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Concept: Depressing dystopian factory where everything is gray and samey and the workers are called by their employee numbers by an ominous deep voice.

But it's a really great place to work with high salaries, excellent benefits, and a flexible working schedule with plenty of paid leave. They just like the dystopian aesthetic.

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There are two types of people

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Since I've seen this sentiment thrown around again lately with the new trailers, I keep asking myself if Marinette is ACTUALLY being as tormented by the show as people claim or if the show just has Marinette scream and cry over everything to manipulate the audience into lowering their expectations for her

Cause, ngl, put Kim Possible and Danny Phantom in Marinette's position and they'd handle it way better than her with better results too.

Just because Marinette is screaming and crying doesn't it mean she has it exceptionally bad. Adrien is the one who's life sucks the way a protagonist's normally does. Marinette wouldn't last a month in Danny's fucked up life and Kim would have taken a month tops to find and defeat Hawkmoth because she'd actually taken interest in going after the plot to save the world.

At this point, Marinette is continously in emotional agony over completely normal things a protagonist is supposed to do, leading to her still not even end up doing those properly because the show is too busy throwing a pitty party for her for the 17th time when shit ain't about her so nothing gets done.

I don't blame or dislike Marinette for having feelings and flaws, I'm upset that the show is so obsessed with claiming that Marinette is the most tortured person on earth for every little thing that ever happens that she now ends up coming across like a pretty incompetent and questionable protagonist.

If the protagonist takes no interest in the plot of her own show and instead makes everything about herself that has nothing to do with her, then why is she the protagonist?

If the protagonist is jn too much emotional agony to ever be held accountable for her own actions and behaviour and instead the show bends over backwards to break morality to cater to her or else she'll break down crying, then why is she the flawed protagonist we're following? Apparently she's not allowed to be flawed kn a way that actually id FLAWED, and its always everyone elses fault for not having catered to her enough.

I don't remember the hero protagonists of my childhood needing all this cuddling as Marinette does. As i said, Marinette wouldn't last a month in Danny Phantom's life.

Thinking about it, Marinette honestly wouldn't last in 90% of all protagonists' lives, cause for as stressful and awful as the show claims her life is she has literally lost nothing yet in her wonderful existence, she has the fattest support system ever, all resources on her side, most everything is taken care of her for interpersonally by Adrien and Alya, and even her "superiors" have to submit to her will

What is Marinette still crying and screaming about, honestly? She has to make a couple of difficult and uncomfortable choices, which she'll never face a real consequence for if it hurts others. Other protagonists would kill to have her life were doing basic levels of communication, taking accountability for your mistakes and having to be uncomfortable sometimes in the hero work as leader and partner is seemingly the worst thing ever.

Why are people already claiming that Marinette having to hold a speech after defeating Hawkmoth is her facing "stressful hardship"? Why is EVERYTHING that has Marinette actually act like a protagonist deemed "torture" now? Oh wait, I know the answer: because she screams and cries over everything until the world bends over backwards and her fans think this is NORMAL and RIGHT for a protagonist :/

Sympathy fatigue is what we feel for towards Marinette, anon. The unsatisfying s5 ending doesn't help cause we know after her speech, Gabriel is hailed as a hero and given a statue. Nothing on earth is gonna make me feel sorry for her for letting THAT happen. Besides, if even you can get sick of having your favorite food everyday, imagone having to trudge through pity parties you don't wanna see.

Now, I don't think most heroes in episodic shows makes more sacrifices than Marinette does but they do react more approriately than Marinette does. And even with the ones who do, like literally Peter Parker or the Teen Titans... I don't remember them breaking down as hard or as often as Marinette does. Those guys sufferings makes hers look like first world problems. Context also doesn't help her.

One memorable incident of Marinette's woes being over dramatised is in the NYC Special. You know the one. She was lying on the streets in the rain, crying over Adrien leaving... but then you think: jeez gurl. He just left the tour early. You'll see him in a few days and its not like a failed confession new to you. You know what's new right now? Chat Noir quitting. If you're gonna break down at any time, THAT was the one time I might've felt anything close to sympathy for you. Wait, this is between s3 to s4, aren't you dating Luka???

Same thing is happening with me in the London Special remembering what happened in the S5 finale leading up to her angsting. Gurl, you had Gabriel under your thumb. You did not have to detransform. You were WINNING. You were all about not giving assholes second chances when it came to Chloe, where's that energy towards your boyfriend's abusive father and Paris' daily terrorist??? Is it cause he didn't traumatize you enough? Is Chloe and Kim's prank more traumatizing than Chat Blanc? I find her unsympathetic cause of how PREVENTABLE the events leading up to her angst seems to be.

Compare and contrast to other heroes who had far more competent enemies... heck even the most infamous endings like Steven Universe's or Star vs the Forces of Evil's, they suck but they weren't completely preventable nor anywhere near as easy to circumvent the way Gabriel's victory was. Unlike Marinette, Steven and Star at least get a medal for TRYING. They did the best they could.

Then there's Kim and Danny who are just slaying, that feels like an unfair comparison lmao. They accomplished more stuff with less than Marinette. Adults are genuine obstacles, even the normal ones like the teachers. Their team options are far more limited even among those who do support them as following them into battle is never shown to be an easy task and not everyone can instantly develop powers. That's why who they do have on hand are irreplaceable, Monique can't just replace Ron the way Alya and literally everyone in the miraclass can replace Chat Noir. Danny especially, with his rep, he can't just recruit more help beyond his two best friends and his sister. Other heroes have the same problem. Jenny the teenaged robot, Juniper Lee, Jake Long, Randy Cunningham... powers are often limited to just them, any help they get are from civilians staying strictly in the sidelines and recruitment is not as easy as asking your classmate to help you with a teacher's errand.

Now there might be new stuff going on in the special that could lead to her crying but its a hard sell for me knowing where it all started. Gurl met consequences, boohoo. Sympathy fatigue is hitting me at my lowest. I cannot muster up a drop of sympathy even if I wanted to. I doubt I'm alone and more power to those who can find it in them to still feel sorry for Marinette.

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I really like winnie the pooh, Can you draw winnie the pooh pleaseeeeee

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today im thinking about the huge buff bread guy from kikis delivery service. highly underrated guy

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Joke or not, both options come with insanely ableist implications. Let's just hope that it's merely a very tasteless joke to create more hype for Miraculous in a way Thomas - through very petty reasons - knows very well by now would work

Cause holy fuck are those a ton of nasty ass implications (also in terms of beauty standards now that Chloe gets "redeemed") and it shouldn't even have been done as a hype joke considering how confused and harmful Miraculous' moral code is in plenty of ways which is well known at this point

I

think

he is joking?

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's a joke. While it's not ENTIRELY out of the realm of possibility that the hard angles in Chloe's design would be smoothed away in the new artstyle (especially if Chloe's story was being taken a different direction) I just can't see her losing both her legs. I think that would be heavy, even for Miraculous.

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There's no one's wisdom that's less valuable than this

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I hope it's before she gives it back. I can already hear her fans crying about Marinette being 'tortured' for having to hold this obvious-from-the-get-go speech alone.

They are already acting as if Maribug having to be a regular protagonist and be transparent for 10 seconds with the people she promised to save is Marinette facing "unfair and unparalleled hardship like no person ever before". Let's hope Adrien and Alya at least get somewhat out of the crossfire with this and the speech is happening while Marinette is still keeping all the other Miraculous.

Hmm, I do wonder. In one of the trailers we see Ladybug hold a speech in front of the people. Is that before or after Lila takes the Miraculous at night? Or in other words : in the beginning or at the end of the special?

Cause depending on the answer, that's where the Black Cat ring in the speech scene. Does Marinette still have it, so Cat Noir is being given no chance by Marinette to be with Ladybug in this moment. Or has she already given I back to him cause it's at the end of the special and there is another reason for why Cat isn't with her?

Its likely she hasn't returned the cat miraculous yet. I doubt we would see much of Chat Noir in this special but we'll see.

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Anon from the "Chat Blanc PSTD" ask" here! First, thank you for your kind reply! :) Second, I apologize! I looked out for the supposed source about Marinette having PTSD from the Chat Blanc experience, but can't find the tweet. The TvTropes Trivia page of Cat Blanc has a mention of it under the "Word of Saint Paul" label, and it says "Marinette is in fact traumatized by what she saw in this episode". According to your post, "You can be traumatized without getting PTSD", so my bad there! I apologize for the confusion.

Third, I stopped watching the show when half of S4 was airing (in disorder, to nobody's surprise), so I'm pretty disconnected regarding the Derision episode and its role explaining why Marinette acts like she does with Adrien. But that for some reason she didn't act that way with Luka and on the bits that she "fell in love" with Chat Noir/Mister Bug? (Again, didn't saw Passion nor Elation). Does the narrative says she has PSTD here or just love-related trauma?

Fourth, I just came back from a big family reunion. Talking with my cousins about my obsession regarding reading LB&CN fanfics, they told me that their daughters (no older than 10) and them used to love the show, until they got bored of the repetitiveness. I find this interesting because the show is supposed to target children, iirc.

And last, I love your stance! Can't say that I 100% share it, since there are professional critcs and there is constructive criticism. But yeah, if the creators aren't asking for it from random internet people (whose aggressive and salty behavior might come from the anonymous cyber-mask), I guess they are free to block them. Regardless of our opinions and critics about M:LB&CN, if the show is up to an 8th Season, then That Guy and all the team must be doing something right.

Again, congrats for this blog!

(Post this ask is referring to)

Thank you for the correction and, yes, PTSD is not a general catch all for the lingering effects from a traumatic experience. It's a specific condition. One way to think of it is like how everyone experiences anxiety, but that doesn't mean that everyone has an anxiety disorder. That's a very specific type of anxiety. PTSD is the same sort of thing. Trauma traumatizes many people, but it doesn't always give you PTSD.

Re your question about Marinette and Derision, it's honestly hard to say. The episode is BAD and makes Marinette come across as someone who is in need of serious help. It does feel like they were trying to present Marinette as having PTSD, but it's never explicitly said, so I can't be sure and I don't want to say they were claiming rep if the claim was never made. Plus there's a lot to be critical of even without the PTSD stuff.

At the start of the episode, we get a scene were Marinette and her mother are talking about Marinette and Adrien going to the pool as a date. While they talk, the color pallet changes and we hear Marinette's heart racing, implying that she's having some sort of panic attack:

This happens a few more times throughout the episode, leading into a flashback to Marinette's past in which we learn that Marinette used to have a crush on Kim, but when she confessed her love to him, he pulled a prank on her and gave her a box of spiders. In the aftermath, Marinette makes the following vow:

Marinette: (sobs) I will never, ever fall in love again! Socqueline: It wasn't your fault, Marinette. Marinette: Yes, it was! You were right! I should've known, been more prepared... I should've had a plan! I should've been careful! (wipes her tears as her face shifts to anger) I'll never tell another boy that I love him before I know (slams the door with her fist) everything about him! Whether he's kind or not, thoughtful, what he does outside of school and with who, I'll know everything, his birthday, all his first names, his schedule, his favorite things! And above all, I'll make sure that he is NOT friends with Chloé! (breaks down and hugs Socqueline)

So Marinette's wacky behavior towards Adrien isn't a teenager being weird about her first crush, it's a trauma response! Yay!

This is a terrible move on basically every possible level. First of all, the episode has the audacity to present Kim as the bad guy for laughing at Marinette's pain:

Kim: (off-screen) So, that was hilarious, right? I'm cracking up! (laughs) Socqueline: (pushes Kim away) You! Go away! You should be ashamed of yourself! Kim: Come on! It was just a practical joke! (walks away)

But this episode literally takes four seasons of the writers telling jokes at Marinette's expense and says, "hey, those jokes we wanted you to laugh at? Well, they were actually us making fun of someone's trauma response! Enjoy your next rewatch! It's not going to be remotely uncomfortable, right? Oh, but to be clear, Kim was totally in the wrong for doing that in this episode."

Secondly, it has the audacity have Marinette say this line after the flashback is over:

Marinette: Adrien! I know what's wrong with me! (goes down the stairs) It's not my fault, and it's not your fault, either! It's all Chloé's fault!

Excuse me? Uh, writers, let's rewind five minutes and remember what you had Mylène say in this same fricking episode:

Rose: Don’t be mad at [Chloé]. She's this way because her mother left her when she was young. Mylène: So did mine! And you don't see me having fun bullying Marinette.

Writers? Pick. A. Lane. Are we allowed to blame others for our trauma responses or do we have to own the harm we caused in spite of our trauma? I'm getting mixed messages here because, I hate to break this to you, but Marinette's response wasn't the only possible one. It's possible for someone to go through the same thing and come out fine or to come out with wildly different coping mechanisms. That's how trauma works. There is no one size fits all!

Seriously, why does Marinette get to just blame Chloé and get off without so much as an apology? And why is Chloé getting the blame instead of Kim and/or Sabrina when they were the ones who actually pulled off the prank. Chloé just had the idea. Sabrina got the spiders and Kim handed them over! All three of them bare some blame here, but it all goes to Chloé? The hypocrisy is staggering.

I could keep going with the issues raised by this episode, but this is long, so I'll end on the one you brought up: there is no explanation for why Marinette acts like this around Adrien, but not Adrien, Luka, Catwalker, Chat Noir, or Mr. Bug. Yes, you read that right, Adrien is on both lists. Why is he on both lists? Chat Blanc and Ephemeral. Two episodes where the love square was able to get together without so much as a hint of Marinette's trauma getting in the way because she didn't have trauma back then. It only appears now because they needed to pad the shit out of this season to avoid giving it a good plot or letting the love square be happy.

And it's so absurd because season four ends with Felix betraying Marinette, giving a perfect reason for her to have Adrien-specific love trauma. Derision was totally unnecessary! It detracts from the story in every way possible! Why, writers, why?

What's even worse is that Adrien goes on to blame himself for not magically knowing about Marinette's and is presented as the magic cure to Marinette's issues which is utterly disgusting. I rant about this more here, but the dynamic established in this nascent teenage relationship is horrifying. The show has Adrien take on all responsibility for "fixing" Marinette as if that's what a good boyfriend should do. It's not. He should be a major source of story, but they need help from others. He is not equipped to handle this alone and they were not in a situation where he needed to. The show when has the audacity to have Kagami offer help that Adrien shoots down and that's not presented as him being in the wrong. (Note, in the linked post I do say that Marinette has PTSD because that is how this episode reads to me, but I should have just called it a trauma response since we cannot be sure if this was supposed to read as PTSD.)

Moving on to quickly finish with your last two points:

Re kids watching this show: yeah, every kid I know who is older than 7 views this as a show for babies. I think it's because it's too serious to sit back and have fun with, but too repetitive to keep your attention. I made a joke above about Derision killing the rewatch value, but the only episodes I've ever rewatched are Origins, Dark Cupid, and Oblivio, so maybe rewatch value isn't an issue.

Re professional critics: professional critics like movie reviewers in news papers are aiming their critical analysis at viewers, not the creators. That's why the reviews are in the new paper! It's also why they take the tone they do. True professional critique to help another creator improve tends to read far less cruel even if it's making the same points. It also is never supposed to be given unsolicited. You never know where someone's head is today, so you don't know if they're ready to receive critique. That's why you only give it when asked. I could say more on this topic, but this post is super long, so we'll just end it here.

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The trailer from the Miraculous special is out!!!

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Gosh, I just don't have it in me anymore to raise my hope up that the Ladynoir hug is actually what it seems to be on first glance. Cause the way the shot composition has Marinette's hair perfectly cover up Adrichat's face in the hug is giving me awful vibes

Ladynoir was damaged badly in the last 2 seasons and I still have trust issues from the "Destruction" trailer having pretended like Maribug giving Chat the piece of paper was not only a GOOD thing but also one that that takes place in the presents.

But then it didn't, it was at the beginning of Marinette's guardianship and the careless insult on the paper did nothing but make the Ladynoir situation worse from Marinette's side (who tf lets a friend keep such an awful thing during a conflict like theirs..?)

I have no trust left that this Ladynoir hug isn't gonna end up being put in the worst context again, or that is has a whole different meaning all together. I'm not getting my hopes up, this show has crushed my Ladynoir heart too often.

The most I'll hope for is that it might be part of Marinette's dream when Cerise steals the Miraculous, since that would continue the tragic spirit of the Jubilation dream that now in hindsight is painfully upfront with what Ladynoir WISHED reality was vs what reality actually IS

Cause non of it came in any way really true. Including every hope it showed that they wanted an equal and healthy partnership with both of them being there at the final fight and both getting celebrated as team.

I don't have the heart to hope for something the show has went out of its way to tell me was nothing but a tragic dream for Ladynoir too that has nothing to do with actual reality.

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This is heaven

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Some extra content of the birthday post

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So, about the new London special trailer. I find it very interesting that Cerise is immediately shown to achieve what she said in "Emotions" that she would.

In that episode she said to herself to Gabriel that she will get ALL of his Miraculous, and that she sure did right from the get go:

This is interesting because it means that even if it obviously won't stick, it's not what she as villain will be after anyway. Same as the synopsis already saying that she'll be moments away from making a wish. The show having her do all this right away means more likely than not that they want to make clear that this is not what Cerise in the show proper will be about. One could say they are getting it out of the way.

Another thing I thought was kinda important to point out is that Cerise immediately pulling all this off is not as insane of a power move as one might think

As we can already see in the trailer, she's not in her Butterfly transformation in this costume because Nooroo is on the table, the other Miraculous are still in their ring form, and Marinette is shown to be wearing the Ring of the Black Cat too in her bed

Meaning the most likely explanation for this is that Cerise merely took advantage of the one night were all the Miraculous would be at Marinette's place, unguarded and with her exhausted.

I speculate that the suit and the powers we see Cerise have is her having akumatized herself the way Gabriel once did in "The Collector" (that name reference would actually fit perfectly here). Power up the Butterfly, detransform, take off the Miraculous, and then akumatize yourself.

This is not as wildly out of pocket of a feat as people are making it out to be. She is merely very smartly using opportunities.

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You know what just hit me like a truck?

Marinette at the end of the Paris special traveled through several universes and in all of them Chat Noir was the partner by her side

In all besides ONE universe where Scarabella and Kitty Noire had the Ladybug and Black Cat.

The Paris special took place before episode 4, so way before the Kwami Choice two parter. I wonder how Marinette felt whne she realized (or at least in the theoretical case of her realizing) that at that point the one and only universe became their reality too where Chat isn't by her side at all and that she has made alot of active choices to heavily contribute for it to end up this way.

I mean, she too literally CHOSE to leave and she already wanted to do it before Plagg initiated his plan. That happened. No way around it.

I wished the show wouldn't just throw in such awfully heavy implications without paying it off. I was glad that Marinette having seen Kitty Noire in another time line explains why Marinette didn't think of worrying about if this new Black Cat truly is a good person and not a bad one who happened to get her hands on Plagg after Chat renounced (though Alya isn't off the hook for this. She didn't even care to ask for a HERO NAME. The non-existent security around the Black Cat Miraculous from the two leader girls at the top of the hierarchy is just insanely irresponsible. Literally ANYONE could infiltrate the team as Black Cat through Adrien's isolation and be welcomed with open arms as long as they aren't straight up announcing themselves as the villain)

But now having realized that Marinette saw that she and Chat Noir are a team in so MANY universes besides ONE and it's exactly THAT one which ends up coming true through alot of her own decisions no less?

That's harsh. That is such a harsh thing to simply throw in there and then do nothing with. As if that wouldn't be an extremely crushing realization for her to have.

Same as Adrien being kamikotized into Celestial Cat who looks way too much like Chat Blanc and they just... did nothing with that. Marinette had NO reaction to it whatsoever.

Both kamikotizations came with such heavy baggage, but they just did nothing with it. It's just THERE.