#we could get so much amazing character insight and development out of this COME OOOOOOOOOOOON

[familyagrestefanblog]

I have.. such mixed feelings about the implications of this shot in the new trailer

I wanna be hopeful that this means the protection charms dilemma is finally getting brought up and this is the result of Marinette having sat down with either Chat Noir or Alya and the show finally has her talk about how not ideally at all this was handled up til now from her/the hero's side because after the protection charms lost 90% of their initial crucial purpose the hero's just kinda act like the emotional value was the main purpose all along and no conversation or a second try from Ladybug, Chat Noir/Mister Bug or Scarabella needs to be concidered.

I wished the show would just name the reason for nothing having happened after "Dearest Family" to be that Marinette was/is too afraid of trying something different again at all after ShadowMoth overpowered her charms because she didn't wanted to give him another opportunity to grow in power yet again, to outsmart her powers and make her look bad in the public eyes.

Those are perfectly understandable reasons I could work with just fine and with those I would not take much issue with nothing being done again, if only the show actually would properly voice that and say that something Ladybug did simply wasn't well-handled with no "buts" and excuses about it from whatever angle or that her first attempt at something she just learned simply ended up not being good enough and that's it. Off to the second try then. It is baffling to me how much the show refuses to actually have that be the case and make it stick once in a while and not always sweep everything under the rug since Marinette really would need this experience with something just semi-important like Protection charms.

No I dont want to drink Marinette's tears for breakfast, I'm honestly just asking for an acknowledgement from the heros' side that the charms situation isn't ideal at all for quite a long time now and that they were suddenly asking alot of the civilian with this plan change of only focusing on the charms' emotional value, since the resistance through the charms can only be tested when the person is already Monarque's prey. And who of them is supposed to know what the hell HE is doing with his Transmission powers?

I don't even need a damn result, I just wanna see them talk about these things and do as much as brainstorming, which for all I care they can do while eating damn cake at one of their sleep overs or on a rooftop in fluffy blankets (btw this goes for Adrien and Alya too, I have very little respect for how the show had ALL the hero's handle this after "Dearest Family".)

I really don't like how almost.. entitled and without much hero's accountability at all this was handled by the narrative. We simply got NOTHING after 4x21 and in the big picture that resulted in the hero's basically saying "Hey this protection charm that had the power to protect you from the akuma when Shadowmoth/Monarque preys on you and emotionally manipulates you when you are in an emotional low-point and therefore extra vulnerable to him doesn't work like that anymore. So it's your job and your job alone to just not be vulnerable prey anymore, since we are not going to make a second attempt or take a different approach in anything no matter how ineffective our default ways have proven themselves to be by now."

What is currently happening has a bitter aftertaste of victim-blaming for me because there is 0 acknowledgement or communication from the heros' side and therefore I'm unwilling to give it a free pass through the understandable reasons I listed earlier and will elaborate further on later on. The charms were presented to the people as a way to fully protect them and the moment that stopped being true the heros seemingly just changed their minds, continued giving out the almost useless charms while making it now seem like it was the people's job all along to make Ladybug's overpowered charms work without guidance or any knowledge of Monarque's powers or anything magical in general.

This is so frustrating because I'm barely asking for anything here. If the show had handled this with proper accountability a hero needs to take when a whole city relies on them through them simply talking about it and their reasons to each other (and somewhat the people) then I would have been fine with it. I'm not asking for groundbreaking results, I'm asking for the narrative to do its JOB by giving me the needed insight to these flawed characters mindsets through explicit dialogue and establishing scenes to enforce it. That's it. That's barely anything. Stop putting the understandable reasons into the subtext at most so fans can cherry-pick if they want the characters to be flawed or flawless, especially when it regards your main character.

How the hell are the the citizens supposed to know what Monarque is doing with those akumas and if he isn't powering them up depending on resistance level if already no-one knows how he is giving his victims their Miraculous powers? How are the people supposed to know that they even have a CHANCE of making this work when the heros' communicate nothing, change their mind on a whim and passively act like they did nothing wrong whatsoever and it's the civilians fault that the overpowered protection charms aren't keeping them save?

If it were that easy to just not be vulnerable prey anymore no protection charms would have ever been needed in the first place. Saying that it's ONLY the civilians' job to make the overpowered protection charms work now when the magical terrorist with emotion based powers intentionally preys on them while they are at their lowest is not something I have respect for AT ALL the way the show is pulling it til now.

The fact that up til now apparently NOTHING was allowed to be asked of the HEROS' again in such horrible circumstances when merely their FIRST attempt didn't turn out to be successful is audacious in my opinion. There is a fundamental difference between the civilians being ungrateful and needing to step up too & the magical, larger than life terror Monarque inflicts on the world and the civilians for a year now while using their mind and emotions against them simply REQUIRING magical protection and guidance that is actually reliable since non of this is anything close to normal.

I'm honestly not very willing to turn all of this onto the vulnerable civilian victims and demand that they alone pick up all the slack when they are at their lowest, alone with Monarque in their heads and on full blast of his manipulation and powers' influence, just because the heros want to entirely avoid acknowledging this and bringing up their shortcomings of bad times. I'm not watching a documentary, just do it please.

I want to believe that the upcoming episode will actually solve my grievances here or at least part of it. Because there is so much potential here. That Ladybug, Chat Noir, Alya and maybe even the other members of the Resistance actually do basic hero work, have a conversation and BRAINSTORM on how to improve the charms situation that isn't working as it should. Maybe the shield thingy is a completely new thing and the result of the entire miraculous team. Dude, I will do cartwheels if that's gonna happen!

Or maybe it's an Evolution of Ladybug's protection charms that either gets manually added to it in the episode or - what I personally think is the case cause it would make the most sense for Marinette’s character - that the team works together to unlock a hidden stronger protection mode in the charms.

Maybe Marinette/Ladybug can continue her development of voicing her insecurities and we find out that the shield thingy here was her actual intention back in "Mr pigeon 72" when she created these charms straight out of her mind, and she admits that when she later saw that the protection charms do not protect the people the way she planned she got insecure out of fear that she hasn't mastered her creation powers the way she thought she had and then left it at that all together because she feared making things worse or disappointing everyone. Do you have any idea how okay I would be with that, nod my head and move on?

Maybe we can have Adrien/Chat Noir voice that he thought about bringing it up but he didn't know how to without possibly making Ladybug feel worse about herself. Or that he feared that if he brought it up she would ask him for help and he neither feels fit or suited to create such important things yet in Ladybug's stead nor does he dare yet to think about what the power of destruction could do to the civilians if they added his powers to the charms (to maybe undo the evilizing of the butterfly all together once the akuma touches the charm force field? Just an idea :I) cause he fears he can't control it 100%

Or this regards both Adrien and Alya. They both are depicted having the same insecurities as Marinette of fearing to not live up to what a Ladybug miraculous holder should be able to do "flawlessly". Have them VOICE that this is the reason for why both of them didn't try to create something themselves. This would literally VALIDATE Marinette/Ladybug not doing anything since 4x21!

Come on, give me something! PLEASE!

--

Oh and...

*SIGH*

I'm begging this show to not have M. Damocles be the only/ first one to develop the protection shield as civilian.

Miraculous, don't.

Don't do it.

DON'T.

Don't turn this into a situation of Ladybug's protection charms having been overpowered by ShadowMoth, who is an adult in a leadership position, and have it be solved by M. Damocles as key-character who is an adult in a freaking leadership position! Don't make me be petty again about Su-Han's insulting treatment in Marinette's girlboss guardian narrative. Don't prove him right after the shit you pulled in season 4 and "Multiplication".