I can't find it (although chances are I never posted it :/), but to this day I think about the post where I share possibility of past akuma victims just, remembering everything. All of them remember.
All. Of. Them.
And, it just sets off this series of support systems.
Individual and group therapy is something that is set up for those who need it.
August's mom starts a forum after her son starts remembering his time as an akuma, and it leads to more parents speaking up about their children, very young children, having nightmares and needing to sleep with their parents or older siblings because their memories as an akuma is hitting them hard.
People who work call off in order to process what's going on.
School gets cancelled for a brief period (like maybe a week or two) of time, some students stay home for longer.
Friends support each other whenever the memories get too intense.
We see so much support and love between everyone who remembers and is remembering...
...but then we have Adrien.
Adrien who can't bring himself to look for support. Adrien who feels like he shouldn't get help.
Everyone who's been akumatized is remembering what they did, what happened, and people can back up what's happened with clear evidence (articles, blogs/vlogs, clips from past livestreams or news reports, etc.) but he doesn't have that.
Chat Blanc's timeline is gone and Ephemeral's was reversed. There is no existing evidence that he's been akumatized. No one remembers he was akumatized, except for Marinette.
Marinette, who's Ladybug.
Ladybug, who's kept things from him. His akumatization, the fact she must of planned on having him reveal his identity just to not tell him hers (and she must of planned on having Viperion in on it, too, which makes it worse).
The girl he no longer knows if he can trust.
He doesn't have anyone who can support him. He doesn't want to say anything in case people thing he's making it all up.
After all, can he prove Chat Noir got akumatized, killed everyone in Paris, maybe even France, split the moon in half and almost killed Ladybug again? Could he prove he was Ephemeral and helped his father win (and God, if that isn't just another peachy thing to find out)? That Ladybug lost her Miraculous because he couldn't break out of his father's control?
He's remembering killing the people he loves and finding his mother (fuck, his mom is under his house) and not being able to resist the akuma and the world ending and being alone surrounded by water and just the continuous thought of "I killed them...it's all my fault..."
He's alone, moreso than he normally is. He shows to school and photoshoots looking dead. He slowly stops talking to his friends, eventually stops showing up to school (Nathalie informing them that he's unwell, since that's what he told her) and eventually leaving Paris to find someone he can talk to because his memories won't leave him alone.
No one knows where he went. No one knows where Chat Noir went. Both of them just, vanished. No one knows why. They can't come up with a reason for him to run.
Nino thinks he's runaway after finally having had enough of how Gabriel treats him, and he took advantage of everyone remembering their akumatizations to leave.
Lila thinks he didn't run away and instead was shipped off to who knows where in case Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Monarch sends out an akuma and he he can target past victims who have this new found guilt, she'd just hate it if she got turned back into Volpina or Chameleon and target him :(
Some people think Chat Noir is running away from his responsibilities. Some think he ran away to get real training, maybe an extra weapon in case he needs it.
Meanwhile, Marinette is having a crisis, because if everyone is remembering what happened while they were akumatized....but the time line got erased. Chat Noir couldn't possibly... he'd find a way to leave his Miraculous with her, right? Maybe he wanted to prove he could still be a reliable hero? Maybe she's looking too deep into it (look deeper, honey, you hit the nail on the head, keep hitting it and be a better partner).
I honestly don't know where Adrien would go, part of me wants to say London, because if he could vent to anyone who might possibly believe him, it could be to Felix. Part of me wants him to literally still be in Paris/France, just with a new found ability to wield shadows and be able to hide in them without being noticed. And yet another part of me wants him to run to an entire different continent and leave everything behind.
Just, it's one of the worst ways he can find out what secrets are/were kept from him, and he's not able to say anything because:
He can't know anybody's secret ID, despite it being important he does in case he has to get help on the off chance Ladybug can't (she's captured, she's affected by the akuma's powers, etc.). Look what happened when he found out who Ladybug was. Death on the one hand and his father winning on the other.
Ladybug likely had to go through so much in order to defeat Chat Blanc, why would she want to hear his POV about it? The damage was reversed. He should be happy everyone is still alive alive again after he killed them.
Ladybug is the Guardian, of course she had to know his secret identity. Right? Maybe if she didn't hand out the miraculous, Fu would have and he'd know everyone's secret ID. But she's the Guardian now, so it has to be important for her to know who holds what Miraculous.
He should have known his father was the villain this whole time. Wow, you lived with the villain and didn't suspect him at all? You could have saved time by taking them time to look further into things, but no.
He got akumatized twice and the second time he just handed his miraculous over. It doesn't matter that he wasn't in control, maybe this is a sign he doesn't deserve a miraculous, let alone one of the two most powerful.
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The thing when people loathe Essek is like. Look. I come to you as an enthusiastic hobbyist hater. There are so many things I dislike, and I talk about many of those dislikes. I would never stand in the way of you hating a fictional character.
But he is also absolutely inextricable from the story of the Mighty Nein. He is that great D&D experience, the intended-to-be-minor NPC about whom the players said "nope, we're adopting them." You cannot understand the full arc of most of the rest of the party without understanding how they responded to Essek. You can hate Essek...but I don't think you can like the Mighty Nein without at least tolerating him. You can't blame this on annoying fans - and there are, to be clear, very annoying Essek fans (notably those who do not understand the premise of an NPC vs a PC), but in his defense, I can name a number of other CR characters I like very much who have deeply irritating fans. I think it's best we all keep in mind that we are probably the deeply irritating fan of someone's favorite character.
I am also a passionate opponent of "well, as long as the cast is having fun" as a reason to dismiss someone's dislike, as readers of this blog are well aware, but it's also impossible to argue that the cast had anything but immense fondness for Essek, and that, while he is an NPC, and those implications will continue to exist, he is a character they love who is still out there in Exandria and who will be part of Critical Role in the same way that other beloved NPCs like Kima, Allura, and Gilmore are. And what you choose to do with that knowledge is up to you, but in the end...the path of the hater does require asking yourself honestly if you'll be happy sticking around, when this will always be the reality.
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of all things to come out of fandom, dw fans trying to claim the hatred of Jodie that is purely misogynistic (as it’s only there because she’s a woman, it has nothing to do with her as a person, it’s literally the definition of misogyny) in No way influenced opinions on the era is the most dangerously naïve and absurd.
Even when nmd’s (read: MISOGYNSTS. It’s a synonym here.) deliberately conducted review bombing campaigns to make her episodes tank on polls with the express aim of making it seem like everybody hated the episodes, and so new people who might think about watching it will think twice and not do it bc look how shit the ratings are! And therefore drive the general viewer ratings of her episodes down, making it seem like hiring women is not a viable business choice in the future.
Just because you don’t recognise the existence of a long game, doesn’t mean they didn’t.
Even when the next dude they hire is a damn White Man you think this is in no way routed in the misogynists deliberately hijacking fan spaces with the express and open intent of getting their precious white men back?
Yeah. Sure.
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