narusakufantastic

[narusakufantastic]

You wanna know what really bothers me about Jumba being turned from a redeemed antagonist to an irredeemable villain? Besides the lack of faith in the audiences ability to understand narrative nuance it shows?

It’s that the excuse is stupid and would have a far better solution.

Because the excuse they use is that the films original major antagonistic force Gantu wouldn’t work in 3D. Either due to sizing issues or budgetary stuff.

So they made Jumba an irredeemable villain (something even gantu wasn’t) to fill a role that was no one was there to fill. Except there was a cheaper character that could fill that role.

Literally just introduce dr hamsterviel a little bit earlier than he was in the original franchise!

Everything they were trying to awkwardly staple onto Jumba would work significantly better on him. He the only straight up villainous force in the original lilo and stitch series!

And he’s significantly easier to animate than gantu. He’s small and simple with no complex shapes or features. Which not only makes him easy to animate but also for the liver actors to act against!

If the writers cared so little about characterisation that they were comfortable retconning an entire characters personality and motivation?

Then they’d be perfectly comfortable messing with continuity to introduce the antagonist they clearly want earlier.

[narusakufantastic]

“Lilo and Stitch” 2002

Deleted Scene

Lilo plays a trick on the tourists.

[narusakufantastic]

person in fandom: eeeyikes!!! i hope im writing this character in this short little fanfic right >_< eeekkk what if my takes on my meta are all wrong and everyone will Kill me!!

guy in professional comic industry: okay lets mischaracterize every single character that appears in this comic for 50 or so issues

[narusakufantastic]

https+://www.tumblr.com/miraculouslbcnreactions/+781555779458187264/this-might-be-a-question-long-overdue+-but-i-just

Out of morbid curiosity, what are the sole major fatal flaws with the canon couples (individual or singularly shared amongst them)that bothers you?

(Post that spawned this ask)

In the linked post I said:

I think Juleka and Rose are the only couple I actually ship in canon and that's only because homophobia is keeping the writing from making them an official couple. I'm sure they'd have some major flaw that I'd hate if they became canon because none of the canon teen couples feel healthy. They all have at least one glaring issue.

So let's run through the list and give the fatal flaws for the other teen couples. I'll go in rough order from minor to major in case anyone was curious about that.

Ivan and Mylène

In Confrontation, we see all of the teen characters list off their career plans. This is Ivan's:

Ivan: I'll be a stay-at-home dad! While Mylène saves the world, I'll be taking care of the kids.

There is nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home parent, but that should NOT be your entire life plan at 14-years-old. Is Mylène going to get pregnant as soon as you two turn 18? I hope not in which case what is Ivan planning to do between graduation and parenthood? And what if they break up or can't have kids for some reason? What's his plan then? I don't think that he has one! He's building his whole life around his first girlfriend which is a terrible thing to glorify for the kids at home.

It would have been much better if Ivan left Mylène out of his statement and said something like "I want to be a stay-at-home dad one day, so I'm going into child development! I'll work at helping other people's kids grow up until I'm ready to have a few of my own!"

This is really my only issue with Ivan and Mylène. They're by far the healthiest couple in the show. I just found this line incredibly off-putting and flashed back to codependent couples I knew in high school, none of whom lasted.

To be clear, it's fine if the teen couples stay together, this is a story after all, but the show shouldn't be glorifying teen romance to such an absurd degree. The show should be giving these characters lives and dreams outside of their romantic interests. This kind of thing isn't okay just because they're making a boy be the one pinning everything on romance instead of a girl.

The show has a ton of issues with it's treatment of women, but there is a bizarre subtle trend of acting like it's progressive to put male characters in positions that people complain about female characters being put in as if switching the genders solves the problem. It's wild and shows a severe lack of critical thinking. Adrien is usually the one who suffers from that, but this is a good example of another character hitting the same issue.

Nino and Alya

I discussed these two in depth here, but Nino and Alya are mostly fine. I don't cringe every time I see them, but they are one of the many couples given the insta-love treatment and I'm rarely a fan of that. I think it cheapens their entire romance. That's extra true here since they go from wildly uninterested in each other to dating over the course of about an hour with the audience given no information on why their feelings changed.

There's also the issue of Nino's blabbermouth which is not a great trait for the boyfriend of an aspiring reporter and part-time hero. Alya needs to be able to trust Nino to honor her secrets and canon hasn't made him the type of character who will do that. There are multiple episodes that see him unable to keep his mouth shut! I have no idea why canon did that, especially since Nino is a superhero in his own right!

Marc and Nathaniel

Marc and Nathaniel are fine outside of the episode where they met (Reverser). That doesn't change the fact that I have no idea why Marc ever spoke to Nathaniel again after Reverser. Warning this will be the longest section since I have to break down what was wrong with this episode as the problem is the entire thing and not a specific moment or general trend.

Reverser sees Marc introduced to the art club as a fan of Nathaniel's work. Seconds later, Nathaniel is informed that this shy fanboy could be the script writer Nathaniel has been looking for. Marc freaks out and runs away ending the scene. Marinette chases after Marc, convinces him to let her show his writing to Nathaniel, and then gives that writing to Nathaniel in a weirdly cryptic way:

Marinette: Nate! (puts book down) Someone gave me this for you. Nathaniel: Who's someone? Marinette: I can't tell you who just yet. (whispering) It's a secret. (starts running off, but turns around) Read it and then we'll talk. (starts running again) Nathaniel:(gasps) Diary of Ladybug!? (covers mouth) Is this... for real?

Let's take a moment to appreciate the sheer absurdity of Nathaniel thinking that Ladybug would want him to turn her private diary into a comic. It's especially wild when we remember that this scene is implied to happen the same day that he met Marinette's friend Marc and was told Marc might be a good script writer. How this mistake happened is beyond me.

If this was played for laughs, then it could have fit the show's over-the-top style of humor, but it's not. This is yet another time when the show used an absurdist writing style for a serious story beat and it doesn't work because the show tries to pin the mistake on Marinette, but no reasonable person would blame Marinette. Nathaniel's read is not a logical mistake that Marinette should have seen coming. That makes what happens next feel like Nathaniel's issue and not Marinette's. A fact that is extra true when you remember how Nathaniel reacted to this reveal.

When Nathaniel learns that this was a story written by Marc and not a secret message from Ladybug he destroys Marc's book and yells at him, a wild overreaction that is 100% on Nathaniel:

Nathaniel: You were trying to make a fool of me, weren't you? (Points accusingly towards Marinette) Do you think it's funny to toy with my feelings? Marc: No, not at all! I-I just want.. to make.. a comic book, if you want to, that is. Nathaniel: A comic book? Us!? Together?! Never! (He tears Marc's book in half)

Nathaniel, darling, why the hell would you think that they were making fun of you? Nothing in this episode set that up! Marc is the one who's uncertain about his art. Nathaniel is painted as incredibly self-assured. We also don't see him being bullied in this episode so why did he think that this was Marc and Marinette trying to bully him? Has Marinette bullied him before? Nothing about this tracks.

Writers, just have Nathaniel be embarrassed by his mistake, leading him to throw the book at Marc and run away. But oops, they were beside a fountain and the book falls in the water instead accidentally ruining it! Same story beats, but Nathaniel no longer looks like an asshole who destroyed another artist's passion project in a fit of rage.

Everything about this was a terrible choice if you're going to end the episode by making these two friends. It's an even worse choice if you're going to have them be a couple. Things that are extra true because this episode never sees Nathaniel apologize or otherwise redeem himself in Marc's eyes. The episode doesn't even seem to see Nathaniel as being in the wrong. Instead, Marinette is blamed for this nonsense because of course she is...

Marinette: I'm so relieved you're not mad at me, guys. Nathaniel: In fact, we've dedicated our first issue to you.

That could have worked if the story went the accident route since everything happened because Marinette was needlessly cryptic and Nathaniel wouldn't hold any blame in that setup. No one would, really, but it would make sense for Marinette to feel responsible there. The way canon played it? Hell no! Marinette should not be blamed for Nathaniel's wild and totally unpredictable over reaction!

It's glaringly obvious that canon doesn't want us to view Nathaniel as abusive or having a hair trigger temper, so I think it's fair that people ignore this episode when approaching his character, but it was still a horrible way to make these two partners. Who thought it was okay to take Nathaniel this far without ever addressing his bad behavior??? It's especially concerning when you remember how timid Marc is because is a character like that going to defend himself if things go south?

The love square is obviously unhealthy at this point, but their falling in love moments from Origins are adorable and I don't understand why no other couple gets that kind of treatment. It's all insta-love or BS like this or both which brings us to:

Felix and Kagami

The post that spawned this ask goes over these two in detail, but they're yet another insta-love couple with no substance to their romance. They're also easily the worst insta-love of the bunch because it makes no sense on Kagami's side. Felix only likes Kagami because she's a sentimonster and Kagami only likes Felix because the plot says she needs to. Between kidnapping her and snapping away everyone she loves, she should not see him as a potential romantic interest. I thought dating Adrien gave her standards??? The fact that she falls for Felix is character assassination on the highest level and I will forever headcanon that it's her senti programing forcing her to fall for an Adrien clone.

The Love Square

Unsurprisingly, the couple with the most screen time has the most problems. Between the lies, the season four nonsense, and Marinette's trauma choosing Adrien as it's main target, they just aren't fun anymore. There's way too much toxicity here for any couple, but especially for a teenage couple. They should break up and find someone else to date.

Final Thoughts

I think that's all the canon teen couples? As you can see, not a single one is flaw-free because of course they aren't. Miraculous has systemic writing issues that effect every character and couple. It's just less in-your-face for the side characters and couples.

[narusakufantastic]

So I just saw your post on the writers and I will say everything you said is interesting and spot on although if there's one additional thing I've learnt from the analysis is that there's no writer there who apparently knows anything on cultural adaptation which you know has always been a criticism of the show like the fact that Kung food was written by the last two writers on that list and there's the controversy on kung food design and how Chloe's racism apparently is portrayed in that episode and even though Croquet didn't write Qilin that episode is another example of how bad other cultures are portrayed apparently.

I mean, both of them are white French people—I'm not expecting them to not have a lot of biases to examine. It's also worth pointing out that being a good writer is not exactly a high bar when it comes to this show. All it usually means is that particular writer's episodes have some interesting elements and the plot doesn't fall apart the moment more than one second of thought is applied to it. As much as I like to call Croquet Choquet the best writer (because like, he is; the show took an immediate and noticeable nosedive in quality after he left), that's a bit like being the tallest dwarf.

That said, TV production isn't a one-man affair. The script has to make it past a lot of different stages, so the fact that some of the more rancid ideas made it into the final product with isn't an indictment of just one writer, it's of the whole team. This is why I have the most beef with Thibaudeau out of all the writers; even if Lenoir or Choquet write something stupid, as story editor it's his job to shoot that shit down before it goes into production, and we do know that he has used that veto power before on that scene where André sends Chloé to live with her mother. Then again, he also apparently had to do it without telling Astruc, so... w/e.

Conversely, writers aren't allowed to just write whatever they want. Aside from time and target audience constraints, they need to stick to whatever story ideas the executive producer and head writer have approved, as well as the show's story bible.

[Sidenote here, now that I look at the story bible (and I can't believe it's completely slipped my mind to do so previously), it's credited entirely to Astruc with seemingly no input from Thibaudeau. So I guess everything you see in the show bible was Astruc's idea. Make of that what you will.]

As for the designs, those aren't Lenoir or Choquet's job. That's Astruc along with Nathanaël Bronn, the art director. They're the ones who made the graphic bible that everyone else is working off of.

[narusakufantastic]

KPOP DEMON HUNTERS SPOILERS

this entire scene crushed me i'll be honest

Both of them swore to protect something. For Rumi, it's Huntrix and the people (following her duty as a huntress). For Celine, it is what is left of Rumi's mother; her daughter, and her legacy as a huntress. Celine seems to be the only surviving member of the prior trio of huntresses, and so the responsibility of seeking out and training new members of the triad to maintain the Honmoon, as well as taking care of the daughter she unintentionally left behind, fell to her.

Despite promising to protect and care for her, she hesitates to cup her face and give her the comfort she clearly needs. Everything she was taught tells her that demons are a pest to be eradicated, and so she can't bring herself to hold her despite how much she cares. She only holds her first when she brings her to her feet, and again when she covers up her demon markings with her coat.

When Rumi stands up, she holds her hand out defensively. While she loves and cares for her, she's also afraid of a part of what she is: a demon. It was instinct in the same way she first drew her weapon upon hearing Rumi approach her from behind in the beginning of this scene.

For a second, Celine does actually look at Rumi before closing her eyes again. She can't bring herself to look at her because, to her, doing so would mean accepting what Rumi truly is. Prior to this, she had also "closed her eyes" in a way to Rumi's true nature by making her hide her demonic markings.

Rumi picks up on this. Celine keeps her eyes closed as if trying to separate the sight in front of her from the version of Rumi that she can accept, however, that hurts Rumi even further because her demonic side is just as much of a part of her as her human side is. Celine, what is left of her family after her friends drew their weapons on her, refusing to acknowledge it only causes her to feel more isolated.

Celine seems to be talking more to herself than to Rumi, repeating something she'd likely been told when she was younger. She passes this same mantra down onto Rumi, Zoey, and Mira, thinking that it would keep them safe and allow them to fulfill their duties as huntresses.

Instead, it isolates them from the ones they care about the most.

[narusakufantastic]

REALLY not liking the trend of original, beautifully animated family movies like Wallace and Gromit Vengeance most Fowl and Kpop Demon Hunters being direct to streaming while the Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon remake are theatrical releases

[narusakufantastic]

I already knew I didn't want to see the new Lilo & Stitch movie because I knew it would piss me off. But yesterday I had the displeasure of being dragged to the theater with my family for my niece's birthday because she wanted to see it. Granted, my niece is 5 and doesn't care about movie ethics. And it wasn't my money, so I sat through it. And it did, indeed, piss me off just as much as I thought it would, and here's why:

- Every single shot feels rushed. They couldn't just let a scene cook.

- The entire sentencing/prison break scene in the beginning lasts like 20 seconds

- Gantu is non-existent

- Nani's actress isn't native Hawaiian (living in Hawai'i does not make you ethnically Hawaiian) and they used brownface to make it look like she was instead of just... letting her be pale. Or just casting someone else.

- Jumba volunteers to go look for Stitch instead of being volun-told

- Pleakley's cgi is just terrible and extremely hard to look at

- They dumbed down Pleakly and made him an idiot instead of a goofy but competent genius

- Jumba and Pleakley use holographic disguises to make themselves look human instead of dressing up to try and blend in

- Cobra Bubbles feels like he was an afterthought imo. He's not actually a social worker, is still CIA, and is undercover trying to figure out Stitch.

- Cobra Bubbles is already named Cobra Bubbles instead of Lilo giving it to him

- Nani was not paying attention, like at all, when Lilo was using Stitch as a record player and wanted to show her (this pissed me off A LOT for some reason)

- Jumba goes full evil scientist and tries to kidnap Stitch to turn him into 627.

- Nani blames Lilo for losing her job

-The whole "Lilo almost drowns" scene is added just to drive the point home that Nani can't take care of Lilo

- It's never brought up that Cobra Bubbles made up the whole "mosquitos are an endangered species" thing to save the planet

- They shortened the "can Stitch say goodbye?" scene and it felt rushed and out of place

- Nani GIVES UP LILO AND FLIES OFF TO SAN DIEGO TO STUDY MARINE BIOLOGY EVEN THOUGH THE BEST MARINE BIOLOGY SCHOOLS ARE IN HAWAI'I!!!

I hate this movie don't go see it

[narusakufantastic]

We often talk about "the writers" as if they were some kind of hivemind, and that made me wonder, are they really? Well, let's find out.

But first, some general trends.

For one, with the grand exception of The Mime, which was written by five people, episodes in S1 were usually written by three people at most and there were a lot more solo episodes, which made it easier to figure out who was responsible for what in most instances. S1 also had a larger selection of writers, so I'm only going to focus on those who went on to work on the show from S2 onward.

For another thing, most of the writers don't have a lot of writing credits to their name, let alone experience working on anything good. The only ones that do are Fred Lenoir, who worked on Code Lyoko, and Matthieu Choquet, who worked on the adult series Lastman, based on the comic of the same title. And trust me, it shows.

Thomas Astruc

The creator and the one beefing with people on Twitter, he is the guy the fandom generally tends to point to when the writing goes sideways. However, for how much attention we give him, there's actually surprisingly little to say about the man.

First of all, he isn't even a writer. His actual job is as director and storyboard artist, and the only writing credit he has besides Miraculous is like 3 episodes of Wakfu.

Second of all, for how much shit he talks on Twitter, it's actually really tough to separate out this man's influence. He never gets solo episodes, and his episodes usually tend to have more than three writers total. Closest we ever get to unfiltered Astruc is Zombizou, which he wrote alongside Wilfried Pain, who is himself not a writer and only wrote for this one episode.

In S1, Astruc wrote four episodes:

The Bubbler (w/ Sébastien Thibaudeau)

The Mime (w/ Sébastien Thibaudeau, Michaël Delachenal, Karin Lollichon, and Françoise Charpiat)

the Origins episodes (w/ Sébastien and Quentin Thibaudeau)

He became a full-time writer in S2, which is when you'll notice the show started to become more serialized. From then on, he wrote for every episode except for "Action".

From what little I can gather, toxic positivity and the prioritizing characters' short-term comfort over their long-term development is an Astruc special. In The Bubbler, Marinette lets Gabriel take credit for a gift she made because it makes Adrien happy, which is sweet until you realize all she's doing is giving Adrien false hope, and clinging to false hope is Adrien's fatal flaw. I've heard people say the ending of S5 retroactively ruins this episode, but it left a bad taste in my mouth from the very beginning, subsequent writing decisions just made it worse. The same thing happens in Zombizou, where not only was the class encouraged to "set a good example" for Chloé by being nice to her even when she's treating them poorly, but the entire episode started because Marinette got on Chloé's case for something that was not her business, and Chloé was treated as the bad guy when she naturally didn't take that well. Zombizou is just bad all around.

Sébastien Thibaudeau

The head writer and story editor. Basically, everyone else's boss. He's literally only third to Aton Soumache (the executive producer) and Jeremy Zag in terms of influence. He gives feedback and suggests rewrites, works with the other writers to ensure continuity and correct runtime, and approves scripts for production. So, even if an episode was written by someone else, that writer had Thibaudeau looking over their shoulder and that script has his stamp of approval on it.

Like Astruc, he doesn't have a lot of experience writing. His only writing credits I can find that aren't for Zag shows are like 6 episodes of Sherlock Yack: Zoo-Detective, which I don't think anybody's heard of, and 2 live action movies I don't think anyone's heard of either.

In S1, he wrote 10 episodes:

Lady Wifi

Copycat (w/ Pascal Boutboul)

The Bubbler (w/ Thomas Astruc)

Timebreaker (w/ Michaël Delachenal)

The Puppeteer

The Mime (w/ Thomas Astruc, Michaël Delachenal, Karin Lollichon, and Françoise Charpiat)

Guitar Villain

Antibug

both Origins episodes (w/ Thomas Astruc and Quentin Thibaudeau).

From S2 onwards, he wrote for every single episode.

Thibaudeau is very good at his job. /s He's directly responsible for such memorable gems as that time Hawk Moth and Lady Wifi left Ladybug alone to de-transform despite having her literally at their mercy, or that time Adrien randomly got jealous of a fan that wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell with Ladybug anyway (especially not over her literal partner), or that time Alix had to apologize and learn a lesson about responsibility when she's literally the only one who did the responsible thing in that situation. Generally if an episode fails to make sense, he was definitely involved. Thibaudeau is also the big-brained lad who had the idea to sell Miraculous to broadcasters as a "formula show", despite the fact that it very clearly isn't one. And then tried to walk back on it anyway.

Fred Lenoir

Lenoir is generally one of the show's better writers, at least compared to the two I just mentioned. Her other writing credits include 9 episodes of Code Lyoko, and her favorite character is Plagg.

In S1, she wrote 4 episodes:

Stormy Weather

Horrificator

Kung Food (w/ Matthieu Choquet)

Simon Says

In S2, she worked on every episode except for Befana, Gorizilla, and Zombizou, and in S3, she didn't write for Animaestro, Miraculer, Startrain, Oblivio, and Desperada. In S4 and 5, she wrote for every single episode.

Out of all the writers, Lenoir is probably the least interesting one to talk about. I can think of really only three things to say about her. One, she's only second to Thibaudeau for the number of solo episodes, and all but one of her episodes in S1 have her as the only writer. Two, she's responsible for some of the best LS moments in S1—Kung Food and to a lesser extent Horrificator are some of the rare episodes where Marinette comes across more like a girl in love and less like someone's caricature of what teen girls are like. Third, she has no idea how contests work. Every single one of her S1 episodes involves a contest that fails to make sense in some way.

Matthieu Choquet

The show's best writer, bar none. Everyone else go home.

Choquet wrote 5 episodes of S1:

The Evillustrator

Kung Food (w/ Fred Lenoir)

Darkblade (w/ Léonie de Rudder)

Princess Fragrance (w/ Léonie de Rudder)

Volpina (w/ Léonie de Rudder)

In S2, he wrote every episode except for Befana, Syren, Zombizou, Frozer, Reverser, Anansi, Sandboy, and Santa Claws. With the exception of Glaciator, generally if an episode of S2 was really salt-inducing, chances are he had nothing to do with it. After that, he wrote less and less. In S3, he wrote Miraculer, Startrain, and the Battle of the Miraculous two-parter, and in S4, he only wrote one episode, Psycomedian. He seems to have left the show entirely in S5, and truly, I cannot imagine why. /s His favorite episodes are the Heroes' Day two-parter, and his favorite character is Chloé.

His episodes tend to be very low on romance, and when it does show up it's usually of good quality. His episodes are also where Adrien is at his most competent (with the glaring exception of Evillustrator), and he seems to show more of a preference for solo Cat Noir. Evillustrator needs Marinette to detransform so she can go on the date with Nathanaël, and Darkblade and Princess Fragrance see him fight the akuma mostly alone with Ladybug not even showing up until the last third of both episodes.

[narusakufantastic]

*sniff*

[narusakufantastic]

I’m convinced if ppl on this site knew how crappy gifs look before you color them properly, they would appreciate editors more

[narusakufantastic]

I hope it's a semi-immersive staging like "Here Lies Love" and "Moulin Rouge"

[narusakufantastic]

The fact that there's zero Marinette dolls that showcase her culture and heritage but then there's THIS

If they really wanted a Ladybug doll to represent Dia de Los Muertos then what about her???

[narusakufantastic]

i've been watching Zexal for the first time, and it is not my favorite thing. This is of course, because GX is my favorite, and that's because it was the first Yugioh i watched

it IS a pretty good time though. i think the decision to forgo the traditional Best Friend character in favor of a second Rival is super interesting(Kite episodes and Shark episodes are really fun), and as far as The Girl Characters go, Tori has some spunk to her, and legitimately feels like Yuma's friend and a little less token than some of the other Yu-girls

i think Zexal and GX get a bad rap for about the same reason; they came out after a more Serious series, and they start with some quirky, episodic episodes that establish characters but dont establish a plot. If you've just come off of Dawn of the Duel or the Illiastrr arc, then yeah, that's probably not the tone youre looking for, but i dont think it's inherently bad

i'm also a sucker for foils, and Kite's reflection in/beef with anyone who plays any dragons in their deck is so important to me

[narusakufantastic]

Hey remember in 2008 when Phineas and Ferb had an episode that said "having robots create things for you is ultimately unfulfilling and doesn't stack up to the joy of making things yourself!" Dan and Swampy were WAY ahead of the game on that one and you still didn't listen. Have you learned NOTHING from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?

[narusakufantastic]

[narusakufantastic]

No, app on my phone, I don't want to edit it with AI. I don't want to generate with AI. I don't want to ask the AI. I don't want to make AI wallpapers. I don't want to rewrite with AI. I don't want t-