#character: ladybug

Miraculous Ladybug is a weird show. Typically, in other shows, writers give their protagonist a free pass whenever the protagonist does something wrong; a thing that's known as "protagonist-centered morality." Miraculous Ladybug goes in a completely different direction though, usually giving this sort of morality to other characters, whether they deserve it or not.

Marinette (generally) doesn't get this benefit, and it's something that hasn't gone unnoticed by people in the fandom. When and why this happens is subjective, but here's my personal take.

[A Lesson in Lessons]

As the main character, Marinette would understandably get the biggest weight on her shoulders when it comes to being taught lessons. However, the problem comes when she seems to be the only one allowed to do so.

Take Copycat for example; an episode that simply does NOT have its priorities straight.

Now, the subplot that ends with Marinette not apologizing for stealing Adrien's phone isn't important. That's another can of worms that don't belong in this piece, but the point there is that Marinette literally couldn't fully apologize to Adrien without revealing some semblance of information (however vague) and, as all the starving shippers would know, the writers aren't exactly in a hurry to give us paced-out development in that department. Thus, it's irrelevant here.

...Besides, it's just a method to keep Ladybug away from the ceremony long enough for Chat to be possessive anyway.

Anyway, this episode has Ladybug apologizing to Theo for missing the ceremony, which is totally good of her to do. Chat, however, doesn't apologize at all for what he did.

Something you'll notice with the show, especially if you marathon it, is that when Marinette/Ladybug cause an akuma, she ALWAYS tries to make up for it or apologize. She stole Adrien's phone in this episode, certainly, but she didn't cause Adrien to turn into a phone-themed akuma who goes around and steals other people's phones (thus causing him to be the only one who's stolen more phones that Marinette, which would've been the truly impressive thing here).

Yet, when Chat causes an akuma, he doesn't apologize. Sure, he shows a HINT of remorse by noting that he got himself into this mess, but how much does that mean, really? If he's not going to apologize to Theo directly, then how sorry is he?

Not only that, but Chat feels the need to get mad at Ladybug because she didn't show up for the ceremony, despite not knowing why she didn't show up. He doesn't consider that something important or awful might've happened to her. He fixates on the fact that she didn't show up, despite the fact that Copycat is not going after her. He knows that this is his mistake, yet he pushes all the blame on her. He never tells Theo that he and Ladybug aren't in a relationship and Theo goes on believing that they are. Chat doesn't learn from this, or at least doesn't take it fully to heart, and he's the one meant to look sympathetic in the end because they let him have the shot where he's sad about Ladybug implying that he didn't actually love her.

And yes, you could make the argument that Chat didn't have time to apologize because he was about to de-transform, but the writers wrote it that way. They could've cut bits and pieces elsewhere to make room and then have Chat apologize, followed by Ladybug insisting that they talk later on patrol since neither have that much time left in their transformation. Then, they would've talked it out and Chat would've learned to be less possessive in the future, or at least learned not to lie about the relationships he has with others.

But we didn't get that. How distracting is it that Chat lying is never revealed to someone who canonically hates liars?

While we're on the subject of lessons that other characters should learn, I'd also like to talk about Gamer. That episode, much like Copycat, has a lot of problems other than just how it treats Marinette, but we're going to focus on how the episode goes out of its way to make Marinette look worse than Max; something that isn't even necessary for the story it's trying to tell.

Firstly is Marinette's motivation for wanting to be in the tournament. Despite already having a potential reason available (the fact that she plays with her father; he could've suggested that she try out for the tournament, which would’ve stopped the complaint that Marinette’s goals only revolve around Adrien), the writers have her be disinterested in the tournament until Adrien gets involved, already putting her in a bad spot. Not with us, mind you, because we like Marinette, but the scene is framed as if this gaming tournament is extremely serious and professional when it’s a gaming tournament. Aren’t things supposed to be at least a little fun?

Secondly is Max who, just like Chat, never apologizes for what he did, which means the narrative is telling us he did nothing wrong. Even if Max doesn't know he caused an akuma, he still let his emotions get to him when Marinette won fair and square. He even goes after Marinette specifically during his attack, not Adrien. The episode could've honestly just had two lessons in one if both he and Marinette apologized, but again, apparently no one else is allowed to learn lessons.

I'd also like to point out Marinette specifically in the scene where she plays against Max. Now, this episode is already all over the place in terms of character, as Alya mood whiplashes during the ending completely inconsistently, but I want to talk about how the scene is framed.

I already mentioned Marinette’s motivation, but it’s the way Alya scolds her (”representing the school,” really?) and how Marinette cheers in a way that isn’t quite consistent with her character (being excited is in character, but shouting loudly and saying things that seem to be shoving her victory in Max’s face is more Chloe’s style). The scene is framed for you to feel bad for Max and to see Marinette as in the wrong.

Like, okay, I understand that this gaming competition was really important to Max, but Marinette beat him fair and square. It’s not like he got akumatized because he learned that Marinette was in it for Adrien and not the tournament itself.

Max was picked because he was unbeatable, but then Adrien and Marinette beat him. They earned that spot, regardless of their passion towards the game itself. Alya getting on Marinette’s case that “she has to win now and represent the school” is silly when you consider that Marinette just beat Max with little effort and would definitely do her best in the tournament too because why would she not try at all since that would disappoint Adrien?

The writers framed the scene like they would a Chloe scene to teach a lesson about letting your emotions drive your actions, regardless of the feelings of others. Honestly, that's not even a bad lesson, but maybe it would've done better to be learned by someone else in, say, I don't know, Copycat?

There's no reason to frame a scene to make Marinette look like a bad guy just to serve the plot, especially when it’s framed as if she’s Chloe.

Which brings us to...

["Just Like Chloe"]

It's no secret that Marinette/Ladybug causes quite a few akuma, but that certainly doesn't make her a bad person, nor does it make her a comparison to the leading cause of akuma. Point being, I am legitimately clueless as to why the writers continue to compare Marinette to Chloe. If it's meant to be some sort of "Oh, but you see, Marinette hates Chloe, but actually, she's jUST LIKE HER," kind of thing, then it's not clever in the slightest. It does nothing but irritate me and serve to put Marinette down.

Evillustrator is a big example and simultaneously a wasted opportunity of an episode because of it. The episode has Sabrina leaving Chloe AND an interesting akuma who doesn't actually hurt anyone at Marinette's request, but both have to be ignored because plot and both also have to imply that Marinette is "just like Chloe."

Nevermind the fact that this is ridiculous because Marinette doesn't do a SINGLE THING to deserve this treatment. She's doing her job as a superheroine, but no, apparently she deserves to be trashed by Sabrina and Evillustrator.

And of course, all of this could’ve been solved with some very basic explanation. "Sabrina, I'm sorry I can't work on the project but I'm being targeted by an akuma and if you wait literally like five seconds I can prove it because Chat Noir's about to show up." "Hey Evillustrator since you've obeyed literally everything I've done so far I'll agree to finish this whole date with you but also convince you to break your own akuma because akuma are bad and I care about you and also that would be interesting and amazing for a Season 1 episode."

The Sabrina part in particular is so obviously backtracked on so we can go back to the status quo of Sabrina being with Chloe, when that subplot could've been cut completely due to its lack of importance in order to make more room for the main plot.

Heck, you could even throw Rogercop into the mix, with Tom claiming that Marinette is accusing everyone like Chloe's doing to her. Number one, those two things are not even REMOTELY the same; Chloe is aggressively going after ONLY Marinette, insisting that she get to look in Marinette's bag, whereas Marinette only suggested that Chloe look in Sabrina's bag when there was evidence against Sabrina.

Also, regardless of how much evidence is against someone, Marinette is right in that everyone is a suspect (since they don't have complete video evidence to confirm that no one else went near Chloe's bag). She even accepts her bag being searched on the grounds that everyone else's bags get searched too, which is an entirely fair statement if everyone is a suspect.

In addition, Tom continuously tells Marinette to stop without actually doing anything. Marinette crosses a line when she tries to rule out Adrien, but that's after Tom accuses her of behaving like Chloe, and Tom doesn't actually do anything to help the problem. He just stands there as everyone's arguing instead of—for example—talking to Miss Bustier over what the sensible solution to this all is. I'm in full support of Tom being a more developed parent than just "silly dad who's always nice" and actually being more stern with Marinette, but if he's not going to do anything, then there's no reason for Marinette to stop trying to defend herself.

Marinette isn't perfect, but she has reasons and logic to most of the things she does. Yet, episodes twist things around just for the sake of pretending like Marinette being compared to Chloe is some deep thing. Or, a writer sitting down and saying to themself, "oh wouldn't it be crazy if the person who purified akuma actually cAUSED ONE???" without actually realizing that it's been done before. It's pointless. It's not that Marinette should never cause akuma, but most of the time, it's done poorly and leads to other problems, like...

[Out-of-Context]

Let's talk about Antibug real quick. Now, the conflict that turns Chloe into Antibug is that Ladybug doesn't listen to her and calls her a liar (which she is). The narrative then tries to act like the flaw is that Ladybug tries to do everything herself or doesn't listen to others.

In theory, this concept could work, but it doesn't in practice.

Let's go a bit out-of-context and take away the fact that we know Ladybug is Marinette and thus hates Chloe. Let's pretend that Ladybug is just this permanent superheroine who does her job 24/7. With context, yes, Ladybug could very well be acting too strongly based on her feelings towards Chloe, but without that context, nothing she does is actually wrong.

Plus, that's not how the narrative explains it anyway. Chat fixates on the fact that Ladybug didn't listen to Chloe, and Ladybug gives a very believable response that Chloe lied to them and kept putting herself in danger. Chloe has a history of being a dishonest person, and thus Ladybug had no reason to trust her.

It's also weird to see Chloe of all people suddenly acting as if she knows how akuma work and that's how she's certain that the akuma is in Sabrina's brooch. It's clearly just a ploy for Ladybug to not listen and then for Chloe to get mad at her. Ladybug is also right about where akuma are 95% of the time, yet this time is one of the rare exceptions? Why? Because she let her hatred for Chloe get to her and thus didn't even consider that Chloe could be right? That's not how the narrative swings it.

Also, if this is all about how Ladybug "tries to do everything herself," then why did Ladybug say in an interview, right before Antibug shows up, that she and Chat make a great team? Heck, she literally had Chat helping her with Vanisher while she dealt with Chloe. It just makes this idea a disjointed and inconsistent mess.

Ladybug has listened to others before. This isn't new. In Pharoah, an episode that's typically very early on both the English and French order, she immediately takes Alya's word that the akuma is in the Pharoah's necklace. Is she biased because Alya is her best friend? Maybe, but again, that's not the problem that's trying to be addressed. There's simply no ground for this episode to stand on.

And while we're talking about episode orders, isn't it odd to see Chat not even willing to give Ladybug their typical fist bump because of Chloe, when this takes place after Kung Food on both English and French orders, where Adrien was willing to admit Chloe's faults? If the writers wanted to present this as an actual character flaw for Ladybug, then they shouldn't have let that episode air before Antibug; simple as that. Even if some chronological guide gets released at any point, most people still saw Pharoah and Kung Food first, which already paints their view.

Then, there's Volpina; an episode basically confirmed to take place last because of the ending. It's another "Ladybug causes an akuma" story, but it's another out-of-context situation. Again, take away the fact that Marinette is annoyed by Lila's actions and focus on Ladybug being her own person.

Is yelling at Lila still harsh? Maybe, but consider what Lila actually did. Not only did she lie (a fact that Adrien should know as something Ladybug hates; if he doesn't know her well enough to understand that by the end of season 1, then really, how close to her is he?), but she's putting herself in danger by claiming to be friends with Ladybug, and thus a target for Hawkmoth.

All Ladybug did was yell at her for her lies in front of Adrien. She did nothing else. She could've gone on Alya's Ladyblog and ranted about how awful Lila is, or scold Lila in front of a large crowd. Yet, she didn't do that. She ruined Lila's reputation in front of Adrien and no one else.

Then, the narrative consistently throws all the blame onto her. When Ladybug apologizes, she doesn't put in a side-scolding of Lila. She doesn't say, "I'm sorry that I overreacted, but also, you can't just lie about being friends with a superhero like that. You shouldn’t even say you're friends with a superhero! It's very dangerous and I can't approve of that, whether it's true or not."

By having Ladybug apologize, she's taking back what she said about Lila. Without doing anything else, it's trying to tell us that Lila was just in the right this whole time (or at least more right than Ladybug) and has learned nothing because she apparently doesn't need to learn anything.

The narrative's distaste for Ladybug is also clear in the middle of the episode, where Chat gets very friendly with Volpina and doesn't take any of Ladybug's suspicions seriously. He doesn't consider that Volpina is Lila until he's told and flips things onto Ladybug when she points out how unusual all these events are, acting as if her words hold no weight and she’s the one being unusual.

Chat also has no sympathy for Ladybug here in general. Certainly, Adrien had a right to be a little weirded out when Ladybug snapped at Lila, but does he ever consider how she felt being lied about? In addition, when Lila snaps at Ladybug and storms off at the end of the episode, what comfort does Chat try to provide to validate Ladybug's emotions?

No comfort at all.

So, when Ladybug rightly points out that a meteorite, Hawkmoth, and a new superheroine all showing up on the same day is weird, he dismisses it? Oh, sure, he asks if she's alright, but he's completely invalidating everything she says, probably just thinking, "Ah well. Superheroing is weird and anything can happen. Everything's a coincidence, I guess."

Just watching the episode, you can see how the plot bends around Lila's motivations. Adrien's not suspicious at all when Lila mentions that she's friends with Ladybug (referring to the superhero; as Chat, Adrien should've wondered why Ladybug never brought it up to him), nor the fact that she mentions that she was saved by Ladybug immediately before mentioning that she's a superheroine. If she's supposedly a superheroine, why didn't she save herself? Adrien himself is rarely in situations where he's in danger and can't find an escape to transform.

Oh, sure, he vaguely asks if she's actual friends with Ladybug, but then doesn't have any other questions when Lila responds. Even more distractingly, he has no reaction when Lila blatantly insults Ladybug, which is something she wouldn't do if her and Ladybug were actually friends. It's a dead giveaway.

And why doesn't Adrien get upset over it? Wouldn't that be in character for him to defend Ladybug to the very end?

Yes, it absolutely would, but that's not the story the show wanted to tell. It gives Marinette no sympathy whatsoever.

Heck, if you want more proof, even Alya at the very start of the episode doesn't care when Marinette starts freaking out that Lila is hanging out with Adrien. Alya doesn't fact-check Lila's claims (something she SHOULD be doing as a journalist) and then waves Marinette off because all she cares about in the moment is that she's getting views on her Ladyblog. For someone who raves about how good always triumphs over evil, in that moment, Alya was definitely on the wrong side of journalism.

Then, while Tikki is absolutely correct when suggesting that Marinette might be jealous, that doesn't mean that Marinette is wrong for being suspicious of Lila. Marinette has a right to be freaked out by how much attention Lila is suddenly getting, yet Tikki focuses on the fact that Lila is hanging out with Adrien.

And it's not like Tikki has always had a perfect track record with Marinette...

[Tikki, Sage of Inconsistency]

Tikki's role as Marinette's conscious has been... well, complicated. There are episodes like Volpina where she's at least semi-supportive (never telling Marinette not to snap at Lila; something that's odd for that episode but Tikki was also so focused on the book that they might've just forgotten to), but then you have weirder instances like Reflekta where Tikki doesn't want to support Marinette deleting a photo, yet doesn't actually offer any other solution to the problem. What Marinette wanted to do is devious, certainly, but it's morally ambiguous. However, instead of pointing out that Marinette shouldn't presume that the photographer wouldn't retake the picture (he'd probably be determined to get a good shot of Juleka if Marinette explained the situation), Tikki essentially just says, "don't do it," which isn't helpful.

It disrespects Marinette as a character. While we're supposed to have higher expectations of Marinette's decisions as the main character, it doesn't help to scold her when no better solutions are being offered and the actual issue at hand (i.e: her presuming what the photographer would think) isn't being pointed out to her. Her goal is to help Juleka, which is something we can empathize with. If the issue is that the principal might have to pay more to get the photographer back, then... well, who cares? The principal is a tightwad who bends over backward for Chloe and then suspends the school blog in Lady Wifi when Alya threatens to point out how unfair he's being.

A true disappointment to owls everywhere.

Even Tikki's timing isn't that great. In Animan, after the zoo animals have been set free, Marinette gets away to a safe location to transform and Tikki wastes time by getting on Marinette's case for trying to set Alya up on a date with Nino that she didn't want to go on. Is that a valid thing to scold Marinette about? Absolutely (it's one of the few times they grill Marinette for something she actually needed to be scolded about), but an akuma is attacking right now. Tikki even immediately says after that they'll talk about it later, but if that's the case, then why did she bring it up in the first place?

And then, of course, Alya tries to claim higher ground at the end of the episode when it's heavily implied that she told Nino that Marinette likes Adrien, but the episode just brushes it off and Alya doesn't apologize because Marinette is singled out, like usual. Marinette's the one who, nine times out of ten, has to be made to feel bad for anything she does, even if it's not paced properly or was completely justified.

Getting back to Tikki, she isn't very helpful with suggestions in Jackady either. Now, Jackady is already filled with too much other content for the subplot to hold much ground, but it's yet another example of not offering solutions to the issue at hand. Tikki's so old that she's been there for every Ladybug since the very beginning, but when Marinette is miserable about being grounded, all Tikki has to offer is, "you can't blame them and yeah it isn't fair but you'll get to go next week since you're not grounded then."

Tikki doesn't even hug Marinette's cheek like she did in Origins. She's taking a completely neutral stance and trying to reassure Marinette without giving Marinette any actual advice.

For example, in the beginning of the episode, Ladybug's shown saving a helicopter and getting a cat off of a tree when she was supposed to be in school. Now, instead of Tikki offering advice like "you'll have to let other people handle some things so you can maintain trust with your parents," she takes a neutral stance that doesn't offer comfort.

The main reason it's unhelpful is because there's no guarantee that Marinette will be able to stop being absent, and thus stop being grounded. She can't just stop doing heroics when people are in danger, and even if she kept saving helicopters but stopped rescuing cats, it doesn't mean that it'll make her absences go down enough for her parents to trust her.

This episode already has the task of hinting that Gabriel might be Hawkmoth; there's so little room for Marinette's problems. Her issues are pushed to the side in favor of the main plot.

And it could've been interesting! It's a realistic problem for Marinette's character. Maybe she almost reveals herself as Ladybug out of frustration, or maybe Tikki and her have to form a plan so that Marinette only escapes as Ladybug when something crucial is happening (e.g: Tikki watching the news on Marinette's phone and pressing up against Marinette's side when something serious is going on that no one else can handle).

This is the problem when Marinette has an arc that's unrelated to her love life. It's not given the attention it needs. When you think of Jackady, your first thought is probably the Ladrien scene or the Hawkmoth hints. It's easy to believe that everything Marinette does has to revolve around her love life because anything that doesn't is given so little screentime that you'll quickly forget about it (or be salty about forever because it was an interesting set-up and nothing else was done with it; one of the two).

[Being Treated Unfairlynette]

An occasional frustration with the show comes from the fact that the plot tends to go in a certain way to either make Marinette miserable, make her sorry, or just delay development. It's a smaller complaint compared to the other things I've mentioned, but it's still something I'd like to talk about.

For this, I want to use Stormy Weather and Timebreaker as my example.

Starting with Stormy Weather, the ending is clearly just there for a typical "dumb comedy ending," with Manon getting her picture taken with Adrien instead of Marinette. Now, because this is an early episode, of course the writers don't want Marinette interacting so directly with Adrien, but there's no need to shoot down Marinette's hopes. Marinette was a good babysitter in the end, being hesitant to leave Manon twice even when Alya insisted. What did Manon even do to deserve getting her picture taken with Adrien anyway?

In fact, why not have it be that Marinette does get to take pictures with Adrien, but maybe the photographer wants them to act like they're fighting/hate each other? Or, just have Marinette decide to stick to babysitting Manon instead because it's her responsibility? Maybe she goes to Adrien, but the photographer is out of film, yet she's still happy that she got to sit next to Adrien for a moment? They could've done it any number of ways, but the end goal of the episode was just to shoot down the Adrienette moment they'd been building to.

Then, there's Timebreaker. Now, the whole moral of time management and responsibility isn't inherently bad. In fact, it's one of the few episodes where they KIND OF have someone else learn a lesson, but even then, it's only because Ladybug learned a vaguely similar one.

However, I have to ask; why did Nadja come early to get the cake? Marinette was given a time of when Nadja would show up and wasn't told to wait in the bakery in case Nadja showed up early. Why not just have the 30 minutes pass while fighting the akuma? It's completely ridiculous and takes a lot of the blame out of Marinette's hands, yet still blames her with the same amount anyway. All it does is serve to make me frustrated because Marinette would've made it on time to give the cake had Nadja not come early. There's no reason to get on her case for not being present at a time she wasn't supposed to.

More importantly, I'm 100% certain they would've let Marinette off the hook if she'd explained what happened with Timebreaker. A simple "I knew I was supposed to give Nadja your cake but I had another obligation and then an akuma happened which messed everything up" would've easily explained everything! It's as if the show wants to make her look bad by having her say that she was just in her room goofing off when she was doing actually doing something very nice for her friends! It doesn't even ruin the moral about responsibility because Marinette still learned to be more careful about how tightly packed her schedule gets sometimes!

Point being, the show can still have its silly endings and morals without ruining integrity or nuance.

[Doing It Right]

So, after all that, I personally believe that the issues concerning Marinette stem from a lot of deeply-rooted factors in the show.

Not wanting others to learn lessons, not offering solutions or support, pinning blame on Marinette unnecessarily, not having enough nuance to acknowledge that two similar actions do not equal characters being the same, forcing characters out-of-character for the sake of a moral/story, and not understanding an equal sense of morality.

That's not to say that the show has always gotten it wrong though, because there are the occasional episodes that do it right.

The Mime has Marinette stealing Alya's phone, but then she apologizes for it and even pays Alya back in spades with a Ladybug interview.

Kung Food has a small moment where Marinette admits that her riling up of Chloe may have gone a bit far, but no one gets on her case for it because Marinette was still doing a good thing in defending her uncle (which Adrien supported).

The Puppeteer has Marinette giving into Manon, but then she apologizes to Nadja and Nadja understands, even relating to Marinette's issue. Marinette then improves and doesn't fall for Manon's garbage anymore.

Guitar Villain has Marinette conflicted over doing what she wants versus what Jagged's manager wants, but Jagged sees right through it (as he should) and supports Marinette, assuring her that he wants her to be herself and create what she wants.

Princess Fragrance has Marinette acknowledge that it was a mistake to go to school instead of bringing Tikki to a healer (something that she was already regretful about anyway). She apologizes and makes an effort to fix it.

All these episodes, however flawed they might be elsewhere, understood how to treat Marinette and her apologies. They give her something to learn, she learns from it, and then makes up for it. It's all very well done. I would've even mentioned Pixelator if Marinette had been working for some random person rather than Jagged Stone (since Jagged's her favorite yet she doesn't seem that interested in getting him his glasses since her love for Adrien overrides her feelings completely, which isn't very interesting).

I know it's too late to change these episodes. Only the magic of fanfiction can salvage what could've been really interesting ideas. If I could've had a hand in things, I would've told the show to consider the interesting things that are being sacrificed for the sake of a joke or the sake of Marinette's character, and also consider the consequences of what they do when they focus on morals over character interactions.

Consider if it's better to have more akuma like Stormy Weather, where they're technically just a bad/bitter person continuing to be bad instead of being a person “in the right” yet has been wronged. Antibug and Volpina could’ve been this.

Consider if it's better to have a nuanced point of view where Marinette might have some Chloe-esque tendencies that she should improve on, but that it doesn't make her a terrible person.

Consider if it's better to have Sabrina actually develop and distance herself from Chloe (or at least be more wary of her) than to throw her back to square one due to a misunderstanding.

Consider if it's better to have Chat learn just as Ladybug does and be held to the same standard instead of allowing his behavior because he showed a hint of remorse during just one scene.

Consider if it's better to have up good, meaningful character interactions instead of a joke.

And finally, consider if it's better to support your main character in her endeavors, letting her learn and grow without feeling the need to give her flaws that don't actually exist. Consider that the audience may want a touching, meaningful show that has nuance and deep themes, but also isn't afraid to crack a few puns and be silly; a show that lets everyone learn and grow at their own pace.

It's okay to be a light-hearted show that might not want to teach everyone a lesson, but not at the expense of the main character.