blueesnow

[blueesnow]

Oh my God, Marinette just wants to be happy.

And she gets her silly little date with the boy she loves. They get to be love-sick idiots and they get to dance like fools, and I love them for it. They get to kiss, and for a second she probably thinks it's going to work out. She thinks finally, I love someone who loves me back, and I get to be happy. Then the fantasy shatters. "I'm so fed up that everyone else keeps deciding what's good for me!"

In that moment, the one deciding for her is Chat. But it's also Alya who's been trying to push her back towards Adrien. It's Monarch, who in some ways controls her life almost as much as he does Adrien's. Maybe it's even Fu, because his decisions are the ones that sent her down this path in the first place.

And I'd bet she's probably a little bit mad at herself, too, because deep down she already knew this was a fantasy. She knew she couldn't really let her guard down while Monarch is still at large, but when she fell for Chat she also fell into the idea that she could. Much in the same way Adrien's obsessing over his feelings for her, she latched onto her feelings for Chat because she needed something good in her life. But now she's reminded she can't have it. "Why don't I get to to be happy?" she asks. "Why don't I get to love who I want to?" That to me is the most heartbreaking part of this episode, because it shows how tired she is of everything falling apart. It's that moment where her feelings--her pain, her heartbreak--are too big to understand. It's not fair. She can't do this anymore.

So yeah, it's no wonder she nearly gets akumatized after that.

It's no wonder giving up her Miraculous seems like the only option moving forwards.

Damn it, she just wants to be happy.

[blueesnow]

i can't believe you're finding it in yourself to be happy about that ladynoir scene? 😭 it just looks like the ship is dead now that chat says he sees LB as a friend

You all said some variation of "X side of the Lovesquare is dead!!" every time an episode of season 4 was released and in Strike Back they turned out just fine lmao. Don't treat angst and conflict as a dead end, anon, its meant to propel the story forward.

[blueesnow]

Look, if season 4 ended with the resolution of the ladynoir conflict being in kuro neko. I would have been annoyed and I would complain that it was handled poorly.

But it ended in strikeback. (Edit, when I say it ended I mean the miscommunication and the issues were addressed. Because there is still work to be done. )

Ladybug acknowledges all of her mistakes. Especially how she treated Chat noir. But you want to know what makes it great?

Ladybug isn’t asking for forgiveness here. Not because she doesn’t think she needs to, but because she thinks she doesn’t deserve it. In fact she lists all the reasons why he shouldn’t be by her side. She tells him that he of ALL people should have turned on her. How she failed. This isn’t some plot for forgiveness. This is remorse and confusion.

But chat noir looks past that. And he reaches out to her. He comforts her, he assures her that they will get the miraculous back together.

Now people are saying Adrien is being demeaned and stuck as “Ladybug’s loyal dog” and to that I say.

Chat noir was clearly angry with Ladybug. The beginning of strikeback showed that. He was hurt when he saw how she acted with Flairmidable.

Chat noir felt betrayed finding out about Rena rouge/furtive.

He was saddened when he was told to stay out of the fight.

Adrien/Chat noir was angry with ladybug and he let her know it.

And he saw ladybug breakdown. He saw her break when she realized the betrayal. He heard her cry and flee.

Adrien understood that what Ladybug was going through was unimaginable. And you know what, he knows the feeling. Of losing everything.

He saw Ladybug breakdown and saw her hurting, seeing her at a point lower than ever before. And people wanted chat noir to yell at her and tell her how wrong she was?!

Y’all forget two things.

1. Chat noir loves Ladybug. He loves her so much that it hurts. He would do what it takes to help her.

2. And this is a big one. ADRIEN IS EMPATHETIC! He could see what Ladybug was going through. He knew she needed someone to be there for her. She didn’t have the other heroes. She didn’t have the other kwami. He was the only one that could.

He knows her actions weren’t malicious. He knows that she was just trying her best to keep everything from falling apart. She was trying to keep control.

Chat noir is a hero, he sees her broken. He loves her so much that he looks past the mistakes. He forgives her and tells her that they will fix it together.

Fuck… that is love right there.

People just can’t understand that kind of deep love where you can be hurt but knowing that hurt wasn’t intended.

Love is patient

Love is kind

Love is enduring

Love is healing

Love is understanding

And

Love is forgiving

[blueesnow]

'The fact that Adrien, who had the most reason to be angry at Ladybug for what happened in that episode but didn't is more than enough proof for why he's her partner.

This entire season has been about Ladybug learning how to be a leader, and Adrien struggling to figure out where his place in all of this was. The conflict of the season was that these two didn't know where they fit in exactly. Marinette wanted to try her hardest to be the guardian she needed to be and Adrien wanted to be the the hero she needed.

And in this episode both of them thought they lost it.

Adrien's worst fear that he wouldn't be useful for Ladybug anymore, and Mari's worst fear that she would fail as a guardian, both came true.

But all hope is not lost.

In this scene where Adrien comforts Ladybug, he does what he's always excelled at doing as Chat. Like so many other scenes, as I've mentioned in Miracle Queen, Psycomedian, Kuro Neko, and of course ladynoir in Puppeteer 2, Adrien's worth as a hero isn't determined just by heroic feats and clever planning.

It's because his compassion and empathy for others is what saves the day, time and time again.

He tells her to trust him, because he knows her better than anyone else. And he knows in that moment she needs him. It's this level of selflessness that is Adrien's greatest strength. He would never hold a grudge or be angry at her because at the end of the day he's going to be on her side, always and no matter what.

In the end he does what he was always going to do: he does his best for his lady. Because he knows what she needs, and he never hesitated to give it.

And Marinette, who has spent this entire season learning about what it means to be a hero, and failing because of trauma and making mistakes, has finally learned the most important lesson for her.

She is Ladybug. She is a hero, mistakes and all. Her fear and anxiety and trauma do not make her failure.

The people have faith in her and support her, they want to follow her. They love her. And that's what makes her a great leader. A leader who Paris can get behind even when everything becomes bleak.

There's this idea that Marinette has to be perfect to be a good Ladybug. It's an idea Mari has been struggling with all season. It's what has led her to make so many of the mistakes we see her make. It's what many of the fans have argued she should be, when the reality is Mari was never perfect. Just like with Adrien, the show tells us that perfection isn't what we're looking for. It isn't what we need, it isn't what Paris needs.

What Paris needs is these two who never give up and always fight, who get back up even when they fail. Who the people want to support.

We've hit rock bottom now, the lowest of low. But the one thing this episode showed us was that Adrien and Marinette are the best Chat Noir and Ladybug for the job. And most importantly, it reminds us what makes them the best team for the job.

And that they most certainly are a team. Ladybug, Chat Noir, and all of Paris.

[blueesnow]

Ladybug realizing that she didnt need to control everything and that she needed to trust people and their choices. She needed to trust chat noir.

Chat noir realizing he didnt need to be the only person ladybug could rely on. He just needed to be the one she could always rely on no matter what.

[blueesnow]

'The fact that Adrien, who had the most reason to be angry at Ladybug for what happened in that episode but didn't is more than enough proof for why he's her partner.

This entire season has been about Ladybug learning how to be a leader, and Adrien struggling to figure out where his place in all of this was. The conflict of the season was that these two didn't know where they fit in exactly. Marinette wanted to try her hardest to be the guardian she needed to be and Adrien wanted to be the the hero she needed.

And in this episode both of them thought they lost it.

Adrien's worst fear that he wouldn't be useful for Ladybug anymore, and Mari's worst fear that she would fail as a guardian, both came true.

But all hope is not lost.

In this scene where Adrien comforts Ladybug, he does what he's always excelled at doing as Chat. Like so many other scenes, as I've mentioned in Miracle Queen, Psycomedian, Kuro Neko, and of course ladynoir in Puppeteer 2, Adrien's worth as a hero isn't determined just by heroic feats and clever planning.

It's because his compassion and empathy for others is what saves the day, time and time again.

He tells her to trust him, because he knows her better than anyone else. And he knows in that moment she needs him. It's this level of selflessness that is Adrien's greatest strength. He would never hold a grudge or be angry at her because at the end of the day he's going to be on her side, always and no matter what.

In the end he does what he was always going to do: he does his best for his lady. Because he knows what she needs, and he never hesitated to give it.

And Marinette, who has spent this entire season learning about what it means to be a hero, and failing because of trauma and making mistakes, has finally learned the most important lesson for her.

She is Ladybug. She is a hero, mistakes and all. Her fear and anxiety and trauma do not make her failure.

The people have faith in her and support her, they want to follow her. They love her. And that's what makes her a great leader. A leader who Paris can get behind even when everything becomes bleak.

There's this idea that Marinette has to be perfect to be a good Ladybug. It's an idea Mari has been struggling with all season. It's what has led her to make so many of the mistakes we see her make. It's what many of the fans have argued she should be, when the reality is Mari was never perfect. Just like with Adrien, the show tells us that perfection isn't what we're looking for. It isn't what we need, it isn't what Paris needs.

What Paris needs is these two who never give up and always fight, who get back up even when they fail. Who the people want to support.

We've hit rock bottom now, the lowest of low. But the one thing this episode showed us was that Adrien and Marinette are the best Chat Noir and Ladybug for the job. And most importantly, it reminds us what makes them the best team for the job.

And that they most certainly are a team. Ladybug, Chat Noir, and all of Paris.

[blueesnow]

if ladybug and chat noir never existed, adrigami would’ve still gotten together and lasted much longer than canon but lukanette wouldn’t have happened at all you can’t change my mind

[blueesnow]

On the note of Adrien primarily being the love interest, that also explains the difference in how rivals for his affections are treated vs rivals for Marinette's affections. Marinette's suitors are all people with crushes on the hero, with Luka serving as a "what if", while Adrien's are people who mostly want him for their own selfish reasons, with Kagami serving as an example of "it has to be his one true lobe"

I think if you look at it like that.

I mean Nino and Nathaniel had crushes on Marinette. Only theo had a crush on Ladybug

Lila and Chloé viewed Adrien more for what they could gain out of it.

____________________________________________________________

As for the supposed Love rivals themselves.

Marinette and Adrien are being the selfish ones in the love rival situation.

Kagami actually thinks Adrien is a lot like her (not what she can do) She thinks she can relate to him.

And Luka thinks Mairnette is someone that is a lot like him. Clear and honest but having a hard time expressing herself

(hilariously Kagami and Luka are both Right and Wrong at the same time)

Marinette is picking Luka because he is someone that Likes her and is available.

And Adrien picking Kagami because of a similar situation.

[blueesnow]

the most funniest (and frustrating) thing i find when people talk of love square dynamics (re: adrinette, ladynoir, etc) is always how isolated the four sides (and others) are made out to be and it’s just not how it is. lovesquare is one ship and it’s sides are it’s components. they arent 4 different ships even though they all can stand on their own- barely. all of them are interlinked closely because they are the same person. 

the four components/sides/whatever are different facets of the same relationships, they appear different because 1) their situations are different or/and 2) different facets of the characters are at play there. they all influence the other dynamics, directly or indirectly, and are so easy to switch, all these dynamics have a lot of things in common with others. it’s not just because they are the ‘same person’ but because it’s one relationship, not 4.

that’s why, i think, treating lovesuare as four ships is actually taking away a lot from the relationship in general. it’s also why the statement ‘i only enjoy x side of the love square’ statements are so absurd to me. because that ‘x’ side actually is like a mashed up version of other sides. (eg marichat is heavily influenced by adrinette and ladynoir, it literally cannot exists on it’s own unless situations/AUs are made conveniently to favour that side’s interactions only)

what i mean to say is

[blueesnow]

PSA;

can we go back to the fanfiction rules of “don’t like don’t read”? seriously. if a ship or a concept isn’t your cup of tea, you don’t have to read it. just keep scrolling, it’s really that simple. and, if you did decide to read it anyway (which would be your own conscious choice, and not the fault of the writer), why would you waste your time and energy even more with a rude comment?

especially in online fandom spaces, it’s SO EASY to not be rude, to not say something mean, to not put someone or their work or their passion down. you have to choose to type out the cruel or rude comment, you have to choose to consume the content, you have to choose to hit send on the hate - be it a tweet, a tumblr ask, a comment on a fic or piece of art… it’s not a verbal conversation, it didn’t just slip out in a moment of passion. it happened because you chose to make it happen, and that makes you a piece of shit. 

if you don’t like something, don’t read it. if you don’t like a fic or piece of art, hit the back button and move on. it’s not rocket science. it’s basic human decency.

[blueesnow]

I was just thinking about the early part of “Lies”. It was a little weird, wasn’t it? There’s been commentary about how little focus Lies, the akuma, actually got - Kagami was only akumatized for about five minutes in total. 

It seems to be be because of how much else was packed into the episode, how much stuff was going on.

The first minute and half, we checked in on Marinette. Not unusual, even for Adrien-centered episodes - Gorizilla did something similar. I think they want to make sure we remember that Marinette is the main character, though it’s also a nice way of giving the viewer some background on what’s been going on with Adrien as well, seeing how the rest of the world, as well as Marinette in particular, perceive Adrien and his life. 

But then we come to the next sequence of events, which seems a little more out of place.

See, the rest of the episode I can firmly place why it’s there - from the scene in the art room giving us some more tidbits on Kagami’s interests, giving us some time to see Adrien and Kagami together before things go awry. 

To the dating attempts and Adrien’s inevitable ditching, including seeing parts of “Truth” from Adrien’s perspective.

The confrontation scene about the ditching.

Kagami’s akumatization when Adrien’s caught in a lie and won’t tell her the truth.

The fight with Lies.

Adrien and Kagami officially breaking up.

And then the Ladynoir scene at the end, with Ladybug and Chat Noir talking about what they’d learned; that they had to lie, even to the people they cared about, but that even if they’d lost some people’s trust, they could at least trust each other.

Most of this parallels Truth, and fits neatly into the Adrigami relationship speedrun that the episode seems to be going for.

Except for that second section, the one with Chat Noir on patrol. 

It shows us that patrol Ladybug missed. Considering that the show’s displaying Adrien’s side of a lot of events in “Truth” that’s not a shocker.

But all that’s really needed for that is this first bit, showing Chat Noir laying around, waiting for Ladybug to show up for patrol, and eventually just going it alone.

The rest of it was both unnecessary and weirdly out of step with the rest of the episode.

First we’ve got the kids waving Chat Noir over, with Chat seeming to think that they’re in trouble.

Nope! They just wanted a selfie, wanted to take a pic with him because he was famous. They didn’t even talk with him afterwards, immediately running off, making it seem like it was less because they just really wanted to meet him, and more an opportunity to use him as a way to increase their own reputations, to show off - basically objectifying Chat Noir, similar to the way Adrien’s sometimes objectified as a civilian.

Next we have Chat Noir talking to Mr. Banana and Mr. Ramier, clearly bored and wanting company, and hoping to get to put his superhero skills to the use - as well as get to see Ladybug again for sure.

But Mr. Ramier says he feels fine, prompting Chat Noir to slink off, disappointed at the thought that he wouldn’t get to see Ladybug again just yet, and that he hadn’t heard from her.

And the milk scene, which was memed almost immediately. 

This scene was particularly weird, with Chat Noir remarking how calm things had been lately - a message that’s undermined throughout the rest of the episode. 

Until, bored and missing Ladybug, he wanders past Kagami sparring with her mother, leading him to promptly end the patrol and head back to the manor, detransforming.

He looks at his phone background of Kagami, then at his picture with Kagami and the rest of the fencing team, with Plagg implying that he should try hanging out with her instead.

Leading to showing Kagami and Adrien’s relationship, and the rest of the episode and focus around it.

But that whole patrol sequence was weird, since it didn’t further the Adrigami breakup plot much, and in fact implied that there weren’t enough akumas for Chat’s taste if anything, rather than being so many that it was gonna cause a severe strain on his personal life.

I suspect that the patrol sequence was meant to set up something else, beyond just showing us that Chat Noir’s bummed without Ladybug. It seems like he’s trying to figure out what to do with himself when he has free time, what he’s supposed to do, what he should be when he’s able to choose and when he can’t just go superheroing (doing the duties of a superhero I mean). 

In Marinette’s case the tension between her civilian and superhero lives seems to do with how busy and overwhelmed she is, and juggling all her commitments and responsibilities and somehow making it work.

Adrien has some of those problems to an extent - it’s ultimately what ended up screwing over his relationship with Kagami - but it doesn’t seem like as big a source of tension for him, and with this whole patrol sequence, I think the show’s pointing towards a different sort of civilian-superhero balancing act for Adrien  trying to figure out who he is, what he’s like, and what he wants to do.

He initially started the episode taking a break from his civilian life, wanting to go out and be a superhero instead. But when that proved boring and lonely, he went back to his civilian life and sought fulfillment there, with Kagami.

And of course, even once we got to the part with Adrien and Kagami properly, we still had Adrien struggling with figuring out who he was and what he wanted, shone especially well with the posing scene, with him talking about how clowning around as Chat Noir was himself, and Kagami denying that both the generic model and Chat Noir personas were really himself at his core, something that threw him for a loop.

I suspect that this won’t be the only time this comes up this season, and that like Marinette bending under the strain of being both Ladybug and Guardian, Adrien trying to reconcile this duality and more generally figure out what to do with himself will be a recurring theme throughout the season.

[blueesnow]

Now I know people aren’t calling Kagami selfish after this episode when we literally saw Chat hoping someone else would be sad enough to be Akumatized, just so he could hang out with LB and fight a bad guy... The double standard here are insane.

Kagami wanted her boyfriend to be honest with her. She isn’t the best at reading people so she dismisses Adrien when he is acting like a clown, but she is never malicious or selfish. Much like how Chat constantly dismisses Ladybug’s feelings (like how he did with her justified anger at the end of this episode).

I like Chat/Adrien but the fact that the show refuses to acknowledge his mistakes, trying to maintain the idea that he’s “perfect”, while part of the fandom tries to demonize Kagami for much less is annoying as hell.

[blueesnow]

These two eps made the double standard in how Marinette and Adrien’s relationships are treated so obvious like

You have luka//nette where they both genuinely want to be together and don’t have any incompatibilities in terms of personality but mutually decided to end things because external factors wouldn’t allow them to be 100% open and honest, something they both consider important in a relationship. This is all perfectly fine except Marinette’s crush keeps getting brought up throughout the episode even though it is, for once, a non factor and has nothing to do with the actual conflict.

Then with adri//gami we have a number of compatibility issues come up immediately with uneven investment in the relationship by the parties involved, Kagami deciding who Adrien truly is for him despite his protests, Adrien craving spending time with LB to the point he wanted people to get upset and akumatized, Adrien literally flirting with Ladybug while in a relationship with Kagami, etc. and his crush on Ladybug is never brought up unless you count Plagg’s cheese metaphor. And the episode frames it like the breakup is due to Adrien having to keep secrets as a superhero instead of the dozen other issues in the relationship.

TL;DR: The problems in Marinette’s relationship are framed as stemming from her feelings for Adrien despite them being irrelevant and the problems in Adrien’s relationship are attributed solely to being a superhero and not the actual compatibility issues present

[blueesnow]

Parallels 💔

Truth x Lies

Miraculous Ladybu

[blueesnow]

I feel like since the ep hasn’t been subbed yet, people are misinterpreting it. For instance, some thought that Adrien didn’t do better or that Kagami’s the only one making an effort in their relationship when in fact they both did. It’s just that Adrien’s juggling everything with his modeling career, extracurricular activities and superheroing. I understand Kagami’s frustration and I applaud her for walking away before it hurts more. And like what she said, Adrien was SINCERE in their relationship and that everything wasn’t a LIE.

For the art room part, people are already jumping into the “true-selves” which is bull for me. Kagami was raised to be perfect, same as Adrien. So him telling her that maybe his real self was silly, even he himself wasn’t sure.

Aaaah I’m so glad you’re asking me about this scene because I really wanted to talk about it ♥

So for those who need, I translated the art scene here and I’d advice to read it carefully and check with the tone they both use while speaking and their expression!!

The problems with their relationship was that: 

They both have an incredibly busy schedule, as it was shown especially for Adrien, and later Kagami is required a lot from her mother

On top of everything, Adrien has his super-hero duty

And their parents are meddling in their relationship and kinda competing through their kids (re: Tomoe telling Kagami she has to be at Adrien’s height for fencing, Gabriel and Tomoe both blaming the other family for the change in schedule of the fencing practice, etc)

And as you point out, both Kagami and Adrien agree that the good moments they managed to spend together were sincere and I think that’s super mature and important for them

As for the art scene, oh boy!

To me, Kagami has PERFECTLY seen through Adrien’s mask.

She tells him that what she likes about drawing is that a drawing doesn’t lie, and that she wants to draw people for who they are inside.

Adrien at first poses like a model, as how he’s asked to usually and what people see of him => that’s Adrien’s “perfect” self, as seen from magazines, from what his father want him to be, heck, even from Marinette in a way at the start (though she has made tons of improvement on here, but the pictures of him of modeling in her room show that a little). That’s not a “natural” pose. That’s not who he is. And Kagami tells him that and picks up on it very quickly.

The second time he poses, when she asks him for something once again more natural, more like himself, he poses as Chat Noir. He even makes a cat pun to go with it. => That’s Adrien’s Chat Noir persona, the one he likes to show around with his mask on, the one where, as Kagami points out, he uses to clown around.

That’s also NOT who he is inside, he is once again NOT natural, as Kagami points out. He’s pretending to be cool.

Even earlier in the episode, we see his two faces as Chat Noir: the one he shows Ladybug and his fans as a goofy boy who doesn’t mind doing patrol on his own, but when he’s alone on his roof, well... where is the clown?

So Adrien doesn't know exactly what is his “true self”: the thing is, we don’t even have a true self. But Adrien is mistaking “being who I want to be” and “who I really am, and feel”.

And that’s what Kagami wants to draw of him.

Aaaand the last one.

Kagami pushes him against the wall and puts him in a position he doesn’t really know how to react, and tells him that this is who he is: he’s not the model, he’s not the clown, but the awkward boy who doesn't always know how to react to things. He isn’t playing here. He is acting on instinct. He’s acting natural.

Kagami’s “you’re perfect” can be interpreted as her seeing him as the perfect façade, but she just proved she didn’t: here, she tells him that to her, he’s perfect. And that’s what she wants to draw of him: who he really is inside when he isn’t lying and hiding his inner feelings. When he’s just being natural 😊

[blueesnow]

Things to consider…

Marinette is light and Adrien is dark. Adrien literally means darkness. Luka means light, and Kagami means mirror. When you’re exposed to too much light, you can go blind. And a mirror cannot reflect the dark

[blueesnow]

hot take, but I don’t know why everyone is convinced that luka’s whole schtick of “nothing ever bothers me ever. i will never ever be upset. you can settle for me if you like because i will never complain about anything, even you not loving me” is “good for marinette”