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miraculouslbcnreactions · 8 months

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I've recently come across a couple of season 4 fanfics that dealt with the Chat Noir feeling left out and quitting thing and every time I read one I can't help but think "man did they chose the wrong side of the masks AND the wrong characters for this conflict. Chat Noir comes across terribly here". It's weird to see people try and justify his behavior and act like Ladybug was in the wrong.

Was Ladybug being the best friend ever? No, but friendship is secondary when they're wearing the masks. Paris comes first. Chat Noir quitting because he doesn't feel special enough is literally him endangering everyone he loves because his crush isn't paying enough attention to him and I truly can't tell if the show wanted us to feel like he was in the right or the wrong here. In Kuro Neko, Catwalker actually does acknowledge the lesson he needed to learn

There's nothing wrong with you. Maybe the boy who was Cat Noir was more sensitive than it seemed. But his feelings for you shouldn't force you to pay more attention to him than to others. You take care of everybody equally, Ladybug.

And Chat Noir apologizes at the end of the episode for causing Ladybug trouble, but the whole thing is incredibly lackluster. They don't actually have a meaningful conversation about why he was feeling that way and the rest of the season seems to present Ladybug as being in the wrong, especially the final! Trusting Alya leads to nothing meaningful and not trusting Chat Noir loses her the miraculous. Basically, I still have no idea what season 4 was trying to do with this conflict and it's been dropped forever now that Adrien is fully reduced to nothing more than arm candy.

HOWEVER, this basic setup could have been a fantastic b plot if the "Adrien doesn't feel needed" conflict wasn't a Ladynoir conflict, but was instead a conflict between Adrien and Nino. Move Rocketear up to earlier in the season and have the fallout from that be that Adrien's relationship with Nino is strained. He can still feel leftout because Ladybug has a bigger team now, but instead of him pouting about it and skipping fights, focus on how that need for connection has transferred to his civilian life, but he doesn't have Kagami or Nino now and he's lost. Then you can either have an Adrien and Nino b plot because that relationship needs more screen time OR you use this to make Adrien and Marinette start to grow closer because Rocketear's fallout is also Alya paying more attention to Nino. Then, when season 5 does the whole crush switch, it actually feels earned.

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical #adrien deserves better #marinette deserves better #ml season 4 salt #Can you tell that I'm a little tired of fics that try to blame Ladybug for Chat Noir feeling left out?#It's reasonable for him to have those feelings but boy did they have him express them in a way that was totally unbecoming for a hero #She's a little too busy saving the world and trying to stay sane to worry about his emotions #Especially when he never actually tells her that something's wrong #Though I will absolutely grant you that he needed to know about the Alya situation and keeping him in the dark was BS #I love Alya but that plot was so stupid for so many reasons #It felt like it was just added for cheap drama and not because it was a good addition to the show

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gale-gentlepenguin · 2 months

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Ask game: Nino wasn't the Devil in Rocketear, like yeah he was in the wrong but a lot of teenage boys probably would've acted in a similar way to him if they thought their gf was getting close to a hotter guy than them, I don't think he deserves to be demonized forever over that episode.

I didn’t think anything negative over it, if anything it actually made me laugh.

His GF was acting sketchy, and he wanted to know what’s up. He tried talking with her several times. Then he decided to play detective and came to the wrong conclusion. It happens.

Plus he’s 14! He’s allowed to make a mistake. If he did this again in the future you can be more concerned.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #nino lahiffe

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howhow326 · 7 months

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You are still my beloathed.

But the way Nino is utilized in the show is laughable despite being a main character. Like, compared to Alya, who:

Got at least two focus episodes in season 1 (Lady Wifi, Pharaoh)

Got her parents introduced through cameos and her sisters got focus episodes in season 2

Didn't get anything in season 3, but Nino Didn't either lol

Got an actual character arc in season 4

Got to be replacement Ladybug in season 5

Nino gets:

A focus episode that's about his relationship with Adrien (Bubbler)

A focus episode about his relationship with Alya (Animan)

Another focus episode about his relationship with Alya (Anansi)

One of the worst episodes in the whole show (Rocketear) that is again about his relationship with Alya

Another awful episode (Illusion) that is not only about Nino's relationship with Gabriel of all people but establishes him as an idiot

5 seasons, eight years, and we know more about Zoe's home-life than a character who has been here since the beginning.

... I think boys getting dramatically less focus than girls is a running theme with this show (cough Adrien cough)

#ml salt #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #ml writers salt #alya sugar #nino salt #adrien sugar #thomas astruc salt

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clarkgriffon · 2 years

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one gifset per episode → rocketear

#miraculousladybugedit #miraculous ladybug #mledit #ml #mlseries #creations #nino lahiffe #adrien agreste #my poor son dfkgjlkljdgkjlf

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tranqviridii · 3 months

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Kuro Neko Rant

Kuro Neko was definitely an episode where Ladybug was being unfavorable. We can follow her to how being guardian and shouldering all this responsibility can be really overwhelming for someone so young as her and how it affects her relationship with her partner Chat Noir. Chat/Adrien is evidently a comfort character of mine but I can understand where Ladybug is coming from! Marinette has made so many sacrifices to hold the title as Ladybug and bear the responsibility as guardian of the miraculous.

Throughout Season 4, Chat Noir has been showing signs of being angry and excluded from the loop. Examples being, Scarabella's first appearance, The entire episode of Rocketear, and in general, not receiving any explanation from Ladybug...building up to the point that Chat Noir feels that his presence isn't needed to save the day. To the actual episode, Kuro Neko is supposed to be the episode where Chat Noir finally says enough after being neglected by Ladybug as a core member of the team, THEIR team. The episode begins with Ladybug answering a curious news reporter about the Chat Noir's lack of appearance during these akuma fights and to this she responds "He's a partner like any other. We must pick the best superheroes for each mission, with or without Chat Noir." The very last bit hits Adrien as he's watching this on the news particularly to the heart. The worst part is that there's just no reason as to why Chat Noir wouldn't be considered the best for the mission as these are all akumas that THEY'VE FOUGHT BEFORE. Hell if they can defeat Mr. Pigeon 72 times and more in the span of less than 10 minutes, why would Ladybug recruit 4 heroes to immobilize the same baby villain they've fought before with ease. Before, Passing out miraculouses meant they needed one or two specific powers to help fight a certain villain instead of recruiting 4 to serve the same purpose. Plus! Ladybug has defeated villains by herself before. The problem with this is that she needs to recruit 4 superhereos to compensate for Chat Noir's position in the team. Chat Noir goes to help Ladybug and friends to defeat another akumatized villain but as soon as he gets there he realizes that the mission is over and Ladybug already fixed everything. He meets up with them either way but they are all in a rush to go to their rendevous points, especially ladybug who increasingly becomes agitated with Chat Noir trying give a helping hand and finally snaps at him, "If you want to save me time, stop wasting it in the first place!" and zips off. Chat Noir's last thread snaps and he shouts at her that she can take his miraculous when she's done to which she angrily dismisses before realizing the implication later and coming back to find that she's too late, with the Black Cat miraculous on the roof without Chat Noir in sight. (Which btw, how the hell did adrien get down LMAO nobody saw Adrien Agreste supermodel dangle on the roof of a glass building trying to get down???) Plagg comes to his defense when Ladybug says, she didn't do anything, of course Plagg metions how Chat Noir has been neglected for other heroes but drops the ball at Ladybug's defense where she states that, Chat Noir should be happy he has more time off. WHEN LITERALLY I FEEL LIKE HE MENTIONS OFTEN HOW MUCH HE LOVES BEING A SUPERHERO!! AND!! In one episode he says, "The times where I have the most fun is when i'm here with you" something like that. but Plagg drops the ball at implying that Chat Noir doesn't want time off because he's in love with Ladybug.🤦‍♂️ Ladybug then feels guilty about this fact, saying that Chat Noir being in love with her is the problem and they should split. This being dwiddled down into a love problem irks me because yes while there could be some jealousy involved, Chat Noir feels neglected as a PARTNER. Being Chat Noir, grants Adrien a freedom to do whatever he wants considering his restrictive lifestyle. Chat Noir is his escapism...not a suit to flirt with Ladybug. Anyways, Plagg then goes to trick Ladybug into thinking there were two candidates for the holder of his miraculous so he could give back the miraculous to Adrien who is rotting in his room tbh. Plagg convinces Adrien to become Chat Noir again but this time, a Chat Noir that can meet all of Ladybug's expectations as the perfect partner. Making a whole new personality to fit, Plagg recommends that Adrien should simply behaves how he does when he's with his father or Natalie. Thus, Cat Walker is born.

Aside from his amazing design...Cat Walker turns out to be the perfect partner. The akumatized villain, Ladybug impulsively mistook for Chat Noir was actually a Sentimonster. Cat Walker was simply just "too perfect" to fit as the new holder because Ladybug almost instantly becomes infatuated with him and can't focus on how to apply the lucky charm. She ends up saving the day by herself and Cat Walker is to give the ring to Plagg so that the original Chat Noir can return. ... ⬇️ THIS IS ACTUALLY JUST THE CORE OF THE RANT ⬇️ What made me upset was how easily Ladybug fell for Cat Walker, considering Cat Walker is just the superhero version of Adrien's public image. I'm not saying Chat Noir is who Adrien really is but he's a part of him and seeing that part of him blatantly rejected, is disheartening. Plus, the implications that Adrien was willing to act like his public image from that point on just to be recognized and put on the team, to not be neglected, just sucks! His public image leaking into his superhero life, the life that is supposed to be his escape of all the expectations placed on him. LIKE LET THIS BOY BE GOOFY AND MAKE PUNS. Worst of all, Ladybug does not apologize and demotes Chat Noir to being a partner like any other but it's okay! Because he is her "favorite". 🙄 They had a better apology at the end of the season than in this episode where Ladybug actually acknowledges all the shit she was putting Chat Noir through.

No problems were solved in this episode and it was really just filler to show off a nice design and ruin my day.

Honestly, I would delete most of this rant but I spent too much time on it. 🥲

#miraculous ladybug #ml ladybug #mlb chat noir #chat noir #mlb rant #rant post #mlb #mlb kuro neko #kuro neko #cat walker #mlb cat walker #i hate fillers

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ladyofthenoodle · 1 year

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Hello there!

Is there any canon episode that shows Chat Noir being viewed as a forgotten sidesick by the people of Paris? I see so many fanfics in which Marinette/Ladybug has to defend him and tell everyone he is her PARTNER, not her sidesick, and he’s very useful and helpful, thank you very much, or Chat feeling forgotten because he doesn’t have as many fans as Ladybug, but... From what I’ve seen, the people of Paris absolutely love him? He’s pretty popular and charismatic, and Astruc has described him as a “beloved hero.” Besides, Elation (?) has him running from his fans. The one who consistently viewed him as inferior to Ladybug and useless was Adrien himself in Season 04. Chat Noir is not the leader and Ladybug calls the shots, but that’s something he’s okay with.

Besides, Adrien as Adrien himself is arguably even more famous than both Chat and Ladybug... Since Astruc has said he’s as famous as Justin Bieber, a member of BTS, or Wang Yibo. If anything, I think he wishes for less fame and more freedom, hahah.

But I also understand the need for The Angst™ in fanfics 😅

as far as i can recall, there's been individual people that have made comments about him being a sidekick or useless (like nino in rocketear), but no, we've never seen any evidence that that majority of paris sees him that way. the closest we've come to that is kuro neko, but that seemed more like people were worried/confused about his absence than anything.

usually i see this used in fic not for angst as much as to endear marinette to adrien when he hears her defending him, which is sweet, but yeah, not entirely accurate to what canon shows us regarding chat noir's popularity. a more canon compliant version of this plot would really just need one individual whose opinion adrien values to make this kinda comment within earshot of marinette (rocketear au where nino invites marinette too, anyone? gabriel agreste insulting chat noir in front of ladrien, perhaps?) - something that's gonna bother him more than whether he's a popular hero with the masses, because yeah, fame is pretty cheap for adrien. love and respect are what he's starving for.

of course, i will also note that this trope was more popular in the early seasons, when we had less to go on regarding the public opinion of chat noir. i've actually seen it happen less recently, probably because seasons 3 & 4 gave us a more definitive flavor of chat noir angst (and also less need for reasons to make adrien notice marinette, since he's doing it so much on his own by then anyway).

#ask #Anonymous #miraculous ladybug #chat noir

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hamsternamedmarinette · 21 hours

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Hey! Extremely odd question, do you know which episode of ml had a scientist who revived/had 3 t. rexes? I have a very faint memory of it happening and I can't seem to figure out where I saw that or if that's even a real scene

Yeah that was in the beginning of Rocketear!! And I think there was another scene with something like that but I don't completely remember

#ask #anon #rocketear

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 1 year

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IOTA Reviews: Reunion

Today's episode is a special one, as it teaches kids about toxic people in online message boards. Hey, Astruc? Do you remember that saying about glass houses and throwing stones? Asking for a friend.

Let's get into the eighth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Reunion

We start off at the Louvre, where Marinette and Alya are looking through the paintings to find more symbols of the Order of the Guardians, something previously established in “Feast”. Marinette ponders the idea of past Miraculous holders falling in love with each other, to which Alya gives one of the most contradicting responses I've ever heard.

Marinette: Miraculous holders are always pictured solo, but there had to have been some love stories between some of them. A Ladybug and a Cat Noir in love, it must've happened at some point, right?

Alya: Or maybe they just focused on the job and kept their lovey-dovey stuff out of their superhero lives, like you should. Preferably with a boy you've been in love with for a long time who's finally interested in you? Does a certain Adrien ring any bells?

Wow, not even a minute in, and I already have something to bitch and moan about.

First off, it's really rich for Alya to act like superheroes can't fall in love when she was dating Nino with the knowledge that they were both superheroes, and willingly blew her cover as Rena Furtive because she didn't want to break up with her idiot boyfriend, and ended up costing Ladybug the Fox Miraculous. It'd be one thing if it was like a “Don't make the same mistakes I made!” thing, but in the very next sentence, she tries to encourage Marinette to keep pursuing Adrien. Alya, you do know that even if Marinette starts dating Adrien, she'll still have to deal with her superhero life, right? It's a classic superhero trope that a hero's secret identity gets in the way of their love life, something this show did three different times last season (Truth, Lies, Rocketear). Cat Noir or Adrien, Marinette's love life will be complicated by her superhero life, and Alya basically said “Superheroes shouldn't date! Now, you should really think about asking Adrien out.”

Marinette tries to ask Tikki for advice, but Tikki casually drops another retco—more worldbuilding. Yeah, that's it. It's more worldbuilding, and nothing the writers threw in this season without thinking about how it could have been used in earlier episodes.

See, back in Season 2's “Befana”, Tikki gave Marinette a magical jewel called a Kwagatama, something all past Ladybug wielders have. For the most part, nothing came of it for about five years and three seasons. So naturally, the writers came up with something that makes no sense to introduce now. The true purpose of the Guardian seals is for the Kwagatama to be used for Reunion, a way to contact the spirits of the past Miraculous holders, albeit so only the user can see them, sort of like Al from Quantum Leap.

My problem here is that IT MAKES NO SENSE TO INTRODUCE THIS NOW WHEN TIKKI SEEMED TO ABOUT THIS THE WHOLE TIME! Think about a huge chunk of Marinette's angst last season stemmed from the fact that she has absolutely no guidance as Guardian, and had to learn from trial and error. If Marinette had a way to talk with any of the past Ladybug holders, why the hell didn't Tikki suggest it when she really needed it in the first place?!

Before Marinette can give the Reunion a test run, some Unfunny Marinette Slapstick happens, so she accidentally knocks over a painting, revealing a letter inside for Alix's father Alim. Turns out Alix left some photos detailing her adventures in a letter and hid it inside the painting, National Treasure style. Adrien tells Gabriel and Nathalie about this, and after he leaves, the two share an evil smirk.

Because I guess now they're on good terms again?

The letter reveals that Alix has been jumping around from time to time, meeting various historical figures, potentially screwing with history, and completely ignoring the secret identity rule since everyone in her class is reading this letter. Alix's older brother, Jalil, isn't happy.

Jalil: How could you let her go?!

Alim: Jalil, enough already!

Jalil: Alix was brainwashed by Ladybug! She forced her on a crusade without us and all you're doing is... nothing!

Alim: Your sister wasn't forced. She went into hiding in time so that Monarch couldn't take over the Miraculous of the Rabbit.

Marinette: Alix is helping Ladybug and Cat Noir restore peace!

Jalil: How could she help them if she's not even here? Can't you see this makes zero sense? Wake up, dad!

Alim: I was there when Ladybug gave her the Miraculous. Alix agreed to the whole thing. She was proud she could help.

“Oh my God, Jalil. Your little sister is just choosing to travel through time and stay away from home with little means of contacting the outside world. Don't be such a baby about it.”

Seriously, I get why they wouldn't want Monarch to get the Rabbit Miraculous, but you know what isn't helping keep Alix safe? TELLING HER ENTIRE CLASS THAT SHE HAS THE GODDAMN RABBIT MIRACULOUS! It says a lot that this is something I agree with Jalil on, and his first spotlight episode had him attempt to perform an ancient Egyptian ritual to revive Queen Nefertiti. But rather than focus on the family drama stemming from the absence of the youngest Kubdel, the true conflict of the episode happens.

Alim: Where are you hearing this ridiculous theory?

Jalil: Everybody's talking! Listen! (takes out his Alliance)

Alliance Lila: Akuma88 said: “We trusted Ladybug too blindly and she only made things worse when she let Monarch steal the Miraculous.” Antilady asks: “Who is Ladybug anyway? Why does she wear a mask? If she has nothing to hide, she wouldn't hide anything.” ChloeB says: “Ladybug is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous”.

You know, it's sad how the only positive thing I can say about the conflict is that at least they didn't make a flat-earther joke with these conspiracy theories.

Either way, this is something I had previously talked about during my review of “Illusion”. Rather than show Marinette dealing with the backlash to her losing all the other Miraculous last season, it's clear all the writers are willing to do is have a bunch of strawmen criticize her so the audience can't take their arguments seriously. Yes, most of Paris doesn't know what really happened, so the citizens are obviously misinformed, but that first guy made a decent point about letting Ladybug do all the work instead of the proper authorities. The whole reason Chloe was even namedropped was because the audience knows from earlier episodes that she has a bias against Ladybug, so lumping her together with anyone else who has a problem with her is an easy way to say “If the bad character agrees with these views, that means their arguments are invalid”. And once again, it's pretty hilarious that the lesson the episode is going for about online message boards when the creator of the show is well-known for his poor behavior online, to the point where this very blog was created to chronicle some of the things he's said.

After dodging Adrien's latest attempt to ask her out, Marinette decides to try out the Reunion, selecting Joan of Arc because that's the only character model the animators can reuse. But hey, if you're not a fan of overused character models, how about overused knight cliches?

Joan: Good morrow. What is your name, you clumsy young holder?

Marinette: Um, uh... M-Marinette.

Alya: What's the matter with you, girl, hearing voices or something?

Joan: They used to direct similar inquiries to me as well. You shalt become accustomed to it.

GET IT? She's a knight, so that means she has to talk like she's from a Monty Python movie. If you're somehow not laughing at this totally original joke, buckle up, because this is what all of her dialogue is like for the episode. Marinette tries to ask Joan for advice, but is quickly rebuffed because even though she supposedly fell in love with a past Cat Miraculous holder, and even though this was Tikki's idea in the first place, Joan isn't willing to help Marinette out. What, was she in the middle of a poker game with Oda Nobunaga, Shaka Zulu, and Dwight Eisenhower she really needed to get back to?

Back with Jalil, we see that he's so desperate that he willingly attracts an Akuma, offering to help Monarch if it means getting his sister back. Putting up his book, Monarch akumatizes him into the Pharaoh again.

The Pharaoh has a pretty sleek design. I like the gold parts and the interchangeable masks, even if they mean his powers are about as historically accurate as an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

After the Pharaoh empowers his book with the powers of Maat, the Egyptian Goddess who represents the concepts of truth and justice, Monarch gives him the Turtle Miraculous' Shelter to protect the Maat book from being destroyed. Because as we saw with Manipula in “Determination”, simply being invulnerable to being destroyed automatically means victory. Oh right, she lost because the heroes outsmarted her. But I doubt that exact same thing will happen this episode, right?

Back with Marinette, Joan still refuses to talk with her because I guess being dead means she has a tight schedule and can't even bother to help out her successor. Before Joan can even end the Reunion, the Louvre is trapped in a giant pyramid where we see that the Pharaoh is using his powers to quiz people on the truth. Oh my God, the Pharaoh now has the powers of Kamen Rider Quiz. Run, you fools! Kamen Rider Zi-O is the only show in existence with more wasted potential than yours!

Marinette and Adrien transform into Ladybug and Cat Noir respectively, albeit still separated. When asked a question about who was the King of France on March 15th, 1423, Ladybug and Alya attempt to look up the answer online, only to get no signal. Thankfully, because the question just so happens to be set during the time when Joan was alive, she's able to give an answer: there was no king that day thanks to outside circumstances preventing a ruler from being properly recognized. Alya gets to safety, and Ladybug meets up with Cat Noir, who is struggling to answer another one of the Pharaoh's questions: What will the weather be like on July 14th, 200 years from now? It turns out that the Pharaoh was banking on that, as it's something only Bunnix would know.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a fountain pen, and takes a page from Doc Brown's book, writing a letter to Alix in the future so she can tell them the weather for that day by leaving her own letter in the past. After Cat Noir Cataclysms the Shelter barrier, the Pharaoh just creates a new one. Ladybug then comes up with another question: Is she really a hero, and did Alix leave of her own free will? The book obviously answers yes, and once again, the Pharaoh rejects the Akuma with ease.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, shows Jalil another letter from Alix, and never learns Jalil willingly got himself akumatized in the first place.

Joan talks with Marinette and tells her about her past, where she fell in love with a Cat Miraculous holder from England, and the conflict with France forced them to give up their Miraculous and go into hiding. It's a simple backstory, but the artwork and narration tells a lot without going too into detail about things, keeping what happened after Joan and her lover gave up their Miraculous vague for a reason.

Marinette: And then you lived happily ever after?

Joan: I hope so, Marinette. I hope so.

Marinette: Huh?

Tikki: That's not the real Joan, Marinette. It's just her memory as a holder. She can't know what she did after she gave up her Miraculous.

Translation: "We don't want to tell the kids watching what really happened to Joan of Arc." So the episode ends with Marinette wondering if starting a relationship with Cat Noir is possible after all, even if it means she has to give up her Miraculous. Oh yeah, and Plagg gives Adrien a Kwagatama too, but it's not really that important.

That's a good way to describe this episode: it just... happened. Outside of the Reunion lore, not much really happened here, which has been a problem I've had with the last few episodes of Season 5 as a whole. Not much was enough to get me really angry, but at the same time, the writing was just mediocre in my opinion. Pharaoh's new power was just Truth again, and they tried to make him look smart, but all he asked were obscure trivia questions, not something that would really test how honest someone is. For an Akuma who already had it out for Ladybug from the start, the return of the Pharaoh was pretty underwhelming. It didn't help that the other lesson about avoiding misinformation didn't really work that well because it took a magical lie detector to resolve Jalil's trust issues towards Ladybug. Also, it's really weird how nonchalant everyone is about Alix being away from home and traveling through time with no guarantee of when she'll return, while Jalil's somewhat understandable concern about Ladybug possibly manipulating his little sister (who he didn't even get to say goodbye to) was just brushed off for that lesson about conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Even though the idea of Joan of Arc being a superhero sounds really interesting, not much is done with Joan as a character, and I think that stems from the fact that it's obvious that a show that airs on Disney Channel can't talk about the two things everyone knows about her: The supposed messages from God, and that she was burned at the stake. Without those key aspects of her life story, all the writers really had to work with was that Joan was a female knight. This is especially harsh, because even without that, you could have told a story about how Joan was in a similar situation to Marinette, being trusted with the Ladybug Miraculous at a young age (Historians believe Joan was seventeen when she first went to the battlefield, and the flashback in this episode implies she only became a soldier after getting her Miraculous), and how she dealt with the newfound responsibilities, especially in a tense time like the middle ages. Instead, all we got was more Love Square pandering that didn't even make sense for Joan to be dismissive of because she was a massive hypocrite, not only for dismissing Marinette's initial question when she had the answer for it, but also for essentially body shaming Cat Noir by calling him “Puny”. Because how dare that teenage boy not be as jacked as a battle-hardened knight.

Overall, there's not much I can really say about this episode. I doubt the Reunion will ever be plot-relevant again, so what's the point? The most I can say is that it was certainly an episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... JOAN OF ARC

While I have grievances with the things Alya, Tikki, and Alim all said and did, for the most part, that's connected to bigger issues with the season as a whole. The purpose of the Biggest Idiot Award was to judge a character's actions in the context of the episode itself. So while Joan of Arc was never officially knighted, it is my honor to present this show's take on her with the award. Joan was unnecessarily rude to Marinette, assumed she knew how to end the Reunion when it was pretty clear this was her first time using it, went on a long tangent while answering a question while Ladybug didn't have a lot of time to give the answer, and talked trash about Cat Noir for not being as buff as the knights she led into battle. She also didn't offer to give any advice in battle even though she knew she wasn't able to interact with the physical world, when the whole purpose of the Reunion is to impart wisdom onto the next generation.

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flightfoot · 1 year

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I really love how with Adrien’s and Nino’s friendship in Miraculous, it feels pretty even between the two of them. Like yeah, Nino’s concerned about how Gabriel treats Adrien and tries to help him when he can, but that’s not the sole focus of his character - a lot of the time, Adrien is actually helping NINO with his plans or problems, like with volunteering as his wingman in Animan, or listening to his relationship troubles and suspicions in Rocketear and attempting to assuage them.

Aside from that, Adrien also joins in on group projects that Nino helms, without taking them over - think Horrificator and Queen Banana, with him being an actor in both cases, but with emphasis still being placed more on Nino as director, than on Adrien being an actor (especially in Queen Banana. I loved Adrien chastising Chloe for being mean to everyone.) There’s also cases like Illusion, which despite being about a plan to akumatize Adrien’s father, was very much helmed and focused around Nino deciding to do this for his own sake, it wasn’t because of Nino centering things around Adrien, it was because he just thought Gabriel would make the best target. Nino’s actions centered around Nino’s goals, not Adrien’s. Though I do kinda wish he’d considered the consequences for Adrien more, but I don’t think he truly understands how dangerous Gabriel is, so I can see why he might have made a misstep there.

We also get to see little asides of Adrien and Nino just having a good time together, which I adore, like hearing about Adrien and Nino playing video games together during Dark Owl, and seeing Nino sharing his favorite comedian skits with Adrien in Psycomedian - something that he doesn’t really like that much, but which he still watches, because Nino recommended it. They just enjoy spending time together!

Actually thinking about it, even in the episodes where Nino’s explicitly taking actions for Adrien’s sake, Nino’s still the one with the focus and agency in those circumstances. Like in The Bubbler, he’s the one who decided that Adrien not getting a birthday party was whack, and attempted to talk to Gabriel about it. His negative feelings about Gabriel, and adults in general, being awful was what got him akumatized. And in Party Crasher, he was the one who made that entire plan happen to throw a party, he wasn’t playing second fiddle to Adrien there.

I just really appreciate that while Nino is Adrien’s best friend, and Adrien has a lot more focus and a greater role in the story overall, in the instances when Nino and Adrien ARE on-screen together, the narrative doesn’t treat Nino like he’s just there to support or accentuate Adrien - their friendship genuinely feels like a two-way street, not like Nino’s life revolves around Adrien’s. Especially with how Adrien joins in on schemes that Nino comes up with and helps to provide Nino with support her his own personal problems, that’s actually kinda rare when it comes to protagonists (well in this case Adrien is the Deuteragonist, which may make a difference here) and their best friends.

#ml analysis #adrien agreste #nino lahiffe #miraculous ladybug #Still like how the two of them have managed to dodge the Black Best Friend trope like champs #They are friends who care about each other and like spending time together #But neither of them only exists for the other #Nino ain't Adrien's sidekick #They're friends

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