Okay, listen. I was loving Alya through so much of S6. I was even thinking this girl would make a great Guardian - until the finale. Don't get me wrong - she's had some great moments in S6. But by the end of the season, I felt like she'd fallen back into her old personality traps, and I finished the episode feeling sooooooo frustrated.

Remember back in S1 when Marinette said Alya was always jumping to conclusions? It still applies. Yes, Alya worked out that Gabriel was Monarch - but she never paused to ask her supposed best friend just why she felt so compelled to hide this information. Even after all she knows, and all she’s witnessed, she isn't giving Marinette the benefit of the doubt. Instead of talking to Marinette about everything, she jumped straight to anger, judgment, and even borderline rejection.

The kicker is that she hasn’t really uncovered Marinette's secrets at all. Namely, she still doesn't know: 

* Why Gabriel was Monarch (honestly, why didn’t she think to ask this?)

* Adrien's origins (and, by extension, Felix and Kagami's origins)

* What Gabriel was plotting

* What happened to Adrien's mother

* What actually went down in that basement, and what specifically passed between Gabriel and Marinette

* Nathalie's part in everything

* Tomoe's role in everything

* That the rings exist, or how they've been used 

* That Cat Blanc ever happened

* Marinette's feelings about any of it (Alya can see that her friend is breaking down and she’s just adding to it, giving her ultimatums rather than a listening ear)

Let’s be real: Adrien does need to know the truth. Alya is 100% right about that. And he will find out. It's just a matter of time. And when it all comes out, it’s going to be so much worse than it would’ve been if Marinette had told him at the start. But we’re not talking about some adult with a full support network, here. We’re talking about an overburdened, traumatised child. As much as it kills me that Marinette has been keeping all these secrets, I completely understand why she did what she did. I also understand why Alya is so upset now. But where’s the compassion? Where’s the conversation?

Even if there is a conversation, a lot of Marinette's secrets aren’t really hers to tell. Alya has no automatic right to know about Adrien's origins or family history. Alya keeps reminding Marinette that friends are meant to trust each other - but that goes both ways. Alya didn’t trust her about the drama with Lila, or when Marinette told her Adrien didn't want to go on that tour, and now she isn’t trusting that there might be things going on that Marinette is not at liberty to share. And all these claims that it's not Alya's fault, it's because Marinette has demonstrated such crazy behaviour, etc. etc. just don't land with me. I'm not saying Marinette is perfect. Far from it. I've made no secret of how frustrated all her lying in S6 makes me, too. But just because someone has their own learning points, that doesn't negate the harm that's being done to them. Underneath all that panic, Marinette is a rational human being, and she deserves to be treated as such.

If we think back to S1, Alya used to be such a squealing, Ladybug fangirl - when Ladybug wasn't a real person to her. It's such a classic case of ‘never meet your heroes’. As soon as she found out, her attitude changed. The first time she got to use the ladybug miraculous herself, she was sighing at Marinette's list of rules and tips. Even towards the end of S6, she was rolling her eyes at Cat Noir and getting irritated with him for attempting to save her own best friend rather than following her plan - as if her way of doing things was the only way to do things. Now, she thinks her way is the only way regarding Adrien, and if Marinette doesn't comply, I guess it's over.

But Marinette doesn't need rejection and anger. She needs HELP.

I so wish we had seen Marinette tell Alya about the new butterfly holder invading her home. I wish we'd seen Alya regret having judged Marinette as simply paranoid - yet again. I hope so much that we get to see Alya learn who the butterfly holder is. I hope we see her reflect on the long history with Lila. I just want to see her take Marinette seriously, and respect her as someone strong and intelligent and struggling with something that is simply too much for any one person - let alone a child - to carry. Because it’s easy to judge from the outside - but the fact is, no one else has been in Marinette's position. Alya has never been the Guardian. She wasn't in that basement with Gabriel. She's never had to make these kinds of decisions. She's never held her boyfriend's literal life in her hands.

All that said...Alya is just a child, too, the same as Marinette. She’s also learning, making mistakes, and hopefully going to grow from them. I hope we see all of that, too. And I hope, in S7, we see Marinette find real, adult support from her parents. I hope someone just gives her a damn hug, already.

Also, I'd love to see Sabine take on Nathalie - and Tomoe, for that matter. I adore Nathalie as a character, but seriously. There is so much flack in this fandom for Marinette, Felix and Kagami, but every one of them is a victim of child abuse, just like Adrien. It's the adults like Nathalie, Tomoe and Amelie who have so much to answer for. They're the ones who knew what was happening all along - who knew what was being done to these children - and who did nothing about it, or even aided it.

Here's the link to help out.