#There is nothing to be gained by it

[pearl484-blog]

Has Miraculous Lost its Innocence?

Just got an ask from @tallwriter asking if Miraculous has lost its innocence permenantly, but my inbox ate it. Sorry.

So, just to be clear, I'm not really sure I understand the question, so I'll answer it in a few different ways.

Will Miraculous Ladybug ever return to primarily catering towards its younger demograghic again? No, I don't think so. It seems pretty determined to interact with older fans and grow up with its audience. I doubt it's going to backtrack. Which is kinda a shame, because one of the things it seems determined to lose is its episodic nature in exchange for an arc. Unfortunately, the episodic nature is not the writer's strength, and arc plots are...difficult for these writers. Their inexperience in this type of writing shows. Their style of arc building how also lead to them not being able to contain their stories in small chunks anymore, which leads to me ...not enjoying them as much, along with them following this weird piece of writing advice to make whatever is the most painful thing to happen to the characters happen.

On a side note, for any writers out there, please do not follow this advice. For a stronger story with a more coherent theme, figure out what your theme is and try to come up with conflicts that might naturally arise from this, and would enhance your theme instead of distract from it. Think of it like cooking. No matter how tasty all the ingredients in your kitchen can be, you can't make them all, and some foods do not pair well. Figure out what you're working towards, warm and savory? Cool and refreshing? Healthy and lean? Then go towards that. A triple layer chocolate came next to grilled salmon and roasted mixed veggies is an ...odd choice that would raise some eye brows. Is Miraculous always going to have mature themes? Miraculous has always had themes of bullying and child abuse from the beginning. Part of why I liked this show was its realistic depiction of emotional abuse with Adrien, and its refusal to adhere to the trope that is the school bully somehow being the most popular girl at school. Considering how its aiming towards an older audience now, and it's never shied away from subverting comon trope expectations, I do not expect this to change.

However, that is not to say that I enjoy every trope subversion that MLB has done, nor do I think that it has always handled mature subjects very well, but I'll touch on that a bit more in my next section.

Have I Lost My Faith in Miraculous Ladybug Permenantly

Short answer: No. But it's going to need a lot of back bedaling and extremely good writing to make me invested in the series again.

Most of this is related to one unfortunate plot point, the mishandling of child abuse. Of course, that's not the only issue. I also do not like Lila. She is my least favorite character in the entire series. I do understand what the writing team is trying to do with her. They messed up with her character during the episode "Chameleon" and they are trying to fix that error. It is an admirable effort, but unfortunately their attempts to fix that issue have not rendered a villain that is likable or is clever and easy to hate. Unfortunately, each time I see her, I see the hand of the author every time she shows up. Everything about her is contrived, and I do not believe that she could have all these lies. Furthermore, the handling of Chloe in Seasons 4 and 5 also seemed unnaturally spiteful and petty. Perhaps, they were trying to backtrack and make the character someone fun to hate, but unfortunately, they could not. Each time she appeared, I could only sense ill intent from the author, and it was not a good look. The absolute final straw was when Chloe is revealed to have a learning disorder, and Marinette takes the time to say that it is unfair for Chloe to get accomodations for her disability because she's been taking steps to mask it by having Sabrina do her work for her. This does not make me dislike Chloe in the way the authors apparently thought I would.

However, the biggest flub of all is Adrien Agreste. He is abused. I could use an abuse checklist, and he'd hit most if not all the boxes. The show is still one of the most realistic decpictions of emotional abuse in the media and a good demonstration of abuse, why people might not recognize the abuse, why a victim might make excuses for their abuser, why a victim might not believe they are abused, and in season 5, there was an excellent depiction of the honeymoon/apology part of the cycle. I am honestly so shocked at how realistic and well portrayed Adrien's abuse is compared to the stereotypical abused woman who's got bruises and blaming it on walking into a door. BUT dear god. There is so much victim blaming towards Adrien. Adrien is too weak to stand up for himself. Adrien needs protecting from his own fragile emotions. Adrien can't know information. Adrien keeps fawning. He keeps making VERY concerning statements about himself, his feelings, his relationships to people, and no one realizes how fucked up it is. No one challenges him. The narrative, at several points, ends with his fucked up abuse logic being the end-point of the conflict. In order for Miraculous Ladybug to regain my faith in it, I need for people to challenge the fawning. I need for Adrien's unhealthy behavoirs and mindset to be challenged. I need for those behavoirs to be shown as wrong. And I need for the victim blaming to be shown as wrong. I need for people to understand what they did was wrong.

The senti-monster thing, by the way, DOES NOT HELP. It is not a good metaphor for abuse. Gabriel and Adrien was a good representation of a parent abusing their own child, now it's a representation of a creator abusing his creation. There is so little representation of a parent abusing their biological offspring. Why destroy it?

Did the authors not think the audience would be able to understand why Adrien obeys without magic? By making him controlled by an item, they undermined the whole abuse theme.

Adrien should be controlled by the man who raised him. The man he loved his whole life. The man who should've loved him. The man everyone told him loved him and knew what was best for him.

Adrien has been emotionally crushed his whole life. Told he's impulsive, too emotional, that he never makes good descisions, and the only way for him to be worthy of love is to be obedient, to be unresisting, to be perfect. He should think that molding himself to whatever people wants him to be is right, is expected, and his friends should challenge that. But they don't.

Each relationship Adrien has has been carved away besides Marinette and Plagg. Marinette will not help him. She cannot help him. Plagg is an abuse victim whose also internalized worldviews similiar to Adrien. He teaches him how to rebel. He understands these rules, but Plagg cannot acknowledge them as healthy.

Miraculous can restore my faith by re-aligning its abuse structure. Backpedaling and saying that abuse victims are not weak because they bend their knee. That sometimes they see obedience as the only option to survive, and that's okay. That victim blaming is not okay. That accomodation is good and necessary, and its wrong to be a jerk about it. That fawning is unhealthy. That molding yourself to what others want you to be is unhealthy. That judging your self-worth on how useful you are or how happy you make other people is not healthy.

I do not think it will do that. But it could. And the fandom has done that, so I will continue interacting with the fandom.

[caffeinatedopossum]

Me when I remember something I said ages ago that was wrong or my values no longer align with

[malinaa]

if i think about the hunger games in peeta's perspective i WILL start sobbing

[ryllen]

A question I have just recently,

can Sebek handle spicy?

this is what i generally think of fae.

tho i think,

lilia knows spicy spices from his travel.

even tho in dragon form, malleus breathes fire from his mouth, and fire is hot, it might be like the kind of fire that doesn't hurt him in the first place

sebek father might bring spicy spice from human world with him, but since i think of him as a mellow man, he might not be interested in spicy food in the first place

[snapscube]

Hi Penny, I’m wondering what is your stance on Game Preservation?

i think all video games are bad

[cirnogaming]

artemis is one of the best characters ever created i think. she likes to feel like a cobb salad when shes having sex. she serves cunt at all hours of the day. shes bisexual. shes jewish. she's always serving a look. she is constantly on psychedelic drugs. she fucks nasty in the dumpster behind wendy's. shes perfect

[junotter]

All the jokes about Ken and horses are good but I just wanna say it's such a good parallel to how actual young men get swept into misogyny and the patriarchy.

Like they're told to believe it means men get to be cool and manly and have this power but with that comes extremely rigid commands of what they can be as a man and a cycle of self hatred for never matching those gender roles perfectly. Patriarchy tells men that if they just do exactly what is expected of them, then they get all the "cool stuff" that comes with. That doesn't work though when there's only a small group that actually gets that power, but men will keep trying to fit into those roles in hopes that they can.

In the end there are no horses or the myth men are told, it's just endless cycles of self hatred and ingroup fighting.

[brightmoontrigon]

kindred

[dostoyevsky-official]

Armenian PM Warns Of ‘Large-Scale’ Azeri Attack On Armenia

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday rejected Azerbaijan’s continuing demands for legislative changes in Armenia and said that Baku may be planning “large-scale” military aggression against his country. Pashinian complained that despite his readiness for compromise, the Azerbaijani leadership is pursuing a “policy of military coercion” in an effort to clinch more Armenian territory and other concessions from Yerevan. He said that it is reluctant to delimit the long border between the two states where four Armenian soldiers were killed in an Azerbaijani ceasefire violation on Tuesday. “Our analysis shows that there may be one reason for this and that reason may be, for example, the launch of military operations at some sections of the border with the prospect of turning the military escalation into a full-scale war against Armenia,” he said during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. [...] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reiterated on Wednesday that he will not sign a peace treaty discussed by the two sides “if Armenia does not bring its legislation to a normal state.” He said that legislation contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.

Armenian soldiers killed by Azerbaijani fire in biggest skirmish since exodus

Armenia said on Tuesday that four of its soldiers were killed by Azerbaijani fire along the two countries' heavily militarised border, the first fatal incident since they began negotiating a deal to end more than 30 years of intermittent war last year.

as i said before, azerbaijan is going to invade and conquer armenia within the next 5 years

[darlingod]

The way Jude and Cardan were both the last people anyone believed would be on the throne

[a-silly-stained-glass-anomaly]

[potatoeofwisdom]

im having fun

[owlpellet]

While your comment on non-US artists’ prices are valid it also shows your US-centrism………………. Not all people can pay in USD. In my country it’s somewhat similar that 20 is worth a 100, so this thinking is cutting out a majority of the customers who don’t earn in USD. Why are you Americans so stupid hahahah

I had a feeling someone would come at me with this when I made that post, but if you are going to be advertising your prices in USD and in english on social media sites that are by default already very western-centric communities (twitter, reddit, tumblr), you are going to and most certainly intend to attract largely American and western european customers. If that is the currency you are using to advertise yourself in a freelance position where you have the opportunity to set your own labor value, then you are literally selling yourself short. Would you rather do a single drawing for 100 USD, or burn yourself out over five drawings for 20USD? The monetary outcome is the same, but in the first, your time is more respected.

Art is a luxury and a skill, not a basic life necessity like food that must be openly available to all who need it. You don't need a "majority" of customers paying you minimum wage if you have a small handful of customers paying you much greater sums.

The onus is not just on the artist to change this, though. US customers also need to stop taking advantage of international artists and pay them the same they would pay a local artist, and if they see someone setting prices like that, there had better be a meaty tip attached.

[marstectomy]

i know fat redistribution happened so I need T to explain itself right fuckin now

[slightly-warmer-hibiscus-tea]

13hrs later… the sus shit is finished...

...slowly take my "slathered in oil" beam off Leander for a second and aim it at Ais...

(Simpping aside: Oil is fuck hard to paint. Bottles confuse me. Anatomy is fucked. And I think God punished me with retribution thanks to this. Was it worth it... possibly...I might just use this as a banner....)

[keynil]

i cannot stop thinking abt zoro learning to roll sanji's cigarettes for him bc he notices how sanji will scrub his hands raw to get the heavy tobacco smell off before he cooks