hermionelookalike

[hermionelookalike]

Baseline, completely disregarding the letter, we can probably deduce that at the very end Gabriel had no desire or intention for Adrien to be the next Hawk Moth. Why do I say that? Because Gabriel technically didn't fail. He did get the miraculous. He did get to make a wish, and he technically did get what he wanted: to be with Emilie.

If he still wanted to revive himself and Emilie, he could have just... done that. There's no canon rule thus far that states you can only revive one person at a time, that's just speculation. In fact, while Monarch is fighting Ladybug in the final, he alludes to wishing for multiple things.

Even if there is a 1 revival per use limit, what was stopping him from re-summoning Gimmi? The miraculous, when combined, don't function like dragon balls, they don't just disappear or turn to stone after a use. Gabriel could have used them again.

But he didn't.

Because Marinette was able to get through to him, and he realized she was right. Everything was his fault, and everything he had tried to do up until that point had only brought misery upon himself and his family. And if he continued making the wrong decisions, it would only cause more bad things to happen.

So, again, baseline: at the time of Gabriel's death, he didn't want Adrien to carry on his mission.

As for whether Gabriel wrote the note at some point after getting cataclysm'd— I maintain that he didn't.

Just to reiterate from a previous post: If Gabriel failed to get the miraculous, then Nathalie would have died with him. Only the timing would be uncertain— it could have been before or after he himself died, but she was going to die either way.

So the whole back up plan of the note is a shakey concept at best and its success would hinge entirely on several specific factors being true:

1. Adrien finding the note before Nathalie died.

2. Nathalie being willing to help Adrien get the miraculous and/or continue his fathers mission, which would be foolish for Gabriel to assume, given the falling out that happened between them prior to the cataclysm.

3. Adrien being willing to continue his fathers mission. Which, again, Gabriel has no reason assume that would happen given the distance between them, and given that Adrien has distinguished himself morally from Gabriel in the past.

4. The butterfly being accessible to Adrien in the first place. Gabriel had no idea how things would end. He could have just simply died one day, but it's also possible he would have been defeated in battle, and all his miraculous, including the butterfly, would be confiscated.

All these things would have to be true and align perfectly, despite all the odds, in order for the letter to WORK.

What's far more likely, I think, is that the letter was written and dropped off by someone else. And the goal may not even be to get Adrien to take up the miraculous, but rather...it's a real possibility someone was just trying to out Gabriel, and mentioning Nathalie was their way of letting Adrien know she was involved and complicit.

Which, if that was the intention, then it wouldn't matter if the letter reached Adrien before or after Nathalie died, hence why it wasn't hidden somewhere more obvious, somewhere Adrien could find it quickly after Gabriel's death.

And honestly, I know Marinette gets flack for keeping Gabriel's secret, but if there is someone out there who wants to hurt or manipulate Adrien with the truth, then its better to keep the truth hidden until more is known about the situation— until there's a 'why'. Because WHY would someone do that, and do they have anything more sinister planned?

On that note, I don't think it's fair to compare Adrien's situation to Ivans, because Ivan has a direct line of communication with his father, where Adrien does not. Anything he hears about Gabriel now is going to come from people who aren't him, people who may not have the best intentions, or have something to gain from hurting him. People who will only offer him more questions, and not enough answers.

If the letter is indeed written by someone other than Gabriel, who is merely pretending to be Gabriel, then its not coming from a reliable or safe source— yes, even though it contains some truth. It needs to go in the garbage. I'd argue even if it WAS written by Gabriel, it still needs to be tossed, because as I said previously, it doesn't reflect the mindset of Gabriel at the time of his wish, which I'd argue is the "true" Gabriel, the one that may have existed before he was caught up in everything that caused him to end up where he did. The de-evilized version, basically.

Adrien would be better off hearing the truth from Marinette eventually, or Nathalie, or better yet, both.

Nathalie has known Gabriel for years, and Marinette was with him in his last moments. If Adrien can't get the truth straight from Gabriel, then they are the second best, most reliable source to hear it from.

[hermionelookalike]

It’s fascinating that Mari has now protected four (4) Questionable Adults™ in canon, but only because she’s trying so hard to do what’s best for her loved ones. There’s Gabriel of course, whose memory she’s trying to keep untarnished, and Nathalie, who she sees as the natural substitute parental figure for Adrien; but there’s also Tomoe (“I don’t want to hurt you” while talking to Kagami) and now Raúl, who did very little to show he was genuinely willing to change. In an episode that gave us the Cursed Cowboy Hat as a Lucky Charm.

It’s completely natural for someone who has, by all accounts, absolutely lovely parents to not fully understand the implications of growing up in a toxic household, even after having it explained via a weird minimalistic play; but I also think it’s directly linked to the loss of her mentor. Mari’s been through so much at only 14/15, without proper guidance from an adult, and you can see how much she’s starving for it in her interactions with Nathalie… She’s trying to give her friends and boyfriend what she needs, and causing harm in the process. What a fantastic character! ❤️🐞

[hermionelookalike]

Came back from the dead just to say that the fight sequence in El Toro de Piedra with Juleka song in the background was the best fighting sequence in Miraculous, and just for that this episode is in my top 5.

[hermionelookalike]

me on my knees thanking the powers that be for giving us even a glimpse of luka. luka being a supportive older brother. luka who's still invested in his friends' lives even from across the globe. luka who doesn't think he's worth everyone making an effort for. luka who will always be part of the group dammit

[hermionelookalike]

one of the more bleak things to acknowledge is that if you pirate literally all of your music and then set aside a spotify subscription's worth of money each month to spend on a single pay-what-you-want album, it would almost immediately amount to you supporting those musicians more than streaming does

[hermionelookalike]

This academic year has been the most difficult one I’ve ever had. I honestly didn’t think I would get through it… but here we are! I submitted my final assignment on Tuesday, and today I unwrapped a present from my hopeful past self 🌹

[hermionelookalike]

Me time🌸

[hermionelookalike]

If you're applying for office jobs and you're lying about being proficient in Excel (which you always should bc nobody knows anything and google is free) a handy video to give you the basics on Excel's functionality is Joel Sposky's You Suck at Excel Video. It's about an hour long and gives you enough background info to know what people are talking about when referring to Excel, and from there you can do your own further research. There are also handy little guides and notes people have taken on the presentation that go over the highlights here and here <3

[hermionelookalike]

I made a cafe miel for the first time today and it was so nice, would recommend. Also, I changed the keycaps on my keyboard again.

[hermionelookalike]

// march 2022

another late march spread. the biggest thing that happened in march was probably handing in my a level computer science coursework - i’d been working on it since september!

[hermionelookalike]

what are your favorite books in terms of prose? curious after you wrote about how many modern writers lack a sense for good writing, which i’ve also felt for years. so who do you think writes especially beautifully :-)

(Warning: long post ahead pondering what is perceived as beautiful prose in English vs French!)

The first books that came to my mind are the ones listed below, and it got me wondering why they were all by French authors, when I read a lot in other languages. I think even if you can read foreign literature fluently, it’s easier to detect & appreciate beautiful prose in your mother tongue, not just because you know it so intimately (so you know how many different ways there are to convey an idea and why this particular way was a great choice in this context), but also because languages develop their own criteria of what constitutes good writing, and we aren’t really taught about this—we're taught about our own language's criteria for good prose as if they were universal and objective, and it can be hard to move beyond that, especially when you're happily lost in a book and not actively trying to analyse the subtleties of the writing.

At the risk of giving the least hipster answer ever I really like Victor Hugo's writing because there are whole passages that sound so good I need to go back and re-read them to figure out what's happening in terms of plot (usually nothing, so it's ok), because I was too busy enjoying the flow of language the first time around (my favourite of his is The Man Who Laughs)

I read Pierre Assouline's 500-page book about the Book of Job even though I have little interest in biblical analysis or religious history, because there were sentences that were so pleasantly paced and balanced I just got carried by the momentum...

I love Annie Ernaux's writing in Les Années even though I'm not a fan of her other books, because the sentence construction and rhythm are so perfectly suited to the theme of the book.

I find Anatole France's books rather dull but the language is hypnotising (I talked a bit in this post about how his grammar is graceful as a dance...)

^ looking at this I realise I always come back to movement—grace, balance, flow, rhythm (not the pace of the story but of each sentence), and I know these are the criteria that French deems Terribly Important. I mentioned at the end of this post how (and why) English tends to be less interested in the motion of language and more in the imagery; in Goodreads reviews by native English speakers, beautiful writing is more likely to be described as ‘vivid’ than melodious. That's not to say English speakers can't appreciate (or prefer!) other kinds of prose, obviously, it's just, in broad strokes, what each language likes to focus on (at the present time.) There's a lot of appreciation in English for the kind of prose that you could easily make a moodboard out of—evoking sensations, colours, atmosphere—while French highly values the kind of prose that you can easily trace out in the air, with your hand rising and falling, tapping the beat, following grammatical twists and turns.

That's just my understanding, but it's something I notice a lot because I like to read French books along with their English translation (and conversely), to see how translators handle a tricky turn of phrase, or what I would have done differently. And it happens time and time again that the English translation lovingly preserves the imagery of a French sentence (even when a metaphor is difficult to translate) while coldly abandoning the rhythm and sound (even when there are easy English equivalents). Meanwhile French translators often completely ignore (or miss out on) subtle sources of mood and imagery because they are too busy picking the words and sentence structure that sound or flow best. It's really quite funny when you start to notice it.

I would have dozens of examples if I actually took the time to note them as I read, but just two recent ones off the top of my head—

French -> English

I'm currently reading Sylvain Tesson's La Panthère des neiges (The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet in English) (I needed a 'cold’ book during the heatwave...) At one point the author draws a comparison between religious worship and observing wild animals. For an example of what I was saying re: "tracing out sentences in the air", there's the sentence "La prière s'élève, adressée à Dieu." The two halves are 5 syllables - 5 syllables (6-6 if you read it formally.) The last word of the first half is "s'élève" — "rises". The last word of the second half goes down, since it's the end of the sentence. There's a clear rising and falling motion to it, which is also perfectly balanced in terms of syllables / rhythm; it makes a nice symmetric pattern in the air.

Now, the translation aspect—you've got the sentence "A genoux, on espère sans preuve." Then, shortly afterwards: "A l'affût, on connaît ce que l'on attend." The author is comparing the acts of kneeling (to pray) and lying in wait (to watch animals); so he chose phrasings and sentence structures that create a clear symmetry ("A genoux" / "A l'affût", 3 syllables, starting with the same sound, followed by a comma, then “on” + verb + clause.) The English translation? "To kneel is to wait in expectation without proof" [...] "Lying in a hide, the object of the wait is known."

This is bad!

Now the two sentences have different grammatical structures, they don't contain the same pronoun and don’t start with the same sound or phrasing even though the translator could have chosen to write "Kneeling" and "Lying" to preserve a tiny bit of the original intent. The translation obliterates the similarities of sound & rhythm in the grammar and word choice, which were here for a literary purpose—to link and compare two concepts.

On the other hand, every sentence in the book that's ripe with vivid imagery of wild animals is very conscientiously translated. In the next page, Tesson describes yaks as "taches de jais saupoudrant—", the English translator: "[the yaks] appeared as jade smudges scattered—" It's word for word ! The translator clearly thought visually striking phrases are essential and must be preserved as faithfully as possible, but phrases that are striking on an auditory / rhythmical level are less important (or less likely to be appreciated by an English-speaking reader.)

English -> French

I was reading The Bear and the Nightingale last year and I remember a contrast so blatant it made me laugh—the sentence "The ground was thick with snowdrops" in the original, was translated in French as "Le sol était parsemé d'une nuée de perce-neige." (The ground was scattered with a mist of snowdrops.)

In terms of French prose, this is good! In terms of faithful translation of English prose, this is bad! The translator went for the complete opposite when it comes to imagery—"thick" which evokes weight, vs. the weightlessness of "scattered" and “mist.”

But you know what? "Parsemé" and "perce-neige" have the same syllable count and nearly identical consonant sounds— [p]-[sə]-[m] / [p]-[sə]-[n]. It's pleasing to the ear and symmetrical. The “mist” bit might seem unnecessary (you could say “scattered with snowdrops”) but it was added because it contributes to this—rather than having two similar words right next to one another, they are now the last word in the first and second half of the sentence, making each half end on a similar sound, like poetry. The two halves "le sol était parsemé" and "d'une nuée de perce-neige" have 7 syllables each (with a mute e, the way most people would read it.) So the sentence sounds nice and is well-balanced, and what could be more important than musicality and balance?? Surely not imagery.

It's good writing in terms of what French deems important. It's terrible at preserving what the original English deemed important—"thick" associated with snowdrops as if the flowers were an actual blanket of snow—this evokes weight and quiet—the next sentence then opens with the trill of a bird, and the light, airy sound feels all the more vivid thanks to this clear contrast.

Which is obliterated by the French translation. But the French sentence flows nicely, and it really highlights what each language finds beautiful and essential, in terms of prose. I mentioned in this post that one of the reasons French takes up more room as a language is that it loves grammatical redundancy while English hates it—and I think it's because expanding or repeating a grammatical structure can add symmetry and balance, while it dilutes / drowns out the imagery. I don't think translators make an active choice all the time to overlook one aspect of the prose and pay more attention to another—I think as they mentally chew on the original text and try to come up with the best equivalent, they instinctively tend to fall into this pattern of favouring their language’s Good Writing criteria (probably because it’s assumed readers favour them as well.)

I should write these kinds of examples down in some Word doc, because they’re everywhere, and while there are so many writing styles and translation styles in both languages, there really is a pattern here—French being obsessed with balance and assonance, i.e. the beauty of motion & sound (which are twin concepts when it comes to language), how to make the flow of a sentence linger in your mind; English being obsessed with the beauty of imagery, the ways to make it 'pop', how to make an atmosphere linger in your mind.

Sorry for this very long answer that only briefly touched on your question, but I really love to observe the ways people use their languages so similarly yet differently!

[hermionelookalike]

17.05.22 // dop 17/100

i have a feeling my old spreads are going to overtake my feed :’)

productivity things from today: a lot of duolingo korean practice and visitations from one of my oldest and closest friends!

listening to: without love, hairspray

[hermionelookalike]

Haven’t updated in a while, but I’m still studying hard. My tutor and I spent a couple sessions reviewing the tenses, post-positions, plural and oblique forms, how to form questions, imperative sentences, negations, and other beginner topics. Now I’m learning the subjunctive. He’s very happy with my progress so far and I’m pretty proud of myself, too.

I got this coffee machine for my desk. The thought of having a cappuccino gets me in the studying mood. Don’t judge my foam pouring skills :)

[hermionelookalike]

横長ノート、楽しい🌳

[hermionelookalike]

My light academia Notion setup

would people be interested in me making this into a shareable template? (and also make a dark academia counterpart) please reblog or reply if so!

[hermionelookalike]

ig: lostpalette

some uni essentials ☁️

[hermionelookalike]