#which resulted in Gabriel cranking up the abuse and deliberately manipulating the situation | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fernsnouveau · 1 year ago

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I did not want Adrien and his abuse survivor arc to be reduced to a secondary tug-war object in a conflict that's actually all about Maribug and Lila, which is now what's going to happen if it ever does come up, now that Adrien was forcibly ejected out of his own character arc when it was actually happening.

So now that the season 5 finale has aired, and Adrien still didn't get to find out anything about his father, I've been seeing people theorize that Adrien will learn everything next season, but that he'll be learning it from Lila.

While I do think that that outcome would be better than him never learning anything, I don't think it would be satisfying either, and for a few reasons.

A) If Adrien isn't going to learn about Gabriel's true nature on his own, he should at least learn it from his Marinette, Emilie (or is she Amilie now?), or Natalie.

He should be told with kindness, and I believe that the people who claim to love him have a responsibility to be honest with him. Hearing it from anyone else, Lila especially, will hurt him more. Could be good for the drama of it all, I guess, but I don't want drama for drama's sake, I want character growth.

B) Lila being the one to tell him anything could be, intentionally or unintentionally, the show continuing to frame his learning the truth as a bad thing, as it would be portrayed as an act of cruelty and manipulation from an enemy, while his family and girlfriend, the people "with his best interest at heart", would be framed as in the right for having kept secrets, because "See, see?? Look how much the truth hurt him!"

C) Adrien learning anything after his father is dead and gone denies him the chance to confront him, or stand up for himself in any meaningful capacity, which gives him, and us the audience, no real closure.

What is Adrien supposed to do once he knows? Cataclysm a statue, while he has to mull over everything he would have said to him, knowing that there's no one to say it to? Or just ignore it, pretend it doesn't matter? Just say "all's well that ends well" even though everything around him is based on a lie?

Or maybe he just never finds out.

No matter where they go from here, I honestly just won't be satisfied. To me, i think the window for Adrien's true Good End is closed.

#the one thing Adrien needed to contribute to the Gabemoth-as-a-villain arc was tk be the one who discovers it's him #as an extension of Adrien's character development of coming to terms with Gabriel abusing him.#it can be unreasonable to expect abuse victims to 'defeat' an abuser with power over them on their own.#but Adrien being the one to find out Gabemoth identity would have made a bigger character arc impacg tga anyone else.#also. Adrien having the character development that would've allowed him to figure out & accept it #would have avoided a chat blanc/ephemeral scenario which happened because GABRIEL found out #abt Adrien being Chat Noir AKA having more agency and autonomy and rebellion against Gabriel than Gabriel had thought #which resulted in Gabriel cranking up the abuse and deliberately manipulating the situation #to make the Gabemoth&corpse-mom reveal as traumatic to Adrien as possible. explicitly to akumatize him.#Adrien figuring it out on his own terms would have taken this weapon of manipulation away from Gabriel.#AND been an extremely necessary step in a abuse survivor arc AND reflected in the fantastical plot #by making Adrien's personal breakthrough MATTER as an important breakthrough in the defeat-a-supervillain plot too.#this opportunity has now been wasted. in Gabriel's new Perfect World ALL OF Adrien's loved ones treat Adrien #just like Gabriel would have wanted. infantilise deceive gaslight don't allow him to have genuine emotional reactions #'out of love'.#Adrien getting the amok rings has also already been wasted in a scene where the narrative completely denied his agency.#they can't undo that without like a major timeline overwrite.#it's Gabriel's perfect world now. Adrien could have escaped the house #but how's he gonna escape an entire REALITY designed to keep him prisoner as the blank passive Perfect Victim???#ml s5 spoilers #ml recreation #ml spoilers #ml criticism #adrien #abuse #meta #lila #ml speculation #ml writing salt #agency

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