#character: ladybug

His pencil makes an angry streak across his chemistry assignment and Nino gives him a curious glance. He’s been out of it all day, and very clearly, but Marinette is sitting right behind him looking exhausted and adorable. He feels about as good as she looks, but the intensity in his mind is keeping him wide awake.

Adrien dutifully erases the line across his page and returns to solving the tough question he had zoned out on. He tries to get back in the zone, but it’s hard because his mind is wandering like crazy and Ladybug is still sitting right behind him. Adrien loudly and unashamedly drops his head to the table, drawing several startled looks.

Nino leans over to poke him, but Chloé cuts him off. “Leave him. He gets like this occasionally.”

“I know,” Nino replies because he is Adrien’s best friend and knows him better than almost anyone. “Usually not during school, though.”

Chloé’s pocket mirror audibly clicks shut. “He had a shoot this morning and is probably just tired.”

He knows Nino wants to disagree with Chloé, but he doesn’t and Adrien is grateful for his childhood friend. She understands his panic because he dealt with a similar panic attack last night. Queen Bee had been far less graceful than she anticipated, but Chat Noir had found it hilarious. Until that is, his own confusion started clearing up and he went crazy himself.

Between Gabriel and Andre’s insistent upper-class events, and the amount of trouble their fathers went through to try and keep them away from akuma attacks, it was only a matter of time before Queen Bee and Chat Noir had picked the same closet to transform. Adrien had found it funny. Chloé had not.

Adrien hadn’t really been surprised by Chloé’s secret identity. After all, she had a distinct personality and it was pretty easy to tie the controlling Queen Bee to the perfection-obsessed Chloé Bourgeois. She had also readily admitted that she had her suspicions about Adrien, but she just hadn’t been able to complete the puzzle. Knowing each other’s identities made slipping away easier, as Chloé was a master of excuses and Adrien’s usually fell flat on their faces.

Queen Bee had predicted that Vixen would slip up next and give something away. Neither of them had been expecting Marinette and Ladybug to both be sporting a new haircut on the same day, or the fact that Marinette showed up to school the next day with a poorly-covered black eye in just the right place for it to have been a coincidence.

Adrien probably wouldn’t have realised it if Chloé hadn’t viciously dragged him into an empty room and practically screamed the truth to his face. The following events had led to Chloé transforming and flying away from the school with Chat Noir hot on her heels. Then they’d both sworn obscenities off the top of a rooftop and Chloé had done a whole lot more ranting.

“Does anyone understand number seven?” Alix asks, her voice heavy with frustration. Adrien raises his hand without lifting his head. There’s shuffle of feet and he finally looks up.

Alix and Kim are both standing over his desk, looking at him expectantly. Adrien spins his half-finished homework towards them, showing them his solution. Alix reads his answer with a furrowed brow, but she nods as she sees his final answer. Kim looks confused still, but he leaves with Alix, pestering her about something or other and she smacks him on the shoulder to get him to shut up.

Adrien tries to get back to doing question twelve, the god awful question from hell, when there’s a timid tap on his shoulder. He turns around so quickly that he nearly gets whiplash and the adorable surprised look on Marinette’s face is worth it. Her hand is still extended and her reflexes are obviously slowed, but she snaps back quickly.

“Could you explain number nine to me?” she asks, her voice soft and gentle.

Adrien wants to shove the chemistry books away and lean across the desks and kiss her. But the eyes of the teacher and Marinette’s best friend are both on him and he’s not quite sure who is scarier. He brings his paper up to Marinette’s desk and runs through the offending question slowly and Marinette nods as he goes along.

A lock of her newly chopped hair slides from behind her ear and she tucks it back quickly, but Adrien has already lost his focus because she’s blinking her big blue eyes at him and she’s so cute. Something sharp pricks his ankle and he flinches. He knows Plagg bit him and he’s mad, but he did need the encouragement. Adrien finishes the question with Marinette before spinning around again and dropping straight to the desk.

From behind him, he hears Alya talking to Marinette. “Did you kill him, girl?”

“I just asked for help on a question,” Marinette answers, sounding bewildered. It’s cute. Adrien swears into the wood of the desk, not loud enough for anyone else to hear.

“He’s distracted and tired,” Nino offers, echoing Chloé’s words, though even he doesn’t sound convinced.

When the bell goes for lunch, Adrien shoots out of his seat, grabbing his bag strap, and practically flees from the classroom. Chloé follows him persistently, cornering him before he can disappear outside. Her fingers wrap around his arm tightly and she drags him in the opposite direction of the door.

“If I’m dealing with this today, you are too,” she hisses. “At least I’m not acting like I’ve been bitten by a poisonous snake named Marinette.”

“You’re better at acting,” Adrien whines in reply, straining against her grip. She doesn’t relent.

Queen Bee is strong and Adrien really doesn’t want to actually get in a fight with Chloé. “You’re the model,” she points out. “How you’ve gone so long without the entirety of Paris knowing your secret is a complete mystery to me.”

Chloé drags him back to the area where most of their class eats lunch and pointedly drops him into the seat next to Nino and sits on his other side, sealing off his escape. Marinette is across from him, talking with Rose and Alya about something that has her hands waving wildly in a gesture that Adrien recognises from Ladybug when she’s running on a lot of adrenaline.

He hates how he still sees them as two people because Marinette is Ladybug, and every gesture they have belongs to both of them. It still feels like too much to handle so soon, but every time he even twitches in the direction away from the table, Chloé’s hand is on his arm in warning.

Adrien suffers through lunch but does entirely too much staring.

It’s not Chloé, but Alya who drags him into a storage closet after the last bell of the day goes. She adjusts her glasses and crosses her arms over her chest. Adrien is suddenly very, very afraid. Alya is Nino’s girlfriend and Marinette’s best friend and they’re friends too and he knows exactly how fiery she is.

“If you hurt her, you deal with me,” Alya says.

Adrien blinks. “Who?” He plays off his panic as confusion, but his mind and heart are racing in time.

“I saw you staring at her all day today. My girl looks adorable in her new haircut, and it’s about time you realised that fact.”

Adrien lifts his hands up quickly, trying to lie his way out. “Alya, I wasn’t staring at Marinette for that reason!”

“But you were staring.”

“It’s more of observing,” he argues. “She just looks different with the short hair. I’m not used to it. Plus she’s not doing a very good job of hiding her black eye.”

Alya’s eyes narrow. “You’re lying, but let’s assume you have a good reason for doing so. Anyways, you’ll treat her right or face my fists, Agreste.”

Adrien blinks at the blogger as she slides out of the closet, her threat left hanging in the air between them. As soon as she’s gone, Adrien kicks a janitor’s bucket and sends it rolling into the wall. He lets off a string of curses in a mix of French, Mandarin, and English.

The door opens seconds later and Nino’s peering in at him in the dark closet from the brightly lit hallway. “Any reason my girlfriend dragged you into a closet?”

Adrien runs a hand through his hair, mustering his most convincing smile. “None that she mentioned.”

Nino shrugs and opens the door wider. They’re all well accustomed to Alya’s strange habits. Adrien steps out and his gaze immediately finds Marinette standing nearby, talking with Chloé and Sabrina. Chloé spots him and Adrien instantly hates the gleam that appears in her eyes.

“Adrien! Just who I was looking for!” Chloé strides over to him, taking him by the arm for the umpteenth time and drags him back towards Marinette.

Red flags raise and sirens start going off in his head as Adrien has a full brain meltdown. Marinette is smiling at him and he can’t even bring himself to get a simple greeting off his tongue. He’s staring at her again, blatantly, and Chloé jerks on his arm to get his attention.

“I was just saying that the chemistry term project is coming up, and I hear it’s a partner project. I’m obviously going to work with Sabrina, but maybe you two,” she looks pointedly from Marinette to Adrien, “should work together.”

Adrien gets a fire extinguisher. He smothers the flaming control panels in his brain and flashes the best smile he can muster. “Sorry, Mari, Chlo, but I already promised Nino that we’d work together.” Before anyone, especially his extra-confused best friend standing nearby, can argue, Adrien makes his escape.

He grabs Nino’s arm as he basically runs away and he feels the burning glare from Chloé on his back as Marinette and Sabrina politely call their farewells. Adrien doesn’t stop dragging Nino until they’re on the front steps of the school. His shoulders hunch and he takes a deep breath, finally straightening his posture.

“Dude, I mean I’d like to work on the project with you, but you hadn’t promised me or anything. Why’d you say no to Mari?” Nino asks.

Adrien shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess I just wanted another excuse to be able to steal you from Alya. We haven’t hung out enough recently.”

Nino laughs. “Well, that’s mostly your fault.”

“I’m not saying it isn’t,” Adrien agrees. He’s thankful for Nino’s nature of not being untrusting or super nosy.

Patrol is painful. Queen Bee gleefully takes Vixen and claims the east half of Paris, awkwardly leaving Adrien with Marinette and the west half of the city. Of course, she’s not Marinette right now, she’s Ladybug, but they’re the same person and Adrien is trying really hard to unsee it, but it just isn’t happening.

They get as far as the Eiffel Tower before Ladybug stops and wraps her yo-yo around his wrist. He freezes and turns to face her. Ladybug doesn’t look too concerned, just a little confused. Behind her red mask, Marinette’s blue eyes glitter curiously. Adrien nearly throws himself off the tower.

“Chat, what’s wrong? You've been acting weird all patrol.”

He lets out a sigh and clips his baton back to his belt. “I'm just, dealing with some stuff.”

Ladybug steps closer to him before taking his hand. She sits down on the edge of the tower and pulls him down after her. Their legs brush together and Adrien feels like he’s on fire. “We’ve got time, if you want to talk about it,” she offers.

He laughs and pulls away from her gentle touch. “Unfortunately, I don't think you can help me with this, My Lady.”

She frowns. “Now I know something is really wrong. Did I do something, chaton?”

“No,” he assures because she didn't. She's just been being Marinette and Ladybug and he’s finally seeing all of her.

It's overwhelming because Ladybug is so beautiful, but in his mind, she had achieved near god-status. For her to be Marinette, to be so close, it seems unreal. Especially since Adrien had only recently discovered Marinette’s crush the size of Jupiter. He'd felt stupid for not seeing it, but Marinette had taken everything in stride, treating him no different than usual.

“You do trust me though, don't you?” she asks softly. She touches his arm again and he doesn't run away this time.

“With my life,” he promises. “This is just something in my real life I'm working on.”

She nods slowly. “Okay.” She leans her head on his shoulder and his arm finds its way around her shoulder.

Lately, their patrols have lost almost all efficiency, especially since Queen Bee and Vixen proved themselves more than capable. Usually, they picked a spot above the city with a good vantage point and just talked. Adrien likes talking to Ladybug. He also likes talking to Marinette but now there's so much he can only say to one side of her and he’s not sure what counts as acceptable in this situation.

“Don't shut me out, Chat,” she says after a moment.

Adrien’s arm tightens on his shoulder. He may not be used to this whole Marinette-Ladybug thing yet, but he’s not losing her now. “Never.”

It's the middle of their English midterm when Adrien’s akuma senses start tingling. His senses had started as a joke between him and Nino when he correctly predicted the arrival of several akuma. Adrien knows it's just his instincts and the leftover energy from his transformations that makes his senses far more alert and puts him on edge.

He shoves his paper forward and barely has time to yell for his classmates to get down before the window closest to the teacher’s desk shatters. His classmates drop, some screaming in surprise. Adrien twists his ring and curses under his breath. He glances around quickly to make sure that everyone has hit the floor, they have, before Chloé catches his eye.

She looks a little worried and Adrien knows they need to find out what kind of akuma they're dealing with. Screams from down below drift through the open window and he flinches. Adrien pokes his head above his desk and checks the surroundings for safety. As he stands, the ground shakes violently and he tumbles backwards, landing right beside Marinette where she is huddled under her desk.

Her hand fists in his t-shirt and pulls him under the cover next to her. They are pressed together for precious seconds and Adrien can hear both of their hearts pounding furiously. Her hand stays pressed into his back and his eyes lock with hers. Tension crackles between them, but they stay perfectly quiet.

When no other tremors pass in a couple seconds, they start to get to their feet, slowly and cautiously. Chloé catches Adrien’s eye and he waves her forth. She grabs Sabrina’s arm and pulls her towards the door.

“Get out of here,” Adrien encourages his classmates. Rose and Juleka follow Chloé quickly and Max, Kim, and Alix go next.

Ivan leads Mylene out and then the classroom is nearly empty. Marinette has disappeared from his side and Adrien wonders if she’s slipped out to transform, but then he sees her crouched over their English teacher. Madame Bustier is lying on the floor and she appears motionless. Adrien feels sick.

He hurries to Marinette’s side and watches her gently cushion their teacher’s head with her arm, putting her in the rescue position. Marinette looks up at Adrien and he’s relieved by the lack of fear in her expression.

“She’s alright, just unconscious. She might have hit her head on something when the window broke but she wasn't cut by any of the broken glass,” Marinette explained.

“We have to go,” Alya says urgently.

Adrien’s head snaps in her direction. Alya and Nino are standing at the door to the classroom. He had thought they left with the rest of the class, but then he realises that Alya would never leave Marinette alone unless she had too. It was the same for Nino and him. While he admired their loyalty, they needed to get to safety so Marinette and he could transform.

“Right,” Marinette agrees.

She takes two steps towards him before another window explodes and the building shakes violently again. Nino and Alya tumble out of the classroom and Marinette and Adrien fall forwards. Adrien grabs Marinette around the waist and crawls quickly under the nearest desk and waits tensely. Alya and Nino hide on either side of the doorway, and Adrien hears the breathing of another person.

A thud on the desk over their heads has Marinette flinching, and Adrien’s arms tense around her. The akuma is in their classroom.

“Shame,” an unknown female voice sneers. “I could have sworn there were still students in here.”

Marinette shakily points out Madame Bustier to Adrien. He sees her, mostly hidden by her own desk, and Adrien prays that the akuma doesn't find their teacher, their friends, or them. Adrien notices that his bag, across the aisle, is twitching and he knows that Plagg is awake. He’s too far away from Adrien for him to transform, but he has no idea if Marinette has her kwami close enough.

“Hey!” a shout calls, snagging the attention of the akuma. Adrien recognises it as Queen Bee and relaxes. Thank god for Chloé. “Looking for someone?”

There’s a snarl and the akuma’s feet spring off of the desk. The last window breaks open and Adrien knows that Chloé has bought them precious time. He hopes Alya will hurry so that Vixen is with Queen Bee so she’s not fighting alone, but he has to get Marinette to the fight. Adrien crawls out from under the desk, pulling Marinette along by the hand.

The entrance to the classroom is mostly destroyed, but there is no longer any sign of Alya or Nino and Adrien hopes they're safe. Still, there's no way out for civilian Marinette and Adrien so one or both of them will need to be transformed.

Marinette is standing at the empty frame of the window, staring outside as Queen Bee clashes with the akuma. A couple seconds pass before Vixen arrives, throwing herself into the fight. Even if they defeat the akuma, Ladybug has to purify it and right now, Marinette is stuck with Adrien. He knows she won't transform in front of him.

“Mari,” he calls. She turns to look at him. He reads fear and uncertainty in her expression and he smiles. “You need to go help them.”

She stares. “What did you just say?”

“Transform,” Adrien insists. Marinette gapes at him. She looks like she’s about to deny it, but he holds up his hand instead. “I already know. Now go, they need you.”

She looks conflicted for only a moment longer before she calls her transformation. In a flash of pink, Marinette is gone and Ladybug is in her place. Somehow, seeing her transform makes everything so much more real and Adrien’s heart races.

Ladybug readies her yo-yo, but glances back at him. “Adrien, stay safe.”

He nods and Ladybug zips away to save the day. He waits a minute after she leaves before calling his own transformation and leaping into battle.

Someone taps on his window and Adrien’s head jerks away from his computer. Ladybug is perched precariously on the sill outside and she's frowning through the glass at him. Adrien jolts up and crosses his room in five steps. He pushes the glass aside and Ladybug slides into his room.

She stands on the carpet, looking everywhere but at him, for almost a minute. Adrien clears his throat and she finally looks at him. Ladybug says nothing, and Adrien knows she’s searching for the right words, but he beats her to the punch.

“I’m guessing this is about yesterday,” he offers as an opener.

This snaps Ladybug out of her stupor, and she lets out a breathy sigh. “Adrien, how did you find out?”

His lips curl into a half-smile. “Lots of little cues, but I think the new hairstyle was the icing on the cake.” Ladybug touches her short hair self-consciously. “I mean,” he continues, “it was pretty easy once I had the major clue. You’re not very good at covering black eyes, Mari.”

“You haven't told anyone?”

“Of course not,” he promises.

“You have to promise me that you won’t tell a soul about this,” she urges.

Adrien laughs. “Mari, I promise I won't tell anyone. Besides, I'm impressed. You’re Ladybug. That's pretty damn cool.”

She smiles a little. “It's not an easy job,” she replies evenly.

Adrien knows exactly what she's talking about. It's tiring all the time, it's physically straining, and an emotional roller coaster too. Still, he wouldn't trade that kind of freedom for anything. He is Chat Noir just as much as Marinette is Ladybug.

“Does anyone else know?” she asks him after a second.

Adrien considers hiding Chloé’s knowledge, but the vulnerable look in Marinette’s eyes won't let him. “Chloé does,” he admits. “And,” he continues, “it probably won't be long before Alya can figure it out.”

Marinette panics. “Chloé? How does Chloé know?” Her voice rises in pitch and Adrien steps towards her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Mar, it's okay.”

“No it's not!” she says, pulling away. “Chloé will ruin me. And if Alya finds out, I am so dead meat.”

“Marinette!” Adrien practically yells. She quiets and looks at him. He laughs a little. “It's okay,” he promises. “If anything, we’re the three people you’d want to know about this.”

“No one should know,” Ladybug fires back.

Adrien steps away, raising his hands in surrender. “We’re your friends.”

“It's my identity we’re talking about!”

“No one will say anything, I promise.”

Ladybug starts pacing the length of the room, her yo-yo swinging from one hand. “Adrien, I'm already screwed. I'm Ladybug and I'm Marinette and if someone else finds out, god forbid if Hawk Moth finds out, then this is all going to go to hell! I promised Chat Noir that we’d never let a civilian find out about our identities. I can't tell him about any of this!”

Adrien snaps. He can't help it.

“Maybe it's time we stopped keeping secrets between us!”

Ladybug freezes. She spins to face him, her whole body tense. She tries to say something, but the words die on her tongue and Adrien watches the shock reel through her eyes. Her chest heaves in surprise and she stares at him.

He wishes he could retract the words and just slam his face into a wall. But, he’s said them, and now he has to live with them. He’s terrified of what Marinette’s reaction will be, because currently, shock is the only thing he can read from her.

“Marinette,” he murmurs gently.

Her reaction is definitely not what he is expecting. Ladybug sprints for the window, throwing herself out of it and swinging off on her yo-yo. Adrien curses and spins around in his room.

“Plagg! Claws out!”

His drowsy kwami is sucked into his ring and the familiar transformation washes over him. He then jumps out his window, extending his staff to propel him, and pursues Marinette.

He catches her on the outskirts of the main city. He launches himself forward and catches her around the waist, dragging them both safely to the nearest roof. Ladybug stumbles away from them as they land, but she doesn't run this time. She stares at him with wide eyes.

“Please,” he begs, “Mari, let me explain.”

She starts shaking and turns away, wrapping her arms around herself. It takes him a second to realise she’s laughing, not crying and he’s confused.

Abruptly she stops laughing and turns back to him. “So you’ve known for how long?”

“Since the haircut,” he admits carefully.

Ladybug pulls at her hair. “Two weeks? You've known for two weeks and you said nothing?”

“You wanted us to keep our identities secret, so I didn't tell you. I thought that would make it better.”

She laughs again, but it sounds sharp and forced. He steps towards her and she steps back. “Oh my god Adrien, do you realise how much I hate myself for not figuring it out? And how the hell does Chloé know?”

“She’s Queen Bee,” he replies bluntly. Ladybug stares. “And Alya is-”

“Vixen,” she finishes. “I admittedly figured Alya’s identity out quickly once the Ladyblog started prying less.” Ladybug shakes her head and starts pacing the length of the roof.

Adrien shifts awkwardly. It's exactly the scene that had just played out in his bedroom. “Marinette, please, talk to me.”

She sighs and throws her hands up. “All this time I was worried. I was worried about protecting you when you would have been just fine and I was so worried about loving Chat Noir because it felt wrong to love Adrien and Chat Noir.”

He brightens. “Wait, say that again?”

She stops and stares at him. “You seriously couldn't tell?” He shakes his head and she groans. “Oh my god, you dumb cat, I was not subtle at all.”

Adrien feels a stupid grin crossing his face. He walks towards her and takes Ladybug’s surprised face in his hands and kisses her. She is still against him for a moment before she kisses him back with equal ferocity.

“Thanks,” he whispers when they break apart.

Ladybug laughs and all but collapses against him, burrowing into his chest as she hugs him. “What is my life?”

“Pretty amazing,” Adrien offers.

She pinches him and he jumps away, startled. She’s laughing at him again and he pouts.

Her laughter dies and she frowns. “This doesn't quite feel real,” she says. “For so long it's been Marinette and Ladybug as two separate people and now I don't have to be both of them separately, and you're Adrien and Chat Noir and I still can't believe this.”

“Claws in,” he says and drops his transformation. He stands before her as Adrien, not Chat Noir, and smiles.

“Spots off,” Ladybug says and a pink flash of light turns her back into Marinette.

Adrien steps towards her, tentatively reaching for her cheek. “Does it feel real now?”

(unrelated to everything by the way but I DEMAND THE ANON WHO MENTIONED “REMARRIED EMPRESS” A WHILE BACK COME FORTH AND ANSWER FOR THEIR CRIMES. IT’S SO GOOD BUT IT’S UNFINISHED AND I’M HOOKED, HOW DARE YOU)

Asks responding to previous posts:

It’s okay! I figured that was what it was but it’s been so loooong.

Ah, wow.

Um, that’s definitely not a part 2; I think that’s more like a four-parter/five-parter or something.

Sorry! No can do!

That’s totally fair!

I think the reason I so quickly agreed with it is like--

I’ve been watching the Inuyasha sequel and it’s not like I don’t think the narrative’s apparent punching bag Moroha (who is fourteen years old) shouldn’t be punished when she does something wrong/sneaky/manipulative, but they punish her as if she’s Miroku (who was eighteen years old).

Basically, I want the punishment to take the age into account, or at least only affect Marinette on a more personal level and not be “Heart Hunter” where they take totally understandable feelings of heartache (remember, it wouldn’t have mattered which miraculous she took because Hawk Moth got the Miracle Box and Fu regardless; even beyond her emotions, I feel like she chose the best option available to her considering which temps she knew the location of) and then punish her for them by memory wiping Fu and taking away all of her temps and giving Hawk Moth the grimoire translation.

Yes!! I really wanted to respond to this one, thank you! (It’s this one and then there was another one talking about Luka and Adrien, then talked to me about how I refer to Luka as “soft” but not in a bad way; I unfortunately don’t remember the whole thing.)

Ahaha, and yeah, I feel you. Anti-salters are a very strange conundrum I still haven’t figured out; like, I get not liking salt, but...

I mean, when I don’t like certain content, I just blacklist it. If I end up seeing it anyway due to cross-tagging or a lack of tagging, then I just blacklist the person themself. You won’t see me going after people for that very reason; I only see what people send/ask me if it’s content I don’t like.

I’m glad you’ve found some peace in this blog! Hopefully it continues to be that way for you in the future!

(and yay, a fellow INTJ!!)

New Asks:

There are female writers? ;P I just assumed they were all locked in a closet until the male ones were like, “okay, pretend to help us here, we need one female writer to claim girl power.”

As for Ladybug all like, “Cute, isn’t she?” I think it was rhetorical (she could also be messing with him but “Glaciator” tells us that she didn’t know he crushed on her so who knows). The writers do this thing where Marinette is all panic-y and occasionally self-conscious as herself, but then as Ladybug, she suddenly gets a bit of an ego. I think it’s meant to be there in order to make Chat Noir look less... idk, “obnoxious” when he starts boosting his own ego; trying to balance the two by giving them both big heads, so to speak.

Honestly, I feel like Adrien needs less screen time. :|

Even when he’s not on-screen, characters are usually talking about him, or you see his face in Marinette’s room/somewhere in Paris. I’m become so jaded by the guy that I don’t even think it’d matter if they remade the series and gave it a “totally good and interesting Adrien.” That’s how badly the show has made him out for me; “Adrien Agreste” the character is just... sigh, I’m so done with him.

And yeah, this whole idea about, “Marinette is [x], we need more AAAAAADRIEN!” comes off really bad, lol, especially when Adrien has very little going for him.

(this ask ends off like there should be a part 2 but there isn’t one in my inbox, so sorry if there’s meant to be something else!)

The exact lyrics according to the wiki:

My wish for a cat who's in love, with our own Ladybug. Is that he'll get what he's always wanted! She doesn't know she loves him, only sees Adrien, But Christmas miracles always happen!

Yeah, especially nowadays, those lines bothers me. Not only does it imply “true selves,” but that it’s Chat who should be getting what he always wanted and Ladybug is the one with a problem.

Like, excuse me?

Probably Stormy Weather, even in the first episode. Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn’t even touch her until they arrived on top of the TV station.

+ With all those effects and shots, it made it feel more action-y than typical episodes.

Marinette, Aurore, Luka, Anarka, Jagged...

basically any name that I haven’t really heard before (”Luka” makes me think of Vocaloid but the Luka there was female), or a name that relates a lot to the character (like “Aurore” for “aurora” since she loves weather things).

dfjbghfkdgfdgnjfdg this anon really like, “I NEED ANSWERS!!!”

It’s as if these characters hit 18 or something and just grow overnight, I swear. I’m hypothetically fine with some more variety in character height (it’s not like the show tries to be realistic, after all), but maybe don’t give us official heights if they’re gonna be this weird/inaccurate.

Especially when they change it just for the sake of a shot anyway. If you watch “Simon Says” when Ladybug and Adrien stand next to each other while looking at the picture of Adrien’s mother, the very next close-up has an obvious difference in their heights from what you just saw.

They’re 3D models!!! This shouldn’t happen!

I... honestly never thought of the “less threatening” thing! Dang!

And yeah, Marinette isn’t helpless or incompetent, but because of the Adrien crush, it makes her that way at times since she’s always falling on him and--

...ugh, actually, yeah, don’t wanna think about those implications. Hard pass.

Gross.

I’m not familiar with that one, though Astruc deletes his tweets all the time (there was one tweet where he confirmed that Luka was poor and it only exists in screenshots now because it didn’t get archived and he deleted it almost like he realized that he was pointing out the blatant classism in the show, oops).

Yeah though, I haven’t seen anything like what you’re describing. Sorry!

It’s okay! Sorry for having you clarify but him choosing and Marinette deciding to never give it back are very different things.

I don’t recall Chat Noir having much purpose in the final fight (in terms of both contributing and actual fighting; I know Cataclysm broke the object to release the akuma but was it needed?) so Marinette might either go cat-less or get a temp. Plagg could also be helpful in his own right because he’s small and blends in with the night, so he could hypothetically sneak up on the bad guy.

Afterwards, there’d need to be a new cat, but Adrien would also have to reconsider his actions and really think about what happened. I could also see Plagg going to Adrien’s house, half to apologize for giving the idea to Adrien that Adrien leave without telling Ladybug, but also half to call him out for giving up without consulting anyone. Adrien is a lot of conflicting things (see Adrien’s passivity compared to Chat Noir’s recklessness) so he’d have to find a middle ground within himself.

Marinette might carry Plagg around in her purse for a while and let Plagg have a say in who he goes to. Plagg might grieve for a bit over not having Adrien around (even if Adrien was flawed, Plagg didn’t ask for any of this so Marinette is doing her best here).

O-oh.

That’s always the rough patch with “endgame ships.”  Once it’s obvious to the audience that they’re endgame, no more effort needs to be put into them.

The other thing too is how Kagami, for example, is friends with Marinette. Even once Adrimi sinks, she’ll presumably stay friends with her. Luka, meanwhile, is Juleka’s brother.

They have lives outside of their love interests. Adrien is so into Ladybug that he doesn’t have that; I mean, Nino is Adrien’s best friend like once in a blue moon.

The entire class is just watching an episode and then calling on raised hands to answer what was wrong with what they just watched.

“Everything?”

“I mean, yes, but I’m sorry, you have to be more specific to get credit.”

I think Aeon herself is fine. It’s mostly just her transformed and that transformed name that I have a problem with (she doesn’t even look uncanny so I don’t get it). I heard there was something wrong with the name “Aeon” but searching the name doesn’t give me anything I would qualify as such so I have no idea. I just wish she was given a little less “I’m programmed to--” (makes her seem less sentient) and more “[anything that doesn’t have to do with pushing the love square]” because I feel like they might’ve done the latter to make her more “likable”? I think fans of anything usually like the “matchmaker” character provided it’s for a ship they like. Also strange that they make her a robot but Max and Markov don’t extensively interact with her, but that’s a nitpick and not a criticism of her character.

...I’m rambling, my bad lol.

(Ohhh, she was supposed to be a mummy? Like, foreshadowing her “dying”?? That went right over my head but I guess that’d be where the name Uncanny Valley came from? No clue.)

Best case scenario is probably the middle or the end of Season 4.

And yeah, it really doesn’t matter to me what they do with the love square. Marinette had gone through too much suffering and the show goes out of its way to show how much stress Marinette is being put under (and also keeping Luka away during episodes like “Gamer 2.0″ even when it makes sense for them to be there, as if trying to make sure Marinette doesn’t have enough moments with him to forget Adrien).

Like, ah, yes, I totally believe that Marinette is in a position where she can make reasonable decisions about her love life while all circles of her life are on fire.

If the Sonic movie of all things can have an interracial couple, there’s no reason why this show can’t, just saying.

And, even with Marinette, she’s white-passing (according to what basically everyone says, I’m really awful about recognizing race so this isn’t my field; I wasn’t aware that Ondine was Asian, for example).

Does Nadja count? Manon’s dark-skinned (I’m still not over the fact that all the kids in this show are dark-skinned; it’s not like it’s a problem from a representation standpoint - though all the kids are also all generically bratty/whiny so there’s that - but the percentages in this show are weird) while Nadja is really light-skinned, meaning either a dark-skinned husband or Manon is adopted.

Though I guess the problem then is that we don’t know, so there’s no established couple there.

Non-Miraculous Asks:

w-who gave you the right to say such things????

Uhhhh, that might be too broad of a question, I’m sorry!

I know this isn’t satisfactory, but I will say that my favorite genre is Fantasy/Romance (it’s why I adore Red Shoes so much; by the way, an anon asked for my opinion on that a while back and I will get to it! I’d need to watch it again to get screenshots) and my least favorite is probably Tragedy/Horror.

I don’t think I’ve watched enough to really be able to say? I’ve kind of been all over but I’ve never fully gone through any of them outside of Miraculous. I’ve seen bits of Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Star VS the Forces of Evil (don’t know if that counts), and I meant to watch Yuki Yuna is a Hero but never got around to it. I saw the entirety of Puella Magi Madoka Magica but you guys know how I feel about that one.

Maybe Cardcaptor Sakura by default then? It was definitely not perfect but I liked some of the character dynamics (I also have a clipcut of it - basically where I go through a series/movie and cut out parts I don’t like so it’s only good stuff - so I’m cheating a little) and the male love interest was a tsundere type that I actually ended up liking, which is really rare.

!!! That sounds sweet~ I know Sailor Moon is popular so I’ll definitely take your word for it on that one.

I would also accept a “reincarnated”/”destined lovers” trope if maybe the ship themselves are the one who set it up in the first place. I have a Lukanette AU, for example, where they basically got together and then prayed to the shrine of the renewal god that they’d “always be together,” which ended up allowing them to reincarnate over and over (as if they set up their own soulmate AU ;P) and continuously find each other.

Though I guess that’s not technically a “meant to be trope,” but still, it’s a form of it but where it was totally consensual on both sides.

Also, I finally thought of a show that ended with the ship I wanted: Gargoyles. I didn’t see the entire series, mind you, but I saw most of it and Goliath and Elisa were just... quality, I adored them.

+ With Beauty and the Beast being my favorite Disney movie, they fit right in with my tastes.

I forget that AangToph (I think the “official” name for the ship is Taang, but don’t quote me on that) exists sometimes, maybe because I’ve never shipped Aang with anyone; I’ve got no problems with the ship though.

Ugh, and this is what I mean when I talk about people who set up these reasons behind people shipping something based on what they saw a few people do. It’s like, “you only ship Adrimi/Lukanette to spite Adrienette!!”

Meanwhile, me having shipped all three at one point and then dropped off the love square.

Also, me shipping Zutara has nothing to do with it being dark/edgy because I’ve never seen it that way (intriguing, sure but dark and edgy? lol) and also avoid dark/edgy ships like the plague.

I still laugh at people who are like, “you can’t ship it because it’s not endgaaaaame!” as if shows can dictate how and why I enjoy something. Like sure, if you want to let a show/movie spoonfeed you how you’re supposed to feel, then by all means, go ahead.

I suppose people may be theoretically happier that way, but it doesn’t make for an analytic mind.

I legitimately thought that “AssClass” must’ve been the actual name for something until it registered with me what it actually meant.

And eh, I guess it depends on the comparison and how accurate the comparison actually is? Like, comparing Puella Magic Madoka Magica to Miraculous... they’re not really close at all, but comparing... idk, Bunnyx to Homura or the concept behind “backfiring wishes”... maybe?

-

(note that the rest of this post is more Puella Magi Madoka Magica salt so you can stop reading here if you’re not interested in that; I’m not sure if this is all the same anon but I don’t mind letting people vent so I let them go off~)

why can’t we just have nice things

I agree, and I give a little eyeroll every time it’s like, “oh, this person had [miraculous]”

+ even just in general, I feel weird about any show that mentions/implies that real world famous people are [x] or [y] in their show. It breaks my immersion; real world locations are one thing but when it’s specific people (unless they’re made up characters like Santa Claus) or games just--break me.

I also don’t know what to think when there aren’t magical boys but you have these magical girls in this frilly outfits/skirts. The demographic is girls so I presume the reason must be like, “you can look pretty and still beat people up” (;P) but having so many magical girl shows without a hint of a magical boy makes me suspicious that it’s for fanservice. Sailor Moon has Tuxedo Mask but I also don’t know what that guy did outside of the meme of him doing nothing so I’ve got no clue.

(edit: I should correct myself that I’m not talking about Sailor Moon specifically; I don’t know magical girls that well, though I do know there are ones clearly intended for fanservice (you could say that for anything, to be fair, but still). It’s just that I see things like super short skirts or very “questionable” shots and I’m just like, “hm”)

Hmmm, good question. I feel like there has to be a lot but I’m also the type who doesn’t watch a lot of TV lol. I’m just familiar with cliches and tropes and such.

The reason I try not to use “ism”s of any kind is mostly because it’s too broad. Like, you know how the English language only has one way of saying, “I love you,” but other languages like Spanish have multiple?

It’s like that, and sometimes I think it’s too easy to throw those words out there. A “small” (possibly completely unintentional/misunderstood) offense is sexism, and then a “large” offense is called the exact same thing. I’d rather go into why something is sexist than just call it that, y’know? The only exception I make is “classism” because I feel like that’s not as... I dunno, divisive?

Anyway, for that same reason, I can’t answer firmly that, “Madoka Magica is sexist.” I will however say that it makes me uncomfortable with how the show makes out the girls being emotional because they’re young and female and then proceeds to make their life a living hell before they’re old enough to properly answer to it (I know that’s the point but that kind of makes it worse?). It doesn’t help with how all the girls have different personalities, so it’s not like you have only “crybaby girls” who are being taken advantage of; it’s basically like... all girls.

Not helped is the fact that their soul gem not only deteriorates naturally, but it can also do so faster if the girl falls into despair, which then turns them into a monster (and I know it’s kind of like an akuma thing, but the fact that it’s only girls is... I dunno, it comes off wrong?). It seems cheap that the soul gem deteriorates no matter what so it constantly needs fed even if the girl is consistently happy.

I would probably opt for the show being centered more around Kyubey being new to this or something - like, magical girls are a new thing - and then have Kyubey being surprised because they presumed that the soul gem would deteriorate naturally since “emotions are powerful but destructive to the person having them,” but then all the girls team up and help each other work out their problems. Maybe the reason magical girls are usually alone isn’t even because of the grief seed (I think that’s what it’s called?) thing not being able to be shared, but because Kyubey intentionally separates magical girls so they can’t do what the main group is doing, but Madoka is so into the idea that, “We shouldn’t have to be alone,” and so she’s constantly pulling all the girls together, which keeps them healthy.

Maybe Homura’s backstory could be that Madoka originally was more sheepish and more afraid to put herself out there, especially since she was a magical girl (who are encouraged to go it alone), which is why their soul gems were both deteriorating; they were friends but kept more of a distance, or maybe they were a team but that’s all they were. Then Madoka gives Homura the last grief seed to save her and that’s what inspires Homura and makes her see Madoka as something more than a teammate, which is why Homura actively tries to save Madoka specifically (which then encourages Madoka to want to keep everyone together as friends).

In the case that Kyubey doesn’t separate them out of concern of fRiEnDsHiP, but for another reason altogether, and then it’s ultimately their own downfall when they allow the girls to hang out and realize that it’s doing a lot of good for them.

“cute and innocent”

That was exactly it. It’s on Kyubey’s trivia section on the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Wiki.

Before the anime's first dark plot twist aired, head writer Gen Urobuchi said on his Twitter account that the "Kyu" in Kyubey's name comes from the English word "cute". This was a lie meant to further mislead fans into thinking that Madoka Magica is an innocent happy show. In a later episode, it was revealed that "Kyubey" is, in fact, short for "incubator".

In my personal opinion, a spoiled plot can’t be “ruined” if it’s a good plot. If you told me that Kagome was trapped in the Modern era for three years and then decided to stay with Inuyasha at the end of Inuyasha, it wouldn’t/shouldn’t decrease the value when I finally see it for myself because it’s good. That’s not to say that everything should just be spoiled right out of the gate, but it’s saying that maybe your plot isn’t good if you have to rely on shock value to make it work??

I FEEL THAT “ASSIGNING IT TO THE WHOLE GENDER” THING SO BAD. It just adds to my “the girls all have varying personalities so it’s not like Kyubey’s only after emotional crybabies or anything” salt.

I have no idea about any of the stuff about the writers so I can’t confirm or deny them. I will very much agree on the target audience thing though, especially with the whole “keeping the dark plot a secret” because really? Who is this for then? Like, the first two and a half episodes are for one demographic and then the others are--???

I dunno. Me personally, I just like feel good stories. I do like some good conflict and drama (for context, Remarried Empress is basically a webtoon that gives you things to feel salty about and then makes its own salt fic as its plot, allowing for endless streams of feels and catharsis, so I’m definitely not against drama), but there are other times where I just want to feel good watching something.

I feel like the show expects the characters to be selfless/perfect and then punishes them even though it’s their writing that’s causing them to act out. I can’t really talking about “out-of-character” but sometimes it’s just obvious where “we did this because we needed a plot/conflict.”

Like, hello? We don’t need the main characters screwing up; why can’t we just have some feel good thing where they take the day for themselves (seriously, imagine a Miraculous episode where Chat Noir actually tells Ladybug to take a couple days for herself, like maybe someone else gets the earrings for a few days as a temp while Marinette gets to breathe; IMAGINE IT). Not everything needs to be high-stakes to be interesting and you need those calmer moments so that the action-packed ones feel more intense.

SAYAKA DESERVES BETTER.

I feel like the magical girl genre as a whole can be way more complex than it’s made out to be. I think people hear the word “magical girl” and think “cute girls in short skirts talk about girl problems and fight evil with the power of friendship and accessories.”

Ugh, just the mention of Rebellion makes me sigh internally.

Congrats on working on your own magical girl story! I hope it goes well for you!

I know it’s not technically a magical girl show, but there was also Totally Spies that Astruc worked on to some degree (I think there was some characters who were based on/a loose reference to the mains from that show but I don’t remember exactly).

The thing about the female characters suffering is that they could make for good lessons on positively directing one’s emotions (like Usagi from Sailor Moon, for example, maybe having a problem with taking her anger out on her friends, but learns that she can save that rage for the bad guys; “Gamer 2.0″ from Miraculous could’ve done that, honestly, by having Ladybug absolutely WRECK all of her gaming opponents in “violent” (cartoon violence obviously) fashion). It’s just a shame that it’s not taken advantage of.

Sayaka??? Selfish???????

*does not compute*

(Also, I wasn’t tired of them, don’t worry! It was a little overwhelming in my inbox but it’s me who’s allowing all the asks to flow in so the blame isn’t on you lol.)

I’m not sure where this obsession came from with, “you have to be selfless and you’re not allowed to use your powers for yourself.” It’s like the world’s going to end if a character leaves to go Self-Care or something. I think what happened is that shows got this idea that promoting only the giving of others is great and it’s not important to take time for yourself (even with “Gamer 2.0,” it was still Marinette playing games with everyone else, and they treated her dedication and seriousness like a bad thing when she literally did not have time to waste and they didn’t give a reason why it was good for her to take a break, only that she should).

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.