yappinator 1.0

They couldn't have made it work, because it's OOC and goes against the natural conclusion of Adrien's character arc.

For one, Adrien wouldn't take it this badly. The kid is resilient. He managed to handle both the death of his mother and his father pulling away. The writers will tell you that he's fragile and he news of his dad being Hawk Moth will break him, but the only reason he it does in the what if episodes is it's always dropped on him in the most traumatic way possible. Compare that to The Collector, where if he's told in a safe environment it takes him all of a few seconds to lock in. The writers are presenting the literal worst case scenario as an inevitability, and a lot of this fandom is falling for it, despite the fact that they're doing the writer equivalent of that husband who messes up chores so his wife doesn't ask him again.

For another thing, Adrien values honesty. In The Puppeteer 2, he told Ladybug that it's precisely because something is important that it's important to say it, no matter what. Wanting the truth to be hidden isn't something he would do.

It's also a regression for Adrien's character, like I said back at the beginning. Adrien has the tendency to make excuses for people's bad behavior, and that's something he needs to grow out of. He needs to stick to his principles even if it means coming into conflict with the people he loves. Gabriel represented the ultimate test of that, which is why Marinette fighting him was the stupidest idea and I will never understand people who defend it. Thematically, Gabriel was only relevant to Adrien. He was purely Adrien's villain. He represented nothing for Marinette's character arc.

Propaganda is allowed and highly encouraged!

Now that I'm back and actually thinking about it, Adrien feels like he has almost no one left outside of his girlfriend, who is also written in increasingly manipulative and controlling ways now. She's basically the only person the show consistently allows him to interact with.

He doesn't even talk to his classmates for more than a sentence unless it's about Marinette, and at one point his entire complex, abusive relationship with his father was basically reduced to, "You won't let me be with Mari and you hurt her feelings."

At this point, I genuinely don't know who is more manipulative and abusive toward Adrien: his girlfriend or the people creating and writing his life.

It's like the writers are acting like a possessive, creepy boyfriend toward their own character. They don't want him bonding too closely with anyone else, and whenever he does form an interesting relationship on his own—Kagami, Sublime, whoever—they take that relationship and somehow redirect it toward Marinette.

It's not enough for Adrien to love Marinette. Apparently everyone else in his life has to be connected to her, too, and they all should be Marinette's first (even Plagg is more loyal to Marinette than Adrien), just to make sure he never has anyone or anything that exists independently of her.

And it always comes back to, "Well, they don't want Adrien to be a co-lead or deuteragonist. He should just be her boyfriend."

Even if that were the case, it still doesn't explain anything. He's part of the main character's closest circle. Do these people realize that no story is carried by the lead alone? You need a strong, well-written supporting cast that can stand on its own as characters and have lives, personalities, relationships, and motivations that exist independently of the protagonist.

And Adrien's story has always been at the center of the conflict in MLB anyway. You literally wouldn't have Ladybug without the Agreste family drama and Gabriel's actions. His entire family situation is one of the foundations of the story. But even if you insist on reducing Adrien to "the protagonist's boyfriend," look at comic books. Most flat comic-book romances are completely uninteresting because they're just "main character + love interest who has no story or personality outside the romance."

That's precisely why characters like Lois Lane and Mary Jane are so important. They were allowed to exist as characters in their own right. They have their own personalities, careers, relationships, conflicts, ambitions, and stories that don't revolve entirely around the men they're dating. And that's what makes their romances iconic.

The love story becomes more compelling when the love interest is an actual person rather than a romantic accessory.

So I genuinely wonder: what is the issue? Why does it feel like they are so determined to erase Adrien? Do they dislike how important he naturally became to the plot, technically, arguably more important than their own main character? Do they dislike how popular he is? Do they dislike the fact that so much criticism of MLB inevitably ends up revolving around how Adrien is treated?

Is it simply that they can't stand criticism and respond to it by sidelining the character and, by extension, punishing the fans who keep pointing out how much potential they're wasting? I mean, after watching the writing repeatedly strip Adrien of his agency, friendships, storylines, and importance while redirecting everything back toward Marinette, it's hard not this this way.

Because at this point, it doesn't even feel like they're merely refusing to make him a co-lead or deuteragonist. It feels like they're actively trying to make sure he never becomes important enough to challenge Marinette's position as the center of the story.

And the irony is that Adrien's character naturally creates narrative gravity. He's the son of the main villain. His family drama is one of the foundations of the entire premise. He's Chat Noir, the other half of the superhero duo. He's dealing with identity, abuse, neglect, control, isolation, and questions about his own agency. He's also one of the most popular characters. Adrien haters/Mari fans and creators can keep insisting that he's "just the love interest," but that doesn't make all of that disappear.

So yeah, I genuinely wonder whether the problem is that Adrien became too important, too popular, and too interesting for a story that the writers are determined to keep centered almost exclusively on Marinette.

Anyway...

Let Adrien have relationships that belong to Adrien.

Let him have friends, complicated friendships, rivalries, mentors, people he trusts, people he disagrees with, and relationships that don't ultimately exist to strengthen his romance with Marinette.