#adrinette

“Girl, I can hear you thinking from here,” Alya snorted as she waited patiently for Marinette to hand her the next item to throw into the suitcase. 

She was frantic as she tore through her closet. “How could you do this to me!? Why would you bring up going to the beach mansion so short notice!? I have nothing to wear! I have no time to design or make anything new to impress Adrien with!” Marinette cried, hysterically clearing the clothes from their hangers. 

It really was Alya’s idea to spend a week away at the Agreste’s old beach estate. Felix idly brought up its existence recently, and of course, Alya jumped at the chance and convinced Adrien that the little vacation would be an awesome way to celebrate finishing lycee. 

Alya leaned back on the chaise, arching a brow at her. “Adrien loves you. After all you've been through together, why would you need to impress him?” 

“Because! I-I just–UGH!” She emerged from the closet, holding a red and white spotted fifties style two piece she’d created. “I don’t know! Doesn’t every girl want their boyfriend to think she’s pretty?” 

“I mean, yeah, but–” 

Marinette immediately cut her off, holding up the bikini to herself in the mirror, “Does this scream ‘I’m Ladybug’ or am I overthinking?” 

“You’re always overthinking,” Alya replied flatly. 

“Alya!! This whole trip was your idea, I need you to help me!” 

Sighing, she pinched her brow. “No, I don’t think Adrien will figure out your secret identity from a red bikini.” 

Marinette glanced between the garment and her best friend. “Are you sure?”

“Marinette.” 

“Fine.” 

She tossed it into the suitcase before pulling out her next outfit for Alya to approve of. Yes, her best friend was right and she should not be stressing so much over what Adrien saw her wearing. But to Marinette all she could think about was that it was their first vacation together. Sure, their friends would be there but that didn’t matter! Marinette had to admit she was nervous about Adrien visiting this beach house. When Alya brought it up, he seemed taken aback. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of memories he had there with his parents.

“He was manipulating you, Ladybug. He was never a good father,” Adrien’s voice flashed her in head. 

Would he be happy making new memories there with them? Or would the visit leave a sour taste in his mouth? She just wanted to make him happy. Whatever that entailed. 

“D-Do you think Adrien’s okay with this?” 

Alya blinked, tilting her head. “What?” 

Marinette gestured with her wrist before leaning to close her suitcase. “The whole beach estate thing. Do you think he’s okay with going? I mean… His parents are kind of a sore subject for him.” 

Pursing her lips, Alya glanced away. “Oh, I hadn’t thought about that.” 

Marinette moved to sit next to her, fiddling with her thumbs in her lap. “I just don’t want to bring up bad memories. He’s been working so hard in therapy for years. I don’t want to mess that up… E-Especially after I told him about–” She paused, tongue feeling heavy in her mouth. 

“Of course, he lied to you. That’s all he ever did!” 

“Oh, Marinette,” Alya cooed, hugging her around the shoulder. “If Adrien really didn’t want to go, he would have said so. The boy has grown a very shiny spine the past few years. He’d tell me the truth even if he thought it’d hurt my feelings.” 

Marinette felt her lip tremble slightly. Yes, Adrien had learned to be stubborn and no longer a pushover (mostly because he had a say in his automaticity while possessing the family rings), but he still liked to put his friend’s happiness over his own sometimes. He was the definition of a golden retriever when it came to them. 

Sighing, she relented. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” 

“Trust that Adrien knows what’s best for him. We’re all grown up now, ya know?” After Marinette nodded, a cheesy grin split across Alya’s face. She gave Marinette a teasing shake of her shoulders. “I bet he wants to see you in those cute little pink and red bikinis you just packed.” 

Mortified, she groaned and shoved her face in her hands. “Alya! Don’t start!” 

“We’re gonna be all aloneeee,” Alya sang, swaying Marinette back and forth with her. “You know you two could finally–.” 

“Alya,” she hissed. 

“C’mon, M! Have you two done anything aside from kissing?” 

Gulping, Marinette looked anywhere else aside from her best friend beside her. “I-I–well–not really.” 

“UM? Deets? Hello? You been holding out on me, girl?” 

She waved her hands frantically in surrender. “No, no! Nothing like that! We just–Well, we were kissing the other day and–”

“Like making out?” 

“Yess,” Marinette hissed, much to her chagrin. “And he, well, his knee kinda ended up–uh.” 

“Marinette, did you grind on your boyfriend’s thigh?” 

She practically squealed and hid her face again, not daring to say another word to Alya about the new development from a few days prior. 

Snorting, Alya shook her head. “God, you two are adorable but you move slower than continental drift.” 

Okay for a start the red herring tool was masterfully done and honestly if I didnt know the spoiler and the theories online I'd be more taken aback but unfortunately I knew and so the shock factor didn't hit but the way it was done was masterful. For a start they lulled us into false safety by showing us Marinette's worst flaw in HD. Her overthinking and over caution, a flaw we've seen a lot in how she dealt with Adrien so to start the episode with that, both as ladybug and Marinette was a masterful move.

Let me elaborate, okay so the first scene we saw was her with a 2000 something safety protocol list and that even in the show was acknowledged as excessive but if we go by common standards Marinette typically does too much and even the heroes acknowledged that so we're left with a scene of her comically doing too much even as ladybug. After that we then go to her as Marinette and again we see all the safety protocols she's put into action. Now of course some people may be awed by the geniusness of it so maybe thats not the strongest case but it does again set up the story of Marinette being too cautious, too careful but still that wasnt enough heavy lifting to make her seem untrustworthy at least in my opinion because it was still something small but then after that scene we see her with her uncle and we can see her overthinking every gift which does frame her as too paranoid, especially when Tikki herself says it which again does a lot of work because the writers are trying to tell us shes untrustworthy, Tikki's line was pivotal and could work as a framing tool. Of course it wont hit everyone the same way but I felt like those lines and those moments were to make Marinette seem untrustworthy first and the more we go the more we see how yes she actually might be untrustworthy because nothing happens and he rejects the akuma too and that was the whole episode until the scene after the endcard. A scene I think deserved its own pargraph which I will start soon after concluding that the entire episode was initially a set up to lull us into a false sense of security and its done well throughout because it plays of Marinette's canonincally greatest strength and flaw and the episode in combination with the ends scene shows us that. Now lets talk about that scene.

(I couldnt find a gif of uncle wang so have this instead)

Okay so lets talk about the last scene, the last scene from the get go had a completely different atmosphere from the rest of the episode except for the scene where she panics where we get similar atmosphere. Of course the lighting is different but both the scene where Marinette panics when probably Lila enters her room and the scene where she comes down in her change of clothes, we get a dark atmosphere without much light but unlike the scene where marinette is panicking where the darkness only surrounds her in the end credits scene we get the entire room in darkness which I think is such a nice use of lighting and colours because now the darkness surrounds everyone which means everyone is in on the secret aka her parents and as you know darkness is used in horror movies or suspense scenes which makes this so perfect as an artistic choice.

Whatever the case when everything goes dark the call comes, so normal and nice but we the watchers know something is up as does Marinette which then leads to her investigating and finally making another pivotal decision i.e her revealing her identity which I hope like the reveal to Alya will actually have an impact and not be forgotten. On that note I want to explore a theory I had about season 4 and season 6 echoing each other. So here we go

(Alyanette is related to this theory so here is this gif)

Since I was rewatching the entire show from season 4, I remember thinking as I watched that season 4 and season 6 echo each other a lot back then it was themes which I still stand by but now I have an added dimension so here we go.

The reason I initially thought season 4 and season 6 echo each other is because both seasons had a big theme of secrets and lies. Secret being Marinette's identity in season 4 which was finally at long last impacting her life. While lies wasnt a big thing here in season 4 it did come along with secrets since she had to lie about her identity so I suppose it fits. It might also fit if we include the finale where felix lies to her and she loses but still I think secrets was the bigger part here because she was keeping secrets from her friends and cat noir himself. Now why did I bring that up?

Well I brought that up because as everyone knows this season aka season 6's big theme was again secrets and lies and while watching season 4 all I could think of was that season 6 was an escalation of her problems from season 4 and I think that really holds true now because Marinette in a way was acting a lot like her season 4 self trying to handle a lot alone but this time she didnt even break to Alya but again we get a reveal here too so yeah I think the theme still holds because she did make a reveal to her parents when things got too much which fits her pattern of revealing when she needs to and shows more growth.

I also thought season 4 was about things happening to her while in season 6 she makes things happen but in both cases it leads to secrets and lies so again I think its a good echo of season 4 because its moving marinette from simply victim to victim and perpetrator which again is around her same problem taking too much on leading to lies and secrets because she takes too much on but yeah I think this season and then season 7 might be the last time hopefully that we have to deal with this tendency of hers because honestly season 6 is the clearest indicator that gods no she cannot do any of this alone and that she doesnt have to be messsiah and save everyone.

Whatever the case this is why I think season 4 and season 6 are echoes of each other because there are themes like secrets and lies getting the centre and problems like her struggling to let people in taking over but while season 4 was tamer and more a result of her being a victim, season 6 is where it takes over because now shes not only a victim but also actively becoming a perpetrator and taking more autonomy over everything and everyone which she didnt do as much in season 4. Its like things have to get worse before they get better and this is it. In my opinion it also makes psychological sense in a way taking her character into mind where in season 5 she was actually letting go of control a little but then Gabriel happened and it was all destroyed in a jiffy. Now I guess I will talk a little about her psych since this is what its becoming.

I know I already touched upon it but I think I can say a little more but probably not much. Marinette as we all know is an overthinker and we have seen from the beginning how she just cant do simple things and overcomplicates everything. That characterisitc of her still stays and like I said before is her greatest strength and weakness. It is her greatest strength because it makes her an excellent ladybug since she needs to be over cautious as everything is destroyed the moment the ladybug miraculous is gone so it is her strength and is also the reason her complicated plans as ladybug work and give her an element of surprise as no one expects her to do much with say an eraser of a pencil, just whatever item she gets so its her strength and it is shown as a strength and weakness at once in this episode as her suspicions were right in the end and she could be careful. Of course I dont know if Lila was fooled but marinette did defnitely buy herself more time so its a strength in this episode

Its a strength in this episode but since they wanted to mislead us it is also potrayed as a weakness because shes paranoid and it makes her make mistakes like burning the cake in this episode and also doesnt make her seem as trustworthy to some people. While the weaknesses arent shown as clearly in this episode its hown throughout the show how much her doing too much causes harm, like how she hurt Sabrina's feelings in daddycop, how she became inconsiderate about her girls, how she never ever got Adrien when she overcomplicated things etc. because its shown in this way the writers could reliably mislead us into thinking shes wrong but again this is plot specific while her journey is more complicated but I may do a seperate post instead of well this here. Next I'm just going to gush about the episode so fair warning.

I know technically it was marichat but for me it is adrinette since we didnt really get to see how marinette reacted to any of this but Adrian, oh my god he was so protective here! LIKE AWWWWW, HE REALLY DOES LOVE HER BECAUSE THIS TIME HE DIDNT EVEN FOCUS ON LADYBUG! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW BIG THAT IS?! BOY WENT FERAL BECAUSE HIS GIRLFRIEND HAD BEEN CAPTURED BY A VILLAIN AND OMG THAT IS SO SO CUTE AND I LOVE ADRINETTE SO MUCH AND I LOVE THIS DEVELOPMENT SO MUCH.

That aside it is so so sweet how her friends were all in on the plan to surprise her mother with the pizza part and everything. like aww the core four is so adorable like they are the best friends anyone can have and the best friend break up next episode is going to hurt so much next episode. Like I am going to cry if its permanent because what is Marinette going to do without Alya because that girl literally saved her this episode.

On another note Lila is so so smart and I love that the stakes are just that high now, in a way it could never be with Gabriel, yes gabriel got close in destruction but he was easily sent the other way precisely because he didn't know Marinette well while Lila actually knows her pretty well and has much mroe access to her specifically. Also she is hyperfixating on Marinette while Gabriel hyperfixated on ladybug which again gives them different levels of access. While Gabriel never got access, Lila always have access. I know people say Gabriel was foolish but I dont actually think that now because you see he doesnt have as much access as Lila had. So I would say he was over confident rather than foolish because why would he imagine the clumsy girl would be his enemy? So honestly its not that Gabriel was dumb or incompetent just that Lila with the support from the kingdom and Tomoe actually has way more tools than Gabriel ever had. Like okay sure he had the empire and all the technological advancement but you see since he had that much it makes him much more incompetent and restricted and he actually did quite well for what he had. Its kind of like the bigger you are the more blindspots you have while the closer you are to the ground the more you can see in the ground but yeah thats just my theory and I do still love Lila as the villain I just dont think gabriel is that incompetent and his failure at first is mostly overconfidence and arrogance while that is not something Lila has since she has to work from the ground.

Also in the end technically Gabriel won so theres that, make of it what you will. Anyway I cant wait to see what will happen in the future. How lila will lose? Bye for now