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gale-gentlepenguin · 3 years

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ML Analysis: Love Rival: Why Kagami works but is still hated and why Luka doesn’t but is loved

Now this will be my most controversial Hot take, a lot of you already saw the title and are already organizing your complaints. I don't care, you are free to do so.

In a previous post, I discussed what makes a good love rival and if you want a good explanation of that, click the in bold link.

This is a VERY LONG POST, so I am posting a read more. I would love to hear your thoughts on this analysis. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Did you want to include something? Let me know.

I think in order to organize this post I will be splitting it up as follows.

Why Kagami Works as a Love Rival

Why She is Hated for it

Why Luka Doesn't Work as a Love Rival

Why He is Loved despite it

Final thoughts

So lets get to it

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Why Kagami Works as a Love Rival

Kagami Tsurugi was introduced in the episode Riposte, where she is established as a straightforward, no nonsense fencer that wants to be the best.

Her introduction is solid, she establishes her base and what the audience is supposed to know about her from the getgo. We also get the impression that Kagami when introduced would be a rival to Adrien, as they are competing in Fencing, which makes for a nice twist when they end up getting along and Kagami begins the task of being a Love rival. She starts off as a foil for Adrien, but then the reveal is she is actually a character foil for Marinette.

What also helps Kagami is that the show is mainly from Marinette’s perspective, so we get to see Kagami as Marinette does, as someone that is competing for Adrien’s affections, cementing the Rival aspect of the Love rival. Kagami clashes with Marinette causing Marinette to in turn be more upfront with her feelings and push harder to try and win over Adrien. This is something a good rival does, pushing Marinette forward and making her have to try. This rival aspect of Kagami’s character give Marinette urgency, which is something that is needed in order to drive Marinette towards a conclusion, whether it is to pursue Adrien or move on.

Now as a love interest, Kagami establishes her relationship with Adrien in a different way then Marinette. Kagami’s straightforward nature allowed her to tell Adrien how she felt much earlier on, she pushes and asserts herself. This contrasts Marionette’s approach to wooing Adrien, and also has an interesting parallel to how Chat Noir handles his feelings towards Ladybug. Acting as a mirror towards that relationship. While Kagami is not flirtatious like chat noir, she is upfront about her feelings. She puts it out there and is understanding when Adrien isn't ready to respond, much like how chat noir is with ladybug. But the difference being that ladybug and Chat noir’s dynamic has a bit more complexity to it. Regardless, Kagami checks the boxes needed to be a true love rival.

Now the last and most crucial part about Kagami is the character at the core. Cause in the end, we know her and Adrien’s relationship wont be endgame, and interestingly she will be better off afterwards. Ikari Gozen does an excellent job filling in more information about Kagami’s character. In this we get to see that Kagami’s life doesn't revolve around being Adrien’s love interest, she is someone that has her own struggles and wants to find freedom in her own way, be friends with people, but she is awkward. Her development from this and Loveater shows how much she has grown on her own, how she has come to see Marinette as a friend, how she understands that there is more to life than just fencing. She wants to prove she is good enough, and wants to show she is worthy of friendship and love. Those are themes and traits that can be cultivated and grown. Kagami’s greatest appeal is that she can grow beyond her role as a Love rival, and that is why she succeeds.

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Why She is Hated for it

Now despite all of these great qualities Kagami has demonstrated as well as how perfect her character is for such a role, the fandom is mixed about her, some even down right hating her. Interestingly enough, the reasons they dislike Kagami is not because of her character. Especially when you consider the rise in popularity of Marigami. Its because of 3 other factors outside of Kagami’s control. Over-saturation, Writing, and Fandom trends.

Over-saturation seems like an odd choice but it perfectly describes the situation. In season 1, we are introduced to two other female characters that were reoccurring characters AND were romantically interested in Adrien. Chloé bourgeois and Lila Rossi. Now both of them can be considered antagonists, and that is kind of the problem. Two reoccurring female characters already have a thing for Adrien, and both of them are jerks (that being the lightest term I can use). Now we know Adrien would never end up with a bad girl, but that impression starts to stick and make it seem like a pattern. That Adrien only attracts bad people (excluding Marinette). By season 2, when Kagami was introduced, it just seemed to the fans like, “Oh great, ANOTHER one”. Despite Kagami being a good character, and someone that actually cares about Adrien outside of the shallow aspects that Lila and Chloé were invested in, fans were ready to write her off and, with how the show was written, you couldn't really blame them at the time.

The second is a bit more obvious, the shows writing. The largest offender being Frozer and Oni-chan. While Oni-chan was salted on by fans a bit excessively, I have no real defense for Frozer, Frozer was an awful episode and everyone involved should feel bad. Kagami suffers like many ML characters do from poor writing, now this doesn't destroy her character like many would like you to believe, but she gets portrayed in a more negative light when the intentions are not meant for it. Its a bit harder to explain, but just know poor writing and assume Zag interference was what caused issues.

The Last one is something that is a bit more controversial, Fandom trends. Now in season 2, fans really, REALLY, did not like Kagami. The first two reasons having a large impact on that, but what really made it hard for Kagami, was the fandom itself. Since she was introduced first, certain lovesquare shippers LOATHED her appearance, HOW DARE she jump in and disrupt the love square! There are more words that were used, most of which are very degrading towards women and I would not want to repeat. Kagami took the brunt of the fandom backlash, the one that ‘Ruined the Lovesquare’. And when season 3, or as I call it, the season of Salt, fans really hit her hard with hatred, the Adrigami fandom took a lot of salt from toxic stans, some of which didn't like adrigami because they hated Adrien and didn't want him to be happy. It is gross to think about and its tragic that she is hit hard by hatred simply for things outside of her control.

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Why Luka Doesn't Work as a Love Rival

Luka is the alternate love interest of Marinette and was introduced in Captain Hardrock. He is Juleka’s older brother and is a guitarist.

His introduction is not terrible, but it is not as strong compared to other characters, but I do believe it sets the mood for what he is as a character. His character is the friend’s nice older brother musician, thats kind of it. It sounds like I am being mean but that sums up his character. He isn't really a foil to Adrien or Marinette in anyway, there is no shocking twists or clever parallels to be made, its just Luka. Simply put, Luka doesn't work as a Love rival.

Luka isn't a rival character. He isn't competing with Adrien, he doesn't clash with Adrien in anyway that would help him develop. Adrien and Luka get along fine, there is not a single bit of tension or conflict between them. This isn't a good thing when they are suppose to be competing for the same girl. I already hear what you are thinking, ‘But Adrien likes Ladybug.’ you're right, why isn't Luka interested in Ladybug then? Why is there no clash with chat noir? The point of a Love rival is to push another character towards something, to be a measuring stick. Luka doesn't do that for Adrien, and that is why the rival aspect fails for Luka.

The next course would be the love interest part. Surely Luka is someone that works well as an alternate love interest for Marinette? You are somewhat right, he does work better as a love interest for Marinette rather than a rival for Adrien. But that doesn't make him a good love interest for her. In my take on Love rivals, there needs to be three criteria met to be an effective love rival/love interest, an unequal development of both character, a differing connection that the two share, and a character underneath that can exist outside of the relationship. Luka fails to meet 2 of these criteria. The unequal development of both of them, Marinette has shown some development from her interactions with Luka but the reverse is not provable, we have yet to see Luka really change because of his relationship with Marinette, we don't know how much Marinette has helped/hindered Luka with his struggles, the best argument I could think of was that Marinette helped him be more bold in silencer, but really that sort of falls flat because he has shown bold actions outside of that. Captain hard rock said that he wasn't really good at expressing himself with words, but he shows pretty capable of doing so with people outside of Marinette, like his sister, or expressing anger to Bob Roth, so I don't really see how that works. The other criteria he fails to meet is having a character should the relationship end, Luka’s relevance is tied to him being the other guy for Marinette to choose, we as a viewer have no concrete reason as of yet to see him grow or change after the split. It doesn't help that Luka has even encouraged Marinette to go after Adrien on multiple occasions. People say thats because he is truly selfless and ‘Because he cares’ but really it just shows how little interest he has in trying to win her over, it almost comes off as insulting to Marinette. The only thing that Luka managed to pass was by having a different dynamic with Marinette than Adrien had with her. But that dynamic is shoulder to cry on. I guess that explains why salt fics really try to make Luka into Adrien.

Luka’s character in itself isn't awful, he isn't a bad person or anything of the sort. He is inoffensive and thats the problem. A love rival is suppose to be a point of tension, one that pushes, one that causes development, a force that at its core is meant to help the characters grow, and Luka just isn't the character to do that. He isn't a love rival, or a love interest. Luka is a wall, a wall put in between the two main leads in order to cause a divide without causing tension.

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Why He is Loved despite it

Luka isn't a love rival, and yet despite it he is one of the more popular characters in the fandom. It was something so mind boggling to me, what did this character have that made him so well liked in the fandom? Why wasn't he as hated as Kagami was during her introduction? I found myself coming up with three reasons why this was the case. Luka was so loved because of Necessity, writing and Salt.

Much Like Kagami suffered from Over-saturation, Luka had the Opposite problem. Marinette’s other love interests all ended up losing interest by the end of the episodes they were in. Nino, Nathaniel, Theo (though it was for ladybug). All of them just got paired off with someone else shortly after. Marinette didn't have another person outside of Adrien that was potentially going for her attention. This necessity allowed for Luka to slip in and fill the gap. The fandom saw him show up and were excited! With Kagami *ruining* the lovesquare, they needed someone for Marinette to help mend her should kagami ‘Win’, and Luka won by default. So Luka was the one the screeching fandom saw as there answer.

The next key that helped Luka was the writing of the show. The problem with the writing in the show is that often the writing will clash and hurt the strong characters of the show. Luka, as someone that does not have any strong defining features is flexible and easy to write for the writers. It makes it easy for him to be written in a way that wont infuriate people because of bad writing. He is able to coast by without having his character be in jeopardy. In a way, he has nothing to lose.

The last factor is of course salt. Now in fandoms, salt is used as a means of criticism or used to describe problems with characters. Luka is someone that people don't really have a problem with, which during the season of salt, made him perfect for all those fics where they needed someone to be on Marinette’s side because Adrien was ‘the devil’ or Lila was an extra mean jerk. Luka didn't have any problems that were agitated by salt, so he was the perfect replacement for Adrien when the writer wanted to hate on the blonde. Luka was the substitute, he was the easy fix that took little effort to include. He was a nice older brother that already liked Marinette, perfect fix for any situation. Its rare to see Luka written in a negative light without his character being warped so far that he is a completely different character.

Luka is loved not because of the things he is, but simply because of the things he is not. He is used more as a means to an end rather than as a character. In the writing, he is more of a wall, while in the fandom he is more of a stand-in. At the end of the day, I don't know what is more tragic.

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Final Thoughts

Kagami and Luka are characters that were introduced in order to spice things up and add development for the main characters. I find that in some ways they do achieve that goal, but in other ways they fail. One of them embodies the spirit of a Love rival while the other embodies the love obstacle. Regardless of this analysis, your thoughts on Kagami and Luka are your own and you can love and appreciate them as you see fit.

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If you want to support my insanity. Buy me sushi please

#ml #ml analysis #miraculous ladybug #love rivals #love rival #Gale's analysis #Here is a f***ing thesis on them #Kagami Tsurugi #Luka couffaine #luka critique #luka salt #Im tagging it because I will get that one angry anon that complains I don't tag it #adrigami #lukanette #lovesquare #ml fandom salt #ml salt #salt talks #lovekagami

366 notes · View notes

miraculouscontent · 3 years

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“Truth”-related asks:

Anonymous said:

I just watched truth and man, we didn't need any of that... I'm so tired...

Anonymous said:

Me after reading that summary: We coulda had it aaaaaaaaaaallllllll, decent wri-itiiiiiiiiiiiiiiingggggg

Anonymous said:

oh. lukanette breakup. how surpri— oh wait, no it wasn't.

bunnybunblitz said:

Me, skimming your summary of truth: life is a nightmare life is a nightmare life is a nightmare abort abort

Anonymous said:

Truth was a living nightmare, and that's the truth!

*defeated sigh*

Anonymous said:

The way all that just make me start disliking Adrien so hard wow I have enough of him so hard can they get ride of him for one damn episode?

Anonymous said:

Wow! Writers got on completely new level. They somehow made people to be annoyed with Adrien, even without putting him in episode.

My meme image of “I’ve had enough of this dude,” about sums it up.

It’s almost impressive???

Anonymous said:

I have the impression that you should slowly gather materials for "Treatment of Marinette S4"

You know, when you’re right, you’re right.

Anonymous said:

Hey there... Got a lil rant, I hope you don't mind in sea of anons you're probably getting. I guess if show didn't treat Marinette as their favorite punching bag and lukanette as a thing to get over with to be back on love square bullshit I wouldn't be this salty. We all knew lukanette isn't a endgame, but we actually care about Luka ans Marinette as characters and as a couple, and we knew there was a break up brewing.

But I mlb writers for setting things up, canonizing them over provocative tweet and leave them to dust right at the beginning of s4. And, oh sweet irony as they kinda accidentally made Lukanette totally better than love square (let's be honest if they knew what they were doing we wouldn't get any breakup from narrative and character development standpoint),,, because their heroine for once is loved and appreciated but that's another discussion and they hate that for her. Also, thomas arstruck can suck my toe.

I don't know what's your opinion on soulmate and destiny thing, but I'm totally in opposite. I remember The Good Place (love the series btw!) quote about how soulmates are made with love and nurture of people and not some cosmic forces. And to see how show is pushing for Destiny ™️ I'm kinda disheartened. But I guess I never really liked love square execution in the first place when it turned out that Marinette is butt of the crush joke for 3 seasons and there's 0 development from that. Like Thomas, that's not funny running gag. Thanks for reading! Hope you're doing well!

Thank you for the rant, and I agree!

It’s so strange how all their attempts to push for the love square just push me more towards Lukanette. How do the writers do that???

Anonymous said:

Yeah that point where she exclaims Luka in shock just angered and confused me. She LITERALLY transformed because Luka was akumatized. And her being shocked is only there to get her under the truth spell.

This episode is held together by knots and strings at this point.

Anonymous said:

Wow, "Ladybug likes Chat Noir humor." Then why every time Chat Noir makes puns, Ladybug looks like she wanted to strangle him on spot.

Ladybug = us

At that point, they should’ve just said, “[The writers] like Chat Noir’s humor.” Like--writers, please don’t use Ladybug as a tool to simp for your sunshine boy, it looks really pathetic.

Anonymous said:

Based on the ellipses you used I'm guessing you're not a fan of Jagged talking about the "Guitar is my only family" song.

Oh, no actually... I mean, I do because it’s there to torment Luka, but the ellipses was because of the intentional pause in the episode. Jagged was looking sympathetic

Anonymous said:

Truth was awful, the only good thing we got out of it was a Lukanette date (yay :'D) and we got to know Luka's father (although we all been knew).

Honestly if we could find a way to edit it so Luka and Marinette properly kissed then we’d just chop it out of the episode and call it the only canon thing.

asexual-individual said:

So, given that "Truth" didn't introduce the protection charms, I'm going to take a wild guess that they're not introduced until after "Gang of Secrets", meaning that Marinette won't get any close friends that it's safe to tell her secret to.

I was legit so sure that it was a guardian benefit and now I’m just left confused/curious about what causes CharmBug. Like, what, do you get CharmBug by purifying your one thousandth akuma???

Anonymous said:

I am absolutely positive no one quality checks these episodes before they’re sent out. Ladybug getting caught off guard on Luka being Truth even though she knows he was akumatised, and the horribly upbeat music playing as Marinette lies in bed absolutely defeated is so bad there’s no way this was double checked before it was sent out to TV stations

At this point, I’m convinced that they don’t care and are jamming through episodes as fast as they possible can.

cobraonthecob said:

I'm willing to bet that the writers go through critical and salt blogs just to see what the fandom's thinking, and then they think we're serious and they sprint with whatever we say.

guys please reconsider and also lower your alcohol levels

Anonymous said:

It was awful in general, but why add the paternity thing in the break-up ep? It detracts from, well, everything else and makes obvious they are copypasting fan theories instead of thinking of plot points.

I really do think they knew that Luka being upset over Marinette’s secret wasn’t enough to akumatize him so he needed something else.

Anonymous said:

Let me get something straight: The episode was explicitly about Marinette going on dates with Luka and that they were together. Yet Juleka is once again part of the shipping squad with obligatory "Marinette is only weird because she's with Adrien"-theories, and she's totally cool with that?

Yup! :3

guys I just adore mob mentality, did you know.

guys--

Anonymous said:

Ok, but the fact that everyone considers Marinette’s crush on Adrien to be her big secret is stupidly unrealistic. They KNOW they’re all aware of it - the girl squad even figured it out by themselves before they were told and think it’s totally obvious (as long as you’re a girl cause guys are clueless about feelings right). As far as they’re concerned it’s not actually a secret so they SHOULD be spilling the things they think only they and Marinette know. I mean, I can think of dozens of possibilities for Tom and the rest of the girls already, but Alya?

We had a front row seat to the damning secret Alya knows from back in season 1, but I guess asking this show to acknowledge continuity is too much. Still, the episode could have been so much more interesting if Alya had said, “Marinette’s the one who really gave Adrien the scarf for his birthday, but he looked so happy thinking it was from his father that she couldn’t bear to tell him that Gabriel hadn’t actually gotten him anything.” (I suppose reminding people of that wouldn’t fit into the writers’ poor attempts to make Gabriel sympathetic though 🙄).

Lol, just imagine the entire battle being sidetracked by Luka being brought to tears by how selfless and sweet his girlfriend is while Shadow Moth is too distracted by how this will ruin his reputation to get him back on track.

JKHJDSKGFSG

YES.

ALL OF THIIIIIS.

THIS IS AMAZING.

Anonymous said:

Marinette deserves to tell Luka she's Ladybug and have some support on her side tbh, it's disgusting to see the writers breaking up clearly the only thing that brings her joy and peace currently

HONESTLY.

And judging from that one trailer, she IS going to tell someone her secret and it’ll probably be freaking Alya; you know, the girl who blabbed about her Adrien crush to Nino and is thus THE LEAST TRUTHWORTHY PERSON. (”bonus” if it’s before the amulets)

I’m having nightmares already about Alya distrusting Lila because Marinette is Ladybug and not because Alya believes in Marinette. DX

Anonymous said:

Now that it’s been confirmed (in the worst way possible) that Jagged Stone is in fact Luka’s (and possibly Juleka’s?) father, how would you handle the whole mixed family aspect considering Jagged and Anarka’s relationship, Jagged and Penny’s, Anarka and Penny’s, Jagged and Luka’s (and Juleka’s?), and Penny and Luka’s (and Juleka’s?)? Topics like mixed families and family relationships are something that needs to be handled sensibly and sensitively given how it hits home for a lot of real-world people. Since we obviously can’t trust the ML writers to handle such topics the way that they deserve to be, how would you go about it knowing what we know up to this point about each character on their own and how they interact with one another?

Luka and Juleka were “accidents,” but Anarka kept it a secret from Jagged since Jagged was already hyped up to go on his next tour and Anarka knew their relationship was crumbling (possibly he already dumped her as his guitarist and she was annoyed about it). Jagged eventually learns that he has kids and is hesitant towards the idea, but because of him doting on Marinette (who’s the same age as his kids), he opens up to the idea.

Anarka and Jagged in present are mixed between tolerating each other for the sake of their kids and being chaotic best friends. The bad blood died out a while ago and there’s occasional tension but because Anarka is a single woman not interested in Jagged and Jagged is single with a possible thing for Penny, they make it work

Anarka and Penny have an awkward relationship. Penny wants to schedule time for Jagged to hang with Luka and Juleka and Anarka is confused at the very concept of a schedule, like just take them whenever okay??? isn’t it easier that way??? and Penny is like, “...oh, I guess so?”

Jagged and Penny, it depends on if they’re in any sort of relationship. If they’re in a relationship, Penny is either open to the idea of him learning to be good with kids if she’ll eventually want kids with him, or mixed because these are another woman’s kids and it’s really awkward. If they’re not in a relationship, then Penny could also be mixed since she’s crushing on him but I could also see her either finding it sweet that Jagged wants to hang out with his kids or finding it a hassle to schedule them in.

Jagged and Luka is rough. Luka has so many conflicting feelings on his idol ending up being his father. Jagged will probably even comment on Luka’s shirt + necklace and all of Luka’s merch in an attempt to bond but that kind of comes off desperate/awkward and Luka’s not about that life. I could also see Luka taking all the stuff down and swapping out his shirt, but being hesitant to remove the necklace because it’s a gift from Marinette. He might try to wash off the signature. He knows it’s not Jagged’s fault exactly but Anarka seemed to have bad blood with him and even if they get along now, Luka’s bitter. Jagged meanwhile wants to connect with Luka because hey musician energy!! but is gonna mess up a lot and say a lot of awkward things. Marinette will probably have to be a middle man between the two because it’s easier for them to talk with her around.

Jagged and Juleka don’t have a significant relationship at first. Juleka never care who her father was and she wasn’t crazy about Jagged Stone like Luka was. Jagged does try to connect with her but they clash majorly due to Jagged being so “loud” and Juleka being so quiet. Jagged will see it as a huge accomplishment the day where Juleka says something coherent (i.e: not a mumble) to him.

Yeah though, keep in mind for all of this that I’m not a family relationship kinda girl, so this isn’t my forte (I’m probably the most sympathetic to Jagged out of the whole fandom; not to say I agree with his actions but I have a history of hating babies and children, so not cool of him if he ditched Anarka but like, I get it, doesn’t make him better but I get it from a non-realistic standpoint of “ew, parenting”).

Anonymous said:

You know what? Imma gonna ignore canon for a bit more than I’ve been doing. The only thing I take away from “Truth” is that Marinette loves Luka and Tikki looks adorable in hats. That’s it have a good Saturday! 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

Anonymous said:

If there’s one small detail that I thought was genuinely cute this episode, it’s Tikki posing in the mirror with her little hat collection.

Ahaha, those are good takeaways!

And yes, Tikki looked good in hats, but at what cost. (guys, where’s our jealous Tikki episode where Tikki is jealous of the attention Marinette has to give the other kwami wait no they’d just make it Marinette’s fault go back go ba--)

Anonymous asked:

Am I the only on squicked out by how Adrien acts all noble and claims he would never force Ladybug to tell him anything, but when it becomes apparent that he has to ask her a question before the akuma can he goes all ‘what are your three favorite things about me?’ :3c I mean, he had decent amount of time to think up a bunch of innocent questions that couldn’t hurt her in any way like ‘what is your favorite color?’ or ‘do you like cookies?’ or even ‘what’s the capitol of France?’ But instead he basically demands she compliment him. Coming from a guy who spent most of the last two seasons refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer that’s a bit… icky.

THIS

He could’ve phrased it in any way and he used it to get compliments from her. :|

At least Ladybug asked a legitimate question about how he felt about her guardian status.

Anonymous said:

I had this idea for an episode: Luka finds out that Marinette is LB because he is in danger. Let's say he gets yeeted off a building by an akuma and Marinette (in her civilian form) jumps after him, transforms while Luka sees it (he's shook, obviously), she grabs him and saves him from falling. I think that would be pretty epic, do you think you could write a one-shot based on that idea if you feel like that? I would forever be thankful. Have a nice day!

I like the idea, though I feel like that’s been done a lot before in identity reveal fanfics.

Anonymous said:

You know, despite them all getting interrupted, I thought the attempts at Lukanette dates was really cute. Luka picking up Marinette from school, the two trying to see who is the biggest jagged fan, getting ice cream at Andre's, it's really cute! I only wish Hawkmoth and the writers weren't such dickheads.

It’s so adorable!

Like--show, you aren’t doing a good job at getting me off the Lukanette train.

Anonymous said:

Are you sure the Lukanette breakup wasn't Marinette's fault? I mean, the episode frames it like she's refusing to tell the truth, even if it's for a good reason.

I’m not sure when I said that the episode didn’t frame it as her fault?

Things are ALWAYS Marinette’s fault, it’s literally a rule of the show.

Anonymous said:

You know the truth episode actually gives more reasons for lukanette in my opinion based of its description you said. Luka is ridiculously understanding and also almost manages to fight off hawk moth as well as taking probably a week at least for him to get to that and yet he, while he’s upset, still tries to be there for marinette. Also makes the relationships she has with her friends and family worse if the secret they think she has is that she likes adrien while dating Luka.

YES!!

And oh my gosh, I feel the friends and family comment so badly. Just throwing it out there, maybe you guys don’t actually support her???

Anonymous said:

How do you feel about Luka having no negative reaction to this whole "Marinette loves Adrien" thing? I understand that he isn't exactly the jealous type, but still, it seems weird to me that he just accepts it while Marinette is dating him. I love Luka a lot, but in this situation his reaction was just so unrealistic...

Honestly, I find it really interesting. Plus, it’s Truth who’s being told those things, not Luka, and Truth has other priorities.

And--I mean, I’m positive that Luka got into the relationship knowing that Marinette wasn’t completely over Adrien. She wanted to see if they’d work and he wanted to date her. It’s both of them being a little selfish in a way and I like that.

That’s why I think he doesn’t have a big reaction to the Adrien call. He seems amused more than anything, and Luka is empathetic also so he knows not to take Marinette’s stammering/mistakes to heart because she doesn’t mean them. We already had evidence of that in “Desperada.”

writingamongther0ses said:

Even if Lukanette had stayed together, I have a feeling Alya would complain that it's not Adrien...which could lead to a character growth opportunity for her when her complaining leads to Luka getting hurt when he overhears and becomes an akuma. But that's too interesting.

Interesting character relationships??? In THIS show???

never

Anonymous said:

After watching Truth the only thing I can feel at the moment is bitter. Not angry, not sad, not disappointed. Just bitter.

Bitter’s a good way of putting it, yeah. *sigh*

Anonymous said:

The fact that the second episode released managed to get a bingo really says a lot about how predictable the show's garbage fire writing.

I KNOW, RIGHT??

I knew the Lukanette episode would be a big card filler but DAMN.

Anonymous said:

I hated all of Truth, but perhaps the worst part was how hard they tried to remind you that, no matter how much of a good time Marinette and Luka have together, it's Adrien who Marinette will end up with in the end. From Alya rudely insinuating "girl, you're acting stupid, is Adrien at your house?", to Luka receiving a PICTURE of Adrien from a kwami, to Marinette talking on the phone with Luka while her Adrien pictures are in the background, to Marinette CALLING LUKA ADRIEN, to Truth demanding that people tell him Marinette's secret, only for them ALL to say "She's in love with Adrien Agreste.".

It's absolutely anger-inducing because it tries too hard to let the audience know to forget about Luka because Adrien is lurking in the corner and he and Marinette are endgame. The fans are right, Luka IS a second choice, but not in the way they think. Luka's a second choice, not for Marinette, but for the Miraculous Ladybug world. for the WRITERS!!!

But what bothers me the most is that everyone saying that Marinette loves Adrien is accepted as truth even when Marinette herself says she's over Adrien. Her words are ignored, how she feels is ignored, because everyone else(including the girl squad, when they're supposed to be her "friends") tells her that she's supposed to be in love with Adrien, and so she "has" to go along with it because ENDGAME. It's the show saying "stupid naive Marinette, you're too immature and dumb to know how you really feel, let someone else do the thinking for you!"

Meanwhile Adrien moving on with Kagami is accepted even when he still flirts with Ladybug(and forces her to build up his ego when he asks her what she admires most about him; I know it was a spur of the moment thing, but meta-wise, it was obvious love square pushing.), because "he's trying to respect her feelings and date someone else!" It's one of the main gripes I have with the show: that teenage girls are too emotional and confused to know what they really want, but teenage boys are mature and rational enough to make up their minds about who they love without holding any animosity towards anyone.

The all-white, all-male writing team pushes the Chinese girl's feelings aside and forces her to hide and erase them if they're not want they want her to feel, while the white boy gets congratulated with a pat on the back for doing the bare minimum and always, ALWAYS, takes the moral high ground(even in superhero form when he's supposedly goofy.). When she's the lead.

"Luka's a second choice, not for Marinette, but for the Miraculous Ladybug world. for the WRITERS!!!“

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

It’s just tiring. It’s not even me being sick of the love square, but it being forced into everything when it’s not even relevant. The episode strategically throws more and more of Marinette’s Adrien crush (I did the math, I know this) into the mix and it provides nothing but the same tired jokes. Heck, they keep leaning on the lucky charm Marinette let him borrow (not GAVE, let him BORROW) back in Season 1 because they basically have nothing else to go off of.

#category: salt #episode: Truth #other: ml spoilers #other: ask and answer

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beautymercurydragon · 4 years

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To everyone liking my ML shitposts, opinions, metas and etc., thank you very much!

The series isn’t perfect, but in my opinion, is an incredible cartoon, and while I respect others’ opinions, I am salt-free when it comes to the show. Well, almost; the only things I’m salty over are the episode order, Gabriel still being alive and the hamster’s name not being revealed. Lmao. Here are some opinions of mine that might be unpopular and/or controversial -

Chloe was always a morally grey character from the beginning of her ‘redemption’ in the Queens’ Battle arc, and looking at it from my POV as a writer, the mains themselves (who weren’t even supposed to be the main focus) were better in this story plot than she herself was. I did not see Mad Queen Chloe in Miracle Queen as character assassination, misogynistic, OOC, bad writing or otherwise.

Gabriel Agreste is one of the biggest piece of shit in the whole series. Framing any of his interactions as ‘romantic’ or ‘selfless’ is untrue to the series, and no motives or reasoning behind what he’s done will change that. What he did with Nathalie, both by forcing her to use the Peacock Miraculous and being in a pseudo-relationship with her while still married to Emilie, who’s still alive as she’s in a coma was wrong. What he’s done to his friend Tomoe Tsurugi’s daughter, whom he and Tomoe want to be with his son, by akumatizing her and exposing her hero identity to the entire city in the finale was wrong. And most of all, what he did to Marinette and Adrien in the Chat Blanc timeline was incredibly wrong and vile, and proved how evil he was deep down.

Marinette as both herself as Ladybug has done some incredibly risky and somewhat questionable things, in direct response to others doing out-of-line shit, being dishonest and being irresponsible. So yes, I defend Marinette on all of the things she called out Chloe and Lila, along with probable others that apply to this opinion on.

Despite how much I like Master Fu as a character, what he did with Adrien was wrong. Not telling him that he’s the Guardian until Syren(?), never going to him when things were wrong etc., were all to blame on him. He was a grown man, who same as Gabriel is, was 100% to blame for his own actions.

Ladybug and Chat Noir have an undeniable, strong, unbreakable and true love that their bond and partnership is built on, whether you choose to see it as platonic or romantic. Jeremy Zag and Thomas Astruc themselves have made it blatantly obvious several times that the Love Square will always be endgame, no matter how much Adrien antis and hardcore/solo Lukanette stans try to deny it. He’s never sexually harassed her; and the fact that anyone would claim he did is borderline offensive to actual sexual harassment/assault/abuse victims. If you all hated on him and criticized him for him kissing Ladybug on the cheek as Chat Noir when Glaciator aired, why didn’t you do the same when Marinette kissed him on the cheek in Heroes’ Day? Thanks for proving sexism against males exists.

Alya Cesaire is not nor was she ever a terrible friend to Marinette Dupain-Cheng. After her parents and Chat Noir, she is without a doubt the person Marinette loves and treasures the most, followed by Nino and the rest of the class, and one of the people who’s believed in her the most. Her asking for advice in Chameleon was NOT her being traitorous, unloyal, an awful friend or a bitch in any way; personally, if I had two friends with different sides of the same story, I would absolutely ask one of or both of them for their sides/proof, regardless of how long I’d known either. You cannot say you stan Marinette and her personal happiness that ‘includes good friends’ if you dislike her.

On that note, Adrien Agreste is not and never will be a boring character. He’s gone through a lot with that POS he calls a father, and so much more than Marinette ever will in the BS fanon out there. (No hate to Marinette at all, I absolutely love her and she’s my fave.)

GabeNath is a shit romance and a terrible pairing. I don’t care if Emilie is ‘technically’ dead, because she isn’t; she’s in a coma, which isn’t equivalent of being dead in any way. GabeNath stans DNI on this post.

No matter how much the fandom still loves to hate her, Kagami Tsurugi stands as one of the most underrated ML characters, and is up there within the best ones. But sure, having actual backstory and purpose asides from being a love interest (such as a friend to Marinette, superhero (yes I’m aware Luka’s one too), and the plot with her mom and Gabriel’s ‘deal’) is so awful compared to cringeworthy metaphors, playing a guitar, having an emo aesthetic and ‘smooth’ voice.

Lukanette and Adrigami being canon would absolutely not be a good way of subverting expectations, it’d just be plain horrible writing. I want a plot that makes sense, meaning Marinette and Adrien ending up together because IT’S A KEY THEME IN THE STORY, not because they’re my ML OTP.

If anyone else agrees with some of these or has more to add to what I put, please feel free to put them in replies or reblogs.

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classicrosie · 4 years

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My Top 10 Posts Ever

I’m @gemshine and I’ve been posting art on Tumblr for five years. Over those five years, I’ve had ten posts gain over 100 notes. Here I will talk about each one of them, their story, and how I think they got popular. If you like any of them you can click the link to take you to the original post, I really appreciate likes and reblogs. If you want to see more of my art please follow @gemshine.

1). How to Make a Comic Infographic - 237 notes - Mar 27 2020

This is my most popular post. It is a how-to infographic I did for class and I am really proud of it. Comics are really hard to complete, there are so many steps that without organization it is easy to get lost and give up. So, I thought letting others into my thought process would help.

I haven't made that many comics, but I do love making them. I love storytelling and character development so much, so as a visual artist comics are an amazingly creative medium for me to play around with and tell my story. Here is my short story about an elf lawyer named Cherry Elliott I made in 2018 for another class, that made me fall in love with comic making. I dream of writing and illustrating a graphic novel one day.

This was my first time doing the equivalent of a colour palette challenge, I think it turned out pretty well, I love the colour combo of pink, purple, and yellow/orange. The comic I used as the example was a comic made specifically for this infographic, featuring my original character, Mystic. I’m the person in the bottom right, illustrating a comic about “Some Elf Thing”, aka my original story passion project @mysticsrealm. My Mystic’s Realm stuff has not gained much traction yet, so it’s pretty wild that a post with an illustration of myself and my oc has gotten 237 notes and been reblogged 68 times.

Most people finding this post are going through some sort of “comic reference” related tag and I’m glad my experience is actually helping people start making comics. The majority of people tag it with “comic tutorial” or “reference”.

TLDR; this post is helpful for people looking to start making comics and it’s very aesthetic

2). Dad Hank Comic From Detroit Become Human - 205 notes - Aug 21 2018

At the time this post felt like it was blowing up by my standards. It is still my number two post. It gained traction because I posted it in a big fandom at the right time (#connorarmy). If I posted it now it would have maybe 20 notes. A lot of getting notes is posting at the right time of a fandom, but I don’t really know the science.

This post is nice and simple, I like the purple wash. I like Hank’s expression. These two and their dog are a really sweet little family and I cashed in on that angst, like I am one to do. At least it was kinda wholesome angst, I guess. We love found family.

3). Ladynoir!Opal Comic From Miraculous Ladybug and Steven Universe - 188 notes - Feb 26 2019

I was and still am really proud of this one. I was inspired to try lineless by @sneakysscribs‘ lineless art. Lineless art is a pain, but so pretty. This piece was made by having lines, but then colouring them in. I love how I was pushing the comic format, making the two gems flying in the beginning and Ladynoir!opal really pop out of the page. I also love that I actually made backgrounds for once in my life, they’re SU inspired and very aesthetic.

I call this AU Miraculous Universe, and it has been in my head a long time, starring Ladybug!Pearl and Chat Noir!Amethyst. It is not very fleshed out, but it is very fun. It also makes no sense. This concept is so oddly specific it’s hilarious. But I’m also rewarded in my uniqueness in that there’s nothing else like it and I got to work both the SU and ML tags.

4). Adrinino Dancing Comic From Miraculous Ladybug - 177 notes - Aug 15 2019

I just noticed my top 4 all had to do with comics. Hopefully, that’s a good omen for my future in graphic novel.

This piece was for the first and only (so far) zine I’ve been in, @theninozine. That is where the majority of people found this post. It was nice to create something knowing that people were going to see it. It was also nice to have my work displayed among so many talented and passionate artists. Drawing ships for ml is funny because to have to tag the same exact ship four times to account for their love square. Anyways this piece is very sweet and gay.

5). Viperinoire From Miraculous Ladybug - 166 notes - May 7 2020

This is my most recent post above 100 notes. And it was posted during the ML offseason. I’m not that big of a fan of the show, but I love the fan content a lot. We lot just kinda take elements from canon and do whatever we want with them. This Viperinoire post is a great example steering far from canon.

This post succeeded despite the last episode of Miraculous aired having been in Dec 2019 because of the active Lukanette fanbase. I have a theory that the reason ML is still so popular on the internet, despite a large crowd being disappointed with the show, is because the fan content gets a ton of interaction, encouraging creators to keep making more, keeping the fandom alive.

6). Christine Canigula From Be More Chill - 141 notes - Feb 4 2018

This was my second post to gain over 100 notes. I posted when the Be More Chill fandom was very popular. People were really nice in the notes, they really love ChristiiIIIIIIiine. In this post I was practicing posing and using a glowy tutorial I found for the stage lights. This is the scene during More Than Survive where she is lifted up and signs the sign-up sheet for the after school play. When I look at this piece I can see the progress I made to get that point, and how I’ve grown since.

7). Heather Chandler From Heathers The Musical - 120 notes - Feb 19 2017

This was my first post ever to get over 100 notes. I still think it’s pretty good actually, I really like the hair. This post was copied directly from a photo, which I think is pretty good practice for shading. During this time, I didn’t have a drawing tablet so I was posting traditional drawings. This post blew up over all the ones before it because it was at a good time in the Heather fandom and it looks pretty great tbh.

8). Green Diamond From Steven Universe - 108 notes - Aug 15 2018

Someone asked me to imagine two diamonds fused so I did. I think I did a pretty good job combining the aesthetics of Blue and Yellow to create a new gem with their own identity. This post got popular because of Bellow shippers. One thing I would change is that underneath her left arm you can see a little looseness of her top, I would have changed that to be form fitting to match with the SU style of drawing gems.

9). The Zen Garden From Detroit Become Human - 103 notes - Aug 27 2018

This is one of the only times I’ve ever practiced drawing a background. Came out pretty picturesque if I do say so myself. The Zen Garden from DBH has always been very pretty. This was really just an exercise for me to come out of my comfort zone and draw a place instead of a person. Actually, at first, it started as a background for [this post], but the background came out nicer than the subject, so I posted it on its own too.

10). Pearls From Steven Universe - 100 notes - Aug 14 2019

This post just got 100 notes, which lead me to making this post. I think I captured the SU art style for Pearl quite well. When I was younger I found a tutorial for how to draw Pearl and she became my go-to doodle. This post was made years later, but I definitely used the muscle memory I had for drawing Pearl. Though the Pearl I drew was in her bow outfit, this was my first time drawing Pearl in either of these outfits. This post was made before the SU movie a pretty good prediction might I say. I love Pearl a lot.

Thank you, everyone, so much for supporting my work, and may there be lots more in the future.

#artists on tumblr #my art #ml #su #personal #my post #okay to rb #id actually love it #it was weird to talk about myself for so long #gemshine #tumblrnotecounter

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mrs-berry · 4 years

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20 Things I Noticed When Rewatching ML Origins Part 1 & 2

Marinette recognizes Ivan's voice when he is Stoneheart. He sounds far more different than Marinette compared to Ladybug or Adrien compared to Chat Noir. I don't know if it's been confirmed, but their transformations must disguise their voices otherwise this makes no sense to me.

Ladybug yells, "Alya! The tap!" when she needs Alya to help out in this episode. There is no way for Ladybug to know her name, unless they had already met (which they had, but Alya doesn't know that). Why isn't this a major clue that Alya has pounced on? I guess it could be the adrenaline and everything going fast that makes her miss it. But I know I would have been confused by some stranger calling me by my name (like Ivan is, later on in the episode).

Chat Noir calls Ladybug "Wonderbug" and "Bug Lady" before she decides on her superhero name. Alya calls her "Super Bug."

"There's no shame in telling someone you love them," says Ladybug to Ivan. Says the girl who still hasn't told Adrien she loves him. This girl needs to take her own advice. 😂

Ladybug calls Ivan by his name. Naturally, he asks how Ladybug knows his name, but Alya interrupts their conversation. Ivan never brings it up again, of course.

When Marinette takes off the earrings, Tikki immediately disappears. In other episodes, like Kwamibuster, taking off the jewellery doesn't make the kwamis disappear, so why did it happen in this episode? Was it because she essentially forfeited her power? It wasn't overly official (like, "Tikki, I renounce my powers" or something), so Tikki disappearing seems weird to me.

"Everyone will be powerless against me! I will have absolute power! Muhahahaha!" says Hawk Moth, who supposedly wants the Miraculous just to save his wife. Not for power, like he claims here. My assumption is that at this point, the writer's hadn't decided his motive. Otherwise, it's kind of weird he is so interested in being powerful and everyone else being powerless, considering we know that's not his goal.

Marinette touches Ivan's arm in an almost identical way to how Ladybug did and tells him to tell Mylene how he feels. How does Marinette know about his feelings? Does he really believe she could tell by the way he looks at Mylene? Does Ivan not feel like this is uncannily similar to his interaction with Ladybug the day before? Does he just not make the connection? Or maybe... is it possible Ivan knows Marinette is Ladybug but is a shy and good guy who keeps her secret?!?! (That would be cool.)

Ivan stamped on his phone (or mp3 player?) and broke it! That shit's expensive, there's no way a kid would do that. Fake.

Adrien has a rollerblade in the top of his locker. One rollerblade. First of all, when does he ever rollerblade? Secondly, where's the other rollerblade? This show needs to answer the real questions.

Marinette's in the middle of a street when she puts her earrings back in and transforms. Yet no one notices, of course.

When she confronts Hawk Moth, Ladybug suddenly begins speaking into an invisible microphone of some sort as her voice echoes and is heard all around the area, despite her talking in a normal volume. Trés realistic.

How come Stoneheart had thousands of Akuma butterflies in him? Did Hawk Moth specially plant them there so he could make his announcement to Paris?

Chat Noir breaking the fourth wall to talk to the viewers is cute.

Stoneheart's yell blew away the helicopters. That's one mighty yell.

Chat cataclysms a piece of the Eiffel Tower which somehow makes a long metal rod come out of it? Riiiight. Makes total sense...

"I'm sorry, I'll be gentle," Ivan says to Mylene. 😏😏😏

Alya and Marinette pound fists after sitting in the seats Chloé had taken from them. How cute!

The umbrella scene is still amazing, no matter how many times I rewatch it. The music, the atmosphere, the words, the little umbrella mishap, Adrien's laughter and Marinette's giggle... it's all perfection. ❤

There is a lot of Master Fu salt in this fandom and I understand why. But one thing that we should all be grateful for is that he chose Marinette and Adrien to be Ladybug and Chat Noir. He made a damn good decision. Good job, Fu.

#miraculous ladybug #ml origins #ml analysis #(sort of)#ladybug #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #ml spoilers #this isnt really salt #just some observations and comments about the episodes

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official-ladyblog · 5 years

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Genuinely wondering. Why do you think using the name lady noir(e) is rude to the Fandom? I know you're kind of over this subject so you don't have to answer

(I haven’t actually answered this question yet so you’re gucci c: )

So, and I forgot to mention it today because I didn’t scroll through for posts to reblog (whoops), but as of today we’ve had the show for 4 whole years! 4 years of Ladybug and Chat Noir saving the day. (Approximately a little less time for the fandom to take hold, but I’ll say about October 2015 with the French premiere was when the fandom really got going.)

Obviously the romance is a major focus of the show, so tumblr immediately had to get going with the tags. People quickly realized that the love square had different dynamics on each side, and came up with something for each part. Some pieces took time to workshop; during the early fandom I heard “Adrienbug” or “Chatmari,” and I think to this day we’re not completely sure what we prefer with “Adrienette.”

But if there was one ship name we nailed, it was “Ladynoir.” Of the four, this could easily be seen as the “main” ship of the show, as it is first and foremost a superhero show (so they’re always transformed at some point) and even at the beginning we saw their cute banter. I considered it so dominant, in fact, that my original tag for shippy content was just “ladynoir” even when I just meant any aspect of the love square. (A tag I gave up on when, yknow, I realized that the whole show was one big romance)

So in interacting with the fandom all these years, the staff knew well that we called one of the ships “Ladynoir.” Heck, they’ve been known to tease us on Twitter with “you guys will be happy with the Adrienette in this episode :)”, etc. This isn’t a fandom secret or something.

Now, I don’t know how long ZAG has been planning a kwami swap. It’s been a popular fan idea about as long as the show’s been on, certainly it had also been tossed around the writers room. But I don’t think they could have feasibly designed them before October 2015.

Even if they had? There would be 4 years before the episode actually hit screens. All the time that it takes to make an episode, from writing room floor to animation to dubbing, takes months. On a smaller time frame, say they designed Lady Noire and Mister Bug when they first started writing season 3, and sent out the doll designs immediately so the merch could get a head start; there were months between then and the script getting sent in for animation. Anybody with even a little fandom exposure could’ve said “yeah what if we tried a different name?” and workshopped it a bit before the lip flap animations were locked in.

They shouldn’t lock in bad ideas before sending them to animators, and in fact, we know they don’t: Nora was named “Nancy” in her first sketches, Queen Bee’s leaked design had a purse instead of the top, and don’t forget Zag leaked the season 2 powerups as a big reveal for the season… and it turned out they’d tossed the pearl idea and went with the potions. Things can and should change to make sure only the best ideas go in the episodes.

But all of that means that, way back when we first found out about the swap names, it was likely early enough that they hadn’t even gotten to animating Reflekdoll. (The fact that we’re not getting this episode until this week, despite having it in production for about a year, means they had plenty of time to change.)

Now, after typing and researching all of this, I’ve come to a realization: maybe ZAG did it instead as an homage to the ship name. The writers can definitely see our fandom, and the idea that they actually saw something from us and wanted to shout it out is kind of flattering. We can ask Thomas more about this in a couple days after the episode has aired.

Why I don’t want her to be Lady Noire? Because having a character take the exact name of a ship only serves to screw up tags. Fans group and find fanworks by ship name tags, and having something completely different come in and take the tag only confuses everyone. I mean, cartoon-makers are very familiar with the phenomenon: they have to strive to give characters and shows unique names so they stand out among other properties. It’s one of the reasons we get ‘Cat Noir’ instead of just ‘Black Cat.’ And for some of the creators being so active in the fandom, they know we love our tags and ship names. They should know better than to pick something so now we have confusion between the Ladynoir ship and Marinette with the black cat.

Anyway. They’ve had a lot of time for the backlash to set in, so maybe for the finalized ep they did go with different names. Heck, maybe this is why the ep took so long to make and kept getting pushed back – like I know there are some new models here, but not that many more than a typical new ep, right? Especially since Reflekta’s power is legit just “reuse Reflekta’s model.” Maybe, just maybe, renaming the hero(es) meant they had to go back and get the animators to change every instance that they mentioned the names (probably a good few times in the ep). Super unlikely but, as always, I can dream.

I just wrote more for this than I’ve often written for school assignments, soooooo I hope that answers the question. lol. and happy birthday ML!

#miraculous ladybug #ladyblog asks #ml spoilers #ml salt #swap #anon #...at the very least I want there to be an 'e' at the end #because just 'Lady Noir' like the toy had would drive me WILD #as it turns out I was NOT over this subject #and needed to write 800 friggin words about it

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lycorogue · 4 years

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Tag Game: Authors

Tagged by: @livrever

Author name: I make life easy for everyone. I’m LycoRogue just about everywhere.

Fandoms I write for: I mostly write for Miraculous Ladybug, starting in the fandom late 2017. In the past (about 2010-2013), I was almost exclusively writing for the “Hey, Arnold!” fandom. While not as many, I’ve also started up some Fruits Basket stories once the reboot began airing last year. Beyond those normal fandoms, I’ve also thrown in random fics for any old thing that has caught my attention: a couple of stories for the Enderverse series, a random story based on a song about zombies, a one-shot teaser about a Cirque du Soleil show, and oddly only one Legend of Zelda story even though that’s probably my favorite fandom outside of ML. I’ve also had some “fanfics” that were MOSTLY original works based vaguely in the worlds of pre-established properties, such as backstories and side stories for my D&D characters, a short-lived attempt to recap the World of Darkness - Vampire: The Masquerade LARP I was in, and stories for the original characters I created for an X-Men play-by-post. The PbP, called X-Future, was a game where all of the playable characters were OCs that only occasionally interact with canon Marvel characters.

Where I post: You can find my works here on Tumblr (tag #LycoRogue Fanfic), over on AO3, on FFN, and - if you’re desperate - I still post to DA.

Most popular one-shot: Based only on AO3′s stats, it would be my Lukanette birthday gift for @thetauruspixie: I Was Thinking of You (As of 3/6/20: it has 1773 hits and 208 kudos)

OK, this became long because that’s just who I am... 9_9 So... if you want to know more about me, check below the break. ^_^

Favorite story I wrote: I have a multi-chapter story and a one-shot. Both are for ML. The multi-chapter story is Peeping Tomcat, and it is my magnum opus! It started off as one of the first-ever fanfics I wrote for the fandom, and then I realized it had LOADS more story to tell. It is the first multi-chapter story I’ve completed, despite starting and abandoning about a half-dozen before it. This is my baby! The story is about Chat Noir checking in on Marinette once when he thought she was in danger, and then got addicted to innocently spying on her in her bedroom in order to learn more about her while she’s relaxed and most “herself”. I have a sequel that has been in the works for nearly 2yrs now. Yes, I AM still working on the sequel One and the Same, in case any of my readers were nervous about that....

The one-shot is Build Your Own Luck which is a headcanon story about where I believe that lucky charm bracelet Marinette gave Adrien originally came from. It’s a sweet family-bonding story that I loved so much that I’m tying it into my Peeping Tomcat canon. The story behind The BraceletTM will appear in One and the Same.

I also really love one of those “mostly original” stories for X-Future. It was a story originally written by @cyhyr‘s spouse, but when I corrected him on how my character Willow would have truly acted in that situation we decided to make it a collab story. Then it became monstrous, and I think I overwhelmed him. So it’s kind of been in limbo for a few years, but I periodically go back to that project every couple of months, really wanting to get it back down to a manuscript he can manage so we can complete it. For anyone interested, the as-of-now-unofficially-abandoned story is Please, Let Me Explain. In the roleplay, his character Devon left the Xavier Institute to find out more about the parents that abandoned him as an infant. About 1/2hr later, the school gets destroyed in an attack, and the surviving students and faculty believe Devon had something to do with it. Two years later, Devon returns to the school, surprised to find out there were any survivors after spending the last 20 months or so “avenging” all of the students’ deaths. My character Willow is pissed at Devon. He wants to prove his innocence to her. Things are complicated....

Story I was nervous to post: I mean, I’m always nervous to put my heart and soul out there; screaming into the void. Especially when I write things that are more original-leaning. Or when I’m writing gifts for people, especially for those fandom exchanges. Those are terrifying because you know virtually nothing about the person you’re writing for, so you don’t truly know if they’ll like it. I still have a couple of stories that resulted in complete radio-silence from the receiver.

The one I was MOST nervous about though? Probably one I’m still nervous about sharing here. It’s my first-ever published smut for a fandom I didn’t even know existed until last summer and has seemingly died off since the book series completed back in like 2012. My story is called Sparks for the Moment and is for the story Bitterblue within the Seven Kingdoms Trilogy (also known as the Graceling Series). It’s a bittersweet sex scene that takes place between canonical scenes at the end of the story, so beware spoilers.

How do I choose titles: Oh lord, how DO I choose titles!? It’s usually a truly grueling process because I try to stick to 4 rules of thumb: 1. Something that is significant to the story, be it an item or a phrase or a theme, etc. 2. Something that gives you an idea of the feel of the story based on the title (I have no clue if I ever succeeded on this) 3. Something easy to remember; generally less than 5 words long. 4. A title that isn’t already being used by another author (this makes things REAL tricky)

Do you outline? Ummmmm.... Once upon a time? No. I was a full-on pantser. Then, more-or-less when I was working on Peeping Tomcat I became more of a plantser. I now have a skeleton of what I want to write, and try to get as much figured out as I can, only for the characters to go “HAHAHA. Nope.” and then I just kinda follow them.

Complete: 35

Cirque du Soleil (1) Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game) (2) Enderverse (2) Fruits Basket (4) Hey Arnold! (7) Re: Your Brains - Jonathan Coulton (Song) (1) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (1) Miraculous Ladybug (16) Seven Kingdoms Trilogy - Kristin Cashore (1)

Incomplete (I added this one for ReasonsTM):

Pseudo LoZ and Fable crossover original hybrid thing (1) Hey Arnold! (1) World of Darkness - Vampire: The Masquerade (1)

In progress: After unofficially abandoning so many stories, I’ve stopped publishing any until the whole story is written and just needs one last polish. That was how I managed to get Peeping Tomcat done. That said, I have a couple of irons in the fire.

Main WIP: One and the Same Current WIP: Love Square Fluff Week 2020 (an exception to the “wait til it’s all written rule) Random On-going WIP: I Don’t Care (I never intended this to be an on-going story, but there you have it) “Backburner” WIPs: > What Is Truly Meant To Be (A HA! story I unintentionally abandoned in 2013) > X-Future: The Second Generation Begins (My recapping of the X-Future game) > X-Future Snippets (Random one-shot stories in the X-Future universe) > Please, Let Me Explain (The aforementioned X-Future collab)

Plunnies: > When Love Matters (a retelling of the ML series if Gabriel actually was a loving father) > A collab with @thetauruspixie to write a Fu-centric story telling of his travels through Europe with the Miracle Box and his love affair with Marianne

Do you take prompts? I’ll be honest, I struggle a touch with prompts, but I like challenging myself. One of the reasons I’m doing the gift exchanges. So, if you have a prompt idea, I’d love to hear it. See if it inspires me. :D

Upcoming project I’m most excited about: When Love Matters. I wanted to work on that between breaks, while I had time to backtrack before more episodes aired. Considering how long OatS is taking though, I might not get to start his project until about the time S4 starts. 9_9

Tagging but you are under no obligations to participate: @thetauruspixie, @cyhyr, @chibisunnie, @rikareena, @coffeecomicsgalore, @chanceuseladynoire, @zenmisery, @i-am-the-niece-of-satan (I know some of you are socially anxious, so again, you are under NO OBLIGATION to participate. I just figured people might be interested in knowing more about you)

Also, if you write and want to answer, assume I’m tagging you as well. I’d love to know more about your writing.

#Tumblr games #tag games #writing #LycoRogue writing #get to know me #long post

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talvin-muircastle · 6 years

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Fandom Friday: ML Fic Recs!

Normally I do five videos for Fandom Friday.

Due to something that happened earlier in the week, I have decided to do an ML Fic Rec List.

Now this comes with a few rules—most for the blogger, but one for the reader as well:

No more than one story or collection of stories per author.

I really did work hard to narrow it down to five. These are not necessarily the five I like most, they are just five that represent the stories that I like. Edit: several days later I came back to look this over one last time, and realized I had SIX. Ah, heckwiddit. I failed at narrowing it down to five.

No incomplete works. (Incomplete collections are OK, so long as there are complete stories within the collection).

Nothing above a “Teen” rating for this post. (I do occasionally read stories with a higher rating, but I don’t talk about them here.)

Yes, there is a slight bias toward people I know and interact with here on Tumblr. FanFic is also a social activity, at least it is for me.

I hate that I have to say this, but the incident that inspired me to this post taught me I have to say this: this is my blog. It is about me. I am talking about the things that I like, that I enjoyed, that I go back to occasionally. If you even begin to think that you get to have a problem with that, that this means you are somehow injured because your favorites are not listed here, your choices are: go post your own list without griping about mine, just shut up about it, or hit that Unfollow Button before I have to hit the Block Button. Clear?

Now that the details and bookkeeping are out of the way, here’s five six of my favorite fics!

Welcome to the Club by @sarcasticscribbles

This is my “feel-good” story. This is the one I go back and read when I am having a crappy day.

There are pictures that are “cousins” to this story. The author and the artist were both inspired by the same post on Tumblr, but I believe the artist did not read the story before drawing the pictures. Which just makes them all the more precious:

https://www.deviantart.com/pieces-of-a-rose/art/Chat-and-his-kittens-1-628500674

https://www.deviantart.com/pieces-of-a-rose/art/Chat-and-his-kittens-2-628502247

https://www.deviantart.com/pieces-of-a-rose/art/Chat-and-his-kittens-3-628504444

https://www.deviantart.com/pieces-of-a-rose/art/Chat-and-his-kittens-4-628505027

https://www.deviantart.com/pieces-of-a-rose/art/Chat-and-his-kittens-5-630673394

Yes, I am a sentimental old softie. So sue me.

Jokes on you, I’m broke!

Anyhow, moving on:

What the Cat Dragged In by Kryal.

I don’t read Crossover fics, as a rule. They usually come out pretty awkward.

This fic breaks all the rules. It’s an Avengers/Miraculous Ladybug crossover, told mostly from the POV of the Avengers encountering Ladybug and Chat Noir for the first time.

I always recommend this fic to people. In fact, I just did it again. Go read it.

Quiet Ice, Silent Nights by @thelastpilot

If you really want some Marichat-turned-Reveal done beautifully, read this fic. It’s another one that I come back and re-read every now and again.

Now we must speak of…

Generations Past and Future by @miraculouspaon

How to describe this?

“Well, if Homer, that dude who wrote the Iliad, had written Miraculous FanFic….”

We’ve got Gods (ok, tiny ones), War, Evil Magicians, Sorta-Good Magicians, Evil Cultists, generations of Heroes, Love Stories, Betrayal, Daring Rescues (multiple ones), Daring Escapes (more than one of these, too), Interrogation Scenes, Redemption Arcs, Resistance Fighters, Massive Identity Reveals, Family Squabbles, Final Battles (several, and all of them good), Curses, Hexes, Traps…

And more.

Now I am not going to say any more because spoilers, go read it yourself.

And the Companion Fics series, too.

Time for something lighter:

Plagg’s Day Out by Fairia (I don’t know their Tumblr account, sorry.)

So this bird stole Plagg’s cheese. Plagg wound up going along for the ride.

And oh, what a ride!

Finally,

Manynette by @imthepunchlord

I tend to shy away from “Marinette gets Akumatized” fics. This one is different. Marinette has too much on her plate, and she breaks down and gets hit with a little butterfly.

At which point things get out of Hawkmoth’s control, along with everyone else’s!

There you have five six ML FanFics that I recommend. There are many, many others that I enjoy that for a variety of reasons didn’t make this list (alas, one of my favorites has a “Mature” rating, and I want to keep it Teen).

Please do feel free to share your own. Everyone has their own faves, and there is nothing wrong with that at all.

Catch me beginning of next week for Music Monday! I’ll be doing Songs of Summer.

#ML #Fandom Friday #Fic Recs #My blog my faves my rules

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gale-gentlepenguin · 4 years

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Gale’s Top 10 Best episodes of ML

This list is my personal opinion, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with all my picks (some are obviously Amazing, and some that may have been amazing to you might not be as great to me. and the reverse. Let me know your personal top 10 best)

10. Loveater

I know this is a controversial pick for number 10. Truth is, this episode was really damn good in terms of setting things up. (Spoilers for the season 3 finale)

The tension with how Marinette was dealing with her feelings,

The hilarity of the Get along Cloak Gabriel made.

The Beautiful friendship dynamic of Kagami, Adrien, and Marinette.

The episode was steeped in all sorts of tension and has one of the most dramatic cliffhangers out of any of the finale’s

We don't know whats gonna happen?

The akuma was... okay. The purpose of the akuma was to set up the next step of the plan, and in that regard, it succeeded.

Marinette had an emotional breakdown. It hurt to see, but it was so well done that you could FEEL the emotions in each character.

This episode had a lot of emotions riding on it and It gave SO MUCH build up. I would say if Miracle Queen didn't DROP the ball so much, this might be higher.

9. Startrain:

Now we get to the obviously good episode and My personal favorite new hero reveal episodes. Startrain.

It has the makings of a great episode. Marinette being responsible and being rewarded for it. Adrien being disobedient to his father and being adorable.

That sweet sweet Adrinette fluff that we all want.

Lila getting stopped.

And of course we learn some of Hawkmoth’s limitations (and how little he cares about his son.)

Max gets the horse miraculous and HE OWNS THAT TRANSFORMATION. My personal favorite new transformation sequences.

Max also being MVP

The akuma while not a direct fight, changed things up by having dangerous cars that they had to figure out.

I also love that they crashed into BigBen.

A solid episode and one that really shined in Season 3.

8. Heroes Day Parts 1 and 2

The season 2 two part finale didn't disappoint. We had hero team ups. A supercharged Hawkmoth, Nathalie stepping into the fray as Mayura

We had good ladynoir banter.

Adorable Adrinette moments that really help bring the moment for a climactic clash that seemed to bring hope on what season 3 may bring.

This episode was a breath of fresh air as it actually had Hawkmoth f***ing Planning in advance.

It was actually a pretty decent plan. I gotta give the guy props.

I liked all of the action, and I did find some of the bits funny.

Chat noir and Chloé’s interaction was funny as heck.

7. Volpina

Ah yes, the last episode of season 1. (at least chronologically)

It introduced Lila Rossi, the hype behind what or who she was did make things interesting.

A lying exchange student that Marinette calls out on her bs.

The dominos of Gabriel being Hawkmoth were all set up (and this was when people were still speculating)

Volpina gave an amazing akuma performance,

We had a good hero mess up with consequences (I say this as it is FEW and far between) Because we understand Marinette’s reasoning for doing it and it was a selfish action but doesn't ruin things. marinette does apologize but damage already done. (plus Lila is a b****)

We also get one step closer to who FU is. (Which in season 1 was huge)

It is still a solid episode and one of the best in season 1.

6. Stormy Weather

Personally the best animated episode on this list.

The animators really put there all into getting this one right.

The first episode to air and it started on a strong note.

The plot sets the pace for how a standard episode goes.

It has solid action.

The akuma is powerful, funny and has a fun battle.

Ladybug and chat noir have great banter in this.

Of course we get introduced to our heroes and I think this is the episode EVERYONE getting into the show should start with.

It is a perfect storm of good action, comedy and super hero goodness.

5. Darkowl

My favorite episode of season 2.

This was such a fun episode.

The principal of the school went from a joke to a legit threat that ALMOST WON!

The reason for akumatization was brutal and completely understandable.

Ladybug and chat noir were honestly trying to help the poor guy who wanted to be a hero.

This was also the moment tikki and Plagg found out about the OTHER chosen, which Plagg’s reaction says it all.

The episode shows how much they trust each other and I really love how it plays out.

Dark owl is the best Akuma of season 2 don't @ me.

4. Oblivio

Don't you f***ing judge me

You all know why this is on the list.

Okay, IGNORING THE BEAUTIFUL PERFECT WONDERFUL LADYNOIR KISS.

This episode was really well written.

The heroes lost their memories, their is a faceless monster after them which they need to stay one step ahead of or its curtains for them.

Marinette and Adrien get a second first meeting and really, this episode shows how perfect they are for each other.

If they both could only just... GRAH!!!

The last 3 minutes does come off as a slap to the face, since neither of them remember it. (I would talk about the salt from the fandom that resulted from this, but considering how bile-inducing it is to me, I will simply skip past it.)

It is a good episode, it has heart, comedy, and one I will never forget.

3. Evilustrator

My favorite akuma Evillustrator.

I LOVED this episode and for the longest time I would consider it my favorite.

Nathanael was such a delight, and his akuma was the first to actually disobey hawkmoth at first.

Plus, he is the first akuma to confess to Marinette. (Silencer was second)

And of course the BIRTH of the Marichat side of the fandom.

We can't forget that cute interaction.

It is a little indulgent of me to love this one. Nathanael deserved better.

But hey, he has a BF now.

So kudos. I suppose.

2. Chat Blanc

My all time favorite season 3 episode.

It has all of the damn fluff for adrinette

for ladynoir

even some Marichat.

It scratches the itch that Oblivio slightly touched.

It was cute but then... IT WAS HORRIFYING.

Time travel, alternative futures where s*** is destroyed.

Chat blanc is without a doubt the scariest akuma in terms of power.

The angst in this episode was spectacular.

This also gave us an Adrinette kiss, sweet wonderful goodness.

also Hair down Marinette.

Ladybug calling chat noir/Adrien “Her prince”

The fight with Chat blanc.

Hawkmoth just whipping out Adrien’s dead mother before smacking that boy like a baseball bat.

THE MOON GETS DESTROYED.

This episode throws a lot at you.

It is amazing, tragic and beautiful. This should have been the season 3 finale.

I stand by this statement.

1. Origins Parts 1 and 2

There was no way I could not have this as number 1.

I can talk about how well done the plot was.

The good reveal of characters.

Fu’s status as Guardian revealed.

Gabriel pretty much confirmed as HM.

Adrien and Marinette’s first meeting

Chat noir and Ladybug’s first meeting.

But no.

The Umbrella scene.

The moment we all knew this show was something special.

That theme that played as they talked.

We were dazzled just like Marinette.

Lightning struck and that was the moment I fell in love with the show.

It was the moment I knew Adrien and Marinette. This relationship was something special.

If you haven't watched it, I recommend watching origins. It is a wonderful beginning and I hope the ending will be just as beautiful

#ml #miraculous ladybug #adrinette #loveater #chat blanc #ml origins #heroes day #evillustrator #oblivio #stormy weather #volpina #darkowl #startrain #gale's top ten

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