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immaturityofthomasastruc · 4 months

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IOTA Reviews: Conformation and Re-Creation (The Final Day)

Well, here we are. The final two episodes of Season 5. It's been a long and complicated journey, so let me get you up to speed on what exactly happened this season, episode by episode.

Evolution: Ladybug and Cat Noir chase Monarch through time, and it's not nearly as cool as it sounds.

Multiplication: Adrien likes Marinette now because the plot says so.

Destruction: Cat Noir accidentally Cataclysms Monarch, and it somehow leads to the most guilt he feels using his Cataclysm on anyone.

Jubilation: Ever want to have the image of Ladybug and Cat Noir being teen parents burned into your brain? No? Too bad!

Illusion: Nino establishes himself as a leader so terrible, Zapp Brannigan would call him an idiot.

Determination: Marinette likes Cat Noir now because the plot says so.

Passion: Nathalie shows she'd rather silently judge Gabriel for his actions over actually doing anything to stop him.

Reunion: Marinette talks with the spirit of Joan of Arc, and it's not nearly as cool as it sounds.

Elation: Someone tries to murder Marinette over ice cream for the third time in four seasons.

Transmission: Yeah, I totally believe you're replacing Marinette and Adrien with two new main characters in the middle of your fifth season.

Deflagration: Because of Tikki and Plagg's terrible decisions, Monarch comes the closest he's ever come to winning.

Perfection: Kagami becomes a giant cloud Akuma, symbolizing her also becoming a total airhead for the rest of the season.

Migration: The writers realize they have no idea what to do with Luka, so they kick him out of the show entirely.

Derision: “How many things do you want to retcon to make this story work?” “Yes.”

Intuition: Gabriel continues to prove how pathetic of a villain he is, even when he has unlimited chances.

Protection: Even after being tricked three times by her, Kagami still thinks Lila is a trustworthy person.

Adoration: “We have Lumity at home”.

Emotion: The episode where Felix essentially commits genocide is somehow also the one where the writers want the audience to start viewing him in a sympathetic light.

Pretension: Felix likes Kagami because the plot says so, and vice versa.

Revelation: Lila only gets as far as she does thanks to Marinette becoming as dumb as the rest of the class.

Confrontation: Our heroes expose the villain's evil plans by spying on them through a bathroom peephole.

Collusion: Remember kids, violent revolutions against politicians are never the answer.

Revolution: Remember kids, violent revolutions against politicians are always the answer.

Representation: To the surprise of literally no one, Felix is revealed to be a Sentimonster, yet the writers still won't tell us that Adrien and Kagami are the same.

Now that you're all caught up, let's get into the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Conformation and Re-Creation

After a brief news report showing everyone enjoying the first day of Summer vacation, Gabriel and Tomoe finally decide to launch “Perfect Alliance”. What does this plan entail? For starters, Gabriel transforms into Monarch, detransforms to akumatize himself into Nightormentor again, gives himself the powers of the Mouse, Rooster and Horse Miraculous in order to clone himself and fly around the globe to spread his nightmare dust. Because just akumatizing Sandboy again and giving him the Mouse Miraculous' Multitude was just too complex of a plan.

Marinette is the first to be affected by the dust, we get a dream where she dresses up as a knight to save Adrien from a cheap recolor of Fang in his dragon form.

This is a weird episode of Super Why.

Marinette defeats the dragon, who reverts back to Gabriel, who is accidentally killed by the fight, causing Adrien to cry since Adrien was watching the whole thing. Marinette wakes up, thankful that it was all just a bad dream sequence. She decides she needs to find out just where Gabriel sent Adrien to make sure he's safe, something that won't make sense as I'll explain later on. As she tries to leave, she keeps experiencing sudden headaches, as do her parents and Alya.

Meanwhile, Adrien is still left reeling from the effects of the nightmare dust from last episode, to the point where he has a panic attack, demanding to be let out. Gabriel, seemingly aware of this, decides to give Adrien the “antidote”, an Alliance ring with an app called “Perfect Alliance”. So once again, despite claiming to do this for his son, Gabriel willingly chose to make his life worse as part of his evil plans. Remember this, it'll be important later on.

Plagg suggests Adrien transform into Cat Noir, but Adrien reminds him that there are cameras everywhere, so he can't risk it. Plagg disables the cameras, but Adrien still says no. Whether he was aware that the robot who was sent to give him the Alliance ring with the new app had a hidden camera is irrevelant, because Adrien gives a different reason why he can't transform.

Adrien: I'm not in my right mind. I'm too angry; at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and these rings that use my image... it makes me sick! This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm. Marinette, Ladybug...

Plagg: Surely Ladybug can help you.

Adrien: If I ask her for help, I'd have to give her information that would jeopardize my secret identity... and I can't.

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Okay, let me make one thing clear. The reason that Adrien can't risk exposing his identity thanks to all the cameras is a good one, and the fact that he doesn't want to risk exposing his identity to Ladybug in particular is a good sign of character development, but the problem I have is the fact that the writers decided to bench Adrien in the first place.

Yes, you heard that right. In arguably the most boneheaded decision in the show's history since... well, a lot of things this season, Adrien, despite being the son of the main villain, isn't going to get involved in the final battle at all.

There are multiple reasons why Adrien staying put in this room is a terrible idea, and most of them involve the fact that almost none of the in-universe explanations for this hold up.

Adrien is being heavily monitored by cameras? We just saw Plagg was able to disable them with ease.

Adrien can't ask Ladybug for help without jeopardizing his secret identity? The fact that he's at risk of being akumatized as is, with or without the Cat Miraculous, will still blow his cover due to Monarch's mind reading abilities (which we saw when Monarch almost learned Luka's secret in “Migration”), so he really has nothing to lose here.

Adrien isn't in the right state of mind thanks to the nightmare dust? Literally every other character who takes part in the final battle is able to either find a way to fight off the nightmares or keeps going while still under the influence of the nightmare dust.

Adrien's ultimate plan to take off his Miraculous and let Plagg choose a new temporary holder? We saw this exact same scenario play out earlier this season in “The Kwamis' Choice”, and things went horribly, horribly wrong.

Do you see why this makes no sense? Even though the show loves to boast about how valuable of an asset Cat Noir is, the writers are bending over backwards to justify keeping Adrien as far away from the final battle as possible, because they know damn well that they'd have to address how terrible his father really is with the reveal.

And the best part? This is basically the last we'll see of Adrien in this episode. Do you want to know how many lines he gets in the next episode, AKA, the final episode of the season? Three. AND THEY'RE ALL AFTER THE FINAL BATTLE.

But we're not done talking about this stupid idea yet, because unlike the other episodes, I have something else to rant about: The writers' commentary. In November of 2023, around four months after the finale premiered, the writers of this show recorded their own audio commentary, and while I don't have the exact translation (if anyone reading this has a translation of this, I would really appreciate the effort), I have seen one post summarizing the things they said, and all I can say is DEAR. LORD. This is not just shooting yourself in the foot. This is shooting yourself in the foot multiple times with Judas Bullets.

Like, it's amazing. We've always speculated just what goes through the writers' heads that makes them come up with some of the strangest ideas to take the story, and now, we have a first-hand account of why these episodes turned out the way they did. For this one moment, they gave about three explanations as to why Adrien was benched for the finale.

Let's start with the first one, Cat Blanc. I know what you're thinking, wasn't Cat Blanc an Akuma from an alternate timeline that our Adrien shouldn't know about? Not according to Melenie Duval. While Adrien's fear of being akumatized is reasonable, Duval claims that he could become Cat Blanc... which makes no sense as A) Adrien's nightmare was of an entirely different Akuma, and B) The aforementioned nightmare dust never informed Adrien of the alternate timeline where Cat Blanc destroyed the world, it just provided him with a nightmare about a similar scenario.

And in case you weren't questioning this woman's judgment, Duval has done on the record to state that her favorite episode of the entire show is “Derision”.

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Our next reasoning is especially stupid, as the rest of the writing team reveal that they had planned to keep Adrien out of the final battle as far back as 2014, nine years before the finished product premiered. Why would they do that? Because they wanted Ladybug to unify with the Cat Miraculous, of course! Sure, you could have just saved this unification for a special or something like that so you don't bench one of your main characters, or you could have at least had Adrien willingly give his Miraculous to Ladybug to unify with in person, but nope. This is seriously one of their defenses— I mean, explanations, for why Adrien isn't allowed to be in the final battle, because they thought it would be more important to give Marinette her 10th new form in three seasons than letting Adrien get some form of closure with his father.

And here's the final reason they gave in the commentary. Remember that dream sequence of Marinette dressed as a knight that was also sort of foreshadowed in “Gabriel Agreste”? Turns out, the writers wanted to, and stop me if you've heard this before, play with the tropes and symbolism of fairy tales. Wow, I've never seen any kind of pop culture do that before... except for Into the Woods, The Princess Bride, Hook, Shrek, Princess Tutu, Ella Enchanted, Hoodwinked!, Enchanted, Tangled, Once Upon a Time, Frozen, RWBY, Ever After High, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarves, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, and Nimona. But other than those, that's so original!

Even though the writers are acting like they're breaking new ground, do you want to know what they mean by this? They're just doing another damsel in distress situation but this time, Adrien, the boy, is the one who needs to be saved by Marinette, who is, GASP, a girl?! WOW! That totally changes everything!

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Okay, yes, the damsel in distress trope has usually been seen as a misogynistic one due to the fact that the people who needed to be saved are usually women, but like I mentioned way back in my “Gabriel Agreste” review, just swapping the genders isn't enough to breathe new life into a trope as old as this one. It's arguably worse because Adrien isn't just someone who needs to be saved. He's a superhero, and like I mentioned, there were plenty of options to get him out of his room in London.

And I'm guessing that some of you are thinking, “But IOTA! You just want Adrien to save the day by himself because he's a guy!” Just remember that I had this exact same problem last season where the roles were reversed. Remember how I hated the way Marinette's arc about dealing with the stress of being Guardian was hijacked by Adrien complaining about Ladybug not trusting him? This time, we have an arc about Adrien trying to break free from his father's influence that's been hijacked by Marinette needing to save Adrien by herself, robbing him of any agency he had to the plot entirely. This issue isn't about gender. It's never been about gender. I would have the exact same problem if Adrien was the one who confronted Monarch by himself while Marinette was trapped in her room.

This leads to the biggest problem I have with this plot development: It ultimately goes against the core theme of teamwork the show keeps trying to convey. Remember how last season, Marinette needed to learn to let other people trust her? Now, she's going to beat up Monarch all by herself without any help. Remember how last season, Adrien needed to prove he didn't deserve to be left in the dark about everything? Now, he's going to stay all the way in London while his partner gets in the fight of her life. It's detrimental to both of them as characters, and makes everything that happened to them in Season 4 completely pointless.

Okay, now that I've spent five pages ranting about this insane decision, let's get back on track, shall we? As the Perfect Alliance app helps Adrien and Kagami calm down, Marinette sneaks into the Agreste mansion as Ladybug. Meanwhile, Nathalie has her own nightmare about Gabriel winning, AKA, the very thing she could have stopped a long time ago by ratting her evil boss out to Ladybug and Cat Noir.

We then learn just what the Perfect Alliance app really does. Basically, thanks to the technobabble, it helps alleviate the stress from their nightmares. Or, to put it in Layman's terms, Gabriel and Tomoe plan to get the entire population of Earth addicted to cyber crack. We see this affect several of Marinette's classmates, but because Mylene has a sudden disdain for technology that “Was made without respect for the Earth's resources”, she's the only one who sees the problem here. I'd ask why this wasn't established earlier this season, but it doesn't matter, since Mylene gives in anyway,

Because it's a day that ends with a “Y”, Gabriel goes to talk to Emilie's body yet again, and it seems like even the writers realized how tired this got, as Nathalie finally decided to ambush him with a crossbow.

Miss Sancoeur, I served with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I knew Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy the Vamprie Slayer was a friend of mine. Miss Sancoeur, you're no Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Yes, it only took five seasons worth of evil plans for Nathalie to realize just how demented her boss really is.

Nathalie: I can't let you do that... if you make the wish to bring her back, someone will have to go in her place. Emilie would never have agreed to this!

Gabriel: Do you think I'd be monstrous enough to sacrifice a human being?

Uh... yes? That is literally what equivalent exchange means. You really don't know how the wish works after researching it?

Shockingly, the frail woman armed with nothing but a crossbow isn't able to stop someone with superpowers. There isn't even a fight. Monarch just knocks the crossbow out of her hands and she faints. Maybe you should have actually come up with some sort of plan before confronting Gabriel by yourself, dumbass.

Back to Ladybug, she searches through Gabriel's stuff and finally learns he's Monarch... even though she should already know thanks to Felix and Kagami's play last episode. She even looks pretty shocked to see Monarch detransform.

Back to the commentary, the writers justify this with their absurd “Every episode can be watched on its own” rule. Because simply having Marinette say she already knows was out of the equation, I guess. Seriously, earlier in the episode, Tikki (who, along with Plagg, wasn't affected by the nightmare dust for some reason) had doubts that Marinette should break into the Agreste mansion, and it came across like neither of them knew the truth, and this was a reckless decision that wasn't motivated by Gabriel being Monarch at all. Once again, the writers fail to understand the idea of using “Previously On...” segments to help new viewers catch up on what's happening. It's even more confusing when you remember that Tikki knows Adrien is Cat Noir, so his father being Monarch coupled with his sudden absence should be setting off all kinds of red flags in her book.

Ladybug tries to text Cat Noir about who Monarch really is, but chooses not to send it after Gabriel pushes a few of her buttons. Rather than jumping Gabriel while she still has the element of surprise, she only chooses to grill Nathalie for questions once Gabriel is out of the room. And of course, only when she's on death's door does Nathalie tell Ladybug to stop Monarch, but not before telling her to transform back.

We see Gabriel and Tomoe put their plan into action. They create a fake scene of Ladybug and Cat Noir kidnapping Adrien and Kagami in order to rile up the public (who aren't in the best state of mind thanks to the nightmares) in order to for them to use the Alliance rings to transform them into the “Miraculized”. In other words, it's basically “Heroes' Day” all over again. Seriously, think about it. Just like “Heroes' Day”, it looks like Adrien is being harmed by Ladybug in an attempt to push the population to the brink of despair so Gabriel can create an army in the process. Yeah, the public doesn't know the two are the same, but the audience does. Granted, this is a minor nitpick compared to the rest of my problems with this episode, but I hope you can see what I'm getting at here.

Case in point, the reason Nathalie told Ladybug to detransform was because Gabriel has found a way to track her and Cat Noir through their “quantum signatures”. With Cat Noir, it was thanks to the dust from Gabriel's Cataclysm wound, and with Ladybug, it was thanks to the Magical Charm she gave Gabriel earlier in “Gabriel Agreste”... which he shouldn't have since it was destroyed in “Dearest Family”.

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Seriously, this is the season finale. How the hell are the writers still struggling to remember important events like this?

Now's as good a time as any to talk about the Miraculized's design. Yeah, they're pretty lame. They all look like they're wearing fencing gear, and don't look intimidating in the slightest. They also now have the ability to use every Miraculous power at once, which breaks the previously established rules about the Alliance rings in that only one ring can handle each Miraculous power. You could at least argue that the robots used in “Confrontation” had more advanced technology that made them capable of using multiple powers, but nothing has changed about the Alliance rings to justify this. And remember, this is something every Miraculized in the world can use, yet the system hasn't been completely fried, and as we'll later see Monarch can still freely use the other Kwamis' power even when they're being shared with the Miraculized across the world. In fact, how can the Miraculized even transform like this? Monarch doesn't akumatize anyone to spread this transformation. Gabriel just tells to say “Alliance, Miraculize Me!”, and now they can transform. Was this always a function of the Alliance rings? Is there a tiny Akuma hidden in each ring? How the hell does any this work?

Ladybug fights off some of the Miraculized who used Voyage to find her, and remembers Nathalie's advice to detransform. So just like in “Passion”, even though she's still wearing her Miraculous, the system specifically designed to track her down isn't able to find her unless she's still transformed. Marinette runs away to a safe place before running into Plagg, who tells her Cat Noir is out of commission. With no other options, Marinette decides to unify with the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous, turning into Bug Noire, revealing her identity to Monarch in the process, and ending the episode.

Bug Noire's design is admittedly pretty nice. I like the balance of red, black, and green, though the hair is a little too long for my taste. Granted, I still don't get why this is the reason why Adrien can't be here to fight Monarch alongside his partner. I'm just saying, was it really worth it, writers?

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... NATHALIE

Yep, right before the finish line, Nathalie gets her second award this season. After spending several episodes doing nothing but letting herself rot away, Nathalie only chose to finally do something about Gabriel once he was literally about to enact his final plan, thought she could stop him with nothing but a crossbow, and only begged Ladybug for help when it looked like she was about to die and had nothing left to lose.

“Re-Creation”, the final episode of the season, starts off with Lila watching some broadcasts of people succumbing to their paranoia (and she does it while smirking because the writers still don't think we understand she's evil) and transforming into Miraculized while she puts on a new disguise that makes her look like an evil Edna Mode.

How come Lila isn't even affected by the nightmare dust like the rest of the human population? As always, never explained!

Back in the Agreste mansion, Bug Noire and Monarch are duking it out, and we get some pretty creative uses of Lucky Charm, like when she summons a piano to crash down on Monarch. Meanwhile, after Marinette's friends manage to get the Alliance ring off a Miraculized Ivan, we get to see how the rest of the world is dealing with the Miraculized. In Shanghai, the Renlings help Fei through her nightmares, Su-Han has recruited Jagged Stone, Luka, Penny and Fang to the Order of the Guardians instead of actually getting backup like he said he would in “Multiplication”, Present Bunnix finally decides to do something and uses Burrow to sent the Guardians to Paris, while the United Heroez fight off the Miraculized and learn the true nature of the Alliance rings. Just remember, it was too much for the writers to let Adrien get involved in the final battle, yet all these side characters get to do something in the finale for some reason.

Meanwhile, as if things couldn't get any worse, Nino decides the Resistance needs to get involved after reassuring Mr. Damocles that they never give up. Believe me, not much would change if you guys just threw in the towel, especially now that the United Heroez are here, and have Eagle, a member whose powers work as an instant cure for everyone's nightmares. Hey, while we're on the subject, does anyone know where the United Heroez were this entire season? I can excuse Fei as she's just one teenager in Shanghai, but the Americans have a small army of heroes, including the president, yet they just let two violent coups in France happen last week.

As Bug Noire and Monarch keep fighting, Bug Noire comes up with the brilliant idea to Cataclysm the Butterfly Miraculous, only being foiled by Monarch already having Resistance active. Okay, is a side effect of using the Cat Miraculous this season a taste for blood? Why the hell are the heroes so okay with trying to use Cataclysm on their enemies now? Bug Noire then decides to use her Cataclysm for something far more reasonable, breaking the ground beneath her and Monarch. Because I guess Bug Noire is really gunning for Biggest Idiot this episode.

Back with the Resistance, they meet up with the Guardians, United Heroez, and Ladydragon, who have actually been getting shit done. Wow, it's just like that scene from that one movie where all the characters we've come to know over the years rally together for the final battle! What was it called again? Oh yeah, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.

While the other heroes are overwhelmed by the Miraculized, we cut back to Bug Noire and Monarch yet again, now inside the area where Emilie's body is. The two keep fighting as Monarch tells Bug Noire why he's doing all this, all while Lila breaks into the mansion.

Monarch: I want my wife, Adrien's mother, to come back to us! Once our family is reunited, Kagami and Adrien will become the eternal icons of this world! And we will be here to witness their absolute triumph!

Bug Noire: “Your wife”? “Come back”? “Kagami and Adrien, eternal icons”? How many lives are you going to ruin in the name of your crazy dreams?!

Monarch: As many as it takes! In order to bring Emilie back, someone else will have to disappear! In order to heal the wound that Cat Noir inflicted on me, someone else will have to be wounded!

Bug Noire: Someone else? But who?

Monarch: Anyone! No one matters except us! How about you, Marinette? Wouldn't you give your life for your sweet Adrien's happiness?

Bug Noire: Do you really think that's what he'd want? To discover that his father has turned into a supervillain, willing to make innocent people pay the price of his madness?

Monarch: Adrien would do the same thing!

Bug Noire: Never! Unlike you, Adrien has made his peace with it. He's not living in the past! He has a whole life ahead of him!

Bug Noire: You'd know this if you ever took an interest in him. But in reality, Adrien means NOTHING to you anymore! You've locked him in your house! Locked him in your Alliance rings!

Bug Noire: Locked him into a life that allows you to hide behind him in order to justify YOUR madness!

Monarch: All I want is for him to be happy!

Remember all of this, because it's going to be important soon.

Bug Noire uses her Lucky Charm, and gets a tube of glue. She uses some of it on this random boomerang she found (I'm assuming it's the remains of Nathalie's crossbow), sticks it to her yo-yo, and then throws it at Emilie's coffin. Monarch reflexively grabs the sticky boomerang, and loses all of the rings on his right hand just as Bug Noire uses Cataclysm on the elevator to get to this area of the mansion, with the intent on CRUSHING EMILIE WITH IT. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! Monarch saves his wife, but because he's distracted, he can't stop Bug Noire from throwing her staff at the Butterfly Miraculous, knocking it off and reverting Monarch back to Gabriel. Bug Noire ties up Gabriel's feet, and when Gabriel tries to sucker punch her with Venom, Bug Noire grabs the hand, threatening to Cataclysm the remaining Alliance rings and the two rings she should damn well know contain Adrien's Amok. Either she's bluffing, or we accidentally got the Paris Special universe's version of these events.

Bug Noire tries to reason with Gabriel, who then breaks down crying, showing how deep down, he just really cares about his family. And even though just six episodes ago, Marinette said that it was very easy for idealistic people to be taken advantage of by others, she buys into Gabriel's last-minute sob story, and wouldn't you know it, he stabs her in the back. Congratulations, Marinette. You just doomed the universe. Even when the Dino Charge Rangers accidentally got everyone on their planet killed, they were at least able to fix it themselves.

It's time to go back to the commentary, where we can learn the writers' true intent for this scene. They honestly believe that both Marinette and Gabriel care for Adrien in their own ways, and the whole reason that Marinette chose to trust Gabriel was to teach the lesson that it's important to talk out your feelings with others... a lesson that fails because 1) Marinette had already beaten Gabriel through violence, 2) Marinette trusting Gabriel backfired horribly, and 3) Gabriel won because he took advantage of Marinette's trust! You can't teach a lesson about trust when for all intents and purposes, Marinette once again lost BECAUSE SHE CHOSE TO TRUST SOMEONE!

Even though he had to unify with Tikki and Plagg to try making the wish in “Deflagration” (I really shouldn't have used the “Great Continuity!” clip earlier), we get yet another retcon this season: Tikki and Plagg have to reveal their true forms. Yeah, I know Tikki's true form was briefly seen in “Dearest Family”, but that doesn't change the fact that Monarch didn't do this when he had the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous in “Deflagration”.

Tikki and Plagg's true forms just look okay. I like the otherworldly theme, but they don't really stand out much. They honestly look more like forms Ladybug and Cat Noir would have than anything else.

It's here that we get the culmination of five seasons' worth of lore. After a brief glimpse of it in “Ephemeral”, Tikki and Plagg, the Kwamis of Creation and Destruction will merge their energies to form their true true form, the Kwami of Reality itself, able to grand any wish asked. This majestic, otherworldly being's name? Gimmi. Just... Gimmi. The commentary claims they're named after an ABBA song, and I wish I was making this up.

Like with Tikki and Plagg's true forms, Gimmi has an okay design. They're just a little too pink for something meant to be a fusion of the red Tikki and the black Plagg.

As Marinette begs Gabriel not to go through with this, Gabriel doesn't think twice about it, and instead, gives Marinette the rings containing Adrien's Amok, along with a request, fully aware that his time is almost up.

Gabriel: Marinette, make sure that Adrien never knows about the villain that I was, but instead, that he remembers the times I tried to be a good father.

Alright, we've finally gotten to the most controversial part of the episode: Gabriel's “redemption”, and I put that term extremely loosely.

Put aside the fact that almost a third of this season was spent telling the audience that a certain character who shall not be named is beyond saving despite working alongside him multiple times for the past two seasons, Gabriel's last-minute redemption falls flat because he doesn't even seem to feel remorse for what he's done. Not once does he actually say he's sorry for what he's done, just how Emilie's death affected him. That's understandable, but he doesn't even seem to acknowledge the weight of his actions or how many lives have been endangered. Remember earlier, when Monarch said he was perfectly okay with sacrificing someone else if it means his family can be happy? Yeah, that never comes back, especially now that him making the wish is portrayed as a good thing when every time it's been discussed ever since it was first explained in “Robostus” just how dangerous actually using it is.

In fact, let's discuss the fact that Gabriel is getting to make the wish in the first place. The whole idea of this basically contradicts Gabriel supposedly realizing he's gone too far. Rather than just having Gabriel give up his quest and let Emilie rest in peace, we're supposed to be happy that Gabriel double-crossed Marinette even when the music is making it seem like it's a bad thing... WHICH IT IS! Once again, for a show that loves to go on and on about how powerful love is, it really loves to show people getting screwed over whenever they decide to show compassion to their enemies. Imagine if in Return of the Jedi, when Luke chose to not give into the Dark Side by sparing Vader, Vader took the chance to kick him in the crotch while he was distracted. That's basically what happened here.

Next, notice how Gabriel specifically asks Marinette to make sure Adrien never learns the truth about who he was, and “Remembers the times he tried to be a good father”. After everything he's done, Gabriel isn't even willing to let Adrien learn about what he's done, because he wants him to focus exclusively on the times he TRIED to be a good father. This isn't the matter of Gabriel missing Adrien's fencing tournament because he had an important business meeting. Gabriel was a literal supervillain who preyed on innocent people in order to obtain absolute power, and he wasn't even a good father to his only kid. He was neglectful, controlling, and in the last few months of his life, spent more time trying to ruin his relationship with his girlfriend for no reason other than because he thought his associate's kid was a better match for him. He was a terrible father, and Gabriel even seems to be aware of this, but rather than find a way to repent for everything he's done, Gabriel is basically going to take the coward's way out by forcing Marinette to sugarcoat his life instead of admitting he was, at the very least, a flawed parent, all so Adrien will feel bad when he finally drops dead.

And yeah, let's talk about how Gabriel assumes that Adrien shouldn't be allowed to know the truth... WHEN THAT'S NOT HIS DECISION TO MAKE. Adrien should be the one to judge whether he believes Gabriel was a good father or not. Of course Gabriel would assume he was a good father despite the numerous red flags, but Adrien is another story. By keeping the truth hidden from Adrien, you're depriving him of a potentially important moment in his life where he finally learns to break free from his father's influence. Instead, even though he's a fucking superhero, we're just supposed to accept the fact that Adrien is just a poor, fragile, sensitive baby boy who can't handle hearing any bad news or else I guess he'll explode. It says a lot when, of all movies, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier did a better job handling an idea like this, by saying that pain is a natural part of life.

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But let's talk about the biggest problem with this turn of events: The fact that it essentially vindicates everything Gabriel has done, with or without the mask, as well as essentially convey a pro-child abuse message. In case you weren't around before I posted this review, I asked my followers who have been victims of child abuse or poor parenting to share their experiences so I could get an idea of how similar they were to what Adrien has had to go through. And a lot of them were pretty similar.

During almost all of what I read from these people, their parents or guardians shared one thing in common: An inability to admit being wrong. All of them tended to either blame their kids for whatever happened to them, or find ways to justify their poor treatment. As far as they're concerned, it's the kid's fault that they're being treated so poorly. And while I'm sure a handful of people isn't enough to survey the entire population of abuse victims on this planet, the fact that some of these people, as in actual victims of child abuse, were able to see similarities with their own upbringings and the way the main villain treats his son and don't buy the show deciding to act like all of that was perfectly okay says a lot about how much this finale dropped the ball when it came to the lesson it wanted to teach.

Yes, from what I've read from my followers and other things online, some abusive parents do believe that what they're doing to their children is out of a warped view of love, but that isn't enough to validate their actions completely, and it obviously doesn't validate Gabriel's actions during the last five seasons. During the entire run of the show, Gabriel has denied his son a normal life, treats him like an object, and despite claiming that he really loves him deep down, he almost never shows it. It seemed like the show was either going to have Gabriel realize the error of his ways due to how fruitless they ended up being, but having him get the upper hand on Marinette at the very last second ultimately makes it so all of his effort, every evil plan, every civilian endangered, was all worth it. And that's why Gabriel's final moments supposedly acting like he's repented for his actions don't work, and why it turned what was initially just a boring finale into one that was beyond infuriating.

And I'm assuming that you're thinking to yourself, what exactly is the wish Gabriel was so desperate to make that he tricked Marinette at the last second?

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We never really learn what kind of wish Gabriel makes using Gimmi, even in the epilogue. I'm also going to talk about this in a later post, but of course Astruc, being Astruc had to give his usual sarcastic remarks to anyone who had the slightest question about what the hell just happened.

I love how someone will ask something like “Do you mind clearing up a few questions I have about the season finale?”, and Astruc will hear what they said as if they just asked, “Is Mylene secretly the reincarnation of the Anti-Christ?”.

So Gabriel makes his wish, somehow reunites with Emilie's soul as he ascends to Heaven... until the angels realize they made a horrible mistake, and send Gabriel to his custom-made Tenth Circle of Hell. Reality itself is rewritten and all of the characters we've come to know over the past five seasons are effectively dead. If that isn't supposed to be a happy ending, I don't know what is.

According to the transcript, it's been a month after the wish is made, we see how Paris has changed since then. Not only has Miss Bustier given birth to her baby, she's also been elected as Mayor of Paris, already passing her first law, the “Eco Rule”.

Miss Bustier: It consists of very simple principles: don't take more from the Earth than what it can give us, distribute its riches equitably and don't pollute more than it can recycle.

Remember when Mylene said that you can't solve climate change with a single law? I guess the writers forgot to recycle that moral too, because despite the vague as hell guidelines, Paris has already adapted to function without plastic wrappers or cars. Just remember, it's only been one month since the wish was made. Even Star Trek needed at least 130 years and a nuclear war before its utopian society could be established. And that's not even getting into the new school she's helped create.

Miss Bustier: In this new school, there will be no classes or struggling to get good grades. Children of all ages will be able to intermix and freely access all kinds of activities.

The fuck you mean “no grades”?! How the hell will that even work?! We're supposed to see this as her being an impressive politician, but it comes across like some grade schooler's “If I were president” essay. And remember, ONE. MONTH.

How else has the Eco Rule been implemented? All of the Alliance rings have been melted down and reforged into a statue honoring... the great hero, Gabriel Agreste.

Yep. This is the ultimate fate of the main villain after five seasons of terrorizing the city of Paris: He gets a fucking statue in his honor. Are we sure this is a victory for the good guys? And no, just surviving the villain's master plan doesn't count as a win.

Even better, according to Adrien, he somehow helped defeat Monarch... even though Gabriel is Monarch, so is Monarch a different person in this world? What about Monarch's previous identities, Hawkmoth and Shadowmoth? Did they still exist in this world? They had to, considering that Chloe and Andre are still nowhere to be seen since the revolution, implying that either she's different in this world, or she also betrayed Ladybug for the same reasons. Nathalie is also back in full health, so did she ever use the Peacock? Was the Peacock ever damaged? We see Felix has it in this new world, but Emilie is still dead, so did she die of different causes in this timeline? Speaking of time, what happened to Bunnix? Did she survive too? Is she aware of the changes to the world like she was in “Cat Blanc”?

To summarize, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?

Adrien is hesitant to wear the ring because he's not sure if he can ever be even half the man his amazing father was. Marinette tells Adrien to be himself while handing the ring to him. So... was this an order? If so, was it intentional? Does Marinette even know what she's doing, or because she's a product of Gabriel's wish, she has to do this without a hitch? In fact, when he made the wish, why didn't Gabriel make Adrien, Felix, and Kagami humans instead of forcing them to rely on rings containing their souls that can easily break?

This scene is a great way to summarize Adrienette this season: The writers trying to write a heartwarming scene while hoping the audience doesn't think too hard about all the uncomfortable things it implies.

After reforging the Miraculous she got back from Monarch, Marinette decides to hand them off. Because fuck it, let's break the temp hero rule while we're at it! Chloe who? Ladybug, Cat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Viperion, Pegasus, Ryuko, Vesperia, Polymouse, Pigella, Purple Tigress, Miss Hound, Rooster Bold, Caprikid, Minotaurox, Bunnix, and even Argos (despite being the reason the heroes lost their Miraculous in the first place) assemble, ready for whatever challenge the world throws at them. Also, there's no reveal between Ladybug and Cat Noir this season because the writers still want to drag this plotline out, even when there's no excuse as to why they can't now that Monarch is gone.

We then learn who got the Butterfly Miraculous: Lila, who plans to get revenge on Marinette. Yep, the girl who has never even touched a Miraculous in five seasons is going to be Hawkmoth's successor. Not Tomoe (who I should mention never answered for being Gabriel's accomplice), not Audrey, not even Chloe. It's Lila. How the hell did she even get it anyway? Did Gabriel intentionally recreate the world to have Lila get the Butterfly Miraculous, or did Lila somehow retain her memories through close proximity to the wish and--

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Fuck it, season's over anyway. Thank God...

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS...MARINETTE

While I can't say for certain what she did with Adrien is her fault thanks to Gabriel making the wish, I can say a good chunk of the things Marinette did leading up to Gabriel winning are on her. She recklessly used her Cataclysm multiple times in her fight with Monarch, tried to crush Emilie's comatose body with debris, once again chose to gloat about how she was going to take Gabriel's Miraculous instead of just doing it the first chance she got, seemingly forgot Adrien was a Sentimonster, and somehow managed to lose even when she had Gabriel at her mercy.

So, yeah... this finale was terrible, if it wasn't obvious from this review.

It was just a complete trainwreck from start to finish. A good chunk of the first part was spent either ignoring the events of the last episode, or coming up with excuses as to why Adrien shouldn't get involved. And that's not even getting into Nathalie's “redemption”, which only really happened once she had nothing to lose, seeing how she was even closer to dying than Gabriel was. In fact, now that I think about it, why was more emphasis given to Nathalie's declining health over Gabriel? You know, the guy who's enacting his final plan because he's supposedly hours from death, yet effortlessly manages to clone himself, fly around the world as an Akuma, and keep up with Bug Noire when he struggled to enact a plan that required him to leave the lair without traveling around the world during “Intuition”? Given how we now know that the writers wanted the final battle to involve Bug Noire, I'm starting to think they also prioritized her opponent being in top shape while ignoring the Cataclysm wound affecting him.

The second half was mostly boring thanks to just how low the stakes felt. We know where Adrien is, and since Bug Noire was fighting Monarch, there was no danger of them taking her Miraculous, so for the most part, the Miraculized fighting the other heroes just felt like padding. Nobody even seemed to look for Ladybug or Cat Noir, not even the heroes. Of course, then we got to Gabriel's wish. I've gone over this before, but it bears repeating. Gabriel's “redemption” just doesn't work due to how little effort is spent actually making the audience feel bad for him other than saying “His wife is dead, and he's sad, so that justifies everything”. It doesn't help that we kind of had four episodes explaining why some people can't change, and it wasn't used when talking about Gabriel, but rather, Chloe and Lila. Because these writers really have their priorities straight.

The ending of the season itself practically falls apart with how many plotholes and unfortunate implications it has. And before you say that stuff like Adrien once again being left in the dark can be resolved next season, here's the thing: This was planned to be the series finale with how everything feels wrapped up. There's a sense of finality that shows all the main characters getting their happy ending, and we're just supposed to not question the new utopia Paris is now, much less the fact that even after eight years, Ladybug and Cat Noir still don't know who the other is. Even putting that aside, the show has always done a poor job of following up on plotpoints established in earlier seasons, as the lunchroom scene from “Illusion” shows.

Here's a summary of all the lessons the finale teaches: We shouldn't hold terrorists accountable for their actions if they just say they love their family, abuse victims should be constantly coddled and shouldn't be allowed to know the truth about their viewers, it's okay to keep crucial information from your significant other, genocide is okay as long as the person who commits it says it's for a good cause, love for others can easily be taken advantage of, so never trust anyone, genocide is the only way to create an eco-friendly world, environmental protection laws can be passed within a month and nobody (not even car manufacturers) will complain, teenage girls are worse than abusive parents who double as supervillains, and even if it was planned for almost a decade, don't let your main heroine be the one to save the day, but rather, the villain.

If anyone reading this is planning on becoming a writer and is worried that people won't like their work, just remember that there are people who get paid to work on this show.

But yeah, this is how the season ends, not with a bang, but with a nosedive. I was mostly pissed off with how Seasons 3 and 4 ended, but here? I'm just disappointed. This was the finale that we waited eight years for. The epic final battle against Monarch, and rather than the ultimate fight to the finish, the writers came with several excuses to not involve one of the two main characters in the final battle, the other main character fails to actually save the day, and the villain is rewarded for all of actions because he chose to turn himself into a messiah. I tuned into this season to at least see how the story would end out of curiosity, but it didn't even deliver an ending that made all the pointless filler, poor writing, and bad characterization worth it. I started this finale off bored, and I ended up furious for how lackluster this ending felt. It says a lot when this finale has been compared to Star vs. the Forces of Evil in terms of just screwing everything up.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE SEASON IS... MARINETTE

Marinette may not have been able to beat Gabriel in terms of stopping his plan, but she did manage to outdo him in terms of stupidity. Because she got the award four times this season (Evolution, Revelation, Confrontation, Re-Creation), she takes home the title of Biggest Idiot.

And for those who are curious or didn't keep up with my reviews, Gabriel gets second place with three Biggest Idiot Awards (Intuition, Protection, Revolution), we have a five-way tie for third place with Luka (Determination, Migration), Mayor Andre (Adoration, Action), Chloe (Deflagration, Collusion), Felix (Emotion, Representation), and Nathalie (Passion, Conformation), who all got the award twice, and a ten-way tie for fourth place with Alya (Multiplication), Xuppu (Destruction), Mr. Damocles (Jubiliation), Nino (Illusion), Joan of Arc (Reunion), Ice Cream Man Andre (Elation), Kagami (Perfection), Kim (Derision), and Tomoe (Pretension) each getting the award once.

And with that, we're done with Season 5. It's been a long road, but all I can say is...

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At least, until the analysis and ranking posts.

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ijustliketoreadstuff · 1 month

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The weight of Kagami's emotions.

At the end of "Protection", after Kagami realizes she had made a terrible mistake by misjudging Marinette, believing Lila's lie that her friend was secretly a liar and manipulator, she breaks down, blaming herself for being so weak as to allow her own emotions get the better of her again and cloud her judgment.

Kagami has always had a very strong reaction to discovering any mistake she made was the result of her failing to set aside her own emotions, especially considering those emotions have been used by Monarch to akumatize her, but this is expected on account of just who she is.

( In “Protection”, Lila explains Kagami has enormous pressure to be perfect and sees any emotion as a weakness)

Having lived a very isolated life where her only sole purpose was to uphold her family name, by being the perfect daughter, did eventually make Kagami realize she didn't know anything about how to socialize with other people, let alone about the relationships that surrounded the friendships everyone had. Even though Kagami might not have known how to make friends, she was determined to learn how.

(In "Ikari Gozen", Kagami tries to learn how to be friendlier to improve her social skills and make a friend, starting with Marinette)

Back in "Ikari Gozen", when Kagami decided to try and befriend Marinette during the friendship day competition, she was not aware that Marinette had misunderstood her and viewed her as a cold diabolical person who was dedicated to carrying out any secret scheme if it meant she could get Adrien to fall in love with her(more here).

Fortunately, Marinette was quick to realize her mistake and wasted no time in trying to make up for her actions, determined to accept Kagami's friendship with open arms and show her they can be friends, a moment that Kagami likely thought about later on when she became Ryuko for the first time, a time when Marinette/Ladybug and the viewers got a chance to see Kagami open up a little about her fear of failure .

(In "Ikari Gozen", Kagami was happy to see Marinette's determination to accept their new friendship as she spoke to her mother to cover for her. Marinette might not have been an image of perfection, but she proved to Kagami that she was a good person nonetheless.)

On the surface, Kagami appeared to be seemingly perfect to anyone who met her, but for her to maintain that sense of perfection was not only hard, it was nerve wracking as any sense of failure was seen as a disgrace by her family. "There are no second chances in my family", these are some of the core beliefs Kagami's family has lived by, and this we see all throughout the series affect Kagami again and again as she willingly accepted any failure that crossed her path.

(In "Ikari Gozen", Kagami did not blame Marinette for feeling disappointed in being paired with her for the friendship day competition. Instead, Kagami believed it was her own fault for not being worthy enough of such a friendship to begin with.)

(In "Ikari Gozen", Kagami's immediate response in failing to follow Ladybug's plan and stopping her akumatized mother on her own, was to quickly deem herself unworthy, someone who was not good enough to work alongside the heroes, and because of this, she did not hesitate to try and renounce the dragon miraculous.)

However, Ladybug told Kagami making mistakes are no reason to stop fighting, she always had the choice to try again, she only needed to be willing to take that chance. This was not only good advice for Kagami to hear, it was something she had taken a little more to heart that day she met Marinette for the Friendship Day competition. Ladybug's words might have been a complete contrast to what her family was taught to believe, but after watching Marinette's determination to give their new friendship a second chance, it was enough for Kagami to tell herself that maybe she could give into the thought of second chances for herself.

And yet, despite Ladybug's words of wisdom and Marinette's heartfelt attempts to be there for Kagami as a true friend, that feeling to be the perfect person, never left Kagami.

(In "Perfection", Kagami explains she has always had this overwhelming feeling to be the perfect person.)

To the Tsurugi's, nothing was more important than perfection. If they couldn't be perfect, then they were nothing. Kagami understood she knew very little about friendships, she didn't know how to act around other people, but it did not sway her from doing everything she could to try and be that perfect friend to the few she had.

But no matter what she did, be it reach out to her friends during their time of need or make room during her busy schedule to attend group gatherings, she could never shake that fear of potentially disappointing her friends if she didn't do more to be the perfect best friend.

Unlike other moments where she saw a challenge with a victory at the end of the line, maintaining a friendship was one thing Kagami could not understand if she was doing right, because unlike every other challenge she faced, her friendships were not a battle to be won, they were bonds she had to learn how to nurture and understand, and since she didn’t know if her actions were producing the results they should, that feeling of not being good enough remained the same.

(In "Perfection", Kagami was unsure if she was doing what a friend should do, but was happy to hear Marinette tell her she did help her and she has always been a good friend.)

Of course, friends like Marinette were there to help consul her about just what it means to be a good friend, but for someone like Kagami, who still knew so little about friendships, the possibility that some friendships were toxic, had yet to cross her mind, leaving her to accept advice from someone like Lila who intended to use her against others. Sure, Kagami had her own history with Lila, but after her experience with Marinette during the friendship day competition, what reason did she have to not give a second chance to those who were willing to listen and be kind to her. If the love between friends can be multiplied rather than divided just like Marinette said, then to Kagami, Lila was just another friend who would be added to that love, never knowing that the love Lila had for her was fake.

(Kagami had a strong dislike for Lila back in "Oni-chan" for being so close to Adrien. Although Kagami did eventually view her as a friend in "Perfection", she has not yet realized that her friendship with Lila would be the first toxic relationship she experienced, something she had never experienced and is unable to see now due to having a positive view of Lila that overshadowed any possibility that she is toxic and intended to use her to hurt Marinette.)

Kagami is currently content with the friendships she has and the new friendships she made near the end of "Perfection", but to have had that chance to experience such friendships away from her family and draw wisdom from them, did eventually reveal the cruel reality of her families toxic views and the unhappiness she ignored for much of it all.

Kagami rarely talks about her own feelings if she thinks it could cause trouble for others. In "Protection" alone, Kagami chose not to tell Marinette and Adrien about the pain she felt from watching the two of them live out a romance she once felt certain she was destined to have, with Adrien(more here). And if things ever came down to talking to her mother, well, she rarely talks about her feelings to her mother, and after the events of "Ikari Gozen" and “Protection”, we can see why. Tomoe does not approve of the decisions Kagami makes when she is guided by her emotions, regardless of the good intentions her daughter had.

Back in "Perfection", Kagami was happy to see everyone be so understanding of each other and dedicated to coming together to solve a problem. She was also happy to see Adrien working so hard to make his emotions clear to better deal with them, but knowing the struggles Kagami has had in sorting and expressing her own emotions, odds are, these were all things she wished would occur more in her life, but can't. After all, emotions are cast aside and looked down upon in her family, rather than shared and understood.

Emotions are viewed as a source of great weakness to the Tsurugi family, and if Kagami refused to accept this, her mother was more than willing to attempt to force her to uphold their families ways. If Kagami still had feelings for Adrien, then Tomoe saw no reason for Kagami to just cast aside her feelings of friendship and cut the bond Marinette and Adrien shared, all so Kagami could take Adrien back.

To Tomoe, Kagami was never meant to have a say on how she felt if things were already decided for her. Anytime Kagami did attempt to express her feelings on a matter, her mother never hesitated to belittle her for it. Kagami's choice was whatever her mother's demands were, and unbeknownst to Kagami, her entire life had already been decided, from the kind of person she should be, to who she would spend the rest of her life with.

(In "Protection, Tomoe rejects Kagami's reasoning to not take Adrien back, believing that Kagami's feelings on the matters of being devoted to her friends is ridiculous and must end it if it prevents her from taking what she wants. )

When Kagami dated Adrien in the past, Tomoe and Gabriel were aware of their romance, but were not aware of the breakup they quickly faced in "Lies", until "Protection". Needless to say, they were not happy with the news. Gabriel and Tomoe decided long ago that Kagami and Adrien were never meant to have a say on the matters of who they chose to love, they had to marry each other because the two of them were supposed to be perfect for one another, a plan that obviously backfired the more Kagami and Adrien lived out their own lives.

Kagami knew Adrien loved Marinette, and for them, she was willing to keep her pain hidden so as to not cause them any hurt, but being pulled back and forth between abiding by her mothers demands and remaining a loyal friend, left her desperate to talk to a friend who was willing to listen to her woes, and the only one she could turn too to trust, who would not be involved with both Marinette and Adrien, was Lila, who sadly was quick to use Kagami's pain as an advantage to ruin Marinette (more here). To hear her mother tell her to take back Adrien was one thing, but to hear her so-called “best friend” tell her the same thing, was on a whole other level.

Near the end of "Protection", after Lila's lies about Marinette were cleared (more here), Kagami blamed herself for failing to push away the emotions she believed would only cause trouble. Despite her mistakes, Marinette and Adrien know Kagami could not be that perfect person for them, no one can, they have all made their share of mistakes every day of their lives and Kagami was no different. They appreciated Kagami's efforts to be a good friend, but they also cared for her and her well being, and what they wished most for Kagami was for her to not push away her emotions, but to instead acknowledge and learn from them.

( Marinette gave Kagami the words her own mother would never dare say herself, let alone accept, which was that emotions don't have to be a weakness. If you are willing to face your own emotions and understand what they are telling you, they can be turned into a strength.)

It was important for Kagami to know that Marinette and Adrien loved her just the way she is. Kagami may be strong willed, but she is still very innocent, she may seem perfect, but she is still very flawed just like everyone else, and just like everyone else, she didn’t have to feel ashamed for simply having emotions. The Tsurugi legacy, and Tomoe, taught Kagami to view her emotions as a weakness, but if being friends with Marinette and Adrien has taught Kagami anything, it's that sometimes it's good to listen to advice from the friends who love and cherish you.

The moment Kagami realized her friends saw no shame in her simply trying to tell them how she felt as best she could, was the moment Kagami admitted what she felt all along, but tried so hard to hide, which was that watching the love her two friends had for each other, hurt.

Marinette and Adrien might have felt compelled to apologized to Kagami for their love causing her so much pain, but Kagami knew it was not their fault, they did nothing wrong by choosing to love each other and she now knows it was not wrong to feel the way she did either, to speak out about those feeling rather than bottle them all up. But for her to simply let go of a past love and a future she thought she was meant to have, all in an instant, was not something she could easily do so long as she was constantly reminded of what she had and what could have been, she understood that she had to move on, but it had to be done with time.

To follow her mother's advice to take back Adrien, regardless of the pain it would cause her friends, was out of the question, and to look past the lies Lila told was not to be easily forgotten. Kagami may be a Tsurugi, but the things that her family were willing to do, and the emotions they were willing to sacrifice, all to obtain the victory they wanted, no longer felt right, and neither did giving up on any friendships she felt were meaningful and genuine, including Lila's, who's friendship will take Kagami time to realize was never real.

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celestiall0tus · 6 months

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Luka Couffaine Notes - All That Remained

So, I think I see what issue I've had with Luka that I don't with Kagami. And, I ask your forgiveness for the blasphemy I'm about to speak. But you know what they say, right? Better to ask forgiveness than permission. So, let's crack into this.

With all due respect to Luka, he's a decent character in concept. However, from what I've seen, he's dreadfully bland. It's honestly hilarious seeing what a far cry he is in show versus what the fanon is. I've known this fact, but it really isn't until rewatching the older seasons that I see what my issue is. He was really just made to be for Marinette. He is the typical love interest catered to be for the main lead.

Now, there's nothing wrong with the original intention of a character being a love interest. One of my favorite characters, Sally Acorn, was originally intended to be a love interest for Sonic in the Archie Comics. However, for those that read the comics and know her, she became so much more. It's honestly arguable that the world of those comics was built for Sally and not Sonic. Sally became such a big part of the comics and her role was incredible, but she was still intended to be Sonic's love interest. Same goes for Kagami. She is a love interest for Adrien and rival to Marinette, but she feels so much more fleshed out. Like Sally, she's utilized so much more than Luka, which is a shame.

Luka, for all the potential he has, is nothing more than the would-be gold medal. He comes in to offer emotional support and be the rock for the main leads, but mostly Marinette. He is perfect for her, is everything she needs him to be. Day on the ice rink? He's a professional skater. Having trouble with your feelings? Shoulder to cry on and advice giver. She's feeling down and needs a pick me up that the girls can't give her? Enter stage right, Luka.

We see this even in their akumatizations. Luka is akumatized because of Marinette. It is only ever because of Marinette. Kagami did have her share of akumatizations because of Adrien, but for different reasons. Wanting a rematch, Lila, and Adrien lying. And let's not forget the cloud titan that was due to Marinette, not Adrien. Then there's Luka who was akumatized because of either an injustice to Marinette or wanting the fucking truth. (I'm not counting Migration. You all can fuck off with that. That was just bad writing all around that fucking episode.)

Doubling back on the bit about fleshed out. We see more with Kagami about who she is, her struggles, and so much more. We even see her GASP grow as a person. Whereas we have Luka. The man who is always kind, caring, protective, understanding, and patient. Well, that's all fine and all, but what else? What are his flaws? What are his weaknesses? What makes him human? I'm honestly reminded of the scene in Barbie the Nutcracker with the Rat King reading on the Sugar Plum Fairy and just being like "That's it?" Or in Swan Lake when Odette asks "What else?" and prince asshole asks "What else is there?"

You know, it kinda makes sense that when I see canon Luka, I just laugh. I don't see a character like I used to. I see a character with potential relegated to a glorified plot device. He only ever served as a way to advance the plot, which is a fucking sin. If Kagami was allowed to be important later on (which I get for what season 5 was) why couldn't we get that with Luka? I would have loved to have seen more than just a glorified plot device and, I wager, almost falls into the everyman trope. He is ordinary at the time we meet him. The one bit of normal in Marinette's life that we all honestly became attached to. Well, most of us anyway. Makes sense given his borderline blank slate personality of generic good traits.

It also makes sense why I latched onto the Luka in fanon. The entire fandom, all of y'all, make Luka such an interesting character. And I, for one, thank you all. We see more with these characters that don't get the spotlight, especially with Luka. It's amazing seeing what we do with him with the meager template provided by the show. Thank you.

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #ml critical #miraculous critical #writing critical #ml analysis #writing analysis #analysis #character analysis #character critical #miraculous luka #luka miraculous #luka couffaine #mlb luka

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disaster-biraven · 4 months

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Sent to you - Timari

For @the-coffee-fandom

The sunrise was breathtaking, as the cotton candy clouds streaked across the sky. But Marinette wished nothing more that she was missing it right now. She raced toward the Akuma as Chat leaped away, both dodging beams sent toward them. Chat had the misfortune of being struck twice already, sent to who knows where in Paris. It was a massive force of luck that his soulmate was already in the city of love. The first time he was hit Ladybug was resigned to finish the battle without him and nearly sobbed with relief when he returned minutes later.

“I uh- already knew her. Thankfully she hasn’t caught on to what the Akuma does, but, well-” She had never seen Chat quite so helpless. He had come face to face with a bemused Kagami and was only able to explain it was an Akuma before he rushed off to aid Ladybug. While he was on top of the world his girlfriend was his soulmate, it was confirmed to her while he was wearing a mask. She would soon figure out what this Akuma’s goals were.

“Is a reveal-” Ladybug understood what Chat meant. To meet her soulmate in the mask would be heart-wrenching.

“Please?” With a nod of her head, the black cat swept her into a hug.

It was apparent that Ladybug needed to retrieve the horse miraculous as soon as possible. Knowing how the balance between her and Chat worked, she'd be lucky if her soulmate was even in the same time zone, let alone continent. She told Chat the plan while moving to a spot impossible for the Akuma to reach her. Since it was so terribly early, there weren’t as many pedestrians on the sidewalks and roads, she noticed, relieved. Chat was struck for a third time and this was her sign to retreat. Kaalki was needed more than ever.

Equipped with the glasses, Ladybug felt more reassured when facing the Akuma. Chat distracted the lady as Ladybug came up behind her, reaching for the letter clutched in her hand.

“Bug no!” But Chat’s warning came too late as the Akuma whirled around and struck Ladybug dead on with a beam.

Her intuition on the timezone was correct, the sun went from peaking over the buildings to nowhere in sight. She lay on the roof of a building in the dead of night, with the sounds of a fight to her left. As she sat up, the two people didn’t seem to notice her. The city was vaguely familiar but obviously American. She turned back to the fight. One of the guys seemed close to her age and wore a domino mask and suit, fighting with a bo staff. The other person was trying and failing to fend him off with a knife about a foot long. As she observed the fight, the hero of some kind disarmed the thug and knocked him out cold. Without missing a beat he turned toward her in a defensive stance.

“I come in- peace? Look I was sent here by a villain of my own, so-” She itched to return to Paris immediately, but this was her soulmate (hopefully, if not her soulmate was knocked out cold) and he deserved some sort of explanation. “I really need to return to that fight. In Paris. Um, where am I?”

He blinked a few times, before lowering his staff.

“Gotham, I’m Red Robin, one of the vigilantes that work with Batman.” He looked at her considering something. “So why here? I mean we are vaguely aware of the situation over there with your emotional terrorist.”

She knew that she had contacted Wonder Woman a month after being guardian to let her know the miraculous was active again and the dangers of someone in the Justice League getting akumatized. She had asked her to brief everyone so they knew to stay out of Paris unless asked. But to be reminded Batman and his people knew about her was too much for the moment.

“Well, I didn’t have a choice. This particular akuma sends people to their, well, soulmates.” She prayed this didn’t backfire. “Surprise?”

Whatever Red Robin was expecting it wasn’t that. He put up his staff and clicked something in his ear.

“Oracle? I’m headed to Paris with one of their superheroes, it shouldn’t take long.” She assumed there was a response on the other line.

“Yes, and no promises. I’ll debrief completely after I get back.” With that, he turned back to Ladybug. “I believe you, and for that reason, I have to help. After this one villain is defeated we can set up a long-term plan with the rest of my team.”

Ladybug’s knees almost buckled with relief. Although they said outside help was unwanted, it was desperately needed. Looking at the Gotham vigilante it was clear he expected to be told no. “Fine, since there is already an Akuma we don't have to worry about akumatization right now. But we need to try and keep you helping on the down low. The last thing we need is for it to become common knowledge quickly. Hawkmoth and the press knowing would complicate things in battle. Who knows how Hawkmoth would respond and what he would try.” She tried not to blush with the blinding smile he gave her at that. She gave him a quick rundown of how the horse miraculous worked, and what plans she had so far to defeat the Akuma.

To say Chat was thrilled to see her was an understatement. He winked at her when he saw Red Robin behind her. Chat told her how when she got hit he retreated until she came back to reduce the number of times he saw his soulmate. Ladybug called for her lucky charm, which was a rope that could easily be used to lasso a bull. While Red Robin and Chat distracted the Akuma, Ladybug tied the rope into what she needed.

After the lady was caught and deakumatized, Chat and Ladybug let Red Robin in on the ‘pound it’. With a meaningful look, Chat departed in the direction he had returned from so many times. Back when they were formulating the plan she had told him they could reveal tonight after he had told his soulmate. He protested, wanting her to be the first, but she made good points on how she could wait. Pulling Red Robin to the secluded balcony above her room she asked if he wanted her to reveal her identity.

“You can wait a little longer if you want, I know your identity is tied with the whole bat clan.” She said before he felt obligated to also reveal. “But Chat is telling his soulmate who he is so I thought I’d offer.” She winced hoping she made sense.

“My team will want to meet you first, but don’t worry you’ll find out who I am soon enough Ladybug.” He was grinning from ear to ear as she opened the portal instead of responding.

With the help of the bats, it only takes two months to take down Hawkmoth, or the Rat as the bat brothers deem him. Free from their ties to Paris, Marinette and Adrien move to Gotham for college. Adrien started working with the Waynes on a business front, and MDC started working with the Wayne Fashion Department more and more. Marinette and Tim decided to keep their relationship private until their bonds were confirmed the traditional way at 20.

When Marinette had first met the Batfamily, it had been in the mask. Nightwing had greeted them in the bat cave and swept her into a greeting hug. A younger boy with a scowl and a katana had all but interrogated her before being ushered away by Nightwing. Batman was more restrained than Robin but asked more questions. She had taken it with grace, understanding she was an unknown. After the identity reveal she had grown really close to Cass and Steph, often hanging out with them when Tim was working.

The Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous had to be retired, but Marinette and Adrien were offered to join the Bats in protecting Gotham and a spot in the Justice League. They accepted both as the Fox and Snake heroes. As time went on, Paris continued to heal from their scars from Hawkmoth, and Marinette and Adrien were able to get parts of their life back. Kagami had joined them in Gotham after she had graduated early, becoming an Olympic fencer.

Life had gotten better, and their family expanded as they lived on. Tim and Marinette couldn’t have asked for a better way to meet, often joking that without the Waynes they’d still be fighting Hawkmoth.

author's note: Hope you liked it! If you did, feel free to check out my other works on ao3!

https://archiveofourown.org/users/disaster_biraven/works

And please feel free to join the Discord Server below!

#maribat #mlb x dc #tim drake #marinette dupain cheng #soulmates #romantic soulmates #ao3 #fanfic

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miraculermarinette · 2 years

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To add on to your annoyance, at least every major female character we’re introduced to have any semblance of a memorable personality/character stripped away to condense them into that common stereotype.

Marinette: She has an interesting character. She wants to be a fashion designer (That barely gets explored). She’s half chinese (Which is probably slapped onto her like a sticker to exotify her and in Kung Food she has to have a *white* guy explain her own damn heritage to her). She has a crush on Adrien (That can’t make her think straight, makes her obsessive, and clouds her moral judgement). She has several rivals for a boy who barely thinks of her as a “very good friend”.

Chloe: She had *some* depth in seasons one and two but that ultimately served no purpose as she’s reverted into some kind of murderous villain and hawkmoth’s pawn (Ket’s forget that she’s only a teenager). She is the classic white girl, blonde, and rich bully that amounts to nothing more than an obstacle for the stupid love square.

Kagami: A walking Japanese stereotype. She’s strict, stoic, businesslike and can’t even smile correctly. Also an obstacke for the love square. Her second apperance in Oni-Chan gave her two lines where she sulks over the fact that Lila kissed Adrien before being akumatized. She behave in a way that one would describe as a Yandere. Even if they dated in season four, the writers decided it was okay for Adrien to use her a Ladybug stand in, cheat on her emotionally, and half ass the relationship until Kagami broke things off. She is now delegated to cheering for the love square.

Lila: An Italian transfer student who didn’t even have a reason nor arc as to why she loves Adrien (It’s probably superficial). She’s supposed to be a master manipulator and liar (nevermind the fact that the universe has to bend over backwards and break already existing rules for her lies to work). Was only used total a grand of at least four episodes and all she amounted to was pointless and immature drama. She too like Chloe, became a spawn for Hawkmoth because Ladybug was mean ti her one time.

Case in point, tldr, the girls of MLB, at least the (supposed in Lila and Chloe’s case) important female characters are nothing but accessories for Adrien’s harem. It’s disgusting and sexist. To make matters worse, these girls are the most hated in the fandom and their crushes are portrayed as unreasonable and creepy, while Adricat’s is portrayed as romantic because he’s white, rich, and attractive. And a boy.

Go “girl power”!

Ikr!!

I always hated this double standard between the girls you mentioned above and Adrien. Adrien’s actions are seen as romantic and acceptable while the girls have to face long term consequences due to their crushes.

#miraculous ladybug #ml salt #thanks for the ask #adrien salt #marinette deserves better #stormiclown #ml sexism #ml writer salt

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princess-of-the-corner · 1 year

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Ask HC: Bandit here. So, uh, I might’ve gotten our Kagami akumatized into a giant cloud-person who can’t see or hear any living being, and can also make storms… uh, any advice? We’ve considered Markov, but unless we feel like trying to strap our Ox Miraculous to him, he’s just instantly gonna get wrecked.

Ladybug: "I believe some of the power up potions provide some protection from storms. If you can still find the Akumatized Item, you should be able to fix her."

#hc answers

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whenimgoodandready · 1 year

Text

The Dragon Miraculous is the most unique of all the Chinese Miraculouses. It has not one, not two, but three powers! Wind💨, Water💧 and Lightning⚡️! Can the other miraculouses do that? I don’t think so! It’s also the only mystic creature in the Chinese Zodiac too. Representing fantasy, adventure and good luck. Despite her “short lived” time as a super, Kagami Tsurugi did an excellent job as Ryuko (“Ikari Gozen”) and then was brought back a few times. Her experience with a sword was a coincidence as that was also their weapon of choice. However, with the triple power of storm related elements, it’d be frightening for us to think of it used for evil. Monarchs used it to evade capture from the heroes (“Evolution”), but who’s he gonna give it to as an accomplice to get their miraculouses? Let’s see:

*Perfection-What did we learn from the “The Kwami’s Choice”? Weeeell:The heroes gave up their miraculouses in order to finally date and be happy cuz otherwise they’d be so depressed they’d be akumatized and the apocalypse would happen, Alya and Zoe took their place as Scarabella and Kitty Noir, respectively, Monarch had a near victory with both the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses and then the reset button was pressed as usual :P. Yup. We’re back at the beginning again!😓. No Scarabella and Kitty Noir, no combining the two most important miraculouses together to make a wish, no nothing! Ugh!

Ok, so the reset button wasn’t exactly pressed. There was a spark when Adrienette FINALLY confessed their love for each other, but the problem is Marinette just can’t seem to say “I love moo you!”. No matter what, she’s just too shy, clumsy and awkward to say it even after Adrien serenades her and it does nothing! Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! What’s her deal!?

Her class (minus the mean girls), try to push her into saying it, but she won’t listen to them. Not even her own best friend Alya! Is there anyone out there who can help this poor pig-tailed protagonist!? Hmmm. Hey! Kagami can help since she’s a wingwoman for Adrienette! (“Determination”). Unfortunately, Marinette can’t even enlist her help cuz she’s afraid Kagami will think less of her if she finds out she (Marinette) still hasn’t said those 3 little words and avoids her to not disappoint her. Oh great!😓.

Because of Marinette ignoring her, Kagami is convinced by our plot device, Lila Rossi, that it’s a sign that Marinette never considered her a friend. Lila caught on that practically all rich kids are sheltered and socially inept and thus was easy to manipulate and with negative influences. With that, Kagami is akumatized, with the Dragon Miraculous, as Ryukomori, a giant cloud version of herself! Whoa! So she’s a living storm person that emits storm powers!? Oh sh*t! That’s not good! Wait, she can’t see or hear and just walks around nonchalantly!? What the f**k kind of villain is this? Was Monarch not thinking again!? :P. Her fourth akumatized form and it’s at the bottom for me. A giant cloud Kagami that wasn’t so combatant! :P. Her third form “Lies” was highly effected as her power froze people who lied even with the most littlest of white lies, so I’ll put that in second place. Her second form “Oni-Chan”, was her using her sword that gives people a lie detecting horn and a message receiving call to switch places with that person so as to attack the horned target and I’ll put that in third place. The look scares me too. My fav is still “Riposte”, a sword for an arm! Badass! Who doesn’t want a weapon for a body part!? C’mon!

WE HAVE ADRIENETTE! (whispers softly) Sorta kinda. Now the only thing left to do to confirm it is have Marinette take the wheel and sail it off to sea! Which is easier said then done. Actually it’s not even easier said! Is it cuz she got her miraculous back and is worried her superhero duties are gonna interfere with her love life again like with Luka? (“Truth”). No. The relationship will be fine so as long as they have their friends by their side. Did you not see how they handled Monarchbug!? Poor Marinette is just majorly insecure that she’s not worthy enough for rich and famous (former) hot teen male model Adrien Agreste. She shouldn’t be. She’s done so much to prove it. Kagami feels insecure too. She may look like she’s assertive and stone cold, but deep down, she’s crying a herself a river of her own tears to drown in. The reason the ep was called “Perfection” is because it’s what Kagami strives to be. It’s also what her mother, Tomoe, pushes on her, not just with fencing, but for life. Like to achieve “perfection”, you exclude friendship. Tomoe even told Kagami that friendships can be “disappointing” (“Ikari Gozen”). Would this have anything to do with Emilie? If so, what was it about? Could it be about that movie “Solitude”? (“Gorizilla”), where she was pictured in an original script and would’ve had the lead if not for going blind and or Emilie that was theorized by fans? (“Sole Crusher”). Speaking of “solitude”, since Kagami thought she was unworthy of being friends with Marinette, her idea of “perfection” was just wandering around Paris (at her most memorable moments) with nothing, but peace, quiet and loneliness. That way, she won’t be hurt and feel safe. She wasn’t so pathetic as Ryukomori (first time a hero uses their given miraculous for evil through the alliance ring), sure she was a Helen Keller type, but the heroes couldn’t touch her since she was a cloud, but her storm powers did come into effect when she used ‘em to shoo away things that she sensed bothered/attacked her, so it did look difficult to defeat. What Marinette and Kagami both realized is their both insecure and should be honest about it and listen to each other so they can help one another out. That extra scene in the end though with Tomoe barging in hella pissed at Gabe cuz he sent a megakuma on her daughter was odd cuz if she was aware he was the villain in the long run, wouldn’t she be chill about him akumatizing Kagami like the last few times? Then again, she was pissed that he put the megakuma in Kagami’s ring. Is there something important about that ring that we should know about? *cough*Sentimonster*cough*.

#miraculous ladybug #perfection #miraculous perfection

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lovely-lynn · 2 years

Text

This is for the amazing @sayuricorner who is an absolute angel. Thank you for being so patient with me!! 😘

She asked me to write a crossover fic of ML and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. This chapter is more of an intro than anything else, the exciting stuff is (hopefully) coming soon though!!

Warnings: Lots of Salt, Lila Salt, Alya Salt, class salt, attempted akumization

Marinette was done. Done with the insults, done with the abuse, done with the gas lighting, done with the unrealistic expectations, all of it. She couldn't handle it anymore. she felt like it was crushing her. As if she was drowning in the events of her life. Hawk moth was only getting worse as time went on and Marinette was honestly at a loss as to what to do. it didn't help that she was on the verge of being akumatized herself. It was getting harder and harder to ignore Lila and her classmates. It was all Marinette could do to keep her resolve standing strong, to hide behind the wall she had built up. The wall that sometimes felt like the only thing protecting her. It seemed to be the only thing that brought her comfort. Sure she had Tikki and her parents, all of whom she loved dearly and were truly trying their best, but she still felt utterly alone.

Logically she knew she wasn't. Beyond Tikki and her parents she had, Luka, Kagami, and Chloe. And sometimes, they were the only things keeping her alive. What Marinette failed to see was the way the rest of the school had begun to notice both the class and Lila's toxic behavior resulting in them pulling away from them and in some cases, completely severing ties. It was if a dark cloud had settled over DuPont and of course, according to the akuma class, or rather the cult class as the rest of the school had taken to calling them, she was obviously the one to blame. Which was why she wasn't surprised when she walked into her class to find Lila sobbing and everyone glaring at her. It was a daily ritual at this point. Today however, Lila wasn't talking to her, she wasn't spouting some made up story she just kept mumbling the same thing over and over,

"I shouldn't have done it, now she'll hate me more," Marinette could only assume that Lila was talking about her. Alya was trying to reassure her that it was okay. Alya caught sight of her and raised her voice to say,

"Listen Lila, no one in this room cares about what she has to say."

"You used to," Marinette replied before she could stop herself. It wasn't the most scathing of retorts but it did get her point across.

"That was before-"

"Before you knew what I was really like?" Marinette asked cutting her off, "Yeah, yeah, we've had this conversation before. We've talked about how quickly you will drop a friend when someone more interesting comes around. We've talked about your tendency to suck up to people who have what you want," Alya stood gaping like a fish for a moment. She made an angry sound in the back of her throat, but otherwise she seemed to stunned to move.

Adrien looked at her with pleading eyes, begging her not to do anything else. She honestly felt bad for him. The poor kid didn't know how to deal with drama and conflict. He seemed to thunk the smallest argument spelled certain death. Not for the first time she wondered what had happened to make him this way. He looked like a small child, looking for help. She tore her eyes away from him and squared her shoulders, staring Alya down. Neither of them were ones to back down from a fight, though in the past Marinette might have given in. Not anymore. She was don't being a doormat. She was finished with everyone treating her like she was something that was lesser. Just a tool to be used and not an actual person with feelings and dreams. Surprisingly, it was Madame Bustier who interrupted the stare down by entering the room.

"Alya, Lila, Marinette," She said, sounding equal parts disappointed and uncertain, "Mr.Damocles would like to see you," The three girls fired out of the room. Marinette resolutely ignored the whispers and snickers that escaped her classmates and expertly dodged a foot that was thrown in her path. Chloe shot her a sad smile, which Marinette ignored for sake of her sanity. Making eye contact with the blonde would only make her cry and that was not the image she wanted to portray right now. Luckily the walk to the principles office was uneventful. With Bustier following so close behind, Lila and Alya couldn't do much. Though Marinette wasn't sure Madame Bustier would do much to stop them.

Madame Bustier placed a knock on the large wooden door before pushing it open, not waiting for a response. She ushered the three girls inside. Lila was already playing up her act by playing with her fingers and pulling at the hem of her shirt. Mr.Damocles made an intimidating figure, or it least he would have been had Marinette not fought him as an akuma.

"Ms.Dupain-Cheng," He started turning to her. She fought not to squirm under his heated gaze," I have been informed by several students if your disruptive and malicious behavior. Including the bullying of you classmate Lila," He gestured to the sniffling girl, "As well as the current mood of the school. What do you have to say?"

"Well, I'm sure they told you that," Marinette responded, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice, " That still.doesn't make it anymore true than it has been the last hundred times they've told you, or anyone else, this," Lila let out a fake sob, burying her face in her hands mumbling something about not being a liar and causing trouble. Alya placed a hand on Lila's shoulder and looked ready to rip into her but Damocles raised a hand to stop her.

"Regardless of what you claim, these complaints have come to my attention far to many times for me to allow you to remain at this school," Damocles said, Marinette's heart dropped into her stomach and she gasped as he declared, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng you are expelled from this school, effective immediately," Marinette sat in shock for a miment, ignoring the sounds around her. She stood up abruptly , sending the chair she was in clattering to the floor, and spun on her heels. She stormed out of the principles office, barely making it around the corner before she began crying. Her knees gave way and she pressed herself up against the lockers. Hot tears of anger and betrayal poured down her face. This was it. Marinette was done.

Over the years she had done so much for them. She had dropped everything to help them, she took on huge projects by herself for them, she made outfits and pastries, she planned trips and parties. All of it had been because of her and now she was being treated worse than the dirt they walked one. All of the anger and pain that had been building up since the day Lila showed up was finally released. Her resolve snapped and for once she let her emotions go. She could vaguely hear Tikki trying to get her to calm down but she had already spiralled too far. Her thoughts were racing a mile a minute and the anger was building with them. Her emotions hung like a dark cloud in her mind, threatening to consume her but then, out of no where the black clouds began to lift, letting a soothing purple light filter through. Almost like the first rays of sunshine in the morning. Her mind calmed, though she could still feel the rage beneath the surface. She knew what was happening even before the voice spoke to her.

She had always imagined being akumatized to be worse, more painful and terrifying that this but it almost felt, nice. A reprieve from the world around her and the pain inside her. It was like she could finally breathe again. Briefly she was reminded that the butterfly miraculous was not evil in nature. In the right hands, it could be used for incredible good.

"Princess Justice, you have been wrongly accused by your teachers and bullied by your peers," Came a voice, shocking Marinette out of her calm and bringing her back to herself. Everything still felt foggy and she struggled to remember who she was and why she had to fight it. Hawkmoth, sensing the start of a struggle, redoubled his efforts. The purple fog coming down on her like a heavy blanket threatening to crush her. "You will have the ability to reveal the truth. You could put an end to your suffering and the suffering of their other victims. You could be the hero if this story and not the villain they make you out to be. All of this and more can be yours. In return all I require is that you bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous," Marinette understood why it was so easy to give in. The words seemed so right, they seemed to be the only option, the only escape. It made you question how bad it could be. Maybe it was because she was Ladybug, or maybe it was because she had faced him so many times before but the longer Hawkmoth talked, the more fight she gained. Marinette had never been one to mindlessly follow orders and she wasn't about to start now.

"No. You don't control me Hawkmoth," She gritted out, not sure if she was saying the words out loud. The blanket of calm that had seemed so gentle and welcoming moments before now turned angry and crushing. It wrapped around her, squeezing and trying to force her into submission. She would be lying if she said it wasn't working. But she knew she couldn't give up. She knew that giving into Hawkmoth would mean dooming Paris. It would mean the death of her friends and that is what gave her the strength to keep fighting.

For all Marinette knew the battle for dominance could have lasted an eternity. It certainly felt that way. But suddenly all at once, Hawkmoth pulled away. It hurt, more than anything she had ever experienced. It felt like he was tearing at her brain, pulling it apart bit by bit. And worse than that was a crushing feeling of loneliness and sadness. It was all so overwhelming that Marinette welcomed the darkness that began to consume her vision and she didn't fight as it pulled her under.

___________________________________________________________

Do I love it? No. Is it a decent start? yes. I wanted to have this out like a week ago but Hospital WiFi sucks. Anyway here it is, let me know what you think!!!!!

Tag List:

@guessmyname17, @vixen-uchiha @sayuricorner

#miraculous ladybug #poor marinette #marinette deserves better #marinette dupain cheng #class salt #alya cesaire #alya salt #lila salt #lila rossi #jojos bizarre adventure #i'm so sorry this is late #hawkmoth

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artzychic27 · 2 years

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Hey! Uhm, so, what's the plot for the Nathaniel gets akumatized, Lila uses Marc as shield, Nath accidentaly hurts him and he goes ballistic?

Like, it's Evillustrator or someone else? And does Marc get severly injuried? How screwed Lila will be when Nath finaly gets his hands on her?

I love your fics so much!!

(Sorry, I’m just seeing this 😅🥲)

@nerd-chocolate helped me out with this

And this fic happens a little something like…

It’s another day at DuPont for our favorite artist, he’s just grabbing his lunch out of his locker when…

He hears a conversation between Lila and Marinette coming from the girl’s bathroom

At first, he thinks to ignore it, thinking Lila’s just giving one of her empty threats (He knows Lila’s a liar) until he hears Marinette scream and then Lila hissing for her to keep her mouth shut

Lila walked out of the bathroom, but when she sees Nathaniel and figured he must at heard her, she tried to make it seem like she was defending herself, but Nathaniel tells her to cut the bullshit and she drops the act

Instead of threatening to make him a social outcast, Lila decides to hit him where it hurts. She threatens to beat Marc up

Nathaniel is very tempted to stab her, but Marinette calms him down

As soon as Lila leaves, Nathaniel breaks down into angry tears, upset that he can’t do anything to help Marinette at risk of Marc getting hurt, and while she does try to calm him down, an Akuma gets to him

Hawkmoth: Blah blah blah, Inferno, blah blah blah, do you accept?

While the Akuma Cloud™️ surrounds him, Marinette makes a break for it to transform. In Nath’s place is an Akuma dressed in this gold armor, carrying a sword, and it looks like his hair is made of fire

He storms out of the locker room, and the floor he walks on singes

Meanwhile in the cafeteria, the class is starting to become bored of Lila’s endless stories

Mendelieve’s class watches from the sidelines, making bets on when she’ll be exposed

Lacey: I bet… Today.

Simon: *Scoffs* Sure, Lacey. Lila will be exposed on this day and… Hades will drag us to his domain. *A ring of fire appears in the middle of the room* I take it back! I’m not ready to go!

Inferno then emerges from the fire ring all dramatically

Lila is quick to run out of the cafeteria and into the courtyard with Inferno chasing after her with his sword, all the while yelling for everyone to hear what she said to Marinette

Marc: She said what?

Jean: Damn, I wish someone would fight for my honor like that.

Just when Inferno finally has Lila cornered and blocks people (including Ladybug) off attempting to rescue her with rings of fire, Lila, at the last second grabs someone to use as a human shield before he can hit her with his sword

But… The person she grabbed was Marc

Much to the shock and utter horror of pretty much everyone in the courtyard, Inferno’s sword slashes Marc’s arm, leaving a burning gash

Inferno starts to freak out (Imagine Carrie’s hallucination after the pig’s blood got dumped on her) as smoke and ash begin to surround him

Now in his place is a being made entirely out of magma and black chunks of rock with flaming hair who has to be at least as tall as the school (Imagine if Te-Ka and Obsidian had a kid)

Not liking where this was going, Lila ran with Inferno running after her

Ladybug gets over her shock and chases after them, but every time she gets close enough to Inferno, he throws fire at her

Chat Noir arrives and attempts to help, but they’re still no match for the Akuma

Just when they think things can’t get any worse, Inferno creates fire monsters to help him look for Lila

Chat Noir: … We’re gonna need a lot of water.

Ladybug: *Remembers the Dragon Miraculous… Then remembers Kagami isn’t in town right now*

As they try to think of someone else to use the Miraculous, a hoard of fire monsters find and chase after them until someone pulls them to safety, Cosette

(No, they’re weren’t cutting school, just having lunch with their family today)

Cosette: Wanna explain how Te Ka ended up in Paris?!

After explaining what they know, Chat Noir then suggests that Cosette should use the Miraculous

Cosette: Yes, yes, yes and YES!

Wyvern joins the team, Ladybug’s Lucky Charm is a badass water gun… THIS!

That’s all I’ll share for now… Also, I’m gonna figure out a way to add this scene in the fic for Inferno and Marc

I WILL figure out a way, mark my words!

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #marc x nathaniel #nathaniel kurtzberg #marc anciel #ao3fic #akuma #just saw this ask #sorry #akumatized nathaniel #ao3 #fanfic #mlb ocs #dragon miraculous

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marinette-dupaincheng-ladybug · 3 years

Text

In defense of Marinette part 2

In my previous post, I talked about why marinette is not a complete stalker and defended her. In this post, I am going to discuss some other reasons why she is hated and b4 we start just know that I am not going to show favoritism towards marinette nor I am a stan or biased.

1. Marinette is obssessed with adrien. While she is obssessed, she also does not let this control her all the time. In gigantitan, Marinette’s plans were about to go succesful but instead of going on a date, she decided to help the poor lady who was having trouble carrying the stroller on the stairs. That is why she is a great superhero, she puts other people’s needs above hers. In the shanghai special, she decides to help the girl being chased by the boys instead of catching up with Adrien. So yeah, she may be obssessed but crushes CAN be overwhelming, right? She lets her love cloud her judgement sometimes but that is just normal human behaviour right? She also dialed down a lot in s4 and is also trying her hardest to get over him.

2. She cause akumatizations. Let me remind u that she may cause akumatizations but she does not do it purposely. And even if she does, then she also apologizes and feels remorse. She makes mistakes, a lot actually but she also fixes them and learns from them.

3. She is a bully? I don’t even understand this. I think a bunch of 5 year olds have created this reason. A bully is someone who is constantly mean to someone and makes them feel like they are nothing. Chloe is the bully here, not Marinette. She scolded lila once, boohoo, get over it. She also apologized and tried to make up with her. And she got jealous! Every human gets jealous, even adrien. Lila and chloe get jealous too many times. She also gave them a chance to redeem themselves, even to hawkmoth but they all disappointed her. It is really unfair that lila and chloe get to trouble marinette without problems but the second marinette does something to them, the whole fandom starts hating her. Chloe has been bullying her for so many years now, ever since sixth grade. She has every right to hate chloe and lila. She also was nice to them so many times. She gave chloe multiple chances to be queen bee but chloe expected to be queen bee more often than possible. She comforted chloe as ladybug and also threw her a party, and reunited her mother and chloe. She didn’t even scold lila for causing all that trouble in Ladybug.

4. She is mean to cat noir? How is this even relevant? She loves cn so much as a friend and has also said this multiple times that he is irreplaceable. So what if she is not in love with him? It is her choice and we should respect it. She cannot choose to be in love with someone else, love is a feeling that comes from within. And she has every right to reject cat noir and that is something we can’t blame her for. Then people say that she reacted badly to cn in the ny special. It was his fault after all! He should have told lb that he is going somewhere too but he didn’t. Ladybug felt bad that her own city got wrecked and also so many people would have gotten hurt! So much money was wasted too to rebuild everything wrecked by senti robustus. In reflecdoll, Ladynoir was making fun of mister bug just like the way CN was making fun of LB in the start of the episode. Their relationship in reflecdoll was not a toxic one but was a more best friend like. It was not mean, it was cute and was supposed to show how close they are and do not hesitate to say anything to eachother. ppl just need a reason to hate marinette even if its totally irrelevant.

5. Marinette stole three phones. In copycat, she stole adriens phone because she had accidently left a really embarassing message. This is well justified. She didn’t even go through his personal stuff when she opened his phone. In mime, she stole alya’s phone to not hurt her. She wanted to cover up her mistake and didn’t mean to hurt Alya or her phone. In Ikari Gozen, I admit it, she was completely wrong for going through Kagami’s phone. She shouldn’t have done that and I am not going to defend her for this. But that is not a reason that she should be hated for. She also tried to make up for it, right? She felt remorse and became Kagami’s friend. Then, she started to ignore her own feelings towards adrien and supported Adrigami for kagami’s happiness. This shows how selfless she is.

In all, she is a great character who has many flaws but always makes up for her mistakes.

#marinette is the best girl #in defense of Marinette #Marinette dupain cheng #anti marinette salt #marinette deserves better

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lunarianillusion · 3 years

Text

A change in fate

a maribat fanfic

Authors note: I might be breaking a lot of cannon, but rules are made to be broken. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 01

The noir omega sat comfortably within her nest, back against the large cat pillow, body curled in warm fuzzy blankest. Dussu nuzzling into the omegas shoulder, their eyes puffy from the waterfall of tears they shed. The little god murmuring apologies, at finally being able to realize what their miraculous was being used for, what atrocities they had helped to create and lives that were lost countless times over.

“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. I couldn’t understand. I was broken. I’m sorry. I did not want this,” the little blue god sobbed.

Marinette clutched the peafowl of emotion close as she whispered gentle reassurances. Her hand gently petting the kwamis head. A small thank you came from the small god before the two them, a mortal and god, fell into a dreamless slumber.

The next morning Marinette wakes up early, which had become the norm since a few months, the sun barely rising over the horizon. She tries to keep her scent and emotions under control to not wake the still sleeping kwami up, as she thought on what to do next. It works for about twenty minutes. Dussu slowly wakes up to a small influx of upset emotions, that was accompanied by a somewhat bitter scent. They opened their rose-coloured eyes, watching the omega.

Marinette was lost in thought about what her next step should be and was only brought back by duusu’s soft and groggy voice.

“What is troubling you little bird?”

Marinette let out a sigh before moving to sit up and looked at the peafowl that now floated infront of her. “I’m thinking about what to do now. I should give you back to the guardian, master fu. However, things have changed and I do not want to. He also does not wish to see me again after being akumatized and all.”

“And I do not wish to be returned to the fool,” Duusu replied bitterly, their eyes burning with cold fire. Leaving the omega to stare at them perplexed and slightly confused.

The little peafowl must have read her confusion, because they let out a dry chuckle before explaining their reasoning. “He is after all the reason why the order is now destroyed. Why me, Nooroo and the book were lost. Me getting broken in the process. And from what little you have told me he is still as impulsive as he was back during training. His instincts ignored and thus not being able to see that you were a true peafowl. Also most likely making more problems by making reckless choices and creating more harm than good. So yes, I would rather not be returned to him and likely be given to the wrong person,” The kwami seethed. Taking a breath to calm themselves before speaking more softly. “Sorry, little bird. I needed to get that of my chest.”

Marinette just stared, shocked at the outburst of emotion that flew from the kwami in waves. Their words replaying in her head and making one thing stand truly out. She was a true peafowl? How? She must have voiced this thought because Duusu gave her a gentle smile with a knowing look in their eyes.

“It is why you were able to heal me so effortlessly without the use of the healing ritual,” Duusu explained, making the omega nod.

“Alright, but I still do not fully understand how I am a true peafowl? What does it even mean to be a true peafowl? Neither Tikki nor Fu told me of such a thing,” Marinette inquired. This made the kwamis eyes widen in surprise and something else but poised themselves to not worry the young girl.

“The term of you being a true peafowl comes from you having a true soul of the miraculous. Every few generations a child is be born with a piece of power of one of the miraculouses. You carry a part of my essence and so are a true peafowl.” They took a small breath to let their little bird take in the information. “This will allow you to gain more abilities whilst wearing you co-responding miraculous and repair or heal said miraculous without the use of magic.”

“What kind of abilities would I develop?” Duusu smiled at the question. Marinette had excepted them and that filled them with joy. How long had it been since they had been with one of their little birds?

“Every true soul gain secondary abilities. Every soul does develop diverendly so I can not tell what you will be able to do. There is a high chance that you gain a healing ability or can control water, since that is my co-responding element. But these will develop over time,” The peafowl happily chirped. Before letting out a small sigh, as they thought about the fact that their little bird did not know this. The mistake of the two who should have guided her is going to complicated things. They were going to have to rectify that, even if it might hurt her.

“You’re will be growing in more slowly though,” She needed someone who was honest with her. Lies had hurt her enough. No thanks to Hawkmoth and his accomplices, from what they remembered.

“Why is that?” Marinette worry lacing her voice. She pulled her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Is there something wrong with me?”

“Oh, no, no, no. Marinette don’t you dare think there is something wrong with you. It is just a side effect from using and wearing another miraculous that does not co-respond with your soul,” Duusu was quick to reassure. Nuzzling her cheek, giving as much comfort as their small body could give. “It is not physically harmful to you, but the miraculous leaves traces one their wielders soul that takes time to let go. This slows down the grow of the secondary abilities for true souls.”

“Did Tikki know?” Marinette asked. Because surely Tikki would have told her, the omega thought.

And there was that dreaded question, that proved Duusu’s theory. Letting out a sigh they gave the dreaded answer: “Every Kwami can recognize a true soul and can tell what miraculous they are compatible with,” The little blue god could see the tears in the young girls’ eyes, feel her saddening emotions and smelled the bitterness seep into her scent. They hated it. Truly Tikki you should have told her and not let yourself be clouded by the thoughts of what if. How many times hadn’t this scenario played out like this one?

“Please don’t be sad, little bird. She did not wish to hurt you,” The peafowl tried to console.

Marinette swiftly steeled herself, having no intention to get akumatized again. “Then why didn’t she tell this?” She asked tears still glistening in her eyes.

“Because she loved you like her own,” Duusu confessed. “Ladybug souls are rarely born. Maybe every few hundreds of years or maybe a thousand and so she is barely brought into circulation. To be honest the order barely let any of us into circulation and so we grow very attached very quickly. All us Kwami love been able to interact with this realm and often it feels like the are chains to be used whenever someone sees fit.”

“Like with Hawkmoth.”

“Yes, so we love being able to live with people such as yourself and wish to stay with them for as long as possible. This might not always be wise, but all beings are flawed even us Kwamis. So please do not be sad or even think that Tikki did not trust you. The thought of you maybe pushing her away was to scary for her to even dare face. For she just wanted to be with and watch you grow as a person and succeed in your passion and life itself. Because that is what brings us most joy of all,” A small gentle smile began to grace Duusu’s face as the omega’s feelings began to lift. The were not happy, but they were lighter.

Nuzzling close to Marinette the little god padded away the last of the tears away and then the two stayed close in a peaceful silence.

____________________________________________________________________

After having calmed down from the great revelation Marinette had taking to finishing up the redecorating of her room. After almost all of her classmates decided to place their faith in Lie-la, someone they had barely known for a year, over her, someone that most had known since childhood. Marinette had decided to change her style around. Gone was her overly pink room, along with all the creepy collages and clippings of Adrien. In its place her room gained a more modern yet sophisticated look.

Her walls were now a charcoal grey, white branches with pink sakura flowers, some petals falling to the floor. Most of her furniture was also replaced.

Her plastic desk chair was replaced with a more comfortable fake leather one. It would support her neck far better while working. Her vanity was now black and white with a build in sink and square mirror. Her chaise was gone and in its place was now a large L shaped couch. A matching Prussian blue bean bag sat close by. Making a nice sitting place close to the window. For when her true friends, Luka, Kagami or Chloe, came to visit.

As Marinette finished, the last of her rearranging of her room, she let out a relieved sigh. Happily smushing her face into the large bean bag. The little blue god floated down to sit on her head, admiring the nicely styled room. They stayed like that for a while. The comforting silence soothing their souls.

This was disturbed when the noir haired girl’s phone went off. The playing ringtone being a small part of one of Jagged Stone’s songs and brought a smile to her face.

Grabbing her phone, Marinette turned to lie on her back. Making Duusu grumble a little, as they had just gotten comfortable.

Opening up her massage group fittingly called ‘loyal rogue pack’ she was greeted with the picture of Luka and Kagami infront of the Sydney opera house. The beta male and female alpha were smiling at the camera, Luka’s arm over Kagami’s shoulder and she was holding up her hand in a peace sign. In the background you could see Jagged Stone being dramatic with fang by his side and Penny facepalming.

It brought a smile to the omega’s face. Duusu mirrored her expression and practically purred at the warm emotion coming from their bird. “Who are they? Friends of yours little bird?” the kwami asked, wanting to know who the people were that could make the omega happy by just a picture.

“They’re two of my true friends and packmates. The girl is Kagami and the Boy is Luka. They are tagging along with my honorary uncle Jagged and aunt Penny, you can see them in the background, on my uncle’s tour. They had to get out of the toxic environment, and it is a great learning experience for the both of them.” Marinette happily answered, as another ping came from her phone.

Chloe had commented on the photo, practically whining at how unfair it was that she was stuck in Paris and they were on an adventure. Afterwards saying she misses them. Oh, did that bring a smug grin to Marinette’s face.

Duusu scrunched their brow feeling there was more to toxic environment than just hawkmoth. If the slight shift in emotion when the words were spoken was anything to get of from. So, they asked about it.

They could immediately feel the mood sour from their wielder as she stopped her typing, to think of the best way to answer. “Both were in increasingly worsening home environments that developed due to a certain liar that crawled into our lives and turned our friends and family into her playthings. Luka was able to get out more easily since he is by law an adult, but Kagami,” Marinette paused unsure how to continue. “We got her out, but it was a long and stressful process that left a few scars. Literally and figuratively.”

Duusu didn’t ask any for a deeper explanation the bitter scent coming from the omega was enough to know that it was a sensitive topic. “Things turned out good in the end though,” Duusu reassured. Nuzzling into the girl’s cheek as she finished typing her own message.

“Yeah it did,” Marinette breathed. “Now the two are doing some soul searching together and it makes me really happy.”

Another ‘ping’ Came for the girl’s phone with a message from Chloe to her, that made the omega sigh in aggravation.

‘Are you doing okay, Minette?’

Marinette really loved her blond alpha friend, but she was going to make her other two packmates worry. And that could only end so well. If Kagami caught wind of her being akumatized she would book the first flight back to Paris, sword in hand, and Luka would happily come along. Jagged and Penny close behind. Two pings validated her statement quickly.

‘Did something happen, Melody?”

‘Do I need to book a flight, Mari-hime?’

Better be honest with them, otherwise Chloe will tell the two privately and that would not be good.

‘I got akumatized yesterday, but I am alright now’

3…2…1

‘Lie-la is going to DIE! Luka get my sword!!’

‘Yes ma’am’

‘Shall I start booking a flight for the two of you?’

‘Yes’

‘NO!!!’

‘Guys, I’m alright now. So, no need to come sword in hand and I rather not stress about you getting akumatized while on a murderous rampage for vengeance. So, PLEASE!

‘Life is stressful enough as it is’

‘Fine…’

‘Alright melody’

‘I’ll have her head on a spike one day, but alright’

The omega let out a sigh of relief. Tragedy averted. She heard soft giggles coming from beside her. Turning to the side she saw a gleeful little god floating close by and paws covering their mouth, eyes holding an amused spark. “They are certainly lively, aren’t they?” Traitor.

“You have no idea,” Marinette huffed, turning back to her phone. “Making sure those three don’t cleave someone in two is exhausting work. If they work together, they would get away with it too.”

‘On a more positive note. Chloe you still on for the movies today?’ Marinette texted.

‘I wish I could’

Chloe send a video

In the video you could see Chloe sitting slouched on her couch in the foreground. Her face blank, but her eyes screamed pain and suffering. While in the background you could see Andre Bourgeois pacing back and forth. Going on what seemed to be a never-ending rant.

‘Dad is not letting me out at all’

‘Please end my suffering’

‘Aye…I can feel your pain. So sorry Queenie’

‘Stay strong Siren’

‘May your suffering come to a swift end’

‘Thanks guys and I hope so too’

‘Penny is calling us guys, she sounds tired. So, we got to skedaddle’

‘Run’

‘Should you change your mind however. I’ll keep my sword at hand’

‘Kagami no’

‘Kagami yes’

‘Well talk to you later. TATA’

Marinette let out a happy sigh. Even though having to stop those three from committing a murder was sometimes quite stressfull, talking to them always brought a smile to her face. It made this hellhole a little easier to live in. Another ping made her raise her phone again and was surprised by who had texted her now, Nathaniel Kurtzberg.

Now Marinette liked Nathaniel just fine. He was in the neutral zone between the pro Lila and pro Marinette squads, most having gone to Lila. Often he along with Marc would hang out with Marinette and Chloe during art club time. But was too uncertain to choose a side. Lately though he had been distancing himself more from the pro Lila squad. But back to the present.

Nathaniel had sent an interesting text; ‘Hey Marinette, I know this is sudden, but can we talk in person. It is really important. I swear on my honour and skills as an artist that this is not some foul trick composed by the likes of Lie-la. So, can we meet this afternoon at the pond in the park?’

Now that made Marinette sit up straight. For Nathaniel had made a sacred vow that the art club had created at the beginning of the first year and no one broke that vow. If you broke that it would be considered a sin and you would inquire the wrath of all the club members. It did not matter if you were a friend or foe. Once someone made the vow to Chloe and broke it. Let’s just say they still had some leftover trauma from the club’s vengeance. So, to repeat no one broke that vow and got away with it.

Marinette made a quick screenshot of the text before sending her reply; ‘Sure, see you at two’

“Want to go out, Duusu?” Marinette asked the curios looking peafowl.

Her answer was an exited nod and twirl in the air. They were exited to go and see the outside world.

#miraculous ladybug #peacock miraculous #marinette dupain cheng #omegaverse #duusu #tales of ladybug and cat noir #fanfic #maribat #timari #timinette

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marrys-dream-world · 3 years

Text

if we’re bound to be something, why not together? (chapter ten)

Read on AO3

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Notes: Content Warning: there's discussions of a canon-compliant suicide/self-harm attempt on s4ep11 Guiltrip. It's nothing graphic or even explicit that they talk about, but if this is a hard topic for you, it's better to avoid it. This will be under the cut for that reason too.

Day 10: Moonlight. @ladynoirjuly

Some miraculous powers left lasting consequences, but Chat Noir had felt none as acutely as he did Pigella's jubilation.

He knew that, on paper, her power was "Gift", the ability to show the person it was used on whatever they wanted the most. It was one of the most terrifying ones he had ever seen, along with the butterfly's akumatization and the cat's cataclysm. The power to show someone's deepest heart's desires, no way to hide them, made his skin crawl. It certainly left him feeling grateful he wasn't her enemy (and also reminded him to never get on Rose's bad side).

However, the pig miraculous either had its own aura or amplified Rose's natural one, because Pigella by herself exuded jubilation. Just staying by her side gave him more energy than drinking five cups of coffee or even seeing his lady's smile. He left the battle against Guiltrip and a reluctant Reflekta absolutely high on joy, playfully teasing Chloé and joining in on the class's reassurance to Rose. Adrien felt invincible, laughing along with Marinette and Nino as Alya tried to guess who Shadow Moth was after school (the reporter was particularly stuck on Bob Roth and, after seeing how he riled up Mr. Ramier during the shooting of the apple juice commercial, he wondered if maybe she had a point). Adrien felt like he was flying.

That only made the fall harder.

It happened too fast, first he was giddy as he went to his fencing class, then he felt like all his energy was powered down and he was left hollow before even getting out of the car. Adrien performed horribly in class, Kagami breaking through her post-break up self-imposed distance to ask him if he was fine or needed to go home. He answered that he was okay, before getting his ass kicked so hard by her in a match that the teacher made him sit out the rest of the day.

Chat Noir arrived at the patrol meeting spot already exhausted. He leaned against the railings of the bridge he and Ladybug agreed on, looking down on his reflection, illuminated by the moonlight.

At least I don’t look as awful as I feel. He thought, being seen by his lady as a complete wreck was the last thing he needed today.

"My lady!" He half-forced a smile when he saw her. She didn't look as affected as he had, just a bit tired. "Wanting to meet me by the river under the moonlight? How romantic."

"Chat Noir." Ladybug said seriously and his smile fell off his face. "What was that today?"

He frowned. "The Sentimonster? I thought we did fine."

"No, when he got you and you activated cataclysm and…" Her voice got quieter and quieter until it disappeared. Her lip trembled. "What was that?"

Chat Noir swallowed hard. He had hoped Ladybug wouldn't have noticed that.

"It was nothing, bugaboo, really." He tried to stay light-hearted, but her distress didn't seem to be waning. "It was just the Sentimonster."

"No one else did anything like that." She insisted firmly. "Please, Chat Noir, talk to me. Didn't we promise to be honest with each other?"

He sighed heavily, caught. It's not like Ladybug could or even would force him, but the exhaustion he was feeling was clouding his mind and a promise was a promise, wasn't it?

"When I was young, my parents used to go on trips all over the world. They said I was too young to go with and I hated being left behind, but by the time they came back with souvenirs and stories, I didn't really care anymore." Chat Noir said. Ladybug looked admittedly confused, so he chuckled. "I promise this will make sense by the end. Let me finish?"

She bit her lip and nodded, gesturing for him to go on. He took a breath, shakily.

"Once, they came back from South America and my mother brought back a bunch of stuff, mostly stories. She knew they were my favorite." His mind drifted back to sitting in his mother's lap and he could almost feel a ghost of her hand combing through his hair. "The one that stuck with me the most at that time was about this girl that wanted to become a star. Sometimes, the moon would choose beautiful girls from her people to become stars and it was that girl's biggest dream to be chosen. But when her time came, she wasn't and she fell into despair. She went mad with a fever and jumped in the river, chasing after the moon's reflection, and drowned. The moon took pity on her and turned her into a giant water lily, so she could become the one star in the water."

Chat Noir paused, taking in his partner's blue eyes shining with concern (for him).

"I really didn't get it at the time, how someone could want something, miss something, so much that they would just give up everything. That she would just jump in the river like that." He said so to his mother at the time, even. You'll understand when you're older, baby. She had said. "I think I get it now. Sometimes, I think if it was to be with my mom, I would…"

Embarrassingly enough, his words were cut off with a sob. Before he could even blink, Ladybug enveloped him into her arms, squeezing tight like he would jump into the moon's visage in the river and disappear.

"I-I don't really think about it a lot o-or anything." Chat Noir stuttered between sons, hot tears falling from his eyes. He couldn't bring himself to care that he was crying in front of partner, her arms felt too comforting for that. "But that Sentimonster was really powerful and I'm just so tired."

I can't even help my best bud face up to his old man…

It had been his fault that Nino was feeling that. Both as Adrien for being the source and Chat Noir for not protecting him from Guiltrip. In that moment, coupled with his father's apathy and Nathalie and mother too far for him to grasp, it was suddenly too much.

"S-sorry for putting this on you." He apologized, but shamefully didn't let go.

If possible, she tightened her arms around him even more. It left him with an ache in his bones that didn't bother him at all.

"I want you to tell me these things, Chat Noir. You're my partner and I love you, of course I want to know." Ladybug said, voice wet. "You can lean on me, you know."

"I know." He said, voice sounding hollow. It wasn't that he thought his lady was a lia,r it was just… hard to do that. Being well and truly seen.

"It's okay if you can't tell me, I know I can't be around all the time." She continued. "You can lean on your family and friends too, Chat, I promise that they'll understand."

Then you don't know them. He bit back this response. It wasn't fully true, anyways.

"I-I can't talk to my family about this." His father was half the problem, after all.

"Talk to your friends, then. You sound like you really care about them, Chaton, they can help you."

He wanted to make up excuses and vague promises to Ladybug. He wanted to explain that it was because his friends were great that he couldn't burden them. He just felt so tired, though. The idea of going back to pretend everything was fine, to going back to his cold room and lonely nights made his skin crawl.

"My friends…" He whispered.

Nino and his caring personality. Marinette and her drive to help others. Kagami and her concern for him even after he broke her heart. Alya and her unstoppable sense of justice. The class's obvious love and care for a distressed Juleka and a sick friend. Rose herself, always sweet and optimistic in face of trouble.

"I… I'll try, my lady." It wouldn't be easy, but he would. He had to.

She deflated and it was the first time he noticed how tense she had been.

"Thanks, Chaton." The skin of his neck felt wet.

They stayed there under the moonlight, patrol forgotten.

#ladynoirjuly #ladynoirjuly2021 #ladynoir #ladybug #chat noir #ml fic #my stuff #if we're bound to be something why not together #cw: implied suicide attempt

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trainsinanime · 4 years

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I feel like when we’re talking about Lila Rossi in Miraculous Ladybug, too often people ignore what I think is the most interesting thing about her: She brings out the worst in Marinette. In fact, she seems like she’s specifically designed specifically to bring out the worst in Marinette.

Think about it. Marinette hates liars; Lila lies almost every time she opens up her mouth, and keeps mocking the very concept of honesty. That brings out Marinette’s righteous anger. Lila also goes after and lies to Adrien, which triggers both Marinette’s protector instinct and, let’s be real here, her jealousy. And all that together turns her into an unguided missile of rage.

None of these elements are new on their own. A consistent character trait of Marinette’s is that she has exactly zero chill when it comes to things being unfair or people being dishonest. This quality is a key reason of why she is a great Ladybug. This same quality has also caused her to antagonize many people, which eventually ended up with akumatisations. I want to make it clear that I only ever blame Hawkmoth for people being akumatized. But even without the butterfly, Marinette inadvertently hurt people without meaning to, e.g. in Reverser/Inverso or Bakerix.

Another consistent trait is that yes, Marinette is petty and spiteful and jealous when it comes to Adrien. I’ve seen fan fictions where Marinette tells Alya, “I am not jealous about Adrien, my friendship with Kagami proves it”, while ignoring that the entire point of Ikari Gozen was Marinette being petty, jealous and spiteful, until she finally got over it. I guess we’ll call those stories an AU.

(My guess is that the end of season 3 was pushing Adrigami in part so Marinette could learn to get over her jealousy. I wonder how, if at all, that’ll play out in season 4. RWBY taught me to never get my hopes up when it comes to the possibility of getting more depth in 3D animated shows with leading ladies dressed in black and red.)

Lila pushes all of Marinette’s buttons and gets her incredibly riled up, and causes Marinette to do actions that are actually objectively shitty. Yes, Lila is lying about a lot, but throwing napkins at people is still not nice. When Alya dismisses Marinette’s objections because she thinks Marinette is just angry and jealous, she’s actually not that wrong. Lila does actually lie, but Marinette is also angry and jealous and it is clouding her judgement.

Especially in Chameleon, it’s important to note that this is the primary challenge that Marinette is facing. So many people keep acting like exposing Lila is the big challenge, but it’s actually super-easy. Marinette did it within five screen minutes of first meeting her, back in Volpina. She even used the “the famous person you claim to know? That’s me and I never heard of you” trope that so many fanfics keep trying to reinvent. And the result of that was not Lila leaving forever (well, actually it kind of was for almost a full season, which was weird), but rather Marinette and Ladybug making an enemy for life. It completely backfired, because Marinette was focused on the wrong problem.

The solution presented in Chameleon is actually not as wrong as many people claim. Adrien recognizes that while Lila is the one who started things by lying, Marinette is actually the one who keeps turning it into a constant battle, and who crucially does almost all of Lila’s work of discrediting Marinette for her.

This is kind of easy to miss on an emotional level. The show will generally always make us empathize with Marinette, and Marinette absolutely does not see the damage she causes to others or to her own reputation when she thinks she’s on a righteous mission. But it is the core of the Lila conflict. Well, until Lila starts trying to actively sabotage Marinette, which obviously changes things. But we’ve only come to that point because Marinette has managed to learn, with Adrien’s help, to tune out Lila.

As an aside: The main difference between Chloé and Lila is the way Lila manages to get under Marinette’s skin. Chloé managed the same, at the start, but she’s too cartoonish and self-obsessed to be much of an actual threat for the high-school parts of the show. At some point early on Marinette learns that being the bigger person when it comes to Chloé is both easy and fun, and that’s essentially the end of that rivalry. Not that that’s a bad thing, they did find other interesting uses for Chloé, but she had left the Cordelia Chase spot open and it looks like Lila was specifically designed to fit right in there.

(I keep wondering whether I should do a post comparing Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Miraculous Ladybug. Both shows are incredibly similar in a lot of ways, and I do recommend both, but if you watch either expecting it to be like the other, you’ll probably end up being disappointed.)

If there’s one thing where they kind of dropped the ball with Marinette getting over her hatred of Lila, it’s the question of why Marinette never exposed Lila to Alya. As established in Lila’s first appearance, exposing Lila is really easy. Alya would immediately jump on the opportunity to help both Ladybug and Marinette, and be a welcome ally at that.

Okay, I can guess why they didn’t do that: It’s so that they could use dealing with the threat of Lila to further develop Marinette’s and Adrien’s relationship. But then they kind of didn’t, and only told us they had… and the biggest thing that happened in that regard, Adrien’s deal with the devil, is something that Marinette doesn’t know about… so yeah, I can see what they were aiming at, but then they didn’t really go for it, and it’s a bit of a missed opportunity. I want more platonic Adrinette scheming, guys. Instead we just get Lila fundamentally not existing, because she’s a one-trick pony as antagonists go. That could have been done better.

Sorry for rambling. In short: The most important thing about Lila is not that she threatens Marinette and is acting evil; it’s what she brings out in Marinette. Ignoring that and just thinking of new ways to expose Lila is missing what makes her relationship with Marinette actually interesting.

#miraculous ladybug #lila rossi #marinette dupain cheng #marinette dupain-cheng #mlb meta

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deaddovecoterie · 3 years

Text

butterflies

marinette dupain cheng x adrien agreste || ladybug x chat noir

fandom: miraculous ladybug

rating: T (maybe R to be safe for next chp? ahaha jk jk,,, unless?,,,)

word count: 1.8k

genre: angst. just pure angst. maybe fluff if you squint real hard

warning(s): swearing, vaguely unedited, blood mention

a/n: heyyyy :DD im back on my writing bullshit with my favourite personnnn (guess who) @whoseblogsthis cause me and this talented mf co-wrote this :’) ky i just wanna know what it feels like to carry every ff we write together on your back because of my linguistic incompetence. anyway this is my first mlb fic so i hope yall like it i guess !!

——————————————————————————

“...Bystanders have not been hurt, although Paris’ superheroes have not made an appearance yet…”

There was unrest among the students of Francoise Dupont High School as Adrien listened to his friends talk quietly amongst one another. Thunder rumbled in the distance as heavy, chilling rain poured down from the skies. There was a gloomy eeriness that clung to the air, a quiet that made the high schoolers feel like they were just waiting for something to shatter the silence. Grey clouds were collecting, casting the city in shadow-like darkness.

Another Akuma attack had been reported yet again. The Parisian superheroes were more than glad to help out, but it was obvious they were tiring: their moves became sloppier, their conversations shorter, and their patience thinner.

Adrien listened to the chatter exchanged between Alya and Nino, while Marinette remained quiet. She looked tired, which really wasn’t that uncommon, but her fatigue seemed to spill into all of her activities. She had less “pep in her step,” as Alya had said, and her eyes weren’t nearly as bright as they used to be. Not that he meant to pay attention to such things, of course, but it was hard to not notice. Even Chloe, who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about anyone but herself, had laid off on the harassment. Adrien chalked up his attentiveness to Marinette as nothing more than being a good, concerned friend, but as of late that excuse was becoming harder to sell, even to himself.

It started about four months ago when they came back from summer break. Everyone had gone back to school and while Adrien was physically there, he was mentally absent. Kagami had just gone abroad for school again after they’d broken things off. He would have liked to say it was a mutual breakup, but she was the one who brought it up. Kagami was wise beyond her years so when she told him that his heart wasn’t in the relationship, he knew she was right. He expected his first heartbreak to be gut-wrenching, but it wasn’t. He felt sad, sure, but not in the way that leaves you paralyzed in bed for weeks on end. At the time, he wondered why that was, but the answer was obvious: Marinette.

When he got to school, it was almost as if she could see the gloomy cloud over his head. She was there for him when no one else seemed to notice, her stuttering and fumbling hardly present in their conversation. In the beginning, he felt almost guilty for confiding in her. It would’ve been ignorant of him to believe she didn’t have problems of her own (who didn’t?), but it was a fact known by many that Marinette Dupain-Chang was one to do whatever she could to help the people she cared for.

It was then that he noticed it: the butterflies. It was like a tsunami of anxiety, excitement, and shyness all rolled into one whenever she did anything: the way her hair moved in the breeze, her clear laugh that dared him to smile, but most of all, her kindness. Marinette was one of those people that you couldn’t hate. She was that person who helped others even when no one was looking. He didn’t want to, but he couldn’t help himself when he started falling for her every move.

She didn’t know, probably never would, but she had him whipped.

The blonde was snapped back into reality when his best friend nudged him: “You coming?” Nino’s brow arched in question.

He looked across the street, where his bodyguard was waiting for him, standing by the driver’s side door of the sleek black Audi. Though it’s been the same car since Adrien was like thirteen, it still looked brand new.

“I forgot my homework,” he said to Nino, calling out to his bodyguard to repeat the same thing. With a barely discernible nod of approval from the bodyguard, Adrien turned back toward the school doors.

Adrien grumbled as he jogged away from his friend group: “Well, Nadia, Paris’ superheroes happen to have vaguely normal lives too if you weren’t aware.”

Plagg floated up from Adrien’s pant pocket and did circles around his owner’s head. “You put too much faith in humans, they don’t think about that kinda stuff. To them, you and Ladybug are untouchable.”

“Yeah, well we’re not,” he mumbled frustratedly. He pressed his palms into his eyes tiredly and took a deep breath before dropping his arms back down to his sides.

“Plagg claws out,” he muttered.

Plagg liked to think he knew his miraculous holder quite well. Despite the kwami’s demeanour and seeming distaste toward anything non-cheese related, he did have feelings. Yes, he loved cheese, but he also loved Adrien. He had spent the last two years with Adrien, and he knew something was terribly wrong with his owner.

He’d ask later. The cat-like kwami entered the ring miraculous, and with that, Adrien Agreste was gone, replaced by Chat Noir.

The leather-clad hero headed toward the disaster zone, the rain not doing anything to help his vision. He landed on a rooftop near the Akuma attack and swiftly surveyed the scene. Upon not seeing Ladybug anywhere, Chat Noir sent a quick message to Ladybug, highlighting the damage, before swooping in to hold off the Akuma.

xXx

To put it simply, Marinette was struggling. It had been the fifth Akuma attack that week and after two years of being Ladybug, her excuses were becoming weaker and weaker as time went on. Adrien’s abrupt exit was odd, but she didn’t have time to think about it as she felt the ground shake slightly. It didn’t matter how exhausted she was, she couldn’t put off her duties any longer.

“I uhm, I forgot I had a question for Miss Bustier. I’m going to go see if she’s still around and I’ll uh just stay here until Ladybug and Chat Noir get everything taken care of!” she flashed her friends a thumbs up and with that, she ran back inside the school, toward the locker room. She opened her tiny purse in order for Tikki to emerge. “This is bullshit,” she muttered to herself.

Tikki gasped in shock. “Marinette!”

“Sorry,” she mumbled half-heartedly, “You wouldn’t happen to care if I maybe just happened to not show up and let Chat handle it?”

The glare that the small kwami sent her way told her otherwise. “Something about this one tells me that you’ll need all the help you can get,” she told her owner.

Her stomach twisted with anxiety, both confusion and shock washing over her face. Tikki had never talked about the dangers of an Akuma before, which alarmed Marinette. Shit.

“Tikki, spots on.”

Ladybug swung with all her might as her trusty yoyo grabbed onto buildings and chimneys, the sounds of destruction nearing. A black blur, undoubtedly Chat, streaked the cloudy, grey sky as an akumatized villain screeched out. Her eyes skimmed over the cobblestone streets in front of her, but nothing could prepare her for the screams of terror and bloodied civilians that scattered the scene below.

Her feet had only touched down on the ground for a second when she heard him.

“Nice of you to drop in,” Chat purred, startling her. “You’re late,” he added, his voice icier than expected.

“Cry about it,” Ladybug responded coldly.

“Meowch m’lady,” he said in mock hurt.

“Sorry,” she muttered to her partner as she took him in. His blonde silky hair was plastered to his head from the pouring rain, the droplets permeating the black leather. If the suit wasn’t skin-tight before, it certainly was now. She had to tear her eyes away from the sight of him, her sensibility screaming at her to focus while her eyes wanted nothing more than to drink in every inch of him.

Literally what the fuck, she said to herself. Now was no time to pine for her partner.

The Akuma that stood before her was physically underwhelming in stature, but her clothing made up for it. The girl in front of them held herself at around 5’3 and couldn’t be more than 18, but her wicked smirk sent a chill through her spine. The girl was clad in an array of green from forest, sage, to mossy shades, the dress that adorned her body looking like that straight from greek mythology. It was made up of grand silks, almost entrancing Ladybug and Chat with the way that the fabric moved like rippling water. It was ethereal, really, but the closer she looked at it the deadlier it became.

From around the waist and shoulders, long strips of silk floated behind her like the snakes on the head of Medusa. They almost seemed to bend to her will, the fabric defying gravity. Not only were pieces of the dress floating, but so was her long dark hair. In her hand was a staff made from tree trunk like material. Resting atop her head was an obsidian black crown with spikes the length of Ladybug’s hand.

After looking around at the already distraught state of the street, their evaluation was over: she was not going to be another walk in the park.

“Shit,” Chat breathed out. It was at that moment that the villain opened her mouth to address both the heroes and bystanders.

“Citizens of Paris, I am Gi Mágissa. I am not here to compromise with your heroes. Others in the past have failed to retrieve what Hawk Moth desires, but I will not: today will be the day that you remember as the fall of Ladybug and Chat Noir.” Her voice resonated as if it was echoing off the walls. She shifted her gaze to the left, her eyes locking with the two of them.

“Give me your miraculous and I may decide to spare you and your city,” she said in a dangerously low voice. Her voice was smooth, yet it cut right through the two partners like a freezing wind in the dead of winter. Under any other circumstances, her words would be humorous, cheesy even, but this was not like anything else they faced.

Chat laughed as his trademarked smirk appeared. “Funny, because I don’t remember agreeing to that,” he said in mock thoughtfulness, almost like he was trying to recall a memory.

“Chat,” Ladybug hissed, “I’m starting to get the feeling that you won’t be able to joke your way out of this one,”

“C’mon m’lady, live a little.”

“Yeah, well I might not be alive to do so if you keep being an idiot.” Ladybug could feel the frustration rising in her as Chat continued to appear so casual and relaxed. How could he not sense that this was so much worse than before?

Chat turned to her and she could finally see his eyes. Despite his outward appearance, she saw the nervousness in his gaze. There was almost a buzz in the air, a metallic smell that made them wrinkle their noses: blood, iron maybe.

“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

#haley writes #fanfiction #mlb #miraculous ladybug #miraculous fandom #adrein agreste #marinette dupain cheng #ladynoir #adrienette #adrien x marinette #ladybug x chat noir #chat noir #cat noir #mlb fanfic #mlb fanfiction #angst #fluff #fanfic #ky tag

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kyleys-empty-mind-shit · 3 years

Text

butterflies • i

pairing(s): marinette dupain cheng x adrien agreste || ladybug x chat noir

genre(s): angst; drama

fandom: miraculous ladybug

rating: g・t・r

rated t for language, violence

word count: 1.9k

warning(s): blood mention

chapter two || chapter 3

“…Bystanders have not been hurt, although Paris’ superheroes have not made an appearance yet…”

She didn’t know, probably never would, but she had him whipped.

The blonde was snapped back into reality when his best friend nudged him: “You coming?” Nino’s brow arched in question.

Adrien grumbled as he jogged away from his friend group: “Well, Nadia, Paris’ superheroes happen to have vaguely normal lives too if you weren’t aware.”

“Yeah, well we’re not,” he mumbled frustratedly. He pressed his palms into his eyes tiredly and took a deep breath before dropping his arms back down to his sides.

“Plagg claws out,” he muttered.

He’d ask later. The cat-like kwami entered the ring miraculous, and with that, Adrien Agreste was gone, replaced by Chat Noir.

xXx

Tikki gasped in shock. “Marinette!”

“Sorry,” she mumbled half-heartedly, “You wouldn’t happen to care if I maybe just happened to not show up and let Chat handle it?”

The glare that the small kwami sent her way told her otherwise. “Something about this one tells me that you’ll need all the help you can get,” she told her owner.

Her stomach twisted with anxiety, both confusion and shock washing over her face. Tikki had never talked about the dangers of an Akuma before, which alarmed Marinette. Shit.

“Tikki, spots on.”

Her feet had only touched down on the ground for a second when she heard him.

“Nice of you to drop in,” Chat purred, startling her. “You’re late,” he added, his voice icier than expected.

“Cry about it,” Ladybug responded coldly.

“Meowch m’lady,” he said in mock hurt.

Literally what the fuck, she said to herself. Now was no time to pine for her partner.

After looking around at the already distraught state of the street, their evaluation was over: she was not going to be another walk in the park.

“Shit,” Chat breathed out. It was at that moment that the villain opened her mouth to address both the heroes and bystanders.

Chat laughed as his trademarked smirk appeared. “Funny, because I don’t remember agreeing to that,” he said in mock thoughtfulness, almost like he was trying to recall a memory.

“Chat,” Ladybug hissed, “I’m starting to get the feeling that you won’t be able to joke your way out of this one,”

“C’mon m’lady, live a little.”

“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

#original post #kyley writes #mlb #miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #marinette x adrien #ladybug x chat noir #adrienette #ladynoir #mlb fanfiction #mlb fandom #thomas astruc #fanfiction

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