Slut For LadyNoir

BUT

They get bored (and okay a little drunk) one night and decide to cause a little media chaos to piss off Gabe.

So they stage a Ladrien AND Marichat scandal and let the media RUN with it.

This goes on for MONTHS

Public fights between ~supermodel Adrien~ and ~designer Mari~

Chat Noir and Ladybug absolutely ROASTING each other in battle.

Getting caught with their “affairs” in the stupidest places

Yanno, with how this special brought Ladybug’s shortcomings as a superhero partner to the forefront, I’m kinda upset that this is most likely going to be treated as out of continuity by the series. Because, while the conflict of the special was contained inside the special, Cat Noir’s mistake and him picking himself up again after, some of it holds true to the series proper as well. Adrien gives Ladybug so much of himself, and she gives him nothing in return. She hasn’t once supported him in a time of need. In the series this is because Adrien doesn’t feel like he can be vulnerable with her, like he doesn’t with many people in general, so he’s never showed her when he needs support. In this special, however, he did need her support and he showed it. He was crying, repeating all the things he felt were his fault. And Ladybug was silent, because she was too upset to let him know she didn’t condemn him. And she lost him because of it. Adrien left because he felt like Ladybug deserved a better partner, but to me, he left because he deserves a better partner, one who doesn’t just let him suffer all alone. In Miracle Queen, when Adrien heard Ladybug had caused Fu to be discovered by their enemies, he supported her without question. Now Marinette was put in the same situation with her partner having made a costly mistake and she condemned him instead.

In the finale of Gravity Falls, Stanley Pines loses his memory and the series creator has said that, while his estranged twin brother would have deserved not to have his brother remember him again after he treated Stan so poorly, the main characters of the series didn’t deserve to have their great uncle not remember them again, and that was why Stan’s memories were ultimately restored. I feel like the same is true in this special: Ladybug deserved to lose the partner she never supports or shows her care towards, but Plagg didn’t deserve to lose the best Cat Noir he’d ever had. Everything Plagg did wrong in this special he did because he loves Adrien and misjudged. Marinette treated Cat Noir poorly because, when it comes to their partnership, only her feelings matter. This also fits in with the start of the special, where Luka, another boy Marinette uses one-sidedly for her own emotional comfort, says he hopes Marinette finds clarity on her trip. And Marinette doesn’t think of Luka once during the trip. She learned nothing about her relationship with Luka, just like she seemingly learned nothing about her relationship with Cat Noir. I didn’t even need her to apologise, because I’ve never felt like these two have needed to apologise for their feelings before, their relationship can handle the things they say to each other in anger, but if she’d just said something like “I’ll never let you go again” to Cat Noir, I would know she’d learned just how important Cat Noir is to her. Then again, maybe that’s what Uncanny’s recording is meant to serve as, as that acknowledgement of her partner’s worth and importance. “I can’t do this without him”. I’d just have preferred if the resolution was Marinette wanting Cat Noir, not that she needed him, because wanting someone is a choice and Marinette needs to take some responsibility of her own life for a change instead of acting like a spectator.

Now, for the new characters, since they were the reason this special was set in New York. Most of them were pretty bland, and I know them only because I know the characters they were based on. I’ve seen Batman and Robin bicker over Robin desiring independence as many times as those characters have been adapted or copied, and I’ve seen Superman’s World of Cardboard Speech as many times as I’ve rewatched the finale of Justice League Unlimited (which is a lot). Aeon/Uncanny is the only original character among the main four we get introduced to, even Techno-Pirate is an downgraded Brainiac clone combined with some Doctor Octopus. But Aeon is pretty neat, I did like the gray area of whether or not she’s just too kind or if she’s helpful because she was built that way. We did get a confirmation that it was the former when she inspired Jessica to go against their mothers. Even so, she doesn’t have much of her own arc going on in the special, which is kind of wasting the only truly original character. As I said, Jessica’s fight for independence is one every Robin and Robin clone goes through, but the special focused on it anyway, because she’s the one who ends up with a Miraculous.

like imagine rena rouge is struggling to keep up with ladybug and ladybug is like “i love destroying you almost as much as i love my husband” and chat blanc while fighting carapace is like looking at her lovingly like “babe…”

them standing on a building watching paris go on fire and chat blanc is like kissing her cheek saying “amazing evil plan as always, dear” and ladybug sliding onto his lap “wouldn’t have been achievable without your destructive power sweetie.”

marinette and adrien being considered the most unusual couple in their neighbourhood but anyone with a brain can tell they’re head over heels for eachother.

them dancing together in the midst of destruction while the heroes look at them in horror.

they’re also strangely healthy. ladybug is alone attacking paris and everyone is looking at her wondering where chat blanc is and she’s confused like “my husband doesn’t always need to be with me. we’re taking some space from eachother today. how do you think we’ve been married for so long?”

Adrien looking over marinette‘s evil plans like “my wife and her brilliant big brain” and marinette saying “my husband and his big heart”

blanc getting ladybug the ashes of lila’s corpse for their anniversary and she’s like “oh my god pumpkin! you shouldn’t have” and she kisses his cheek.

caraspace almost beating chat blanc bc he’s grumpy and chat is like “my wife didn’t kiss me today :( she always kisses me before we start causing destruction it’s our tradition.”

everyone thought blanc was the strongest physically out of the two of them until ladybug singlehandly beat up all the heroes when she notices her husband is separated from her “nobody takes my kitty away from me. we have dinner plans later and im not letting anyone ruin that”

Like, Gabriel already gave up being Hawkmoth for Adrien at one point and Nathalie only started being Mayura because Hawkmoth benefits from having a Partner. If Adrien had known early enough he could have stopped this war and his parents (im basically counting Nathalie as his step mom at this point, she has been more of a parent o Adrien than Gabriel) fall into madness.

As much as I like to make fun of Adrien “she’s just a friend!!” Agreste, I think he is aware of how much he likes Marinette.

However

I think Adrien’s picking up on how everything he loves about Marinette is something he loves about Ladybug. And instead of thinking “they must be the same person”, Adrien assumes that he’s projecting his love of Ladybug onto Marinette. That the only reason he is romantically interested in Marinette is because she reminds him of Ladybug.

Adrien “she’s just a friend!” Agreste: *stares directly into NIno’s soul* Myself. Who did you think this was for? I know how amazing Marinette is, how kind and creative and generous and brilliant. But there’s someone else I’m in love with and have loved longer, and Marinette especially deserves more than to be just a replacement or a rebound! She’s a very good friend, and that’s all she can be to me unless I can be sure I’m actually over that other person.

ladynoir & adrinette kiss parallels for

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

(Why hello yes did I order free tea in my inbox?)

I will detail this one even if I think other people have done it brilliantly at some point already. (Update: I realise it’s super long because I don’t know how to do short apparently but anyway).

And I’ll remind first thing first that both Ladybug & Chat Noir received their Miraculous at the exact same time. Both have been untrusted with something big and asked to risk their lives to save the day - with a partner aka an equal. Meaning that at the beginning, there shouldn’t be anything indicating one has more information about their power than the other.

Chat Noir has never shown jealousy at Ladybug’s role as the “leader” of the team; yes he has already questioned her choices and plans (Antibug, Gigatitan to name only those) but he has been overall pretty okay with her taking the lead.

And it was all fine until Collector aka the episode where Marinette meets Master Fu.

I don’t want to start again the whole “it’s Fu’s fault / it’s not his fault bla-bla-bla” debate on the matter because it would be way too long so I’ll just put myself into Adrien’s shoes and ask you to do the same here; taking the whole of season 1 into account where both heroes knew globally the same things, let’s see season 2:

1/ Collector: his partner comes to him to tell him his father is Hawkmoth with no proof. Cool, great… He trusts her, alright, but… It already feels that there’s a wall between them (😏); something hasn’t been shared nor discussed and it’s about the guy they’re both supposed to fight and risk their lives against. He actually let it slides but still, it’s important to take that into account. Especially since it concerns… His own father.

2/ Sapotis: Ladybug comes with a new superhero out of nowhere. Cool, new friend! He reacts pretty well towards Rena Rouge and doesn’t questions her presence; after all they’re in the middle of a fight and the help is most welcomed. Still, no idea where she comes from and his partner actually doesn’t let him know afterwards. But ok maybe there was no time and she’ll tell him about it later.

3/ Syren: here we go. End of a mission, pound-it denied because the new hero has to leave… And Ladybug can know who she is and still hasn’t given him more info he might have expected. And apparently not him? When has this been decided? When has he been consulted for that? Is he not trustworthy enough? Those are all kind of questions he can and is completely in right to ask himself.

Because another reminder: who in Adrien’s daily life never tells him a thing regarding, oh I don’t know, his own mother amongst many other examples? Yeah right. So he’s constantly used to it.

Now about the “controversial” reactions Adrien has in Syren:

Like when Adrien comes back from his fencing tournament his father didn’t attend to and we know Adrien must have done it to obey him and because he wants to please him thinking he has to make efforts so the loss of his mother is less hard for his father?

And that the only response he got after winning was a reproach on how late he was coming back while he was late precisely because he won? And it was from Nathalie and not Gabriel directly? With no congratulations for his success?

Look at that shitty screenshot we can even see very clearly Gabriel’s disappointed face behind Nathalie in the frame – he’s there scolding him but also not there and you perfectly know that hadn’t Adrien won his father would have been waiting for him on the top of the inside stairs like a dominant and judging bird of prey scolding him for his imperfections, lack of skills and imaginary slackening because Kwami forbid Gabriel would step outside the mansion in the sun while he can be even higher in the interior stairs while Nathalie is her messenger & subordinate so she’s on the intermediate/exterior stairs and –

Whenever we see Gabriel he’s either supervillain-ing or in his study thinking about supervillain-ing. Where’s his study? On the ground floor. On. The. Ground. Floor. Adrien passes it before climbing the stairs to his room.

So, it isn’t just that Gabriel decides to wait for Adrien in the most dramatic way possible. He leaves his study, climbs up the stairs, and stands under the painting that displays his dominion over his son.

If there’s something that’s been bugging me (pun non-intended) is the possible implications of Lila’s threat to Marinette.

When I first heard it, I assumed (like probably many of the members of the fandom) that it was only foreshadowing a disastrous episode that would, in the end, still have stand-alone value. “Ladybug” would be a good example of this, or we were probably all expecting an Akumanette episode when we watched Chameleon for the first time, too.

However, now I wonder if it was actually foreshadowing a series of events that started with Lila’s appearance.

If I’m not mistaken, we were told that Marinette would have to face changes in the dynamics she has with people. 

After “The Battle of the Miraculous”, it’s obvious that Adrien/Chat Noir, Kagami and Luka will be part of that change, but will they really be the only ones affected by it?

We, salt shakers (this time, pun totally intended), have been on edge about Marinette’s friends since Chameleon, especially Alya. And, when given some thought, we might have seen hints on the blogger changing sides for a while, all of them going unnoticed.

The one moment that makes me the most suspicious is when Alya had just turned into Rena Rouge and mentioned that she looked just like Lila did when she was akumatised.

However, there hasn’t been the slightest mention of that ever since!

At least, not in a hopeful light.

For example, despite Ladybug mentioning twice during Heroes’ Day that Volpina had been active, both times with witnesses, none of those times have helped the characters to connect the dots and realise that Lila wasn’t in Achu like she said!

BUT

If there’s something you have to learn the hard way when you’re part of the miraculous fandom, that’s that Lila’s never featured nor mentioned without a purpose.

Let’s take a look at Timetagger or Félix, for instance.

In Timetagger, the episode seemingly had nothing to do with her, and, yet, she appears. Not long after we discover that there’ll be a different Hawk Moth in the future, no less. Now, if that’s not a hint.. I don’t know what is.

In Félix, she appeared for a few seconds as part of the video chat Alya had opened to discuss ways to cheer Adrien up on the day he lost his mother. And still, it was her who alerted Nathalie and Gabriel of “Adrien”’s strange behaviour.

Where do I want to go with this?

Lila saw Alya transform into Rena Rouge.

Listen, it actually makes perfect sense.

Catalyst, Mayura and Ladybug showed that Lila lives around the park and that, moreover, she’s actually been keeping a close eye on Marinette and the class for quite some time.

Alya transformed in the park!

Lila could’ve seen it and strategise from there. For instance, it explains how on Earth she hasn’t lied about being Rena Rouge yet. Let’s think about that situation for a moment, alright? 

If Lila didn’t know Alya is Rena Rouge, she could have tried convincing Adrien that the incident in Volpina was just Ladybug’s way of protecting her secret identity from being exposed, claiming that after that they’d decided to change her superhero alterego and rename it to Rena Rouge as it to not arise suspicion. 

But she didn’t do it!

And it’s clearly not because she’s learned to not lie around Adrien, because she has indeed tried to in Chameleon, Oni-chan and Ladybug. Even if she is perfectly aware that he knows she’s a liar.

So I wouldn’t put it past her.

So that brings me to this: Alya might abandon Marinette for Lila.

It’s true she tried to help Marinette in Ladybug, and that she cares about Marinette; but there are moments and behaviours that hint on this happening.

To this day, Alya hasn’t doubted Lila once. Not even when her best friend is so stressed out around her. Sure, we can always say that Alya’s seen the most unreasonable and irrational part of Marinette, but that doesn’t excuse anything.

In Ladybug, she quickly dismissed Marinette’s suspicions on Lila, telling her she shouldn’t jump to conclusions like that, and when it came to actually talking to Lila about it, she actually comforted her instead of showing the slightest caution around her. She even went as far as mentioning Marinette’s jealousy rather than letting the poor girl talk or even explain  her reasoning behind her claims!

Now, if we compare Alya’s behaviour towards Lila and Marinette with the way she acts around Marinette and Kagami, it’s clear there’s some serious bias there. 

Until Ikari Gozen, Marinette was actually just jealous of Kagami, unlike her feelings towards Lila.

Unlike Alya’s teasing and scolding regarding Marinette’s reactions and decisions concerning Lila, where she never fails to mention she’s just defensive because Lila’s close to Adrien  (utter bullshit, btw. Alya, please, do change your glasses.), she never does anything of the sorts when it comes to Marinette’s actual insecurities towards the fencer.

In Ikari Gozen, instead of telling her that she barely knows Kagami and that she should be more open with her (like she did with Lila in Chameleon), she was sympathetic of Marinette’s distress. She practically encouraged her to lose the contest on purpose!

The only conclusion I get from this is that Alya is that way towards Kagami because… She’s not Lila. And, since Alya isn’t very fond of her either, then it’s not so serious if Marinette is actually unfair to her or not.

And that sickens me. Quite honestly.

Aside from this, we also have the events that took place in Feast; despite knowing first-hand that the miraculous is something that the less people know about it, the better, that didn’t stop Alya from talking about the different miraculous holders throughout History and the exhibition on her blog.

Marinette thought it was something so grave she actually confessed she shouldn’t have entrusted Alya with a miraculous!

And that loss in faith is something very serious, especially in this show.

Because, if in the future Ladybug has no choice but to never hand her the fox miraculous again (something very possible considering the events that took place during Miracle Queen), maybe Alya will act as entitled as Chloé did. Questioning why would Ladybug not entrust her with it when she did give it back to Chloé. More than once.

After all, after Chloé, we saw in Sapotis that Alya was the less willing of all of Ladybug’s allies to give her the miraculous back. She almost kept it.

And, if Alya loses faith in Ladybug, that would be the perfect opening for Lila, who could reveal to her that she knew of her secret identity all along and try to get her against Ladybug and, maybe, even Marinette.

Just imagine, she could even say she was the Fox Miraculous Holder before her, Volpina, but that  after some silly argument Ladybug was petty enough to take the miraculous from her. But that she lied about still being friends with her for the sake of Paris.

Now, that would be a major change in dynamics.

But, just as I’ve written about the worst case scenario, I also have some hopeful news about Marinette’s next confidant.

Alix.

I’ll admit, of all her friends, Alix has always shown that she was the least convinced of Marinette’s distrust towards Lila. Always being very quick to show her anger towards Marinette for her actions.

Even so, we must not forget that she will soon entrust her with the Rabbit Miraculous. Giving her the power to fix everything, even when the clock is against the heroes.

And I think I know why she entrusted it to her in the first place.

In Chat Blanc, Bunnix told Ladybug that the reason she chose her was because “She’s very good at keeping secrets”. On the other hand, she suggested that maybe the reason Chat Noir knew of her secret identity was that Adrien had told Nino, that had told Alya, that had published it on the Ladyblog.

What if this is more foreshadowing?

What if Bunnix is subtly warning Marinette about Alya and that the Ladyblog is actually more important to her than her role as a superhero?

But going back to the reason Ladybug chose Alix as Bunnix, maybe it will be Alix the first one to discover her secret identity, and will promise to never reveal it to anyone.

If that were the case, Alix would also be the first one besides Adrien and Marinette to know that Lila is a liar and that Marinette had every right to be as distant to her as she was.

Maybe Alix will be Marinette’s first ally against the Italian girl in and out of the suits (aside from Adrien, of course).