#{ Seeing the new stuff for Miraculous Ladybug made me remember this. }

[chronosbled]

{ My brain still can’t believe that I created a Miraculous Ladybug!AU for Dickson out of all the muses that I have... I still blame Serin for pointing out how similar Dickson and Crystal are to Chat Noir and Ladybug. }

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Collusion and Revolution

Well, the final confrontation with Lila was a bust, but maybe Chloe's swan song will be bett----HAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry, I couldn't even finish that sentence without laughing.

Let's get into the twenty-second and twenty-third episodes of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Collusion and Revolution

“Collusion” starts off with... oh, for God's sake... Gabriel monologuing to Emilie's body for the umpteenth time, only now, we see just how bad his Cataclysm wound has gotten, now making his entire hand black.

Marinette and Adrien wake up and we get a pretty cute scene of them talking on the phone while getting ready for their respective days. Afterwards, Gabriel talks with Adrien about being sent to London, and is somehow aware that Adrien hasn't told Marinette yet. Even when Gabriel tries to use his ring to keep Adrien under his control, Adrien still shows signs of resistance.

Later at school, Chloe walks up to insult Marinette and Adrien as usual, but Marinette has a little rebuttal of her own.

Marinette: Be mean while you still can, Chloe. I'm gonna let you in on a secret. Remember your friend Lila who used to hurt everyone with her lies? See her anywhere in this classroom? No, because I put a stop to her nastiness and I'll do the same with you!

Yeah, and you were only able to do so because one of Lila's minions decided they didn't like being evil, and had no plan of your own prior to that.

It's revealed that not only is Lila (I'm not calling her Cerise to make things easier for myself) still in contact with Chloe through their Alliance rings, she also somehow got her own supervillain lair. How did she set up here, much less find the resources to do so? You guessed it, never explained!

And yeah, let's just get this out of the way. I hate what they're doing with Lila here. For reasons I'll get to in a later review, it's clear that there had to be some changes made so Lila remains a key player, even after the events of “Confrontation”, so they decided to make Lila manipulate Chloe as part of her plans. For a pair of episodes that are meant to show Chloe at her absolute worst, it devalues her status as a villain if she's just going to be used as a glorified attack dog for bigger threats like Lila. Remember, we've seen Chloe come up with her own plans before (Mr. Pigeon, Dark Cupid, Darkblade, Kung Food, Antibug, Despair Bear, Zombizou, Frightningale, Queen Wasp, Queen Banana, Gabriel Agreste, Penalteam, Determination, Derision), and we know she's not a complete idiot. She doesn't need Lila to hold her hand and tell her what to do to get what she wants. I get that it's supposed to be ironic that Chloe, for all her bluster, is ultimately a pawn in a larger scheme, but it just doesn't gel with the whole “irredeemable monster” stuff the show has been going with whenever Chloe has been on screen for the past two seasons. You could easily take Lila out of these episodes and not much would really change.

During class, Chloe makes a scene by blasting some music and dancing on her desk, and we get what has to be the most unrealistic thing this entire show has done for the past five seasons: Assuming kids still care about school when the year is almost over.

Rose: Chloe, quit it! We wanna hear the lesson, we care!

When Ms. Bustier tries to send Chloe to the principal's office, Chloe calls Ms. Mendeleiev (who is the new principal after Mr. Damocles resigned), and essentially forces her to change the rules to music is allowed. After Chloe taunts Ivan, just as Marinette tries to stop Ivan from hurting her, she uses the opportunity to frame Marinette for hitting her. Oh, sorry. I mean Lila uses the opportunity to tell Chloe to frame Marinette for hitting her.

In the principal's office, Ms. Bustier tries to reason with Chloe by showing her the present she got her all the way back in Season 2's “Zombizou”.

Ms. Bustier: Chloe, do you remember this gift you gave me on my birthday? To me, that is proof that you're a fragile teenager who doesn't know love and is simply looking for attention. And... we all tried to help you. So, please, whatever it is you want, ask yourself if it's worth all the suffering you're causing.

Chloe: Did you hear that? A homeroom teacher using a student's feelings to blackmail her. This is inappropriate, utterly inappropriate! My father, the mayor, would never tolerate this in a school.

Remember kids, FUCK showing compassion to your enemies! Everyone knows Gandhi was a loser anyway.

The negative emotions attract an Akuma to Ms. Bustier, but she manages to resist Monarch's influence for now. Monarch transforms back into Gabriel, who has a meeting with Tomoe and Andre to discuss the state of Paris' law enforcement.

Tomoe: Your policemen mostly get paid for doing nothing. It seems that Ladybug and Cat Noir are the ones who have been enforcing the law in Paris the last few months, wouldn't you agree?

Because I guess Ladybug and Cat Noir have also been stopping drug rings off-screen or something.

Chloe storms into the office, and even though Lila has no idea what's going on, she tells Chloe to record the conversation. Once again, Lila has to tell Chloe just how to be mean and selfish while she chews out Andre, and that if she was the mayor, she'd ban superheroes, right before Chloe learns Adrien is going to London next year.

After a scene that's only there to remind the audience that Adrien hasn't told Marinette about London yet, we see Gabriel talking with Andre about replacing Paris' police force with robots... even though this should really be more a discussion for the commissioner. I guess the writers didn't have enough money for a commissioner model because they had to allocate resources for Ms. Bustier's baby bump.

Andre: Seriously, Gabriel, what's this whole police robot idea all about?

Gabriel: Have I ever offered a single bad idea to you, Andre? We've always helped each other, haven't we?

Andre: Remember when we were young and penniless? When Emilie, you and I would make the world right from our little attic room? You made me my very first suit so I'd feel confident and Audrey, whom I'd fallen in love with, would finally notice me? Don't you think we were much happier back then? That our lives were more beautiful, more fair?

Gabriel: Come on, you have everything to be happy, Andre. Your wife, your daughter, Paris City Hall...

Andre: A woman who barely respects me, a selfish, heartless daughter, and a City Hall that I never wanted. I only got into politics like dad to impress Audrey, you know that.

Gabriel: I have no idea what you're talking about.

Andre: Look at me, Gabe. All my life I've lied, I've cheated and I've abused my power. I used to be a dreamer, an artist, I wanted to make movies! Now I've become a tyrant in servitude to my family and friends...

Aw, poor baby. Did someone condition their daughter to develop an entitlement complex while refusing to divorce your abusive wife?

I'm sorry, but I don't feel bad for Andre at all here. While I'm happy to see that the show is trying to teach kids that male mental health is important too, it doesn't really earn him a lot of sympathy considering a lot of this is his own fault. Sure, we don't know what Audrey was like when they were younger, and she could have gotten worse as time went on, but considering how rich he is coupled with the fact that Audrey spends most of her time in New York, he doesn't really have much of an excuse to not divorce her. As for Chloe, he has even less of an excuse, since he was responsible for her upbringing. He spoiled her rotten, he refused to properly discipline her, and he failed to teach her the slightest bit of humility. I'm willing to accept that Chloe is a lost cause by the show's standards, but I can't accept the fact that Andre had nothing to do with how she turned out. He's as much of a failure as a parent as Gabriel is.

As Lila somehow finds where the two are talking so she can overhear their conversation, Gabriel secretly records Andre, altering what he says to make him look bad. While I can't exactly describe it through text, this clip from The Simpsons should summarize it.

Ms. Bustier sees the video of Andre, and this time, she fails to resist an Akuma, turning into Wonder Woman—I mean, Miss Sans-Culotte.

Miss Sans-Culotte has a okay design. I like how it's meant to have a more patriotic theme with the color scheme, and the fact that it's based off some of the people in the French Revolution, aptly named the Sans-Culotte, is a nice way to teach kids about history. The problems I have are the golden armor, which goes against the fact that was previously mentioned in this very episode that the Sans-Culotte wore more simple clothing. That, and the guillotine blade for a weapon, which gives off some uncomfortable implications. The Miraculous power this time involves the Pig Miraculous' Gift, which somehow allows her to transform anyone her blade touches into balloons... even though the Pig never had that ability, and we saw what it really did just earlier this season (Jubilation).

Right when it seems like Adrien is about to tell Marinette about London, the two learn about Miss Sans-Culotte, and split up to transform into Cat Noir and Ladybug respectively. Meanwhile, Chloe hears the news about Andre before getting a call from Gabriel, who offers to “give her Andre's power”. Even though Chloe always uses her dad's power to get what she wants, she literally has to be told to accept the offer from Lila because she didn't think of the political ramifications. You see what I mean about Lila adding nothing to this episode? It'd be like if Thanos kept in contact with someone who had to tell him how to get the Infinity Stones at every step. As for Gabriel, I'll talk about his plan next episode.

Ladybug and Cat Noir confront Miss Sans-Culotte, demanding to know what she's doing.

Ladybug: Terror isn't a solution!

Cat Noir: There are elections to make your voice heard.

Miss Sans-Culotte: Or a revolution when everyone is corrupt. Nothing can stop freedom!

Because it's not like the video of Andre confessing to abusing his power, tampered or not, is an open and shut impeachment case, right?

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm and gets a crown. After focusing on Miss Sans-Culotte and City Hall, she gets an idea.

Ladybug: Mayor Bourgeois is acting like the king of Paris, and maybe he should be removed from office after all.

Cat Noir: Are you saying we should give this villain free reign?

Ladybug: I don't know... I feel like that's what the Lucky Charm means. You're right, it's not up to us to decide who gets to be the mayor and who doesn't. An akumatized villain just needs to be deakumatized.

Yeah, remember how Ladybug said it was too risky to forge a temporary alliance with Matagi Gozen in order to stop the person who stole almost every Miraculous she had last season? Well now, she's saying they should essentially let this Akuma force the sitting Mayor of Paris out of power, which is all kinds of illegal. Now this might just be because I'm not French, and don't understand how politics work over there, but here in America, the last time some people stormed a major government establishment to protest a fair election, they were seen as fucking lunatics.

Zoe tries to reason with Miss Sans-Culotte, but she's still in favor of using that guillotine blade in ways that don't involve balloons. They try to reason with her and convince her to reason with Andre... right as Andre is about to resign himself, so this whole conflict was pointless. Still glad to know Ladybug and Cat Noir are now willing to let Akumas use their powers to get what they want when that was almost always seen as taboo.

Miss Sans-Culotte once again rejects the Akuma with ease, Ladybug uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage... only to be cornered by several police robots, and ones that look really stupid at that.

Remember, Gabriel and Tomoe wanted taxpayers to pay for these.

Yeah, somehow, the Lucky Charm was actually meant for Chloe, because, well...

Cat Noir: A crown for the queen of brats, of course!

What, did calling her the literal Antichrist not do well with test audiences?

Yeah, this makes no goddamn sense. Why was the Lucky Charm prioritizing Chloe of all people instead of the Akuma as usual? What was Ladybug even supposed to do here? Yeah, she really should have stopped Miss Sans-Culotte, but was she expected to know about the police robots or something?

Chloe tells the press that Ladybug and Cat Noir helped an Akuma force the current mayor out of office. This is all part of Gabriel and Tomoe's plan, but once again, she's not wrong. The two still helped a dangerous supervillain force a major political shift, and the resulting power vacuum that allowed Chloe to rise to power is really their fault. After Cat Noir uses his Cataclysm to free himself and Ladybug from the nets the robots used to trap them with, we get the start of a running gag where Chloe struggles to say the word “democratic”, because remember, she's blonde, and therefore stupid. This happens several times across both episodes, and none of them are actually funny.

The episode ends with Chloe unlawfully taking control of Paris as the new mayor, which is totally different from Miss Sans-Culotte unlawfully forcing Andre to resign. The last time I saw double standards this blatant, I was watching RWBY.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... CHLOE

If there's one thing I love about my irredeemable villains, it's that they're so stupid, it's impossible to take them seriously. Not only did Chloe need Lila to hold her hand through every major decision she made throughout this episode (and by extension, the next), she failed to understand her dad's political career falling apart and needed to be told to take an opportunity to own an army of advanced robots, and couldn't even say the word “democratic”, which isn't that hard of a word to say even if you're borderline illiterate.

“Revolution” starts off with Chloe essentially declaring martial law in Paris for the time being. Once again, Cat Noir says the sane thing for once and suggests they go and beat up Chloe themselves. Well, I say that, but somehow, Cat Noir contradicts himself in his very next line.

Cat Noir: We can't let Chloe make up the rules.

Ladybug: If she were akumatized, it'd be easy. Find the object, break it, de-evilize her.

Cat Noir: But there is no object, and we can't attack someone who isn't akumatized, or we'd look like the supervillains.

I think you forgot something, guys...

THE ENTIRE FUCKING REASON SHE'S MAKING THE RULES IN THE FIRST PLACE IS BECAUSE YOU HELPED A SUPERVILLAIN IN THE LAST EPISODE! HOW DID YOU FORGET THIS VITAL INFORMATION?!

What the hell is with the sudden change of pace? They were willing to let Miss Sans-Culotte have her way by making Andre resign, so why can't they stop Chloe when she's already taken over Paris by force? I don't think you'd really look like supervillains if you stopped a tyrant instead of a democratically elected mayor. All you need to do is stop Chloe from controlling the robots, and you're golden.

In fact, where the hell is the rest of the Parisian government during all this, much less the French government? Why aren't they doing anything about this? We don't even get a throwaway line that explains it like Chloe bribed some politicians to keep quiet about the whole thing. Instead, despite an obvious violation of democratic rights, nobody outside of Paris is even bothering to stop this.

After a brief scene where some citizens are interviewed about Chloe, we see Adrien once again angsting about going to London. Like what Lila did with Chloe last episode, Plagg has to outright tell Adrien to talk to Marinette about this, because I guess this show has a really low opinion on the intelligence of people with blond hair. Also, good to know that even though Chloe is currently ruling over the city with an iron fist, she's still allowing air traffic to flow normally. Good thing too, as it's almost tourist season. Adrien tries to tell Marinette through a call, but she talks to him about Chloe, and how they can protest her regime.

Meanwhile, at City Hall, Chloe has already gone mad with power, as she orders her new box robots around, while Gabriel calls her to praise her for how she's been doing. Afterwards, Gabriel transforms into Monarch and absorbs the powers from a few Kwamis before Voyaging to City Hall. Chloe orders her robots to arrest Monarch, unaware than Tomoe is the one actually controlling them, only for Monarch to offer a deal... which Lila once again has to tell Chloe to listen to even though Chloe has worked with him in the past. Monarch offers to akumatize Chloe in a way that makes it look like she's not working for him. She accepts, and becomes Queen Mayor.

Queen Mayor's design is pretty simple, but I guess it works for the plan. It's just Chloe in an admittedly nice-looking jacket. Not sure if she can actually take it off like her other clothes or not, though. As for the Miraculous powers, Monarch transfers five of them to her robots, the Turtle Miraculous' Shelter, the Horse Miraculous' Voyage, the Ox Miraculous' Resistance, the Bee Miraculous' Venom, and the Rooster Miraculous' Sublimation, which gives her an unclear power. Given what she subjects her victims to later on, I guess it's the torture chamber she creates? I also don't get how the robots are capable of using the Miraculous powers when earlier episodes established you needed to have multiple Alliance rings to use them (Transmission, Pretension).

But now's as good a time as any to discuss Gabriel and Tomoe's plan, and why is makes absolutely no sense. In case you got confused, here's a quick summary: Tomoe created an army of robots designed to replace the police, and when Andre refused to use them, Gabriel recorded a private conversation so he could edit it, then transform into Monarch to akumatize someone and hope Ladybug and Cat Noir would let her force Andre to resign, then talk to Chloe about taking over as mayor, hope she says yes while Ladybug and Cat Noir do nothing to stop her, then pretend to give her control over Tomoe's robots before akumatizing Chloe so she can actually control the robots, all while praying that Chloe doesn't find out the truth, much the government doesn't get involved with this.

Gabriel and Tomoe did all of this instead of just, you know, akumatizing Chloe like usual. If the plan was to akumatize her all along while making it look like she's not akumatized, why didn't Gabriel just do that from the start as soon as Andre resigned and Miss Sans-Culotte rejected her Akuma? Also, why the hell is Chloe so crucial to the plan anyway? Yeah, they plan to throw her under the bus once they win, but wouldn't it make more sense if Tomoe, the one whose company made the robots, was the one who took over as Mayor?

It feels like the show is trying to recreate the plan from “Miracle Queen” where Chloe teams up with Monarch, but that plan at least made sense, as Chloe was crucial because of her connection to Ladybug. Here, it just feels like the writers needed an excuse to actually make Chloe a threat, but just like when Felix gave Gabriel all of the other Miraculous last season, it's forced. I'm not really seeing Chloe as a threat when she needed Gabriel to hand her the keys to an army of robots, and I don't care if that's the point. If the show wants us to take Chloe seriously as a villain, it needs her actions to speak for themselves instead of turning her into a glorified attack dog for Gabriel, Tomoe, and even Lila to an extent.

But here's my biggest problem with this plan. Consider the fact that Gabriel put Chloe in a major political position, presumably in order to bank on the fact that Ladybug and Cat Noir wouldn't use their powers to beat up a civilian. Gabriel then transformed into Monarch and akumatized Chloe into a form that would make it look like nobody would even tell she was akumatized in the first place. So let me ask this: If Gabriel's plan involves making it look like Chloe isn't akumatized, how is this going to actually attract Ladybug and Cat Noir so you can get their Miraculous?!

Yeah, Ladybug and Cat Noir eventually decide to fight Chloe anyway, but they don't learn she's akumatized until she blurts it out, and that's well into their fight. The plan is to turn the local government against Ladybug and Cat Noir and discredit in a way that prevents them from taking action against an obvious threat, but that just doesn't gel with Monarch's goal of getting their Miraculous. Did Gabriel and Tomoe assume that Ladybug and Cat Noir would just have no qualms with presumably beating up a civilian? If so, why even bother hiding the fact that Chloe was akumatized? This is a problem the plan faces no matter who the mayor is. Hell, if anything, it would be better if Chloe was akumatized from the start, as no matter how long she hides it for, she still has control over an army of robots armed with Miraculous powers, which wouldn't decrease the threat she poses in the slightest. This isn't even the first time an Akuma has hijacked the position of mayor (Rogercop), so it's even less excusable!

The next day, the students stage a protest at their school to get Ms. Bustier her job back, where Chloe (I'm calling her that instead because nobody else calls her Queen Mayor) questions why they're using their right to protest. She also plans to tell Marinette that Adrien is moving to London (something Gabriel told her earlier), but once again, Lila tells her not to. Also, you want to know how stupid the whole “Chloe can't say the word 'democracy' right” gag is? In the same scene where she struggles to say the D-word, Chloe uses the words “Libertarian”, “negative”, and “influence” correctly. It's hard to really buy Chloe as this illiterate moron while you still have her use words like this.

We get what can barely be considered a montage of Chloe abusing her power, but it's only like, three scenes before the plot kicks back in. We get a scene of Chloe screwing around in a private one-on-one class, an admittedly funny bit where she had a golden statue of herself commissioned to rest on the Arc de Triomphe, and then a scene where she shows Andre the ice cream man just how unfair her rule is.

Chloe: Did you pay the permit fee to sell your ice cream?!

Ice Cream Man Andre: I don't need a permit to sell love in Paris!

Chloe: Well, now you do! Otherwise, you'll end up in detention!

I mean, she reasonably calls out Andre for not having a permit to sell ice cream. How... evil of her?

Marinette goes back to her place, only to learn Chloe abducted her parents and placed them in “detention”, before doing the same to her thanks to one of her robots using a combination of Venom and Voyage. We do get an admittedly decent scene of Chloe threatening to tell Marinette about Adrien moving if Adrien doesn't become her deputy mayor, only for Adrien to vow to tell Marinette himself... even though he kept trying to tell her earlier in the episode, so this moment feels a little hollow. But hey, it's not like the finale will make this scene seem even worse in retrospect, right?

Adrien is sent to detention, a torture chamber where footage of Chloe mentally conditions the prisoners into believing that they're ridiculous or that they can always count on her, all while the prisoners are told to find a chair in an endless maze. Again, another decent visual I'll give the episode credit for. After Adrien, Marinette, and Alya escape detention, the former two transform into Cat Noir and Ladybug respectively and get ready to finally do something about Chloe.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a bikini bottom, and gets ready to stop Chloe alongside Cat Noir. Okay, Chloe has an army of robots on her side alongside the public's favor, so they'll need to come up with a really clever plan in order to—they're just going in guns blazing even though that's a terrible plan in a situation like this. Unsurprisingly, the two heroes immediately get trapped by a combination of Shelter and Resistance, nullifying the Lucky Charm and Cataclysm. Only now do they figure out Monarch is behind this, even though both of them saw the robots use Venom and Voyage to send them to detention, yet when Chloe actually says it, Ladybug is still shocked by this.

As Ladybug and Cat Noir start to detransform, they encourage the public to take action once they lose their Miraculous, even though Monarch will have won by then. As they do this, somehow, they stop detransforming until they manage to recharge their Miraculous by the power of because the plot says so. How did they do this?

Gabriel: I am an adult! Not transforming back is a power belonging to grown-ups!

Nooroo: I guess they must have grown up, Master.

Yes. Seriously. Even though there's been nothing else to signify that Ladybug and Cat Noir have matured this season, they now have the full power of their Miraculous at their disposal because now, they're adults. If you have to tell the audience that your characters have developed, then you've done a poor job at writing character development. Ms. Bustier takes the sash containing Chloe's Akuma while Cat Noir uses multiple Cataclysms to destroy the rest of her robots.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, oddly enough, doesn't use Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, doesn't give Chloe a useless Magical Charm because Andre says he's going to “correct his own errors”, and after being convinced by her students, Ms. Bustier decides to run for mayor.

We then cut to a private jet where Audrey is chewing her daughter out for failing, even though she supported her earlier when she was mayor. Yeah, you know how it seemed like Andre was finally going to properly discipline his daughter. Dream on! Instead, he just decided to send her away with Audrey, someone who he knows is a terrible person, and lets her deal with Chloe in a way that heavily implies she's going to put Chloe through hell when she isn't at school.

Audrey: Because of you, we've lost face! You've ruined our name and our reputation! You had all the powers in your hands and you foolishly lost them! Bourgeois do not raise losers. You think you're going to London on vacation? Dream on! I'm going to take control of your life again, starting with your education.

This is seriously meant to be an appropriate punishment for Chloe while Andre gets absolutely no consequences for being responsible for his daughter turning out the way she did. I have only one thing to ask.

WHAT THE FUCK, ASTRUC?!

How the fuck did anyone involved with this show think any of this was okay?! How did Andre think this was okay when in the previous episode, he pointed out how awful Audrey was?! Why the fuckare both Andre and Audrey, the two people who helped make Chloe the person she is, getting away scot-free while Chloe gets condemned for everything?! Why the fuck are we supposed to be happy Audrey is diciplining Chloe when we know she's worse than she is?! WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE OKAY TO GREENLIGHT?!

I can either interpret this scene in two ways.

The first way is that, like he's said for a few years now, Astruc still doesn't see this as child abuse, and that Chloe is being punished like any other misbehaving child is.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES.

The second way, and I consider this to be the worse option, is that Astruc's team is fully aware that this now qualifies as child abuse, and that Chloe deserves this treatment. Put aside the fact that a common mentality of abusive parents is that they believe they're helping their children by “toughing them up”, this is still a demented way to punish any character, no matter how bad they are.

“But IOTA! Chloe needs to be punished for what she did!” Yeah, she does, but not like this. Hell, you don't need to do a lot to change the ending and avoid the harmful implications. Just have Andre be the one to move out of Paris with Chloe with the intent to send her to boarding school. Also, rather than say he's “going to take control of Chloe's life again”, have him explain that while he still loves Chloe, he isn't mayor anymore, so she can't use his name to get out of trouble, meaning that like it or not, Chloe will have to grow out of her bratty attitude or else she'll get in even more trouble. That way, we see Andre actually taking responsibility for how bad of a parent he was, Chloe realizes her old tricks won't work anymore while the door is open for a redemption should you choose to bring her back next season, and most importantly, there's no implications of child abuse here.

But believe it or not, things were even worse for these episodes initially. As detailed in the Season 5 scripts, there was originally a scene in “Collusion” where Andre used his powers as mayor to divorce Audrey and steal custody of Zoe while leaving her to deal with Chloe herself, officially joining Jagged Stone in the Rich Deadbeat Dads Club.

And Astruc wasn't even aware it was taken out, not being told this until he found out on Twitter.

Because somehow, he considered Andre walking out on his family and leaving his biological daughter in the hands of an abusive bitch crucial to the story.

And do you want to know the worst part? No matter how you view this scene, either way, it's portrayed as Chloe getting punished, but the next scene plays Gabriel abusing Adrien straight, ordering him to pack his things as he'll be heading to London that night. The show literally can't make up its mind on whether child abuse is bad or not. Why is it okay for Chloe to be mistreated by her parents while we're supposed to sympathize with Adrien? No matter who the victim is, CHILD ABUSE IS STILL CHILD ABUSE.

I don't care how bad Chloe is, child abuse is NEVER justifiable, and it's disgusting that the show seems to take that stance, whether they intended to or not.

Let's just get the last few minutes out of the way so I can end this. Adrien is forced to pack for London, Nathalie does nothing to stop Gabriel from doing this, Lila steals one of Tomoe's computers, Gabriel tells Tomoe about keeping Adrien and Kagami safe in London while they execute “Operation: Perfect Alliance”, Marinette and Adrien have their first kiss for the third time in five seasons, Chloe calls Marinette to tell her about Adrien, but Marinette tells her to piss off, and Chloe ends the episode crying because Astruc thinks she deserves to suffer. THERE. I'M DONE.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... GABRIEL

Gabriel joins Marinette in earning the Biggest Idiot Award for the third time this season. He had no reason to include Chloe in his stupid plan, he was essentially banking on Ladybug and Cat Noir choosing to do nothing, and tried to create a scenario were Ladybug and Cat Noir wouldn't be able to lose their Miraculous. At least you could argue that Ladybug and Cat Noir needed to stay on the down low at first. Gabriel doesn't get that excuse.

These episodes sucked, but I honestly thought they were slightly better than the last two.

Yeah, all joking aside, I thought these episodes had more positives to them than “Revelation” and “Confrontation”. Where those two episodes were insulting and confusing respectively, these two episodes were the kind of bad I've come to expect from the show. There's plotholes, bad morals, and characters acting like idiots, but it's par for the course. I was far from a fan of these two episodes, but other than the ending of “Revolution”, I was nowhere near as angry I was with “Revelation” and “Confrontation”.

Surprisingly, I was more upset rewatching “Collusion” than I did “Revolution”. Yeah, “Revolution” was bad, but at least Chloe was supposed to be a bad example of how lead a city, unlike what Andre and Ms. Bustier were doing. Those characters both taught bad morals, intentional or not, and just like Ladybug and Cat Noir, were never called out for unintentionally leading to Chloe's rise to power. With Andre, we were supposed to just be expected to be okay with all the times he abused his power as mayor while cheering when he quit with no negative repercussions, and with Ms. Bustier, we were supposed to be okay with her attempting to stage a violent coup against Andre, the character the episode is already trying to make us sympathize with.

Between these two characters, along with Sabrina and Felix, the show really loves operating on the “There's Always a Bigger Fish” rule. It doesn't matter how many bad things you do, if someone else is pulling the strings, you won't get in trouble at all... unless you're Chloe, so, in that case, BURN IN HELL. Like I mentioned earlier, you can acknowledge someone only did bad things because they were pressured to while saying they should at least be held accountable for their actions in some way that doesn't involve kicking them out of the country.

The moral of when it's okay to use violence was pretty confusing, and not just because this is a superhero show where almost every problem is solved by fighting it. Ladybug tries to convince Miss Sans-Culotte that political conflicts shouldn't be solved with violence, but even if she didn't convince her to change her mind, Andre was already ready to resign as mayor, and Miss Sans-Culotte still angrily demanded he resign in a way that sounded like a violent threat. There's also the fact that despite saying that violence isn't always the answer, the conflict that was sort of resolved with no violence ended up making things worse as Chloe was able to seize power once Andre resigned.

Also, it's pretty funny how absolutely nobody ever tried to reason with Chloe after she became mayor, not even Ms. Bustier. In that case, violence was obviously the answer, but the show never really tells us what makes Miss Sans-Culotte better than Chloe. You can't teach an anti-violence moral in one episode and then lead into an episode where violence solves the problem instead of diplomacy. And I'm not one of those saints who believes that every conflict should be handled nonviolently. Sometimes, people won't listen to words, but will at least hear you out if you use your fists. I'd personally argue the conflict of “Revolution” would have worked if had this kind of lesson. Just have Ladybug and Cat Noir tried to solve things with Chloe diplomatically during the first act, only to realize that Chloe won't budge, so they have no choice but to take her out of power themselves. It'd make a hell of a lot more sense than having Marinette and Adrien do nothing while Chloe makes everyone's life miserable because the writers need to pad the runtime.

I already mentioned this, but for an episode that tries to show how awful Chloe is, she barely does anything on her own. She needs Lila to tell her to go along with Gabriel's plan, she needs Gabriel and Tomoe to pretend to give her an army of robots, and she needs Monarch to akumatize her to make the robots even more dangerous. If you need another character to do something to make Chloe a threat, why should we only see Chloe as the threat? These two episodes keep going back and forth on whether Chloe is the worst or not. When they're not showing her taking control of Paris on her own like should be doing, the writers take the time to remind the audience that Lila and Gabriel are pulling Chloe around by telling her what to do, all while they each muse about how this is all going according to keikaku. If you want to make Chloe a threat and have her live up to her reputation as a terrible human being, she should actually have agency and should be cunning enough to be a dangerous villain in her own right.

Unlike with “Confrontation”, which gave more focus to side characters for some reason, “Revolution” actually focused on the main characters and their conflict with Chloe, like we should have gotten with Lila. Yeah, Ladybug and Cat Noir wait far too long to stop her, but unlike with Lila last episode, they at least had a semblance of a reason for hesitating to beat up a civilian. Either way, it felt like an obstacle that Ladybug and Cat Noir actually overcame together instead of someone else helping them out at the last second. Yeah, the Miraculous boost was a glorified deus ex machina, but it was at least a thing established in the show since Season 3.

Even the stuff with Chloe actually felt like stuff she would do, unlike in Season 4, which tried to give her an interest in bananas and soccer for the sake of giving her screentime as a villain (Queen Banana, Penalteam). When Chloe had free reign of the city, she actually did stuff on her own that was clever, like the detention setup. We really needed more of this Chloe for the past two seasons if the writers wanted to make her work as a villain, yet they waited until the end of the fifth season to actually do something interesting, and that was after she was told what to do for most of the episode.

And then there's how the conflict was resolved. It's really hard to buy Ladybug and Cat Noir “growing up” and unlocking the full power of their Miraculous, because just like when it was first established in Season 3, it's such a vague term, and only leaves you asking more questions. Neither Marinette or Adrien really had a big moment of personal growth this episode. Yeah, Adrien wanted to tell Marinette about London, but he had been trying to do that since Chloe first took over as mayor. While it's a decent piece of character development after keeping it secret for the past few episodes, it doesn't really do a lot to justify Adrien “growing up”.

Then again, at least Adrien actually got a moment to show his growth compared to Marinette. All she did before she “grew up” was tell the citizens of Paris to keep fighting, but it was such a vague speech and doesn't really scream becoming an adult. If she was going to sacrifice her identity or do something dangerous in order to stop Chloe, that could have worked. Instead, what I can assume was her big moment came after she defeated Chloe, the call at the end, and even then, it was just her telling Chloe how much she sucks, something she's never been afraid to say since the show started. Once again, if you need to tell the audience your show has character development, you're not good at writing character development.

Overall, while these episodes were both really bad, I still think they're at least more tolerable than the previous two.

And with that, I am officially done with the poorly written Chloe episodes. Sure, I still have three more episodes until I finish Season 5, but least this means Astruc will hopefully stop using her in the show, or at least ranting about her on Twitter. Maybe I'll make a character analysis post about her or talk about her during the overview post, but for now...

[australet789]

ok, something that are bothering me that people are making out about the finale of Miraculous (im not saying it's perfect but i want to analyse this)

Why Ephemeral's Gabriel's wish was worse and Recreation's was allowed?

Intention. In Ephemeral Gabriel only wanted to have Emilie back, regardless of who had to die for it. He indeed wanted to create a new reality in which she never got sick. In Recreation, Marinette talked to him and Gabriel got to hear his wife's last wish: let me go, accept your mistakes and love our son. He didnt create a new timeline, nor a new reality, he just changed his future, Nathalie's and probaby his wife's as well. That's why everyone still remembered everything

Does Adrien sees Gabriel as a hero?

For what i saw, yes and no. Adrien only saw Gabriel as a "hero" for giving his life to "defeat" Monarch, probably wishing to have been there helping Ladybug. But after that, he literally told Marinette "with you, i finally feel free". So he still remembers his father's abuse and incarceration. Sadly, he was still his father, so obviously his death still matters. And that theme could and should be touched in season 6

Why the statue?

Because Tomoe needed to save her ass lmao. No one apart from Gabriel, Nathalie and Lila knew she was involved. So she probably blamed Monarch of the hijacking, accepted Ladybug's "truth" of Gabriel dying and made the statue to look good for the parisians.

Why everyone acted as if nothign happened?

They did not. And this is important : THERE WAS A TIMESKIP. BECAUSE MS BUSTIER'S BABY WAS BORN. And Alec says it has been weeks since Caline was elected Mayor of Paris, so it has been a bunch of time for Adrien to mourn his father and for the rest to get themselves ok after the Nightmare Event.

i think these are the most important points being discussed. Obviously there are stuff i dont agree with (the statue specially, i hope Parisians pee on it), but there are some stuff that need a little more of instropection and not literally be told to the face.

[standreamy]

A very problematic finale.

I really didn’t want to talk about this because I was spoiled with the leaks time ago so I was prepared for the worst, but even so... after watching it... it just made me so sick. 

I don’t really blame people who liked the finale, and I’m aware that this is not anymore the last season. 

But there are so many issues that it's even difficult to know where to start.  So, first of all, a premise...

We don’t know when season 6 was confirmed to the writing crew, but it was almost surely when writing was basically over. Or so we can presume. Season 4 and 5 were written kind of together and between the time the writing ended and season 6 was confirmed and then started to be written, passed quite some time. 

Logically, there wasn’t anymore time to change big stuff. Once the episodes were being animated there would be no chance to change the scrips. Thomas said already that they have too much rush and pressure from tv channels, which prevents them to fix mistakes in the writing or animation. Once things are done, they’re done. And from the leaks and the bible we know that most things, comparing what was probably the info for season 5 when it was the last season and when the series was renewed, stayed the same. 

Some minor changes are probably there, but again, they are MINOR. Changing Emilie’s name with Ladybug’s... removing her glance exchange with Adrien... But the basic issues stayed the same and we can presume they were present in every version of the finale, since from Thomas’s tweets about the choice of keeping Chat out of the finale, that seemed a willing choice made from the start. 

This means that most of this was planned even when season 5 was meant to be the last season.

Possibly no reveal, and if there was it was shoved the last moment or in a very rushed way (It’s already way late for that), Gabriel “winning”, Adrien never learning about the truth, Chat Noir non participating in the final fight. The actual ending of the show.

And all this portrayed to be something positive.

With an ending where all abusive parents were excused and paid no consequences.

“But there are more seasons, surely these elements will be picked up again”. Postponing elements for too long makes higher the risk to make the resolutions anticlimatic and out of their ideal context,  The new butterfly opens a new set of plotlines, and Adrien's plotline will be dragged on.  You may can’t rush Adrien’s reaction and trauma, but if this was the intention, it could have been done seasons ago. When there was still more confirmed seasons to go and it wasn’t a possible finale of the series. 

And I also feel like asking... when did Miraculous and its writing give any reason for fans to trust it picking up again these plotlines and handle them correctly? Where does this trust comes from?

The show is famous from dragging things for longer than they should and not resolving them properly. When there were 5 seasons to handle the plot, the relationships, the characters at the best possible. 5 seasons to build the fluff and the angst, to handle misunderstandings, to build friendship between the characters, between the protagonists... to then lead it to romance. 5 seasons to make the characters fall in love with every side of themselves slowly and gradually, to make character live negative events and heal, to have a decent reveal and seeing what comes after. And there was none of this. Since season 5 must have not been changed a lot since the confirmation of season 6... when was Chat supposed to discover about Chat Blanc? When was Ladybug supposed to develop a trauma out of it? 

What did the Ladynoir dynamic lead to? Their whole talk in s4 finale, their newfound equality? What was that angst subplot needed for? Was it brought up again? Because I remember a lot of fans saying that surely Ladybug would apologize, that Chat would turn that experience as a lesson for self-love and acceptance, that the topic of their misunderstanding would be brought up again in season 5, yet it didn’t happen.  Chat questioning Ladybug about the identities of the secondary heroes, about Multimouse, about many things... Nothing.  I hear a lot of “Surely next season...” “Surely this will be-” And I don’t blame people for hoping, nor I’m judging, but I also think that people who don’t believe it anymore and and think this is way too late have their own reasons too. 

Now, going deeper into what I think are some big issues:

First of all, Adrien/Chat obviously not being included in the final fight and not discovering the truth. 

The first issue about this regards the usual discourse about the balance between the two heroes. 

We are told that Chat and Ladybug are equals even with her being the "leader" but it's always shown and proved otherwise. This happened for seasons with Chat being kept in the dark, then with Ladybug becoming guardian and then with the Ladynoir trust issues plotline in season 4, which was left mostly unresolved.

  Kuro Neko seemed the resolution of that plotline, but not only it didn't explain why Chat would be fundamental for the team (while showing instead that a perfect cat holder would be just more functional and then saying just "But Chat is better" without explaining) but it also mostly blamed the whole thing on Chat while Ladybug says she didn't know he felt left out and adds that he not as needed anymore.  S4 finale instead shows Ladybug admitting she pushed him away on purpose, the exact opposite, didn't apologize and the thing being forgotten because the other heroes couldn't be called up anymore. And this with it being said multiple times that Chat was then just a hero like the others and not anymore her equal. Then, in s5, with the opening even and the situation implying they'd be both just as important, ends up with excluding him from the finale. The co-protagonist, the other half of the whole. The one who is son of the villain.

After 5 seasons of him being extremely related to the plotline due to him being Hawkmoth's son and the plot being basically all centered on his birth, it just leaves everything uncomplete and unfullilling. 

Adrien was never able to have the realization, to deal with it even if it’s sad and heavy with the support system he built. He wasn’t able to live such a big personal growth, an important reaction out of his character was avoided, even with it being so important. True, Adrien would feel lost, angry maybe, sad, but these emotions would have been very important for his character. The reactions that characters have to situations is just as important as the events happening. Marinette's reaction over the truth wasn't as fundamental as it would have been Adrien's.

And this leads to the other big problem that makes me even sicker: Adrien not discovering the truth and Chat either. 

The thing is obviously wrong because of missed character development and for the abuse plotline. The thing that makes me sick about the finale is indeed how the abuse plotline was ended. When it was made such a big point, I find unacceptable to end it with not only Gabriel being fakely redeemed, reminded as a hero by the people but also his abused son. 

Adrien can't come in terms with his own situation as victim, he can't grow and heal from it. Gabriel's death doesn't erase what happened and making Adrien believe he was a hero and even saying he can't even dream to be like him, is... just wrong on so many levels.  It doesn’t matter if Marinette says to be himself and not his father. Adrien still thinks positively about one who abused him for years. Gabriel sacrificing his life for Emilie's may make it seem he wasn't so bad, but it doesn't cancel his actions. He still was a terrorist and an abuser and not only he didn’t pay for his actions (death isn’t a punishment, prison instead yes) but he was rewarded, because he was remembered positively for it.  And while his death could be acceptable eventually, even if him paying for his actions would be better, Adrien not finding out is ridiculous. And Chat not doing it either is just as much a problem, because as I mentioned already in a past message, it implies that Ladybug didn’t tell her "equal partner" about the true final fight. I think it's something pretty important he should know how things really went, instead of just being satisfied with "it's all over, gabriel helped against a random person who died" Of course, it would lead to Adrien discovering, but Chat knowing would only be the right thing. Just as of course Adrien.  Adrien should know. Marinette should have told him, instead of doing as Gabriel wanted. Like, at least not telling around Gabriel was a hero? 

Isn’t she the character who hates lies and injustice? Is not seeing Adrien sad worth making him sadder when he will discover he was lied at?  If we are supposed to believe she is on the right, she is the one showing what true love is and what Adrien deserves, opposite to Gabriel's, it should be portrayed as such. She is just keeping more secrets from him as she always has done with Chat. She isn’t letting him take his own choices. She isn’t letting him be free as he says she makes him feel. 

Of course, she can make mistakes and it could open up an angst plotline, but angst plotlines with Marinette/Ladybug keeping a secret they shouldn’t have kept was already done multiple times and it always ended up with the lesson being forgotten, with the entire resolution being underwhelming or Chat accepting the situation and blaming himself anyway....

We can also say that it’s Nathalie, Plagg, Amelie or Felix telling Adrien. But what counts is that he should have known.

“But Chat Blanc showed that Adrien can’t face his father” Chat Blanc was an alternate reality, one that was supposed to tell that it wasn’t “the right moment, in the right conditions”.  Character weren’t ready yet, they weren’t mature enough or ready to face such a difficulty. And perhaps you may never be ready for such a thing, but you can face it and heal.  Adrien has a better support system, more realization over his situation as victim and is more mature. He isn’t supposed to be the same of back then. 

Whether Season 6 will really pick it up again, Gabriel’s arc was this. The ideal moment for Chat to face his trauma was this.  And even accepting Adrien’s absense and unawereness...  The other issue is that these episodes treat his reaction as a good one. if you want to postpone his reaction, to make clear that it’s only Adrien that tries to convince himself of something that is wrong, you still need to put elements that remind that what he is thinking isn't "right" morally. Especially in a show that tries to teach morals and is always excused to be for kids. There are plenty ways to show with clarity that what Adrien believes is wrong with him still saying those things: soundtrack, Marinette doing a quick grimace of regret or disgust and him not noticing or their kwami saying something at all in the background.

There are plenty more issues, like Gabriel being once again not a solid villain or character, the wish allowing to choose a “sacrifice”, Gabriel “winning”.

Yes, Gabriel may didn’t revive Emilie, and made the perfect world he wished with Adrien as a perfect symbol, but he reunited with Emilie, was remembered as a hero, admired by his son, avoided being imprisoned and paying for his crimes between terrorism and abuse (I don’t see death as a penalty), dying with a serene smile on his face....

Even if the perfect ending wasn’t perfect, even if it resulted in an illusion, in dire consequences, Gabriel’s tale ended mostly in a positive light.   Once again also, it’s highly unprobable that big changes were made between the finale when it was meant as last season and the finale when season 6 was confirmed. So most of these factors would just be part of the real end.  While we can’t confirm that for sure, it’s still something to keep in mind.  I really want to to say again that I don’t want to shame on people who liked this season finale, but just to explain why I perceived these episodes as problematic and why I understand the view of everyone else expressing criticism. 

[baenyth]

After too much stalling, I finally finished the other half of Miraculous Season 2. Here's my thoughts episode-by-episode:

Zombizou: The episode focused on Ms. Bustier. Honestly I get where she's coming from in that statement to Marinette. This is a world where people can become butt-ugly abominations because they felt upset, although I think Chloe still needs consequences for her actions as well as something like positive reinforcement. She had plenty consequences in season 1. Speaking of Chloe, That Asshole was wrong. There was clear intent for Chloedemption. Also could we at least have seen all that stuff Ms. Bustier does in previous episodes?

Syren: This was an episode the salters talked loads about, and honestly, I get where Adrien's coming from here. On a fundamental level the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculi aren't equals due to the Ladybug's magic reset button, but as one of the first Miraculous users, Adrien should've still been let in on the loop. Kid felt like he was useless, that Ladybug could save the day without his help. At the very least have Master Fu go one-on-one or have both kids show up while transformed or blindfolded. Also the water voices ticked me off, but that's relatively minor.

Frightningale: A fun character-of-the-week episode, especially since I'm fond of Clara Nightingale's constant rhymes and rhythm. She's dedicated to it and I love it. It's also good to see Chloe be an exceptional and talented dancer! It's good to see her having talents and interests that aren't just making people suffer!

Troublemaker: Another episode showing why I think Marinette and Adrien shouldn't date in any of their forms. I don't know enough about stalker shrines but I think Marinette's room is getting close enough to be one for Adrien. Though I'm pretty sure Adrien's seen worse or has been conditioned to not care, based on his reaction at the end. Still a shame that the local TV show had to live-film Marinette's room and beach her privacy in the local city-town of Paris while the real Paris has been converted to an amusement park for tourists. You got any other reasons why the population is so low? One more thing: I'm pretty sure the lack of ladybug-vision was more due to anxiety over losing one of her earrings and the difficulty of the villain more than anything else.

Anansi: I find the new heroes good, personally. They give more screentime to other characters. Also again with Adrien's insecurity about being useful. And I think this episode would've been over sooner if they noticed that Anansi was going to get herself akumatized over the stress and maybe just let her come or something. Or if they got Marinette to arm-wrestle her instead. Marinette has muscles, right?

Sandboy: A lore episode, mostly. The nightmares were funny for a second and I was a bit annoyed by the Akuma's voice, but that's small potatoes. I like how compared to season 1, where we would be given a bunch of development for Sandboy it's just explained to us afterwards while we instead get more time for lore.

Style Queen: Hawkmoth has a contender for the most evil character in the show. Audrey Bourgeois is the kind of person that would be made fun of in those Karen freakout videos. She cheats on her husband, neglects her daughter to the point of not remembering her name, fires people over the most minor inconveniences, and starts G-rated killing people over getting a seat in the second row. She needs to be cancelled, deplatformed, and Chloe needs a therapist and better role models. I really liked the split-second of Adrien looking shocked after Marinette told him he had the catwalk down, btw. Did he think his identity was outed there?

Queen Wasp: This is why teenagers shouldn't get superpowers. I get secondhand embarrassment watching them. Also Marinette What The Fuck why the Hell are you getting Chloe to bond with the Absolute Worst Person For Her

Maledictator: This is what happens when you make Chloe bond with a Chernobyl-level toxic influence, Marinette. In general this episode was funny, both intentionally and unintentionally. Everyone starts celebrating Chloe ditching Paris with her mother except Adrien because Chloe was her only friend even though she was a detriment to everyone else and suddenly Marinette feels bad because she worships Adrien. The first thing the villain of the week does is make Audrey stop being such a horrible person and later he made Chat Noir reach the limit of catboyness. It's like a Smiling Friends episode. Also it was cool to see Chloe's depths and self-loathing. Surely that won't be forgotten and Chloe will be given therapy so she can become a better person, right?

Reverser (Put here so it makes sense timeline-wise): It's Yaoi time. Except that Nathaniel is into Ladybug (who I assume he knows is Marinette) here and Marc is fine with that. Overall a good episode. Some nice humor, and Reverser's probably the best akuma design so far I love the paper stuff. Plus more info on the side characters and a spot of good humor, excellent!

Frozer: Ah, there's the Nathmarc. And explicit Julerose. And Marinette getting some idea that her fantasy of Adrien is unhealthy and shouldn't be followed. And Adrigami, albeit a bit one-sided. Quit pining over someone who doesn't love you and get with someone who does, kid. And a smidgeon of Marigami. And Adrien's bodyguard being his daddy in place of his father. And a pinch of me seeing what the salters were talking about with the girlsquad and them forcing Marinette and Adrien together. Or at least Alya and Mylene. I couldn't hear what Alix, Juleka, and Rose were saying, but they disagreed, right? At least one of them had to disagree, right?

Heroes' Day Two-Parter: Marinette you're being too hotheaded against Lila no you gotta be like Columbo. Also yet another Marinette Costanza moment. Otherwise not much to say here. It's the boss rush episode, it's the series finale, Alya managed to catch onto Nino being Carapace but still can't seem to connect the dots between Ladybug and Marinette, the Peacock Miraculous is introduced, and Natalie is on my suslist.

I might procrastinate again on the first half of season 3. The first episode deserves a post of it's own. It's the salt episode.

[friendfromdsmp]

Are there Marinette Salt takes that you disagree with?

So we’ve established in the last ask that I think Adrien gets a bit of a bad rap with salters at times, but that’s absolutely nothing compared to how I feel about Marinette salt takes. TL;DR at the bottom since this was much longer than I anticipated, as per usual with my constant ramblings

One angle I just really can’t wrap my head around are people who think Marinette is to blame for the LadyNoir conflict overarching season 4 because, in all honesty, I don’t know if Marinette was even made fully aware that there was an ongoing issue. I’m probably misremembering or forgetting some stuff, and I’m about to go on a long-ass ramble, so bear with me on this

The conflict begins with MariBug having constant breakdowns due to her responsibilities piling up, her alter egos bleeding into each other and having zero guidance or even vent options. Back in Truth Chat said that he doesn’t mind Ladybug being the new Guardian as long as it doesn’t impact their relationship/dynamic. But due to how overwhelmed and alone she is, Ladybug can’t always be there for all the patrols and silly little things the heroes do, which leaves Chat disappointed and feeling ignored

Is he entitled to these feelings? Absolutely. Can’t help how you feel. And for the most part he doesn’t bother Ladybug with these feelings, except for mentioning it once that he misses seeing her all the time and she explains herself and promises to try and prioritise patrols more. Healthy stuff, good communication, I’m vibing so far

But Chat continues not to voice his feelings while starting to let them dictate his behaviour, and this is where the problems arise - not just with Chat, but with Marinette salters, too. I was surprised to see how many people were mad at Ladybug for not prioritising Chat more or not being more considerate of his feelings

As far as I’ve seen, Chat hasn’t voiced his concerns to her, so you can’t expect Ladybug to fix a problem she doesn’t know exists, and even then you can see she doesn’t have the mental capacity or available free time right now, every other episode featured her having a mental breakdown. At this point Chat being disappointed that he’s not his coworker’s top priority isn’t… well, a priority

People were also getting mad that Marinette revealed her identity to Alya and not Chat was also a surprise to me. Alya is Marinette’s best friend and was chosen to be a hero for her loyalty and trustworthiness (arguable whether the show does a good job at displaying these qualities but I digress) and Chat Noir, the holder of the only other Miraculous Hawkmoth needs, is the most dangerous possible choice to share her identity with, especially considering what little Marinette remembers about Chat Blanc

Plus, Alya was there. Like, physically right there. And Marinette broke under all the pressure that was put on her. You think she’s gonna break and then sit around peacefully until Chat shows up before she actually acts on the breakage?

Anyway, speaking of Alya, her becoming more involved in the hero work makes Chat Noir feel replaced, resulting in him straight-up ignoring the plan after he was informed of his role in it multiple times by multiple people during Sentibubbler. I’ve seen takes that Marinette should have apologised for him not being better informed or for not including him more in the plan, and that absolutely baffles me

This wasn’t Marinette’s plan. Hell, Marinette herself didn’t even know half the plan, and she was the only other person aware of Alya’s trump card. Not to mention there was a whole thing about how Alya couldn’t contact Marinette, so how do they expect Marinette to have any way of knowing more than what was canonically stated to have been told to Marinette? There’s no way people aren’t just making up issues at this point

Rocketear then shows us something I think highlights one of the previous points very well; Ladybug notices that Chat looks upset after he’s learned that Ladybug broke the secret identify rule by handing Alya and Nino their Miraculous at the same time back during Heroes’ Day

She asks Chat what’s wrong and if he’s okay, and you know what he says? He fkn reassures her that he’s okay and it’s nothing

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen; Ladybug noticed there were signs of a problem and asked Chat about it, only to be told there was no problem. But as all the salters have told me, Ladybug just doesn’t care about Chat Noir or his problems. How do people expect her to fix a problem that she not only doesn’t know exists, but a problem that’s now actively being kept from her?

Now we come to Chat Noir no-showing to fights, which results in Ladybug needing to call in additional backup more often. At first Chat has valid reasons for not showing up; he had obligations as Adrien that he couldn’t escape. But the problem here isn’t that he didn’t show, it’s that he took the temp heroes showing up as a sign of Ladybug replacing him as her partner rather than filling a vacant but necessary role

And the problem only worsened when Chat stopped showing up to fights even when he had every opportunity to, opting out due to being depressed that Ladybug was relying more on the temp heroes… which in turn forced Ladybug to rely more on the temp heroes. He was creating his own problem

And it stumps me how so many Marinette salters decided that it was her fault for letting things get so bad between them that he was sitting out akuma fights due to depression. Dumber still, people agreeing with Adrien and saying that Ladybug is replacing Chat and she shouldn’t keep bringing out the temp heroes and instead rely more on Chat

Guys, I’m sure she’d love to rely more on Chat, but right now she can’t even rely on him to show up to his job. What do you realistically want her to do? Fight akumas all alone, without any backup? Not fight the akuma until Chat shows up first, thus enabling the akuma to run rampant and unchecked through Paris until then? Somehow figure out Chat Noir’s identify, show up at Adrien’s house and beg him to help her fight? What’s her realistic alternative to the temp heroes?

Kuro Neko is where this comes to a head. To start we have salters saying that Ladybug’s interview was insulting to Chat, but I don’t see it at all. Her exact words were “Of course [Chat and I aren’t at odds with each other], it's just that... umm, he's a partner like any other! The most important is to pick the best superheroes for each mission, with or without Cat Noir. No matter what, we've got a great team and we'll always be here to save Paris.”

She’s saying that Chat Noir wasn’t necessary for the fight, not that he wasn’t wanted or missed. Could she have phrased it slightly better? Yes. But she was put on the spot to answer a question she doesn’t know the answer to but probably secretly fears the worst for, all while knowing that she needs to reassure the public that they’re safe and that she and all the other heroes will transform back any minute now

She was trying to say “Chat Noir’s absence isn’t because of any fights between us, and I can assure you that with the help of the team, Paris won’t be any less safe than it is when we work as a duo”, not “Chat Noir is useless and I’m phasing him out in favour of all these other heroes”

Chat finally shows up and addresses his issues, albeit totally out of the blue for Ladybug since this is the first time she’s actually gotten some form of confirmation that something is, in fact, wrong. Chat shows up out of nowhere after missing a ton of akuma fights, wants to hang out and chat while Ladybug is already on the clock, then offers to help her out by going to all the meeting spots to collect the loaned Miraculous

The problem here is that Chat doesn’t know half of their identities, so in order to help Ladybug, he needs her to break the identity rule in a non-emergency situation and reveal secrets that aren’t hers to share

He tries to argue that he already knows some of the heroes, which is fair, but even then it’s made pretty clear that Ladybug doesn’t have time to work out which heroes Chat knows the identities of and then tell him where these specific individuals are currently located

They’ll all be turning back any moment now, Ladybug included, and if she turns back then it’s game over for them all. At very least King Monkey would have only lasted another three or four seconds if Ladybug had gotten his Miraculous back, and he was left dangling from a chimney

Seems to me that Ladybug is not currently in a position where she’s able to accept Chat Noir’s help, but she has made it clear that she’ll talk to him after everything is taken care of and she’s no longer racing against the clock

But because she’s turning down Chat Noir’s offer of help, regardless of circumstances, the salters blame her for it as if she and all the others wouldn’t have turned back before she even finished sharing all the heroes’ locations

There’s also an argument going around of ‘she should have told him all their identities before’, but this is ignoring that, while it’s Ladybug’s job to know this stuff as both their Guardian and not Ladybug’s place to share the secrets of others, we’ve also had several episodes detailing how dangerous it is to break the identity rule; Queen Wasp, Heroes’ Day, Miraculer, Miracle Queen, Optigami, Sentibubbler, Rocketear. Hell, three of those happened just the other week or something

And just to clarify, Ladybug still doesn’t know that this is part of an overarching issue; as far as she knows, he showed up out of nowhere after a fight, she told him multiple times that she has to rush around gathering these Miraculous and that she didn’t have time to explain where she needed to meet everyone, he was teasing and making puns while interrupting her and then she snapped that “If you want to save me time, stop wasting it in the first place!” since he was being pushy at an inappropriate time when she didn’t have the time to talk it out calmly or anything

It’s an understandable reaction when you’re trying to do something very important and someone swoops in out of nowhere and pesters you with puns and demands while you’re already on the clock, and frankly Chat did need her to snap a bit to show she was serious

And all I have to say is… that’s it? That’s all she had to do to be the bad guy in this situation, according to salters? Yes, she could’ve been more polite, sure, but Chat was the one keeping her from doing her job. Showing up with the intention of helping doesn’t absolve him of causing further disruptions. At that point he was the one disregarding social convention

And then immediately after that, Chat tells her that she should just take his Miraculous away from him as well, to which she just gives a barebones acknowledgement as she rushes away, then expresses that she doesn’t know what he meant by that. She still thinks this is just him wanting to be helpful and not taking her responsibilities seriously in favour of being playful

This is an extreme overreaction to what she perceives as just a minor bump in the road, if anything, which is probably why she didn’t catch on right away what he meant; he wouldn’t really quit being a superhero altogether just over her not having the time to talk to him right this second, right?

Plagg is the one to break it to her that there’s an overarching issue; Chat’s co-dependency issues making him struggle with the idea that he’s not necessary because job-wise he can be replaced with the temp heroes and his struggles to healthily communicate this due to his stunted social development resulting in his bottled up feelings spilling over… wait, what? He said it was because she broke Chat’s heart by not being in love with him? When the hell did that become relevant?

But some salters ate up the idea that Ladybug rejecting Chat is a moral failing on her part and all this would’ve been solved if she just dated him already. The love square isn’t even a contender in these issues, why is this the explanation? And why are people falling for it? It’s clearly just another excuse to make Marinette ‘learn a lesson’ and blame her for all this while absolving Adrien of any perceived imperfections

And to clarify once more; MariBug is now finally aware that there is some overarching conflict, but she believes it’s just Chat being butthurt that she’s still not in love with him. So nothing new. Same conflict as always

Oh, and a bit of a tangent but what the hell were the salters thinking when they blamed Marinette for going to London in Hack-San? We saw her make several attempts to get out of it, then when she couldn’t she called Alya - the second most experienced superheroine after herself and someone already familiar with Tikki and already aware of Mari’s identity - to take over for her to ensure Paris still had a Ladybug hero

Even after she was long gone, Mari was still texting Alya non-stop to provide tips for being the Ladybug hero, including special tips on how to make Chat feel valued and happy. Girl thought of everything, did all she could, and you’re still managing to complain that she should’ve just… what? Confessed to her parents that she’s Ladybug so they’d have to let her stay? Run away? Destroy all their passports?

Look, even Tom was vibing with not going, but Marinette tried every trick in the book and it all failed, so she ensured she appointed the most qualified replacement she could. That’s called being responsible

I bet those salters are the same people that got pissed off when Ladybug yelled at Chat for abandoning Paris in the New York special, despite the fact that he left completely unannounced yet pre-planned and willingly, while knowing Ladybug wouldn’t be there and without appointing anyone to fill in in his absence and as such knowingly leaving Paris undefended

Anyway, things come to a head again in the finale when Chat is yelling at Ladybug mid-battle for keeping secrets from him and being too reliant on the temp heroes rather than him and all that fun stuff. Now remember, this is once again coming out of nowhere for Ladybug, who has managed to reach the season finale without actually knowing that she’s in the middle of a season-long conflict as opposed to just same old, same old

Ladybug is trying to defend herself from both the sentimonsters and from Chat’s accusations and insults, with no idea where all this animosity has ‘suddenly’ come from

More salters argue that, once again, Ladybug should’ve caved to his whims by now, and all I can do is wonder why the middle of a huge fight is seemingly their definition of an appropriate time for that conversation, let alone any time at all being appropriate for spilling secrets that aren’t yours to share and are being kept for the purpose of child safeguarding

Salters really need to understand that while LadyNoir are equals in terms of a team unit going into battle, Ladybug is still effectively Chat’s boss due to her Guardianship role. They don’t have to be equals in absolutely every aspect, and Marinette doing her job is not a flaw in Marinette’s character or an argument towards her being a bad person who doesn’t care about Chat Noir

Then we get to the big risk of giving a Miraculous to ‘Adrien’, and salters love to claim that it’s all Ladybug’s fault because she chose Felix and not Adrien. Can you guess what I’m going to ask how, guys?

As opposed to what???

Ladybug was knowingly under the influence of an akuma that impairs judgement. She came to a very logical conclusion given the information she had that ‘Adrien’ didn’t have a mark, and thus was the only person in Paris not judgmentally impaired. She was, need I remind you, correct

The only problem is that she didn’t know - and had no way of knowing - that at that moment, Felix was pretending to be Adrien for completely unrelated reasons, just so happening to get caught up in the crossfires of whatever the hell MariBug was getting up to that day. Her logic was ‘I can’t trust myself to make a smart decision, so I’ll go to someone who I can trust to make a smart decision’. And just because Felix was already acting the part, a fact she couldn’t have possibly known, suddenly she’s to blame for the fuck-up?

Anyway, when we finally begin to conclude the LadyNoir drama, it occurs when Ladybug realised that she’s been tricked and Felix steals her yo-yo. Adrien gets in a snide comment about “If you’re gonna trust me once, please let it be this time!” which should make exactly zero sense to Ladybug

And then we get to the final scene, where Ladybug breaks down crying and apologises for lying to Chat, not listening to him, keeping him at a distance and refusing his help

And I just… what? Chat’s done all these things without context to make it understandable or called for in the moment, yet the Marinette salters are just nodding along and agreeing that she’s the one at fault. So many of them have said that Ladybug didn’t deserve his forgiveness or his loyalty or his pep talk, it baffles me

And that brings me to conclude my biggest gripe about the LadyNoir drama and the Marinette salters that go with it; MariBug was almost solely blamed by the narrative and the salters alike, but she didn’t actually know anything at all was going on until Kuro Neko (episode 23 of 26)

From there she figured it was just some of Chat’s habitual pouting on the job over his advances being rejected until the very last episode of the season but never got clarification on what exactly had been bugging him for this long, then it all magically resolved without apology or explanation

He didn’t bother with that because, by the end of the episode, Chat had gotten his way; no more temp heroes. Ladybug was now forced to rely on him and only him, so he instantly quit fighting her and carried on as though nothing had ever happened. Ladybug must’ve been reeling, no wonder she was just listing off all the bad stuff she could think of that she might’ve done; she was trying to see which one stuck. Girl lasted the entire season drama without knowing what the drama was

Marinette salters to that extent don’t take into account her perspective of many situations, and a lot of it is from Chat stans getting mad when MariBug doesn’t bend over backwards to his every whim, even when he’s actively keeping them a secret from her. She’s just supposed to telepathically know what the problem is and is expected to fix it simply because ‘they’re partners’, when even that isn’t an obligation to care for him beyond a professional capacity

Sorry I know this one is long as all hell but it really annoys me how certain Marinette salters will practically invent problems to blame her for - the show’s writers included. And to be clear, I’ve done my share of Marinette salting before, she’s far from perfect, but I do think that a lot of the salt she gets is pretty baseless

TL;DR is that my worst issue with Marinette salters is how they often blame Marinette entirely for the season 4 LadyNoir drama despite the fact that a lot of their problems with her behaviour don’t really have a reasonable alternative and she didn’t ever actually work out what the drama was truly about, having not even known there was drama until episode 23 of 26

[the-delta-42]

The Truth 1

The Truth

[1 The Truth] [2 Soul] [3 Through a Shattered Mirror] [4 Healing]

Marinette took a deep breath. Adrien deserved to know the truth, about her identity and how his father, who is now being hailed as a hero, was Monarch, the man who terrorised Paris for the past couple of years. Adrien stared down at her, his eyes soft and loving. Marinette hoped he didn’t hate her.

“Adrien?” Murmured Marinette, glancing up at him, “I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?” Adrien murmured back.

“I…” Marinette’s mind went blank, “can’t remember.”

Adrien winced, “I hate it when that happens, you know what your gonna say and then to flies out of your mind.”

Marinette hummed, quietly pondering on what she was going to say.

TT

Ladybug looked down at Adrien, he was staring up at his father’s statue, with a troubled look on his face.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Asked Ladybug, making Adrien look up at her.

“I’m thinking about my father,” Confessed Adrien, “He gave his life to defeat Monarch, and he’s a hero for it, but all the stuff he did to me and my friends. How he hurt me and was unnecessarily cruel to my friend. He hated my girlfriend because she made me happy. I, I wanted him to be Monarch, j-just so I could feel justified in why I hated him so much.”

“I,” Ladybug paused, “I never knew you felt that way.”

“Yeah, well,” Scoffed Adrien, “He’s a hero now, everyone loves him. No matter how horrible he was or how bad he made others feel.”

Ladybug felt her mouth and voice move on their own accord, “I’m sure he was just doing his best, Adrien.”

Adrien scowled and scoffed again, “No offence, Ladybug, but you didn’t know him, you didn’t live with him, you didn’t have to work for him, and you didn’t have to try to reach out to him every day and get rejected.”

Adrien spun around and stalked off, as Ladybug gnawed at her bottom lip.

TT

Ladybug gnawed on her bottom lip, she’d asked Chat Noir to meet her, she’d made sure to specify that she wanted to see Chat Noir only, much to the rest of the team’s consternation. Since Monarch had been defeated and Gabriel’s statue had gone up, she’d tried to tell Adrien who his father really was, but every time she tried, the words wouldn’t need her mouth.

“Okay, LB, what’s the news?” Said Chat, making Ladybug jump.

“How many time do I have to tell you not to do that?” Gasped Ladybug, before straightening up, “Never mind, I have a problem.”

“Is it boy trouble? I promise not to cataclysm him too hard.” Rattled off Chat Noir, getting a sigh from Ladybug.

“It’s to do with Monarch’s identity.” Said Ladybug, not hearing the team all gasp underneath her.

“Oh, really?” Questioned Chat, “Who was he?”

“Gabrilllll- Gabb- for fuck’s sake, the guy who dressed like a candy cane before being bleached.” Spat Ladybug, internally cursing whatever was going on with her.

“Gabriel Agreste?” Asked Chat, slowly, “I’m sorry, M’Lady, but I thought he helped defeat Monarch?”

“In a roundabout way,” Dismissed Ladybug, “I can’t remember how, but he got the Miraculous, made the wish and then, nothing, I don’t know what changed, but he seemingly wished himself out of existence.”

Chat Noir swallowed, “W-why didn’t you tell Adrien this?”

“I’ve tried,” Sighed Ladybug, “that’s the problem, every time I try and tell him, my mind goes blank, and I keep forgetting what I’m trying to tell him. Then my mouth suddenly gets a mind of its own and tells him ‘Your father was a hero, he helped defeat Monarch’. It’s like my brain’s trying to erase that he was Monarch!”

“What?” Ladybug and Chat whirled around and spotted Carapace, “Adrien’s dad was Monarch?”

Ladybug groaned, before pinching the bridge of her nose, “Okay, okay, who else decided my instruction of ‘Chat Noir Only’ was a suggestion?”

Slowly, each and every member of the team crawled out from their hiding places. Ladybug groaned again.

“Yeah, I know, we didn’t listen to you and you’re not mad, just disappointed.” Said Rena, “However, in our defence-”

“Rena, be quiet.” Said Ryuko, walking up to Ladybug, “Ladybug, look at me.”

Ladybug slowly looked up and everyone jerked back, Ladybug had blood running from her eyes and nose.

“What?” Asked Ladybug, before her eyes rolled back into her head.

“Oh shit.” Swore Rena, rushing forwards, helping Ryuko lower Ladybug to the floor, “What the hell?”

Chat shook himself out of his stupor and knelt down next to Ladybug, “What just happened?”

“Ladybug said Adrien’s dad was Monarch, before she started bleeding from the eyes and nose and then she collapsed.” Said Pegasus, getting everyone’s attention.

“I think he meant that metaphorically.” Suggested Purple Tigress, as Rena frowned.

“I’m going to have to remove the earrings.” Stated Rena, “Hopefully, Tikki can tell us what’s wrong.”

Rena went to grab the earrings, before hesitating. She frowned, before looking over at the rest of the heroes, “Argos, I need your coat.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t have a blanket to hide her identity!”

Argos grumbled as he shed his coat and held it out to Rena.

Rena took it and carefully adjusted it over Ladybug, before reaching under it and pulling the earrings off. Chat stared at Ladybug’s shoes, they looked familiar to him, before Ladybug suddenly started convulsing.

“Oh fuck!” Yelped Rena, attempting to restrain Ladybug with Ryuko, “Now what?!”

“Stop restraining her!” Yelled Pigella, rushing forwards, “You’re at risk of harming her!”

Shoving the two out of the way, Pigella went to remove the coat, Rena opened her mouth, but a glare from Pigella silenced her.

“I’m sorry.” Whispered Pigella, before pulling the coat off Ladybug and rolling her onto her side.

Marinette suddenly expelled blood from her mouth, everyone except Argos, Ryuko and Rena froze. Pigella shook her head and looked at them, “We need to get her to a hospital.”

“How?” Asked Ryuko, “we can’t just charge in there and say ‘Hey this unconscious and bleeding girl is Ladybug, we don’t know what’s wrong with her!’ can we?”

Chat shook his head and looked away, before rushing over and grabbing the earrings form Rena and jammed them onto his ears.

“What are you doing?” Demanded Rena, as Chat flicked the earrings.

“Tikki might be able to help.” Said Chat, as the Kwami appeared.

“What?” Said Tikki, “Where’s…?”

She spotted Marinette, “Marinette!”

“Tikki, can you tell us what’s happening to her?” Asked Chat, quickly catching her attention.

“It’s a side effect of witnessing a reality changing wish, she tried to reveal what happened in the old world and now it’s trying to kill her.” Answered Tikki, “It was a stipulation Monarch made when he made his wish.”

“Is there any way to reverse it?” Demanded Rena, from Marinette’s side.

“The Celestial Guardian might.” Said Tikki, getting a frown from Chat, he didn’t particularly like him very much.

“They trained me to succeed Su Han-” Started Viperion, before someone snorted.

“You were trained because you were a loose end,” Said a man, appearing with a shimmer, “You are simply a soldier, not a commander.”

“Li.” Chided a woman, appearing, “At ease.”

The man scoffed, before jumping down, “Move aside.”

Ryuko reached for her sword, before the woman spoke up, “Li has a blood connection with the girl. He can help in ways the Grand Master cannot.”

Li crouched next to Marinette, ushering Pigella and Rena out of the way. He sliced into his hand, and started muttering under his breath.

Viperion scowled, before Marinette coughed up some more blood, with some red markings appearing on her. Li frowned, before resuming his muttering. Marinette coughed again, the red markings vanishing.

“She should be healed enough to go to a healer without anyone asking too many questions.” Said Li, after he was finished, “They’ll likely say that she’s exhausted, but she’ll be fine.”

Rena nodded, grabbed Marinette, with Ryuko helping her and jumped off the roof. The rest of the team stood in silence as the Guardians left, with Li casting a sharp glare at Viperion.

T

Marinette coughed blood into the paper bowl the doctors had given her.

“She’s incredibly lucky.” Said one to her mother, “if she’d ingested any more, you’d be making funeral arrangements.”

Sabine glanced at Marinette, before looking at the doctor.

“That being said,” they continued, “it may also be down to the fact the glass wasn’t ground fine enough.”

“Why didn’t anyone notice?” Asked Sabine, making the doctor look at her.

“Ground up glass looks a lot like sugar when ground up.” Said the doctor, “Does she had sugar in anything?”

“Practically everything she eats or drinks.” Said Sabine, frowning.

“Has she had any reaction to anything she’s eaten?”

“No, she’s hasn’t.”

“How about drinking?”

Sabine froze, “She threw away a coffee she got, she said it hurt her tongue.”

“Where did she get it from?” Asked the doctor, frowning.

“A coffee shop near her school, Petunia’s.”

The doctor didn’t move, before looking down at his notes, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Marinette spat some more blood into her bowl, “Maman, am I going to die?”

Sabine sat next to Marinette and gently wrapped an arm around her, “I don’t think so, the doctors don’t seem to be too concerned.”

The door opened, with the doctor re-entering the room, “Right, I’ve contacted the police, we’ve had a number of other patients with similar symptoms. They’ll want to talk to you.”

“Is she going to be alright?” Asked Sabine, getting the Doctor’s attention.

“She’ll be fine.” Assured the Doctor, “Fortunately, the blood’s mostly coming from her tongue, but her fainting is down to another issue. Does your daughter suffer from insomnia?”

“I don’t think so.” Answered Sabine, “But she does drink a lot of coffee at home.”

The doctor sighed, “I’m going to suggest you put her on a caffeine hold and see what happens from there.” They handed Sabine a prescription, “These are a mild sleep medication, she should take one after a meal. I’m going to see about discharging your daughter.”

Sabine watched after the doctor as they walked out, before looking at Marinette, who, for some reason, had stuck four cotton balls in her mouth.

“Habe bhe beebin stobed?”

T

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just news,” Said Nadja on the television, “Petunia’s, a local coffee shop, has been closed by police after it was discovered they were giving some of their customers ground up glass in their coffee.”

Marinette stopped with a cheese puff half-way to her mouth.

“The owner of Petunia’s has not been arrested, but had declined to comment.”

Marinette shrugged, before going back the spell book, pausing when she saw a particular spell.

[dorkynerd23]

Honestly, this is something that's been on my mind for a while now almost ever since about episode 3 of the show, but now with the recent episode out, I honestly fear for the show's future and how people could end up viewing it, at least when it comes to its love triangle. So, it seems the show is now definitely hinting at a love triangle (Which is something some fans have hinted at beforehand, but it seems common now) especially after the events of episode 5, and that does worry me when it comes to MD..because I really don't want the show to be ruined by romance and shipping, and I especially don't want shipping to overshadowed the show and the stuff we're supposed to be focusing on.

I've never been a fan of love triangles and it's a trope that has honestly annoyed me and something I've never been a fan of. I'm sure everything will be okay and Liam knows what he's doing, but I'm worried about how it'll be handled and how people may view the show, I mean I remember back when Episode 4 was released, some on Twitter admitted to wanting to leave and stop watching the show because of Nuzi being hinted at and the many scenes with the two or there was just more shipping wars happening which made the fandom more toxic and such a mess.

But anyways, I know it sounds like I'm complaining and worrying too much but as I've said this is an issue I've been fearing for the show and it's future for quite some time now, I'm worried because of how shipping has ruined other shows in the past and dragged them down and can often be frustrating and can take away from the elements from what we should be focusing on or just end up taking over the show completely. There are many examples I can name when it comes to shipping taking over a show like Regular Show, Miraculous Ladybug, Legend Of Korra and TDI, but the main one that's a huge example of this and what most people talk on when it comes to this topic is Star Vs/Star Vs The Forces Of Evil. That show started out so well and good in the beginning and had good elements in it from its characters, and world-building and it just had so much potential and could've even been up there as one of the best cartoons, maybe on the Gravity falls level...but sadly, things took a huge turn sometime after S2 and they really started to drag things down with not only other things that were causing the show to go downhill, but it's shipping especially and it felt like a fanfic. I mean seriously, the shipping wars for Star Vs were the most toxic and brutal l've ever seen for a show and in the end, I don't think anybody was happy. I've even seen Starco fans feel unsatisfied for how their relationship was handled and forced at the end and let's not forget the show had one of the most underwhelming and rushed finales I've seen for a show. To this day, People still shit talk and rant on how horrible the show was handled in the end and how forced it's romance was, it still saddens me for how Star Vs was done because the show did have potential and could've been better!

Now let me just say that I've got nothing against shipping and see no harm in participating in it (Just as long as it isn't problematic)(I'm a shipper myself and have a love and adornment towards shipping, especially when it comes to Oc's + Oc X Canon) and finding investment and wanting to see certain characters together and be something more and I've seen some people state that the love triangle is common in Liam's work and it's not something new, so maybe I'm just missing something, I didn't know much about Liam and what he's done before he did MD.

But overall, I'm just worried and fear that this love triangle between N, V, and Uzi could end up pushing people away from the show and dragging things out and taking away from what we should be focusing on in the series. I mean, some are already losing hope for the show for other reasons and the shipping wars in the Murder Drones fandom are already toxic and out of control, so that doesn't help. I just fear for how this will be handled because most love triangles I've seen in media are handled and done poorly and terribly, and just end up causing unnecessary drama and same goes for other romances I've seen.

Again, this is only MY OPINION and something I wanted to discuss about, this isn't me trying to hate and shit on the show or the crew, I've adored and love Murder Drones since the Pilot and the show has kept me more and more invested and interested with its story and characters and it's honestly a comfort show for me, I truly love MD very much, I'm a huge fan of the show and consider it not only as one of my favorite shows, but also one of my favorite webseries. But I do wanna admit that the show is flawed and isn't perfect and some things can improve in the future, this post was just me wanting to give my thoughts on this situation (I've seen some fans also give their thoughts and concerns for the show when it comes to the romance) and none of you have to agree with me. You can disagree and give your own thoughts and opinions, but please try to be respectful in the comments though and don't be hateful and rude to each other, please. ♥️

[howhow326]

Guys guys I had the same dream about the first episode of season 6 three times and its starting to freak me out

When I woke up I swaer I remembered reading about this episode in the show bible or from leaked story borads or whatever but tgen I realized its not real!

Ok ok, so the episode begins and everything is pretty normal, Ladybug and team miraculous are helping to stop villains in Paris (who I assume arent conected to Hawkmoth cuz he dosent show up). Then almost every person in the world gets superpowers! Not a miraculous, but like X-gene mutant superpoqers!!! The only people who DON'T get them are team miraculous for some reason (and chloe).

So mid way through the episode, things are hard for team miraculous because civilians have started to fight villains themselves and they don't really need Ladybug/Chat Noir anymore.

Team miraculous have an argument in their headquarters(?) And then Ladybug is all like "Fine! If you guys don't need me anymore, then I quite! I will reveal mine, and Chat Noir so he dosen't feel left out, identities to Paris and choose a new ladybug and cat holders". Then after she says that, like half of team miraculous quite their job and theres only like seven holders left!!!

Ok ok ok so this is what really weirded me out and made me think this episode was wrong. At the end of the episode, we see the line-up of the new miraculous holders and like all of them are using two miraculous! We got:

Scarabella/Alya with the ladybug and fox miraculous. The outfit was kind of predictable and busy, but it was better than most of the stuff further down

Kitty Noir/Zoe with the Cat and Snake miraculous. It was like the same as Snake Noir but Zoe still had her hair out.

Nino with the turtle + some orange miraculous (I keep remembering it as the fox but that means there are two fox weilders at the same time). For some reason, his hero outfit was this complete redesign that made him look like a DnD/WoW Paladin with like silver armor that was constantly bathed in green lights that made it kind of hard to tell what color his outfit was. AND FOR SOME REASON Nino had this big, ball shaped, shoulder paludrons/shoulder armor that was like bigger than his head and every time I looked at him I kept staring at those things because they were the only part of his hero suit that juted out from his outfit like that. Like everything else was skin tight armor(?), excpet those two metal balls on his shoulders!!!!

Max is here with the horse and some other red miraculous and he also got a completely new outfit: he has long silver pants + shoes and a red leather jacket. He kind of looked like Party Crasher but wirh different colors, honestly. Also he had a rapier (rip Kagami, she wasn't on the new team) .Also he flat ironed his hair and slicked it back for some reason (he barely looked like himself).

MANON/TJE NEWS REPORTERS DAUGHTER GIRL WAS ON THE TEAM!!! She was wearing some ugly Ladybug and Chat Noir themed princess outfit like she wears as puppeteer despite not having those miraculous wtf

Bare with me... Markov was on the team. And when he transformed he became a person sized mech suit. Uh gvh gh hfyffggyyyt

I don't remember who the seventh team member was caused the kind of faded with the background and looked a lot like Markov but I think it might have been Ivan.

Amd thats how the first episode of season 6 ended. Me just staring at these weird designs before waking up. And thats when I realized I seen those same exact ugly outfits like three times!!!

I think the only difference I had in this dream was that in one dream Chloe was their and Ladybug made her the new guardian because she proved herself in the episode (she didn't get the bee miraculous or any other miraculous, back however) and in a different dream Chloe was forced to leave Paris forever... and that dream happened before I saw Revolution!!!!!! Not before I saw the leaks, but still!!!!!!!

I'm internally screaming. I think the episode was supposed to be another fake out but the idea of MANON randomly becoming a hero and running around in her ugly little tutu scares me.

[yubellia]

Reborn as Lila Rossi: The Fox and the caterpillar (chapter three): A new team

Hi! Welcome to chapter three. I know the last one was anticlimactic at best. However this one will be longer. So enjoy.

„Bla bla bla“

(Think think)

„Volpina OR Trixx speaking“

„Ladybug OR Tikki speaking“

„Chat Noir OR Plagg speaking“

„Hawk Moth OR Nooroo speaking“

„Akumatized person speaking.“

——————————————————

Marinette‘s pov (the morning after Mr. Pigeon attacked the city):

Marinette was woken up in the morning by Tikki who looked unsure but also excited. „So…. let me get this straight. This giant bread yesterday was an illusion. Like you already suspected. And it was created by the fox miraculous.“ Marinette was busy organizing her school supplies while saying that. „Yes. We did not talk about this before so far but you must know that the your miraculous was given to you. It did not just appear in your bag. It’s the same here. The master did not go into too much detail. However, he said that this new miraculous user earned it and that we can trust her. Also I am supposed to lead you to him soon.“ Marinette was not convinced by this. „But why did she not show herself to us? Or come to us after that? And what did you say about us meeting her later?“ Tikki flew over to the table. Last night Master Fu came to them to talk to Tikki. He wrote down an address for a meeting. „Master said she feared that you could see her as an enemy. That’s why she asked the master to approach both me and Plagg first, so that we can tell you and Chat Noir about this. To break the ice.“ Marinette took the piece of paper. It was outside of town. The factory area. „Ok. If the person who gave me and Chat Noir the miraculous, then we should at least hear what she has to say. What did you say is her Name?“ Marinette was ready for school. After that, they would meet this new hero. Tikki, like always flew into her purse. „She calls herself Volpina.“

In school:

It was a mostly normal day at school. I greeted Alya, Nino, Adrien and Marinette. We pretty much were together for most of the day. It was during lunch when more students joined us. Rose sat next to me and started to question me. „Hey Lila? Since you are from Italy, why did you move here? Moving to a different country sound difficult.“ (ok. Here we go. Stick to your story.) I put a sad smile on my face. „Well, my mother works for the Italian embassy. Not the first time I have to move. You get used to it.“ That got me some concerned and sympathetic looks from my classmates. Those on the desk next to us are listening too. Juleka, who sat next to Rose spoke up now. „And your farther? Isn’t this difficult for him too?“ (ok. Time to expand my story.) „My parents are divorced. I haven’t seen him since I was five years old I think.“ This got me more sympathy from those around me. Rose looked a little guilty. „Oh. I‘m sorry Lila. I did not want to bring up any bad memories.“ Alya joined in now as well. „That must have been pretty hard. It sounds like you have been alone a lot.“

Alya sat next to Marinette and I made sure not to say too much. I can‘t have Marinette think anything bad about me. Not yet. However she had the same look of sympathy on her face as the others. „Sometimes. But I saw some pretty places. I admit that going to school was not always easy but Mom promised that this time, we would be staying. And Rose? Don‘t feel bad ok? I am over it. No bad memories.“ Everything seemed fine after that. I just saw Chloe and Sabrina sitting on another table. Chloe did not look too happy. (I wonder what’s going on in her head.)

To make sure Trixx stayed close, I started to wear a bag around my hip with a belt. Unfortunately this is necessary. If I remember correctly, Chloe has no problem taking other people’s stuff. Marinette‘s diary being proof of that.

I spend the rest of the day close to Marinette and the others. Mostly to make sure that they did not think anything bad about me. If someone asked why I did that, I could just say that it’s my second day and I just thought they were nice. Alya talked a little about what happened yesterday. It seems that many people are wondering where that giant bread came from. At least a video Alya showed us said so. Alya started to come up with theories. Asking if maybe this was a new power ladybug got. Or maybe it was supposed to be a distraction from Hawk Moth. Marinette just patted her shoulder, getting a little nervous. „I am sure, whatever it is, Ladybug and Chat Noir will deal with it. If it is something serious, maybe they will warn us about it.“ Alya got that spark in her eyes. „Oh I hope I can talk to Ladybug the next time something happens! The people of Paris have to know the truth if it is something dangerous!“

And there we go. Marinette dug herself a little hole there. Now she has no choice but to give Alya an interview for that blog of hers. Well that’s her problem. Not mine. I try to think of how to approach Ladybug and Chat Noir later. Master Fu did tell them about me. But I can’t know how they react. While I am thinking, Alya tries to get my attention. „Lila? Any plans for today? I could show you Paris a little. And tell you about all the things Ladybug did so far.“ I smile. I am sure she means well but the two of us surely won‘t become best friends. „Sorry Alya. I am still not done unpacking and I am still trying to catch up with everything at school. Maybe another day?“ Alya looks like I told her something obvious. Like I just said that the earth is round. „Oh yeah. Right. It’s not like you moved here a month ago. But we have to hang out eventually!“ I agree with her. Mostly to shut her up.

While I am rushing home, I start to wonder why Chloe seems so quiet today. I am sure that she must be planning something. Maybe a nasty prank. Or she could be having trouble herself.

Once I reach my room, I let Trixx out of my bag and hand him some grapes. I made sure my mother really is gone. Not much of a surprise. „Ready for your meeting with Ladybug and Chat Noir? You have been thinking about it since yesterday.“ „Yes. I think I will not approach them too directly. I probably should be as honest as I can and don‘t tell them too much.“ After I put my schoolbooks down and pack some grapes in a small lunchbox, I decided that it’s time to leave.

„Ok Trixx. Time to go.“ Trixx goes back into my bag and I write a note to my mother. Just in case, that she does come back early.

I decided that I would not just transform and rush to the place we planned to meet each other. Instead I use the buses to look normal. I only transformed after I arrived close to where we would meet and after I made sure to have a safe spot where nobody could see me. „Trixx! Let’s pounce!“

Close to an abandoned warehouse

I hide behind some boxes and only hear the voices of Ladybug and Chat Noir approaching. „Soooo… what do you think this Volpina will be like my lady?“ I did not have to see them to know that Ladybug rolled her eyes at that. „If we knew, we would not be here. Instead we could meet like normal people. Our Kwamis claim that we should be able to trust her so that is all we have now.“

I took that as my signal to come out behind them.

„Cautious as always Ladybug. Very good.“ Both of them turned around abruptly and looked me up and down. I did not need them to ask. Instead I just introduced myself. „I am Volpina. Your new comrade and wielder of the fox miraculous. It’s a pleasure to meet you.“ since I had my normal grown up body, both of them had to look up to me a little. „So… if you helped us yesterday, why did you not show yourself right away?“

I saw some questions coming but I thought their kwamis told them already. „Because the timing could not have been worse. It would have been pretty suspicious if I showed up just like that. Wouldn’t it? Also my power of illusions is not as offensive as yours. I have a flute as a weapon and I’m still trying to figure out close combat. I decided that it would be better to meet you in privat. That and you need to meet the master sooner or later anyway. Also, I have something that you don‘t. Good enough as an answer?“

Ladybug stepped closer now and I saw that she still hat questions. „What exactly is it that we lack in your opinion? Information? Power? We did pretty well so far without it.“ Ups. Looks like I struck a nerve. „Don‘t take that as an insult. I am talking about the fact, that Hawk Moth has been playing pretty ‚fair‘ so far. Let me explain. I am talking about the timer. You use your power once and in five minutes after that, you transform back. Hawk Moth does not do that and I don‘t do it either. Did your Kwamis tell you why?“ Ladybug calmed down a little. It was Chat Noir who took this next question.

„isn’t that for our protection? That’s what Plagg said at least. I thought that’s just how it works.“ I shake my head and start walking to the warehouse. „That’s where you are wrong. It is normal for you, because you are young. Adults like Hawk Moth or myself don‘t have to do that. We also can use our power more than once. Turning back after using your power is a mechanism to protect younger miraculous users. And to make sure you don‘t misuse or abuse that power. Once you are an adult, not necessarily physically but also mentally, that will no longer be a problem. You will be able to use your powers multiple times. You know what I mean with that?“

Ladybug had a moment of realization which left her kind of depressed. „So what you are saying is, that Hawk Moth could do much more and much worse if he wanted to? Is there no way to work around this?“ Now it’s my turn to shake my head. „So far? No. This mechanism is supposed to protect you because the miraculous pulls energy from our kwamis and us. People who are too young to handle that are supposed to be protected by that. That’s why you could need any help you can get. Hawk Moth has been patient before but in theory, there is nothing stopping him from akumatizing more than one person. I belief that he will grow inpatient sooner or later.“

I decided not to tell them about how to turn the timer off. It would include using their powers for bad things or selfishly, so they probably won‘t get that idea on their own. They will get their power sooner or later. „So Hawk Moth could launch a big attack any day and we would be forced to take breaks? There is nothing we can do to help these people?“ I smile at them but shake my head again. „Not yet. Thats why you need help. Someone to buy you some time. That is also why I did not reveal myself yesterday. If Hawk Moth knew you have someone that won’t transform back, it might push him to become more aggressive in what he is doing.“

Not really a lie but not quite the truth either. I could tell Ladybug about her creation power but where would be the fun in that? It would only be a disadvantage for me in the end.

While the mood was at its lowest, we heard a loud rumbling back in the town and a cloud of smoke. „And it sounds like Hawk Moth is working extra hours this week. We should go.“

We hurry to get back to the center of of the City.

Ladybug and Chat Noir go ahead while I stay behind. Paris gets overrunning plants. The other day, our *wonderful* mayor had the idea to destroy an area with gardens you can rent. Why? Because he had this idea for new buildings. Of course he did not consult anyone for this. Like always. One of the people who would loose their garden for this is Hawk Moths new follower.

„The tyranny of humans ends today! Surrender Ladybug and Chat Noir! I am MotherNature! First I’ll take revenge on this good for nothing mayor, than I take your miraculous and than I’ll change the world!“

At her command, giant vines spread through the streets. Ladybug and Chat Noir stayed on the rooftops. The Mayor got trapped in a cocoon of vines, while MotherNature laughed.

„This is horrible! The moment we deal with one vine, at least ten will follow! What do we do?“

Taking a closer look, MotherNatures plants did not come out of nowhere. Hawk Moth did not give her the power to make new plants. Just the power to control plants that already exist.

„I think I know. We need poison to deal with these plants. Burning them is out of the question. Ladybug, focus. You might think that your lucky charm gives you a random object, but you can influence what you get. Focus on something that can destroy these plants. Or maybe something that helps us get Chat Noir to the main plant. He can destroy it than.“

Ladybug nodded and looks at her Jo-jo. It looks like she was uncertain but than she collects herself.

„Lucky Charm!“

A swarm of ladybugs came out of the Jo-jo and formed three bottles. Each of us caught one. „I hope there is something in here that helps us.“

I got an idea. Ladybugs Timer was ticking now. We need to hurry. „Let’s split up. I go get mister Bourgeois and you go for MotherNature.“

Both of them knew that they had to hurry. They nodded and went to confront MotherNature and find her Akuma. I meanwhile stayed hidden and took out my flute. (I only should be able to create illusions but maybe if I push harder, I can do more. Nobody knew about Ladybugs protection charms. Until she tried it that is.) So I started playing and playing and playing. I kept playing and the light at the end grew brighter. I stopped and directed it at myself „Mirage!“ I kept my eyes closed for a moment but when I opened them, I could mostly see through myself. Not completely but close enough if you don‘t look for me. (The illusion of invisibility. Good enough.)

I started to approach the cocoon that holds mister bourgeois captive. I did not use the poison since I would need it and did not want to draw much attention. I heard MotherNature screaming and saw Ladybug using the bottle on some plants. As I jumped over the rooftops, trying to get closer, I noticed that so far, the illusion did not disappear. Despite me touching stuff.

With one final jump, I landed on the cocoon. The plant shifted and anotherNature looked in my direction for a moment but Chat Noir distracted her.

Carefully, I started pouring the liquid on the cocoon. The vines turned dark and smoke appeared. After a moment, i saw mister Bourgeois face. Not seeing anything, he got scared and wanted to scream but i put my hand over his mouth. The illusion stayed stable and I whispered to him. „Don‘t be scared sir. I get you out of here. Just stay quiet.“ he nodded and I removed my hand. I started to pour the liquid over the vines that hold him. The mayor spoke in a scared hushed voice. „Are you a hero too?“ realizing that he can‘t see me nodding, I had to speak again. „Yes sir. I work with ladybug. But no one can know. So forgive me for not telling you my name.“ the last vine came off and I grabbed mayor bourgeois to pull him out and get him down.

The air smelled terrible by now because of the plants and the poison we use to kill them. I took him across the rooftops and than down to the ground. While doing that, I heard MotherNature scream again. This time in anger. She must have noticed that the mayor is gone.

I hurried back to Ladybug and Chat Noir. „Where is her Akuma?“ Both were surprised but did not question it.

„We think it is in her bouquet. She uses it to control the plants. Let’s attack together and than you can use the bottle to destroy it.“

We start one more frontal attack and i sneak around to get her from the side. Ladybug and Chat Noir use what is left to distract her, so that I can snatch her bouquet away. „No! Give that back whoever you are!“

I ripped the bouquet apart and the Akuma appeared. Ladybug started use her Jo-jo again. „Time to de evilize!“

The butterfly was caught and released after it was purified. „Bye bye little butterfly.“ Chat Noir and I came closer to give our bottles to Ladybug. She took the lucky charms and threw them up in the air. „Miraculous Ladybug!“ A giant swarm of ladybugs spreads out across Paris and fixes everything. The plants are gone and MotherNature turned back into who she was. Indeed a lady who owns one of these gardens that were supposed to be destroyed. The air was also purified and the bad smell was gone.

I left before anyone could ask questions. My illusion still in tact. Ladybug took a moment to recharge before she approached mayor Bourgeois. A few journalists gathered too. It was Alya who ignored them all and asked a question. „Ladybug! Chat Noir! How did you manage help mayor Bourgeois and fight MotherNature at the same time? And can you tell us what happened yesterday?“ Ladybug and Chat Noir looked at each other. Mister Bourgeois looked uncertain too. Meanwhile I stood in an alleyway, where Ladybug could see me now. I took the illusion down. I gave her a sign to keep it vague. „Well, you see, we didn’t. Since yesterday, we have help. Because of Hawk Moth, they wish to stay anonymous and we respect that. When or if they wish to reveal themselves, they will. Just know that there is someone else looking out for us all now. Ok? That big bread was them too.“

The journalists did not really look happy with that answer but did not ask any more questions.

I backed away and found a nice place to transform back before I ran home, with Trixx in my pocket. When I reached my room, I collapsed on my bed. „Ahhhh! Damn, what a day!“ looking back up, I saw Trixx floating to a plate with grapes on it. „Trixx? How are you holding up?“ Trixx ate a grape before he turned around and answered. „Depends. I am doing pretty good. Not too exhausted. But I can‘t help but wonder how you did that out there.“ I looked at him. I knew what Trixx was talking about. „Well I just pushed a little harder. I guess if you lie good enough, or keep up that facade for a long time, it can become reality. Also don‘t forget, even the guardians don‘t know everything about the miraculous or the Kwami. This gives us so many new options.“ Trixx floated back to me on the bed. „Maybe. But please be careful. Whatever it is you are planning.“

-somewhere else-

„I can‘t believe they did it again! And now they even have a new hero on their side! Just wait Ladybug and Chat Noir. You and your new friend can‘t keep fighting forever!“

——————————————————

There we have it! A new chapter. Longer and with more action than the last. I hope you liked it. I am sorry for any mistakes I made while writing this.

Also, I changed the title a little. Knowing myself, I thought it would be easier if people can see something like ‚isekai story‘ right at the start.

Anyway, I hope you liked it and maybe I see you again in the next chapter.

[mirika]

In June 2023 I went to the first edition of the summer variant of Dutch Comic Con. They moved it from May to June and it was terrible as it was WAY too hot to function, it was the first time I didn't even go in cosplay. Either way, I always post, so here goes.

I went for a whole weekend with my bestie Eneath, which was fantastic, because we could go by car instead of train. It was a delight. However, the weather was not great.

I do not have a lot to report though; I did not take any photos with other cosplay, also due to being insecure about not being IN cosplay myself. On day 1 I did visit with hobbit vibes in mind, and on day 2 I went more casual than I had ever been at a Comic Con I think? I don't actually remember how I went.

I did take some pics though!

These are some dice I bought! Tiny dice because they are CUTE as hell, dark glittery dice because they are COOL as hell, and a box of d10s in ace colours (in my opinion) because I thought it was awesome except I did not realize they were just d10s, rofl! All good though, just a bummer as I thought it was a whole set.

I went absolutely insane with finances this time around though. I bought a fan with my favourite Genshin Impact character on it, literally using the element anemo to cool myself down... a bunch of Digimon stuff that I can build and some TCG, and on my bag you can see a geo vision from Genshin Impact. The vision is actually why I made a new friend at my local grocery store, he recognized it from the game and now we chat on occasion LOL. Also a bottle of mead, sadly apple cinnamon, because they had no cherry cinnamon.

A bunch of artist alley merch as well. As always, love me some Miraculous Ladybug. I also got two fake Pokémon cards, gorgeous Ninetales, my favourite Pokémon... a sticker of The Last of Us, my favouritest game ever, and some Genshin Impact stickers... now also including Kaveh, another character I really like.

Also... gosh I love this so much, look:

Ellie and Joel figurines! Also a Kazuha waterprint art below it rofl. I ended up not liking the fanart as much so I kinda forgot I owned it.

And uh, super random but I fucking loved that they introduced an onigiri stand and I am *starts foaming*

The one on the far right was vegan, the two on the left are tuna. I had to try both, haha.

Last but definitely not least, they had a little Lord of the Rings thingamajig that we visited, where you walked a little bit through the journey. I remember being at the verge of tears somehow because I felt overwhelmed, but I'm a pro at holding in emotions sometimes. Here is the pics I took. Let me test this new feature, if it sucks I will edit the post.

They should all be clickable for bigger. We'll see.

That is all I have to report on this Comic Con. The next post will be absolutely epicly, because it was a huge staple in my life and it still brings me emotions. Thank you for reading!

— DCC - 2023 - no real cosplay WDCC - 2022 - scuffed Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) DCC - 2022 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / scuffed Ellie (The Last of Us) RCC 2020 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) WDCC 2019 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / Mimi (Digimon) ACC 2019 - no report, little happened

DCC 2019 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / Mimi (Digimon) DCC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) ACC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) DCC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) RCC 2018 - Mimi (Digimon) WDCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) ACC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) DCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) RCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) ACC 2016 - Hook (Once Upon A Time) DCC 2016 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) DCC 2015 - Sunday - Hobbit (Lord of the Rings) DCC 2015 - Saturday - Ellie (The Last of Us)

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Perfection

This is another Lila episode, so get ready for dumb writing and lies only an infant would find convincing.

Let's get into the twelfth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Perfection

We start off with a sort of funny scene of Ladybug and Cat Noir doing heroic things while casually discussing the new relationships they're both in, unaware that they're talking about each other. It's less the irony that I like, but just the visuals showing how they're so experienced as superheroes at this point, they can casually chat while saving people.

Of course, even though the last scene confirmed that Marinette and Adrien are officially dating after four and a half seasons, the main conflict for the civilian plotline is that Marinette somehow isn't able to simply tell Adrien that she loves him. So basically, even though they're now in a relationship, the show is still going to rely on Marinette stuttering around Adrien like an idiot. Oh, thank God! I thought the writers were actually going to have Marinette and Adrien talk with each other like humans beings for a second there.

We then get a montage of Marinette struggling to get closer to Adrien, stumbling around and breaking stuff as if she was a character in an infomercial, culminating in a scene where Marinette attempts to confess to a picture of a cow, only to say “I love moo” instead. Get used to her saying this, because it's going to be a running gag.

During the aforementioned montage, we get a decent moment where Lila helps Chloe realize she needs to be more discreet when it comes to screwing with Marinette instead of her usual blunt attitude, which does a good job showing the one thing that sets Chloe and Lila apart: Their approaches to dealing with Marinette. It's not much, but it's something.

Meanwhile, the writers remembered Adrien is a musician, as he wrote a song for Marinette. A bunch of their friends come over to the Liberty, including Kagami.

Adrien: It's great to see you here, Kagami. You get to hear the song I wrote for Marinette.

Kagami: You made your feelings clear and you're dealing with them. That's good. I'm very proud of you.

Man, even the characters are glad the Love Square is finally going somewhere.

After another scene where Marinette once again tries to confess to the picture of a cow (the writers are really running with this gag, aren't they?), Adrien starts to perform the song he wrote for Marinette. Fun Fact: Adrien was originally going to sing a cover of that one song from Miami Connection, but Luka helped convince him that it would be better if he used his own song instead.

As for the song itself? Well, the music itself is nice, but the lyrics? They're decent, showing how Adrien doesn't want anything complex from his relationship with Marinette, but I'm just going to say it: I don't like the way Bryce Papenbrook sings. Like, I don't know how to describe it. It's not awful, but I just don't like the way he delivers the lyrics. He just sounds so monotone when he sings, which makes it hard to take this grand romantic gesture seriously.

Marinette once again struggles to tell Adrien she loves him, so we get even more of Marinette blaming other things for her hesitance, but not before we get more jokes about the cow picture.

Marinette: I'm just grabbing the cow to tell Adrien that I love him because I have the "I love" but not the “moo”. I know it's ridiculous. I'm ridiculous.

You know, at least C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, a show full of cow puns, actually did more with the jokes instead of just saying the words “cow” and “moo”.

Kagami tries to talk to Marinette, only for her to essentially be ignored. After Marinette transforms into Ladybug as an excuse to get out of there, Kagami then decides to call Lila about Marinette failing some kind of “friendship test”.

Kagami: You were right, Lila. I checked every box on your friendship test. Marinette doesn't consider me her best friend. I'm not even sure she ever considered me a friend.

Lila: Oh, no, Kagami... I'm so sorry she didn't see all the effort you've been making to get closer to her. Someone as amazing as you deserves a more considerate friend and... I'd be honored to be that friend.

I know I used this clip last time, but this is essentially the same problem I had there. Lila only had a single line in this episode before this scene, and it was her talking to Chloe, and I don't think Lila and Kagami have even shared a scene together before this episode, much less exchange numbers. Yeah, Kagami had been checking off things on a sheet of paper earlier in the episode, but we never got any explanation as to where and when Lila even gave her the friendship test. While we know that Lila's test was obviously fake, it seems out of character for Kagami to be this gullible, given that she was able to easily see through Adrien's lies last season (Lies).

Kagami then decides to just give up on having friends entirely, deleting all of her contacts except her mother's. I'm not sure if it was an animation error, or if the writers forgot, but for some reason, Adrien wasn't listed in there. We then cut to Lila, cutting Marinette's face out of some random pictures she got.

The scene's clearly supposed to be menacing, but I'd be more invested if I actually knew why Lila was so obsessed with Marinette outside of Marinette telling her to stop being a liar.

Kagami goes somewhere so she can be alone where she cries, where Monarch senses this and akumatizes her into Ryukomori through her ring.

Ryukomori's design is simple, but I think the concept behind it and use of Miraculous power makes it work. Monarch gives her the power to make it hard for her to see or hear anyone (insert your own Helen Keller joke here), and thanks to the Dragon Miraculous's Wind/Lightning/Water Dragon, Ryukomori is now a giant cloud person who can shoot lightning. Yeah, you have to wonder why Monarch gave her powers that would make it harder to see people, much less get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous, but this is the kind of stuff I wanted to see from the Miraculous powers used this season: Past heroes getting akumatized and having perverted versions of the powers they're familiar with.

Adrien sees this and transforms into Cat Noir, meeting up with Ladybug and showing her the friendship test he found earlier. Ladybug and Cat Noir try to talk with Ryukomori, but in her current state, it's hard to talk to her, so they'll need to find a different way to communicate. Ladybug and Cat Noir try arranging some cars into a kanji sign.

Hey, this is a French show! I'm supposed to be seeing french words I don't understand, not Japanese words I don't understand.

Ryukomori ignores the kanji, so now, the two have to come up with another plan while Monarch goads her into trying to kill them so she can finally be alone, whipping up a storm in anger.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a box of ironing beads, and gets an idea. Cat Noir goes to Socqueline's art shop (because I guess the animators really want to get their money's worth out of this character model and set) for supplies while Ladybug assembles a bunch of her friends and shows her a picture she made using the beads, wanting to make a bigger one for Ryukomori to see by holding up these panels to reveal it.

As simplistic as it is, it's a pretty cute visual, and it does the trick, causing Ryukomori to reject the Akuma. While I guess the Akuma was already de-evilized by Kagami, Ladybug hands her a Magical Charm as the students cheer for her.

Marinette apologizes to Kagami about how insensitive she was, but Kagami explains that she feels pressured to be perfect around others, which is meant to parallel Marinette's anxiety around Adrien. The two make up, and Marinette calls Kagami her best friend alongside Alya. Of course, Marinette somehow never asked about the friendship test, because that would actually clear everything up, and then we wouldn't have Kagami and Lila becoming friends again. Marinette and Alya talk about what exactly is keeping her from getting closer to Adrien, something that they'll figure out together. And so the episode ends with Tomoe storming into Gabriel's office that she endangered her daughter's life by akumatizing her... ignoring the last four times she's been akumatized (Riposte, Heroes' Day, Oni-Chan, Lies). In fact, if she's working with Gabriel, shouldn't she know Kagami was also Ryuko, and—okay, forget it, episode's over.

This episode was very hit or miss. The scenes with Ryukomori were well done. I like the way they called back to earlier episodes and how emotional the memories made Ryukomori, and the overall message of friendship was handled pretty well. But while I really like the way Ryukomori was handled, the road there was a pretty bumpy one. The subplot with Marinette wasn't funny, Adrien's song was really forgettable, and the writers just expect us to assume Kagami would fall for Lila's lies when earlier episodes have shown how perceptive she is. I get that the episode's probably setting up Kagami learning the truth in a later episode, it seems very out of character for her.

Overall, this episode just had a great Akuma fight, and a mediocre first half. Nothing too special, but it's still better than “Illusion” or “Determination”.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... KAGAMI

While Marinette came close thanks for her inability to say three basic words, Kagami ended up taking the award home. Not only did she fall for Lila's lies without even questioning her, she assumed that Marinette didn't care for her in the slightest, and after that, decided she had no other friends, not even Adrien, and after everything that happened, she still chose to believe Lila even though her test ended up being false when earlier episodes showed her being able to see through lies.

[tmntlittletomboy]

Ok, here me out: this is some random what if scenario for season 6 or whatever in Miraculous Ladybug.

Season 5 was full of Adrinette, right? But what if something happens during season 6, like what if Marinette and Adrien break up.

I don’t know how. Maybe Lie-la Lila returns with a whole new identity, makes friends with the main characters and ‘accidently’ stirs up trouble by doing something that causes a rift between Marinette and Adrien’s relationship causing them to break up.

Maybe Mari and Adrien are forced to break up cause Lila as the new Hawkmoth is more dangerous that Gabriel/Monarch. Or something about secrets again.

The reason why I’m saying this cause if Mari and Adrien break up, they would seek comfort with each other as Ladybug and Chat Noir….

Just imagine it: Mari and Adrien break up, they see each other as Ladybug and Chat Noir and they’re sad. Saying stuff like “I broke up with my boyfriend/girlfriend. My girlfriend/boyfriend broke up with me.”

But they start seeking comfort to each other and starts getting closer because of that……then BAM!! Ladynoir starts dating for season 6 or later.

If they start dating, they want to tell each other more secrets, like finally wanting to tell each other their secret identities.

The other reason why I made this what if scenario post cause i remember what Bunnyx said in ‘Timetagger’ when Chat Noir asked about his relationship with Ladybug in the future.

So maybe one of the later seasons we would get Ladynoir dating, have relationship issues, break up/getting back together and repeat everything as Adrienette/Ladynoir.

What do you guys think???

[miraculouscontent]

A Change of Heart (post-”Miraculous New York”)

"Kaalki, divide!"

Ladybug felt Kaalki's light wash over her, the kwami emerging and flying a small distance away. They were up on one of the rooftops in New York, overlooking an interview that was happening on the street.

Kaalki hummed in interest, taking the time to see the tall buildings. "What a grand city." Then, her gaze dropped down and she squinted, adding with distaste, "Quite crowded though."

"There's an interview going on right now. That's why. One of their supervillains was just taken down," Ladybug explained, placing her foot up on the edge of the building and peering down to look at the crowd.

"And, what precisely are we here for?" Kaalki asked, hovering near Ladybug's face to follow her gaze.

"Not what, but who. We’re here to see Eagle," Ladybug answered, pointing at the eagle-themed superheroine being interviewed. The crowd was enthusiastically cheering at just about every answer Eagle was giving, and Ladybug couldn't help smiling at the fact that the person she gave the miraculous to was still doing well.

As the interview came to an end, Eagle's eyes shifted from the interviewer to Ladybug, who had made sure to be where the red-and-black of her suit would stand out; she wasn't exactly the definition of "stealthy," and it worked to her advantage in this case.

Eagle jumped up to the nearest rooftop, then waited for the crowd to disperse before leaping over to where Ladybug was. "Hey, Ladybug! What are you doing here?" Her brows creased in seriousness, and she held her fists up like she was raring for a fight. "Did Hawk Moth come back to New York?"

Ladybug waved dismissively. "No, no, it's nothing like—"

"Pardon me," Kaalki said, making sure she was loud enough to be heard. She puffed her chest out haughtily and gestured to herself with a hoof. "I'm Kaalki, the kwami of migration. Pleased to meet you," she said, her tone forced as to imply that she didn't appreciate being ignored.

"Uh... hi," Eagle greeted flatly, then looked to Ladybug for an explanation.

"Sorry about her. She was my ride." Grabbing Eagle's wrist and leading her to the center of the rooftop, where they were less likely to be seen from the streets, she explained, "Anyway, I came here because I was hoping that I could get your help."

Eagle leaned to the side, curious. "My help? What for?"

"Well..." Ladybug hesitated. "This is going to sound like a weird request, but..."

—————

Eagle crossed her arms in thought, still seemingly absorbing the explanation. "You want me to use Liberation on you? To get rid of your—"

"—romantic attachments," Ladybug cut in stiffly, the word 'crush' and 'love' sounding extremely un-Ladybug-like. She blushed in embarrassment and looked away, bringing a hand up to partly hide her face. "Listen, I know you probably don't get this sort of thing. It's already awkward to talk about it while I'm Ladybug, but—"

"No, I get it," Eagle assured, though her expression was neutral.

Ladybug looked at her in surprise. "You do?"

With a slight roll of her eyes, Eagle replied, "Okay, so I don't get all the love stuff exactly, but Uncanny Valley has her own thing for me to deal with. She always wants to help people; she can't help it. Besides, Liiri says that there's always something stopping people from reaching their full potential. Sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's good, and it's my job to figure out what it is." She glanced Ladybug up and down, as if to gauge something. "You really think it's that bad?"

Ladybug responded with a wince, bad memories already starting to surface.

"Alright, wow," Eagle said, hands raised as she took a step back, the reaction having already convinced her while she herself clearly wanted no details about it. "Are you ready then? You know this is only going to last five minutes, right?"

"Wait—" Ladybug blinked in surprise. "You're really going to help me?"

"Yeah?" Eagle replied. Half-offended, she asked, "Did you really think I wouldn't?"

"No! Sorry!" Ladybug rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "You'd be... surprised, by how bad this stuff usually goes for me."

For a moment, Eagle looked tempted to ask, but shook off the thought just as quickly. Placing her fists to her chest, her gaze went firm, showing that she was ready.

Ladybug stood in place, almost nervous at the prospect of doing this. She was essentially taking out a piece of herself, but it was the only way to test it; the only way to know for sure.

"Liberation!" Eagle called out, spreading her arms as a single light burst out of her.

Ladybug flinched, her fighting instinct kicking in, but she held firm and let the light touch her. For a moment, she was frozen, able to sense Eagle's presence in her mind and even hear her voice. Eagle's voice was calm, but tempting, offering the freedom so desperately desired.

"Ladybug, your love has taken over your life. I release you from it!"

—————

Marinette quickly stashed the glasses in her purse as she checked her phone's timer. She had four minutes and forty-five seconds to do this, and she took a steady breath before stepping out of the alley she'd been hiding in.

As she raced across the street, the fencing students were just filing out out of Françoise Dupont. The moment she saw Kagami and Adrien leaving, she raised a hand, raising her voice so she'd be heard. "Hey, Adrien!"

Adrien and Kagami stopped and glanced her way. Adrien turned to Kagami, saying something and briefly tilting his head in Marinette's direction. Kagami nodded at him in response, and they separated, Kagami heading in one direction and Adrien heading in Marinette's.

At first, Marinette was nervous, her worst case scenario being that Liberation had truly failed or worn off when she de-transformed, or that her feelings were somehow so strong or messed up that even Liberation somehow couldn't help her.

Yet, as Adrien approached, she found that she wasn't shaky at all. Her heart wasn't pounding either. She didn't even feel the slightest bit of awe from his presence.

She was normal. She was okay.

"Hey, Marinette," Adrien greeted with a smile. "Did you need something?"

It took her a moment to answer, still stunned that it'd worked and she'd truly been freed of her crush, even if it was for five minutes. "Oh. No, actually, just..." She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone, checking the time, then kept it at her side as she asked genuinely, "How was fencing?"

Adrien looked briefly caught off guard, though whether he was surprised at her acting differently or just the question was anyone's guess. He then brightened, replying excitedly, "It was great! I got paired up with Kagami again, and you know how Mr. D'Argencourt is with fencing, so he..."

The conversation continued as nothing but casual from there, and Marinette almost felt silly at how amazed she was by such a simple thing. It was actually like she was Adrien's friend; like they were on the same page and she could actually hold a conversation with him. He looked and talked the same way he always did, yet she was perfectly fine. Students passed by and maybe tossed them a brief glance, but completely ignored them otherwise because she wasn't acting "weird."

At worst, she was grinning just a little wider out of the pleasant surprise of the whole thing.

When she'd first thought to "liberate" herself of her feelings for Adrien, she was certain she'd be disappointed by it. She honestly thought that she would see Adrien and miss the heart fluttering, the weak knees, and the sheer dreaminess he used to radiate.

But she was wrong. With her crush gone, she could see herself from an outside perspective and reflect without fretting over the things she would've otherwise. Where she thought there'd be disappointment, there was relief that she could actually breathe and not turn into a mess around him. Her mind wasn't clouded with thoughts, and her eyes could drift wherever she wanted without some brainless thought intruding and warning her that she might miss Adrien blinking if she looked away.

She'd needed this. It was nice; more than nice even. Is this how it could be all the time if she truly moved on from him? No more mocking, no more jealousy, no more "crazy Marinette"? It'd be like a celebrity crush that she grew out of; an embarrassing memory of the past and nothing more.

More importantly, she would remember this. She would remember this feeling; the sanity of not being in love with Adrien, or not feeling whatever that emotion was actually called. To say the word "love" seemed so... wrong.

Still mid-discussion with Adrien, Marinette's phone suddenly beeped with a warning message. She turned it in her hand, seeing that she'd properly set the timer earlier to warn her when there was a minute and half left of Liberation.

Adrien leaned over to look at the screen, but jumped when a loud honking noise abruptly sounded off from behind him. Marinette tried not to snicker, but it was difficult; seeing someone else be the jumpy one was quite the experience, and she'd have to remember that too.

Adrien looked over his shoulder at his limo waiting for him, then glanced back at her apologetically. "Sorry, I gotta go. Can we talk later?"

"Oh, sure! Definitely!" Marinette stashed her phone back in her purse, then waved to him. "See you tomorrow!"

"Bye, Marinette!" Adrien exclaimed, waving as he rushed off. "It was fun talking to you!"

"You too!"

Marinette pursed her lips, trying to contain herself as she watched Adrien get into the limo and ride off down the street. She waited until it was out of earshot, then let herself start squealing, even hopping around and doing a twirl for effect.

"M-marinette?!" Tikki called, concerned. "Did it wear off? There's still time—"

"I'm gonna delete all my Adrien pictures!" Marinette exclaimed. "And take down that disaster of a wallpaper!"

"W-wHA—!!" Tikki gaped. "Marinette, when your feelings come back—"

"That's future Marinette's problem! This feels great!" Marinette cheered, having to suppress her excitement just so she could talk. Raising one hand dramatically, she placed the other to her chest, saying to no one in particular, "Oh, what's that? Me, crushing on Adrien? Ew, no way! We're just friends!"

She laughed triumphantly, a bounce in her step that made it seem almost like she were jogging. She crossed the street, reaching for the bakery door's handle and practically singing to herself, "Just friends~ We're just friends~ Me and Ad~ri~en are just good—"

She paused as she opened the door, seeing a familiar mix of blue and black standing at the counter and talking to her parents. At the chime of the bell, all three looked over at her, Luka's smile welcoming and his lips partially coated in white from what seemed to be a powdered donut.

"Hey, Marinette," he greeted. "We were just talking about you."

"Oh, he's such a sweetheart," Sabine cooed. "He came all the way here just to see you."

Luka blushed a light shade of pink at the obvious teasing, Tom jumping in to exclaim, "And he really thought he had to pay us for sweets! I told him, you're friends with our daughter, you better not put a single coin on that counter, young man!"

The three had a laugh together; clearly, they'd been getting along before she came in.

Yet, Marinette's smile fell from her face, a mental 'oh' echoing in her mind.

She hadn't even considered Luka when she'd thought of taking away her crush on Adrien, but it made sense; Eagle had said love, and Marinette wasn't foolish enough to think that she hadn't felt anything romantic for Luka. It only made sense that her crush on him would go too.

But it wasn't the same. The relief didn't follow the lack of feeling. With Luka, there'd always be a little leap in her heart, then a wave of calm washing over her, but neither were there and she couldn't help feeling disappointed.

Luka's smile disappeared as he noticed her expression. He approached, concern written all over his features. "Marinette?"

They were friends at that very moment; that was all the feeling she had on the matter, but she wanted what she'd had before. She remembered his confession at the TV station and yearned for the warmth in her cheeks when he stared at her and told her how much he loved her with words that were entirely his own; words that told her that he loved her as herself and filled her with a confidence she seldom had outside of being Ladybug.

Everything clicked. Her crush on Adrien represented stress, anxiety, and losing herself, but her crush on Luka represented peace, happiness, and being herself.

She missed how she felt about Luka. She didn't miss how she felt about Adrien.

That was all the answer she needed.

Almost on cue, her phone beeped again, this time to signal that Liberation was over. Marinette took in a shaky breath as she felt pleasantly familiar emotions rush through her again, and she welcomed them back like she would an old friend.

Luka's blue eyes gained vibrance and allure, his lips being coated in powdered sugar suddenly became incredibly cute, and she could think of him as no less than the most handsome boy in the world.

"...Sorry," she said breathlessly, waving a hand to assure him that she was alright. "Let's just say I went through a lot of emotions today. I'm happy to see you, really!"

Luka's smile came back, filling her with its warmth. "I'm glad," he said in relief. Then, taking a glance at her purse, which was still letting out a muffled, melodic beeping noise, he asked, "Sorry, do you have to be somewhere?"

"Hm? Oh, no, not really." She took out her phone to shut off the timer, then flashed him the screen before closing the app and storing the phone back in her purse. That done, she paused to consider things, then dared a glance back at him. "Hey... can we walk for a while?"

He blinked, mildly surprised, but nodded. "Sure. Did—" He froze, apparently only now realizing that he had powdered sugar on his lips. He swished his tongue around to lick it off, then started over with, "Did you want to talk about something?"

Smiling almost smugly in response, she felt confident enough to offer him her arm, as if he were a damsel she was leading around. She'd never seen his eyes widen quite so much before, but he also didn't protest, happily taking hold of her arm.

Knowing that her parents would just be giving their looks of approval if she glanced back, she stepped out of the bakery and led Luka towards the park.

"So, it took a little longer than I hoped, but... do you remember when you were talking about me getting clarity?"

[elephart-hi]

MLB AU where Adrien was only kind-of-famous at the beginning of the show

Some people might recognize him but they wouldn’t know him as ~Adrien Agreste the model~ they would know him as ~Gabriel Agreste’s Son~ if even at all

“Adrien???? Uhh... who? Oh! yeahhhhhh! Gabriel Agrestes son. I didn’t know his name. Yeah uh I think I remember seeing him next to Gabriel on TV one time”

He would still model for the brand and everything but he wasn’t like THE face of the brand and definitely wasn’t like a covergirl (would it be coverboy?) and he definitely wasn’t plastered on billboards as far as the eye could see

Adrien would be like that one model from fashionova who models like all their clothes. You know the one I’m talking about. You recognize them and you know where u recognize them from but you don’t know their name and you wouldn’t consider them like ~famous~ much less a celebrity

“Oh! Hey aren’t u that guy... yeah yeah! You are THAT guy. You know... the guy who is always in the Gabriel ads?”

Adrien was only kind-of-famous and only really bc of his dad. Otherwise he was just that model that people ~sometimes~ recognize

Well...

That is until ladybug unintentionally put him on the map.....

LB and CN were about to do an interview and LB didn’t know the cameras had already started rolling when Nada asked her who her celebrity crush would be.

Marinette assumed she was just making conversation bc why would she ask her what her celebrity crush was on the air when she should be asking her important questions like about how she intends to keep the city safe and stuff

Mari assumes Nadia is just trying to break the ice and get the ball rolling before they ACTUALLY get on the air and get to the real questions

So there Ladybug is, sitting next to Chat Noir (who is Adrien kind-of-famous-but-not-nearly-famous-enough-to-be-a-celebrity Agreste) live on the air with all of Paris and France as a whole watching plus many other countries around the world and Guess who she says her celebrity crush is

“Oh... ummmm.... who would my celebrity crush be? *giggle* (bc she is just a teenage girl thinking about her irl crush) hmmm I’d probably say Adrien Agreste!”

Cue Awkward silence bc no one in the studio knows who that is even tho the name is ~kinda~ familiar

Also cue dead silence from Chat Noir bc he completely stopped breathing bc OMFG DID SHE JUST SAY MY NAME!

ME!?

A celebrity?!?!

SHE EVEN KNOWS MY NAME!?!?

WHAT! OUT OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY FAMOUS SHE SAID ME!?!?

IM JUST “THAT GUY FROM THE GABRIEL BRAND”

...

AND THATS ON A GOOD DAY!!!!

Nadia who is trying to save the show: “hahah I’m sorry ladybug I don’t believe I’m familiar with this person could u refresh my memory?”

Ladybug who still had no idea they are on the air and is just making small talk:

“OH! Yeah sorry! Hahaha! He is Gabriel Agretes son! I’m really into fashion and I’m a HUGE fan of his fathers brand which Adrien models for sometimes. I’ve met him as a civilian and he is just the sweetest guy. He is even nicer than he is handsome and that’s saying something because the boy could purify an akuma with just his smile” *dreamy sigh*

And THAT is how Adrien Agreste became a household name

One minute he was just -that guy- and the next everyone in France is obsessed with him bc THE Miraculous Ladybug, THE Lady Luck, THE Hero of Paris SAID THAT HE WAS HER CELEBRITY CRUSH AND THAT HE COULD PURIFY AN AKUMA BY SMILING AT IT

Brands all over are begging for him to model for them.

He can’t go anywhere and i mean ANYWHERE without being recognized.

Suddenly he is the IT boy of Paris.

WHO IS THE BOY WHO HAS LB SMITTEN!?!?

IF LB CONSIDERS HIM A CELEBRITY THEN HE MUST BE!

All of a sudden Adrien has fan clubs and everything

He is front cover of magazines and is on billboards

His father went from Gabriel Agreste, famous fashion designer, to Adrien Agrest’s father. bc now his son is a bigger deal than he is.

Adrien went from 5k followers to 5million in less than a week

Gabriel’s sales go through the roof bc of Adriens newfound stardom.

And who does Gabriel Agreste, Aka Hawkmoth, Have to thank for this... His archnemisis Ladybug.

And who does Adrien Agreste have to thank for his new found stardom?

The shy girl who sits behind him in class who he gave his umbrella to as a peace offering which made her fall head over heels in love with him

The same shy girl who just so happens to be his superhero partner (who he is completely in love with) who was way more famous than ~Adrien that-guy Agreste~ before she accidentally name dropped him on live television bc she has a huge crush on him and didn’t realize the cameras were rolling and was just being the precious little bean that she is and talking about the boy she is in love with who has a smile so bright it could purify an akuma :,)

[icerosecrystal]

Daminette - How to Fail Being a Parent 101

(3rd Person POV)

Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The girl that went from having everything to nothing. At least, that’s what it felt like right now. She still had Jagged and Penny, supporting her. But her parents threw her out of the house after the believed Lila’s lies. The shiny new thing over their daughter! Her friends also thought of her as a bully. At the age of 17, Marinette had no friends and no family. But little did she know that everything was soon going to change for her.

(Edna Mode’s POV)

Enda Mode was a great designer. But, she wanted, no needed an apprentice to carry her legacy. When Jagged Stone, along with his assistant Penny and Clara, told her of their designer MDC, she was ecstatic. And her designs were beautiful. Yes, MDC had the right amount of talent to be Edna’s apprentice. All she had to was find her.

She was walking to the bakery in Paris, where Jagged said his niece would most likely be. She arrived at the bakery and opened the door walking inside. There were two people inside. She asked them, “Hello, darlings. Do you, by any chance, know where Marinette is?”

She watched as both of the people stiffened, and then the female replied, “No, we used to be her parents, but we no longer consider her a daughter!”

Edna was confused by that. As far as Jagged said, Marinette’s parents had a good relationship with her. So what changed? She then once more asked, “Do you where I might be able to find her, darlings?”

Marinette’s supposed mother grew angry, “Who cares where she is! And if you’re trying to find her. You must be one of the bad influences that Lila was talking about, so get out of our bakery!”

Edna huffed and turned on her heel, walking out of the bakery door. Once she was outside, she pulled out her phone and called Jagged. “Jagged, I tried to go to the bakery, but her parents said that they kicked her out. Or at least they implied it by saying that she was no longer their daughter.”

“What?! That’s so not rock-and-roll! Hmm, well, Marinette did buy a safe house. If I remember correctly, the address is nineteen dauphin bleu. Good luck, and let me know when you find her.”

“Sure sure, darling,” Edna replied before ending the phone call. She quickly went to the address in hopes of finding her.

(Marinette’s POV)

Marinette was not sulking! She swears she isn’t! She’s just sad that her parents didn’t believe her. And hadn’t been doing anything for the past two days other than eating and watching shitty rom-coms… Okay, maybe she was sulking. But could you blame her! Her parents believed a liar over her, plus she had shitty coping skills with Hawkmoth still around. Before Hawkmoth, she would have cried for hours on end while eating strawberry ice cream. Now, she couldn’t do that at risk of an akumatization, and she was Ladybug. Fuck Hawkmoth, fuck Lila, fuck her stupid hormones.

The doorbell then rang. Marinette dragged herself to the door, not stopping to look through the peek hole. She regretted that because once she opened the door, on the other side, she found THE EDNA MODE. Marinette jumped in surprise and started to try and fix her appearance while rambling, “Oh my god, you’re Edna Mode. I’m so sorry! I didn’t know it was going to be you at the door! Otherwise, I would have made myself more presentable! Oh my god, it’s you!!! Most consider you better than Audrey Bourgeois, Style Queen herself. It is such an honor.”

Edna cut off Marinette’s rambling with a hand to her shoulder, “Please, darling, the pleasure all mine. I’m so happy to meet the famous MDC that Jagged, Clara, and Penny have been telling me so much about.” At hearing those words, Marinette looked seconds from passing out.

Edna followed Marinette to the couch and told her, “Now, I went to your parent’s bakery, but they said that they were no longer your parents. So, I want you to tell Auntie Edna everything! Okay?”

Marinette nodded, still in shock. She quickly shook her head to clear her head and then went on to explain about Lila. “There was this girl that came to my school three years ago. She claimed that she had an amazing life. And it would have been believable if all the things that she mentioned weren’t false. For example, she said that Jagged Stone wrote a song for her when she saved his cat from an airport runway. Jagged never had a cat. Civilians aren’t allowed on airport runways. And she’s making Jagged look like a pedophile, she’s underage, and he’s an adult. If she continues claiming this, Jagged could go to jail. There are a lot more unbelievable claims that she makes. Anyways, I knew she was lying, so I tried to disprove her lies. But, she covered it up. I went to the bathroom to cool down. Lila then came inside and confronted me, saying that she would take all my friends away. I didn’t think she would do it, I mean, I had faith in my friends.” Marinette’s voice cracked, and she started sobbing.

Edna waited for Marinette to continue talking. Marinette inhaled sharply and then continued, “My friends believed her over me. They knew me so much longer. But they picked the shinier thing. They bullied me every day, and Lila told them that I was bullying her. She made them beat me up, steal, and destroy my stuff. I thought that my parents would at least support me, but no, the wish of them supporting me was too much to ask. My parents also believed Lila over their daughter. THEIR DAUGHTER!!! They raised me, loved me, and then they believe someone else over me. At first, they started neglecting me, but then Lila came over one day and told them that I had given her death threat. After that, they kicked me out. I didn’t tell anyone not to feel weak. Now, here I am.”

Marinette finished talking and cried, letting loose all of the tears she had been holding in, but she then stopped. Enda looked at Marinette and told her something that shocked the daylights out of her, “Just because your Ladybug, that doesn’t mean you can’t let loose your emotions. If you bag all of it up, you will be at a larger risk of an akumitization. But, if you let your emotions out little by little, you won’t be as subjected to an akumitization.”

Marinette started stammering out excuses, shocked that Edna had figured it out, “O-oh I’m not Ladybug, I-i’m too clumsy to be her. L-ladybug has to be someone a-amazing to do what she d-does.”

Before she could continue, Edna held up her hand, effectively shutting Marinette up. “Marinette, darling, you don’t have to lie to me. Only an idiot would not be able to figure out your Ladybug. You look so much like her. (I did watch the NY special. And they did say that the magic of the miraculous is interfering with finding the identity of the heroes. But let’s pretend that the magic isn’t interfering, and everyone is just clueless. Well, they are clueless, but more clueless if possible.) Anyways, the reason that I was seeking you out in the first place was that I wanted you to be my apprentice. Would you like that?”

Marinette nodded, unable to speak. It was like a dream come true to her. When she rejected Audrey’s offer for an internship, she still had a reason to stay in Paris. Now that she had nothing left, this was the perfect way for her to get a new start, to leave her old life behind. Plus, who in their right mind would turn down being the apprentice of Edna Mode. Not an intern, an apprentice.

Edna clapped her hands together after Marinette gave her consent for being an apprentice. “That’s great, darling. Go pack everything you need. We’re leaving tomorrow at 6:00 AM.”

Marinette nodded, “Where will we be living?”

“Gotham City, New Jersey.”

(Time skip of a year)

(Edna’s POV)

It had been a year since Edna had gone to France to seek out Marinette or MDC. Since then, they moved to Gotham City, and Marinette made a name for herself there. She was an incredibly talented and a hard worker. She worked well under pressure and took criticism well. A lot of times, Marinette’s designs would bypass even her own. It would surprise Edna, but she was proud of her little coccinelle. She wanted to adopt Marinette, but she first wanted Marinette’s approval. For all Edna knew, Marinette wouldn’t want to have a parent figure again after what happened with her parents. Even if Edna didn’t adopt Marinette, she wanted Marinette to be the heir to Mode companies.

Today, Edna was meeting up with Bruce Wayne. He wanted him and his sons to get some suits, so today was the fitting. Marinette was with another client today so, she wouldn’t be meeting them. She heard the doorbell rang. That must be them, she thought. She opened the gates for them to enter the premises. A minute later, they were knocking on the front door. She let them in. When Edna saw them, she huffed at the height of all of the Wayne boys.

She went up to Bruce and beckoned him to bend down. Once he did saw, she greeted him with a kiss to each cheek and exclaimed “, Darling, I’m so glad that could make it. It’s so nice to see you and the rest of your boys.”

Bruce cleared his throat, “It’s nice to see you too, Edna. So, are we just doing measurements today, or are you also going to give us a design for the suits?”

“Ah, Bruce dear,” Edna started, “Art takes time. Plus, my amazing new apprentice will be designing your suits.”

Dick and Jason started laughing. “Look Bruce,” Dick guffawed, “She’s pulling a Bruce.” Tim laughed along with the other two, while Damian looked to be seconds away from smiling.

Bruce sighed, rubbing his forehead, “I’m sorry about them, Edna. You would think that a grown 30-year-old man would have some respect. I swear he has the maturity of a five-year-old.”

Edna waved him off, “Ah, it’s no harm done, Bruce. Dick is also right. I fully plan to adopt my apprentice. I only need her approval before I do so. I mean, she did turn eighteen only recently.”

Bruce looked shocked at this revelation, as did his sons, who were joking, not thinking in the slightest that it could be true. The great Edna Mode had never taken in an apprentice in her life, nor would she ever think of adopting someone. It was so out of character for her. “What happened to the girl that you feel this way,” Bruce asked.

Edna sighed, “Other than being a brilliant designer, who designs could rival my own, my little coccinelle has had a hard life. There was a girl who lied about her. This girl made all of her friends bully and isolate her. The worst part was when my coccinelle’s parents believed the liar over their daughter. They threw her out. When I heard about her designing from Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale, I went to Paris to seek her out. When I went to her bakery, her parents were rude. I called and asked Jagged where she could be. He gave me her address. When I went there, she was a mess. I offered her the apprenticeship, she accepted. And a year later, here we are.”

The Wayne’s looked shocked at this. They then snapped out of it and, Edna then took their measurement and took note of any extra preferences they might have. She also asked what color they wanted for the suit jacket, shirt, and pants. Edna then asked whether they preferred a bow tie or a necktie. Finally, she asked what color they wanted the lining of their suits to be.

On their way out, Bruce asked Edna, “Would you and your apprentice like to come to the Wayne gala in return for making the suits in such short notice. Oh, and it is in two weeks.” Edna agreed and saw them out. Once they left, she sighed deeply. She then smiled to herself, thinking about Marinette’s reaction to the gala and having to design Wayne’s suits.

(Marinette’s POV)

Marinette was having a mental breakdown. WHY? Because Edna decided that having Marinette design Wayne’s suits was a good idea, as was going to Wayne Gala. So right now, Marinette was having a meltdown. And what was Edna doing? She was watching Marinette become a stuttering mess and trying to figure out how she was going to do something like this.

“Marinette, calm down! Just do your best and, you’ll figure the rest out,” Edna told her.

Marinette nodded and went to her room to start planning the designs and creating them. For almost two weeks, she worked tirelessly on end to complete the designs, and make a dress for herself. And by the day before the gala, Marinette had completed the suits. Alfred came to Edna’s manor to get them for the Waynes.

Once Alfred picked them up, Edna went to Marinette’s room and knocked. Once Marinette said to come in, Edna opened the door and walked in. Marinette looked at Edna, wondering why she was here. But, she then asked a question that Marinette so happy, “My little coccinelle, would you like it if I adopted you?”

Marinette couldn’t answer from happiness. Instead, she jumped on Edna with tears in her eyes and kept on chanting, “Yes, yes, yes!” They both sat like that until Marinette fell asleep, happy that they were now legally going to be family.

On the day of the Wayne gala, Marinette wore a burgundy dress with silver details on the upper part of the dress. She wore silver shoes that had a glass flower on the toes and a silver handbag. Marinette, also matching silver earrings and a necklace. She decided to let her hair loose into beautiful waves.

Edna wore a simple black dress with some white pearl details along with a black handbag with silver and black shoes.

They then left for the Wayne gala. Once they arrived at the Wayne gala, they spotted the Wayne’s wearing Marinette’s amazing designs.

Once the Waynes spotted Edna, they walked over in hopes of meeting her apprentice. Edna saw them coming and Marinette to them. “Boys, this is my apprentice Marinette Mode. Marinette, this is Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian.”

“Wait, so you legally adopted her?” Tim asked.

“Yes, I did, yesterday,” Edna replied.

Marinette smiled brightly at the Waynes and said, “It’s nice to meet you all. I hope that you like the suits that I made.” The Wayne’s gave their gratitude for the suits. They then all dispersed, except for Damian. He was still staring at Marinette, as Marinette was staring at him. They both started talking at the same time,

“Hi, it’s nice-”

“Hey, I rea-”

They both laughed, and Marinette said, “You go first.”

“I was going to tell you how fond I am of this suit. You did an acceptable job.”

“Thank you,” Marinette muttered, “I was going to say that it’s nice to meet you. So tell me about yourself.”

And the pair went on to talking about anything and everything together. Marinette couldn’t keep her eyes off of him. How his beautiful tan skin glistened in the light. How soft his dark, silky hair looked, and his eyes. Oh, his eyes were the best part, a perfect balance between jade and emerald green, giving it a shine, but not making it look toxic. He was so handsome. As she continues talking with him, she realized, she liked him, she wanted him to kiss her, hold her. But they had just met. Little did she know that Damian had similar thoughts running through his head.

(3rd person POV)

Damian thought that Marinette was absolutely beautiful with her silky raven hair. Her pink pouty lips along with her glistening bluebell eyes. Her fair skin was showered with little freckles that made her even prettier. Words could not describe how beautiful she was.

From an outside view, Marinette and Damian were looking like lovesick fools. Laughing, talking, never leaving each other’s side. By the end of the night, they separated with each other’s phone number, and a promise to meet again for a date.

(Time Skip of three months)

(Marinette POV)

It had been three months since the gala. The day after the gala, Damian took her to Gotham park for a nice picnic. On their second date, they went to the rooftop of one of Bruce’s buildings and watched the sunset from there. Their third date was the date where Damian asked Marinette if she would like to be his girlfriend. He took her to an expensive restaurant and after they walked on the pier. There he took out a necklace with a silver chain and “I love you for always and forever” written on it. The pendant was in the shape of a heart.  He gave it to her as he asked her to be his girlfriend. She jumped on him kissing him with so much force and passion and then pulled away, breathing out a, “Yes!”

Since then, they had been inseparable. Damian and Marinette told each other everything. Well, almost everything, she still hadn’t told Damian about being Ladybug. And Marinette knew he was also hiding something the way he would get bruises for no reason. She didn’t know what he was hiding until she stumbled across something when she was at the Manor one day.

She had gotten lost again. The Wayne Manor was huge. Marinette knew she was going to get lost, but she always had someone to help her. Marinette then heard some noises. She stumbled towards the noise. The sight that she was met with made her head throb. There in front of her were the occupants of the house. But not as the Wayes. No, they were there as the Bat-Family. The Waynes were the BAT FAMILY! Of course, she would end up falling in love with a vigilante.

Once they caught sight of her, all noises ceased. They didn’t do anything until Damian let out a feeble, “Beloved?”

Marinette turned her attention to Damian, “When were you going to tell me about this? And no, I am not mad. But you should have TOLD me. I shouldn’t have had to find out by myself.”

Damian sighed and told her, “I didn’t want to endanger your life.”

She snorted, “Yeah, like I don’t do that daily.”

“What?!” Everyone screamed at the implications that she was giving.

“Yup, I’m a hero from Paris. Tikki, Spots on!” She then transformed into Ladybug. Once Marinette transformed, she looked at the opened mouth vigilantes. “In Paris, my old partner and I protect the citizens from a guy named Hawkmoth, who preys off of people’s emotions to turn them into his minions, I’ve been fighting him for about four years now. I did send a message to the Justice League, but Green Lantern told me to stop prank calling. I’ve been fighting him by myself for two years because my old partner was harassing me.” She then went on to explain different akumitizations and went more in-depth about her powers.

“Spot off”, she said. She held her hand out and let Tikki sit in it, “This is my kwami Tikki, she is the one who lets me turn into Ladybug.” Everyone, surprisingly, took her reservations well.

By the end, Batman told her, “We would like to help you defeat Hawkmoth. We can start by uncovering who he is. We can do that by taking his voice and running it through some voice scanners until we find a match.” Marinette nodded, happy that they were getting somewhere.

She pulled up a video of Hawkmoth speaking while telling Batman, “By the way, Mom’s going to be here in ten minutes.”

They looked at her, bewildered, “What do you mean?”

She rolled her eyes and handed them her phone with the recording, “What I mean is that she knows that you are the Bat-Family. She figured it out like she figured out my identity.” They all nodded, dumbfounded that someone knew their identity.

Tim or Red Robin ran the voice through the scanners before they found a match. “Gabriel Agreste”, Marinette breathed, “I suspected him before, but he got akumatized. He must have akumatized himself to throw off suspicion.”

That’s when Edna arrived, “Did you figure out Hawkmoth’s identity”, Edna asked. Marinette nodded and pointed to the screen. Edna looked at it and scoffed, “Of course it’s Gabriel. I always knew he was a psychopath!” Marinette started laughing at Edna’s reaction and hugged her. Edna’s face softened, and she stroked Marinette’s hair lightly.

The bat family watched the scene with growing bewilderment. Damian cleared his throat, bringing the attention to him. “As much as I love to see how much my angel’s and Mode’s relationship is growing, we have more pressing matters. How are we going to catch Hawkmoth.���

Marinette thought about it before saying, “A distraction.” She turned to Edna, “Mom, you are going to set up a meeting with Gabriel and distract him. While you’re doing that, we’ll break into the house and go to his hideout. Actually”, she turned to Tim,“ Tim, could you look into the security cameras and see if there is any footage of him disappearing in some way. Or could you get a layout of the house?”

“Done and done,” Tim answered. They watched Gabriel push three specific buttons on Emile’s portrait, which Marinette took note of. They then saw him disappear underneath the ground. Tim pulled the layout of the house up. “This is the layout, based on it, we can conclude that he was going to the room beneath the house.”

Marinette nodded her head, “Okay, this is perfect. Once we sneak in there, we’ll look around, gather some evidence, and then sneak up on Gabriel and take the brooch from him.”

Everyone cheered and then left to do their own thing. Damian stopped Marinette from leaving. He pulled her to him and said in a sexy, gruff voice, “I’m glad that I know every part of you now.” He then dove for her lips, prompting a squeak from Marinette. After a few seconds, she relaxed in the kiss, pulling Damian closer by wrapping her arms around his neck. He put one hand around her waist, and the other one was in her sweet-smelling raven hair. The kiss felt amazing. His warm, soft lips against her luscious, sweet ones. Her lips tasted sweet like sugar, making Damian want to kiss her longer and harder. But, humans need to breathe. They pulled away panting heavily, faces flushed in passion. They stared into each other’s eyes for a little bit before kissing each other once more, this one being chaste rather than hot and heavy. They then let each other go and went to prepare for the demise of Hawkmoth.

The next day, they followed through with the plan. Edna first entered the house and talked loudly to Gabriel, demanding that he bring his son and Natalie to the meeting so that they can all catch up. Once the occupants of the Agreste household were out of the way, Ladybug and the Bats made their way to the picture of Emile. There they pressed the exact buttons and went underneath the house. There they found hundreds of white butterflies along with a horrifying sight. Emilie Agreste being preserved in a coffin and in what looked like to be a coma. Marinette was convinced that she could heal Emilie, went up to the coffin, and set to work. She closed her eyes and put her hands to the outside of the coffin. She then let her power flow through her body until they were at her hands. She then kept her glowing hands to the coffin until she heard a cough. She opened her eyes to find Emilie sitting up, looking around in shock, “Where’s my husband?” she asked, “Where’s Adrien?”

Marinette put her hand to Emile’s shoulder, “We’ll explain everything to you after ma'am. But, we first need to do something.” She walked over to the platform and rose herself to the upper floor, along with everyone else. She then saw Edna, Gabriel, Adrien, and Natalie already there. Everyone positioned themselves and got ready to attack. At the count of three, everyone moved. Marinette grabbed the brooch from Gabriel, Bruce grabbed the peacock brooch from Natalie, and Damian grabbed the ring from Adrien. The Agreste’s and Natalie turned to the heroes in anger, but then froze when they caught sight of Emilie.

Emilie, now understanding that her family must have done something bad, for these people to take away their miraculous, started sobbing. Marinette went up to her and comforted her while telling her everything that she missed. Edna called the police, while the Bat-Family made sure that not of the Agreste’s nor Natalie escaped.

(3rd person POV)

When the police arrived, they were surprised to find that designer Gabriel Agreste, his son, and his assistant were guilty of the terrorism in Paris. They were going to jail. Then, reporters arrived, broadcasting the defeat of Hawkmoth to the world, but then Gabriel said something that made some happy, while it froze the blood in many others, “Lila Rossi was also part of this! She was an accomplice to my schemes! Lila was trying to push Marinette Dupain-Cheng to an akumitization because I realized how powerful of an Akuma Marinette would become. So Lila went to great length to make her suffer, but then she left Paris, and I wasn’t able to akumatize her. If you should be arresting anyone else, it should be Lila Rossi!”

In her house, a liar was growing pale as the authorities banged on her door. When she didn’t open up, they kicked down the door and arrested her. Lila then let out a scream that the whole world would have heard.

When the government saw that two accomplices for Hawkmoth were in the same class from Francios Dupont Highschool, they had to school investigated. They investigated both the principal and Madame Bustier. They found out that both would take bribes and were enablers. They then investigated the students in Madame Bustier’s class. They found that the students were being sued which wasn’t that bad. But, they were being sued for slander, defamation, and more, by not only Edna Mode but also Bruce Wayne. The government looked at security cameras and found many forms of breaking and entering, abuse, bullying, and found many forms of slander online. All of the students along with the teacher and principal were going to have to serve jail time. But, it would be nowhere as long as Lila’s, Adrien’s, Natalie’s, or Gabriel’s jail time.

(Marinette POV)

Marinette was staying in the Grand Hotel when her ex-parents came knocking at her door. They were all smiles, “Marinette, now that we know that we actually raised you right, you can come home with us!”

Marinette just scowled back at them, “As much as I appreciate the offer, you aren’t my guardians anymore. Edna Mode adopted me and I am legally Marinette Mode. Have a good day!” She then slammed the door shut in their faces. She leaned her head against the door and sighed deeply.

She felt a pair of arms wrap around her and kiss her neck gently, “You going to be okay?”

Marinette turned around and smiled at him, “Yeah, I am.”

Five hours later, when Marinette turned on the news, it showed Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng going to jail. They were charged for child neglecting and abuse. Marinette shook her head, chuckling, knowing that it was Damian who did this. She inhaled deeply, oh well, all’s well that ends well.

(Time Skip of 15 years)

A thirty-three-year-old Marinette put the baby in her hands down in the crib. After everything that happened in Paris, Damian and Marinette had continued dating. Damian proposed on their one-year anniversary and the got married a year later. They now had an 11-year-old daughter named Amira Beth Wayne, a 6-year-old boy Grayson Abbas Wayne, and 1-year-old Sadiya Cathy Wayne. Marinette was now the CEO of Mode Companies, while Damian ran Wayne Enterprises along with Tim as Co-CEOs. As Marinette looked at her children she couldn’t believe that she managed to have such a good life. She felt Damian behind her so she leaned back into him. He kissed the back her head and whispered huskily in her ear, “I love you and I promise that I and the kids will be by your side. Forever and always.”

Marinette snuggled into Damian and squeezed his hand whispering, “Forever and always.”