Okakuri Deserves Rights

okay but that's WORSE

emil tried to buy them out of the family and when they said no their son cut them out himself because he needed emil's help. and in the same breath took his mother's name.

and they had to watch from afar as he made his family and his business and i just think the only thing that made it bearable was knowing he was ostensibly happy.

and now he's dead.

But I definitely think grieving someone absent looks different in some ways, especially someone they have a frought relationship with. Even Adrien himself is pulled between missing him and cursing his name. Sometimes it feels like the ones Gabriel left behind are all mourning a Gabriel that partially died a long time ago, and now with him gone, he really will never come back.

I do have to say though. I absolutely think Gabriel's death was just as much of a suicide as an act of atonement. Just as much as I think it was an act of escape as it was of remorse.

Like I remember when s5 finale came out and people were mad (obviously) and saying that if the genders were reversed, people would've never accepted the female lead being excluded from the climax with only the male lead being present, yadda yadda. But then they enjoyed ML awakening's resolution of the plot. And I'm like "Buddy....you know that ML Awakening made Marinette irrelevant in the climax of the movie right? 😬 Her moment of tackling Chat Noir from Hawk Moth does nothing except stall the finale for 20 secs (literally, I counted). " Marinette wasn't allowed to be relevant or do anything of impact in the climax despite being the literal MC, and its made only about the 2 male characters yet no one cares 😭Movie!Adrien was also done dirty but that's a separate rant.

You don't have to love the show's version but at least Adrien not being present in s5's finale has actual implications for the plot and the characters! He's uncomfortable about the fact that everyone is celebrating his father being a hero in s6! We get to take our time slowly unveiling the truth to him as opposed to squishing it all in a 2-parter finale.

18 heroes. 9 girls. 9 boys.

Argos: All of humanity will disappear if you don't hand it over! Are you willing to pay that price?! Ladybug: You're the only one who can answer that question.

And at the end of the episode, how many beings were officially permadead, especially after Argos saw that Adrien and Kagami were rightfully upset by his actions and furious at him?

Just one.

Red Moon was the only real casualty of this episode. The very being Argos created as a tool to take on his revenge. And he had to kill his own creation with his own hands because he has abused of the power he was holding.

Argos: My friend, I've made a terrible mistake. I shouldn't have created you out of so much anger. Your power is terrible. What would've happened if I lost control? Can you forgive me? My friend, my sister. I release you from existence.

The humans?

They were all magically brought back (mind you at Adrien's demand) because Red Moon's power allowed Argos to do so. He created her with not only the power to erase an existence but also to bring any of the people he wanted back.

Unfortunately, sentibeings don't have this grace. Heck, Mayura and LB&CN technically have a higher body count than Argos there.

Basically, Félix wanted to be free of humanity. That was his fantasy. To reverse the roles and have control on who gets to exist in his world or not. If he truly wanted it to be permanent, he would have make it so. But he didn't.

Marinette is definitely facing the burden of power right from the beginning and part of her story is learning how to handle that. "Fate" doesn't seem to be as prominent in ML as other similar media so its arguable her power is not something completely locked to her in a way that other superheroes/magical girls might be (ones like spiderman or sailor moon where they are destined/cannot be separated from their power). Someone else chose to give the earrings to Marinette originally and initially she rejected them. But then she comes to choose that power and has kept choosing it since.

On the occasions she does pass the earrings to someone else, its only as a temporary measure (Reflekdoll, Hack-San) or when she does try to make it permanent it goes badly (Kwami's Choice) and she has to step back in. Does she have to take the earrings back? Technically, no. But she makes that choice to keep the burden because Ladybug is just part of who she is and she feels responsible for it. And when Marinette feels responsible for something she cannot let it go.

Being Ladybug is of course a challenge and a "burden of power", but part of Marinette's growth is learning how to share that burden. And like with any diificult lesson it's often two step forwards one step back. She's made mistakes and miscommunications, but she does learn from them. And from that she learns she is able to rely on others. She is not Ladybug facing the world alone. She has Chat Noir at her side and the rest of the miracuteam at her back. She is the leader, but the weight of power isn't resting on her shoulders alone. She has support to help her carry the burden.

It's something that she is secure in now so there isn't the same tension in previous seasons. Her "new" burden is now the secret she carries in regards to Gabriel/Monarch and that is something she can't separate herself from, not even on a temporary basis. It's something she can share with others to try and ease the mental toll, but her fears and need for control have moved on from "I have to be Ladybug and handle that on my own" to "I have to carry this knowledge and keep the secret to myself". She has Nathalie of course, but in some way's Nathalie is now filling the role that Master Fu once did - a voice to remind Maribug that a status quo has been set and rules have been made and it must be maintained.