#miraculous ladybug critical

[ilikekidsshows]

The Totally Spies-ification of Adrien

Okay, it's been long enough that I can actually discuss how Adrien's slavery is depicted in the show without anger-fueled exaggerations and hyperbole. I want to discuss how Miraculous treats Adrien's slavery very flippantly and how it is, like everything in this show post-retool, all about Marinette. The show has a lot of stuff that hints that the writers intend for Adrien to be viewed a very certain way. I believe the writers made Adrien a slave for Marinette’s benefit and I will explain how I came to this conclusion.

I’ve joked before about how Astruc has worked on Totally Spies, “one of the kinkiest cartoons ever made”. I’d like to tackle this idea and how it relates to Miraculous more seriously. I’d like to tackle the topic of titillation and how it relates to how this show approaches slavery with such flippancy. My claim is that Adrien being a slave is not meant to be horrifying, which is why the story doesn't treat it as such; it's meant to be titillating.

I usually don't use Read Mores, since they can lead to broken links later, but this is really long. Strap in, folks.

Titillation for the context of this analysis means “content with the intention to excite romantically or sexually”, basically it’s about “kinky” stuff. The purpose of talking about sexuality in relation to Miraculous is not to paint the writers as some kind of fiends, but to present the fact that many teenagers are curious about romance and sex and will think about sex unprompted. This means titillating content in cartoons doesn’t even need to be related to sex to be titillating. And Astruc has a history of putting titillating stuff in his work, with Totally Spies being a very notable example of how you can include non-sexual titillating content in a kids’ show.

It all comes down to expected audience reactions. Adrien is meant to be sexy. I don’t mean that in a “the writers think this is sexy” way, but a “the writers think the projected audience of straight teenage girls will think this is sexy” way. He gets put into bondage three times in ‘Copycat’, ‘Anti-Bug’ and ‘Reverser’ and all three times the camera seems to like to show him off. He is meant to be an object of attraction for the audience. The people criticizing this show have been pointing out how Ladybug's costume accentuates her butt for years, but this is not something that occurs with just Ladybug. When he isn't posing for the viewers, Cat Noir gets whacked around by Akuma’s a lot, but a lot of the time it ends with him in a prone position that is also titillating, in ‘Pixelator’ it goes as far as having his butt jut out. However, the idea that Cat Noir is the one who gets hit when an Akuma needs to show off how dangerous they are is also part of the power dynamic where Marinette or Ladybug gets to show off, so it’s not purely for titillation, which is why other examples, like ‘Stormy Weather’ are more comedic.

It’s likely that Adrien-as-Adrien doesn’t get to participate in the show’s slapstick much, since that aspect of the character is presented as the perfect beauty, a role usually reserved for female characters who only ever get a little bit flustered or banged up to make sure they keep looking attractive. Marinette screams "waack" and runs face first into a wall in the same episode where the silliest thing Adrien gets to do is sneeze (Mr Pigeon). Adrien is meant to be attractive, sexy, titillating, in different ways in his different forms. As Cat Noir he is more active and more sexy, as Adrien he’s more passive and pretty, much like how female love interests can fall into these categories. It’s the Betty and Veronica dichotomy; in the Archie franchise Betty and Veronica are shown as the wholesome and sexy romance options and the reason the writers go out of their way not to resolve the love triangle is to keep the appeal of these both options going. People’s tastes differ, so it would alienate some audiences to pick one over the other. With Miraculous they solved the problem by having the two romance options be the different identities of a single character.

Frankly, as of the season five finale, Adrien is approaching “sexy lamp” levels of replicating sexist ways of writing a female character but just changing the gender. What else do you call him lying on the floor in despair while his love interest gets his superpowers and uses them to beat up his abusive father, while somehow being perfectly fine and happily kissing Marinette later after said father is dead and gone? Adrien’s trauma is debilitating when it serves the writers’ purposes, but stops being a problem as soon as they need him to smile and look pretty. The main reason Adrien’s trauma is so inconsistent is so that he can act as Marinette’s trophy so that Marinette has somebody to kiss in the final shot. If Adrien was despairing about not being good enough for her, or grossly crying about being an orphan, Marinette wouldn’t have a fun time kissing him. And if Marinette isn’t having fun, the members of the audience projecting onto her aren’t having fun either.

Speaking of how Adrien’s depiction relates to Marinette, here comes the controversial part of this post: while Marinette is not depicted as a literal slave owner in-story, narratively, she is very much treated as Adrien's owner from a meta perspective. We, the viewers, are meant to see Adrien as Marinette's property, and the twist of Adrien being a part of a slave race in a dynamic where Marinette holds all the cards is meant to be a good thing. We have been primed to view everything about Adrien to actually be about Marinette, because Marinette is the center of the universe of Miraculous and Adrien belongs to her because he’s the main character’s love interest. Adrien being revealed to be a slave that Marinette could control but then chooses to “merely” manipulate is meant to be glorifying to Marinette and titillating to the viewer. I will elaborate.

Marinette has been incredibly possessive of Adrien since day one and she is only occasionally depicted as being in the wrong about this, when she goes too far by the show’s standards. She stalks Lila and Adrien whenever she sees them hanging out together and she’s unreasonably jealous of Kagami. The only time she is depicted as being in the wrong is not when she's sniffing Adrien's pillow after breaking into his room, but when she actually bullies Kagami out of jealousy, and even that is depicted as more of an unfortunate misunderstanding than Marinette actively doing something wrong. Marinette is more sympathetic towards Kagami when she finds out she and Adrien aren't as close as she thought, that Kagami’s pursuit of Adrien is more hopeless than hers. Basically, Marinette is only in the wrong because Kagami isn't a threat, not because she was doing anything wrong by bullying her to defend her “territory”.

This gets flipped near the end of the season, though. When Adrien and Kagami do start dating, it's depicted as this big tragedy even more so than Master Fu losing his memories. Master Fu going missing is an afterthought, while Adrien choosing someone else over Marinette is the big “darkest hour” moment of the season three mid-finale, the cliffhanger moment of her crying in Luka’s arms while all hope is lost. Marinette isn’t directly crying about this, she is crying from “all the pressure”, but Marinette breaking down happens immediately after a scene of Kagami leaning in to kiss Adrien that has a somber dirge playing in the background. The first part of the finale has everything going wrong at the end; Master Fu is missing, Chloé gets willingly Akumatized, Marinette breaks down, and Kagami leans in to kiss Adrien. These scenes being put closely together is telling us that these are all bad things to happen.

Adrien ending up with Marinette is a given, but it's also taken for granted. Every girl with an interest in Adrien is depicted as an antagonist, while Marinette can do whatever she wants in pursuit of Adrien and will still be morally correct. Chloé and Lila, even Kagami to a degree, are villainized for their attraction to Adrien in a way Nathaniel, Luka or Zoé are not with their attraction to Marinette. Chloé and Lila are full-blown villains while Luka and Zoé are some of the most selfless members of the cast. Kagami is aggressive and socially awkward in a way that is used to justify Marinette's initial distrust and dislike of her (in ‘Ikari Gozen’ Alya voices her pity towards Marinette for having to spend time with her) while Nathaniel is just the pitiful bullied loner who’s still a liked member of the class friend group. Girls who want Adrien are bad for trespassing on Marinette’s territory and trying to “steal” something that “belongs” to Marinette.

The writers thinking Adrien belongs to Marinette is also not just subtext. Later in season five, when Marinette and Adrien finally start dating, Marinette even outright states that Adrien “kinda does a little” belong to her when she’s scared that Zoé has a crush on him. The fumbling of the line means that the writers are aware of how toxic it is to consider your partner your property, but they want to include that sentiment anyway, because that’s how they view the situation. Marinette’s boyfriend is her property and other people can’t even look at her property. ‘Emotion’ continues on this increased possessiveness by having the entire Marinette plot happen because she can’t conceive Adrien keeping things from her, because he isn’t allowed privacy from her while Marinette lying to Adrien (or Cat Noir) is a show staple.

This same attitude of Adrien not being allowed to have romantic options outside of Marinette has also been in the fandom for years. Every time a new female character was introduced, there was a worry that she’d “try to steal Adrien from Marinette”. Marinette and Adrien are endgame, the writers know this and the fandom knows this. The characters don't know this, but it doesn't matter because Adrien was already seen as Marinette's (future) boyfriend even back in season one when he barely knew her. And this attitude the writers and audience have is extended to the characters more and more as the show goes on, as almost every single character becomes an Adrinette shipper in support of Marinette in season five, while no one thinks to ask Adrien what he thinks about this. Only once, in ‘Desperada’ did Alya suggest that Adrien could make his own choice on who to date, but it was implied the choice should be Marinette specifically (Marinette smiles at this, while Kagami frowns). The cast is lucky the writers have decided Adrien already is Marinette's, or he’d be really uncomfortable.

Season five episode ‘Pretension’ goes as far with this as having Marinette basically ask Gabriel for permission to be with Adrien, convinced that she and Adrien can be together with no problems if she can just get him to approve of her. And then Gabriel tells her he’s promised Adrien to Kagami. You know, like a piece of property women were treated as before women were allowed to live without a man to control them. The finale then ultimately does have Gabriel agree to hand Adrien over to Marinette by dying and leaving her in charge of Adrien. Just because she uses the privilege to do some things for Adrien’s benefit doesn’t make what happened any less of a patriarchal transaction. In fact, the writers wrote it that way on purpose, with the knight and princess parallels they set up between Marinette and Adrien earlier in the show being something they are prominently proud of (the “reverse fairytale” as they put it). Adrien is the princess the dashing hero Marinette gets to earn with her feats of bravery; he’s handed to her like a piece of property and Marinette is too happy with her acquisition to even be outraged on Adrien’s behalf. And Adrien wasn’t even allowed to know about any of this, instead it gets handled solely between Marinette and Gabriel, like his opinion on the matter didn’t even matter. And why would his opinion matter, since he already is ready to promise himself to Marinette, even as the writers deny him the agency to actually make such a promise.

The goal of making it obvious that Adrien is cool with being objectified like this is probably why they make Adrien so obsessed with Marinette in season five, constantly repeating her name to himself and saying stuff like: “I can’t stop thinking about you” in ‘Pretension’. They need to drive it home to the audience exactly how okay Adrien is with everyone forcing him to be with Marinette. After all, you can’t force the willing. As of ‘Confrontation’, Adrien’s official goals for the future are: “I love Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” I guess, from the perspective of the writers, the childhood dream of wanting to be what his parents wanted from ‘Wishmaker’ wasn’t sad because of Adrien’s lack of agency; it was sad because he wasn’t forsaking all of his personal pursuits for Marinette specifically. As far as the writers are concerned, Adrien should only care about Marinette and nothing else.

This same entitlement is also present in Ladybug and Cat Noir's relationship. Every time Cat Noir is upset with Ladybug, like in Frozer, Glaciator, Syren, The New York Special or even Kuro Neko, they never talk about what caused it. This is especially blatant in cases where Ladybug has wronged Cat Noir personally, like Kuro Neko or the NY Special, where she never has to face up to what she did wrong because Cat Noir comes back because she “needs him”.  Cat Noir will always come back to her without her having to do anything because she is the main character and she says she needs him. He exists for her and her needs. He exists for her; it’s just another way he’s hers.

Speaking of how Adrien is treated affects Marinette, even Adrien’s trauma actually belongs to her in the writing.  I pointed out earlier that Adrien’s trauma shows up when the writers need to put him out of commission, but disappears as soon as he needs to be Marinette’s trophy, but it goes further than just inconsistency. The early seasons spend several episodes on how Adrien is being locked up by his father and unable to hang out with his friends and, between him and Marinette, Marinette is the one shown to be more upset and hurt by this. They don’t do this in every episode, as ‘The Bubbler’ actually does a phenomenal job of making Adrien’s upset actually about him, but the big point in ‘Glaciator’ is that Marinette is so upset that she can’t see Adrien that she accidentally leaves Cat Noir on read so he’s upset about that. Adrien is only upset because he didn’t get attention from Marinette, while Adrien’s literal abuse at the hands of his father is only important because it makes Marinette upset. Even Adrien himself gets in on this action in ‘Conformation’ when the writers go as far as having Adrien chastise himself of not being more worthy of Marinette’s love when his dad is once again busy ruining his life. Even Adrien himself makes his abuse about Marinette; him being abused is bad because it’s inconveniencing Marinette and inconveniencing Marinette makes him less worthy of her.

‘Cat Blanc’ is possibly the worst offender of all, though. This episode should be all about how Adrien is abused by Gabriel, culminating with Gabriel turning him into a monster that destroys the world. And yet, what is the episode actually about? It’s about Marinette. The worst thing that could happen to Adrien is about Marinette. Only Marinette gets to remember or even know about the possibility of Cat Noir getting Akumatized and only Marinette is traumatized by it happening. After all that the writers later dare to use this event that didn’t actually happen anymore, that Adrien doesn’t know about, to justify him giving his powers to Marinette, because he’s “scared of getting Akumatized” when something like that has never happened as far as he knows. But the writers had him reason this way anyway, because apparently the culmination of Marinette’s character development in the show means taking Adrien’s power as her own and then failing to win even with that at her disposal.

Another note about ‘The Bubbler’ that has to be pointed out is that it’s also the first example of Marinette being presented as good for Adrien simply because she treats him better than Gabriel. The final scene of Marinette giving Adrien his best birthday present yet and letting him think it comes from Gabriel is done to show how selfless Marinette is by letting Adrien keep thinking good things about his abuser. This idea that Marinette is morally good simply because she’s better than pond scum Gabriel is also present in the season five finale, where Marinette manipulates, gaslights and keeps important information from her abused slave boyfriend. Marinette is presented as being in the right because at least she didn’t literally control him with a magical geas like Gabriel did and gave him the object with which to do so (while notably not telling him what it does). Marinette will do the bare minimum of not taking literal ownership of Adrien and we’re meant to see her as a paragon of goodness for it, while she still has no respect for Adrien’s autonomy and hasn’t had any since the show started.

The way the Sentimonster “reveal” is handled shows this utter lack of respect for Adrien’s autonomy that the writers, and Marinette by extension, have. The reveal is not for Adrien, but for Marinette, just like every other piece of Adrien has been made to be about Marinette. Marinette gets to know and she gets to decide if Adrien gets to know, and she decides “no”. She will manipulate him and lie to him to keep him happy for herself, she will keep important information about him to herself that he might never find out if anything happens to her, because Adrien is hers and no one else’s and she has the right to make that decision because the world revolves around her because the world of Miraculous was created to be her playground. “Adrien” is just a toy on that playground for Marinette to play with as the writers see fit.

Now we’re coming back to Adrien’s role as the sexy, titillating love interest character that I talked about at the start of this essay. If Marinette granting Adrien the bare minimum of freedoms as a slave while manipulating him “for his own good” is meant to be a good thing, why is Adrien even a slave? Well, outside of the writers wanting to add a plot twist that doesn’t come with any messy plot they’d have to write about characters other than Marinette, Adrien being a slave is also meant to be titillating. What really is magical super slavery than very, very off the wall bondage and power play stuff? The idea that Marinette could rob her love interest of his free will with ease but won’t because she cares about him so much is very empowering in two different ways. It gives Marinette all the power in the relationship and it makes her out to be such a good person that even having ultimate power over another person won’t corrupt her. Adding to that, we have Adrien’s people pleaser abuse victim personality, which makes him fawn over the people he loves. If Marinette ever wanted to have control over Adrien, Adrien would give it to her of his own volition, no need for magical super slavery or unbreakable geases.

As I stated earlier, Marinette is meant to be the point of view main character the audience of teen girls projects themselves onto. So, really, Adrien’s slavery and abuse responses are all about that fantasy of having a cute boy you have all the power over but not needing to use it because the boy is so nice and devoted to you anyway. Adrien really is “perfect”, the perfect object of attraction, a being who technically has free will but whose free will you never have to take into account because he’s been designed and trained to value other people’s wants and needs over his own.

Marinette doesn't literally own Adrien within the story, but the writers make it very clear that they think she should. In fact, in all ways except the literal, she already does.

#ml critical #ml writing critical #miraculous ladybug critical #ml meta #ml salt #zagulous fandom #adrien agreste #just like with my 'adrien gets disrespected' post none of these things would be THAT bad by themselves #but it's this much stuff all at once

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

Holy shit Viv is literally female Thomas Asstruck

#hazbin hotel negativity #hazbin hotel negative #helluva boss negative #helluva boss negativity #spindlehorse negative #spindlehorse negativity #vivziepop negative #vivziepop negativity #miraculous ladybug negative #miraculous ladybug negativity #thomas astruc negative #thomas astruc negativity #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel critique #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop critique #spindlehorse critical #spindlehorse criticism #spindlehorse critique #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculous ladybug critique #miraculous ladybug criticism #thomas astruc critique #thomas astruc critical #thomas astruc criticism

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

When other creator have horrible character who is an abuser and bigot. They act more professional and give their thought much more better. Meanwhile Vivziepop and thomas astruc caused a lot fight on social media

This. These people need to take time to explain themselves in a mature manner.

#helluva boss #vivziepop critical #helluva boss critical #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop #helluva boss criticism #anti-vivziepop #helluva boss critique #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel critical #anti thomas astruc #thomas astruc #thomas astruc salt #anti-mlp #miraculous ladybug #anti miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug critical

[starlight-bread-blog]

When a there is an outside factor building up to romantic leads not ending up together, while also wrecking the pacing of the ship...

And the red herring's being toxic but the writers just hope you pick up on the vibe without holding anyone accountable...

Is when it's time to check your bias.

#adrigami #pro zutara #zutara #anti adrienette #anti ladynoir #anti love square #miraculous critical #ml criticism #anti mlb #anti ml #mlb critical #ml critical #mlb salt #miraculous ladybug critical #anti miraculous ladybug #anti starco #pro tomstar #tomstar #tom x star #anti miraculous #miraculous ladybug salt #star vs critical #anti svtfoe #svtfoe critical #svtfoe salt #anti bryke #anti kataang #anti thomas astruc #atla critical #zutara was robbed

[dragynkeep]

Ever since I stopped watching RWBY I started watching a kids cartoon called Miraculous Ladybug to detox myself but over the course of like 8 years Miraculous slowly but surely started taking on more and more RWBY traits (the racism, the sexism, the abuse apologisim, the drawn out story arcs, the toxic love stories, the writer embodying most of those traits). Now it's even started developing its own stan side of fanatics that hate all criticism and the worst part is that most fans are in the camp of "oh, it will get good next season" and I just want to scream at those people "IT WILL NEVER GET GOOD BECAUSE I'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE!!!"

Like it was bad enough to see one show I like get steadily worse and worse over several years, but twice?

I have never watched Miraculous Ladybug, especially after the creator's Islamaphobia was shown, but damn I feel for you anon.

I was like that when BNHA suddenly started to try tackling the mutant quirk racism and I was like

#miraculous ladybug critical #rwby #rwde #answered #luke.txt #also do not come at me trying to defend the creator with the #he just wants all religions to be private!! #that's still racist when marginalised religions can't be public without the fear of violence and even murder #so shut it

[virtuouswhitehatorganization]

Both White And Black Hat Would Agree On One Thing: Gabriel Can Go Suck It

Black and White Hat wouldn’t agree on everything but even they wouldn’t like what happened at the end of Miraculous. Mostly because Black Hat would think he went pussy at the end and turned face. Also White Hat would roll his eyes because Gabriel was certainly not the good father he thinks he was and again not trying to reveal himself as the villain to his son was cowardly. In the end, both wouldn’t be happy how things turned out. 

Not to mention the fact that the show redeems him while not doing anything for Chloe who got her redemption arc shut down due to the creator being petty and childish as hell. And worst of all this is only the first arc, which means they dragged this out so long with mediocre pay off. It make you wonder how many more arcs they are going to go through and it will be a nothing burger. Austic is leaving, but I don’t really have anymore hope for this waste potential of a show. 

#mlp #miraculous ladybug #mlp spoilers #miraculous ladybug spoilers #crossover #villainous #villanos #mlp criticism #mlp critical #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculous ladybug criticism #outside fandom criticism

[brickercupmasterx3]

I'm not going to lie but the whole Ladybug is a huge mess, I can't deal with Mari...Her friends are honestly to stupid to realize that she WANTS to forget about Adrien but I feel like thet are forcing her to like him. Idk..I guess I'm fed up with the series thst I can't stand it anymore...It makes me sad really.

Only more the reason why I quit the show, anon. I cannot and will not stand for mistreatment of Mari. I'm actually SUPER CLOSE to rewriting ML to fit my own canon & standards. One where Adrien will actually face consequences for his actions, because it's downright ridiculous that he can get away with absolutely everything, whereas Marinette faces all the backlash & consequences as if she doesn't already go through enough! Marinette has too many responsibilities! LET THE POOR GIRL BE HAPPY FOR ONCE, DAMN IT! So yeah... I hate canon and I can't even be bothered to follow along with it anymore. Luka & Kagami supporting Adrienette? Eww... No! THAT'S THE LAST THING SHE NEEDS! Those two can't possibly be this dumb! Kagami broke up with Adrien for a reason, so why would she push Mari forward to get with her ex? She would be so much smarter than that. And Luka? >_> I love this boy to bits and pieces, but please... he's also so much smarter than this. He needs to protect the girl he loves and see that Mari clearly is uncomfortable with "Adrienette". He's made her feel safe for so long, that she needs that safe space again... Away from Adrien, and just with him. Also what’s with the whole Kagami & Lila suddenly being bffs thing that I heard about? Umm... No. I do not approve of that. I know I'm extremely biased and I will NOT apologize for it. I do plan to bring back some ML content soon, but I won't make promises as to when.

#anonymous #Miraculous Ladybug #ML #Anti ML canon #Anti Miraculous Ladybug Canon #ML critical #Miraculous Ladybug critical #anti adrienette #anti love square #LUKANETTE IS STILL THE BEST SHIP!

[eldritchmusing]

Okay, to dive right into it, there are some characters who I am excluding because, for the most part, I'm not sure what cultural things I would be able to talk about, so just letting everyone know: I will not be talking about the Agreste family, the Fathom family, the Bourgeois family, the Lavillant family, and the Raincomprix family.

Like I have problems with how the characters are written, don't get me wrong, but none of them have particular cultural things that I want to talk about. I feel like the Bourgeois and Agreste families will just have their own posts because Jesus Christ.

Originally, I was going to go into a breakdown of each character and why their ethnicities don't actually impact their characters in the subtlest ways, but I can actually easier summarize it.

What impact does having any of the characters being certain nationalties have on the plot that aren't just racial sterotypes?

For most, it literally has no effect at all (Alix being Amazigh, Kim being Vietnamese, Nathaniel being Jewish and Nino being Moroccan).

Some it barely has an effect (Alya being Martiniquian and Marinette being Chinese).

For Kagami in particular, her whole story boils down to the "oppressive Asian parent who is hyper controlling of her life", which is a racist stereotype about Asian people. It would've been fine if it was written by an Asian person, but it was written by a white man, so yikes.

And then there are other characters where, in my opinion, they should be POC because otherwise it's just flat out uncomfortable. Yes, I am talking about Mylène. She was only given her hair to show that she was a nature activist, and that's it.

Also this is a personal opinion, but I think Jalil's whole thing would've been less eugh if the family was Egyptian, because it could be that Jalil wants to reconnect with his Egyptian roots, something that he can do via studying their ancient history, but his father discourages it since it doesn't matter because they're in France now.

Before I close this off, I wanted to mention something that isn't racist I don't think but feels like a strange microagression: Lila. Like, I don't know how to word it, but having the only Italian character being a conniving, master manipulator at the age 13 feels like a strange microagression, don't know how else to word it.

Though I'll get into Lila and Chloe's writing later.

Anyway, that's it for now. See you later!

#👁️ eldritch murmuring | talking #🦋 where butterflies never die | miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug critical #mlb critical #ml critical #i've decided against using the salt tags because ngl i don't really. like the salt tags. like i get it but also some people will just post #anti salt in the salt tag and it's so weird i don't like that

[eldritch-ace]

I too think he deserves a kwagatama

#Yeah Felix! Flip them off! #I didn’t come up with this idea but I absolutely love it #i know you probably can’t contact more than one holder at a time but oh well #also i don’t dislike master fu or natalie I just think he’d be critical of them #I also took away Colt’s hat since I can’t take it seriously and gave Fu a less western/modern costume #only mayura and shadowmoth know who this strange child is but it’s still cathartic for him #I can so comic #felix fathom #felix graham de vanily #argos #dusuu #emilie agreste #natalie sancoeur #mayura #gabriel agreste #shadow moth #colt fathom #master fu #wang fu #miraculous ladybug #mlb #mlb season 5 spoilers #image description in alt #art i made

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Movie!Gabriel saw Adrien as his son.

Show!Gabriel saw Adrien as a keepsake of Emilie.

This isn’t speculation, this is not a headcanon.

It is 100% fact.

The show writers may say otherwise, but that means nothing because it’s not what is conveyed.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #ml spoilers #im not being critical #I���m being objective #this isn’t salt #this is the truth #watch the show #watch the movie #and it’s clear what each Gabriel values

[motherofplatypus]

The funniest thing about thomas and co watching the finale and explaining stuffs while they're at it is that they made it worse by a long shot. It's like beating a dead bush with a dead horse while digging their own graves.

Explain that Mari is actually aware that Gabe is Monarch? Doesn't explain why she's going to his house without Chat to beat his ass.

Jokingly saying that Jagged's crocodile is important to the fight? Nice joke, but care to explain where this whole Kung Fu trio and pet plot came from?

Said that they had planned that Chat won't be in the final fight with Hawkmoth since the beginning? Good job, his character turned out has always been this worthless.

It was Amelie at the end and Emelie stayed dead? Good to know the last 8 years of her irrelevance actually became irrelevant.

Said it was actually Marinette's win? Of course when the villain finally achieved their goal it is the hero's victory.

They actually believe that Gabe is a hero? Hooray, so glad they actually believe that the terrorist who has no qualms nor remorse for physically and mentally beating his own son that he enslaved for his own business is a hero.

And that's not including how they don't explain how people become Miraculized despite it not being akumatization, or how Lila isn't affected by the nightmare, or why Gabe unified Tikki and Plagg in Deflagration instead of making the wish despite it doesn't requires him to unify them.

And those were from two episodes alone. Imagine if they had to explain other episodes, like Evolution and Derision. How deep can they dig their own grave?

#this is so embarrassing that it's amusing #just shut up and leave the damage as it is #haven't you learn from the last few years? #miraculous ladybug #miraculous salt #ml salt #mlb salt #ml writers salt #thomas astruc salt #ml writing criticism #ml writing critical #ml writing salt

[nixthelapin]

I think the writers totally missed out on using Alya and Lila as foils for both being foxes, but using the power of illusion and misdirection in very different ways.

Lila: using emotions and threats to set a trap for LB (and CN, but she’s got that personal grudge)

Vs. Alya: using her intelligence/cunning to get out of a trap (and get LB out too)

And just in general being very different people:

Lila’s entire character is that she’s a liar who will do anything to avoid the truth, while Alya is the investigative reporter who uncovers truth.

Lila as someone who hates and is out to get both Marinette and LB vs. Alya who loves and supports both

I just think they could’ve done a lot more with this, especially since they made both girls a fox character, specifically surrounding the Fox Miraculous (I know Lila never had the real one, but she did pretend to for her akumatization)- that’s not nothing!

But nah, instead Alya just becomes brain dead around Lila, believes all her lies without question (no matter how stupid or nonsensical), and doubts everything her best friend tells her when it comes to said lies. Wasted potential.

#Alya is way to smart to fall for Lila’s nonsense #heck even if I buy that she believes the stories she should’ve dropped her the second she learned LB’s identity #one of the first things Lila told Alya was that she’s bffs with LB #ml salt #miraculous #mlb #ml critical #alya #alya cesaire #rena rouge #rena furtive #Lila #lila rossi #volpina #hoaxer #fox #fox miraculous #ladybug #Marinette #marinette dupain cheng #ml writing salt #ml writing criticism

[stanlunter]

"Adrian and Kagami broke up bc Kagami didn't like silly Adrian, his real personality!"

Litterally Kagami with Adrian:

They really had to turn Kagami into ooc and destroy all her development only to make Adrinette canon, while ladybug/marinette was litterally the one who hated Chat Noire being silly and unserious

#Ladybug #miraculous ladybug #Adrigami #Adrian #adrian agreste #Kagami #Kagami tsurugi #Adrian x kagami #Kagami x adrian #Anti Adrinette #Anti marinette #Mlb #mlb critical #anti miraculous ladybug

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

Toxic Ships That Poisoned A Show

Because people say it's a straight person thing, but nope as some shows it's an all sexualities thing.

#helluva boss #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop #anti-vivziepop #miraculous ladybug #anti-catradoa #spop #anti-spop #catradora #catra #adora #she-ra #anti-shera #anti-she-ra #star vs the forces of evil #star vs #anti-starco #starco #star x marco #star #marco #svfoe #anti-svfoe #anti miraculous ladybug #anti miraculous #mlb

[starlight-bread-blog]

The Adrigami Breakup Was Hot Garbage.

This is the episode where Adrien and Kagami break up. The reason why they broke up is because Adrien is Cat Noir and will always have to hide things from Kagami, and she's not having it. It's an episode about how the job of a superhero demands sacrifices, about how Adrien lost his girlfriend to his duties.

But this entire thing falls apart due to both Adrien and Kagami acting from out of character to infuriating. Adrien isn't actually shown to face these struggles as Cat Noir. We don't see him "being a responsible superhero" he's just goofing around and getting Ladybug's attention.

Adrien: Finally! Free at last! Plagg, claws out!

And here when Ladybug doesn't show up to their daily patrol:

AdriCat: So, Mr. Banana! Life's peachy, huh? *gets ignored*Peachy? Banana? Get it?.. Forget it.

AdriCat: So! Mr. Ramier! It's been a while since you were akumatized, right? Kinda miss being Mr. Pigeon? You haven't been feeling depressed? Or desperate? Or angry? Annoyed maybe? Not even a little perturbe?

Mr. Ramier: Thank you for asking Cat Noir but I am in the best of spirits, really!

This is the face Adriem makes after he says he's feeling good and isn't gonna get akumatized:

AdriCat (disappointendly): Well I guess I'm out of here then.

Mr. Ramier: Say hello to the lovely Ladybug for me!

AdriCat: Sure thing! If I ever see her.

Literally, this entire first act is establishing that Cat Noir is sad and lonely without Ladybug to the point where he wants people to get akumatized. Like go back and watch the episode this is insane.

Only after that we get to Kagami. And the relationship is.. off. Kagami lies to both their parents to buy her and Adrien time alone in the art room. She asks him to pose for a sketch, he makes a couple model poses, and the bullshit begins.

Kagami: These are all modeling poses. Try something that's more neutral, more you.

Adrien: What about – meow! *Makes a Cat pose* I mean, now? *nervous chuckle*

Kagami: No. You're not at all neutral.

Adrien: Yes I am, I promise. This is me.

Kagami (intensively): No. That's you when you're being silly.

She's downright rejecting his true self and being a control freak. Where did this come from? They used to crack jokes and have genuine fun together (ie Desperada). This is extremely out of character. But it's not over..

Adrien: What if when I'm being silly, I'm really me?

Kagami: *Gets up closer to gently make him pose*

Adrien's expression is.. um-..

Kagami: There. This, is really you.

Adrien: Do you really think..

Kagami: Yes. You're... perfect. *Leans for a kiss*

What does this scene tell us about their relationship? It tells us that it's toxic, that Kagami is controlling, doesn't care for Adrien's boudries and refuses to see who he really is. Which as I mentioned, goes against her characterization in previous episodes.

After whatever that was Adrien keeps getting called to his duity as Cat Noir. This back and forth continues for a while. But as we established, it's not a meaingful sacrifice to leave Kagami because being a superhero is just professional (and not so proffesional) playtime for him. And the episode keeps on reminding you that all throughout. We cut from Kagami being alone at a party they were supposed to go to together, to this:

AdriCat: Ma'lady, it's been a while since I had this much fun.

Ladybug: *Laughs* If battling a super villian with 3 eyes and a giant monster budy is your idea of fun, I can't imagen what your other days are like.

And in the same conversation:

AdriCat: You can count on me, and my jokes, Bugaboo!

Ladybug: Well, you don't have to over-do it.

AdriCat: The truth is, I only ever have this much fun when I'm with you.

And then he comes back straight to Kagami like nothing's wrong. She confronts him about his lies to her and gets akumatized.

Even when he fights Akumatized Kagami to save her, they still make a point at showing you he's having fun.

AdriCat: I can't wait to see what you're gonna do with a drone.

And his reaction after Ladybug confronts him about sacrificing himself:

Ladybug: Seriously you've got to stop doing this to me!

AdriCat: Yeah, but I can't resist this angry little pout of yours when you bring me back.

Excuse me?

And then, I am not kidding, while still being with Kagami, this happens:

Adrien: *Stares into the sky* Oh, Ladybug...

Plagg: Aww how romantic! I get it, even if I do love every cheese on the plate, I always come back for my favorite.

After fencing class they have the conversation. The break up is caused by Kagami not being not being able to trust Adrien. And this is how thw show, including Adrien himself, frames it too.

AdriCat: You know the difference between us and the rest of the world, ma'lady? We can't be completely honest with each other. We keep secrets, and sometimes we have to lie.

Okay, let's sum everything up:

He emotionally cheats on Kagami and is willing to admit it out loud with no shame.

He loves that subject of infatuation so much to the point where he's openly sad about monsters not attacking Paris.

Shows no remorse to leaving his girlfriend every time they are together, and very explicitly enjoys his time with another girl he's in love with.

At the end of the episode him and the writers push all the bs under the rug and claim Adrien is just following his duties.

....Wow. I remembered Lies being a terrible episode for Adrien but it wasn't until I watched it again that I've realized how much Adrien sucks. I am trurly baffled. Top tier character assassination.

And let's not forget Kagami. What the hell was that? Why did she act like that? Why all the sudden she's toxic and controlling?

Well, all of this nonsense is done to serve a very obvious not-so-hidden hidden agenda: Ladynoir good, Adrigami bad. The writers pretended to tell a genuine story about the duties of being a superhero but couldn't help but sneak in this horseshit. They essentially wanted you to subconciously pick up on what this episode is really trying to say: Kagami doesn't know Adrien's true self, she forces him into the "perfect role" and is incompatible to him. While Ladybug knows his true self. Therefore, Adrien can only be happy with Ladybug.

Kagami isn't controlling and incompatible to him. But that didn't matter to the writers, they have a message to put out. They had retcon her characterization to create a contrast that didn't really exist.

And this applies to Adrien too. He needed to be happy to leave his girlfriend to push the... "message". He needed to emotionally cheat on her like he did to push the message. He sacrificed himself so it would show his so-called love for Ladybug. He wanted people to get akumatized so he could be his true self with his beloved Ladybug. But all of these things don't make him to be compatible with her and destined to be with her, they make him an a$$hole.

And I'm not gonna buy into this message they snuck in there with retcons and infuriating behaviors.

#anti adrien #anti chat noir #anti cat noir #anti adrien agreste #anti ladynoir #anti miraculous #anti miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculous critical #anti mlb #ml writing salt #mlb salt #ml salt #mlb critical #ml critical #anti ml #adrigami #pro adrigami #adrien x kagami #kagami x adrien #kagami

[chemicalarospec]

Looking for the person with the other half of this necklace

You actually were the one who made it. We were best friends in 3rd and 4th grade before you moved back to the state you came from.

At the time I knew you, your name began with P and we were both girls but I bet that you're queer now so I don't know if that's still true. You had an older brother. I have a younger brother. My name is Isabelle.

You had a Cartoon Network comic book of three stories in one: Steven Universe, gender-swapped Fionna and Jake, and one with Marceline and Princess Bubblegum. (This is why I think you're queer too and hope that you might be here on Tumblr.) I will tag this post with things I knew you liked/predict you would like. (Sorry if you're a random person in those tags & this annoys you.)

If you think this is you, please contact me with what our mutual favourite animal was. I just miss you and want to see if you're out there doing alright. We were such good friends.

update: I have written a letter and found their address, now I just have to actually post it. Will update again when doing so.

Update: the address I had doesn't exist, soooo... wish me luck!

Update: the letter returned home "not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward" today :(

#ranboo #bee and puppycat #minecraft #lovejoy #steven universe #adventure time #cartoon network #the umbrella academy #our flag means death #heartstopper #osemanverse #the owl house #miraculous ladybug #critical role #lore olympus #nimona #good omens #studio ghibli #bubbleline #TXT #... just picked a kpop band i'd heard of before from a list... i'm not into kpop #i said this #personal #changed up some of the tags with the thrid edit btw #current lead: asking my mom if she has P's mom's email. i feel really awkward emailling somone about their grown child so i'm still debatin #whether i'll go for it