#everything is connected to Reflekdoll

[dedud3d]

so ml canon divergence au where after reflekdoll, marinette gets sick or hurt or both and can't be ladybug for a bit because of it so she has tikki go to chat so he can, ideally, take over as ladybug while she's gone and choose who he wants to be his black cat

adrien doesn't do that and instead chooses alya to be ladybug so it becomes a scarabella and chat noir team up which makes gabriel finally gather up enough courage to use his braincells

akuma + sentimonster + hawkmoth + mayura + bad/newbie ladybug who doesn’t have the talent for it or the experience in fighting together with chat noir = the highest chance of victory he has had so far(?)

so he makes an akuma and has mayura make them a sentimonster then they wait for scarabella to use her lucky charm and for chat noir to use his cataclysm before ambushing them then blocking them from escaping until they detransform and he can take their miraculous with minimal risk

*insert evil monologue and how disappointing adrien/chat noir is* before he makes the wish

gimmi: alright then Mr "nothing left to lose", bet.

gabriel wakes up in prison (life sentence with no chance of parole) and stays there for years without anyone visiting him with all the prisoners hating him before he accidentally broken out by a fight between someone with the dragon miraculous and someone with the ox miraculous whose superpower seems like a green lantern ring knock off instead of making him immune to superpowers like nooroo told him it would.

at first he just thinks nooroo might have somehow lied to him but then the Dragon miraculous user uses fire and then he's just confused.

he doesn't get much time to think on it because the inmates all start shouting and running towards the hole the two supervillains(?) made to try and escape. he follows them and ends up managing to escape but not without some bruises and a few bullets grazing him.

after his (not so) great escape, he hides and stumbles upon the goat miraculous by accident then laughs

gabriel: yes... the world is surely on my side!

he puts on the miraculous and transforms but his weapon isn't a brush, it's a battering ram stick with a goat head, and yelling 'genesis', no matter how many times he does so even at differing volumes, does nothing.

he also finds himself detransforming moments later and almost passing out from exhaustion. while he's on his knees gasping for air, a snort draws his attention, the source being... a kwami who looked very smug

gabriel glared at the goat kwami who dared treat him with such insolence

gabriel: ziggy, I order you to stop laughing and explain to me what is going on immediately!!!

the kwami's expression immediately turned to stone much to gabriel's satisfaction, though it didn't last very long before they burst out laughing

ziggy: hahahaha!!! what do you think this is, the previous world?

they didn't wait for an answer and promptly burst out laughing again

gabriel couldn't tolerate such disrespect and made to grab the accursed kwami to shut him up but his hand passed right through them. gabriel stared at his arm for a moment before making another attempt to grab them again... and again... and again and again

eventually the accursed creature stopped laughing and gave him a very bored look which somehow made him feel worse than when they were laughing at him. it was as if they saw gabriel as joke, and that joke was used too much at once so now it was no longer funny

ziggy: you said you had nothing left to lose, right gabi?

gabriel immediately went to correct them, after all gabi grassette was weak and long dead, but the kwami continued without giving him a chance

ziggy: that's why gimmi generously only took away everything you didn't care about to revive your wife

gabriel suddenly had a sinking feeling

ziggy: your reputation, your skills and talents, your knowledge as well as your connections... all of them were either taken away and given to someone else or made no longer applicable

he hoped that his knowledge no longer being applicable only applied to the miraculous but for now he needed to know more about the first part

gabriel: g-given away!? to who!?

ziggy: hmm... who knows really? but my hope is that it's ladybug, both because that would be really funny and a well deserved break for her as well as great karma for you!

gabriel barely managed to keep himself from grinding his teeth to dust or smashing his fist into the concrete wall or ground. the thought of that... that brat getting his fortune and talents... it was unthinkable what gabriel would do to correct that.

the kwami snorted as if reading his mind

ziggy: you already committed mass genocide on a daily basis, how bigger a hole do you think you can dig yourself into?

gabriel glared at the kwami before responding

gabriel: as soon as I figure out how the miraculous work, you'll see.

ziggy: but why do you need the miraculous in the first place? your wife is alive and well now even if she never wants you to be a part of her or her son's life. I thought you didn't care about anything except her being alive? or are you finally ready to admit to yourself that your goal was always to rule the world and you wanting the miraculous to heal your wife was just the excuse you used to manipulate mayura into helping you?

gabriel: shut up!!! no one deserves to more than me!!!

ziggy shook her head as gabi walked past with thinly veiled rage

ziggy: karma is yet to collect your full debt...

[infinitysgrace]

Anyway, everything’s connected to Reflekdoll

Note that even though I’m using their names, I’m mostly going to be talking about their dynamic as Ladynoir. 

In seasons one and two their dynamic was set up, and we got to see a lot of how Adrien and Marinette play around each other, y’know the usual. You don’t really ever question it aside from the occasional reality check from Gabriel from Gabriel in season 1. They’re partners, they work together, I don’t think I really need to explain season one. Everything’s pretty straightforward which makes sense because it’s only the first season. Nothing’s really happens before Tikki steals the book that challenges the two of theirs relationship to each other. 

Then Volpina happens, and this episode is the start of where their dynamic changes, but neither of them really realize that because they haven’t really changed. How they’re treated by others changes with the introduction of Master Fu as a character that will be somewhat more involved than he was in season one. Now on to season 2 and... ugh...

I could definitely go on a rant about how everything is Fu’s fault and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do because it’s relevant I swear. 

Fu being a fucking awful mentor this season put a rift between them. It put Marinette in a position where she’s gaining information and also gaining the responsibility of keeping that information while not having any guidance on how to handle that responsibility because she’s been barred from telling Adrien anything, and also Fu’s an awful mentor and just shoved jewelry in her face and said “hey figure it out, I’m too traumatized for this although I definitely should’ve thought about that before bringing two children into this nonsense that I indirectly caused.” 

This season also where Adrien’s internal conflicts and his general distrust of adults in power really start coming to the forefront of his character because yeah the kid has no self worth whatsoever and the fact that his first friend outside of Chloe is suddenly keeping more secrets from him than just secret identities, yeah that had to hurt. It’s where on Cat Noir’s side of this, he is able to be hurt by choices that are made, and he doesn’t have the idea that others will treat him like his father does if he fucks up in his head until around Anansi which is kinda late season 2. 

Like it’s always been a fear but it’s over the course of this season where he starts seeing the stuff happening around him as validation for that fear which definitely isn’t helped by the rift Fu’s fuckface created between him and Marinette. Neither of them ever recover from this and it only gets worse from then on. 

Then we have season three. Specifically, Reflekdoll. 

This episode is the first time the flaws of their dynamic caused by the separation what happened in s2 are directly contributing to them having a harder time defeating Reflekdoll. I’ve gone on record saying that my problem with this episode isn’t that they learned the wrong lesson, it’s that they learned a bad lesson that didn’t do anything but fuck them both over because it wasn’t caused by miscommunication like usual problems between them, it was caused by a misunderstanding of what was being communicated because neither of them had the development or self awareness to even be able to understand let alone prevent that, which is so much more complicated and frustrating than miscommunication actually. 

I’ve also gone on record saying that Reflekdoll foreshadowed Adrien’s akumatization by presenting us with the reality that when Adrien feels pressure he shuts down his own thoughts completely and defers to someone he cares about for guidance because he’s never really been allowed to make choices without the influence of others which foreshadows the conflict he had when Gabriel and Marinette were both yelling at him to do conflicting things in Chat Blanc and why he ultimately ended up killing them both and everyone else for that matter. 

I said earlier today that Reflekdoll was the start of the duo’s death spiral, and what I mean is they both came out of this episode reinforcing their old dynamic instead of realizing that the dynamic is the problem and is something that has to change for them to be able to work healthily as partners. Them doubling down on it in this episode is what causes Marinette to double down on overworking herself which resulted in her breakdown by the end of the season. Them doubling down on it in this episode is what makes Adrien start to remove the idea of “himself” from how he’s being treated by people he’s supposed to trust and is really the start of his “blind trust” act because yes it is an act, the alternative is him cutting out everyone in his life except Nino. 

They both walked away from this episode with a genuine misunderstanding of each other that never gets resolved (yet), and now they’re starting to feel the effects of the bullshit that happened in that episode and neither of them know what to do or even understand what’s happening because when it was right in front of their face back in Reflekdoll a wrong turn was made, and now it’s too late to get out of this without burning. 

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

So I know in the past you’ve been upset that Chat Noir doesn’t take his duties as seriously as he should, pointing out how him quitting in the middle of the city flood was incredibly selfish and stupid, he’s more focused on forcing Ladybug to date him, ect. Given what people have been predicting in terms of him feeling like he’s not trusted enough, the secret identity thing, feeling more left out of the group, do you feel his reasons are a bit more justified this time? And that’s not to blame Ladybug or anything, just curious if you think this reason for him maybe-wanting to quit/feeling left out and not trusted are more valid this time around?

I feel like in theory, this could be a good storyline, and the inner turmoil from Adrien/Cat Noir could be interesting to watch. The problem is, like you said, he never takes his damn job seriously.

Cat Noir has repeatedly shown he really can’t be trusted with secrets, as he can’t really understand the responsibility of being a superhero. Sure, we got some moments of that in the first two seasons (mainly Lady WiFi and Gorizilla), but the show has had too many examples of him defying orders repeatedly, acting like an idiot on the battlefield, or just generally pushing boundaries with his partner.

During a public event at the beginning of “Copycat”, Cat Noir lied about being in a relationship with Ladybug and unintentionally caused the Akuma of the day while never telling Ladybug what happened, and never learned anything from that experience.

Though off-screen, he pulled a prank during an Akuma fight in “Reflekdoll” which almost screwed up the fight, and when he got to experience how tough Ladybug’s job is through switching Miraculous for the day, he ignored it at the end of the episode while basically saying “Wow, sucks to be her”. This makes Miraculous Ladybug the only show to do a body swap episode and completely screw up the message.

The whole reason Ladybug and Cat Noir lost their memories in “Oblivio” was because he was slacking off on the battlefield, and Ladybug had to save his ass. When they got their memories back at the end of the episode and found out they kissed before they got their memories back, Ladybug was horrified while Cat Noir laughed it off and kept saying they were “mEaNt FoR eAcH oThEr”. For context, when Ladybug was forced to kiss Cat Noir in “Dark Cupid”, she generally didn’t want to and tried to apologize afterwards.

During “Glaciator” and “Frozer”, Cat Noir let his feelings get in the way of saving lives and gave Ladybug sass for no reason other than to punish her for not returning his advances after being turned down multiple times while never being called out on it.

He willingly sacrificed himself in “Gamer 2.0.” despite Ladybug’s protests, saying he trusted her to do everything, and would later do the same thing in “Lies” and then admit he thinks her angry face is cute. The latter example is meant to show how charming Cat Noir is as a character.

He almost fell for an evil doppelganger of Ladybug in “The Puppeteer 2” because she said she loved him and was about to lose his Miraculous if not for noticing she was a wax statue (even though they were fighting in a wax statue museum and could have easily picked up the smell of wax), and later actually fell for an evil doppelganger of Ladybug in “Ladybug” because she said she loved him, and neither time, he was called out for it.

When Ladybug was captured by an Akuma in “Party Crasher”, he ignored Master Fu’s orders to stay still because of how dangerous the Akuma was, and blindly charged in before having to be bailed out by four other heroes.

In “Desperada”, Adrien was offered the Snake Miraculous, and rather than turning it down because he was already Cat Noir, decided to take it and work with Ladybug just so he could impress her and used the Snake’s power to turn back time 25,913 times before giving up.

In “Lies”, he kept screwing around while on patrol, and showed excitement at the possibility of someone getting akumatized while the episode states that he can’t be with Kagami because of how seriously he takes being Cat Noir.

In “Sentibubbler”, he was specifically ordered by Rena Rouge to stant still and wait for further instructions, but because it wasn’t Ladybug, he smashed a chimney out of anger and openly defied orders by charging into battle so Marinette had to tell him the damn plan just so he wouldn’t screw it up

If you were the Guardian and had the authority to take away Adrien’s Miraculous after reviewing all of the things he did, would you actually trust him, or make sure he never even sees a Miraculous until he cleans up his act?

Most of these flaws are never acknowledged by the show, and the writers act like he’s such a valuable asset to the team, even though as soon as she became Ladybug’s confidant, Alya took her new position much more seriously (except in “Rocketear”),  and actually helped her out at critical moments, while never really trying to exploit her connections with Ladybug or pushed any boundaries in terms of her superhero side.

I’m not saying Adrien is wrong to be angry at the lack of trust, and I’m glad the show is finally acknowledging the inequality in their partnership, but I just don’t really think Ladybug is being unreasonable to place her trust in other heroes instead of Cat “Gets Brainwashed at Every Opportunity” Noir.

[miraculouscontent]

“favorite salt blogger” eXcUse yOu

But yes, I am absolutely up for another Alya roast.

[All’s Fair in Love and Lore]

First things first, I want to reiterate something I brought up a long time ago (back when I talked about “Mayura”), which is my relationship with lore and how it affects my opinion of an episode.

I see lore as a seasoning, not as a main course, so it’s rather difficult to get me riled up over details about lore. I mean, a lot of people complained about Mayura’s power, for example, but I was not one of those people. The core of my critique and analysis lie in character interactions and plot details, not lore. If the lore is good, great, but if it’s lackluster/bad, I’m not as likely to hammer away at it compared to say, someone like Alya (we’ll get to her in a moment, I promise).

Anyway, I’m gonna be honest in saying that I wasn’t expecting Fu’s foe to be a sentimonster of his own creation. I mean, we’d known for a long time that the destruction of the temple was caused by something that Fu did, but we didn’t know what until now.

As for the reasoning itself, I’m mostly on board because Fu was like, a dumb teenager who didn’t even want to be a guardian, so the fact that it was a silly mistake makes sense to me. My biggest gripe is honestly just that they didn’t clarify how Fu dropped his staff and then couldn’t go after it. Is it going to be revealed after all this time that the man can’t swim?

(that problem might’ve been solved had the flashbacks shown less and been more vague visually; same applies to him talking about losing the grimoire and peacock+butterfly)

I’m aware that a lot of people thought that there’d be more build-up/tension from Fu making a mistake that literally destroyed a whole temple, and I think the reason for that is that we, as an audience, weren’t told that it was such a small mistake. When we see the temple being destroyed and Fu looking on with regret, it makes the situation seem really big and important, like Fu trusted someone he shouldn’t have and that someone was a big bad of some kind.

I can’t blame people for being disappointed, but considering that the temple and all its residents were brought back in the end, I’m glad it was just a foolish mistake made by a salty hungry teen that could simply be reversed, because Fu didn’t deserve to live his entire life feeling guilty over it. Like, yeah, there are some obvious things that should probably be addressed (i.e: the fact that these residents have been gone for almost 200 years) but eh, details, I don’t really care that much.

Though, I guess we know why Wang “bicycle away from all problems” Fu isn’t that great as a guardian now; he’s had a few years of training at best. It doesn’t excuse everything he did and I wish it was more of a plot point but still.

Plus, him being like, “yeah, forget how the actual guardians tried to teach me because clearly that did nothing for me mentally,” was very amusing to me and also, yeah, I don’t think that starving teens for 24 hours who don’t even want this darn job is a great idea either.

That said, I do feel like this episode kind of has the “Ladybug” problem where they’re focusing on two characters at once, and in both “Ladybug” (an episode that should be Marinette-centric) and “Feast” (an episode that should be Fu-centric), that second character is Nathalie/Mayura. I don’t technically have an issue with Nathalie getting focus in a narrative sense (though, am I the only one who thinks that the foreshadowing in “Ladybug” over Emilie using the peacock is pointless now? I felt like Adrien saying “the same thing happened to my mom” is enough.), but when Fu already doesn’t get a lot of focus outside of plot-centric episodes (technically Marinette doesn’t either but she has screen time), I feel bad for the guy. I think Nathalie’s plot points could’ve been used better in an episode like “Miraculer” since Chloe already gets more than enough focus.

Granted, if this episode was a two-parter, I would’ve been all for Nathalie getting focus because this episode is about a sentimonster, so it makes sense, but I don’t think the episode was able to touch on both topics in full in the time it had, and it’s just weird in general that this season is a downgrade from Season 2 in that respect, where Season 2 had multiple two-parters (one of them technically being a three-parter) whereas Season 3 only has one two-parter. I believe I’ve talked about it before, but now it’s two episodes that could’ve been worthy of being two-parters (three if counting “Miraculer” but I was reaching on that one), so it’s even more noticeable than before.

What I do like about the episode is the Marinette and Fu interactions along with Marinette and Adrien being heroic civilians. It was also interesting to see Wayzz lecturing Fu about how Fu was making a mistake because it’s nice seeing Wayzz have more input on the matter.

Also, Plagg playing piano with Adrien was good. I guess Sadrien was inevitable since Nathalie’s sick but thank goodness it’s brief.

...you know what I didn’t like though?

[Abandon Hope, Alya Who Enter Here]

Gosh darn--Alya, I swear, I leave you alone for one episode (for the most part) and I guess you didn’t like that or something because DANG.

Now, look, I totally get Alya being in pursuit of more information. In fact, I'd be in full support if we got to see more of Alya coming up with in-depth theories, whether they're true or not.

The problem is that Alya has no tact when doing so, and this brings me all the way back to "Oblivio" when I rambled about the fact that Alya took that photo and posted it online without Ladybug's permission, despite Ladybug having trusted her, given her an interview, and gave her a miraculous on multiple occasions.

And I do not believe for one second that Alya ever gave up on figuring out Ladybug's identity here. She clearly gets nervous when Marinette calls her out for it, and I don't see "figuring out Hawk Moth's identity" as her only goal.

Her actions here are particularly insulting because of the severity in what she's doing. Either Alya believes that her theory isn't accurate and that's why it's okay to post it, or she's just that reckless in what she's doing.

Considering her track record, I'm inclined to go with the latter.

Furthermore, Alya explaining all of these things when she already has a video about it on her blog is dumb for two reasons. One is that she's presuming that neither Marinette nor Alix follow her blog (at the very least, she presumed that Marinette did back in "Dark Cupid"), and two, she put her blog first and her friends second when prioritizing who should know. It just seems superfluous for her to tell her friends this information when she's already made a video about it (at least run it by them for a quality check first jfjisoshfhf).

And speaking of prioritizing who should know, Ladybug should know and Alya doesn’t even run it by her first either. Presuming that “The Mime” happened by now (basically impossible for it to have not), Marinette has already given Alya an interview with Ladybug, so Marinette should be the first one that Alya goes to so she can be like, “Hey, can you get a hold of Ladybug again so I can ask if this is accurate/helpful?”

I dread what would’ve happened had Alya gotten her hands on the grimoire somehow. Every single page would’ve been posted to the Ladyblog without a single thought and the mere idea of that is horrifying.

The fact that Alya mentions Hawk Moth yet doesn’t even realize the gravity of what she’s doing is ridiculous, and going further to have Marinette apologize to Fu for giving Alya the fox miraculous but not having it be directly addressed (i.e: not having Ladybug visit Alya to talk about privacy; again, having this be a two-parter would’ve been nice) while Alya clearly learns nothing by the end of the episode is just--

it’s dumb. Alya wouldn’t even have needed to get a talking to by Ladybug anyway if the episode had just had Alya see the crushed/missing statue at the museum and made the connection that, “oh, I posted a video about this statue and now the statue is gone and a terrible monster hungry for miraculouses with that same symbol on its head showed up not too long after HMMMMMMM.” The episode claims that Alya is a great journalist only to then not have her connect the dots because... like, tunnel vision, I guess???

And that wouldn’t be a problem if it were just addressed, but instead, now we have yet another female character who has their hero status brought into question, leaving Ladybug as the only female who is undoubtedly trustworthy (not counting Alix, the eventual bunny holder).

It’s so baffling to me that the episode goes out of its way to bring up the issue of what Alya’s doing and why it’s dangerous, only to then not discuss it further. I don’t know if the episode went through rewrites that ended with the scene cut out, but that scene would’ve been important unlike... say, Alya getting on Marinette’s case for staring at Adrien (and the award for the most irrelevant scene in this episode goes to--).

I mean, despite what I said about the episode itself and it needing more time in general, the episode can’t spend time on pointing out that Alya has made a mistake only to then not take the time to address it and instead show that Alya hasn’t learned anything.

Thus, given “Reflekdoll” and now this, we see that even if Alya is clearly at fault and/or needs to learn a lesson, regardless of whether the writers are aware of it/point it out or not, nothing will come of it.

*sigh*

[miraculousshipping]

Missing Pieces

So this is something that I thought of when I watched the end of Reflekdoll.

Adrien and Marinette regroup with their friends and Adrien gets to stay and continue doing the shoot with Juleka getting to model. So before Juleka changes clothes and Marinette gives the jewelry to Juleka...What if she noticed that Marinette isn’t wearing the green clip on earrings like she was before? Instead she’s wearing the regular black studs that she always wears. 

“Hey Marinette, when did you put your regular earrings back on?” Juleka asks as Marinette hands her the green ones. 

Marinette looks up at Juleka. Adrien who is standing next to Juleka at the time arches one of his eyebrows and looks at Marinette. 

“Hm?” She asks, confused for a minute before her eyes widened and she nervously laughed. 

“Oh! Right my earrings!” Marinette exclaims. “Yeah I did take them off to do the shoot but then after everything went back to normal I just took these green ones off since I knew I’d be giving them to you anyway because I want you to do the shoot and figured I’d put my regular ones back on! Wouldn’t want to lose them you know.” She chuckles and gives Juleka a forced grin. 

Juleka and the rest of the girls buy it. But Adrien made a connection. Today, both he and Ladybug lost their Miraculous at the same time. He had to take off his to do the shoot, and Marinette had to take off her earrings for the same reason. If Marinette didn’t have her earrings on when Ladybug lost her miraculous, then clearly this must mean that-

“Hey Adrien where’s your ring?” Marinette asks, pulling him out of his thoughts. 

“Huh?” Adrien asks then looks down and remembers that he took off the ring with the green stone in the middle to put his miraculous back on. 

“Oh yeah!” He says and laughs nervously. “I have it right here in my pocket don’t worry!” 

He takes it out and puts in on his other hand. 

“I thought that the ring I normally wear worked well with the outfit too so I figured I’d keep it on! Wouldn’t want to lose it!” He says and laughs again. 

“Yeah, I understand.” Marinette says and looks at it. “And it’s a nice ring, it does work with the outfit...” 

That’s when she realizes that she’s seen that ring before. Not just on Adrien, but on herself. When she used Chat Noir’s miraculous today, she saw what it looked like when Plagg wasn’t powering it before giving it back to Plagg. It looked just like the ring Adrien was wearing now. 

Adrien looks at Marinette’s earrings again. He had seen what Ladybug’s earrings look like when Tikki wasn’t powering them, and realizes that they look just like the earrings Marinette was wearing now. 

Then they both look into each other’s eyes. Marinette then remembers what was so familiar about Mister Bug’s eyes. They look just like Adrien’s...

Adrien looks into Marinette’s eyes. If he chose not to change his eye color and hair when he transformed into Mister Bug, what if Ladybug made the same choice? In that case, Marinette shared a striking resemblance to Ladybug. 

Then Adrien’s bodyguard cleared his throat and they both looked at him as he tapped his watch. 

“Oh right! I’m staying longer but I can’t stay out that much longer.” Adrien says. 

“Oh my gosh I totally forgot! You’re right, come on Juleka let’s go change!” Marinette says and quickly grabs her wrist and drags her over to the car to get her clothes so she could give Juleka the one’s she’s wearing. 

Adrien watched her as she ran away. Part of him thought he was being crazy, if Ladybug is the woman he loves, if he ever met her without her mask on he’d surely know it was her right? But then maybe that’s why he felt strangely drawn to Marinette, and has to keep convincing himself that he only thinks of her as just a friend. He couldn’t be in love with both of them could he? But if Marinette was Ladybug, then it would make sense. 

While Marinette changed back into her clothes in the stall of a public restroom she thought about her past with Chat Noir, and how she’s ended up kissing him on more than one occasion. The time when she kissed him during the fight against Oblivio was the one she thought about the most. She didn’t understand how she could do that when she was in love with Adrien. But if Adrien was Chat Noir, then it would make sense. 

Marinette and Adrien didn’t say anything else about each other’s missing jewelry when she came back with Juleka. Even though they both thought their reasoning was solid, there was a chance they could have gotten it wrong, and they couldn’t risk revealing their biggest secrets to each other. 

So for now, they’d continue on as if nothing huge had happened today. But in their minds, these missing pieces, had helped them put-

the Pieces Together

[onifere]

An Idea on the Kwami Swap

 Edited

  After watching Reflekdoll, I realized that this episode is why I tend to resent shows that are made so their episodes could be watched in every order. Such a choice implies that plotlines must be extremely simple and easy to follow. By doing this, we lose many possibilities for important character development. And, I think with this episode, we did not lose an important possibility for Cat Noir's character development, but a critical one.

  Reflekdoll was the perfect episode to show us that, yeah, as of how Cat Noir's currently acts in battles, Ladybug doesn't really need him. He's not that huge of a help. She could do without him. She could have saved Paris countless times without his help. I'd even say, if she really needed support, she just could have asked others miraculouses holders like Queen B(ee?) or Rena Rouge/Carapace without ever asking for Chat's help.

   When I look back on Ladynoir's use of the Cat's Miraculous in Reflekdoll, she makes it looks so strong…  Which it is! She uses it so well, that Reflekdoll basically gets pummelled and send in every direction. Compare that to Cat Noir's use of the miraculous’s powers, you would think that his miraculous's powers are on the same level of a support miraculouses (like Rena Rouge's, Carapace's etc). When it isn’t, no, it one of two most powerful miraculouses there is! And Plagg showed that when he destroyed a major part of Paris along with the Eifel Tower in “Style Queen”! Of course, you could say that it’s to not make Adrien OP, but I’d say not OP YET, as he would need training and all to master such a Cataclysm. Then we could have such uses of it. But the point stands, the cat miraculous is far stronger than what Adrien’s use allows.  Marinette even at her kind of “beginner” level Ladybug does a much better use of her miraculous strengths and capacities.

  It has always been obvious that Cat Noir's fighting style is reckless, almost as if he does this to "have fun". And it has been established many times that he acts with a selflessness that I’d qualify virtuous but too dangerous. (for me it’s the bioproduct of a lacking feeling of self-worth but we’re not going there yet!) So, it comes to no one's surprise that Adrien's use of the Cat's Miraculous is lacking in skill. As it doesn’t seem that he cares at being skilful. He sure wants to be helpful, yes, but it does not seem to translate in him making skilful use of his miraculous.

  SO, to get back to Cat Noir's character development, this episode could have been perfect for him to see:

1) The Cat's Miraculous true strength when properly used.

2) Not how useless he is, but how more useful he could be.

  And it would have been great if Adrien reacted to Ladybug doing so well as LadyNoire if not BETTER than him with some shame. You know, this feeling you have when you realize you’re nothing special, although you thought you were? Adrien realizing that, truly most of the time he is useless to Ladybug, as now he is showed by LadyNoire how much more useful he could be?

   It could have been a great way to kick off Cat Noir's character development as he then tries to train himself, to stay more focused in battles, just to change for the better. For his Lady, for Paris.

   And perhaps these changes could have helped Adrien in his daily life! In perhaps feeling less unimportant. (I get the feeling that Cat Noir acts the way he does because he feels as if it's not a big deal if something happens to him. Perhaps I’m wrong (again the idea of selflessness)). Perhaps such changes would help Adrien into realizing that "YES! I do matter.” "YES! People are interested in me!”, and "YES! My friends value me!”. And perhaps he wouldn’t have to be so huh… Lifeless? I also think it would make him less oblivious to how he is seen by others.

  And even if it only helps Adrien as Cat Noir it would be something interesting, to see him try… And struggle! As such changes take time! It takes times changes, and some time you go back to your old ways without wanting to, so you keep fighting to maintain your progress. Of course, it shouldn’t change him too much. Keep him lively yet keep the puns and funny cat things for when the akuma is dealt with. A proof of his evolution, of him trying to mature.

 NOW

COMPLETLY ANOTHER SUBJECT BUUUUUUT

AM I. THE ONLY ONE. WHO THINKS,

That the show would be all over better if the kwami swap was like, permanent? I mean, obviously the show was never built to unable such an important event. But imagine if it were… I see that swap moment as one that would have defined the show! Like One Piece’s two years’ time skip which served as a big step in the series! I see how us, fans, would call it “the great kwami swap” or some shit like that… I would be a point in the show when everything changes!

  By seeing Marinette with Plagg and Adrien’s with Tikki, I was quite taken aback to see how they look so much more… Compatible?

  To me Plagg and Marinette, Tikki and Adrien, both are better matches. To me, it seems like these matches “push out” something from the characters themselves. They feel more natural. A good step, taken, in the right direction. The next evolution. I personally have never been happier to see Marinette fight as LadyNoire! It looked as if she was born to be Ladynoire and her interactions with Plagg, it looked they'd be a greater harmony between the two! And again, to me she acted freer than ever, and was even more performant.

I think that Plagg would be a better influence for Marinette as he always looks like he's the "cool" dude going with the flow? I'd see him cheering Marinette on, pushing her to be freer minded, less stressed (as he’d teach to care less about trivial things that don’t matter), open her up to new possibilities. His "Everythin's fine, man…" attitude feels like it would be a much better help on the long term for Marinette.

Edit: Plagg’s influence would be even better as he’d teach her to “Go for it” something that is indispensable for a designer/artist, you know? Not being afraid to show your work, not being afraid to be more “aggressive” even more creative perhaps?! Like he would tell her, encourage her to go wild as fuck and even if her art/sketch would not amount to any creations it would be experiences that shape her? He would push her to try everything!

   For Adrien and Tikki, the connection seemed much more subtle yet as good as Marinette’s and Plagg’s connection. Both having soft personalities, both being kind of reserved and quiet/calm. (even tho Tikki is far more optimistic and uplifted than Adrien). Basically, being permanently Mister Bug, we would start to see an Adrien whom starts kind of dumb and useless. Yet he would not give up. (He would be kind of “meh” in the start as there is a lot of work to do but hey! With experience it would come, and he would then one day surpass Marinette’s Ladybug (as Ladynoire would Surpass Adrien’s Cat Noir).

And same for Ladynoire’s better use/compatibility of the cat’s miraculous! It seemed bizarre how it felt more right for me to see Adrien as Mister Bug. (it might all come down to my preferences) The fact that he guessed he’d get a mirror is for me proof he used a kind of logic that we never saw Marinette use. She almost always receives her lucky charms and appears dumbfounded for a second, then looks everywhere on how to use it. But Adrien guessed what he would get. He didn’t know how to use it, and acted dumb because It’s his first time, but also (I think!) because he didn’t want to put in the effort of thinking (again, his recklessness is showing). And AGAIN, throughout the fight against Reflekdoll he was acting recklessly, like he does as Cat Noir. (well yeah, duh.) Swinging his yo-yo like a moron. (Nobody should mock him for that as Marinette’s own beginnings with the yo-yo weren’t glorious either).

  I was talking about how it would have been cool for Adrien to have with this episode the start of an arc where he questions his usefulness in battles and how he wants to get better, how he wants to be of greater importance in fighting Akumas with Ladybug, but hey! Being Mister Bug would solve all these problems! As Cat Noir's problems for me all boil down to a lack of focus, lack of self-worth = "doesn't matter what happens to me she got this" kind of crap.

  So being Mister Bug would make him more patient, focused, on the lookout for details, would make him think more, be more aware of his surroundings and the people around him.  It would fix his self-worth issues! Not like the lack of self-worthiness is Adrien’s defining trait, but it would surely help! Moreover, I feel like Adrien would be better off with Tikki as a kwami as she could provide a sort of replacement for motherly care/attention that Adrien seems to lack and seek, making him feel more balanced, important, secure. And he would feel more useful, he would feel necessary (closing the arc to him feeling useless in battles. AGAIN, I must stress this he could start to feel useless, train as chat noir, yet his training makes him more useful, true but he’d want to be even more useful, he would want to feel necessary, there is nothing wrong about wanting to be necessary.) (I say that, because in Reflekdoll he seemed so happy, no fond to catch & release the akuma. Like “YES, the fight is over thanks to me purifying the little bug) like it was really cute, HE was really cute gimme a break xD)

  There are holes in my ideas of course, but I think these holes could be patched, but looking how the show is made it’s clearly impossible. As of how I see it, it all comes down to how the show was written (duh) and prepared. Now, it’s obvious they don’t want to pull off this “permanent kwami swap” but they simply… Can’t… Such a swap should have been prepared…  Prepared from the start as "THE Great Miraculous Swap". They would have made the swap the result of a long arc for both Ladybug and Cat Noir. And of course, the show should just have been named: "Miraculous', not "Miraculous Ladybug" or "Miraculous tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir" so they would have been no problems with such a swap (with the title I mean) .

   The idea of a swap could have been the result of a long arc. I can see this arc taking place over the three first seasons of the show! Being a long, slow realization that something is off, that “Maybe, things would be better if I… Changed?” as the two realize that the problem lies within them… The third season would have been about the two characters understanding that perhaps, all would be better if they were to just, swap kwamis and miraculouses. But much m, they would understand that the swap IS needed.  More than being needed, the permanent swap could have opened the gates for deep character development. We could have explored their fear regarding things changing so greatly, their apprehension over “What is the public going to think, they’re going to get confused!” (it would be Marinette that would worry over that.), or the “Would I be a better Mister Bug/LadyNoir that I am Cat Noir/Ladybug?” Moreover, they could have used the idea of the miraculous swap to deepens the two heroes relationship with master Fu as they would tell him how they feel, their struggle with their hero purpose/identity. He’d try to help them but to no avail.

   Reflekdoll could have been a first taste of such an idea. I see the episode light the little of spark of “Yep, it feels right, better, can’t go around it now… We need to do it.”. Especially for Marinette as she would have felt freer as Lady noire. Losing her apprehensions “This isn’t so bad…” and Adrien as Mister Bug would have felt kind of dumb and rather weak but being Mister bug would have still felt righter than being Cat Noir. He wouldn’t know why, but he would feel as if things were in a better order (don’t get me started on how we could have seen then resent the idea to give back the other’s miraculous, HMMPF.THE.ANGST.). And the part that “Historically women are better with the Ladybug miraculous and men with the cat miraculous could have been challenged etc! And you know, the fear of the routine, what you’re accustomed to disappearing etc…

  Then, we’d have tearful goodbyes with their first kwamis as it’s a chapter of their lives that ends, just like real life! You make great friends, but even though you are great friends you sometimes need to let go and let the wind of time blow… Which they would have done by saying goodbye to their first kwamis and embracing the next chapter it would have been so deep! (and since Adrienette is probably endgame they would still have endend back together so…) The show could have been themed over growing up, realization, big changes and just the way teen just mature, by making those big changes.  And with that the greater problems would have been fixed already, the three first season Adrien would have spent time with Plagg, Marinette with Tikki and they would both have learned from their first kwamis, then they swap and realize how right it feels to be the other!

  We could have had an even better team! Them understanding each other! Helping each other just after the miraculous swap by giving each other tips in the middle of fights, not sending each other jabs like Ladynoire did to mister bug (although because of how the current show handled its narrative, it is understandable that Marinette jabs a Mister bug being like “ain’t that easy, uh bitch?”) and even think of the possibilities! What about the others  in the team thinking that things were better before? (Like Queen B(ee?), Carapace, Rena Rouge, Viperion thinking that Ladybug was better than Mister bug and the swap was foolish etc it could have created tension, made possible important character interactions, development etc!) And to people who really want a Ladybug and a Cat Noir, the show could have been shaped to Star with Ladynoir and Mister Bug then swap! (although I personally find it better to go from Ladybug/Cat Noir to LadyNoir/Mister Bug (because the connections between the new bearers and their new kwamis feels more right to me). But again, the show was never built so it could plan, even handle such an event. To me it’s a shame…

Finally, I must stress that they would still both learn from their time as Cat Noir/Ladybug! They would have developed and grown but not as much with their second miraculous. I certainly wouldn’t want the show to play the first assignment as a plain mistake/waste of time, make it feel needed, and make sure the two characters remember this time of their life as them learning, figuring stuff out as best as they can, don’t make them bitter over “lost time”!

I only wish it was this way, just because to me, the character and their struggle would have felt more real… But the show was made this way, who cares? Not me, I’m sure I can find many swap AU on the internet! (And I’m Looking for it now :} )

[dapple-grey-mare]

Desperada rant

don’t worry, it’s not bad

So I didn’t like this episode at first. Mostly because they kept going with the “Marinette goes crazy in front of Adrien” thing that I’m really sick of.

But they handled it a lot better than I expected.

They acknowledged that Marinette does like both boys (”Luka’s just a friend” my ass) and that she does need to make a choice. They made some of the girls Lukanette supporters (specifically Alya, which I’ll talk about later) and they mentioned how Marinette seems so at ease with Luka. 

Why is this important? Because they aren’t force feeding us this “Adrinette forever they have so much chemistry and it’s so adorable how Marinette stutters and blushes and stumbles over herself” which is just bullshit. They are allowing the viewers to like something other than Adrinette. 

And it’s fine if you don’t. It’s fine if you do.

But now we have a choice, like Marinette does.

For once, they also pointed out how unhealthy their relationship could be in terms of balancing love and duty. They are meant to work together, but they need to be careful and not let their aspirations of love blind them.

Ladybug nearly disregarded Chat as a person because of Adrien’s presence, and laughed at Adrien’s joke while dismissing Chat’s same joke.

Ladybug was wrong, but Marinette realized how much of a mess she was in soon enough.

During that short moment where Adrien revealed himself, Ladybug looked angry. Surprised, of course, but unless it was an animation error, she was definitely cross with him.

She connected the dots immediately and was appalled by Chat’s lack of responsibility. Because he screwed up big time. She realized how love could blind someone. Especially when he confessed his love for her.

She chose Adrien for the snake miraculous at first, but when Luka used it, it seemed to work a lot better. 

A lot of people say it’s because there were three people, which is true, but I think Luka is just a better fit the miraculous in general. 

He’s a lot less dramatic and emotional than Adrien. He’s patient, calm, and calculating, which is what the Second Chance requires for a perfect plan. The black cat miraculous is fun and wild and everything Adrien wants to be when he dons the suit and finds his freedom. 

Speaking of...

Adrien was characterized incredibly well this episode.

He’s no longer a perfect sunshine child and that’s fine by me.

He let his love for Ladybug make him forget his duty as Chat Noir (while also OBLITERATING the true selves trope) and that’s wrong. His sense of responsibility was not really handled well in Reflekdoll but this is growth and that’s perfect. 

He made a mistake, he acknowledged it, he made up for it. This is the constant cycle of Marinette, no matter what she does.

But thank GOD it didn’t happen for her. It happened for him.

She did mess up in saying that Adrien should play guitar, but it was just her being lovestruck and a little immature. Because she’s a kid. Let her be a kid. She didn’t really hurt anyone and she mentioned later on how foolish she was being.

And best of all, she didn’t apologize for no reason. She just felt a little confused over her feelings like all teenagers do and everyone was fine.

Alya recognized this too. And she didn’t push her.

Which I LOVE! God I LOVE this!

Post-Season 1 Alya was pushy, annoying, hypocritical, and really getting on my nerves. She constantly made Marinette do things she was uncomfortable with and never acknowledged that Marinette should figure out her emotions on her own.

But this time, she just reassured Marinette that she’s not the only one with a tough choice and took a bit of pressure off her shoulders.

She was intuitive, understanding, kind, and everything Alya TRULY is. 

Kagami was similar, but in her own style. She was honest and blunt and reminded Marinette of what she needed to do. 

Marinette understood the closeness of Adrien and Kagami but could not let go of her feelings (that’s a difficult thing to do). Kagami understood the closeness of Marinette and Luka and didn’t realize how strong Marinette’s feelings were for Adrien. 

But she soon did, and she didn’t try to push anything onto Marinette. She only told her what she already knew. Perhaps a little harsh, but nothing too bad (considering Kagami’s background).

I’m just amazed at how this episode blended so many different ships (Lukanette, Kagadrien, Ladrien), plot points (the snake miraculous, Jagged Stone characterization), and filler scenes and still managed to create a cohesive storyline with some of the best writing this season has seen so far.

I love this episode.

There’s not much Adrinette or any Marichat, but it reminds me of what I love about the show.

[infinitysgrace]

me talking about Reflekdoll: this episode really established a disconnect between Adrien’s actions as Cat Noir and how Marinette interprets those actions 

Wishmaker: *exists*

I hate being right.

[infinitysgrace]

Every episode of ML Season 4: *exists* 

Me: well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of Reflekdoll coming back as expected

[infinitysgrace]

Cos like it's easy to say that Chat Blanc is the cause of what's going on with Marinette keeping unnecessary secrets, but you gotta remember that not only did Kwamibuster happen before that and set the standard for what "should" be kept from him, but what happened in both of those episodes can be tied directly back to something that happened in Reflekdoll being used to justify what's happening now.

Like I cannot stress enough that everything is connected to that episode.