#so on some level like.... it's honestly probably good that Ladybug doesn't tell him when it'd hurt him so much

[phoenixyfriend]

Okay so, originally, I pitched this on discord:

Ahsoka… but distressed dapper. She's still a tog and all, but she's otherwise right out of a film noir setting. Rugged Detective. If Anakin were still around he'd be freaking out over the cigarette.

@jebiknights responded with:

this is a great image for post-jedi Ahsoka but also ngl part of my brain went straight to padawan Ahsoka trying to solve a mystery in the temple pretending to be a noir detective, sucking on a lollipop with a fake mustache like Nino did in s4 of Miraculous Ladybug fdijirdgjs She hasn't received shadow or spy training yet shes got a long way to go 😂 she hums her own theme music whenever she can get away with it

And we were off to the races!

I met us in the middle: after she leaves but before RotS.

Her sleuthing leads to Sidious through the most ludicrously indirect route possible.

She's not even a PI. She's a mechanic on the lower levels. She just stumbled into a thing and put on a costume to hide her identity through judicious use of Hat.

She's got an apartment across the hall from some girls who work in the red light district and one time some guys were harassing them and Ahsoka kicked them out through judicious use of Armbars And Catching Punches, which was impressive without being actively violent or revealing her Force abilities, and it was... fine? They're friends now, have pizza once in a while. Ahsoka likes hearing about their lives.

But then they decided to come to her for advice on a whole Thing at work, where they overheard some stuff about a drug deal that's taking place worryingly close, and maybe she could just keep an eye out when the deal goes down in case things go south? Please?

Ahsoka does so. She overhears things about the war in the deal (which is about information, not drugs), and. Well. She doesn't want to call home for help when she's making a whole point about needing to find herself away from them, so maybe she can just do a little digging of her own?

The red light girls insist she needs a cool outfit for her PI work (they do not care that it's not PI work). They are very excited about this.

At some point she runs into a junior Corrie Guard and steals him for a bit. He is officially "missing" and unofficially Fox was just like "fuck it, sure, help the shiny not-Jedi, I don't care." Now Ahsoka has a clone roommate/sidekick/backup who is, in fact, much more experienced in this than she is, but also has far fewer contacts and resources since they can't use CG databases while they're running this op. Meanwhile, Ahsoka has Friends, and some of her friends know a guy who knows a guy.

Fox doesn't tell the Jedi because technically this doesn't involve them (Ahsoka didn't mention the war stuff), and he has an Outside Contractor and a Coruscant Guard working on it.

He'll let them know if it goes anywhere, but for now he's assuming it's grandstanding lowlifes, and will leave it to the baby Jedi and babier Guard.

jebiknights:

a probably way too young cg helping Ahsoka while Fox aggressively pretends it isn't happening has such good- ohmygod this has psych vibes just a lil bit I've been on a psych comparison kick lately tho so

Ahsoka is trying so hard to be cool

listen psych is my favorite framework for the consulting detective schtick lmaooo AND SHES TRYING SO HARD but shes like what 16? just not there and living in the non-jedi/non-battlefront world for the first time sidgier

Her hypercompetent psychic is a babyfaced 9yo

i was thinking that she would be the psychic bc jedi but honestly convincing everyone that its the shiny corrie is so much funnier also just imagining all the stupid names they call each other as aliases

Sidekick I meant hypercomptetent sidekick

that… makes more sense ngl i was ready to yes and you all the way tho turn it into a gods whats the Jude Law movie where "Watson" is the genius who hires an actor to play "Sherlock" and has him pretend to be the genius or st?

I am, however, open to a Detective Conan situation, which has a lot more context so I'll actually use a different reference and say she pulls a Cyrano de Bergerac.

Ahsoka is stage-whispering instructions to her Corrie Guard, feeding him lines so he can pretend to be psychic while she sneaks around with significantly less eyes on her.

Also the red light girls stay involved they are so excited to Help even though Ahsoka keeps trying to keep them uninvolved for Safety. The girls love teasing her shiny friend. Please remember that all of this nonsense is happening while Ahsoka tries to dress like a prototypical film noir detective.

wait wait wait but if we go back to the original gag of, lowkey being a lil Psych/chaotic Sherlock inspired… shiny being a baby medic?? he tries to be a voice of reason but also enjoys the chaos too much, gets wayyyy too into the play acting and bad covers, but also knows how to patch up the reckless former jedi lol. Ahsoka sometimes just showing up in the Corrie medbay not for a check up but to drag the shiny into shenanigans

Fuck yeah, baby shiny Guard is now a baby shiny medic (Guard). Ahsoka regularly sneaks in through the vents to kidnap him.

Quinlan figures out she's doing Things through psychometry by accident but decides to let sleeping dogs lie until she finally shows up a the Jedi's door like "hey I need help."

The Jedi and various commanders all think it's a standard "the world is bigger and harsher than I thought and as a teen I want to come back to stability," but instead... it's "Chancellor's a Sith Lord."

Though tbh the shiny might just suggest she go to Quinlan first.

REAJGRIGJAERI Quinlan was not prepared for this at all I'm just imagining him as the airplane gag where every new thing Ahsoka reveals is just "I picked a bad day to stop [addiction]"

tbh I initially pitched the AU for Gay Reasons and that's why I was thinking post-RotS but I am now in love with mostly-competent-fumbling teen Ahsoka and her shiny friend.

#Ahsoka Tano #Original Clone Characters #Commander Fox #Original Characters #Quinlan Vos #star wars #the clone wars #film noir #kinda #psych #phoenix posts

[spif-lol]

If there's one ladrien stan, it's me. If there's no ladrien stans I have died. Watched a video about how boring Ladrien is compared to marichat and I don't agree at all. I guess maybe if you're only looking at the romantic aspects of it, which I would argue are interesting, but perhaps lesser so than the other sides of the square. But scenes with ladybug and adrien in them are always some of my favourite, because I'm always trying to see those scenes from each other's perspectives. It wouldn't be satisfying if they ended up as a couple, but to get insight into how they view each other would be so good. There's the obvious layers to it, that they are both public figures and they assume the other reacts the way they do to each other because of that fame. But in the individual scenes, it's crazy.

Their first meeting, in the Mime, it's fine, straightforward, Ladybug stops short midsentence when he rolls the window down and stares wordlessly back at her. Neither probably thought much of that interaction, and were simply wrapped up in their own feelings.

Then in Simon Says they have their first proper interaction. Ladybug travels with Adrien and Nino to the Agreste mansion in order to protect his dad from the villain, and Ladybug and Adrien have a brief heart to heart in Adrien's room. People give these two a lot of shit for the way they blush and stammer and generally have a surface level relationship, but I've always loved the way the two start that scene all gooey for each other and then quickly sober up and talk to each other really naturally. I honestly really love the professionalism in this relationship - sure they can't have the friendship potential of any of the other sides of the square but the respect they have for each other is so important.

One thing people don't acknowledge enough is how much Marinette learns about Adrien simply through being Ladybug. They treat each other different in these forms, yes, they maybe see each other in an idealised manner but of all sides of the square this is the one where Adrien is the most vulnerable and open about his life, relationship with his mother, fear of being locked up. It isn't until the end of Season 4 that Marinette herself is told anything of the sort by him, and DESPITE the strengths of marichat, one issue with it is that Chat can't tell her anything personal, because his identity's a secret. Adrien with Ladybug is not the same, aside from obviously not letting her know he's Chat Noir.

In Riposte, instead of making up an answer to explain why he left his hiding spot (so he could fight as Chat Noir), Adrien gives Ladybug an earnest half truth, and tells her he hates being locked up, which we later see in Sandboy to be his greatest nightmare. We already know that Adrien as Chat Noir wears his heart on his sleeve, but in his civillian form to Ladybug he's arguably even more so. His identity reveal in one of the timelines in Desperada is as Adrien, and his fantasy of suggesting he and Ladybug run away together is as Adrien too.

In relation to this, one of the things I love most about Ladrien is that it humanizes Adrien for Marinette in a big way. He is vulnerable and thoughtful around Ladybug, often the damsel in distress. And Adrien gets to see Ladybug knocked off her pedestal around him, in Santa Claws (my beloathed), in Volpina and elsewhere, he calls her out for acting decidedly unheroic, in a way she often does when she is obsessing over him. He doesn't understand why, and this causes him a lot more pause for thought than when she brushes him off as Chat Noir.

That's what it is, that's the heart of why I love Ladrien. The intrigue. The way their relationship must drive each other crazy. They don't know the other is in love with them, they just know that as two vaguely famous strangers they have a special bond. They don't have a natural build up of friendship like Marichat, but instead intense dramatic moments that build up with each season. Him trusting her to save him in Gorizilla, her insistence that he use the Snake miraculous in Deperada. From Ladybug's perspective, why would Adrien fight so hard and not give up after a few tries? He says that all he cared about was saving her. That's insane. Even with the aesop of the episode - that she is choosing Adrien despite Luka being the obvious choice - the reliance they have on each other is heartwarming. Sad that she has romance goggles on in this ep and treats Chat as lesser, but ultimately they both learn a lot in this episode, and actually have a foundation for a relationship from here on out.

A few people have pointed out that when she gives 'Adrien' the dog miraculous in Risk/Strikeback a) yeah there's a bit of romance goggles at play but actually she is being pretty smart here in choosing him as someone she TRUSTS and isn't under the effect of Risk and b) while the actual thing gets undercut by us as the audience knowing that it's actually Felix and having to watch Chat Noir feel snubbed yet again (he got done so dirty in Season 4 pls protect my boy) it's so so so sweet how she treats 'Adrien' in this episode, knowing that she knows he struggled in Desperada and encouraging him now that he has another miraculous to wield. Ladybug and Chat Noir as a duo may have been shunted to the side, but Ladybug is so good as a team mum in that season. She cares about Adrien so deeply and will do anything to make him feel better (she doesn't realise Chat needs the same support until it's too late, but her trusting him with the bunny in Season 5 does show that she learns her lesson).

And what a lesson it is to learn! One of the most iconic Ladrien scenes occurs at the end of Strikeback, as a casual miraculous handover turns into Adrien and Ladybug sharing one of the MOST INTENSE scenes in the series. Ladybug realising she was tricked, and having every reason not to trust Adrien in this scene, but trusting him anyway. Being snapped out of a panic attack by his insistent kindness, and detransforming to begin the hard road ahead of her. Everything changes after this scene, and it would be enough for me even if we never got any Ladrien again.

But of course we do, in Deflagration, the scene that prompted me to write this post because I'm OBSESSED WITH IT. Marinette's class all fighting Hawkmoth as civilians, and Marinette in her ladybug disguise, pulling off her plan with their help, fighting Hawkmoth hand to hand to get her earrings back. Failing, always just out of reach. Until Adrien acts decisively, running forward and taking the earrings in one fluid motion, as only one who has been fighting alongside Ladybug defeating akuma after akuma can. The scene focusses on Hawkmoth's horror at the fact that his son has defeated him, and Adrien's cold, cruel expression as he stares at the man who has caused so much destruction and suffering to everyone he knows. But what is Ladybug thinking in this scene? Leaving aside that she's just gotten into a relationship with this man due to his sheer defiance in standing up to her and getting her to admit her feelings. Ignoring the part earlier in the episode where she wonders sadly where Chat Noir is, and hopes he's okay. Is she surprised by the effortless way in which he disarms Monarch? Or has their relationship thus far taught her that Adrien Agreste is a force of kindness and ruthlessness?

The professionalism kicks in. "Thank you comrade!" she says with a salute and runs off to transform and get the job done, defeat Monarch. She has no idea that that was Chat Noir. No idea that that was Gabriel Agreste they just fought. Nothing but sheer thankfulness that the Resistance made up of her friends and classmates, with whom they wouldn't have won, embodied by Adrien.

Ladrien my beloved.

In short, it may be an underloved ship, but I will always adore the nuances of their relationship, and the way it opens up new dynamics to the love square and the fight against Monarch.

#miraculous ladybug #love square #ladrien #i tried really hard to stop myself from using mine and my housemates favourite running joke #referring to hawkmoth with variations of cockmoth hawkbitch etc etc #did pretty well all things considered

[none-of-your-biscuits]

Cat duo hcs perhaps? (i am so normal about them)

I am also So Normal about them

New canon flavor! This somehow became a whole rant and I did not intend that so uh buckle up for me explaining a little bit about Marinette and why I'm not exactly her biggest fan

-I just, constantly think about the fact the girls tm all have like scheme time to set up adrien and marinette and like in concept very funny but canon takes it, mayhapd a little too far? More stalkery than cute at this point besties

-anyway Adrien being kinda? Not happy with people in his personal space (being used to something doesn't make it better is something he's still trying to learn himself) is something I subscribe to and him and juleka being buds would mean she has to be somewhat aware of that

-so she kinda fucks up some of the schemes subtly when they're a little too extreme because she hates conflict but also doesn't want Adrien to be uncomfortable

-I honestly think Marinette and Juleka would kinda be on slightly not good terms on the basis of Juleka (as shown in crocoduel, she's working on it) is kind of a pushover and Marinette is uhhhh kind of, oblivious isn't exactly the right word I'm thinking of and people definitely aren't gonna like me saying this, selfish? When it comes to her like, whole romance plots

She wanted luka uninvited to his own birthday because it would make Marinette uncomfortable, when she could have just, like been honest that things were still awkward and she didn't want to talk to him yet (which is valid!)

Instead she went to his twin sister who Marinette knows has anxiety, asks her to tell her own twin brother not to go to his birthday party (I haven't watched the episode in a while so correct me if I'm wrong about anything) and honestly that's one of Marinettes top 3 worst moments because she was fucking there for reflekta, she was directly involved in reflekdoll, and she witnessed all of Guiltrip, she knows by now that Juleka had issues that Marinette herself also has and honestly the level of not thinking Marinette does constantly is starting to lead me to believe she's being malicious almost on purpose

But even ignoring that, Marinette could have just not gone to the party, she wasn't? Needed there? Truly like if she wanted to avoid luka that bad (wasn't the whole point of the birthday plans changing was to cheer him up? I don't remember exactly) she could have just said pass I honestly don't think Juleka would hold that against her

I would just like any character in this show to think for five seconds please

But even ignoring all that? Do you honestly think Marinette wouldn't immediately assume Juleka was trying to woo Adrien if she was friends with him? Do you think she'd take that information calmly and rationally? It's Marinette.

So yeah Juleka who hates conflict vs Marinette who is a jealous mess anytime Adrien so much as talks to another girl? Kinda fucked up dynamic

Plus the Ladybug and Tigress dynamic is already fucked up in cat duo so there's that, there's probably also something to be said about ladybug being jealous of chat and tigress but honestly ladybug and chat together make me very tired

I feel like this would blow up when Marinette actually figures out that someone is actually messing with the plans and she would Absolutely immediately assume it's juleka (it is) but for very wrong reasons and honestly I don't know if a "he has to deal with people less extreme than this and it makes him uncomfortable, imagine how this feels" would make her madder or snap her into reality because honestly? People will go back and forth about how chat makes ladybug uncomfortable (valid) so he deserves to get thrown in the trash or whatever she does but dude, you can't say that and turn around and say the way Marinette acts with adrien is at all cute and not creepy

I think he deserves to be a little creeped out, because you honestly look at anything Marinette has done even taking away the veil of extremes for comedy? It's so fucked up

She stole his phone, memorized his apparent schedule, followed him to shanghai I think, just to stalk him, I'm told she apparently at one point sniffed his bed which is so fucking disturbing no amount of "it's a kids show" makes that funny, has pictures of him all over her walls, it's giving serial killer not teenage girl crush

Adrien does some of the same things but flip flopped with ladybug, but honestly I think it needs to be pointed out that Marinette knows Adrien personally as a friend, Chat knows ladybug as his partner, closer than Marinette is to Adrien arguably, and damn the identies thing is annoying, and is still less creepy

Adrien and Ladybug reads more as like, a hero crush almost? So i think it makes me less uncomfortable that way

Anyway this is long and rambly and deeply didnt mean it to end up like this but bottom line? I don't think Marinette and Juleka would honestly get along very well in this au

#cat duo #cat duo au #this is so rambly and long and very stream of consciousness

[buggachat]

Ngl I'm getting kinda tired of how much people are blaming Ladybug/Marinette for Chat Noirs/Adrians issues. It's like she's expected to be some mind reader. People act like she just completely dumps him but she has expressed her trust in him so much and asked about his well-being.

You can't just fault one character for a heap of miscommunication.

It's kind of messy, because on the one hand, Chat Noir isn't telling Ladybug that he's upset. She'll ask him if he's okay, and he'll say he's fine, and she trusts him. I also think it's important to note that Ladybug has been very kind to Chat Noir in the few interactions they've had this season— apologizing to him in Optigami (because on some level she knew that defeating the akuma without him would upset him, even without him expressing it), telling him he's the best partner she could've asked for in Guiltrip, Marinette validating Chat Noir with a "that's a great idea!" when he told her his plan to help out during Sentibubbler, and as discussed genuinely asking him if he's okay when he seemed a little upset in Rocketear.

But I also think.... on some level, this kindness to him is coming from a place of guilt, too. I mean, none of this stuff is necessarily strange for Ladybug (she's typically always nice to him, unless he's actively being annoying or they're teasing/bantering), but the fact that Marinette is having nightmares about Chat Blanc and emphasizing to Alya "not even Chat Noir can know!" signals to me that Marinette knows she's betraying Chat Noir, and she knows that the moment he finds out, he's going to be very hurt. Because.... there's no other reason to keep Rena Rouge a secret from him other than his feelings.

I think Marinette knows that what she's doing could hurt Chat Noir, she just doesn't realize that it already has. She doesn't realize that empty words of "I trust you" aren't enough when her actions imply otherwise. And she certainly doesn't realize the extent to which it'll hurt him. I think she's aware that Chat Noir can be insecure about his place on the team, but she doesn't know the extent of it or that a lot of those insecurities come from his awful home life. And she doesn't fully realize how much he relies on her and their relationship because of it.

But also, to be clear....... Marinette is so fucking stressed this season, like she has had so much dumped on her with the Guardian stuff and she's only 14! She's traumatized by a vision of the apocalypse, her crying partner in white, and her own corpse turned to ash.... and she has NO IDEA what lead to that event beyond a vague "we were in love and knew each other's identities" (she doesn't know the actual cause was just. child abuse. but that's another story). She's terrified! She doesn't know what she's doing! She can only do so much!

What's so sad about the Ladynoir conflict is that it's basically Ladybug and Chat Noir's traumas tripping over each other. Chat Noir is sensitive and bad at expressing his feelings because he fears abandonment and was raised by a neglectful father. He's so scared of losing her that he's scared telling her such will push her away even more. Ladybug is stressed out and traumatized by Chat Blanc and feels like she needs to carry the burden of everything, and in fearing hurting Chat Noir's feelings, she further pushes him away to "protect" him...... unknowingly hurting him in the process.

Like.... these poor kids.... someone just get them therapy please...........

#ml spoilers #rocketear spoilers #sentibubbler spoilers #also to be fair? like...... i don't blame ladybug for not telling chat noir about chat blanc because like #idk how hearing that an alternate timeline version of yourself killed everybody you ever loved and cared about and started the apocalypse #WOULDNT be traumatizing #so on some level like.... it's honestly probably good that Ladybug doesn't tell him when it'd hurt him so much #but also that means she has to keep it secret and that's not good for her and aaaaaaaaaaaa #BUNNYX..... WHYD YOU MAKE THIS POOR GIRL SEE ALL OF THAT.......... #I MEAN I KNOW WHY BUT.............