#mostly because gabriel is trash

[ilikekidsshows]

Just saw a post that basically said 'people won't hate or judge Mari too harsh for what she did if she were a boy' which I find interesting. Because I always thought the reason the show is still going until 6 seasons despite how problematic Mari is because people are too lenient on her because she's a girl. I mean for example I don't think the trash scene in Glaciator 2 would be getting praise or 'its just a joke' comment if Mari is a boy, people would scream sexist or abuse if she were.

We’ve discussed it on the blog, that the Maripologists just say things that have no evidence backing them up and the rest of their echo chamber chime in with “that makes total sense” even when it makes no sense. Because, like, these are the facts:

In gender bender AUs, Adrien’s flaws don’t get removed, but Marinette’s do. That is literal evidence that, when the genders are reversed, Marinette’s behavior would make people uncomfortable. Girl Cat Noir is allowed to be flirty, but boy Ladybug is not controlling or physically intimidating Cat Noir, nor is boy Marinette manipulating the people around him. Almost like the situation is the opposite that the Maripologists claim, that Marinette’s gender is, in fact, the reason why so many more people are willing to overlook her control freak behavior.

Like, when Twilight first came out, actual, mainstream newsoutlets were discussing the possible ramifications of this teen romance novel series romanticizing a relationship full of stalking, manipulation and downright abuse. There has been none of that for Miraculous despite it being a massively popular cartoon for a very simple reason: mainstream audiences simply don't notice the gaslighting and manipulation. Marinette is such a cute little girl, and she's constantly feeling so bad about messing up. Compare that to Twilight, where the abuser was was a stoic-faced boy, and his partner was a girl, and people were outraged. There's none of that for Miraculous, the only people who even notice the abuse are those of us who pay close attention to what the show is saying about its male romantic lead outside of: "Is the boy abusive? No? Then there's no way it couldn't be wholesome! Haha!"

The reason Miraculous isn’t being called out for its romanticization of gaslighting and abuse is because the perpetrator is a teenage girl. Marinette might not be as bad as Edward Cullen or Christian Grey but that’s mostly because of Miraculous’ rating. Gabriel Agreste is male, and he gets called an abuser for this behavior by a much larger margin of people than Marinette. Hell, a bunch of people even try to pin the blame for Marinette manipulating people on Gabriel, saying he’s the one who manipulated her into doing it. The double standard of how fandoms views abusive behavior is working solely for Marinette's benefit here.

[charafansmile]

Hiiiiiiii

I would like to hear you ramble about charisk some more if you don’t mind!

Yay :) sorry this took so long to respond. I had a lot of thoughts and have been writing this sporadically.

I love charisk they r very silly to me. Codependent 10 year olds with no boundaries by proxy of sharing a soul, give one abandonment issues and make the other as emotionally constipated as a ten year old can be and you gotta recipe for disaster which is what I think they r. Disaster babies..

My ideal dynamic for the two is frisk eating trash, chara going "ew" and then excitedly directing frisk towards more trash. Other ways I have described them: ambassador and their 'evil' advisor (chara thinks this is a pointless addition, all advisors are evil), dawg look at my lawyer I am going to jail, Speedrunner chara who looks up walk-through and guides x fuck around and miss half the story by skipping important dialog frisk. If they were to play Minecraft together chara makes exp and villager farms while frisk is a million miles away 'exploring' and digging straight down for the vibes (vibes being screaming down their mic running from endermen while chara is trying to get a mending villager). OCD x ADHD. Uncomfortable amount of eye contact x cannot look anybody in the eye for any reason at all. Would rage quit a game if they dont get their way x save scummer. The words worst middle school situationship ever! Hundreds dead no survivors!!! Kid with protagonist syndrome x another kid with who has whatever the opposite of that is. Narrator x the hero. Soulmates by most definitions of the term but more specifically they share a soul and are mates. Kid whose transition goals include the arch-angel angel Gabriel and the puppet from fnaf x kid whose gender is whatever happens to be in their pockets at the time (bugs and rocks mostly, sometimes a quarter and a half eaten lollipop).

It's something I ship because I find it very, very silly and cute, but also has the ability to be compelling to! I love characters that are so wrapped around each other that they basically become one person. One entity. Romantic or not I just like that dynamic. (Shout-out to garnet Steven universe for being the blueprint). I'm down for shipping frisk with any of the other kid characters (friskid is super cute..) but charisk is always going to be my favorite of them. "What if I was a ghost kid who hated humanity and failed my one goal to save the species who adopted me and then I wake up immediately after that failure and have to haunt you this weird human kid who CAN complete the prophecy I thought I was destined for" ... it's cute to me.

I'm very picky when it comes to depictions of chara and while I don't necessarily like soft chara or soft frisk I do prefer those depictions over ones where chara or frisk are entirely evil or adversaries with opposing goals because to me the crux of their relationship should be that they are working together!! I don't really like the idea that chara would have to change or 'redeem' themselves in order to be loved, I think frisk should love them BECAUSE chara can be mean and snarky and a jerk. And I think chara shouldn't be guilt tripping frisk or making them feel bad for being 'curious' or starting nm because chara helped and encouraged that route! I think chara would grow fond of frisk for a multitude of reasons beyond frisk being able to 'save monsterkind'! I like their relationship more when they view each other more as co-conspirators rather than either trying to 'save' the other, they should be besties first, star crossed lovers second. I could see their relationship starting out very rocky with chara being standoffish at first until they warm up to frisk, with the added angst of not recognizing the underground anymore and going along with whatever choices are made as 'neccesary' in order to move on. I can only really see them developing a strong bond after multiple resets and neutral runs becoming the only people who recall everything since even flowey doesn't remember nms and pacifists.

Chara as a character does seem obsessed with consequences and the idea of moving on, which is where I can see drama coming from in the relationship as frisk to me is the opposite of that in wanting to turn over every branch, see everything they can, and know everything they can. (And if I ever get around to making a charisk fic this is probably what it'll be about). I don't think chara sticks around as a ghost after any of the endings except for the neutrals and none of those are particularly happy either. I think nm and pacifist fulfill the prophecy in a way that allows charas 'ghost' as it were to be fulfilled which is another motivator for frisk to keep reseting because if they dont they lose chara... which is something chara can't understand.

I've got a miriade of headcanons for them and how the whole soul sharing thing works and I do believe the player is an entity in the game, so that's another aspect of their relationship to me. "What if I fell underground and you were a cool ghost telling me shit and I was possessed by an eldritch being that shares your name and then they make me kill a bunch of people and I probably woulda done that anyways but then you take over and then they sell their soul which is also mine to you" <- something like that. Idk I like undertales narrative 10x more when the meta part of is apart of it. That and I think chara is aware of us too. We named them and while you could read their speech as them talking to frisk I prefer reading it as them talking to US. But I do still think frisk would have done no mercy of their own volition too out of curiosity or even a desire to see what would change if they did it without our help. Mostly I just think without us they would have done two no mercy's max, a bunch of true pacifist and then even more neutrals in an effort to stretch the game out as long as they can while chara would get more and more bored not understanding why frisk won't just give up and live their life without them.

Tldr: I think they're silly and have the possibility to be the exact sort of angsty codependent weirdos I like while also being able to be just plain cute weirdos that make me sad. They should get to play Pokémon together and go on a chaperoned date to chucky cheese so chara can info dump the fnaf lore to frisk while frisk tries to recreate the bite of 87 with the animatronics to 'rizz them up'. Pathetically down bad frisk x chara who is honestly embarrassed that it's working....

[blueberry-bubbles130]

My redesigns for Audrey and Andre!

My precious trash fire failure parents. How I love you both.

Andre changed the most. I don’t like anything about his design/personality so I scrapped nearly everything. Only keeping the basics. He’s 6ft 2. Only smaller than Gabriel who’s 6ft 4. I kept his grey hair. He’s the mayor, runs a hotel and is constantly stressed. There is no way he still has any colour left in his hair. I made it curly and a lot thicker because I headcanon Chloe’s hair as being naturally curly. She's got to get it from somewhere. And I think it makes him look softer, because this is my au and can make him whoever I want!

I gave him glasses for a similar reason. Because with how he presumably stares at paperwork/computers at night has given him bad vision. His glasses are historical spectacles, to continue the aspect of people thinking he’s older than other people around him.

Now you may wonder why his outfits are so plain. And I say, that’s the point! He likes being boring. He doesn’t like standing out. So he goes for outfits that are dull. Ironic considering he’s the mayor. Therefore most of his outfits are plain suits, only wearing the sash for special events. He also has some casual outfits, but it’s just plain jumpers and cardigans with trousers. I kept his colour scheme centred around blues, reds and greys.

He gets the purple robe when he got ill. Chloe found out and was sick of him wearing the same dressing gown he's worn since she was two and dug around the castle until she found it. Felix took it home for her. I did make the robe before I looked into the symbolism, but purple roses apparently symbolise royalty and love at first sight. Which fits the royalty theme and how Andre fell in love with Audrey.

Personality wise his nervousness has been heightened to constant anxiety. He thinks if he eats less and drinks more coffee to keep awake, then he can do more work. It doesn’t work at all and makes him worse. He’s also majorly paranoid. He doesn’t fully enjoy being mayor. And in most of my au’s he was supposed to stop being mayor. But the akumas started and no one else wanted to do the paperwork. So he’s stuck being mayor, with a variety of worsening health problems. He has chronic migraines, poor vision, a stomach ulcer. And muscular atrophy in his legs because he’s always sat working. Nevermind his terrible immune system.

I kept his interest in movies but instead of directing, he loves the soundtracks. Andre adores music. He can play the violin, piano, cello, double bass and the harp. He could spend hours doing nothing but playing/listening to music. He's still got his first violin from his late father. Chloe hops into an alternate timeline and gets him a Stradivarius violin for his birthday. Which he does freak out over. He doesn’t know where this random highly valuable Stradivarius suddenly came from. He also likes reading. He could recount a lot of books/pottery if he was told to. He just doesn’t get to do it much anymore. At least until he gets really ill, forced to rest and has a ridiculous amount of free time.

I kept Audrey mostly similar. She’s also 6ft 2. I kept her hair but just let it grow longer and curlier as she slowly becomes a better person. Also the grey streaks in her hair, due to stress. But also a sign of her accepting, she’s getting older. And things have changed.

I loved her concept outfit so I kept that. Except I took the stripes away and the letters on her belt. For some reason I cannot get the idea of 1950s Audrey out of my head so I did try to draw her in them. And a thanks to @generalluxun for the help with Audrey’s pyjamas. Chloe also gets her some historical outfits. However Audrey’s robe is literally just Martha May Whovier’s. Except hers has yellow carnations on it, that symbolise regret. Because Audrey has a lot of those. I messed with colours a lot but the only colour palette I’d like to explore more for her is teal, turquoise and dusty pink.

Audrey’s personality is dependent on her character arc. Which is learning not to be a horrible bitch and that you can’t take your issues out on other people. She starts off being where she was in canon around season 2, but a little more self aware and smarter. Her change starts right after season 2 where Jean-Claude slaps her and tells her to get her shit together because she is going to end up completely alone if she doesn’t change. That brings her back to reality, so she starts to work on things. Including going to therapy. Although neither her or Andre can understand the point of therapy.

For her hobbies she can actually sew and spends her spare time making clothes. It’s why she’s so confused when Andre gets the fancy robe because she can tell how old the fabric is. Then she’s even more baffled when she gets a robe. She does like reading, so her and Andre bond over that. She also has a horrid sweet tooth. Cakes and Ice cream are her joys, which was fun for her considering her father’s a baker.

In this au, neither of them actually had Bourgeois as their maiden name. Audrey’s maiden name was Clement and Andre’s was Garçon. There is some cruel irony in those being their names. Audrey changed hers for her parents sake. And Andre wanted to distance himself from his family. Though, they can’t remember where it came from. All they remember is that it was a joke Emelie made. Then they can't be bothered to change it. Contrary to what you may believe, Audrey and Andre do actually love each other. They’re an opposites attract type of pair. They’re just not good at communication skills. So things fall apart a little, before they start therapy. They do really need each other.

An important thing in regards to Chloe’s trauma and her parents' trauma. Chloe can recognise just how fucked up the things happening are. It hurts her, she knows it’s fucked up, she just doesn’t know what to do about it. She has no clue what to do about seeing her parents' dead corpses. Or her situation in general. However Audrey and Andre are the opposite. They know what happens to them hurts. But they just can’t recognise how fucked up it is. To them, it’s normal and a part of their lives. So they don’t understand how badly it’s impacted their behaviour. And they don’t know what to do or see the point of therapy. Even though they really need it.

While I’ve tried to make them complex people in this au, they are just plot devices for conflict. This conflict is always involving Chloe, her friends and whoever she’s playing mind games with. Ranging from politicians, to cults, to even Chloe herself. Though it’s mainly between Chloe and Gabriel/Nathalie. Even though for most of it, Gabriel and Nathalie don’t know it’s Chloe.

With most people it’s to get Chloe’s power and that pulls Audrey/Andre in because she’s obsessive over them and can be used as leverage. They’re just collateral damage and. People don’t care if they die.

With Gabriel/Nathalie much more personal. Specifically, Gabriel and Nathalie fighting Chloe and Felix, who have Adrien and Kagami’s support. Gabriel uses Audrey/Andre, but doesn’t want them to die because he’ll lose control. He gets a sadistic pleasure in being one of the only people that can cause Audrey direct fear. And since he’s had control over her since they were 11, he doesn’t want to lose that anytime soon. In fact he was ecstatic when Chloe disappeared. Any chance he had to akumatise Chloe was lost the moment she got her hands on the book.

In fact in any of my au’s where they’re not being shitty people, they’re damsels in distress. @generalluxun put it very accurately in that they suffer everything that canon Audrey and Andre should. The nicer Audrey and Andre’s in my au are stuck in eternal cycles of suffering. Always stuck as powerless victims in fights between Gabriel, Nathalie and Chloe, Adrien, Kagami, Alya, Nino and Marinette, etc. That’s why they’re the final akuma in a few au’s. Because they’re so emotional and vulnerable by the end.

So that’s Audrey and Andre redesigns. These designs are also the standard ones for them across my au’s. So if you’re looking at one of my au’s/fics this is what they’ll look like. With slight changes to fit that particular au. Because Audrey in All Consuming Cruelty really does spend the entire au being literally tortured by the kwamii of consumption and cruelty. It really affects her mental and physical health, so the way she looks and dresses changes.

See you later everyone!

[im-out-of-it]

after being told by people in the shadowhunter community: ReAd ThE bOoKs. ThEy’Re So MuCh BeTtEr. ummmm what the actual fuck are you reading because I don’t think it’s the same book I have???? I will give a little credit. there are characters I adore (Alec, magnus, Izzy, Gabriel, Gideon, Thomas, Alastair, Jem, Matthew, Lucie, Christopher, ok you get the point.) but I don’t agree with the way some of them were written. the first books are actually trash and still I am amazed they were published. I don’t care if it was CC’s first series- they’re so fucking atrocious. the writing is so messy and it’s not the good kind of “it’s so bad it’s good messy.” and you’d think after being messy for so long, you’d maybe I don’t know learn some lessons and write better??? but I guess some people don’t know how to write lmao

I honestly think that if this book was handed to or created by someone who actually cared about the characters and representation, it could have been so much more. instead she wants to focus on gold eyed tiger bad boy angels who are borderline abusive and can’t find the will to focus on anything else. there was potential but CC ruined it just so she could write about toxic and problematic herondales.

and people shit on the show (basically mostly book stans who claim the books are better lmao and I’m not saying that show is perfect- it has its flaws.) but I would rather have 10 seasons of the show instead of another bland trilogy where the stories and tropes repeats themselves. it’s repetitive and the actual interesting characters always takes a backseat and any representation is thrown out the window for the most toxic main characters. I said what I said. I would much prefer to have full seasons of Malec where it’s actually healthy (I fucking love show Malec. god bless them.) than read a chapter of a love scene between some herondale and his bland love interest. or read 600 pages of miscommunication over the dumbest shit💀

my fav characters deserved so much better than the lazy way they written. RIP MY FAV CHARACTERS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND IM SORRY FOR THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION SOME OF YALL WERE DEALT WITH 😭

[valentinafoxr]

Illustrhater was good

I had some time to let my thoughts marinate and watched the episode again, and I would say we're off to a good start! Some things I liked or noticed:

What it is with Lila's notebooks in the opening scene. Is she writing a novel. Is all of this just a ploy to get clout on ao3

Love love LOVE Marinette's room and all the little details - her room has always been so cool, but I feel like it's elevated by the redesign. She has a Molly Ringwald-Teen Movie Bedroom-Windowsill now ❤

RE: The intro - I DO like that they kept the song! Would've been very jarring to have a new tune, but I feel like keeping the music wraps it up really nicely. Love the Adrinette cuteness and OUGH OUGH OUGH the shot with Gabriel in the background. Sinister, I love it. I won't lie, I WILL miss the shot that's now the LadyNoir fist bump and Adrinette kiss when it used to be Chat Noir going in for a kiss and then the two of them tumbling over each other, mostly because it used to be the essence of the Lovesquare and thus the show. I totally get though why they had to change it up -different premise with Adrinette in a relationship and all- and the way the still kept the switcheroo was nicely done.

on, and they kept the black cat in the intro. points for that.

Marinette being a disaster is so, so comforting to me. Yes, give us the statistics about Hawkmoth, order shrimp macarons, hide your face in your tiny purse girl, I love you!!!! And her cat ear slippers <3

I need a moment to gush about the new animation, because, DAMN. It's both the small details (the pattern and texture of Alya's glasses) and and the scenery (Paris actually looking like a populated city with a beautiful variety of both people and unique buildings????). Idk it's just really, really nice. The character models are mostly an upgrade and look a tad older while still keeping the original vibe. The expressions are also better, especially for the supporting cast. The lighting is gorgeous! AND THE AKUMATIZATIONS!!!! HELLO!!! THEY LOOK SO COOL

Adrien is a sad exception to my praise but I think the less we talk about it the faster we will all collectively get used to it lol

I also think the direction and camera work has gotten a lot better - the fighting scenes looked cool and we got interesting camera angles.

The integration of 2D animation is neat! The chibis are very cute and serve a purpose. I do hope they keep adding 2D elements and not just as illustrations as they used to do in former seasons. I mean, this is such a fun shot:

Storywise it was a decent episode! not much to say here tbh, I liked the DJ Wifi sideplot (and THEM overall, bestest couple).

Loooooved the trash collecting scene, reminded me of Gang of Secrets Ladynoir after their break-ups. I need them to talk/gossip to each other about their relationship(s) in every episode hehe. I do miss flirty Ladynoir but seeing them again is auauauuaghhh. Adrien seeing Ladybug out and about and he's smiling!!!!!!!!!! I love Ladynoir so much

We didn't get much about Adrien's situation from this (apart from the fact that he's allowed to leave the house lol) but the sadness in his eyes…. and him taking the blame for Adrinette's communication issues…. my sweet, sweet boy 🙁

Referring back to this post - yeah, that's Lila/Cerise/Iris in the café, drinking a diabolo menthe (Diabolo -> diabolos in Greek: slanderous, libellous -> Girliepop is ready to stir up things). She's gonna be wherever Marinette goes, causing trouble, I assume.

things I'm curious about:

the timeline: is it still summer vacation? I would assume so, since Marinette and Alya have yet another sleepover and they're meeting the boys in the morning (?). School probably hasn't started yet this season.

Kagami and Marinette: Their (very, very brief) interaction seemed normal. I expected Kagami to be conflicted due to their conversation in the London Special, tbh, but then again, it was a very brief interaction. We'll see.

Carapace using shelter twice in one battle: Did all heroes "grow up"? Did it happen on-screen in episode 1 or should we just assume they all have unlimited powers?

the Kwagatama: I mean, we don't need to talk about the obvious implication (memory loss, Tales-of-LB-and-CN-theory), but I'm kinda wondering about other possible scenarios this may lead to.

And oh. The saved cat got an animation upgrade. Can’t wait to see Baby August in the new animation style lol

[princess-of-the-corner]

Sorry, just discovered your public knowledge au, its hilarious. I think 'realistically' I like the Only Miraculous wielders & whoever they tell knows version as it could feel a bit less cracky though it'd still beg why they don't bring other heroes in to collectively stomp Gabriel as they know his location. Though that just has me imagining him palming it off on his various rich friends like a hot potato. Anyway two main thoughts:

`1: For the just Holders know AU, Gabriel owns up to his motives right away & almost convinces the kids. Except Fu shows up & reveals that its basically a monkeys paw and more people will die if he makes is wish. Gabriel insists he s smart enough to work around that (He also just doesn't care) but Tikki & Plagg are like, "Literally we have no control over this, it goes to shit every single time, sorry."

In essence, its his ego and control freak nature that mean Gabriel refuses to give up even when he and everyone else know he should quit. Its probably kind of a sad/rough start for Adrien especially, but also leads to very quick positive vibes with Marinette & more direct mentorship.

2: Rogercop be like

Chloe: Well, seeing as you won't do your damn job, how about our classes two super heroes show you up? Adrien: I am one hundred percent down for that except I can't find Plagg! Marinette: Ya know I've wanted to try this anyway, Luck Charm! (Gets a Plagg doll with his head snuck in the bracelet) Well that answers that.

Later

Tikki: How did you even get stuck we can phase through soli matter.., Oh this is interesting and maybe concerning. Chloe: What can it do magic, is it a Miraculous? Plagg: Well its tied to a Miraculous, where'd you find this?

Chloe: Back of my mothers cupboard? Andre: You aren't meant to have that (Tries to snatch) Chloe: Why, what is it!? Can it do magic?

Andre: If by magic you mean mind control you- don't break it you'll explode! Chloe: Why do you own a mind controlling bracelet that only works on me and kills me if it breaks and why was it in a fucking dust covered pile of half forgotten trash!? Andre: ... Its your mot- Gabriel's fault, blame him, now I have a meeting to get to bye! (Runs away)

Butterflies appear Adrien: Dad, glad you could... Make it. Gabriel: Well I am here now, also the Amok's treatment is very much 'not' my fault, it is like that because your parents don't love you.

Adrien: DAD! Gabriel: I am a magical empath son, I know it to be true, your mother and I were much more careful with your Amok & sealed it away so it could never be used against you or damaged. Those two tossed it in a cupboard once they realized it couldn't just rewrite a babies personality, or any personality, to not need things like food or affection, if they hadn't already made the announcement they'd have probably smashed it or given it away. Gabriel: By it I mean Chloe.

Chloe: Oh... (Uses the Amok to turn herself 'off' IE pass out) Gabriel: Dammit, I was hoping the truth would cause her to explode in a rage never before seen and become my most powerful Akuma! I can't even use this self destructive self loathing, she's too depressed to even transform! (Leaves)

Honestly this started out kind of funny then I made myself sad.

Gabriel: I wonder if I should mention the sister they had made as a replacement. That one didn't turn out how they wanted either but they did skip the baby phase.

GOD the chaos there.

But also yeah the AU is mostly crack because tbh I can't see an identity reveal happening that doens't immediately lead to an ending one way or another.

But also OOF.

[kawaiichibiart]

Platonic Love square HCs pt.3 (?)

Continuing off my "Adrien loves to doodle..." HC, Marinette loves getting him new colors and replacing empty/used up supplies for his hobby. He goes through them faster than she does and she doesn't mind picking up a few things even if he insists that he can get them himself.

As LB and CN, they tend to take turns walking people home if they ever get into a situation (someone trying to assault them for instance) where they don't feel safe, where one of them is walking with the person and the other is on the roof keeping an eye out.

Whether she is in or out of the mask, Marinette will always jump to defend Chat Noir. He's not a villain, say that again and you'll see who you should really be scared of.

Adrien, in turn, whether or not he's wearing his mask, will jump to his Lady's side if people push her to do more. Stop pushing her to do your job, maybe if you'd help us/them, we'd get somewhere faster.

They play their version of Marco-Polo during patrol, which is literally just Ladybug going "Chat!" and Chat Noir going "Meow!"

Trash talk fashion shows, especially Audrey's after Gabriel shuts down (before it shut down they'd go after Gabriel hard).

One time they were late to an Akuma because Chat had decided to take a nap on Ladybug's lap. Alya caught the moment.

They have social media accounts for their hero IDs. Chat Noir has always leaned towards funny, wholesome and generally just random posts (in short, he's posting whatever he wants). Ladybug tries to keep things professional, but eventually she also begins to shift into a "I'm posting whatever I want" mindset. It's mostly pics of Chat Noir.

Marinette once got Adrien to transform into Mister Bug again so she could use him as a reference for body armor designs.

Marinette, on Twitter: Reasons you should sign my petition to get Adrien Agreste to quit Gabriel and start working for me, MDC, a 🧵: 1. Gabriel Agreste is a bitch. | 2. I wouldn't have Adrien wear the same outfit in different colors. | 3. I'll feed him. | 4. Gabriel is a bitch. | 5. I won't make him model with someone who doesn't know boundaries. | 6. I'll let him have a say in what he wears. | 7. Gabriel Agreste is a bitch. Thank you for reading! (Felix, replying: didn't bother to read the🧵, signed the petition because I hate my uncle and want his business to fail <3 | Marinette: one of two (for now) things we have in common: loving Adrien and hating Gabriel )

[lizardperson]

inspired by @datura-tea [this post], here's the social media behaviors of my idiot squad :D

mika: heavy instagram user - posts a lot, just random pictures of her life, selfies, friends, whatever. heavy tumblr user - memes, random rambly rants about whatever, songs she likes, a bunch of pictures of her tits, way too horny on main. probably got suspended a bunch of times because too much tiddy lmao. gets into random fights with people with bad opinions. loves getting anon hate to make fun of.

gabriel: occasional reddit user. not hugely into social media in general, but likes being smarter than anyone else, especially on r/legaladvice. r/amitheasshole is his version of trash tv as a random distraction.

kat: does not care for social media but somehow got accidentally tiktok famous with some random medical misinformation rant because she just couldn't take all the bullshit anymore, and now occasionally throws out a new video. still undecided on how she feels about being called mommy by a bunch of 20yo lesbians. occasional instagram user to stay in touch with old friends and family and such, but doesn't really post much.

july: moderate instagram user, just really likes photography. mostly pretty shit she sees, actually well-shot. barely any selfies. heavy tumblr user - mainly rbs a bunch of random shit, not much oc except some of her photography crossposted from insta. lots of movie gifs. random rb sprees of whatever her favorite movie is right that day. fandom stuff. the occasional autism meme with her having a crisis in the tags like "wait doesn't everybody do this?? that's an autism thing?? are you sure?? this probably means nothing 😬". daria: has had the same anonymous wordpress blog for like 10 years, exclusively for book reviews, with like 3 regular loyal readers she has long discussions with in the comments. absolutely no social media, but checks out july's instagram regularly.

aaron: tumblr - lots of music, cute animals, funny shit. pops up every other week to rb a hundred posts in a row and then vanishes again. had a few funny popular text posts. follows tons of people. youtube & tiktok - posts music stuff, like the random weird instruments he acquired, and tutorials. bandcamp & last.fm - not exactly social media, but highly active commenting on random shit all the time

quinn: moderate instagram user - carefully curated edgy aesthetics with lots of black white photography, dead animals, cemetery shit. she's such a cliche goth lmao has a secret hard kinks tumblr, and so many people blocked.

eleonor: tumblr - posts the most incomprehensible surrealistic meta memes that nobody else gets. bugs, tech stuff. long text posts with a bunch of cited sources about their current rabbit hole. follows a lot of tags, but only a handful of people. rarely tags their own posts tho. is in some weird niche discords and subreddits where anyone else would be like "what is this FOR"

ruby: heavy instagram & facebook user, tons of family pictures, selfies, and inspirational quotes. puts way too much energy into educating her older relatives about the random bullshit they keep posting.

fia: usually randomly deletes her twitter account, comes back after a while, ramps up her activity, until it annoys her and gets too much and she deletes again, cycle repeats. gets into arguments with random idiots and afterwards is like "why didn't i just block them". maybe one day she'll learn. doomscrolls.

helena: found her niche on history/philosophy twitter and writes loooong long threads and then vanishes again for weeks. does not care for social media otherwise. used to be an active wikipedia editor but fell out of that eventually.

[ct-multifandom]

Hey so there was this theory with the pic of Emilie and Gabriel looking at lil Adrien and I just wanted to ask you if you could explain it a bit more clearly cuz this theory sounds absolutely insanely fantastic and id like to understand it properly,thanks sm

Hi! Sorry for the very late response. I’m still not caught up on the show, so I’m probably missing many details, and for that reason I’d like to open this post up to other people to discuss because I think the things I noticed in prior seasons have become more relevant with the s5 finale.

the Amelie vs Emilie “theory”

For the new people, about a year ago I made two posts in response to the s4 episodes Wishmaker and Gabriel Agreste pointing out things that caught my eye regarding the twins.

All in all I don’t have much of a solid conclusion for the “theory” which is why it’s so confusing. It’s mostly a compilation of details I thought were strange and potentially foreshadowing a future plot twist. I’ll list some below.

In Wishmaker, Adrien’s baby memory depicts his mother with blue eyes and his father with green eyes. Astruc claims this was an error, which might be true.

Many depictions of Emilie have her in black and white. For example, the movie she starred in was B&W, and Felix and Kagami’s award winning indie film was all B&W, plus their eye colors didn’t change anyway under the masks

When Gabriel made the wish, Emilie didn’t open her eyes, she stayed dead

In the first post I pointed out that Emilie and Amelie are wearing different colored blazers, although I believe Astruc has since also said that’s insignificant. Once again dk if that’s true or not. In Andre’s dream box, he has headshots of supposedly young Tomoe and either Emilie or Amelie, but she’s wearing Amelie’s blazer.

Of course, since I’ve made those posts, we’ve seen actual scenes of Gabriel and his wife where she clearly has green eyes

I want to put emphasis on this because I’ve never seen anyone except me mention it: in the episode Gabriel Agreste, Gabriel’s tablet falls and breaks due to Marino’s antics. Amelie and Felix are the only guests to arrive AFTER this and NOT get their finger prints scanned.

Most recently, the writers commented on the finale. They said that Emilie has not come back to life, but intentionally avoided specifying who was at the pool party in the big sunhat. This would lead us to just say it’s Amelie then, but the vagueness makes me wonder.

The writers also suggested they left the contents of Gabriel’s wish vague on purpose to pull some twist. They said you’d think it just healed Nathalie’s illness, but that’s not all, and there’s a trick to it.

Minor note, but the whole reason people were confused about the swimsuit woman’s identity is because the leaked texture reference page for her character model was labeled Emilie. Either they changed the story, had a spelling mixup, or [insert conspiracy]

Adding on, after the first post I made, someone sent me old concept art of Adrien’s mom simply labeled “Adrien’s mother”. Either they didn’t come up with her name yet back then, or [insert conspiracy]

So at the end of the day, I have some level of confidence that they’re planning something with these GDV twins, but every explanation I can come up with for it sounds kinda crazy. Perhaps the most straightforward thing I can suggest is that the two swapped places early on in the overall plot? Idk. I’d love to hear other people’s ideas no matter how crazy. Maybe Gabriel wished for Emilie’s ghost to possess Amelie, awaken in the dead of night, and carry on his legacy of throwing plastic trash directly into the river. Who even is Emilie? Who’s Amelie? I’m excited to see where it all goes.

[ilikekidsshows]

What Marinette and Sakura had is similar but different that I find it pretty hilarious. Marinette is being hyped as strong female lead, best Ladybug and best Guardian when those are lie. While Sakura from Naruto is being trashed for being trash and useless when those are lie. Like sure, Sakura in s1 isn't really that good. The only good thing about her is her cakra control but she didn't stop there, after Sasuke betrayal she become determined to be better so she would be able to help her friends and she end up being a great medic ninja. While Marinette is being hyped for no reason but gaslight the audience. What's she's good at? Designing, sure. But in the superhero side? There's nothing in there that worth the hype.

---

The Sakura thing is extra wild, because the canon doesn’t have characters constantly saying that Sakura is useless regardless of all evidence to the contrary, the fandom decided that on its own. Also, like, hot take, but Madara Uchiha sucks in all the ways the fandom insists Sakura sucks but people insist he’s totally cool and not a loser. It just goes to show you that, once a fandom has convinced itself of something, there’s no changing so-called “common knowledge” aka “popular opinion”. And that’s what the take that “Marinette is a good person and a competent hero” has degraded into: just a popular opinion that has very little basis on canon.

Don't get me wrong, Marinette has shaped up to be an awful hero based on morals, but she’s also just plain bad on an observable competence basis. Astruc insists that she is the lone hero while Cat Noir is her sidekick, meaning she should be on the level of Batman or Spider-Man. Trying to claim that either of these heroes couldn't win without supportive characters coming in to prop them up every step of the way would be ridiculous. Yet, Marinette constantly needs to be propped up by her sidekick Cat Noir and other characters too. She’s constantly having nervous breakdowns she can’t overcome without someone else coming over to give her a pep talk. The main hero being a wimp is not heroic.

Marinette is constantly on the verge of giving up and has to be motivated to keep going on by other characters. In ‘Origins’ alone, she got three pep talks and Alya was in danger before she decided to don the Ladybug earrings again. In ‘Volpina’ she was about to give her Miraculous to Volpina before Cat Noir intervened. This is even true in her civilian life with the way she almost skipped a fashion show featuring her own design or her whole “I should just be Ladybug all the time!” moment. The main hero constantly being on the verge of giving up on any goal she’s pursuing is not heroic.

It’s one thing to grow through others’ support to be able to carry your own weight, but Marinette never overcomes one of her fits without outside help. If she was as good of a planner as the show claims, she would have fled when she discovered Gabriel was Monarch and gotten backup, because she should know by now that she’s weak-willed and incapable of withstanding stress on her own. She should have showed up at the mansion of the man the writers confirmed she knew was Monarch with any allies she could gather to begin with. Instead she thinks she can solo Monarch when she’s never been able to get out of a high-stakes situation without backup before. Arrogance and lack of strategic thinking are not heroic.

To make matters worse, when Marinette is having her final battle against her nemesis with none of her allies, like the writers claim they intended from the start, she objectively loses. The wish canonically destroys the world to remake it anew. That means Monarch destroyed the world. It doesn’t matter if he put it back the way it was (mostly) or if Marinette benefits from these changes. Letting the villain destroy the world is not heroic. She’s such a bad hero that she can't even save the day when it really counts. The only other time I’ve seen the heroes lose this badly was in Watchmen, which was an intentional deconstruction of superheroes where said heroes were meant to be seen as unheroic.

Also, like, Marinette’s other accomplishments are also very lackluster. I’m usually the first one to defend Miraculous’ fashion choices, but, really, what has Marinette designed after the retool? The fucking cloaks artists use to protect their clothes from paint splatters that she designed with the prompt “thematically opposing superhero costumes”? Before the retool she designed several accessories that are worn by famous people in addition to a lot of other stuff. Even more glaringly her four and a half seasons long love quest where she struggled with confessing to the guy she’s in love with was resolved by the guy confessing to her first, while she struggles to reciprocate for the rest of the season even after they get together. The main hero being such a failure is not heroic.

All of Marinette’s series goals, as a protagonist and hero, end in failure. She never could work up the courage to win Adrien over, that was handed to her. She never earned her position as Guardian, she lucked her way into finding the book and being the one nearby when Fu had to transfer his position thanks to the position she put him in. She lost all of the Miraculouses within months or possibly weeks of becoming the Guardian. She let the world be destroyed. Marinette, as a whole, just isn’t a heroic character.

You can’t even argue that Marinette is inexperienced and still learning and that’s why she still loses, because the show explicitly tells you that this is not the case. Ladybug, after gaining all of her full adult powers in ‘Queen Mayor’, still loses. French historical hero Jeanne d'Arc calls Marinette the greatest Ladybug ever and she still loses. This is the best she, or any Ladybug, can do, this is what peak performance from a Ladybug hero looks like: losing the fight and the bad guy destroying the world. The show treats Marinette as a super competent girlboss while she accomplishes nothing of true importance to her or the story. I’m not interested in any Ladybug hero if this is what the best of them can accomplish: nothing. Ladybug isn’t a superhero, she’s a loser hero.

[petricakegames]

tag people you'd like to get to know better

tagged by @manonamora-if -- an incredibly awesome human

last song: there are three that get played consecutively so they only count as one: H.S. by Tom Cardy, If I Were a Fish by Corook and Olivia Barton, Literally Everyone Else in the World

currently watching: that Fallout tv show--is it just called Fallout? Only two episodes in right now but I'm impressed with how faithful they've been to the aesthetic of the games. Also the main characters are unhinged and driven--a favorite combo of mine these days

three ships: xena & gabrielle until the day I die; wynonna earp & doc holliday (which was a weird one for me but their trash fire existences coordinated pretty well); Furiosa

favorite color: yellow

currently consuming: just finished some kettle corn from the farmer's market <3

first ship: hmmm, it's either nancy drew & frank hardy or rogue & gambit (because little me hadn't discovered that girls were allowed to be in love with girls, yet)

place of birth: southern california. i miss the avocados, border food and easy-access Disneyland but that's about it

current location: pacific northwest, usa. it's friggen gorgeous up here

relationship status: in love with myself, but we're in an open relationship so I'm available

last movie: Amélie--just as delightful as I remembered it being

currently working on: myself, mostly. but i miss writing stories, so I hope to write another game soon. also taking Harvard's CS50 course because it's free online apparently

[monochrome-sunsets]

babbling about my thoughts on the ending of good omens 2 because i need to get them off my chest

spoilers ahead (obvi)

(also it's mostly complaining about the ending so if you really loved it don't like. doxx me or whatever. i just need to rant about what i hated.)

so, the season as a whole i did definitely enjoy. i don't think it's as good as the first for a number of reasons- primarily that season one had ended with everything wrapped up very nicely with a bow- but it was still great fun and a good watch. there were loads of things i was very excited about (see saraqael, the angel in a wheelchair)!

i think i would have enjoyed it more if it had been slice of life-esque? following the adventures of crowley and aziraphale throughout pre-time all the way to current day.

what really ruined the season for me was the last fifteen minutes or so of episode 6. not because crowley and aziraphale didn't end up becoming loving life partners for eternity, but because all the character development aziraphale went through for two whole seasons just got tossed out the window like that.

i mean, two whole seasons of figuring out that both sides are shit and that really, the whole system is pretty much trash, and no one knows exactly why they're doing any of it! he bails on the system, says "i'm going to carve out a place for myself and my loved ones outside of the system", then he's offered a shiny new job and he's back in the fucking system again.

he says "we'll be able to change things" but you won't. gabriel, the last man in your position, got fired by his own employees because he didn't want to destroy earth. and metatron tells aziraphale that the next plans for humanity are already in place. aziraphale only gets to figure out the execution of the plan! and based on the meetings we saw, he'll have to run literally everything by the other archangels, who, again, can fire him despite him being their boss.

it's just so so frustrating to see what, in-universe, amounts to literal millenniums of character progress be completely crumpled in a single five minute chat with metatron.

it's just so frustrating to see and it leads to a deeply unsatisfying ending. i'm engaging in media to see characters grow and become better people, not see them do all that only to backtrack to square one minutes before the end. it's not enjoyable.

urghhhh.

i just really needed to rant about how frustrated i was by the ending.

also, aziraphale? really? "i forgive you"??? what the fuck is wrong with you?

[bellzsad]

after *finally* watching the miraculous movie, i can't say that i loved it. but i can't say i hated it. this just felt like another movie. okay, well not "just another movie", because it will have a special place in my heart, but it wasn't like a "wow" movie, you know?

it was good. i'm glad we got some gabriel and adrien closure, a look at how the canon reveal could go, and lots of ladynoir after the mostly adrienette season five. but it didn't make me cry. it didn't do what i hoped it could've done for me.

i guess that it's just difficult to fit all that plot, angst, and fluff in under two hours. they needed to introduce characters, the miraculous, and get basic stuff down before they could start anything. so naturally, the movie felt rushed. i get it. it's not their fault, really. it's hard to try and recreate all the feelings you experience when watching the show.

and of course, the singing.. honestly, marinette's singing voice doesn't break me down and make me scream in my pillow like some, but it definitely bothers me. i understand that promises were made and lou jean is an extremely talented singer. but christina vee was literally standing right there. christina is also an amazing singer and i just think it would've made more sense for her to sing. but nonetheless, we can't change what happened. we can only accept it.

so to answer the question that everyone is wondering: is the movie better than the show?

personally, in my opinion, the answer would have to be no. the show just has so much history and allowed us to connect with the characters. it makes me sad to say that the movie really had no chance in this battle, as it couldn't do that.

but does that mean the movie is trash?

no.

[friendfromdsmp]

Sorry for the long ramble but I’ve been saying for so long that only the villains actually get the ‘power of love’! Even Chloé benefited in earlier seasons, what with Kim and Sabrina being all over her even when they were treated horribly by her, and of course Andre trying to have a happy family without ever addressing the issues in the way of that! And the reason that, as you said, Lila is able to jump from family to family is because they still love her, or at least the versions of her she’s created, so these versions of her still get to exist whereas the ‘Lila’ persona appears to have been literally trashed the moment she was exposed

Meanwhile, love is nothing but a hinderance to the heroes. There have been multiple episodes where the Love Square have come to the conclusion that their love either to each other or in general is dangerous or wrong or problematic or otherwise bad (Frozer, Truth, Lies, Kuro Neko, Glaciator 2, Kwamis’ Choice, Gang of Secrets, etc etc), with the line “It was our love that did this to the world” in Chat Blanc while gesturing to an apocalyptic genocide being a trauma-inducing, accurately called-back moment for multiple seasons (and given MLB’s reputation with consistency and Marinette’s trauma, this is a big deal)

Gabriel was already a recluse who didn’t have to hide his identity from loved ones - Adrien never saw him anyway and Nathalie was in on it from the start, with Nathalie’s struggle to hide her time as Mayura mostly ending up being assuring Adrien her sickness wasn’t that bad as opposed to actually covering for her villainy, giving her a built-in excuse for frequent solitude and retiring to her room early. Lila telling lies is second nature to her, it’s more foreign to her to actually tell the truth. Chloé’s best-kept secret is her teddy bear and even that’s poorly hidden (granted Armand came in clutch there for max humiliation). Felix’s mum has clearly been in on at least his general plan this whole time too and supports his villainy when he needs her to, as well as him rarely showing up, which allows his struggles to go wholly unnoticed by anyone who cares

But the heroes have had a plethora of episodes detailing their struggles at maintaining civilian relationships without their superheroics getting in the way. It’s not even just the main duo; Chloé’s parents and Sabrina were exploited by Hawkmoth and Mayura on multiple occasions in order to get to either her or the Bee Miraculous, literally every single temp hero was targeted in Optigami, Alya specifically was targeted in Sentibubbler with her entire family, Marinette and Nino all being taken hostage, Alya and Nino’s relationship was thrown into question with their hero identities being a direct influence in Rocketear and the consequences of this lasted all the way up to the season finale and resulting in Alya having to give up her Miraculous for good. All of the heroes are screwed over when their hero identities clash with their relationships, the temp heroes included, and it has resulted in multiple akumatisations

The biggest question of ‘love’ Gabriel ever had to face was whether to let Adrien splat to the pavement and die in Gorizilla just to prove he wasn’t Chat Noir - and people (Austruc) are saying it was proof that he truly loved Adrien that he didn’t allow his teenage son to fall to a very preventable death by pretty much his own hand. The biggest question of love Felix had to face was ‘why aren’t Adrien and Kagami happy that I committed a genocide but spared them? OH WAIT NOW I GET IT SHOOT I’M SO SORRY I’M TOTALLY ON YOUR SIDE NOW I’M SO SORRY!!!’. Lila and Chloé never really faced any sort of love-based challenge - Chloé was SUPPOSED to, and several plot-lines for that with multiple characters were raised, but her ‘being Queen Bee will result in you and your loved ones being targeted’ thing was always waved off by her despite it coming true multiple times and all the other options were never anything more than a one-off. She ended up severing all her relationships on her own terms post-S3 and the biggest we got beforehand was ‘Why don’t you love me, mom? Oh, it’s because I’m not enough of a jerk around you? Okay, I can do that, I’m sure this is Real Love and a Bonding Moment’

TL;DR is that the heroes had several episodes detailing how hard it is to maintain relationships with and protect your loved ones as a superhero, including the temp heroes - but while the heroes frequently suffered from love and rarely reaped the benefits, the villains were the ones who were truly empowered by it

The Power of Love according to Season 5 of Miraculous

Something disturbing dawned on me concerning...a lot of the development in Season 5 and it comes down to one thing: Love.

At first, Andre and Felix getting redeemed while Chloe gets sent off to the worst fate the show would allow didn't make a lot of sense. The only thing I could get from the writers was just that "Chloe bad, so everyone else good." It was stupid, but it wasn't insidious. At least, not that insidious at first. And then the finale with Gabriel happened and while it took me a while to process my frustrations with this, something finally clicked. Not only concerning that, but some of the other developments I've seen.

Felix getting another chance to the point of JOINING the heroes in the new universe seemed like nonsense until you look at what happened before that. He was someone who Astruc went out of his way to bury in the narrative and was exclusively causing trouble for everyone up to and including GENOCIDE...until he showed his love to Kagami. Suddenly, his actions are seen as righteous and his backstory of being abused by his father was justification for his actions. You see, he loved Kagami and he also apparently loved Adrien too because they were "the same."

Andre was basically just some corrupt politician who was also a pathetic snob. Then when Zoe came in, we suddenly get all of these humanizing bits about how Chloe totally mistreated him (because apparently, not having the guts to say no to your daughter is mistreatment) and when he divorced Audrey, he gets Zoe because he's someone he could be happy with. A true familial love unlike the one he had with Chloe.

Chloe, meanwhile, doesn't love anyone as far as the writers are concerned. Any genuine connection she might have in either the platonic, familial, or the romantic sense, whether it'd be to Adrien, Sabrina, Zoe or Ladybug, are shown to be either fake or so utterly shallow, it doesn't count as "love." With that, everything she does is absolutely reprehensible and doesn't deserve a shred of forgiveness even if it's clear she's a neglected child who needed help. BUT, because she "doesn't love anyone", she doesn't get redemption and deserves to be sent away with a parent who doesn't love her either. Same with Lila, she doesn't love anyone at all and in fact, just jumps from family to family purely to keep up her manipulations.

Finally, we have Gabriel, who had done nothing but sheltered, belittled, and outright ABUSED Adrien as well as commit a multitude of horrid crimes throughout the series. His actions constantly escalated in awfulness throughout the series, even showing that he doesn't care if he destroys the universe to get what he wants. Yet there was always this trait he possessed. His love for Emilie and that ended up coming to the forefront in the finale. Marinette, who had Gabriel dead to rights, decided at the last moment to try and appeal to his humanity because she knows he loved Emilie and in her mind, that love is enough grounds for her to offer him one chance to step up and help. Then when Gabriel opts to betray Marinette and starts the wish, he tells her at the last moment to try and help Adrien remember all of the times he "tried to be a good father," which is apparently an indicator that he actually LOVED Adrien too. THAT ended up being why Marinette decided to lie about Gabriel by saying he died fighting Monarch and went as far as to try and tell Adrien to remember him as a good man. All because she knew Gabriel "loved" him.

This tells me something distressing. Now, the concept of "Love Redeems" is something I'm not at all against and is in fact common in a lot of stories I like. However, it's what Miraculous does with this concept in Season 5 that angers me. The message of Miraculous ends up giving in its grand finale for the Agreste arc isn't that love can help people find the way to kindness. It's that anything you do can be justified as long as you do it for "love." It doesn't matter if you purposely get a cab driver in trouble, attempt to sabotage a date that your crush is in, put together a project that tries to commercialize air, betray someone to help a terrorist, commit genocide, cause untold amounts of damage to your town and beyond, or even destroy the universe! As long as you love someone, everything you do can be justified. Except when we decide that you don't love ANYONE, then we'll do everything in our power to show that all of your connections don't count as love so you can have the worst punishment we could possibly muster. Regardless of intent, that's how the writers ended up describing the Power of Love in Season Five of Miraculous and that's wretched to me.

[billiejean485]

Well... looks like Chloe is never going to get her redemption arc. Astruc legitimately hates characters like her (probably not in the way most of the fandom thinks he does - I guess just people like her) and, to be fairly honest, that came as a shock to me.

I really believe anyone has a chance for redemtion, at least in their last dying breaths - but she is his character and he knows her better than any of us, so maybe Chloe is an irredeemable person; it's not like people like that don't exist - the truth is, sadly, too far from that. Also, it's the creator's choice to make someone incorrigible or not. If the former is what he chose, then it is as it is.

But why was she made in such a way that we were all able to sympathize with her, or at least understand her? (Please don't come at me with the typical 'Astruc is a bad writer' answers, because if you don't have a firm critique to prove that I'm just going to Block you for trolling.) Why even give us a chance to feel something about such characters if their final destination of development was a trash can? One can always give us a character we can hate with all the reasons why we would never associate them with anything good, even when we can understand them. Heck, I feel really uncomfortable for being able to sympathize with Gabriel a lot of times as well. Why go there? Why make us like certain parts of a character when, in the end, we know they're bad?

And it's a lot worse with Chloe than Gabriel. So what did we miss? If the majority of the fandom (the part that is not toxic) feels like Chloe can still learn to at least make occasional better choices, then you really have to call out the writer.

But is it really like that? I mostly see people coming to her defense, and I can't even tell who are toxic fans. I'd actually really appreciate if someone who sees why Chloe is irredeemable to come and say a few words (don't worry - I'll Block the haters if they attack you). She might never get to be a hero like every other, but just a single big good deed is sometimes enough for a 'bad' character - like, they're in this shade of grey that's almost black, but still not there. Heck, even Felix might be that same color (at this point I can't even tell if Astruc wants us to love or hate him).

[papenathys]

Hi so I’m an English major who, thanks to the atrocious American education system, has had very little interaction with other literature. Any suggestions for where to start? I tend towards the darker stuff, but I love classics.

here are some book recommendations for (mostly) non white authors:

freshwater by akwaeke emezi: a young nigerian woman named ada battles lifelong with various iterations of her own self, these multiple personalities shaped by deities rooted in Igbo cosmology and myth. a difficult read; personalities/POVs bleed into each other, introspection precedes plot and there is a TON of trigger warnings (dm for info). nevertheless, harrowing, powerful study of the long-standing politics of trauma, faith and sexuality.

running in the family by michael ondaantje: after a bizarre dream leaves him shaken, ondaantje decides to journey home to sri lanka on a quest to piece together long-buried stories about his family, especially his deceased father. this book is a fictionalized memoir; history and folklore often overlap, but it's good throughout, rooted in the bittersweet warmth of lost culture and nostalgia in 1970s sri lanka. 100/100: made me ugly laugh and then reduced me to tears.

susanna's seven husbands by ruskin bond: one simply doesn't read only one ruskin bond book; I don't ideally recommend one specific story. yet this is probably one of his darkest novellas yet, narrated by a north indian boy who grows up next door to a beautiful, enigmatic biracial heiress with a long line of dead husbands and a property brimming with mysteries. it's chock full of deadpan humour and really wtf moments written in the classic bond vein. don't watch the trash movie, the novella is a gem!

kitchen by banana yoshimoto: following her grandma's death, a japanese woman moves in with two unlikely friends. I never thought potted plants, phone booths and refrigerator lights would make me want to scream into my pillow for 1 hour but oh, well. cooking!! kitchens!! bowls of katsudon to warm your soulmate's hands!!!! urban loneliness!!! poignant look into intimacy and grief!!! accidentally falling in love!!! murakami wishes he could write like this!!! (research triggers though!)

china dolls by lisa see: see's books are all beautifully atmospheric portraits of chinese women and their experiences in different points of history. I recommend china dolls, which is about three young asian american women navigating the world of nightclubs in 30s/40s San francisco. twisted and complex female relationships, a nuanced look at the exoticisation and perilous lives of asian americans during WW2, and of course, compelling storytelling.

the neapolitan novels by elena ferrante: charts the life of two intelligent young girls, best friends lenu and lila, from childhood to adolescence to maturity, starting from 50s Italy, against the backdrop of their violent, eventful neighbourhood in naples. equal parts chaotic academia + bildungsroman. mixed feelings about this one because while I liked the concept and characters, the translation felt pretty mediocre to me and many turns of phrase were lost. also someone lied to me and said it's sapphic goldfinch, which, no, it's not :(

reading lolita in tehran by azar nafisi: gorgeous memoir about the author's time as an academic woman in 70s Iran: her fight against the regime, her expulsion from the uni, creating a secret girls-only book club at the height of the leftists/student led 1978-81 Iranian revolution etc. The book is divided into phases like lolita, austen etc where parallels are drawn between the themes in the western texts and the lives of the Iranian girls in the book club. can't recommend it enough.

the interpreter of maladies by jhumpa lahiri: from a couple trying to rekindle their marriage through a storytelling game to a little american boy's affectionate bond with his bengali babysitter, this really cutting and impactful collection of short stories deal mainly about the expatriate indian experience in US. jhumpa lahiri can keyboard smash and it would still create pulitzer prize winning prose.

bunny by mona awad: a young woman pursuing an MFA in creative writing, is inducted into the unsettling, seemingly saccharine world of a sugary cliqué called the bunnies. it's like a cocktail blend of moral ambiguity and voyeuristic opulence (the secret history) meets absolute feral campy horror (ahs coven), bitchy bratzy vibes + dark academia (literally what's not to love) and it gets well.....unhinged. someone on this site compared it to donna tartt and stephen king getting hammered and punching out a collab novel and tbh I agree :D

the kite runner by khaled hosseini: pretty sure everyone has already read this but idc. it's a story about afghanistan, a story about family and friendship, a story about loving and creating stories and flying kites and how sometimes history crawls out of muddy empty alleys to stick a knife into your back. I know not many people like hosseini on tumblr but honestly this novel just made such an impact on teen mimi, I can't not recommend it. heavy trigger warnings, dm for info.

sister outsider by audre lorde: if you are looking to begin with reading on intersectionality audre lorde is always a great place to start. this is a collection of essays, speeches and vignettes about lorde navigating her multiple coexisting and inextricably bound identities as a lesbian, a Black woman, an activist, a cancer survivor and a poet. this is a masterpiece of a collection, and I particularly adore the sections on the uses of anger and an open letter to mary daly.

love in the time of cholera by gabriel garcia marquez: so many people walk into this book expecting a genuine tender romance or something and that's why they get disappointed. my dude, it's ggm. this book is about the lush world of colombia in the late 18th century, the perils and ridicule of obsessive love, it's infused with magical realism and fascinatingly grotesque imagery and a rich array of flawed characters, but,, it's not your average slowburn coffeeshop romcom so like.?? idk why people misread it so!

I hope you'll find something to your liking from the handful I recommeded. additionally, please consult this list for non-western classics (it's pretty normcore; personally don't care for some of the picks under india but it's a good place to start with all the basics), this list for indigenous literature and this list for indian academia and classics.