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theerurishipper · 6 months

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Welcome to me watching the Paris special, this time with commentary! I watched the special and wrote down everything here as I watched it and forgot to post it cause I'm a dumbass. Also, this is long asf, in fact, it's so long that I had to make a Part 2.

Okay here goes!

Ah, the Gabriel version of the theme. This really took me by surprise. It's fire tho.

Straight into the action, I like it.

Max and Markov aren't different people in this?

That's some entrance from Shady and Claw, really ups the stakes. Makes you wonder why Nino tried to fight them with a nerf gun.

Ubiquity is so pretty.

I might be the only one who liked the Gabe scene we got.

Feeling some nostalgia for the candy cane cosplay ngl.

And we get a good scene with Adrien and Plagg. I liked the advice Plagg gave about how not all destruction is bad. Neat.

Some Alya and Marinette. Marinette is going through some tough times and is in need of support, and Tikki takes this opportunity to escape from her and steal macaroons. No hate tho, you do you Tikki.

Though she does react to the people of Paris cheering for Ladybug. That was sweet.

Alya turns into Ubiquity, and then we get... Betterfly.

Betterfly? Seriously? Coulda just gone with Hesperia.

"I'm not sure there's anything to hope for from Ladybug." My poor baby!

Love the look of absolute confusion on Alya's face.

Hesperia's confusion about his evil counterpart is really funny ngl.

SHADYBUG

"There, you can have your boyfriend back~" love the delivery on that line lmao.

But also, CLAW NOIR

Not her just stealing his belt immediately.

Marinette hates Adrien Agreste. This truly is the reverse world.

But also, I love Claw Noir pretending to be his own fan to impress Shadybug.

Claw Noir sure does love using that Cataclysm.

For someone who just woke up to see her friend gone and a hole in the wall, Alya collected herself pretty damn quick. I would be freaking the fuck out in her position. Just another reason she's the best.

RIP Alya's phone. Gabe really did a number on you.

Shadybug makes a butterfly tracker, proving that she ain't no Gabe.

Hesperia is befuddled by our world, Part 2.

It's always gotta be the Eiffel Tower, doesn't it.

Claw Noir's pulling a Chat Blanc?? Hello??

Hesperia (I'm not gonna call him Betterfly) is apparently a gentleman. It's almost disturbing after 5 seasons of Gabe being the worst piece of shit to grace our screens.

I guess no matter the universe and moral alignment, it's Gabriel's fate to get beaten up by teenagers.

Not Tikki loredumping about parallel universes right now lmao

Times like this remind me that Tikki is, for all intents and purposes, a god.

"You'd die before I could ever explain all this to you," is actually a pretty valid (and disturbingly hilarious) justification for not having bothered to bring any of this up before.

The Supreme is someone I'd like to learn more about. I've narrowed the suspects down to either Fu or Su-Han. Watch it be Lila instead if we ever get that info.

I feel like the info about the timers is something we should have gotten way, way earlier. Like, a few seasons ago.

Ladybug's triumphant entrance!

"Whatever, pest." Queen.

I love Claw Noir's staff.

Shadybug took no prisoners at all.

CHAT NOIR

Destruction vibes, and right after that incident too.

Claw Noir is unhinged.

Claw Noir just fucking cataclysmed himself??? Guess Adrien is always gonna be self-destructive in every universe huh?

Welp, looks like Chat Noir is officially re-traumatized.

I want y'all to remember that this boy went through the whole special with a cataclysm wound on his person and did not falter once. Mad respect.

Chat Noir got tossed. Chat Blanc call back number 2.

Obsessed with the way Bryce Papenbrook pronounces "cockroach."

Finally, a villain who actually gets rid of the Lucky Charm. Hawkie, take notes.

"Who the cat are you?"

So Shadybug can create whatever Lucky Charm she wants, huh?

Someone's been listening to the fandom.

Not the time freezing lmfao

I don't like that Gabe is turning Adrien into an angel, even if this is a good version. Anyway, Chat Blanc call back 3.

"Kitty catty" "Later loser!" I love her.

Of course, not all bugs can fly.

He moved out of the way.

I fucking love Claw Noir so much you guys, he's so funny.

Well, he tried. Shadybug's just better than him ig.

Hesperia stores his butterfly in his cane. So it's just our Gabe that tries to keep multiple butterflies, I guess.

I think they should kiss.

So they're doing this in hopes that The Supreme spares them? Interesting, and pretty sad.

They're so scared of the Akuma lmfao

If I was Alya, I'd have given myself away by now. Actually, I wouldn't have had the presence of mind to even hide.

Guess the counterparts are from some dystopian world ruled by The Supreme. It tracks with the look we got at it in the opening.

"In order to get something I wanted." We saw the Peacock Miraculous in the opening too, and also Emilie died. So I guess Adrien is a Sentimonster in the other reality too. Damn it.

I guess this Gabe realized his mistake instead of descending into madness like ours.

She just broke Marinette's box like it was nothing. So much for that.

Claw Noir lounges around playing with dolls and mocks Shadybug for being lazy while she does all the work and he lazes around. Have I mentioned yet that I love him?

Also I am glad they stayed true to Adrien's character and had him play with dolls.

The whole part about Chat Noir... be still my Ladynoir heart.

Love how they incorporated the webisodes into this. About time those had relevance.

Shadybug really "hates" Claw Noir.

Marinette's having doubts, my poor baby girl.

Shadybug and Claw Noir have power, but not their strength. That's a really good line.

She's reading the diary and crying... baby.

This is such a touching scene. I don't say that lightly, but it really is.

SHE FOUND THE WISH

Marinette really wrote down every single world ending secret in this one poorly protected diary huh.

She literally took him down in 2 seconds. Bruh.

IDENTITY REVEAL! THIS IS NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Shadybug managed to achieve in 2 seconds what Marinette and Adrien have not achieved after 5 seasons of Love Square drama which I admittedly enjoy but that's not the point.

Those strange... marks? Cracks? Scars?

Blots off... I'm dying y'all.

Reverse Love Square? Hello??? HELLO???

She literally just beat his ass, tied him up and took his Miraculous and this is his reaction once he realizes who she is.

He's down so bad.

They should have played Careless Whisper here.

CUTIE PIE, MY SON

The Supreme is such a fucking asshole, he gagged the Kwamis.

Emonette wants our Marinette's life? She doesn't know the half of what she's getting into.

The Supreme got to the wish somehow? What the fuck?

"Reality is The Supreme." I don't know who this guy is, but he is DELULU.

This shot... masterfully done. My poor baby girl.

These kids are not okay. My poor sweet babies.

Daggers out. Seriously, stop it, you two.

He's trying to comfort her. They're just... I'm in pain. I'm so sad for them y'all.

Gabe in his prototype Monarch outfit.

Good thing (for him at least) he had the Ox, or else this would be his second cataclysm of the day.

Ladybug and Chat Noir are back in action, baby.

I'm sorry, I would not be able to say Betterfly unironically without bursting into laughter.

AFTER 5 SEASONS, WE FINALLY GET TO SEE CHAT NOIR'S NIGHT VISION AGAIN

Not that they needed it lmao

Alya coming in clutch with the recording. Queen.

LADYNOIR LADYNOIR LADYNOIR

It's so so so nice to see Ladynoir on screen again after Season 5 killed it.

Hit the word limit, so continued here.

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xhanisai · 3 months

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it's hard to say no to Marinette Dupain Cheng.

AO3

Pairing - Adrinette

Prompt - 'Can't say no'

Summary -

Her eyes were just so blue and so glittery and the idea of turning down her proposal ("Not a marriage proposal— get your head outta the clouds, kid!") was the equivalent of a dagger to the heart. Not to mention that her adorable, kissable lips were pursed and pouty and all that Adrien wanted to do was get down to his knees and cry because dammit how is she so damn cute!?

First, he should probably answer with something coherent before anyone starts questioning why he was just staring at her.

~(x)~

First, he should probably answer with something coherent before anyone starts questioning why he was just staring at her.

"O-Of course! I'm more than happy to teach you how to fence. You can ask me anything, Marinette." He answered automatically, the feline within him puffing his chest up in pride when a delighted smile took over her face and her hands bundled up into cute little fists against her chin. Dieu, how could anyone ever even dream of saying 'no' to the Marinette Dupain-Cheng? In his opinion, it should be a crime to deny Marinette of anything but alas, the rest of the world isn't as enlightened as he is. That aside, he couldn't help but be curious about one thing and voiced his question. "If you don't mind me asking, how come you want to start learning now? You can count on me to protect you if it's because of Le Papillon and the Akumas." He almost bit his tongue for how Chat Noir he was suddenly acting but he just couldn't help it.

She just brings out his charms so naturally.

"Maybe...maybe I want to protect you, Adrien." Her answer was soft and her blues sucked him right in, rendering him speechless. He was dead. He was doomed. He was a goner.

And all he could do was gulp audibly with a big, bright red blush.

She's too cute!!!

"I can't wait...I MEAN!" He was scrambling for words, his hands animated and his complexion as rosy as his partner's heroic supersuit. "I can't wait to teach you! Not that I can't wait for you to protect me— THOUGH I HOPE YOU'RE NEVER IN DANGER! I! Erm!" Oh Dieu-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. Can Plagg just come out and turn him into ashes now so that he can stop embarrassing himself!? Surprisingly, Marinette held his hands tenderly and smiled with that sweet, endearing grin that melted his heart.

"I can't wait either. To learn from you and...to protect you~" Her tone ended with a teasing lilt and all he could do was childishly pout whilst everyone else who was observing them snickered to themselves. Oh, those evil little blue eyes.

~(x)~

#my writing #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug and chat noir #adrinette #ml fanfics #ml fanfiction #adrienette #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng

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thetraingotsetonfireonmidnight · 2 years

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𝔒𝔫𝔢 𝔔𝔲𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫

Chat Noir/Adrien Agreste x GN!reader

"It's just– I've noticed that almost everyone in the Agreste family can fight, I find that strange. Do they all take classes or something?"

Chat cracked a smile and chuckled, his partner in crime never failed to make him laugh.

"I don't know, maybe you should ask him."

The advice had been a joke, that's all it was. He knew—or at least he thought—that Coccinelle couldn't actually ask him.

So when you—someone who is supposed to be a regular person with no superpowers or connections to Coccinelle— asks him the same question his red suited friend asked, he starts wondering if there was a possibility that you could really be his other half.

A universe in which you are the holder of the Ladybug miraculous and you go by Coccinelle.

One question.

It had been one single question, a strange one at that, but a question nonetheless.

Adrien had been in the library studying with you. The sun peeking through the window and lighting up your figure. Your teeth chewed at your bottom lip, your hands fidgeting with your pencil. You was lost in thought, like you really wanted to say something, but the words were caught between your lips.

Your eyes would occasionally peer over at Adrien when you thought he wasn't looking, then find their way back to the book you clearly weren't reading.

Adrien didn't say a word, not wanting to pressure you. If you wanted to say something, you'd say it. So instead, Adrien wrote down some notes, trying to write it in a way that would make it easy for you to copy later (you'd need them if you spent the rest of the study session staring at him). After a brief moment of silence, you finally broke.

"Hey, Adrien? Quick question."

His eyes lifted off the page to look at yours. He offered you a sweet smile and nodded his head, encouraging you to continue.

You smiled bashfully before that one question spilled from your mouth, "I know you take fencing but, can you...uh…fight?"

Adrien's smile faltered slightly and his eyes widened. A huge wave of deja vu hit him like a truck, and before he knew it, he wasn't staring at you anymore.

That question…

No...it couldn't be…

His mind faltered back to a few days ago when his cousin Felix had visited. He had caused quite a problem by imitating Adrien. It had resulted in a few of his friends getting akumatized.

There they were, on the roof of a Parisian building. Chat Noir was back to back with his partner, Coccinelle. Princess Fragrance, Reflecta, and Lady WiFi surrounded them. Felix, dressed in Adrien's signature clothing, was sitting not too far away from the heroic duo, observing the situation.

After a few moments of silence, Felix flipped off of a wall and kicked Lady WiFi's tablet out of her grasp, landing perfectly while the tablet landed in his hand. It had been no surprise to Chat, he knew full well what Felix was capable of. His cousin had always been interested in learning self defense, and had pulled many stunts like this effortlessly in the past.

What had surprised him was Coccinelle's low whistle with a question that followed, "Do you think Adrien can fight like that?"

Chat raised a brow at them, wondering why that thought had come to mind.

Coccinelle's smile quickly became bashful at the realization that someone had heard them, "It's just– I've noticed that almost everyone in the Agreste family can fight, I find that strange. Do they all take classes or something?" They tilted their head slightly.

Chat cracked a smile and chuckled, his partner in crime never failed to make him laugh.

They weren't exactly wrong though, a lot of members in his family could put up a good fight.

But of course, Chat Noir couldn't tell them that to ease their curiosity. To Coccinelle, Chat Noir has nothing to do with the Agrestes.

So instead, he simply shrugged and have them a cheshire grin,

"I don't know, maybe you should ask him."

The advice had been a joke, that's all it was. He knew—or at least he thought—that Coccinelle couldn't actually ask him. He always thought they were some random civilian that he had never met before. Paris was a huge city after all, they could've been anyone.

With this in mind, of course your strange question with strange timing could be some major coincidence.

If he hadn't known better, he'd assume you were just trying to start a conversation.

If this was a stand alone event, he'd think nothing of it.

But Adrien did know better, and this wasn't the first time he's had his suspicions.

Ignoring the fact that You and Coccinelle shared many physical qualities, the two often reminded him of each other.

When Coccinelle talked about their passions, they reminded him of you. The way your eyes lit up, your hand gestures, facial expressions— they felt so similar.

But his brain had dismissed it.

You weren't the only person in the world who would get expressive when talking about something they loved. It was a coincidence.

Then there was that time where Adrien was watching you sketch in your notebook during class. You seemed to be struggling with whatever you were sketching. Your eyes narrowed at the drawing, as if challenging the art to argue with you. Your nose scrunched up as your lips formed a tight frown. Determination burned within your eyes, nearly burning holes into your paper.

Adrien had to double take because a part of his brain had thought Coccinelle was sitting in that school desk. They often did that too when trying to find a solution to the akuma. Chat had found it adorable, staring at them with admiration knowing that whenever Coccinelle had that look, a storm was brewing.

Adrien found himself thinking the same thing at that moment when he saw you. He would've looked into it more, but many people scrunch their noses up in frustration. Heck, he's seen Nino do it as well. It wasn't anything to look into, just a coincidence.

Just a coincidence.

He found himself thinking that a lot when it came to you and Coccinelle, more than he should.

You two smiled the same?

Just a coincidence.

You both had the same laugh?

Just a coincidence.

Have the same interests, personality traits, goals, reactions to memes, witty remarks, and voices?

Just a coincidence.

His brain would reject any thought that tried to link the two together, chanting the word coincidence over and over until he finally dismissed the idea of you and Coccinelle being one in the same.

Instead, he'd be reminded of the differences you shared, like how Coccinelle was braver but you were funnier.

However, as time passed, he found himself drawing to a blank when it came to spotting the difference between you two.

It couldn't be possible, could it?

"Adrien?"

Adrien snapped out of his daze and realized he had been staring at you, who was now nervously sweating for reasons Adrien was unsure of.

"You ok?" You asked hesitantly, offering a shy chuckle. Adrien stayed silent before turning back to his book. He couldn't look at you or else he'd find himself trying to picture you with a red and black polka-dot mask on.

"I'm fine." He mumbled, "And yeah, I can fight." He heard you whisper "I knew it" under your breath before you both went back to studying .

After that, the library was filled with silence, the only sound being the chirp of pages turning.

#adrien agreste x reader #chat noir x reader #miraculous x reader #cat noir x reader #adrien agreste #chat noir #cat noir #miraculous fanfic

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athanasius-symposium-of-writings · 3 months

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Can I req a fic where d.m. gets jealous because he thinks his s/o is flirting with the others (tuberose , gatto and maybe fiona crimson witch) but she's just being polite? Poor girl just wanted to show her appreciation to d.m.'s henchmen but he thinks that she's trying to flirt 😔😔. Thanks!

I dont picture him being the jealous type. He is very secure in his place with you but he is aware others want you in their own way. But lol he has you first

Jealousy is such an ugly emotion all creatures have, all those sentient, Sir Désire Mélodis has felt those emotions before— When he was a child. It was a natural reaction as he had shared his childhood with his beloved brother. It is natural and is addressed accordingly. He knows you have felt jealousy as he is a very loved man by many members of high society. No, not jealousy, you felt as if you were competing between them and the Detectives. He had not intended to make you believe you had to compete with Mr. Inference or Lady Truth, they were ants compared to you.

Beautiful, fascinating you who ensnares his heart with your boundless love and quick wit. You are brave yet shy, cautious yet bold. You are perfect.

“I do love how you styled your hair today, (Name).” The new maid, a witch, compliments you as she places tea down for you. You are currently reading over paperwork for your father, and Désire is happy to provide a quiet space for you to focus.

“Thank you. I had to get help to style it this morning.” Smiling as she plays with one of the hairpins. A snake wrapped around a branch with white dangling jewelry petals.

“The tea is delicious!” You took several sips, “What is it?”

“Oh, nothing special.” The Crimson Witch is idly chatting with you.

Désire watches from a dark corner, he is quite pleased to see you getting along with his associates. The one who likely will never meet is Noir as he is a solitary type. Désire was sure you would never meet Tuberose but circumstances had called for that to change.

The Lord Professor's were exposed in parts and not all were shared, this is to protect you. If something happens to him, he has plans to keep you safe.

“Mon petit gâteau,” Approaching when the witch maid leaves you to your work, “Good afternoon, any headway?” His walk is elegant, and graceful with his cane in hand. You smile big and wide for him, he leans over the chair to kiss your cheek. He stands at his full height as he reads over the paper in your hand.

“Good afternoon, monsieur,” You stretch your back out a bit, “Some. Most are bills and others are invitations.” You yawn.

“Sounds like you need a break, my love.”

You nod a bit, “Maybe. Perhaps a walk?” Tilting your head back to look up at him.

Désire shakes his head slightly, “I have a meeting to attend in the museum. If you wish to take a walk, take Tuberose along.”

You learned early on in the relationship, Désire Mélodis takes his work seriously. It is not to affront you, he just has goals and does what is necessary to achieve them. Plus his assistant is pleasant to be around though you know he is there to protect you.

“One day people are going to think I am having an affair with him.”

The bark of laughter is loud as your beloved laughs at the ridiculousness of that. The Lord professor knows every well Tuberose heart belongs to another but he is charmed by you as well. The man knows better than to attempt to seduce you both out of respect for you but a fear/respect for his colleague. Gatto though, Désire Mélodis knows the man must care for you outside of the professional realm.

A lonely boy who is fascinated by the macabre, he is no threat as you are obvious to the way the man feels.

“Wow.” Rolling your eyes playfully as you organize the paperwork and finish your tea.

“What, you want me to be the jealous lover?” When you stand up crossing behind the chair allowing your one and only to tug you close to him. “Perhaps I should lock you in my room.” Your hands are on his chest as he leans his head over your shoulder and whispers in French the most debauched things into your ear.

“Still fearing the option of the lowly populous?”

“N-no, sir…”

“Sir? Mon petit gâteau, I believe I can spare an hour to indulge.”

#idv #anon ask #reader insert #joseph desaulnier x reader #joseph desaulnier #joesph desaulnier x you #idv photographer #photographer x reader #photographer x you #identity v photographer #idv x you #idv x reader #idv joseph x reader #idv joseph #identity v x reader #identity v #identity v x you #identity v joseph

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happy74827 · 5 months

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An Extraordinary Existence

[Sam Riordan x Female!Reader]

Synopsis: After the major confusion the group faced just a couple hours before, they all take a moment to reflect what exactly their intentions are. {GIF Creds: @heronamedhawks}

WC: 1978

Category: Fluff, Slightly Plot Driven

Are you guys proud of me? 'Cause I am lmao. I finally finished the second and final part of this fic. You can find the first half of it here

The ending might be a little confusing upon first glance, so I will say that it is heavily inspired by the theory surfacing around with Sam and Black Noir.

『••✎••』

It was a couple of hours later, and Sam was sitting on a chair, his legs pulled up to his chest and his head buried in his arms. They had talked; the six of you and Sam had learned a lot. He was currently trying to take everything in.

So much had happened in the past few days, and now that he was finally getting answers, it was all a bit overwhelming.

Sam was sitting in a dorm in front of a desk. Emma was behind him, rubbing his back, and he felt like a small child. But the action was calming, and he leaned into the touch.

You had been sitting in an identical chair he was, talking, but he wasn’t really paying attention. The lights were still dimmed, and the colors were swirling, dancing across the room, and it was hard to focus.

Andre had said that the room was designed by your friend Kota, a technopath, and Sam wondered if this was a normal room for supes or if it was just you and your friends.

He guessed it was a mixture of the two.

The other four were sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed. Jordan and Marie were chatting, and Emma was listening, though she did throw a comment in here and there. It was peaceful, and the voices were soft and comforting. Is this what normalcy felt like?

Sam didn't know. He had never really experienced normal, per se, but this was as close as it was going to get, so he relished the moment. After you had shown him the "lights' as he called it, he was more comfortable around you. He didn’t know if it was a good thing or not, but he wasn't complaining.

Sam hadn’t really paid attention to the conversation, but he heard you speak up, and he was immediately interested.

"So... Sam. What did you see?"

You were fidgeting, and you were clearly nervous. You hadn’t said anything about the whole light thing and had instead moved on, saying that you would talk about it later.

Sam hesitated, his hands digging into his thighs, but the soothing movements of Emma's hand helped calm him, and he loosened his grip. He raised his head and turned towards you but didn’t answer.

Emma did.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say that we have no clue what the heck that was. I mean, one minute you were talking, and the next minute the room goes dark, and then the lights explode? What was that, even? Magic?"

She paused, taking a breath, and the silence was thick. She looked down, her hand never stopping, and then she spoke again, her voice lower, softer.

"Did you know Luke?"

Sam's head snapped towards her, and his eyes were wide.

You couldn't have known, could you?

Emma didn’t even look up, but she did respond. "I've never seen anyone look that broken before, and that includes my own family."

Her hands stopped, and her grip on his shoulder was tight, her nails digging into his flesh. It didn't hurt him as much as it should have, not when he could feel the emotion pouring off her. He didn't say anything; he just sat there and took it.

Marie broke the silence, her voice small and timid, and she was glancing around the room, her hands shaking.

"What does this have to do with anything?"

She looked so lost, and her eyes were wide.

This time, instead of Emma, you answered. "I saw him in flashes. He was trying to protect his brother."

Marie's eyes darted towards Sam, and her eyebrows were raised. She looked at him with an odd expression, her mouth slightly open and her eyes full of an emotion that he didn't understand.

Sam could feel his shoulders tense, and his heart was racing. His breath hitched, and he couldn’t breathe.

He didn't want to remember, didn't want to think about his brother. Luke, oh man, he was gone. Gone.

Sam felt a sharp pain in his hand, and he looked down, surprised. He had broken the skin, his nails digging into his palm. A single drop of blood slid down his arm, and he stared. Just stared.

"I also saw Shetty and a few other people. I only recognized her, though."

"What about Cate? She was there... wasn't she." Andre was the one who spoke, his voice low and his head hung, staring down at the ground. Sam noticed his hand twitch, and he knew that he was fighting the urge to grab his phone.

"Cate was there."

It wasn’t a question, and Andre didn't respond. His hand stopped shaking, and he didn’t even seem surprised. Instead, his expression was blank, void of any emotion.

He looked like a statue. Unfortunately, Sam could not understand the feeling.

Jordan, on the other hand, didn't seem to be as indifferent. Her eyes were narrowed, her posture stiff, and she looked ready to pounce. "Where were they, and when?"

Her words were short and clipped, and Sam could hear the anger behind the words.

"That's the thing. I don't know. The flashes were quick, and I could barely tell what was going on. I couldn't even tell you if it was a memory, a vision, or something else."

You stopped talking, your shoulders dropping. You had been looking up, meeting their gaze, but now you were staring at the floor, and your fingers were tracing a pattern in the carpet. The number eight, to be exact. Sam wasn't sure why you kept repeating it, but it was a nice pattern.

Emma sighed, and she released her grip on Sam. She stood up, crossing her arms and looking down at the four of them. Her face was blank, and Sam knew she was upset.

"So, now what? We came here for answers, and now we're more confused than before."

"We have suspicions on Shetty. We know about Cate, and now we have confirmation that they were working together. That's not nothing."

Andre didn't sound happy, but he did have a point.

"So, what? We just sit here, hoping to connect more dots until we have a pretty picture of our enemy?" Jordan switched before them, now standing, his eyes flashing. "I'm sorry, but fuck that."

"Then what do you propose we do, hm? Go back out there, running wild and blind, hoping that we don't run into Cate's mind games? And what about Sam? He can't just run free. If you haven't noticed, he has a bounty on his head. He has to lay low. We can't afford to be reckless. Not after last time."

Once again, Andre was right. Sam had no desire to go outside, where people were hunting him down and trying to kill him. No, thank you.

"We need more information. If we knew what exactly they were planning, then we could stop them." Emma was calm, and her voice was level. "And hopefully, we can get Sam out of the line of fire."

"Speaking of," Andre's eyes turned towards him, his eyes still held that emptiness. "Do you plan on speaking, or are you just going to sit there."

"...I'm, uh, good to keep sitting… here."

Your eyes lit up, and a small smile appeared on your face, and Sam was caught off guard. He could even hear a slight tinge of humor in your tone. He didn't think the words were funny, but it made him smile anyway.

"Oh my god... Why do I even try." Andre's head fell, and he dragged his hand across his face.

Emma was also smiling like you were, but it was more of an exasperated grin, and Jordan wasn't paying attention. Marie, on the other hand, was looking at him with a look that he didn't like. He didn't know her well, but from what he had seen, she was quiet and a bit shy. Right now, though, her eyes were filled with sadness, a sorrow that wasn't hers. She almost seemed like a different person.

Emma was the first to notice, after him, and her expression shifted, her smile dropping and her eyes widening.

"Marie, are you okay?"

Jordan glanced at Marie, and she turned her attention to her. Marie blinked, her face turning pink.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Just got a bit lightheaded."

Jordan didn't look convinced, and his brow furrowed.

"Are you sure?"

Marie nodded, and her blush deepened.

"Yes, I'm fine. Really."

"Alright, but if you feel like shit, tell us, okay? It could be Cate, or it could be something else. You can never be too sure."

"It's not Cate," Andre spoke up, his hand falling from his face.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Trust me, I just know."

Jordan narrowed his eyes, and his hand clenched. His knuckles turned white, and he gritted his teeth. "Care to share with the class?"

"No, I don't."

Andre and Jordan glared at each other, and the tension in the room rose. It seemed constant with these two, and Sam was starting to get a little agitated. They hadn't even been there for two hours, and they were already arguing for the tenth time.

"I vote we just stay low until we get a game plan. Maybe hide out here, get Sam some new clothes."

Sam looked down at his current attire, and he didn't blame Emma for her comment. His shirt was dirty, ripped, and covered in a variety of stains that he didn't want to think about.

"Or, we can go out there and fight."

"And end up getting ourselves killed?" Andre didn't wait for a response. "No, thanks. We can't afford another mistake, Jordan."

Jordan scoffed, and his lips curled into a snarl. "So you're saying it's my fault."

"Oh my god, guys! Please!" Finally, Marie spoke up, and her voice was high and shrill. "Can you please stop? We're supposed to be a team, not some bickering children. I agree with Emma; we should hide out, gather our strength, and come up with a plan. If we rush in blind, then we'll only make it easier for them. Cate's smart; she's not going to leave any openings. She's not an idiot."

Andre sighed, his anger vanishing. "You're right. We'll lay low for now. Get Sam some new clothes and maybe some food. Anything else?"

"Pop-Tarts?" You inquired, and Andre rolled his eyes, a small grin on his face.

"Pop-Tarts sound good." Sam agreed. It got him remembering the time he snuck an entire Costco worth of Pop-Tarts into his room, and Luke caught him eating them all during a late-night study session. Luke's face was absolutely priceless. Unfortunately, their mother caught Sam and was not happy about the mess. Sam was grounded for a month, but it was worth it. So, so worth it.

"Seriously, guys? That's the priority?"

"I'm with them, honestly." Emma was grinning; her previous stress had vanished, and her posture was relaxed. "Everyone knows the cinnamon and brown sugar ones are the best."

You flashed her a thumbs-up, and Jordan looked done.

"Are we sure Sam is still the most wanted person? I might change my vote."

"Your favorite flavor is probably strawberry. Disgusting." You were smiling, and Sam had a feeling you were joking. At least, he hoped you were. Strawberry was his favorite flavor.

"Alright, enough with the petty squabbles. Come tomorrow morning, we'll go over our game plan. We're going to take those bastards down, and we're going to get our damn lives back. Sound good?"

A chorus of agreements, Sam included.

"Good. Now, who's going to get the Pop-Tarts?"

Unfortunately for them, given what happens just a few days later, their plan to get their lives back did not happen.

Instead, Sam got a new life and a new name.

The others did not.

-Taglist-

@astrelvs334

@daddysfavoritesexkitten

@sleepy-timaeus

Enjoy guys!

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phantomrose96 · 1 year

Text

The Art of Keeping Secrets

(Back at it with writing fic for a show I've seen like 3 episodes of. I saw this comic by @cadenzarose and my brain took things in a very different direction. 1.3k words. Enjoy!)

----------------

Marinette has two secrets.

The first comes as naturally as breathing. She’s coddled it long enough, held it close enough to her heart so that it’s become part of her identity. Ladybug is her identity, and so is the fact that she may never reveal that it is. Marinette knows how to lie easily now. Deflect, deny, “Oh I don’t recall”, “No, I was walking home”, breathe in, breathe out, easy. There’s something even easier than lying, and that’s never having to lie in the first place. Marinette has learned most people aren’t so observant. Most people would never suspect her. And if they never ask, then she never has to lie.

Marinette’s second secret is so much harder to keep.

It’s new, and it squirms the way new and uncomfortable secrets do. It twists her gut and pushes sweat into her palms. It feels like lying every moment she does not say it. It feels like lying every time Adrien catches the discomfort on her face (He’s observant—at least observant enough to notice this) and asks what’s wrong. “Oh, nothing! Why do you ask?” Does he believe her? Marinette had thought she’d gotten good at lying.

Marinette’s second secret eats her. She thinks of telling someone. Luka, maybe. He would at least understand the weight of it. But she can’t. She knows Luka would do the right thing, and the right thing would ruin so many things.

“Bye, Dad! Marinette and I are heading out to see a movie. I’ll be home before 9.”

Gabriel Agreste stares at them from the heights of his beautiful staircase, stern face set to the glower of a father who doesn’t approve of anything that brings his son happiness. Least of all friends. Least of all a girlfriend.

Marinette sees so much more in that stone face.

Marinette cannot tell Adrien that his father is Hawkmoth.

It eats her all over again.

…

“I think my dad is warming up to you,” Adrien says in a courtesy whisper, even though the previews have not started yet and the theater is empty save for them and an old man nodding off 10 rows ahead. His words are full of hope so deeply misplaced Marinette wonders if he’s lying to himself. “He’s been acting way less—Marinette?”

Oh. Adrien’s looking at her. It should be wonderful to have him look at her like that. But concern creases his brow. Marinette freezes. She feels it’s written all over her face. As if Adrien only stares close enough, he’d know the words playing in her head.

Your father is Hawkmoth, Adrien.

“You okay, Marinette?”

“Oh! Yeah. It’s—I just—it’s just I just have a headache, is all.” That part isn’t a lie. Marinette is bad at lying these days.

Would it have been better if it weren’t a solo mission? If Marinette knew she’d been heading directly into the bowels of Hawkmoth’s lair, she would have called for back-up. She hadn’t known it would be Hawkmoth’s lair. It was only supposed to be the Agreste family manor. She didn’t know until it was too late. She ran before she could think to call for back-up. What would Chat Noir have thought? What would he have done? She hasn’t seen him lately. She can’t ask him. She can’t tell him this secret, anyway.

“--Marinette?”

Oh. Adrien is still talking.

“Are you sure you’re okay? I can walk you back home if you’re—”

“I’m fine!” Lies. And Marinette is a bad liar these days. “Really. Just a headache. I was up too late studying. I have some Advil. I’ll just take some and—” Marinette reaches for a backpack strap which isn’t there. Right. She’s not at school.

“Here.” Adrien hands her his bag. “I’ve got some Advil in the front pocket. Have you eaten yet?”

“Um, no—”

“Then I’ll get some water and popcorn for us. That’ll help.” Adrien stands. The worry is still on his face. “Or, really we can just head home. If you’re not feeling well—”

“I’m fine, really! Popcorn, yes—popcorn would be good!”

He smiles at her. Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth. Adrien is smiling at her and he’s concerned for her. He has no idea how much he should be concerned for himself.

“I’ll be right back.” He leans down and plants a gentle kiss on her forehead. Marinette’s nerves buzz.

He can’t ever know.

And suddenly she’s alone. Holding Adrien’s bag. And it smells like him.

The previews kick on, stuttering and sudden. Marinette startles. The man 10 rows in front jolts awake. Marinette is out of her own mind for the few moments that the first preview holds her attention. She tries to follow it, tries to absorb its distraction, but her mind always pulls her back.

Hawkmoth.

Her head hurts.

Right… the Advil. In Adrien’s bag. Adrien her boyfriend and his dad is Hawkmoth—

Breathe.

Calm down. Come down.

Adrien said it was in the middle pocket, right?

Marinette unzips the middle zipper.

Two beetle-green cat slitted eyes blink up at her. Surprised, then scared, then vanishing all together, with just the remnants of a half-nibbled wedge of cheese to confirm Marinette had seen what she’d seen.

Marinette is good at not saying the words which only Ladybug should know.

Plagg?

She stares into the after-image. The previews fall quiet, and kick into the next film. Marinette isn’t breathing right, but her heart is racing. That was Chat Noir’s kwami. She knows she didn’t imagine it. And Plagg hid himself from her, because she is Marinette, and not Ladybug.

In Adrien’s bag.

Why in Adrien’s bag?

Marinette’s breathing gets shallower. She digs her fingers deeper into the pocket, pressing against the sickly sweaty sides of cheese wedges, until she hits something smooth, something hard, something small. She clasps her fingers around it and raises a single silver ring from the bag’s depths.

Marinette isn’t breathing.

When was the last time she saw Chat Noir?

“Marinette?”

She stows the ring, and snaps to attention. Adrien’s footsteps had always been quiet. She hadn’t noticed him return. He hands her a water bottle, and she takes it with her unoccupied hand.

“Here, for the Advil,” Adrien says, and he offers the popcorn in turn, though he hesitates at the new look on Marinette’s face. “Marinette, are you—?”

“I’m—NOT feeling well, actually…” Marinette says along a shaky exhale. “I’m just gonna go home.”

“Oh. Here, I can walk you—”

“I’ll just call my dad! Really. I don’t want to get you sick.”

“Oh… Okay, well—”

Marinette shoves his bag back at him, and she tries for a nod to temper the look on Adrien’s face before she pivots and stumbles through the row of theater seats.

She presses her fingers against the ring in her pocket as she pushes out of the theater.

She has to get this back to Chat Noir.

(If he’s still alive.)

She has to protect her own Miraculous.

(Assuming Adrien doesn’t already know.)

She has to protect all the others too.

From Hawkmoth.

From Gabriel Agreste.

(From his son.)

Was it foolish of her? To assume she knew something Gabriel’s own son didn’t?

To assume she was protecting Adrien from this?

Was it because Adrien never seemed anything like Hawkmoth?

(Marinette doesn’t seem anything like Ladybug.)

Why did she assume that she and the other Miraculous carriers were the only ones good at it?

The night air feels so much colder now. It’s the sweat on her face.

The son of Hawkmoth had kidnapped Chat Noir’s Miraculous.

A car narrowly avoids her, blaring its horn as it sweeps around. Marinette only touches her fingertips to her pocket, ensuring the ring is still there. Her ears, touching the earrings in place. The ghost of Adrien’s kiss lingers on her forehead.

(Why should only one Agreste be Hawkmoth?)

Marinette has three secrets.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfiction #ml #mlb #if any of this isnt canon compliant then um. its an au :)#:)))))

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imthepunchlord · 7 months

Text

The Marinette Swap

Adrien version

I should wait for the Paris Special to come out first, but man, I can't help but ponder the potential dynamics and fun there could be just shuffling up the two Marinettes and fun it could've brought being in each other's own reality.

Like, Special!Marinette actually being in the canon world, and she's this way between Chloe's bullying and no one stepping up to help her, so she helped herself. She went punk/goth/emo, largely to piss Chloe off. And she's petty, jaded, spiteful, and cynical. Despite all this, she's still Marinette at the core. She's not going to turn a blind eye to those in critical need.

So she still rushes out to go help Fu, but she tells him off afterwards cause wth was he thinking. But hey, that warrants her getting the earrings. Maybe she just needs a bug to soften her up.

I don't know if Alya will become her best friend, as I don't see this Marinette backing down when Chloe tries to scare her out of her seat. It could be that Chloe begrudgingly backs down, shoos away Alya who goes to sit with Nino (or Marinette, liking her spitfire; though if Alya sits next to Nino that leaves Adrien to sit next to Marinette), or maybe Bustier intervenes and forces Marinette to sit elsewhere. Which maybe she sits either by Alya or Nino (or maybe Ivan?).

Idk, what happens in the classroom is up in the air.

Either way, Stoneheart happens, Marinette nopes out, and finds the earrings and there's Tikki telling her she's got to be a hero!

Only it's a lot harder getting this Marinette going cause no, is she crazy? What the heck even is she?

It takes the damage in the city to get worse to convince Marinette to go out and see what she can do, though she makes it clear she's not going to be a hero. She's going to pass the earrings on. Tikki will take it, desperate and pressed for time. So Marinette heads out a lot more prepared, internally panicking still, but having a better idea what she needs to do. She saves Chat, and gets Stoneheart resolved in just one setting.

Chat likes her efficiency and thinks she's cool, but man is she cold. He does call her Ice Queen or Red Queen occasionally, just to be teasing.

And responsible Marinette wants to pass the earrings onto someone she knows could be a good hero, only there's no one she really knows that she can pass the earrings onto and take this off her hands. So she's kinda stuck with it.

So this jaded Marinette is stuck working off the optimistic Tikki and playful Chat, with the former trying to help Marinette heal and embrace the role to be a hero while Chat is trying to get her to smile and loosen up and have some more faith in humanity. And she does perform her duties and she does help people, even if she's standoffish and doesn't have a lot of patience for people.

And their whole dynamic is just summed up as:

Now, Canon!Marinette in the Special's world is a little harder as we don't have a lot of info or seen much of it yet (outside leaks/rumors, but I don't know how true those are, the few I've seen anyway). So this is a little more creativity/headcanon territory.

But, Marinette's pretty happy in a Paris cared for and protected by the Butterfly hero, though she thinks he kinda looks like a loser, but hey, she appreciates what he does. She'll just keep those criticisms to herself.

So she's surprised one day when a curious pair of earrings show up and a little bug thing is like "Hey, you're chosen to be a hero!" and she's just so confused cause they already have a hero? But, if he needs help, Marinette wouldn't mind lending a hand, cause he's done so much, and it's not like she's going to deal with the heat of things, right? Either way, she's uncertain but she'll give it a shot.

And the hero is surprised, but he's open and welcoming, a tad controlling but she can tell he means well.

And she soon learns why she was out, as the "villain" they face is more powerful than even their Butterfly hero: Claw Noir.

Now, Marinette wouldn't call him a villain. But he certainly liked causing problems and taking his destructive power out on the city. If anything, he was more the city's... prankster. Just with destructive power.

And at worse, he was obnoxious, especially when he wanted to be petty and try and trip her up. It's getting to a point she's now carrying spray bottles, cause she's a busy hero and she doesn't need this. Her mentor has a lot of high expectations and the last thing she needs is Claw Noir turning the sidewalk to liquid cement and making her stuck for a few minutes.

And the biggest factor that assures her that Claw isn't a villain is the pure fact that if she's ever in a tight spot, he literally pops up out of nowhere and helps.

He is a good guy, probably just lashing out for some unknown reason. He just needs a few more squirts in the face.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous au #marinette swap #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #ladybug #shadybug #chat noir #claw noir #tikki #plagg #hawk moth #miraculous paris special #paris special #miraculous crack au #this does apply to an Adrien swap too

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 25 days

Note

What do you think about the love square as toxic codependent relationship?

Toxic? Yes.

Codependent? No, though it is starting to go that way.

Canon has quite effectively poisoned the love square and put them in a position where they really shouldn't be dating. At the very least, they should be working full time with personal and couples counselors to fix their myriad of communication issues because Ladybug is still keeping things from Chat Noir and now Marinette is keeping things from Adrien. Yay! Plus Adrien desperately needs to work on being open and honest about his struggles. It should not take an act of magic for him to be able to admit that he doesn't want to do a thing (Risk). And quitting out of the blue instead of talking to his partner? Doesn't instill confidence that he'll suddenly magically be good at telling Marinette if she's making him feel similarly on the civilian side of things.

This leads into the other issue: balancing how they support each other. Right now, Marinette is getting all of Adrien's support, but he's getting nothing in return, which is super depressing because canon has the perfect setup to make that aspect of the relationship balanced. Chat Noir supports Ladybug through defeating whatever Gabriel is calling his villain side, Marinette supports Adrien through the fallout of the reveal of his father's web of lies and deception. Simple! Sweet! Easy! But because Adrien can't communicate his needs and because canon decided that Marinette needed romance trauma, their relationship is horribly unbalanced.

Adrien supporting Marinette through her relationship trauma is the one thing that is arguably codependent about their relationship because holy shit was that a terrible choice! As I've discussed before, he should not be her only support in that struggle for many reasons, one of them being that it makes her mental health dependent on him. The way the show is writing him now that they're together is horrible. Apparently perfect boyfriends have no needs of their own and no hopes, ambitions, or dreams outside of making their girlfriends happy!

The ending of season five does not give me any confidence that the above issues are going to go away. I expect them to get worse because holy shit how do you end the season with Adrien newly orphaned and yet spend no time showing Marinette comforting him? I have a sinking feeling that Adrien will mourn his dad about as much as he mourned his dead-for-less-than-a-year mom because I guess healthy people don't mourn. Or maybe this is just a sentimonster thing? Like maybe Emilie ordered him to not mourn her before she died or something like that. Or maybe Adrien is programmed to only care about living people who he loves/who love him? Idk. What I do know is that I'm very over the canon square. Just terrible, terrible writing. I'm especially judgmental of it because of the target age group.

While parents/guardians can model healthy romantic relationships for their children (assuming that the parents/guardians have a romantic partner), the concept of falling in love and starting to date is something that parents/guardians can't model even if they're actively dating because you're not going to take your kids on dates! Kids will mostly learn about falling in love and dating through media and discussions of the concept, which is why I think that it's extremely important to show healthy relationships in media aimed at young kids. And even if kids are being raised in a home/homes that model healthy relationships, that's just one or two data points. We want to give them lots of data points to draw from! We should not be giving them crap like whatever the hell season five of miraculous was.

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical

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mlwritersguild · 1 month

Note

Luka/Marinette/Adrien/Kagami - No One Can Know That I Know That He Knows That She Knows That One Thing

The response to this prompt is a collaborative effort by @galahadwilder and @deinde-prandium!

---

Luka wasn’t an idiot, but there were times he suspected Kagami thought he was. In fairness to him, however, it wasn’t exactly his fault that he was trying to put some space between them since accidentally discovering that she was Ryuuko. It’s not that the news upset him or anything. It was just…he was now at three secret identities that he’d discovered, all without even trying. And he wasn’t even a Guardian! As good as he was at projecting an air of calm around Marinette and Adrien, somehow knowing about Kagami as well threatened to set him off kilter. Honestly, he didn’t know how Marinette did it, keeping the kinds of secrets she did. But it’s not like he could talk to her about the situation…or Adrien, for that matter. He shuddered to think how awkward the conversation would go if it turned out that his boyfriend, a superhero, didn’t actually realize his boyfriend and girlfriends were also superheroes…

No. He just needed time to process. And to figure out what to do. The important thing was, no one could know that he knew.

—

Kagami wasn’t an idiot, but she certainly felt like Luka was treating her like one. It’s not like she’d treated him any differently when she accidentally discovered he was Viperion— not that she told him that she knew, but still. Then again, it was one thing knowing Viperon’s secret identity, but quite another to learn the secret identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir. That discovery had thrown her for a loop, even though she really should have seen it coming, and now she found herself wishing she had a confidant. Talking to Adrien about it was out of the question, and Marinette— as the Guardian, she had enough on her plate. Luka, on the other hand…he would be an excellent secret keeper, if only it didn’t feel like he was avoiding her. Did he suspect that she knew about him? Hmm.

Whatever Luka’s motives for avoiding her, perhaps he had the right idea. No matter how awkward things got, it was critical that no one knew that she knew.

—

Adrien wasn’t an idiot, but he was starting to wonder if Marinette thought he was. Kagami had blown her identity on her first time out, and Miracle Queen had shown Luka’s directly to Hawkmoth, but only Marinette wasn’t allowed to have a Miraculous back after only he had seen her? Sure, do whatever it takes to protect your identity, but then. Luka—Viperion—had found out his, somehow, and she hadn’t seemed surprised. Which meant she knew and didn’t tell him. That hurt. He wanted to ask her about it, but he wasn’t supposed to know who she was, was he? She’d been adamant that nobody was supposed to know, but apparently it was just nobody but him.

He could get the picture. He wasn’t let in, again. And that was fine. He still cared about her, about all of them, even if they didn’t about him, so it’s not like anyone really needed to know he was hurting. It’s not like anyone needed to know he knew.

—

Marinette wasn’t an idiot. Both of her boyfriends, and her girlfriend, were all avoiding each other. Clearly there’d been some kind of fight, and all of them were… mad? Maybe?

Okay, maybe she was an idiot. Because she had no idea what had happened, why none of them were talking, and none of them were telling her anything. She’d gotten so engrossed in her duties as Ladybug, and the Guardian, that she hadn’t really kept up with her datemates, so she’d clearly missed something, and she had no idea what. And she couldn’t just ask them—they’d flip out and be mad at her and they’d stop being able to protect Paris and then Monarch would win and the city would be overrun by Nazi Zombies! No, she needed a plan. Some way to investigate what had happened. Maybe she could get the rest of Operation Secret Garden involved in her scheme? It didn’t matter. Whatever it took, she had to know.

---

Want to participate in this month’s event? Check out the rules, and send us a prompt!

#ml writers #writer spotlight #galahadwilder #deinde prandium #ml writers guild #mlb #miraculous ladybug #adrien x marinette x luka x kagami #march 2024 event #the fic i might write

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taldigi · 4 months

Note

Biggest mistake of Miraculous Ladybug was putting a lot less emphasis on the Yin Yang/ balance theme (in terms of character devalopment. Marinette and Cat boy, whichever version of him, being opposites in nature yet compliment and learn from each other).

Do you agree?

From how the show ended up being, I get the vibe that TA never really wanted to write Ladybug & Chat Noir... and just wanted to write Ladybug. It was like that at inception and even now LB is given an absurd amount of focus and importance, despite that initial stretch of development and S1 implying that they are a Yin-Yang Dynamic.

IIRC, the Black Cat miraculous is eventually demoted to "just another miraculous", even though its later shown that Plagg and Tikki are the same person split in two like a reverse Gem Fusion or some kind of Tuvix thing. The show keeps implying that they are on the same wavelength- equal but opposite in power: but they are so very clearly not as.. like I said, The Ladybug miraculous- and Ladybug by extension, is the single most important player in the game.

(There's an easy remedy that would justify the reason as to why the cat and bug HAVE to be active at the same time: Each has their own power and the ability to dispel akuma. and then make the miraculous cure into a combo move that must be performed together. To prevent widespread destruction and minimize loss of life, it must be this particular duo of miraculous. But as of now, and assumedly forever, the black cat does not need to be a part of the equation- and it would theoretically be safer to hide away the cat so that if the bug is compromised, the fate of the world may be saved: even if Paris cannot be.)

The frustration at loss of that yin-yang/opposites attract dynamic isn't an insistence that LB be should be overshadowed or overthrown in her own show- as many often claim. I've seen MANY takes and videos that insist that Adrien should be the star of the show- and while I agree that Adrien should be more proactive than reactive, I can deffo argue otherwise. He (and cat noir as extention) can exist as an intriguing deuteragonist and not dethrone LB- there is a reason Belle is the main character and not the Beast.. consider Lilo and Stitch? and of these characters, who have the stories more intertwined and intimate with the conflict at hand? Beast has the darker backstory, Stitch is more intertwined with the conflict- as it's about HIM specifically. But they are not the Protagonists. Belle and Lilo are because their movies are about them. Marinette's story isn't interesting. She has no genuine conflict. She has no uncle ben moment. She has no drive to be anything more. Even her relationship with her bullies isn't supplemented with a "I'm different or weird" conflict. She's the perfect little girl. She's good at everything, she's a prodigy. Her clumsiness is charming.

TLDR: The story would be better if they did have a yin/yang thing. Opposites- (they don't have to be enemies!) and realy played into the love square as a conflict and a back-and forth. If ML wants to tell an overarching story, then characters must grow to be interesting.

The story would also be better if Chat Noir did not exist at all, because we would waste less time trying to make a character fit in a story where he is not welcome. But I don't think it would be popular without him. Not when people are horny for adrien.

#Anonymous

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mothdotz · 1 year

Text

Marinette Cheng

… is quite the busybody, jumping at any chance to experiment and make new things. Though his eagerness to create has gotten him recognized for their talents, it also leads to many unfinished (or destructive) products.

Normally you’d find him tinkering away at her latest invention, but as of a recent it seems that her creative spirit has died down. No one knows why.

( And at school, you’d typically find them in the laboratory, but just like her recent willingness to create, his visits have dwindled. )

Older versions:

Equally important additions:

1. Gifted Kid Burnout, Baby!! (That’s possibly triggered by seeing your mentor get snatched into the shadow realm. Who knows? Marinette sure doesn’t).

2. Methinks that most of the headcanons from my old art-dump still applies here (though I have to double-check to be sure).

3. Mar’s inventions tend to (ironically) end in disaster.. but it’s the ingenuity that counts, right?

4. Yes, the suit design was inspired by Spider-Man.

5. I could spew more about Mar’s character but yknow. Mar tends to be a lone wolf in situations, not that they do it consciously! But it’s more like they’ve gotten used to having to solve problems on their own due to the people (and adults) that are in her life. While this is a great(ish) thing because of her classmates dependency on him, it also leads to Chat Noir feeling very frustrated in the midst of battle when Spots run off to do their own plan without consulting the other hero on it.

6. Mar’s creative soul is the one thing that gets her in trouble most of the time! He learns to not be afraid to step over boundaries, but that unwillingness to back down when they should can be terrible in a lot of situations. (Though, beware because Marinette’s personality may be due to change. I’m still figuring out how I want it to be).

7. Spots’/Red’s backpack (which I now realize is hardly visible) has wings giving Red the ability to fly. Spots’ backpack can also be taken apart and turn into almost any invention they want, having its only disadvantage being that they no longer have a means of transportation. The Fanny pack? I just thought it was funny… plus I think they would store candy and water in there to give to any shaken kids (or to anyone who needs it).

8. Yeah, Marinette wears a compression shirt under their hoodie + Carries around headphones in their bag bc overstimulation. (ADHD/Autism as always).

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theerurishipper · 8 months

Text

Coming back to one of the points I've made earlier but never really elaborated upon, what does it do for Adrien's arc to have everyone lie to him?

Adrien's arc is about finding his self-worth and his independence and learning how to be loved unconditionally. Gabriel is controlling and abusive and only gives Adrien a second's worth of attention if Adrien caters to his every whim. And so, you'd think that part of Adrien's arc is learning that people will love him for who he is without him having to bend to their desires, and that he has the right to make decisions for himself. But this new development as of the Season 5 finale is that, no, Adrien's loved ones actually don't want him to make his own choices. In fact, they would rather support and emulate his abusive father's controlling actions and deny Adrien his agency and his ability to make informed choices about his own life. They would rather dictate how he should feel and would rather decide what's best for him rather than giving him the choice to do so himself. This comes with its large set of very much unfortunate implications.

Under the cut because this is long.

This is a problem that started with Season 4, with the introduction of Ladybug's Gabriel-esque behavior towards Chat Noir, and the subsequent lack of proper resolution. In fact, the resolution was that Chat Noir was asking too much of Ladybug, and that what needed to be done to resolve this conflict of Ladybug keeping important secrets from Chat Noir and replacing him with other holders... was for Chat Noir to suck it up and continue supporting Ladybug. It was for him to put aside his legitimate concerns with her actions and to accept that he would never be treated the way he wants to be. It was for him to push down his own feelings and come to stay by her side even though she had not treated him well, and even though she never actually fixed her mistakes.

What is the importance of his relationship with Ladybug? For the first 3 seasons, at least, it was the escape from his abusive home life that Adrien needed, to someone who would accept him unconditionally. But Season 4 introduced the infamous Ladynoir conflict that permanently altered their dynamic. I've talked about how the Season 4 finale only served to reinforce the inequality between them. It begins with Ladybug keeping secrets from Chat Noir and pulling away from him, and it ends by him simply forgiving her because he is used to downplaying his own needs. And I don't feel the desire to rehash all that, but it does beg the question: What is the takeaway from the Ladynoir conflict? Is it that he should bend himself over to be what she needs, but she doesn't need to return the same support? Is it that Ladybug is the Flawless Leader™, and he should learn his place? Because that's the impression it gives.

Now, I've talked before about how Gabriel's abuse has caused Adrien to believe love is conditional and has to be earned by him pleasing the other person and doing whatever they expect of him. And the importance of his Chat Noir persona being more expressive and "imperfect" is that this is the only time he can let loose and have fun, free of the expectations of others. And Season 4 has him return to his trauma responses around Ladybug, the person who is narratively supposed to be the one person who accepts his imperfections and doesn't place any expectations on him. Now, Chat Noir being traumatized is not Ladybug's fault, of course, and if he is fawning over her, certainly it is not her fault. But the narrative frames this as beneficial to her. Ladybug likes when Chat Noir fawns over her as Catwalker. Over and over in the story, she takes advantage of his forgiveness and trust, and never examines herself or her actions, and never tries to fix her mistakes because he always ends up forgiving her due to his belief that his feelings don't matter. Ladybug meets Catwalker, which is literally just Adrien fawning and trying to be whatever he needs to be to please her, and she instantly falls for him.

And in a narrative sense... this is detrimental to the concept of the Love Square, because it reinforces the narrative that Ladybug will never fall in love with Chat Noir, because what she wants is the perfect image, the flawless partner. The rose-tinted glasses she sees Adrien with are not being removed, rather she is putting on a fresh, darker shade. And it doesn't say good things about their development that she falls for the perfect act almost immediately upon meeting him, the moment he swears that he'll take care of her. And I won't go into too much detail since I've covered it in my other posts, but the point is that Marinette only ever seems to fall for boys who don't inconvenience her with their emotions, and instead take care of her needs without expecting anything, and this makes it seem like she is benefitting from Adrien's trauma. And Marinette is never allowed to return the support she gets from Chat Noir in any meaningful way, and it is framed by the narrative as right and wonderful that Adrien is so nice as to put his feelings aside and support her over and over again despite her repeatedly making the same mistakes and hurting him. His trauma response is framed as a good thing because it benefits Marinette.

Season 4 was about Marinette deliberately keeping secrets from her partner, dictating his actions and outright lying to him and taking advantage of his trust at times. Decidedly Gabe-like behavior, even though it was way more toned down and way less malicious (I won't go too far with that comparison, but still). And Season 5 ends up adding more salt to the wound, by having Marinette straight out lie to Adrien about his father, dictating his perceptions and controlling his thoughts and feelings, just like Gabriel would have liked. And in fact, Gabriel asked her to do this to the son she knows he abused, and she sides with him. And it's not just Marinette. The list of people who have denied Adrien honesty just goes on and on. Gabriel, Emilie, Nathalie, Amelie, Felix, Kagami, Master Fu, Luka, Plagg, Tikki, Marinette, Alya, Su-Han... they are all, as those who knew truths about different situations, people who chose to lie to and hide information from Adrien that he was entitled to. And with the exception of Luka and Master Fu, all of these people are complicit in siding with Gabriel and denying Adrien the most important secret of all, the truth of his very existence.

Which raises the question: if Adrien's arc was supposedly about breaking free from a controlling life and finding those who didn't do that to him, then why is it that everyone around him appears to agree with Gabriel? Why does the person who, in the narrative, is supposed to be the opposite of Gabriel and the saving grace for Adrien, parallel him so much in both actions and backstory? Does that not cheapen Adrien's arc? What does that imply for him? That he can never escape the fate of being controlled? That being controlling over a person's agency is fine and dandy if done for the right reasons?

Let's take a look back over Adrien's arc. Adrien's first scene is him rebelling against Gabriel, and we see him come closer and closer to the realization that Gabriel is abusive and cruel. We see Adrien make friends like Nino and Ladybug. We see the trajectory that his arc is going in, one of him learning to reject his father and assert his self-worth and his own identity in the face of the man who has controlled him his whole life.

And yet, there are still some glaring problems that become more apparent as the story progresses, and they come to a head in Seasons 4 and 5. It's shown in scenes like in the episode Felix, where we see that despite everyone getting together to do something nice for Adrien, the moment he acts out of character, their first instinct is to admit that they don't know him very well at all. Almost all the interactions he has with his supposed best friend and his other friends are about setting him up with Marinette. Adrien only matters to them in his role as Marinette's future boyfriend. And this is not addressed by the narrative as something that should be fixed or resolved, or that it is even a problem in the first place.

Adrien's feelings are repeatedly denied in this show. From him having to simply forgive and forget how Ladybug hurt him, to him being repeatedly taken advantage of by Felix without the narrative letting him be upset over it, to his instant forgiveness of Gabriel, the narrative will not let Adrien feel anything negative towards the characters that the narrative actually cares about so as to not inconvenience them. His only purpose is to prop them up and bend to their needs, and anything he might realistically feel against them is invalidated and forgotten because it would go against his role of being their motivation/prop/plot device.

We also see a problem with narrative focus for him. Adrien is not the protagonist of the show, and my criticism is not that he does not get as much screentime as Marinette. The issue is that even the dedicated screentime he does get outside of being shipped with Marinette and being a part of the battle of the episode, the screentime that should be used to develop his character is often cut into by the writers' desperate need to shove Marinette into every single plot and have her be the focus of every episode. Episodes that should have focused on Adrien's loneliness like Puppeteer 2, or episodes dedicated to Adrien's friendships with others like Party Crasher, or even episodes like Gabriel Agreste which should have focused on the Agreste drama, are ultimately about Marinette trying to confess her feelings for Adrien. But this really shows itself in Chat Blanc, where the main plot of the episode is one where Gabriel's abuse of Adrien is ramped up to the max, and one where Adrien undergoes unimaginable and incomprehensible trauma, and the only thing that truly matters about it is... how it affects Marinette.

And as I said, Season 4 takes this to a new level. Ladybug, the one supposed to be Adrien's escape from his civilian life, is also someone who he fawns around. And that inherently is not a bad thing to depict, because it is not Ladybug's fault that Chat Noir is traumatized, and it is realistic that this happens. What is a problem though, is the way the narrative never paints this as a trauma response. Chat Noir pushing aside his feelings and supporting her as she repeatedly hurts him over and over is treated as good and nice of him, without her having to examine herself or realize she's treating him badly. And in the end, he accepts that he'll never be treated like he wants to and comes back to support her in her hour of need, and simply shoves his feelings away, never to complain about them again. I mentioned that Ladybug benefits from Chat Noir's civilian abuse, and this is how. Chat Noir is allowed to be traumatized, but only as long as it doesn't affect Marinette. Then, his trauma response is not only beneficial, but also the romantic and right thing to do. And, as Kuro Neko said, the answer to the issue of Ladybug keeping secrets and making mistakes is for Chat Noir to stop being so sensitive and just push his feelings away to support her. Chat Noir's trauma does not matter.

And Season 5 only doubles down on this. Adrien's rebellion against his father only matters now because the end goal is for him to date Marinette. The issue of him being a Sentimonster only matters because now it's getting in the way of him dating Marinette. But it could have been fine. Development is development, and the scene where Adrien finally confronts his abuser and asserts his right to be an individual and have autonomy over himself will still be an empowering moment that shows him breaking free of abuse-

He is not in the final battle.

Instead, Marinette is the one to face Adrien's abusive father, by merging Adrien's Miraculous with hers, by facing him off in Adrien's home. Marinette is the one who stands up to Gabriel and faces him. Marinette is the one who completes Adrien's arc for him. It was never about Adrien facing off against his father. It was all a set up for Marinette to do it.

As we all know, Thomas Astruc has gone on record on Twitter to say that Chat Blanc was the reason that Adrien could not participate in the final battle. Chat Blanc, which happened in Season 3, two seasons before Adrien rebelled to this extent against his father, before he underwent that little thing in writing called character development. In Season 4, we watched Ephemeral which more or less rehashed the same points as Chat Blanc, and in Season 5, we watched Representation, where Adrien's final interaction with his father was to be sprayed with nightmare gas and be unable to fight in the final battle (even though Bug Noire managed whilst also suffering from nightmares). We saw these ridiculous excuses be used to contrive a reason for why Adrien could not participate in his own arc, in his own story, even though they could have been easily resolved.

Throughout Season 5, we see the parallels being built up between Marinette and Gabriel, about how they both came from the same situations, and how alike they are in that regard. Previous parallels established between them that the show does not acknowledge as much as it should are their controlling streak (though Marinette is nowhere near as bad as Gabe) and them being willing to do anything for the people they love ("love" being questionable in Gabe's case). Marinette is the one who hears the truth of the Agreste family. In the Season 5 finale, Marinette and Gabriel are the ones that face off against each other. Adrienette was rushed up to come to full fruition in Season 5 despite it hampering the development of the Love Square, all in an attempt to connect Marinette to the Agreste plot. Therefore, Adrien was only ever a plot device so that Marinette could have a stake in the Agreste plot. He is there to connect Marinette and Gabriel and give them something to fight over. Their fight is about him and what is best for him, but he has no agency in it despite it being about him. He only exists as the prize for the winner.

I've talked about this before, but the jist of it is that Adrien was never meant to have an arc about breaking free of abuse. He was never meant to confront his father. Adrien's story only mattered so that Marinette could use it in her speech to talk Gabe down. Adrien's feelings only mattered as far as they affected Marinette herself. He was just meant to be there to further her development. His main contribution to the arc with his last name was to give up his agency and step aside for Marinette, and this is what his role has been throughout the show. All his character was meant to do was be the damsel in distress who she could receive as her trophy once she defeated the big bad villain.

Everything Adrien's character was meant to do was to be Ladybug's prop to offer he support when she needed it, to offer her a connection to the main plotline, and to be her prize after she won. His feelings, his emotions, his trauma... they all only mattered in the context of what they meant for Ladybug. If they inconvenienced her, they were unimportant. If they benefitted her, they were good. He took the blame for her mistakes so that she didn't have to be held accountable, he forgave her so that she didn't have to work to fix her mistakes, and he continued to support her when she didn't really return the favor. Because that is Adrien's role, to be Marinette's emotional support partner who conveniently comes pre-abused and ready to downplay his feelings and emotions to cater to hers while not asking or expecting anything of her. He only exists to take care of Marinette's needs, not as his own character.

And this writing of Adrien's trauma as secondary to Marinette's convenience is a really awful way to write an abuse victim. Not allowing him to prioritize his own feelings and portraying it as a good thing when he fawns over Ladybug is a really awful and bad way to portray his trauma stemming from his abuse. But good thing the fact that he is a victim of abuse is respected at least with regards to his relationship with his abuser, right?

Right?

It's been discussed before how Gabriel's actions are downplayed and minimized in order to afford him maximum sympathy, to portray him as just a misguided and lost soul, instead of as a terrorist and abuser (credit to @erisluna35 for their great post on the matter). The show denies Adrien an opportunity to confront the man, and instead, the good ending is that his victim forgives him. One way the show downplays Gabriel's abusiveness towards Adrien is by having Marinette want to work with him to find a solution for Adrien, implying that his only crime was to not think of Adrien's well-being, and that the only intentions he had for Adrien were correct, fatherly ones that he just lost sight of, and that if he had paid attention to Adrien, he would have been an excellent and loving father, instead of it being that he actively mistreated his son and therefore should not be trusted or allowed to make any sort of decision regarding Adrien's future. He was always "just a man who loves his family" deep down, and he always had only good intentions and a pure heart, and he simply forgot about what he had in pursuit of an ideal family for that son, instead of it being that he was an abusive, controlling person who whittled down his son's self-worth and treated him like a possession, like property, like a doll that was made to cater to his wishes, and that he only ever wanted his wife back for himself and not for his son.

And this just suggests to me that Gabriel's actions... are not meant to be read as abusive. His only crime was paying attention to the Miraculous over his son. Not the gaslighting, the manipulation, the lifelong isolation, the controlling, the physical violence in some realities, the fucking sensory deprivation chambers... those were all not abuse, I guess.

This is confirmed by the fact that Marinette and everyone else lying to Adrien about his existence because Gabriel asked them to do so is framed as a good thing and as proof of Marinette's love for Adrien or something. They are quite explicitly doing what he says, literally following his wishes on how to treat his son. And yet, their actions are not framed as toxic and controlling as they should be, but as selfless and kind towards poor Adrien who won't be able to handle the truth because he's too emotional and weak. Despite this being classic Gabe rhetoric, this is supposed to be seen as sweet and heartwarming and touching, that Marinette is oh so selfless to deny Adrien the information he is entitled to know and to make that choice for him. This tells us that the writers don't really see how Gabriel treated Adrien as... wrong. They don't see his actions are wrong, because when Marinette does it, it's fine! The issue, then, isn't that Gabriel is an abuser who denies his son his autonomy, it's that Gabriel did all these things for the wrong reasons, and Marinette is doing them for the right reasons.

Indeed, the parallelisms, whether intentional or not, between Marinette and Gabriel only serve to further downplay the magnitude of Gabriel's abuse of his son. The problem wasn't that these things are wrong and awful, it's that Gabriel did them because he was Evil and Marinette is doing them because she's Good, and when you're Good, it's okay to gaslight your boyfriend into loving his abuser. There's nothing inherently wrong or abusive about anything Gabriel did. The issue, in fact, is not that he did these things, but his reasonings for them. While it's okay if Marinette denies Adrien the right to be informed of his own life because she feels he is too emotional to be able to make his own choices, because she is Pure and Good and she Loves Him So Much.

And for another example, consider how Emilie Agreste is framed as a perfect and loving and wonderful mother, even though she allowed Adrien to be isolated his whole life and is also heavily implied to have been using the mind control rings on him, since there are two of them. This kinda shows that the writers don't really think mind controlling is abuse or even wrong. It's just wrong because Gabriel is Evil, but Emilie is Pure and Good and therefore allowed to abuse her child this way.

But I don't think the writers were malicious about this. Despite his questionable tweets, I don't think Thomas Astruc doesn't care about abuse. I don't think the writers were deliberately trying to infantilize the abuse victim in the story. I just feel like they don't understand that what they portrayed is abuse. And yet, it comes off as them invalidating the trauma Adrien suffered, but I don't think that would be intentional. The explanation I have for this, therefore, is that Adrien is not supposed to have trauma. Adrien is not supposed to be read as a victim of abuse.

I've mentioned the Marinette-Gabriel parallels, but let me add one more. Adrien is the plot device that furthers Marinette's character, but he also fulfills the same role for Gabriel.

Throughout Season 5, we see Adrien rebel against his father more and more, and it was expected that this would culminate in a final confrontation where Adrien would confront his abuser in his entirety. But Adrien was not a part of this final confrontation, so the arc wasn't about him, and it stands to reason that it must have been for some other character. We see that it is for Marinette, since she was the one who fulfilled what should have been his arc and got the moment that should have been Adrien's. But who was on the other side of this confrontation? Who was the one the speech was directed towards? Who did Adrien connect Marinette to?

It is Gabriel.

Adrien's callout of his father does not matter for furthering his character, but for furthering Gabriel's character. His calling out of Gabriel is less a way for him to finally realize that his father's treatment of him is cruel, and more of a way for Gabe to be seen a tragic, fallen villain. Adrien's callout of his father is not about him, it's about Gabriel and how he feels about it. The finale deals not with Adrien's feelings about being failed by his father, but how Gabriel feels about having failed him. Adrien's increasing rejection of his father is not used to finish the arc he should have had, but it is used in Gabriel's instead. And Gabriel's redemption comes from him being praised by his victim, who aspires to be like him. Adrien was only ever there to progress Gabriel's arc, not the other way around. Adrien had no real agency in the matter, and Gabriel's increasingly cruel treatment of him was only ever there to highlight how far he himself had fallen and was never really about Adrien realizing the truth about him.

And once Gabriel makes the choice to "change," he is rewarded with the forgiveness and love of his victim, who is there to conveniently express to the viewer how we should feel about him. Adrien is there to call out Gabriel when Gabriel is being Bad and Evil and is there to then inform the viewers that Gabriel is Good now by forgiving him and forgetting all his mistakes. Because Adrien forgave Gabriel and isn't Gabriel so wonderful now that he's made up for his mistakes and his victim has forgiven him and even looks up to him?

The main highlight of Gabriel's supposed redemption is the forgiveness of his victim, further highlighting the point that Adrien only existed as a character to push Gabriel's narrative, and not as a victim of abuse who is entitled to decide whether or not to forgive this man. Adrien did not forgive Gabriel because of a natural and believable development in his arc, he forgave him because he is ultimately a plot device to exposit about the current state of Gabriel's arc and to show the viewer what kind of a man Gabriel is, and Gabriel is good now, and so he must be validated through the forgiveness of his victim. Adrien is a prop in Gabriel's arc, who shows us the tragedy of Gabriel's fall and the future redemption of his "selfless sacrifice." His character that of "Gabriel's son," to take us through Gabriel's arc, and not a character of his own.

And since Adrien's ultimate end is to show that Gabriel is a good man after all, it also lends credence to the interpretation that, no, he is not traumatized after all. Nothing actually happened to Adrien himself, because he is only a plot device, not a character. He is there to let us know the tragedy of the man Gabriel. He is just there to let us know where Gabriel is in his arc. We see this in the way his development in just completely erased once Gabriel is "redeemed." His reactions don't make sense in the context of his arc, and it's OOC how he goes from calling out his father for who he is and then reverting back to worshipping him and forgetting all his flaws. But when you consider that the purpose of his character is less being his own character and more about highlighting and pushing forward Gabriel's arc, they make a lot more sense. His reactions don't make sense for the development that he has received throughout the season, but it makes sense if you consider that he is just a cog in Gabriel's story, and that his arc only matters as far as it affects Gabriel's arc. His struggles only matter as far as they affect Gabriel. Just like they only matter in the way they affect Marinette. Adrien doesn't get to learn anything, choose anything or even do anything if it is not about Marinette or Gabriel.

But to go back to the question at the beginning of the post, what purpose does it serve in Adrien's arc to have everyone he knows lie to him?

The answer is that Adrien does not have an arc.

Of course, it seems like he does. He does show some form of growth in calling out his father, so it would appear. But the arc of realizing his father is abusive, the arc of realizing that he deserves to make his own choices, that he deserves unconditional love... does not exist. He is only a plot device in the story, meant to be the motivation for the protagonist and the antagonist. Any arc or character complexity he has is largely accidental. His story about being a victim of abuse is unimportant and non-existent, and the show itself denies him agency and the ability to have any meaningful impact on the story outside of his role in the arcs of the main characters of the show. He has nothing of his own happening for him, he has nothing to do with his own life and family. All he matters for is to be the prop for Gabe's redemption and the prize for Marinette. His only role is to connect these two so that they can duke it out.

He has no autonomy, no agency, no nothing outside of being what Gabriel and Marinette need. We can scream until we're blue in the face about how Adrien feels the need to put on masks to please everyone and has been conditioned into believing his worth is based on pleasing others and that his emotions don't matter, and to be fair I will not stop making those analyses myself, but the fact remains that this is his narrative role. The narrative validates the abuser, both through the actions of the characters around Adrien and the framing of his arc. The characters around him don't treat him as a person as much as they treat him as Marinette's boyfriend, or as someone who doesn't get to make informed choices and should be kept in the dark because he is too emotional. The narrative treats him as a doll who must bend to the needs of the real characters with arcs and a story in the show, as a character who does not have agency and any value of his own beyond being what other characters need. His supposed development is only there to highlight Gabriel's fall. His own feelings and trauma are invalidated in favor of focusing on Marinette. Nothing he does is about him, it's about the main two characters in the show.

The show goes out of its way to remove him from the conflict. There are two episodes devoted to how he cannot ever find out about his father. He gets sprayed with nightmare gas. Fuck, even the only importance of him being a Sentimonster is to make sure that Adrien cannot find a way to break free of Gabriel's control and actually contribute to the plot. The Sentimonster plotline is mainly meant to make sure that there is no way that Adrien would be able to break free of Gabriel's control, hence he cannot take part in the final battle. Its very existence in the story boils down to being a convenient excuse for Adrien to not be a part of the finale. The only importance of the rings is ultimately so that Marinette can have a moment to slide it on his finger while ambiguously either giving him an order or not (I wouldn't be surprised if it was since the show doesn't seem to think mind control is wrong) to show that she's Good and Not Like Gabriel. The Sentimonster thing is textually a plot device to make characters unable to do anything because they physically can't. And it only serves to reduce Adrien into even more of an object, because he's now literally an object. The deeper ramifications of Adrien being a Sentimonster are never explored. It literally only exists to deprive Adrien of more agency so that Marinette can get into the spotlight. The only thing that matters about it is that it is now in the way of Adrienette, once more only focusing on how Adrien's issues affect Marinette.

Adrien is literally reduced to being a part of the magic slave race, because he cannot under any circumstance be a part of the finale and be the one to confront his abuser. And to a smaller extent, this is also the case for Felix and Kagami, two people who have a closer connection to the plotline beyond "fighting the guy who won't let me date my boyfriend." They are also Sentimonsters, and therefore have no choice but to rely on Marinette to save them and cannot fight alone even though Felix had no problem with that in the last season. The Sentimonster plotline is just an excuse to remove anyone with closer ties to Gabriel than his son's girlfriend from the conflict. Either they are working with Gabriel, or they are part of the slave race and cannot fight him, leaving only Marinette to do that for them. But like, at least Felix and Kagami got to make an informed choice about it without being lied to by everyone.

And this denial of abuse and the invalidating of Adrien's trauma leads to some pretty crazy abuse apologism for Gabe. And yes, reducing the impact of Gabriel's abuse, trying to pass him off as "just a man who loves his family," and denying the abuse that Adrien suffered throughout the show is in fact, abuse apologism. And the creators' insistence that Adrien was not emotionally mature enough to fight his father, being that this was the point of Chat Blanc all along apparently, also falls into this same trap of implying that abuse victims are not capable of making sound decisions and having autonomy over their own life, and isn't it so nice that Adrien is now Marinette's doll instead of being Gabriel's. It's victim blaming garbage, and it is frankly really gross. But in the narrative tells us what Gabriel has been telling us from day one about Adrien, that he is too emotional, that he must be protected, that he cannot make his own choices and his autonomy is better left in the hands of others, that his only purpose is to be a doll and a prop for the people around him. He only matters as far as he is useful to them.

And if you want to see the most damning example of Adrien being irrelevant outside his role as the motivation for the two people who actually drive what should be his story, look no further than Chat Noir.

Chat Noir is the only thing that indisputably belongs to Adrien. Chat Noir is him asserting his agency, his freedom, his choices. Chat Noir is his. And Chat Noir is not part of the finale. Not even in terms of physical presence. Chat Noir is an absolute non-entity in the finale. I'm not talking about Adrien; I mean Chat Noir. Chat Noir, who spent nine months fighting Monarch by Ladybug's side. Chat Noir, the owner of the Black Cat Miraculous. Chat Noir in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir, is missing in both body and mind from this final battle against his father. The one part of his life and the one part of the story where Adrien had any agency and autonomy of his own, was removed entirely from the finale. Chat Noir was reduced into nothing, to mean nothing. Because Ladybug only went there for Adrien and not to finish her and Chat Noir's fight.

Ladybug didn't fight Monarch in order to end their months-long crusade, she didn't acknowledge that Chat Noir was at least there with her in spirit, she didn't come to Monarch to put an end to the battle that they'd fought for so long with any intentions of at least wanting to carry his fight along with her to bring their enemy to an end, she wasn't there for both of them. She came there for Adrien. She came there to look for Adrien. And the symbol of Adrien's agency, Chat Noir's ring, was on her finger throughout her fight with his father over him. Chat Noir did not matter.

I'll say it again. Adrien had nothing. He was only a tool for Marinette and Gabriel. His role was to be passed on from Gabriel's clutches to Marinette's. And it paints a very bad picture that the one reduced to the role of the plot device is the abuse victim. And for anyone who doubts that Adrien is supposed to be Marinette's plot device, Thomas Astruc has helpfully made my point for me by tweeting that Adrien is Ken and Marinette is Barbie, and that we should just deal with it because it's not going to change. And I hope that this also makes it clear that we will not be dealing with the fact that Marinette is siding with her boyfriend's abuser and doing what he wants, because Marinette is always right, and Adrien doesn't get to have feelings that inconvenience her and only exists to prop her up.

The show makes it clear that he is just an object in the story from the way he's written as a damsel in distress who needs someone else to come save him, and this is taken even further by the fact that he is literally a puppet who can be mind controlled. It takes away Adrien's story of regaining autonomy and informs us that he was never supposed to have autonomy and never can, making it clear that he was never really supposed to have any arc of his own. He was never supposed to break out from his father. His end was to become Marinette's boyfriend and to worship Gabriel. Because that is how their arcs end, and their plot device must go along with it regardless of narrative implications or established characterization.

But that is Adrien's purpose in the show. For Marinette to beat the villain, and to receive his son as her prize for doing that. His abuse and trauma are secondary to Marinette's needs, and him being a victim of Gabriel's abuse is secondary to him being the vessel for Gabriel's redemption. He is only there to be a source of motivation for these two characters and to cater to their arcs. Marinette and Gabriel are the only ones who matter, who have agency in the story. Adrien is just a simple plot device to push their arcs, instead of having one himself. There is no arc for the abuse victim. He exists solely as an object, as property, as a damsel in distress, as a doll. There is no agency and autonomy for him in this story. And that is the unfortunate truth.

#MLB #Adrien Agreste #ML Salt #ML Writing Salt #ML Writers Salt #Marinette Salt #Felix Salt #I guess?? Tagging to be safe mostly #S5 Finale #Sentimonsters #Meta #My meta #Abuse tw #Abuse cw #Ladynoir conflict

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theographos · 1 year

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Marinette and the original trauma

I have storytelling classes in college, and the very first thing we learned is that a character always starts by “the original trauma”. It can be the loss of a parent like Batman or Spider-Man, or something like 'that character was bitten by a dog when he was a kid, and now they are afraid of every dog that they see.' The point of this trauma is to shape the personality of a character, more importantly their fears and their inside battle. For example that character who is afraid of dogs, well he needs to have a job, and the only one he found is in a dog shelter. The point is to make the character deeper and to give them a starting point for their growth. Here is the problem : Adrien Agreste fits this condition, but Marinette Dupain-Cheng do not.

Adrien’s original trauma would be the disappearance of his mother. Yes his parents were already a bit abusive before (His only childhood dream was to be the perfect child his parent wished for. I’m not saying that wanting your parents to be proud of you is wrong, i’m saying that if it’s the only thing you ever wished to be as a kid, maybe your parents aren't the best), but everything went downhill after his mother disappearance. Gabriel became distant, he ended up even more alone, etc... And that's where we find him at the beginning of the serie, and it's a recurring theme with that character.

Marinette ? I can’t see anything to be honest. (edit : now with the recent episodes we have something that could be refered as her original trauma. But, it's something we learn way too late, and it's about something that has been used for comedy purposes since the beginning of the show. In other words, it's just a last minute change. It's something that should have been done in the beginning, and i'm not going to give them credit for doing the bare minimum so many season after the beginning of the show.) Her mistake with Felix at the end of season 4 could count as an original trauma, but it’s a bit late. A character can have an original trauma during the story, and can also have one after several seasons (it could be because the character’s growth has come to an end, but not the story. So something happens, and boum another trauma that the character will have to work with. It’s similar to the original trauma without really being one though), but here the mistake with Felix would be more of a trauma that starts off a new kind of character growth for Marinette. It doesn’t define her fears and her character in general since the beginning of the show, unlike Adrien.

But what is her original trauma ? Because without it, it becomes harder to care about her. Sure she is a nice girl (except with that poor Chat Noir), she is smart and makes us laugh. But to be honest, I never really liked Marinette, that is until season 4.

This season has so many bad sides, but also so many good ideas. And making Marinette’s mental health a subject that is often talked about is something that I like very much. We saw her having panic attacks, isolate herself and the first thought we had was “omg we should protect this girl”. BOOM we care about that character.

What kind of original trauma could she have then ?

Well if we want to go in Thomas Astruc’s view of how the show should be, we could say that she has been bullied by Chloe a long time. Because of that, she never has been able to fight for herself, raise her voice at someone, Chloe made her insecure and she began to doubt herself for everything. She even started to be clumsy, because she’d doubt her ability to do things, so she would stress about everything and the terrible thing she didn’t wanted to happen, well happened. She was isolated, and only the new girl, Alya, started talking to her. No one really paid attention to her, which would explain how she started to like Adrien that quickly. He was the first boy with who she shared a more or less romantic situation.

Here we have the reason why Marinette started the new year of school without any close friends in her class, why the lesson of not letting someone walk all over you in the Origin episode is so important, why Marinette's over controling personality became worse with time (she is finally in a position of power where she more or less controls what happens to her, and it goes to her head and forgets that there is people that cares about her), it gives her a way to bound with Adrien (the feeling of being lonely for so many years and the difficulty of making friends) and an explanation to why her first reflex is to isolate herself when she is not feeling well.

But, if we want to give to Chloe a redemption arc easier to understand for a younger audience and and easier to make (it would be kinda hard to forgive a character when the main character still suffers because of that character don’t you think ?), there is other options. Maybe Marinette was admiring Chloe, and started lying in order to gain her attention, but it never worked. So she started to hate her, and Chloe hated her too for trying to be the center of attention.

That way, it’s a nice parallel between Marinette and Lila and a way to show how Marinette is different from Lila. It could explain why she hates liar and liying to her parents, but also why sometimes she does it without thinking. She is so used to lying that it’s hard for her to get rid of this habit, but she is trying, while Lila isn’t.

And if we want to give her a parallel with Papillon (because Adrien already has one, he lost Emily too and yet he didn’t go crazy) we could give Marinette something to obsess about. For example, when she was younger, her parents told her that being a fashion designer wasn’t a real job, or some kids mocked her designs or something dear to her. Her only place of comfort was with a person, like a member of her family, a pet or a neighbor. Either that pet/person ended sick and died or they disappeared. If they were sick and died, well it’s been a long time, but it still hurts. Her clumsiness is maybe a way to show that : She wasn’t clumsy before that person/pet’s death, but it had consequences on herself and now she doubts herself constantly and falls (for example). She maybe hates liar because of that, because she wasn’t aware of the sickness until it was too late (for example, her parents hid it from her to protect her, or that very same person hid it), and now she hates liars in general.

With that, we could show that it’s harder for her to lie about her secret identity. And maybe when she learns about the wish, she still think it’s bad but she kinda wants to use it. And as time flies she becomes more and more desperate to use it, until season 5. She sees how Monarch is because of his obsession with the wish, and does not want to become like him.

If that person disappeard, maybe it could be because of Hawkmoth. Either they were close to Emily, went away to find a cure and never came back, either they are now Gabriel’s secret henchman, and kinda like in Spider-man : Into the spiderverse that person and Ladybug fight each other, until they learn the other’s secret identity. Or if we want to be really dark, that person died because of Gabriel. Either they tried to stop him a long time ago and he got rid of them, worked for him and saw something that they shouldn’t so he had to kill them to make sure his secret was safe, or they worked for him but kinda like Nathalie, they were so devoted to him that they gave their life for him. (then Nathalie discovers it and understands that he does not really care about the people who are devoted to him in the end.)

The main hero having lost someone because of the bad guy/being bullied/discovering that a close one works with the bad guy are tropes that are often used in the superhero genre. They were obvious choices. I also gave one less common : the “Marinette used to lie, but she tries to get rid of this habit”.

To be honest, adding this important step of Marinette’s character would have not changed a lot of things in the show. What I mean is, doing this important step of her character would not stop her from falling for Adrien, from being insecure about being a good Ladybug. It would've actually helped to picture her as a strong heroine. It could’ve even help when the writers lacked of inspiration sometimes. You don’t know how to relate this episode’s bad guy with a main character ? Well maybe if Marinette had an original trauma you would...

Anyways, as I said in another post, the writers, animators and concept designers did the best they could with what they had and what the producers wanted the show to be. I can’t be mad at them so I just give all of my hopes to the fanfiction writers

#mlb fandom #mlb critical #mirauclous ladybug #miraculous fandom #miraculous season 4 #miraculous ladybug season 5 spoilers #mlb season 5 spoilers #marinette deserves better #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #miraculous ladybug #miraculous rewrite

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