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flightfoot · 9 months ago

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Adrien Angst Fics and Series that finished in 2023

So I love some good Adrien angst and hurt/comfort, and I figure a bunch of other people do as well! Hopefully these fics scratch that itch! They're all from the collection I set up earlier for the fics from 2023 that I recommend! I've got 31 fics in here. It's a popular genre that I like a lot, there are a lot of fics for it!

home is where the fight is by @rosie-b

Nadja Chamack’s voice greeted Adrien as he sat up straight, wiping his clammy hands on his pants and ignoring the black kwami floating by his shoulder. “—shocked to see our heroine fall in battle today, taking a direct hit from the akuma just as she detransformed. Parisians are torn between blaming Hawk Moth and Cat Walker for their roles in this tragedy, which ultimately revealed the civilian identity of Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Adrien turned off the TV and lowered his head as his vision blurred. Written for Ladrien June Day 7: Injured

I adore this fic! Which shouldn’t be a a surprise, it’s no secret that I love Sentiadrien Enemies AU. Adrien’s so worried about Marinette getting hurt, and wishes that he could help keep her safer, could tell her what’s really going on or get rid of the ring or something, but he can’t. Still, he IS able to find clever ways around some of his father’s more problematic orders. Loopholes for the win!

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Guilty by Association by @rosie-b

Marinette respected Adrien’s strength and courage more and more every day. No matter how many times people threw nasty words or literal tomatoes at him; no matter how many companies refused to work with him anymore; no matter how clear it was becoming that he would never be forgiven for his father’s crimes, he chose to greet new people with a smile and hope that this time, someone would recognize the kind heart hidden behind his hated name. She wished she’d had the chance to meet him before she’d accidentally ruined his life. Written for the Ml Writers Guild September event ‘back to school’

I love how Marinette keeps reaching out to Adrien, trying to protect him, even if it doesn’t always work. To let him know that she’s in his corner at least. Hawk Moth had to be taken down, but the consequences for Adrien… she never wanted anyone to get hurt in the process.

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oh, look now, there you go with hope again by @ladyofthenoodle

After the defeat of Hawkmoth and his accomplice, Chat Noir, Marinette is ready to return to her normal life, but she can’t escape Adrien Agreste, who was sentenced to a fate many consider worse than prison: public school. Specifically, her public school. Still, that doesn’t mean she has to interact with him, does it? Except, if she doesn’t… who will?

I love a good enemies au, and seeing the aftermath of an enemies au… that’s rare. She’s wary of Adrien, but with how he’s being bullied, and how he’s just taking it in the hopes of being accepted, she can’t help but reach out to him.

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Disintegrated Pancakes by @scribeofrhapsody

Adrien had started expecting the family breakfasts. He had NOT been expecting his father to collapse in the middle of one.

I’m shocked I haven’t seen more of this sort of thing, with Adrien finding out his father’s Monarch via seeing the Cataclysm wound. I love that Alya gets involved in this, being the person Adrien runs into after fleeing the room, and then Adrien getting to talk things out with Gabriel and Nathalie. Thankfully Gabriel is at least not completely incapable of being reasoned with here, or things could have gone worse than they did. It’s a nice little read, though with an ambiguous ending (at least at the time when I write this).

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with this ring by @thelibraryloser

She thought “you and me against the world” had sounded like lopsided odds before, when she hadn’t even dreamed “you against me” was a possibility. Or maybe she had dreamed it, but at least in those dreams he’d had cold blue eyes and a stark white mask. The villain she’d fought today had looked at her through her partner’s own bright green eyes. It wasn’t meant to be this way.

Short and sweet Sentiadrien enemies canon divergence fic here! I adored Marinette finding out why her kitty seemed to have “betrayed” her, and the righteous anger on his behalf once she figured out that it wasn’t of his own free will. Her comforting Adrien about it was just… really good. It’s a Hawkmoth Defeat fic too, so the immediate aftermath gets covered as well. Adrien needs a hug.

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Nothing Else Matters by LiquefiedStars

Marinette couldn’t figure out Chat Noir. He was supposed to be her partner, but instead ended up working for Hawk Moth. Still, her heart betrayed her and when a strong connection forms between them, Ladybug goes to Chat looking for answers, finding out more than she bargained for.

Sentiadrien enemies AU fic! He never wanted to fight against her, but Gabriel caught him before he could transform for the first time, and with his father using his Amoks against him, he had no choice.

I like that there’s a solid explanation for why Fu let Adrien keep his Miraculous even though he’s been working against Ladybug, I don’t often see explanations for that that I’m satisfied with.

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Slowly Fading (from my misery) by @wehadabondingmoment

“You’re looking awfully deep in thought today, minou.” Ladybug’s gloved hand stroked over his hair and Chat Noir closed his eyes with an unstable breath. He got like this sometimes. Lately, it had been getting worse. Or: Gabriel likes using the rings to order his son around. After a while, it starts having effects on Chat Noir as well. (The more often Gabriel commands Adrien to act a certain way, the more it gets ingrained in his mentality. He suffers because of it.)

This is a gorgeous fic. Adrien’s been puppeted around, forced to obey orders for reasons he doesn’t understand, for so long, so often that a lot of times his own body doesn’t even feel like his. A lot of residual orders keep on bubbling up and stopping him from doing what he wants to do, and he just… doesn’t understand why. Considering how Adrien looked in Pretension when Gabriel forced him to go to his room so he could talk to Marinette alone, and how desperately Adrien tried to head back there but couldn’t make himself open the door, how terrified and confused he’d seemed, I think his feelings here, his mindset, is pretty close to canon.

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all of your flaws and all of my flaws (are laid out one-by-one) by @coffeebanana

Ladybug and Marinette have both been acting strangely since Monarch’s defeat, and Chat Noir would give anything to know why—to be able to help them. He just…didn’t expect his answers to come when Ladybug drags him to his father’s statue in the middle of the night along with a bag full of spray paint.

If you felt unsatisfied with Adrien being left in the dark about Monarch, with Ladybug lying about Gabriel being a hero, this is a great fic to read. Marinette’s breaking down keeping this secret, seeing people treat Gabriel as the hero she told people he was, until she finally snaps and has to do SOMETHING, has to tell SOMEONE the truth.

Which Chat takes pretty well! He knows how persuasive his father could be, and he’s mostly just relieved at finally hearing someone say that Gabriel wasn’t a hero. It’s still a lot to cope with though.

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Falling (sick) with you by @chocoluckchipz

Nothing would be easier than taking a pair of earrings off an unconscious Ladybug. Doing so would bring his mother back and end their decade-long strife. He shouldn’t be hesitating when a chance of a life time presented itself to him. He should not be looking for excuses and reasonings as to why spending another twenty or so years fighting this woman rather than pleasing his father and giving his mother another chance at life was not such a bad idea after all.

Ah, I love a good enemies au! Even when they’re enemies, Chat is unwilling to hurt Ladybug. Though honestly, he makes himself out to be more of a villain than he actually is, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that he’s not trying as hard as he could to get her earrings. There’s very good reason for that.

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adrien agreste and the consequences of tweets making fun of yourself by Anonymous

Well, Adrien thinks, what’s the worst that could come from a few poorly thought-out tweets lightly ribbing his own civilian identity?

I love the focus here on how people just assume what Adrien’s thinking and feeling and act on his behalf, without actually waiting to see what HE wants, and Adrien’s growing frustration. How they create a version of him in their heads, but don’t care to check with reality to see whether he actually wants their “defense”.

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what makes a human (am I?) by GraceM_TheStoriedLife

Adrien comes to Marinette’s out of nowhere. Usually Chat is her rock. Tonight, it’s her turn. (Or, in which Adrien discovers some secrets he’s not prepared for and Marinette is as Marinette-y as always.

So Adrien discovers he’s a sentimonster and immediately runs to Marinette for support. It’s as cute and angsty as you’d expect. She is, of course, very supportive of him. Also some discussion of Gabriel being abusive, since both she and Nino had been trying to get Adrien to see that. Especially with how, exactly, Adrien found out he’s a sentimonster. He can relate a little better to Felix’s experiences now than is healthy, I’ll just say.

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Vengeance Noire by @phiellydinyia

After a horrific argument with his father, Adrien escaped from the mansion with his heart in pieces. In hindsight, it made sense why an akuma was sent his way. He shouldn’t have let his emotions get the better of him. But he never expected Plagg to be even more upset than he was. He never expected his own kwami to be akumatized. To become the threat of a city he swore to protect. And what’s worse is the fact that Chat Noir can’t jump in to save this one. But Ladybug can. And that’s why he has to find her as quickly as possible, suit or no suit.

I love some good Adrien angst, especially with a delicious side order of Plagg and Adrien’s bond with each other. Even as Adrien’s barely functional, though, he’ll do everything in his power to save Plagg, even if Plagg wishes he wouldn’t go quite that far.

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This Distance Between Us by @coffeebanana

After defeating Monarch, the search for the Peacock Miraculous brings Ladybug and Chat Noir to a hotel room in London. But it’s hard to enjoy the victory when Ladybug can’t figure out why Chat’s been so quiet, why he seems so sad. How’s she supposed to help if she has no idea what’s wrong?

This is a great Sentiadrien fic, with Chat freaking out about it and feeling like he’s not worthy of Ladybug’s affections, but not telling her what’s actually wrong because he thinks she won’t want him anymore if she knows. Of course, he’s wrong about that.

Also there’s a pretty intense confrontation with Felix, pissing Chat Noir off is a bad idea.

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Rocking the Cat-Eyes by @buggachat

“I like being a girl.” “That’s the alcohol talking,” Marinette snorted. “I’ve always been a li’l jealous,” Adrien admitted. “… Of what?” “That you get to be a girl,” Adrien murmured, “and I don’t.” — When Marinette and Adrien host Girls’ Night at their apartment, Adrien is easily welcomed to attend as “one of the girls”… but has a bit too much to drink. Some drunken confessions are spilt, some assumptions are made, and most of all… Adrien is confused.

This is a great Genderfluid!Adrien fic. Marinette actually figures out that Adrien’s not entirely cis before he does, and tries to let him know she’s supportive… but unfortunately Adrien comes to some incorrect conclusions…

Anyway it’s a lot of fun, and Adrien rocks a dress and makeup!

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Family by @unecoccinellenoire

“You know,” Nino grins, “if you need advice on being a big brother in a year or two I’m sure I could help.” The bottom of Adrien’s stomach dropped out. — Adrien struggles with the concept of his father and Nathalie having children.

So this is a world where Adrien and Marinette managed to defeat Gabriel, taking his Miraculous, with them giving him an ultimatum: they won’t out him as being Hawk Moth so long as he doesn’t cause any more trouble and does right by Adrien. Gabriel does, in fact, move on finally to Nathalie, giving Adrien a lot of mixed feelings to deal with. He still loves them both despite everything, but he’s also angry at them and he definitely does NOT want them to have children, both because he thinks they’d like any biological child they had more (he’s also harboring guilt from indirectly being the cause of his mom’s death), and because frankly, they screwed up too much with Adrien for him to want them to inflict that on another child.

And then there’s also Adrien dealing with the realization that he’s a Senti on top of that and wondering why he and Felix look the way they do, what Emilie’s reasons were.

It’s mostly just Adrien getting to talk things out, navigating this emotionally fraught situation he finds himself in now that the dust is settled.

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When Secrets Come Undone by SortaArtsy

Ladybug promised not to tell Adrien… but she never promised not to confide in Cat Noir. What happens when Ladybug unintentionally vents to the one person who wasn’t meant to know any of it? ****MAJOR SEASON 5 SPOILERS WARNING! **** May not be season 6 compliant when it comes out.

This is a “Adrien finds out what everyone’s been keeping from him post-S5″ fic, and I think it’s handled really well! He feels very hurt, betrayed, and disbelieving initially about being a Senti and his father being Monarch (…mostly being a Senti, it ain’t that hard to believe that Gabriel was a supervillain), and is angry at everyone who kept it secret from him, but he still handles it well, going and talking to the people involved, getting their reasoning and perspective.

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Wanted: Catnap by SortaArtsy

Adrien Agreste has barely been sleeping, trying to be everything expected of him. What happens when he spreads himself too thin? Sick!Adrien/ Cat Noir

Adrien’s just pushing himself so hard, trying to do his regular duties, until his illness forces him to rest. I love how concerned everyone is over him - even GABRIEL eventually relents and wants him to rest. It’s just cute and nice and fluffy.

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a winter so warm by @rosekasa

winters were hard for even the best of vampires, but at least adrien had marinette to keep him warm with her cuddles. december was going to suck without her. so it was only to be expected to get extra cuddles in before she left, right? (well, not really, considering those heating supplements he was taking, but she didn’t need to know about that).

This one’s mostly just cute cuddly adorableness! It’s basically like all those “Marinette gets the Ladybug trait of needing to cuddle up to someone for warmth”, but with Adrien instead. And of course featuring Marinette being a very talented witch who just wants to help Adrien stay warm when she isn’t there XD.

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and I thought I heard you sing by @into-september

When Hawkmoth has been defeated and unmasked, Marinette is left with two problems and no solutions. First, that Adrien is further out of her reach than ever before, and no-one can tell her how to get to him. Second, that Cat Noir is far more troubled than she knew, and the only thing she can do is wait for him at the place they agreed to meet.

It’s your classic “Hawkmoth’s defeated and taken into custody but that means Adrien’s in for a rough time” sort of fic. Everyone’s worried about Adrien and wants to give him what comfort and support that they can, but he’s being hidden away from everyone (which I mean, honestly that’s a good move), so that’s not really possible. Plus, Ladybug’s noticed that Chat’s having a tough time in his civilian life, which worries her.

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Betrayal by @jennagrinsoverml

MAJOR EPHEMERAL SPOILERS!! Ladybug planned to use Viperion’s power of Second Chance to get Chat’s identity to Su-han without Chat knowing or agreeing. Of course, then the world went crazy, and she didn’t go through with it. But when an akuma exposes Ladybug’s plan to Chat, he doesn’t know that. He just knows that his Lady betrayed him. He deals with his feelings in the best, most mature way he can think of. He disappears.

So I, like a lot of others, wanted more follow-up on Ephemeral, and particularly on the betrayal of trust it was for Marinette to try to trick Chat Noir into giving up his identity to a third party without his knowledge or consent (I wrote my own take on that at the time, called Transcient, that I’m proud of). This fic did a good job of exploring that, with Adrien reacting in a manner that made sense to me (repressing his negative feelings about the situation as much as possible and trying to justify it to himself, but still feeling terrible despite his own best efforts), and how Marinette realized that she messed up, since Luka keeping it secret that he knows hers and Chat’s secret identities caused her to be upset as well. It did a great job of exploring those negative feelings and letting everyone talk things out, explain their viewpoints, and rebuild their relationships afterwards, which is something I really value.

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I’ll give myself a name (something stupid and pretentious) by @bbutterflies

Nino looked at the number and didn’t recognize it. Usually he wouldn’t answer, but he had nothing better to do – and could still really use a distraction – so he did. “Hello?”

“Hey, Nino.”

Nino stood up quickly, chest tightening. He knew that voice. He’d been waiting to hear it again for over two years. “Adrien?” he whispered.

“Yeah. It’s me."

When Monarch is defeated (and revealed to be Gabriel Agreste), Chat Noir immediately goes missing. Adrien disappears not long after. When Adrien finally shows up in Paris again, Nino would do anything to make sure he doesn't disappear again.

Ah this is lovely, Adrien’s been in a lot of emotional turmoil since Monarch’s defeat, convinced that everyone would hate him, SHOULD hate him, for not realizing that his father was the villain, and should hate him even more for disappearing like he does. But slowly Marinette and Nino get through to him, convince him that they just want him back.

And also Adrien and Nino smooch. Multiple times. So that’s a bonus XD.

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Two Steps Back (One Step Forward) by @buggachat

Sure, Adrien hadn't been texting her as often as he used to. And sure, Nino noticed it too. But just because Adrien had struggled with depression in the past, didn't mean he was struggling now. Surely, he'd tell her if something was wrong. Right?

Marinette just missed him, and she had a tendency to catastrophize. Surely, he was fine.

But if he wasn't... well, she wasn't above hopping on a flight back to Paris to make sure.

—————

Marinette's at an internship in New York, and Adrien has a depression relapse.

Once again buggachat comes out swinging with a fic centered around Adrien being super depressed and his friends charging in to help him, despite him not wanting them to because he feels like a burden. It’s not easy and Marinette goes through a lot of emotional turmoil, especially since his apartment is in bad enough shape that it can’t be changed to something that a human should be living in without also going shopping, but gradually she helps drag Adrien out of the hole he’s gotten himself stuck in. The emotions are on point and just... if you want to read a hurt/comfort fic with Found Family helping one of their own who’s struggling and doesn’t think they deserve it, this is a great fic to read.

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If only I could break free by megetstoread

It started with Adrien being upset about going away, but led to a lot of revelations.

Another Sentiadrien fic here! After telling Adrien that he’s being sent to London, Gabriel takes advantage of Adrien being distraught to akumatize him. Luckily Ladybug’s right there and deakumatizes him before he can even do anything, but it shakes both her and Chat, leading to her allowing him to tell her a lot more about his home life than usual, and for her and Adrien to investigate to see whether there might be more to Adrien’s inability to stand against his father than just psychological abuse.

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Dr. Walker & Kitty Hyde series by @pearl484-blog

Summary of the first fic, Rain Falls, Everybody Lies:

Chat Noir loves the rain. He loves the danger. He loves the excitement, and he especially loves how much Catwalker hates it.

Jekyll and Hyde AU

Adrien AUGreste Entry 3: Rain

So like the summary says, and the title indicates, this series is inspired by the popular conception of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - not how the book actually goes, but how it’s portrayed in popular media, with Jekyll splitting himself in two, with a “good” side and a “bad” side.

During Kuro Neko, instead of just changing his appearance through changing his mindset, Adrien took more extreme measures, sealing off his “undesirable” characteristics, his anger and sadness and all his sharp edges, into the ring so he could assume a more placid, genial persona that’d be more accepted - Cat Walker.

But Chat Noir’s still there, taking over whenever Adrien gets too testy, and desperately trying not to be pressed out of existence entirely. With embodying Adrien’s sealed anger and snappishness and rebelliousness, he’s not too kind to the other heroes - he already felt looked down upon and ignored before this, and seeing them accept Cat Walker while he’s fighting for his life doesn’t endear them to him either.

The series isn’t unfair to them - this isn’t a case where one party is entirely in the wrong and another’s entirely in the right. Marinette, Zoe, Nino, and all the others - they did wonder about what was going on with Chat, but he wasn’t in a position where he could see it, and he did have legitimate questions about how much Ladybug would budge on things, if he’d told her what he was going through. It’s a series that emphasizes characters hurting and lashing out in some terrible ways, but that hurt still being respected, and working things out, trying to get everything to a better place.

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The Parable of the Caller by @nemaliwrites

A week after Hawk Moth’s identity has been revealed, Adrien finds himself with nowhere to go, nothing he can do, and worst of all, strange gaps in his memory he can’t explain. In a stroke of luck, he stumbles upon a burner phone filled with voicemails from one of the Saviors of Paris: Chat Noir himself, who disappeared following Hawk Moth’s arrest.

But with each new voicemail Adrien listens to, he’s forced to confront the fact that there might be some kind of connection between himself and Chat Noir — and discovering it might leave him more broken than before.

I absolutely adore this fic, it’s a fantastic character study for Adrien! Basically in this universe, Ladybug and Chat Noir talked about who should be Guardian, with Chat eventually convincing her that he should be the one to take it on, primarily due to the whole “the Guardian gets amnesia about Miraculous-related matters” situation, and wanting to protect Ladybug from that. Then he finds out Gabriel is Hawk Moth, they take him down, and he relinquishes the Miracle Box and his guardianship to Su Han - all without having a Reveal with Ladybug, since well, he’s not in the greatest shape mentally at the time.

It’s a real treat to see Adrien’s thoughts and feelings about one of the Heroes of Paris leaving him all these voicemails, treating him like this close friend for reasons he doesn’t understand, and just seeing Chat Noir as this outside person. He’s got a very different viewpoint on Chat when looking from the outside than he would from the inside, with being able to see his heroic and good qualities far more easily when he doesn’t know that he is Chat.

Also Marinette’s struggling in the background of the fic with the loss of her partner and guilt over sending Adrien’s father to prison. It gets touched on at various points, and you can tell that she’s having her own story off to the side that we’re just not entirely privy to, what with this tale being told entirely from Adrien’s perspective.

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call it even by @anna-scribbles and @sha-nwa

After a year of dating, there is one thing Marinette knows for certain: it's her and Adrien against the world. Through it all, Adrien is kind, patient, and endlessly understanding—even as she tries her best to keep her secret superhero identity hidden from him along with the rest of the world.

Nothing could ruin it, not even the supervillains of Paris: Hawkmoth and Chat Noir.

(adrinette dating // ladynoir enemies au)

This is one of those fics where Adrien and Marinette are REALLY going through it emotionally, with them starting off with wildly different perceptions of each other when untransformed, and then reckoning with the person they love the most being someone they think of as a villain, with all the betrayal and doubt that involves. Especially with Adrien having been lied to extensively by his father, and not knowing who or what to believe.

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drowning (in plain sight) by @buggachat

Everybody had expected Monarch's defeat to be a moment of triumph. Nobody had expected Gabriel Agreste, unmasked and mind frayed from continual abuse of the miraculous, crying out to all who would listen and making Paris certain of one thing:

His son, Adrien Agreste, is one of his sentimonsters.

And now he's missing.

Nobody can find him— not even the superheroes, and not even his closest friends. But Marinette, Nino, and Alya aren't ones to give up so easily. They'll find him, no matter what it takes.

(But, geez, would it kill Chat Noir to lend a hand?)

I’m sure everyone saw this one coming. If there’s one thing buggachat’s good at, storywise, it’s capturing raw, tumultuous emotions, frantic breakdowns as the characters desperately try to navigate bad situations. This was a real treat to read, as I’m betting most people reading this will agree, given just how popular the fic has been. It also has a ton of fanart, both by buggachat and by random fans, if you go looking for it (there’s a drowning in plain sight tag which I’d advise perusing).

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Eventually by @lucid-ao3

Adrien’s life has been dictated by rules, monitored, and controlled for years. He has learned to compartmentalize. It’s not that bad. It always gets better, eventually. Doesn’t it?

Recovery can be an unexpected obstacle when you didn’t realize you were being hurt in the first place.

OR: How Adrien lives and copes with the emotional abuse inflicted on him over the years, and how he ultimately could overcome it.

If you want a good “Adrien doesn’t realize how abusive his father is but slowly buckles more and more under his tyranny, until things come to a head, and he actually gets the HELP HE NEEDS” fic, this is a good one!

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Not a Monster at All by @book-sandwich

Adrien Agreste overhears a conversation he shouldn't, and a revelation sends him falling onto the terrace of the only person he can trust: his good friend (?) Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Takes place sometime after the first two episodes of season 5!

As you can probably guess from the title, this is a Sentimonster Adrien, Monarch takedown fic. Adrien’s going through a tough time, and Marinette’s just trying to be there for him as his whole world’s collapsing around him. Unfrotunately, they still don’t know what the object is, or how likely Gabriel would be to control Adrien if he hinted that he knew the truth, which leaves Adrien in a precarious position - still not having done an identity reveal doesn’t help matters.

It’s a really solid fic for the genre, though since it started up before the later parts of season 5, there are a few things that don’t match up with the canon information we obtained later on.

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Awaken by InkyIbis

The previously white butterfly, now oozing black and purple as a conduit of the butterfly miraculous powers, flutters softly within the silvered-gloved hand.

It sits there for a long time.

"Go, my akuma," The soft sigh pushes the butterfly, the akuma, out towards the despair of a love not returned. The same ache within his chest. On a level so great that he's willing to sacrifice the city to mend it.

It's okay if he's the villain for now. He'll force the miraculous of creation and destruction to be revealed, and once he gets his hands on them, none of this pain, none of his loss, will ever happen.

This is essentially a canon rewrite for Miraculous (specifically seasons 1 and 2, with a bunch of the events mixed around) that focuses primarily on Adrien, with his relationship with Nino being the main driving relationship of the fic. (Don’t worry, Marinette’s still treated fine, she’s just not the focus). This is the best “rewrite Miraculous with more of a focus on Adrien” type fic I’ve seen, with it reworking the plots of the episodes so that they’re different enough to be their own distinct thing - it’s not trying to just rewrite the canon episodes but from Adrien’s POV, there’s a lot of lore changes going on as well, and things occur in different orders.

Like lorewise, Chat’s given a more important role in cleaning up the mess the akumas leave, with his power helping to cleanse akuma victims and he and Ladybug needing to use their powers in tandem in order to cast Miraculous Ladybug. There’s also no Miracle Box holding the kwamis. Instead, Chat sometimes surpasses his limits and ends up summoning kwamis, which is dangerous to him, but very useful.

What really makes this fic great though, is its focus on Adrien’s emotions. You really get a feel for Adrien’s insecurities, especially when it comes to not feeling like he’s good enough for Nino, with not wanting to bother him when he absolutely should, with feeling like he’s not a good enough friend to him, and then there’s dealing with all of Gabriel’s usual abuse on top of that.

Speaking of Nino, this is an Adrino fic (though several characters get crushes on Adrien, Nino’s the one who matters most for this), though a slowburn one. Nino’s clearly head-over-heels for Adrien, but Adrien has like, no context for what a romantic crush feels like and is basically viewing Nino the way he viewed Marinette in canon prior to season 5. He clearly cares for him a lot, including romantically, he just... doesn’t get it.

Anyway, if you want an interesting canon rewrite fic from Adrien’s perspective with Adrino as the main pairing, this is a good story to pick up!

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one does not love breathing by @wackus-bonkus-maximus

All of Paris watched as Hawkmoth murdered Chat Noir, taking the Black Cat Miraculous for himself. Ladybug swears revenge, but her enemy—and every miraculous in his possession—disappear without a trace.

Six years later, a new team of villains launches an attack for the last remaining Miraculous: Volpina, armed with new powers; Queen Bee, with questionable loyalty; Argos, the new holder of the Peacock Miraculous; and Cat Walker, who Ladybug hates the most.

Takes place after S4 - Strike Back.

This is a simply phenomenal fic. You get to explore a lot of different perspectives, like Felix, Kagami, Marinette, and Adrien’s, just to name a few, and see their different thought processes and plans and priorities, and how it can cause their plans to collide with each other, even when they all ultimately are aiming for a good outcome for everyone. The characters are pretty complex and can mess up at times, even when they’re doing things (or not doing things, looking at you Luka) with the best of intentions. It was a joy to read and a real nail-biter the whole time, I actually wrote a fic for it halfway through just to resolve some of the tension for myself, One Does Not Love Shadows.

It also features the version of Luka I’ve connected best with to date, as he feels like Luka, but also is a lot more fleshed out, and can make some major errors while simply trying to avoid missteps. It’s helped me get a better handle on a character who I’ve generally had a lot of problems with really understanding.

It is an M-rated fic, though I think Wackus is being overly cautious on that front. There’s no sexual content and I wouldn’t put the violence or gore above a T-rating, so I wouldn’t let the rating scare you off.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic rec #adrien agreste #angst #adrien angst

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 months ago

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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?

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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.

.....

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#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.

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt

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carpetbug · 5 months ago

Text

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]

#carpetbug talks #long post #master post #ml fbau #ml feline blue au #ml au #will be regularly updated!! hence the date at the bottom #ajdbdakxskfavEhfkalxebzubwshv so uh yeah i’m obsessed with my own au 👍#this. isn’t everything. lmao. ENJOY!! MORE TO COME!!#my pinterest boards are my pride and joy. they are everything to me i love my little pictures

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 2 months ago

Note

Something something about Zoe admitting that she used to lie to make a friend's and end up losing them because of it.

Where do I ever hear of it?

Oh, right! Lila!

Before Chameleon Lila is just simply a liar, even Adrien(?) reasoned maybe it's because she want to fit in.

Funny how Marinette end up antagonize her while welcoming Zoe heartily and the only difference between them is only one of them has a crush on Adrien. Guess which one that Marinette made enemies of?

I agree that Zoe's backstory is similar to Lila's canon story, but you haven't given a fair assessment of the differences in their introductory episodes. It's not even necessarily fair to call them the same character. Zoe's lying is presented as her acting different to try to fit in. She's not telling major lies about her life to make herself stand out. The worst we get is stuff like this:

Chloé: (closes the door) Since your father isn't here, you'll use mine! If you become my sister, of course. Rule number two: you need a minion. Where's yours? Zoé: Uhhh, I left them…in New York!

Which is still enough to understandably turn someone off to Zoe, but it doesn't make her a Lila clone. Let's look at why that is.

Lila's intro has her actively coming up with very extreme lies that aren't about fitting it. They're about making her stand out! She doesn't want to be part of the crowd. She wants to be worshiped. Here are some quotes from the start of Volpina to give the flavor of lies we see from Lila:

Rose: Can you believe Lila knows Prince Ali? She even flew in his private jet with him! Chloé: Why did Jagged Stone write a song about Lila when he could've written it about me? Nino: Lila knows all of the Hollywood directors. She promised she'd mention me to Steven Basielberg himself! Marinette: (rushes back to Alya's side) Lila? Alya: Yeah, she just started at our school! (points to Lila, who's on the second floor of the school with Adrien) She even gave me an exclusive interview for the Ladyblog, 'cause Ladybug saved her life once! Watch! (shows Marinette the video of Lila on her blog)

It's worth noting that this exchange makes Marinette feel jealous and threatened, but she doesn't hate Lila. She's just afraid that Adrien will fall for the cool new girl. This leads her to follow Lila and Adrien into the school library where we get this:

Lila: So you've got a little soft spot for the bug, huh? Adrien: Me? Oh, no! Not at all! (The book cart moves closer to them, but is unnoticed.) Lila: You know I actually happen to be very close friends with Ladybug. (Adrien and Marinette both gasp.) Adrien: Really?!

This is where Marinette's hatred comes from and it's justified. This scene would play the exact same way no matter who Lila was talking to. Someone is using Marinette's name to get close to people. That would upset most of us. We also get this moment at the end of that same scene:

Adrien:(gets an alert from his phone) I gotta go! I've got a lesson in 58 seconds. (Lila causes Adrien to drop his bag on the floor) Lila: So, the park? (pushes the superhero book on the floor away from Adrien's bag with her foot) Adrien: Uh sure! (runs out) Lila:(picks up the book) A vixen superheroine? Hmm, interesting... (leaves the library) Tikki: Marinette! Marinette: I know. I gotta talk to Adrien before he meets up with Lila in the park. He needs to know that she's a total thief.

Once again, Marinette's feelings are extremely justified. Lila stole Adrien's book and will go on to toss it in the trash, showing that she never meant to return it, probably to avoid the risk of him thinking that she took it. These are two incredibly negative things for someone to witness and they're basically Marinette's first impression of Lila! Meanwhile, this was Marinette and Zoe's first interaction:

Marinette: Sorry I got held up here! (bumps into Zoé) Sabine: Is everyone all right? Marinette: Sorry, sorry, sorry! Zoé: It's totally okay, but maybe I should be asking if you're okay. That was quite a fall!

Very different. Not enough to justify Marinette trusting Zoe, but Marinette's hatred of Chloe combined with this initial good first impression are arguably enough for Marinette to be willing to hear Zoe out and give her a chance to prove herself. It's easy to be rude to service workers and Zoe wasn't, so I can see why Marinette would believe that Zoe isn't a manipulative monster especially since Zoe does apologize and promise to explain herself pretty quickly after the scene where she's rude to Marinette and Co:

(Zoé, sitting at the end of Chloé's bed, gets a text message as Chloé continues to search for shoes. She sees it is a message from Marinette, and reads.) Marinette: (voiceover) I can tell something is keeping you from being yourself. If it's Chloé, we can talk about it tonight, if you want. You're still welcome to come to the Barge. (Zoé texts Marinette back.) Zoé: (internal voiceover as she types) Sorry. I'll explain tonight. (sends the message, Marinette's picture and name pops up as she does)

It would be better if Zoe instigated this text exchange, but I don't hate this scene. I just think it's rushed and that Marinette should come across as more cautious about Zoe after everything that happened at the end of the last season. Marinette's actions here and conviction about her initial judgement of Zoe would make a lot more sense if they came in an earlier season, but this is a formula show, so that's probably playing a part in the awkwardness. Marinette isn't allowed to become more guarded, I guess...

If we go back to looking at Volpina, we find a very different type of story. After Marinette's terrible first impression of Lila, she watches the aforementioned Ladyblog interview off screen and gains even more reasons for her to be justifiably pissed at Lila, further cementing that bad first impression:

Ladybug: (sarcastically) Well hey Lila! How's it going? Long time no see. I saw your interview on the Ladyblog, awesome job. (puts her foot on the bench between Lila and Adrien, and leans closer to Lila) Oh sure! I remember our instant connection when I saved your life and we've been really good friends ever since! Practically BFF's! Uh actually, when did I save your life again, Lila? I don't recall. Oh yes! Of course, now I remember. Never! And we're not friends either! (to Adrien) Miss Show-Off here was trying to impress you and everyone around her.

We learn here that Lila didn't just claim that she was saved by Ladybug, which is honestly a pretty minor lie. Instead, she's once again claiming that they're close friends! Take out the Adrien complication and Marinette would still quickly start to hate Lila because Lila is using her name left and right and that's not okay! It's also not a minor thing.

The show is a little unclear about how seriously society takes the Ladyblog, but it's serious enough for Alya to be treated as an authority who is invited on talk shows as we saw in Prime Queen

Nadja: Don't be bemused, it's just the news! Hi, I'm Nadja Chamack, and this is Side by Side. Today, I'm joined by Alya Césiare, who created the Ladyblog! Together, we'll be looking back over Cat Noir and Ladybug's greatest feats.

The Ladyblog is also the resource that Felix uses to research the miraculous. So it's fair to say that the Ladyblog is not an unknown news source. At the very least, it's being treated as a true authority on all things Ladybug and Alya is getting serious public attention, which means that Lila's little interview is probably going to be treated seriously by a significant portion of society since it's coming from the Ladyblog.

Ladybug would be well within her rights to have Alya publish a retraction. In fact, it's super weird that Ladybug didn't do that and is one of the many reasons why I hate Volpina. The episode completely justifies almost everything Marinette does and then tries to present her actions as being in the wrong by having Adrien chastise her:

Adrien:(to Lila, who is crying) So I guess you aren't the descendant of a superhero either? Ladybug: She's more like a super liar. Lila: How dare you?! Adrien: Wait! Lila! (Lila runs away) Hey, what was that all about? Uh, I mean, weren't you kinda harsh with her? Ladybug: I...I don't put up with lies, especially when they're about me. (yo-yos away)

Which does eventually lead to Ladybug apologizing to Lila:

Ladybug: I... totally overreacted and... never should've spoken to you like that. I'm sorry.

No you didn't overreact! Writers, why are you telling kids that it's wrong to confront people who are lying about you? How should the Lila problem have been addressed if confronting her is wrong? It's not like she stops lying after this or like the show treats her as a minor threat. She's literally the new main villain and her eventual outing to the class is way more dramatic than this, so how was Marinette in the wrong here? Why did the writers have Adrien chastise her?

I've seen people justify Adrien's reaction here as him viewing Lila like a gossip rag spreading lies. To be fair, that's a valid way to make his actions make sense. The best course of action for the lies in those things IS to ignore them because no one with a brain is going to treat a gossip rag as a credible source.

However, the Ladyblog is not treated like a gossip rag and Lila wasn't just spreading rumors for quick cash. She was actively manipulating Adrien and has claimed authority via a reputable news outlet. The appropriate response to that kind of misinformation IS a retraction. It IS appropriate for Ladybug to do something here. If anything, Ladybug was being quite tame! She had a mostly private confrontation with Lila and then let the matter died for some reason. If it were me, I'd be telling the world that I don't know this woman and to not believe a word she says!

If anyone should have learned a lesson in this episode, it's Adrien. He needed to learn the difference between gossip rag lies and lies that you actually need to address, which is frankly a good lesson for a sheltered teen celebrity to learn! It makes sense that he wouldn't know what to do here, but the show treats this as him being in the right and I hate it! Him guilting Ladybug into staying quiet is why Lila is able to maintain her power for 4 more seasons.

Alya could also stand to learn a lesson on checking her sources. It's not like she never runs into Ladybug. Just hold off on posting the interview for a few days.

Circling back to the original ask: if Lila was telling the kind of minor lies that we see from Zoe, then I'd agree that this was a case of hypocrisy, but that's not what we see. It's also why I never really bought the whole, "Lila is just tying to fit in" excuse. Those are not the sort of lies you tell if you're trying to fit in! They're way too extreme!

While I'm not a fan of Zoe's character, her initial lies match the story she tells about wanting to fit in. Lila, on the other hand, feels like someone with an agenda. What that agenda is I do not know, but she clearly has one and she's had it from day one. It's really not weird that Marinette came to hate Lila while she was willing to give Zoe a second chance. The characters were set up in a way where that is an understandable response for her character even if you remove Adrien from the equation.

There are many episodes that make Marinette look terrible. Neither of these make that list. The only questionable thing Marinette does is follow Adrien and Lila into a public library and listen in on their conversation. I'm not going to call that good behavior, but it's hard to be too critical when it's clearly only there because the writers needed Marinette to overhear the lies to kick off the rest of the episode. I personally would have just had Marinette be in the library already and accidentally overhear her alter ego's name, leading her to listen in, but that's not drastically different than what we actually got so it's hard for me to get too worked up over the writers going the dramatic route. That's what they always do. The show relies heavily on absurdity so it make sense for Marinette overhearing the conversation to be done in the most absurd way possible.

#ml writing critical #ml writing salt #lila salt #Marinette defense squad

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miraculous-power-of-3 · 4 months ago

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It's finally here! My design for Marinette on Power of 3! This new page for redesigns is inspired by @maddascanbe-blog and @teawinx.

Let's speak about Marinette on my AU:

Marinette never had friends at school. With Chloe's constant bullying, she always felt like she wasn't good enough to have friends. It all change when she met Alya.

Now, she is tryng to get more adventures on her relationships, making friends and going after her first crush... although, the thing is, she isn't very good at social interaction, and doesn't understand the border between normal crush, and creepy obssesion.

As Lady Red, Marinette needs to be a lot more focused and brave to face her enemies.

As you could get from my description, this Marinette is not much different from Canon!Marinette. The reason why is: I want to keep thigns pre-Lance the closest to canon as possible.

So yeah, Marinette still was bullied by Chloe, Alya was her first friend, and her crush in Adrien can gets a little creepy sometimes (it is not as bad as canon, trust me, though).

The main thing I changed is the reason why Marinette acts the way she does. No, nothing on Derision happened, Chloe didn't go to the lenghts she did, and Kim is still Kim. The reason why Marinette is so obssesive with Adrien is because she doesn't know how to express her crush. She grew up so isolated and friendless, that she is a bit unware of social norms. Something that gives her, Adrien and Lance a common point! The difference is how each one handles it.

But no, I won't be normalizing her creepy behavior. Actually, her first main arc on the story is: learning how to express her feelings for Adrien, with Lance reprimanding her when she goes overboard. By the end of the story, she will be way different from canon.

Actually, if my plans go the way I am planning... she probably won't even end up with him. No Love Square cause canon was a mess! (The identity reveal will also happen way earlier, but, they still might not get together).

I know people complain that she is more of a protagonist in canon than Adrien, which is true, but, since in my AU Lance is the main character, both her and Adrien share the deutarogonist role. (I want to develop BOTH of them, though).

Now, speaking on the design... Man, it was hard AF. Many people have already redeisgned either Marinette, or Ladybug (in some cases, both).

A list of Marinette/Ladybug redesigns I have seen: ( @artzychic27 ; @natedogx15 ; @teawinx ; @maddascanbe-blog ; @zoe-oneesama ; callimara from yotube and more).

So, I think she looks a little like other designs, but, is original on her own way. The pigtails had to go, though, sorry, they were too childish.

As for Lady Red, some details:

The costumes of the ladybug holders don't have the same spots. They have one of the card suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades) depending on the personality. For example, Scarlet Lady and Mister Bug would have diamonds, and Scarabella would have Clubs. Shadybug would have spades and so on (just to give the designs more uniqueness.

This was inspired by PV!Tikki that had a clover instead of spots.

I Changed Ladybug's name cause I though it was too generic.

She will have a power up, but, I will only have a new design for her if I have a good idea on how to improve.

Anyway, that was my design for Marinette, Alya and Adrien are next, and see you guys next time! (Decided to finish the character designs before continuing the story).

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug au #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #marinette redesign #ladybug redesign #miraculous redesign #miraculous power of 3

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crizztelcb · 3 months ago

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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.

#ml critical #mlb critical #crizztel rambling #mild salt

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graythegreyt · 7 months ago

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AU details now I am very interested (you don’t have to)

HI ILLY THANK YOU FOR THE ASK I AM GLAD TO OBLIGE. I'M ASSUMING THIS IS ABOUT MY BUG NOIRE AU LET ME KNOW IF IT'S NOT

So basically. Cracks knuckles. The set-up of the AU is based nearly entirely on two concepts: 1. In the show, Bug Noire cannot stop grinning when she first unifies the Miraculous which I have capitalized on completely and taken to be a consequence of a power rush, and 2. Marinette in this scenario is the only one given both Miraculous, as Master Fu (or perhaps another, more strict order of guardians?) thought that entrusting the two most powerful Miraculous to multiple people was too dangerous.

(GIF taken from the Wiki!)

So in this AU, Mari is Paris' only magic defender, and she is SCARY. She has all the same incredible forward thinking that Ladybug does in canon, but without anyone to support her or protect her, she's gotten used to absolutely tanking damage and pressing on regardless with a wild air of enthusiasm. The unity of the two Miraculous of creation and destruction in this AU are nearly unbearable for mortals to handle; because they, unified, are Gimmi, representation of all of existence, wielding both at one causes interesting consequences.

(Screenshot also from the Wiki :3)

For Mari, that means she's full of a powerful joy and elation to be participating as an active agent of Existence (or Balance) in the universe, but she also revels in destruction and chaos, and every time she transforms she finds it harder to adjust to the more limited understanding that mortals possess. Tikki and Plagg are very worried about her, and Marinette is too, but under careful watch Mari cannot part with the Miraculous and instead presses on-- to her own detriment.

Alya and Adrien, on the other hand, have never met Mari. They're both newcomers to the school, but Marinette as a full-time hero never makes an appearance there. Instead, both Alya and Adrien befriend Nino who is their guiding light. He mitigates Alya's relentless drive to investigate akumas and vouches for Adrien's goodness to the class when Chloe puts it into question. The three grow close, but something's missing.

Alya meets Bug Noire when she's put herself into the battlefield, eager to film the mystery of the akuma and record it to the public on her BugBlog, since Noire herself seldom interacts with the public. Adrien, on the other hand, meets Bug Noire when he's being targeted by the akuma, and his inner desire to help recognizes that Noire, as wild and energetic as she is, seems to be struggling in a way that others don't see.

Noire, drunk on power but still fighting tooth and nail to retain a sense of her identity and her desire for companionship, is ecstatic to speak with Adrien and Alya but tries to keep them away from the fights as much as possible. Adrien and Alya, being themselves, of course don't let this stand and repeatedly put themselves in positions where Bug Noire would be a fool not to rely on them to help wear down an akuma, or evacuate the area, or break an object, or make shaky banter to. This grounds Bug Noire in a way she clings to, and she begins visiting Alya and Adrien not as a Miraculous user but as their friend.

In my head I feel like Alya and Adrien would convince Bug in the end to give them her Miraculous "to inspect" (can we see them!! They're so cool and you can use a break), and Marinette, Tikki, and Plagg would finally be able to speak to Alya and Adrien (and Nathalie and Alya's parents and Nino, presumably) to try to seek out the support they've been lacking after being out in this position. Perhaps this would be the catalyst for convincing the guardians that having multiple Miraculous active is a blessing rather than a needless risk?

Anyways that's all I've got for now!! Thank you for the ask Illy I am giving you a hug

#gray's soapbox #asks #illy 🌠#star emoji for you!!#solitary hero au #miraculous ladybug #bug noire #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #ml tikki #ml plagg #ml gimmi #So many image IDs dies to death #gray draws #long post

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mc-lukanette · 1 year ago

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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.

#queuekanette #lukaneventte: No Context November #Flower Arrangement Shipping #Pro LukaMari #Lukanette

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almadesarrollo · 8 months ago

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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.

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princess-of-the-corner · 2 months ago

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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!

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flightfoot · 20 days ago

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Hello! By any chance, do you have any outsider pov ml fics to rec? As in, fics focusing on a side character being like "damn these guys are acting WEIRD and i'm mildly worried about that." Or maybe identity reveal fics where the reveal is for someone who isn't marinette or adrien?

Hmmm... let me see what I've got...

Also I'm a little confused about you asking for "the reveal is for someone who isn't marinette or adrien?" Do you mean for it to be TO someone who isn't Marinette or Adrien, or are you actually asking for someone who isn't Marinette or Adrien to reveal their identity? I'm tossing Hawkmoth in there as well, because if I included Hawkmoth reveal fics, there'd be way too many. (..okay so I might have included a Hawkmoth Reveal as well, the Markov Alliance is too good to pass up)

Anyway, I'll see what I can come up with!

So after looking through, I have a lot that fit at least some of the criteria, including a lot of older fics. I hope you enjoy! I've got 22 fics for you to peruse, all completed.

---

Shellter Chat by Bridgetinerabbit

A peek inside Adrien's school bag gives Nino some very unexpected insight as to what makes his good friend tick, but leaves him in a very delicate position. He never expected to strike a deal with the Kwami of Destruction, but now he and Plagg are working together to relieve some of Adrien's (and Chat Noir's) burdens for his own good. But being Adrien's guardian angel isn't as easy as it seems; other secret identities start falling apart, and there's no telling where the falling dominoes will stop.

---

Just Act Normal by hazel562

After a body-swap akuma sees the return of Lady Noire and Mister Bug, Alya can't work out why Adrien, and particularly Marinette, are behaving so strangely…

---

Chasing a Dream by @generalluxun

Things don't quite go Felix's way at the end of S4, leading to a second attempt of the 'First Love' Tour. Lila plans to use the tour to wheedle her way into Gabriel's confidences and secure Adrien's hand. Marinette overhears Lila's plan. Marinette reacts in a calm and rational manner. Who am I kidding? She stokes Chloé's bruised ego to enlist her help to chase after the tour, in the hopes of foiling Lila's plans. Akumas spring up along their path, texts with Adrien grow more deep, Cat Noir appears where he should not be, and through it all Marinette is forced to interact with a girl who has been a huge part of her life in all the worst ways up until now. What truths can be discovered though, halfway around the world and away from prying eyes?

---

A Small but Stubborn Fire by @cardiac-agreste

What if you were the parent of a teenage superhero, but didn't know they were? All you know is the nightmares, the panic attacks, and the bruises. She's missing school, she's disappearing on you, and she's not telling you anything. So you assume the worst: Assault. Depression. A permanent rift in the family. And what do you do when you realize you weren't thinking dark enough? Because your fourteen-year old daughter is the hero who flirts with death on the nightly news. -- Come inside and read about one mother's struggles to raise her daughter in a dangerous world while avoiding the mistakes her own mother made with her.

This is a more serious take on the consequences of Hawk Moth's war on Paris, with actual bloody, painful deaths as a consequence of many akumas, and Parisians developing PTSD because of what they've gone through. Ladybug can fix all the physical scars, but not the mental ones, including her own.

I love the focus on Sabine here. She's not just presented as being a mom - though of course that IS an important role she has. But she's explored as a character in her own right, one with a lot of emotional baggage as a result of her abusive mother, and trying to not fall into her mistakes, but sometimes doing so anyway out of fear for Marinette's safety. She's a really fleshed out, humanly flawed character, sometimes admitting that she would do something selfish if it means protecting the people she cares most about, like her daughter, even if its at others expense. She grows and changes a lot throughout the course of the story, her perspective on many matters changing multiple times as a result of getting new information or seeing the consequences of her previous approaches, and adjusting as a result.

If you want a fic that more realistically explores the dark consequences of Miraculous's setting, that fleshes out Sabine, or just develops a character in a complex way, then I highly recommend you check "A Small but Stubborn Fire" out!

---

theory bored by @14muffinz

You’re not supposed to theorise about who your partner is, Tikki had scolded, glaring at Luka as he continued to map out his entire theory, abbreviating as many miraculous-related names as he could feasibly remember. To be fair, it’s a lot, so it’s not like this would be much if anyone were to get their hands on it. He’d sighed, capped his marker, and turned around as though he was going to clean up the board. And then, because Tikki unfortunately taught him just how stubborn he could get if he really wanted to, he calls for his transformation while facing the other way. [OR: Ladybug Luka, Black Cat Juleka, and a reveal.]

---

You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess by @mexicancat-girl

With Team Miraculous now full-time holders, Ladybug has them patrolling in pairs like her and Chat Noir. New partners Pigella and Purple Tigress get along phenomenally, their easy banter and similar wavelengths making working with each other a joy in and out of combat. But sometimes Tigress is surprised just how close she is with her partner. Sometimes she tries not to feel too guilty thinking about it.

There’s some nice Julerose here! I love them kinda getting into a lovesquare with each other, though it’s not as much of a problem as it is in canon since it’s reciprocal in every relationship and they’re both down for a poly. It’s fun, and I love the “Luka attempting to woo some of his love interests” plot going on in the background XD.

---

the funniest coincidence of them all by shireith

“I wore it just for you,” Adrien told Alya. “So you don’t have any trouble telling me apart from Chat Noir.” “You’re so annoying right now you might just have convinced me you’re Chat Noir.” “I am Chat Noir.” “And I’m Rena Rouge.” What the hell was happening and why did it look so familiar? ---

Or, in which Marinette, Adrien and Alya share several brain cells, problem is they’re all Alya’s.

---

Alya Cesaire Should Be Allowed To Swear by stripesandblossoms

Akuma attacks don't stop just because Alya is no longer a Hero, but that's fine, because she can still help clear civilians from the danger zone. Even celebrity-friends like Adrien Agreste.

Hey guys this is an amazing one-shot, even with as short as it is. I love how it goes into Alya’s thoughts and feelings about why she doesn’t swear (because you can’t do that on-air as a journalist and she has little sisters that she can’t swear around anyway) and her coming up with ways to suppress her swears when she’s tempted.

Then of course, she finds out a secret that makes all of that go out the window…

Seriously this is really funny, please read it!

---

You Don't Have to Pretend with Me by @kasienda

Nino didn’t not like Chat Noir. He thought the dude was cool and hilarious. His sense of humor reminded him of Adrien. Things hadn’t always been tense between them. When they fought back to back during Heroes’ Day it had felt like they were brothers. But it was clear to him that Chat Noir wasn’t his biggest fan. The other hero was always welcoming and kind to Rena Rouge when she joined the team, but he had always been somewhat aloof with Carapace. And Chat Noir had been especially different around him after Rocketear. but it wasn’t like Chat Noir knew that Nino and Carapace were the same person, so why had he started avoiding Carapace? … Adrien couldn’t figure out why things between Adrien and Nino had always been so easy when things between Chat Noir and Carapace felt so hard. Like, he knew he was different as Chat, but he was far less different as Adrien with Nino than anyone else. Or he had been before… Rocketear. And now? Now, he had no idea how he was supposed to act. Had no idea what Nino wanted from Chat Noir, but it was very clear he wasn’t measuring up.

---

The Markov Alliance by CrochetJellybean

Slight spoilers for season 5! Markov was excited to use Max's class time to learn more about the AI system within the Alliance rings. In his exploration, he accidentally discovers a chat room of 14 non-humans connected to the Alliance network, so he decides to join it.

This was hilarious and fun and heartwarming. Markov accidentally stumbling across the kwamis and them hinting as best they could about what to do and who to tell about them (as best they could without spewing out bubbles) was great, along with the Miracuclass’s reaction to finding out about them.

Also their groupchat name is “plagg is oblivious” due to Plagg not figuring out that Nooroo was in the same house as him all this time, which is just perfect XD. I’ve reread this fic several times, it’s so good and bite-sized!

---

The Investigation by @11jj11

Adrien and Marinette are finally dating-- which is what Alya has always wanted... but yet this sudden transformation in their relationship overnight? Things aren't adding up. They are suddenly so much closer than they ever have been before, Adrien is apparently a flirt, Marinette is no longer a stuttering mess, and not to mention the nicknames that came out of no where. Alya is happy for her friends, but she knows there's something more going on, and the reporter in her is going to get to the bottom of it.

---

I Know, You Know by @mirrankei

They weren't technically a couple, but Alya knew one day they would be. Ladybug loved Chat Noir, but they had a job to do, and relationships could be dangerous. Alya could accept that. She knew in her heart that on the day the five of them (eight, ten, twelve of them) defeated Hawkmoth once and for all, Chat Noir would take Ladybug in his arms - no, wait, Ladybug would take Chat Noir in her arms - and finally share that romantic kiss all of Paris was waiting for. They would tell each other who they are and fall in love all over again, safe in their victory. Then it turned out Ladybug was Marinette, so that went out the window. Because Marinette only had eyes for Adrien, and Alya was way more invested in that ship than any superhero stuff. --- for prompt "Lovesquare"

---

caline bustier and the heroes' awful mental health by lollyposp

Caline liked to think she was a good teacher - she’d adapted well to the systems put in place by the akuma attacks, she’d adapted to the various incidents within her classroom, and learned the best way to seat her students, in order to minimise the risk of arguments within the classroom that could potentially draw Papillon to her room once again. Sometimes, though, she felt powerless to help her students. OR: in which madame bustier tries to help her students, but she's missing a key part of the puzzle (hint: it's their identities)

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Everything I Need by @coffeebanana

When Ladybug asks Pigella to care for her injured teammate, she wants to refuse. She's not the best person for the job, and she's not sure if Purple Tigress even likes her. But Ladybug insists, so Pigella fights through her fear and tends to Tigress' injury. It doesn't make things any easier that Tigress keeps reminding her of Juleka.

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Walking That Mile by @nomolosk

Nino and Alya wake up in the wrong bodies. Several things result from this, including, but not limited to, identity reveals and a better understanding of what their respective best friends are going through.

Never knew I needed Nino!Plagg and Alya!Tikki in my life, but there you go XD. It’s not all fun and games though, this is a Hawkmoth Takedown fic as well, and dealing with the effects of that.

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Off the Mark by @buggachat

Ever since Nino's (frankly embarrassing) akumatization into Rocketear, Chat Noir's behavior had taken a strange and sudden turn in the presence of Carapace, and Nino could only think of one possible explanation: Chat Noir hated him. Somehow, Adrien didn't seem to agree.

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Markov Knows All by @11jj11

Markov has a few questions.

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Shipping Status: In Transit by @katieykat513

Shipping wars, they get the best of us, don't they? Even these four friends....

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Aspik Hate Club by MyImaginationFlows

Ladybug just cannot get over how horrible Aspik looked like with the snake miraculous. Frustrated by unmet expectations, she decides to rant to Chat Noir about it. Suddenly, he’s being accused of being a terrorist and is strapped to a chair surrounded by Carapace, Ladybug, and Rena Rouge. How did a conversation about himself end up with him being put on trial for being Hawkmoth?

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A Reveal of Necessity by alexanderxbetsey

Alya walks in on Chat kissing Marinette

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Strategic Missteps by Platonic_Ideals

Sabine wanted to plan a spa trip for her daughter, but it ended with her hiding from an akuma with her daughter's crush. Now Sabine has the responsibility of supporting Adrien's alter ego while managing her fear for his future.

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questions she knows by finleyblue

Carapace laughs uneasily. This is bad. “Sorry, I’ve really got to skip.” He jabs a finger behind him, making no move to leave. Alya folds her arms and raises one eyebrow. “Nino. I am not that dumb.” _____ Alya interviews Carapace for the Ladyblog, and Nino panics.

#ask #miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic rec #identity reveal #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe

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