized villains don't remember what happened when they were akumatized even if they were willingly akumatized and/or they akumatized themself -- i guess the alternative was never really confirmed in canon but i always thought it was sort of implied that gabe and nathalie remembered afterwards? but maybe that was just fanon the whole time?

okay i do see people talking about this one a bit but. not enough imo: ALYA DOESN'T KNOW THE TRUTH EITHER. i imagine...she would not be okay with marinette telling this lie, given how insistent she is about honesty in relationships

HELLO THE THREE BUNNYXs WERE SO FREAKING CUTE

i have never really thought about alix/marinette as a ship before but. hm. HMMM. something about sharing the burden of the world... about growing up before they should have to... (i don't think i'll write it but if anyone has fic recs?)

on the non-ship side of things, it was just really cute to see bunnyx and chronobug interact. and it made me think a lot about... the esteem they must have for each other? like, marinette obviously respects bunnyx. and mini-bunnyx must now have seen enough now of marinette's future (and past!) to understand her more. to have a new respect for her too? they were just classmates and now the fate of the world rests in their hands... IDK I JUST THINK IT'S NEAT

THE MUSIC IN THE SPECIAL. IT WAS SO HAUNTING AND SO WELL DONE. AND ALSO THAT SILENCE WHEN LADYNOIR FIRST MEET UP AT THE END. THE WEIGHT OF IT. I WANT TO EAT THAT AAAAAAAAH

lila definitely wants to make a wish (i mean, that's not a huge deal. it's the logical consequence of her being the next villain. but she COULD have just wanted to fuck things up for fun. now we know she wants something specific. something that might destroy the world...)

I MIGHT THINK OF MORE THINGS LATER BUT. THIS IS WHAT I'VE GOT FOR NOW

[flightfoot]

About Lila's lies, perhaps i'm the only one that thinks this but i feel a lot of her lies aren't as bad as a lot of people claim. Like a majority of the class (especially Marinette) have a few outlandish achievements or facts that sound like massive lies themselves, so it makes sense that they wouldn't doubt Lila when she claimed the same.

Oh, AGREED. Here's a list of her bragging-type and I-need-help-type lies.

Lila: You know I actually happen to be very close friends with Ladybug.

I mean, it's not absurd that she might be Ladybug's friend. "Close friends" might be up for interpretation, but this really isn't crazy. Especially since it's actually true for Alya.

Rose: Can you believe Lila knows Prince Ali? She even flew in his private jet with him!

Rose knows Prince Ali. I don't know why she's even impressed by this. I wouldn't even find it weird if she flew with him on his private jet.

Chloé: Why did Jagged Stone write a song about Lila when he could've written it about me?

I mean he wrote a song about Marinette unknowingly, he even wrote a song rubbing it in Anarka's face that he was ditching her and the twins. I don't actually think it'd be that weird for him to write a song about Lila, if she impressed him.

Nino: Lila knows all of the Hollywood directors. She promised she'd mention me to Steven Basielberg himself!

Lila's story is that her mom's a diplomat, and that DOES appear to be the case for one of them. So I wouldn't be surprised if she ran into a bunch of hollywood directors at some fancy party or something, like Gabriel hosts.

Lila:(stopping him from grabbing the book) Of course she's in your book. She's one of the most important superheroes. More powerful and more celebrated than Ladybug. (Marinette is angered by the comment) Between you and me Ladybug doesn't even make the top ten. (Marinette bites down on the book) My grandma gave me this necklace.

Superheroes exist in this world, and have for a long time, so it's not that ridiculous. Though it WOULD be weird that Adrien had never heard of her if she was as celebrated as she claims. And it helps that the book confirms that there were a ton of superheroes around who Adrien never heard of before.

Lila: It's absolutely amazing! Prince Ali invited me and my parents to his gorgeous palace.

One of her moms is a diplomat, so this wouldn't be too out of place.

Lila: Oh, it's nothing much! During our world travels, my diplomat parents have helped me convince the leaders of several nations to agree to reduce world pollution. (Adrien shakes his head) And I'm very optimistic that the prince will jump on board.

Again, this really isn't that crazy. One of her moms DOES appear to be a diplomat, and this is the sort of thing diplomats do.

Lila: Yes, I suffer from tinnitus, a constant ringing in my left ear. I've had it ever since the sound of an airplane engine burst my eardrum on the runaway when I was saving Jagged Stone's lost kitten.

The class has interacted with Jagged Stone several times, so it's not that weird that Lila might have as well. Heck, Marinette is his go-to designer for his album covers. And Jagged IS the type to be this careless with a kitten.

Lila: Now it is, yes. But he had a kitten until he found out he was allergic to it.

This happens to a lot of people.

Lila: I'm sorry I can't carry my own tray. It's almost impossible with this sprained wrist.

Spraining wrists is typical, and it can be hard to carry weight when this happens, especially at certain angles.

Lila: (drops napkin) Uh, ow! Once when I was in India, I witnessed someone getting their eye gouged out by the corner of a napkin. If I hadn't caught it, this napkin could've injured Max. I didn't have a choice. Ow!

This is the only lie I've seen Lila tell that isn't really feasible. No way that someone's eye got gouged out this way. That being said, it could still cause some damage if it hit the eye and the eye wasn't protected by an eyelid or glasses. Which Max's eyes are, but it makes sense that she wouldn't have had time to think about that in the half a second she had to react.

Lila: Adrien, we'll have to figure when you're gonna help me catch up on all the schoolwork I missed. I also heard you play piano, my uncle's the great pianist Chuch Boroughchuck. He wanted to teach me when I was little, but I had to stop playing because of arthritis. But when my wrist gets better, I'd love for you to give me some lessons.

I knew someone with childhood arthritis, and her having an uncle who's a great pianist isn't any more absurd than Marinette having a great-uncle who's a world-famous chef.

Lila: Oh, I'd love to test your video game, Max, but I promised Prince Ali we'd go on a charity cruise over the Seine on his yacht this afternoon. Sorry.

This just falls under the same category as Lila's earlier lies about knowing Prince Ali and helping to promote charitable causes with him. Which Rose also does, she just doesn't travel with him. Makes sense that Lila might though, since one of her moms is a diplomat.

I'm having trouble thinking of other lies Lila told of this sort of type after this, since she was able to tell the truth mostly, what with being a model for Gabriel.

So yeah. Most of these lies are very plausible, and are way less weird than the Miracuclass's general experiences. The absurd thing is that they're impressed, not that they buy it.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Every Episode of Miraculous Ladybug Season 5 Ranked (Part 2)

Part 1

(This site's stupid 30 images per post forced me to do this, so thanks for nothing, Tumblr)

#14: Transmission

I swear, I'm not doing these on purpose. This is just how I've been ranking the episodes.

Like I said in the last part, this episode just did not need to happen. The first half is cheap melodrama between Marinette and Adrien and the second half is a run of the mill Akuma fight with two different heroes. This is the story that seriously warranted two parts this season?

I just can't stand the fact that Marinette and Adrien gave up their Miraculous so easily here. Maybe if it was Season 2, Season 3 at the latest, I'd buy it, but near the middle of Season 5? They honestly view their love lives as more important than the battle with Monarch. If it was anything else like the stress or physical danger, I'd also be understanding, but Tikki and Plagg decide that Marinette and Adrien are so miserable that they need to be happy by losing their Miraculous without a fight. Remember, this was just two episodes after “Reunion”, which showed Joan of Arc was a Miraculous holder. So fighting in the Hundred Years' War didn't get so much as an ounce of concern from Tikki, but teenage angst is too much for her little heart to bear?

Maybe it's the benefit of knowing this won't be permanent, but the issue I have is how much the show draws this out for so long, as if the audience is supposed to buy it. “It's really happening, guys! Ladybug and Cat Noir won't be the stars anymore, we swear!” This kind of plot can work under the right circumstances. All you needed to do is at the very least, make it something they choose to do instead of their Kwamis taking their Miraculous away so we can see them weigh the benefits of giving up life as a superhero in ways that aren't exclusively about their love lives. I'd even buy it if it's something Ladybug and Cat Noir actually agreed on before quitting.

While I can sort of get Alya becoming Scarabella due to her experience with the Ladybug (even if she chose to give up using any Miraculous at the end of Season 4), Zoe getting the Cat just feels like the writers put a bunch of names in a hat and picked hers. The two just don't have as compelling a dynamic as Ladybug and Cat Noir do, because they don't get a lot of time to know each other. Alya and Zoe have almost never interact with each other, so the masks don't really shake up their relationship, because there's no relationship to speak of.

Also, the Akuma here was really forced. We know nothing about this new character while the show acts like we're supposed to know who he is based on some minor hints with Nora calling earlier. While I will give the show credit for arguably giving us the most powerful Akuma of all time due to being both a man and a bear, he's as forgettable as a villain as Kitty Noire is as a hero.

Just about nobody here comes out smelling like roses in this episode. The Kwamis are morons for caring about one ship becoming canon, Marinette and Adrien are selfish cowards for giving up their Miraculous with little hesitation, their friends are ignorant buffoons for thinking some random attempt to get Marinette and Adrien to talk will somehow seal the deal, and Alya and Zoe are idiots for not thinking that they should take off the shiny ring that tracks their every movement. It's a terrible episode, and the only reason why “Deflagration” is ranked higher is because it didn't irritate me as much as this one did.

#15: Determination

And now we're onto the really bad episodes this season.

This episode is pretty much what you've come to expect by Season 5. People keep forcing Marinette into situations she's clearly uncomfortable, and we're supposed to just laugh at her anxiety, because we still have eight episodes to go before the show decides to take her mental health seriously.

What makes this episode really sting for me is that it's Luka and Kagami that are forcing Marinette into these unfunny antics this time. For the most part, they never really stooped to this level and didn't try to force anything with their respective love interests until they had trouble in their relationships that required them to communicate. But now, even though one knows Marinette and Adrien are superheroes while the other is usually very blunt with her feelings (at least, before she became this season's next victim), they're going to try forcing Marinette and Adrien to spend time together even they both know they have feelings for each other and MY GOD, THIS IS SO STUPID! It's just a cheap excuse for more pointless shenanigans that stopped being funny years ago.

Yet somehow, that's not the worst of the Love Square drama this episode. It's here where we learn that Adrien fell in love with Marinette over a season ago, during a scene where she violated his personal space. In addition, Adrien somehow showed no signs of attraction to Marinette until the plot demanded it, and came right after another episode showing him falling for her. Why not make it the fake confession Marinette practiced with Cat Noir in “Glaciator 2”? The kiss Marinette gave Adrien at the end of “Heroes' Day”? I'd even take another umbrella scene callback like in “Mr. Pigeon 72”. But no, it's the statue scene that the writers decided on. It's like they noticed all the criticism Marinette got in that episode and were like “Joke's on you! Adrien actually liked being lusted over like an object!”.

And then the masks come on and make things even more convoluted. Adrien at least got to reflect on the events of a previous episode to explain his new feelings for Marinette, but what caused Ladybug to suddenly fall for Cat Noir after four seasons?

The writers don't even bother with an explanation for this. Ladybug spontaneously becomes attracted to Cat Noir with absolutely no foreshadowing, buildup, or even callbacks to earlier episodes. The writers either wanted to complicate things one last time before Adrienette became canon, they wanted to bury the Ladynoir conflict arc from last season in the sand, or the most likely option, a combination of both.

The idea of the public turning on Ladybug was an interesting one to take, seeing how she's been universally beloved for the past four seasons. But despite hinting at it in “Multiplication”, this is the farthest is goes, and even then, guess who's behind it? You can't keep raising points against the main characters if it's only Chloe who does it. It doesn't open debate on the story and essentially tells the audience that they're wrong to agree with her, no matter what kind of point she makes.

As dumb as the way it happened was, Ladybug still screwed up and endangered the city by losing the other Miraculous, but we can't actually challenge children by acknowledging that the hero actually did something wrong and needs to grow as a person. We need to use a recurring character as a strawman to tell the audience that only bad people think this way! Way to remove any interesting internal conflict, writers.

The Akuma was pretty weak, just being an older Puppeteer, down to using wax statues like what happened in “Puppeteer 2”. The army of wax heroes could have been interesting, but there wasn't enough time to do much with the idea. The one thing I liked was how the Ox Miraculous' Resistance was used. It felt like an upgrade instead of a core power Manipula got.

This episode pretty much set the stage for a new level of frustrating Love Square drama this season, and it was one of the season's first outright awful episodes.

#16: Conformation

The only reason this episode isn't at the bottom is because the rest of the ones on this list are far worse by comparison. Make of that what you will.

Like most season finales, this one continues the tradition of being better at buildup than actual execution. Gabriel's plan is pretty decent, even if it's just Heroes Day on a global scale. He utilizes his public influence and business skills to plan out a plan to get almost all of humanity working for him. While I don't like the Miraculized, I still think Gabriel being on top works here, especially since he's not going out into the field like the last three finales.

But other than an okay evil plan, this episode is still pretty bad. Marinette being infected with nightmare dust only happens to get her to the Agreste manor because the writers forgot that Marinette learned Gabriel was Monarch last episode. It could have been a decent way to up the stakes by showing Ladybug not being at 100%, but like everyone else, she just fights off the nightmare dust and doesn't have a single problem during her fight with Monarch. In general, the nightmare dust isn't really utilized well, only being an excuse to bring out the Miraculized. It doesn't impact everyone fighting off the Miraculized, and there's no lesson or theme about fear that's conveyed here.

Speaking of nightmare dust, I'm pretty sure the only reason why it was introduced in the first place was to bench Adrien, which is still easily one of the dumbest decisions the show has ever made. While everyone else had no problem resisting the nightmare dust, Adrien is just physically incapable of doing so because of some half-assed character arc the show pretended happened. So either Adrien got a more potent dosage of the nightmare dust, or Adrien's just too weak to actually overcome his fears. “Sandboy”? Never heard of it! The fact that the writers also tried to claim they were being subversive with fairy tale tropes and cliches didn't help, since it devalues Adrien as a character even further. He's not a superhero and Ladybug's closest ally. He's just some damsel in distress who needs to be saved. Let me just remind you, if the genders were reversed, this would not be seen as some bold move, but the same overused cliche trying to be something new.

I already talked about my problems with Nathalie in “Passion”, and the stuff she does here isn't really different. Despite enabling Gabriel for five seasons, the episode has the balls to act like Nathalie always had morals and is appalled by Gabriel planning to sacrifice someone to save his wife. Just remember, “Passion” established that Nathalie had a history as a treasure hunter, so this is like Indiana Jones not knowing what the Holy Grail does. Nathalie only got dumber than in “Passion” because she somehow thought she could take on a supervillain with nothing but a crossbow and a body that already has one foot in the grave. And just like Felix, Nathalie can't even apologize to Ladybug for the aiding and abetting a terrorist thing. Between Nathalie, Felix, and Gabriel, does using the Peacock Miraculous just make you an idiot?

While the buildup is decent, it's just not enough to really get audiences excited for the second part.

#17: Representation

This episode is yet another example of the show's double standards.

Without going into detail too much, this episode came right after “Revolution”, the one that essentially portrayed Audrey taking control of Chloe's life as a karmic punishment. What happens in this episode? We learn Felix's father literally took control of his life and it's portrayed as wrong as child abuse should be. That's why this episode is still better than “Revolution”. It at the very least understands how serious child abuse is, and tries to tell Felix's story with as much dignity as two teenagers in white onesies can have.

With that being said, there's a reason why this episode is as low as it is. The Sentimonster play used to tell Marinette about Felix is just so stupid. The sets and costumes look ridiculous, it's hard to take the story seriously with Felix and Kagami doing all the voices, and most of it is unnecessary since the whole point is to tell Marinette that Gabriel is Monarch... something that the writers decided she needed to find out on her own in the next episode. It comes across less like Felix trying to alert Ladybug to who Monarch really is and more like he's just trying to justify his own actions. Hell, the actual reason he decided to tell Marinette about Gabriel was because he and Kagami were worried about their own relationship being ruined by him. And yet somehow, Ladybug lets him on the team at the end of the season.

The stuff with Adrien was also pretty dumb. It's cheap fanservice that reminds the audience of Cat Blanc when none of the characters should know who Cat Blanc is. You can call him Anticat all you want, but everyone can see that he's just Cat Blanc with blue hair. It's bad enough that this was what all the times Cat Noir almost Cataclysming people this season was meant to lead up to, but this is pretty much the reason why Adrien is benched during the finale.

This episode really shows how desperate the writers are to make people take this show seriously by showing serious topics like genocide and child abuse, as if the show didn't already ignore the horrible implications previous episodes (like the very last one before this) raised and will continue to raise during the season finale. So much of the episode is just dark for the sake of being dark. It's nothing too horrifying for children, of course, but the issue is how obvious it is that the writers are trying to raise the stakes right before the season finale and show how mature the show's writing is. For lack of a better term, it's this show's equivalent to “Ow The Edge”.

#18: Revelation

Get ready for the episode where the writers abandon all attempts to be subtle and create an episode specifically to attack people who think Chloe isn't the most evil character on the show. Because how dare they be optimistic and try to see the good in people! What do they think this is, a kids' show?

While a big problem with the Lila episodes was how stupid the class is, this episode made it so Marinette got to join in on losing brain cells too. Despite outright admitting to neglecting her duties as class representative (as absurd as it is to be in charge of notifying teachers about student progress they should be aware of), we're supposed to agree with her for not telling her teacher about Chloe cheating. Not only does this make no sense since you'd think Marinette would want to see Chloe get punished, but her claiming that all Chloe does is abuse her privileges loses any point to it because Marinette admitted to not doing her job as class representative, making her just as lazy as Chloe and unintentionally helping her through not telling the teachers. And that's not even getting into how many times Marinette has broken the secret identity rule despite also being the one to enforce it the most as the Guardian.

If the episode at least admitted to Marinette having personal issues that prevented her from displaying any form of professionalism towards Chloe (especially since this episode takes place after “Derision”), that'd be fine. Sometimes, people just can't let bygones be bygones and let their emotions dictate how they handle things. If she willingly resigned from her position by admitting she was just as at fault for Chloe getting as far as she did with her cheating, that would have worked. Instead, the episode does the same things it did with Adrien for the last few seasons: Go out of its way to vindicate Marinette's complaining and never even consider the idea of her being wrong in the slightest.

It's also hilarious to see Ms. Bustier act like an actual teacher for once and plan to work with Chloe to help make up her missed work, but portray it as a bad thing because in Marinette's eyes, that's not a punishment. Since the school year is almost over, Chloe will have to attend summer school at best and be held back or even expelled at worst. How the hell does that not count as a punishment, Marinette?

And don't forget how she gets not one, but two separate scenes insulting people for being idealistic and not wanting to write off people as beyond saving, the second one being copied from Astruc's Twittter.

And remember, this was right before a string of episodes where characters were able to change their ways, including Sabrina (Chloe's accomplice), Andre (Chloe's enabler), and Gabriel (Chloe's supervillain contact). How the hell is Chloe the only one being written off as irredeemable when she didn't pull off any of her evil plans without help? You can still punish Chloe. All I want is for the other characters to be punished as well.

But let's talk about the main event for this episode: Lila. In one of the most confusing “twists” in the show's history, she's now an identity thief who lives with three different mothers. Why? Because the writers have no idea how to hype people up for her being the main villain for Season 6, so they think just making her mysterious for the sake of making her mysterious is enough to build her up as a villain. It's like the writers realized Lila had absolutely zero resources of her own, so they felt like they needed to establish her as an evil genius to compensate. “Who cares if there's no logical explanation for how she's gotten as far as she has despite constantly boasting about her celebrity connections in public? We have to make her vague and mysterious, damn it! It worked for Judas Traveller and Kaine, didn't it?”

This episode takes multiple shots at fans and tries to make Lila seem more compelling than she actually is. It feels more like damage control than an actual plot-relevant episode.

#19: Illusion

Want to see the main characters acting like idiots for almost a half-hour? No? Too bad!

So much of this episode's conflict, the characters trying to investigate a possible lead related to Monarch, comes from everyone making stupid decisions. Nino tries to get one of the most influencial men in Paris akumatized, talks about it in public, falls for his trick, and lets him into his secret alliance. This season really cemented his role as the Zapp Brannigan of Miraculous Ladybug with how incompetent he is. If you really want to start portraying Nino as a tactical genius, maybe you should actually show him doing something smart instead of getting outsmarted by obvious tricks.

Of course, the other characters aren't immune to Nino's stupidity either. Marinette, Adrien, and Alya just go along with his asinine plan to get Gabriel akumatized, never question his logic, and ultimately still go along with the Resistance despite how obnoxious their leader is. The worst part is Ladybug not recognizing her own partner being stung by Venom... when they're fighting someone with access to over a dozen Miraculous. I know Cat Noir was born with glass bones and paper skin, but I don't think he literally freezes in terror when he's scared. And of course, Ladybug never questions the tiny invisible men who stunned Cat Noir after this scene.

The cafeteria scene is something that should really be cited as an example of how terrible this show is with acknowledging continuity. You thought there would be some compelling drama discussing the secret identity rule and all the double standards it has? NOPE! It's a funny joke about how confusing the identity stuff is at this point. The fact that Nino somehow doesn't understand the concept of secret identities in this scene is yet another reason as to why he isn't even qualified to lead an anime club, much less a resistance against Monarch.

The idea of Monarch using an illusion to fight Ladybug and Cat Noir was an interesting one, but it still had some holes. For one thing, what if the two heroes can't dodge one of the illusion Collector's attacks? What if they're fast enough to try tying him up, only to dispel the illusion? The entire plan pretty much relies on the fact that Ladybug and Cat Noir are too slow to catch the Collector.

But one scene that has only become more questionable after the finale is Ladybug trying to reach through to the illusion Collector. Like several episodes this season, it comes across like the show is spitting on idealism and wanting to solve problems peacefully because Monarch tricked Ladybug into believing he willingly rejected an Akuma. Remember kids, if someone says they want to change, it's really a trick as part of an evil supervillain's plan to maintain his secret identity.

This episode is like a microcosm of everything wrong with Season 5. Poor morals, characters acting like idiots, shooting down any potential for plot development, and being told characters are right when their actions say otherwise.

#20: Confrontation

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the episode where the writers just gave up.

There is just so much that happens in this episode that the writers cram in. There's Marinette's “final” confrontation with Lila, the battle with Reflekta, Sabrina's redemption, Juleka's character development, Ms. Bustier's character development, Mr. Damocles' character development, and the reveal of Lila's true nature. I don't think I need to tell you that the writers struggle to make all of these plot threads work in less than a half-hour.

First off, Marinette and Lila. The previous episode implied that Marinette let Lila have this short-term victory because she had her own plan to expose her. This episode puts that plan into action. See, she has the genius idea of going along with submitting school application forms to Lila and Chloe with no actual countermeasure in place, waiting for Sabrina to have a sudden change of heart so they can work together to expose Lila and Chloe through a bathroom peephole. This is the kind of tactical intelligence that will be studied in the history books, let me tell you. There's just no weight to Marinette and Lila's final battle of wits because there isn't any. There's no series of gambits or scenarios that actually pit their minds against each other, so you don't get a lot of satisfaction from Marinette's triumph over Lila. It doesn't help that there's more focus on Sabrina than on Marinette, but I'll get to that later. Even the actual payoff is anti-climactic. Most of the class' apology to Marinette was deleted because Mr. Damocles using a Magical Charm shield was just too important to leave on the cutting room floor according to the writers.

This episode really shows just how Marinette's classmates are like NPCs in the Lila-centric stories. They don't second guess Lila's accusations due to their past experiences with Marinette, and as soon as Marinette's name is cleared, they instantly apologize to her and don't even think about how easily they were fooled by Lila and Chloe. The worst example is Alya, Marinette's confidant and someone who was trusted to temporarily use the Ladybug Miraculous last episode, falling for this and not trusting Marinette. My sister in Christ, your friend goes out and saves lives on a weekly basis at least. How can you fall for Lila's story? This is why I think the Lila episodes should have all been set pre-Season 4, so Alya falling for Lila's lies is a little more believable since she isn't already in on Marinette's biggest secret.

I also have to roll my eyes at how melodramatic the talk about everyone's “futures” is. Yes, I don't know a lot about the French education system (If there's anything I'm getting wrong here, don't hesitate to let me know), but I don't get why they're treating their high school choices like such a big deal. Maybe if it was college, I'd get it, but high school? Why can't you just transfer if it doesn't work out? But then again, this is the same show created by a man who thinks school uniforms are a sign of fascism.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES.

Speaking of futures, this episode also showed just how little the writers cared about Adrien at this point, with how a supposedly heartwaming moment is him having no plan in life other than Marinette. I know this might seem weird given my problem with him last season was his refusal to think about anyone but himself, but there's a difference between wanting someone to follow orders without complaining and giving them absolutely no motivation outside of their significant other. And once again, if you swap the genders, this becomes sexist as hell.

But the big problem comes in the form of how the side characters are utilized. I don't know why the writers decided to focus on developing characters like Sabrina, Juleka, Ms. Bustier, and Mr. Damocles with five episodes left in the season. This should have been done in earlier episodes, not in the middle of a major story arc. I'm just left not caring about the development because it takes away from the conflict between Marinette and Lila, to say nothing about how little Adrien and Alya contribute to the story.

To me, this episode feels like the writers had no idea how to make Marinette outsmarting Lila into an episode, so they crammed in all these half-assed character arcs to pad out the runtime. While “Revelation” personally upset me more, I personally think this is the worse episode of the two from a writing standpoint.

#21: Revolution

Given how often I've criticized the way Chloe has been handled over the years, I bet you're surprised that this one isn't at the bottom of the list. You'll be even more surprised to learn that I think Chloe is one of this episode's saving graces.

This episode (along with “Derision”) provide an example of the Chloe we should have gotten ever since Season 3 ended: A villain who's allowed to be a threat while still being funny. So much of the past two seasons have done nothing but portray Chloe as nothing but an incompetent joke, but here, near the end of the season, she's in a position of power and is taken seriously. The episode does a good job showing how tyrannical Chloe's rule as Mayor is while still making it funny and in-character for her. She uses her power on frivolous things because she's a teenage girl who doesn't understand the complicated issues that come with politics. It's also why her idea of punishment involves detention, because it's something she's more familiar with as someone in middle school. Of course, even the episode all about Chloe ruling Paris with an iron fist isn't stupid enough to actually let Chloe be a compelling antagonist. No, we need to constantly remind the audience that Chloe is being played, as if we're supposed to see her as nothing more than a pawn even though the show still wants us to see her as an irredeemable monster.

Putting aside that one speck of something interesting, this episode is still incredibly bad. So much of the story is dependent not on how smart the villains' plan is, but rather, how lazy the heroes are. Not only is there not a single moment where Ladybug and Cat Noir acknowledge that the whole reason why Chloe was able to take over as Mayor was their fault, they act as if Chloe abusing her power to make everyone's life a living hell isn't enough of a reason to stop her. What kind of Prime Directive bullshit is this? YOU JUST HELPED SOMEONE LEAD AN INSURRECTION AGAINST A POWERLESS CIVILIAN! HOW IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT?! If there was at least something involving Ladybug and Cat Noir taking responsibility for what happened or at least showing that they played a part in this (especially since they “grow up” in this episode), I'd get it. Instead, because this is Season 5, our heroes are perfection incarnate, and can't ever be wrong. Even when they finally decide to get off their asses and stop Chloe, they didn't know she was akumatized, and nobody seemed to care before Chloe blurted it out, so Ladybug and Cat Noir have no excuses for slacking off.

The final battle is just a joke. Not only is it another excuse to force the Resistance into the plot, it shows Ladybug and Cat Noir unlocking the full power of their Miraculous in the most anti-climactic way possible. Even though they spent most of the episode caring more about their personal lives than actually stopping the obvious threat, somehow, this means they “grew up”. There's no buildup, no explanation, and no catharsis gained from this achievement. All of a sudden, Ladybug and Cat Noir are adults now. There's one decent scene with Adrien, but that's far from an actual explanation. What, did you actually expect an explanation for something this huge? Too bad! We need to have Marinette tell Chloe she's not afraid of her anymore even though she was never afraid of her prior to this season. Of all the things that happened this season, this is the one that makes it clear that Season 5 was supposed to be the end. There is no way Season 6 can happen unless the writers come up with some crap that undoes this, because Ladybug and Cat Noir have essentially unlocked god mode.

But I saved the worst for last, and you all know what it is: Chloe's punishment. I still can't get over the fact that there's actually a scene heavily implying we're supposed to be happy Chloe is going to live with her emotionally abusive mother in the same season that's trying to tell a serious story about child abuse. There's already been so much said about all the horrible things this implies, so I'm going to try and bring up something else. Specifically, how everyone is just okay with this. I can buy Ladybug given all the things Chloe has done to her, but it's pretty odd that Cat Noir, Andre, and Zoe all decide to wash their hands of their association with Chloe as if they never knew her. They don't even feel bad that it had to come to this, and feel absolutely no sympathy for her. Remember in episodes like “Malediktator” and “Queen Banana” that showed Adrien and Zoe still cared for Chloe despite all the terrible things she's done, teaching kids a lesson about trying to show compassion to your enemies? The writers sure didn't, because Adrien and Zoe don't get to say a thing about Chloe after she's defeated. Way to establish connections between characters and do nothing with them, writers!

This episode had so many things wrong with it, and it only got worse the longer it went on, to the point where the ending is essentially condoning child abuse. It's disgusting, but at the very least, it means we're not going to have to deal with Chloe in Season 6.

.....

#22: Adoration

This is one of those episodes I honestly didn't think would hate as much as I did.

I think of all the episodes this season, this is the one that shows how frustratingly inconsistent the characterization is. Characters will either announce how much someone has changed or will take a complete 180 while the show makes it clear this is how things have always been. Not only does the show say Zoe has somehow changed and suddenly developed feelings for Marinette, but Chloe's view of Sabrina has gotten even lower, to the point where she calls her an underling to her face. Because actually showing character development and changing interpersonal relationships is too hard for these writers. It's like that rule everyone knows: Tell, don't show. That's how it goes, right?

Before anyone gets on my case about this, I'm not trying to say that Zoe having a crush on Marinette was a bad idea. The issue is more how it comes across like the show is trying to earn brownie points with LGBT+ audiences with the reveal. The issue is that this major revelation isn't about Zoe, but rather, Marinette. It's from a Marinette-focused episode all about her heterosexual feelings for Adrien while Zoe's coming out story is nothing more than a cautionary tale to get Marinette to finally try kissing Adrien. I'm not saying Marinette should have dumped Adrien to be with Zoe. The point I'm trying to make is if you want to show something as huge as a character coming out as sapphic, maybe put more focus on that character's struggles than the struggles the straight main character goes through. Maybe instead of being an afterthought in the story, make the episode about Marinette helping Zoe confess her feelings to a girl she likes.

This was also the episode that laid the groundwork for Andre and Sabrina's “redemption arcs”. Normally, I wouldn't mind something like them changing, but it's less to show a character becoming a better person and more to vilify a different character. Andre went from a corrupt politician who abuses his power to please his daughter to an honest politician who is forced to abuse his power to please his daughter. Sabrina went from Chloe's loyal friend who chooses to help her make people miserable to Chloe's underling who is being forced to help make people miserable. Both of them were perfectly willing to go along with Chloe's acts in the past, and as we saw in “Revolution”, being a pawn didn't excuse her from being punished, so by that logic, they shouldn't get a free pass either. It's also strange how this wasn't the episode where Andre and Sabrina officially cut ties with Chloe, considering they already had issues with them. There wasn't really a reason to wait if they already made their issues clear, especially Sabrina. Somehow framing Marinette here is okay but doing it a few episodes later is too much for her?

Also, Lila served no purpose in the episode. Just like in “Collusion” and “Revolution”, all she does is tell Chloe to do things she was perfectly capable of doing in earlier episodes. We're supposed to see her as a mastermind, but I don't get why she has to hold Chloe's hand here. Why can't Lila come up with her own plan or manipulate different people from behind the scenes? It only further highlights the double standards because while Sabrina being a lackey to Chloe earns her sympathy, Chloe being a lackey to Lila doesn't for some reason.

I am getting really tired of the whole “Nobody believes Marinette” formula that every Lila episode relies on (Chameleon, Ladybug, Risk, Revelation, Confrontation). It's the exact same story. Everyone who has known Marinette for the past four seasons suddenly loses all trust in her, only instead of instantly believing Lila, it's Chloe. CHLOE. This is worse than Lila, because she's at least in good graces with other people, but this is the same season that solidified the idea of nobody liking her at all. They seriously take her words at face value over Marinette, someone whose friends know has tormented her for a year at least (Derision)? Put aside how I feel about Chloe, this is a story that depends on trusting someone nobody has any reason to trust, and it makes no sense.

There are just so many minor issues in this episode that pile up enough to really piss me off. It's like a death by a thousand cuts.

#23: Collusion

I normally don't try to get political on this blog unless I absolutely have to, and talking about this episode is one of those occasions.

If you've been around since the early days of this blog, you'll remember that Astruc once compared Chloe to Donald Trump, and not too long after the January 6th attack on the Capitol Building at that.

Even before that thread, Astruc made a joke comparing Trump to Chloe less than a week after the attack.

Whether you agree with Astruc's views on Trump or not, the point is that he kept up with American politics and strongly opposes him. So anyway, let's get to the episode where the heroes let someone lead a small army to storm the mayor's office and force him to resign, which is totally different from what Trump did.

I cannot get over just how confusing this episode is. For a show created by someone who usually keeps up with American politics, this is such a tone-deaf episode. I get that the story is trying to lean into French history, and I'm not sure how far into production the crew was when the attack on the Capitol happened, but given how Astruc was aware of the drama, he and his team should have at least considered the implications this episode could raise. The problem with the discussion around January 6th is that the supporters see it in as righteous a light as Miss Sans-Culotte is. As far as they know, what happened wasn't a violent invasion of government property, but a peaceful demonstration. Sure, none of the talking balloons said “Hang Andre Bourgeois!”, but it still brings similar imagery to mind.

Something that also harms the French Revolution narrative is the fact that all of Miss Sans-Culotte's supporters are helping her against her will. Much like countless Akumas throughout the show's history (Darkblade, Kung Food, The Puppeteer, Princess Fragrance, Despair Bear, Befana, Zombizou, Malediktator, Gamer 2.0, Mr. Pigeon 72, Hack-San, Revelation, Confrontation), Miss Sans-Culotte brainwashes innocent civilians so they can help her cause. This goes against the idea that she's speaking for the people, because her victims don't have a say in this. She's not reenacting the French Revolution, she's reenacting Order 66!

Also, this is something I've neglected to discuss. Why make Miss Bustier pregnant at all, much less akumatize her while pregnant? Outside of her students telling Chloe not to make a scene because the stress caused from dealing that is bad for the baby, Ms. Bustier's pregnancy adds nothing to the story. Seriously, the story thinks Chloe annoying the class is more dangerous for Ms. Bustier's baby than Ms. Bustier herself running around and getting into fights with her baby inside. It could have made for some interesting drama where Ladybug and Cat Noir are hesitant to hurt a pregnant woman, even if she's been akumatized. While the writers do try to work around it by giving her minions to do the fighting (as much as it mucks up the themes of this episode), it still doesn't explain why she needed to be pregnant during this episode in the first place.

Putting aside how unlikable Miss Sans-Culotte is in this episode, you can't even enjoy seeing Andre getting kicked out of office because this is the same episode where the writers really want us to feel bad for him. Look at how sad the rich white politician is. Let's ignore the fact that he's a big part of the reason why Chloe is as bad as she is, has abused his power multiple times, and is all around the cause of his own problems. But even though this is a show that tries to take an anti-capitalist stance (which I'll get to more in “Emotion”), we're supposed to side with one of the biggest symbols of everything wrong with capitalism and political corruption. Even then, Andre is framed for corruption instead of the several instances he actually abused his power, as if they're trying to say he was never a corrupt man. He just loves his daughter. Is that too much to ask for? His daughter herself? Eh, who cares? You really need to support the rich white man. Are we sure this show was created by a liberal?

But the biggest issue is the moral. It's impossible to frame Miss Sans-Culotte storming the mayor's office as a peaceful protest because she's clearly inspired by one of the bloodiest and most violent revolutions in history. If she was supposed to be a violent warrior who needed to learn there was a better way, that would work, but instead, the show downplays how dangerous she is... when she has a guillotine blade for a weapon. You can't claim Miss Sans-Culotte is non-violently protesting Andre's administration when she brainwashes innocent civilians, storms into the building, and demands he resign without any question. Even taking all that into consideration, the moral ends up backfiring because forcing Andre out of office caused an even bigger problem with Chloe taking over, and the very next episode threw the non-violence message out the window.

Whether or not you want to consider the political implications here, this is still a terrible episode with a terrible moral.

#24: Pretension

I've always had issues with Felix, and after the trainwreck that was “Emotion”, let's just say this didn't exactly do anything to raise my opinion of him. Just like his other appearances for the last few seasons, he did absolutely nothing to help Ladybug, focused on only doing things that benefited him, and making everyone's lives worse due to his incompetence. And somehow, this idiot is the one who moves the plot along the most.

The entire conflict happened because Felix kidnapped Kagami without even coming up with a plan. Even when he believes that Kagami is a Sentimonster (I apologize for saying that word Felix hates, but once again, the show provides no alternative to it), he doesn't think of Tomoe being able to track her or command her to leave even at a far distance. He doesn't even try to explain himself to Ladybug and Cat Noir and spends more time running away from everyone who wants to kick his ass. But by the show's logic, he just needs friends, even though his entire deal is that he works alone to get what he wants.

It's bad enough that Felix has to screw up everything he touches, but now he's dragging Kagami to his level. Kagami has cemented her role as Felix's lackey/girlfriend and nothing more. People give Marinette crap for the way the behaves around Adrien in and out of universe, but Kagami knows nothing about Felix, yet a single conversation about his past is enough for her to fall head over heels in love with him. She went from someone not willing to take any bullcrap from Marinette and Adrien to believing Felix's story in a fraction of a heartbeat. This season really likes ruining the few likable characters the show has left.

I also have to roll my eyes at the conversation Marinette and Gabriel have about fashion. For one thing, it's one of the few times the entire season remembers that Marinette wants to be a fashion designer and doesn't really factor into her rivalry with Gabriel. This season made their conflict revolve around how to treat Adrien, not their views on fashion. It feels like they only brought it up to remind viewers that Marinette is still into fashion. Well, that, and also to take a stance on artistic integrity... supposedly.

And on that note, it's amazing how the writers display little to no self-awareness during this scene. The show that embraces sticking to the status quo and rejecting almost any attempt at keeping consistent continuity is now trying to teach children about the importance of being willing to take risks when creating something. This is like Hannibal Lecter trying to promote veganism. I get the message, but the messenger's history is keeping me from buying it. It doesn't help that for a scene trying to point out how outdated certain views are, the show ultimately chooses to take the side of the man with the “wrong” mindset by the end of the season.

The pancake metaphor really confuses me too. It's meant to be a running gag that the only thing Gabriel knows how to cook is pancakes, but A) Nothing is really indicated to show how terrible they are as a metaphor for how bad his outdated views are other than Marinette's verbal assessment of them, and B) We later learn Gabriel used to be poor, so either he never knew how to cook prior to earning his fortune or being rich somehow made him forget basic living skills. I'm just saying, when an episode of Sid the Science Kid manages to better convey someone doing a terrible job making pancakes, you might need to put in a little more effort to show how bad Gabriel's pancakes supposedly are.

Finally, Tomoe. This episode didn't really do much to show her as a compelling threat, given all she did was nag Gabriel and try to shoot her daughter when she didn't even try commanding her to fight back when she was kidnapped. She's nothing more than a female Gabriel and is another example of how overstuffed this show's cast is,

This episode is awful, plain and simple. It took aspects from previous episodes that were already questionable, and doubled down on them while acting like there weren't any problems at all.

#25: Derision

And now we're onto the really, REALLY bad episodes this season. One of the reasons why this post took so long to make was that I wasn't sure how to rank these last three episodes. Thankfully, I managed to find a way to rank them based on the morals are executed. With that being said, let's start scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Ah, “Derision”. You're the only episode that makes the backlash caused by “Chameleon” seem like a pleasant breeze. It's incredible to see just how much negative a reputation this episode has in the fandom. Virtually nobody likes it because it manages to upset everyone with its poor characterization. I'm talking Marinette fans, Adrien fans, Chloe fans, Kim fans, and pretty much every other character's fans. I've only seen a few die hard fans defend this episode, and they're the people on Tumblr who defend pretty much everything done this season.

I have just one question to ask about this episode: Why did it need to happen? We didn't learn anything new that we didn't know already. We know Chloe is mean, and we know Marinette used to be more timid and had no friends. We didn't even need that much of an explanation for why Marinette acts the way she does around Adrien, seeing how it was usually played for laughs

Speaking of which, let's talk about the fact that the episode tries to shame the audience for laughing at the jokes about Marinette's reactions to Adrien. You know, something that was the show's primary running gag ever since Season 1? A running gag the writers ran into the ground by the end of Season 3 but still chose to go with it? Now we're not supposed to have laughed at it, assuming we laughed at it all. Way to insult even the small portion of viewers who didn't get on your case about this, writers.

I only have about two positive things to say about this episode. For one thing, Chloe actually served as a pretty decent antagonist in the flashbacks. Much like in “Revolution”, when the writers actually let her be a villain on her own without being made a pawn, she can be somewhat entertaining. If this was the Chloe we got after Season 3, I don't I would have been as upset at the direction Astruc's team took with the character.

In addition, the thing that saves this episode from being at the bottom is that unlike the next two, it actually understands that what the antagonist did was wrong. They don't make up excuses for what Chloe did and she actually gets called out as a result. It doesn't lead to anything major, but it's something.

Like with “Queen Banana”, there's not much else I can say that hasn't already been said. There's plenty of retcons, the characterization for everyone is off, it attacks the audience, and the message about trauma got fumbled by the show's usual double standards. It's been said over and over again, and it's become a symbol of how much the show's quality has degraded.

#26: Emotion

I think if you've kept up with my reviews of this season, you should know by now that I don't exactly like Felix, and most of the problems I have with him can be attributed to this episode. In fact, for a while, this was going to be my choice for the bottom slot.

It's clear that the writers want to make Felix this wild card who's only in it for himself, but like most of the show's antagonists, they want to show Felix as this devious mastermind... but he's also not really evil, and you should feel bad for him. For most of the episode, Felix does nothing but make everyone's lives worse during his first outing as Argos. He smears his cousin's reputation yet again, tricks his girlfriend into dancing with him, condemns some rich kids for the crime of being rich when he's just as rich, and eventually wipes out all life on the face of the earth. But he's just doing it for his cousin, we swear!

While Felix has understandable motivations for what he does, wanting to free Adrien and Kagami, the way he tries to achieve his goal makes it hard to sympathize with him. If the whole point was that what he did was wrong and that he needs to find a different way, that could work. Instead, we're supposed to see him as this tragic figure who was forced to do terrible things when the episode shows him happily singing while causing chaos. It's the same problem with Gabriel, wanting a sympathetic character to do unapologetically evil things. The fact that he has to be told that genocide is bad doesn't make us want to sympathize with him when he breaks down crying. It paints a picture that he's crazy but the show wants to act like he isn't.

Even putting all the crap with Felix aside, the episode is still unbearable. The stuff with Marinette was poorly executed and was just done to get her involved in the plot, and later become the first one to excuse Felix for betraying her. Other than the dance scene, you could easily just have Marinette swing in as Ladybug when Argos starts his rampage and nothing would really change. The episode tries to make jokes about how unnecessary this is, but as usual, its attempts to be self-aware come across like its saying “What we're doing it wrong, we know it's wrong, but we're gonna do it anyway!”

Speaking of the dance scene, I can't stop rolling my eyes whenever Felix tries to be all “We live in a society” to Marinette. Forget the corrupt politicians, corporate moguls, human traffickers, and despotic rulers of foreign nations. The absolute worst section of humanity is composed of the teenage children of the 1%. Sure, you'd have to break my legs before I'd agree to supervise them at this party, but I don't get why these are the people we're supposed to see as irredeemable monsters. Do the writers think because these kids associate themselves with Chloe, we'll automatically hate them? Newsflash, but if I had to choose between hanging out with some annoying kids and a mass murderer, I'd stick with the annoying kids.

Rewatching this episode was what helped me finally realize just what my problem with the show's anti-capitalist message is. How the hell am I supposed to hate the villains on this show for being rich when several characters are rich or at the very least, are successful thanks to their connections to the rich? Think about it for a second. Putting aside Adrien and Kagami, you have Marinette, the daughter of two of the most popular bakers in Paris and earned the respect of multiple celebrities, Alya, the daughter of a chef who works at a five-star hotel, Nino, someone who got to DJ at a major fashion show, Rose, who is friends with a literal prince, Luka and Juleka, the children of a popular rock star, and Max, the son of an astronaut with access to cutting-edge technology. Somehow, these people are supposed to be poor? They make Monica from Friends look like Oscar the Grouch. It's why I can't take the message seriously. You can't write a story about a class struggle when both classes are shown to be pretty well-off.

The only thing that saves this episode from being at the bottom of the list is the fact that despite committing genocide while singing, Felix at least gets what he did was wrong and makes up for it. It doesn't fix everything else he did in this episode, but that's better than nothing. As for the villain featured in the episode that's at the bottom of this list? If you've been keeping track, I think you know who I mean.

#27: Re-Creation

I'll admit, I'm sort of cheating here. I'm judging this episode more as a finale than an individual episode, but I'm making an exception because the plot is tied to wrapping up all the loose ends this season.

I'm mentioning this because for a season finale, the stakes just feel so low. The fight between Bug Noire and Monarch doesn't have any weight to it because they've barely interacted at all for the last five seasons. These are supposed to be two mortal enemies, but you can't really buy the enmity between them. It ultimately cheapens the moment of Bug Noire triumphing over Monarch in the end... before Monarch triumphs over her not long afterwards, but we'll get to that.

The stuff with the Miraculized doesn't help either. We already know that the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous are in the Agreste manor, so the Miraculized's goal is impossible to achieve. It's never even explained why the Miraculized don't go back to the manor to help Monarch beat Bug Noire, since they should still be able to track the Miraculous. All of the fights with them just come across like filler, and there's no real sense of danger or hopelessness to be found. Whether the Miraculized win or lose is irrelevant. Nothing will happen either way because the important stuff is happening in the Agreste manor.

This extends to the part where all the heroes appear to help. It doesn't come across as an Avengers-esque moment for the climax, because it doesn't change anything. The episode never explains what any of these characters were doing prior to the events of this episode and why only now they're helping out. The United Heroes are the most egregious example because unlike Fei or Su-Han, they're a major organization whose members include the president, and they didn't do a damn thing when Monarch stole all of the other Miraculous. Speaking of, there is no way in hell that Su-Han taught Mirakung-Fu to three random people over Ladybug and Cat Noir, much less that those three people are actual masters after about two months at best. Maybe they got to train in Bunnix's Burrow? After all, she's not doing anything else to stop the end of the world other than sending four people over to Paris. This whole sequence really highlights how bland the other heroes of this universe are. If they're not slacking off when they're needed, they're criminally underdeveloped because there's a slim chance they'll get spin-offs to flesh them out.

But I think the biggest issue me and other people have with this finale is the resolution. In what is easily one of the most baffling decisions the show has made, Bug Noire doesn't defeat Monarch, and Monarch gets to make his wish. I don't care how many times the writers technically say she won because she beat him in a fight. Gabriel backstabbed her at the last minute and got her Miraculous to make his wish. Yeah, he died, but he succeed in achieving his goal, never faced any real consequences, didn't get any closure with his son (much less apologize for abusing him), told Marinette to lie about the monster he was to him, and was turned into a martyr with a statue made of the same things he used to control the world.

This ending infuriates me because it not only makes Marinette out to be a terrible hero for failing to do the one thing she was chosen to do (get the Butterfly Miraculous back), but it also ultimately makes Gabriel out to be a decent person even though he destroyed and recreated the world. All Marinette did was take credit for saving the world, and even then, Gabriel got more celebration in the end. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! She got outsmarted by an abusive parent and didn't even get a new statue in her honor!

But the most damning thing of all this is the fact that this finale retroactively makes everything that's happened over the last five seasons completely pointless. If Gabriel making a wish wasn't as bad as it was supposed to be, why didn't Ladybug and Cat Noir let him borrow their Miraculous? Why make the stakes this high if you're going to downplay the impact of a madman recreating the world in his own image? Follow-up question: why make the stakes this high if the wish being made is ultimately shown to have huge benefits for society? In an attempt to wrap things up with a happy ending, the writers accidentally made the conflict completely meaningless.

That's why this resolution is the ultimate example of the writers refusing to allow any major changes to happen. If they're willing to treat the end of the universe as less important than Ms. Bustier becoming mayor, why should we assume they'll ever take their story seriously? For God's sake, every character you know and love is essentially dead, and we're supposed to act like that isn't a big deal? That's how you wanted to end the show originally? Then again, at least they tried to resolve something, unlike the Love Square. We still haven't gotten a reveal, and I don't think we ever will at this point. These writers will drag out the story until the show stops becoming profitable, which won't be for a long time.

And with that, I am officially done with Season 5. Honestly, after having to rewatch this season again, I'm not sure if it's even worth giving Season 6 a shot. There's nothing to look forward to, and Lila becoming the main villain isn't really appealing to me. At the very least, I have the movie review to look forward to, meaning I can watch something good for a change.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hello, new to interacting with the fandom tbh. It's been a few years (1 year and a couple of months) since I've seen miraculous. Why did s4 and s5 so cluttered? Sentimonster Felix and Adrien? Shouldn't that complicate things? I mean, they're created with magic. And Kagami and Felix? After he kidnapped her and stole all of the miraculous to give it to Hawkmoth? He's even worse than Chloe, why did they make him into a hero? Like he should have been an anti-hero at best. And why Catwalker? Why all of the lovesquare shenanigans? It's so confusing. And did they seriously replace Chloe with Zoe (gosh even their names sound the same)? Half-sister? Who wasn't even there in episodes with Audrey? Zoe from New York, a better sister than Chloe with a heart of a hero? Am I reading a fanfic? And why did they make Alya and Zoe into ladynoir's replacement if Ladybug and Chat Noir are coming back anyway? What is this mess?? And did they seriously make Chloe into a mayoress? Uh hello? She's a minor? Minors aren't allowed in any government offices no matter their age or status. What happened to this show?? The early seasons were already cluttered in its writing but at least they're at least understandable. But what the heck is s4-s5? Heck even the powers of some of the kwamis don't make sense.

I obviously can't give you the real logic for why all of this happened since I'm not one of the show's writers, but I can give you my best guess based on what we know about the show. In my opinion, all of this nonsense happened because of poor planning and bad writing both of which were compounded by the fact that Miraculous is an episodic formula show where every episode is supposed to be able to stand alone as its own self-contained story.

This is not a bad thing in and of itself. There are many successful properties that use this format. The problem is that it's a terrible format for everything that Miraculous is trying to do because this format means that nothing can be properly developed. As an example from your list, Felix can't be a complex character who requires multiple episodes to properly understand. He has to be straight-forward enough that I can catch a random episode and understand who he is in that episode even if it massively contradicts other episodes. That's why his "redemption" is so wacky and nonsensical. It's not a coherent narrative. It's a highlight reel of the big moments in a narrative we never get to see in full because that would require some level of serialization.

This is the answer to basically everything you listed. For example, why did season five start with all of those awkward lovesquare shenanigans? Those happened because the square can't have a functional arc where the they get together as that would require a storyline that goes over multiple episodes, but the writers still wanted to make them getting together dramatic, so we get a disjointed mess of shenanigans where Ladynoir gets married in one episode, the crushes flip in the next episode, and Marinette is #Thirsty for Chat Noir in the episode after that even though it completely contradicts Marinette's emotional state in the crush flip episode (she wasn't #Thirsty, she was #Horrified!)

We don't even see the square actually get together! Kwamis' Choice gives us these two moments:

Alya: How did we go from “I’m pathetic and I’ll never love again” to “Yay! I’m going out with Adrien”? Marinette: I’m not going out with Adrien…

and

(Marinette attempts to reach out and hold Adrien's hand but shakes as she is a few inches away from his hand. She attempts to do it again, but this time forcibly reaching for his hand.) Adrien: Are you okay, Marinette? If you're not ready, you don't have to. Marinette: (while struggling to reach out for Adrien's hand) No! I can... do this!! (grunts aggressively) Adrien: You know, we can just be friends if you prefer. Marinette: No! No, I don't want to be friends with you! Adrien: (taken aback and gasps) I see... Marinette: No! I didn't mean it like that! Ugh, my hand... will obey me!!

And then the very next episode opens with Chat Noir and Ladybug telling each other about their new relationships:

Cat Noir: I'm super happy for you, m'lady. Can you believe it? I have a girlfriend, you have a boyfriend, and we can talk about it! Ladybug: Like real friends. Ladybug and Cat Noir: It's awesome. Pound it!

Which makes no sense because when did the relationship happen???? I thought you two weren't dating yet??? What is going on here???

The only answer I can come up with is what I said above: the writers need each episode to be self contained, but they also wanted the square getting together to be dramatic and have some semblance of an actual plot-line, so they tried to do both of those things by giving us a highlight reel instead of a coherent narrative. Does it work? Not really, but that's why a multi-episode romance plot is a terrible choice for an episodic formula show that vows to have each episode truly stand alone. There is a reason I keep pointing out that Kim Possible got its endgame couple together in an hour-long special that didn't follow the show's standard formula. That's about the only way to do it right while maintaining your status as an episodic formula show.

Pick a plot/plot point from your list and ask yourself: can I tell this properly in a self-contained 20 minute episode while also including an akuma fight? If the answer is no, then that's your answer for why it's bad. It's also the answer for why there's so much crap in seasons four and five. The writers are trying to advance their season-specific plot and their multi-season plot in disjointed chunks while also keeping the audience engaged. This led them to add in tons of random shit that will never be properly addressed, but that makes for solid cheap drama because, once again, everything the show gives us needs to be done in self-contained 20 minute stories that also include an akuma fight.

This is also why Marinette never tried to rescue the Kwamis. That would require her to be able to track down where they are and she couldn't succeed in doing that until the final. She also couldn't make slow progress throughout the season because that's too serialized. Because of those limitations, Marinette spends the season being cringe over Adrien because that doesn't need a ton of additional context for a viewer to understand what's going on. A line or two at the start of the episode tells you the current status quo even if that status quo doesn't feel like it makes much sense for the characters from the perspective of the ongoing narrative.

An example of this is Marinette going from crying over her crush on Chat Noir in Determination to being happy about her crush in Passion. Her being upset is way too complicated to explain and resolve, so instead we get this:

Alya: What do you mean you're in love with Chat Noir? Marinette: I don't see what's so weird about it. Alya: It's weird, because you were in love with Adrien just, like, yesterday. (points at the corkboard with photos on the wall next to them) Marinette:(covers the corkboard with her body) Adrien? Yeah, but being in love with Adrien was not a good idea.

I don't like any of this, but it is what it is. Expect more of the same in season six

[carpetbug]

Feline Blue AU Masterpost

What is FBAU?

FBAU is my own alternate universe where, before the events of origins, Master Fu is hunted down and killed by Hawkmoth. Moments before his death, he transfers guardianship to the first person to cross his path, who ends up being Marinette Dupain Cheng. Marinette learns about the miraculous and what being a guardian means from the kwamis, and eventually decides to wield the black cat ring. After a silly turn of events, Adrien Agreste, famous model and Marinettes new friend/classmate, becomes the wielder of the ladybug earrings.

Update schedule?

The actual fic updates whenever I’m ready to update it (that is to say it has absolutely no schedule), but I tend to draw a fair amount for this au! If you’d like to enjoy the au as I write it (without spoilers) I suggest sticking to the fic!! Most art and almost all ‘extra’ content has to do with later aspects of the story, so avoid those if you don’t want spoilers. (kwami swap pairings, hero names, love square dynamics, etc).

What tags do you/should I use?

I use the tags #ml fbau and #ml feline blue au, but certain characters have their own tags as well (#feline blue, #beetle rouge, etc).

You are welcome to make art of this au!! If you do, please tag me for credit and so I can be sure to see it! I’m also always taking asks/questions/requests for this au! I love to ramble <3.

Fic Chapters

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four [wip]

Art

Feline Blue and Beetle Rouge

Marinette and Adrien go swimming

A single mom who works two jobs, who loves her kids and never stops

FBAU!Nino

FBAU!Alya

Alya redraw

Bee!Alya rough design

FBAU!Chloe

FBAU!Alix

FBAU!Luka

Tempore Lapin / Rabbit!Luka

FBAU!Kagami

FBAU!Juleka

FBAU!Rose

Mini comic 1

Mini comic 2

Kwami and holder interactions 1

Kwami and holder interactions 2

Kwami and holder interactions 3

Kim doodle

Felix and Duusu

Doodles 1

Doodles 2

Finger doodle

Catgirl stares at you

Beetle sketches

Beetle doodles

Beetleline doodle

Beetleline

Marirouge glaciator

Art dump

Tikki

He’s so fucked

Plagg

Literally kick her in the head

Nooroo

Duusu

Wayzz

Trixx

Trixx 2.0

Pollen

Longg

Sass

Fluff

Mullo

Kaalki

Ziggy

Orikko

Stompp

Barkk

Roaar

Daizzi

Xuppu

Miracle Tree

Extra

Spotify Playlists Folder [wip]

Song ask 1!

Song ask 2!

Pinterest Boards [always being updated!]

thimbleb3rries Beetleline genderbend!

bbutterflies commission!

wisteriasymphony art!

aeoluuus art!

d011zk1ll art 1!

d011zk1ll art 2!

d011zk1ll art 3!

d011zk1ll art 4!

d011zk1ll art 5!

d011zk1ll art 6!

d011zk1ll cysaw x fbau 1!

d011zk1ll cysaw x fbau 2!

d011zk1ll cysaw x fbau 3!

d011zk1ll cysaw x fbau 4!

d011zk1ll cysaw x fbau 5!

d011zk1ll cysaw x fbau 6!

d011zk1ll cysaw x fbau 7!

d011zk1ll cysaw x fbau 8!

graythegreyt art 1!

graythegreyt art 2!

isabugs art!

friend art!

Ask 1 - favorite things

Ask 2 - difference between canon

Ask 3 - q+a

Ask 4 - chloe and zoe regarding the fox 1

Ask 5 - q+a

Ask 6 - Chloe and Zoe regarding the fox 2

Ask 7 - feline reacting to chloe

Ask 8 - marinettes taste in drinks

Ask 9 - first akuma

Ask 10 - real

Ask 11 - chapter 3 debrief

[last updated: August 16th, 2024]

[crizztelcb]

I have been chewing on this bone for a while so i would keep my mouth shut about miraculous but gosh im getting tired.

Adrien just became useless, like im not talking about chat noir part and no dont come at me with they are both the same, i KNOW that! but you cant turn a blind eye that the show makes the civilian form as nothing but useless. Take him out of the scene and boom! Nothing happens, it feels like he only has a space when hes chat noir and even then it became so small with all those new heroes coming which fuck i used to like some but now im just pissed theres so many.

Adrien is a character i always liked and still like no better i freaking love him, and thats why as time went by it became more and more tiring seeing him never leave the first stage.

He has no friends, nino is downplayed so much, kagami was made distant from him, luka is just a random dude he talks once in a blue moon, alya doenst even interact with him that much plus everyone else, and marinette the one i most thought would be the one he would feel more free with feels like shes not being given permission to be close to him.

They are just lovely dovey and is not even in a fun way just a eh way, did i wait since 2016 for that? Just that?! No fucking way.

"Oh you had an idea of what you wanted thats why youre upset crizztel" yeah it might be that, im happy youre satisfied with how things are going no lie i hope people are in fact having fun but i dont like playing the sugar card anymore im sad, im disappointed, but i keep my mouth shut because i want space in the fandom and i fear being labeled as a salter when i do in fact love canon so much.

I absolutely adore adrien but now hes nothing but a plain boy that the narrative sometimes remembers and just throw something on him to make him at least a bit special.

[mc-lukanette]

Luka'd never had a sleepover before. It wasn't because he didn't want to, but he didn't know a lot about them. His mother told him once that it was fine to not know things - he was still a little kid, after all - but what bothered him was that his sister had started going on them. They might've been twins but, from what he understood, he was the older twin, which meant that he was supposed to know more so he could help her whenever she needed it.

In his mind, he was not doing a very good job.

He'd heard the word "sleepover" a few times, but in different ways. It was confusing hearing about his sister Juleka going to a "sleepover" but also that she would "sleep over" at someone else's house. Luka didn't know if there was a difference or if both ways of saying it were linked somehow.

Furthermore, Juleka was "having a sleepover" at their houseboat this time. Just when Luka thought he'd grasped that a sleepover must've involved being in someone else's home, he was proven wrong. Wouldn't that mean that they were having sleepovers every night with each other? They slept in the same room and everything too, but apparently that wasn't the same.

He resolved to get to the bottom of it, or else he could ruin his sister's sleepover by accident.

——

Luka knew most of Juleka's friends. Rose had been over the most out of all of them, but supposedly her sleeping in Juleka's bed when she happened to stay too late still wasn't a sleepover. As for Alya, he'd seen her a few times when she would sneak away from her parents to board the houseboat and show them her drawing of "something cool that happened." Mylene and Alix he'd heard about more than seen, but he could easily recognize them by their dyed hair.

There was only one girl who'd be new, named Marinette. Juleka explained in a whisper to him that it was because she was her group's "secret friend," so they had to be careful about interacting with her because of some girl named Chloe. Luka didn't get it, but he still wanted to make a good first impression on her. He'd even worn his best distressed pants for the occasion.

From what he could gather, the girls had been taking turns going to each other's houses for sleepovers, and the houseboat just happened to be last in their order to try. The girls would spend their time above deck near all the plants and the table was low enough that they could sit around it comfortably or put things on it. That wasn't even talking about the view of the sky at night.

When the time came, Juleka left Luka by himself as she went to the upper deck to greet the other girls whenever they arrived. He'd offered to play "opening music" for each of them as they came aboard - he'd been practicing! - but she rejected the idea. Maybe he wasn't allowed to take part at all then?

Luka laid atop his bed on his stomach, troubled by it. He wanted to be a good brother by ensuring that he was well-liked by his sister's friends, but he couldn't do anything if he couldn't participate. He pouted as he reached for one of the soft, squishy stuffed animals he had near his pillow, squeezing it repeatedly to listen to the squeaky noise it made. It always helped calm him when he was lost in his own head.

He supposed it was possible that he wasn't allowed because he was a boy, but he didn't think that was fair. Alix was more like a typical boy than he was, and he'd been mistaken for a girl a few times due to having not gotten his hair cut in a while.

At the thought, Luka exhaled upwards, blowing at his bangs that were blocking some of his vision. He couldn't play music, he couldn't greet them, and apparently, he wasn't allowed to participate either. He was in good enough graces with most of Juleka's friends, but what if the new girl thought he was a bad brother who didn't care about his sister?

He could not let that happen.

Climbing down from his bed, Luka headed out into the lounge room. He could always get them drinks from the fridge and leave them near the cabin area so they wouldn't see him. That way, he wasn't interfering in anything but he was still being helpful.

Being as short as he was, Luka couldn't even see over the high top, but that didn't mean he couldn't carry what he needed to; he'd just have to find a tray first and balance them properly. Determined, he walked around the high top to get to the fridge when—

"Oh."

"Oh!"

Luka blinked, surprised to find himself face-to-face with one of Juleka's friends. Given her appearance - big blue eyes and black hair tied up into tiny pigtails with pink beaded hair bands - she could only be Marinette. He hadn't been prepared either, so he didn't know what to say.

Luckily, Marinette spoke first, bowing to him and blurting out, "S-sorry!"

He tilted his head. "Sorry?"

"Mm!" She looked up, nodding her head at him. "I'm in the way!"

He glanced behind her. Technically, she was in between him and the fridge, but, "You were here first."

"B-but you're Luka?"

He nodded. "So?"

"Juleka's older, so that means you're older!" She held her fists up in front of her chest, insisting, "I-I have to respect my olders!"

He looked away in thought, wondering if that was something common to teach kids.. His mother had taught him how to treat people bigger than him, but only if he needed to throw them overboard.

At his continued confusion, Marinette faltered, her hands going up to cup her cheeks in worry. "U-um, maybe it was elders?"

"It's okay." He didn't really care either way what it was. "My mom says people have to earn that first."

"Earn it?" She pursed her lips, mulling that over. "How do you do that?"

He shrugged, though the topic reminded him of his original task. He looked over her shoulder to the fridge, wondering aloud, "What did you wanna get?"

She whimpered, shoulders slumping. "I-I dunno. Juleka said there was juice, but Maman told me that sweet stuff is bad for sleeping."

Luka, unphased by the comment, walked around her to get to the fridge. He opened it slowly, allowing Marinette time to step out of the way, then reached inside to grab one of the bottles of juice inside. Offering it to her, he asked, "Do you like this one?"

Her mouth formed a tiny 'o' like she'd expected him to have been getting juice for himself, but her hands still raised to take it. She hesitated at first, fingers twitching before she gave in and took it from him. "Y-yeah. How'd you pick it?"

"It's pink," he explained as he closed the fridge, "like you."

"Oh." She giggled, staring down at the bottle but still not opening it. She tossed and turned it in her hand, Luka suspecting that she was still worried about the sugar in it.

"You can tell your mom that I gave it to you if you sleep bad," he assured.

"But won't you get in trouble?"

"No I won't. Not with my mom."

After another second of hesitation, Marinette finally relented and unscrewed the cap, taking a big swig of the drink. A loud and happy "pah!" followed, so he knew she must've enjoyed it. "Thanks. Sleepovers are hard."

Luka perked up at that, seeing an opportunity present itself directly to him. "What about 'em?"

"Mm..." She put the cap back onto the bottle, turning it but not with any real intent to seal it. "A lotta things? I had to try real hard when they came to my house. We've gotta figure out whose house is the best for sleepovers."

So sleepovers were competitive? Luka never took his sister for the type. "Like a game?"

"...Kinda?" She looked like she hadn't thought about it before. "But there aren't really any rules."

His mom must like them then.

Marinette continued, "You go to somebody's house, or they go to yours, and then you...you do stuff? Then you sleep on the floor."

He tilted his head. "On... the floor?"

"Erm." She pouted, frustrated that she couldn't get her thought across well enough. "You sleep on soft stuff, but it's on the floor? You can sleep on a bed too but I don't. It's not fair 'cause there's not enough beds for everybody."

Luka nodded, absorbing all of this. He finally felt like he was getting a grasp of things.

Catching on, she frowned at him, guessing, "You never had a sleepover before?"

He opened his mouth, but stopped short of answering her. Would it be bad to admit that he didn't know anything? What if she thought he wasn't "cool" because he's never had a sleepover with a friend?

But then his mother briefly flashed in his head, talking about the way of a Couffaine. She'd always encouraged him to be himself without any apology and, if he lied even about the little things, then he wouldn't be able to tell Juleka that he got Marinette to like him; it would just be a fake him.

"...No," he answered truthfully. "Never."

"Aw." She pouted. She took another sip of her drink before adding, "Um, you're not missing much?"

He couldn't tell if she was just trying to make him feel better or not, but he remembered her comment on sleepovers. "'Cause they're hard?"

She nodded. "Like, I'm—um—bad at sleeping next to the girls."

He tilted his head, trying to imagine how sleeping could be hard.

Marinette let out a small whine, then began to walk past him. She paused, like something occurred to her, then turned and opened the fridge. Luka watched as she pulled out a blue bottle of juice and offered it to him.

"It's blue, like you," she said, giving the bottle a little shake to encourage him to take it.

He smiled, accepting it, then followed her over to sit in the middle of the room. While he unscrewed the cap of his juice bottle, she screwed hers back on.

"Maman and Papa had t'put stuff around my bed so I don't fall off, 'cause I do this." She put the bottle sideways, set it on the ground, then gave it a push with her arms stretched fully out. It rolled across the floor, eventually bumping up against the table. "I roll in my sleep."

Luka could see how that'd be a problem. He imagined her - even as tiny as she was - rolling off and bumping into the other girls, or knocking into walls and causing a loud noise. Either way, she'd wake at least one of the others up.

Ashamed, Marinette retrieved the bottle and opened it again, taking a frustrated sip. "Maman says I've got too much energy even when I sleep. I thought energy was good?"

He nodded, agreeing with her. He took a gulp of his own drink, enjoying the refreshing, cool taste of blueberries going down his throat, then admitted. "I sleep weird too."

It was only fair, he figured, and maybe it was just because she was Juleka's friend, but he felt like he could trust her.

She gasped. "Really? How?"

He stared down at the bottle in his hand, then held it up to her. It was a little hard, but he squeezed with both hands for emphasis. "I gotta hold stuff in my sleep."

She leaned forward, supporting herself with the hand not holding her drink. She observed his bottle of juice like it was suddenly fascinating to her. "Do y'know why?"

He shook his head. "No, but Mom thinks it's 'cause of Jule. She said we shared a bed when we were babies." He pulled the bottle to his chest as an example. "So we did this."

"Ohhhh." Marinette copied him, hugging her bottle to her chest and squeezing. "But Juleka doesn't do it in her sleep?"

"Yeah. Just me. Mom got me stuffed animals to hold."

He wasn't sure how to make it stop either. If his mom was right, then he must've always been the one holding onto his sister rather than the other way around, or maybe Juleka simply grew out of it faster than he did. He liked the idea of being useful, even beyond Juleka, but at the same time he didn't have many friends. His mom brushed it off, insisting that it was because he was "expressing himself" earlier than most kids, and girls tended to be more into painting their nails and dying their hair at earlier ages, but what if she was wrong?

The thought made him feel bad. What if Juleka was having sleepovers to get away from him because he was trying to help too much? Maybe it wasn't his job as a big brother after all to make her friends like him, or make her sleepovers fun. He just had to leave her be.

Averting his gaze, Luka said pleadingly, "...Don't tell her." Juleka didn't know anything about it and he'd prefer to keep it that way.

"I-I won't!" Marinette assured, waving a hand reassuringly. "It'll be our secret! Um—here!"

He could see her setting her bottle down from the corner of his vision, but the loud noise of her hands colliding together was what fully brought his attention back to her. She looked as if she'd caught something in the air between them, but he was sure there hadn't been anything.

Keeping one fist closed, she brought her other hand down, making a motion like she was opening a box. She put her fist "inside," then opened her fingers again to drop the invisible object into it.

"What are you doing?"

"It's our secret." She used both hands to shut the "box" tightly, even seeming to lock it with a "key." That done, she picked it up, walked on her knees to get closer to the couch, then slid it under the couch. "Now no one can find it."

He considered that. It was a good idea and he even wanted to ask her how to make a box like that, but he also recalled a few times when something had rolled under the couch. "She might feel it if she's looking for something."

"She still can't open it! We have the key." She presented him with the invisible object. "As long as we don't lose it, we're okay!"

He stared, spotting the exact moment that she realized the same problem: that they could still lose it. He put a hand to his cheek, pinching and squishing it in thought.

"Mmm, maybe I'll just drink it?" Marinette offered. She came back to him, legs crossed as she held her hand over her bottle. "I saw it in a movie."

"No!" Luka reached out, snagging her wrist before she could do anything. "I'll do it."

"But���"

"You made the box. I'll drink the key. It's fair."

She pouted, eyes flicking from him to her closed hand, but she relented to the demand. She reached for his bottle instead, Luka holding the cap off of it so she could drop the key inside. When he bravely took a sip, it tasted like security.

Blueberries too, but mostly security.

"That makes sense," Marinette said suddenly, more to herself than him.

"What?" Luka asked, curious. She must've been lost in her own thoughts, but he wanted in.

"What you said about sleeping. You were doing this—" She grasped at the front of her shirt. "—when we talked."

He tried to summon memories of such a thing, but he couldn't. Had she been watching him so closely that she noticed something he didn't even notice about himself? "Really?"

"Mhm." She put her drink aside to crawl close to him, her two hands patting somewhere between his chest and stomach. "Right here. It's all wrinkly."

His gaze dropped to confirm. He hadn't cared to think about it before, but there were creases in his shirt like he'd been fidgeting with it, just like she said. He must've been grabbing at it without even thinking.

Sympathetic, Marinette tried to comfort him. "I don't think it's bad. I have stuffed animals too 'cause I like ones that all feel different." She flexed her fingers as if squishing an invisible toy. "I think it looks cool on you too."

"Cool?"

"Yeah!" She seemed genuine about it. "Like how your pants are all torn up. It's cool!"

The notion that his choice of pants had paid off made him feel confident again, the feeling in his chest lightening. "Thanks."

"Hehe~" She giggled, though she blushed pink like her drink as she admitted, "I got some that look like that, but they don't come that way. I just fall a lot."

At the mental image, he winced. "Ow."

"I'm used to it!" She didn't sound like she meant it, even if it was with a lot of energy. "And maybe one day, I'll be invinc-ah-ble!" She gestured outwards, waving her arms enthusiastically. "Then I'll never get hurt again!"

That would definitely be impressive, though the idea of her getting hurt over and over didn't sit well with him.

He opened his mouth to voice as much, but was interrupted by a knock on the door leading to the upper deck. A voice - one of the girls's - called out, "Marineeette?"

Luka slapped his hands over his mouth, dropping his bottle of juice in the process. It landed on the floor, still sturdy enough to stay standing, but he ignored it in favor of hiding under the nearby table. He wasn't supposed to partake in the sleepover, after all, and didn't want to be caught fraternizing with one of its members.

"I-I'm coming!" Marinette called back. "I was—uh—picking out the best juice!"

He waited, finding himself a little sad that she'd have to go, but a soft sound next to him made him turn. She was hovering beside him, having set his bottle down next to him. She then put a hand to the side of her mouth, whispering, "We should have a sleepover too. We can be bad at sleeping together."

The voice called out again, "Marineeette!"

"Ah—I said I'm coming!" Marinette shot up, hitting her head off the table but not even looking phased by it. Luka thought it was pretty cool how she shook it off, even remembering to take her juice with her to the door.

He heard the sound of the door opening, followed by a conversation about where Marinette kept her crayons that was slowly becoming harder and harder to hear, then Luka was left alone once again.

This time, he caught himself gripping his own shirt, replaying her words in his head. She wants to have a sleepover with me?

——

Time passed, Luka spending said time finishing his juice, kicking his feet in the air, and listening to music on his earbuds. The music was loud, but that didn't stop him from hearing the multiple footsteps slowly making their way below deck.

Thinking fast, he took off his earbuds and threw them aside, reaching off of his bed for his little guitar. Facing the window opposite of where the girls had planned to sleep - beyond the divider across from his and Juleka's room - he pulled the guitar against himself to feign being busy.

...Huh, he thought, briefly thrown off of his adrenaline rush by a realization. The guitar was his favorite instrument among the ones he'd tried and, going along with Marinette's observation, perhaps he simply liked the combination of holding things against him and having something to do with his hands?

Time to reflect on that had to come later though, as the girls slowly poured into the room. Luka made a point to seem like he was too focused tuning his guitar to listen, but he could still hear bits of conversation. He also heard the sound of the divider being pulled back and things being laid out on the floor. He guessed that everyone was getting ready to sleep.

"Who's sleeping next to Marinette?" Alya asked.

Immediately, a chorus of, "Not it!" followed. He counted five different voices, meaning all of them excluding Marinette herself.

"Someone's gotta," Mylene said pointedly.

Alix huffed, protesting, "I'm not getting hit again."

"I-it was an accident!" Marinette insisted desperately.

Rose whined, not liking the conflict, but argued, "I-I want to be next to Juleka."

Juleka didn't respond with words, but gave an affirmative hum directed at Rose.

Luka's fingers twitched on his guitar as the girls continued debating the matter. He wasn't sure how Marinette felt, but he personally was never crazy about getting the spotlight put on him. Even though he knew he should stay out of things and that she was Juleka's friend (not his), he didn't want to leave her alone.

Then, Marinette's words replayed in his head: "We should have a sleepover too. We can be bad at sleeping together."

Before he knew it, his guitar was off his lap and he'd hopped off his bed, crossing the room to reach the divider. Going back to where the girls were gathered, he blurted out, "I'll do it."

Instantly, all eyes were on him. It was a little uncomfortable, but he stood still, not willing to take back the offer.

"But you're a boy," Alix stated, as if he didn't know that.

Alya looked awkward, glancing off to the side as she tried to explain, "It's just s'posed to be girls, so..."

Rose, having squished herself against Juleka's side, peeked back and forth between Luka and Juleka. Tapping her chin in thought, she suggested, "What if we make Luka a girl for tonight?"

Everyone's gaze turned to her for an explanation. Rose grabbed Juleka's arm, pointing to both twins as she added, "Luka is Juleka's twin, so it's like he's part-girl."

Mylene crossed her arms, head slanted to meet one of her shoulders. "Like an honah—honor—"

Alya interrupted while pointing at her, "Honorary?"

"Yeah!"

She looked proud of herself. "I heard it on the news when my mom was watching one time."

The girls, barring Marinette who could only stare at Luka in surprise, all nodded in agreement over the topic. It was undoubtedly a technicality - not that Luka knew what that meant anyway - but he wasn't going to complain.

Things were moved around to accommodate having one more "girl" in the sleepover, the lights were turned out save for the nightlights, and that was that. By the end, Luka and Marinette were sitting next to each other while the other girls were all in their own (or each other's, if it was Rose and Juleka specifically) spaces. The others also fell asleep first, probably because they didn't have any sugary juices before bed.

"Why'd you do that?" Marinette asked in a hushed whisper, careful not to wake the others.

Luka responded in an equally quiet voice, "You said we could sleep bad together."

The reminder made her eyes light up, a smile brought to her face. "Yeah, I did~"

He smiled back, satisfied, then went to stand up. "I'll go get my stuffed animal."

"W-wait!" She snagged his arm, frowning in concern. Urgently, she said, "You'll wake 'em up!"

He looked around at the sleeping girls, then to the divider. One of the others must've closed it, and it would probably make a creaking sound if he went to open it. He'd offered to sleep next to Marinette so impulsively that he hadn't planned this far ahead.

Worried, he sat back down, wondering what he could do to occupy his hands. He looked down at his shirt, making the creases worse as he tugged and twisted the fabric.

"Uhm..." Marinette's tiny hand fell upon his as she spoke. "Could I be your stuffed animal then?"

Luka blinked at her, wide-eyed. "Really?"

"Mhm!" She took his hands, dropping them both onto her shoulders. "You can just hold onto me!"

It was hard to argue with that logic. She was the one offering and he already knew that he liked having something against him. Besides, it wasn't like it was any different from what Rose and Juleka were doing. "...Okay."

Luka's sleeping situation had been rushed using some thick blankets since they hadn't had anything prepared for him, but he didn't need it to lay down on anymore. He and Marinette made do with what she had, squeezing close together and only using the thick blankets as extra coverage. She wiggled at the extra texture the blankets provided, covering her mouth to suppress her excited giggles.

He didn't have any particular feelings about how the blanket felt, but it was nice and warm. Marinette even snuggled against him and allowed him to wrap his arms completely around her body, all the while smelling like strawberries.

"Comfy?" he asked.

"Yeah." She stared up at him. "Are you okay?"

He blinked confusedly at her.

"The key!" she whispered urgently, placing a hand on his stomach. "You drank it. Don't you have a tummyache?"

He shook his head. There was a faint fluttery feeling in his chest, but it wasn't painful.

She didn't believe him at first, but dropped it when she didn't feel any bad rumbling against her hand. That seemed to be enough for her to be convinced.

"...Wha'bout your hair?" she asked, the tiredness slowing her voice a bit.

"Mm?"

Instead of answering immediately, two hands came up to play with his bangs. His hair left his vision, leaving him to stare only at her as she said, "Long bangs're bad. They hurt your eyes when y'wake up."

He must've been getting tired too, because one moment there were pink hair clips in her bangs and the next they were being put in his. It felt a little strange, but she was right that his hair could get in his eyes if he weren't careful, and she seemed happy enough with it. He couldn't even bring himself to ask if they were important to her, not when she'd so insistently given them to him.

A part of him hoped that she might not ask for them back. It'd be like having a souvenir from his first ever sleepover.

Eventually and inevitably, the sugar wore off entirely. Luka found it even harder to keep his eyes open, his arms only awake enough to tug Marinette closer. She went along with it, too tired to say anything but her hum telling him that she was content with being held.

Feeling safe and reassured, they drifted off to sleep together.

——

Luka stirred when he felt that something was off. He was still warm and unwilling to move, but the feeling wouldn't stop bothering him.

Forcing himself to open his eyes, he looked up. It took a few blinks for his vision to focus, but eventually he noticed that the girls were hovering over him, all staring with varying degrees of surprise.

At his confused expression, Alya spoke up. "How'd you do that?"

"Mgh, d'what?"

A tiny whine took his attention toward the source of their surprise. He looked down, strawberry-scented black hair tickling his chin and a hand gripping his shirt tightly.

It was Marinette. She hadn't left his side nor rolled away all night. His arms were even in the same place they were before they'd fallen asleep, and he couldn't recall a single instance of accidentally "being hit" and getting woken up in the process.

He'd kept her content, and she did the same for him.

It took Luka a second to remember that they were still being watched. He squinted up against the light from the sunrise through the window - definitely still too early - then took one arm off of Marinette to grab at the blanket on them. It was the only thing that'd shifted during their sleep.

"S'not over," he grumbled.

"What?" one of the girls asked; he stopped paying attention at this point.

"Sleepover," he replied groggily, making sure that Marinette's shoulder was properly covered by the blanket. "Still sleeping."

He didn't need to be an expert to know that a sleepover wasn't over until the sleep itself was over. Fully confident in that, he shut his eyes again and slipped his arm back under the covers so he could continue cuddling her.

Luka'd never had a sleepover before that night, but now he wanted to have more.

[4ll-th1ngs-r4nd0m]

Welcome to me ranting facts abt the Mlb characters in my au! 1/??

Marinette my girlie first ofc!

(Her face claim if you care abt that sort of thing)

HEADCANONS

Her hair is more wavy then it is in the show. sue me.

she has glasses but never wears them

she LOVES old timey looking skirts. she embroiders them herself and could talk for hours abt all the little details she puts into them

most of her gifts for ppl are clothes she has embroidered or just flat out created specifically for them. and she will talk for DAYS abt why she chose a specific color or stitch for that tote bag she made for you

she's not straight, but she definitely has a preference for men

she's a surprisingly big people pleaser despite how much she tells ppl not to let others walk all over them

the biggest cheerleader. she loves her friends so bad and loves to see them succeed. she does in fact bake cupcakes and other treats for her friends when the celebrate accomplishments

she has a diary (ofc) and she doodles in it often

doesn't like candies/food that stick to her teeth (popcorn doesn't count)

rides her bike to school every day like a true anime protagonist

got really into flowers and their meanings because of Kagami

RELATIONSHIPS

is she a stalker? HELL NO. She does more deliveries for her parents' job than she does in the show and routinely ends up delivering near the places Adrien goes. Her memories pretty good when remembering other people's stuff so she's just .... really aware of him. (Alya doesn't believe her, but it's surprisingly true)

her and nino are closer than in the show cuz they grew up together (even when they weren't really friends, just kinda in proximity to each other)

still has relationship problems. dw. her breakup w Luka is especially hard cuz its pretty much only her fault; she's the one who just can't love him (which fucks him up REAL BAD for a sec)

her friendships are more fleshed out in this one (not to toot my own horn ☝️🤓) and ppl don't just ditch her for Lila at the drop of a hat. Lila weaves her way into Marinette's life in a way so full proof I'm impressed.

her and Adrien have the most hideous slow burn you guys (AND THEY CAN INTERACT W EACH OTHER LIKE NORMAL HUMANS! YAY)

her and Alya have in fact practice kissed. this may have ruined Alya's romantic relationship w Nino (👭)

Okay I think that's all the super important stuff

THANKS FOR READING AHHH ILY

[almadesarrollo]

MLB SEASON 6 FELINETTE'S BIG TRACK IN JEREMY ZAG'S VIDEO (new Miraculous scenarios via Instagram) ANALYSIS AND FELINETTE CLUES FOR S6 PART 2 marinette's balcony : flowers and HYDRANSIAS.

PART 1 CUPID'S FOUNTAIN

LET'S CONTINUE WITH THE ANALYSIS. MARINETTE'S BALCONY AND ITS CHANGES. Well, let's talk about Marinette's balcony, another of the areas that has undergone the most changes. Logically, Marinette's balcony is one of the most important areas in Miraculous Ladybug, since most of the scenes take place there. Let's see what changes and differences there are because there is a lot to analyze, here is a comparison.

*LET ME TELL YOU THAT I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO ANALYZE EVERYTHING WELL BECAUSE THE VIDEO GOES FAST AND YOU CANNOT SEE EVERYTHING IN DETAIL, BUT I WILL TRY TO BE AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE*

1 FLOWERS: we see that the new balcony has several new flowers and that the old ones have bloomed. Well here are 2 things, to begin with, the fact that the buds in the pots are in bloom is a sign of something new, new beginnings, a new flowering, which would indicate to us that this S6 is going to be a literal new beginning in all areas of her life, both professionally and personally, since the balcony deals with various topics, that is where Marinette talks to Alya about Adrien, also about her dreams, it is where she often relaxes, etc. They cover a little bit of everything, so the flowers in that state indicate that they are a sign of birth in all areas of your life.

Also the fact that in the other seasons (1-4) there are cocoons is a sign that everything that has been happening at all levels in those seasons was to prepare us for this one, it seems that S6 will answer many questions of previous seasons and will connect the dots.

ow on the other hand, due to the quality I can't see well what type of flowers there are, but more or less we have a clue with one of them and these are precisely the ones that I casually point out in the comparison, the ones that are violet blue light blue, these flowers are HYDRANSIAS

(it's just not visible well because the video goes by very fast, and I couldn't take a better screenshot, I'm sorry)

The hydrangeas are a great clue to Marinette's future love, it is no coincidence that they are there, but what exactly does it mean?

To begin with, hydrangeas are a symbol of failure and a bad omen in the love of a couple. There is a legend that says, "Hydrangea at home, woman who does not marry." That is why many women never use hydrangeas days before getting married, either in bouquets or in their own decoration. Because having this flower is a sign that the woman will never get married or if she is in a relationship she will break up.

The fact of seeing hydrangeas precisely on Marinette's balcony, which is equivalent to her house, could be a hint that Adrien's relationship will go badly or that she will not even marry him or that their wedding will be ruined (we will see this according to the following seasons)

now. Where have we seen or heard hydrangeas? Well, in sandboy.

These flowers are mentioned in the nightmare that Marinette has when Sandboy attacks her, the nightmare is Adrien saying that he is giving her a bouquet, and this is hydrangeas, roses and Chloe. And yes, it may seem funny, because Adrien would never notice Chloe, but what about Kagami? in kagami if you have noticed, if you have been paying attention to my posts you will know that chloe represents both marinette and kagami,

so when chloe is named, kagami is actually named. Hydrangeas, roses and Chloe, kagami? If the hydrangeas represent what we have said and the roses, love and then finally "kagami" comes out it clearly means that Adrianette is destined to fail and that Adrien ends up staying with Kagami.

(I know this is strange, but remember that we have to see Ryuko's interaction with Chatnoir, which if you have noticed is quite pleasant, something will come up there)

The fact that this is in a nightmare says a lot about Marinette's destiny with Adrien in love, it seems that this indicates that Adrianette is going to break up over Kagami, the phrase says "Marinette, for your birthday I am going to give you a bouquets of flowers, hydrangea, roses and chloe" well, this would also be confirming to us where and when adrinette is going to break up and go to the trash, something is going to happen on marinette's birthday, it is possible that kagami gets in the way,

and that Adrien is unfaithful to him, and she finds out about this on his birthday, that she catches him in the lie, it could also be that this is at the wedding, if we take into account the naming of a bouquet of flowers, in that order if we don't look at it says, hydrangea, roses and chloe, well breakup, then love, (the roses represent that) and chloe, well that chloe would be the final decision on Adrien's part, well kagami, Adrien finally chooses kagami and no marinette She married him because he doesn't love her, none of this is a coincidence.

-------FLOWERS: HINT OF FUTURE ADRINETTE BREAKUP AND FLOWERING OF A NEW LOVE-------

UP TO HERE THE ANALYSIS, WE WILL READ IN THE NEXT PART, like, reblog and follow me for more content of this type.

[princess-of-the-corner]

I reread Hero Chat again, and one of the things I'm loving is how many characters get to be spotlighted and how many fun characters get to have individual interactions. Like, just in this new chapter we get Mylene and Tomoe, and that's something that canon would never even consider. And of course ALL the Zoe and Lila together is like my FAVORITE thing happening right now. I am canoeing them so hard (platonic shipping). Like, you've done a good enough job with it that I'm canoeing them outside of HC.

Basically: ML frequently seems to forget that people other than the MCs exist, but you do a really good job handling the frankly huge ensemble cast, and it's getting added to the pile of "things in ML fanfic that heal my soul after it turned into a dry withered husk from continuing to watch the show."

Canoeing is the perfect word oh my god.

But also yeah ML has just. This large cast of characters and they rarely get the time and attention dedicated to them.

They occasionally get the spotlight when they're the Akuma of the Day, because we need to know why they're upset enough to get Akumatized.

Sometimes their Hero Debut Episode focuses on them, but that's a tossup as they're balancing the other plots of the Akuma and whatever Mari and Adrien have going on.

Most often they get sidelined in favor of Mari and Adrien.

This is why I think the idea of having a larger Hero Team would be better to allow for shifted focus like. While the Main 5 would all be friends, they'd have episodes with individual groups where not all of them are present.

Like to compare, we can look at MLP. Something that has a similarly large cast. But you get different groups of characters depending on the episodes.

You have the Mane 6 all together. You have episodes focusing on just 2-3 of the group instead of the full 6 to get ideas of their own dynamics. You have episodes that focus on one member and the supporting cast is made up of characters around them ie: Applejack episode with her family, Pinkie episode with the Cakes, Rainbow and the Wonderbolts, Rarity and her clients, etc. You also have episodes where the focus isn't on the Mane 6 aren't in focus at all and instead we have the CMC or Spike or later we get Starlight and the Young Six.

With ML we could've had this in different spots. Like. We have our Main 5 Heroes.

But maybe one episode foucses on Marinette and the Art Club/Kitty Section. The next is Alya hanging with Max to do tech coding stuff. Adrien falls in with Alix and Kim for the athletic nonsense. Nino's hanging out with Mylene because he's into directing and she's in theatre so drama club overlap. Chloé would have Sabrina and maybe later Kagami and/or Lila then Zoé.

And then yeah have episodes without them. Let the others have the spotlight!

[nijigasakilove]

Roshidere never beating the goonbait allegations I’m afraid 😭 Whether you’re into siscon fetish or hot Russian girls’ pits and tits, this had something for everyone.

Great week for meta 4th wall breaks, Deadpool this past weekend and then Yuki today interacting with the audience and giving fanservice shots. Intentionally giving Kuze the required romcom sister changing scene is ridiculous lmao.

“Alya NTR’D me and took my brother” someone please take away this girl’s light novel/manga collection, her brain is too rotted. Has to sting a little if you’re Yuki to spend so long trying to motivate your brother to join the student council and be a better student only for Alya to come along and get him to do it so soon.

Speaking of which, Alya noticing Kuze being more locked in at school and getting turned on was pretty funny. Too bad he had to go and fumble it by saying he was just hungry 😭 Nice caring Alya was sweet for the brief moment we had her.

“Sneak peaks are where it’s at” the animators and staff definitely had fun with those Alya chest and pit shots. The e cup thing is still up in the air, we need confirmation for scientific purposes

Sarashina senpai is really cute! Love a crass talking tomboy with short hair. And with that we’re about to begin the student council election season. Can’t wait to see this adapted.