#since this is the first post and I'm already on episode 172

[spinsterwolf]

her shirt says 'EVIL' Nami ilysm

[kisilinramblings]

Hello! I have a question regarding the episode. Since you are fond of analysis, and I'm fond of how reasonable & understanding your approaches are, I'd like to know your opinion on a "flutter of butterfly wings". It looks like first flutter was presented in Timetagger(?) How do you think it might be used in future episodes and how much our heroes are going to fix or not, given Bunnyx is the one who's, let's say, responsible for return of the "right" line, since she has access to "time-tags"? [1]

Also it seems like timelines are “overwritten”/erased with each intervention. I’m sorry if I expressed myself ambiguosly (though time related things are quite complicated themselves). 

P.S. I also liked that in your post you made accent on how Gabriel acted like a trash in _that_ timeline. Meaning we’ll keep in mind what he’s capable of, but not denying that in future something might influence on his decisions, either for better or for worse. Correct me if I misinterpreted. Thank you! [2]

It depends intrisically on how the time continuum theory is interpreted by the creator and his writing team which then defines how the ML universe works according to those laws they have set for the story and for themselves to respect no matter what.

Here’s a little video about time travel in fiction so you know where I start.

By concept, the Miraculous Ladybug superpower – the one that allows to set everything back to normal – is a form of time-travel superpower to fix the timeline back to its balance. All damaged are erased as if what has happened didn’t happened. If bystanders were brainwashed into minions, they don’t remember their experience because their state is revert back before that anormaly had caused them to not be themselves. And because there were not themselves, they took actions that they wouldn’t have taken otherwise. (ex : Princess Fragrance, Puppeteer, Despair Bear, Oblivio)

That doesn’t mean negative emotions are bad that they must be erased from the timeline. They are part of the balance. What isn’t normal however is there currently is a Miraculous Holder who is misusing his supowerpowers and provoking an imbalance by preying on those negative emotions. And when things go wrong, Ladybug has to erase the imbalance and find a solution, an alternative. This didn’t work and you were very upset by it? All right! Let’s try this instead, shall we?

In other words, ever since Marinette has started to be Ladybug, she is protecting the timeline to stay on the path of balance.  In fact, I think we could say the path of balance is one single continous timeline. So when LB is casting the Miraculous Ladybugs, she is putting the timeline back on track, on the path it has to follow, but the events are still part of it.

Of course, it’s not a complete do-over like Code Lyoko. In Code Lyoko, everything is resetted but the memories of a few selected people. In Miraculous, the time of the day doesn’t changed back. People who weren’t brainwashed by a supervillain still remember the Akuma attack and what damages they have caused.

However, this not much a time-travel thing than a general narrative rule. You don’t write a story to in the end have characters who learn nothing. You know, the “It was all a dream. The end” narrative? It’s really frustrating to get invested in a story and its character – whether it’s a book, a comic, a movie, a tv show or even a video game – for everything to be set back to the initial situation with characters who ultimately went through all of this no concrete impact on them in the very end. (Note : there is a nuance between a character who didn’t learn anything concrete from their experience and a character who chose to not learn anything)

That’s why it is of the utmost importance that something must be left of it and still affect the characters afterwards. Doesn’t have to be necessarily good, but there must be a reflection that is ingrained that will affect the character later on.

The true soft-resetter in the ML Universe is the holder of the Snake Miraculous. The Rabbit Miraculous is another level. Bunnyx must not interfere with events. If she does, it is because it is already written in some sort. Her interventions are already part of the balance. The Rabbit Miraculous being camouflaged as a watch and transmitted as a Kubdel heirloom so it reaches Alix (Timebreaker) for example. Or Bunnyx remembering the Timetagger events because she has lived it as her younger self, and thus meeting her Future!Self was part of the timeline. 

A detail shown when Chat Blanc was about to trigger the end of the world is that all of the holes of the Burrow showed static snow, including the one of the past dating before the terrible mistake has been made. Indicating that in the ML universe, everything is connected. Everything is part of the balance. Everything is part of the world itself.

When Bunnyx initially appears in the episode, she has no information but the date to find Mini-Bug, lead her to the Akuma and fix the balance. The only person who could have given her these indications is Future!Ladybug herself. Because Future!Ladybug remembers she had made a mistake that day and without Bunnyx intervention, there was no other way to fix the balance drifting to its end. 

Bunnyx realized this as she kept watching and invistigating the timeline drift.

First, Bunnyx starts disappearing. Next thing is with Licorne-Bidouchou, Rose’s plushie, who Rose wins it back in this drifting timelime – while in the original timeline – Bunnyx it supposed to still have it before the plushie vanishes out of thin air. 

So really, can the future truly be rewritten by a single flutter of the butterfly wings or is the flutter of the butterfly wings actually an integrated part of the time continuum for the world to keep its balance? I think it’s the latter. 

Because, even using the Ultimate Power granted by the unification of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous which would alter the world as we know it, the world will always seek back its balance. The world will no matter what follow the balance as its true timeline and it will always find a way.

Thus why the Miraculous exist in the first place and why the Order of the Guardians of the Miraculous was established : to help the world keeps its balance.

Speaking of the Order, let’s talk on in Feast, Master Fu’s mistake was fix by the Miraculous Cure. The temple of the Order that was destroyed suddenly reappears after 172 years. The past was not rewritten. Allowing to preserve Master Fu’s mistake impacts. How his mistake shape the world how it is today.

So yeah, in Miraculous, everything happens for a reason. 

And about your P.S. Yes, you understood me perfectly what I was implying there ^^ That turn of events was erased, including Hawkmoth’s actions. Ladybug is only aware of the final result, not the details. That was Bunnyx’s role to show us a brief summary to what lead to Chat Blanc’s akumatization. Telling us Hawkmoth is capable to lead the world to its destruction. Telling us what extreme measures he is ready to take in order to accomplish his goal. This also tells us, that as long as Hawkmoth will want Ladybug and Chat Noir Miraculous, Marinette and Adrien will never have an happy ending together.