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miraculouslbcnreactions · 4 months ago

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A friend started watching Miraculous a couple of weeks ago; he was curious, and I accidentally sold it by spoiling him S5's finale. "Oh! I really enjoy the twist when the bad guy wins!" he said... I swear I tried to save him!

Anyway, he went through the honeymoon phase with S1 and S2. Now that he has watched half of S3 (btw, in our country, both Disney+ and Netflix DO NOT have the episodes in order, save for each season's 1st one and the finales), he went on a rant on Kwamibuster saying "c'mon! So, Marinette can hold all the trinkets without any consequence, why they do that?! Is a nice stand alone chapter, but there is no great consequence!" I just told him "welcome to the fandom!" and he went "OMG! I turned to the dark side!"

He still has Gabriel on a 8.5/10 scale, since he finds saving his wife as a noble if twisted reason to turn villian. Though he doesn't understand why Gabriel found Lila useful at the end of Oni-chan. I... don't have the heart to tell him about Chat Blanc nor Gabriel's later actions.

Were S1 and S2 really the best of Miraculous? I remember enjoying S3, but now hearing his fresh pov, I'm starting to have my doubts about when it all went to worse.

I was also relatively late coming to the fandom, so I got to see seasons one to three all in one go. I watched them over a series of a few weeks and my memory of that process is this: I thought season one was mediocre with a handful of truly bad episodes, but the premise was a lot of fun and had real potential. I started reading fanfiction after watching the few episodes because I love identity shenanigan romances and I wanted to see people tell this one without being held back by the show's format and intended audience. This is probably the only reason I finished season one. I didn't like the show so much as I thought it was good enough to watch so I could fully understand the fanfic.

Origins is where my opinion changed. It was legitimately good and even felt like a soft reboot for Alya, Adrien, and Chloe. I thought this indicated that the first season had done really well and so the show had been cleared to have a true overarching plot and serialized elements in the coming seasons.

Season two initially seemed to back that up with the Chloe stuff and Marinette meeting Fu, but then Queen Bee happened. That's the moment when I realized the show was never going to live up to its potential. It was incredibly disappointing to see Chloe go from finding the bee to revealing herself on national television within a few minutes. That is the least interesting way you could possibly play her finding the bee. I have referred to this choice as the canary in the coal mine before and I stand by that. If they couldn't handle something as tried and true as a mean girl redemption or do something interesting with Chloe finding the bee, then we were not in for a good time.

The introduction of Carapace just further confirmed that read. Nino wasn't carefully chosen for his miraculous. He was just in the right place at the right time and got the best miraculous for the situation. Chloe getting the bee felt more fitting and she wasn't even chosen for it! She just got to keep using it for some reason even though identity reveals were supposed to get you benched. It was weird and was also another warning sign of things to come. Identity reveals and their consequences would just become more and more confusing as the show went on.

While all of these things were disappointing, I don't fault anyone for being willing to keep watching because it wasn't all bad. Season two showed us that the show was going to suck from a long-form perspective, but it could deliver solid short-form content. Your friend put it really well:

It's a nice stand alone chapter, but there is no great consequence!

The early seasons of Miraculous had a lot of fun standalone chapters that had no greater consequence. Disappointing for those who wanted a serious story, but you don't need to tell a serious story to be good. If the show had stuck to a more lighthearted tone and just put out disjointed, but fun mini-stories, then it would have been fine. Not amazing, but serviceable. An endless series of writing prompts that don't really fit together, but that allow for a ton of fun fan content as people pick and choose which episodes to play with. I would have still had issues with some of those episodes, but because they didn't actually connect, I would have just shrugged and focused on the stuff that was fun. In fact, that's what I was doing for the first four seasons! There's a reason this blog didn't exist until mid season five even though I've had issues with the show since season one.

For example, does Chat Blanc technically ruin the love square by establishing that Adrien's love for Marinette isn't strong enough to keep him from killing her? Sure, but when it was just a random what-if episode, I could ignore it as one-off bad writing. Season four then chose to have Chat Blanc show up in Marinette's nightmare and also featured Marinette promoting Alya instead of Chat Noir, leading me to assume that Marinette was keeping Chat Noir at arms because of Chat Blanc. This changed how I viewed Chat Blanc. That episode suddenly mattered to the entire show and wasn't a one-off thing I could ignore.

The official word is that Chat Blanc had nothing to do with the season four conflict, but that's really not clear in the actual text to the point where I almost want to call BS. Why did you give Marinette a Chat Blanc nightmare if he doesn't matter to her mental state? That makes no sense!

Even if we embrace that official word, Chat Blanc is still not a one-off episode. It apparently haunts Adrien and kept him from the season five final even though Adrien never actually learned about Chat Blanc, which is frankly even more damning than my initial read of season four. It's now super official that Adrien's love for Marinette isn't enough to save the day and I'm not interested in a show that's sticking to that choice and repeating it ad nauseum (Chat Blanc, Ephemeral, and the season five ending). The one-off bad episode has now poisoned the entire show and it's not the only episode that did this.

We've reached a point where there are multiple choices haunting the show, making it so that there really aren't any more fun standalone chapters. Even if season six is written more like those early seasons, are any of us going to be able to enjoy love square hijinks when we're also waiting to see if Adrien will ever learn the truth of sentistatus or his father's death? And what about the knowledge that love will probably never win? It's hard to forget that, especially as more and more people learn the love square's secret identities, endlessly cheapening that reveal. Combined that with them maintaining the statue quo of Marinette being unable to act normal around Adrien and it's hard to picture season six being anything like a good time.

While I can't picture it, maybe you can! Seasons one to four all had episodes I enjoyed even though I was aware of the large scale flaws. Season five is the one that ruined that for me because, while there is no real overarching plot for the season, there was enough connective tissue that no episode felt like it truly stood alone no matter what the writers say. That connective tissue made the problems impossible to ignore and, now that my brain is in serialized mode, I can't go back to episodic. The season five cliffhanger of the lies is also too serious a point for me to mostly ignore it like I did with the other bad cliffhangers. The lies aren't just a dumb plot point, they're an incredibly serious character beat that I can't overlook. Every time the love square is on screen, I'm going to feel a little sick because I know canon isn't going to give this massive betrayal proper weight.

There's also retroactive rot at work here. Because the show has serialized elements, the more the show poisons its plot and characters, the more the rot creeps backwards, ruining the early stuff to the point where the flaws feel glaring. Knowing Chloe's ultimate fate makes it hard to enjoy her early canon writing. Knowing that Ladybug will fight Gabriel alone makes it hard to enjoy Ladynoir's big "you and me against the world" moments. Knowing that Gabriel will eventually win makes it hard to enjoy more moments than I can count.

So, to answer you question:

Were S1 and S2 really the best of Miraculous?

I'd say that the first four seasons all have good standalone episodes and even some good setups that would just never pay off. Season three and four just feel worse than the first two because that's when it started to become really clear that those payoffs would never come since the show had to finally own that fact with things like Chloe "damnation arc" and the lack of consequences for the mass identity reveal.

They also have more setups than the first two seasons and those probably stand out in your mind as being bad. That's how bad writing tends to work when that writing issues are more structural than scene-based. The longer the story goes, the more the cracks in the foundation show. The writing is rarely getting actively worse, there's just enough of it to properly show just how bad it is.

I do think season five was worse than any of the others, but only because the episodes had that awkward thing where they were try to be both episodic and serialized, really highlighting how bad the show was at long-form content. It wasn't so much that the writing got worse as it was that the show focused on the writing style that highlights its flaws. Season six going back to more truly episodic story telling may make it work for some people even if they hated season five. Only time will tell.

#anon ask #formula show problems #ml writing critical #ml writing salt

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 2 years ago

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IOTA Reviews: Collusion and Revolution

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ladybug: Terror isn't a solution!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... CHLOE

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

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

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

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

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

I think you forgot something, guys...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHAT THE FUCK, ASTRUC?!

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

I can either interpret this scene in two ways.

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

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... GABRIEL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

youtube

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mysteriousbp · 9 months ago

Note

It looks like we got a general idea on what the kids' journey in the underground except for Green and Purple, so how was there journey.

This is going to be interesting.

So you guys know how each human has a main group of monsters that they befriend.

Frisk has Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys (etc.).

Clover has Dalv, Matlet. Starlo (etc)

Lila has the old canine unit and other monsters.

Tom has QC

Meanwhile, Hope and Sunny... Other than Toriel, they didn't have anyone.

Yeah. They were pretty much on their own in their journeys.

(I made it that way because usually in Undertale-style games the main character gets pulled into the main cast problems and dramas. I just wanted to break that norm with two souls that were on their own journey without interroptions or diversions. Just to focus more of the children themselves.)

So let's start with Hope. After she left the Ruins she started to look for the others. She asked the locals if they had seen Lila, Tom, and Melody by describing them in a way that didn't say that they were humans. Hope also tries to learn everything about monsters so maybe she could have a better shot surviving. By reading the books in the library and the signs with monster history in Waterfall and taking notes in her notebook.

And I can finally reveal something about Hope. The hoodie that she wears during her time underground is a cat hoodie!

Yeah. Before anything. Hope didn't own that hoodie because she was into cats or something. Has some of you may remember I said a long time ago that the children when they were in the orphanage they had small allowances, right? Well, this hoodie was bought in a second-hand shop for Melody because she was getting too big for her clothes, and this was the only thing they could afford that fit her. And yes. This was originally Melody's hoodie. Hope started to wear it after she grew up and she couldn't fit in her old clothes. That's why, after the barrier broke, Melody started to wear a hoodie. Because hoodies are more her style and not Hope's.

Actually. Despite the cat hoodie being a thing bought because they didn't have another option. It did help Hope a lot. By this time, Doggo, Greater Dog, Dogamy, and Dogaressa are the current canine unit. And because Hope had her hood up because of the cold, she ended up tricking Doggo by accident because he thought she was a cat monster. After realizing that, she started to pretend to be a cat monster, and she was able to trick almost every monster she ran into, execpt Gerson and another one.

I decided to go this route with Hope because of her items.

Despite being mid game items, the Torn Notebook and Cloudy Glasses are the third weakness items, with 2 at (it hits two times, so 4 at) and 5 def. The thing is that they increase INV (invincibility frames) by 6 and 9, respectively. So based on that, I wanted to make Hope a character that isn't a smart character that tries to outsmart an enemy in battle. But a character that thinks of ways to avoid battleing because she's weak, so she tries to avoid being hit more than the others. (That's why when she's adopted by Alphys and Undyne, she really wants to train with Undyne to become stronger.)

Now for Sunny. After she left the ruins, she also started to look for the others. But through her travels, she found monsters with some troubles, and she decided to help (for context. She didn't need to help any of these monsters to proceed in her journey. Most of the time, she didn't receive an item in return. She just helped out of kindness.). And those monsters were like Slurpy. Just random monsters, not big important type of monsters like the main gang of UT or UTY.

Like giving the Snowman a nose or helping a lost Temmie return to Temmie Village. Just simple problems and not like "Help save my daughter" type of problems. Just focusing more on NPC's since the lack of a main cast in Sunny's journey. Exploring more the everyday struggles living on the underground rather than being told in text and barelly being shown how problematic the life can be down in the underground.

I just really wanted to use Hope and Sunny to explore more of the underground with the focus on talking and helping NPC's without having a main cast overshadowing everyone.

Also, here's a fun fact about Sunny:

She's been wearing a sweater this whole time. That's why I always drew her with big sleeves. Because they were rolled up this whole time.

#uty second chance au #undertale #ut #undertale purple #utp #undertale green #utg #perseverance soul #purple soul #kindness soul #green soul #ut snowman #ut temmie

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be-compromised · 8 months ago

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Promptathon 2024 Masterlist

Promptathon 2024 has come to an end! With an impressive grand total of 35 fills, and 535 comments at last check. Thank you to everyone who prompted, created, beta read, commented, cheered, and took part. We hope you had fun! Watch this space for Secret Santa 2o24 sign ups coming VERY soon and maybe a little fun for Halloween…

A promptathon masterlist is now available below and on dreamwidth. If there’s any incorrect or missing information please let me know in a comment to the dreamwidth post and I'll make sure it gets updated. (Our Username Database is a handy way to keep us up to date with your online handles for crossposted masterlists.)

The main links for the masterlist go to the original dreamwidth promptathon comments for archiving, but I've tried my best to also include links to AO3 where I've spotted crossposting. Please feel free to post/share your fills elsewhere! If you're using AO3 we have a handy Be_Compromised Promptathon Collection and you can tag works as be_compromised promptathon and community: be_compromised.

If you still have prompt fills that you’re working on, or feel inspired by prompts now or in the future from any of our community events, please do keep creating. Now that promptathon is over they won’t be included as part of the event or masterlist, but they will always be appreciated :)

And on to the main event…

5 Times Clint and Natasha Cursed the Rain and 1 Time They Didn't | AO3 by @cassiesinsanity (PG; no warnings) Prompt: Tokyo wasn't their first time together in an alley in the rain

After The Threesome | AO3 by @inkvoices (Mature; sex) Prompt: After The Threesome They Both Take You Home by Sue Hyon Bae (poem here)

ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard? | AO3 by @quidnunc-life (Teen; no warnings apply) Prompt: Outsider POV or threesome: Woken up 3:45 by voices yelling outside my window. Turned out to be a couple in formal wear, literally standing in the road, who continued to yell back and forth at each other for quite some time, including [one] with, 'I love you!' and [the other] going back with, 'No, you don't!' Very sad that they can't make it work, but could they please have that conversation not outside our open windows at 4am?!

a masterpiece of a mess | AO3 by @cassiesinsanity (Mature; no warnings apply; Clint/Bucky with past Natasha/Clint and Natasha/Bucky) Prompt:Maybe if he was a little less fuckable we wouldn’t be in this mess.

a masterpiece of a mess (remix edition) | AO3 by @cassiesinsanity (Mature; no warnings apply; Clint/Darcy/Natasha) Prompt:Maybe if he was a little less fuckable we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Another String To Her Bow | AO3 by ultra_fic (G/K; no warnings apply) Prompt: Clint learns Natasha can shoot a bow.

Blank Slate | AO3 by @firlalaith (Teen; a little angsty but nothing bad) Prompt: One of them is de-aged. They can't be turned back, so they're going to have to grow up again the long way. (Your choice as to if they still have their memories or are completely de-aged as in they can’t remember any of their past.) The other has to choose whether to also be de-aged and grow up with them, be their friend (and maybe more if history repeats), or stay an adult and protect them (which might have to be from a distance?). Because they both know all too well how vulnerable children are, and had shitty childhoods, and want better for the person they love this time around.

Blindside | AO3 by @cloud--atlas (Teen; no warnings) Prompt: I'm so obsessed with your ex

Butterflies in Iowa | AO3 by @firlalaith (Teen; Character Death, Depiction of a Suicide, Vormir) Prompt: Lila sees Clint during the test run and the consequences

Daughter of Goose by @alphaflyer (G; no warnings apply) Prompt: In which Liho (or Lucky) turns out to be a Flerken.

desirable (and other adjectives) | AO3 by @cassiesinsanity (G; weight gain) Prompt: Clint refers to it as a bulk cycle. Natasha simply calls it getting fat.

Don't Touch Lola | AO3 by @firlalaith (Teen; no warnings apply) Prompt: Endgame AU/fix-it: when Clint and Natasha show up to fetch the Soul Stone it's not there, it turns out at this point in time that someone else already has it.

Every Hawkeye has a Widow | AO3 by @firlalaith (G) Prompt: (615): Your sister reminds me of me at her age. Stop her while you can.

Get by with a little from our friends by @quietlyimplode (Teen/PG13; no warnings apply) Prompt: I can do it with a broken heart

history be rhyming | AO3 by @firlalaith (Teen; no warnings apply) Prompt: “He’s dead. Again.”

Hope in the Rain | AO3 by @quietlyimplode (Teen/PG13; Angst(?)/ Canonical Violence?) Prompt: Tokyo wasn't their first time together in an alley in the rain

I Get By… | AO3 by ultra_fic (G/K; no warnings necessary) Prompt: Kate notices the Black Widow tattoo on Clint's arm

I must have turned bright red (I liked what I saw) | AO3 by @icantopenwaterbottlecaps (Teen; no warnings) Prompt:An adult Natasha signs up to work at a summer camp, as part of her own healing and to give back. Enter Clint Barton, who's been a volunteer there already for a while (or may have similarly been originally ordered to work there like Nat). Everyone knows him, everyone gets on with him, he trains kids in archery and teaches them how to swim and grow in confidence, and he’s just. too. damn. Nice.

In Our Professional Opinion | AO3 by @alphaflyer (Mature; no warnings apply) Prompt: Rating SHIELD safehouses

It Might Be Worth It | AO3 by ultra_fic (Teen; no warnings apply) Prompt: In a world of boys, he's a gentleman

lingering doubts | AO3 by fadedwings (Teen; swearing, nightmares, insomnia, and some angst with a side of cuddling) Prompt: Clint never actually broke entirely free from Loki's control / still had lingering issues until Loki died. Or until the stone that powered the tesseract was destroyed.

Not Another Moment to Waste | AO3 by ultra_fic (Teen; no warnings apply) Prompt: You took the words right out of my mouth (it must’ve been while you were kissing me).

not just another mission | AO3 by fadedwings (Teen; adult language) Prompt: You squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi

Out On the Moonlit Floor | AO3 by ultra_fic (G/K; no warnings necessary) Prompt: This is a love story. It must be; it's got kissing in it.

"Paradise Lost" | AO3 by chaed (T; no warnings) Prompt: Superior Iron Man enlists the services of nefarious assassin duo Black Widow and Hawkeye (dark!Clintasha).

Progress | AO3 by @inkvoices (Teen; a character having some anxiety in crowds and being the centre of attention) Prompt: our mutual friend has been talking us up to the other and when we finally meet, we have to tell them that we’ve been in a feud for the last six years

red light | AO3 by @quidnunc-life (Teen) Prompt: Sex work AU

(REMIX: Red Light / Little Red Lies | AO3 by @icantopenwaterbottlecaps (Teen; no warnings) Prompt: Sex work AU

REMIX: red light / Little Red Lies / ran the red | AO3 by @asterarchers (G; no warnings) Prompt: Sex work AU

she’s gone by @quietlyimplode (Teen; angst) Prompt: When you hold me, it holds me together And you kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever

The Ties That Bind by @alphaflyer (Teen; no warnings) Prompt: Clint and Natasha are having the most incredible, amazing first date - what could go wrong?

the words of another | AO3 by @quietlyimplode (Teen/PG13; discussion of mental states) Prompt: Early SHIELD. Natasha hacks into the system and reads what is in her evaluation (Psychologists, Fury, Clint, etc.)

Untitled Fill (100 Word Drabble) by @quietlyimplode (Teen; angst) Prompt: Non sexual (physical) intimacy

what we do to each other by @poppypickle (T; beginningsofcomplicatedfeelings!fic) Prompt: Don't know what to call this situation, but I know I can't call you mine

you've been calling my bluff on all my usual tricks | AO3 by @asterarchers (Teen and Up; no warnings apply) Prompt: Gentle Ways To Let Him Know You're Dating Each Other

#promptathon 2024 #masterlist #be_compromised #fanfic #clintasha #clint barton #natasha romanoff #hawkeye #black widow #and friends #avengers

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richardsphere · 2 months ago

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Watching Climatiqueen

Headed into the first episode of the season, as the sixth episode to watch. (because nothing makes sense in this franchise) --- Ok so to start: Im on the page and im seeing the end-of-episode splash-art. Either this is a new character, Aurore has had a major overhaul, or the people who headcannon Adrien as Trans are about to rejoice quite loudly. (I think that this is probably either a new character, or an Aurore Redesign. But they look very Adrien, and the light makes it hard to see if the eyes are blue or green so that isnt helping) ---

Rose with the Unipony. Why does this read like an Ad? Has Kitty Section got itself a sponsorship? Did Rose sell out to RothToys Industries?

Ok so its an Aurore redesign. (good for her, sorry Trans Adrien fans, you'll have to stick with headcannons). Oh Chloe is back. She's claiming to grant wishes now? (and is clearly resentfull of the heroes... with a notable exception that she mentions Unicorns? which seems to be unrelated to any existing hero. Also no mention of Cat's. Is that Alec? I'll be honest, his wig looks weird, but He do Him. Ok Plagg and Adrien are alone. There is no timepressure, nobody about to enter the room and the Big Lie has just been brought up: Will Plagg's writing actually acknowledge the fact that Plagg knows the truth. Or are we going to have to invent some kind of "timetraveler stole Plagg's Memory" theory, because all Plagg's appearences this season have seemed to go out of their way from even acknowledging the fact that Plagg knows. Nope. No acknowledgement besides Plagg looking sideways in worry for Adrien being sad. Also Marinette is gone for some reason, Maybe this takes place during a summer vacation or something? --- Ok Marinette is still just home? So i guess "wait for you to arrive" just means Marinette is going to come over to his place. The Melodramatic tone of that line did not match with the degree of Marinette's absence. She's going to some kind of workshop?

French Plagg looks weird. And i dont like the flanderisation in this scene, continuing the "Plagg=cheese" thing and nothing more. Nathalie being a supportive mom is nice. Adrien doesnt know what he wants.

--- Placide with the hose. Ok so she's just going to Adriens place after all, not a workshop? Seriously what the heck are even the plans? This is mixed messages all over the place.

seven out of a hundred in one greeting... Marinette switches from French Pronounciations to an english-pronounced "fantastic" (which is weird, i remember from my french classes that the french also just... have 'fantastique', so the loanword feels redundant?) Ok like the little picture of Sublime playing the violin in the background, before turning to what apears to be a depressed Lila? --- Aurore is depressed as well. (did she get fired from her weathergig? I know she lost the contest but i think i remember them co-hosting anyway?)

I like that Placide has decided to just... carry a pressurised water-backpack with him.

Ok so we're meeting this Aglae character now. She looks like a vampire. Also it seems that she isnt sad about anything in her life but just... trying to win Chloe's Contest for 'greatest rise in subscribercount'. It's becoming very obvious now that this app is more then just a stylised way to represent character connections. It looks like Tomoe's plot is probably going to be a repeat of the "social media is evil"-angle from the rings)

Ok but why are there animal-themed communities? It was one thing when we thought it was just... using the symbols as profile pictures but its some kind of clique/caste system? Is that what the overarching plot for Tomoe is going to be? Some kind of Die Welle for Kids? Max's mom has a book about space weather. (My prediction: Adrien's Passion is going to be 'networking' and connecting his friends, fixing peoples problems and stuff, so this episode ends with Adrien getting Aurore to meet with Max so Max can get his mom to sign her book)

Ok so... I hate to say it but those people who assumed (just of the fact it was a character they didnt know yet) that Aglae was gonna be secretly Lila might have been hit with the sacred dodgeball. This scene could very well end up with a 'turns out it was lila, pretending to be supportive but deliberately planting the suggestion'. that is not to say i think they're right. (we literally only have 1 scene of the character, and nothing in this scene is truly damning). But it is to acknowledge that this character's introduction fits eerily in line with 'what would Lila do'. (just... if the writers actually wrote Lila as legitimately competent at her manipulations, which i still dont think they'd ever do.) Oh i see where this is headed... Placide is going to break her phone with his waterhose, leading to the akumatisation... (honestly, at this point, im just happy that we're akumatising aurore rather then going full-maya and introducing a new character to take her place like Maya took Manon) --- Ok. getting off the elevator im going to go into an aside. Because this seemingly small scene feels (to me) like its secretly a very big scene indeed. This scene seems to confirm a suspicion/hypothesis/theory i've had for a while: Adrien's Senti-Power. Ever since the Senti-stuff was introduced, and it became obvious that someone at the Agreste Manor was a senti (which is to say, the Ladybug episode introducing the concept of human-senti's), i've been speculating to myself which character it was gonna be. initially i was 20% Gabriel, 25% Nathalie, 5% Placide, 50% adrien. With Adrien having grown quite quickly. My main lead on Adrien was the fact that he was the only one that seemed to have a 'superpower' in their human form. Adrien's status instant mastery of anything. His nature as a polyglot and Homo Universale rendered him my main suspect for the Senti-twist early on. (even moreso then him being the most 'important' member of the family). Especially when combined with the Gabriel's "perfection" talk having had a big "ultimate lifeform"-tone to it. Which is to say, i posited the theory that Adrien has, all along, had a secret senti-power. The power to instantaneously master any skill he tried. Up until now, that hypothesis has been limited to indirect evidence, in the form of his wide and eclectic portfolio of skills and seemingly disparate fields of competency. But lacking the explicit 'instantaneous learning' proof required for an outright confirmation. (It having never been clear how quickly he took to learning Chinese, Piano or other skills) But this scene particularly? Explicitly stating he did all these things, from painting to macarons (which i understand to be a relatively advanced pastry-recipe) amazingly 'on his first try'. To me feels like it's meant to confirm exactly that suspicion. either that or Marinette is lying to spare his feelings. Which could theoretically be supported by the comedic-hijinks of the montage. But it's clear that Marinette, in this scene, is entirely 100% comprehensive of the fact that Adrien is indifferent to his competence and only trying to find the field of his passion. which is to say, 'lying to spare his feelings' has no place within this scene, as no one in this scene 'cares' about wether adrien is good at the thing. Basically. I feel like this scene is carrying big evidence for my 'Instant Mastery'-hypothesis. --- Ok Marinette is switching tactics: Instead of trying to see if Adrien likes the things she likes, she's trying to Yin Yang "opposites attract" this problem. I like this, its a scene of Marinette actually performing explicit self-sacrifice out of a desire to support her boyfriend. Please show do not ruin this the way you ruined werepapa's. We've gotten so little of marinette being a genuinely good girlfriend. Please tell me that everything we've seen so far has been an unfortunate series of aberattions, rather then a deliberate pattern established in episode one of your new season.

--- huh... its the aproaching deadline that gets her akumatised? I had legitimately expected them to make it to be the established 'placide sprays paparazi' running gag for this episode. Im gonna say it. That's dissapointing to me. Ok so here's a thing: Aurore still has her old akuma design right? And Millie had the same hair as Ringmaster (to the point where, in the promo-shots where Ringmaster had the Microphone, i legitimately thought it was Stormy Weather 3.0) and now Aglae also has the same 'skunk-type' hair. It feels like the writers heard the "too many blondes" complaint, and just copy-pasted Stormy's hair to compensate. --- Ok so the 'baricade yourself' scene does feel like... if the Lilaglae theorists are right, this scene would've been deliberately more drawn-out for a later "from Lila's perspective" reveal. (and yes, that does require the "Chrisalis is two people" theory to be true as well, but that theory is much more substantive on the evidence, with the notetakers clearly looking like different models and the two seperate voices). --- Now its time for the Climatiqueen fight. Now remember: The one thing the writers claim they want, is for Lila to be a 'worse' and 'more legitimate' threat then Hawkmoth was. Aurore has had 2 previous akumatisations (though only the first was on-screen), and given that Stormy Weather was the original pilot, and this is the season opener. this is the best chance at a direct comparison. And im gonna say it, the mind-controll 'press like on my video's' power is just... kind of a lame and worthless addition. And at least initially, the power-uses feel a lot more simple. She's pretty much limited herself to smaller scale effects. No giant, slow-growing glacier of suspence threatening. just some generic point-to-point lightning, a minor windblast and an iceslick.

At what point did Maribug hear Aurore refer to herself as climatiqueen? It feels like Mari should refer to her as Stormy and be corrected. Adrien gets to dodge some lightning. (its nice to see him portrayed as on-screen competent for once... usually the closest we get to "adrien is still badass" is "Marinette leaves and Adrien doesnt get killed off-screen so he must be somewhat competent" so the little lightning-dodge sequence is nice) Ok we're wind-blasting cars... thats better then when this fight started, but still feels small-scale compared to OG stormy Ok... so why cataclysm the train when you were already going to be running through it? It feels to me like Marinette could've easily side-dodged or followed him through the train. The Cataclysm feels wasted.

Ok when the heck did Lila get to skip 'regular' akuma and go straight to 'ultrakuma'. That has not been earned.

--- "everything on the internet is lies" ok so i really hope this "dangers of social media"-storyarc isnt going to end up swallowing the "big lie" storyarc, but given that both this first episode and the episode explicitly about the big lie seem to be focussing on the "evils of the social media"... i feel like that's waving a red flag. It could be that theoretically they manage to weave the "internet of lies" and "Marinette's big lie" stories together (through the shared themes of Ignorance VS Truth)... but given how Revalator ended i dont trust them to stick the landing there. Oh we're doing "superheroing is Adrien's passion" as well?.. I dont like it, if this was the first episode of the season I might be cautiously optimistic about that.. but given that I already know what happens in the next couple episodes (and especially how Daddycop turns this line into "Actually, i love being a disposable meatshield for you to sacrifice without agency of my own"). I just dont like this being his "passion".

--- Am I misremembering things? Arent they supposed to eat special cheese to go Astro-mode? Or did they lose that limitation at some random point off-screen as well. Seriously this feels like the writers just dont care about anything anymore. Ok it feels really weird how little Max has to do with this episode only for him to be called in here. (same problem as the Weredad episode. But at least that episode primarily featured a Fetch-based solution with him as a mere cameo. This episode is going to be a Portal-based solution for a character whose motivations directly connect to Max' mother. His only appearing 3/4ths into the episode feels wrong).

Ok max im sorry to say it but... your portals dont stop momentum At most you turned a 270-ish meter fall (viewing platform heigth) to a 10 meter drop, but most of these people were already falling fast enough to get badly injured. (also, to see season 6 be the first to acknowledge that the Eiffel tower, which our heroes have destroyed in the past has people on it feels a tad late. It casts a shadow backwards throughout the canon that makes previous seasons a lot darker)

---

Oh nice, lila herself acknowledges that her debut villain was lame. It seems the writers themselves acknowledge their failure to 'sell' her as the 'worse and more dangerous' antagonist. I dont even need to write some witty punchline. They're just going to be frank and honest about the fact that Lila just... lacks punch as an antagonist. Good on you for being honest Thomas --- Oh we're making running his passion-answer? I actually like that, movement, wind through the hair, freedom and mobility contrasting the imprisonment of the gabriel-era mansion. it's nice... or at least a lot nicer then "being ladybug's disposable human sacrifice is my passion" at least. I do not like how this scene has the dark ominous musical sting, The Sublime=evil theorists are going to take that sting and i just know the fanbase is going to find a new level of toxicity as a result. I also do not like the implication that Adrien meeting Sublime is bad, and that therefore Marinette's choice in this scene not to stalk adrien must be a bad thing for allowing it to happen.

--- As a final note this episode is underwhelming, but mostly harmless (at least on its own)... I do dislike how this episode seems to be feeding both the 'Algae=secretly lila" and "Sublime=lila' theories. (the former in a rather subtle manner, the latter in a very obvious poster-change and musical sting). I really worry about those theories. It feels like both of those theories are going to be the big thing in the fandom... And i dont trust either of those theories to end up 'good'. I also want to end this by repeating my big question: Does the app lack a cat-emote, or is that actually some kind of "chloe doesnt hate Chat Noir like she hates the other heroes"-clue that might pay off later?

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug spoilers #Miraculous fandom salt #miraculous ladybug climatiqueen

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lifeisasham · 9 months ago

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my understanding of the character progression on number five

preface: i don't ship five with lila and think it more along the lines of forbidden love. what happened in season 4 is something i wish didn’t happen but could understand what was likely plotted out by the writers.

five from pre-s1: he was surviving a post-apocalyptic wasteland where he should’ve died for all intents and purposes. however, he did survive against all odds with his family as his guiding lights. or rather the idealised versions of his family that he envisioned in his head and what was written in viktor’s autobiography. while he may have also seen some of their exploits and characters through the infinity switchboard, those were probably more of snippets that served to reinforce his illusions of them. he can’t possibly watch what he missed of his family’s lives because the infinity switchboard would be very tightly guarded, especially if five is around; he would probably escorted and shown those snippets rather than allowed control over it.

five from s1: the first disillusionment that was blatantly presented in the show was when viktor dismissed his trauma. five expected viktor to go along with the revelation of the world ending, likely not even expectecting help to figure out what causes it, but that viktor would listen, at least. another disillusionment is likely that klaus was, unexpectedly, better in reality than five had imagined him to be; more than just a junkie and the family’s disappointment.

five from s2: another disillusionment with viktor was when they came to a head, with five seeing viktor if free of the drugs and the memories of the umbrella academy. there was also another disillusionment with mostly everyone when they failed to arrive within that hour he set for them, just expecting everyone to drop everything they’re doing and the lives they’ve built.

five from s3: here, we see five finally showing signs and effects of being disillusioned from s1 and s2, willingly giving up trying to save them. by this point, he was already so tired and had retired before being pulled back into the thick of things. we also see his relationship with lila progressing from enemies to frenemies to neutral or even cordial.

five from post-s3 pre-s4: from an interview with the actor, we learn five is lost in life and without purpose, disillusioned with his scattered family living their new lives, no longer seeing them as his guiding light.

five from s4: we see his relationship with lila has already become at the same level as his family’s. five and lila just diving into the multiversal subway and getting lost in it together wasn’t really how i would’ve wanted that relationship culminating but i find more potential for them together than with lila and diego due to an understanding of their shared trauma that they would likely have kept sealed and hidden away.

side note: i think that, if she wasn’t pregnant from s2, lila and diego wouldn’t have lasted one year and that she would’ve been on the wind.

another side note: on the fandom, i think most people idealizing five as this immutable and unchanging character focused solely, tunnel-visioned on and can only live for his family, just as five was idealizing what he remembered and what was written of his family. this likely stems from all the fanfictions that writes him as such, disregarding the fact that, just like the other characters in the show (except reginald, abigail, grace and pogo), he is, in fact, human. he should be allowed to be selfish, to live for himself, to seek and accept love from others (platonic, romantic, etc.) he already tried to seek love from his siblings and where did that get him? he likely won't be able form any sort of lasting romantic relationships with anyone else other than lila (and isn't that just sad?) unless most his memories were removed (even then, there is still the possibility he would regain those).

#the umbrella academy #tua s4 #tua #tua spoilers #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #lila pitts

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princess-of-the-corner · 1 year ago

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Remember that revised Butterfly we discussed?

Its hilarious tome how the first 3 seasons at least work perfectly with that and no Peacock cos like:

Season 1: Exactly the same but Plagg doesn't ignore the Peacock as there is no Peacock.

Season 2: Only changes during Heroes' Day, with a Familiar manifesting to protect Gabriel after he was beaten. It takes the form of Emilie's Familiar so he views it as a sign to keep fighting.

Season 3: The plot can still mostly be the same.

Gabriel creates Familiars to fight alongside Akuma, to replace Sentimonsters and Feast is a fully manifested Familiar that slipped the leash.

Nathalie as Catalyst can work.

She either enhances the Akuma so they are more dangerous & have powerful Familiars. Or she enhances Gabriel so he can make teams of Akuma, & she can still engage in fisticuffs with the heroes.

Nathalie can even end up with a wasting illness by snatching & using the Butterfly to try her Ladybug gambit. as the consequences of forcibly manifesting a Familiar like she did are immense.

The only major hurdle would be Lila's scheme.

It can be handled though.

Namely, with being made into Scarlet Moth so often putting a strain on Gabriel's body. Not lethal, but it adds up & hit at at the worst time.

This would also neatly explain why he sticks to smaller teams & Familiars after S2, & maybe even had a brief break between seasons.

Notes:

If it were me & my 12 Kwami lore, Kim would be Tiger King & Chat Blanc would be less "Visit the future" and more like "Vision Quest" done with Sass, but those are rather minor shifts.

Season 4 &5 however...

One could adapt the broad strokes, but more major changes would be needed, especially for the 12 Kwami's, but even just the Butterfly. Still, the broad stroke plot points are likely plausible.

That includes the Senti-kids being Akuma-Kids; with the Akumatized items being a weak spot if damaged that also allows a Butterfly user to influence behavior or more easily Akumatize them.

This is all great and I want to give more input but all I can think is 'thank you for reminding me that Plagg full on ignored the Peacock being in Gabe's safe'.

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whenimgoodandready · 1 month ago

Text

New season, new arc, new villain, new characters, new outfits and new (debatable) animation, but I’m still here like I promised I would be and you know why? Cuz it’s my ✨passion!✨I love to write and voice my thoughts on this French cartoon aimed for kids-tweens (which will continue to be as it’s not gonna get “darker and edgier” no matter how much the kids grow) and it just gets me all giddy😁, you know? People love hearing others thoughts and feelings about their fandoms and some of those are really well written and spoken about. Their great interest in a passion is what makes what they do happy. However, there are those who unfortunately have no passion for something and that can be really really really sad cuz without a passion, what are we doing in life?

*Climatiqueen-Lookie that! We’re kickstarting the new season with a quick scene of the episode before the new theme song with all of Team Miraculous included! (and before the credits too) How ‘bout that, but anyways, we know most of the characters have a passion for something:Rose (unicorns), Aurore (meteorology), Chloe (Wait! She’s still acknowledged!? Well, only on social media, (and fans also want her to be written better from the failed redemption arc), but she’s all for popularity as her passion). Adrien? What’s his passion? Modeling? Fencing? Piano? Learning Chinese? Oh! No, wait, those were all things his dad, the late Gabriel Agreste(/Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth/Monarch) forced onto him to keep him entertained, soooo, what is Adrien’s passion?

His girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, passion for fashion, tries to help him out by finding his own personal passion. With Adrienette now happening. After 5 long seasons (and an excruciating decade)! It’s not just the paparazzi bombarding them (thank you Gorilla for keeping them at bay), it’s also Aurore. She entered this online contest Chloe started where whoever can earn the most hearts/followers and as a reward, will be given whatever wish they want. Aurore’s wish was a signed space weather novel by astronaut, Claudie Kanté. Don’t know why she couldn’t have just asked her schoolmate, Max, for that since she (Claudie) is his mother, but whatever. However, her passion for meteorology isn’t getting any hearts/followers, so she secretly posts lies about Adrienette instead.

Apparently, there’s this TikTok-esque app called “Zoo” where everyone’s icon is an animal (mainly the Chinese Miracle Box animals. Guess Team Miraculous has gotten popular enough to inspire a social media app in their honor😅 ) that they can choose as their group. Ex.Chloe is a bee in the “bee community” and strictly prohibited that certain animals can’t participate in her contest (a.k.a. Ladybugs🚫🐞). People can also post videos, start communities, add photos, send messages to one another and other forms of content for clout purposes. This is where the contest is being held and where Aurore posts of Adrienette.

When it looks like this might not be enough for her to win the competition, she gets upset and is akumatized by new villain, Chrysalis, which Lila/Cerise/Iris is going by as her Butterfly Miraculous holder name and for her, she takes the victim into this dark empty purple space (I’m calling it the “Akuma Room” personally) where she manipulates them in their civilian form as an ambiguously gendered humanoid with a constantly switching masculine and feminine voice (evil f**king genius) and lets them choose their supervillain name. Interesting, I remember how hard it was for Shadow Moth to akumatize Rolland cuz they were negotiating on the supervillain name! (“Simpleman”) Lol! Aurore chooses the name Climatiqueen! An upgrade to her Stormy Weather look. What a reference how we’re starting the new season (and animation) of the show with its premiere episode by akumatizing the first baddie from Season 1😊Her new look was pretty cool as hence her name, it included a lightning shaped tiara and curled pigtails along with the new power to brainwash people into enthusiastically following her on social media and live steaming her villainy to fit into her desire to win Chloe’s competition. The dynamic duo are still at their best now that they can continuously use their powers and Ladybug can even call up a member of Team Miraculous whenever she and Cat need help. Like Pegasus! What a coinkydink.

Okay, first off, the new animation which I’ve heard is not very well received by most of the fandom and yet others find it refreshing. I’ll be honest, im on the old animation side and as sucky as it is that we have this drastic change to the show, I researched on why that is. You see, there was this talk over the staff “losing the files for the old character models” or “the old software wasn’t working anymore”, and if that’s the case, then maybe they didn’t have copies of it and if you overuse something for so long, it tends to wear out, so that’s why we have this new animation, but even if this is what we’re gonna be seeing from now on, let’s not let it get in the way of the show. You know why? Cuz of the plot! Yes! The plot! I mean, we all didn’t like the new animation when “America Dragon:Jake Long” changed, but we still watched that! Cuz of the plot! We wanted to see if Jake will win over Rose and defeat the Dark Dragon and now we wanna see if Adrienette stays strong and if the heroes can defeat Chrysalis (and wants next for the promised 12 seasons of this show and if we might be getting that live action Ladybug movie!). That’s why we’re still here! Plot! As I mentioned, I’m doing these reviews in proper production order (due to my OCD) and that’s why I waited until “Climatiqueen” to premiere. It didn’t really feel like much of a new season premiere episode as there was no grand opening to the new environmentally friendly, effectively operational educational school system and benevolent leadership of its new mayor of Paris, Cat Noir is friendly with Ladybug when as Adrien in the London special, he was pissed at her for letting his father die and now he’s just cool with her again, the heroes are aware of what an “ultrakuma” is (new name for the new akuma) and there was no big introduction on Lila/Cerise/Iris becoming the new evil Butterfly Miraculous holder (and why’s her secret lair cluttered with hundreds of stacked papers? It looks like that one room from “The Twilight Zone” where those people were disappearing one by one until the glasses guy is left and his specs break thus rendering him blind on never reading again), but we did see how Adrien is coping with his new life without his father. Being a sentibeing (which he is still unaware of), he was told what to do by Gabe (using the family rings he now both wears) no matter how unfair it was and how hard he tried to resist. This is why his room is emptied out to reflect how he doesn’t have to be obligated to do anything he doesn’t want to and to show his lack of passion for something. He’s a free man, but with freedom comes responsibility and if he has no passion then there’s nothing going for him. (sad violin music plays 🎻) He’s lost, he’s confused, he was so tragically subordinate to others that he realized he had no independence. F**k! The guys still wearing the same exact clothes from the past 5 seasons whereas everyone else got a makeover! (We even saw Ondine in civilian clothing! Finally!). Who is he!? Who is Adrien Agreste!? He’s Cat Noir! With a passion for crime fighting along side his lucky lady! But! It’s only half of him, who is he as Adrien? Well, let’s just say he learned it the way Forest Gump did😉. That’s the beauty of not having a passion, you have various options to discover who you truly are (angelic choir sings👼). I was already spoiled (with a few other things. (mutters under breath) Damn this out of order eps!) by Adrien and his newfound running passion in a promo for the upcoming episode of “Sublimation” along with meeting Sublime, but no matter, I’m reviewing what I’m witnessing for myself firsthand.

#miraculous ladybug #Climatiqueen #miraculous ladybug Climatiqueen

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bitchiswild · 1 year ago

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storytime on how you got married because i just remember being at work when all of a sudden the marriage bot appeared and i was like ? 'who' and then BOOM you and lila were now a married couple (also the day my heart broke???)

@kittyl1z ohh Sienna... will your heart break again when I tell this story?😭

I basically gave the gist of how Lila @lilacura and I got married in the first goon central story, but sienna wants the details,so the details she will get. 😌

So it all started when Lila and I were planning my trip to her country cause we both love planning things for fun. We yapped about things we would do, where i would stay, how long i should stay, when i should come over, how she would buy me a plane ticket (sugar mommy fr) etc. THENNNN WE GOT OFF TOPIC AND STARTED talking about our birthdays, THEN we talked about our horoscopes and how she's a fire sign and I'm an air sign, so I told her that we are compatible because fire needs air to live.😎 (HAHAHA)

The she was like "STOPPPP WE'RE SOULMATES🤭" and i was like "YESSSS ATP PROPOSE TO MEEEE🤪" I was kidding during that time... but then Lila was like 🤨"who said u weren't already my wife?" in my mind i was like oh?(EHEHEH) I looked at my finger and replied to her "wheres the ring??? i see none" 🤨🤔

Then lila left to go find me a ring, she was sending me photos, but your gurly was being VERYYY MUCH PICKY WITH HER RINGS🥰 BUTTTTT Lila worked hard trying to find me a ring but none piped my interest so i went to look for it myself and sent her a pic of it and she was like "OH YOU LIKE THIS ONE?" ( yes yes i did) the she told me to wait then a second later SHE SENT THE SAME PHOTO I SENT HER TO ME AND TOLD ME TO ACT LIKE SHE CHOSE IT. so i was like "OMGGGGG ITS SOOO NICEEE YESSSSSS" then i took the ring and brought it to an editing app and edited the ring on My finger and sent it back to lila AND IT FUCKING LOOK LEGIT LMAOOOOO.

THEN THE NEXT DAY, THAT WAS WHEN WE ADOPTED KEER @keervah AND JADE @jade-jini AND LILA TOLD ME WE HAVE 2 KIDS AND I TOLD HER THAT WE DIDNT EVEN GET MARRIED YET AND WE ALREADY HAVE KIDS😭😭 but then Lila was like "I proposed yesturday🙄" and i was like "but theres no wedding🙄" ( like we didnt even sign papers😯) of course that made lila be like "WOW OKAY OUR ENGAGEMENT MEANS NOTHING TO YOU" i was shook🧍‍♀️ ( LIKE DID I NAWT SAY YESS???? I AGREEED, OUR ENGAGEMENT MADE ME GIGGLE AND KICK MY FEET, BUT WE JS NEVER SIGNED PAPERS?!) THEN SHE WAS LIKE YOU DIDNT EVEN GET ME A RING ( but little did she know i had a ring ready for her 😎 in my camera roll) So i sent it to her and of course SHE LOVEDDD ITTTTTT WHAT CAN I SAYYYYYYYYYYYY

It was perfect it was so her too then YOU SIENNA GOT BROUGHT UP CAUSE WE WERE TALKING ABOUT THE FANFIC ABOUT ME, LILA, AND SIENNA (the love triangle ff) ( guys would you be down for a fanfic like that?) ( IM KIDDING PLSS) and how in the fanfic lila would be the one to win in the end and i was TEASING I SAID "WHAT IF I LIKE SIENNA TOO" then lila got sad 😔 ( my bad bb) and was like "but we are the ones getting married." (rememberrr i said yesss to her proposallll i wouldnt js do it with any oneeee :p) but i apologized :3

Then the next day we added a marriage bot to the server :3 Thats when lila and i made our marriage official surrounded by people we love and care about watching me click the yes button😭🎉

In the end I’m happy and I hope lila is happy too😰(CONFIRM NOW!!) we are silly, we cry together, be sleepy together, send each other TikTok’s and chat all the time we are two peas in a pod (soulmates even 💅🏼) and I wouldn’t change a thing :33

Our marriage anniversary is on March 1, 2024 💍🎉

but thats practically it for the story its a mess but thats just how i roll😎

LILA AND I'S RINGS 💕💕

#biw.shares #goon central stories #goon central lore #goon central #lila😭💕#lila and i are cuties😠#biw x lilacura #lilacura #lila and i are still married guys dwwwwww #im sorry this is a mess hehehehehe #lila and biw are married with now 4 kids #I AM LOYAL GUYS I JS TEASE AROUND A LOT #ARENT THE RINGS SOOOOO PRETTYYYYYYYY

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seeyabythemarina · 2 years ago

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Lila's Pet of Horrors

Count Ds shop is now in France and is gaining popularity of pets how are so helpful people are feeling less stressed. Lila decided to buy one to keep her followers. She heard of their are exotic pets so she want to use her Gabriel status to get one. Meeting D she says she want one of his most rare, expensive, and exotic pets. D say he doesn't think she could care for it, but Lila threaten that she's th face of Gabriel and could shut this place down if she wanted to. D frowns but agrees and takes her to the back.

I made prompts for 2 pets.

Truth spider:

D bring out a container holding a spider. After jumping back Lila say she wanted a cute pet not some freak spider. D says it a very special spider and few are left in the world. Lila looks close at it. It was kinda cute and furry and the coloring was unique. What the heck, Lila will flaut it for a while and if the doesn't go when she'll squash it and claim it was Marinette. Taking the spider and signing the contract she goes home.

At school her sheep were surpa8sed she got a spider, but Lila claim she doesn't like how misunderstood the creature were and people talked about how generous she was. They also could she it wasn't that creepy and how pretty it was. Juleka was especially interested and focus on Lila for days as she talked about how she was a friend of the petshop owner and gave her this spider.

When she got home she threw the spider haphazardly and watched TV. She remembers that petshop said she had to feed to spider bugs, but no wayward Lila doing that. She'll just give it some crumbs latter. This goes on for a few days and the spider isn't eating but Lila doesn't care. One night the spider gets out of the cage and hunger for blood goes to Lila bitting her she sucks out some blood. In the morning Lila is tired but ignored it for the attendion of her class. When she comes to school she was about to start lying but suddenly start telling the truth about her truancy, bullies, and lies. She tries to back track but can't. Everyone is shocked and teacher that her to the principle wjo call her mother. Lila tries to explain but all she can say is how she hated ladybug and is working for hawkmoth. Then she goes to jail, but what of the spider.

Elsewhere

When tikki saw the spider she immediatl5 recognized it and told Marinette how truth spider are spider whose venom can mess with the brain ability to lie. Marinette asked if that meant the spider bite could make Lila admit to truth to everyone and tikki agrees. Mari likes this because tikki also explain they'll bite people for food of their not feed enough or if threaten.

Lila trial is fast as she keeps admitting everything even past victims. Marinette not wanting the spider to possibly be thrown out offer to take it back to the shop. When she arrived she talks to the owner about it and after eating some sweet leaves. When she looks down she see tikki with tears. Tikki say she looked around the shop and saw so many of her creations that are now gone. Mari asks if the shop was magic and if she should investigate. Tikki says no as hawkmoth is a bigger problem and the shop isn't a threat. Happy that the shop is the reason Lila is gone Mari decide to leave it alone. Back at the shop D was smiling. He had felt the energy of the creator tikki on mari and is even more happy he gave the truth spider to get rid of that girl.

2. Kitsune

Seeing d bring out a fox with 9 tails Lila smirked. This is what she wanted. A fox for a sly beaty like her. Paying for the fox she leaves. It wouldn't be obvious to Lila but the fox was so not happy to be with her. Her classmate were in awe especially alya with the fox. They ask if it's a real kitsune Lila make of show of calling it a fox with a mutation, but suddenly implies it was magic properies(which is weirdly true). Lila enjoys her day and can't wait for tomorrow. To bad she didn't notice the smirk growing on the foxed face. She didn't appreciate this false vixen and would enjoy showing her true deception. In the morning Lila couldn't fine her phone and after looking found it not charged. Lila was confused as she rememebr charging it. Shrugging she goes on with her day, but that was the start of it. Lila found her things missing or broken but when she looked again that were fine. She also saw someone stalking her but looking around they were gone. Lila tried to ignore it but the weirdest thing happen later. Lila was in the bathroom applying make up when Marinette came in. Lila starts making fu. Of her on how she taking her friends, but Mari just stares. Lila is then shocked when Mari right hooks her and leaves. Lila is stunned as she feel her eye swelling up. Looking in the mirror she sees a huge black. It hurt so much Lila was acully tearing up for real. She never expected someone goody goody as maribrat to hurt her for real. She swears Mari will pay and for once Lila doesn't need to lie. Going to the room crying she states that Mari assaulted her when she was in the bathroom. She expected comforts and yelling at Mari but the surprised when the class look at her weirdly. They say .ari has been hear the whole time, but Lila swear she saw her. And even gave her a black eye. The class then ask what black eye. Looking in the reflection like seeing she didn't have a black eye. Llla back tracks and trues to salvage things. The class are wary of her the rest of the day. Lila is getting paranoid and when she starts rambling her mother tries to ask her what's wrong and lial reveals herself. Afterward lila is carted of to a mental asylum and the fox goes back to the shop

Elsewhere

With the tricks being played on Lila adrien immediately assumes it plagg. While laughing plagg states while he wishes it's not him itsthe acually kitsune. Adrien Consider trying to stop it but plagg says that he shouldn't try and beside everything is just in Lila head and she wont get hurt. Adrien believes it and leaves it alone.

#miraculous ladybug #pet shop of horrors #lila rossi #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #tikki #plagg #lila exposed #Count D

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 2 years ago

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IOTA Reviews: Migration

You know, for a while, I thought Luka was one of the smartest characters in the show, and the fact that he's hightailing it out of Paris in this episode only continues to prove my point.

Let's get into the thirteenth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Migration

We start off with Marinette running over to the Liberty (with her friends laughing behind her back like the supportive people they are) and tries to talk with Luka about her relationship with Adrien once they're in private. Luka is pretty supportive, and it's a nice scene. Marinette then bumps into Adrien, who also wants to talk with Luka, and while the two try to get unstuck, we get a nice visual of Luka seeing the two as Ladybug and Cat Noir, which is there to remind the audience that he's known who both of them are ever since “Wishmaker”.

Adrien then talks to Luka about how he's worried something is keeping Marinette from being honest about her feelings. Luka gives him some advice on how just because he doesn't know everything about Marinette, it doesn't make her feelings for him less valid, and vice versa.

After Adrien leaves, we get an appearance from everyone's favorite deadbeat dad, Jagged Stone. He asks Luka how he can be a better father like he didn't miss years of child support, but all Luka really says is that he needs to spend time with his damn family. Of course, what I like about this scene is that it avoids the usual narrative pitfall of trying to say that Jagged and Anarka, Luka's mom, should get back together, and instead shows Jagged developing feelings for his agent, Penny.

Speaking of, after Jagged leaves, Penny comes in to come to Luka for advice. Okay, is Luka just the Dr. Phil of this show's universe? Penny talks to Luka about her sudden feelings for Jagged Stone.

Penny: No, I don't know why I'm in love with your father. He's disorganized, childish, selfish, and musically speaking, he's no David Bowie. Truth be told, your dad's a walking disaster. So why do I love him?

Luka: Does he make you happy, Penny?

Penny: Yeah. I just can't figure out why!

It's almost like this show will randomly pair people up at the drop of a hat. But hey, at least Luka hasn't asked if Kagami is single yet.

Before Penny leaves, Bob Roth, Jagged's producer, demands to know where he is, as he needs to record a new album. Bob learns that Jagged had children with Anarka (ignoring the potential scandal it could create), so Anarka promptly throws him out of the boat in a scene that I'm pretty sure is meant to be a reference to that one running gag from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

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Either way, Jazz's scream was funnier.

Kitty Section then practices their latest song about how you don't have to be rich, because even the songs in this show aren't exactly subtle with their messages. Bob somehow gets back on the Liberty completely dry, and offers the band a contract.

Bob: How would you like to sign a contract with me?

Luka: Actually, Bob, you already offered to sign us... Marinette: And you never followed up. Did you forget?

Bob: Huh? Uh... of course! I remember! I was just waiting for the right reason—uh, I mean, the right time! I was waiting for the right time to have you guys sign the contract!

My God, even the characters in this show want to forget it used to have good episodes.

Anarka throws Bob off again, where she and Luka talk about how everyone deserves a second chance and that change is possible.

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Yeah, funny how that message almost never came up with Chloe, Lila, and Felix last season, isn't it? And given that they're going to use Bob as an example of this lesson, I don't think it's going to be a positive one. So right after Luka generously decided to give Bob a second chance, Bob offers them a new contract to sign... and as soon as he does, he screws them all over thanks to a lot of fine print they didn't stop to read.

Ivan: He can fire us whenever he wants?

Bob: Yep, and I just did, by the way.

Rose: The name Kitty Section belongs to him?!

Bob: Yep. It’s ugly, but it’s mine. Marinette: He owns everything you’ve made and will make over the next thousand years!? Bob: Gotta cover all bases.

Zoe: Marinette's costumes, the music video Nino shot, the website Mylene runs...

Bob: All mine!

Adrien: And you can’t even start another band together?

Bob: Course not, that’d be unfair competition! EVERYTHING belongs to me! Everything you are, everything you say, everything that’s in your hearts belongs to me!

See, kids? This is why you should never trust bad people. It doesn't matter if they say they want to improve. They just want to trick you and ruin your life, so if you're ever wronged by anyone, that person is never able to redeem themselves, especially if they're rich. As we all know, rich people are far worse than insane supervillains who want to rewrite reality. Just ask the biggest monster in the show, Chloe Bourgeois.

So yeah, Luka's optimism being taken advantage of is enough to attract the attention of Monarch, who attempts to akumatize him into Silencer again. Monarch realizes that Luka knows Ladybug and Cat Noir's identities (why he didn't think to look into it, given Viperion's powers, is left unanswered), and angrily smashes his guitar to free himself of Monarch's influence.

So not only did he stop himself from getting akumatized, he's also one step closer to becoming a true rock star.

Somehow, Bob thinks only keeping Luka on board would mean he wouldn't hate him, but Luka isn't buying it. Bob is shocked that Luka wouldn't want to work for an asshole like him as Luka tears the contract in half, but Bob has backups. Monarch decides to settle on Bob instead, akumatizing him into Gold Record.

Gold Record's design is... okay. It's still better than Sole Destroyer, and it's definitely better than Moolak. The gold coloring looks nice, and the euro symbol on the record is a nice visual. His powers are pretty much just a combination of Pixelator, the Collector, and Truth's powers, transforming people into records who sing their true feelings while using the Horse Miraculous' Voyage to throw the records into space. Nothing too original there, but it's a good metaphor for sleazy music producers, and it works for this story.

Rose and Anarka are the first of Gold Record's victims, and in a hurry, Luka lets Adrien know he knows he's Cat Noir, giving him a place to hide. Just as Juleka is hit by Gold Record, Ladybug and Cat Noir arrive on the scene. While Cat Noir holds off Gold Record, Ladybug tries to come up with a plan.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, getting a knitting needle. She realizes her plan will need to involve using Luka as bait. Luka is forced to reveal that he knows who Ladybug and Cat Noir are, and what will happen if Gold Record gets him, setting up a tough choice that will force Ladybug to rethink her plan... and then the next scene happens, where Luka lets himself get hit, where Ladybug manages send Gold Record's record flying with a makeshift bow and arrow created from the knitting needle and a nearby fiddle, which Cat Noir immediately Cataclysms.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, and gives Bob Roth a Magical Charm that even he knows is useless at this point. Ladybug and Cat Noir decide to call it a day and let Anarka throw Bob Roth out again.

Luka reveals that he knows Ladybug and Cat Noir's identities (because once again, sharing that information with your friends is totally fine for some reason), and that he can't stay in Paris. After revealing that he had Fang eat all of Bob's contracts so Luka isn't bound by them anymore, Jagged offers to take Luka around the world to finally make up for years of absence while Luka makes Juleka the new leader of Kitty Section. And so the episode ends with the Couffaine family sharing a hug while Luka gives one last look to his friends Marinette and Adrien.

This episode was just average, all things considered. The plot and the lesson it was setting out to teach, while not terrible, felt a little tacked on. It was if the writers were trying to acknowledge the stuff that happened with Chloe and wanted to show an example of redemption arc done right in the case of Jagged. It falls flat because once again, more focus is given to showing how easy it is to be screwed over trusting someone than showing the benefits to trusting someone, especially since Bob is already an outlandish villain we already have a lot of reasons to hate.

I'm also mixed on the handling of Luka here. While I'm glad Marinette isn't being forced to learn a lesson here, I don't get why Luka had to be the one to be taken advantage of. He's already aware of how easy it is for Monarch to learn his secrets, so it feels weird that he lets himself and his friends get taken advantage of so easily. Outside of the scene with Ladybug's Lucky Charm, I don't get why he needed to tell the others the stuff he knew. I can sort of see why he'd tell Adrien, but why would he think telling his friends he knows who Ladybug and Cat Noir are wouldn't endanger them too?

Speaking of that, despite being established for almost an entire season, we really don't see enough of Marinette and Adrien reacting to Luka revealing that he knows who they are. Marinette only gets a few lines, and Adrien doesn't even get to say anything. While I am glad that Marinette and Adrien aren't dominating the plot for once, it feels weird that we don't get to see their reactions to something so shocking, especially with how often the identity rule has been enforced.

On the other hand, the writing is still handled a lot better than usual. I like how Monarch chooses to change his strategy to focus on Luka halfway through the episode, and the idea of the risk using Luka for Ladybug's plan brings is an interesting one, even if they don't really go anywhere with it. The running gag with Bob constantly getting thrown off the Liberty is a funny one, and it proves you can actually write slapstick that doesn't involve humiliating Marinette. Who knew?

As a whole, while I think this is the best episode of the season so far, this episode still has its fair share of problems.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... LUKA

Not counting the time Marinette got the award in my review of the Shanghai Special, we have the first character this season to get the Biggest Idiot Award twice. For someone who is usually smarter than the other characters, Luka made quite a few bad choices this episode. He decided to trust Bob Roth after he screwed him and his friends over in “Silencer”, he didn't think to read the contract he was offered, and after being endangered by what Monarch knows now, he decided to tell his friends and family that he knows who Ladybug and Cat Noir are, potentially putting them all in danger too. Yeah, the next few episodes will probably just ignore it, but there's always a chance Monarch could try another Optigami, even if he doesn't have the Peacock Miraculous anymore.

And with that, I'm officially done with the first half of Season 5. What do I think of it? Well, I think Immortan Joe said it best:

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Yeah, this season was pretty boring, all things considered. To be perfectly honest, I struggled here more than I did last season because I wasn't sure what to say about half of the episodes I watched. There was almost nothing of substance these past thirteen episodes, and I could barely say anything other than “this episode is okay” or “this episode is bad”. Whenever I had ideas, they were usually extensions to things I've already talked about, like the Marinette angst, the historical and cultural inaccuracies, and the villains genuinely being incompetent. If you showed someone a few episodes of Season 1 and this season, outside of Monarch's new appearance, it'd be pretty hard for them to tell the difference.

But hey, maybe things will pick up in the second half of the season. Hell, maybe the next episode will be even better than this one, and... huh. Does anyone else hear an ominous whistling in the background?

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