#lila rossi as a better villain

[internetgiraffekid1673]

I Had Miraculous Ladybug Thoughts, Specifically the Chloe Lila Alliance Situation, and I'm Making It Your Problem! I am So Sorry!

Just. Read the title of this post. I am the most biased person you could have on this topic. You've been warned.

Okay, so. Chloe. If you are in the ML fandom, first off, my condolences, we shall suffer together. Second off, you know that Chloe is incredibly divisive. On the one hand, she's an absolute a**hole to everyone around her at any point in the series that is not season 2 and parts of season 3. On the other hand, it is clear that she has no adults teaching her how to not be an a**hole or regulating her behavior because the only people who have the necessary authority should not have ever been parents.

And then you have that whole thing in season 2 where they started to explain her awfulness and gave her the bee miraculous and she started getting better and developing a support structure, and then she stopped being allowed to have the bee miraculous and dove headfirst off the deep end. This frustrates pretty much the entire fandom. On the Chloe hate side, you wonder why they were wasting time with this. On the Chloe love side, you just got baited, and you're annoyed as heck, and you also are wondering why they wasted your time with this.

But fine, okay, it's dumb, but whatever, the fanfiction can work with this. What the fanfiction has a MUCH harder time working with is Chloe and Lila forming an unholy alliance over their mutual hatred of Marinette and Ladybug. Because the problem here is, it's redundant, it doesn't make sense, and makes Lila even more of a Mary Sue.

Tangent warning: YEAH I SAID IT! I think Lila is a Mary Sue. You don't have to think that. My definition of a Mary Sue is "a character that warps the fabric of the story around them without it making any sense because the author likes/hates/pities/has other strong emotion about this character/ too much to care about a coherent narrative." Not everybody defines a Mary Sue this way, but by this definition, Lila is a Mary Sue. Everyone immediately loses their brain cells around her despite being compassionate and sometimes intelligent individuals who will kill for Marinette in most other scenarios. Nonsensical story warping just because the author said so. Tangent aside:

What this alliance does is it gives you two manipulative lying b*tches who willingly get akumatized to further their petty schemes and are out to destroy Marinette and Ladybug and are weirdly possessive of but don't actually seem to care for Adrien. There's really no point in having two. They occupy the same narrative niche and it is awkward and stupid and I DO NOT LIKE IT. Neither does most of the fandom it seems, because this alliance rarely appears in fanfiction.

There are a couple default solutions in fanfiction:

1. Redeem Chloe. I like this solution. I like Chloe, I think she's entertaining, and I think her interactions with other characters as a good guy are especially entertaining, I think she brings a lot of valuable skills and perspective to the cast as a good guy, I think she has a lot of reasons for being an a**hole that should be properly addressed, and I think the reasons her redemptipn arc got aborted were stupid. Most fanfiction goes the route of having redeemed Chloe viscerally hate Lila too, because Chloe goes after enemies with passion and her whole heart. This is a clean solution, but not great if you don't like Chloe all that much or are trying to make it canon compliant (best of luck to you, canon is all over the place).

2. Only focus on one as a villain and yeet the other out of the story. If Chloe is the villain, set the story during the time that Lila was off being Cerise or wandering around Paris or whatever, or before she showed up. If Lila is the villain, give Chloe an unrelated reason to decide she's not dealing with that today, thank you very much. Usually used in salt fics to dunk on whichever character grinds your gears more without unwanted interruptions. I like salt fics, and this is also a good clean solution. Having both of them is redundant, so just remove one. For Lila, it makes sense because she's a Mary Sue and writing her is annoying, so pretending she never existed is a great fix to that. For Chloe, it makes sense because "lying manipulative ladybug hating b*tch" only really starts being her archetype after the writers screwed up her character with a million inconsistincies. Before that, she was more of a "comically loud, bossy, really obssessive fangirl b*tch," so Lila just works better for certain plots. Downside is that you can't focus on Chloe-Lila interactions, and you sometimes have to do a bit of finagling to figure out how to remove them from a situation they would ordinarily be VERY invested in.

3. Make them hate each other. This is one of my favorite solutions because I have a weakness for villain rivalries that are equal parts comedic and dramatic, but bias aside, this absolutely works. They both want Adrien's sole, undivided attention, and, prior to aforementioned screwing over of Chloe's character, Chloe is the world's biggest Ladybug stan, and Lila is her number 1 hater. They also both have a weird power over the adults in the story that two 14 year old girls really shouldn't have. All these factors make it very easy to guess they would clash. Watch as they try to destroy each other! This plays into the "they both suck, but it's different flavors of suck," and makes those flavors mix BADLY together. The one downside is that it is hard to not make this the central focus of the story, because both of them are so over the top that they're absolutely going to drown out most other going ons, and this is technically supposed to be about Marinette and Adrien. It also erases some of the storylines you can get from an actually thought out alliance.

4. Redeem Lila. I have only seen this in one place, but it is a prominent place and that's more places than my suggestion on this whole ordeal. The prominent place being the Scarlet Lady AU by the very talented and lovely ZoeOneesame. Her take on it was basically:

"Chloe in this AU has the ladybug miraculous, and Chloe sucks at her job, so Lila's ladybug hatred is justified. Marinette is in love with Chat and isn't involved in the ladybug drama, so Lila has no reason to hate her. Adrien is both much smarter and much more active in this AU, so he wouldn't deal with Lila in the same hands-off way. Everybody else is also smarter in this AU and would probably know Lila was lying and also not care because they are forgiving and compassionate. So Lila's lies would most likely get called out, she would have the freedom and desire to figure out who she is beneath the lies, and she would have a justified hatred of Scarlet Lady matched by other characters in the AU, and would probably band together with them."

And thus, no filter, vindictive good guy Lila was born! Again, I have only seen this in Scarlet Lady, but it is amazing over there, so I had to talk about it. Redeeming Lila is an unconventional choice for sure, but I think if you arrange for circumstances where Lila would rather ally with the heroes than the villains, then you can get a lot of mileage out of her people-reading/manipulation skills helping out the heroes while possibly scaring the crap out of them at the same time. This has basically all the same downsides as the Chloe redemption though. It's not fun to do if you're here for Lila salt, and it's ABSOLUTELY not canon compliant.

Now. You may have noticed that nobody who writes fanfiction for this show does the canon Chloe-Lila alliance. This is for a myriad of aforementioned reasons: it's redundant, it continues the confusion of Chloe's character arc, and Lila is a Mary Sue, so anything that involves her tends to be frustrating. But, I think there is a way to make it work, so I'm writing about it.

First of all, don't do what canon did where 6 just have Lila teach Chloe how to lie. Take full advantage of the fact that they are two very different types of a**hole. They can ally for the same reasons: they both are super possesive of Adrien and are raging about him getting together with Marinette. And while I don't like the arc of Marinette being a trash and controlling guardian who shows inordinate favoritism to Alya and Zoe and literally nobody else because she's gay for them, you can still do that and have them both hate Ladybug too. I don't like that plot beat, mostly because it's never really addressed that Marinette is in fact a bad guardian outside of some light sulking from Chat, but it can work. She's a 14 year old girl in way over her head with no adults left to help (except the kwamis, but they don't really count because they are very unhelpful). It makes sense that she wouldn't do a good job at first. But whatever their reasons for teaming up, lean into the fact that Lila is a two-faced secretively awful person while Chloe is an in-your-face publicly awful person. From there, it depends on the tone you're going for.

Chloe is a great villain for humor because she's so loud and dramatic. She can get away with saying and doing really insane and rude stuff on the grounds that she's insane and rude (and also rich and powerful). People don't have any expectations for Chloe to be nice or rational, so she can do stuff like try and write a Queen Banana character into the class film and be met with annoyance and frustration rather than outrage and shock. So if you're going a lighthearted route, let Chloe be the one who does all the public legwork for their schemes, and let her be absolutely over the top about it.

On the other hand, Chloe can also be threatening in a far more tangible way than Lila. Lila can make people think you're a bit of a jerk, but it takes a lot of work for her to come close to getting Marinette expelled, even with all her Mary Sueness to help. Chloe can just look at the principal and say "My dad will fire you and remove all school funding if you don't expel her." Chloe won't make people dislike Marinette because nobody likes her, but she can physically hurt Marinette in ways that Lila can't. So if you're going for drama, you can lean into that. Chloe is in a completely different social class than everyone else and has actual power.

Either way, let Chloe be a complete drama queen who is publicly out to get Marinette, because there isn't anything anyone can do about it.

Meanwhile, let Lila work in the background. Lila has never been a comedic villain, only getting introduced after the show had taken a turn for the more dramatic, so don't bother. Leave that to Chloe's antics. Let Lila be the actual threat who is driving their plans. A lot of the reason Chloe was manageable while Lila never was is because Chloe's rage tends to be directionless and impulsive. She has a short temper that can easily be triggered, but also easily soothed, and she doesn't have any thought out plans or long form schemes. She just does whatever she thinks will make her happy in the moment. Have Lila be the one who convinces her to think in the long-term, and who comes up with an overarching plot to get rid of Marinette, adding a sense of real tension to the situation. Sure, before Chloe could have you expelled on a whim, but she also would have stopped bothering the second Adrien paid attention to her. Lila will help Chloe drop that boundary.

Lila also has the advantage of people actually liking her and being willing to do things for her without threatening or bribing them. Lila can do things like make it so Marinette doesn't have any of her friends around to help in an emergency. She can make it so people believe Chloe might actually be justified in her crusade against Marinette this time. She can plant seeds of doubt and distrust and she can socially isolate Marinette in ways Chloe can't. Make people love and believe in her instead, slowly destroy Marinette's support system, and so on. It not only is really dramatic and upsetting, it basically leaves Mari with just Adrien and Chat to rely on, which is FANTASTIC ship fuel if that's your jam. This can also let you have some other prominent characters come to the fore. Have some Kagami focus. Have some Luka focus. Bring in Socqueline and Felix and see how that changes things.

Point is, between these two, you could have a genuine, non-redundant threat that you can get emotional mileage out of. Lila is on one side turning all of Mari's friends against her and scheming to destroy her in the long term. Chloe is on the other side threatening Marinette's lifestyle---her bakery, her school, her fashion career, her public image, her existence in Paris---anything that can be damaged by the Mayor and the Style Queen is under attack. And then you have Hawkmoth on the other end, throwing akumas in her face and forcing her to make impossible choices. I would imagine Lila also gets akumatized on purpose whenever she needs a little extra help, while Chloe just gets egged on and pushed off the deep end by Lila whenever Lila thinks it'd be advantageous. So that trifecta is super genuinely threatening. But you can also have Chloe being a really stupid drama queen whose fits of rage can still be silly and poorly thought out, even with Lila helping her. And you can have some really heartwarming stuff as the people left in Marinette's support system band together and become even closer to get rid of these two once and for all. I just think this plot beat has a lot of untapped potential if the writers didn't make then fulfill the same narrative role, and I haven't really seen it explored yet.

Feel free to use this idea in fanfic, tell me that it sucks and would be bad, or ignore me, I mostly just needed to write this down!

If the mood strikes me or multiple people express interest (yeah right), I will make a (probably much shorter) post explaining how you can redeem both of them effectively and also why I think that would be bad in most circumstances.

Congratulations if you read this whole rant, now please go to sleep. Please. So much please.

[nothingtherefornow]

About Evil teenagers antagonists in Miraculous

I currently wonder how can some fans still want a redemption for somoene like Chloé who willingly hurt people just because that's was her definition of "fun".

Why not accept Chloé as somoene evil ? Just because she's 14 years old ? Just because Gabriel was worst than her doesn't take away the fact that Chloé is a truly bad person who has the potential to become as evil, if not worse than Gabriel while growing up.

Even in real life, adults are not the only ones who are capable of cruelty and crimes. If only adults were capable of monstrosity, I wouldn't have 14-year-olds killing each other with callache nikoffs in the drug trafficking districts of my city. we wouldn't have young people beating up little ones and pushing others to suicide and absolutely not regretting their actions. And we wouldn't have stories to raise eyebrows about kids capable of committing murder and acts of torture without necessarily having been abused in their lives.

To me, anyone who loves to make others suffer for their own sick pleasure (and their victims are people who objectively don't deserve such cruelty) has serious mental issues and can be a danger to others.

Both Chloé and Lila love to make others people suffer or don't care about hurting innocents, and they certainly don't feel any empathy for anyone, or in Chloé's case, no longer feel any empathy (she may have felt sympathy and empathy for Adrien at some point, like during the episode Felix in season 3, but that's definitly no longer the case as soon as Adrien asked her to stop being a biatch). Maybe Lila may feel a form of attachment toward her mothers, yet that doesn't stop her from manipulating them and fooling them in a way that's pretty cruel if you dig deeper in Lila's scale of truancy and imposterization.

I know that technically when a 14 year old kid behaves like Lila and Chloé we could say to ourselves that it is unfair to give them no chance and to condemn them when they are only 14-15 years old and could change for the better if they could be guided on the right path.

But Miraculouse is a show in which the superheroes with the fate of the world in their hands are 14 year old kids. And as such in this fictitious reality, other 14 year olds are perfectly likely to become real cruel and threatening villains i without any scruples, especialy if they are influenced by the wickedness of an adult supervillain.

And I believe that Gabriel's evilness only made Chloé's and Lila's wickedness worse.

He put those two girls in positions of power where they could hurt others and act according to their darkest and Manichean impulses. And Lila and Chloé would only want more taste of that power to crush others. And you know how power easilly corrupt the most greedy hearts.

On several occasions, Gabriel even approved of Lila and Chloe's horrible plans and actions. He has encouraged Lila on numerous occasions to "get rid of" Marinette, thus giving the impression that he supports Lila's jealousy, and during collusion he will have the nerve to say that Chloé's ideas, which consist literally ruining the academic future of your classmates and putting your pregnant teacher in jail for no good reason are good ideas. Having a rich adult in a position to approve of their actions in this way will only have given Lila and Chloe the feeling that their acts of cruelty and malice are justified, and thus reinforced their evil nature.

On several occasions we have seen Chloe and Lila voluntarily let themselves be akumatized, and worse than that, we have seen them plan to be akumatized (Chloe in Penalteam, and Lila in Revelation) and not for understandable reasons like that of a desperate Jalil brainwashed by lies on social media. Because Lila and Chloe have only ever been motivated by their narcicism, their ego, and their desire to get revenge on people they hate for the most pettiest, vain and selfish reasons possible.

Lila and Chloé may be kids, but they are evil teenagers, because they would gladly become supervillain if that means getting what they want. And what they want is anything but noble. For their selfish goals, Lila and Chloé were willing to endanger the city they live in and all its inhabitants. I don't even know if I can still call Lila and Chloé kids or teenagers, with how far they're willing to go and hurt people for the sake of their ambitions.

Although there's still the possibility that Lila may be an adult with a youngfull appearance or a hormonal abnormality making her look like a teenager when she could be an adult. But that would risk making her a pedophile so I don't think the show will go that far ^^ At most they could give her the same as Théo Barbot

But an antagonist adult would be needed then to balance an antagonist teenager supervillain.

Good thing we still have Tomoe Tsurugi then

It's tragic that Chloé and Lila wickedness and evilness could be due to serious mental issues or Chloé's bad upbringing, and the show may have decided that it's more important to protect others from the harm Chloé and Lila can cause rather than to prioritize "helping" them with their issues. Both Marinette and Adrien proposed another path for Chloé to chose, one that could have helped her heal from the emotional and mental wounds her mother's abandonment and neglect. Chloé instead chose Hawkmoth's/Monarch

Ladybug offered Lila her friendship, and Adrien also offered Lila to be there for her as long as she didn't hurt those he loved. Yet both Lila and Chloe voluntarily chose to continue committing bad deeds and hurting others, regardless of the fact that someone reached out to them and offered them another path to get love, acknowledgement and recognition from people. Adrien and Marinette don't have to sacrifice their mental health for people who wish them harm, so I understand very well that it wasn't and won't be their priority to help Chloé and Lila find potential redemption. And especially when Lila and Chloe seem determined to refuse to change and continue to cling to their wickedness.

It should be the adults responsabilities to deal with Chloé and Lila issues, and unfortunatelly the adults in Miraculous are pretty lousy and incompetents. It's very tragic when we don't know that one kid is a psychopath, and if another has always gotten away with his narcissistic behavior disorder and nothing had ever been done to help them deal with that issue, that only leaves the opportunity for the seed of evil in these kids to germinate and flourish, and then reach the level of nastiness that is more often found in adults.

[motherofplatypus]

The best funniest thing the writers could pull off right now is by making Lila lost in S6 and we switch to Nathalie or Tomoe as the next Hawkmoth.

[iwasbored777]

After Elation I couldn't help but notice that Marinette gets character development by getting hurt and the other characters usually get character development by hurting Marinette

[red-balloon12]

Everybody Hates Lila (And Why It’s Concerning Sometimes)

Lila Rossi is not a stranger in the Miraculous fandom. In fact I’d argue she’s more infamous than Gabriel in some cases. She’s despised by nearly everyone and while some reasons are more justifiable than others, she’s all around not a good person and a mid at best character.

But here’s my deal with it. The fandom hates this girl to I’d like to say an….unhealthy degree. Like the amount of salt this character gets is unmatched. And I feel like the causation of all of this salt doesn’t really live up to the response.

Lila is a liar who causes characters to act out of character very often. And not only that but she also is Marinette’s main rival now and is a jerk to her. She’s underutilized and her lies aren’t that convincing and yet the story wants to convince us she’s more important than she really is pre butterfly miraculous.

This is Lila’s character summed up. At the most I’d expect is frustration mixed in with mild dislike. Reasonable but not over the top. Instead though, I see SEVERAL people make so many salt fics and talk so much shit about her that I just have to sit down and say….y’all need to chill. You all seriously need to chill.

The fandom talks about this character like she’s the spawn of Satan, something we’ve been criticizing Astruc for doing with Chloe, all because she doesn’t have as many redeeming traits as her. Did we forget that they’re BOTH kids? Both of them still have room to improve on themselves.

And I’ll admit it, I was one of those people who kept on saying “Why demonize Chloe when we have Lila” but thinking on it now, neither of them deserves to have that fate. If we REALLY need a character to do the whole “people don’t change” thing, why not Gabriel?

It’s so much better to have this lesson taught to adults to not be like Gabriel, to accept change and loss and to be better. To teach how heavy the impact of a lost love can be and how old age isn’t an excuse to be “stuck in your ways”.

Plus the lesson works better for someone who’s older than for teenagers who’s literally at the stage of their lives where change is everything. And I’m not saying Lila needs to be redeemed or she isn’t allowed to be a villain. What I’m saying is that the over salting on her character, a character that can be easily fixed and patched up, is kinda dumb and kinda annoying to see…especially when some people do like Lila.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, don’t think I’ve forgotten what happened years ago with that one fan that claimed that they loved Lila. That’s what happens when you take salting on a character WAY too far. And I can say that it’s only gotten a little better.

I just don’t understand why people can’t spend their energy talking about how to make a character better instead of salting on them 24/7 and this goes for all of the characters in ML.

I’m gonna be in the minority when I say this but Lila doesn’t deserve to be salted in as much as she does. She deserves reevaluation and a true villain arc. The constant bashing and insulting her at any chance ain’t it.

But you wanna know the thing that frustrates me the most about the Lila salt? How she started getting salted on in the first place. Aka, her being another barrier to Adrienette.

If y’all don’t know already, I don’t like the lovesquare and even back then I didn’t like it. And when I started seeing people hate Lila for this reason, I got very annoyed. It’s the same reason as to why people hated Kagami and it’s a stupid reason (imo). At least the other reasons why she’s hated had some foundation and sense.

TLDR: Lila is a mess but she’s not a mess that’s beyond repair but the constant salting on her and her character isn’t going to do anything. (If you really wanna salt on someone, salt on the writers for making her writing so subpar)

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

You know before the reveal of Feast, I actually had a fanfic-ish theory on what destroyed the order, the peacock and what had Fu so Scared

I initially had this theory of the guardians not only protecting the miraculous from the world but the world from the Kwamis, since there’s so many concepts (propulsion,destruction,action,etc) I thought that some concepts would be too dangerous with the Kwamis acting according their Concept (Plagg is a trouble maker, the tiger is loud, the bee is loyal, etc) so I thought of kwamis which acted on their concept way too much (regeneration regenerating too much which caused things like painful deformations, infection basically creating monster zombies, fortification being walking fortress of destruction, manipulation causing wars out of pure pleasure, etc) and I thought the thing that destroyed the order would be like the opposite of Plagg and Tikki, the two are a eternal loop of balance, of entropy and birth, of light and darkness, creation and destruction. So the bad guy would be the End of said valance

Like a villain similar to the Lich of adventure time which wanted nothing but the destruction of everything, the end of the cycle, the end of everything that is, was and will be. A villain that would mark himself has evil and would keep doing it because that’s he’s nature and doesn’t think he should go against it

I think Fu would have accidentally freed this Kwami of the end but the guardians sacrificed themselves and thousands of miraculouses (because we already have enough heroes) to trap it once again and the reason Fu ran away is because some of the leaking power of the End miraculous freed some minions of the kwami which want the miraculous of creation and Destruction so their master can destroy EVERYTHING

In a show about the miraculous (heck they even come before of ladybug’s and cat noir’s name) I think the most fitting villain would be a miraculous

That would explain why Fu was so scared of losing the Miraculous without pulling up the stupidity of the wish in default ending the world, since losing the miraculous could mean Literally the end of everything

Heck I even made a OC (the minion of the kwami chasing down Fu) which was just “hey what if I make a villain rival for ladybug that doesn’t have disgusting implications of being a minor (a rival that is a adult) so when she’s defeated the audience will cheer instead of being disgusted or sad for seeing a (technical) child being dragged into the depths of HELL” also to explain why the peacock was broken since the miraculous of the end (which rivals the power of creation and destruction together) could 100 break the miraculous, it would make the audience know how dangerous this powers are and would make it look important since the damage he caused started the whole show

Also it would rise the stakes better than Gabriel’s personality making a 180 and the wish having the most bullshit consequences, since the wish would be used to end the world

I even wrote a fanfic of the escaped minion being the reason the Timeline changes in cat blanc to make the world end, so the audience knows how corruptive, destructive, unnatural, evil this kwami is with its first plan including manipulating the minds of kids (Rossi slightly and heavily Lila) to start all the events, manipulate Gabriel to hurt he’s son, make cat Blanc fight ladybug and destroy the world. Lila and chloe are just kids, Gabriel is a broken man, but this thing? This thing and he’s minions are what people B.C. saw that inspired the Devil, Hell and demons

Seriously when I discovered a sentimonster (one the order had designed on their book) was the one who destroyed ALL of the guardians, I felt nothing but disappointment, specially when they don’t explain how the peacock was broken by a mere sentimonster

I expected something grand, something that would make Gabriel see the error of he’s ways with how insignificant he is compared to the forces he was trying to control, but instead I just got a sentimonster…

Am I the one in the wrong? Was I expecting too much? Because even till this day I still feel disappointed, specially by how pathetic and uninteresting Feast was. seriously if you changed Feast and that dragon giant from the Shanghai special, I would be pleased since at least I can see a threatening, smart and powerful monster which scales above Hawkmoth in every way (power, evilness, design, lore) being the one at fault of the destruction of this mighty guardians, but instead they died to a frog!

That was a pretty interesting and detailed backstory, anon. Do you have a link to the fanfic you wrote involving the minion?

You're not wrong to expect more from the backstory of one of this show's characters. I don't think anyone really expected the backstory that kicked off the plot to amount to "The monks who trained me were dicks, I got hungry, so I played God and accidentally wiped out the aforementioned monks with a blue frog."

[geekgirles]

Disclaimer: I am well aware of the content of the Bible Leaks. However, I will not be addressing them. If you are reading this and have read the leaks as well, please, refrain from pointing out any spoilers from them out of respect to fellow fans that chose not to spoil themselves.

With that out of the way...

Um...could we please take a moment to talk about what just happened, whatever the fuck that is, please?

If you've known me enough, then you must surely know I despise Lila Rossi. As a character, as a villain, if she were a real person I might literally bite her head off... I wholeheartedly believe she is the source of about 75% of the salt in this fandom, given most salt takes on other characters are a direct result of their actions whenever she's around.

Just her mere presence in an episode is enough to sour somewhat my viewing experience.

And even I think her character deserved better than the bullshit they're trying to pull.

Can we please agree that the whole Three Mothers and Three Identities thing is some major ass-pull????

Where the fuck does that even come from?!?!

It makes no sense, it comes completely out of the blue, and it all just comes off as some poorly woven plot to make a literal 14-year-old look worse than a grown ass abusive father terrorising a city and its inhabitants.

And you might say, "Well, Geeks. It doesn't come exactly out of the blue... There was the whole Other Mum from Risk and Different Room in Perfection thing. That's gotta count as foreshadowing."

And though I admire your efforts, I'm afraid I must insist that if that is supposed to be foreshadowing, then it's bad foreshadowing.

This doesn't feel like foreshadowing, but like some hastily added details they had to include like, "Oh, damn! That's right; we're supposed to be trying to go somewhere with this girl! I know, let's just give her a different mum and room in different episodes. That'll do it."

By the way, this also contradicts some key aspects which ultimately undermines the whole thing. Such as the fact that Lila Rossi is part of the Agreste Brand, so it makes absolutely no sense as to why someone who is clearly not Mrs. Rossi would take her to the train station. Because as evidenced by the Illusion father-teacher conference, Mrs. Rossi is indeed the woman that appeared in Heroes’ Day.

(Also, Lila was introduced as Gabriel's muse in Ladybug by Alec, though now I'm not sure if she's ever been addressed as Lila Rossi on public appearances such as Risk, but it still feels contradictory) (I don't know, maybe I'm being too nitpicky with this, but it' just feels so contradicting. I swear, I have a point and I will elaborate on it in the future)

But in the end, the reason why this fails to be proper foreshadowing is that Lila is too much of an absent character for it to properly work. Seeing as, out of 4 seasons before the current point in time, she's only really been in the spotlight/relevant in, what, 6 episodes????

It doesn't feel like a twist we should have seen coming, but as a rushed, groundless subplot that has nothing to do with her previous appearances nor does it tie itself with any of her previously shown traits other than her being a liar.

Which instead of expanding on her character, ultimately reduces it to one-dimensional levels.

I discussed this in a different post forever ago, but in my honest opinion, proper foreshadowing or, at least, character placement, would have been if Lila had shown signs of knowing Alya is Rena Rouge. Why? You may ask. 

Simple.

Because Lila has been shown in two different episodes, in different seasons, to have been paying attention closely and jealously to the things going on around her home. Namely, Ms Bustier’s class doing things together at the park which is right below her window while she was stuck at home because, for some reason, she refused to go back to school. 

As we all know, Alya first transformed into Rena Rouge in the park. It would have been the perfect explanation as to why Lila never once tried taking glory for Rena’s actions under the guise of being Ladybug’s best friend—because of course she would entrust her best friend with a miraculous! Just like it would have been the perfect chance for her to try to get closer to Adrien once more by claiming something along the lines of, “Though Ladybug overreacted, she has a tendency of doing that because we can’t forget the backhanded comments, we agreed to change my superhero identity into one that would be safer from Hawk Moth!”

Instead, by having Lila somehow pull off the triple identity con without a single warning in six years, what they are doing is robbing her of a believable reason for the way she acts!

Let’s take Chloé, for instance. 

Chloé’s actions are not excusable. Regardless of how terrible Audrey is, or how badly she neglected her before hopping on to the Enabling Train alongside André, that is never reason enough to be a bully and a total brat to absolutely everyone around you. 

However, Chloé’s reason for the way she acts makes perfect sense within context. She is not just your typical rich spoiled brat. She is a rich spoiled brat whose father is in a position of power and whom she has completely under her thumb, which results in André’s power over Paris becoming Chloé’s. And thus, whenever someone confronts her on her terrible behaviour, as long as they are not in equal footing with her (like Adrien or Kagami), she can just have her dad take care of the situation and potentially have that person or their parents/relatives’ lives ruined. 

Essentially, Chloé’s character amounts to a spoiled brat in a position of power who’s constantly throwing temper tantrums. And yet, this aspect of her personality has gradually been explored over the seasons. 

What’s scary about this is that this is a real-life issue. There are people all over the world getting away with their actions (regardless of how severe they are) because their families have money, power, connections...

Lila, par contrast, gets her character simplified each passing episode she’s featured in. 

We’ve gone from all the possibilities we were offered back in Volpina—Lila indeed just being a new girl trying to make friends but being afraid of rejection, her hating Ladybug while liking Marinette, a possible redemption, her becoming a legitimate villain in her own right rather than the narrative bending over backwards to try convince us she is not a threat even though she is barely featured at all...— to a character whose entire schtick is “Oh, look at me! I’m evil and a liar!”

As I said earlier, one-dimensional levels of character depth. 

The funny thing, though, is that Lila actually had a believable reason for the way she acted, and they are choosing to completely negate that and refuse to give their character any depth in favour of making her as malevolent as possible!

As I said with Chloé, please remember that reason does not mean excuse.

With that out of the way, let's remember how early seasons and especially Oni-Chan went out of their way to establish, or at the very least, hint at Lila being someone who most likely started lying to make herself feel special and make up for the lack of attention she was receiving at home. 

Unfortunately, as time went by, her desire to be the centre of attention and liked, never mind if she never actually put the effort to deserve any of that, far outweighed any original good will and desire for friendship and genuine connections. While the implications that her mother giving her everything she wanted in hopes of making up for her absence further soured her personality until she became the lying, petty, attention-seeking spoiled brat we know today. 

This, coupled with her desperation to be seemed and, more important, feel more special than she actually is gave us a legitimate reason as to why some petty liar would go as far as to ally herself with a terrorist.

Is it troubling behaviour? Undoubtedly. But Lila's never been shown to be a very stable individual. If the early running gag of her throwing things around when angered is any indication.

...

Um...

...esto...

...what exactly is she missing if she’s suddenly been conning three different, completely unrelated women into thinking she’s their daughter? A good psychiatrist?!?!

(I apologise for talking about a minor’s state of sanity, but you’ll have to agree with me that the writers are the first ones portraying kids as literal monsters here). 

And you might say, “You might be overthinking this, Geeks. After all, it’s a superhero show; you can’t expect it to be realistic.”

And once again you would raise a very valid point. Hell, God knows I wouldn’t watch half the things I do if they were realistic. However, it is imperative that we make a distinction: 

Fiction doesn’t have to be realistic, but it must be convincing.

And there is nothing convincing about a 14-year-old having three different identities because of how good a liar and manipulator she supposedly is. 

Marinette pulls off impressive, crazy feats every single day? That is convincing because we see repeatedly how Marinette has both a complexity addiction due to a need to control things to calm her anxiety, and the fact that what ultimately saves the day is her natural quick-thinking and creativity, not to mention the fact that she has superpowers.

Chloé gets to expel people just by threatening to call her dad, the Mayor? Again, it is convincing, and probably even realistic, because she is in a position of power and, unlike Lila, her actions are appropriate in the sense that they are outlandishly cartoonish.

Lila...she doesn’t have that. 

Maybe it's just me, but I just can't seem to buy the excuse that any responsible mother would be okay with their underaged daughter "going to Africa to deal with poachers" all by herself, especially in the middle of the school year. Just like I have the feeling many parents would at least be apprehensive at the idea of their teenage daughter becoming such a public figure as both a model and the face of the Alliance rings.

But hey, maybe those are just signs of me having the potential to become an overprotective mother in the future. Instead of, you know, one of the most atrocious cases of the Adults Are Useless trope I've ever seen.

Nevertheless, as of right now Lila doesn’t even have much depth. And I’m not saying she needs some sob story that will make us feel sorry for her, no. You don’t need to make a villain sympathetic for them to be a good villain. After all, Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame has no sympathetic traits nor does he have a sad backstory whatsoever and he is still one of the best Disney villlains ever. 

So what am I supposed to do with Lila? What, do I have to wait until season 6 comes around and retrospectively reveals she’s not a teenage girl at all but some sort of ancient witch who lures people in with her syren song and feeds off of their adoration for her?

At this point it just feels like the writers are so desperate for adding shock value, that they forget to add anything of value.

[aliensunflower-fics]

CHANGING FACES Chapter 6: Arrival

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After years of dealing with each other Lila Rossi win’s when she  convinces Hawkmoth that Marinette is Ladybug. In order to throw off  suspicion and keep the Miracle Box safe Marinette and her supportive parents leave Paris and head to Gotham of all places. In this new place  away from her friends and her unhealthy routines Marinette is forced to  confront herself and change for the better. Helping her on her journey  is a surprising new friend and potential ally. When Alya missing her  friend learns about the chance to win a free trip to Gotham she  convinces the class to work hard to qualify. When her new life clashes  with her old one will Marinette be able to hold on strong to her new  confidence or will she crumble under the pressure?

( This fic will be for the most part comedic, fluffy, and sweet, with only a bit of seriousness to tie it together. With only the mildest salt  because I don’t think the class or Adrien are bad people just that they  can be naive and selfish thanks to the canon writing. I hope you enjoy  reading this work and have fun with me on this journey. )

CHAPTER 6:

Arrival

Marinette had never been so happy to be on solid ground. The plane ride had been… Turbulent to say the least not to mention long leaving Marinette to agonize and worry the entire time that maybe while she was busy up in the sky Hawkmoth would strike luckily the freak of a villain seemed busy and so the flight passed without the need to use Kaalki which was a great thing as Marinette was unsure just how precise the power of voyage was. 

As the small family of 3 disembarked from the plane with their meager belongings Marinette breathed in the fresh air with relief it was chilly and barely light out … She was tired, yes, but she was also giddy and a strange sense of freedom was filling her with every step she took. There was no Hawkmoth here, no purple butterflies no constant need to lock her own emotions into vault, no more need to lie to her parents, no more Bustier telling her to be the classes shining example, no more Lila whispering lies behind her back, no more Adrien too shoot her longing puppy dog stares as he waited for her to ‘forgive him’ when he had never bothered to apologize. 

She was free. She was safe? … Well as safe as one could be moving to a city known for its killer clowns and freaks in masks. Not that Marinette wasn’t prepared for that, her training with her own mother and the Amazon’s of Themyscira for the last few years had transformed her small unassuming body into a weapon. Not to mention the new magical training the Kwamis were giving her, Tikki especially pushed for more training once she started learning just how awful some of the villains of Gotham were and she made Marinette promise that if the Joker so much as even looked at her she would not hesitate to transform him into a cockroach. Technically it wasn’t murder so she figured Batman would be fine with it.

As they moved through the airport presenting their documentation to the necessary people Marinette’s excitement only grew with her fingers twitching with anticipation as the polite woman welcomed them to their new home and they exited the security clearance area into the wider airport. Her eyes scanned the crowd eagerly until they landed on the group of 3 men chatting amongst themselves. She let out a squeal and started running, catching the men’s attention as she flung herself at them in joy. Jason however acted fast and caught her first wrapping her into a tight brotherly hug and lifting her off the ground and away from Dick and Alfred.

“Woah there jelly bean you trying to take the old man out? Lucky I caught you huh!” 

Marinette snorted and rolled her eyes trying to squirm out of Jason’s grasp so she could hug Alfred and Dick who was looking rather put out.

“Oh please Alfred’s not frail he’s like Grandma Gina he will live forever at this rate and be healthier then all of us.” 

Tom and Sabine chuckled at the scene as they walked over with their meager bags and proceeded to hug Alfred and catch up while Dick tried to pry Marinette free from Jason in order to get his hug that Jason had so rudely stolen. Marinette meanwhile dangled from Jason’s arms with an amused and exasperated look on her face. She’d missed her ‘brothers’ greatly and was happy to see them again. There was just one thing, one tiny little thing…

“When did you freaks get so tall!”

The sudden comment had both boys stopping as they seemingly for the first time paused to take in Marinette’s appearance. Sure they had seen pictures of her and video chatted plenty of times but this was the first time in years where they had physically been around her and now that they were… 

“I think the better question here is why are you so short.” Marinette gasped in faux offense squirmed out of Jason’s grasp clutching her heart in mock betrayal. 

“How could you say such a thing… Dick is my favorite now.”

The oldest Wayne grinned and accepted his hug while sticking his tongue out at Jason who was playing the part of the dramatically betrayed. 

However now that Dick was hugging his little sister he could not help but blurt out. “God you really are short.” 

Marinette squawked indignantly at the comment. “What no! I’m normal it's you two who are the-” She gestured at them with waving arms. “Alfred! What have you been feeding them and where can I get some!” 

Alfred chuckled and opened his arms calmly to accept the warm hug of his god daughter. “I’m afraid I haven’t been feeding them anything unusual; they simply sprung up like weeds.”

Marinette huffed and puffed up her cheeks. Stupid genetics.

“Ah don’t feel too bad jelly bean Dickie here isn’t even THAT tall, just wait till you meet Kori in the flesh now that's tall.” 

As the group moved its way out of the airport Marinette recalled the measurements she’d received when designing Kori’s wedding dress, not to mention the pictures that showed the beautiful tan woman towering a full head over Dick at the altar. Maybe it was something in the water of Gotham that made people tall. Considering all the supervillains she would not doubt it.

“When will I finally get to meet Kori and Mar’i face to face anyway? I wanna hug my cute little niece already!!!”

“Why? Because she’s the only one not taller than you?” Jason snickered before letting out a surprised yelp as Marinette playfully punched him in his side with a pout. She had some surprising strength in that arm of hers.

“Later in the week, they wanted to come pick you up with us but it was so early and your parents told us your new school was giving you a week off to adjust to the new timezone before classes start.” Honestly it had been a hectic night with Mar’i refusing to sleep determined to go with Dick to the airport but eventually she fell asleep clutching Silkie and so Dick had left alone.

“What school are you going to anyway, jelly bean? Maybe I can come pick you up sometime after school for some lessons in self defense at my gym.” Mostly he wanted to see her flatten some of the men twice her size; he knew Sabine had been training Marinette since she was young and he was eager to see what his little sis was capable of.

Marinette smiled at the thought. “That sounds nice, as for my new school mom and Alfred arranged it for me, I think it's called Gotham Academy.”

Marinette missed the way Dick and Jason whipped their heads around to glare at Alfred. Gotham Academy wasn’t a bad school, in fact one could easily say the opposite: it had great staff, good facilities, and it had accepted Marinette on a full ride scholarship thanks to her high grades and many achievements. The problem was the school was also full of a bunch of rich leeches, but worst of all it had Damian. Now both older Wayne’s could admit they loved there little brother even if Jason would deny it to keep his cool reputation but Damian had a bit of a bad track record with first impressions. Not to mention the fact that the 3 Wayne’s had already discussed how best to introduce the Dupain-Chengs to the rest of the family so they could all be one bigger happier family and they had agreed to wait and while and let them settle in before dropping the bomb that was the Wayne family and more specifically BRUCE on to them but if Marinette met Damian at school and got a bad idea of him… Things would get complicated.

Alfred however unlike the younger two Wayne men was not worried. He had a feeling that Marinette and Damian were just what the other needed right now. Yes, he’d heard many things about Marinette’s situation from her parents. What she needed now was someone to bring out that bold Marinette he knew was waiting for a chance to shine. And as for his youngest grandson while he had been doing much better and had made friends he was still hostile and wary Marinette however might be just what he needed. The old man chuckled with a warm smile. 

“I think you will like Gotham Academy very much, Marinette.”

—-----------------------------------

Damian Wayne had a reputation. Since his first ever day at school at the age of 10 after he’d moved in with his father the young heir had… Problems with other students. His personality was icey and his training too deeply ingrained that school and him had not gone well. Yet his father refused to let him skip or be homeschooled, determined that with time school would help him develop his social skills. For the first few years Damian was alone he shoved people away and did only what was required waiting for the day when finally his father would see that school was beneath him and he could achieve so much more without it.

At 13 that reputation evolved. And not for the better. Damian had been so sure of his own intelligence and his own superiority that he failed to notice that viper slinking through the grass. A girl, the same age as him, unlike other girls who had failed to approach him due to the obvious attempts, Lila had been more subtle. Instead of acting interested in him she acted unfazed she even began dating Jon the only person his age Damian was close to. He’d let his guard down thinking that she was nothing but a simple sweet girl. But he had never been more wrong. 

Somehow the viper had found his weakness, somehow she knew that deep down under all his posturing he felt insecure, unloved, unwanted, and she prayed on it. She made him feel strong, she made him feel special, she made him feel wanted, she used lies to paint Jon the villain and herself the victim so that Damian would save her and fall deeper into the strange infatuation that clouded his mind. She was a snake. And worst of all he had not even discovered her lies himself; it had been sheer dumb luck overhearing her plot her schemes that had revealed the truth to him.

But by that point it was too late. The vipers poison had already spread and Damian Wayne’s reputation fell from just ‘ice king’ to ‘monster’ even after the lawsuit even after proving her lies and sending the snakes father to jail. Even after he had proven himself innocent… The reputation clung to him. It was a stain that would not wash off, even after Dick convinced him to go to therapy and his attitude improved, even after he fixed the broken relationship with his family, even after he broke out of his shell and made friends in his school, the stain was still there and every action he did and didn’t take only made it worse.

It's not that Damian wasn’t trying, because he was really. He tried to be polite and courteous; he tried to make a good impression. But somehow someway it often seemed to go wrong, though it did not help that his peers were a bunch of rich kids who tended to be overly sensitive, at least in Damian’s eyes. It did not help that Damian was self admittedly a little… Overly blunt and honest not to mention how sensitive he was about girls flirting with him, he knew he’d not fully recovered from the Vipers poison and so even now 3 years after she was gone he was on high alert constantly on the lookout for lies and manipulation. And this… alertness of his had led to again more then a few terrible first impressions. 

To put it simply, Damian was aware that whenever a new student was joining the school bets were made on how fast Damian Wayne would manage to offend them. So when the teacher announced that come next Monday a new student would be joining the class a young girl all the way from France no less a ripple of excitement went through the class as once more bets were being made. This time however Damian Wayne was determined to make them all lose. He would be polite, and courteous he would not snap, not say anything un-intentionally mean, he would be normal, he would simply ignore the new girl and all would be well.

Which is why of course his Teachers asked him to give the new girl the school tour. He was one of the few who spoke French and they were unsure how good the girl's English was so they wanted to play it safe and coincidentally all the other students who could speak French just so happened to be too busy to help the new student. Damian seethed he knew it was a lie, they just wanted to force him to interact with her for their little bets. Fine then! A Wayne is not so easily defeated. He would be a perfect gentleman, he would not offend the girl, it would be fine. He would prove to himself and everyone else that Damian Wayne might be the Ice Prince of Gotham but he was no brute. Bring it on Monday Damian Wayne was ready to meet the new girl.

( Thank you again for all the patience and support! I tend to update slowly due to well... The need to keep food on the table and my finances have been especially tight lately so I was struggling but things are getting better now so hopefully I can write more often in the near future. This first chapter was more to establish some stuff I know its a little short but it felt good to get back into this fic with something a little neater sweeter and smaller. Hopefully I have more up soon! )

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[pisoprano]

This is an ML salt post, particularly about Lila Rossi. If you are actually excited about Lila being the main villain in future season(s), this post isn't for you, I just need to rant. A lot.

I hate Lila Rossi. I hate her with a burning passion. Literally every episode where she shows up, my hatred for this character will manifest in me saying "I hate her" the moment she opens her mouth, followed by seething throughout every moment she spends onscreen.

In prior seasons, this wasn't much of an issue--she'd show up for a couple episodes and then she'd disappear 90% of the time, so I could usually just focus on literally anything else in the show. With season 5, however, she started showing up much more. I knew it was coming, of course--the foreshadowing that she would be the successor to Hawkmoth has been visible since season 3, and it was announced that he'd be gone after this season. But if the show had ended at season 5 as originally intended, butterfly!Lila could have been a theoretical problem for adult!Ladybug and adult!Chat Noir in 10 years. But since the powers that be have decided to have the show continue past Gabriel Agreste, Lila is a problem now and will be a problem at least until Chris Lahiffe is a teenage boy, if "Timetagger" is any indication. And we, the audience, will be forced to suffer through all of it.

Why, though, do I hate the idea of Lila being the main villain? I was fine with having Gabriel in the villain seat for five seasons despite him being a terrible father and manipulative git, after all. With Gabriel, there was a particular humanity to him that made him interesting--this entire show is about love and Gabe's love was so overwhelming and myopic and self-serving that he resorted to villainy while convincing himself that he was secretly the hero all along, sacrificing everything (even his morality) for the woman he loved. He used his love as an excuse to justify the harm he caused Paris and his very own son. As he continually reached for forbidden means to get what he wanted, his dreams ballooned in scope--he'd defied the odds when he'd married above his station, he'd defied the odds when he'd become a world-renowned designer, he'd defied the odds when he found the miraculous and created the perfect son--and so it became all too natural for him to fight the impossible fight as Hawkmoth because he deserved to win this too. And the whole time, unbeknownst to either of them, he's fighting against the son who he's been neglecting and controlling in his fight to save someone who never wanted to be saved? That stuff is fascinating.

Lila, though? She's got none of that complexity. She's a consummate liar who hates the protagonists and literally nothing else. In other shows, she'd be the transfer student who shows up for an episode, gets exposed as a fraud by the end of that episode, and then literally never be seen again. This show, however, has Lila overstay the welcome that her character archetype is built for and instead be a recurring problem. And, because a liar can only get away with lying if the surrounding characters don't know she's lying, Lila is made untouchable by the plot. Other villainous characters have some plot immunity to their evilness--Chloe, obviously, has the automatic win condition of demanding her father to get her out of trouble whenever she wants. But Lila's plot immunity comes from an inexplicable ability to manipulate everyone around her (besides our main protagonists, who are forced to only cry wolf). She makes all the supporting cast love her without help, she does so even to characters we'd expect to know better. When she first showed up, her lies weren't even good and still she gets away with her reputation in tact basically every time. The one time where she does get exposed to everyone, she gets to have an easy redo by making up a completely new identity to try again. She's a Villain Sue. And her very presence weakens the story she's in.

Lila only exists because the writers decided to make an absolute hate sink. They absolutely succeeded in doing so. And frankly, that's a problem. Most of the time, if you're going to have a character in a show for any length of time, they should be likeable on some level. They could be sympathetic or competent or proactive or even just have a personality that's fun to watch, but the audience shouldn't feel like the character is a waste of viewing time. Lila isn't someone the audience can identify with, her competence is largely in name only (I will allow that her manipulative skills during season 5 are stronger, but her ludicrously bad prior lying and the unexplained nature of her sudden hypercompetence now aren't nearly enough to make me forgive her here). Lila's sometimes doing things behind the scenes, sure, but she has the laughably petty objectives of "be famous" and "ruin classmate's life" and I cannot take her actions towards achieving these goals seriously as a bit villain, let alone a primary antagonist. And--worst of all--her voice is extremely annoying. I will suffer through a myriad of things, but I can only listen to nails on a chalkboard so long before need to leave the room.

And this might be a bit of a hot take, but honestly? I don't think Lila was even necessary in the first place. In episodes like "Volpina" or "Oni-Chan," she could have been replaced with Chloe (our original mean girl who's clingy with Adrien--she might not be my favorite character either, but at least she's funny). I'm positive that the plot of "Catalyst" and "Miraculer" could have been reworked to happen without Lila's involvement without much effort. The entire subplot of Lila being Adrien's modelling partner was more about Gabriel controlling his son--it could have been easily about forcing Adrien to be alone instead of forcing him to be with someone he didn't like. The fact that Lila shows up so little in the first four seasons just goes to prove how unnecessary she is. She only becomes important in season 5 because the writers now know that they need to prepare for a new supervillain to fill Gabriel's shoes after he leaves--and she's the only one who comes anywhere close to fitting. So, suddenly, she's being far more active than she ever was (almost half of her total appearances are in season 5 alone), but her motivations are less clear than ever, so I'm left assuming that this hollow character must still have the hollowest of motivations--popularity, power, getting back at the kids who rebuffed her... after having 5 seasons of truly delicious drama, why on earth would I want to turn the worst thing about those 5 seasons into main course?

I know I am far from being alone in hating Lila Rossi's character. There are literally thousands of fics tagged with "Lila's Lies Are Exposed" because so many readers want to see her be punished for her actions. I'm actually not really a fan of these--I don't take joy in seeing Lila being taken down. I want her to disappear from the narrative entirely. If the current state of United States politics has taught me anything, it's that that watching a terrible person get their comeuppance is never as satisfying as you think it will be because that terrible person will keep popping up and keep being terrible and keep forcing you to think about them. The best possible punishment I can think of for Lila is to act like she's just an OC made from some background character that never mattered in the first place--and then never have to think about her existence in the show again.

I was happy to watch the first 5 seasons of Miraculous Ladybug. I wish it had only been those 5 seasons (side note: Chat deserved to go up against his father in the final battle. I get that he couldn't since the mandate for more seasons requires the identities to be intact, but this was the point in the narrative when the reveal was meant to happen and it has weakened the story to move it elsewhere). I haven't decided to not watch season 6 at this point, but knowing who I will have to deal with in every episode? It's making it very difficult for me to want to continue any further.

[howhow326]

Harlequin AU: villain Maribug

This idea just popped into my head: what if Miraculous was a villain origin story? What if all the times where Marinette got treated like dog doo doo by her friends, society, and the narrative actually mattered?? What if all the times Marinette got needlessly traumatized were actually a prelude to a more dramatic mental break, a la Scarlet Witch??? What if Marinette went ape shit???? Here's my idea:

Marinette's descent into villainy starts the same way every other day of her life starts: Chloe and Sabrina bully her; Lila bullies her and none of her friends stand up for her; Chat Noir borderline sexually harasses her OR he acts like all the times he proclaimed his undying love to her never happened so he can avoid going on a date with her; the usual.

As Marinette goes into her room, she gets ready to cry herself to sleep like she does every night. And then, an idea pops into her head...

"Tiki, red spots on." "Marinette, no! You can't use the miraculous for evil! You know it always ends in disaster!" "Disaster for ME!!! I'm the one that always sufferers the most for mine and every else mistakes! No more... NO MORE!!! TIKI, RED SPOTS ON!!!"

Marinette transforms, but not into Ladybug. Her trauma and her 'selfish' desire to do what's good for her mixes into a new persona: Harlequin. Her outfit is a color flipped version of Ladybug's enhanced outfit from season 4, a black body suit with red spots.

Harlequin jumps out of her house and announces herself, "Bonsoir, citizens of Paris. You used to know me as the weak Ladybug, the failure superhero." Gasps can be heard from the late night citizens, wondering why their darling would call herself that. "But from now on my name is Harlequin, the strongest superhero in Earth! And I'll prove my strength by finding Hawkmoth and arresting him! CREATION CHARM!!!"

Harlequin digs deep with her power over creation, forcing her power to work for her the same way Hawkmoth forces his power to make akumas. She creates a magic compass that points in the direction of the Butterfly miraculous, and as soon as she arrives at the Agreste mansion, she knows exactly who has been making her life hell.

Gabriel is asleep when Harlequin crashes through his window and assults him. " Oh, you BETTER wake up!" Harlequin snatches his miraculous away and beats him into submission.

When Adrien walks in, he feels like he's in a nightmare. "Ladybug, what are you doing!" The boy screams as she continues to beat a corpse. "Happy Valentine's day, Adrien! Your abusive father, Hawkmoth, won't be bothering us anytime soon." As she walks out of the room to retrieve her kwamis, she turns back to face Adrien. "And by the way, it's Harlequin now."

Gabriel Agreste, AKA Hawkmoth, is dead. Suicide by cop, of course. It's not like anyone cares. Nathile is sent to a UN jail for life after her connection to Gabriel is found out. Adrien inherents his father's company and is to be allowed to live in the guardianship of the Gorilla until he becomes 18. Harlequin recreates the miraculous and brings them back home. But it's not a happy ending. It's just the beginning.

The next day, Lila is up to her old tricks. Afterschool, Harlequin drags her into the street in font of a local news station. "Bonjour citizens of Paris, Harlequin speaking! This girl, Lila Rossi, has been bullying an innocent girl in her class room for the last year. Lila has claimed an innocent girl cheated on a test, she claimed an innocent girl pushed her down the stairs, all sorts of lies really! She even claimed to be my best friend, although there's one hole in that story... Tiki, red spots off!" As Marinette reveals her identity to everyone in Paris, Lila's heart sinks. "The whole time I have been saving the people of Paris, the whole time I've been helping my friends, this wench has been bullying me! NO MORE! Tiki, red spots on!" Harlequin swings away into the distance...

The next day, Lila Rossi disappears. The people of Paris don't care, she bullyed their savior after all. Meanwhile, the akuma class' reputation is destroyed, each one becoming a social outcast.

The day after, Harlequin finds out that the Mayor of Paris has been breaking one two many laws. She decides that he, his wife, and Chloe are all going to go to a "nice family prison".

That's what she told the public. Harlequin used the bunny miraculous to send them back in time into the French Revolution. Chloe will never bully Marinette again.

The day Harlequin becomes the new Empress of France is met with cheers. She saved the world from Hawkmoth. She erased all crime in the country. She seperated France from the UN, so that they may be their own superpower again. Longue vie la Harlequin!

"Marinette, you need to stop! Don't you see that this is crazy?" Alya pleeds to her best friend. "Tell me Alya, where were you when I was being bullied by Lila? NEVER TELL ME WHAT I NEED!!!" Alya is sent away to the camps, where everyone who dare disagrees with Harlequin is sent.

Adrien is at a crossroads. If he chooses to love Harlequin, then his life will be full of joy and madness. Harlequin forgives him for all the wrong he did to her, and accepts him with open arms. Togather, they become the rulers of France... but their relationship is one of imbalance. Just as the Ladybug miraculous is so much more powerful that the Cat, Marinette is so much more powerful than Adrien. Everyday, Adrien thinks Marinette looks more and more like his father. He never says it out loud tho... He dosen't want to be punished again.

If Adrien rejects Harlequin, Kill Bill by Sza plays. Then Harlequin actually kills him.

As Marinette lays in her bed, she still cries herself to sleep. She has everything she could ever want... and she still has nothing...

[foxwitchaine]

Which is your most hated character in Miraculous Ladybug?

I wouldn't say hate so much as strongly dislike, as it takes a lot for me to outright loathe a fictional character. More often than not, I have better things to spend my energy on than hating a fictional character.

But if I were to answer that, five take the top spot:

1.) Lila Rossi

I know. Surprising, isn't it. Well, it's all fun and games until you actually meet one in real life. And it's frustrating as hell getting those with the wool over their eyes to listen until it's too late. I have to emphasize that it wasn't originally part of the plan to redeem her in the early drafts. It was thanks to Rafe that I even considered doing a Lila redemption.

Lila had a lot of potential in the early seasons. Of course, that was before she was turned into a one-dimensional villain with little in the way of making her interesting. It says something that I got the feeling the showrunners were trying to make her hateable without actually putting in the effort while reading the Chameleon transcripts. (I had to stop reading to settle my blood pressure)

All in all, Lila is just a symptom of a bigger underlying issue regarding the show's writing. I personally think she has a very nice design, but it looks better in 2D than 3D.

2.) Gabriel Agreste

He's a severely underwhelming main villain. At the start, he had potential. But as the series drags on, it's become painfully clear that the showrunners don't actually know how to make a compelling main villain. He was surprisingly much more intimidating and better-designed in the pilot PV.

Gabriel also lacks the charisma you would find with iconic main villains such as Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, the rogues gallery in the first Powerpuff Girls, Batman's rogues gallery, and so on. I could make a whole post about how to write Gabriel better, but I don't feel like resurrecting a dead horse.

3.) Adrien Agreste

The poster boy for wasted potential. When Rafe and I first started watching Miraculous Ladybug, Season 2 hadn't been released yet. He was nice, if a bit bland. Could have used some flavorblasting in both design and personality (he's a fashion model, for crying out loud. Where's his fabulous wardrobe?)

And then all the red flags in Seasons 3-5 started popping up.

As it stands, he's nothing more than a plot device to humiliate poor Marinette. And a mouthpiece for the writers' very skewed morality. We weren't going to redeem him at first, but then it occurred to me a fantastic way to strike a devastating blow against Gabriel. I won't say anything more since they're spoilers.

4.) Alya Césaire

Ohhhh boy. Where do I even begin with this one? Disregarding the racism allegations towards the writers regarding her character, Alya is just an awful best friend, plain and simple. While it's true that she's a go-getter who isn't afraid to go for what she wants, that same trait has pretty much been solidified into a toxic trait courtesy of her refusal to question Lila later in the show. Even after Marinette broke down in front of her and confessed her secret identity in Gang of Secrets.

I will forever hate that episode just for how entitled everyone was about Marinette's secrets.

When Rafe and I were brainstorming who to use as our civilian antagonist to fill in for Lila, it was rather telling that Alya was among our first choices. It wasn't our intention for her to fall as hard as she did in The Wolves in the Woods, but honestly? It was inevitable.

5.) Caline Bustier

She's a non-authority figure who coddles the troublemakers in her class. I'm restraining myself at the moment because I've had teachers just like her in real life. Who look good on paper and are the sweetest people on the outside. But their inability to discipline a class regardless of behavior does a lot more damage in the long run than many would care to admit.

Bustier is a character who I could have grown to understand if the writers handled her better. The biggest brat of the school is the daughter of the city mayor. That right there is a beautiful setup for interesting conflict. We could have gotten a plot where we had a good, caring teacher trapped in a terrible situation by her superiors. Which is unfortunately something that can and does happen in real life. Instead, we got an airhead who can't for the life of her understand this simple thing called nuance.

I find it very telling the fandom prefers Mendeleiev over her.

Honorable Mentions:

Principal Damocles: Too much of a spineless noncharacter to really care about

Tom and Sabine: I try to understand the parents' side of things given parenting is far from an easy task

Bustier's class: A mixed bag here, since I don't think they're necessarily bad kids

Mayor Bourgeois: Again, another mixed bag here since he's another spineless "parent"

Zoé Lee: Too much of a blank slate to have an opinion on

Félix Fathom: What kind of a name is that?

Master Fu: He was done so dirty in his backstory

Chloé Bourgeois: Another with wasted potential

[virtuouswhitehatorganization]

Glitter Blast (Villainous Oc)

Name: Phaedra Lyeman

DOB: July 17th

Occupation: Superhero

Residence: Justland Park

Sexuality: Straight

Ethnicity: Caucasian-American

Age: Same Age As The Rest Of The Sidekicks

Abilities: The ability to create and manipulate glitter of many different colors.

Headcannon Voice Actor: Jules Medcraft (English); Diana Alonso (Spanish)

Relatives: Lawton Lyeman (father); Paige Lyeman (mother)

Personality: At heart, she is a very deceptive girl who is will to fabricate false tales about herself to use people and to get ahead in life. Due to her parent's careers as lawyers for the corrupt PEACE and many questionable heroes, she has come to believe that lying is an acceptable practice to better one self. She shows no remorse for using people and sees people as her pawns to use in her way to fame and glory as a hero. She is very arrogant and loves bragging about all the stuff she's allegedly done, which includes good deeds in order to make herself seem like a good person. She is also very underhanded and devious who will use dirty tactics like framing someone for bullying her to get sympathy.When she is found to be lying she doesn't hesitate to turn on the people she once was pretending to friendly and gloats about how she fooled them. She also is very dramatic and loves putting on grand performances with her powers to wow people. She is very shallow and vain and tends to be very superficial. However, despite those traits she also is very intelligent and cunning which she uses to help herself in many situations. She likes attention and will get it by any means of lying. She also very self-centered and selfish and tends to not think about how her actions hurt others. She also is a would be gold digger who goes after boys who can bolster her status or are from a good background. Background: She was born to lawyers who did work covering for PEACE and many superheroes when it came to legal troubles, as a result she grew up a privileged lifestyle and also came to adopt their habits of lying and stretching the truth. She would get into the hero industry by becoming a sidekick and at first prove herself to be a friendly face among her fellow sidekicks and told fabrications about herself but then turn out to be a two faced liar who was never the person she really is and really is only out for the perks of being a hero. She would then drop the nice act and act more hostile to them while continuing the facade of being a fake nice girl in order to climb the top in the hero industry.

* She is based on Mandy Lux from Totally Spies and Lila Rossi from Miraculous Ladybug.

* She is getting into law school to become a lawyer on the side like her parents.

* Her powers at first were thought as not that threatening and useful until she trained them into being forceful blasts, aiming them at her opponents eyes, covering them up with it, using bursts to distract them, etc.

* Like Ruby Rani, Judger, and the Le Couturier, they are often the most disliked members of the circle of sidekicks. She actually being the most due to how she crosses lines Couturier and Rani don't cross.

* She and Rani butt heads and often compete for attention.

* She and Le Couturier will date at one point.

* She has a social media presence to bolster herself like Ruby Rani.

* She does freelancing like Couturier and like him it's to get attention of more prominent superheroes in hope they take her in and she can pick the one who can help her gain popularity. She really wants to one day get noticed by a member of the Golden Rule with her hopes either being Gold Heart or Miss Heed, who she is a fan of both.

* She is not above spouting lies to her fellow sidekick's mentors to make them think their sidekick is doing something wrong.

* She also loves spreading hurtful rumors in order to get back at those she dislikes.

* She has a great love for doing art projects with her glitter blasts. And is a big art fan which she loves to do as a hobby and hopes she can do it as a side gig and sell it at a high price when she becomes very famous.

Created through https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/2198667

[yubellia]

Reborn as Lila Rossi: The Fox and the Caterpillar (Chapter one)

Hi Hi Hi! This took longer than I thought. I am back from my vacation and can use my laptop again. The teaser came from my phone. I just wanted to push that idea into the world. However, let's begin.

(think think think)

"bla bla bla"

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Lucia had a pretty shitty day. Her stepfather would divorce her mother. And to make it worse, they were also both fired from her job. Her dad really wanted to get rid of them. Was there a reason for that? No. Just the fact, that he did not want them anymore. Lucia just came from a big office building in her new hometown. She reported herself as jobles and got the paperwork to get money for her rent and all the important stuff.

She sat down on a bench after she realised that her bus would come in about 10 minutes. she did not even care that it is november and that the bench is cold like ice. Her pale hand pushed her brown and slightly curly hair from her face. (Ok. let's see. It's the end of the year. Pretty much no one is looking to fill positions, unles we talk about cleaning toilets and I am a 19 year old woman, fresh from college and little to no savings. To make it worse, I also can't rely on my mother. She lives in another town and also got fired.) Lucia stood up and took a few steps. "Can this get any worse?" Almost like it listened to her prayers, the bus she was waiting for drove up to her. Way to fast. Not that much of a surprise really. She herself almost slipped on the road this morning. Everything felt like it was slowed down but Lucia could not move. The bus could not stop in time and hit her.

Everything was dark. It felt like one of these dreams. You are close to waking up but you can‘t. Until your alarm finally sets you free. And that’s what happened.

An annoying ringing filled the room and Lucia opened her blurry eyes. She instantly found the phone and turned the alarm off. After she took a moment to stretch and wake up fully, she thought that she must be still dreaming. This room was not hers. There were masks hanging on the wall, next to her was a poster of a place in…. Italy? Maybe? And in another corner was a mirror with lamps and a desk with makeup.

„What the hell is….?“ she could not finish this sentence as she heard the voice of a woman calling…. Her? „Lila?! Are you up? Get ready! You don‘t want to be late for school right?“ that was not her name. But this name in combination with this room made a ton of sense. She rushed out of the bed in a panic and over to the mirror. „Yes… mom! I am up! Don’t worry!“ she looked at herself or rather the person she was supposed to be. There in the mirror was the face of Lila Rossi. One of the villains from this show called „miraculous“. Green eyes looked shocked into the mirror as ‚her mother‘ spoke again. „Ok good! I will be late tonight. There is food in the fridge and some lunch money on the table. Love you dear!“ the next thing she heard was a closing door. Lucia or now Lila looked at her phone to check the time. More than an hour left. Enough time to collect her thoughts. „ok. Relax! This has to be a mistake right? The last thing k remember is getting hit by a bus. And than….. nothing. So this has to be a coma dream or something. Worst case scenario would be, that this is my afterlife. A new chance as a villain that is supposed to fail. Great.“

She started to pick out some clothes and got dressed while she kept thinking. „Relax Lucia. This is not too bad! I mean, I know what is supposed to happen. I can make it better! Tell better lies! I don‘t have to fail. And besides, what’s the worst that could happen? If I really died, I can do whatever I want. And if not, then I will wake up sooner or later.“

By the time she was done getting dressed, she endet up in front of the mirror again and locked at herself. An idea formed in her head. „Ok I have to check this.“ Stepping closer to the mirror, she checked her eyes first. Only to find, that there are green contact lenses in them. „This girl slept with contact lenses…. Insane. Ok. The hair next.“ she carefully and slowly grabbed her hair and pulled at the bangs. They moved and the rest with it. „Aha! So it really was always a wig. That explains why she did not like sports very much. At least that’s what I found about her.“ inspecting her makeup further, she found the usual stuff like foundation and concealer. However, she also found fake tanning drops to mix into the daily skin care. This caught Lucia off guard. Before she could put too much thought into it though, her phone rang again, telling her that she should go to school. She fixed her wig, put the contact lenses back in and grabbed her bag before she left the house. Luckily she kind of knew where she had to go.

It did not take her too long to find her school. However, finding the teachers lounge where Miss Bustier would meet me, would be more difficult. (I hope I can handle this. My schooldays have been over for a while. Not to mention my puberty days… oh god please have mercy.)

She knew she found the right place when she saw a young lady with orange-red hair and a mostly white outfit, talking Marinette Dupain-Cheng. (Ok. Here we go. Lila could not know that but her biggest mistake was to make an enemy of Marinette. They say ‚keep your friends close and your enemies closer. So here goes nothing!)

She approached them slowly, trying to appear a bit unsure. „Miss Bustier?“ Both the teacher and Marinette turned around. Miss bustier‘s face brightened as she saw Lila. „Ah! Lila Rossi! Good morning. We just talked about you.“ she continued as Lila stepped closer. „This is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Our class representative.“ She looked friendly as she greeted Marinette. „Hello Marinette. It’s nice to meet you.“ Miss Bustier took both of them with her to class. Lila tried to remember the way while Marinette talked. „It’s nice to meet you too Lila. Welcome to our school and our class. If you need anything, don‘t hesitate to ask ok? Talking about questions, may I ask if you are allergic to anything? I prepare cake and stuff for everyone’s birthdays.“ Lila thought for a moment. „No. nothing that I know of. I’m good.“ They reached the classroom and Marinette sat down while Lila stood next to Miss Bustier‘s desk. She took the moment to look around. She vaguely remembered everyone’s name. Not too bad. She is supposed to be new anyway.

„Alright everyone! Sit down! As you can see, we have a new student starting today. Why don‘t you introduce yourself?“

Looking back at her new class and putting her smile back on, Lila cleared her throat. „Good morning. My name is Lila Rossi. I pretty much just arrived in Paris. Originally I come from Florenz in Italy. It’s nice to meet all of you.“ After introducing herself, Miss Bustier told me her to sit next to Nathaniel.

During her introduction, she saw how Chloé rolled her eyes and smirked. She had a feeling that this meant trouble. But she made a good first impression on Marinette and that was important. After all, only Marinette was a real threat here.

Class was more or less boring. She was able to keep up with most of what Miss Bustier was saying. When she had the chance, she thought about what to do. (I just have to keep it simple. My mother works for the embassy and therefore had to move a lot. Sometimes. In rare cases. I managed to see someone important but I did not get too close. One or two charity events. Not bragging too much. Keep it plausible. As plausible as possible at least. Now, how do I get my hands on a miraculous? I could stay close to Marinette and hope that she gives me one. However, Lila appears at the end of season 1. it will take a while for Marinette to become the new guardian. Also, even if she decides to give me one, she will take it back. That’s not good. So….oh! That’s it!)

The rest of the day remains boring. It should be the day when Adrien finds the book about the miraculous from his father. She needs to get her hands on that. During the longer lunch break, she tries to approach Marinette and the group.

„Hi everyone! Marinette? You told me to ask if I need anything. I think I should copy some notes to catch up with you in some classes. Especially history. Could you or someone else here help me?“ Marinette started to take out some notes but Adrien interrupted her. „I could help you. I wanted to study in the library anyway. You can copy my notes if you want.“ Marinette gets her panicked look hearing that. I look at her and smile, trying to assure her that it is ok. „Sure. That would be very nice. Thank you. I promise I won‘t bother you for too long. I take some notes, need a little nudge in history and that’s that.“

Adrien leaves soon after that. I tell him that I follow soon. Before that however, I need to talk to Marinette. „Don‘t worry Marinette. I really just need some notes. I don‘t want anything from Adrien.“ Marinette looks shocked but Alya puts her arm around Marinettes shoulder. „It really must be obvious when Lila can see you crush despite only being here for a day.“ Marinette started to blush but before she could say something, Miss Bustier approached us. „Excuse me, Marinette? Alya? I don’t want to bother you outside of school or during breaks but could you help me please?“

Marinette did not really want to. She wanted to tell me something, stop me from spending time with Adrien or even follow us. She wanted to do something and I knew that.

I met Adrien in the library. We sat down and I start to take notes. Of course I noticed that Adrien did not have a history book but the one about the miraculous. I am very lucky that the events still take place as they should. I try to listen for noises to make sure Marinette is not here. After a while I speak up.

„Hey…. That doesn’t look like a school book.“ Adrien reacted normal for someone who got caught doing something forbidden. But he tried to hide it. „Oh! Yeah well, ok. Yeah, this book has nothing to do with school. But I can‘t read it at home so….“ I just nodded and looked at the book. "This looks a lot like these heroes. Ladybug and Chat Noir." Adrien just nodded and did not stop me when i pulled the book over. I did notice how he smiled when i mentioned Ladybug. „Oh? Someone has a crush?“ Now he was really blushing. „Oh! Well…. She is just amazing…“

I flipped a few pages before I started talking again. „It must be a very tough job. I just heard a few things from my mom before we moved here. She really must be strong. They both must be strong if they can handle stuff like that every day.“ The alarm of Adrien’s phone started before he could answer anything. He jumped up and frantically started to pack his stuff. He also pulled the book about the miraculous over to his bag. I took a quick Look around but I couldn’t see tikki or Marinette. I stoped Adrien by pushing a few books of the table. While we both started to clean up, I pushed his book out of view.

He didn‘t notice it while he hurried out of the library and I did not ask him for a second meeting. I just thanked him for helping me before he left. After he was gone, I also left after putting the book into my own bag. (Sorry Adrien. But I really need this more than you. Also, your father should not have this.)

After I left the library, I kept my eyes open for Marinette. I had to make sure, she did not see how I took the book. After 10 minutes or so, I found her with Alya. I stayed out of sight and just listened. Marinette panicked because I could have flirted with Adrien but Alya seemed optimistic that I would not do that, while knowing how Marinette felt. It really sounded like they only talked about harmless stuff. If only Marinette knew. I am 19 for crying out loud. Yeah I have the body of a 14 to 15 year old teenager right now but still! Nope! Never! After convincing myself that Marinette didn‘t spy on me and didn‘t know about the book, I went home. There, I took out the book and started to take pictures with my phone. (Better be save than sorry.) after that, I took the time to actually look through my phone. I found notes about a room down close to the sewers. I also found tones of notes about lies and people I did not know. Knowing Lila though, they are probably people from her past. Good to know, that she wrote down the important stuff.

After taking and saving the pictures I took, I descided to get it over with.

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Alright! Here it is! It is done! I hope you liked it. I try to hurry and write the next chapter. I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors. If I don‘t finish the next chapter before christmas, I hope you have a great time!

See you soon!

[theographos]

Marinette and Adrien, another take on their dynamic.

I often talk about what kind of trauma, struggle and growth I would give to Marinette and Adrien. I think I should elaborate on their qualities, their dynamics, what kind of true colors they're hiding from the world.

If you ever met someone with a sense of justice as sharp as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, then you're lying. That girl is in a forever fight between good and bad, always ready to scream at the top of her lungs whenever she notices any kind of injustice. her shy and clumsy behavior stops her to do so, but as she becomes Ladybug, it all goes away. There's a reason why she is so adored in Paris, as she always manages to stand up for people without ever needing violence. Her words are sharp, her critical mind is well trained, and whether it's a fashion show or a villain trying to explain his intentions she will observe and then strike with precise and deep arguments.

You're safe with her because even if she might not have the courage yet to stand up for you in public, behind close doors she'll give you an undying support and tons of arguments for you to use next time you're facing an injustice.

Whether she is Ladybug or Marinette, she represents strength and wit, her mind capable of taking her to the end of the world if she ever wanted to.

There is not a single soul that cannot be cherished by Adrien Agreste. While he is still struggling with modern slang and some social issues due to his isolated life, it all seems to stop mattering when you meet his soft and sparkling gaze. No matter what kind of atrocities you have ever commited, once his gaze lays upon you it's like he is able to see even the deepest and most hidden good in you. Through soft touches, dumb jokes and a carefree attitude he brings that good out for the world to see. No matter how harsh the fight was, he will always be able to look at the villain with care and kindness, always being the lenient one of the duo. No wonder he is so adored in Paris, as he shows how everyone deserves second chances.

You're safe with him because even if his words in serious situation are not the bestest due to his lack of socialization, his warmth, his support and his usual jokester behavior will make you feel better about yourself for a few moments. A few moments where he makes you realize that you might not be as horrible as you think you are.

Whether he is Chat Noir or Adrien, he represents care and softness, his body able to support anything and anyone until his light reaches the darkest of hearts and show them how life can get better.

Adrien Agreste is there to remind Marinette to not be too harsh, he's the honey that soothes her edges and help her see the gray side of things.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is there to shake him up and to sharpen his teeth against the people trying to take advantage of his kind heart. She gives him all the materials for him to fight for himself.

While Ladybug is the brain, Chat Noir is the body. While Ladybug steps her feet down, her arguments shaking the villain's core, Chat Noir is the kind arms that wraps themselves around him afterwards, his smile showing a path to redemption.

Ladybug at first is unforgiving towards the villains, ready to beat them up with her strategy until they are reduced to dust. That is, until she learns how to truly work as a team with Chat Noir. She might even be able to smile fondly and care for Lila Rossi.

Chat Noir on the other hand, is at first a kind and freedom-starved heart, running away from a harsh reality while not taking the situation seriously enough. That is until he learns how to truly work as a team with Ladybug. He might even be able to look at his father and believing he needs to take responsability instead of constant forgiveness.

Overall, their dynamics is Girl who lost the ability to be optimistic about people X Boy who has yet to understand how pessimism can be good for you.

[unchataparis]

Reasons Why Lila Rossi Is One of the Best Miraculous Characters

I am not defending anything as I don't believe opinions need to be defended. That being said, I would like to announce that I am firmly aware Lila isn't a stereotypically good person, one might even call her – bad. But I do strongly believe Lila is a good character (even if she's not a particularly well-written one).

[Note: Have not seen Season 5 yet, I do not know what is going on there. All my rationale is based off Seasons 1-4.]

1. Lila is INTERESTING

Think about it. Every time this girl has stepped onto the screen, when has she ever failed to do something to generate controversy, scandal, and send the fandom collapsing in on itself like an undercooked soufflé scrabbling over her actions? The events of Caméléon and Ladybug cemented her notoriety in the narrative, and, coincidentally, her presence in Season 3 are what also sent the fandom over the Point of No Return. It got to the point where Chloé became preferred over Lila, if the amount of Chloé & Marinette 'best friends' fanfics on AO3 say anything.

Despite her tremendous impact on the story however, not much of Lila is known. Her family, her past, why she lies, or how she even wants her infatuation with Adrien to turn out (again, has not seen Season 5).

2. Lila is COMPETENT

Lila joins league with Félix in being teenage villains who can accomplish Papillombre's job much better than him. I firmly believe that much of Gabriel's bumbling and ineptitude is due to cartoon limitations and the need to dismiss common sense for the sake of telling an entertaining story, but nonetheless – like Félix – Lila displays an attitude of ruthlessness, cut-throat determination, and will which allows her to gain the upperhand over the heroine of the story. Both Félix and Lila alike has managed to overwhelm, throttle, and push Marinette/Ladybug to despair that Papillombre has yet to reach.

More than that, Lila is in absence of many of the powers that make Gabriel formidable. She's not rich or famous (yet), neither does she have minions, or a Miraculous on her chest. But while these scarcities should make her more vulnerable and less impressive, they only add to her legend, increasing her mysteriousness, movement, and competency.

After all, Gabriel Agreste has a schedule, reputation, and history to keep. Lila Rossi can flicker in and out of society for all anyone cares.

3. Lila is COOL

She really is. If I'm asked to select one Miraculous character to embody and borrow the style of: Lila, no contest. Her hair, her playsuit, her jewellery, her boots. All Miraculous characters are dressed in atrocious Y2K fashion (which are admirably accurate to the era) paired with obnoxious colour palettes, but Lila's stye is more stomachable than average.

Beside, Lila has a quality that many characters in Miraculous lack: confidence, and a paucity in need to doubt her own actions. The heroine display plenty of anxiety and guilt, so does her leading male co-star. Even stoic characters such as Gabriel and Kagami hesitate at times. But apart from Félix, Lila is the only character I can think of that's 100% in at all times. In her case it's not an entirely positive trait as many of her actions could use some self-reflection, but the boldness is refreshing.

I always found the IT girl characters and Queen Bees more appealing than mousy protagonists, Regina George over Cady Heron, and Mackenzie Hollister rather than Nikki Maxwell. It's just so much more interesting to see the world from the perspective of someone who's out to conquer it rather than survive it. Beside, the outfits, the attitudes, what's not to love?

Lila is a complicated, messy, dislikable character, sure, and she bears a certain one-dimensional-ness of her writing which makes her generally unrealistic. But Lila is also an important part of the storyline, a future Papillon (or as the rumour mills go), and in the short few appearances she's made, Lila has been more of a threat to Ladybug, more of a wrecking ball to Ladybug's psyche, than Gabriel has been throughout the etntire show. Honestly, I'm firmly of the belief that if it isn't for Lila's involvement, Miraculous' fandom wouldn't be as active and operative as it is today.

[uptoolateart]

Poisoned Pancakes:

They laughed at him before – but never again. This time, Gabriel was going to prove them all wrong. This time, he was going to make pancakes to die for.

He’d carefully studied the recipe. He’d researched each and every ingredient. He knew the difference between bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. And he understood abbreviations for teaspoon versus tablespoon.

He’d done his pancake preparation.

Humming to himself, he ladled the mixture into the frying pan – a sweet melody Emilie used to love and sing to Adrien as a child. As the batter sizzled, the humming turned into words. The edges of the pancake bubbled, and the words gained volume. He gave the pancake what he liked to think was an expert flip, did a sexy little twirl, and belted out the song, using his spatula as a microphone.

His mood was nothing short of ecstatic, his mind an orgy of pancake praise they were all sure to dish out when they tasted this next batch.

‘Oh, Gabriel, these are delicious!’ Nathalie would declare, her expression orgasmic as she swallowed down the first mouthful.

‘These are the best pancakes I’ve ever tried!’ Adrien would exclaim with that brilliant smile of his. ‘I’m going to tell all my friends!’

That’s right. They all thought he couldn’t cook. Well, they would all eat their words…and his pancakes.

It was time for one of his maniacal evil villain laughs. ‘Muahaha!’

No, not quite good enough. ‘Muahahahaha!’

Hmm. He could still do better. ‘MUA – ’

The sound of the doorbell made him jump, just as he was flipping over another pancake. His hand jittered and the precious pancake went flying into the air. With a yelp, and probably an unflattering cartoonish face, he leapt for it, catching it just in time on the tip of his spatula and dropping it oh so elegantly into the pan again. Never mind that hot butter flew up into his face. He had poise.

Pancake poise.

The kitchen door opened and the Gorilla pushed his hulking head through it. ‘Mngh,’ he grunted.

Gabriel’s shoulders fell. Great. Just what he needed. Lila Rossi. ‘Okay, I’ll come out and see what she wants.’ Hmm. Maybe she’d like to taste his pancakes. Maybe she would appreciate them.

With a grin, he hurried out of the kitchen to greet his unexpected guest.

Keep reading at Ao3