I was thinking about how Marinette broke Adrien's amoks, and that if Lila was in her position, even if she didn't love him,* she would value him too much as a possession to do that. So could you please go over how Lila would likely treat Adrien if she was in a relationship with him, what ways she would mistreat him, and how they compare to the ways Marinette is mistreating him.
*Which is debateable. When Kagami put a truth-detector on her, she said that she loved Adrien, and it didn't trigger. Now, it is possible that she just believes that she loves Adrien,** or that the truth detector was only responding to her larger point, which was her saying that if Kagami kills Ladybug, she is willing to stop trying to date him.
**Which might actually describe Marinette's relationship with him.
Dude, I have so many thoughts about how Liladrien would go. It's literally my favorite ship in mlb.
Their dynamic is just pure gold. With only three episodes, the show managed to give this relationship more development than the main ship had in 6 season (Adrien and Lila's initial perceptions of one another are very different than their final perceptions). The two of them are insanely good foils for one another. And most importantly, you can explore sides about those characters that you never see anywhere else.
Adrien got Lila pegged from the get go. She lies because she wants attention and to pretend like her life is better than it is. (Or at least that's the characterization they had for her before the Cerise nonsense, which is what I'm sticking with.)
He also correctly assessed that the best way to deal with her is to ignore her, as that robs her of all the power she has over you. I don't give a shit what s5 says, Adrien was completely right in his attitude towards Lila. Especially because as soon as Lila started doing things that aren't just harmless lying, he took action as well.
That scene between them in "Ladybug" might be the single most fascinating piece of characterization Adrien ever got. For a single scene, Adrien was allowed to have a spine of steel and put Lila in her place. He was shown to not only be Lila's equal, but someone who who could win against her in a way literally no other character in the show managed. Not even Gabriel managed to go against Lila and escape unscathed.
We only see them interacting a single time after that, but there we see that Adrien is quick to tell her off for trying to pull bullshit with him.
This is a side of Adrien we never get to see anywhere else. With other people we get hints of his anger, his stubborness, even the tiniest flicker of ruthlessness. But he cares about their opinions of him too much so he pushes down everything that might make them dislike him.
With Lila? Adrien couldn't care less what she thinks of him. That makes him willing to be a lot more open about his agressive or otherwise unflattering sides of him. It's such an amazing setup to explore all his less-than-perfect sides and his relationship to them.
Because what he feels about them would define how he feels about Lila. Is he ashamed of them? Hates them? Scared of them? Or maybe there's a part of him he represses that wants to let them loose. That wants to be allowed to act however he wants without having to contort himself for the sake of the other person.
And if that's how he feels about them, then even if he can't stand Lila and hates that she tried to hurt his friends, he would still have a reason to seek her out. After all, she's the only person he feels comfortable acting this way around.
On Lila's side, the relationship would be just as fraught. We saw her reaction in canon to having her lies exposed and it's universally to lash out and try to mess up the other person's life.
However, we see a difference in how she reacts to Marinette and Adrien's attempts. Marinette goes against her publically and tries to destroy everything she built up, which leads to Lila getting obsessed with destroying her in turn.
Adrien meanwhile, talks to her in private conversations and only tries to stop her when she's hurting people. Lila's reaction to that was to lash out at him once, but she never developed the same sort of vendetta as she has against Marinette. In fact, he called her out and went against her but she didn't retaliate at all.
She clearly sees Adrien's method as less of a threat to her ego, and so she's more willing to tolerate it. Even after he went against her she still tries to flirt with him. But there's no way she can accept his victories over her gracefully, especially if it happens multiple times.
The way Adrien can see right through her would definitely put her on edge. And to make matters worse, he reaction isn't to demonize her and treat her as an enemy, but to empathize and offer his hand in friendship.
She was already attracted to Adrien for all the reasons you would imagine (rich, famous, handome), but now he would also be the one person she can't manipulate but who's also not her enemy.
If the show actually cared about character dynamics rather than making Marinette the center of the universe, Lila would see Adrien as a worthy opponent. She could still see Marinette as that bitch she despises and wants to make her life hell (especially if she suspects Marinette is Ladybug like in s6, since she would have double the vendetta), but Adrien is the one she would be looking to play games with.
She would seek to possess and control him. Both to get one over him as payback, but also because she seeks the understanding and companionship he offers but wants to have it without having to risk being vulnerable.
Adrien would push back, as we saw he's both capable and willing to do against Lila. And every time he would manage to get one over her, she would grow more obsessed with posessing him.
If they ever get into a relationship, it would be one of the most overtly toxic things you ever saw. Lila would use all the classic abusive techniques to try and isolate Adrien, to cut him off from any support network he has and undermine his confidence and self esteem. Not all of them would succeed, but some of them would.
But while most of the toxicity would come from Lila's side, not all of it would. That relationship would bring the worst out of Adrien. Yet the toxicity would also be half the appeal for him. It would feel more honest than something like the sickly sweet relationship he has with Marinette. Lila's possessiveness would also do a lot to soothe his abandonment issues.
I'm of two minds whether Lila would use his amok against him. On the one hand, it would feel cheap, and part of the fantasy of taking Adrien down a peg would be earning that victory over him because she's so much better. On the other hand, all's fair in love and war and Lila definitely isn't afraid of playing dirty. If Adrien didn't want to get mind controlled he shouldn't have been born a senti. She would most likely keep it as a ace up her sleeve for a moment where she doesn't manage to get what she wants by her usual means.
As for breaking Adrien's amok, I can only see her doing that as a "if I can't have him, no one can" thing. She would never in a thousand years break the amok in the same situation Marinette was. She would let the city burn first.
The ways Marinette mistreats Adrien are less toxic (not a high bar to clear), but unlike with Lila, Adrien doesn't push back at all. He cares about Marinette's opinion of him, so he has all his people pleasing instincts engaged. He would rationalize that all of the mistreatment is his fault because he's doing something wrong (as we see in canon). He wouldn't hold Marinette accountable for any of it.
Marinette would definitely be willing to use Adrien's amok. As soon as she feels like she has a justified reason or it would be the quickest way to fix a problem, she would do it with barely any hesitation.
As for breaking them, I doubt she would be willing to do it if there was a 100% chance he would die. But as canon showed, she isn't averse to playing russian roulette with his life.
stormborns
izzy806
tangentwithtanner
titsay
