#think of it like s1 Chloe and Adrien from mlb

[escaping-thoughts-reviews]

Hi. I read this post, and while I see your point, I think it's actually the other way around.... Or at least, I think that.

The parents clearly dod not cared about Chloé. As you said, Audry left, and don't even remembers her daughter's name most of the time, and, while Andre provided for Chloe, he possibly never was around either, leaving only Jackue Whateverhisnameis to serve her.

The parents clearly did not done these👆, that's the point. Even Andre, he did not done these; did not helped Chloé discover who she is, kinda protected her, but without care, enabeling her to protect HERSELF, and strangly, I think he did not love her.... I can't recall he would ever huged his daughter, while I remember she huged Ms. Boustie, which (in highsight) is obviously strange...

Let me theorize a bit, I think Andre created Chloe to the image of Audry, as a "Love fixing child" when he felt she is about to leave him (obviously, it didn't worked). He "loved" Chloe, in that sence he loved the part she is like her mother, so he kinda tried to compensate, but since Chloe isn't Audry, he failed hard.

So, all together, I think (at least as I interpreting the story) Yeah, Audry and Andre both deserving what they get, but the main point is to prove what Felix said; when you don't care for your creation the results are just as bad as if you use them.

So yeah, I personally don't feel pity either of the parents, both deserve this, they CAUSED THIS, and I think that's what the story want to say

I agree with what you say, my point was the hypocrisy of the writing. Where Félix, Kagami and Adrien are portrayed as victims and worth saving, Chloé is not given the same treatment (from Astruc especially).

Both Audrey and André are horrible parents (like most in MLB, to be honest). She abandoned her family and abuses her daugther, while André didn’t give Chloé the affection nor the discipline she needed. All he did was throw money at her and enableing her bad behaviour. Bad behaviour she emulated from her mother, the person Cholé wants above else to love her. The other issue is that in the end André, instead of standing up to Audrey’s abuse and save his daughter from her, will denounce Chloé (although he had part in her upbringing) and will abandon her with her abuser. All while the writers paint him as a "strong liberated man". But all they’ll be doing is showing just how much of a coward André is (Chloé is like that also because of him, but he’ll not be held accountable for it) and how they (the writers) are a bunch of hypocrites.

You said the hug between Miss Bustier and Chloé is “strange”, seeing things now, but the reason is that that hug was meant to be the start of Chloé's change. Sadly the story was derailed by Astruc in s3, just because he hates her on a personal level (I know she’s fictional, but the way he talks about her makes you wonder if he knows that).

The hug with Bustier, her apologising multiple times, her relationship with Adrien, Sabrina, Jaques and even her parents show Chloé was not evil to begin with. Adrien tells us she wasn’t like the Chloè we know from s1, but again because of hypocrisy and the hatered of one man against a fictional teenage girl, all of that depth and development was thrown out the window and Chloé was branded as “irredeemably evil”. While characters like Félix (that killed the entire population of Paris and only brought them back because Adrien was mad at him) and Gabriel (we know what he did), will be given forgiveness and redemption by Ladybug (and therefore, by the writers).

That said, I really like the theory that Chloé is also a senti. I wrote something like that a while back, but the issue with that is that neither Audrey nor André have fallen sick like Emilie or Colt (and possibly Kagami's father). And while I do think the sentiChloé theory could save her character, I doubt they would go for it, since Astruc hates the character and openly mocks her fans.

[literaphobe]

How would you describe the racism in the mlb fandom. Like how does it manifest

it manifests in people thinking chloe is awesome and deserved to be “redeemed” like i get where they’re coming from re the fact that chloe was a miraculous holder for a while and seemed to be gaining narrative importance as someone on the “good guy” side but god her voice is so annoying who cares um also she was pretty racist a couple times in s1 but idc about that honestly i just think that i can weaponize it as a reason to hate her Mwahhaha i just think that i dont care that she was a miraculous holder for a bit so i dont care that they decided to make her way eviler and basically give her no chance of a “redemption arc”

other than that its fine like the big blogs on here are pretty good, ive seen loads of awesome fan content. there’s a cute fic about marinette teaching adrien how to cook and it draws on chinese cuisine very well and as someone who was raised asian asian i can confirm they did a pretty good job on it: here

[gardenergulfie]

so i added joey to my silly lil mlb hero au he's the chloe to katherine's adrien but a better character. he and kat are childhood best friends and his infatuation with katherine is stemmed from a "oh im a boy shes a girl and we like each other a lot and enjoy each others company so we must be married and in love yes" and katherine doesnt really have the heart to tell joey shes not interested thinking "oh i'll reciprocate eventually" like these two got heavy comphet goin on eventually katherine realises her feelings for shrub though and tells joey and hes like "oh if thats the case i guess i shouldnt pursue you anymore good luck with winning shrub's heart tho" and the next day everyone is absolutely bewildered how joey went from declaring his definitely real love for katherine every 5 minutes to "oh no we're just friends now" and shrub probably tries to explain to him that's not how crushes work at some point

but when he's not a civilian is a night time rascal, sometimes a vigilante that does the right thing in the end but sometimes he causes problems On Purpose bc like his childhood best friend he has the rich kid urge to be rebellious. I debated wether or not to use his s1 or s2 character for his night time sona but then i opted for s2, he's a pirate themed anti-hero and when he gets corrupted by xornoth he's parrot themed it fits yes.

also around the first-ish meeting he and katherine's hero sonas meet, he's under the impression that she's flirting with him and he's like "excuse me sir im very flattered but i have a girlfriend" and kat was Not Flirting at all, she's very confused but also feeling a bit gender affirmed anyways then he turns around sees Xornoth and proceeds to have homoerotic tension with him and katherine is even more confused

OH THATS VERY GOOD FOR HIM LOL MY SILLY!!

[fabuloustrash05]

Shinigami’s Mother, Kitsune

For those who don’t know, Kitsune is originally from the TMNT comics. She was a witch from the Foot Clan, one of Shredder’s allies, and the turtle’s enemy.

In my 2012 version she is old friends with Splinter, Shredder, and Tang Shen when they were all younger. Growing up she was a prodigy in illusions and dark magic, often entertaining her friends with her magic. Sadly Kitsune grew to hate how Shredder and Splinter constantly fought for Shen’s affection which led to her to resent her friend group, especially Shen. She left her friends and her home and didn’t stay in contact with anyone for years, eventually having a daughter named Shinigami from the result of a fling she had with a man who abandoned her shortly after finding out she was pregnant.

Raising her daughter alone, Kitsune was a loving and supportive mother towards Shini, teaching her daughter all that she knows about the dark arts, teaching her new powers and tricks, such as shapeshifting (Kitsune can turn into a fox and Shini can turn into a black cat), and even later giving her daughter her signature weapon she uses in the show (Shini’s cats eyes Hypno ball with the crescent moon blade).

Years later Shredder reunited with Kitsune and offered for her 6 year old daughter Shini to join the Foot Clan as a Kunoichi. Despite hating Shredder, she accepted and quickly saw through his lies when meeting his daughter Karai (ex: she knows Karai is Miwa and Shredder isn’t her real father, how Shredder is using Kitsune as his pawn like everyone else and she knows it) but you know what they say: “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” ;)

So Kitsune’s willing to play along with Shredder’s game until the time is right to strike. Besides it’s also more fun to watch Karai figure out the truth for herself rather than just telling her, right??

[princess-of-the-corner]

I've been rewatching MLB from the beginning for fic writing purposes, I just got to Origins, and it feels like Origins retconned a lot of things from the rest of S1.

Like, there a a bunch of things Origins says that don't feel like they were actually part of the story when the rest of S1 was being written.

Like Chloe being Marinette's long-time bully and Marinette having no friends bc of that. Origins says that's what it was like the years before, but what the rest of S1 actually showed made me think that Chloe was just the class's resident jerk who took things too far on occasion,and that she and Marinette had been sort-of rivals for awhile.

And Alya saying Nino was like a brother to her in Animan always made me think 'childhood friends', not 'shes the new kid'

There are a bunch more, but I don't have time to list all of them rn

Is this just me? Or is this just the first signs of MLB's bad writing bleeding through into the best season before going off the rails?

Yeah it's. It's a little funky.

I don't want to be mean spirited and call it actual bad writing. A lot of shows can have some weridness in the first season because things are still kinda shifting on the plans for character dynamics and even some plot points. So

But yeah it is. It is a bit weird.

Yeah honestly with the Chloé thing.... In Orgins she's depicted as more of the proper Alpha Bitch who can boss everyone around. She says jump, they ask how high? Everyone is scared of her.

The rest of the season? No one's really scared of her. She'll do some shit, people snark back. Some more than others tbh.

Speaking of the 'like a brother' thing.... Origins states that Adrien and Chloé are childhood friends, and that they're still close because Chloé knows about Adrien's plan to get into school and tbh probably helped him since his name is on the roster. But the rest of the time they seem like strangers.

Alya and Marinette in general seem a lot more close and like they've known each other for a while, despite it being maybe a few weeks.

Kim is actually kind of an asshole. Like, look. I love my himbo. But he was kind of a bully and was on Chloé's side and like. In love with her.

There's all the timeline nonsense. Like how long Emilie has been missing or how old the characters are.

Wayzz is able to sense when someone is using the Miraculous, which never comes up again.

It's all a little funky.

And again. I don't think of it as 'bad writing'. Or at least not all of it. Because most shows suffer from this.

That said it's interesting to fuck around with.

[anxresi]

I am really glad to have found this spot.  I started watching MLB a couple of years ago.  And when I first saw Chloe, I thought, ‘Oh, another generic, boring bully of the main character’. Then Season 2 happened.  And 'Despair Bear’ happened.  And I saw this 'bully’ be revealed to be a young woman with severe abandonment issues-the still with her mother leaving and the threat from Adrien. Then, 'Zombizou’ happened.  And we saw that Chloe was capable of showing love to someone-Miss Bustier, who in my opinion is a better maternal figure to Chloe than her real mother is.

Then, the 'Queen’s Battle’ Trilogy (cause i feel that 'Malediktator’ should be included)-and we saw even more of Chloe’s character- we saw the hurt she felt due to her mother’s neglect and her father’s well-meaning but ineffective parenting…and even tho she messed up her first time out, she made up for it by helping LB in 'Malediktator’. And in the 'Heroes Day’ 2-parter, she showed that she could work within the Heroes-Team: she helped save Rose from harm and protected the other heroes while Rena and Carapace were dealing with Dark Cupid’s Hate Plague.

And as S2 ends, we’re all given hope that Chloe will become a hero like her role model, LB… And we were wrong…AssTrick gave some subtle forshadowing in 'Stormy Weather 2’ when Chloe says to Aurore, who was previously akumatized, 'Once a villain, always a villain’.  Really? A jab from TA to say, “You guys thought I was gonna change Chloe? PSYCH!!!”

And then, 'Miraculer’ happened-and Chloe became the first person to actually resist being akumatized! Not even the heroes of this work were able to do this!!! And then, “Miracle Queen’ happened-and in one fell swoop…all of Chloe’s positive character development was flushed to make her even worst than her S1 personality! And why?  To introduce a new Queen Bee-someone who’s 'sweet and kind and nice’.  Maybe AssTrick doesn’t bees (or writing good complex characters), but bees are dangerous when provoked…

And this is done with the introduction of Zoe.  And to me, this whole introduction is so weak.  She’s supposed to be Chloe’s 'long-lost’ half-sister, but there seems to be no drama between Zoe and the Bourgeois family. Even worse-2 episodes in…I repeat…2 EPISODES IN…Zoe is given a Miraculous.  The people in Mari’s circle who were given a Miraculous didn’t get them until Episode 36 (Alya in 'Sapotis’) and 44 (Nino in 'Anansi’).  And this new character-who Mari doesn’t even have a personal connection to-gets one 2 episodes after debuting? …ya know what…F*** It, I think I’m done with this show.  Characterization all over the flipping place, characters who were once important to the plot have now been reduced to irrelevance (anybody seen Lila?)…Mari handing out the Miraculous like Oprah handing out books-'You get a Miraculous! You get a Miraculous!’

…well, at least I have fan works…

[that-was-anticlimactic]

003 for nino from miraculous ladybug! (or any other character from that show that you want to do this for) <3

nino

how i feel about this character:

OH BOY !!! well, it’s probably pretty obvious at this point that he’s my favorite character in mlb !!! he just cares about everyone SO MUCH and he’s SUCH a good friend! he’s reliable and awkward and speaks through music better than words, he’s insecure, prone to assumptions, a generally sweet guy,,, FRICK i love him <3

any/all the people i ship romantically with this character:

well, obviously i am a huge fan of djwifi. i think they’re adorable and they compliment each other so well and just. ahhhhhhhhh. but adrinino is also Really freaking cute,,,

my favorite non-romantic relationship for this character:

hmmm,,, well, obviously adrien and nino is like. The Best Friendship in the show, but other than the obvious,,, nino and mari and kim being childhood friends is something that can be So personal,,, and i also like thinking that chloe and nino could’ve been great friends had they let it happen :(

my unpopular opinion about this character:

idk he doesn’t deserve any salt that he gets. “oh but nino believed lila over mari--” no that was just bad writing and also he’s like thirteen or fourteen like my God he’s a child

one thing i wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

he should’ve been the guardian over mari. i’m sorry but,,, i honestly think he would’ve been better suited. not only would it cause a Lot less stress for mari, but then nino could be in charge of handing out the miraculouses and would get to know her and adrien’s identities, so then she wouldn’t have that crisis. knowing their identities would also allow him to support his friends the best that he can. also, he and wayzz have SUCH a sweet friendship and i just would’ve enjoyed that a lot more <3

favorite friendship for this character:

i mean already kind of answered this one lol

my crossover ship:

uhhhhhhhhhhhh none???

kim

how i feel about this character:

freaking. i freaking love him. he has SO MUCH DEPTH that people don’t see !!! so many people see him as the bully-surface level type or just the idiot (albeit, that can be SO FUN and actually here are some funny fics about that--they’re all pretty short: kim being “scared” of monkeys, kim & kagami bonding, kim and max accidentally discover h*wkm*th’s lair). he just. all in all, he’s a good kid who genuinely cares so much but isn’t great at expressing it and he has GREAT character development and you can see his character growth from s1 to s2; from letting chloe boss him around to doing what he loves. it’s just. it’s SO GOOD. also, he’s so freaking funny. “meta-who?”

any/all the people i ship romantically with this character:

uhhhhh i mean, kim x ondine is cute ! i can see the appeal of kim x max, but i do kind of prefer their friendship, tbh

my favorite non-romantic relationship for this character:

hmm, always a sucker for kim and max friendship because DUH (i mean,,, the way that max screamed kim’s name was syren dragged him under water,,, the way they stayed behind together in zombiezou,,, they care so much,,,), like i said abive: i am a firm believer in kim, mari, and nino growing up besties, kim and alix is always a good one,,, tbh, i also love the prospect of a kim and rose and kim and kagami friendship <3

my unpopular opinion about this character:

oooooooo SO MANY okay so uhhhhh hmmmm where to start... he is the Number One believer (after adrien) of chloe redemption (and prolly hates the s3 finale lol) and is never truly able to give up on her becoming a better person despite the way she treated him (he just. he sees the good in everybody...), carapace is his favorite superhero (especially after working with him lol--he definitely had a bit of a crush on carapace ngl), he likes trying new things and often asks his friends to teach him about stuff they’re interested in: he and rose scrapbooked together, he cooked with mari, followed alya around while she chased lb and chat (he took the pictures), etc... he works out with alix and mari (and convinces max to join them sometimes), he and markov are besties actually, he has adhd, his sexuality is “doesn’t care about gender, doesn’t acknowledge his sexuality because he doesn’t want a label he just wants to love because he has so much of it to give”, his mom is a hairdresser and his dad is a biological anthropologist, he like stickers, max was the one who told him that he should try swimming because he saw how much fun kim had while doing it at school, on bad days kim doesn’t think that he’s a good enough person to be king monkey. about that: he takes his redemption arc very seriously and i will get to that with the next question...

one thing i wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

so he was incredibly ashamed of himself after dark cupid--that was a huge realization he came to. he did do some pretty crappy things before that, though: he was mean to ivan, helped get alya suspended... and he did it all for mean!chloe. there’s no way he’s just all buddy-buddy with everyone without like. talking to them about it. so what i’m saying is, i wish we got to see him apologize and make amends. i wish we saw alya forgive him and ivan not being ready to forgive him yet but appreciating the apology. even if it was just in the background, i wish we saw a friendly relationship between ivan and kim develop: see ivan begin to forgive him and for them to become friends...

favorite friendship for this character:

i mean already kind of answered this one lol

my crossover ship:

uhhhh none???

[lannisterdaddyissues]

3 characters ask, all from miraculous

Lila

Chloe

Felix

thanks @faeratil!! 

ok so i’m gonna answer this ask in the case of canon felix bc pv felix is like my favorite character ever in the fandom. therefore:

chloé is my #1 fav hAnds DOWN. i love this gal. idk why. she has big bi/lesbo energy with her huge crush on ladybug and like... queen bee? she can get it. my god i want her to top me. or i would top her. i love her as queen bee she has the sexiest costume and the coolest transformation and like why did her character development get shelved??? hello?? i would pay to create a chloé-centric rewrite of the show where she ends up with marinette in the end. i would. i probably think of her more as the typical fanon interpretation of her character or as my own wish fulfillment characterization of her but look im soft for the ones who are snobby but secretly have hearts of gold... she’s a bitch but she means well ok <3

next would be uh i guess lila bc she is also hot and really interesting? actually? she’s a pretty neat villain and she just keeps coming back, i like that she didn’t get shelved after one episode. her thing for adrien doesn’t feel like a forced part of her character like luka and kagami do (i like them but they only exist so adrienette doesn’t burn to ash on the small stove for 5 seasons... at least to me. i haven’t actually seen much mlb after s1 but why else would u make two love triangles bro?? what is it now, a love dodecahedron?) and iirc there are lots of theories about her taking over as hawkmoth in future, or her already being the mastermind. i hope she does turn out to be a big bad instead of just a minor inconvenience bc so far pretty much everyone in the show is either black or white. i want her to be a morally grey villain bc she has the potential, but as i said, this show is black and white 🙄

and lastly canon felix... he is... unfortunately a character :/

[purrincess-chat]

I'm curious about your rewriting of the MLB canon, could you talk a little more about it please?

Of course!

What would you like to know? The basic premise that started it was less salt at canon cause I've had this idea for a long time like over a year and a half ish? I think it started back in the BB days (miraculous big bang), and we were all chatting about stuff, and I was like ya know it's awfully convenient for Hawkmoth that Master Fu sent out the exact two Miraculouses that he needed, and also rather risky on Fu's part considering if they failed then someone has all of the power in the universe on his side, so I was like what if Fu just decided to give Hawkmoth the finger and send out a whole ass different Miraculous. So he still gives Marinette the Ladybug, but what if he gave Adrien a different one besides the cat just to mess with him? Now there's probably some bullshit balance yin yang reason for sending them both out together but fuck that this is my AU I do what I want, so thus this idea was born where instead of giving Adrien the Cat, he gives him the Dog who is a less experienced kwami, so she and Adrien get to grow and learn together.

So the point of this AU was to see how different situations would be if he had a different Miraculous, but as s2 went on, we started getting more salty so I was like ya know what, if I'm gonna do this bitch, I'm gonna do it how I want and fix some shit, so I went through the episodes and picked out which ones I wanted to do and considered what I wanted to do with certain characters and relationships and plot lines, and I just recently constructed the timeline of sorts and arrangement of the episodes that I want to do, and I have two "seasons" planned, but they are a mix of canon seasons 1-3 cause I took some liberties in organizing them in a way that makes the story make sense for the rewrite not for canon order.

Somethings I wanted to do with this AU were have Adrien get to grow, so he starts out very naive and sheltered as I feel he should be because a big point of his character is that he *is*. So he makes a lot of mistakes and social blunders early on until he learns to be more well adjusted. His view of the world is very idealistic and taken mostly from movies and anime, and people have to constantly remind him that the real world is much different.

Another thing I want to tackle is an actual Chloe redemption. Because my God, canon. So Chloe will actually get a fair shot to change and become better and a worthy hero.

I also wanted to figure out a way to include Marinette in the plot more, so in this story Nathalie is actually her aunt who works for Gabriel, and it was Nathalie sending her one of Gabriel's design books for her birthday one year that sparked Marinette's interest in fashion and Gabriel's brand. Nathalie in this story is still helping Gabriel for love, but it's for the love of her dead husband whom Gabriel has promised to bring back if he succeeds in exchange for her help. She is also still the first to meet Fu, and the one to pass out the Miraculouses, though she will share with Chien (dog!chat) who she picks instead of keeping it secret.

I intend to introduce the love rivals better, and there will also be less jealousy plots. And the ones that do make it in will fizzle out over time or resolve themselves eventually, the main one being Kagami and Marinette.

I'm still debating what to do with Lila whether I want to expose her after Chameleon (which takes place in early s2 now after the collector) and have her fade into the background, or if I want to only expose her to Alya who then has Marinette's back while Lila slips around everyone else, and if in either of those combinations I want to have her help Hawkmoth eventually or not.

Which brings me to another point, I moved Lila's plot up earlier before a lot of the big classmate moments so that it's a bit more believable why the class wouldn't be super on Marinette's side yet because they've yet to experience some of their more poignant moments together (zombizou, befana, Mayura). So you should theoretically be less pissed at them and then they get a chance to redeem themselves later.

I don't want to say too much, but yeah that's some stuff that has been cooking in my brain. If you guys want, I can share the order I came up with for the episodes to maybe give you an idea for the direction of the story and some characters but it might also confuse you for why I put some episodes where, but just know that I have a plan. ;)

Currently I have two seasons planned, and I have plans for how to continue afterward, but I'm thinking I might make my own canon after that and only pull in actual canon episodes occasionally if I like them and can fit them into the mold of the story cause with what I have planned at the end of s2, canon doesn't exactly fit anymore, but we will see what s3 brings the rest of this year. This story is gonna be a long one. Each "season" is gonna have 22 episodes (at least s1 and s2 do). I don't know how long I will drag it on. Might make s3 the final season, but that will depend on what future seasons bring cause I feel like by the time I get to s3 in writing we will be well into s4 maybe even s5 in canon depending on how slowly they air the episodes. Let me know if you have anything else you're curious about with it. I don't want to spoil big plot details since I am deviating from canon quite a bit, but if you have some generic questions I'm happy to chat about it! It helps me brain storm.

[twin-books]

MLB Episodes Retold by TB: Mr. Pigeon

Okay, today we’re doing Mr. Pigeon which was requested by a friend. They said I could choose between Reflekdoll and Mr. Pigeon. You bet as heck I’m doing Mr. Pigeon. As always, it shall still be tagged with spoilers because again, I let things slip far too easily. If you wish to request I do another episode, send an ask in my inbox! It can be any MLB episode from s1 to the Christmas special to s2 to s3!

Alright, re-watching this theme song again. Still love it. Only problem I have is it is clearly focused on Ladybug so can we just change the title from Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir to just Miraculous Ladybug? I mean, Chat Noir is clearly not a main focus of this show which is fine but the title is kind of misleading and annoying. It starts on the principal telling this one class about the contest Gabriel shall be judging. 1. They have such a cute background on the board to display this tiny slide show of examples. 2. Why the heck is Gabe judging this contest? Doesn’t he have other things to do? Who managed to convince him to do this? Why would he even do this? 3. Does the principal just go to every class individually and tell them this or is it just Mari’s class in this contest? Why couldn’t their teacher just tell them? Also, your probably wondering why I don’t call the teacher and principal by their names... It’s quite simple, really... I refuse to try to spell them over and over again. :D I like that the principal needs to clarify that Gabe is, in fact, Adrien’s dad. Like this whole class does not know that? And Adrien’s gonna model the winning design which is cool. So what are they designing? A shirt? Pants? A suit? Shoes? A tie? A jacket? Nah, its a derby hat... Okay... Do people even wear derby hats anymore, besides for cosplay? If so, where can I get one? Also, the principal says that this is THIS YEAR’S project so does that mean they do this contest every year? Does Gabe actually do this every year or do they get a different judge? If he does do it every year I bet Emilie got him started on it or Nathalie. Okay so Marinette is shocked by it being derby hats too. Cool, I’m not alone. Chloe is like teasing Mari for some reason? I get she’s supposed to be a bully but what is she teasing about? Her gesture is so confusing? She has a thumbs down while humming... I don’t get it? Anyway, so Mari flips through her sketchbook which is full of really cute little doodles that aren’t realistic looking but are still really cute. I personally love her style in season 1. But in season 3, if you noticed in Silencer, her art style drastically changed and yeah, artists are allowed to change their art style but the thing that bothers me about it is how in Reverser it is shown Nath’s art style got slightly less good? This kind of makes me think someone decided that Nath was out shining Mari and they were gonna have none of that so they gave his art style to her because it looks exactly like Nath’s from season 1. It’s kind of annoying. It’s like they are trying to tell me that a doodle like art style isn’t good and that is has to be realistic. Let Mari have a doodle style! Ugh... I mean, look at these cute designs...

THIS IS FREAKING ADORABLE!! WHY THE HECK WOULD THEY CHANGE THIS? I get showing her improving. Like perhaps she gets a bit better at understanding anatomy so her legs are all even in size as well as her arms. But changing her art style completely to Nath’s? Ugh... If it wasn’t clear, I’m an artist. I complain about this kind of stuff. Just wait until I do Syren and you see me complain about how much I dislike Aquabug’s design. :D So Mari’s all upset she can’t find a single derby hat design in her sketchbook and, I mean... Just... just sketch some designs then? I know that takes a lot of work but it’s gonna be pretty worth it, right? Anyway, she spirals into self-doubt and she thinks she’s gonna make a huge fool of herself. In her made up disaster story she hilariously thinks Gabe will show up in person to judge this thing. Heh. To be that naive. :’D Alya decided to flip through the sketchbook again and see if she can find anything. That’s when Adrien the ninja Agreste shows up and thinks Alya sketched them. He compliments the designs and Alya’s like, “I’m flattered but Marinette’s really the creator of these designs.” Mari had already fallen off the bench by this point because she was rightfully terrified Adrien showed up out of no where and I have no idea how Alya wasn’t the least bit startled. Adrien is all like, “You got some mad skills. Bet you have this thing in the bag.” As he continues to just pose dramatically every few seconds like he did in Oblivio and it never gets less funny to me. Luckily this is more smooth and less fast which makes it feel more natural whereas in Oblivio it felt like a joke. XD Mari fumbles a bit over her words but seems to actually have handled it very well. I really don’t know why she freaks out so much when she can’t speak. Adrien literally never seems to really care, he only gets confused occasionally because he’s waiting to be able to make something out. Probably because the boy has far more patience than almost every other character in this show combined.  So Adrien is pretty confident he’ll be wearing Mari’s derby hat for his father’s next photoshoot... He bounces. Alya is all like, “Get a grip next time, but Adrien thinks you’ll win!” She screams this.  The camera pans over to Sabrina and Chloe where Sabrina is like, “Did you hear how impressed Adrien was with Mari-” And Chloe cuts her off like, “Of course I did, Alya just freaking screamed it. Do you think I’m deaf? I’d be surprised if the whole school didn’t hear her!” Ugh, I hate having to stare at Sabrina’s outfit. It’s so hideous. QWQ Chloe plans to swipe Mari’s design so Adrien will convince his dad to make her the winner, I guess. Hee... she thinks Gabe would listen to Adrien... Oh I wish I was as naive as Mari and Chloe. Okay, so Mari has already wasted 2 of the 10 hours she needs to come up with this design... The real annoying thing about this to me is how unnaturally quick they think this will be? I think they could have at least given these kids a few days to put a hat together. Why would you make it such a short time span? That pretty much guarantees that all these hats will be slapped together. >.> But Mari heads off to her “secret garden of inspiration”, gracefully slamming into a wall. She’s fine though, no worries.  We cut to Hawkmoth who is seeking out negative emotions this time instead of just waiting for it. Adrien definitely didn’t get his patience from his father, that’s for sure. We cut back to Mari and now we get to know what her secret garden of inspiration is... You ready? It’s.... in front of the Eiffel Tower. I never would have expected that. Definitely secret worthy. Also there are like a million pigeons circling the Eiffel Tower and I get this is Mr. Pigeon but man... Mari sketches this pretty cute Eiffel Tower derby hat and instead of just crossing it out she tears the freaking page out. It hurts me... That’s one of those nice bound sketchbooks and she just mercifully ruins it. And she also wastes so much paper because she only drew this tiny sketch on this full paper and then she just rips it out. There’s a lot of space left on that paper. I know some artists do this but HOW? HOW CAN YOU DO THIS WITH SUCH CONFIDENCE? I’m fine if you don’t use a full page, I used to do that but WHY TEAR THEM OUT? To make matters more annoying she discards all these on the ground so now she’s littering. If she doesn’t pick those up by the end of this scene... SO HELP ME I’m not even a huge environmentalist I just find it extremely rude of people to discard their trash in public areas, not to mention I’m sure it is extremely illegal to do this in Paris any where near the Eiffel Tower... If it isn’t I’d be surprised. Tikki cheers Mari on and we see this nice flower derby hat sketch. It looks really cute. I would wear it. There’s also this cute bow one with a ladybug leaving a trail. That’s adorable. I want that. There’s this cute music sheet inspired one and then a gift wrap one (which isn’t as great but that’s what happens when your burning out). There’s another cute flower one.  Seriously, all of these are so cute. I took screenshots of all of them. I also noticed the whole time she’s covering the feather hat she will eventually decide on during this. They want us to believe she draws it later but you can’t hide that from me. >:3 Oh, at least she’s piling her papers next to her. That implies she’ll probably clean it up. Anyway, Mari looks up and sees everyone’s favorite pigeon man acting weird before taking  a seat on bench and blowing his pigeon whistle to call all the pigeons so he can feed them. Mari finds it adorable. I find it cute he has one pigeon named Edgar and he can somehow tell him apart from all the others. It now leaves me longing for an episode where Edgar gets akumatized because Pigeon man turned into Rat man and he is so distraught.  Everyone’s favorite policemen walks in, fed up with having to deal with this insane weirdo, and tells him he can’t be feeding the pigeons. This is supposed to seem like a really a-hole move coming from the cop but I know why they don’t allow that? It’s the same thing as littering... it ruins this amazing famous landmark because pigeons are really pests. But fine, boo hard working police officers, I guess. They also make the policeman kind of an a-hole which is really stupid. As if the police don’t get enough bad credit from all the stupid people that worked along with them, now we have animations treating them all like jerks. I don’t mind if you aren’t a fan of the police force but some of them really do a lot of hard work and we are constantly shading all the good officers. Many of these officers risk dying for us on a daily basis and they are normally payed very little. It’s really annoying how horrid they made this man act when he’s a pretty good police man the rest of the show. I’m just not a fan... Apparently, Pigeon man has been banned from every park in Paris so why the heck do we see him in the park in so many following episodes? But he walks off all sad because he can’t feed his pigeons. Mari is like, “Almost feel sorry for that dude.” Tikki mentions how he’s basically a pigeon, he just needs feathers to complete the look. This is what launches Mari into her brilliant idea and we finally get to see that feather hat. BUT NOT BEFORE HAWKMOTH TAKES ADVANTAGE OF POOR PIGEON MAN!! BEHOLD, MR. PIGEON IS BORN! Hawkmoth also says, “What would Paris be without pigeons?” Um... Paris? Does he think the P in Paris stands for Pigeons? I think the best thing about Mr. Pigeon’s design is he made himself absolutely jacked. XD Chloe and Sabrina are here to put Operation Steal Marinette’s Design into action. I feel like Sabrina could just walk over there and compliment Mari on her designs since Mari has nothing against Sabrina and then Sabrina could sneakily steal one of her other designs. Marinette, for some reason, holds her sketchbook up to look at her work... Why? I don’t understand why? The only reason she would do this is if she wanted Chloe to steal her designs and knew Sabrina was right behind her to snap a picture. Speaking of which, I want you all to look at this design... 

Okay, memorize that. Remember that because something happens at the end of this episode that’s kind of frustrating.

Someone please make this a meme... So Sabrina brings the goods over and OMD DID CHLOE ALWAYS HAVE THIS AQUAMARINE BUTTON ON HER YELLOW JACKET? HAVE I BEEN BLIND FOR 3 SEASONS? Chloe plans to make her dad pay someone to make this hat instead of making it herself so... she cheats x2 I guess? They also never show us Mari picking up all her garbage but considering the next time she shows up there they aren’t there, I’ll assume she took them with her, very awkwardly. I feel like she could have at least ripped all these perfectly good pages out at her own home. Cut to Mari building the hat in her room. It’s also canon whenever she is focused on designing she sticks her tongue out. She also pricked herself with a needle and Tikki is running on two legs carrying an apple for some reason so she trips on a spool of thread. She knows she can fly, right? Regardless, they’re cute, okay? I love them. Mari has pretty much completed it but begins to freak out because she forgot to grab a pigeon feather so she actually just books it back to her “secret inspiration spot” to grab a feather. I personally think the way she freaks out about this is for once, normal and she does not make me worry for her sanity doing this so YAY.  I saw her run up to the pigeons and immediately thought she was gonna pluck a feather off one but nope, they conveniently disperse and she gets a feather that when she will put it on the hat, will look nothing like that feather and be far larger than it is now. So she rushes off and bumps into the police officer, she apologizes and it makes him smile. GOOD! THAT POOR GUY MUST WORK SO HARD TO THROW SUCH A FIT EARLIER!  Sadly, he immediately captured by pigeons. RIP. Now Mari is on a bus, waiting to get home and it isn’t moving so she grows real impatient. What’s weird is she says, “Come on! Can’t we go any faster?” Implying that the bus is moving when it isn’t at all. She exits the bus, barely managing to avoid stepping on a pigeon.  So now were looking at Nadja giving the news, stating the obvious once again and then it says Mr. Pigeon wants to give his own message so let’s see what he has to say. Whoever writes these fake news headlines is a genius and we don’t deserve them because all it is is pigeon noises. Basically Mr. Pigeon says that the pigeons rule Paris now. Mari runs off to transform into Ladybug. We get some really dynamic camera angles of her running around on rooftops. Man season 1 is beautiful. Bless it.  She looks up and discovers the  pigeons are forming a bunch of war airplanes for some reason. It’s honestly really funny. That’s when Chat shows up in the “draw me like one of your French girls” pose. He then promptly sneezes himself almost all the way off the roof. He says he’s allergic to feathers but... he had no feathers around him at the time? Ladybug is like, “That sucks, man.” He manages to stifle some of his sneezing so he can tell us all the park keepers went missing. So I guess that policeman was actually a park keeper despite the fact for the rest of the series they treat him like a cop? They suddenly start speaking really fast for some reason. Basically Ladybug is like, “I have a plan.” Cut to the best scene in history where Chat is wearing a police hat (so I guess it is the police) and whistling waiting to draw Mr. Pigeon in. He gets bored and starts doing the Gangman style dance and moonwalking and did I mention I love him? Ladybug tells him to knock it off and “act natural” and he’s like, “What do ya mean? I am acting natural.” I LOVE HIM. A pigeon sees him and thinks Chat is most definitely a cop. JUST KIDDING! The pigeon tells Mr. Pigeon that Ladybug and Chat are totally in the park. For some reason Ladybug thought Mr. Pigeon wouldn’t show up if they were just themselves? Did she forget how Hawkmoth and akumas work? For this whole episode I’m going to pretend it is totally possible all these pigeons can band together and carry this grown man around. Unless he also asked to be as light as feather along with being jacked? Cut back to Ladybug wondering where the heck Mr. Pigeon is and then getting surprised when a bunch of pigeons sweep Chat Noir off his feet. Bet she’s just mad they did it before her. So she runs up to try and save him before he goes into epileptic shock. I know his allergy isn’t treated that seriously but he would still be getting pretty sick... She chases them all the way to Mr. Pigeon’s roost, I guess, pretending that Chat totally isn’t just dying in that ball of pigeons. Then they just dump Chat off and YAY HE CAN BREATHE AGAIN, THANK GOODNESS!! He looks around confused which, again, I love that expression on Chat. It’s so freaking cute. He’s surrounded by an army of pigeons and Ladybug just casually walks over there like she didn’t ditch him to see if he would get ambushed... >.> Chat wonders where the heck Mr. Pigeon is and then we just seem him fly up behind them on an even less number of pigeons than before. Hawkmoth is like, “Get rid of those morons and pigeons will rule Paris.” Mr. Pigeon thinks that sounds like a sound plan so he blows his whistle so the pigeons just start circling them. Okay, 1. Ladybug says, “Call me crazy, but I feel like bird seed all of a sudden.” Like, that line was clearly supposed to come out of Chat’s mouth, right? 2. Chat goes, “Got any bright ideas, Bug?” Which, I like him calling her bug, but again, this sounds like this was supposed to be Ladybug’s line? Wow... season 2 and 3 have ruined me... Ladybug is like, “You’re the cat! Don’t you eat these things for breakfast?” Did... did you not hear him earlier? No, of course not. He’s gosh darn freaking allergic. So the pigeons drop a cage on them and OH NO, THEY’RE TRAPPED!! I have no idea how they managed to coordinate that so well to where none of the fellow pigeons got stuck in there... >.> So Mr. Pigeon starts threatening them by having his pigeons bang on the cage and oh wow, that’s terrifying... -.- But then he plans to have them poop on our heroes and yeah, that will be gross but it’s not like their gonna die. I mean, Chat might, due to his allergies, but Ladybug will be fine.  Mr. Pigeon has so much sass in his body language... Wow... So he said on the count of 3 they will fire and he has already said 1 and 2 by the time Ladybug tells Chat to cataclysm the cage (like how did Chat forget about that?) and he somehow didn’t say 3 already? The pigeons disperse when the cage falls and now the power couple is freaking spinning their weapons with confidence. Mr. Pigeon is horrified, as he should be because he’s clearly doomed. He seems like he’s gonna retreat but he goes, “Me? I’m not flying away! I’m just killing two birds with one stone!” Before doing an epic backwards leap off the building and into his pigeons. What an awful choice of words, Mr. Pigeon? If I were those pigeons I’d let you hit the ground after saying that. >.>  They catch him, then throw him into the air, then form him a throne for some reason? He sends some after the duo so they book it off the roof and into the building and those pigeons somehow destroy a metal freaking door? They also immediately let go of the door afterwards, like they think the pigeons won’t trying knocking it in again? OKAY NOW HE’S JUST SHOWING OFF BECAUSE HIS BIRDS FORMED A WHOLE PLANE FOR HIM TO RIDE ON! So yeah, they actually do give up and fly off. Okay? Ladybug and Chat race down the stairs of the building and Chat’s ring starts beeping so he freaks out about his identity getting revealed and she’s like, “Yeah, you wouldn’t want to let the cat out of the bag.” He’s like, “Ha. Ha.” It’s great. Man their dynamic used to be the bomb. QWQ Turns out they are in the mayor’s hotel because they run into him freaking out about his business. Chat is now making motions like he actually needs to use the bathroom because he’s so freaked out about his identity. Dude, chill... you have 3 pads left. Chat says he has an urgent need so the mayor sends him to the sweet and thinks he needs to use the bathroom. He says, “There’s paper in there... but perhaps you would prefer... a litter tray?” And then laughs like its the funniest joke ever. It’s not. I didn’t really like it when I first heard it and I still don’t like it. It makes me chuckle from how uncomfortable it makes me for Chat... >.> Chat takes it in good spirits though and is like, “Nah, but could ya get some Camembert. Cool, thanks.” As the elevator doors close... which makes me think... why the heck didn’t he just run into any of the doors on the stairs and change in any random empty room he found? >.> The mayor is confused and looks to Ladybug who just shrugs like she doesn’t know why he would possibly ever need food after detransforming. On the bright side, she looks cute shrugging. Chat runs in there and slams the door the waiter knocks on it again to ask how he likes him Camembert and then he slams it again then this guy knocks again, already holding a tray of Camembert which Chat takes from and  thanks him for before slamming the door again and detransforming.... How freaking fast is this man?  So Adrien gives Plagg the cheese after Plagg gets done complaining about being tired and just waits for Plagg to devour this wheel of cheese. He’s so supportive too like, “Eat up buddy. Ladybug needs help.” Also, why does every time Adrien moves look like he is posing? Cut to Ladybug exiting an elevator. She’s on one of the top floors and looks through the windows to watch the literal balls of pigeon flying in the air. She’s like, “Odd, pigeons are flying in the same direction.” But that isn’t odd? That’s how birds work... Plus, of course there gonna all fly towards the same spot where Mr. Pigeon is. That’s kind of obvious. I think what would be considered odd is if they weren’t doing this...  Chat somehow knew what floor Ladybug was on. He knows her too well, I guess. We also get another nickname from him, LB. Man, I wish he actually used these nowadays... QWQ  They follow the pigeons to the large building where Mr. Pigeon is keeping all the park rangers in this comically small cage. Also, there was like a million balls of the pigeons and there’s only like 5 rangers in this cage? Also, also, where is Mr. Pigeon getting these cages? Chat nearly sneezes again, Ladybug catches him. They see no pigeons in sight but Chat nearly sneezed so we freaking know he’s here and the fact we just saw the pigeons fly in there and not fly out confirms it. Chat wants to barge in there but Ladybug is like, “Too easy, mate. No way the universe would be this nice to us.” I mean, DUH. So they run off to make a new plan. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Pigeon was planning a trap for them. Luckily Ladybug and Chat found a window right above him. The plan is for Chat to open the window, Ladybug to reel him in, and for Chat to snag the bird call so Ladybug can destroy it. It majorly backfires because they both forgot Chat is allergic somehow and he sneezes away the element of surprise. It also scares Ladybug into messing up, somehow... 

Again, someone please make this a meme. They begin to attack and Mr. Pigeon starts using the pigeons as fists, for some reason? Doesn’t he want to protect these things? He throws Chat at the cage, probably giving the poor guy a minor concussion. Will Chat ever catch a break? He also throws back Ladybug but she doesn’t hit the cage, somehow.  The cops are like, “Save us, Ladybug.” Yes, because that helps her so much. She calls for lucky charm and gets a coin. Ladybug asks the same question she always does, “What the heck am I supposed to do with this?” She looks around and sees support railing and a vending machine. Your guess is as good as mine, guys.  Mr. Pigeon tries to attack but she dodges, slides under him, wraps her yo-yo around his ankle, jumps on the high up support railing, flips around it to wrap her yo-yo string around that, runs to the vending machine to stick her coin in, pulls out a bag of popcorn, and then just yeets it at fast recovering Chat Noir whom promptly destroys it with his baton so all the popcorn fly out and onto Mr. Pigeon so the pigeons run in to eat it. If you saw that coming, good for you. She then yanks on the yo-yo string and now he’s hanging from support railing. The bird call falls of his neck and Chat grabs it before sneezing so it goes flying. Ladybug lets go of the string which immediately lets go of Mr. Pigeon (which proves my point in the Animan one) and they all rush over to get it. Mr. Pigeon’s hand lands on it first, then Chat’s, then Ladybug’s. Ladybug then promptly grabs Chat’s hand and smashes it on top of Mr. Pigeon’s which breaks the whistle. I feel like she could have just pushed Chat’s hand out of the way and smacked Mr. Pigeon’s hand down on it but whatever...  Chat rubs his head because it hurts, as it should... Ladybug just keeps sort of screwing Chat over in this episode. XD Mr. Pigeon faints. Ladybug captures the akuma and everything goes back to normal. My question is... how did she get the coin out of the vending machine so fast? What the- HOW? Mr. Pigeon turns back into Pigeon man as Ladybug and Chat Noir pound it. Hawkmoth curses pigeons and Ladybug (is Chat chopped liver or something). I guess he has a right to be a little upset this time. He actually told his akumatized victim to do stuff this time.  Cut to Mari back at her place, finally finishing her hat. Admit it, you forgot about the hat. I sure did. Alya tries calling Mari but she ain’t answering. Juleka and Rose have a steampunk derby hat which does look like it was just slapped together. There’s literally no other contestants besides Chloe and Sabrina and Kim and Max (which btw, they have a lovely little flower hat. It looks so nice). Shocker....-.- Unsurprisingly, Nathalie showed up with Gabe on a tablet. The principal asks where the heck Gabe is and then she pulls out her tablet she had behind her back for some reason. I know its to “reveal” this but... was Gabe just looking at her butt this whole time or was she holding the screen outwards so all he could see was people’s legs? Gabe asks Adrien to lead Nathalie around, because she can’t navigate this small courtyard by herself, are ya crazy? They look at Juleka and Rose’s hat while Mari finally rushes onto scene with her hat.  Alya isn’t too thrilled because Marinette’s hat looks exactly like Chloe’s hat. Mari is like, “WHAT? THE GIRL THAT HAS BEEN BULLYING ME FOR YEARS AND TEASED ME ABOUT THIS CONTEST JUST EARLIER TODAY AND KEEPS COMPETING FOR AFFECTION FROM THE GUY I LIKE DECIDED TO SABOTAGE ME? *LE GASP*” Why is she even freaking surprised? Chloe begins to tell Gabe who she is, as if he doesn’t know because this is his son’s childhood friend. Alya asks if she should take care of it but Mari is like, “No, I got it.” And let’s take a second to pause before we get to this massively stupid climax... Mari’s sketch wasn’t colored... so how did Chloe get the exact colors down to a t? Seriously, nothing is different. I get assuming most of it will be black but even the lining is gold? Whoever Andre payed to make this for his daughter must have had some seriously good insight. >.>  Okay, back to the stupid climax. Gabe looks’s at Mari’s and is like, “Hey, that’s the same as Chloe’s.” Chloe starts playing victim. Mari is like, “Yo, quite your crying. I can prove this thing is mine.” And how does she do this... Are you ready for this? On the hat ribbon is Mari’s name upside down. Scroll back up to that sketch, try looking at it upside down... It doesn’t freaking look like Mari’s name at all. It looks like a bunch of squiggles... Even if it did work, HOW THE HECK DOES SOMEONE NOT NOTICE THIS FORMS OBVIOUS LETTERS? I’m starting to think Andre payed Mari to make this hat... So Mari wins even though he never saw Kim and Max’s hat... I call that unfair. But Mari is excited. Adrien grabs her hands holding the hat and is like, “Awesome job, Mari.” She blushes. Gabe says Adrien will be wearing this hat in their next advertising campaign, though the principal said in the beginning it would be Adrien’s next photoshoot? Nonetheless, this doesn’t have until near the very end of season 2..? Adrien tries putting on the hat but ends up sneezing, which cuts off the romantic music nicely. Mari is confused and Adrien says he’s allergic to feathers. She’s like, “hmm... what an odd coinc-” JUST KIDDING! She barely bats and eye and is just happy and blesses him. Adrien thanks her before walking off to die. Then we get my personal favorite endcard. 

Everything about this endcard is perfect. You can’t change my mind. Anyway, that’s the end. Hope you had fun!

[miraculouspaon]

MLB and Character Development

So I’ve been seeing a lot of discussion lately on character development in MLB, mostly regarding Chloe, and honestly I don’t really want to argue with people directly about whether she is or isn’t redeemable, what it says about a person who likes or dislikes her character, etc, etc, etc. I think she has potential, other people don’t, that’s fine as long as you don’t go after people who have different opinions obviously.

But! I do want to respond to one particular criticism I’ve seen, which is basically “We’ve seen 26 episodes and she’s barely changed at all so why should she in the future?” And on that point I want to say that we haven’t had 26 episodes so much as we’ve had one episode 26 times. With a small handful of exceptions, Season One episodes are aggressively formulaic. Like, honest to God MLB might be the most formulaic show I’ve seen since Blue’s Clues. Which doesn’t have to be a bad thing! But it does mean that character arcs don’t really happen. Yes, Chloe had very little development in S1. This is also true of every single other character. Marinette and Adrien, the main characters, barely have an arc, mostly contained entirely within Origins, and nobody else really has one at all.

This is not uncommon for the first season of a TV show, especially for a bully character. Think of Cordelia Chase from Buffy or Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls. Both bullies on shows that were extremely monster-of-the-week in their first seasons. No hint of the backgrounds or inner lives that explained their behavior, no indication that they might ever stop being one-dimensional petty secondary villains. But when their respective shows became more arc-focused, when they started building on themselves, those characters were fleshed out along with everyone else. They earned their redemptions and became characters worth caring about.

Miraculous Ladybug is getting arcs starting in Season 2. Fingers crossed, this means characters arcs as well as plot arcs. There is so much room for development across the board, for all characters, and I’m hopeful that a lot of it gets realized. I want to see Chloe learn from her mistakes and outgrow her childish and spoiled behavior, yes. I also want to see Marinette’s treatment of Adrien mature into something more than just (borderline stalkerish) crippling worship, I want to see DJ Wifi get more than just pair-the-spares treatment, I want to see Gabriel’s behavior change now that he’s figured out his son is Chat Noir, and on and on and on. None of these things really got to go anywhere in Season One, but I don’t think that means those characters and dynamics are set in stone forever.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Found some notes in an old sketchbook from the MLB S1 hiatus year of what I thought/kinda wanted to happen in S2 and beyond and made myself sad. I had such high hopes and some fun ideas...but no, this is the timeline with That Guys vendetta against Good Writing (and Chloe) instead of fun superhero team dynamics.

I had an idea I thought was fun where each member of the Core 5 team learned one of their teammates identities, which lead to fun shenanigans.

Like, Marinette knowing Alya is Rena Rouge bc she picked her

Alya figures out Adrien is Chat Noir while putting her investigative skills to the test trying to track down Hawkmoth and scoping out Gabriel as a potential suspect

Adrien picks Nino to use the Turtle

Nino actually has Chloe reveal her identity to him out of necessity bc they were caught in a situation during an akuma attack where they would have been seriously injured (and scribbles a note about Chloe possibly getting the Bee on accident, so I got one thing right from cannon I guess), and that leads to a weird sort of friendship developing between the two

And Chloe accidentally find out that Marinette is Ladybug fairly early in the season and that kick-starts her road to redemption

Like, am I alone in thinking this would have been so much more interesting than cannon and the status-quo-yo?

D:KUFGDSK:HKdfsjhds

YES

Honestly I need to write more Chloé and Nino friendship because they're the closest to Adrien and I haven't had a chance to yet.

But like!

Various shenanigans on who knows who? Potential Team Dynamic???

GOD the hiatus era came up with so much cooler ideas.