#anyway nathalie is pretty

[mel-street]

just your friendly reminder that loki was actually an amazing disney + marvel show and the sylkie vs lokius ship war and ethical debate on the internet distracted from the gorgeous visuals + score + acting + actually engaging plotline 

[percy-the-diet-coke]

back to Miraculous, episode Passion, season 5.

I'VE GOT SOME NEWS FOR PEOPLE, AND I DON'T KNOW IF WE'RE READY TO HEAR.

What about, Natalie being in love with Gabriel, BUT SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH EMILIE INSTEAD????

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Representation

Oh, so NOW child abuse is bad. Could have fooled me last episode!

Let's get into the twenty-fifth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Representation

We start off with an English news report recapping the ending of “Revolution”, stating that Ms. Bustier is going to run for mayor, conveniently ignoring her attempted coup in “Collusion”. We also see that Gabriel and Tomoe are still uncomfortably focused on making Adrien and Kagami appear to be a couple in public, much to their dismay. While Kagami is visited by Argos (who once again sneaks up on her, like he usually does), Adrien realizes he can transform into his space form and see Marinette whenever he wants and transforms into Cat Noir, planning to reveal his identity to Marinette. Hey, did he even tell Ladybug about his sudden departure? Because it didn't go well the last time he left Paris without telling her (New York Special).

We then cut to Marinette right after the events of “Revolution”, going to the end of the year dance... even though when we saw Adrien and Kagami in London, the sun was still setting, and France's time zone is only about an hour later, meaning Adrien and Kagami must have flown there at ludicrous speed.

Meanwile, Argos and Kagami somehow got from London to Paris offscreen, and watch Marinette from afar, with Kagami revealing she knows she's Ladybug. They decide to tell Marinette that Felix knows who Monarch is in order to ensure his downfall. Nah, I'm just kidding. Here's the real reason they're coming to Marinette for help.

Kagami: My mother and Gabriel Agreste will never allow us to love each other freely. Only Ladybug can help us.

Yep, rather than prioritize the fact that Gabriel is endangering the citizens of Paris on a daily basis, Kagami is seriously more concerned about her relationship with her boyfriend being tampered with. This is like saying Lex Luthor is evil because he cheats on his taxes. Argos transforms back into Felix, and... oh, for the love of God... he disguises himself as Adrien in order to get closer to Marinette. You can't keep portraying Felix as this master of disguise if he only has ONE disguise!

Marinette sees “Adrien” and assumes he came back from London from her, assuming her boyfriend is much more active that the writers actually believe he is, so she tries to follow him while avoiding the guests at the party. Meanwhile, Gabriel and Tomoe learn their children are gone, so he goes to talk with Nathalie and—why the hell is she like that?

Seriously, this has never been established as something that happens when someone uses the broken Peacock Miraculous. Why didn't this happen to Emilie? She looks pretty healthy in her little coffin, and I doubt Gabriel is an embalmer.

Anyway, after Nathalie once again reminds us that she hates Gabriel, but not enough to call the cops on him, Gabriel transforms into Monarch and immediately detransforms back in order to akumatize himself into Nightormentor.

Nightormentor is a pretty average recolor of the Collector's design, which kind of makes sense, considering that Gabriel himself intended the Akuma for himself. The star pattern is okay, but there's not much I can really say. As for his powers, he's just another Sandboy, being able to force people to hallucinate their worse nightmares, only instead of a pillow, his weapon is a staff created from a pen containing the Akuma, with the Horse Miraculous' Voyage to boot. Why he didn't just give himself the same powers he gave Truth when he's trying to find Adrien is anyone's guess.

Cat Noir arrives at the Eiffel Tower to talk with Marinette, just as Nightormentor appears. The two fight, and after a few civilians get caught in the crossfire, Nightormentor escapes through Voyage. As Cat Noir heads to the Dupain-Cheng bakery at the advising of Max, Alya and Nino decide that the totally not useless Resistance should get involved.

While Marinette gives chase, Felix leads her into the school's art classroom, where he transforms into Argos and creates a Sentimonster using Kagami's ring. Felix and Kagami use the Sentimonster's power to do... uh... whatever the hell this is.

Yeah, this is basically a flashback, but the animators probably blew their budget needed for the new models on Ms. Bustier's baby bump, so we're getting this instead, thanks to the Sentimonster Argos created. There are several scenes of Cat Noir and Nightormentor interspersed, but like what I did with Marinette's flashback in “Derision”, I'll give you the summary before I talk about my problems with this.

When Adrien's mother and aunt, Emilie and Amelie, were born, Emilie (who was born seven seconds early) was trusted with the family heirlooms, the two rings we first saw all the way back in “Felix”. Even though this meant she would inherit the family name, Emilie didn't really like doing... whatever the Graham de Vanily family wanted her to do, but Amelie did. Eventually, while studying abroad, Emilie met Gabriel, and the two fell in love. Before marrying Gabriel, Emilie gave up her role as the sole inheritor of the Graham de Vanily family's vague legacy, while Amelie married a man named Colt to please her parents. Both couples wanted children, but it's heavily implied that Emilie and Amelie were infertile, so their wishes weren't able to come true. Emilie finally managed to get a bun in the oven thanks to the Peacock Miraculous, but this made Colt jealous that he couldn't have a child. Out of the goodness of her heart, Emilie asked Gabriel to give the Peacock Miraculous to Colt, in exchange for letting the Gorilla guard Adrien in the future. Using his own jealousy as a source of power, Colt got Amelie pregnant, though at the cost of his health. Colt figured this was the price he had to pay for using “sorcery”, and used this as an excuse to treat Felix like a monster and ordered him around using the ring containing his Amok. Felix himself was unaware that he wasn't human until Colt accidentally broke the ring (which wasn't one of the two wedding rings used to control Adrien and was an entirely different ring containing Felix's Amok), which he stole as soon as Colt died. This is meant to explain why Felix decided to steal back the Peacock Miraculous, in order to save his life. Felix later met Kagami, and the two explain that they need “Someone like Ladybug” to help them.

Now if your only information about this episode is through my summary, it seems simple enough. For everyone else who actually saw this sequence in the episode itself, I'm guessing your thoughts were about the same as mine.

Let's go over every problem I have with this scene, starting with...

#1: The Way Kagami and Felix Explain This

Let me just ask something: Why can't Felix just talk to Marinette about what he knows since he now knows she's Ladybug instead of telling her everything through this weird play? You can still tell Marinette all of this without your two-man show. In fact, why did Felix have to wait until he knew Marinette was Ladybug instead of just talking to her the next time he saw her? Yeah, you could argue it's easier this way, but like I've been saying since Season 4, Felix has had no excuse to wait this long to tell Ladybug about the fact that he knows who her greatest enemy is.

And why the hell is it presented this way? Why does Felix have to recontextualize the story of his family's history in the form of a play? Why turn it into a stereotypical fairy tale that leaves out the names of all the important people, like Emilie, Amelie, Colt (whose name I only learned through the transcript of this episode), and Gabriel? If it was like a hidden message Felix and Kagami wanted to convey to Marinette, that would make sense, but why do they have to be so cryptic when they're only putting this show on for one person? You could easily avoid a good chunk of the questions this raises if this was a show Felix and Kagami put on for the public that Marinette was able to learn the information from. Yeah, it still wouldn't explain why Felix can't just tell Marinette about who Gabriel really is, but at least it's something.

The way it all happens kind of reminds me of this scene from this old Halloween special I saw a lot as a kid, Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular. In that scene, some of the kids act out a scene of this little girl's parents entrusting her with a flashlight to explain why she carries it around, in order to scare off any monsters she runs into, using the graveyard they were in as a makeshift set. This scene works a lot more because it's done in more of a tongue-in-cheek way, with some of the kids breaking character to boost their own egos (for example, the kid playing the mom comments about how responsible she is), and how one kid in particular gradually gets fed up with the whole thing. The scene does its job at delivering exposition in a way that isn't meant to be taken too seriously, and it's clear this is being done by some kids goofing around in-universe.

With this episode, it's clear that the writers want the audience to take this whole backstory seriously in spite of how absurd it all is. Seriously look at this.

We are seriously expected to take this backstory seriously when it looks like some theater major's midterm project. The animators want it to look artsy and unique for the sake of making it look artsy and unique. Why does it look like a play these two put together themselves if they're supposedly using a Sentimonster's power to do it? If the unnamed Sentimonster's powers is how Marinette is seeing all this, why can't it actually be seen as a flashback? Was it always intended to be a handmade play that was changed to the product of a Sentimonster at the last minute?

I get that the animators probably wanted kids to pick up on the visuals of the play, but even then, it makes it hard to really stomach the serious themes this backstory brings up, like infertility and child abuse, with the way they're presented. Not only do Felix and Kagami all play the characters using these white jumpsuits and masks, they also do all the voices, meaning that the only “dialogue” we hear from Colt is delivered by Kagami putting on a deeper voice. Let me repeat that: the only times we hear Colt, the abusive parent and all around garbage human being, talk, it's done by a teenage girl trying to make her voice sound deeper.

But hey, maybe the goofy voice will be overshadowed by the nuanced depiction of child abuse, right? Right?

#2: The Portrayal of Colt and the Double Standards Regarding His Treatment of Felix

I have never seen a single show struggle this much to convey a lesson as simple as “Child abuse is bad”.

When it comes to the parents in this show, terrible parents like Gabriel, Audrey, and Tomoe are almost never held accountable for the way they treated their children. If the writers aren't claiming they really love their children deep down, they're either downplaying how cruel they are at best or playing their behavior for laughs at worst. But here we are, the penultimate episode of the fifth season, and we finally have a parent who is unambiguously treated as a terrible human being with no redeeming qualities... and I still have problems with this.

This flashback really goes out of its way to let the audience that Colt was a real piece of scum in life. He only wanted a child out of jealousy, used his Amok to force Felix to do whatever he wanted, was heavily implied to have physically beat him at times, and blamed him for his poor health on his deathbed when he was the one who wanted to use the Peacock in the first place. Now that I think about it, why did Colt even use the Peacock to create Felix instead of Emelie? Was the episode so determined to paint Colt as a bastard that he wanted to be the one to create Felix himself?

The point I'm trying to make is that the show doesn't really explain why Colt was like this. Why was he such an angry man who treated his only child like crap? I don't know, because all the show's telling me is that he was just a dick. He honestly feels more like a caricature than anything else. He's only as terrible of a person he is in order to make the audience sympathize with Felix. I'm not saying that what Felix went through was okay, but it has the same energy as scenes of Gabriel talking to Emilie's body. It's mostly there to make the audience sympathize with an antagonistic character in spite of all the things they've done.

What's really weird is that even though the whole point of this play is so Felix can tell Marinette Gabriel is Monarch, so what does Colt have to do with this? I'm not saying he's not worth mentioning, but it makes no sense for Felix to tell Marinette about his abusive father before he tells her about Gabriel. It feels more like Felix wants to find a way to excuse his actions before telling Marinette about Gabriel being Monarch. And remember when “Derision” made a big deal about Chloe's terrible parents not excusing her actions? Funny how that conveniently doesn't apply to Felix in this episode.

In fact, let's talk about the elephant in the room: The fact that this episode aired right after “Revolution”, an episode that literally said a character living under an abusive and controlling parent was a fitting punishment for her. HOW THE HELL IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT FROM THAT? If anything, this episode really shows the double standards this show has about child abuse, how the only way your situation can be taken seriously is if you're a “good victim”. Chloe's a “bad victim”, so she doesn't get any sympathy when her mother outright says she's going to take control of her life, yet when Colt actually takes control of Felix's life, we're supposed to sympathize with him now. Why am I supposed to feel bad for Felix now when you just told me I shouldn't feel bad for someone in a similar situation last episode?

In fact, one theory I have about this backstory is that it was intended to kill two birds with one stone, no pun intended. I believe that this episode wasn't just written to give us more insight into who Felix is as a character, but also to show the audience what “real” child abuse is like. As far as the show is concerned with Gabriel, Audrey, and Tomoe? They're not actually abusive parents, Colt is, so you should condemn his actions, and not those three. It's blatant double standards, which is nothing new for this show.

#3: The Way Amelie Just... Lets This All Happen

In my “Derision” review, I discussed how strange it was that so many people in Marinette's life did nothing to help her against Chloe, and the same thing applies here with Amelie.

This episode never really explains where Amelie was when Colt was abusing Felix, much less if she was even aware of it. At least with Marinette's parents, they didn't know because most of Marinette's suffering was at school. Amelie lives with Felix and Colt, so what's her excuse? She seriously didn't overhear Colt yelling at Felix or notice the orders Colt gave Felix? Was she just that ignorant to her child's suffering? Remember, this is supposed to be Felix's good parent.

In fact, does Amelie even know Felix is a Sentimonster? Yeah, “Emotion” established that Amelie knows Felix is Argos, but this episode doesn't really make it clear if she knows Felix is a Sentimonster or not. If it was clear Amelie knew nothing about what Felix really was, it would arguably make things easier to stomach, as she wouldn't know the power Colt had over him.

Instead, even though she's Felix's mother, the show doesn't really explain what she actually did when Colt was making Felix's life a living hell, especially since the flashback says that Amelie was forced to marry Colt, so you can't even say she was blinded by love here. Hell, I'm not even sure if Amelie knew the cause of Colt's untimely passing.

#4:This Doesn’t Really Do Much to Explain Felix’s Actions

Now before you say I'm being insensitive, let me make one thing clear: My issue isn't with the fact that this was done to get the audience to sympathize with Felix. The problem I have is that the backstory doesn't do enough to explain why Felix did the things he did.

Okay, Felix wants the Peacock Miraculous. Understandable, he doesn't want to die, so he has to do morally questionable things to preserve his life like betraying the only person capable of stopping the man who can kill him. What's less understandable is his plan to get the Peacock Miraculous from Gabriel. You'll notice that the backstory didn't mention Felix's first appearance, where he only stole the rings belonging to Amelie's family, and he didn't even think to look for the Peacock. Instead, it cuts from Felix realizing he's a Sentimonster to him striking a deal with Gabriel, not even mentioning that he gave Gabriel back one of the rings as part of the deal, which still makes no sense.

If Felix's goal from the start was to get the Peacock Miraculous, why did he bother stealing all of Marinette's Miraculous as a bargaining chip for the deal instead of the family ring? In fact, why did Felix even steal the ring and wait an entire season to trade it back to Gabriel for the Peacock a season later? And for someone who claims to care about Adrien, he really didn't see anything wrong with giving Gabriel one of the two rings capable of overriding his free will.

As a matter of fact, why the hell is Felix even so hostile towards Adrien? Why did he go out of his way to smear his reputation in his debut episode if all he wanted to do was make a bargain with Hawkmoth? In “Risk”, he mocked Adrien for how he talked, while Adrien himself was aware of how he made him look bad in front of his friends, and that's not even getting into how he made himself look like Adrien as part of his plan to betray Ladybug, which would have screwed him even more if Adrien wasn't already Cat Noir. For someone who claims he wants to protect him from Gabriel, Felix really doesn't care about his cousin all that much.

In fact, why does Felix even hate Gabriel at all? The show hinted that the two had a history, yet during the backstory, which I need to remind you, was told from Felix's perspective on the events, has a surprisingly generous portrayal of Gabriel. Did Felix know Gabriel was Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Monarch during his first appearance? Does Felix blame Gabriel for how Colt treated him growing up? Does Felix hate Gabriel for how he treats Adrien? Did Gabriel intend to get Colt sick in the first place? Seriously, what is Felix's deal with Gabriel?!

How does a flashback organized by Felix himself do nothing to really explain why he did the things he did?

#5: The Fact That There Are STILL Several Unanswered Questions Here

For something meant to fill the audience in on several important topics, there are still so many questions about the history of the Agreste and Graham de Vanily families.

Other than the vague backstory about them being rich, we still know nothing about Emilie and Amelie other than them being rich and possibly infertile. We don't know if Amelie ever loved Colt, if she knew he was abusing Felix, or if she even knew if he used the Peacock to play god.

On a related note, why did Emilie and Gabriel decide to use the Peacock Miraculous to create a son instead of adopting? Scratch that, why did she specifically create a Sentimonster to give birth to like a normal baby? Was there some kind of Macbeth-esque guideline that Emilie had to give birth to a child in order for said child to get the inheritance? Did she use the ring to control Adrien like Gabriel does now? Seriously, this is the character the show's conflict is all based around, and we still know nothing about her other than the fact that she was nice.

This flashback just makes no sense, and is such a stupid and confusing way to deliver exposition.

Anyway, during all this, Cat Noir and Nightormentor are fighting, and for the third time this season, Cat Noir attempts to Cataclysm him someone, even when he had Nightormentor pinned down. Nightormentor breaks free and hits Cat Noir with his magic dust, causing him to hallucinate... Cat Blanc?

Yeah, the script calls this form “Anticat”, but given how it looks like a reused Cat Blanc model coupled with the petrified people of Paris, this is clearly meant to bring Cat Blanc to mind. The problem is that NEITHER CAT NOIR OR NIGHTORMENTOR KNOW ABOUT THAT. Why would you remind audiences about an Akuma that technically never existed?

Better yet, is this what Cat Noir trying to his Cataclysm on people this past season (Destruction, Jubilation, Derision) has been building up to? The fear that he'll lose control? You could have fooled me, as he never really showed that much remorse for almost hurting people other than Monarch. Yeah, you could argue that because Nightormentor based his hallucinations off his victims' worst fears, but again, this fear had little to no buildup this season because Cat Noir never felt any guilt for Cataclysming Monarch after “Destruction”, and whenever tried to use his Cataclysm on other people, Cat Noir never really realized the weight of his actions. If you want to make a character arc about Cat Noir worrying about hurting people with his powers, go more into the guilt he feels for hurting Monarch and using that guilt to affect his actions. Don't just use some “Cat Blanc” nostalgia bait to convince the audience that there's been a character arc.

Nightormentor takes advantage of Cat Noir's emotional state to get his Miraculous, only for the Resistance to save Cat Noir by... throwing stuff at him. And this is how they defeat him. While Nino, Alya, Ivan, and Zoe distract Nightormentor, Kim and Max help Cat Noir focus, Cat Noir Cataclysms Nightormentor's baton.

Zoe traps the Akuma in a jar, Cat Noir doesn't take it, he heads off to detransform and confess to Marinette, only for the hallucination to still affect him since Ladybug didn't use Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, and even though he knows it's just a hallucination, he still uses it as a reason to not reveal his identity to Marinette, even after Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma herself.

The episode ends with Gabriel and Tomoe locking Adrien and Kagami in these white rooms while under heavy surveillance to ensure they won't escape, vowing to start “Operation: Perfect Alliance”. Because these two like using the word “perfect” more than they like subjecting their children to what one of my anons referred to as “white torture”.

Because that's a good way to keep your children under control: psychological torment.

Other than the stuff with Felix and Kagami, this episode was pretty dull.

There's just not much I can really say here. The plot was barebones, all Marinette did was listen to Felix and Kagami's story so the writers didn't have to involve any of them in the main conflict, and even Cat Noir confronting his akumatized father doesn't have a lot of weight to it because towards the end, it focuses more on Adrien's nightmare instead of his relationship with his father.

This episode is nothing more than a prologue for the final battle. It's only here to establish Adrien and Kagami's presence in London, Marinette learning Gabriel is Monarch, and even more setup for Gabriel and Tomoe's final plan. And trust me, the buildup will be far from worth it.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... FELIX

It's amazing. The only time this season Felix goes out of his way to actually help Ladybug, and he still screws it up. He abducted Kagami from her hotel in London without thinking of Tomoe hunting him down again when that was the entire plot of “Pretension”, only decided to tell Marinette he knows who Monarch is because he's getting in the way of his relationship with his girlfriend, did so in an unnecessarily convoluted way, and even though he made a big deal about not wanting to use Sentimonsters in his last appearance, he still used one to tell Marinette his life story instead of just saying “My uncle is Monarch”.

And if you think Felix will get a chance to truly redeem himself in the finale, think again, bucko. Other than a brief cameo, this is the last thing he'll do this season. Aren't you glad the writers made this character prominent for seven episodes over three seasons and did nothing else with him?

[uptoolateart]

The Miraculous Child

So, in 'Representation', Felix talks refers to ‘the miraculous boy’ a couple times. He also calls Adrien’s conception ‘a miracle’, meaning Adrien too is ‘miraculous’.

The second I heard this, it hit me that the title of the show has had this extra meaning from day one. If we look right back to the start of the series, it has been a story about children and adults, especially parents, some a little overbearing (like Tom) and some neglectful or downright abusive.

The message I take away is - life, bringing a child into the world, is a miracle. Science tells us how it works, but the fact that it works is almost like magic. Yet, there are people out there who fail to see this and don't value the gift they've been granted.

There will be people reading this and thinking, ‘Yeah? So what about Chloe?’

I hear you.

Audrey is a terrible person, and Andre is no better. When he hauls her off at the end of ‘Revolution’ and says he needs to correct his mistakes, he just sends her away with her mother. He’s washing his hands of ‘a problem’, just like he’s done with everything else, e.g. when he resigned as mayor. He walked away from responsibilities, after creating a mess for the people who voted him into office. Likewise, he walked away from his responsibilities as a father.

Does that excuse Chloe's behaviour towards others, especially Marinette? No. Does it explain it? Yes.

So, let's talk about choice, which has been mentioned several times in the series. Chloe has a choice to become just like one of her parents...or to become something better.

Because, if you think about it, at some point in time, Audrey and Andre and even Gabriel were all children. And children aren't just born nasty. They learn nastiness as they grow up. To become who they are today, they had to have started out in a similar position to Chloe, for example. They represent the potential future for their children.

If we saw them as kids, we'd probably see them being mistreated by the adults in their lives and we'd all sympathise with them and hope for their redemption. But we're seeing them as adults and our instinct is to say oh well, too late, they're just awful people. In fact, they could redeem themselves at any point, as demonstrated by Nathalie's turnaround in Season 5. It's just that, the more awful things you've done, the more you have to atone for. Gabriel would have to do a lot - maybe even have a brain change - to be redeemed. But you see my point.

So, at the end of 'Revolution', we see Chloe at a crossroads. She's on that plane, annihilated by her mother, and hiding by herself in a corner. She browses her contacts and hovers over Sabrina's entry...and her face crumples like her heart is breaking with regrets. Oh, it’s sad.

But she passes over Sabrina and moves onto Marinette. She makes one last attempt to bring her down. It’s an act of desperation – redirecting her own suffering onto another, trying to keep control over things when she’s completely out of control of her own life.

Marinette finally puts her in her place, and we see Chloe fall apart in a real way - for the first time ever. I don't know about you, but I found that very uncomfortable viewing. It was a relief to see Marinette stand up for herself, and it needed to happen...but Chloe's despair was also painful. I think all of those were emotions were intended.

Let’s set Thomas aside here. I don't want to get into debates about what was said on Twitter. He’s not the only writer for the show, anyway. I am just speaking about my personal perception of that scene. Chloe gained heaps of sympathy, after she’d been appalling all season, which was pretty powerful.

The fact is…Chloe needed to be put in her place. But that doesn’t mean she deserved everything she went through. Even so...sometimes these moments are necessary and revelatory. They can be the catalyst for great change.

What I mean is – if you're in denial about your position, redirecting your pain onto others, sometimes you need that wakeup call. You need to hit rock bottom in order to start climbing back up into the light. So, when Chloe fell apart, it was painful...but I also saw it as her potential turning point. As long as she maintained her delusions to escape into at school, it was impossible for her to transform - because she refused to see that there was any change needed. But when you have nothing left…that’s when you might begin rebuilding yourself.

Every episode in Season 5 has had multiple meanings. Looking at 'Revolution', when Chloe was akumatised, she trapped her victims in a maze, going round in endless circles (revolutions). Notably a lot of them were adults.

I think if this had happened early on in Season 4, Adrien would have been trapped morosely in that loop with the others. We saw this kind of thing in 'Guiltrip'. So, it spoke volumes about his growth as a character when he was the first one to seek a way out of Chloe's maze. He immediately used his cataclysm and broke a hole, escaping and letting everyone else out. Metaphorically, what he did was break the cycle. If we think about cycles of abuse, this is what the next generation always has the chance to do - to revolt against the past.

it's interesting, then, that when we got to 'Representation', we saw Cat Noir completely lose it with his father. He needed to let it all out...but he was in danger of going too far...and deep down, he knew it. His worst nightmare was of losing all control, to the point of letting his rage destroy everything he loved. Unconsciously, he's well aware that he runs the risk of becoming like his father. However, his complete breakdown, begging his father to take his miraculous to make it all stop, tells us he won't become like his father - because his conscience is too strong. He wants to break that cycle.

Felix has also done some bad things - but he's begun the journey of redeeming himself and changing. He too is trying to break out of that cycle so he doesn't become like his father.

Kagami is embracing her passionate side, rejecting the coldness and isolation her mother has attempted to breed into her, no doubt due to her own upbringing once upon a time.

And I think there’s definite potential for Chloe to do the same. There’s no reason for anyone to remain caught in these patterns. The trick is to recognise the pattern is there in the first place - because you can’t break free of something if you don’t know you’re imprisoned. At the end of Revolution, I think Chloe finally saw her prison, saw that she was already trapped in her own maze, going round in circles. Now it’s up to her to pull an Adrien and cataclysm the bars that hold her in.

Because like Felix said, over and over – each child is miraculous simply for existing. And miracles should be cherished.

PLEASE NO POST-REPRESENTATION SPOILERS IN COMMENTS :)

[mlbigbang]

2022 Marichat Fic Rec List

It's the end of the year which means it's finally time for the ML Big Bang's yearly fic rec lists! We're really excited to bring you our contributors' favourite fics from this year to supply you with plenty of reading material while you're waiting for the Big Bang fics' publication in January.

Asking the important questions by @ultrakart 1,397 words, General, 1/1 chapter

After having returned home from Shanghai, Marinette and Chat Noir have some important questions for each other.

"Platonic Marichat shenanigans, resoundingly reminiscent of canon in the absolute best way."

final girl by @picayunearts 41,310 words, Teen, 10/10 chapters

Marinette has ninety-nine problems, and the superhero trio of Paris counts for a hundred. [AU where Marinette follows through on giving up her earrings after Stoneheart, but becomes the Guardian to protect her replacement.]

"This one floored me. Characterization is on point. I love the premise of Marinette giving up the miraculous and being guardian. Wonderfully executed in my opinion. And the writing. THE WRITING. :chefskiss:"

"Another amazing au. I love the take on "Marinette gives up on being Ladybug" and teh way it's written is chef's kiss."

Everything's Not Fine by @flightfoot 976 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

"Why’s mother down here? What- what is this?” “Still committing to the bit?” Gabriel snorted. “Really now, I thought you were smarter than that. Adrien was compelled to obey the order Nathalie gave via his amok - you would not have been.” “My WHAT?!” -------------- After the events of Risk, Adrien makes his way down to his father's secret lair. Gabriel catches him. Unfortunately, he cares even less about Felix than he does about Adrien.

"An alternative follow-up to 'Strike Back' that packs twist after twist after twist into a very short space, leaving you a little breathless as you read it and sorry that it didn't happen this way in the show."

The Dating App by leadernovaandthemacabre 14,960 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

Chat Noir and Marinette cross paths on Paris’ newest dating app and keep crossing paths until secrets slip. - [MDC]: why are you here [OfficialChatNoir]: we matched! shall we go out for sweethearts ice cream? [MDC]: i’m blocking you [OfficialChatNoir]: wait wait marinette wait *[MDC] has blocked you*

"I loved the bonding between these too and how naturally everything flowed and how open they became with each other and aaaaa"

NSFW works

Patient is the night by @mostlymoony 72,243 words, Mature, 31/31 chapters

Beware the Cat Knight, he demands a price For this fallen prince, gold shall not suffice Fear the Cat Knight, as he trades life for life Cry pretty girls, for the cat needs a wife. When Marinette's small farming town is attacked by Hawkmoth's army of night creatures, Marinette rides for the dread Butterfly Castle, seeking aid from the mysterious Black Cat Knight and his band of masked fighters. She's determined to save her town, even if that means handing herself over to a strange man with wild, green eyes and a penchant for cat-related puns. There will be smut, and this is my first time writing smut. I'm so sorry.

"Such a good gothic romance/fairy tale vibe to it and I just found the plot/progression very enjoyable. The magic and world building is unique and vague enough to make it important but not overwhelming. They also made some great artwork for it!"

Pink Really is Your Color by @inkmousey 2,811 words, Explicit, 1/1 chapter

Marinette really hates that dumb Cat. Until he's pressing her against a wall and making her forget Adrien Agreste ever existed.

"It's amazing!!! So very amazing and it has a great dynamic that's great for Marichat!"

I’d Never Forget About You by @inkmousey 3,400 words, Explicit, 1/1 chapter

Adrien thinks everyone forgot about him on his birthday, and by everyone— he means the only person who ever remembers it anyway, Marinette.

"MariBlanc is such an interesting pairing and the fic handles them so amazingly!!!"

[ijustliketoreadstuff]

People want Marinette to tell Adrien the truth? Yeah, of course, I'm sure she can just do that.

Hey Adrien, your dad was secretly Monarch the entire time, he had this secret plot to terrorize and akumatize a bunch of innocent people so he could get his hands on the miraculous to bring back your mom. Oh by the way your a sentimonster and those rings you have were used by your dad to control you like a puppet, don’t loose them. Also, your mom didn’t actually disappear, she was dying from the peacock miraculous after using it to bring you to life, but that's not something you need to blame yourself for. Any who, your dad hid her body in a secret basement underneath your mansion where she was in a pod for a whole year, Nathalie knew the whole time and went along with all of your dads plans for a while, but had a change of heart and gave me a phone that had a bunch of recordings of your mom telling Nathalie and your dad that she didn't want to be brought back and to not go on a total rampage to get the miraculous. Oh by the way, Nathalie also used the broken peacock miraculous, she’s Mayura, but then she started dying not long after that. The reason I know all this is because Felix told me the story of how the two of you were born sentimonsters and that his dad, Colt, also used the peacock miraculous, turns out, pretty much everyone in your family knew about the peacock miraculous. Oh, and I know Ladybug told you your dad sacrificed himself like a hero, but I was lying, yeah I was Ladybug the entire time . I fought with your dad in the mansion in what was basically a cage match at this point and found out where he was keeping your mom, buuut he got the cat and ladybug Miraculous from me and begged me not to tell you who he was as part of his final words before he died with your mom, but then again , he was going to die anyway from Cat Noir's cataclysm, you should have seen it, the guys body was literally crumbling and throwing up coal and ash, he was in the worst kind of pain imaginable, but that has nothing to do with you so your good. So yeah, he made his wish and had the entire universe destroyed and rebuilt so he could give you the life your mom wanted, but no one but me knew that, until I told you that is. I wasn't going to tell you this cause I thought it would be to much for you and cause I didn't want to totally ruin your entire now peaceful and happy life where your finally allowed to be free, have all your close friends and family, and think your dad was not a complete monster. Anyway that's pretty much it, have a rad summer! 

Love,

-Marinette

[porryc]

Detailed description of how old Gabriel Agreste is acording to show with leaks

In Episode 20, the date on Gabriel's real ID as “Gabi Grassette” is given is April 23, 19*5.

They didn't want to give an exact date because Thomas and other creators don’t like give exact dates for show so they blacked out the middle number, but the storyboards show the date as 1985.

But that can't explain it fully because anything not shown in the show is not real , So much can be extracted from storyboards

Here Gabriel definitely looks like a pre-teenager , probably 14-15 years old

But if we have to go based on the information given to us :

Thomas Astruc said in a comic-end interview that he wanted to publish a comic in which he wanted to tell about Gabriel's life as a teenager and how he met people like Emilie and Nathalie

So this means that Gabriel met Emilie when he was a teenager and in Episode 24 show what Gabriel looks like when he meets Emilie in Felix's story

He has wavy hair and wears a blazer, freed from his old punk look with purple mohawk and he’s big enough to have its own apartment

18-19 is still a teenage age, but you are entitled to have your own apartment and explains the case of Emilie, who came to Paris for "study" , Emilie may have come to Paris for college or for the last year of high school or as a some kind of exchange student

According to Felix's, Emilie found true love "Immediately ”when she came to Paris , they probably decided to be together for less than one year and they got married quickly in the story

Also, in Episode 22, we learned that Audrey and Andre are really old friends of this couple and that's they are the ones made the two of them come together even Gabriel sewed his first suit to Andre so he could feel more confident in expressing his feelings to the girl he liked : Audrey

When Audrey and Andre were not together, Gabriel and Emilie were together and even lived in the same house as a married couple according to Andre’s “Do you remember when we were young and penniless? You, Me and Emilie would make the world a better place from yours little attic” in Episode 22

In an episode of Season 4, we see Andre and Audrey celebrate their 20th anniversary , so they have been married for at least 20 years and we also know that Gabriel and Emilie have been married longer

In the Weredad episode, we learn that Tom will turn 40 from 39, and we find out that Sabine and Tom have been married for 20 years , This information makes him married at 19-20, as confirmed by his Wiki page

So according to the Miraculous universe there are lot of people were married at that young

But I think Gabriel must be older than Tom because he has gray hair.

Gabriel and Emilie met in the story, they got married right away which makes me think that they married between the ages of 18-20, when Gabriel should have met her "when he was a teenager"

Now we all know that Emilie is inferitle , Gabriel said “For so long…We thought we would never able to have a child,” in final episode

They were married for a very long time until they have Adrien : Which makes sense because they were poor when they got married.

Gabriel was the son of a fast-food business owner who didn't come from a wealthy family anyway, and Emilie, on the contrary, was the heiress of a old-money and noble British aristocratic family and she was a “Lady”

Her parents were furious that she was with a ordinary man like Gabriel who were not the extremly wealthy and powerful man we know at the time so her parents wanted her to end this relationship and they probably had a plan in their mind for her to have a arranged marriage with a powerful and rich man just like they would do to her twin sister Amelie

But she choose him and they married poor , I guess they didn't even have a wedding because Felix showed off his parents' marriage with a fancy wedding, but Emilie simply split her ring in half and put it on Gabriel

But then we saw them living in the mansion we know now so they are pretty rich enough have to afford a huge mansion next to the Eiffel and they still don’t have a child so they didn't have a child from their poor to ultra-rich times, confirming Gabriel's "Too long time"

Also we know they are married more longer than Andre&Audrey who is married for 20 years

Of course, we cannot interpret Gabriel's "Long Time" perception, maybe 5 or 10 years

So if we collect all this information :

He married Emilie when he was a teenager who could have his own apartment so thats make him 18-19 and there are couples who get married so young in the series and he supposed to fell for and married with Emilie after a short time she came to Paris

They didn't have children for long, and that was long enough to go from poor to a multi-rich life (So maybe 5-10 years)

They look grown-ups here and never look like the teenagers-to-adult types so probably 30

And we know that Adrien is 14-15 years old and they're going to make Adrien there

And this is a series set in 2014-2015

and Marinette and Kagami's birth dates are 2000 and 2001, and Marinette and Kagami are where he talks about the Chinese zodiac signs

This means that confirms Gabriel's date of birth in the storyboard and yes Gabriel was born in 1970 , because the date 1985 is the date of issue of that identity, not the date of birth

This makes Gabriel 44-45 years old and possibly married with Emilie since 25 years

[logically-asexual]

new daydream involves like… emilie and gabriel finding the peacock miraculous and emilie going “okay let’s practice a bit” while they’re still camping and starting with like tiny little creatures and stuff, making them do things and then snapping them out of existence,, and then emilie gets ambitious and decides to try to make a human and makes nathalie,, and has a lot of fun telling her what to do but also seeing what she does when not receiving specific orders.

emilie figures out that they can convince her to have fake memories if she tells her to “remember” anything. she can also tell her to read a book and memorize everything in it and she will do it, so nathalie proves to be very useful during their return because the information they were carrying is way easier to access by just asking nathalie instead of looking through maps and books and notes and so on.

once they’re back in some populated place gabriel tells emilie that it’s time to stop playing and get rid of nathalie but of course… emilie has grown attached to her. and gabriel also feels really weird about snapping nathalie out of existence, because she seems so human, but tries to hide it and convince both himself and emilie that they can’t just. keep her around. because it makes no practical sense.

but emilie convinces him somehow that they should take her with them and pretend they met her during the trip and to get her a job with gabriel and so on. and gabriel tries to refuse but he can’t. and he can deny that nathalie has been a very helpful assistant during the trip. and they both know it’s… kind of wrong but it feels more wrong to just make her disappear.

so anyway they take pictures and make nathalie believe that she has been helping them the whole time and for nathalie it’s kind of like. when you’re in a dream or when you have memories blocked by trauma, where you’re not quite sure how you got to a place/situation but you don’t question it and as long as you don’t examine your memories closely you won’t notice the gap that’s there.

emilie is the one that has nathalie’s amok the whole time but doesn’t really order nathalie around after the journey back from tibet. but at some point gabriel tells her to do something and she does it with the same disposition as with emilie’s instructions. gabriel looks at emilie a bit confused but emilie says that she didn’t tell nathalie to do what he says, and she jokes that nathalie must just like him. (spoiler: she does 🥰)

and um. once in paris, as a boss, gabriel just does the same thing and asks nathalie to read information and remember everything, which is super useful for her job. since from the start they went with the “convince her she’s just another human” approach and they just can’t go back on that so they have to continue the lie and try not to ask too ridiculous things of her.

i guess they get on with their lives normally until emilie dies. or rather around when gabriel decides to become hawkmoth. because nathalie will know inevitably, so he takes the amok from where emilie had hidden it and carries it as a safety measure in case nathalie betrays him. which she doesn’t. so he pretty much forgets about it. until the end when he’s also lost restraint with giving adrien orders and he knows that nathalie doesn’t trust him anymore.

when she’s threatening him with the crossbow he says that he knew she would betray him and he prepared. he doesn’t even need to slap the weapon away like he does in the show, instead he just pulls out whatever object had the amok and tells her to put the crossbow down, and she does. so she panics about not being able to disobey and that’s when she passes out and once they’re in her bedroom he tells her the truth and it’s so shocking and

i guess he just tosses the object at her like “you can have it now, i don’t need it anymore” and just leaves her there with her entire world shattered.

and uh. you know. i like the idea

[rayraygo1267]

Gabenath Incorrect Quotes because I’m in denial

Note: Those who’ve seen the season 5 final you know what I mean

Spoiler Warning for the Miraculous Awakening Movie and the Season 5 Final

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Movie!Nathalie: I’m so happy Gabriel isn’t terrorizing children anymore! Maybe now he can get closer to Adrien and rebuild his family

Show!Nathalie: Pfft, yeah if only

Movie!Nathalie: What are you talking about?

Show!Nathalie: *Sighs* okay so, Gabriel basically ends up terrorizing the entirety of Paris for over a year and pretty much goes insane. Long story short his pancakes suck, he basically kidnaps Adrien at one point and leaves me for dead and then like a dumbass he makes his wish which results in him dying

Movie!Nathalie:…

Show!Nathalie: Anyway, you were saying?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adrien: Mayura and Hawkmoth are dating

Gabriel: *dramatically spitting out water* WHAT?! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT IDEA?

Adrien: *shows picture of Hawkmoth holding Mayura in his arms and caressing her cheek* Just look at the way he looks at her, he’s totally smitten — it’s almost like how you look at Nathalie

Gabriel: *Blushing* I—I don’t know what you’re talking about but regardless I can assure you that Hawkmoth and Mayura Are. Not. Dating.

Nathalie: *coming up from behind him* They’re not?

Gabriel: *Surprised pikachu face*

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gabriel: *Puts his plan on hold to take care of Nathalie and put her first*

Also Gabriel: *Leaves Nathalie to die*

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nathalie: I would do anything for Gabriel Agreste no matter the cost

Also Nathalie: *Attempts to shoot him with a crossbow*

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gabriel: Nathalie sometimes gets dizzy spells but you don’t need to worry about her

Adrien: Okay

Nathalie: *faints literally five seconds later*

Adrien:…

Gabriel:…

[motherofplatypus]

Miraculous S4 Review: Representation

And so, here we are, one episode before the finale. Out of order, but we're no stranger to that. Can't believe it's almost over, and boy am I glad because this insanity finally come to an end.

The episode, as per usual, was bad. But it's not the usual kind of bad, and was pretty much decent compared to the last 4 episodes. So, it's an improvement, I guess(?).

So, in short, this episode confirmed that Felix and Adrien are sentimonsters, and Kagami as extension, but I'll talk about that in another post. While there are people who seem to dislike the idea of Fe and Ad being senti, i personally like it. Mostly because they did really well in teasing us about this, until they just drag it out so hard and hardly even trying to do so in S4-5.

So, anyway, the review. Apparently, there's an election for the new mayor between Bustier and that fencing mustache (I remember his name, but it's a pain to write it down).

So they do have election. Huh, who woulda thunk? Feels like just one episode ago they ignore this crucial part for plot convenience to make a teenage girl even more like satan for absolutely no logical reason. Ooh, right, it was one episode ago. Well, two, but my point still stands.

Oh, Miraculous, you just love making things convenient for you, don't you?

Then we see Adrien being Sad Boy™ like he always was, and Plagg had to comfort him. And I really love Plagg here and so far he's been getting consistent development with his relationship with Adrien, that's more interesting than the Love Square tbh.

Then, Adrien down bad for Mari and wanted to reveal himself and fly all the way to Paris because he hated being there.

I appreciate the effort and dedication for love, but wouldn't it be better if you just, idk, ran away before you're in London? Just a thought.

Yeah yeah, there's the ring and stuffs and every single reason why Adrien cannot grow a spine for himself or anyone that's not Marinette. Tell me something I didn't know about Adrien.

Bonus: Here's what That Guy do whenever we demand Adrien to grow as a person.

Moving on, I'd love to talk about how everyone glorifying Mari for the 500th time, but it's nowhere near how pissed I am when they tease Julerose and Marcthaniel. Yes, it's cute to see how Marc and Nath looks like they're "bonding" in secret and Jules being protective over Rose. If this were happening 2 seasons ago, I would've scream in fangirl, but like every other things in miraculous, its either overdue or irrelevant.

Look, I appreciate their sorry excuse of an effort to give us representation (roll credits), but if you actually mean it, either actually doing it or stop teasing it for 5 seasons and make them so much of a side characters that we literally couldn't care less about them. Seriously, this is a serious case, especially with Nath and Marc that I honestly don't see why they even got a miraculous, to the point i thought Lila would get one since those two are so pointless and irrelevant.

Onto the next one, we have Gabridiot Agreste. The man with two brain cells who's fighting for third place. He realized Adrien was gone, barged into Nathalie's room while she's watching his dead wife video, and took the wedding ring from her.

First off, it's quite hilarious that the red part of Nathalie's hair turned white. I know this symbolize that she's dying, but the way it looks, it's like she's purposefully dyeing her hair white to show how dead she is.

Second, I'm getting real tired of watching Emilie saying the same line, on the same phone, for the 50th time this season. This is the equivalent of Gabe talking to her corpse whenever he's about to do a criminal activity that ended up in him failing in the most embarrassing way. Yes, we get it, she wants Gabe to be a good father, you don't need to remind us every single episode how much of a failure he is at becoming one. Also, if your role after 5 seasons is to be a broken record on a phone, just go back to your coffin.

Also, it's probably just me forgetting and i refuse to check every episode to prove it, but what's the reason for Nathalie not to show the video to Gabe? Or has Gabe seen it but ignore it? Please remind me.

Either way, still with Gabridiot, who apparently lacks the bare minimum intelligence to even be classified as a jellyfish, who think that Adrien, who's in London, somehow managed to escape and went allllll the way back to Paris in less than a day. This jump into conclusion stupidity almost match the one we got in Ephemeral, but at least not as outrageously stupid as that episode. Still can't believe that episode even exist.

So he akumatized himself into Nightormentor, and I must say I quite like his costume. Sure, it's basically Collector dress in a drag, but it kinda looks good. Except for the face, that traffic cone head and glasses are a huge no.

Still talking about London to Paris, how the heck did Argos get himself and Kagami into Paris at the same pace as Chat with flying cat add ons? Did he make a jet sentimonster to fly them there? Nah, no way. The whole reason he got the peacock was to prevent anymore sentimonster getting created and killed. Heck, he was absolutely devastated when he had to snap that Red Moon from existence. So there's absolutely no way he'd be doing that, right? Right?

Sigh, who am i kidding.

So, he created a new sentimonster, a tripod, to give Mari a cheap show of his origin and Adrien's, and basically confirmed they're feather boys. Wow! This is big, right?! Right?! But, of course, with the abundance of brain cells in the show, Mari didn't connect the dot and only take it as Felix's story that I'm not even sure if she realized Felix is a senti, let alone Adrien.

Okay, maybe she did realize Fefe is senti, but my bet is that she's still doesn't know Adriboy is a senti. That's literally too much to ask for the show standard, speaking from experience.

Speaking of didn't connect the dots, Felix literally blatantly told Mari that Gabe is Monarch in the video and she didn't get it? Does Adrien filled up that much space in her head that she ignores the very obvious info presented in front of her? Hello? Brain cells? Basic common sense? Toddler level of intelligence? Where are you all?!

Back to the point, what happened to the tripod? Oh right, it got snapped out after it send the message to Marinette to fight for Adrien. To fight Gabe for love.

Remember folks, murder is okay as long as it's for Adrienette.

Also, if the whole purpose is to just give Mari a message, why would he need to take Kagami there as well? It's not like the message is on live. Heck, they didn't even stay until the message is over, so it's clear that it's pre-recorded, or just some magic bullshit, but basically they're not needed to be that close.

"But the amok is in Kagami's ring, and she needs to be there to control it."

Like I said, she's not needed to be there.

Okay, that's not exactly important. Since we're still talking about Kagami, let's talk about plot hole number 451: Kagami knows Mari is Ladybug since Perfection.

Remember a certain blue haired boy going into voluntary exile because he knows the identity of the heroes? No? Neither do the writers.

If she knows Mari is LB since that very episode, why hasn't Monarch learned about that crucial info? She got akumatized TWICE after knowing that, and neither of them meant anything until now. That piece of knowledge should've been in Monarch's ear since ages ago.

"But Kagami wasn't sure if Mari is LB."

My point still stands strong, tall, and mighty. They made Gabe jump into conclusion that Adrien is Chat by him saying "My Lady". I'm just using their stupidity on them.

Then we got Anticat, or I'd like to call it Walmart Chat Blanc. Aside from the hideous blue hair and eye wrecking visual of the dream sequence, this pissed me off real fucking bad, because this can only means one thing: Chat Blanc is irrelevant.

We waited 2 seasons, one of which caused Chat Noir getting depressed because Ladybug refuse to speak about the white world destroyer cat, and the moment he knows about it, it's not from Ladybug and not even what exactly happened. It's just a nightmare. It's not real. He still doesn't know that that event actually real.

We were, once again, robbed of seeing something we have been waiting for years to happen.

Sadly, that's not the end of it.

On side note, I find it hilariously ironic that when Chat wake up from the nightmare, the first person he saw was Kim. "Hey, that's the person i tried to kill a few days ago. Now I have infinite Cataclysm to do so."

Dude woke up from a nightmare into another nightmare, lmao.

So anyway, Gabe lost to a bunch of teenagers once more, they win, and he kept the akuma in a jar so that LB can purify it. I mean, what's a Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir would do without Ladybug appearing, right? Like how the show could not go on without Chat Noir appearing in the episode, right? Of course.

Anyway, remember the whole reason LB needs to purify the akuma is because it will multiply if left too long? Like, idk, an hour at most. And how long did Chat left the butterly? Why haven't that flappity flap flap not self-reproducing like rabbit on steroids during mating season?

Also, can't he just Cataclysm the akuma? We know in Chat Blanc it's possible and have no side effect whatsoever. Plus, he can now use multiple Cataclysms. Just get rid of it. You have no qualm when you tried to Cataclysm Scarabella, your principal, and your friend whose face is the first thing you saw when you wake up from your nightmare, so what gives?

Oh right, it's the villain. He has qualms only when it comes to hurting the villain. I forgot.

Also, let's take a moment of silence for Chat, who finally got an episode where he's the one shining, where he's supposed to be the one who save the day, but ended up being utterly useless and needed help from a bunch of teenagers.

Look, I'm not saying he shouldn't get help or anything, but how hard are you going to glorify Ladybug for being able to win a fight by herself and never let Chat do the same, not even once?

And then both Adrien and Kagami came back to their abusive parents. Just, why? I get why Adrien came back, aside from the nightmare and his inability to grow a spine, but Kagami? You have your own freedom, you got balls bigger than Adrien could ever have, and you're independent. Just stay with Felix, hide, and Amelie most likely already know your circumstances too, or at least she'll let you stay for Felix's sake.

"But she might not feel comfortable doing that."

You know who else should not be comfortable doing something? Chat Noir when he's down to murder people that he knows.

Also also, don't any of them gonna ask how the hell they ran away? No? Of course not. And Gabridiot and Tomoron decided to become a very reasonable and good parents and put their kids inside an entirely white, mental asylum-esque room where the only color they can see is their clothes and hair.

Seems familiar?

Yep, they are batshit insane.

And please don't tell me that square on the corner is their bed. Good lord, I know you're angry they disobey you, but treat them humanely at least.

All in all, this is 6/10. Lots of dumb moments as per usual, but it's not blatantly moronic like half of the episodes this season has. I quite like Nightormentor's costume and how Plagg comfort Adrien in that small scene. I'm surprised that I'm not furious at all, just mildly annoyed. Overall, it's decent.

Then again, this has been my opinion, and now it's your turn. Do you like it, or hate it? Is this a good build up for the finale? Leave your thoughts down below, and I will see you in the next one. Byeee.

[little-mari-on-a-roof]

Along with the official airing of season 5 in France, TFOU released a version of Evolution commented by the writing team. Here's a little summary of what they said, since I know not everyone can speak French or has access to it! Obligatory disclaimer, this is my own interpretation and translation of what they said so take everything with a grain of salt!

Warning: spoilers for Evolution, one small spoiler for Multiplication and Destruction, minor vague spoilers for season 5.

The writing team with, from left to right: Sébastien Thibaudeau, Mélanie Duval, Frédéric.que Engel Lenoir and Thomas Astruc.

Firstly, as we can all notice the episode starts right where the season 4 finale left us. However, there is a slight change in the dialogue: Monarch's name only appears in the dialogue of Evolution so that Gabriel's villain name from season 5 wouldn't be spoiled in Strike back.

The scene is a parallel with the episode Origins from season one, where the exact same thing happened (Hawkmoth speaking via a big replica of his face made out of butterflies, our heroes telling him off and destroying the flying head), but by day.

This season has a different way of showing the episode name but also a very different naming system: they thought having the episodes named after the villain was a bit too spoilery at times so they decided to change that. The need to change the naming system was also reinforced by the fact that in this season, the story will progress way faster than before.

The rest is under the cut because it's a bit long!!

The season 4 finale and the first three episodes of season 5 all follow each other like if they were one big movie. Evolution, Multiplication and Destruction all start at the same time and last a second (at one point, they thought "in a moment of madness" about doing this for every episode of season 5 and thus to have it all happen in the span of one day but then decided against it). However, even with that they still didn't talk about everything that happens in that first second and so they will come back to it later at one point in the season.

They talked about the need to resolve the issue of the rabbit miraculous in the first episode: Fred joked about how fans would tell the writing team that they didn't think about the fact Hawkmoth was now too powerful and could just travel through time to solve everything.

It was a fantasy of Sebastien to have an episode where they'd go back to previous moments in the show. They naively thought it was a good idea because it'd be cheaper but they actually had to pretty much reanimate every scene. Plus having all the kwamis didn't help the animation team (although they'd make a good plushie collection!).

They talked about how in the episode, you can see Nathalie, who was previously always here for Gabriel and ready to help him, is now getting worried.

They talked about how much they love Bunnyx and Sebastien said he'd love to make a separate series about her. In the past, they've had warnings about her being too powerful and eventually "eating Ladybug". However, Fred said that was still left to prove and that the character was awesome anyway.

Thomas said they'd also been told to be careful about time travel since it can easily become too complicated, which is why they decided to make it simpler with a "cartoon course poursuite (a chase)" à la Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, with the difference that the characters chase each other in time, and not in space.

They talked multiple times about one of the recurrent themes in the show, which is the distribution of power, and what having too much power does to you. Before this episode, it was mostly metaphoric but it's a bit more literal in this one. Indeed, you see Monarch struggling to manage all the miraculous at the same time. The first time he fusions a lot of them, he even gets caught by Ladybug's yoyo (Fred says "the first thing monarch gets for having so much power is almost losing"). They say they played a lot on that to show that accumulating powers isn't the solution.

Another way they did that was by showing Gabriel acting in a dictatorial way and not feeding the kwamis, which led to him reaching his limits.

Gabriel transforms a lot of different ways during the episode, so they had to find a way to show it with his costume without having him change completely each time, since it would've required a lot (9?) of 3D models that would have only been used once. Instead, Thomas designed the butterfly breastplate where each colour represents the power of one miraculous.

A fun fact they shared is that for each one of Gabriel's transformations, the writing team gave him a different name in the script, it was hard since they ended up with very long fusion names, and there's a hint to that in the dialogue of the episode when Chat Noir (Lapin Noir) makes fun of Monarch by calling him "Papi-lapin-tortue-abeille et je sais pas quoi d'autre".

During the scene which happens in a flashback to The Buubler (the one where they're falling down next to the Eiffel Tower) they mention that it is one of their favourite episodes.

They paused during the DJWifi kiss scene from Animan to talk about it more: they said that people wonder what happened in that cage and that Thomas has had the exact scene in his head for years. They'd like to fully animate and show it one day (Sebastien said it was their "ultimate life goal").

Some scenes happen at the same time and appear twice during the episode but filmed from different angles. Because of that they did a little shout out to the directing team: Winny, Cyril and Nicolas who made their ideas come to life. They mention them again later in the scene where Monarch is left alone in the S2 finale and laughs alone: the camera turns around him to show how he's lost his mind.

During the scene that happens during World War 2 and is a comeback to a flashback from a previous episode, they mentioned that Marianne was inspired by Fred's grandma who was a member of the french Resistance. Like a lot of women, she never got a medal, and they said that now, 70 years later she got a miraculous.

They said that Gabriel was technically not completely Monarch yet, but no spoilers!

They looked for episodes where they could show stuff that happened off camera without altering them, like the taxi ride from Reverser (which they called "épisode chouchou", aka their beloved episode).

They said that the scene with master Fu was a way to bring him back and that they cried a lot (literally) while writing the season 3 finale because they didn't want to let go of him. They said it was nice to bring him back along with the original miracle box to go back to simpler times where Ladybug hadn't yet lost everything. Plus during their exchange Ladybug says some key phrases that Fu will repeat later in time and allow him to trust her with something so important.

During the scene in the Louvre museum, they talked about how you can tell Alix's dad already knew what would happen because of the information he got from the future. They said the scene is very emotional because Alix is only 14 and has to leave all of her friends in order to save them and sacrifice her link with her present in order to travel through time. They called Alix exceptional because of her sense of sacrifice and Sebastien jokes about how it's nice the sound isn't too loud because he would otherwise be crying. They also said that for a while people were wondering how Alix got the miraculous and they had to find an unexpected way to show it. Even Alix herself is a bit confused because she leaves as Cannigirl and not as Bunnyx.

This scene also links back to the tone they try to have for the show, which is both fun and funny, but with a tragic side. In Evolution, the amount of time travel can make it a bit confusing but they say that what's important is that the viewer feels the emotion.

They then joked about the scene where Nathalie feeds the kwamis ("the plushies") which they find hilarious and about the fact that the lucky charm (here the tiny miracle box from the season 2 finale) seems obvious but they actually struggled a lot to find it. Sebastien says they spent 4 hours on that one.

They talked about the importance of Gabriel's choice in the burrow, which shows when he turns to madness and chooses his obsession with fighting Ladybug over actually saving Emily by giving her the USB key. It is once more a demonstration of how he is corrupted by power. They also joked about how if he had made the right logical choice they wouldn't have a show to write.

In the Gabemily flashback, you can see Gabriel giving Emily the peacock miraculous and leaving with her in what Thomas calls a "typical bridal carry". Sebastien jokingly tells him he'd like to know what they're going to do with the peacock miraculous (they stay very vague and neutral but to me it screamed sentiadrien 👀👀).

The team then talks a lot about season 4: during it, Ladybug also had too much power and responsibilities which made her leave Chat Noir to the side by distributing miraculouses to other people. He felt lost and left behind, like he became just one of her teammates instead of staying his only partner who she had a privileged relationship with, even though she didn't think that way and didn't realise it. In the season 4 finale, Ladybug realises that she's made a lot of mistakes. Despite that, the fact that Chat Noir stayed by her side made her see him in a new light and she sees his qualities and his loyalty. The writing team repeated a lot of times that Ladybug seeing Chat Noir in a new light will not be without consequences 👀👀. They said that Marinette was "internally boiling" when it comes to her feelings because on top of that, she realised that being in love with Adrien made her do a big mistake (when she confused him with Felix). With how much they talked, Melanie joked about how they should also do commentaries about season 4 (and now I want that too lmao).

They also mentioned that they rewrote the final scene from Strike Back multiple times, including after starting to write season 5. (They called that scene the "chevalier noir" or "dark knight" because it was the comeback of Chat Noir and his privileged relationship with Ladybug.)

They said that miraculous was not only about superpowers but also about superpowers of the heart. When Melanie says Evolution might not seem particularly about feelings, the others mentioned that "ever second of the episode" will in fact have big impacts on the future.

They added that they looked a lot for the proper tragic tone for the end of the episode. The scene is in mirror with the previous one: Ladybug and Chat Noir are getting closer than ever, meanwhile Gabriel and Nathalie are separating. Thomas kept saying she was "ruining him" because he sealed her fate (since she would've never used the broken peacock miraculous which made her sick if Gabriel had given his past self the USB key).

At the end, Lila witnessed the situation and the writing team says she's learned a very important piece of information that will be relevant for her rest of the season 👀👀.

At the very end of the episode, they laugh a bit when Gabriel screams "Ladybug!!!!!" with all the rage in the world, which is my cue to add in my french dub propaganda because the voice acting in this episode is insane, especially at the beginning and during the fight between Gabriel and Nathalie.

Lastly, Sebastien mentions that this episode doesn't have a "post posterpaint scene" but that there will be some in the following episode to end them on little cliffhangers and change the style of this season a bit (just like they did with the episode names).

[megan0013]

do you ever think about emilie ever meeting a gabenath baby and nathalie just being like Absolutely Not

*snort* only, like, forty times a day

but seriously, gabenath babies meeting emilie is one of my go-to daydreams when i just feel like zoning out. and there are lots of variations

like the one where gabriel and nathalie were having an affair and he leaves emilie for nathalie when he finds out she's pregnant, and then we jump to nathalie going into labor while stuck in an elevator with emilie who has to deliver this baby while gabriel and adrien panic half a floor up and the fire department tries to rescue them. love this one though, because emilie becomes this child's godmother/favorite wine!aunt and the two are inseparable (so not an Absolutely Not ending, but an Absolutely Not everything leading up to it)

or the one where nathalie is pregnant with baby #2 and, after a few years of pretty decent health, the effects of the peacock miraculous start to reemerge. it gets bad enough that gabriel becomes desperate and goes to the heroes for help, and winds up negotiating with them to help nathalie AND emilie. they do. and while nathalie is on bedrest, emilie starts trying to insert herself back into gabriel's life. then one night after he takes her to some big event she kisses him outside her bedroom door and, naturally, nathalie sees it happen. anyway. gabriel tells emilie in no uncertain terms that he's not interested anymore and goes to drink himself into a guilty stupor down in the atelier, but when he doesn't come to bed nathalie assumes he stayed the night with emilie so she takes child #1 and goes to a hotel. insert lots of drama, lots of gabriel groveling, and emilie moving to london in the end

or the one where emilie has the rabbit miraculous and winds up in a future where gabriel and nathalie are together with a baby on the way

or the OTHER one where gabriel and nathalie are having an affair and nathalie gets pregnant and emilie somehow forces gabriel to fire/cut ties with her. and this happens:

"Excuse me," Penny says as the pulls the vibrating phone off the table. "You know how it is with - Oh! Jagged, look. Nathalie had her baby."

Immediately, Gabriel tenses. "But she's not due until the end of the month. Is everything... They're okay, right?"

followed by:

"She's so cute," Jagged coos, grinning, at the photo of the small screen. "Squishy. Quite long, too. But Nathalie isn't all that short, is she?" He looks up and Gabriel swears the other man can see into his soul. "Do you think the father is tall?"

[celestiall0tus]

Let's here about the powers of the pretty bitches (the peacocks) and Gabriel (but only after you've had enough time to relax and regain your energy).

I appreciate ya, but I can't help not talk about these lovelies and Gabriel. So, let's dive into the Peacock of Beauty

We start with the first being Nathalie Sancoeur as Mayura. So, in Miraculous AU her powers are easily overlooked as insignificant unless used properly. Her lesser power is beauty manipulation, allowing her to twist and alter the beauty of a creature or object. A sort of perception manipulation of you will. Her second power is mesmerization where she immobilizes her foes with her stunning beauty, leaving them vulnerable.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Duusu, Spread my Feathers"

Lesser Power: Beauty

Greater Power: Mesmerize

Now we have Gabriel in Salvation. His power is limited to the mesmerization that Mayura possesses. Since he'll never become an avatar in the story, that's all he'll ever have.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Duusu, Spread my Feathers"

Power: Mesmerize

Juleka Couffaine as Ghoul on Separate Worlds. These powers will function very much like Absolution's power system with a passive and main power. For Ghoul, her passive is absolute beauty, meaning she will be regarded as the most beautiful creature alive, putting even Aphrodite to shame. Her main power will be mesmerization.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Duusu, Spread my Feathers"

Power: None/Innate

Ah, what are the odds. Emilie Graham De Vanily getting the peacock in All That Remained when Amelie gets it in Paradise? Beautiful. Anyway, going with a theme made obvious now, Emilie will be called Hera. Her power is mesmerization.

Activation Phrases:

Transformation: "Duusu, Spread my Feathers"

Power: Dazzle

Ah, Amelie has her chance with peacock in Paradise as Erinona. Unlike the previous peacocks that have been relegated to mesmerization, Erinona is capable of beauty manipulation that allows her to create, shape, and manipulate the beauty in everything. This includes things on a physical, mental, conceptual, and natural.

Activation Phrases:

Transformation: "Duusu, Spread my Feathers"

Power: Glamor

You know, you'd think I'd have made Adrien the peacock sooner, but here we are at long last in Court of Miracles. Adrien is amongst the few highborn in this AU with a generous selection of powers. These include:

Absolute Beauty - They are the most beautiful thing to ever exist

Beauty Inducement - They can make modifications to any person or object to make them more aesthetically pleasing

Shapeshifting - A power that can be used to alter themselves completely to be more what a person desires, though they also use this to take the form of the gender they associate with at the time

Siren Song - Able to lure in people with a beautiful, supernatural song

Mesmerizing Presence - Very similar to the default peacock power that others have had.

Activation phrases: None/Innate

Ondine takes center stage in Siren's Song as Siren. Unlike the other peacocks on this list, with the exception of Court of Miracles!Adrien, her power is that of mesmerization through song. Like the old Greek sirens (that were more akin to birds) luring away sailors to their deaths, Siren can do just that. Entrance people with her enrapturing songs.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Duusu, Spread my Feathers"

Power: Mesmerize

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Adoration

You know, between Sabrina and Zoe, it's hard to tell who gets screwed over more in this episode.

Let's get into the seventeenth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Adoration

We start off with Zoe talking with Andre about a movie he made when he was younger. Apparently, he made it to declare his love for Audrey. The fact that he thought making a movie to please someone as abusive as her either means Andre is a real idiot, or Audrey is an absolute goddess in bed.

We then cut to school the next day, where Marinette and Zoe are put in charge of organizing it. The two met up at Marinette's room, where Zoe comments on how beautiful it looks... even though she was already there at the end of “Gabriel Agreste”.

Okay, in all seriousness, this is a minor error compared to the other retcons this show has made, and I can see the writers forgetting that scene since Zoe didn't say anything in it anyway, but this does have a purpose. While thinking about where to hold the dance, Marinette settles on the Eiffel Tower, and asks Zoe if she can talk to Andre about it.

The two go to Zoe's place, and surprise, surprise, Chloe throws a hissy fit about Marinette stepping on one of “her” stairs. Okay, writers, just admit you're running out of ideas for Chloe to antagonize Marinette. Zoe stands up to Chloe, who then goes to Audrey, but she's so apathetic, she doesn't even intervene, so Zoe calls it a win.

Marinette: What happened to the scared Zoe who moved here from New York a few months ago?

Zoe: It's all thanks to you, Marinette. You're the one who helped me change!

Uh... how? Outside of “Sole Crusher” and “Queen Banana”, the two have never really had any meaningful interactions. It's almost like Zoe has had absolutely no development since her introduction last season, and the writers are trying to convince us that they actually gave her character development.

Andre decides to approve holding the school dance under the Eiffel Tower, he tells Marinette and Zoe not to tell Chloe. Chloe overhears this, and gets angry for... some reason. Seriously, what did they even do? All Marinette and Zoe did was ask to hold a dance, Chloe overheard it, and the very next scene, she's talking with Lila and Sabrina about how to get revenge. She doesn't even make it about the dance, she just gets angry Zoe is talking with her father. Again, after five seasons, it really seems like the writers are running out of ways for Chloe to incite conflict, because this is just lazy.

At the Agreste Mansion, Adrien talks to Gabriel about asking Marinette to the dance, but Gabriel forbids him from doing so. Nathalie convinces him to concede, but then he calls Lila. The next scene has Chloe talking with Sabrina about a plan she has.

Chloe: Do you want to be demoted from underling to punching bag? You want to join the baker girl and the half-of-a-sister?

Sabrina: (gasps) No! I'm your friend!

Chloe: (shakes her head) My underling. You are my underling. If you're not willing to do anything for me, then get lost!

This can't seriously be the script the writers stuck with, right? Now Chloe's just saying things you'd hear from a dark lord from an RPG. Granted, it's hard to tell how honest Chloe is since her chewing out Sabrina is revealed to be a plan by Lila, but given how Chloe has been this episode, it's hard to really believe she was exaggerating anything. Either way, Sabrina is upset enough for Monarch to send an Akuma her way, akumatizing her into Vanisher again through a whistle.

Vanisher's design is pretty lazy, even back when it first appeared in Season 1. It's just Sabrina with a purple filter when she isn't using her powers to turn invisible. I guess it kind of makes sense given she's not meant to be flashy, but this just screams “cutting corners”. The Miraculous power shown this time is the Dog Miraculous' Fetch, allowing Vanisher to steal as many things as she wants.

Vanisher comes back into the room, and we actually get a funny joke where Chloe asks Lila if she's a witch, even if a funny joke in this kind of show only gets a reaction along the lines of...

Anyway, Marinette and Zoe plan out the dance some more, where Marinette talks about how hard it is to tell Adrien she loves him, to which Zoe agrees, revealing she has her own crush on someone. As the two talk, Vanisher sneaks in and we get a montage of her tagging things with her whistle. During the montage, Marinette assumes that Zoe has a crush on Adrien, which will be more important towards the end.

Once things with the dance are set up, Vanisher uses Fetch to teleport all the things she touched into Marinette's bag. Chloe accuses Marinette of being a thief, and even though Lila isn't in the rest of the episode, everyone's about as gullible as they normally are in a Lila episode, so they decide to believe Chloe. Mr. Damocles prepares to expel Marinette, but Zoe takes the blame for it, allowing Marinette transform into Ladybug.

Ladybug figures out that Vanisher is behind this because Chloe threw some paper flowers that accidentally fell onto her, so she summons her Lucky Charm, a pinata. While Ladybug fights Vanisher, Adrien gets to a safe place to transform into Cat Noir. Ladybug hands Cat Noir a bottle of some kind of spray-on glue and just as Ladybug breaks the pinata above Vanisher, Cat Noir sprays her with it, covering her in confetti. Ladybug ties up Vanisher while Cat Noir Cataclysms the whistle, freeing the Akuma.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, Chloe yells at Sabrina for failing, and even though this blows her cover, somehow isn't punished for it, Sabrina gets a useless Magical Charm from Ladybug and because I've already seen the rest of the season, I already know that Sabrina is still going to work with Chloe for some reason.

Anyway, Marinette and Zoe talk about the latter supposedly having feelings for Adrien.

Marinette: I know... you're in love with Adrien. Don't sacrifice your feelings for him because of me. He has the right to hear your declaration.

Zoe: Adrien? But you're the one he loves.

Marinette: Even if he loves me, he'd be flattered to know that you love him too. Let him know how you feel about him. Zoe, you're an amazing person. One can only feel honored to be loved by you.

Zoe: Are you sure?

Marinette: Of course! You can't keep it to yourself! Zoe: But... Adrien’s not the one I’m in love with.

Marinette: Oh? Who is it, then? (Zoe simply looks at Marinette and smiles) Oh... Oh! Oh. I am truly, very honored. I mean it, Zoe.

Zoe: Thanks, Marinette.

Oh my God... I can't believe Zoe has feelings for Alya.

Okay, in all seriousness, let's discuss this scene. While I'm glad that we have confirmation that Zoe has feelings for Marinette, which is a big deal after the show danced around the idea with Juleka and Rose, and the reveal itself is done very well with Zoe and Marinette's facial expressions doing all the work, my problems with this scene stem from a different issue, and it ties back to my earlier point about Zoe.

Zoe as a character has always been criminally underdeveloped. Other than the fact that she's nice and is different from Chloe, very little is done to establish who she is as a person. With every focus episode she gets, the writers just slap on some kind of trait or idea to try and get viewers invested in her. In “Sole Crusher”, she had her vague backstory about being bullied, in “Queen Banana”, she became Vesperia, in “The Kwamis' Choice”, she temporarily replaced Cat Noir as Kitty Noire, and in this episode, we have her feelings for Marinette. None of these are really bad things, but the show just expects us to connect with Zoe for all of these things that happen to her with little buildup or character development. Like I said earlier, the show tries to act like there's been character development with Zoe, but it doesn't work because she's barely gotten to do anything that isn't the writers trying to shove her into the main cast.

As for the reveal that Zoe has feelings for Marinette, it sort of falls flat because again, the two have barely spent any time together since “Sole Crusher” and “Queen Banana”. Yeah, Zoe was present in other episodes like “Gabriel Agreste” and “Crocoduel”, but she was only part of the group and didn't really interact with Marinette on her own. It's hard to really see this reveal as impactful because not only did we not get a lot of hints that Zoe was into girls, but we didn't even get a lot of hints that Zoe had developed feelings for Marinette in the first place. That's not to say this couldn't work. In The Owl House, there weren't any hints that either Luz or Amity were into girls, but the difference there was that their growing feelings for each other became an ongoing story. Here, there's nothing that really comes of Zoe having feelings for Marinette other than so the show can say they have an LGBT character. If there was an episode about Zoe struggling to deal with her unrequited feelings for Marinette, or an episode where she tries to ask another girl out, this could have worked, but nothing really comes from this.

And finally, there's the reason behind this reveal. The episode goes out of its way to establish that Zoe has feelings for Marinette not to really expand on Zoe's character, but rather, to expand on Marinette's. Zoe's coming out story is less of a big reveal about her sexual identity, and more of a cautionary tale about not being able to confess your feelings to someone you care about until it's too late. The reveal that Zoe has feelings for Marinette isn't about Zoe taking a risk that could jeopardize her friendship with Marinette, it's about giving Marinette the confidence she needs to tell Adrien she loves him, and even then, that moment is undercut because the very next scene, Gabriel uses his influence to order Adrien to go home when he's about to kiss Marinette. The episode basically ends with Marinette trying to reassure herself that progress was actually made when we know Gabriel screwed that up.

So basically, THIS EPISODE WAS A GIANT WASTE OF TIME! Oh my God, this was bad, and it's hard to really explain. I'm not really as angry as I was towards episodes like “Kuro Neko”, “Penalteam”, or “Illusion”, but this episode just had so many little things that got to me that all piled up by the end. The attempt to give Zoe character development didn't really work, Gabriel and Chloe had no reason to incite the conflict other than because they felt like it, Lila had no real purpose being here (yet she gets to be in the end card instead of Chloe), the Akuma was underwhelming, Sabrina still hasn't gotten any major character development herself, and the ending just felt like a cheap excuse to keep the story going. This is still one of the worst episodes of the season, but I still think “Derision” and “Illusion” are worse.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... ANDRE (THE OTHER ONE)

While Gabriel came close to getting his third Biggest Idiot Award in a row, I ultimately gave it to Andre because the episode tried to make him out to be a good father even though he's scared of his own child. He made an entire movie to show how much he loved someone as terrible as Audrey, wanted to keep organizing a school dance a secret from Chloe, kept enabling her even when she framed a classmate, and didn't even punish her afterwards when it was obvious she framed Marinette with the help of an Akuma.

[eu-ry-dice]

Welcome back to my bullshit

This time; Marc! Aka Argeiphontes, the Peacock Holder of this AU!

Don't ask why, the vibes just work, mk? Mk.

Also, yes, I drew his weird hair thingy as a ponytail. I'm not drawing that shit and you can fight me on it.

And now for the random bullshit facts

• Marc found the Peacock Miraculous in an alley and thought it looked nice, so he decided to take it with him. Meanwhile, Nathalie was freaking tf out cause she lost it.

• He freaked out and threw Duusuu out of a window when he first put the broach on and he popped out.

• His parents own a successful tech business overseas so he uses a voice changer to hide his identity better, using a different voice every patrol. It's also why he can 'sneak out', and be Argeiphontes whenever - his parents are never at their house so he doesn't need to sneak.

• Marc usually sends Sentimonsters (idk what he'd call them tbh) that look like him to help with fights and watches from a distance cause he doesn't want to get in LB and CN's way.

• He can glide thanks to the tail feathers on his costume and essentially has the Minecraft slow fall effect.

• His fan's feathers are extremely sharp and are basically like knives. He can also control them even if he isn't using them to create an Amok.

• He figured out Nathaniel and Marinette's identities pretty quick because.. come on. It's painfully obvious. He's still in denial about Adrien being Chat Noir, though, because of the horrendous puns.

• His 'mask' is actually moreso makeup than a mask. He doesn't intentionally conceal his face, it just happens to be covered by his hood most of the time. His reasoning is because he's basically invisible in his civilian life anyway, so nobody would even recognise him.

• When Marc finally joins the art club and has friends other than Marinette, there's a miscommunication that makes them think he hates heroes and treat him kinda crappy at first cause of it, which is what leads to Reverser in this AU. Luckily he doesn't have his broach on when he's akumatised. He kinda takes the 'hating heroes' thing and runs with it as an excuse as to why he isn't a hero on the rare occasion someone (*cough* Alix and Nath *cough*) starts connecting the dots.

• People can't really figure out if Argeiphontes is meant to be a hero or a villain. He's usually helping, but sometimes his Sentimonsters get out of control and start seemingly attacking people and destroying stuff for no reason. This is mostly because of the Peacock Miraculous being damaged, which he figured out and decides to start fighting himself and not with Sentimonsters.

• The 'childlock' is keeping Marc safe from the damaged Miraculous the most part, but he's still starting to get sick. Later down the line, he'll likely need a mobility aid of some sort like Nathalie had in canon but it isn't taking effect as fast because of the power limitations.

• The hoodie in his costume isn't actually.. a part of his costume. He just consistently puts it on overtop because he gets cold. It also hides his Miraculous, but it's not intentional and he doesn't even realise that he's hiding it until Vixen points it out.

[its-your-girl-geekerella]

My thoughts on Protection.

First of all: ALL HAIL QUEEN NATHALIE. But we already knew that ;)

Second of all: I am sick and tired of this girl.

Ok, I WAS talking about Lila, but now that I think about it, I'm tired of Kagami, too. I do like Kagami, but WHY? (You know what? I'll make a separate post on that later on.)

I had a bunch of other notes on this episode, but as I look at my Tumblr feed, I think that everyone else has pretty much said everything that needed to be said. (ie: Adrien is the best bf, we stan pajama Marinette, those kind of things)

Anyway, that's all!😘