How would you fix the whole Alya believing Lila's lies plot ?
There are many ways you could fix the Lila plot and I don't have a true favorite. Which one I'd pick really depends on things like the overall story I want to tell and how much time I have to dedicate to the lie plot. I'll give you three pitches to show the variety of options that are out there. Note that all of these require some level of serialization because of course they do! If your story doesn't allow for serialization, then don't include plots about large scale deception. Those need time to cook!
Option One: Alya Gets an Arc
Season one established Alya as someone who wanted to be a serious journalist, but wasn't there yet which made sense. She was more a hero fan turned journalist than a journalist who got into heroes. This fangirl background meant that she was quick to get caught up in the hype of a good story and slow to stop to think if the story made sense. That's why we have an episode where Alya thinks Chloe is Ladybug, leading to an embarrassingly bad investigation that gets Alya akumatized. This means that season one wasn't a good setup for Alya to become a hero, but it was a good setup for Alya to believe Lila if you tone Lila's lies down a bit which is what we're going to do in this pitch.
New girl Lila comes to town and Alya is immediately enchanted. Lila no longer claims to be Ladybug's bff, but she does start claiming that she's been caught up in akuma attacks left and right. Whenever this happens, she's happy to give Alya an interview. Alya is thrilled because she often struggles to get interviews after an attack and there are tons of attacks she misses that Lila is "luckily" able to catch.
None of Lila's lies are glaring, but there's enough there that Alya should be asking questions and she isn't. She's too caught up in the excitement of having a Jr. Reporter who cares about the blog as much as she does. Lila is also telling more mundane lies at school to make herself seem cool and well connected. Marinette has picked up on all of this and gotten herself on Lila's bad side. Marinette has also warned Alya that Lila is a liar, but Alya just thinks that Marinette is jealous of how cool Lila is because Marinette has no proof that Lila is lying and Alya is too new to reporting to really understand the nuances of questioning sources.
Then Sapotis happens. Alya gets to be a hero for a night and is so happy about it! The only downside is that she doesn't have any footage. There's not even footage online since the attack happened at night. She's lamenting about this at school when Lila speaks up and says that she saw the attack first hand! Alya is thrilled until Lila starts talking. The story she tells isn't remotely accurate to what actually happened.
Alya is shaken. She goes home and, for the first time, she starts actually researching Lila's statements by watching Lila's old interviews and comparing them to other accounts of the akuma attacks. Alya immediately finds discrepancies. By the end of the evening, she's realized that Marinette was right and Lila is a liar. Lila gets outed and the arc ends. Since Alya has done so much research to take Lila down, she ends up making a bunch of blog posts summarizing her findings for the attacks that Lila lied about as a way to replace Lila's lie-ridden interviews. The summaries end up being massively popular and Alya gets praised for how well researched her work was.
This experience changes Alya. She no longer wants to just throw random stories onto her blog. She wants to give accurate accounts of what happened. She also starts to question what should and shouldn't be shared. Finding out Ladybug's identity was always a big goal for Alya, but now she's realizing just how dangerous that would be. Her and Marinette get to have talks about all of this since the Lila fallout should matter to their friendship! Marinette is impressed by how professionally Alya handled the situation and even more impressed by how Alya handles herself now. There's no more talk of outing Ladybug. Instead, Alya is focused on the thing that's less fun, but that really matters: outing Hawkmoth the same way she outed Lila. It's this change that convinces Marinette that Alya should be more than a one-time hero leading Alya to get the fox for good as I think that should have been a thing in the show. No mass recruitment. Everyone has to earn their assignment or be nothing more than the occasional tag in.
Option Two: Alya Is Already Perfect
In this version of the plot, we remove every episode that made Alya a bad reporter. No more wanting to out Ladybug. No more thinking Chloe is Ladybug. No more posting about things Ladybug drops. Just good, solid reporting right from day one.
When Lila shows up and starts telling her lies - which will still be toned down - Alya immediately picks up on the fact that something seems off while Marinette is oblivious. As a good reporter, Alya doesn't share her suspicions because she has nothing to back them up. She keeps quiet and gathers information. Once she has enough proof, she outs Lila. Marinette is shocked, but grateful. She also realizes just how good of a reporter Alya is. This leads to Marinette giving Alya the fox miraculous because the team needs someone like this to help them take down Hawkmoth!
You're probably thinking that this pitch is less interesting than the first one so why would I ever pick this one? The answer is that it's a better fit for canon's episodic structure. You'd pick a season, introduce Lila, and then have this be a running thing in the background leading to a Lila takedown at the end of the season. Alya would only get a minute or two at the end of each - or at least most - episodes to move the plot forward. It lets you establish her skillset and gets you hyped for her to help take down Hawkmoth without it needing to eat up a ton of screen time. Maybe have the big, season finale drama be that Marinette is going to give Lila a miraculous and Alya outs Lila just in the nick of time, leading Alya to get the miraculous instead.
Option Three: Something to do with Whatever the Lila Plot is Supposed to Be
The biggest problem with fixing the Lila-the-liar plot is that most of the obvious fixes involve Lila being a less-than-stellar liar. While the lies canon had her tell back that up, the way canon plays the lies doesn't. Canon Lila is supposed to be a master manipulator whose lies are impossible to see through. I'd like to pitch ways to fix that, but canon makes it tricky because a proper fix requires understanding Lila's character and that's an impossible ask. We're almost to the end of season six and we still have no clue who she is or what her goals are. The only thing we know is that she's a master manipulator who is somehow connected to Tomoe. My best guess as to where that's going is that Tomoe sent Lila to Paris to get the miraculous, but that's just a guess. Still, it's the best I've got so let's just assume that's what happened to show why it's such an issue.
I've always liked the idea that Lila came to Paris on a mission, but I liked it as an alternative way to write canon. I never expected it to be canon. If this is where the story is going, then the first five seasons are an even bigger writing failure than I thought. The writers didn't just give Lila lies that felt too obvious. They had her lie in ways that completely undermined her supposed goal!
In the first five seasons, Lila is written like a compulsive liar who just wants attention. She's not written like someone who is lying to support a mission. For example, why would she lie about being Ladybug's best friend? What does that get her? Attention, Ladybug's ire, and nothing else so it's a terrible lie for a spy who wants to get close to Ladybug! Similarly, why would Lila tell Ladybug that they're enemies, instantly putting Ladybug on guard any time Lila is around? That's the last thing she should do if she wants to steal Ladybug's miraculous!
If Lila's goal is to get the miraculous and her lies are all supposed to support that goal, then I'd rewrite things so that Lila no longer cares about being loved by everyone. Instead, she just wants to get close to Alya because the Ladyblog has made Lila suspect that Ladybug and Alya have a special connection. Why else would Ladybug give Alya that special private interview from the end of The Mime? In this new version of canon, Lila barely ever lies because she's not a compulsive liar. She's a woman on a mission who only lies when the lies serve the mission.
Where the story goes from there depends on a ton of factors. I could see a version of the story where Alya and Marinette are oblivious that Lila is a liar until Lila pulls off some crazy move like stealing the fox. I could also see a version where Marinette and Alya are oblivious to the lies, but Marinette doesn't trust Lila because she's a stranger who is obsessed with Ladybug and it's natural that Ladybug would not be okay with that. Once Alya becomes a hero, Alya would share that fear and naturally grow apart from Lila without needing a Lila reveal.
Whatever the path is, Alya should still be involved in Lila's takedown, it's just that this takedown would probably be after Hawkmoth's takedown instead of before it. Taking Lila down before she's had the chance to become the next big bad undermines her role as the next big bad. Alya stopping some minor plot and revealing that Lila is the next big bad without defeating Lila could also work, but it needs to be a minor victory not a major one. Another option would be that Alya and Marinette get to genuinely stop Lila, but in doing so they learn that Lila is working for someone and Lila's boss becomes the new big bad while Lila exits the show for good. That's last one is my preference since Lila's writing makes her feel more like a minion than a leader to me, but any of these could work.
Yeah... Lilaâs lore is still pretty fuzzy, but I think canon is already hinting at the direction theyâre going with her story, as weird as it is. Allow me to explain.
First of all, Lila has referred to Kagami as her âsisterâ multiple times throughout Seasons 5 and 6, and she directly calls Tomoe her âmotherâ in Season 6. That strongly suggests that Lila is either part of the Tsurugi family or at least deeply connected to it.
Cerise: (suddenly appears, snapping Tomoe out of the flashback) Hello, mother. Forgive my intrusion, but I sensed your disappointment, so I thought Iâd pay you a little visit. Nooroo, dark wings rise.
We also know that Tomoe, in her own words, has âbeen disappointed by men her entire life,â which implies she holds a deep resentment toward them for reasons we still donât know.
Tomoe: Iâve been disappointed by men my entire life. I want Kagami to grow up to have a Prince Charming as perfect as she is: smart, strong, handsome, and obedient.
This is just a theory, but honestly, I think it lines up pretty well with what canon is trying to imply.
I think Lila is probably Tomoeâs first daughter, the child she had with the man who hurt her so badly that made her hate them all.
We donât know exactly what that man did to her, but whatever happened may also explain why Tomoe doesnât see Lila as a worthy successor to her empire.
That could be what eventually led Tomoe to use the Peacock Miraculous to create her âperfectâ daughter, Kagami.
Also, the show has repeatedly reinforced the idea that Kagami is the âfavorite daughter,â while Lila is treated as the rejected one.
In Emotion, Kagami openly tells Lila that she isnât a diamond, she's just a rock.
Kagami: It's where the most powerful families introduce their greatest treasures, their heirs, and heiresses. Adrien, Chloe, me â our families see us as Diamonds.
Lila: And I wasnât invited?
Kagami: Of course not. Youâre not a precious stone, youâre just a stone.
Then, in Yaksi Gozen, Lila refers to herself as the âleast preferred daughter.â
Chrysalis: Kagami was so perfect. It must be painful to watch your favorite daughter escape from your grasp... Luckily, I am here.
And in The Dirtyfiers, she tells Etta and Ella that she knows what it feels like to have a mother who doesnât love you.
What we still donât know are Lilaâs true motivations. Maybe she wants Tomoeâs approval. Maybe she wants revenge against her. Or maybe she just wants whatever the writers decide to pull from their asses next.
For me this is just sooo... weird? They took 2 characters that were worlds apart and gave them a weird-ass backstory together which I'm not even sure how well it works, like, are we race-swapping Lila now????
















