#you suck astruc!

[geeky92]

OP, I suffer from anxiety and get panic attacks when I’m either startled or frightened, and had bad experiences with bullies too. That being said, Derision was a TERRIBLE Miraculous Ladybug episode that had some of the laziest retcons in the entire show! And the fact that the writers used trauma and anxiety as a way to make the audience excuse Marinette’s creepy stalking habits is just tasteless and disgusting!

Also, the fact that some of you are accusing us of being abuse apologists for not liking this stupid episode is rich, considering that this is the same show that undermines child abuse and abusive parents in general (I’m looking at you André, Audrey, Tomoe and Gabriel).

Also, are we all just gonna ignore how Marinette spent most of Season 3 trying to keep Kagami away from Adrien, even though Kagami had absolutely nothing to do with Chloe?!

How come most people on this site don't understand the simple message of derision at all is hilarious to me cuz it tells me yall never understood how trauma works and it's not that simple to be put in words and humans are more complex than being miserable and dwell on their trauma 24/7

tw : abuse bullying trauma sa

if you just put ur 1% of unbiased critical thinking skills they literally explained the REASON behind marinette's behavior with planning things ahead in case and making it complicated, memorizing things to not get hurt again ( bc of severe bullying by her racist ableist bully (CHLOE) who's been like that since season 1 if you KNEW.)

And saying she was good with kim in dark cupid compared to derision is not working with ur case cuz there's a thing called dissociative amnesia??? Most victims of abuse has it. heck I don't remember the time i got sa'd and by whom i got sa'd I don't wanna think about it. I wanna forget my trauma. YEAH you get it most victims want to forget or surpress the pain

On top of that she was made superhero later on who had to fight a magical terrorist daily do you think she's gonna dwell on what happened with kim that much when the nature of experiencing such trauma makes the brain involuntarily surpress it.

Her nervous mental breakdowns arose only bc of factors like going on a date with a boy at the pool, him being chloé's friend, etc which brought back her traumatic memories

"We didn't see any clues-" her making complicated plans instead of doing it simply???kim getting humiliated on his confession in dark cupid which seemed karma???? her not taking chat noir's proposals seriously till he told her in glaciator that he was serious in love with her??? she only likes sincere kind boys, etc ????? What are these???? Just for decoration??? Derision only lined up everything which made her character put together. Most of yall never even paid attention to her in first place of course you think it's stupid. Because ur fave was in fact horrible bully and you can't victimize chloe knowing how she horribly abused marinette for 4 years like that cuz it makes you uncomfortable that ur actually defending a BULLY and victim blaming a VICTIM

ALSO marinette had unhealthy coping mechanism of learning everything about adrien bc he was mysterious and chloé's friend, she even learned to improve upon it too. This is how humans go through unlearning their bad habits due to trauma and healing and becoming a better person. And mind you she has never harmed or abused anyone for the sake of fun unlike someone (*cough chloe)

And please stop putting bs takes. Her other exaggerated cartoon antics are used in different contexts for slapstick comedy it's not the same as memorizing a celebrity's schedule which was the unhealthy behavior. Her circumstances is understandable and you should know this but you're deliberately believing it's stupid bc you just hate marinette so idk leave if you can't give any productive related opinion. Peace ✌🏽

[plum-pitt]

not to talk my shit on main or anything but Miraculous Ladybug totally robbed its entire main villain concept and formula from Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja and nobody talks about it.

[yolowritter]

In Defense of Gabriel Agreste

Oh dear Kwami, I can't believe I'm actually doing this... I can't believe that it feels necessary. Before we begin, I want to make a huge clarification. I am NOT supporting any of Gabriel's actions AT ALL, especially anything done in Season 5. That's abuse, that's child neglect, that's grounds for calling CPS. I will never excuse that kind of thing, and frankly this isn't what I'm here to talk about. I simply want to state my opinion on how canon has absolutely ruined Gabriel as a character, and give my own perspective on our local supervillain, including an understanding of his reasons and how Gabriel devolves the way he does in the actual show. This is a mixture of headcannons I've had that are somewhat supported by canon, and I hope you all enjoy my little analysis piece.

First off, let's kick things into high gear by discussing Gabriel's themes. From the get-go of Bubbler, it's blindingly obvious that he serves as the "strict parent" antagonist to Adrien's quest for freedom and self-expression. As an archetype, this works quite well in a lot of stories and media, so I was fine with it when I watched the episode. Through the rest of Season 1, we quickly come to realize that Adrien's mother (and Gabriel's wife) is "missing", due to some reason or the other. At this point some may suspect his relation to Hawkmoth, but there's no legitimate evidence to go off of so we put a pin on that. During Simon Says, specifically Chat Noir and Gabriel's little interaction, we get to see that Adrien does hold some repressed anger against Gabriel because of how overprotective the man is, and then comes the fond remark of Emilie's flair for dramatics. It's a line so many of us have discussed or used in fanworks, but rarely do I see people talk about how Gabriel delivers it. The usually stoic personification of dissapointment seems to finally have some emotion in his voice, for the first really important moment of his character. Combine this with the earlier talk between him and Ladybug, where he praises Adrien and seems genuinely proud of his son for keeping up with all the activities/modeling/etc. Therefore, we get a good general idea of who Gabriel Agreste actually is. A grieving father who has lost his partner to "mysterious circumstances", and is trying to protect his son from any kind of harm. Sure, he's going about it the wrong way and is definately overdoing it, but the act itself doesn't come from a place of malice. Keep this in mind as we move forward.

In Season 2, we start off with the episode Collector. And learn that Gabriel is Hawkmoth. Because of course he is, Adrien is one of the titular characters in the show, naturally the writers want to pull a Luke Skywalker at some point. "I am your father" and all that, we've seen it a million times before. Still, this brings up the question of why? Sure, Gabriel is an asshole. That's very obvious by this point, even though we don't have enough information to truly cast judgement on his reasoning for such behavior. But there's a significant gap between "overprotective single parent who stifles their child" and "local butterfly man who has beef with teenage superheroes". Therefore, this reveal immediately has alarm bells ringing as to what Gabriel's motive is. In a later episode, we have the Gorizilla Incident. And this is where he finally becomes a much more complex, much better character! Because Hawkmoth has captured Ladybug. She's right there, helpless, and all he has to do is either show up and steal her Miraculous, or just wait until she loses her transformation and then take the earrings. His arch nemesis, the person who has been preventing him from accomplishing whatever his goals are...is at his mercy. But...there's a problem. His son is also on the field of battle, and just jumped off a building. Wonderful! Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Gabriel releases Ladybug, therefore saving Adrien's life at the cost of the Miraculous. And much later, during Queen Wasp, Hawkmoth genuinely ponders if he's done more harm than good by trying to defeat the Heroes of Paris. (Side Note: I don't actually remember if we'd seen Emilie in the pod by this point, but whatever.) He would have quit, hung up the suit, and lived out his days as Gabriel Agreste. Miserably maybe, but he would have stuck to that choice. No more Hawkmoth. Until...he gets the chance to Akumatize a Miraculous Holder. And if you want to rewatch this scene, notice the mania in Gabriel's eyes. This extreme emotional reaction is the complete opposite of what we've seen from the man so far (dramatic monologues aside), and the chance at victory rips Gabriel's sanity away from him. Cue Queen Wasp, and later Scarlet Moth.

But I want to stick to this moment for a second. Queen Wasp takes place directly after Style Queen, in which Adrien gets turned into a gold statue. And sure, the show can tell us all it wants about how "he's been turned to dust" or some bs, but we all know Adrien is dead right now. And Gabriel knows it too. This is literally the reason why he tries to convince himself that he shouldn't be Hawkmoth anymore. Because he finally understands what kind of harm he's been doing. By this point it's like the 3rd time that Adrien is in immediate proximity to an Akuma and promptly gets bodied by said Villain, specifically because of Hawkmoth. I do not care what Season 5 says, Gabriel Agreste loved his son with every last shred in that broken, shattered fragment of a heart that was left after Emilie's death, and he shows it very clearly on multiple occassions. He even tries to connect with Adrien again, and has a genuine moment when they watch Emilie's movie together. Gabriel, for all his supervillainy and prancing about in a butterfly costume, seems to be healing throughout Season 2. So why does it only get worse from here?

Well...this is where my headcanons come in to fill the void. Obviously I could go on a tangent about the writers here, but I don't care enough to waste my breath on that again. Swiftly moving past that, I honestly think Gabriel suffers from Tunnel Vision during this show. And yeah that's not a "condition", but think about this for a second. Nooroo warns that there are terrible consequences for misusing a Miraculous in Origins, and the show...never follows up on this? Well, that's weird. Unless the consequences are mental. A deterioration of the self, in a way. Consider: a good portion of the fandom already talks about Gabriel and Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Monarch as different people sometimes. What if that's literal? What if that's the consequence? Gabriel was depressed, desperate and heartbroken after Emilie's demise, but according to a cutscene from Miraculous Rise of the Sphynx (and I swear to God why didn't they put this in the actual show???) Gabriel and Nathalie actually spent around a year looking for the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous before deciding to use the Butterfly. It was Gabriel's last resort. And look at how Hawkmoth acts in Season 1. He's...well, he's acting. Playing the role of a villain to lure them out and defeat them, knowing full-well (at least after Stoneheart) that Ladybug can fix pretty much anything he destroys if she wins, and he can just do the same if she's defeated. Gabriel has a safety net, he's acting the part of an evil villain, complete with dramatic monologues and "curse you Perry the Platypus" moments after ever defeat. Then in Season 2, he knows the jig is up. The stakes are too high and this Hawkmoth bs is hurting the one piece of Emilie that he has left...so Gabriel decides to quit.

And this is where the corruption comes in. During "Feast" in Season 3, Hawkmoth re-states his goal of "taking all the Miraculous!" Uh...hold on just a second. Didn't Gabriel only need the Ladybug and Cat? Yes, exactly. That's why the events of the show even happen to begin with. So why has it now changed to all the Miraculous, if the rest are useless in terms of bringing Emilie back? Well, Gabriel's thirst for power is slowly corrupting his mind. Hawkmoth is officially in control by this point, and it gets much, much worse from here. With Mayura at his side, Hawkmoth has a real person to care about, and take care of. Nathalie supports him, keeps Gabriel afloat in this ocean of despair that they're both slowly drowning in.

But what happens when Mayura can't be there anymore? What happens when Gabriel (now as Shadowmoth) spends hours upon hours inside that dark lair, deliberating his victory? It becomes his sole focus. What tiny specks of humanity were still left inside of this hollow shell called Gabriel Agreste have been devoured by a beast that hungers for only one thing. Power. Emilie is no longer loved by him, barely even remembered to begin with. Now instead of genuine heartbreak over his wife's loss, Shadowmoth is using her as an excuse to keep going. He rationilizes it all to himself, saying "this is for my family" and "they will understand" to hide from the very obvious fact that neither Emilie or Adrien would ever stand for this. His ambitions have stripped Gabriel of all sense and sanity, leaving behind a madman simply wearing his skin. The last time we ever see even a flicker of clarity in his head is during Glaciator 2.0, when Adrien is about to be Akumatized. But this is also the biggest indication that it's almost too late for Gabriel, because has to think about it. Sure, he doesn't actually Akumatize Adrien, but even since Chat Blanc it's become perfectly clear that he can and will go through with that to get an advantage over Ladybug. Here, Shadowmoth considered Akumatizing him anyway, even with just the usual chances of winning.

And in Ephemeral (I'm pretty sure, could be just before or after), Nooroo's worst fears have finally come to pass. Gabriel affirms that he wants to destroy the entire world using the Wish. And then re-shape it into one where he's the top dog, by extension making the Agrestes like the Supreme. Gabriel has gone completely off the rails by this point. I'd even argue that the person he was only a few months ago (don't get me started on that timeline btw) is dead. Gone, burried six feet under along with his wife, because Gabriel Agreste would never do something like this. Monarch just makes everything even worse, especially with Evolution. Just like Nathalie said, he had the perfect chance to warn his past self about the Peacock being broken. Step in the portal, detransform, explain that he's Gabriel, then tell them "hey so the recipe to fix it is on this page of the Grimoire, you need to do this before Emilie makes Adrien" and that's it. But he just ignores it completely because of his obsession, hence proving the point I'm trying to make.

To circle back to the beginning of this post, I am perfectly fine with how Gabriel's character devolves and spirals into madness across the show. It's a cool plotline, could have been really interesting if the writers bothered to explore it but even with only what we have, I'd say it adds a ton of depth to his character! Or...would, if they bothered to explain this! Like seriously, you can pretty easily infer than something of the sort is happening, especially in later seasons. Just give Nathalie or Nooroo one or two scenes where they are worried about Gabriel going insane! Especially Nooroo, give the poor guy a few lines trying to warn Shadowmoth like "Master, please! You need to think about what you're doing! Can't you see this isn't you anymore?" or something of the sort. Sure, it doesn't have to be so on the nose, but you get my point! Instead they did nothing with this amazing idea that's already there because they wrote it by accident! And guess what? Gabriel goes from a sympathetic villain in Season 2 to an utter maniac who locks his "beloved" son in an insane asylum during Season 5!

Like are you kidding me??? What alternate universe did I get dropped into where this is the "logical" followup to Hawkmoth's storyline? One of the only things Gabriel even had going for him in terms of complexity was his genuine love towards Adrien! And like I said, I'd be fine if this how they wanted to make things and play the "tragic villain consumed by a lust for power" card! For Nooroo's sake, it's dangling right in front of them like a carrot on a stick! But instead of making the slightest bit of effort and explain that this is happening, or that it's an intentional plotpoint for Gabriel's character, their innaction just reduces him to a one-dimensional "evil because he's the villain" cardboard cutout! Believe me, I love unapologetically evil characters, who do the worst things for funsies! But Gabriel Agreste can never be that type of bad guy because you set up an entire storyline about his poor wife who died because adoption is apparently illegal in this universe! Don't get me started on Emilie Agreste, she's getting a rant of her own soon enough! But come on, would it kill you to at least try and give your villains some depth???

Thomas, do you want me to have a stroke? An aneurysm? To keel over dead like Gabriel's character development? Should I maybe put a fridge in my basement for good measure? And do not talk to me about the "tell Adrien how good a father I was" bs the finale had in it! Just- just don't touch that with a ten foot pole! But...I will admit, there is a very interesting direction they can take Gabriel's character now that he's dead. Because sure, he's now a one-dimensional asshole that screamed in his basement a lot before beating up a cat(bug)girl and dropping dead, but hey! Gabriel Agreste can haunt the narrative now! Have Lila use reunion to talk to him! Have Marinette be tormented by the stupid promise she made! Have Adrien be conflicted over how Gabriel treated him! Give us an existential crisis because "the hero who defeted Monarch" doesn't match up with the abusive asshole Adrien has known for the past year! Gabriel Agreste's character has been utterly trainwrecked by the writers' refusal to explain anything about him beyond a superficial "boo hoo my wife keeled over". Yeah buddy, so what? You can at least be interesting about it!

Anyway, I'm going to go cool off and make another draft for how to fix this idiot's character development. Or you know, give him some in the first place because he's lost it all. I'll see you all soon with an "In offense to Emilie Agreste" post, but until then, Stay Miraculous everyone!

[halfling-myth-lady]

Any Juleka content for your rewrite?

Of course!!!!

Actually, I’d consider her one of the most interesting characters in the rewrite.

I won’t give any summary, but I will give you a Drabble that more or less explains what her motivations are and will probably tell you what her place in the au is lol

Also pls ask abt this au I need reason to write about this au more.i swear it’s good.i think.

Anyways,let’s get on with this!!

—

Chapter one:A girl called Juleka.

Warning:the story is told in achronological order.technically at the time THIS ficlet would be released it would be around early season 3, though for the sake of the story we will be starting here.

The tiny panjas bracelet sat in Juleka’s hand, black chains wrapping around her fingers and the tiny jewel in the middle staring back at her. She’d gotten it at a yard sale two days ago.

She carefully put it on, intently staring at the empty space in front of her for a few seconds before Roaar materialized in front of her.

As soon as she was noticed, Roaar chuckled.

“Why, look at that! have you made up your mind already?its only been a few hours since my offer, Cub” the creature mused.

“It wasn't hard. All i needed to do was…think”

And think she did.

She thought of Luka. One of the most compassionate and kind people she ever knew, turned into a villain who took away the voices of those he deemed unworthy of them.

She thought of her mother. The most headstrong and amazing woman she could think of, turned into a villain who imprisoned her own children in her ship with chains of steel.

She thought of her father. A man who always found a way to sneak out of her public eye and back to his family whenever he could, turned into a villain who attempted to murder a fellow music phenomenon(no matter how much of an asshole he might be).

She thought about everyone… Rose, Nathaniel, Chloe, Bustier, Max, Kim, alix, Sabrina, Ivan…

… And herself.

She thought about being Reflecta.

About having her autonomy stripped from her by that bastard in a butterfly costume.

About how the moment she disobeyed he took control of her body and forced her to get those stupid pieces of jewelry.

about getting out of that control, and remembering every single thing afterwards.

“You said that as long as i have you with me, he can’t take any kind of control over me. No Akumayizations or anything.”

“Yep!he can’t even touch you”

“And you can give me powers equal to the other heroes…”

“Of course,Cub!”She said, eyes glowing”all you gotta do to access them is say “Roaar, Stripes on!” and you’ll be able to have your abilities with no drawbacks or anything”

Roaar grinned, eyes staring holes into the girl in front of her and razor sharp teeth probably capable of maul through even a turtle’s shell coming into sight.

“What do you say,Couffaine?”

… Juleka cackled.

“I say…we have a butterfly to kill. Roaar,stripes on!”

[midnightgremlin]

I should clarify, now that I've looked back and had time to reflect on my emotions about the season 5 finale, that by finale I mostly meant the end of the Hawkmoth overarching storyline.

To me, the defeat of Hawkmoth was as good as a finale as it meant closing out an entire era of Miraculous Ladybug which is why I'm still entirely unsatisfied. He was such a HUGE part of the story (you know because he was the main antagonist) that him just sacrificing himself didn't feel real, or since at the time it just felt like he'd given up way too quickly.

Looking back now though, it's clear that him dieing so he can be with his wife and leaving Adrien with no parents, so that he doesn't have to face the consequences of his actions is honestly the most selfish thing Gabriel could have done and therefore totally on character.

Still, the way the season 5 finale wrapped up the earlier seasons just didn't satisfy me. It was essentially the death of an era, and yet so much was left unsaid and unaddressed. I can only hope and pray they fix that in the last 2 seasons, but with the way Astruc has handled overarching character plots for not only main characters but side characters (I'm thinking specifically about Chloe) the likelihood is dwindling.

I waited 8 YEARS for the FINALE of Miraculous Ladybug, and I got that?!?!!! What the actual fuck--

⚠️Spoiler Warning⚠️

Tis a horror show, an absolute shit-show, like I was expecting some epic showdown and I got a mediocre battle at best.

Don't even get me started on the last minute redemption arc for Gabriel, like my man didn't deserve to be redeemed. The AMOUNT OF TIMES he tried to KILL literal teenagers, including his nephew and son-- he did not deserve to be remembered as a hero. He was a villain, and he should have died as one.

And- AND there wasn't a reveal?!?!?????

8 years and still no reveal (that is in a timeline that didn't get erased or memory wiped). Like they're together, but still not?? The hell?? I am dissatisfied, disappointed and absolutely destroyed that they decided to end it that way. Like wtf?!

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

EVEN MORE SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6

I figured since I already read it, I'd give my thoughts on the recent interview Astruc and Thibaudeau took part in.

Due to incompatibility with the new animation engine, SAMG will not be working on the next seasons of ‘Miraculous’. The series is now being developed entirely in France, with the integration of Dwarf Animation.

Okay, props for no more outsourcing, even if I'm not sure what this means for the other ZAG shows.

Season 6 is considered to be “a new beginning”, aside from being a new story arc. It is sometimes referred to by the writers as Season 1.

I'm sure that isn't confusing to the executives at all. Also, maybe don't imply you're starting from scratch when you're already reusing the plot of the main villain using the Butterfly Miraculous.

The writing team already has concrete ideas for how Seasons 7, 8 and 9 will begin and end. They also have ambitions to make it to a Season 12, only if the support of viewers and executives allows them to do so. With this, they emphasize the fact that they would not continue with the show if it were no longer needed or interesting.

So basically, they're planning to keep this up for as long as they can until someone pulls the plug.

The opening of the sixth season is still undecided. They are still discussing whether they will change the musical arrangement or not. Thomas also considers the possibility of making a brand-new theme song. A song has been confirmed for S6. They have the music, the arrangement and a female singer. The character remains unknown.

Imagine how funny it would be if they brought back the woman who sang for Marinette in the movie instead of having Cristina Vee sing again.

Despite leaving Paris at the end of ‘Revolution’ (5x23), Chloé Bourgeois will return in Season 6.

Putting aside all the things I've said about her "damnation arc", what is even the point of bringing her back at this point? She has no powers, no influence, no allies, and isn't a threat of any kind. This makes her not being the next Hawkmoth make even less sense, becuse she has more of a reason to hate Ladybug than Lila does.

Also, with the news that Chloe is coming back, this means that she essentially escaped punishment or at least found a way to rebound like Lila did. So that's a grand total of ZERO villains who actually got punished for their actions after five seasons. I'm starting to think Ladybug and Cat Noir really suck at their jobs.

Sebastien Thibadeau: “[Cerise] (IOTA: I'm still calling her Lila for simplicity's sake) is a villain without costume. She is a villain all the time. There is a reason why, but this reason, neither I nor Astruc will reveal to you yet.” Interviewer: “You mean you already intend to tell it?” Thomas Astruc: “Yes. And you know what, we have already told it, but you haven’t noticed.”

Translation: Ladies and gentlemen, LET'S GET READY FOR RETCOOOOOONNNNS!

Seriously, we are approaching the sixth season of this show. It has been eight years since Lila first appeared all the way back in "Volpina", and we still know nothing about her other than the fact that she has some three moms for some reason. You can't pull the whole "This is something you need to rewatch to understand!" excuse because the last two seasons hinged on breaking the rules about Sentimonsters.

Speaking of, I love how this comment about Lila accidentally implies that Gabriel never did anything evil when he wasn't Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Monarch. All that emotional abuse and isolation Adrien suffered was all out of love!

Thomas Astruc on Chloe redemption arc: “We put the characters in situations, and then we say to ourselves: “what would be the logic?” How would the character logically react in “such and such” a situation? And we tried, we tried everything. But every time, we say to ourselves: “if we write this, it’ll be wrong”. There’ll be no reason, it’ll come out of nowhere, the fact that she’ll face something nice and say: “Oh, I’ve been horrible, Marinette what have I done! From now on, I’ll be...” No, nonsense. I understand people’s desire for Chloe to be nice. I’d like that too. But I’d like it if in real life, people with a lot of power suddenly started doing nice things. But Chloé has no interest in changing. She has no reason to change, unfortunately.”

Ah, yes because Gabriel (Global terrorist and abusive parent), Felix (Betrayed Ladybug and temporarily wiped out all of humanity on a whim), Nathalie (Willing accomplice to Gabriel) Andre (corrupt politician and Chloe's primary enabler), Sabrina (Willing accomplice to Chloe) all had compelling reasons to change their ways.

Also, "I've been horrible, what have I done?"

MY BROTHER IN CHRIST, THAT'S HOW VIRTUALLY EVERY REDEMPTION ON THIS SHOW IS EXECUTED.

The fact that he's seriously acting like he actually wanted to write a redemption arc is insulting. Not only does it ignore all the things he's said to fans who were upset at the turn of events, but it makes no sense for him to take this stance because he's a writer. If Chloe turning a new leaf is too strange of an idea, then write an actual character arc allowing her to progress to a state where she recognizes what she's done is wrong. You control the character for God's sake! It's not like you're training a dog to stop humping the couch. You can change things to make a redemption arc possible.

In other words, Astruc is either lying to save his ass, or THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES about writing characters.

Sebastien Thibadeau talks about Andre's character development: In contrast to Chloe, “Andre Bourgeois evolved as a character because we had already imagined a back story. He had the potential to change, and that’s where the beautiful scene comes from — I think it’s magnificent — between Gabriel and himself on the roof of the Grand Palace, where he says: “But Gabriel, what’s become of us? We’ve forgotten the kids we used to be”. But we [writers] know what kids they used to be, and we’d like to tell the story one day, to show what young kids they were, when they were struggling through Paris and weren’t yet what you’ve come to know in the series. He’s sad about what’s happening to his daughter [Chloe], and he’s trying to change it, but he can’t. He is proof that a character can change.”

This. This right here is what cinched it for me. I've tried for years not to say it because it's a word that has been flung around a lot over these last few years, but I feel like this little snippet is enough of a reason for me to say it.

These writers are sexist.

They may not believe it, but whether they intended for it or not, they wrote a story arc where a grown man was shown to have more sympathetic qualities than his daughter. How the hell can you defend it in a way that doesn't highlight the misogyny that this show runs on?

The fact that they gush over how much "potential" Andre had right after saying how that same kind of potential wasn't enough of a reason to attempt a redemption arc with Chloe really shows how confusing their priorities are. I'm sorry to keep saying this, but for a show that takes a heavy anti-capitalist philosophy, it seems like the members of the 1% are the characters who get the most depth and sympathy... unless you're under 18 and lack a Y chromosome, that is.

A meeting will be set up in the coming weeks to decide on whether or not to make a live-action for ‘Miraculous’, Thomas Astruc reveals.

As a former Arrowverse fan, I'm willing to see this out. Not only did the Netflix One Piece series prove you can make an animated property work in live-action, Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie managed to do really well even without the usual writers behind it.

Thomas when asked about Gabriel’s wish in ‘Re-Creation’ (5x26) and whether he brought Emilie back to life: “All the answers are in the episode.”

For the love of--STOP SAYING THAT!

You keep claiming that we just need to rewatch the episode to understand things, but between the continuity errors and abandoned subplots, it's hard to tell what's important and what isn't. Either say "No comment" or give us an honest answer.

If people are still confused about how the season ended after almost a year, and you keep giving answers like this:

Maybe you need to change the way you tell the story.

Astruc when asked about ‘The Supreme’: “Oh, if only you knew... Nothing we do is meaningless.”

Sebastien Thibadeau on Season 7: “Once you’ve seen the start of season 7, I can swear you’ll watch season 6 a second time. That’s all I can say.”

Because it'll make Season 6 look like a masterpiece by comparison?

Thomas Astruc on the worldbuilding: There are Kwamis and Renlings, what makes you think there aren’t others [creatures]?

I swear, by the time we get to Season 10, we're going to get stuff like aliens, demons and talking mushrooms, or at least something ludicrous like that.

Zoe had a love at first sight when she met Marinette in ‘Sole Crusher’ (4x07), they confirm.

Of course! That's why it wasn't framed any differently from something like the umbrella scene and Zoe showed absolutely no signs of attraction to Marinette! It's genius!

Executives had Thomas write several alternative concepts for ‘Miraculous’, very different from what we know today or even the early PV. Among them, “a concept where Ladybug is the head of a group of superheroines, like Sailor Moon. There was no love story.”

Can you imagine a world without the Love Square?

The script writers’ favorite episode is ‘Simpleman’ (4x19) as it represents a personal, work and family attachment. Marinette’s grandfather, Roland Dupain, is inspired by Thomas Astruc’s grandfather.

Okay, either Astruc had a complicated relationship with his grandpa or he's been dead for years. While I understand that older generations have outdated views (for example, my great-grandmother yelled at me for saying I wanted to learn Japanese because "They tried to kill us!"), the fact that a caricture of a grumpy old man was based on his grandpa is a little concerning.

Also, between this and Sabine being based off an old flame of his, this only makes the theory that Chloe is based off a real person Astruc knew more plausible.

Astruc: “This is why our work is so difficult. We have to manage to bring in this generation of younger ones, and at the same time, we have to satisfy the generation that was here before and that grows with the series.”

First, if you're trying to please older fans, maybe don't get into fights with them on Twitter.

Second, you made a thread after "Simpleman" aired where you insulted fans for not getting the "meta" element to the episode and compared them to the character you just said was based on your grandfather.

You've also been burning away a lot of the older fans' goodwill over the years. Trust me, I have a few examples.

Despite sharing a similar appearance, the symbol on Nino’s T-shirt is not related to Hack-San.

Okay, is this a fan theory I missed back when Season 4 was airing? Why would anyone draw that conclusion?

Thomas Astruc talks about Season 6: “I’ll say it sincerely, I was very doubtful at the end of Season 5. I said to myself: “if we were to continue, how would we exceed?” Well, we did. It’s been a great season. The new writers have brought us a lot of great stuff. All the episodes we’ve written in Season 6 are fabulous. Each episode is on point, there is no unnecessary lines. All the scenes are really interesting, really well-crafted.”

Translation: Tons of filler, bad comedy, reused Akumas, and more Love Square drama that we're trying to claim hasn't been done before.

Thomas when asked if Marinette will get akumatized: “We never give any information about what may or may not happen.”

JUST. SAY. NO. COMMENT.

There are many important details throughout the series that no one has noticed. Thomas says that when we see the next seasons, we’ll think, “Oh, the writers had it all planned.”

You know, like how Season 3 established that Sentimonsters can be sent out of control by Cataclysm a few episodes before Adrien, a Sentimonster, gets hit by a Cataclysm and is affected in a different way. It was all planned from the beginning.

The Ladybug PV was an animation test and was not intended to be public. Jeremy Zag decided to leak it himself.

Honestly? Dick move on Zag's part. You have to wonder how pissed off Astruc was.

According to Thomas Astruc, what the ‘Miraculous’ series is today represents only 5% of what he wrote in the original bible he presented to Jeremy Zag. “The universe has evolved a lot since. I don’t know if the ideas I put there will be reused someday. It was very extensive.”

Thomas Astruc and Sebastien Thibadeau discuss the parallels between Marinette and Gabriel: Astruc: “Gabriel’s personal back story is the cause of his misery, not his will. And above all, it creates a beautiful mirror with Marinette, which is what’s interesting. They both have a lot of love for Adrien, they’re both designers, they both have a Miraculous, but it’s other choices.” Thibadeau: “That’s what makes it a great hero-villain contrast. Even if they don’t know it from the start, they have a real point in common. As we see at the end of Season 5, they both love Adrien. Except there’s one who does it by doing the right thing, and then there’s another who does it by doing the wrong thing, hurting people, to get there.”

And the one who did the wrong thing by hurting people ended up winning. What does that say about the contrast?

------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's it for the interview. I have to say Season 6 does not look pretty so far.

[ilikekidsshows]

What Marinette and Sakura had is similar but different that I find it pretty hilarious. Marinette is being hyped as strong female lead, best Ladybug and best Guardian when those are lie. While Sakura from Naruto is being trashed for being trash and useless when those are lie. Like sure, Sakura in s1 isn't really that good. The only good thing about her is her cakra control but she didn't stop there, after Sasuke betrayal she become determined to be better so she would be able to help her friends and she end up being a great medic ninja. While Marinette is being hyped for no reason but gaslight the audience. What's she's good at? Designing, sure. But in the superhero side? There's nothing in there that worth the hype.

---

The Sakura thing is extra wild, because the canon doesn’t have characters constantly saying that Sakura is useless regardless of all evidence to the contrary, the fandom decided that on its own. Also, like, hot take, but Madara Uchiha sucks in all the ways the fandom insists Sakura sucks but people insist he’s totally cool and not a loser. It just goes to show you that, once a fandom has convinced itself of something, there’s no changing so-called “common knowledge” aka “popular opinion”. And that’s what the take that “Marinette is a good person and a competent hero” has degraded into: just a popular opinion that has very little basis on canon.

Don't get me wrong, Marinette has shaped up to be an awful hero based on morals, but she’s also just plain bad on an observable competence basis. Astruc insists that she is the lone hero while Cat Noir is her sidekick, meaning she should be on the level of Batman or Spider-Man. Trying to claim that either of these heroes couldn't win without supportive characters coming in to prop them up every step of the way would be ridiculous. Yet, Marinette constantly needs to be propped up by her sidekick Cat Noir and other characters too. She’s constantly having nervous breakdowns she can’t overcome without someone else coming over to give her a pep talk. The main hero being a wimp is not heroic.

Marinette is constantly on the verge of giving up and has to be motivated to keep going on by other characters. In ‘Origins’ alone, she got three pep talks and Alya was in danger before she decided to don the Ladybug earrings again. In ‘Volpina’ she was about to give her Miraculous to Volpina before Cat Noir intervened. This is even true in her civilian life with the way she almost skipped a fashion show featuring her own design or her whole “I should just be Ladybug all the time!” moment. The main hero constantly being on the verge of giving up on any goal she’s pursuing is not heroic.

It’s one thing to grow through others’ support to be able to carry your own weight, but Marinette never overcomes one of her fits without outside help. If she was as good of a planner as the show claims, she would have fled when she discovered Gabriel was Monarch and gotten backup, because she should know by now that she’s weak-willed and incapable of withstanding stress on her own. She should have showed up at the mansion of the man the writers confirmed she knew was Monarch with any allies she could gather to begin with. Instead she thinks she can solo Monarch when she’s never been able to get out of a high-stakes situation without backup before. Arrogance and lack of strategic thinking are not heroic.

To make matters worse, when Marinette is having her final battle against her nemesis with none of her allies, like the writers claim they intended from the start, she objectively loses. The wish canonically destroys the world to remake it anew. That means Monarch destroyed the world. It doesn’t matter if he put it back the way it was (mostly) or if Marinette benefits from these changes. Letting the villain destroy the world is not heroic. She’s such a bad hero that she can't even save the day when it really counts. The only other time I’ve seen the heroes lose this badly was in Watchmen, which was an intentional deconstruction of superheroes where said heroes were meant to be seen as unheroic.

Also, like, Marinette’s other accomplishments are also very lackluster. I’m usually the first one to defend Miraculous’ fashion choices, but, really, what has Marinette designed after the retool? The fucking cloaks artists use to protect their clothes from paint splatters that she designed with the prompt “thematically opposing superhero costumes”? Before the retool she designed several accessories that are worn by famous people in addition to a lot of other stuff. Even more glaringly her four and a half seasons long love quest where she struggled with confessing to the guy she’s in love with was resolved by the guy confessing to her first, while she struggles to reciprocate for the rest of the season even after they get together. The main hero being such a failure is not heroic.

All of Marinette’s series goals, as a protagonist and hero, end in failure. She never could work up the courage to win Adrien over, that was handed to her. She never earned her position as Guardian, she lucked her way into finding the book and being the one nearby when Fu had to transfer his position thanks to the position she put him in. She lost all of the Miraculouses within months or possibly weeks of becoming the Guardian. She let the world be destroyed. Marinette, as a whole, just isn’t a heroic character.

You can’t even argue that Marinette is inexperienced and still learning and that’s why she still loses, because the show explicitly tells you that this is not the case. Ladybug, after gaining all of her full adult powers in ‘Queen Mayor’, still loses. French historical hero Jeanne d'Arc calls Marinette the greatest Ladybug ever and she still loses. This is the best she, or any Ladybug, can do, this is what peak performance from a Ladybug hero looks like: losing the fight and the bad guy destroying the world. The show treats Marinette as a super competent girlboss while she accomplishes nothing of true importance to her or the story. I’m not interested in any Ladybug hero if this is what the best of them can accomplish: nothing. Ladybug isn’t a superhero, she’s a loser hero.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Hi! Been loving reading through all your Miraculous reblogs and the meta you've written - you have some really great stuff on this blog! I was curious if you've ever written/reblogged anything talking about how, from the very start of the show, Miraculous uses Tikki as Marinette's absolver? Marinette "makes mistakes" and "owns up to them" according to Astruc's tweets, but I find myself feeling that the "accountability" she takes is rarely related to what she did wrong in the first place, even when the show tries to tell us otherwise, and it's usually Tikki or a different yes-man, like Alya or Adrien, absolving her of her mistakes, whether the situation had anything to do with them or not. Ikari Gozen is an episode that always comes to mind for this - Marinette is absolutely terrible to Kagami, sabotaging her, badmouthing her, and going through her phone. Marinette never expresses remorse to anyone but Tikki, but Tikki absolved her so the narrative never addresses the issue again. Tikki tells her "it's never too late to make things right" and Marinette invites Kagami out for juice without ever taking accountability for her previous actions. And Kagami just GOES with it, even stating that SHE was wrong about Marinette and that she understand why Adrien values her. I I will admit, I don't really like Marinette as a character, because I find her consistent self-absorption, and the narrative's endorsement of it, to be really maddening, but I'm pretty new to the fandom, and the subreddit isn't a great place to find thoughtful analysis, so I'm looking for perspectives here! Thank you for your time!

Hey, thank you so much for your kind words! <3 sorry for taking so long. I've had my ask box deactivated for several years now and i completely forgot about me already having started replying in my drafts. 😭👏

__

No, I don't think I've ever written or reblogged something about Marinette's dynamic with Tikki, but I do have thought about it. For me, their dynamic is just lacking much... idk, substance? I remember reading from Marinette stans that they think Marinette and Tikki have a much deeper bond than Adrien and Plagg which is something I simply cant understand at all. Plagg is the only person Adrien actually truly HAS in all the neglect and bad treatment he's stuck in from all sides. Plagg takes on so many roles for his kid and has grown so much because Adrien needed it.

The thing is, Tikki and Marinette's dynamic is very different so I'm just not able to properly read them because I personally would need a Plagg in my life and that's perfectly fine. That's why I dont talk about them.

But about your point now:

I definitely agree that Tikki is one of the main indicators about what is wrong about the way Marinette is written as protagonist, especially since the retooling in season 4. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Tikki also used to have a bigger presence in the how which was by now mostly made redundant by Alya always being with Marinette and in season 4 Marinette (unnecessarily and dangerously) keeping all the Kwamis outside the box all times so they too stole screen time from Tikki.

So Tikki lost alot of her personality. I believe to remember her also being more energetic and excited in the earlier seasons, showing off more to her character, which would by now make her yet another character the show sucked alot of their life out of so they aren't in the way for Marinette. Tikki seems alot more down these days, that I definitely noticed.

Marinette has Alya now, if that makes Tikki sad because she isn't relying on her the way she did before then Tikki has to deal with it quietly and not bother Marinette (seriously, Tikki reminds me ALOT of Adrien and they're both treated badly in the narrative for Marinette’s sake :/)

And this reduced characterization makes it by now very noticeable imo that Tikki herself as a Kwami often doesn't really know what is going on because she lacks experience with alot of things. I wholeheartedly agree that Tikki is one of Marinette's strongest and most damaging enablers because Tikki is because of it not actually allowed to be challenged in her dynamic with Marinette the way Plagg is with Adrien. Where Plagg is allowed to grow, Tikki is kept the same because Marinette is not allowed to be really pushed back on.

The show has to my memory always been quite open about Tikki not being familiar with alot of things so Marinette can explain things to her. The problem comes, as you say, from the show then weirdly still acting like Tikki saying some random vaguely positive thing about whatever Marinette just did.. suddenly meaning it doesn't need to be taken care of anymore?

It's the same thing as the show has Adrichat, Alya or Luka do. Most of what the narrative and Marinette as the main character want to hear at this point is being told positive things whenever something went wrong. If that positive thing actually holds any water the way it was executed is beyond irrelevant which reflects incredibly badly especially on Marinette because she is the main beneficiary.

Again, remember Cat Charming in "Kuro Neko". From Marinette's perspective he should have no valid opinion on the Ladynoir conflict AT ALL because he just arrived half an hour ago and never even met Chat Noir in her eyes. But still, Marinette made him the deciding voice of the Ladynoir conflict, absolving her of all blame to entirely put it on Chat Noir, because Cat Charming validated her and said positive things about her mistakes so she doesn't have to really think about them as mistakes anymore if she wishes to not have been in the wrong.

Which for the show somehow equals that she isn't and they aren't real mistakes anymore she should genuinely work on (and therefore still hasn't really beyond surface level)?

Who tf cares if this is literally not how it works and how badly it reflects on Marinette as a character that any random dipshit can walk up to her, validate her, and she'll just... GO with it (making Marinette ironically the most endangered person regarding Cerise now because that girl has plenty of identities and Marinette doesn't give a damn who's validating her as long as she's validated by a person not explicitly telling her they're evil)

Where was I? Ah, Tikki!

Tikki is at the end of the day yet another character who's kindness is kinda weaponized by now by Marinette's narrative.

We've reached a point where one kinda has to say that Marinette shouldn't be told optimistically positive things anymore because not rarely will these words just be used to sweep Marinette's biggest flaws under the rug when it really wouldn't have hurt anyone to simply cover the damn conflict at hand.

As you said, there are writing rules, but I think they were "Marinette has to make a mistake every episode" and "Marinette has to learn something every episode". And as you correctly said, these two things often don't necessarily go hand in hand. To the point where the thing she learns is making the initial mistake even worse (I wanted to look for a more precise example, but at this point it's literally all of Ladynoir)

Which of course absolves her of having to properly take her blame or accountability in ot of cases, too. If I were to approach it in bad faith, I would say that this is exactly the reason why the writing rules don't specify that the lesson learned needs to be about the mistake she made... and that's exactly what I'm saying. Bad faith sounds rather realistic to me.

I remember someone having had made a post where they explained that Marinette as protagonist is written like a villain or antagonist, and the more I look at all the aspects of this show the more does that take check out.

__

(damn, I am out of PRACTICE in responding to asks! I hope I didn't talk right past the point you wanted to hear in my response. If I did, please clarity with another ask, I'm not sensitive to that)

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Watching people prefer to spend their energy on creativity because something doesn't feel right to them (Miracolous/HH/HB) is interesting when your biggest concern is that many fundraisers don't get done and people have to wait for it to get done , not sure whether they will die today… I know, dark thoughts…

Or seeing drama because the creator led the character than they wanted (Tia… I was with Chloe myself, although it wouldn't be so bad if Thomas didn't act like a child… THE CHARACTER HE HATES IS A CHILD, although we should be critical here, because it's an animation for children and has a fucked up message, but it's weird when it comes to adult productions like HH/HB, you don't have to be a fan of Vivzipop to facepalm over this… PEOPLE, IT TAKES PLACE IN HELL, WE KNOW PEOPLE SUCK THERE)

I think the strangest drama was about Alastor being asexual and it was so dramatic that it made you shake your head.

The second stupidest drama is about the art style being too detailed (Oh yes, because we have erased the medium of animation as an art… Great)

But yes, this drama is absurd, both in fandom and anti-fandom, both piss me off the same

Now that I have your attention:

--------------------------------------------------

By the way, greetings to the TOH fan who wanted the redemption of Belos, i.e. the genocider, after everything in the world, do you think he is worth redeeming?

Seriously, there are limits to what you can do when you have a tragic past, and that limit is killing someone (Serial Killer Stories, man, Adolf Hitler himself had a tragic past… His mother died and his dream of being an artist fell apart, and his father was a toxic person, does that mean that the entire holocaust can be fucking explained by his trauma? No, man, these are unforgivable crimes)

I just don't like the mainstream media justifying genocides and murders, somehow…

Damn, in Miracolous they justified the abusive father who terrorized the city (And was complicit in the genocide during akumanization), so in the new productions this shit still exists

Can we stop normalizing murder and genocide, I beg you, creators?

Even if a few characters forgive this monster, it's strange that it takes a short time for the rest… I would just prefer not to forgive the side characters for a long time, it would be natural, because it looks like the greatest crime is to offend someone or steal something from someone from the market, not murder or genocide…

Even if this character saves another, it's strange that this character forgives, WTF, this character with a history could have been faking it, saving doesn't fix all the shit (Even if he dies), yes, I wrote it down because it's an internal frustration with pop culture and the fact that crimes of this type are normalized…

I don't know when I can understand characters forgiving it when that character was a victim of possession or did that crime unintentionally, but that's the only thing I can understand being forgiven so quickly, the problem is that many characters who are immediately forgiven , they did everything with premeditation and it is even more terrifying, good deeds won't erase crimes, so creators, don't do this, I'm begging you…

I just have the impression that these types of crimes are quickly forgiven, I know, fictional characters, but seriously, it looks like they forgive robbery or injury, not murder and genocide… Because if a child's character I can forgive that he forgives crimes (Because is too young to understand the seriousness) it's like adult characters seeing a murderer/genocide, they forgive immediately, it's sus

I'm not in favor of killing the evil characters who commit these crimes (It's taking the easy way out), I just would prefer that these types of characters weren't forgiven too quickly…

Okay, remember about the fundraisers I linked to above

Also remember about the boycott

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale’s Top Ten: Least favorite episodes of Miraculous Ladybug (as of season 5)

With Season 5 finished and my posting of my top 10 favorite episodes, it’s time I crank the meter the other way. Now some rules

1. Like always this is my personal opinion, and if you liked these episodes, that’s great. I would love to hear your reasoning

2. I will be judging them SOLELY of what was shown in the episode, not by any leaks that came out before or after. I’m solely judging on what is seen and confirmed

3. Word of warning, I will be pretty vicious with my critiques. Also profanities will be thrown.

Now before I go into them, I should give some congratulations to some episodes no longer in my bottom 10

Captain Hardrock: You are still a lame episode, but not the worst you are actually decent in comparison to some of these.

Stormy weather 2.0: Clip shows still are awful, but there are worst things

Frozer: In the grand scheme of things this episode really wasn’t important and there are worst character writing

___________________________________________

10.Sole Crusher

Revisiting this, it really isn’t a good episode for ML. I don’t know what was more Shoehorned in, Zoe’s character arc of replacing Chloé or the lucky charm.

It also makes little sense that Marinette would be the one pushing for Zoe considering her experience with Chloé and her family (especially after Season 5 revealed her trauma).

Now Zoe isn’t a bad character, but she will always be seen as the replacement Good bee, and she deserves better writing.

Honestly it could be argued Queen banana should be here, but that episode is too much of a s***post that I get more enjoyment out of it. This is trying to play this straight and it don’t feel right.

9. Qilin

This episode has a some things going for it, great akuma design, decent action. But it also has a ton going against it. It’s in a series of episodes I like to call “Thomas’ gets political” and I will tell you this, he sucks at it.

I would try and explain further but I am aware I would butcher the topic, all that should be said is, racism tackled poorly and Marinette says she will pay for a ticket that her mother didn’t deserve to get in the first place.

Also the animation looks off in the episode, it just looks so bleh. 

8. Migration

Remember that whole reveal that Luka knows both Ladybug’s and chat noir’s identities and how he kept that to himself?

Well that FINALLY gets addressed. And are Ladybug and chat noir mad at him? No. No consequences for him.

The whole episode acts like he is such an important character but this is one of 2 episodes he’s in where he has more than 2 lines.

Then he gets to travel the world with his dad because monarch found out he knows.

Kagami got akumatized twice and she knew Ladybug’s identity, step up your game Luka.

Also the fake out with Rose was bulls*** and everyone knows it.

Also the entire episode had everyone but Luka lacking brain cells.

I don’t rank it lower because while it annoyed me greatly, there are worse offenders on the list.

7. Animaestro

Astruc complains for 22 minutes that nobody cares about him anymore.

Also Marinette teams up with her bully which after watching Derision, WOULD BE THE LAST thing she would do.

This is the worst example of the Creator calling out the audience, There are other episodes like this but this one is the least entertaining. And if the ending of season 5 is concerned. “I’ve seen your writing, so I can FUCKING CRITIQUE IT YOU ARROGANT PIECE OF…”

Okay, I’m calm. Point being. It’s his call out the critics episode and it sucks

6. Furious Fu

I HATE Su Han.

He is a worse version of Fu in every stretch of the imagination.

The episode where Su han shows up and starts making demands is stupid. The only thing he has going for him is his fighting style which he never teaches the two people that could have needed it!

The episode isn’t lower because despite Su Han’s impact, he really doesn’t do much and he is just there to be a nag later on. Also Fu’s akuma looks dope as hell and gave Fu some slack.

5. Feast

So remember how Su han showed up in the last episode. Well he and all the other guardians were gone for over 100 years because they lost to a 4 Foot blue dog made by a hungry child.

This episode isn’t as bad as the others as a stand alone, but knowing the lore makes it sound so completely stupid. Like Fu was HAUNTED by his past and we find out it was because he was hungry when training and the guardians COULDNT handle that? All trained to fight miraculous users should they go rogue, couldn’t beat ONE DOG. The mysterious order is incompetent as heck.

It’s just so stupid. Also Fu was acting irrational af over all this didn’t help.

4.Reflekdoll

I want everyone to know how massive this is, Reflekdoll is no longer my least favorite episode.

For anyone that follows me, my SEETHING hatred of this episode is well documented.

I won’t go on about how the tropes were horribly done or ignored, how off the banter was, or even how stupid everyone is this episode. Because I’ve discussed it in length.

I will simply say, Thank God there is Passion, so if people want a GOOD kwami swap episode they can watch that one.

3. Miracle Queen

I’ve talked about this episode to death on here. But really the only flaws with it are the last half of the episode.

The drama of the first half is great. But the ass pull of a memory wipe, the clear degradation of Chloé’s character, and just the simple giving up of Hawkmoth, he could have easily still won if he pushed a bit longer. The ending was depressing but also a clear example of how the writers put themselves in a corner with no way out.

The only thing that makes it worse is Fu’s replacement (Su han) ends up being a worse teacher.

Also considering how they spent season 4 quickly getting Marinette and Adrien out of the relationships with the love rivals, even they realize it was a dumb call.

__________________________________________

2. Ephemeral

Hey, let’s make an episode to explain why Adrien can NEVER know his father is the villain.

This episode is the go to justification of the writers on why Adrien will always be sidelined. It was also the unofficial reveal of the sentimonster theory before it was said pretty much outright in season 5.

The worst akuma design. Marinette gaslighting, gate keeping chat noir at its worst.

Gabriel wins and gets his wish.

And none of it mattered and no one remembers it except I think Sass. So it was pretty much pointless.

Not even the ladrien and cute reveal could save it.

And don’t even get me started on how pointless and avoidable it is.

It’s almost funny because despite how pointless this was, it’s still better than number 1.

1. Re-creation

So many cool concepts, great designs. Marinette dropping a piano on Gabriel. So many great things. But it also had some flaws, like having Adrien sidelined, and the focus on heroes from the specials for practically no reason. But all of that could be forgivable if the ending lands…

It really shows how an AWFUL ending can fuck up everything.

Imagine having 5 seasons of fighting to stop a villain from getting the miraculous to make the wish only for him to WIN! Yes he wins. He gets to make the wish, you know the wish that was said should NEVER be used. Of all the stupid, asinine, Shark Jumping BULL SHIT. Who the fuck APPROVED THIS HORSE SHIT?!

So he gets his wish, and he gets a statue HONORING HIM. What the fuck? Adrien, who was ABUSED now sees his abuser as a hero and EVERYONE THAT KNOWS THE TRUTH IN HIS LIFE IS HIDING THE TRUTH FROM HIM. Nathalie, Marinette, Felix, Kagami. Even PLAGG!

And the whole utopia crap, everything is just perfect now, because the villain got what he wanted.

That’s a great lessons for kids! (Blatant Sarcasm)

But let’s really dig in, the ending left a LOT of things vague. And hilariously ALL OF THE POTENTIAL OUTCOMES ARE SHIT.

1. Emilie was revived and Nathalie got healed.

So Gabriel gets everything he wanted from the wish, justifying everything he did and he gets treated like a hero and another person hiding the truth from Adrien. Marinette knows everything that brought this about and is keeping that from Adrien, but is justified slightly because it could encourage Adrien to try and get his father back with a wish. Also brings up the question of who took Emile’s place.

2. Only Nathalie was healed.

Gabriel ended up with Emilie like he wanted, gets treated like a martyr, Adrien is technically an orphan, Marinette is knowingly lying to him about his father and Adrien continues to get Gaslit.

3. Emilie is revived, Nathalie is healed, and memories were altered

Gabriel’s wish basically shaped EVERYTHING how he wanted, meaning he is still in control of Adrien’s life even in death. Even his own wife. So while this removes Marinette covering for him intentionally, it just means Gabriel was so much worse.

4. Nathalie’s healed and memories altered

Gabriel gets to be with Emile and has shaped Adrien’s life even in death. Everyone basically puppeteer by him as he died. Sure he’s dead but he also retconned for his redemption, which is bullshit.

Now there are people that defend this ending/potential ending.

I’m sorry but, unless they revive Gabriel and he gets exposed, Adrien finds out the truth, and he gets held accountable for his actions. I can’t feasibly imagine this ending being good.

The writing staff aren’t going to do Anything about this, they are just going to move on to Lila as the main villain and say the Agreste plotline is over.

If they Do, do something, I’ll happily take back my words and alter my view of the episode but right now.

It’s one of the WORST season finale’s I’ve seen in my life.

[plumsaffron]

Scapegoating Lila and referring to Astruc haters as Lila grudge holders. LOL.

Thing is... Lila’s and their ways aren’t not the same. Sucks I’ll have to speak of Lila Rossi again of the difference of circumstances.

Ah it’s been established, the misuse of miraculous can lead to huge problems. This has been shown enough times. Heck that’s how Santa Claws happened. Back to Lila thing again.

Ladybug used her ultimate power to embarrass Lila due to her instability or rather Lila’s existence made Marinette the hero feel absolute inferiority and ensured to take her soon to be Perfect Alliance away from her. Tikki was asking if she was jealous earlier. Gets more jealous. Marinette got a special book and could have left and completed something more of priority. Instead she decides to be a clown. Even Adrien was like what’s wrong with you and concerned. Lie hater lies of an excuse to why she was foul to Lila and swings away from him because she knew that she was clearly wrong. It was really so Lila would go away or disappear. Disappear is fulfilled after Confrontation. Funny this her frolicking upon Lila and wasting her time instead of getting the book and leave for the time being indirectly helped cause the collector incident. Oof Adrien returning back to square 1 again. And the funny is Marinette in the end doing the very thing she despises or wants to despise of Lila doing when returning what she stole to Gabriel. Ironic. Choose when game eh?

Lila has to see what she wished, ripped away. Opportunities taken away later too. And the smile of the one who did this to her’s face, plaster everywhere. The hero that ruined your first day. Having to remember that awful experience for a long time. Hawk Moth and soon Nathalie orchestrate the anniversary of Lila mockery. The whole town celebrating your humiliator and allies of such. A peer in your class for some weird reason, wanting to be like Ladybug for some strange reason. You later have to later hear the theme song of who ruined you and see much merchandise. A powerful figure, Gabriel Agreste, insulting you, personally, purposely. When the day ends, it’s the same.

The next day you return to school is the first day you died. That person who went out their way against you like earlier is a class rep. The class representative is being very dirty towards Lila because Adrien. She tried to convince Alya and Nino there’s fault in her and offness. And when she realized that she screwed up and had no grounds to hold onto, that class rep went her way to try to expose her and raged cause it backfired. Literally proved that Marinette is desperate against Lila. So the rager once again proving her hatred isn’t because of what she does. It’s really cause she disrupts the destiny she wishes for Adrien. Lila is better than Marinette in her mind since her arrival and Marinette is being a flaw finder like she did in Volpina. Any means to find wrong with her so it’s ensured she can never be with Adrien.

And after Lila retaliated and left, Adrien reminded her of her first day after the anniversary of her humiliation (or whatever day. But it doesn’t matter due to Heroes Day is rather recent). Both of them are unfortunately reminding her of Ladybug. Ladybug tricks her into kissing seafood and mocks the muttering seafood and she gets split but Sarah and then Ladybug. So split into two and two. Just to be revived and Ladybug deciding to lecture her again and project.

Then the classed wanted to sit in their original seating so Lila is left to sit in the back. And everything works out for the rep who antagonized her. And then Marinette takes her threat as a joke.

Later in time, Marinette for some reason, decides to do the very thing Nino and Alya told her that wasn’t cool of her that she confessed of doing upon Lila. Because again, she sought for and desires to see something off with Lila (even though the reason she went away was because she ruined her first day). She also proves that she doesn’t trust Adrien as earlier in time he was warning her not to make things worse with Lila (and anyone in general. Like don’t give reason).

It’s almost like Marinette disregards the idea of Chloe ever bothering her or the classmates when Lila exists. It’s like she just wants to cause problems on purpose. And she tells Tikki, after taking Juleka’s bike, that she basically doesn’t trust Adrien or her friends while chasing after the vehicle with Lila, him and his bodyguard, Placide I.T.. Again, it’s not because of her friends. She uses friends will harmed by Lila as mask for her Adrien must remain pure and not corrupted (Even though Adrien knows what she knows already). She stopped badgering Lila because she discovered a flaw in Lila that ensured to her that Adrien could never want to be with Lila or any like her.

Wanna know the sugar on the cream? Lila being preyed on by a so called hero and one that shouldn’t be making Gabriel’s terrorist playground prosper. And yet… Ladybug finds it to make it about herself. And to ensure that a lot watchers are unable to see this because they purposely distract themselves with anything Lila does and wishes to make a big deal of what’s really moot and ignorable. And thus, hype it up higher than anyone else that’s shown doing similar, same, and or worse.

To the point they forget the history or discard of other characters and the environment. Too busy proxying Lila and isolating her as the exception above all. Honestly it’s actually the watcher for mastering the art of being a bigger fool than the protagonist actually. Unable to see what’s in their face all the time. That’s a good one actually. Brimmed and Scald over Lila doing something. Unable to see what’s other characters do that’s shown in their faces more frequently.

What’s really funny is the immense difficultly of realizing Lila is prompted reasons. Congrats to Sabrina and Marinette for strengthening her reasons further. How is a watcher gonna say Lila Rossi should let go when Marinette proves she can’t let go of Lila. In other words, it’s basically I want Lila’s end and I don’t care if Hawk Moth wins as a result. Lila once again became more important thing to target than the mastermind of genocide and victor of omnicide and ruination of Marinette and other characters having futures. And that’s why many watchers should hold hands around a virtual Marinette.

Wanna recall another obvious in the face ignored thing? Marinette made Kagami her Lila 2. Only problem was, not only she feels inferior like the former, she couldn’t find any means as an excuse to blast her. Even joined Chloe to try to humiliate Kagami. She even had to realize that she was in the wrong with Kagami. Sucks that she failed to try with Lila after the new insight with Kagami. Then episodes after Ikari Gozen, she reeled Kagami away from Adrien because Kagami’s existence around Adrien disrupted her. And so in feeling instead of the battle, she indirectly caused Miracle Queen.

Funny thing is the treatment of Lila 2 pretty much vanished at the end of Mr Pigeon 72. Kagami aligned to many of the viewers interests which unfortunately losers eat up. Then they get upset at her next season despite now knowing the truth of Marinette and Ladybug (and Marinette making things of herself again and Marinette almost realizing she should listen more or trust her friends). They call her the traitor cause whatever Pretension or Representation. Even though she and Felix ultimately benefitted Marinette’s interests and to end the Monarch reign once and for all which is kind of interesting.

Like do you understand the damage Marinette has done to her and seeing the failed past of her with Adrien as seeing them together now? Lila being right about what she said of Adrien and Marinette together are destroying her and Adrien really wrapped in Mari’s nette. Adrien speaking high appraisal of Marinette pretty much in her face, probably higher than he ever did with her. The two making her feel that Marinette knows best and is truly to be dependent upon. Similarly that’s pretty what happened with Felix. Convincing him that Marinette and Ladybug are more significant than themselves so Ladybug must end things and yet people get heartbroken that Kagami told Felix who Marinette is above all else. And may convince themselves she’s the traitor. Kagami is like the Lila that Adrien but mostly Marinette saved (if you know of Miraculous Secrets Lila lol).

But like for realsies. Kagami and Luka staying aligned with Marinette creed after knowing why of everything done upon them and their friends or others due to knowing who ladybug is, is quite a miraculous oof. Could be worse. They could really put everything together of what happened and why.

In short. Those Lilas can’t be Lila grudge holders because they viewers aren’t being badgered and harassed by people with the power to play with their lives and humiliate them and have to experience the harassers being seen as people with prestige and glory to want to be like and celebrate and have some fans of them going out their way to spread the propaganda against Lilas you refer to as being Lila holding a grudge on pieces of trash who could have trusted her friends and left her be.

This is also as embarrassing as when people say they met a Lila in real life. Or Haze Barfe saying Kagami bullied Marinette and projecting of her stupid childhood and disregarding what Marinette does to Kagami. Let’s add Juleka as well. How about Max? But it’s okay because Barfe thinks Lila being petty is wrong because it’s not relatable to her levels of petty. Oh how much of an oxymoron that stupid human is.

I will say, Barfe is truly an Master Andre Manipulator.

Or Pathological Marinette

Barfe and losers should be grateful they never met a so called real Marinette in their pitoful lives. Oops

Do tell me Glaze Barfe? Why does Recreation hurt you but Kagami personally hurt you the most? Is Kagami your real struggle in life?

[yolowritter]

In Offense to Wang Fu and Su-Han Part 1: Whinny chicken leg!

Hello there everyone, and welcome to another post where we bash Miraculous characters over the head with a steel chair! Well, their writing in most cases, but Fu is different! If there is one adult in this show that has genuinely almost drove me insane, it's this man! Even Su-Han, I can sort of understand! I hate him just as much, but I kinda get where he's coming from. So today, I've got a rant to explain what role they are supposed to be fulfilling in the show, why both of these "wise mentors" fundamentally fail to do so, and why I personally dislike their characters to the point of seething hatred, comparable only by the kind I feel for Tomoe Tsurugi! I'll get to her and a few other adults I have a bone to pick with in future posts, but nobody, and I mean nobody is safe from me! Today we focus on the analysis of "mentor characters", their intended role in a story, and why Wang Fu and Su-Han make the top-10 list for the worst mentors in fictional history! Anyway, before I start losing my marbles again, let's all make sure we're on the same page when it comes to Fu and his "character" in Miraculous Ladybug.

First off, it's important to give context as to the man's backstory and how exactly he ended up Guardian of the Miraculous! I'll be taking most of this information from Seasons 2 and 3 of the show without naming individual episodes, since everything pretty much blends together for his story. So, in his early life, Fu was born and grew up in a rural village presumably near Tibet, considering he was at some point selected to become a Guardian of the Miraculous by Su-Han and the Order. Now, I will elaborate on this later, but for the record, I will be first when it comes to bashing him and his organization for their short-sighted practices and arbitrary rules. Believe me, I will! But none of what they do absolves Fu of his own failures as a mentor to Ladybug and Chat Noir. Anyway, Fu was selected as a child by the Guardians, a supposed great honor that forced him to abandon his family and home. I don't remember if an exact age was stated in the relevant episodes, but he must have been a very young child at that time. His training was harsh, and Fu was practically considered an outsider, scorned by his fellow trainees and delegated to the duties of a modern-day unpaid intern. Sweeping the floors, general chores, etc.

We have little information on the Order's structure, but it's easy to see how Wang Fu was on the lowest possible rung of the proverbial ladder, even amidst his fellow Guardians-in-training. He was apparently considered a failure yet stayed nonetheless, fulfilling his duties and pushing forward with his training. Even the Grand Master of the Order calls him "whinny chicken leg" and a "failed disciple". As an aside, if Reverse!Fu is the Supreme like people theorize, that's an awesome villain backstory! Point is, Wang Fu very much did not like being a Guardian. Still, it's important to mention that he did his best! there are a lot of reasons as to why the Temple and the Order both Fell, but it's obvious to us that Fu blames himself for that catastrophe even almost two centuries after the fact! He's clearly dedicated to his assigned purpose as a Guardian, and wracked by guilt for his part in the Order's destruction. All in all, Fu is an honorable man who was pushed into a role he never wanted, burdened with responsibility and scorned by all those around him. He is undoubtebly a victim of abuse and the last bastion protecting the entire human race from whomever may decide to use the Miraculous and their godly powers to become an absolute, unstoppable power. Wang Fu is a survivor, striving to keep everyone safe even in the face of fundamental loneliness, and tending to the Kwami as his Masters once did. I honestly very much like his backstory, and admire him for sticking to his own principles instead of misusing the Miraculous for personal gain.

Now let's see why none of this fixes any of his fundamental faults as a mentor to Ladybug and Chat Noir. Notice I said faults, not flaws. Those are different, and present in every character within a story. Flaws are necessary for complexity, building a multi-dimensional and deep character that doesn't end up as a cardboard cutout or a Mary Sue. Even the shows titular protagonists have flaws, a whole mountain of them! And that's very good in my opinion! In fact, Fu's backstory perfectly explains his cautious attitude, borderline paranoia and constant insistences on secrecy. Believe it or not, I actually like that about his character! Unfortunately...Wang fails to actually learn from his experiences, despite how badly they torment him. Guilt wracks every fiber of his being, yet he repeats the exact same mistakes of his own teachers. The result? A young, untrained Guardian left alone in the world, as the last bastion of humanity and desperately fighting to keep the Miraculous away from a madman who wishes to misuse them for his own personal gain! A young girl burdened by a power she never asked for, forced to give up her once-normal life in the service of the Greater Good. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, striving to protect everyone under the guise of Ladybug, and close to being crushed under the weight of responsibility! Sound familiar? I sure hope it does!

In a harrowing twist of irony, every decision and action that Wang Fu makes ultimately dooms his own apprentice to the very same fate that he was once subjected to! Admittedly, some of these choices serve to keep the status quo from a meta perspective, since "the show must go on" and all that. But Fu had both the experience and the years of self-reflection necessary to at least know what not to do when taking two young heroes under his care. And if we take Fu at his own word, he's already "gotten it wrong once before". It irks me that we still don't know what this line means, and I do hope we find out because it could make for an amazing flashback story, but anyway. From this, we know that Fu has had the opportunity to learn from his mistakes. And...to his credit, that isn't entirely false. After all, he does test both Adrien and Marinette, who perform an act of kindness at their own expense without a second thought, and correctly judges them worthy of the responsibility that comes with bearing a Miraculous. But he also makes mistake after mistake, even when red flags should have been raised specifically because Fu himself was on the other side of these very problems once!

Let's go through the basics, shall we? Fu is extremely hands-off when it comes to Ladybug and Chat Noir's fight with Hawkmoth. I obviously understand the need for secrecy, and I'm not expecting a 186 year old man to suit up and fight. Once again, Fu does try, and only picks others because he recognizes his own lack of ability to act as he once did. But after giving the kids time to adjust in Season 1, Fu should have revealed himself to both Ladybug and Chat Noir. The only reason Marinette ever learns he exists in the first place, is because Tikki finds the missing Grimoire and instructs her Holder on how to return it. If the Volpina mess hadn't happened, Fu would have presumably continued to hide away, until eventually deciding that he should step in. But...knowing what we know and seeing how cautious he is, Fu's entire M.O. can be accurately described as too little, too late. This deals mainly with his treatment of Adrien in S3, but also is a general truth. Nothing Fu does to help the kids comes at the right time, despite the fact that he does his best. Sometimes his best just isn't enough, because he never acts in time.

Several points can be made as to how this was necessary, and to act rashly would be a security risk...but to not act and allow problems and uncertainty to fester is the very reason why the Order fell in the first place! Fu had a first-hand experience with being on the receiving end of this treatment from Su-Han and the other Masters. So why does he make the exact same mistake? Why not allow Marinette to inform her partner that they have a safety net, and there exists someone who they can go to for help and advice? Mind you, Ladybug feels that she can't tell Chat Noir, and not from a place of safety concerns. Fu has secrets, and it simply isn't her place to tell without his permission. Marinette doesn't do anything wrong here, it's Fu who places the kids in a bad situation that breeds mistrust. Look what this evolves into! An entire Season-long arc with Adrien feeling like he isn't wanted anymore, to the point where he willingly gives up his position as Ladybug's partner after being kept out of the loop for months by that point! Fu could and should have nipped this problem in the bud immediately, by at the very least sitting down with the two and offering to listen.

Wang Fu is meant to be a mentor. There are many examples in fiction I could use, such as Uncle Iroh or Obi-Wan Kenobi. I won't get into it here, but you know what every proper mentor does? They are there for the student. It is a mentor's sole obligation to nurture and teach their desciple to the best of their ability, to listen to their troubles and guide them through hardships. Sometimes a hands-off approach is necessary to avoid coddling and sheltering a student, therefore making them dependent and turning the mentor into a crutch. But Fu...just doesn't try to teach. There's many ways to wave this away or excuse it with "trauma" and "bad experiences", yet his own hardships at the Temple of the Guardians should be the reason why Fu adamantly refuses to stay out of it! If anything, Wang should be in the thick of it, offering tea and a listening ear to help Adrien deal with the stress Gabriel puts on him! He should be there to guide Marinette through her feelings of insecurity and anxiety, to gently remind her that she's been chosen for a reason, and he has faith in both of them! Fu already has the means to get into close proximity with both Ladybug and Chat Noir, yet never utilizes them to perform even the most basic duties a mentor worth their salt should be! His crippling loneliness and burden of responsibility ought to push him to alleviate those negative emotions from the children under his care, but he never does this! Not once!

Fu only acts when it's absolutely necessary, and by then the damage has arguably been done! It's only a matter of time until Adrien starts feeling like he isn't needed, or until the cracks of the kids' partnership begin to show! As their teacher and instructor, it's Wang's job to help deal with these problems! But evidently, he keeps all the cards close to his chest. He's overly secretive, never provides even the most flimsy excuse of a support system, and fundamentally fails to keep them safe! He is the one who put Marinette and Adrien in mortal danger! It's because of his choice to give them their Miraculous that Adrien has died dozens of times by this point! it's because of him that Marinette is overworked and burdened by the weight of responsibility, and Fu doesn't do the bare minimum to help! He isn't there, only tells Marinette about his secrets when they are absolutely needed, and doesn't allow for Ladybug and Chat Noir to properly co-operate, because Fu's own decisions keep their partnership from being equal in the first place! There is an entire separate rant I could go into here just for how he's been treating Adrien during the show's runtime, but suffice it to say, I am pissed!

Fu is an adult! He is the one responsible for all of Marinette and Adrien's double-life problems, because he's the one who selected them for the role! Despite trying to help, Fu doesn't ever manage to offer even meager guidance, on the account that he doesn't want to! It isn't hard to just tell Ladybug that she or Chat Noir should show up at a certain day and time for a conversation. It isn't hard to ask how the kids are holding up, or how he can help take off some pressure! It isn't hard to be there, but he never is! The only times where Fu actually helps instead of being a glorified "select your powerup" videogame cutscene are when he wants to appease Adrien or needs Marinette's help to translate the Grimoire! Wang never even acknowledges any of the myriad of problems that our protagonists are battling with, even though a five minute conversation with them or even their Kwami could inform him about this! So yes, Wang Fu tries! But in the end, Su-Han is -and I never thought I would say this- partially right in his assessment of Fu! The man is a coward, because he's scared of admitting his own faults, never mind confronting his guilt and fear! As an adult, and especially a Guardian, he has a responsibility to at the very least prevent the demons that plague him from being passed on to the next generation! Fu could have let the Guardians' faults die with him, yet he passed on every last bit of self-doubt, confusion and weight on the shoulders of the apprentice that he also failed to prepare for her role! Marinette was arguably the one doing more work than Fu, and a far more responsible, respectable, and dedicated Guardian than her pathetic excuse of a Master! And as a truly wise man once said, Do or Do Not! There is no Try!

There's even a really easy way to fix this! In fact, Thomas would have to change nothing about this man's backstory and actions to make him ten times better, and I'm baffled as to why it never crossed his mind! Just...make Fu bitter. He was heckled and borderline abused by Su-Han and the other Masters at the Temple, burdened with a duty he clearly didn't want. And yet...he's the last member of the Order. Every single one of those old mentors are dead, and it's all his fault! Or that's what Wang believes anyway. He blames himself, so he keeps the last relic of the Guardians safe out of guilt, holds onto the great weight that is his duty because there is no one else. Maybe his mistake, the one time he got it wrong, was when Fu had made a friend. A person he trusted, who wormed their way into his good graces by listening to his troubles, by letting the old man slowly begin to open up again. Think a character like Lila for example. This person is a Miraculous Holder, for one reason or the other. There's plenty of historical events to warrant one in the last hundred seventy years. Fu tentatively gives out a Miraculous to an adult, as Su-Han had insisted was good and proper, tries to stick to his teachings and do things by the book. Slowly but surely, he feels less alone, instructs this person in the Old Ways...perhaps considers it's time to retire. But then it's revealed that they've been after the Box all along! They only craved the power of the Miraculous, and Fu was forced to fix his mistake once again! Mind you, this could be done through a vague allusion and a two-minute flashback sequence. Not like Thomas bothered to give us anything else for the Guardians...

Irrespectively of this plotline, Fu is bitter at the time of Origins. He's done his job for almost two centuries, and been repeatedly hunted down for it. The only real reason why he protects the Miraculous anymore are the Kwami themselves, who are his only friends. Then in Origins, he still tests Marinette and Adrien. At the end with Wayzz, he says that he hopes again, for the first time in a while. As for his tendency to never act in time? He purposefuly holds out till the last moment, because he doesn't want to be doing any of this. Maybe he eventually feels guilty for dragging children into this fight, maybe he doesn't share the Guardians' secrets because he hates what their supposed training did to him. Fu is in essence trapped and duty-bound, battered and broken by the many years that have passed by...until Ladybug comes along. A bright girl that reminds him so much of his old self, who Fu hesitantly decides to take on as an apprentice. But he's never taught anyone before. He was widely known as the Temple's failure. How can he, a talentless old man who those great Masters of the Order never once praised...possibly become an instructor? Fu lacks self-confidence, he hates asking Marinette's help because he should be able to translate the Grimoire's metaphors on his own...and he has very little to offer in terms of knowledge. It instantly becomes a story that gives him incredible depth as a man who believes himself unable to help, yet still trying! Fu doesn't hesitate to help because the plot says so, he just doesn't think that he can! Take this in whichever direction you want, it's much better than canon I promise you.

In conclusion, Fu...greatly annoys me. But then again, I suppose there is a reason why he ended up this way. A cowardly, secretive old codger with no ability to look past his own failures Fu may be...but he isn't at fault for what happened to the Guardians themselves. Oh, no no no! That mountain of responsibility goes directly on the shoulders of Su-Han, and his utterly repulsive excuse of an institution! But...this post is getting long, so we'll look at him in part 2! It's coming in the next couple days, but feel free to drop your thoughts below or shoot an ask my way! These posts are meant to open up discussions after all! Anyhow, I'll see you all next time, but until then, Stay Miraculous everyone!

< next post >

[anxresi]

An open letter to everyone who now hates Chloe after the events of ‘Derision’...

…You do realize the writers invented this entire newfound premise for Marinette’s previous erratic behavior around Adrien just to ‘get one over’ on Chloe fans and continue the character assassination they’ve subjected her to since S3, don’t you? 

Think of this as just another extension of Zoe’s ill-thought out  introduction and suddenly forgetting Chloe ever had any more agency than ‘doing things for the evulz’ and hopefully then you’ll come to understand my point.

Like I’ve said on many previous occasions, idk whether to be angry, sad, bemused or simply in awe that Thomas Astruc would work so strenuously to drag a character down that only a couple of seasons ago was being touted as a multi-layered anti-hero.

And anyone who says this blatant retconning was ‘planned from the beginning’ is obviously wrong. If this show was a person, I don’t even think they could even remember what they’d had for breakfast. I don’t need to cite any examples… anyone who’s watched it from the beginning can figure out what I mean.

This entire continuity-busting farce is down to one man and one man only rewriting the entire show because a character he despises was becoming more popular than he likes around S2… so what better way to demonize her forever than to make her personally responsible for traumatizing the main character Marinette for the rest of her life?

The fact this clears up a LOT of questionable previous scenes (like Marinette stalking Adrien wherever he goes, having a copy of his entire schedule and that weird moment with his waxwork) also apparently lets Astruc and his merry band of hack writers off the hook, while now giving a tragic undercurrent to them which it hasn’t earned because it’s as clear as day they were originally intended to be ‘humorous’.

What he’s done is genius, really. In one fell swoop he’s permanently stigmatized Chloe in the eyes of a lot of Miraculous fans, rebranded controversial moments with Marinette at her stalking worse as somehow ‘symbolic’ with past abuse and cynically done it all without a hint of regret.

This is an evilly cunning plan that even Hawkmoth might find a tad excessive. I’d take my hat off to him… if I didn’t like to think I was one of the ‘good guys’.

So, I’ll simply say in response “YOU SUCK”, pull a stupid face before running off into the distance sneering at him all the way.

…Hey, it’s all I’ve got ‘kay?. 😜😎

[tenebraevesper]

So, ML Season 5 finale just came out. Any posts you're planning to make to comment on it?

Honestly, all I can say is:

"I TOLD YOU THIS SHOW SUCKS!" *drops mike*

But seriously, what is there to say? I checked out of MLB back when Miracle Queen aired in Season 3, and I knew the finale of Season 5 is gonna be awful because I read the leaks. I don't give a damn about this show. The only reason I didn't drop it completely was because of Félix (I'll be making a separate post about him sometime later).

All I'm doing now is kick back, relax and enjoy the rants of disappointed MLB fans, because nothing brings me more joy than seeing bad writing being torn apart to shreds. I'm more of a PV!Ladybug fan than MLB fan, so I couldn't care less.

Take note, MLB was originally supposed to have only 5 Seasons, so if Season 6 and Season 7 weren't tacked on, this is how the show would've ended. Yeah, this is Thomas Astruc's magnum opus - a show that meandered around for 4 Seasons only to stumble and fall in Season 5. This show is what Astruc believes to be the greatest, even better than anime like, let's say, Pokémon! (I'm not kidding about that).

Admittedly, one thing I could do is make a summary/bullet point list of all the toxic messages Miraculous Ladybug had taught us, if you guys want me to. To paraphrase Suede, I can somewhat look past bad animation, clunky dialogue and awful characterization if at least the story/message was good. But unlike Pokémon, Miraculous Ladybug doesn't even have that.

So, leave a reply whether you guys want me to do that summary/list. As for MLB? Just go read fanfics. I really admire the fandom for picking up the slack and delivering stories MLB could never have. I also promise that my story, Up Ladybug, will have a proper and satisfying finale (whenever I get to it, since this story will be long).

EDIT: Here you go, the list I had promised - The Observations of Miraculous Ladybug: The Tales of Wasted Potential.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

#23: “The Miraculous Ladybug Movie May Give You What You Want, but My Show Gives You What You Actually Need! You Don’t Work in Television, so You Wouldn’t Understand.”

I've been running this blog for almost three years at this point, and I've seen Astruc talk trash about various things while claiming his show is better, like Winx Club, Paw Patrol, Pokemon, and Pixar as a whole. I never thought I'd see Astruc act like his show was better than a movie based on his show though.

For those who don't know (and you'd be forgiven, seeing how Astruc has barely talked about it on his Twitter), there was recently a movie that hit theaters based on Miraculous Ladybug called Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie. Supposedly, it's meant to be a retelling of how Marinette and Adrien met as civilians and as heroes. While I haven't seen it, it seems to be getting good reception, with some saying it's better than the show it's based on.

Of course, Astruc had something to say about this.

Okay, I sort of get what he's trying to say here. It's hard to compare the experience of watching an hour and a half long movie and a TV show with five seasons under its belt, but at the same time, the way Astruc phrased it still made it seem like he was trying to say the show was the better option because it “gives you what you need”. Nobody was expecting the Love Square to be resolved in a few episodes. Most people at least wanted more stories about the two to be told that don't involve constant padding. Astruc also acts like the Love Square is the only draw for the series instead of, oh, I don't know, the superhero action? You're really telling me they couldn't have tried focusing more on that after resolving the Love Square? I'm just saying, if The Office can continue after Jim and Pam got together, you can at least try to actually write other stories after the Love Square becomes canon.

One user in particular had some things to say in response to Astruc's claims, and you can guess how well Astruc took that.

Again, nobody is saying that working in television is all sunshine and rainbows, Astruc, but just because someone isn't familiar with dealing with network constraints and test audiences, it doesn't mean that they're unable to provide any meaningful criticism.

Also, Astruc is once again using a psychology term, in this case, the Dunning-Kruger Effect, to act like he's smarter than the critics. This man took psychology as an elective in college, didn't he?

But then again, this is coming from someone who doesn't think constructive criticism is a real thing.

Funny how he once again acts like anything that isn't positive feedback of his show is delusional, isn't it?

Eventually, this devolved into Astruc posting a little tangent about how fandoms have only gotten more toxic, which would have been a decent point... it if didn't come after all the things he said about fans not being able to criticize his show.

Again, there's nothing wrong with what he's trying to say here, but it feels less like a critique of how fans have become more toxic with the advent of the internet, and more like he's complaining about how mean people have been to him lately.

And, of course, this led to the usual fare of people calling out Astruc for his close mindedness, and Astruc once again saying how people aren't allowed to criticize his show in any way that isn't blind praise.

And here's the thing. We're still not done yet. This little tangent only warranted more comments about how Astruc handles criticism, only this time, it's also about calling out the people who think they can do a better job handling the show.

First, do you mind giving us an example of what kind of constraints you have to deal with, Astruc? We all know that TV executives suck, but I think we'd have more of a reason to understand your struggles if you actually explained some things that needed to be changed because of executive meddling.

Second, nobody wants a beach episode, Astruc, especially after that one issue of the comic you're choosing to ignore. We just want a more consistent story that doesn't rely on endlessly padding out the Love Square.

And finally, did you just say you have to be French if you want to rewrite Miraculous Ladybug? What does being French have to do with any of this? I remember seeing a little tweet a few years ago suggesting you would be a good choice to write a Superman story, but last time I checked, you aren't American.

Let's review in case you got lost. Someone tweeted that they thought the Miraculous Ladybug movie did a better job at the story it set out to tell than the Miraculous Ladybug TV show, Astruc tried to explain how his show is still good in its own way while justifying how long it's been going on for, he ranted and raved at fans for daring to criticize his team's writing before going on a tangent about how the internet has made people more hostile over the years, and when people still weren't happy with him, he claimed that you could only criticize or rewrite the show if you're an experienced French TV writer like him.

So just keep that in mind, fanfic writers. Unless you're French and have experience writing for television, you don't have a chance in hell to successfully write your own version of Miraculous Ladybug.

[australet789]

Considering the Miraculous ending is coming in two days i have something to say

This last season was amazing but i couldn't enjoy it fully because of the fans leaking stuff. I had to delete asks and replies spoiling me the bible, block people for that and it sucked ass that i knew stuff already.

I usually dont mind spoilers for anything but considering this was the last season for the main arc of the ML universe, i was expecting more respect from the fandom.

That sadly didnt happen.

So im going to beg, if you want me to stay here posting analysis and some fanart (because i wont post on my main Twitter more ML fanart):

DON'T LEAK ANYTHING THAT IS ILLEGAL AND WILL HARM THE SHOW

I dont care if you have a personal fight with Astruc or Zag, this is about the amount of people that still works on the show, the crew that cares and the fans that just want to relax with a silly cartoon.

Please, I ask for respect. If you find something that is a leak dont post it in the main tag, i dont care how much attention you want.

I know the fandom can do good things when it unites so please, please, for the next season BE BETTER.