#And how does Felix factor into all of this?

[imthepunchlord]

Ok so I was looking through old miraculous concept stuff and it really shows how much they fumbled Adrien. Apparently early drafts of Adrien wanted to be a doctor, which could have been interesting for his character when you factor in that his mother was sick before she "disappeared/died" and it's likely doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong, maybe Adrien wants to be a doctor to figure out what happened his mom was suffering from and maybe to help other people avoid that same situation.

This also sparked an idea for how Adrien's being "pefect" could have been used for this character. Maybe since Gabriel puts so much pressure on Adrien to be perfect and maintain this perfect image, Adrien has a lot of repressed anger and he has to keep in check. Also early verisons of Felix had him do boxing, maybe it's something Adrien does in secret as a way to help him vent his anger and become something he actually enjoys or maybe he could do breakdancing as a refer to the breakdance au (it's probably one of the oldest Miraculous aus and was one of the most popular)

Him being a doctor I do really like, and it seems it's an idea the fandom had picked up on early on, as the most popular ideas I saw for Adrien's future was him being a teacher, or a child therapist. Doctor or therapist is now one of the top two picks I like in what he may do in the future, as both do have merits to get the ball rolling. Though I do also like the idea of him getting into acting since he does dabble in it in canon, and he is quite a showman. And season 1 wise, yeah he did really like to dance.

From what I remember when I was watching s2 and from what I've heard and seen, it is kinda a shame he doesn't break out into dance anymore. It really added to Adrien's character as a model, as he stands so still but he himself is someone who likes to be animated and in motion, so him loving to dance and able to do so as Chat Noir just added a nice touch to Adrien. So it's a shame it seems like that aspect diminished.

Learning that Felix boxed, I am not too surprised, as boxing was/is regarded as a gentleman's sport (idk if it still counts?), and older concept Felix gave off that air of sophistication and poise.

I don't know if Adrien would box though, at least, not while he models for his father. Boxing does come with a risk of damaging your face and that would not be good for photo shoots. Felix it's unclear if he modeled at all, we don't see it, so presumably he didn't, which could allow him to box more easily.

I know Adrien did study some sort of martial arts when he was younger, though he quit. Fencing now seems to be his go to sport, I've heard some say he incorporates it into his fighting style, but I don't have enough knowledge on that to say for sure. I just know he doesn't use a staff correctly as a weapon, at least going off Rogercop.

Btw, Alya is my go to pick on who may be into boxing, and now I want to see a boxing match between her and Felix.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Never will a day pass where I will not look into the distance for good 5 seconds, remembering that Félix somehow knew in "Emotion" that Adrien could be snapped back into existence without both of his amok rings being around.

The episode went out of its way to make clear we know that both Félix himself and Kagami have their objects on them while Gabriel and Nathalie are wearing Adrien's, but somehow Adrien was still perfectly able to live on without them once Gabriel and Nathalie were gone. For Félix and Kagami the episode seemingly deemed it crucial for them to have theirs but for Adrien the same rule apparently doesn't apply.

This one is not letting me go because it's the second time this has happened now. First time was in "Chat Blanc" which is generally used as an argument to debunk the Senti-Adrien theory. I personally was always willing to give "Chat Blanc" a pass in good faith regarding this because it's such a packed episode - especially for the flashbacks - so who knows what scenes ended up on the cutting room floor that would have maybe shown the whereabouts of Emilie's ring? It was beyond questionable but I was willing to work around that.

But apparently one doesn't need to work around it because "Emotion" created such a specific situation to reinforce the very same circumstances of Adrien being able to live without his amok rings and showing us that Adrien as a Sentihuman is different from Félix and Kagami in more ways than just him having two amok objects. All the while Félix is apparently VERY aware of that while executing his plan to free Adrien from his father.

The one time in "Chat Blanc" can be an accident, but the second time in ""Emotion" is too detailed and explicit of an reinforcement to write off as another screw-up.

[yesimwriting]

https://www.tumblr.com/yesimwriting/745776818108366848/when-best-friend-felix-and-reader-kiss-not-a-kiss

That kiss was HEATED. I had this thought of Felix and reader have their moment in which the kiss turns intensely passionate considering their relationship, and you mentioned that Felix wants to hook up with reader so would he ever push it. Like maybe he leads his hand on the skin of her inner thigh, but the real question is how does reader react. Would she fall into the group of people who always lets Felix take the reins and be in to the situation or would it simply freak her out because “we’re best friends.”

so happy you felt the theatrics of it all,, writing that kiss made me go hm..

i think felix is the master of pushing/blurring lines in the most lighthearted, casually dismissible way possible,, like most of the time when things are getting a little too touchy, it's when both of them are drunk/tipsy so it's easy to laugh off and dismiss,,

and whether they're drunk or sober, felix is an expert in reader's body language bc they are that close, so he's constantly subtly checking in and reminding himself that not everyone's as comfortable/casual about those things as felix

reader having an easy out is so important to him for so many reasons,, it protects the friendship and also keeps everything comfy

i feel like reader's reaction depends on so many factors...if she's fun, giggly tipsy and she's happy she'll probably be more open to things,, only pulling away/slowing things down if she realizes she wants things to go further bc while felix might be okay with hooking up with friends, she's scared of getting lumped into the group that obsessively hangs off his arm

if she's feeling a little insecure/jealous,, i can see reader being even more okay with things,, can also see felix picking up on that and trying to use it to his advantage, but that's another thing

however they are not perfect and felix is the type to border on being a little too into the reader and he's also so pretty and reader is just a girl

so let's have a drabble on that :))

"And what--" A laugh tumbles into the words, clumsy and a little breathless. The sound leaves you warm all over, not unlike the feel of sunlight soaking into your skin after an English winter. "What was--what was that last guy on about?"

The question is so enthusiastic, you can't help but grin. Felix is so determined to piece together the words he barely heard as you--with Farleigh's help--attempted to guide him into a cab. "I think he was trying to kick you out."

Felix turns onto his side, head shifting to rest against the edge of his pillow, the angle awkward enough to strain his neck. You make a mental note to not let him fall asleep like that. "I don't think so."

You laugh. "I do."

"You're very cyclical."

Another laugh as your elbow presses into his mattress for support as you try to sit up a little more. You're an odd combination of drained and giddy. Your limbs feel weighed down, making each movement a major commitment, and yet everything's okay. Fuzzy and warm and happy. "You mean cynical?"

In an impressive display of focus, Felix pushes himself so that he's almost sitting, most of his weight resting on his forearm. He pauses, staying there for a beat before sitting up fully. "I said that."

"No," you mumble with an exaggerated shake of your head. "You said cycli--cyclical, which is when something's a circle." You pause, mind not exactly catching up with your mouth. "Goes. It goes in circles, like a cycle--because it's a cycle." You sigh at your uncertainty, turning your head to look at him. "Cycles are just circles?"

Felix presses his lips together, spine straightening as he shifts even closer. "They go in circles, Lovie."

The corner of his mouth tugs itself upwards. His knee close to yours. You straighten your legs, the exposed skin of your thigh pressing against his leg. "Very astute."

Felix's chin dips downwards, his gaze falling towards the bed. You look down, squinting at wrinkled sheets and resting limbs in an attempt to understand what he's looking at. His fingers move to rest against your leg. "All from trying to keep up with you."

You lift your head at the sudden lowness of his voice. How long has he been this close? "Well, you're doing a really good job."

"High praise."

He angles his head forward. A strand of his hair falls forward, but Felix doesn't react. His attention remains solely on you.

Being able to openly examine Felix this closely is a rare luxury. The low lighting of the room tinges his skin with a warm glow. His features are always lovely, but when he's this relaxed they seem better suited to him. There's a lightness that contrasts from any sharpness, a softness that makes him such a gentle giant not even his eyebrow piercing can redeem him.

You've seen people be intimidated by him, have picked up on the way that some avoid his gaze when wandering around campus and how they twist themselves to please him. You fully aware that it's possible, but you're having an extremely hard time grasping it.

You tilt your chin up a fraction of an inch without a second thought, your lips now so close to his jaw it'd be so easy to...

You dismiss the train of thought as assuredly as you can manage anything right now. Your resolve feels unsteady as you part your lips. There's something you should say...some second joke or something else entirely.

Felix's hand shifts forward, his fingers now closer to your inner thigh than the edge of your leg. He drags his thumb against your skin carefully, a steady back and forth pattern.

His eyes find yours before dipping his head forward. He presses his lips against yours, the contact steady and soft. Questioning. You tilt your head upwards, your bottom lip dragging against his.

A hand finds the back of your head, guiding you back. He's everywhere, fingers in your hair, hand inching further up your inner thigh. And yet it's not close enough. The urge for more of this, more of Felix is dizzying.

You part your lips further, letting his tongue slip into your mouth. He moves without breaking contact, settling his weight against his knees. His fingers press into your thigh, gently encouraging your legs to adjust to make room for him. You register a faint tug against your hair. Felix pulls your bottom lip between his teeth.

He pulls back slowly, teeth grazing against your lip before releasing you. The loss of contact, of total distraction, leaves you breathless. So breathless you're shocked that you didn't notice before.

Still panting, the reality of all you didn't notice hits you hard. You and Felix are comfortable with each other...more comfortable than a lot of best friends are. But he's--he's close in a way that you're not sure he's been before.

You're quiet, eyes focused on a spot just above Felix's shoulder. This can't possibly change things between the two of you. You've been drinking and--and what's a tipsy kiss between the two of you? Besides, Felix started it, so he can't feel weird about it. You press your lips together, forcing yourself to not think about the fact that you did nothing to stop it, or even slow it down.

He takes his time untangling himself from you. His hand moves away from your head, fingers trailing down to your shoulder. He squeezes your thigh once before taking his hand back. Felix shifts back, moving to sit next to you.

Felix exhales, body relaxing. He reaches forward, hand searching for yours. You squeeze his palm to yours. "You're getting good at that."

You're not sure you've done much of what just happened, but his praise feels so light and genuine, you have to smile. "All from trying to keep up with you."

Felix lets out a breath that feels like a laugh. He turns his head, pressing a quick kiss against he side of your head. "You're a natural."

You grin, moving your head to rest against his arm. Maybe that wasn't that weird--not for Felix. You know for a fact he's done a lot more with girls he considers friends. "I'm tired."

"Tired you out?" You can hear the grin in his voice, which forces you to keep your lips pressed together to keep from laughing. In protest of his smugness, you start to attempt to slip his fingers out of his grasp. He squeezes your fingers in an attempt to hold you in place. "Sto--stop. I was kidding." You still, lifting your head enough to look up at him. He watches you with eyes to plead for you to believe his innocence. "Kidding."

"I don't believe you, but I'm too tired to argue."

"Wow," he whispers, pulling your hand towards his lap, "That is tired."

Felix bends and straightens your fingers. "What's even more tired is that I'm letting that go too."

Ignoring your attempt at snark, he lifts your hand to kiss the back of your palm. "Then I guess we have to go to bed, so that you'll be ready to argue in the morning."

You're still as he traces the lines of your palm. Despite wanting to go bed, you don't move. "Good idea."

He sets your hand down before carefully moving his arm away from you. Felix expertly ignores the dirty look you throw in his direction. "C'mon, bed, Lovie."

With a sigh, you nod, pulling your legs forward to crawl beneath his sheets.

----

taglist; @vader-is-hot @spiritofbuddha @getosangie @freyafriggafrey @ilovehyperfixating @aryiannarae @willowpains @ker0senebunny @lilyrachelcassidy @khxna @imbabycowboy

[us3rnam3-r3dact3d]

Inspired by the latest Reductive Audio:

Lil useless facts about my fav boys/listeners. No hate if I didn’t include your fave, I was making my list off memory and am just now realizing I missed like… three entirely series worth of people.

Vincent

He prefers silver jewelry over gold, but doesn’t care if styles are meant for men or women. He likes what he likes and will wear it. He’s a particular fan of dainty necklaces and women’s wrist watches, but likes men’s rings better.

Sam

He smoked when he was human. Lucky Stripes, since they’re cheap. It was a bad habit he picked up when he was eight or so to cope with his home life. He lost the ability to be chemically addicted to nicotine when he was turned, but he still itches for a cigarette when he’s particularly stressed.

Alexis

She’s very jealous of Will’s attention. She gets twitchy when he’s paying attention to anybody else for too long. This results in spikes of her reckless and bad behavior. It started when Vincent was turned, then when he took in Porter, then when she turned Sam. The most recent was after the Inversion.

William

He cannot paint or draw to save his life. He’s followed five or six Bob Ross paintings, but they never turn out right. He can draw stick figures, but that’s about it. His penmanship is beautiful, though.

Porter

Will made him testify against his maker since Porter’s treatment was particularly brutal amongst Felix’s progeny. Porter didn’t want to, but he recounted every moment of Felix’s torture while being stared down by the man himself in front of the whole council. It was so damming that Felix invoked him to stop. That’s the moment that Porter still has nightmares about.

Lovely

Lovely is incredibly anxious around their human friends. They’re scared that they’ll lose control and hurt someone, even though they’re very well fed and haven’t shown any lack of control in the past. This results in a few months after the inversion that Freelancer thought they were dead, since they showed up on the casualty list.

Treasure

Their older brother is a humanborn freelancer. He’s an enforcer for the Department. They think that fits him well, since he was always sort of a bully growing up. Treasure themself is an investigative journalist who writes for an empowered newspaper. They were trying to get a table at the Monarchal Summit even before they met Porter, but that didn’t pan out.

Freddy

He played french horn in high school. He was pretty good, and was drum major in marching band his senior year. He threw up before every game because he was so nervous.

Bright Eyes

Singer/song writer. Y’all ever listened to the Mountain Goats??? That’s their shit. Slow moving acoustic guitar, songs about the most disturbing and distressing emotions humans are capable of surviving recorded on cassette. Singing at dead coffee shop open mics in the wee hours of the morning. Their voice is raspy and rough, but the texture just draws you into their even timber and perfect pitch. They’re a minor celebrity in Dahlia’s sad boy live music scene.

David

His hips and back hurt So Much all of the time. He figures out that it’s because he’s incredibly strong but not flexible in the slightest. An imbalance in those two factors can lead to a lot of pain. He starts doing yoga after the Inversion when it got really bad and it’s helped a ton. Plus, Angel does it with him, and he likes watching them bend into all of those poses in their tiny, skin tight shorts.

Asher

He keeps track of how much David weighs and makes sure he can comfortably lift and carry that much weight at the drop of a hat. At the end of every work out, he deadlifts David’s weight to make sure he can do it when already spent. He should have been carrying David after the Inversion, but he didn’t have the strength to do it even when not fucked up. He won’t let that happen again.

Milo

He needs reading glasses but refuses to wear them. He tried contacts but he can’t stand to put anything in his eye. So he just squints and struggles through. His phone’s text is blown up like a grandpa’s. David is so bothered that Milo won’t just… get glasses. He keeps passive aggressively offering to add Milo to their vision insurance plan.

Christian

He had a little crush on Asher in middle school that translated to teasing the shit out of him. Which, Asher being Asher, put him off and hurt his feelings. He’s well moved on but sometimes, when the sun catches Ash just right or he smiles that stupid, toothy smile, Christian mourns his own stupidity.

Arden

Desperately protective of Christian, especially after the Inversion. The first time Ash makes a light-hearted joke about Christian’s limp, Arden put his ass on the ground, despite Christian laughing at it.

Gabe

He drove a white Chevy Cameo with a red interior for most of his life. It was lovingly maintained, and since it’s such a rare model, he did all of the maintenance himself. After the crash, the truck was totaled. David still spent a few years trying to put it back together. He called it quits when he was working on the interior and found dried blood under the leather of the seats.

Angel

They have a small stuffed lamb that they’ve had since they were a baby. It’s beaten up, falling apart, and no longer the stark white it started out as. Lambie is kept in their bottom bedside drawer. They only pull him out when they can’t sleep. They were worried David would think it was weird, but he actually finds this more endearing than he can put into words.

Babe

They didn’t start talking until they were three. Their parents thought that they were nonverbal, and had started teaching them ASL as an alternative. Then one day at the breakfast table, they opened their mouth and started spouting full sentences. They taught Asher ASL and the two of them use it when they want a private moment in public/when Ash is overstimulated. (Side note; David also knows ASL, he took courses in high school. Very useful, he loves it. He does not love it when watching them flirt nastily in front of him.)

Sweetheart

They’ve had anxiety since they were a very young child, and it’s always been an internally-sourced thing rather than externally motivated. They recall the first time they ever got in trouble at school (first grade, for pushing a boy who had been tugging on their hair all through recess). They remember the first time they got a B (fifth grade, on a math test they studied for for hours). Their parents had high expectations, but Sweetheart was having panic attacks from the age of three. Definitely something ~chemical~ going on there.

Darlin

They feel pack bonds incredibly strongly. Their body reacts physically when someone in the pack is threatened or hurt, without them even having to think. They shiver when Sam calls them ‘mate.’ When David says something in his lovingly dubbed ‘alpha voice,’ they can’t help but listen. They knew Gabe was dead before they got the call. They thought Ash was dead during the Inversion because they felt David’s dread through the bond so strongly.

Avior

He’s unnerved by human’s tactile nature. Being in a body is strange for him, and he prefers Aria to Elegy (at least before meeting Starlight), so touch is an extreme sensation for him. Humans touch so much. He’s not opposed to it when it’s someone he knows, but handshakes are the bane of his existence.

Starlight

Halloween is their favorite holiday. They start decorating for it in August. They plan elaborate, complex costumes and parties. They desperately want to move into a house so that they can set up scary decorations and shit in their yard and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. Avid lover of the Spirit Halloween animatronics. They go to Halloween Horror Nights every year.

Camelopardalis

He’s trained himself to use the human terms for things (ex: terra or earth instead of elegy) since some in the Department don’t like it when daemons use their terms. It means that he gets weird looks from other daemons when he talks to them. It’s an alienating feeling for sure.

Vega

He’s never tried human food. He never saw the appeal. What he doesn’t know is that he would absolutely Love dark chocolate if he tried it. He likely will never know.

Warden

Avid reader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics. Just the comics, though. They don’t have an apartment in Elegy, but they do have a small storage unit where they keep their comics. They coalesced a few years before the comics starting their run, and for some reason, they just fell in love. Vega thinks this is silly and that they should be embarrassed, but they refuse to be.

Hush

He loves Popeye’s fried chicken sandwiches. Doc fed him one once and it blew his fucking mind. He won’t make them with magic, either, he insists that they don’t taste the same. Doc has started just getting gift cards for him to keep so he can get one whenever and doesn’t have to wait for them to give him money. He’s ravenous for those things.

Doc

They’re actually a warder, not a healer. Hush’s presence has encouraged them to refresh their healing knowledge, however. Even if he himself is difficult to hurt, he sort of invites chaos.

Morgan

He uses his foresight to see what the owner of his favorite little bodega down the street is going to have for breakfast every morning. It’s his little morning ritual and practice for his magic. He feels weird all day if he doesn’t do it.

Seer listener

Their sight is more potent and more clear than Morgan’s. They can give stark details, see full landscapes, and turn 360 deg in their vision and see the whole space. They also can hear what’s happening consistently, something that goes in and out for Morgan. He figures that they’re just more powerful than he is, something that makes them just the slightest bit uncomfortable.

Damien

Gets incredibly stressed on election days, whether for local, state, or national elections. He forces everyone he knows to vote, volunteers to shuttle people without cars, and has at times volunteered to be a poll worker. But elections make him anxious. He cares so much about the results. Huxley has recently instated a post 9pm ban on watching the news on election nights so that Dames will actually sleep and not stay up all night stressing.

Huxley

Does not eat beef. Not for religious reasons, but because of the impact of beef consumption on the environment. He’s about one step away from a full vegetarian, he just likes chicken and is concerned for his protein and vitamin intake. This is difficult for Damien, who loves nothing quite so much as a rare steak.

Lasko

He was forced to take piano lessons as a child. He hated it, but took them up to the point he left home. He’s still very good, and did get peer pressured into showing off at a random guitar center once while out with the D.A.M.N. crew. He nearly died of embarrassment.

Gavin

He has a collection of very pretty rosaries that he uses as jewelry. He is not religious, and if asked, cannot describe what a Catholic is to you. He likes to wear them around his neck, dipping over his body since his shirts always cut down to his navel. It makes people gasp and blush, which is his favorite effect to have on somebody. His fav one has beads made of mother of pearl and a little, golden crucifix on the end.

Freelancer

They love cheap Chinese buffets. They claim that, the lower the health rating, the better the taste. Their desire for krab rangoons is strong enough to pull them from the comfort of their home at 2 in the morning if the fancy strikes. Damien in particular is horrified by this, and keeps offering to cook them some actual Chinese food.

Dear (Lasko’s listener)

An all star volleyball player in high school and college. They were a setter, and took their team to nationals all four years of high school. They are on the starting line up all through college. When it gets brought up in their trip that Damien plays casually, they said they did too. And then absolutely creamed him.

[archer3-13]

oh wow a fire emblem post after a lot of not posting about fire emblem. its been slow and i dont care too much about heroes, sue me.

i've come to the conclusion that people get too hung up on the idea of whether felix was right or wrong about dimitri when it comes to discussions on their character dynamics [it all tends to be very felix focused anyways]. I would say that at the end of the day, the story needs felix to be wrong in order to work as it does and theres no getting around that.

as a result however, dimitris side of that dynamic often gets overlooked i think and its a shame, cause i would say its the most important factor in how that dynamic works. cause well felix hurls all manner of verbal abuse at him, dimitri never disabuses felix of those notions even when he's trying his hardest to pretend everything is fine. he just takes the abuse, and i would argue thats far more important to the dynamic and speaks a lot more to dimitris core characteristics.

what dimitri is, is sad, traumatized, and possessed of an intense self loathing that blends together into a self destructive cocktail. its not just that the dead are haunting him, its that the dead are haunting him by calling him a pussy ass bitch in the most violent way possible, all the while everything falls apart around him. and his response to this is to try and repress that sorrow and trauma as deep as he possibly can, because he has too much to do, not enough time, and everyones counting on him.

what dimitri isn't, is possessed of a hidden darkness that can only be expressed in violent rage and general monsterousness/assholery. certainly he can express those things, but they're always symptoms of whats happening around him and in the story. the inevitable reaction of all that misery hes so deeply repressed exploding in violent reaction to the cruelty of the world around him. And it is importantly cruelty and injustice that he's reacting to, remire village, the holy tomb, the entire god damn war phase etc. its why dimitris story is always importantly intertwined with the idea of having others to support you and your burdens.

anyways, guess what end of the stick felix latches onto during the academy phase!!

its grimly funny in a way, but what felix is essentially playing with dimitri is purity politics. people often overlook that canonically he was a very sweet and gentle child before the tragedy, and that his aloof prickly i studied the blade demenour is just a crude imitation of glenns personality [but yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that hes dealing with glenns death better then rodrigue]. and he practically grew up alongside dimitri, who he only ever knew as a kind and gentle boy as well. then the tragedy happens and uproots everything in his life, so he tries to find that stability again by going with dimitri in their first battle.

and that's where he sees that violent reaction dimitri sorrow can elect. and like a true gamer, felix rejects the idea that his [pure, sweet, gentle] dimitri could ever do or be like that. it must be a monster in a humans skin, a boar prince.

and like the tsundere idiot he is, felix takes it as his own duty [consciously or not] to act as the jailkeeper for that wild animal that's taken his friends place. possibly its executioner even. because felix is too caught up in his own grief to see beyond that rage, a rage he rejects the "true" dimitri of being capable of.

and, wadda ya know. dimitri being caught in a violent spiral of self hatred and anger at the injustices of the world, does nothing to disabuse felix of these notions. because he feels like he deserves to be abused by felix, and also because its easier to brush things off that way and pretend everything is normal.

and i find that a lot more interesting to view the relation between the two in and how it develops over the games story.

[theerurishipper]

The Issue with Felix Fathom

So, I'm not a fan of this character. I think there was a lot that could be done with him. I think he was done really dirty by the writing (but what's new there XD). He had a lot of potential; he was genuinely entertaining when he showed up and he slayed in that musical number. And that he was the only one to actually advance the plot meaningfully? Respect. But Season 5, as Season 5 does, ruined his character. And I don't like when bad writing ruins good characters. So I took it upon myself to break down his character and how Season 5 took a sledgehammer to it. I divided it into three parts.

A) Inconsistent motivations

B) Half-assed Redemption

C) Feligami is a bad ship

This gets long, so here we go.

A) Inconsistent motivations

The first time we're introduced to Felix in the episode named after him, he seems to just be a grade A dick, going out of his way to ruin his cousin's life and making deals with Hawkmoth to get his hands on some rings (which we now know are Adrien's amok) and the natural assumption is that he's just a spiteful asshole who's angry that Adrien didn't attend his father's funeral. Then he comes back in the finale of Season 4 (after a not really noteworthy return in Gabriel Agreste the episode) and proceeds to spend that time betraying Ladybug and giving all the Miraculous to Gabe, along with Adrien's Amok in exchange for the Peacock Miraculous. Then he shows up again in Season 5 as an advocate for Sentimonster rights and commits genocide, only going back on it when Adrien and Kagami called him out. Then he spends a while stalking Kagami and saving her from her mother, and then reveals his tragic backstory to her, instantly earning her trust. Then they get together, and the next time we see them, Kagami is declaring that they're doing this to stop their parents from getting in the way of their love. Then he is straight up missing from the finale, so that really did go somewhere.

So, let's take a look at his motivations through all these episodes one more time.

Felix: Just seems to want to ruin Adrien's life and get his hands on the rings that have his Amok in them.

Strikeback: Wants the Peacock Miraculous in exchange for the rest of the Miraculous and Adrien's Amok.

Emotion: Wants to rid the world of humans in an effort to create a better world for his fellow Sentimonsters.

Representation: Wants to stop Monarch so that he and Kagami can love each other freely without their parents' interference.

Recreation: Is a part of the hero team.

That's five different motivations within the course of, what, 8-9 episodes? And it causes some major inconsistencies in his characterization.

For an example, the episode Emotion introduces his whole Senti-rights thing, and he starts snapping the world away so that he and Adrien, and later Kagami can live happily ever after. He only let Kagami stick around because he realized she was also a Senti later (and Marinette too was only spared after he realized the relationship between her and Adrien), so we assume it was just going to be him and Adrien. He goes as far as to say he did this all for them, showing that he really cares about their opinion and well-being. And considering that Kagami and Marinette only factored into this later, we assume he was originally doing this just for Adrien.

Then why did he treat Adrien like such absolute shit over his past appearances? Let's review exactly what Felix has done to the cousin he claims he loves enough to snap out the world to protect him.

Victim blamed him for not standing up to Gabriel (despite knowing he was being mind-controlled and had no way of standing up to him).

Took on his identity to ruin his relationships with others he cared about.

Sent a cruel response to his friends' kind video to isolate him from his friends.

Stole his Amok from Gabe.

Realized his father was Shadow Moth and didn't tell him of the danger he was living under, or you know, give him back his Amok which holds his very autonomy in it.

Didn't try even a little to help Adrien when he realized the danger he was in.

Didn't tell Adrien he was a Sentimonster.

Gave Adrien's Amok back to Gabe without a hint of regret or hesitation.

Snapped everyone he cared about out of existence.

And yet, he loves him so much.

For someone who supposedly cares about Adrien, he sure did go out of his way to bully him and treat him like garbage. A clear example of how his motivations were retconned. He went from being a grade-A douchebag to Adrien to supposedly caring deeply about Adrien and wishing only for his well-being. He went from screwing over Adrien to doing everything for him apparently. He traded his Amok with no hesitation and with a grin on his face, and yet he supposedly did all this for Adrien.

Then the next time we see him, he's a Senti-rights advocate and is committing genocide for that cause. Which, fine. It was set up in the Season 4 finale that he seemed to care about Sentis. Still doesn't explain him caring about Adrien suddenly, but okay. Then we see him get into a relationship with Kagami, and the next time we see him, he's completely over his Senti-rights phase, and is now focusing on making sure Gabe gets taken down so that he and Kagami can love each other. There is no mention of his earlier motivation that he would not shut up about, and the only motivation is Kagami stating that they can't love each other unless they take care of Monarch. Sentimonster rights? Who cares about that? All that they need is to protect their love, because they're all that matters right? Not like there's a third Sentimonster still being controlled by his supervillain father that might need rescuing. Which is something Felix should probably care about if he's such an advocate for Senti-rights and freedom. Instead of, you know, focusing only on one girl he met less than a month ago.

And I'm not saying that wanting to protect his love can't be his motivation. Except when you make Senti-rights his motivation and then forget all about it to push an already rushed ship, it just ruins his character. Constantly retconning character motivations doesn't make for good storytelling, who woulda thunk it.

And just to drive in this complete reversal, the episode Emotion where Felix begins his quest for Senti-rights ends with him breaking down over having to destroy the Red Moon. And what do you know, this complete change in his motivation makes him create a Senti-projector for no reason and destroy it with no hesitation! Almost like the writers forgot what he was all about in the first half of the season! That they established him as someone who fought for giving Sentimonsters agency and treating them like people, and who would break down at having to destroy them, and only created Red Moon because he thought he wouldn't have to destroy her! But when his motivation changed to being in love with Kagami, I guess that all just up and vanished. And it just makes him come off as a hypocrite.

(Which is honestly what he is. Felix is a hypocrite. Despite not having been able to break free of his abusive father until his death, he mocks Adrien for not doing the same. To be clear, this is not criticism of Felix for not being able to fight back against Colt. He is not to blame for that whatsoever, and he did not deserve that treatment. This is criticism of him blaming Adrien for not fighting Gabriel, which is pretty hypocritical of him. And as I mentioned before, he says that he's not like others and that he wouldn't bring a Sentimonster to life just to destroy it later. Senti-projector would beg to differ.

These moments are transparently hypocritical. But the thing is, the narrative doesn't portray these as hypocritical moments, and never seems to acknowledge this aspect of his character. Instead, it's played straight and never addressed. You'd think that Felix doing the one thing he swore never to do would be addressed, but nah.)

And then Felix, the most proactive character in the series, whose whole appeal is that he gets shit done, decides to leave it to Ladybug to handle and fucks off to who knows where. And then he joins the team at the end despite having shown nothing but disdain for these people the last time he saw them, and despite having never shown the desire to work in a team.

B) Half-assed Redemption

That is, if it can even be called one.

So, yeah, let's start by listing all the awful shit Felix has done. We've already covered the list of things he did to Adrien specifically. But we can move onto the rest of his awful actions.

Tried to kiss Ladybug without her consent.

Betrayed Ladybug and gave all the Miraculous to Shadow Moth, putting Paris in grave danger.

Committed literal genocide.

That's it, pretty much. Until you consider the magnitude of what he's done, and then it all becomes a whole lot worse.

Like, he gave all the Miraculous to Gabe. He directly enabled a terrorist for personal gain. He actively put the lives of countless people in danger for his own desires. He betrayed Ladybug's trust and caused her great suffering. And did I mention he enabled a terrorist?

And his defense for this?

Argos: True, except I work for no one. (kicks Ladybug, causing her to crash onto a building) I only helped Monarch cause it served my plans! (charges in to punch her and she dodges) I needed the Peacock Miraculous and today I need yours and Cat Noir's so I can make my wish! (makes another attempt to attack Ladybug with his heel as Ladybug rolls away to evade it)

Oh yeah, so sadness, much remorse. Very redeemable.

But the funny part is, this isn't even the worst of it. He then goes on to commit literal genocide. I know I brought this up more casually before, but I need to emphasize how actually fucked up this is. Felix, of his own free will and of completely sound mind, killed all the people in Paris and possibly in other parts of the world, whilst singing a peppy song and enjoying himself.

And yeah, I got a good laugh out of that scene too. Doesn't make it any less fucked up. He committed genocide without a care in the world. Mf literally pulled an Eren Yeager, but even Eren had some remorse or something. And he didn't even bring them back because he realized mass murder was wrong, he did it because the people he did it for turned on him, and he realized that maybe people with morals don't appreciate him killing everyone in the world including the people they love.

And what does that episode do? Have Ladybug blindly trust that Felix would fix things himself, with no reason for her to do so. He literally just admitted he feels no remorse or regret for helping Monarch, that he wants their Miraculous to make a wish and that he has nothing to lose. And she just... decides to trust him because... the Lucky Charm said so? Because she was able to feel positive vibes coming from deep within him even though he has proven to be nothing but a self-absorbed piece of shit? Even though he's betrayed her trust so much and caused her a great deal of pain and suffering? And it's not even like it was right, because he didn't change and fix things because he could be trusted. He did it because his plan failed to please Adrien and Kagami and he realized he had fucked up with them. Not the people he killed, just them.

Okay.

After this, we see him in Pretension. To his credit, he seems to have given up on genocide, and has taken up stalking as a new hobby to keep himself busy. And then he kidnaps Kagami, yadda yadda, Sentimonsters are people, we don't abuse them in my house, all that. And then, this is what gets Kagami to start advocating for Felix.

Like, he just not too long ago snapped her mother out of existence right in front of her. He just snapped the entire fucking world out of existence. He should be publicly despised. People should be out for his head. Ladybug and Chat Noir should have made getting his Miraculous back one of their top priorities. But no one does anything. And hearing one speech about how Sentimonsters should be protected makes Kagami just flip her whole tune about Felix, as though he didn't commit unimaginable horrors. One hint at a tragic backstory and a passionate speech about Sentimonster rights, and suddenly he didn't do anything wrong. He was actually a good guy all along! There's certainly no reason for anyone to distrust him! He may have done all that awful shit, but he had good intentions! That makes it all okay!

Like, I get it. I get that his motivations are sympathetic. But that does not absolve him of wrongdoing. He doesn't get a free pass from consequences and accountability just because he had good reasons and a bad childhood. Kagami goes from being unbelievably hurt by him essentially murdering her mother, to being okay around him when he kidnaps her, to literally shielding him from consequences a short while later, and ends the episode by going on a date with him. As though she doesn't remember what he did.

Really. Kagami would do that. Kagami Tsurugi. You expect me to believe she'd do that? That she'd be swayed by one passionate speech and start coddling and protecting people from facing justice? Kagami would do that? Sure Jan.

Seriously, this is like listening to a terrorist go on about how animals deserve to be treated well and shouldn't be abused and deciding that their fervor for animal rights means they're a good person at heart. They aren't completely insane, cool. Doesn't mean they still aren't a horrible, monstrous person! And yes, I am comparing the two situations. Just because Felix brought all the people back doesn't change the fact that he first did it with the intention of having it be permanent, only brought everyone back because it was hurting the people he tried to please and not because he realized genocide was wrong, and then never expressed remorse for it. The writers aren't good enough to properly explore the implications of what just happened, but it doesn't mean I'm gonna brush by it, especially since they want to be taken seriously this season.

But Felix had a bad childhood, and he had good reasons, and his heart was in the right place. So naturally, he doesn't need to be called out, and Kagami's word is enough for Ladybug and Chat Noir to just... straight up forget that he happily gave up the Miraculous to Monarch and let him do whatever he wants. Sure, he betrayed them horribly and said he wasn't sorry at all about it, but this girl who's known him for a few hours at best says he's a good guy, so it must be true! The show tells us that he's not bad really, he's just misunderstood! Even if he never really apologized or expressed regret and remorse. Ladybug and Chat Noir have valid and justifiable reasons for going after Felix, and the narrative hasn't yet proven them wrong. And yet, him simply having sympathetic motivations is enough for him to be considered a good person and have all his mistakes forgotten. That's not how a redemption works.

Forgive me for being a basic bitch, but look at ATLA and how it handled Zuko's arc. Yeah, Zuko had sympathetic motivations, but that was never used as an excuse. He had to go through a whole arc of realizing the error of his ways, and no one coddles him through it. He actively owns up to his mistakes, accepts blame and responsibility for them, and works hard to earn the Gaang's forgiveness and trust. They don't forgive him immediately either, and he literally puts his life at risk to be accepted by them. He openly calls himself out and apologizes. Contrast that to Felix's "redemption," where his sympathetic motivations are used not to explain his actions, but to excuse them. Him having sympathetic motivations makes another character start to like him enough to shield him from being called out. He gets sympathy and understanding despite having done nothing to earn it. He never apologizes or tries to fix what he did, he never even admits that he hurt people and made mistakes, and yet just because he showed that he's not a heartless monster, the people he hurt are just supposed to accept that he's not a bad person. He's done so many awful things, but he's shown that he can potentially have a compassionate side (for very a specific thing but okay) so all is forgiven and forgotten.

The thing is, having sympathetic motivations and qualities that indicate that he's not completely cruel don't mean a thing if he doesn't act on them. It doesn't matter that he says he loves Adrien if he treats him like shit anyway. It doesn't matter if Felix cares about things and isn't actually as untrustworthy and selfish as he came off if he never shows those qualities in his actions. Sure, Kagami might trust him for whatever reason, but Ladybug and Chat Noir (as Adrien) are victims of his toxic actions, and Kagami's word about how he's not their enemy shouldn't be enough for them to just blindly let it go. Because they have no reason to trust him, and he has not shown any sign that he wants to make up for what he did or even that he feels bad about it at all (again, he literally says he doesn't).

Sympathetic backstories are supposed to help us recontextualize a character's actions, yes. Zuko too came off as a lot more sympathetic after we learnt of his past. That didn't mean he didn't have to make up for what he did. He had to work to change and grow, and actively states that he was wrong and that he wants to make up for it. Where does Felix do this? All he does is start talking about Senti-rights and suddenly all he's done is water under the bridge? All the things he's done can be forgotten because he did them for good reasons? One emotional moment means he's not that bad after all and means they can trust him, even though he's done nothing to prove that? Him having sympathetic motivations means he's now justified in what he did and doesn't need to make up for it?

That's not redemption. That's excusing bad people because they did what they did for "good reasons". He never admits to his mistakes, and he never takes accountability. Instead, Kagami is there to vouch for him despite not being the one most affected by him. And then no one calls him out anymore. And according to that little play, he still thinks it was justified for him to do those things because he had a good reason, and the show agrees with him!

A good heart is not enough for a redemption. It involves learning and growing and taking accountability. It means showing regret and remorse and the desire to do better. It means apologizing and accepting consequences. In canon, Felix has done none of those things. He expresses some kind of noble reason and is immediately validated and entitled to understanding and forgiveness. The characters don't bring up his past crimes, and he joins the team with no issue in the finale, as though he didn't snap these people out of existence gleefully, or as though he wasn't the reason they all suffered under Monarch.

You want me to believe Felix is a good guy? Give him an actual arc of growth. Actually make him confront the things he did. Actually let him face consequences and make it up to the people he hurt. Let him admit to his faults and learn how to be better. Don't give him a girlfriend who acts as a shield to exonerate him of all fault. That's not how a redemption arc works. That's not how any of this works.

C) Feligami is a bad ship

Imma say it. This is not a good ship.

Yeah, in concept it's fine, even good. I always love me some enemies to lovers. But the execution is so rushed and so poor that I really can't understand why they even got together.

The short version? It actively detracts from both of their characters.

The long version? Here we go.

It's so rushed.

We get Felix and Kagami together in Emotion, Pretension, and Representation. They go from enemies to lovers in three episodes, and in about a week in canon. In Emotion, they are very assuredly not friends. Felix only spares her because she's a Senti like him, and she straight up attacks him for killing everyone.

In Pretension, he stalks her for a while, saves her from her mother, reveals his sympathetic motivations leading her to start trusting him, and they go on a date at the end of the episode.

A few problems:

Kagami seems to have forgotten everything Felix did to her and the rest of the world just... a few days ago.

Kagami just admitted to still being in love with Adrien.

So for her to just... go along with him with no distrust or hatred is so strange. She called him out for stalking her, but what about the mass murder? Surely she hasn't forgotten about that?

And also, she literally just admitted to still being in love with Adrien. And she's immediately going on a date with Felix? I'm not saying she can't or that she shouldn't but... why have her still being in love with Adrien be such a big part of her arc this season, so much so that it had an episode dedicated to it, if it's going to be resolved in no time at all? Where did her feelings for Adrien go? They are never brought up again. Did they disappear off screen? And Felix and Kagami end up together in one single episode! They barely know each other! And by the time the next episode with them in it rolls around, Kagami is saying shit like "My mother and Gabriel Agreste will never allow us to love each other freely." Baby girl you've barely known him for a week, slow down please.

So yeah, rushed. But that's not all the problems I have with it. In their effort to pair these two together, there are some problems with the very concept of this ship. Now, the reason I said earlier that it's conceptually a good ship is because there are a few minor issues in it, but nothing that cannot be fixed with time and good writing. So overall it's a good concept. Problem is, we have the end product but the writing is shitty and ruins the whole thing.

It damages Felix's arc.

At least, whatever Felix's arc was supposed to be in Season 5. It started out with him trying to create a better world for Sentimonsters like himself. There are two aspects of his arc that the writers were trying to go for here. To integrate him into the protagonists' side from his role as an antagonist (his seasonal arc), and to flesh out his goal of getting more freedom for Sentis (his overall character arc).

Feligami as a ship undermines both these goals. Introducing Kagami as a love interest for Felix makes her more or less a shield for him to protect him from consequences, undercutting the "redemption" part of his arc. It stops him from having to face consequences or make amends or take accountability, because having a good person be in love with him is an easier way of painting him as also "good," thereby reducing the need to have him go through any actual growth. Having Kagami love Felix instantly prevents him from having to grow. It makes it cliche "Guy changes with the love of a girl" trope, except done poorly because he never really changed, she just started making it seem like he did by excusing him.

And as for his goal of freedom for Sentimonsters, his relationship with Kagami switches the focus from developing him, developing the lore of Sentimonsters (because the previous seasons did a piss poor job of it) and his goal into developing Feligami, which changes his goal from what was previously established to Being In Love With Kagami. He goes from wanting all Sentimonsters to be free to wanting to protect his relationship with Kagami and only that. You could say that he and Kagami are Sentimonsters and therefore saving their relationship falls under this, but that's not how it's framed. It's not framed as something Felix thinks furthers his goal, it's something else entirely. Felix spares no more thought to the freedom of Sentimonsters and does not mention it again, or else he would have thought about the other Sentimonster, his cousin, whom he damned in the previous season. He spent his reintroduction in Season 5 professing how deeply he cares for him, and yet after Feligami becomes a thing, he barely spares a thought to the only other Sentimonster (whose free will he traded for personal gain) even though he's such an advocate for Senti-rights.

It ruins Kagami's arc.

Kagami's overall arc is to win back her free will from her mother and find her own path in life, and this arc this season focuses on Kagami learning how to allow herself to be more passionate and emotional and want more from her life, both in terms of companionship and freedom, which is a step on her way to freeing herself from her mother's control. A big part of this arc is her still being in love with Adrien. She's also a Sentimonster, making her arc about autonomy and freeing herself from the control of her mother, finding new relationships and forging a new path for herself. This is something that has always been a part of Kagami's character. She's stubborn and headstrong. She finds her own way. And with the introduction of the plot point of her being a Sentimonster, you'd expect a pivotal moment to be her reclaiming her own agency. Except that's not what happens.

In Pretension, Tomoe asks for her Amok, and Kagami gives it to her. And at the end of the episode, it's revealed that Felix stole her actual Amok, and gives it back to her, thereby being the actual one who saves Kagami from being controlled by her mother. And it undercuts Kagami's arc of standing up to her mother and asserting her independence, because it's not her asserting herself, it's Felix sneakily saving her Amok for her. Kagami, who paves her own way, has a pivotal part of her arc where she reclaims her autonomy done for her by someone else. And we never see anything related to them again. So it makes an important moment which the episode has been building to, of Kagami standing up for herself and progressing her character arc into her being saved by a guy. She basically becomes a damsel in distress. And her arc never progresses beyond that, so her character journey in Season 5 which was supposed to be about freeing herself ends up being Kagami Finds A Boyfriend.

The episodes before this were building up her relationship with Marinette and Adrien, showing that Kagami is progressing in her social life, making friends and opening up to more people as a part of her development. Her development happened mostly starting from Season 3 and since she was only in a handful of episodes, we only saw it progress slowly. But we see a progression in her relationship with Mari and Adrien as she becomes more comfortable, open and vulnerable with them. And episodes like Perfection show how she is making more friends, that she is loved by many people. We see her start to want more friends, more freedom. And this is emphasized more than in the previous seasons. But once Felix enters the picture and Feligami happens, it's like her other relationships go out of the window. All she cares about is Felix. She doesn't want to assert herself to protect her other friendships too. All she cares about is that she and Felix won't be able to love each other. This straight up ruins her arc about finding many lasting relationships that she values and wants to fight for, because now she has one boyfriend to focus on over the many friends she was making and wanted to make, which was one of the things I actually liked about the Season. Kagami started the season with wanting to fight for all her relationships, and ended it with only caring about one guy she met a week ago. Thanks, I hate it.

It makes them both act OOC.

Feligami as a ship alters both Felix and Kagami's characters to revolve around their romance, even if it means they act in ways that are out of character. It drastically changes their personalities and their roles in the story.

For Kagami, it manifests itself the worst in Representation. Kagami is a very direct, to the point individual. If she wants to say something, she says it. If she wants to do something, she does it, or at least tries her best to do it. And Kagami hates lying. She broke up with Adrien for this very reason, because he wasn't being honest with her. So for her to go through this elaborate scheme to trick Marinette into going to the school by following Felix disguised as Adrien is unnecessary and... kind of cruel. And for her to have discovered Marinette's identity as Ladybug, and to go behind her back and tell Felix without informing Marinette herself, is so out of character for her. Felix is not entitled to this information. In fact, he is the last person Mari would want to reveal this to, other than Monarch and his lackeys. And for Kagami to betray Mari like this when she hates secrets and lies is so out of character for her.

And it's the same thing with Adrien. This is someone she loves so much that breaking up with him hurt her so badly, and she chooses to not tell him vital information that she knows about him, that he is a Sentimonster and his father is Monarch. Anyone who is keeping this secret from Adrien by thinking they know what's best for him is actively denying his ability to break free of his abusive father, whom Kagami is already trying to fight against, and yet the thought of telling Adrien the truth never crosses her mind. Even after she pushed him to assert himself and stand up for himself. She called him out for this in Risk, and yet now she is complicit in denying him the information he needs to do that. Kagami, who told Adrien to stick up for himself, is denying him what he needs to do that and making decisions for him.

It undercuts her personality in other ways too. Kagami is a very stubborn and very straightforward person. And so, for her to coddle Felix when Ladybug and Chat Noir come to rightfully take back the Peacock Miraculous and call Felix out is so against how she usually is. She is reduced to being Felix's protector. Kagami does not take shit lying down, and she does not shy away from calling people out, even if she loves them. For her to validate Felix just because he said and did a few nice things makes her come off very differently from who she is.

So basically, her personality changes. Since she is around Felix, whose MO is usually being tricky and sneaky, Kagami also goes along with it to advance the relationship and the plot, even though it is the antithesis of her character. She willfully abandons all her principles so that this plot can progress. Because Feligami can't happen as fast as it needs to if the writers have to explore this drastic difference between their values, as it would make them incompatible with each other. It could be resolved, but it needs time which the writers don't have because Feligami needs to happen quickly before the season ends for plot purposes. So this lack of exploration of their dynamic makes the ship seem very shallow, and so they would rather remove their defining traits altogether than take the time to flesh out their dynamic and reconcile their contradictory values which would make their relationship more natural.

The relationship also hurts Kagami's role in the story. The first half focused on her relationships with her friends and her mother. But once Felix came along, like I said, her arc switched to revolve around him. Not only does this hurt Kagami's arc, but it also removes her from the plot. Her mother is now part of the main conflict, and yet Kagami is separated from her at this crucial time and put into a romance with Felix to keep them busy and away from the main plot. Them being Sentimonsters too only really matters for exposition purposes and to force a relationship between them. And her arc of breaking free from her mother is abandoned, because now her relationship with Tomoe barely matters to the story. Only Feligami matters now.

And as for Felix, one of his greatest appeals as a character is his proactiveness. He pushes the story forward, he gets things done. He is interesting and engaging to watch because he doesn't sit around and let other characters make a move before he does something. And this romance arc with Kagami makes him do just that. Once his romance arc with Kagami begins, Felix's character is resigned to this arc, and therefore his pivotal role in the story proper ends. The relationships that were developed for him that gave him an active role in the story, such as his relationship with Adrien and his enmity with Gabe were all pushed to the side. These are the main characters in the show, and Felix's relationship to them was what allowed him to be close to the conflict. But after Feligami became a thing, Felix's connection to the main plot was severed, and all that he could contribute to it was the information he had figured out about it. So that's why his main contribution to the conflict this season was just telling Mari that Gabe is Monarch.

Basically, he was a mouthpiece for exposition. Compare this to his role in Strikeback, where he was an active part of the conflict because of his connection to Gabe and Adrien. And him being cut off from everyone except Kagami, who is by no means anything but a side character and who is certainly not as involved in the final conflict as she should be, his role also moves with hers because his arc is written around her. And his role only extends as far as hers, which is why he is barely in the finale except for a few seconds at the end. He goes from an active character to a passive one, which massively reduces his appeal in the story. He goes from proactive to complacent, which is so different from the type of person he was established as. Look me in the eye and tell me that Felix from Season 4 would let Ladybug handle things instead of marching up to Gabe and snapping him out of existence himself.

Feligami as a ship alters Felix's personality (the very little of it that was left after Season 4 ended). He was introduced as conniving and cruel and selfish. Him caring about Sentimonsters doesn't change that about him. But once Feligami becomes a thing, that aspect of his personality straight up disappears. From a writing standpoint, there is a reason for this which I'll get into later, but suffice to say that in order for Feligami to happen, they had to retool Felix's personality to be more appealing, and tone down his cruelty and lack of morals.

And as I've already mentioned, him destroying the Senti-projector without any sort of hesitation or guilt when he completely broke down about having to kill Red Moon shows how much his character had to change, even withing the season for this to happen. Felix being willing to kill a Sentimonster for any reason is completely unfathomable (lol) and yet he does it in order to save his relationship with Kagami without a hint of remorse.

Once again, the romance messes with their fundamental character traits and roles in the story.

Their relationship is diet Adrienette.

It is. Kagami is introduced to Felix when he is masquerading as Adrien. She later compares him to Marinette. Kagami is the reserved, isolated kid, like Adrien. Felix takes on the role of the "awkward" Marinette. Kagami is locked away by her parent like Adrien, Felix comes to her rescue like Marinette is supposed to for Adrien.

The thing is, these similarities are extremely superficial. Kagami and Adrien share a similar situation as abused children who are currently being controlled by their parent, but that's about where it ends. And Felix's awkwardness and shyness remind Kagami of Marinette, but that's about where their similarities end. And yet, their relationship is not built up much beyond that. There are some differences, but again, a lot of the concept is the same, and with so less screentime, it ends up coming off as a less compelling and way more rushed version of the main couple. Especially since the writers clearly didn't know what to do with Kagami and Felix, so the obvious solution was to give them each other and end that plot line. This relationship is literally just "Pair the Spares."

Of course, there are also differences, plenty in fact, but all things considered, it seems like the writers wanted to make Kagami and Felix prominent but didn't know how to end their seasonal arcs. Kagami's of finding lasting relationships (the plural being important actually)/being in love with Adrien, and Felix's of redemption and coming over to the good side. So they threw Felix at Kagami as a consolation prize and Kagami at Felix as a convenient excuse. Of course, this is a really poor conclusion to their seasonal arcs, and also warps their overall character arcs, Kagami's of asserting her individuality and Felix's of Senti-rights. It twists it into becoming all about their love when they could continue working on progressing those like they've been doing in the episodes prior to Feligami becoming canon.

And it seems to also be trying to compensate for Adrienette. Adrien and Marinette are having trouble kissing? Felix and Kagami can't stop. Adrienette took literally forever to happen? Feligami happened in a single episode. This relationship is built around the main couple with not much of a leg to stand on its own. They have no organic, natural build up. It just happens because the plot demands it. The reason I say their relationship is built around Adrienette because it is clearly only happening because they needed to get Felix and Kagami out of the way, and they try to make up for some of the criticisms levelled against Adrienette with this ship.

But speaking of differences...

They don't know each other.

Quite frankly, they do not know each other at all. They've barely known each other for a week. That's not enough to fall in love with someone, not enough that someone like Kagami is talking about it like they're soulmates, star-crossed lovers who are fighting the world or something. Their relationship is extremely superficial, and the only reason they are together is because the plot demanded it to be so. We've seen how it warps their characters to be involved in a romance and how them even falling in love necessitates that their personalities be altered. And there are a few other contrivances that leads to the conclusion that this is clearly less a natural and organic relationship and more a set of conveniences that are needed to give them something to do in the season.

Why do I say they don't know each other? Why do I say they aren't in love with each other? Well...

Felix only likes Kagami because she's a Sentimonster.

Because that's the reason he ever even noticed her. He only noticed her because she was a Sentimonster. That's why he spared her. That's why he followed her. That's why he likes her. Because she's just like him.

Ask yourself, what else does Felix know about Kagami? What does he like about her explicitly? Does he appreciate her character? Does he enjoy her interests? What would they talk about other than them being Sentimonsters? And the answer to that is we don't know. We don't know why Felix likes Kagami, aside from the fact that she's a Sentimonster like him and that she stuck up for him. The rest is inference, because they only appear in what, one more episode after that, and they spend all that time putting on that cringy play for Marinette (which does fuck all because Mari doesn't figure out that Gabe is Monarch from that anyway lmfao).

Kagami only likes Felix because he's similar to Adrien.

On the most superficial level, of course. Felix looks like Adrien, he sounds like Adrien. The reason Kagami broke up with Adrien is because she wanted him to be more assertive, and Felix has that in spades. He's kind of like Adrien... the way Kagami wants him.

Puts things in a different context, huh?

Adrien is kind and compassionate, he's empathetic and selfless. He cares about her. Kagami was drawn to that nature of his. And on the surface, Felix exhibits these traits as well. He's kind to Kagami, he seems to have a great deal of compassion and empathy for Sentimonsters. And it was only previously revealed that Kagami still has feelings for Adrien. And here she sees a boy who looks and sounds like her old boyfriend, who seems to share some of the same qualities as him, even doing things like drawing hearts on her window, which is something a romantic like Adrien would do...

Seems like Kagami is trying to replace Adrien with someone who seems to be just like him. She's projecting her feelings for Adrien onto someone who meets the criteria.

Of course, that's where these superficial similarities end. Felix and Adrien couldn't be more different. Adrien is a hero. He's Chat Noir, who risks his life on the daily to battle Monarch. Felix... directly enabled Monarch's rise to power.

And that's just it. Kagami has not seen this. Kagami does not know this. She sees that Felix is, on some level, similar to Adrien, and seems to like him for that reason. But she doesn't know Felix as he is. She's only ever seen his "nice" side. She doesn't know who he truly is and what he's done. She doesn't know him. She's never seen him at his worst, she doesn't know just how badly he's fucked up, she doesn't know that he wasn't sorry for it at all. And what he did do, she never brings up and never acknowledges it, so it's like she forgot. At least for the whole genocide thing, we can at least make the excuse that he brought everyone back to explain her not trying to cut him into tiny pieces the moment she sees him (again, it's a bad excuse, it should not have been glossed over and forgotten, but if I have to do the writers' work for them...). But she doesn't know him beyond that. All she's seen is his "good" side. She doesn't know how he betrayed Ladybug. How he allied himself with Monarch. How he treated his cousin. She doesn't know him at all.

How do you think she'd react if she knew all this? Would she still be in a relationship with him? No. And that's why the writers had to make sure she never found out, and only saw the "good" side of him. So that she could fall for him without having to deal with the atrocities that he committed. So that they could come up with justifications for why she liked him without having to have him face consequences and actually deal with what he's done. They had to erase the worst of his actions so that Kagami could come to protect his feelings from his victims. They had to alter his personality and ignore some of his more unsavory personality traits so that they could justify someone like Kagami falling for him. The moment Kagami is in the picture and the Feligami arc happens, all Felix's traits like his cunning, his selfishness... it's all gone. All to make him more appealing.

She liked Adrien because he was nice to her. Not just to her, but to everyone around him. Felix is also nice to her. But that's all she's seen. She doesn't know Felix. So she doesn't know that he's only nice to her (and his mom). She's only seen him in situations where he comes off as good and nice, and she hasn't known him long enough to get the whole picture (people will point to the events of Emotion, but it doesn't count if she never seems to hold it against him or indicate that she even remembers it). Which leads to Kagami having a fundamental misunderstanding of who Felix is, not knowing that he's selfish and cruel, and not like Adrien. They had to hide this side of him when he was with Kagami to make him seem more nicer, kinder and sweeter, more like Adrien. And this is the Felix that Kagami falls for. Not for who he is as himself, flaws and all, but only the positive aspects of him, the qualities that got her to fall for Adrien.

There is a fundamental lack of understanding between them because they don't know a lot about each other. Their relationship isn't built on acceptance of the other person, they only like each other because they meet their superficial expectations and haven't known each other long enough to understand each other deeper, which would make them realize how different they are, who the other person truly is. This is the kind of relationship that ends in a mess. Once Kagami finds out about Felix being a tricky and scheming person, more than what he showed in Emotion, and that he's selfish enough to damn them all for personal gain, do you think she'd stay with him?

Kagami has a strong sense of justice and right or wrong, while Felix is... morally ambiguous, to say the least. And so, it begs the question, how were Kagami "I hate deception" Tsurugi and Felix "serial manipulator" Fathom able to reconcile this fundamental difference in their principles that is a very defining part of who they are? The answer is they didn't. And that does not make for a sustainable relationship. They need to get to know each other better before acting like they're fated lovers straight outta Shakespeare. But as of now, they don't know each other, they don't know some very important things about each other that could cause conflict in their relationship. But dealing with that would take away from other important things such as Adrien and Marinette trying to kiss for the thousandth time, and so the writers fail to explore it and ignore it, opting to write Kagami and Felix both OOC to make it seem like they are totally made for each other and have a great relationship and are super in love.

It wouldn't matter if it was implied that Feligami have this conflict and the writers chose to hint at it and address it later. But they're portrayed as a perfect couple with only cute moments and stuff. And it really seems like there was no effort put into writing them at all. The relationship is only there to give them something to do. Watch as they never address any of this, watch as they just keep giving them cute moments instead of addressing some important issues with this relationship. Watch as they keep writing them OOC because they would hate each other if their personalities were left as they were.

Because it's not perfect. Quite frankly, it's not good.

Edit: Apparently she does know about Monarch. I forgot that play they did, and he mentions that he gave the Miraculous to Monarch. My bad. But my point still stands. In fact, it makes it worse. They made him justify himself in that play and Kagami just accepts it. Kagami accepts and willingly allies herself with someone who is the reason everyone is in such danger. She willingly allies with someone who hurt her friend in such a cruel way. It literally goes against her character to exonerate people just because they have a tragic backstory. And Felix's character and personality is still changed to be more appealing so that they don't have to deal with all this. You expect me to believe that Kagami, anyone really, would just brush over the fact that Felix sold them all out to Monarch? She knows about it, but they still had to brush over it in order for the ship to work. The writers knew that if they actually made Felix face consequences and acknowledged his actions, they could never get Feligami together, or even get anyone to associate with Felix for that matter.

And even if Kagami does know about Monarch, that doesn't change much of my criticism. She still doesn't know how he treated Adrien, she still hasn't seen his manipulative and cruel side. His personality was still made more appealing so that she could get together with him, which includes glossing over his flaws and unsavory character traits and erasing his mistakes. Kagami still doesn't know who Felix is as a person because she has never been exposed to that side of him. The show tries to sell it to us that he does everything for a good reason, and that's why Kagami decides to trust him (which I already addressed), but she hasn't seen all the shit he did to his cousin out of sheer spite. I stand by my point that Kagami would never associate herself with Felix if she knew who he really was, and the writers knew this. So, the show goes out of its way to downplay his mistakes and make it seem like they are noble heroics, and it literally changes his personality so that Kagami can like him. The way it's written, she might as well not know and nothing would be different, so really, none of my criticism is actually moot.

The writers couldn't find a way to have Feligami happen if Kagami held Felix accountable, so they just made Kagami brush over it/forget about it and had Felix justify himself. Their relationship isn't built on Felix genuinely regretting his mistakes and wanting to fix it, it's built on him getting a personality retool and justifying himself, and on Kagami miraculously (sorry) forgetting how egregious his mistakes are and excusing him because of his tragic backstory. Instead of dealing with his unsavory traits and acknowledging his mistakes, the show erases those traits and justifies his mistakes to make him seem better than he is. His awful actions are retconned into being noble deeds that were necessary and correct, so really, Kagami still doesn't know him because the story changed what he actually did into something else entirely. She doesn't truly know what he did, just the watered down, sanitized version of it. But to an audience who watched Felix remorselessly bargain with Gabriel and doom so many people to be victims of Monarch, it makes Kagami look bad by association for allying with someone who sold them all out to a terrorist and doesn't regret it.

Again, this is still changing his personality. Making a clearly bad act to be justified, thereby portraying it as some moral act instead of the scummy shit it was makes him seem better than he really is. I may have been wrong about Kagami not knowing about Monarch, but she still doesn't know him, because now he doesn't have those bad qualities and his mistakes aren't really mistakes. So, Kagami doesn't know who he truly is and thinks he and his actions are better than they really are. She doesn't accept him flaws and all, she doesn't realize he's changed or that he's trying to change. She's written so that she thinks that what he did wasn't so bad that he has to be held accountable for it. The writers couldn't put in the effort to actually deal with what he did, so they tried to justify him by having characters like Kagami not bring up his mistakes, and rather accept and agree with what he did. Which is just... yikes.

In conclusion...

Felix's character was stripped of his intrigue and plot relevance. He was turned from a compelling character and villain into a glorified love interest who barely mattered to the plot. His "redemption" was half-assed because the writers couldn't bother to put in the effort, instead choosing to drastically alter his personality. His motivations were retconned in twice in the season itself, and his story ultimately went nowhere. He was ruined so badly that he took Kagami down with him. And it's sad, because despite his villainous role in the story, he was a genuinely interesting character. He had a great presence and he actually acted and did stuff. He was fresh and fun. Sure, he was an asshole, but he was enjoyable and entertaining to watch. But once you take away what makes him so appealing, all that's left is a husk.

Thing is, most of the problems with Felix can be traced back to Feligami. And sure, maybe that handful of Feligami shippers who spawned after Gabriel Agreste were gratified, and you know what? Good for them. But I really didn't like it, and I thought it was a massive disservice to both Felix and Kagami's characters. For Felix to be reduced to a simp and a glorified trophy, and for Kagami to be reduced to "girl who fixes the guy" (which they didn't do well lol) and the damsel in distress for him to save. I didn't like how their characters were changed for this ship to happen all because the plot demanded that it had to happen.

I am not against a relationship between Felix and Kagami. I love enemies to lovers. But it has to be good. It shouldn't rely on the characters' personalities being changed and their past interactions and mistakes being forgotten in order to force a ship to happen within a single episode. It shouldn't gloss over their genuine incompatible qualities. And I've said it before, having opposing personalities isn't a sign that your relationship is fated to be doomed or something. Not at all. People can put in effort and work on their relationship to reconcile their differences. But it's not dealt with. Rather, it's ignored in favor of making them seem like the perfect couple just a week or so after they met? As though they are already like such a healthy and loving couple who know each other soooooo well. The show chooses to change their personalities rather than figure out a way for them to reconcile their actual personalities. And this hurts both their characters and makes them do things they would never do if it were not for the ship. And if you have to change your characters' personalities for a ship to happen... then no offense, but maybe it shouldn't happen.

And most of this problem with the ship is because of the lack of screentime. Maybe they could have cut down on the Chloe hatefest to, idk, give these important characters some more screentime? Maybe we didn't need Derision and we could have gotten some more of Felix and Kagami there? No hate to the people who like Derision, I'm happy that others got joy out of it, but was it really necessary? Maybe they could have given Felix and Kagami the time they gave to Socqueline, who is the most unnecessary character ever? And again, no hate to her fans, but was she really needed? Did she contribute anything that could not have been and wasn't already being contributed by an established character (Alya)? Does she have any plot relevance aside from being there?

Maybe if they had cut down on some of these useless decisions which no one really asked for (did anyone really look at Mari's awkwardness and think "oh I wonder what specific trauma she went through to be like this, it can't be that she's just nervous around her crush or anything"), they could have made Feligami a more natural and believable romance and had Felix develop as a character and join the team in the end without having to change their characters completely.

But Felix's character is riddled with inconsistency and hypocrisy, and he is the farthest thing from redeemed, even at the end of the season. And frankly, it baffles me that they decided to include him in the team at the end. The writing choices surrounding him did not help his character develop in any meaningful way. He was less a character with a story and an arc and more a plot device that the writers changed up whenever they needed him to do something. His personality and motivations changed according to the needs and demands of the plot. But it also went out of its way to justify and make the audience sympathize with him. So, Felix's writing is in this weird grey area where he's a victim of bad writing but it's used to his advantage more often than not.

(To get a little more into my personal feelings here, unlike characters like Chloe for whom I can get rightfully angry about her mistreatment by the narrative, I don't feel that way for Felix because the narrative favors him, and his personality is changed to make him look good in whatever plot he's in. His moments are at the expense of other characters. So, his character is inconsistent and poorly written, but it's often to his favor, and that makes it less... outrageous? to me than for characters like Chloe and Adrien. Idk, this is one of my most subjective points, feel free to disagree.)

But bad writing is still bad writing. Ultimately, the decisions made in Season 5 were detrimental to Felix's character and made him far less compelling than he was, and it's a damn shame. But hey, that's just me.

[scandalouslamb]

hi abyssal! i was thinking about an au where mentors got the opposite district tribute (like lysistrata being the one to mentor lucy gray while coriolanus mentors jessup, or clemensia being assigned dill while felix gets reaper, etc.) - anyway, do you have any thoughts on what felix might be like mentoring reaper?

is felix more involved given that it seems like reaper has a chance at winning? does in influence anything about his perspective when his tribute seems more concerned about his district partner than working with felix?

oooh, that sounds like a really interesting AU! hmmm, with Felix mentoring Reaper, I feel like this could go badly for a number of reasons.

Felix is a Ravinstill. Therefore, Peacekeepers might be a bit jumpier when something's happening around him. Since Reaper is demonstrably less cooperative than other tributes, his behavior maybe read as aggressive towards Felix which could result in violence or more restrictions from the Peacekeepers. Even without Felix doing anything, gaining Reaper's trust will probably be even harder now.

Additionally, I think even from a start, Reaper's distrust of his mentor and the Capitol/refusal to speak with him (Clemensia only gets his name in their initial meeting) will immediately make Felix defensive and frustrated. Felix, as you said, has a contender. The fact that things aren't going his way won't make him the best person to be around. He'll be mopey initially but as time goes on, he might start getting a bit snappish. If Clemensia wants to form an alliance (which she will likely do), she can maybe curtail that a bit. I think she would probably suggest he actually attempt to interact with Reaper in a meaningful way at the Zoo (not just dropping off food when barely anyone is there and dipping). I doubt he makes much of an impact with Reaper, but it's better than if he made no effort to connect at all.

I think if he's teaming up with Clemensia, they can convince Reaper to do the interview for Dill's sake. The interview probably starts okay-ish, but Reaper is reluctant to talk and the more Reaper refuses to truly get with the program, the more visibly and audibly annoyed Felix would get.

People probably tell him that he tried his best which he probably doesn't often read as sincere even if people are telling him that genuinely. As he stews on the interview, he would probably get progressively more snappish but this starts off small, and he gets more irritable as people bring it up.

I'm unsure how much the other mentors switching tributes will change the Games, but assuming Reaper still makes it close to the end, Felix has probably gotten a bit of his confidence back! However, depending on how much lashing out he did in his more insecure mindset, the other mentors maybe avoiding him a bit.

Unlike Clemensia, who was more cynical after the snakebite, Felix would probably not hold back on sending Reaper food and water. Considering it seems like Reaper drops from exhaustion, this could help him win, although there are other factors at play in the original timeline and this timeline as well.

If he does win, once the high wears down idk if Felix enjoys his victory. He probably realizes that besides sending food and water he did nothing and it was mostly just Reaper. He does play up for the cameras that of course he won! And how happy he is, but he (and probably others) think he got lucky with getting Reaper (nepotism?). This unhappiness could lead to A Character ArcTM.

If he doesn't win, then I think in a true double standard for himself, he blames himself since he thinks Reaper should have been able to win easily. Much self-pity. He probably snaps at people more while he's in the negative mindset.

I think Felix does try more (mostly in the being seen more talking to his tribute), but I don't think there is much he can do. Reaper isn't the type to be accommodating to. Perhaps, if Felix can get Dill medicine, which is very much on the table, but even then, I can't imagine Reaper is fully trusting even after that.

I can also see, if Reaper is getting comfortable enough to talk, Reaper speaking some hard truths to Felix about how the country is and Felix's great-uncle. This could also lead interesting directions for Felix! He'd get defensive at first, but it could sink in as he mulls things over. I think Felix stews on things a lot... To his detriment, most of his time, but also to his credit when something potentially character developing happens.

TLDR is that Felix has a time ranging from "another day in the life of Felix Ravinstill and his insecurities" to "Felix Ravinstill has fundamentally changes as a person now" levels of feeling bad.

Anyway, thanks for the question, Backpacks! Hopefully, this wasn't too repetitive! If you have any thoughts or want elaboration, feel free to let me know!

[blueberry-bubbles130]

A rough plan of the different arcs for the Unworldly Compulsion and Consumption au.

These are subject to change as this is a very rough plan. more arcs will probably added and it doesn’t include most of the filler. The names of these arcs are not all permanent. And I don’t have names for all the important chapters/characters I’ve already thought of. I just wanted people to get an idea for what things there’ll be in this au and certain chapter titles I’m 100% keeping. This au also takes place roughly around 2012. However this is not including any arcs for bad ending.

The Beginning/Prologue arc:

Begins with Chapter 1 (Same old school days) and ends with chapter 8 (The day in question)

The beginning arc is mostly establishing things. Such as Chloe’s interest history, adding Felix and Kagami to the class. Felix’s nature of being smart and secretive, etc.

The most important factor of these eight chapters is the quite sloppy foreshadowing regarding events in the past of the au. Andre, Audrey and Gabriel’s childhoods. Though most importantly Gabriel’s disturbing behaviour towards Audrey.

The second/Acquiring of the book arc:

Begins with chapter 8 (The day in question) and ends with chapter 12 (A lonely demise)

This arc begins the proper plot of the au. After Chloe gets her hands on the book it awakens the creature connected to it. The creature is able to communicate with Chloe in a very similar way in which Hawkmoth does with his victims. Over the course of the next month in the au, Chloe’s mental health worsens considerably due to the communication between her and the creature. Until she disappears at the end of chapter 11.

This arc contains more foreshadowing towards later arcs and important character developments. Such as foreshadowing towards the later Darkblade arc, Lila’s eventual redemption, Kagami and Chloe’s growing romantic feelings towards each other. And most importantly hints towards how the power of compulsion works. Also hints of the arcade.

The third/reawakening arc:

Begins with chapter 12 (a lonely demise) and ends with (chapter unknown)

Chloe’s parents panic with the sudden disappearance of their child. Meanwhile Chloe is brought back from the dead after being murdered by the creature. But she isn’t quite the same as she once was.

The first proper look at the creature, such as his appearance and character though there’s little information given on his character and his history.

Begins the storyline others gathering around Chloe to help her. This in order includes: Felix, Kagami, Sabrina, Luka, Alix and Lila. Bunnyx also makes appearances.

This arc begins to show small parts of Chloe’s compulsion power and hints as to how dangerous it can be. It also shows the side effect of the power with Chloe developing a growing hunger over the arc. Here we start to see the change in Chloe’s character such as further growing emotional instability and her changing dress style.

This arc ends with Lila joining the group after seeing Chloe feasting upon an animal somewhere while hiding from an akuma. And finding out the truth about her disappearance. Also hints of the arcade.

The fourth/growing destructive hunger and isolation arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

Chloe’s hunger finally hits and she starts eating sentimonsters to satiate herself. They’re built entirely off of magic and emotion. And due to her being kept alive by magic, they can satiate her hunger for longer. As well as using more of her power.

Chloe also begins to engage in new hobbies such as cooking, baking, cleaning and gardening. She does keep up with her history interest. The start of some time travel shenanigans with Bunnyx.

Lila also starts to fully go through a redemption arc with Alix being the main person who helps her through it. As well as Roger convincing Sabine and Tom to talk to Audrey and Andre.

There should be hints about the new place she lives that links into the Darkblade Arc. Hints of the arcade.

The fifth/ Arc;

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (Don’t fear the reaper)

With Chloe growing more ravenous by the moment, she consumes more and more while her mental state further spirals out of control. While Gabriel continues to angrily search for the cause of the disappearing sentimonsters.

Here Felix starts to become more protective over Chloe as he sees the changes happening to her that he doesn’t like. Convincing Bunnyx to again take Chloe to some of her favourite parts of history to cheer her up a little. Hints of the arcade.

The sixth/ Arc:

Begins with (Don’t fear the reaper) and ends with chapter (Not a human, but a beast)

Having discovered the fact that akumatised people can satiate her hunger after eating Plague King, Chloe begins to eat more. Combined with both Sentimonsters and akumas, she finds herself growing a little more settled. However the desire to eat normal human flesh is growing within her leading her to make a massive decision with irreversible consequences.

The introduction and death of the first antagonist to the au. (Currently unnamed) is a corrupt politician who after the end of Don’t Fear the Reaper begins to obsess over Chloe in an attempt to find her and get some revenge. This also has Felix fully dedicated himself to finding Gabriel’s crimes and overall protecting Chloe.

The seventh/Despair Arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

Chloe attempts to grapple with what happened at the end of the prior arc. However these efforts are in vain as she falls into a heavy pit of despair. She tries to revel in destruction as she once did just a few months ago. But cannot do so, no matter. At one point during the arc, she ends up in charge of a small kingdom from an alternate timeline, with Felix taking the role as her advisor. She practically destroys the kingdom in her despair/bitterness which results in her nearly being executed by the kingdom. Even after this Chloe continues to try and find more methods to bring about her own self destruction. Is inspired by the songs Daughter and Servant of Evil.

The seventh and a half Arc/The Artist Arc:

This arc is a mini arc within the despair arc and involves Chloe getting multiple unnamed artists trying to create art of her. Such as a painter, a sketcher, an animator, a sculptor, a photographer, a pianist, a violinist, a doll maker etc. It’s after she nearly gets executed and is another form of self destruction for her. But also an attempt to see how people truly view her. She prods and pokes slowly so they begin to get irritated. And eventually paint her in the way they view her, which by that point is either a despised pest or an utter monster. After the artists finally quit and sometimes try to kill her, she keeps the art. As well as any diaries or documents they may have made during the creation process. She keeps them locked in a room in her castle, looking at them throughout the rest of the fic. The only people to ever see this room are Chloe, her parents and Kagami. Is inspired by the game Death Palette.

Near the end of the arc, Adrien finds Chloe and is shocked to see how she’s changed. This arc is just depressing/dark while showing what Felix will do to protect Chloe.

The eighth/Darkblade Arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

As apart of their time travel shenanigans, Bunnyx takes Chloe and Felix back to the medieval era. And this time Adrien claws his way along in order to spend time with Chloe and see just how much she’s changed from the beginning of her disappearance. Unfortunately Bunnyx has to attend to a matter leaving Chloe, Felix and Adrien stuck in that timeline. Leading to the three discovering the infamous Darkblade in first person.

Meanwhile the other members have the gang have to deal with their absence and go about their lives. With Lila focusing on organising the evidence her and Felix have already gathered on Gabriel. And Audrey finally admits to Sabine and Tom what happened between her and Gabriel when they were in school. Kagami starts to stop criminals in her spare time, while also watching over Chloe’s parents just in case something bad happens.

During this arc Chloe, Felix and Adrien get to meet their ancestors. And how they feel about Darkblade. Adrien also finally comes to terms with how bad Gabriel is as a person.

The ninth/first secrecy arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

While Chloe begins to come to terms with herself, A small group of obsessive individuals led by the fashion designer/tailor Richard Sphinx sets out to track her down and obtain her power for themselves. Adrien also starts to communicate more with Chloe and why things have became the way they are.

This arc introduces the second antagonist Richard Sphinx, who at the end of the arc is murdered by Felix.

The tenth/holiday arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

This arc covers both Halloween and Christmas. For Chloe nothing much truly changes. Her hunger remains the same, Pollen is continuing in trying to control her emotions. Her parents meanwhile and still trying to figure out why specifically the child, they think they don’t know, ate a fully grown man in front of them. As well as being a little obsessed with them. Reluctantly Kagami and Adrien as their hero persona’s agree to fabricate some information about Chloe to give to Andre and Audrey.

Chloe is taken back in time a few more times with her friends, a Halloween akuma or two happen.

But by the time Christmas rolls around Chloe falls back into her depression as she is unable to spend Christmas with her parents. She temporarily makes her friends forget her so they can spend the Christmas holidays free of her. Bunnyx however allows Chloe’s ancestor to come and take her back to his time to spend Christmas with her, just so she has some family to spend the holidays with.

The tenth and a half/Hero Arc:

The class are set to go on a school trip for about a while. However someone needs to stay in Paris to stop the akumas. Sabine offers to wield the Ladybug miraculous to give Marinette and Adrien a break from being heroes. Tikki is somewhat pleased with the idea, but has her reservations about it. While Plagg is ecstatic and has his own ideas about who he wants to wield his miraculous. He tracks down Audrey, bullying her into wearing his miraculous. Which Master Fu isn’t happy about at all. As a result Sabine and Audrey have to fumble their way through being heroes.

The eleventh/Bloodbourne arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

A secret society who has been trying to gather information regarding Soren and his power. Upon finding out Chloe now has this power they track her down.

After getting Chloe, their plan is to try and sacrifice her to gain the power of compulsion. This goes horribly wrong as Chloe is undead, creating a monster who Gabriel tries to akumatise resulting in Paris being turned into a cursed land. As well as almost destroying the mansion said sacrifice took place in leaving Audrey, Andre and Chloe stuck in the mansion.

Felix, Kagami and Adrien set out to find Chloe and try to reverse the mess that has been caused. As the beast came from the attempted sacrifice of Chloe. All the while, Audrey and Andre come to the realisation of Chloe being alive all along.

This arc introduces the third and final antagonist in the secret society led by a former (also unnamed) teacher of Francois DuPont who taught Gabriel, Audrey and Andre when they were younger. (I SWEAR THIS WILL SOUND LESS CRAZY WHEN YOU ACTUALLY READ IT)

Final Arc: The glitch in the system

Begins with (chapter unknown) ends with (chapter unknown)

At the height of madness after having a breakdown, Gabriel decides to create the ultimate akuma by akumatising himself again. He ends up taking over a game machine at the arcade to manipulate Paris to his very command. And our hero’s have to stop him.

By this point there is nothing left of Gabriel Agreste that may have been remotely positive. All that is left is malice, sadism and Hawkmoth.

So our heroes set out to stop him.

Epilogue:

Begins with (chapter unknown) ends with (chapter unknown)

After the defeat of Gabriel Agreste, everyone reflects on what has happened in the prior year or so.

Chloe finally reunites with her parents and comes to terms with her actions and the new circumstances of her life. That she will never be able to use the bee miraculous again, nor will she be able to fully rejoin society. Though she does have friends and family that will stay with her.

[lorephobic]

the 5 olivers thing plagues me like i wish i could read his notes i wanna study his brain a little... in the variety article he does mention different olivers when facing different people so that might be one of the factors?

its rly driving me so crazy. i've got the whole pin board up in my head with red string connecting the dots trying to figure out exactly who our five olivers are. need an interviewer to take one for the team and just ask him to lay out the character(s) in explicit detail. i don't care how long it is. i don't care if it's boring to almost everybody else on the planet. we need it so badly.

it would help if we even had a clue about how his olivers are organized. if they're not chronological, is it by relationships with other characters? is there an elspeth oliver? a james oliver? a fucking michael gavey oliver? is it just organized by general demeanor? is oliver who desperately and quietly wants felix at oxford different from the oliver who begs to stay in felix's life before the party? are they the same? where does grave-fucking oliver fall in all of this? is he the same as bathtub, blood-sucking, obedience demanding oliver? are they all different?

[gameguy20100]

Why Alastor works where other's fail.

So anyone who follows my blog knows that I have a large distaste for the growing amount of characters who act like villains but always get sob stories in an attempt to make me feel sorry for them. The most glaring example being Felix Fathom from Miraculous Ladybug

I'm expected to feel bad for this character and feel sympathy for him but his actions are indistinguishable from the villains of the story.

Yet, I don't in fact, I hate him. And I was sure I'd hate this archetype until I watched Hazbin Hotel. And Alastor, despite being a similar type of character swiftly became my favourite.

So what makes Alastor a good character and Felix fail as a character for me? Well, a big part of it is Alastor is a lot more fun to watch.

Pretty much every scene he's in Alastor steals the show completely. With a combination of his VAs impeccable performance, the animation distorting in various ways to enhance his creepy effects, and of course that constant smile. Felix doesn't have anywhere near the level of charisma and charm to make it work.

Probably the biggest factor is who these characters direct their hatred and malice towards.

In Alastor's case, while he's clearly not a good person his actions do actually benefit Charlie and Vaggie. The protagonists of the show and ideally the characters you root for. Who does Alastor antagonise? Vox, a character who is depicted with every negative stereotype of CEO's ever, and Adam, the main villain of the story. While he does rile up Lucifer, the bitterness is mutual and hilarious.

Felix on the other hand? He claims to be against Gabriel, but his actions end up helping him and making the lives of two people who have done nothing to him, and in Adrien's case outright love him and do everything he can to help him, suffer. I'm sorry but if a character causes the hero to do this

They are a villain.

But another major factor is simple. Alastor isn't annoying. What do I mean by that? Well, despite Felix's claims to love Adrien he's caused him quite a lot of trouble. The main instances being gaslighting his friends by pretending to be him and insulting them, then betraying Ladybug making his life as Chat Noir much harder. Yet he's never punished for it and we have to listen to him whine about his daddy issues. Alastor does let slip that something else is going on but he never whines about his "Tragic past" If anything he seems to want to make sure nobody finds out, he even threatens Husk for even mentioning it.

Nobody likes seeing bad people go unpunished or go on about how hard they have it. Oh? You blew up a building because your child died? Cool motive, still terrorism.

Felix however never shuts up about how hard he has it, and make it everyone else's problem to the point where I lose all sympathy for him.

Yes Felix, your life is so hard and tragic. Now can we talk about the time you did this?

Or this

Or THIS?!

Sexual assault, giving a terrorist magical artefacts and betraying an innocent girl, framing your cousin in the process, and Genocide. But you know... he had a hard childhood.

So maybe I don't hate the archetype. Maybe it's just a bad idea to try and make a character's archetype go against everything they've shown.

In Alastor I see a monster who's taking down other monsters and the narrative shows him as that,

In Felix, while the story wants me to see a tragic anti-hero, all I see is a spoiled brat.

[fleshing-out-fodlan]

Despite Sylvain supposedly developing past his misogyny, all his endings with women focus almost 100% on his goals and accomplishments to the point where the female characters he ends up with are honestly interchangeable and I think this is indicative of how Sylvain really doesn't grow out of this mindset. His Dorothea ending talks about him improving relations with Sreng and doesn't mention any of her accomplishments, the Mercedes ending talks about him improving relations with Sreng and doesn't mention any of her accomplishments (the only significant difference from the Dorothea one is this ending says a crestless child succeeds Sylvain but the framing still makes that appear to be Sylvain's doing, not Mercedes'), and his ending with Ingrid is, oh look, the same exact thing. I initially ignored Byleth's ending because she's the player character, surely she could at least avoid being relegated to an accessory in a man's life story, and while Byleth may have gotten slightly better treatment than the other women it's still honestly disappointing. Their CF ending honestly focuses mainly on them as a team so I wouldn't say Sylvain gets too much preferential treatment here and wouldn't even care if it wasn't for all the other factors, but their other endings are all about Sylvain's accomplishments. In AM it says that "he achieved a great deal," not they, in fact Byleth does not achieve anything in this ending besides becoming Archbishop (no mention of what she does with that though) and marrying Sylvain. Their VW and SS ending is the same, Byleth's main accomplishment is marrying Sylvain while Sylvain gets to use his "cunning manner of speech...[to] foster relationships between the CoS, Fodlan, and surrounding regions."

Compare these endings to the women's endings with other people. Ingrid improves the quality of her territory in many endings including AM Felix, CF Ashe, and CF Ignatz. In other endings, such as AM Ashe and Raphael, she becomes a knight and while it may not be an ending I like for her it is still an ending that involves her doing something. Dorothea gets to play a big role in the Mittlefrank Opera Company again with Edelgard, Manuela, and Felix. With Petra she's able to use her connections from the Opera to help Brigid improve their relations with Fodlan. Mercedes runs an orphanage in her CF Annette ending and works as a cleric in all her other Annette endings. With Constance they work to improve both their territories (too many endings with M/F nobles only focus on the male noble's territory but that's an issue for another day). Mercedes also becomes a cleric in her Alois ending and goes down in history for having magical blessings.

These women's endings with Sylvain are by no means their only endings where they're ignored in favor of the male character but the fact that all of Sylvain's M/F endings ignore the female character (while his Felix ending has no issue talking about what Felix is doing separate from Sylvain) speaks to the likelihood of Sylvain still holding on to some of his concerning views.

[688199]

Why (pre canon) Felix's character potential makes for a better Chat Noir than Adrien Agreste

the whole concept of miraculous ladybug, during pre-canon, is that it's running on "opposites". ladybug, the hero of good luck, is an average, unlucky girl in her civilian form while chat noir, the bringer of bad luck, is a rich, lucky boy in his civilian form. at first glance, the current marinette and adrien seem to fit this role, but do they really? for this post, i'll be ignoring marinette and focus soley on felix/ adrien.

adrien. he's a popular model, rich, but he has a controlling life style that causes him to be very miserable. all he wants to do his be a normal kid, except his father doesn't allow him to. now, do you call this lucky? in some aspects, yes. but to himself, he is not lucky at all. this part is extremely crucial.

felix on the other hand, is in all aspects very lucky. in one version, he's handicapped, but does that bring him down? no. he doesn't consider himself unlucky in that aspect, because he is solely focused on achieving his dream, which in his eyes is possible. here is why i talk about "potential" rather than felix's actual character as written in the earliest show bible.

the earliest show bible is a little strange, as chat noir's power is repairing, with no clues to it being a negative power like in the even earlier concepts.

anyways, it's ironic how felix, the luckiest character with the perfect life (not seemingly, like adrien, but with an actual perfect life) would want to wish to become unlucky. or going with the curse concept in mind, would be cursed with such power. the most crucial part here is that felix himself knows he's lucky, while adrien considers himself unlucky. (though i do prefer the concept of felix having a desire to be unlucky, showing that there's always small imperfections and disatisfaction no matter how good of a life you lead.)

so felix thus properly fits the "opposite" role much more than adrien. while marinette wants luck, he wants misfortune. or while marinette was blessed with luck, he was cursed with misfortune. either way, contrast and the use of irony for these characters is much more prominent.

i agree to an extent that adrien's character and story does have potential if handled well, but if you want to hammer into the main concept of the story (which is one of the biggest reasons why i am obsessed with pre canon and it's potential), adrien's character doesn't fit at all.

furthermore, again playing into the idea of opposites, what words would you use to describe the heroes? for chat noir, it's cocky, outoing, impuslive, immature, flirtatious, witty, etc etc. now think of the direct antonyms for those words. humble, aloof, mature, cool, dull. oh man do those words describe felix much more than adrien. and this is just a personal opinion but i would much prefer to see the hero persona and their civilian form start out as complete opposites, but over time, because both are still part of his personality, will slowly blend together, so you'll see aspects of felix's character in chat noir, and chat noir's personality in felix until it becomes indistinguishable.

again, it makes sense that adrien is more wild as chat noir due to restrivetive upbringing sure, not denying that. but me personally, i prefer for felix to be the one restraining himself from doing whatever he wants because of how much he cares about maintaining his perfect lucky life. so in a sense, he is bringing misery upon himself, instead of having an outside factor doing that. it makes for a more complex inner conflict, where felix has to realise that no one else but him can change his misery.

[merge-conflict]

okay so the actual butterfly effect decision that separates the fleeting fits of reason/thread-safe timeline from my own alpha canon-divergent timeline and is whether or not goro decides to sleep with valentine while they're working together before the parade and subsequently if he maintains some kind of romantic relationship while they're both working at arasaka. and if you read all my cyberpunk meta shitposts (you *obviously* read all my cyberpunk meta shitposts, who wouldn't), then you might say "but felix! you said that romantic reasons aren't enough to make goro break his code or defy arasaka" and that is correct! but in this case it's really more of a "does he make an exception to his closely held beliefs at his most stressful and doubtful moment" and "what are the consequences of that?".

if he doesn't make an exception then (and I don't think it's by any means guaranteed!), what incentive does he have to do it later? his relationship with valentine is not as strong as a result, and he has more of a reason to believe what he did was correct, and that everything else can stay on track if he and valentine avoid toeing the line at all costs. this means she leaves and they both end up deeply hurt by each other no matter how it ends.

but if he does... then he's reconciling his need to be dutiful with his obligation not to say anything about his transgression or put valentine under more suspicion and danger. he's gotta wrestle with the retaliation hellman has planned for her, and the fact he really can't protect her and some of the shit that rains down on her is seriously unfair. it's another time he's defied orders and thought that maybe he was right about it, because they both remain loyal to arasaka and continuously suffer for it in different ways. that more than anything causes him to become disillusioned (although I will keep mum on the ending for *that* part of the story). ultimately it's an outcome of "I made my own decision and maybe it's wrong to blindly follow people who are being cruel and vindictive to make themselves feel better and I need to stop fooling myself about it." the romance is a factor but it's secondary to the slow erosion of faith.

[felikatze]

Yan (Library of Ruina): Yan is a messenger of the Index, one of the organizations ruling the City's backstreets. As messenger, he is tasked with doling out prophecies to the people under the Index' protection, no matter how grim. Prophecies range from not using your left hand to killing your wife; and not following means death. Yan grows more and more upset with the predetermined nature of it all, and vows to undermine his own prophecies. Only to discover that his rebellion was also accounted for.

Why I like this dude: LoR has some Baller side stories and this is my favorite. He's like, the inverse of a jrpg protagonist. He's trying to outwit fate and it is not working. Also, the nature of the Index' prophecies are also actually the exact brand of predeterminism i ascribe to! Neat! A big factor in his blorbo ness is his boss theme, Children of the City by Mili. I've written a whole analysis on how it relates to him and implies Lots of stuff abt him and i'm not gonna recite it all here. It's implied the Index made him kill his family. Yay.

Felix Honikker (Hello Charlotte): Felix is one of the inhabitants of The House, where Charlotte Wiltshire lives with her other friends. As such, he's dragged along Charlotte's first adventure into a world inside a TV, where fun things happen, like Felix getting decapitated. But it's fine. I am entirely unsure how to summarize Hello Charlotte. Does Felix even really exist? Well. He's also the nephew of a mad scientist and dissects people sometimes. What a great hobby.

Why I like this dude: it's been years since i was into hello charlotte but. look at me. my name is felix. do you know why that is? he's why. he is why my name is felix. there's a door in the game only people w an X in their name can go through and little me thought "wow! my name has an x in it! just like felix!" so i thought abt my given name in tandem w the name felix for. many years. he's also just a huge grump and i find that endearing. he's so fed up with everything happening but felix honey. your world is a metaphor. everything is esoteric. get with the program.

[cornerverse]

What was your opinion of the episode Representation? What did you like or didn’t like about it? What would you have done differently?

This is the one with the play, yes?

So. I have. Complicated feelings on this episode.

A lot of the things I don't care for are things that I don't care for in the overall over-arching plot. The Sentimonster thing, the fact that Feligami has a LOT to work out but the narrative is pretending it's helpful. Maribug still not telling Chat jackshit. Maribug having no reaction to the knowledge of Sentimonsters being real people and therefore she's committed countless murders.

For the most part, this is a good episode. Which is weird to say when you factor in everything I just complained about. But within the context of those plot points being where the story wants to go, this is a good episode.

That said.

Some things I do dislike about this particular episode. The biggest two being:

1.) Despite Felix's entire character this whole season is him making a big deal about how Sentimonsters are people too and to create them as tools is a horrific act and killing them casually is just as bad as killing a real person because they are real people...... he creates a Sentimonster for a fucking powerpoint presentation

2.) Despite being given this infodump, finding out that Adrien, Felix and Kagami are Sentimonsters that Gabriel(and Colt and Tomoe) created with the Peacock and that Gabriel is Monarch...... Maribug does not grab Chat before sprinting full tilt at the Agreste Mansion because............. we don't know? She just doesn't? We've been discussing this in the leaks tag of her thinking this was a dream or her understanding parts of it but not all of it. But unless some things were altered in the final episode, she'd have to be a complete fucking moron to not understand.

[blueberry-bubbles130]

Felix Graham De Vanily, everyone!

He’s sly and cold in this au. however for the people he does care about, he’s willing to go the extra mile for them.

He’s the first to find out about Chloe’s situation. As Chloe’s physical/mental state bounces between extremes, Felix makes the decision to have Chloe share any thoughts/feelings she has about the situation to try and share the burden (not that either of them should be doing this because they’re 13/14) He sees both her and Adrien as siblings so he’ll do anything for them. With Adrien he covers for his disappearances against Gabriel when he’s being Chat Noir. It’s why he grows his hair and dresses more like Chloe, with the fancier/older clothing. And fake dating Kagami. If anyone sees Chloe and Kagami together, they assume it’s Felix. Felix and Chloe share a relationship like Len and Rin in the Daughter/Servant of Evil songs. He goes as far to actually murder Richard Sphinx to protect her. He hates seeing how numerous people start treating her like some sort of artefact because of the power she now has. And so is involved in multiple plots to slowly either have them arrested. Or have them killed to help feed his sister’s destructive hunger.

In the Darkblade arc, his ancestor tells him that he can’t keep being so secretive either. So Chloe, Felix and Adrien end up repairing their sibling relationship to come to terms with their issues. Adrien’s positive nature balances out Felix cynicism and Chloe’s extreme despair. And they all cover for each other, so people don’t get suspicious.

Felix also hates Gabriel immensely, like Colt does (yes Colt’s in this au) and doesn’t feel comfortable around Gabriel because of Gabriel’s personality. but he doesn’t tell anyone apart from Adrien, Chloe, Kagami and Lila. He’s the one that start’s spying on Gabriel, which leads him to start dating Lila.

In the end he’s one of the most important factors in Gabriel’s downfall and ends up getting away with all the crimes he commits over the au.