#making a statement here | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

miraculouslbcnreactions · 1 month ago

Note

Some people actually believe that Chat Noir and Adrien the model are both masks that Adrien is putting on, and that he doesn't know who he really is. Do you see any reason to believe that?

That's a complicated question because what does it mean to know who you are? Most people are constantly growing, changing, and learning new things about themselves, leading to better self awareness. How much self awareness do you need to have before you can say that you know who you are? I don't know if there's even an answer to that question!

Similarly, what does it mean to call Adrien and Chat Noir "masks"? Is this saying that everything Adrien does is a lie? A general observation that Adrien is a people pleaser who tries to be what he thinks people want him to be? A statement that Adrien is still finding his place in the world? Not sure I agree with the first two arguments and the last argument feels like a given for most characters in the show. They are all teenagers, after all. That's a prime age for self discovery and a good message for kids, making this one of the rare areas where it makes sense to embrace the character's age in a realistic fashion!

Further complicating this question is the fact that Adrien has some truly terrible writing. His character is a vibes-based enigma with almost nothing of substance to go on. It's a big part of why he's popular! He's incredibly easy to project onto without blatantly contradicting canon, making it easy to create all kinds of fan content that feels reasonably in character to other fans.

To show you what I mean, let's look at one aspect of Adrien's character and discuss the subtle ways that it makes no freaking sense. Note that this isn't meant to be an argument on how to write Adrien the "right" way. There really isn't a "right" way to write him because canon is swimming in contradictions. This also isn't meant to be me dunking on his character. I think he could have been great! This is a discussion on character design and how Adrien was failed pretty hard. He's the character equivalent of the season four plot. A recent ask accurately described the way fans approach that plot: people pick which narrative they think the show was showing based on who their favorite character is.

The same is true for Adrien. Fans pick the version they think the show was showing based on the traits and backstory elements they like the most as the following will hopefully prove.

Is Adrien repressed to the point where he's basically a blank slate?

Throughout the series, we're told that Adrien was homeschooled for his entire life. Prior to canon, he never had friends. Never went to concerts. Never did much of anything, really. At times, this makes his character feel like he was born yesterday because how can someone reach 14 with so little life experience?

The episode Wishmaker is built around this characterization of Adrien. In that episode we learn that Adrien can't remember having any sort of childhood dream or obsession. He doesn't even offer something nuanced like "well, I loved pirates, but I don't think I ever wanted to be one." As far as he's concerned, he never had any dreams at all.

When he's hit by the episode's akuma, we flash back to when he was a literal infant and learn that Adrien's childhood dream was being whatever his parents wanted him to be:

Adrien: When I was a kid, I always wanted to be what my parents wanted me to be!

Wishmaker is also the episode where we learn that Adrien still has no hopes or dreams:

Adrien: My father arranges it all for me, but when I think about what I really actually wanna do, nothing! My mind is empty!

Viewers who look for logical writing probably expected this to lead into an arc where Adrien figured out what he wants to be. That is not the case. Confrontation - which takes place a whole season later - sees all of the teen characters declare what they want to be when they grow up. Adrien is the only one who has nothing to offer, leading him to write this as his official statement about what he wants to pursue in lycée (rough equivalent to American high school):

I've been thinking a lot, and still not know what I would like to do later in life. The only thing I know for sure is that I love Marinette Dupain-Cheng. But I guess that doesn't really help you. I'm sorry. Adrien Agreste.

Put this story line together and you get a picture of a character who has never been allowed to express himself. Someone whose life has been incredibly controlled to the point where he has no idea who he is on his own. A blank slate of a person. There's just one problem with that read: a blank slate could never create Chat Noir.

In Origins, Adrien was handed a magic ring and told that he was a superhero now. His immediate reaction to that information was to run off into danger, not even waiting until he learned how his new powers worked:

Plagg: Claws out! That's how you transform. Adrien: Got it. Plagg, claws out! Plagg: No, wait! I haven't finished explaining!

And when he meets his new partner, he's immediately comfortable talking to her, ready to have fun and joke around:

Cat Noir: Well, hey there. Nice of you to drop in. Ladybug: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose. Cat Noir: I bet you're the partner my kwami told me about. I'm... Cat Noir. Yeah, Cat Noir. And you? Ladybug: I'm Ma... err... Mar... uhh... (pulls the yo-yo and it hits Cat Noir's head) Madly Clumsy. I'm so clumsy. Cat Noir: No sweat, clumsy girl. I'm learning the ropes too.

All of this goes against the blank slate message we were given via Adrien's backstory and episodes like Wishmaker and Confrontation.

People aren't born knowing how to crack jokes and flirt. Those are skills that you pick up by engaging with media that has that content and/or by engaging with other people who exhibit those behaviors. People also aren't born knowing how to interact with others. That's yet another skill that you learn though experience and it's worth noting that it's not a single skill. Casually interacting with people your own age is a very different skill from interacting with your parents' friends or with your coworkers.

In other words, Chat Noir is clearly not be the product of someone who was locked away from society, forced to live a life devoid of joy and self expression. He's too polished for that. If you're going to take your repressed character and have this be their instant reaction to the prompt "hero," then they can still be repressed, but they won't be repressed to the point of being a blank slate. The pieces simply don't fit together unless you add in something like the repressed character being an actor in a show about superheroes.

With the backstory we're given, it would make infinitely more sense for Adrien to start out as Catwalker and become Chat Noir as the series went on, but that's not what canon did. Adrien starts as his most extreme, fun-loving self which means that he had a self to express!

These facts beg some obvious questions: if Adrien was so repressed that he can't even think of a thing he pretended to be when he was a child, then where did Chat Noir come from? At what point in his life did he learn how to have fun and pun? Why does he think that his over-the-top flirting style would work? Where did he even learn it? How did Adrien learn how to interact with people his own age? Your guess is as good as mine.

Some More Contradictions

The above is just one example of what I mean when I call Adrien a "vibes-based enigma." The facts of his character don't add up to a real person, so people just kind of go with the vibes they get from him and write his character based on those.

Here's another example: it's pretty popular for people to say that Chat Noir is Adrien embracing freedom, a take that makes perfect sense given his backstory and the way he's played in Origins. However, it's hard to call this canon. Outside of Origins, there's not much in canon to back up this read. Adrien never talks about Chat Noir giving him freedom and there are even multiple episodes that arguably go against that read.

Kuro Neko and Kwami's Choice both see Adrien give up his ring for reasons that have nothing to do with how fit he is to be a hero. On both occasions, he doesn't weigh the pros and the cons of this choice or even regret the choice after it happens. That's a pretty strong mark against the freedom read. If giving up Chat Noir is giving up his freedom, then giving up the ring should be a much bigger deal. We also don't see him using the ring to sneak out outside of akuma attacks and other hero responsibilities. I think Glaciator may be the only time that Adrien used the ring for personal reasons. So does Adrien value freedom and if so, how much? No clue. It's the audience's choice.

What about Adrien and Chloe? How close were they as children? No clue. Audience's choice.

How much did Emilie and Gabriel use the rings when Adrien was growing up? Are there any senticommands still controlling him to this day? No clue. Audience's choice.

Does Adrien enjoy any of his extra curriculars? He seems to like fencing and playing the piano, but is that just him making the best of a bad situation? And did he get to pick any of these activates or where they all forced on him? No clue. Audience's choice.

How did Adrien manage to grow up without any friends while being an avid fencer and also apparently playing basketball? Two sports that usually involve teams! No clue. Audience's choice.

How did Adrien get involved with modeling? Whose idea was it and where did the idea come from? Did he ever enjoy it? How old was he when the modeling started? No clue. Audience's choice.

Where did Adrien learn to pun? He says that his father has no sense of humor, so it clearly wasn't from Gabriel. Did Emilie like puns? No clue. Audience's choice.

Why did the Agrestes keep Adrien locked away? Why was Chloe allowed to be around him? How often was she allowed around? Was he allowed other friends? If no, then why not? If yes, then who? What lead Gabriel to suddenly change the rules and let Adrien have some freedom? No clue. Audience's choice.

What about Adrien and Felix? Were they ever close or was Felix always cruel? Adrien doesn't seem to view Felix as a bully, but we never see Felix be nice to Adrien so I have no clue. Audience's choice.

Why does Adrien act so different as Chat Noir vs Adrien? No clue. Audience's choice. You can probably come up with something more coherent than the kind of bs things the writers say about this one.

I could go on but you hopefully get the picture. Or more actually, the lack of a picture.

As a quick side note: it's perfectly normal to not give the fine details of a character's backstory, but that's because most characters have uninteresting backstories that don't need elaboration to make sense. For example, learning that Marinette wanted to be the knitting fairy when she grew up doesn't raise any questions about her childhood. It's just a cute fun fact. Learning that Adrien had no childhood dreams? That raises all kinds of questions that genuinely matter to the story and his character, but we're never getting those questions answered. The more the story goes on and the more hints we get, the less Adrien's character makes sense especially once you add in the sentibullshit.

Final Thoughts

There's no way to put the puzzles pieces of Adrien together and get a solid character which means there's a wide range of valid approaches to Adrien's character. On top of that, canon has not done a lot to develop the finer details of his backstory so there's a lot of room for interpretation there, too. As I said above, that's one of the reasons why he's so popular. He's very easy for people to project onto without blatantly going against canon. Stick to the very basic facts of canon, keep him in his core roles, and your Adrien will probably work for most fans even if he's wildly different than someone else's version.

I can give you my thoughts on what to do with Adrien, but much like my approach to Nino, it's more about shaping Adrien into a character who fits the story and his core roles than it is about making canon Adrien work because canon Adrien doesn't even work in canon! My lore bible has pages of notes on Adrien because canon gave me so little to work with and it's so important to get his character right! Before I move on, I'll note that Adrien is a stronger character than Nino, but not by much. Cardboard is stronger than tissue paper but you're not making houses out of either of those!

In case anyone was curious, I cannot say the same for Marinette and Alya. While they've also been hit by the inconstant characterization bat, their roles in the story and the handful of things that are consistent about them make them strong characters. Or, at least, strong in the world of Miraculous. I wouldn't call them strong in most shows, but in this one they're about as good as we're ever going to get. At the very least, they doing better than characters like Nathalie, Nino, Lila, and Adrien!

As a quick pass to show what I mean so you can contrast this with Adrien: Marinette is creative, a natural leader, and quick to overthink. Alya is inquisitive, likes to put together stories, and has almost no self preservation instincts when it comes to getting a good story. While Adrien has some consistent traits like him being a loveable goofball, his traits are way more generic than the girls' traits. He's especially weak when compared to Marinette which is frankly an insult to both of them since they are supposed to be a couple and you generally want strong characters for the main couple of a long running show. Side characters can afford to be less developed because they don't matter that much. You develop the character to the level needed for their role and Adrien is so underdeveloped that he's basically raw dough. Enough substance that you have a general idea of what he's supposed to be, but nowhere near ready for consumption, thus so many final forms feeling valid to fans.

#tallwriter #brain dump #adrien deserves better #ml writing critical #ml writing salt #This once again shows you how poor writing impacts every element of a story #I swear this show just makes everything up as it goes and never stops to think about if the choices make sense #Hopefully this post doesn't get me in trouble lol #It's meant to be read as indigent on Adrien's behalf not as a diss #A statement that is true about most things I write on here

61 notes · View notes