nacrewhirl

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I think part of the trouble with reading ML as a magical girl team is that it’s really written to be Marinette as the Lone Hero.

Sticking with Winx Club as an example (which I absolutely loved), even though Bloom was clearly the main character, the other girls got focus and attention and their own narratives unrelated to Bloom’s. Alya doesn’t have that; nearly the entirety of her scenes and focus are still for or related to Marinette’s story, which the writers have outright told us is always meant to come first.

As such, I think the more solid reading of ML is that it’s a poorly written superhero romcom that pretends to be a magical girl team, but only ends up offering crumbs. It’s why we’re shown the extra Miraculous and given a “core four/five,” only for it to be revealed that the new holders aren’t actually permanent team members. A decision I remember thinking at the time made absolutely no sense, but now in hindsight can be perfectly explained by how doing so would necessitate that attention/focus be taken from Marinette, which ML absolutely refuses to do.

In fact, I’d wager that’s the actual reason Chat Noir has a crush on Ladybug before Adrien falls for Marinette: it keeps his attention even as a hero focused on her. There’s plenty of salters who love to deride him for not focusing enough on the “job” and making LB pick up his “slack,” but that fits the show’s intentions perfectly. Chat can’t be written to (as) capable if LB is to shine. Hence why we had the whole Catwalker argument being nonsensically centered around “perfection.” 😭

(Post with the Winx club example for context.)

You're absolutely right. Miraculous is trying to be a loan hero show (or perhaps a serious hero and silly sidekick show) where Marinette is the only important character outside of the villains, a magical girl team show where female friendships are the most important relationships in the show, and a heterosexual rom-com all at the same time which leads to a ton of nonsense choices because those are three genres that really don't mix!

While I never outright said it, the post about rom-coms vs magical girl team shows was spawned by the fandom conflict over Alya's writing in the later seasons. I wanted to take a moment to point out why she keeps being given the roles that people expect Chat Noir to get and why both sides of that fandom conflict have very valid feelings given the way that the show is being written, so I didn't talk about the lone hero thing since that doesn't really play a part in Alya and Adrien's fight for narrative importance. If we're looking at Miraculous as a whole though, then it's 100% a piece of the puzzle when you're trying to figure out where the writing went wrong.

I've mentioned a couple of times that they're putting way too much on Marinette's shoulders. The main reason that I feel that way is because they also decided to give her a full team of heroes to work with which is deeply confusing. If they really wanted to go the Marinette-is-the-only-real-hero route, then we should have never gotten any additional heroes beyond Ladybug and Chat Noir. Keep Chat Noir as the comedy sidekick and let Ladybug use all of the other miraculous as powerups without ever handing them out.

After all, when it comes down to their actual role in the narrative, most of the team feels like nothing more than a powerup since they basically just do whatever Ladybug tells them to do. Outside of Viperion and Bunnyx, there's no reason why Ladybug can't just dual, triple, or quadruple wield. This is extra true because they took the time to tell us that Marinette is able to wield more miraculous than most people and then... never really did anything with that. Why have a line like this one from Kwamibuster if you're never going to have Marinette do more than the occasional dual wield?

Master Fu: No Miraculous owner in all of history has ever been mentally and physically strong enough to use that many Miraculous at the same time. Wayzz: Marinette truly is special, Master.

Switching from a team back to a duo would also fix the awkwardness of Adrien's writing as that really wasn't a problem back in season one. The hero who does all the cool stuff and their wacky comedy sidekick who keeps things fun is a classic setup for a reason!

[ilikekidsshows]

Call me a childish hater but I'm glad the Hack-San Ladynoir ending got obliterated into pieces. It already felt degrading and hollow back then with how Adrien's worry for Ladybug's life is not not addressed to give Marinette a free pass for throwing the worst possible situation in Chat's face (someone else suddenly having her earrings which he understandably took as Scarabella being a Sentimonster and Hawkmoth possibly having found Ladybug). That episode said so much more about Marinette's absolut lack of care for Chat as a person than about Adrien being "needy". At least he deeply cared for her safety, can't say that about Marinette apparently)

And I also hate how Marinette is using the term 'sulking' to describe her own feelings if she were in Chat's position. It's such a childish and degrading word to use here. That episode already killed most arguments that Marinette thinks about Chat's safety beyond how she plays into it (with Kuro Neko for example killing the rest. Gurl seriously thought Chat's akumatized as a civilian for a while and didn't even consider it BAD that Hawkmoth knows his identity, which she disregarded again in Elation), but I simply HATE that Adrien was made to attack Scarabella because he clearly thought about the realistic worst cases

And yet the end of the episode has Marinette use childish terms and not even once push back on Chat basically telling her that he's irrelevant. She took care of what's important and that doesn't include him. She's perfectly fine with him thinking that because obviously she considers his hurt feelings as unprofessional neediness that came from their 'special bond' and not because he was still left to believe that he's supposed to care for her safety in their duo and that Ladybug would do the same (which the show has shown over and over again, she literally wouldn't. She barely remembers that Chat is a real person and the show plays it straight)

I hate that the episode had Adrien initially REACT in a way that honors the bond Ladynoir was once supposed to have (meaning, seeing a new holder with the other one's miraculous as a red alert situation) just to be girlbossed into oblivion by the two leaders on top of the hierarchy who clearly don't consider him in anything.

That is such an awful way to morally approach this as show. Adrien was the only one of the three of them who treated the situation with the right seriousness and he got punished for it by being treated as a pet and needy child to the two treat Ladybug's above him.

It says honestly so much more about Marinette and Alya than Adrien.

Marinette viewing Chat's problem as some unprofessional neediness is also highlighted by her not even humoring the question of if he too may need a person to confine in. All she say sis that she would have sulked if she had found out like this that he revealed himself to someone else, but she does not care to ask of he needs anyone. For. Her it's a ridiculous thought apparently that Chat could need something.

Or have valid feelings that go beyond unprofessional hurt feelings because "their bond is so special uwu". How special can it be if Marinette at no point can be made to give a shit about the person underneath his mask? When she immediately ditched him after being told "no" once in Kwamis choice?

How special can it be when Marinette over and over and over again degrades anything Chat feels as childish pettiness and sulking that need to be fixed by him catering to her more?

I don't care what anyone says, Adrien was right in leaving in Kwamis Choice. Very obviously he had to learn ever since Hack-San that Ladybug is a person he needs to be able to live without because this girl is the most unreliable partner anyone could be stuck with. My hope is that Lila will have a blast with the broken pieces that is Ladynoir. I don't even want them to break up forever to punish Marinette or some nonsense, I just want the show to fucking DEAL with this horrible morality that is Marinette's absolut disregard of Chat being a real person.

---

This tendency is extra annoying when as early as the New York Special we saw Adrien’s despair over killing someone be sidelined with Marinette lying on the ground, sobbing about how Adrien went back to Paris instead of spending a school trip with her, the epitome of having petty “me problems”. Cat Noir giving up his ring is just pushed aside with a "he made his choice", because why would Marinette care about her loyal superhero partner who was just seriously traumatized when she can cry about Adrien going home from a trip early instead? Adrien having any feelings on actually important stuff is just him “sulking”, but Marinette can throw herself a pathetic pity party about how she can’t see Adrien for a few days and we’re supposed to treat it like she’s lost everyone who ever cared about her.

But, sure, Adrien is the one being emotional and needy, while our feminist icon “girl power” protagonist cries and throws up because she has to be a day without her crush. At this point, Adrien could have a hole in his torso, and the show would still treat him as an ungrateful whiner, while Marinette getting “Queen Bee” in a Miraculous hero personality quiz would be treated like the world was ending. It doesn’t matter whether or not someone is dead, has had their secret identity discovered or has been replaced by a Sentimonster. What actually matters is whatever petty shit Marinette is worried about today, which is usually the same petty shit she’s worried about every day, just for the record.

This is Marinette being sad that she failed to tell the boy she will see in school a few days later that she loves him, like she fails to do every day of the week. But this is treated as the emotional lowest point of the movie, with more pathos than anything else this entire show has gotten even after the fact, because she’s crying in the rain about it this time. Clearly Marinette has more important things to worry about than Adrien does and this isn’t all just emotional manipulation on the part of the writers! Her love life is being slightly inconvenienced! We're supposed to take this shit seriously!

Like, while Marinette is lying on the ground, in the rain, crying after failing to do something she will be able to try again in a few days at the most, Adrien is dealing with having (temporarily) killed someone and his abusive father being in a Mood(™). Cat Noir is missing in action. Soon after we see Hawk Moth is gonna try to cause a nuclear apocalypse, which ends up being treated as normal superhero hijinks. The special treats all of this obviously more pressing stuff as unimportant, because it’s not about Marinette's love life and god forbid this show be about anything other than Marinette for five minutes.

Like, when I first saw the NY Special, I said she deserved to lose Cat Noir as a partner. I only meant that in a “This was caused by her own actions and Marinette should learn a lesson from this” kind of way back then. Now, though? Getting away from Marinette is for Adrien’s own good, and I hate that being concerned for Adrien now translates to “wanting Marinette to be punished”, all because Marinette has been turned into such a toxic, needy, clingy person that she will be in emotional agony if anyone around her takes distance from her to take care of their own needs first instead of solely catering to hers.

In a narrative that treats Marinette’s smallest inconvenience as more important than the well-being of any other character, of course the idea that Marinette herself could ever be in any real peril is inconceivable. The writers would never let anything happen to her, so Cat Noir is just stupid for worrying about her well-being, he should just be aware of the meta narrative, I guess. No one could ever defeat Ladybug, which is why the writers’ commentary claims Marinette won in the S5 finale, so the only thing to actually be worried about is whether or not she gets to have her boytoy of choice. Actual peril doesn’t exist in the larger narrative of Miraculous, outside of vague hypotheticals that will never come to pass, because the biggest worry of the entire universe is to make sure Marinette isn’t upsette.

[flightfoot]

I have scattered thoughts about Nino, Alya, and the intersection of racism/misogyny.For example, Alya may receive more criticism not only for racism but also for misogyny. We support women's mistakes! Except not and especially not if it's a black woman.

(And I can't help but notice how many of those criticisms are aimed at Alya not fitting the Good Black Friend™ trope )

But now, with what you said about how Nino's criticism in that episode isn't that harsh, I'm VERY curious about the amount of Adrino vs alyanette fics taking into account the main focus.By that I mean that both couples, if they appear in the same fic, are treated equally and not that it is one of the cases of "we went back to lesbian women because I want to see two men kissing." (This is a VERY common problem in several fandoms where the misogyny that many m/m fics usually imply and the erasure and reduction of F/f couples have been pointed out)

Oh yeah, most of the heavy criticism and outright demonization of Alya comes down to her supposedly being a "bad friend" to Marinette... because she dares to "ask why Marinette doesn't like someone" and "asks for evidence that the person is really as bad as her friend thinks" instead of immediately believing that her friend is 100% correct in her assessment on nothing but her word and committing herself to doing whatever her friend wants in order to take down the other person.

There's this expectation that "being a good friend" when it comes to Alya means that she has to give up all notion of personal judgement or perspective. Heck, looking at the uproar over Rocketear when Alya told Nino that she's still helping Ladybug, or even earlier with Optigami when she decided to get the Turtle Miraculous for Nino because she thought it might be useful, she gets hefty criticism anytime she does anything without Marinette's express approval, no matter what her personal issues or perspective.

Actually the babysitting issue is probably the most clear-cut illustration of this. Alya volunteers to babysit Manon multiple times so that her friend can spend time with her crush, with Marinette even tricking Alya into babysitting Manon for her once so she could do an interview? Barely a peep of criticism against Marinette. Marinette babysits Chris ONE TIME so Alya and Nino can go on a date? Alya pressuring Marinette to babysit for her without pay and behind her parents' back becomes a common recurring trope.

(Note: I'm aware that Marinette's slated to babysit two more times for Alya during the series, in Timetagger and Simple Man. But in the first instance she cancels because she's busy, and in the second one she dumps the kids on her grandpa so she can help with Adrien's photoshoot, so I'm not counting them).

If Marinette needs someone to cover for her babysitting duty, then Alya's merely doing the duty of a good friend by taking on the responsibility for her. While if Marinette ever covers for Alya, she's being taken advantage of by a toxic friend.

Considering that the main criticisms of the "Black Best Friend" trope boil down to how it makes the black character an accessory to the white (well, in this case Marinette's only half-white) character, whose main purpose is to serve and support the other character, without having any internal world of their own? Yeah, I'd say that Alya's major demonization almost always comes down to her violating that role, even slightly.

Oh yeah, Adrino vs. Alyanette fics. Weirdly enough, there appear to be more fics tagged with Alyanette than Adrino (note: I'm gonna keep on all my usual filters for this search, I ain't seeing saltfics if I can help it). I've got 360 Adrino fics, but 560 Alyanette fics.

Now, in my personal experience, very few fics have equal focus for both pairings when they're together. They normally favor one or the other, with one being the main focus, and the other being more of a "pair the spares" situation. I'm also gonna skip the ones where it's one happy poly pile.

So here's the tag I ended up with, when I factored in all my usual exclusions and also included Adrino and Alyanette and excluded Alya/Nino/Marinette/Adrien and Lovesquare.

Of these 33 fics, 11 appear to be Adrino-centric, 6 appear to be Alyanette centric, and the rest I dunno. So I'd say Adrino gets a little more attention, especially since its fics tend to be a lot longer than the Alyanette ones.

Honestly though, I will TAKE Alyanette being "pair the spares" for Adrino a lot of the time, it's a heck of a lot better to make Alyanette and Adrino Ship Mates than to inflict Die For Our Ship on one of the pairs.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Marinette's memories after the wish

A detail from the end of "Re-creation" that just isnt letting me go is that Marinette still calls Monarque, well, MONARQUE towards Su-Han and Alya:

Even though she has very clearly told them where she was as we can gather by her pointing out the double wedding ring (meaning Su-Han and Alya could also know that Adrien is a Sentihuman which... *sigh*...) and having searched the basement:

Meaning she was open with them about the fight having taken place in the Agreste mansion and that Gabriel was involved and yet Marinette is weirdly still calling Gabriel Monarque here.

That is such a loaded detail. It could legit be a whole game-changer about Marinette "keeping" Gabriel's secret because it could straight up mean that Gabriel's wish changed both Adrien's AND Marinette's memories of him.

For all Marinette's words directly imply here she lost here memory of having figured out that Gabriel is Monarque and she thinks of them as two seperate men again. The most likely explaination here would be that Marinette may remember Monarque having crumbled into dust before he could win through Chat Noir's cataclysm from "Destruction"

But still remembers Gabriel Agreste having made the wish in desperation since, honestly, the given circumstances were PERFECT for that.

All the wish had to do is put in to Marinette's head that Gabriel and Tomoe were direct victims of Monarque as for a long time and they had to work with him, or agreed to, to keep their loved ones and lives safe. Gabriel in this case would have been the main victim which the finale pretty much perfectly set up for everyone to believe:

All Marinette has to think is that whatever happened to Emilie Agreste was Monarque's fault and he was pressuring Gabriel into helping him by threatening to do the same with Adrien, which was likely then instead done to Nathalie when she found out about it.

But Adrien would have still remained leverage nr. 1 against Gabriel as his son and same goes for Kagami for Tomoe:

This would be the perfect cover story for why Gabriel and Tomoe created the Alliance rings since parents will do alot to keep their children save and it can even be twisted into "explaining" the way Adrien and Kagami were treated by their parents if it happened under Hawkmoth's direct wrath and threat.

Gabriel himself is not only the only adult member of the Resistance he is also said to have been the person who then filled in Chat Noir's place when Ladybug was partnerless against Monarque when the final battle went down in his home where Emilie was kept to maybe be able to save her life?

This you can genuinely twist into Gabriel then not having been able to live with so much regret for what his involvement has caused that he sacrificed himself by making a wish, which Marinette now would still be remembering like this:

The chain of effect for how suddenly everyone who seperated themselves from Gabriel by now would think of him and Tomoe (Andre for example in "Collusion") would go on and on and ON washing Gabriel's and Tomoe's hands clean while Tomoe continues, who I have no doubt would have kept her memories all together.

I also would say that Lila and Nathalie still have their memories but I also gotta be honest, thats a whole can of worms I have to properly think through. My main point here is Marinette still calling Monarque "Monarque" despite what went down and what she told Su-Han and Alya and the possible implications of that concidering how well the rest of the finale sets up the cover story of Gabriel and Tomoe having been used by Hawkmoth all along by using Adrien and Kagami as leverage against them.

It just works too well and it would fit with how Adrien suddenly had a ALARMING perspective change regarding his father after the wish, which, NO, isnt god damn normal as trauma response jfc.

This would mean that Adrien and Marinette would go through season 6 in the new reality possibly figuring out bit by bit that their memories arent right to get an easier exporation phase for the new reality, and then season 7 has them know again what we left of in the old one.

Or Marinette is straight up lying to everyone now, even to Su-Han and Alya. Who knows at this point? But I truly hope that's not something they will put on Marinette's character even if at this point I wouldnt exactly call it out of character either.

[yolowritter]

A few other lucky accidents in MLB I have noticed:

Nora is a kickboxer, wears those weird armbands, and insists to be called by her ring name. To a martial arts buff, that means she practices Muay Thai and got really serious about the culture, that includes those armbands (called pra jiad) and immense importance for the ring name (in Thailand a Nak Muay will often change their legal name to match, and will ALWAYS include their training camp in their name). It also explains why a bulldozer like her has a trickster name: the ring name is given by fans, and whoever gave it must have decided she looked like a deadly spider but didn't know Anansi is a trickster.

Marinette's grandmother is named Gina Misurati. Because in neither Italy nor France one changes their name to match their spouse (mrs. HUSBAND NAME is a courtesy title), and her bike, a Moto Guzzi V7 Sport (it's identical), has written Misurati on it (it was obviously a reference to Maserati, but they stopped making motorbikes in 1960, and none of their bikes looked like Gina's anyway).

Diplomats have horrible working hours that get worse with higher rank, and diplomat kids are often "weird" and forced to grow up too fast. By happenstance, Lila's first mother is barely home, and Lila shows surprising maturity at the oddest moments (like when she flat-out told Marinette that a boy wasn't worth fighting over and offered to help her with Adrien in exchange of friendship).

Paris didn't have their own city police until 2021. Roger is from the NATIONAL police, meaning he shouldn't answer to the mayor... But he does, so SOMETHING must have happened to cause this transfer of authority.

Felix' outfit is identical to Eton's uniform minus the ridiculous hat and overcoat. I suppose it fits his social standing.

Sabine can use her spatula as a weapon. That spatula is nearly identical to a Monk's Spade, a weapon used in Shaolinquan.

Speaking of martial arts, in Chameleon Lila uses actual MMA techniques to overpower Ladybug, and Felix' claim of using Karate points to Wado Ryu thanks to those dodging moves of his.

And the big missed chance: Savate. Not only it's France's national martial art, Paris is where it was improved in the street fights of the Belle Epoque... But nobody in the show practices it. The old non-sport style includes the ancestor of Parkour, cane fighting (now mostly practiced separatedly as La Canne), garrote (the contribution of Paris' gangs), throws (already present in Paris, where Greco-Roman Wrestling was born and practiced before being rebranded), and elbow and knee strikes. It would be perfect for out heroes, both of them... Yet they don't practice it.

Yeah, it's honestly such a shame that these awesome details/references are just either never used or a one-and-done deal just to make a cool easter egg. And sure, Gina's bike for example could be just that, a cool little character detail. Maybe while the bikes did stop getting made in the 60s, she got herself an old one and re-vamped it as the years went by. Adds flavor to her character. Admittedly I don't know enough to talk about the model, but I trust your skills when it comes to identifying the make. Also, I was always sure that changing your last name to a spouse's (like mrs Dupain-Cheng) is optional, like a courtesy as you said. I don't know enough French people to tell if it's a rare occurance or otherwise, but still a nice tidbit of info I'll file away.

Nora is honestly another prime example of wasting some awesome character building because they can't bother to do the research behind the design. Sure, she looks cool and somebody might have said "give her wrappings on the arms, that's awesome" and the designers went with it, but we clearly see that she is a Martial Arts buff even in the way she talks to Alya and co. Why they never bothered to lean in on that even as a background detail, I'll never know. I know it's unreasonable to expect any group of writers to focus on every single character beat, and that Nora doesn't appear enough to really warrant the focus, but it still would be cool to see even through like, one or two lines from Alya. A reference to the Anansi metaphor you mentioned or a word from Nora about the cultural inspiration. It would have been cool.

Continuing down the martial arts road, I did notice Lila's MMA moves in Chameleon, but it seemed more like a case of the writers/animators deciding on cool moves than them paying proper attention and using the correct style of fighting. Sure, they might have and in that case kudos to whoever greenlight that decision, but it always felt a little accidental to me, just for the sake of the action scene itself, you know? At least with Felix we get a proper explanation, and it does honestly build up his character with a cool detail. Not sure if Karate was the best fit for the reasoning here, but any explanation is a step in the right direction at least.

About Savate...it honestly would be an awesome inclusion. Sure, the heroes fight with their superpowers and weapons most of the time, but some the close-quarters moments like the rooftop scene in "Ladybug" was the perfect chance for Adrien to bust out a good throw at Hawkmoth. Speaking of, one might make the argument of Gabriel using La Canne moves, (and I honestly haven't seen enough to dispute that), but to me it looks like he handles his weapon more like a sword? Sure, fits in nicely with Adrien's fencing allowing him to fight back in a 1 vs 1, but we already have quite a few characters who swordfight this way. Tomoe and Kagami do, as does Adrien like I mentioned. It would have been much more visually interesting to give Gabriel a separate style of bladework, especially since his weapon is in the name. In general, I'd love to see a good knee-cracking kick from Ladybug, so I totally agree with you.

I do love Felix's outfit though. It's a cool reference to those who get it, but also stands on it's own as a cornerstone of his design and adds more to his character and personality. Especially with the entire fandom (me, I'm the fandom) writing about him habitually keeping wrinkles off his suit at all times and staying perfect. I refuse to believe Colt Fathom did not do a number on this kid. But yeah it's also just a cool outfit to put him in, and I appreciate that!

In terms of Roger and the police...I'm going to be frank with you, the show handles that aspect horribly. Sure, you could assume that they answer to Andre because he's the immediate authority figure and also a corrupt politician, but that's first of all not even remotely possibly without serious internal corruption of National Police, and second of all completely unreasonable! The police force's reaction to Akuma attacks used to be a big thing in Season 1. In Origins, they tried fighting Stoneheart on their own. And in Copycat, they try to apprehend "Chat Noir" for stealing the Mona Lisa. There's the seeds of an interesting dynamic between the heroes in masks and the boys in blue! But in Rogercop, they're being made into utter fools! Andre is very obviously under duress when he tells them to apprehend Ladybug and Chat Noir, and they just...start listening to the villain like mindless drones? In Maledictator I can excuse it, his whole powerset revolves around making new "laws" that those he blasts have to follow. Makes sense that Roger and co. would be the first responders and get beamed in 5 minutes flat. But in any case where an authority figure is forcibly giving orders, there is a protocol! A procedure to follow! A plan to be made! But...nothing! The show does absolutely nothing, and then beyond this point the vanish apart from another 2 or 3 times where police officers show up in the background somewhere, or as Akuma goons because we need grunts for an action scene. As much as I love "show don't tell", in this case I'd be happy with tell! A comment from a news report about how police have been instructed to stay out of the Akumas' way and help civilians evacuate is so easy to add, and it would change nothing except making Roger and his team actually usefull! As it stands, the entire concept of a police force exists only the few times Astruc needs it to. And don't even get me started on Chloe's coup of the Captial City of France!! I'm convinced this universe has no goverments, no presidents and no first responders for any situation, I swear...

About Lila's mother, yes! Finally somebody says it! Lila's mother is obviously overworked, she clearly does love her daughter but is physically unable to make time for her! This could be such a cool dynamic to see with Lila's home life, and like you said it perfectly explains why sometimes amidst her psychopathic tendencies there's a moment of unexpected maturity from her. Exploring this even gradually, even with us literally being drip-fed information, would have made Lila a much better character! There are so many layers here that remain unexplored, and I can smell the good content like a bloodhound! Sure is a shame that Thomas never bothered to include any of it... I swear, every fault this show has goes like this:

Cool Idea + Good Introduction + (Botched Everything-Else * No Follow-Up) = Miraculous Ladybug

Can't believe the writers made me do math for this show...or that when S6 releases we'll be able to make the "Six seasons and a movie" joke from Community. At least that's a silver lining...

P.S: I love Sabine's spatula. An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age...

[pisoprano]

I've been tagged for this game by @lady-de-mon-coeur

Rules: we're given specific words to find in our wips/fics, share the section they appear in, and pass it on!

My words were:

support, touch, realise

Reserve words: kind, truth, dance

Support:

From an as of yet unpublished chapter of The People You Call Home:

“Can you give our viewers some examples of positive thinking?” Alya asked. “Thinking about the support you have from your friends,” Chat said immediately. “Oh, absolutely,” Ladybug agreed.  “I know when I’m feeling my most down, Chat Noir is amazing at encouraging me.  And I have known amazing people who have done the same for me in my personal life.  To those people I say: you may not know you’re helping Ladybug, but you have no idea how much your love and support have meant to me.” “And what do you recommend for people who don’t have those supportive friends?” Alya asked, moving her microphone towards Chat Noir. Chat Noir looked right at the camera.  “To everyone who doesn’t have people who care in your life right now: I know how hard it is.  Maybe you had someone who loved you before, but they’re gone now.  Maybe the people who should care about you don’t give you the support you need.  Maybe you want to ask for help, but it just feels so impossible.  Please don’t give up hope.  You aren’t unloveable.”  He looked at Ladybug, then at Alya.  “You might be surprised how much people really do care when you find them.”

Touch:

From Loveybug's inevitable crash (with added bonus words that I wrote while I've been compiling/polishing all my Loveybug one shots):

“There’s nothing wrong with being you,” Tikki assured her. “You’re a great Ladybug because of how much you love people.” “But not a great Loveybug. She’s who I become when I let myself love too much and I lose control of my feelings and I’m just so nrgghhh!” she waved her arms wildly in the air, “and… no one wants that me!” “Maybe Catwalker does?” “Yeah, right.”  Marinette slumped in her chair.  “If he cared, wouldn’t he have touched me back by now?” So many times, Loveybug had wrapped her arms around Catwalker, whether that be a hug of greeting, holding onto his neck when he had carried her out of danger.  She’d even held his face in her hand once to kiss his cheek. He hadn’t told her to stop.  But he only touched her back when he had to. Didn’t that mean that he was secretly uncomfortable and only putting up with her because it was his job to do so?  With his constant formality and acquiescence, she wasn’t sure if Catwalker even knew how to say no. Tikki gave her an encouraging smile.  “You won’t know until you ask.”

Realize:

From Part 20 of Runaway Catwalker (Ao3 link):

Alya: You've just been so overwhelmed after losing both Chat and Adrien... I didn't want to burden you with even more things to worry about. Marinette: I get it. You were trying to be a good friend. Alya and Marinette grab each other in a hug that they both need. Alya: By keeping you in the dark?  I made Chat vulnerable by doing that!  I should have realized I was making the same mistake by not telling you. Marinette: It wouldn't have made a difference.  You're right: We should have told Chat about Rena Furtive.  And if you'd asked me before tonight?  I would have given you permission to tell Catwalker what Chat should have known all along.  He seemed so perfect, I never thought that he could be so untrustworthy.

Since I didn't use my reserve words, I'll let anyone who hasn't been tagged take them:

kind, truth, dance

And add a few reserve words of my own:

friend, laugh, real

[princess-of-the-corner]

Yeah, I’m p sure they just cherrypicked parts of the season that countered salt tropes, while ignoring everything else that just helped the salt. (Girl squad was waaaaaaaayyyy too pushy in GOS) (Alya is so fucking dumb in revelation for still believing Lila despite at the very least, one lie, being disproved in being Ladybug’s best friend)

Yeah I REALLY want them to address how Alya still believed Lila after Mari told her she was Ladybug.

I can even accept things that still allow for Alya to believe it! Just.... Not without addressing it. For example:

1.) Alya completely forgot that 'being Ladybug's bff' was one of Lila's lies because that happened four fucking seasons ago

2.) Alya admits that Lila may have been lying about being Ladybug's bff, but there's a chance that it was the only lie

3.) Alya admits that Lila may have been lying about being Ladybug's best friend, but she also thinks that maybe Lila /believes/ this. In a 'oh Ladybug saved me and we had a long conversation as she escorted me home so we're besties now' kinda way where Lila saw friendship but Mari didn't think much of it.

4.) Alya realizes Lila is lying about knowing celebrities, including Ladybug, but does not want to pass judgment on the idea of her lying about her disabilities. She may be lying about how she got said disabilities, but not the disabilities themselves(especially given she seems to have documentation that fooled the teachers)

5.) Alya understands that Lila is lying about celebrities and her disabilities, but assumes she is mildly harmless and attention-seeking rather than a vindictive bitch

All of these are fair explanations for why Alya did not go after Lila with a righteous fury. It also depends on Marinette not bringing any of this up with Alya, never telling her what she's learned/experienced.

[uptoolateart]

Alyanette's Breakthrough

So, I previously wrote an analysis of what I saw as the problem with Alya. It wasn't outright salt - more an exploration of her character arc and the hurdles I thought she needed to overcome. All these character flaws are built into the show, and I knew my frustrations with Alya had to lead to a huge moment of growth. We finally saw this in 'Elation', so I want to update my analysis of her arc.

My last post looked at two key areas:

1. Not trusting Marinette's testimony regarding Lila - and now in S5 Alya has taken this a step further and invited the wolf right into the fold. True, she has no reason to suspect Lila has teamed up with the main enemy - none of them do. And I guess she's trying to give Lila another chance. But this is another example of Alya not listening to Marinette's judgment, which leads to...

2. Not taking Marinette seriously. And I'm updating this because in 'Elation' we saw Alya make progress here, which was exciting.

Alya has always been super pushy, and I gave a lot of examples in my previous post, including times when she's flat out rolled her eyes at Marinette's miraculous worries in her role as Guardian.

And I posted separately about her still seeming to treat the superhero thing as a game, like when she shrugs off the fact that Cat just cataclysmed a human and wants to gush about how awesome Ladybug was.

So it was unsurprising to me that I spent a few episodes of Season 5 barking at the TV, 'OMG Alya, why does it MATTER if Marinette has moved onto Cat Noir??? Why is this your business?? Stop trying to tell her what she should / shouldn't feel. Just be there for her! She's really struggling!!'

And FINALLY, by the end of 'Elation' she got it. She went out there and told Glaciator where to put his judgments. But that speech wasn't just for him or the rest of Paris. It was her apology to Marinette. And what led to this moment of breakthrough was that Marinette had her own breakthrough.

For 4.5 seasons Marinette has listened to Alya tell her the 'right' things to think or feel. And sometimes Alya has made really good points...but sometimes she's crossed a line. I think it's important to listen to that external input, but not at the expense of your instincts (e.g. about Lila).

But is that all Alya's fault? No, because for 4.5 seasons Marinette enabled it, playing the dopey friend who never has a clue, not believing in her right or ability to be Guardian. And in 'Elation', she'd had ENOUGH. After all that time, she finally said something, really said something...and Alya finally listened.

I explained in another post how Adrien was exalted in that episode - but so were Marinette and Alya.

It's okay to make mistakes. It's those moments of self-development that make the journey interesting. I thought the end of that episode was friendship at its finest - not just because Alya did a great thing, but because she showed humility and acknowledged where she'd gone wrong.

Now she just needs to see through Lila....

[kisilinramblings]

Question!! I need help🐞🐈‍⬛🤭

Were LadyBug and Cat Noir’s memories erased(in the s5 finale) ??? like… every fight,adventure,talk basically everything that has happened while they were in their costumes:)) convos,when cat noir met with marinette,anything u can imagine,but,as i said,everything that happened when they were transformed ig. 🐞🐈‍⬛

Or Marinette and Adrien’s memories were erased. Ive seen this rumour a few times…

Basically: were ANYONES memories erased? If so,what?! 🤦🏼‍♀️

I'm sorry. What? Where does this come from?

Like, just one major scene that demolishes all credibility to that rumor, is when we see Marinette at the end repairing the Miraculous based on the notes from the grimoire, with Su Han - the Celestial Guardian of the Miraculous - in her room alongside Alya who knows she is Ladybug. Not only that, Marinette remembers that a Wish has been made. Previous scene also mentions the lie she has told Adrien as Ladybug, going with what Gabriel asked of her before he died (notably that Adrien never learns about Gabriel's secret identity). Plus, she is applying what she has learned from the mistakes she did throughout S4 - that power must be shared, not kept by on single individual, so never again someone could easily have access to all the Miraculous at once. Knowing to who each Miraculous goes and neither Chat Noir nor her are surprised to see the whole team of other Miraculous Holder all assemble and present. And Ladybug is very glad to see her Chat Noir back as well.

So, it looks like they still have their memory all right. I feel like this rumor was build under a misconception of how the Wish works. Based on Sass' example during Ephemeral, while yes, what's already written in red gets erased, it is the color of the ink that gets changed, not the content of what was written before the Wish.

Barkk did point out that no one knows how a Wish affect the world. That is most probably because Gimmi - who is Reality incarnate - change it so it always has been as such. Remember how Gimmi introduce themselves :

"I am everything that was, is and will be!"

Let's again use an example cite in the show. If someone wished for the strawberries to be green in exchange for the peas to be red, then no one would remember that the strawberries were initially red and the peas were initially green. Because the reality of that universe has been changed so strawberries had always be green, and peas, red. But outside of that detail? Everything stays the same. No alterations to history and events.

Gabriel only made one single Wish with his own life being part of the balance. Ever since Robustus, we know about the equivalent exchange. They keep reminding us that if you want someone to relive, one other person has to die. In this case, if one dies, then another one gets to live.

That is all that Gabriel's Wish did.

[disorganizedkitten]

You'll Survive Chapter 3

Miraculous Ladybug | 2018 | 602 | Ao3 | Masterlist | Prev | Next

Cookie for your thoughts?

“I hate politics.”

Marinette looked up from the containers of cookies she was packing as Chloe stormed inside.

“Who did what?”

“Okay so you know that rude Morel guy?”

“The one who was Akumatized last week?”

“Yeah, him. He is just so! Argh! I hate him so much! Even his Akuma design was stupid! And you know what he said to me thismorning?”

“Something rude, offensive and uncalled for?” Marinette guessed, now getting into a cupboard.

“Very much so!” Pollen cried angrily, buzzing out of Chloe’s purse.

“He’s ridiculous! He’s an absolute idiot!” Chloe plopped down on the bar seat, dropping her bag and crossing her arms.

“What set him off this time?” Marinette asked, setting a plate of cookies down on the counter between them.

“The upcoming party in our honour.”

“Seriously? How so?”

“I told him that he’d get to play ambassador to the heroes, since I couldn’t go.”

“And?”

“And he said, Oh! I can’t believe him!” Pollen shook angrily as she took over the story. “He said that Chloe was just a robot spy sent from Russia to dismantle Paris and then France’s peaceful structure and turn us into a rustic society full of animals! And then! You wanna know what he said next? Hm?”

Marinette handed a cookie to the furious Kwami. “I’m not sure I do. What?”

Chloe buried her face in her hands, but explained. “Morel, that stupid, ungrateful, inane, demanding, insensitive, self-centered, mindless loser! Ugh! He went on to say-” Chloe clenched her fists in her hair. Split ends could be dealt with. Otherwise, she’d ruin this guy. “Marinette, he said that Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace and Queen B are actually just people looking for attention, and that Hawkmoth is on their side. He said we’re a complete hoax who couldn’t care less about this city and that we’re corrupt examples to the children who want to be superheroes, and- Ugh!” Chloe threw her hands up. “I hate him! He’s such a lying, self-centered, dimwitted, power-hungry, emotionless, puerile twit!”

Marinette scowled. “That’s why you’re running for Mayor Chloe. Having Morel in office sounds like it’d be much worse than it’s ever been, even when you and Mme. Bourgeious had Mayor Bourgeious wrapped around your perfectly manicured fingers.”

“I’d be offended if that wasn’t true,” Chloe warned, taking another cookie and biting it angrily.

“Yep. Tikki’s asleep, but if you and Pollen want to watch a movie to wind down you should be fine.”

“I think we might. Can I borrow your red nail polish?”

“Sure. Let me sneak in and grab it.”

Marinette headed down the hall to her room, opening the door slowly to keep it quiet. Tikki and Wayzz had been having trouble getting any rest, sensing horrible things from the missing Miraculi, so Marinette wasn’t eager to wake up Tikki after the little bug had finally gotten to sleep.

When she came back, the requested nail polish in hand, Alya was collapsed on the couch, a stack of cookies on her stomach.

“Looks like you had a bad day too,” Marinette noted, grabbing another cookie for herself.

“She said she doesn’t want to talk about it and that she’s gonna drown in chocolate chip cookies and then have Nino carry her through patrol tonight,” Chloe answered, holding up a hand for the nail polish.

Marinette tossed it to her, and sat down in front of the couch. “Okay then. Who’s picking the movie?”

“I am!” Trixx shouted, shooting towards the disk shelf.

“Don’t wake up Tikki!”

“Sorry. Can we watch How To Train Your Dragon? Please! Stormfly’s sooo adorable!”

[lady-de-mon-coeur]

Lady in red

AO3

Rated G. Language: English. Words: 2,638

Summary: Since Alya got to know Marinette’s secret, she can't stop thinking about how Adrien would react if he knew that the famous Parisian superhero is hopelessly in love with him.

Chapter 1. Writing to reach you

Since Alya got to know Marinette’s secret, she has had no rest. There was now a constant buzz of excitement inside of her. She could barely sit still during classes. This secret was about to make her explode.

She went to the same school as Ladybug did! She was best friends with the Parisian superhero! Can one imagine anything cooler than that?

What made her cheerful excitement burn like fire was Marinette’s lovesick expression, which always appeared on her face when she was looking at Adrien.

Alya could swear she would burst out laughing if not for the classes. That naive blonde model boy sitting in the first row was totally unaware of who was sitting behind him.

She was dying to know how he would react if he knew that the most famous girl in Paris, the splendid, wonderful, unmatched Ladybug, was so shamelessly in love with him.

That right now, she caresses the back of his head with an unfocused, lovestruck gaze, a soft smile on her face.

That she has plenty of his photos plastered all over her bedroom.

That she sighs his name instead of eating her breakfast and going to the pool with her friends.

Alya could barely hold back a giggle.

Marinette must have noticed something was wrong with her bestie, because she started watching her suspiciously.

"What’s so funny?" she finally asked, irritated.

"Nothing," Alya said quickly. She would explain it later, so that no one would overhear them.

-x-x-x-

"What's the matter, girl?" Marinette snapped, as soon as they were alone in the locker room during a break.

"Uh, I've just been thinking that it's so funny that all the people around you don't know who you are. For example, Nadja Chamack had made you babysit Manon so that she could make a whole show about you. Marc and Nathaniel draw comics about you, and you help them with that, for crying out loud. I wonder what Luka would say if he knew he had dated Ladybug. What your parents' customers would say if they knew that it was Ladybug who helped to bake all the pastries they bought. And Adrien…"

"Stop it!" Marinette shrieked, blushing profusely. "I see what you're getting at, but I don’t think it's funny. For you, it's all fun and games, but for me, it's a huge burden. I'm obligated to lie to my loved ones all the time."

"Yes, I know, bestie, sorry," Alya said apologetically, adjusting the glasses on her nose. "I've just been wondering what their reaction would be, especially Adrien's."

Marinette suddenly became deadly serious, fixing on her the dirtiest look Alya had ever seen in her life.

"Don't you dare tell him!" she snarled.

"I won't, girl, calm down!" Alya said, taken aback, raising her hands in a defensive gesture. "But I think being Ladybug has its pros in the matter of your love life. Your costume gives you a boost of confidence, which means that maybe you can finally muster the courage to confess to Adrien."

"And then? I can't date him as Ladybug. Dating a civilian is extremely dangerous. You don’t know what you're talking about, Alya! If I ever confess to Adrien, I'll do it as myself."

Yes, after another hundred years, Alya thought with a sigh.

-×-×-×-

Sitting during the classes, Alya darted her eyes at her bestie from time to time. It was like the gears were suddenly set in motion in her brain. What she had told Marinette as a joke just an hour earlier, started making perfect sense.

Ladybug was a superhero everyone looked up to. Getting a love confession from such a famous and universally admired person would be impressive, to say the least. Even for a model who was used to getting piles of love letters from his fans.

And Ladybug was a human being under the mask. A girl who could and did fall in love. A girl who struggled with self-confidence and couldn't bring herself to confess to the boy she loved. And that girl happened to be Alya’s best friend.

Then there was Adrien, a famous teen model who everyone adored but only his closest friends knew how lonely he truly was. This boy deserved more affection. He should feel how special he is. Perhaps knowing that such an amazing person as Paris' beloved superhero is fond of him could make him feel more special than ever.

Alya delved into her thoughts so deeply that she didn't notice how and when her pen ended up in her mouth. Her unfocused gaze was wandering around the classroom as she bit the tip of her pen.

When the bell rang, Alya already knew the perfect solution to the problem. She chuckled to herself and started throwing her school supplies into her bag.

-x-x-x-

"No, Alya, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard! You can't be serious. I'm not taking advantage of my superhero status. That's just not fair."

Alya was sitting on Marinette's couch in her room, while the latter was pacing the room, waving her arms frantically.

"Who says you're taking advantage? Just a little boost of confidence for both of you, that's all. Can you please slow down so I can explain my plan properly?"

Marinette finally stopped the Brownian motion and sat down on the edge of her couch next to Alya.

Alya placed her hands on her friend's shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

"Look, girl, no one forces you into a relationship. You will just get the chance to finally confess your love to Adrien, just as Ladybug, if you can't bring yourself to do it as Marinette. And Adrien will get one more piece of evidence that he is loved and needed. Doesn't he deserve it?"

Marinette looked thoughtful for a moment, but then she sighed and slowly shook her head.

"It won't work, Alya. What if he rejects me?"

"Even if he does, you will know that you were strong enough to finally tell him how you feel. And then you can try again as Marinette."

Marinette gave her a sad smile.

"And what if he would feel cornered and forced into dating me, since I'm a superhero and he's so nice and gentle? No, Alya, I can’t do that to him. We can make him feel loved without involving Ladybug. Thanks for the pep talk, but drop it. Besides, I have no time for romance now."

Alya let out an exasperated sigh. How long will she have to endure this? Her bestie will definitely be the death of her.

If neither Marinette nor Ladybug are going to tell Adrien how they feel, Alya will do it. But she should test the waters first.

-x-x-x-

During the lunch break the next day, Alya took Adrien aside to finally talk to him in private, as far from Marinette’s suspicious gaze as possible.

"There's something I have to tell you. But before I do it, I have one question for you first."

Adrien raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, ask away!"

It was only now that Alya realised she hadn't thought of a way to tell Adrien what she was going to say.

"Have you ever considered dating Ladybug?" she blurted out after a moment's pause.

Ugh, that was lame. But there's no turning back now.

Alya could see that her question hit home.

A bright red colour bloomed on Adrien's cheeks.

He looked like someone who had suddenly heard his deepest thoughts being said out loud.

Or a thief caught in the act.

"Um… What? Why do you ask?" he mumbled.

"Please just say 'yes' or 'no'. I'll explain it later."

"No, I haven't." The sadness in Adrien's voice didn't escape Alya.

"Don't you like her?" Alya asked bluntly.

Sorry for prying, boy, but I need a clear answer.

Adrien's blush deepened.

"It's not that I don't." Now he sounded desperate, as if he had to defend himself. "Of course I do, Alya! I really do like her; she's fantastic. Dating her would be wonderful, but I'm afraid she doesn't love me."

He trailed off abruptly, apparently having realised that he had accidentally exposed his deepest feelings, and hastily averted his gaze, so he totally missed a happy smile that started spreading on Alya’s face.

Oh boy, this investigation surpassed all her expectations. Adrien in love with her best friend, that was perfect! Almost everything Alya could ever dream of as Marinette’s and Adrien's friend.

I wonder how long you have been having a crush on my bestie. There's no need to look so heartbroken, though, because your superhero does love you back.

"What if I told you she happens to love you back?" she said out loud.

Adrien looked up at her. He stared at Alya as if she were a ghost. His mouth fell slightly open.

"Are you sure, Alya? How do you know that?" he muttered.

"A little bird told me!" Alya grinned. She chuckled at Adrien's confused face. "Jokes aside, Ladybug told me that in person the other day when I was interviewing her for the Ladyblog. She told this to me in secret, which means the readers of the Ladyblog aren't supposed to know that. But I thought you deserved to know, since you're concerned."

"Is it true, Alya?" Adrien looked like he was about to swoon. His lovesick and pleading expression was so endearing that Alya couldn't help but smile. "Please tell me!"

"That's just as sure as I am standing here." Alya said. Never in her life had she been more serious than now.

Adrien brightened up. He literally began to glow. It was a miracle how these few words affected him. All his features started radiating warmth. He was a living example of so-called heart eyes.

Alya wished Marinette could see what effect her alter ego had on Adrien.

"Can I ask you for a favour, Alya?"

Alya adjusted her glasses and raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to speak, but she could already guess what he was going to ask.

"Can you please pass a letter to Ladybug? I know it might take a while until you get to see her again, but I don't care. I've been waiting for so long for this opportunity to tell her how I feel."

So it's obviously been a long time since you've been harbouring feelings for Ladybug, Alya noted to herself. Poor boy, if you only knew that the girl you're hopelessly in love with is actually so close to you.

"Anything for you, Adrien!" she said eagerly. "I don't know when I will have the opportunity to do it, but I promise to do my best."

Adrien's eyes lit up.

"Alya, you're an angel!" he exclaimed. "Tell me how I can reward you."

"If things work out between you two, just make our favourite superheroine happy. She deserves it. When I talked to her, I got the impression that she has too much on her plate."

"I promise you, Alya, if she gives me a chance, I will do my best to make her happy," Adrien said firmly.

You're such a sweetheart, Adrien. No wonder my girl is so in love with you.

Alya waited patiently while Adrien scribbled something on a paper sheet ripped out of his notebook. Then he folded it four times and put it into Alya’s extended hand.

-x-x-x-

Alya was genuinely happy for her friends. Those two were really made for each other. If only everything had worked out. Then she could die happy.

-x-x-x-

"Good news, girl! Guess what I have here."

They were alone in the locker room, and Marinette was rummaging in her stuff, when Alya came from behind. Beaming triumphantly, she took out the letter and placed it right before Marinette's eyes.

"A letter for you. I mean - for Ladybug. From Adrien."

Marinette’s eyes widened, and she visibly gulped.

"What?" she squeaked. "A letter?" A sudden wave of crimson blush started spreading on her cheeks. "How did you get it? Have you read… Do you know what it says?"

"No, I don't. Look, it's just that someone happened to have a talk with Adrien today and was asked to pass a letter to his idol, a certain polka dotted superhero."

Marinette stiffened.

"Does he know about you know what?"

"Yes, he does. But before you start freaking out, I have to tell you that I tested the waters before breaking the news. The boy has fallen hard. I wish you could see his face when he was told that his lady in red actually loved him back."

Marinette gasped. The blush on her cheeks was now so deep red that it made her look like she was going to combust.

"But Alya, that's insanity!" she cried out. "Why have you done that when I clearly told you not to?"

Alya sighed.

"Sorry, girl, I just couldn't bear seeing you two playing cat and mouse with each other anymore. I admit, perhaps I have been a bit overzealous, but it was definitely worth it."

"No, Alya, it wasn't! This is a disaster!" Marinette cried in a high-pitched squeak. "Now he’s waiting for my response. He certainly is asking me out in this letter. How do I tell him that I won’t date him?"

Alya took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Are you kidding me, girl? It's Adrien you're talking about! The boy you've been daydreaming of for ages has literally confessed his love to you! You can't just turn him down, it will break his heart."

"It’s just… "It's just that I don't have feelings for him anymore, Alya," Marinette explained, much calmer but in a sadder tone, not looking Alya in the eyes. "Besides, I'm a guardian now, and I must stay focused on the mission. I can't let myself be in love. I get distracted every time Adrien is involved."

"Now look me in the eyes and tell me that again." Alya said, crossing her arms.

"I've told you before, Alya, just drop it!" Marinette said, still not looking her best friend in the eyes. "I don't need a wingman. I can't have a boyfriend. No one should ever get near me. I'm a lost cause. So please, let's leave it at that. Believe me, it's better that way."

Marinette sighed and walked past Alya to the classroom with her head tilted down.

"But what about the letter?" Alya called out to her, waving the paper sheet she was still holding.

Marinette stopped without looking back and shrugged with feigned nonchalance.

"Do what you want with it. I don't care. It's not for me. The girl it's addressed to doesn't exist. I'm just a failure, not a cool superhero who can do no wrong."

Alya gritted her teeth in frustration. What a stubborn girl! She could have the boy she loved right there and then.

She wondered what the letter might say. For a moment she considered taking a look inside, but decided against it.

-x-x-x-

During the class Alya wasn't looking at Marinette directly, but she managed to take a glimpse of her with her peripheral vision every now and then.

As much as Alya could read body language, she could see that her girl was definitely nervous. She was fidgeting with her fingers, drumming her pen on the desk, chewing on her bottom lip, and squirming in her chair. Her lips moved from time to time, as if she were muttering something to herself.

Alya was about to say "A penny for your thoughts" when Marinette suddenly turned to face her.

"Alya," she whispered anxiously. "Do you still have the letter?"

Alya couldn't fight back a smirk. Curiousity seemed to get the better of her best friend. Perhaps Marinette wasn't a lost cause.

Without a word, she pulled out the letter in question and passed it to Marinette.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Can I ask what do you mean that Félix is “far from the only victim of the issue?” What other characters have this issue from Miraculous?

When I said, "Felix is far from the only victim of this issue," I was referring to the ongoing problem of inconsistent characterization. Generally speaking, characters should act according to their own internal logic. When they do, they come across as reasonably consistent, predictable, and - most importantly - realistic.

I'll talk in depth about the concept of consistent character logic and how you get around it in a moment. Before I do, I want to give a few examples from the show to demonstrate what I mean by inconsistent characterization as we must understand what the show is doing wrong before we can discuss how to do it right. This issue is so widespread that I could go character by character and give examples, but for the sake of brevity, I'll just pick the first three that come to mind.

Alya

In Chameleon, we get this exchange:

Alya: A good reporter always verifies her sources. Can you prove [that Lila] doesn't actually know Ladybug? Marinette: Well I–uh… I… I… Okay! You want proof she's lying? Hey Lila! You forgot your napkin!

In this scene, Alya comes across as massively hypocritical because we all know that Alya isn't holding Lila to the same standard that Marinette is being held to. Alya will happily believe whatever BS Lila spouts and even post it on the Ladyblog for all the world to see.

We also know that this habit of not verifying sources isn't a new thing for Alya. We saw it bite her in the ass a couple times back in season one with things like the Lady WiFi incident where Alya thought that Chloe was Ladybug based on little more than circumstantial evidence.

But at the same time, we get things like this scene from the start of Feast:

Alya: Now you know back in the day sculptures were painted, right? Most of the paint vanished over time, but tiny microscopic pigments still remain. Thanks to this special app, witness how it originally looked. But here's the big thing. All these works of art have something in common. It's the same symbol! Look, everywhere. (Marinette gasps as she imagines Master Fu's mission) It's like some kind of secret society emblem. As if a kind of Order of the Guardians has been watching over the superheroes since the beginning of time!

This scene showed off some serious research skills. Alya uncovered secrets that the guardians had kept hidden for centuries or possibly even millennia! And this isn't the only time where we see Alya pull off this kind of quality research. If you pay attention, you'll realize that she clearly wasn't kidding when she says that she checks her sources!

In other words, depending on the episode, Alya is either a brilliant reporter who does her research or a tabloid journalist who takes anything she's given at face value as long as it makes for a popular blog post. There is no consistency nor is there a gradual change over time. The quality of Alya's journalism jumps back and forth from episode to episode depending on what the writers need it to be for the plot to work.

Nino

Nino is the holder of the miraculous of Protection and we were told many times that a miraculous must suit the person who bears it, so Nino supposedly embodies the spirit of Protection. And yet, in the season five episode Illusion, we see him:

Out his secret identity for no reason

Out his girlfriend's secret identity for no reason and without her permission!

Purposefully antagonize his best friend's father even though he knows that Gabriel and Adrien have a very tense relationship

Willingly get someone akumatized without taking any precautions to minimize the damage that akuma will do

Does that sound like a protector to you? Does it even sound like someone who should be made a part-time hero? I'd say no. Especially since Nino doesn't apologize for any of this. He happily justifies his own behavior and is even treated as being in the right. The only sudo-apology we get is this:

Nino: Mr. Agreste, I owe you an apology. All your troubles today, the pizza, the pasta, the chocolate, all that was... that was a plan to help Ladybug and Cat Noir. And it worked, dude! I mean, sir... Ladybug, Cat Noir, look! (shows a picture of Gabriel’s akumatization) Magic lightning! That's how Monarch gives his akumatized villains the power of the Miraculous!

Which is followed by everyone praising Nino for uncovering a thing that we now know goes nowhere. The heroes never try to track down the "lightning" Nino caught on film, so he risked Adrien's relationship and freedom for nothing. If that's protection, then count me out!

Adrien

At the start of season two, we get Glacitor, which gives us this exchange:

Cat Noir: There's a boy? Who is...? Ladybug: It's— I can't tell you who it is. We can't know anything about each other. Our identities must remain a secret. We're both superheroes, Cat Noir. We don't have a choice. (There's a silence. They look at each other sadly. Cat Noir walks closer and smiles before he hands her a rose, which Ladybug takes) Cat Noir: I get it, Ladybug. Your friendship means everything to me. (kisses her cheek) You can keep the rose. It goes with your costume.

And then, in this same episode, when Adrien is alone with Plagg, he says:

Adrien: Perhaps Ladybug will love me someday. I mean, like, I love her. I have to believe. In the meantime, her friendship is the best gift of all.

Driving home the fact that he truly meant what he said to Ladybug. He is happy to just be her friend, though he does hope that, one day, their relationship changes.

Then, towards the end of season two, we get Frozer which has Chat Noir do this:

Cat Noir: For you, M'lady. (kneels and showed the rose on his hand.) Ladybug: Seriously, Cat Noir? You're about to transform back! (points his ring) Cat Noir: So what? Ladybug: Well, if you transform back, then I'll know who you are and then... Cat Noir: And then we won't keep secrets from each other anymore. (transforms back to Adrien and Ladybug is shocked) Adrien: We'll be united, more powerful and free, we'll defeat Hawk Moth, then we can both run away to an island! (Ladybug smiles a little bit) Far away from everything. We will live off nothing but fruits, and we will have a little pet hamster and we will name it- Ladybug: Cat Noir! (It was revealed it was a daydream from Cat Noir) I can't accept this rose from you. I told you already. I'm in love with someone else. Cat Noir: I know, M'lady. But if he weren't here, would things be different between us?

And this:

Ladyice: Cat Noir. We need to set up a trap for whoever turned the city into a giant ice rink. (throws yo-yo) Icecat: (bitterly) My feline instincts prefer to track and observe before I attack. You go your way, I'll go mine. Ladyice: Please don't tell me you're mad at me about the rose. Icecat: There may be a certain chill now between us. Ladyice: I get it, but we should really focus on saving Paris right now. Icecat: We don't always have to do everything together, after all. It's not like we're a couple. (skates away) Ladyice: Cat Noir, don't get all pouty on me!

And this:

Adrien: I hope this helps you get more students to sign up. (walks away with Kagami) Kagami: You still keep doing what other people want you to do. Adrien: No, I just want him to be happy. And I'm not changing my target. Even if it means failing over and over again, because one day, I will succeed and hit it.

Oh yeah, he's totally respecting Ladybug's "no" and prioritizing their friendship over his feelings! This is top tier dreamy romantic lead writing!

On Characterization

By now, you hopefully see I what I meant when I said that Felix is far from the only character to have magical personality changes for the sake of The Plot. No one is safe from being rewritten. Sometimes characters change permanently without a real explanation. Sometimes characters ping pong back and forth. Other times they're so weird and wacky that you truly have no idea who this character is supposed to be. This is a problem because well written characters tend to be predictable. That doesn't mean that you'll always know exactly what a character will do. It just meant that a character's actions should make sense to the audience.

But, if you're a writer, how do you do that?

Allow me to explain!

If you want to write a solid, believable character, you have to keep them logically consistent. This does not mean that their actions need to be logical. All it means is that any character-based logic you establish has to be respected and followed.

For example, if you establish that Marinette can't talk to Adrien without messing up her words, then you cannot have an episode where she's suddenly able to talk to him because you are breaking one of Marinette's character rules.

If you have established this rule for Marinette, but your story needs to let Marinette talk to Adrien, then you need to do one of two things: create a situation that logically breaks her rules OR give her a character arc. That's just how characterization works! You establish a character, let the audience get to know them, then find ways to tell the story you want to tell while honoring the character you introduced the audience to. If your characters' are ping ponging all over the place and acting completely different from episode to episode, then you are failing at characterization.

Before we end, let's take a moment to rewind and explain what I meant when I talked about the two ways to get around a character's rules. We'll start with the easier way: breaking rules by putting the character in a situation that forces them to do something they'd usually never do.

Extenuating Circumstances

This is the first of the two ways to get around character rules and Miraculous occasionally does it well. For example, in Risk, they needed to get Marinette and Adrien to talk about things that Marinette and Adrien would never discuss, so the writers had an akuma make them talk. That's good writing! Special circumstances can - and often should - override character rules. No one will struggle to believe it if a pacifist becomes violent when their loved ones are threatened. In fact, in that scenario, keeping the pacifist a pacifist may make the character feel unbelievable depending on why they're a pacifist and the nature of the threat.

It's important to note that these rule breaking moments tend to be short lived like how Marinette and Adrien both reverted as soon as Risk was no longer affecting them.

Above, we discussed how out of character Nino was in Illusion, but his behavior in that episode isn't all that different from his behavior in Rocketear and I have no issues with Nino's writing in Rocketear. The reason for the discrepancy is that, in Rocketear, Nino thought that Alya was cheating on him. That's the kind of extenuating circumstance that would make someone act a little weird. In other words, Illusion's problem is not Nino's behavior, it's the context of his behavior. The writers simply didn't put in the work to make Illusion feel believable.

Character Arcs

Now that we've talked about temporary changes, let's switch gears and talk about the way you make more permanent changes to a character's rules. Namely, character arcs.

People are probably more familiar with this tool, but I'll still quickly define it: a character arc is when a character undergoes a change in personality, behavior, and/or beliefs based on an experience or series of experiences.

Miraculous is terrible at character arcs, so I don't have any examples to pull from in canon. Instead, let's take the Adrien example from above and rewrite it to be a character arc where he goes from pouting about being turned down to accepting that he really is happy to just be Ladybug's friend.

It is incredibly common for teenagers to struggle with the concept of rejection. Heck, even full grown adults struggle with it! You meet someone and you're drawn to them and you start building up this wonderful relationship in your head but, before that dream even gets a chance to become reality, your love interest blows it up with a, "No." Instead of accepting that, "No," you become obsessed with changing their mind. If only they'd see you in the right light, you know that they'd love you like you love them!

Obviously that's not how things work and this point of view is quite problematic, but this is a kids show and Adrien is only 14. It's reasonable for him to need to learn this lesson. I'd even go so far as to argue that we need characters to learn this lesson in kids shows. And if you don't think it should be learned by characters who eventually do end up with their love, that's fine, I don't disagree. However, I do think the lesson still works so long as we get a good gap between the character learning it and the character getting together with their love interest.

On to the rewrite!

In this new version of season two, Chat Noir doesn't take the Glaciator rejection well. Instead of smiling and accepting it, he asks if he has any chance and he's devastated when he's told, "No." We'll even add a scene at the end of the episode where Adrien tells Plagg, "I'm going to change Ladybug's mind!" In other words, Glaciator now plays like Frozer and it also leads into a season-wide conflict where Chat Noir is good to his word.

Throughout the season, he keeps pushing things, trying to prove that he's the better pick and that mystery boy is a waste of Ladybug's time. This all culminates in the new version of Frozer, wherein Adrien decides to go out with Kagami to make Ladybug jealous. But remember, that episode only happens because Kagami is trying to convince Adrien to give up on his crush and crush on her instead. Aka, the exact same thing that Adrien has been doing all season.

As you may have already guessed, in the new Frozer, we see Kagami do the same kinds of things that Chat Noir has been doing to Ladybug because Kagami is equally desperate to prove that she and Adrien are meant to be. He just needs to wake up and get with the program!

The more Kagami pushes, the more Adrien realizes that this date was a terrible mistake. He also realizes, "Oh shit, is this how I've been acting? Gosh, I'm an awful friend! I'm going to ruin my partnership if I keep this up."

By the end of the episode, Chat Noir apologies to Ladybug and Kagami can either learn the same lesson or promise to not give up, leading Adrien to sigh and promise to suffer through her advances for at least a little while longer because he wants to try and get her to learn the same lesson he did.

From that point on, Chat Noir is totally respectful of Ladybug, but still very much in love with her. She can even say that she hates hurting him, to which he'll reply, "You didn't do a thing to hurt me, my Lady. You've been perfectly clear about what you want. I'm going to do my best to respect that because your friendship means everything to me. I don't want my feelings to ruin what we have."

I'd also have this conversation establish that the flirty banter is okay by both of them and have them both promise to say something if their boundaries change, but I'm not writing all that out. What really matters is that Chat Noir has now learned a valuable lesson and we can have all of the Ladynoir hi-jinks we love so much without any of that nasty, pushy undercurrent we get in canon. Instead, we now get some lovely, heartfelt pinning that's going to play so good when the reveal happens!

If you want to really have some run, you can even let Ladybug develop feelings for Chat Noir to really highlight how sexy respect is. It's up to your preferences, but I do enjoy a good "two crushes" crisis and Marinette's sexual/romantic alignment seems to allow for multiple crushes based on the Luka and Catwalker stuff.

Conclusion

You can make almost any character do almost anything if you play your cards right, but Miraculous isn't playing the game. The writers seem to do whatever they want and it's sad because there's a good show to be had here. Good characters, too. It's why I continue to defend them in spite of the mess that is canon. Every single character in this show could have been great if the show had put in the effort to make them great.

[ilikekidsshows]

I've seen people say that it's also Cat Noir’s fault because he always lies and says he's fine when Ladybug does ask him if anything is wrong and she can't be expected to read his mind. Like in Hack-San and Rocketear. Can I ask your opinion on that?

---

Oh, yes, Cat Noir totally should have told Ladybug all about how Nino told his civilian self about how she let Nino and Alya know each other's secret identities from the start and how Nino trusted him with this info because he's Nino's best friend. That certainly wouldn't break any of the rules he in that episode learned Ladybug only enforces for him. Clearly Adrien didn't have any reason not to trust Ladybug's ability to listen to his criticism of her leadership. It's not like he didn't just find out he's being treated worse than the rest of the team for arbitrary reasons he doesn't know about.

Also, using Hack-San as an example is a really bad move, because we can see in that very episode where the problem is. Here's the thing: in Hack-San, Cat Noir does say what's bothering him, very easily and openly, to Scarabella. "As usual. No reason to keep the cat in the loop." Like, the problem is obviously Ladybug herself. And the problem is what I pointed out before. Every time Cat Noir does tell her something's bothering him, he does not, in fact, "always lie", she brushes him off (Prime Queen), treats his concerns as petty (Time Tagger) or has an excuse that just goes "but the rules" ready (Syren and Kwamibuster). Frankly, upsetting Cat Noir is even part of Ladybug's planning process sometimes and when it is, she treats it as a funny joke (Feast and Backwarder).

If Cat Noir feels like he can't be honest about his feelings with Ladybug, but can do so with others (like how he opened up to Marinette in Glaciator), the problem is more likely to be Ladybug. It's another thing Marinette has in common with Gabriel as Ladybug; Adrien doesn't want to tell either of them something they don't want to hear and what they don't want to hear is anything related to how he's feeling. Both Gabriel and Ladybug have repeatedly failed to treat his feelings as something valid instead of a nuisance to them personally.

Cat Noir can't actually trust Ladybug to treat him fairly, because she provably doesn't, and people are blaming him for not trusting her to treat him fairly when he is specifically bothered by said unfair treatment. This entire situation was created by Ladybug's treatment of Cat Noir, 100%. In my books the only thing Cat Noir did wrong was forgiving her in the S4 finale without first having her prove she would treat him fairly from then on, because she went right back to it in S5.

[flightfoot]

I know a lot of the fandom are angry at Marinette for not telling Adrien about his father/the rings at the end of season 5 and I get it. She should tell him eventually. But people say it proves she hasn't learned anything from Season 4 and... I feel like what happened in Season 4 and what happened in Season 5 are two very different scenarios?

Like... in season 4, she's keeping technical secrets from Chat Noir- that Rena Furtive is active and several gameplans including her Ephemeral plan, Hack-san and the Sentibubbler one. She's holding her cards too close to her chest out of fear of losing control and not delegating enough. Once Alya is in the know, she has a new, closer partner in her and unintentionally neglects Chat, forgetting to include him in technical aspects that he should be savvy on. She needs to relinquish control and trust more, needs to keep her team in the loop on necessary knowledge. Chat Noir may have still been upset that it wasn't just the two of them anymore, but he'd feel better if he at least felt included as a partner.

The biggest indicator that she actually did learn something from this is her decision to no longer keep each miraculous at the end of Season 5. She relinquishes them to each holder. There are also small examples like her entrusting Chat with the rabbit miraculous early on, going along with his plan without a good explanation in the switcheroo episode and accepting Nino's lead without boggarting, being overbearing or trying to shut it down when he starts The Resistance. As in real life, character flaws will always pop up every now and again and while it's true that she is pretty much forced to work with Chat alone in Season 5, the evidence of her change is there. Chat is a bit of an afterthought in Season 5, but that's more a crappy narrative decision than Ladybug avoiding him.

Some have said she hasn't changed because Chat still doesn't know the other holders' identities, but that always confuses me because since when has that been a problem, for him or otherwise? There was a popular misconception of his line in Strikeback that he was demanding to know other identities when he was actually asking why she couldn't know HIS identity. Maybe that's where it comes from, but Chat has always been primarily concerned with the two of them sharing their identities.

My point is that Marinette learned a lesson about not holding her cards too close and trusting her partners. The climactic discussion was lacking but it's dishonest to say she learned nothing. She's changed her approach accordingly.

What's happening with Adrien at the end of Season 6 is different. This isn't some gameplan aspect that she needs to communicate to keep her trusted partner in the loop. This is a series of soul crushing truths that she has been saddled with communicating to her new boyfriend who just lost his mother and father within a year of each other. Like hey I know you're an orphan now and you're still dealing with that, but you should also know your dad was evil and victimized you and your friends continuously to bring back your coma mom. Not to mention, they were both controlling you from birth with their wedding rings. Because you're a sentimonster. You're not a real boy! Nathalie, your only trusted remaining guardian, was in on it before making a sharp heel faced turn at the tail end. Felix knew too and he told Kagami, but not you. Your dad asked me not to tell you right before he died so not sure if I should be betraying an evil dying man's wishes like this.

Not defending this choice. There's info in there that Adrien needs to know to protect himself. He needs to process his trauma- much of which she has no idea about. Just from a narrative standpoint, it's almost criminally disappointing and a failure to his character to keep it from him.

I also get why it's not at all easy. I get why the lessons learned in Season 4 finale do not help with this. Season 4 secrets were about controlling or withholding all the variables and information to avoid a technical failure and learning to trust others judgement. Season 5 secrets are about the moral dilemma of lying to spare someone emotionally. This is "I'm going to withhold this logical info for logical reasons without considering the emotional damage of keeping my partner out of the loop." VS "I'm going to withhold this emotionally charged info for emotional reasons without considering the logistical problems of not telling a sentimonster they're a sentimonster wearing their life on their ring finger." Sharing something that you know will crush someone inside out, that irrevocably changes all they know about their existence, that you cannot take back... is not the same as letting someone in on your gameplan.

It's a bad call and if this show has any wits, it will examine that. But it's easier said than done and not as "OMG DUH!" as people make it out to be. I can't even completely consider the urge to want to "protect" him insulting to Adrien because honestly, this would fuck anyone up. A secret like this is liable to land any kid in a facility for a bit for an existential meltdown. People have cracked over less. She doesn't even know how strong Adrien is. She doesn't know he's Chat Noir, who she's been through thick and thin with. The idea that what she's doing is a kindness, while flawed, is not unfounded.

Her lesson here should be 'Brutal truths are better than pretty lies' or 'Lies are not a kindness, they're a disrespect." Imo, very different from the motivations and the lessons learned in Season 4, even if the core of them both were withholding information. It's like...if you learn that a type of vodka makes you sick, you're probably not going to stop drinking it altogether. Lessons are complex. It's not going to be "I'll never keep a secret again." It's "I'll never keep a secret in this type of situation again."

Marinette hasn't learned the brutal truth lesson yet. Yeah, she did this small scale with the scarf in Season 1. That worked out for her, right? Even if you count Chat Blanc as a comparable secret (I've never really understood people who are mad about this. It's not like she knew what specific events led to it and it has no bearing on events in their current, future or past timeline. I mean I'd love if she mentioned it for drama. I just don't think she's obligated to?), sparing him the knowledge of it also has worked out in keeping him ignorantly content? Most of the more damning Season 4 secrets were oversights, technical planning and things that he was going to discover anyway that she just neglected to tell him. Emotionally inconsequential things that he wasn't made blissful by not knowing- quite the opposite- and were not lies told on his behalf.

So yeah. 2 different situations, 2 different motivations, 2 different lessons. One improved on, hopefully another to be considered and not swept under the rug.

The real question is: Will she tell Chat Noir? If she doesn't tell Chat Noir because she doesn't trust HIM with this information then I take back this entire ask. I admit defeat. Miraculous has made a clown of me once again. But I can't judge her on that considering she and Chat have not interacted since before it happened? We actually don't know how the writers are going to spin that yet.

So just some housekeeping to start off with, the situation in Ephemeral is very different from the ones in Sentibubbler and Hack-san. In Sentibubbler and Hack-san the plans were very last-minute, and Marinette was unable to communicate or even MAKE a plan in Sentibubbler, and for Hack-san, she didn't have an opportunity to talk to Chat before giving the earrings to Alya, and didn't seem to think of what his reaction would be to seeing a new Ladybug Holder out of nowhere.

Ephemeral, by contrast, had Ladybug deliberately lying to Chat Noir, saying that she wanted an identity reveal because it would make them stronger, in order to manipulate him into unknowingly revealing his identity to a third party, because she didn't want to risk him potentially not agreeing to reveal his identity to someone else. Very different situation.

I do agree that Marinette seems to have learned something from season 4 at least, in terms of relinquishing control and telling people need-to-know things about gameplans, with giving the Miraculous out to their wielders permanently helping to show that.

And the truths she's keeping from Adrien ARE more of the soul-crushing variety (or well, at least of the "likely to severely mess you up" variety). I do see why this would hit Marinette as a different sort of thing to keep from Adrien, since she's not telling him everything because she doesn't want him to get hurt, and he's dealing with a lot as it is.

The main issue is... why wouldn't she tell CHAT NOIR about this stuff? I mean, I could maybe see not telling him the Senti stuff under the premise that that's a private matter, but there's no reason not to tell him that Gabriel was Monarch.

I'd love if Season 6 ended up conveying to Marinette more of the "she needs to be open and honest" message, with brutal truths being better than pretty lies, though I'm kinda doubting it'll happen.

[chatnoiriscool269]

So I was just watching miraculous (as always) and I was just wondering in my head who has it worse Marinette or Adrien?

Adrien

I think Adrien has the worse home life because, well , his father is forcing a relationship on him when he already had a girlfriend and his father is well aware of this, plus his father orders him to do things he doesn’t want to do and Adrien can’t disobey him (either because he is a sentimonster or doesn’t want to disobey, most likely sentimonster) and there has been 1 episode where Adrien was sad and Gabriel didn’t akumatized him but in season 5 episode 10; transmission, Gabriel only resisted to give his son an alliance? Tell me that’s not f*cked up. And after he did that he just went back up, down (?) to his little area and tried to akumatize him. And with ladybug (scenario one, in the NYC special) he feels like he’s a burden and doesn’t understand how much ladybug needs him, so he gives his miraculous to ladybug. (Scenario two, Kuro Neko) Again Adrien feels like he is a burden but much more useless this time (let’s be honest he was in season 4 DONT COME AT ME PLS they just didn’t give him great potential in season 4) so he gives his miraculous up. But then he realizes how much he means to ladybug so chat noir comes back. Plus his moms dead so there’s that

Marinette

Alright so Marinette has a way better home life than Adrien, for example her parents let her do basically whatever she wants, she has free will, and she can do exactly the opposite of what Adrien can do, but then again she had a lot and I mean A LOT of weight in her shoulders, she is (again dont come at me chat Noir stans) the leader of the team, the guardian of the miraculous, she had seen herself dead (chat blanc) she has seen her partner akumatized, in Reunion (season 5 episode 8) she heard alix’s brother Jalil, reads aloud everything people of Paris have said about her (how she’s useless, she promised to protect the city and failed, lost all the miraculous, etc) and it makes her feel down, useless, and insecure. She had also been reminded of her trauma in her nightmare (sentibubbler season 4) and has a very high level of stress since she became ladybug/ guardian of the miraculous, she has also felt that she isn’t worth being ladybug, and in Transmission she says that she is pathetic and not worthy of anything. AND she told Alya she was ladybug and Alya still believed Lila, even when Lila said “me and ladybug? Oh yeah we are like this 🤞” When they obviously aren’t if Marinette HATES Lila.

I just find it ‘miraculous’ that Marinette and Adrien go through so much and they can hold themselves together so well, maybe it’s because they have each other but idk, who do you think has it worse Marinette or adrien. Comment your answer and reasoning (if you want) that’s all for now! Bye luvs 😘🫶🏻

[mduygu]

I love giving spoilers to kids under age of 10 who watches miraculous.

I tell them a few things and they're like wow really?