Part 2 of my Paris special commentary (Part 1 here) because Tumblr is an ass and has a word limit.
Disclaimer: This is long asf.
Marinette here playing 5D chess, queen shit.
The most important thing the special confirmed is that Gabe added the word "dark" to his transformation phrase on purpose cause he's a dramatic bitch.
I am here for Claw Noir mocking Gabe. Go off, king.
"Oh nO, iT WAs aN IlLusIon!" That giggle is adorable. She's so cute.
Ladyfly is an ass name, but she looks so great.
Not Gabe getting annoyed at Claw Noir's teasing. See, now this is why we stan Claw Noir on this blog.
Gabe's plan isn't half bad, actually.
Symbolism? In my children's cartoon? It's more likely than you think.
They're having a pun-off.
RIP Chat Noir's ear.
Gabe got feathered lmao
Monarch dipped like a little bitch.
A mirror, I called it. It'll make for some nice symbolism.
"Let alone a calm and gentle mom" I wonder what Sabine is like in their world to make Emonette feel like she's so alone.
I like how they handled the villains tbh. I wasn't a fan of making it seem like Marinette was one step away from becoming a supervillain at all times, but it seems less like that's the case and more like The Supreme took advantage of her suffering and vulnerability at her lowest moments.
It's also nice that they established that Shady and Claw weren't the actual big bads and are just hurt kids who got recruited into a fight they weren't ready for. Their motivation isn't some rehash of Gabriel's, they are literally trying to survive under the rule of someone who will kill them if they don't do his bidding, and because of whom they're dying. Their life is literally full of suffering and they're trying to find something that'll give them a way out. Shady wants Marinette's life, and Claw Noir wants his mother back.
Like, it doesn't excuse their actions, but it does add a more humane element to them that lends itself better to the kind of redemption Miraculous likes to do, which is to fix things with a speech. That's why this redemption works, and Gabe's doesn't.
Anyway.
The back and forth between Chat Noir and Claw Noir was pretty funny ngl.
And we discover that Claw Noir wants his mother back. Of course.
MY POOR BABY
When Marinette was talking about how she was also angry and hurt, but chose to love herself and the world around her and chose to try and fix it... that hit hard. Honestly, it did. It's everything I love about Marinette in one speech. I love it.
And then onto my personal favorite scene in the entire special, possibly in the entire show.
That whole conversation was powerful. "I'm as well as I can be anyway," that's so profound. Like, of course you aren't going to be 100% okay after losing someone you love, but Adrien wants to move on and be happy like his mother would have wanted him to. This scene really showcases Adrien's empathy and his strength, when he acknowledges that having no friends can make it harder for Claw Noir to move on, and then he tells him that only he can make the choice to stop being alone. And that's really true. This scene really showcases everything amazing about Adrien, his hope and optimism, his empathy and his strength. How he finds the strength to keep going by choosing to not be alone. It's beautiful.
Like, it could have been so easy for both Marinette and Adrien to give into their darkest impulses, and Shadybug and Claw Noir really are just representations of how letting your hurt overpower you can lead you down a dark path, and it really highlights their strength, that they choose to make the right choices everyday, despite everything. It really highlights their characters and their arcs. And they're able to take everything they've learned, and look at what they could have been in the eyes and help them change too. It's so poetic.
It would have been a little more impactful if the show had spent more than 10 minutes out of 5 seasons focusing on Adrien's grief and how it has impacted him, but whatever.
Anyway, it also had some Adrien and Nino friendship crumbs, and I'll be darned if I didn't gobble it up like a starved animal. Also, we have confirmation that "Space Mutants vs. Ghost Shark" is Nino's favorite movie, so Nino stans please say "thank you Paris special."
And they are REDEEMED.
Shadybug fixes everything with her Lucky Charm after spending the whole special making destructive ones. My heart.
Shadybug and Claw Noir stop being evil and immediately go from hating each other's guts to flirting shamelessly. They just speedran enemies to lovers in a matter of seconds. They literally just defaulted to flirting. Truly, the natural state of Ladynoir in any universe. We stan.
Gotta be honest, I'm not a fan of the new designs. Wish they had kept the old ones. I'm one of those people whose toxic trait is liking Claw Noir's design, so I'm a little unhappy with it, but hey, it's a sweet scene.
Also, Claw Noir's hair went from the color of rotten bananas to ripe bananas. If that was intentional, I applaud the writers for being both profound and funny as hell.
Aaaaaaand Gabe is back, because we can't have nice things.
The montage going through different realities was great, it was small but I enjoyed it.
They're literally so cute omg. Couple behaviors fr. I'm so obsessed with them.
HUGS
POUND IT
They're holding hands... already... like they're in love... I'm so emotional... I WILL NEVER GET OVER THIS
And they're gone. But their adventures will continue forever in my mind and in my fanfics. And in other people's art that I will ravenously consume.
Cute Alya and Marinette scene. This is really sweet, I love the exploration of the impact Alya has had on Marinette's life.
And now, I'm not an Alyanette shipper, but I think they should kis- oh, wait, never mind, they did it.
And thus, the endless night comes to an end (it happened a while ago but that's just semantics).
Final thoughts
I really loved this so much. Sure, there were some exposition dumps that probably should have happened in the actual series, but that's not the fault of this special. This is probably my bias talking but this is the best special and it's literally perfect, no I will not take any constructive criticism on that. This, this special and everything in it, this is what Miraculous is all about. This is exactly what I wanted, this is what I signed up for. It's literally the best thing ever to come out of this entire show.
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