#I think it hurts to see marinette act like that bc we hate doing it ourselves yeah

[asukiess]

hmmm.... I love marinette’s anxiety--more specifically how it’s portrayed--so much. there’s been so many write ups about her panic attacks, her spiraling, all of which can put it better than I can, but I was just rewatching Multiplication and she has a big thing about being “deserving” of love, too. she puts people she loves on a big tall pedestal, be it adrien, kagami (or luka in crocoduel, but I think that episode shows a similar albeit “uglier” side of her anxiety), and if she can’t meet her supposed expectations, then she’s not good enough for them. she avoids kagami and luka in their respective eps because she’s letting them down or hurting them and she hates it so much  - both times inadvertently hurting them more. I just think it’s so realistic to show the avoiding phone calls & situations, lying, etc. all due to your anxiety. I’m not saying that’s correct behavior, but I personally like to see this realistically portrayed. I don’t think it’s ever condoned in the show, and I think she rightfully is told by other people that what she’s doing is wrong. idk, I just really like it.

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

s2ep3 glaciator

ah an episode for the marichat shippers. actually, i guess for all the love square shippers except for ladybug and adrien (whatever that ship name is called, i've forgotten--no wait, is it ladrien?)

anyway it was a dumb episode. but andre is the most french character i have ever seen lol. i unironically love how he mostly talks in rhymes. i'd sure like to see what kind of ice cream he'd give me, an aroace.

but anyway, the fact that adrien lies to his friends and ditches them to plan a "romantic dinner" with ladybug, showing that chat noir doesn't listen to ladybug really annoyed me. like plagg is right! she said she had other plans, she was letting him down gently. and he completely ignores her!! and then he's hurt by her???

like i guess i'm okay with him putting his feelings aside to be able to deal with glaciator, bc that's the most mature thing chat noir has ever done to date, but it feels hollow bc chat noir doesn't listen to ladybug. and adrien is convinced that he still has a chance--that she'll just change her mind about him despite telling him outright that she loves another boy and only sees him as a friend. it gets extremely weird after a while, and steers far too close into very worrying behaviors.

and his heel-face-turn doesn't feel earned. like i was annoyed at first that he just put his feelings aside so quickly.

but i was also annoyed with the whole set-up of why he was annoyed. i had a reason i didn't like his sudden shift, but it's gone from my brain, so i'll move on.

the thing is, what really frustrates me about the love square is how much it doesn't work. adrien doesn't listen to marinette. chat noir doesn't listen to ladybug. and marinette gets too flustered around adrien to properly pay attention to what he's saying. like maybe it's just me being an adult, and this being a kids' show, but it is annoying that they're "meant to be" when they can't even communicate. communication is key to a good and strong relationship. not feelings. not destiny. communication!

i hate to say this, but there is a universe where i could see the love square working in a way that doesn't feel contrived and hinges on the fact that they always talk past each other. but under better writers. in a show with a solid writing team, i could actually see the set-up working really well. bc miscommunication is a common trope used to create drama. i don't prefer it, but that doesn't mean it can't work under the right--or write, get it?--circumstances.

likewise, marinette being a dick sometimes is fine narratively speaking. that's allowed, that's fine. it creates conflict and shows that she's flawed. but under this set of circumstances, i found it really frustrating that 1) she doesn't want anyone knowing she has a huge crush on adrien even tho everyone knows and 2) that's the set-up to her being a dick.

and listen, under better writers, i don't think it would've bothered me that much. points 1 or 2. bc ppl do do weird, irrational, and downright mean things when they're stressed or scared. but again, adrien doesn't listen to marinette, and everyone knows she likes adrien anyway. why try to hide it?

i mean i know why. i saw the post about the creator apparently stating somewhere that the reason she gets so flustered about adrien is because she confessed her crush to kim once (wow, real original, put the two asian people together bc they're both asian) and apparently got embarrassed by chloe. but, and i cannot stress this enough, the audience doesn't know that at this point. so we have no idea why she acts the way she acts, nor why she doesn't want ppl to know (even tho they already know!!).

i don't know, i just feel like i'm criticizing things that can't actually be criticized, bc in a better written show, i could see them working. unfortunately for me, this is not a better written show. it's barely a show.

[stellarlex]

Personally my problem with a lot of Alya salt fics is that it gets taken way too far and they turn her into a violent attack dog for Lila which. That is a stereotype of black people and its so blatant that it gets extremely uncomfortable to see any Alya salt in general bc I can't trust it won't be the same shit

As a black person, I don't think it has too much to do with a racial aspect. I'm not gonna say it doesn't outright exist because there are racists in this fandom, (fuck those guys) but I think it's more along the lines that the characters are so dumbed down and Marinette is blamed for so much, that it's a lot easier for writers to exaggerate the mob mentality that has taken over the class when it comes to Lila. Because Lila is doing that on purpose. In fact she's counting on it.

She's turning everyone against Marinette by pretending that Marinette is violent with her and acting like a victim so that everyone becomes outraged and furious with her behavior. It's like how in Zombizou, everyone got so pissed off at Chloe for causing another akuma that they became okay with the idea of letting her get captured or hurt.

There are some aspects that do go beyond my tastes when it comes to salt, because remember this is the writer's preference and we have to respect that, but that kind of behavior is actually canon so they aren't really that far off from the character's behavior. There's also the fact that Alya canonically has no respect for Marinette and will actively go against her wishes for her own motives and often time it's Marinette who takes the blame.

Most of the time, Alya can't accept when she's wrong so she goes all in with her ideas regardless of anyone's else's opinions or denials. She doesn't listen and only hears what she wants to hear, which is why despite how she now KNOWS that Marinette is Ladybug, she's still defending Lila against anyone that has a bad thing to say about her.

I also wondered why they didn't have an episode where Alya suddenly gets wise to Lila because she now knows Marinette's identity. But then I realized it's to make Marinette look bad in Strikeback. Because everything in this show is set up to make her fail and look bad so that Adrien looks like the real hero, despite the fact that he can't possibly know better than Marinette because her social skills are a lot better than his.

Alya unfortunately is just a tool being used to make the fandom hate Marinette even more.

[spikartxx]

Hi! Just a little bit of an opinion here about the upcoming MLB season! Specifically the first episode’s plot “Truth” with Luka

(Am I Luka’s defender at this point? Yes, I am bc I love my sweet bby lol 💙🎸)

I want to think that everyone has a limit for how much they can be hurt or be mad and not let it see to other people. I guess that Marinette’s actions like skipping dates with him, staying away from all her friends and banishing all of the sudden is something to worry quite a lot and I understand Luka in that part.

Marinette has trusted Luka enough for him to worry at that level, and for what is implied, they’re dating and as her SO (to put in a funny way) it’s part of the job lol. Being that said, getting mad at someone that doesn’t wanna share a secret is not right, everyone is entitled to keep secrets for themselves as much as they want, but people has a limit in what they can take, for Luka it was this moment, and I think that his emotions are not out of pure anger, but because of helplessness, despair for not knowing what is happening and not knowing what to do to help.

He’s not acting like his usual self because this emotions are dominating him, and absolutely EVERYONE in this world has been in this kind of situation, it’s human nature.

Also, if my deductions are correct, this feelings just stay for a snippet of a moment, because that’s all that it takes for Hawkmoth to akumatize someone, one moment to let go of the mask that everything is fine and show that negative part of us, because I ASSURE YOU he would meditate his actions and he would know his mistakes if he was given more time to reflect in what he said or thought it was right.

Because that is Luka. We can’t expect him to always be this calm, serene person, he is a human too, he can feel hurt or angry, he can’t just be the emotional trash can of people and leave his personality at that. That is my opinion lol

I guess all this rant occurred because I saw some comments here and there throwing hate at Luka because of the plot on the upcoming season, which I get but it’s quite funny because it’s the first time Luka shows this kind of negative behavior (for like a snippet of a second, if my suspicions are correct) and people do not approve this, but if Chat Noir or Adrien we’re to show jealousy or immaturity in his actions it’s justified because he and Ladybug/Marinette are “meant to be” and that’s all it takes to justify that kind of behaviors, which shouldn’t be the case.

I’m not throwing hate towards Chat Noir/Adrien at all, because all these faults have been resolved through the course of the seasons (slowly, but it’s showing), but I guess this goes more to the people that point at Luka with the judging finger and don’t care to look that even their favorite characters or their favorite ships had this kind of “problematic stuff” or still has it.

If we’re gonna judge a character, we should apply that same criticism with aaaaall the rest of the cast in the show, because everyone has issues and “problematic stuff” but that doesn’t make them bad or unforgivable people (unless they don’t get over this issues and continue to behave like that) they need deeper personalities besides being just a support for the protagonists.

Sorry for my whole statement of all this lol I’m gonna go to draw as usual!~ 🤙✨

[tallsuperstar]

I saw a reddit post but instead of talking about that I'm going to talk about Miraculous Ladybug and one particular scene in my least favorite episode bc it reminds me of the aforementioned post.

And that is Gang of Secrets, when the girl squad goes into Marinette's room. This scene is hated on a lot on the salt side, as deserved tbh. The way the girl squad went about talking to Mari was just...wrong, and the fact that they broke Marinette's dollhouse makes it so much worse, but there's one piece of criticism that I disagree with, if only for personal reasons:

The idea that the girl squad was in the wrong for going into Marinette's room without her permission.

Like, I understand why that looks bad, especially when one of the biggest grievances we (Mari-stans) have with the show is how they take away Marinette's autonomy and pressure her into doing things (and also why we stan Luka for not doing that 10/10 Lukanette is king). And because this show is fucking garbage, the writers completely ruin the scene by trying to, again, force secrets out of Marinette and also break her property.

But the mere act of them showing up, even when Marinette didn't want them to be there, is fine. It actually could've been a wonderful scene.

Because think about it like this: Marinette was at her lowest low in the show thus far. Marinette at that point was begging Hawkmoth to akumatize her! This is self-sabotage, wanting to be rid of herself and be consumed by her negative emotions. It hurt so much to see that, y'know? It...feels like a form a suicide, to me.

When you are at that low of a point, you aren't going to willingly accept help. You will keep hurting yourself, with the belief that none of it matters anymore, so why bother to try.

You HAVE to be forced to by the stubborn people in your life who love you.b

They will force themselves back into your life no matter how much you try to push them away in your self-destruction.

This could've been the chance for the writers to finally show that these are real, genuine friends, who will stick by no matter what. And then Marinette, once she is in a sound space of mind, could willingly give her identity to Alya as a way to help Marinette heal, instead of Marinette sharing her identity whilst breaking down.

So criticizing the act of them forcing themselves into Marinette's room feels unfair. That's the most optimal way of trying to get through to someone who you're concerned about who you know is going through a hard time who started avoiding you and everyone they care abt.

Of course, this would mean the writers would know what they're doing and they obviously don't considering how rage-inducing Gang of Secrets actually is, so...

[nobodyfamousposts]

afters months of bullying Marinette, the class(minus Lila)finds out shes Ladybug and they're confused bc Lila said they were BFFs so why would she be so mean to Lila? then they connect the dots and "oh shit we fucked up". They dont tell anyone about it. Mari is confused and suspicious at their sudden change of hearts. Chat starts to visit her bc he knows she doesnt trusts Adrien after he sided with Lila. She's wary of Chat too bc at their last encounter he was very rude to her bc of Lila's lies

I don’t know if this is quite what you were going for, but this is what came to mind.

“Hey, Mari! How’s it going?” Chat Noir asked, nervously from his unwelcome position on her balcony after he showed up uninvited.

Marinette didn’t look happy to see him. He could see she was raising her guard, like she expected him to start yelling at her.

With good reason, he reminded himself bitterly. The last time they had seen each other—or rather the last time she had seen him as Chat, things had not been…the most pleasant.

He had been caught up in rumors and suspicion. Sinister words and talk of secret alliances between their supposed “innocent” class rep and the madman threatening their city.

He should have known better.

He DID know better.

Adrien knew that Lila was a compulsive liar and willing to make up any story. He knew that whatever came out of her mouth had to be lies. He even had some idea that Lila had some sort of grudge against Marinette—being one of the only ones to know she was lying and to be willing to call her out on it.

And yet he still fell for them anyway. Because it was strange, wasn’t it? And Lila might have been a liar, but she did have a point. Where DID Marinette disappear to during each akuma battle? She was never where she was supposed to be. She was never where she claimed she had been. No one could ever recall seeing her during any of the fights since this mess had started.

Coincidence, sure. But with Lila’s silver tongue, those coincidences added up and began to paint a picture that he couldn’t bring himself to ignore. But he should have. Because the picture may have made some sense, but it was still Lila putting it together and he knew—he KNEW her to be a vindictive manipulator with a grudge.

To think he actually believed that Marinette Dupain-Cheng was secretly working for Hawk Moth in his plots against their heroes.

Looking back, it had been stupid.

Really. Really stupid.

Even more stupid now that he knew what he did. And not a moment went by that he wasn’t kicking himself for jumping to those conclusions—and even worse, acting on them.

He still remembered the way she looked at him when he snapped at her. His accusations—at the time powered with righteous fury, only came off as ignorant and callous now. He still remembered the way she gaped at him in shock and hurt. He remembered the way she tried to deny it. He remembered how she tried to explain herself.

He remembered the way he hadn’t cared.

Chat never knew how he appeared to her in that moment. What expression he must have had as he looked down on her and coldly told her to stay out of the way for once.

He wondered if it matched the cold stare she gave him now.

“Why are you here?”

Her detached attitude hurt more than he thought it would. But he couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it.

“I just wanted to check on you.” He said, forcing a smile. “You know, make sure you were all right after that last akuma fight.”

She raised an eyebrow, incredulously. “You mean the one that was three weeks ago?”

This time, he couldn’t hide the wince. Because yeah, it had been almost a month since that last fight. And he hadn’t considered visiting her—spying on her, sure, but not actually coming by to talk to her. He hadn’t even spared Marinette so much as a concern until just a few days ago. He could make excuses. Say he’d been busy. That he’d had homework and other things to do. But nothing had prevented him from enjoying free time and outings with his other classmates. Nothing had kept him from talking to Marinette any of those times.

The simple truth was that he hadn’t seen reason to go out of his way to worry for Marinette.

Not until one week ago when, along with several other classmates amidst their self-assured attempt to find “proof” of her guilt, he discovered that their “Everyday Ladybug” was actually “THE Ladybug”.

And suddenly, he realized too late that all of the little coincidences were pointing to a much different picture he had been too blind to see.

“I’m fine. You can go.”

He couldn’t. Because this was wrong and it was his fault.

“I don’t think you are.” He spoke up before he realized it. And he cursed his stupid mouth, but couldn’t quite bring himself to take it back because Marinette was clearly not fine.

She froze, and he fought the urge to move—though whether towards her to comfort or away from her to escape the awkwardness and guilt, he didn’t know.

“If I’m not, what does it really matter to you?”

Everything! He wanted to shout.

Because you’re my partner.

Because I love you.

Because I’m an idiot and I was wrong.

And I am so, so sorry.

So much he wanted to say.

So much he was scared to say.

Their partnership was already hanging by a thread. Her anger at him after the incident when she confronted him as Ladybug for his treatment of a ‘civilian’ had been quite clear. For once, he refused to give up, so insistent he was right.

And for once, she refused to apologize. It made sense now, given it had been herself on the receiving end of his mistreatment all this time. But at the time…

He had questioned Ladybug before. But never like that. Never did he so openly insult her judgement that way.

And now that he knew…

It was only one more thing to add to the list of ways he had seriously fucked up.

As Adrien, he promised Marinette support only to abandon her.

As Chat, he promised protection only to be the one to instigate.

As himself, he had promised to love the girl behind the mask only to turn on her in both.

Wasn’t he just pitiful?

“I just…wanted to make sure you weren’t at risk. You know…with the akumas and everything.”

She gave him a flat stare, unimpressed. “I think I’ve been doing well for myself for the past couple of months, thank you.”

“Look, I know things haven’t been…easy for you lately.” And THAT was the understatement of the year. “But—”

“No. No buts.” She cut him off. “You’re right. Things haven’t been easy. But I’ve been handling it. I’ve learned to handle it on my own.”

He winced. She didn’t say it. And she may not have intended to suggest it, but the implication was there. That it was all because he—because all of them had left her alone.

“Akumas can’t get me if I don’t give them something to target, right? So I’ve been staying positive and keeping my emotions in check.” She smiled. “You don’t have to worry about me becoming an akuma or anything.”

He clenched his fists.

She smiled like a doll and he hated it. He hated how fake it looked. He hated how it reminded him of his own false smiles as Adrien when he was trying to convince others he wasn’t upset when he was.

“You shouldn’t hide away your feelings.” He told her, honestly. “You have every right to be upset. Especially after how everyone treated you…how I treated you.”

She blinked in surprise.

“I…jumped to a lot of conclusions based on coincident and faulty evidence. I didn’t give you a chance to explain. And I should have because I know you, Marinette. In all our meetings and all our times together, I’ve only ever known you to be a genuinely good person.”

He wished he could hug her. Hold her tightly until he was sure he could use whatever he had to bring back the warmth to every part of her. To simply just hold her hand and offer her reassurance she had been sorely needing but sadly lacking all this time.

“I’m sorry, Marinette.”

I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.

I’m sorry I didn’t stand by you.

I’m sorry I left you alone.

Her blank smile faltered and her expression shifted to something sad but for the first time, genuine.

“At least you’re the first one to say it.”

It wasn’t forgiveness.

But maybe it was a start.