#ingrid talks

The strength of Adrien’s character is that he is kind when he abides to his strong moral codes, but they are codes and standards that he abides by and he expects others to do so, as well. he will give the benefit of the doubt to his father for his neglect, assume that he is grieving and working through the loss of Emilie while also trying to ‘keep things ship-shape’ in order to anchor Adrien; he will give Lila the benefit of the doubt and see in her the same sort of attention-seeking that he has got to have been familiar with because he grew up as he did, make no mistake that Adrien is the sort of child who would chase attention with lies in that way until he realised it was hurting more people than it helped; he will accept at some base level that Marinette just hasn’t quite forgiven him for the gum-on-seat incident, and appreciate that she is actively trying (which he can see her doing - it is very Ladybug - it is very attractive, to be able to watch somebody try, like that). 

1) Debatably incorrect. I think the fandom is incorrect in the assumption that the instant somebody says they don’t like you, you have to stop having feelings for them. That’s not how it works. Chat Noir has feelings for Ladybug, and she is not entitled to making him stop having those feelings - nor has she asked him to stop having those feelings. All she’s done is tell him that they’re not going anywhere because she’s interested in someone else, and to please stop calling her Bugaboo. He never goes beyond when Ladybug says No (a good point of comparison here is Felix, who ignores her completely). The worst he does is in Frozer, where he is upset that she does not return his feelings - that episode showed the hints of entitlement-to-her-emotions which did raise red flags for me, but he got over that pretty quickly when she did not budge and he realised it did not matter. There’s also the fact that Ladybug returns a lot of what he does. She flirts back at him. That is a subjective view, obviously, but I think she flirts back at him and that is a part of their partnership, what makes them such a strong team. She does get annoyed when it’s not the right time for it, but then he stops because she identifies it’s a problem and so he quits - you can’t flaw him for not noticing it is a bad time, he is a total idiot. Idk. I think the fandom is right to be fiercely defensive of women’s rights and I agree that yes Ladybug has had a serious conversation with Chat about her emotions regarding him. But you are wrong to say she has had a serious talk with him about her emotions regarding his flirting, and until she does that - and she will not, because I see her flirting back, exchanging puns and pulling his tail and resting her head on his shoulder and so on - I don’t know if I buy that Ladybug is against that sort of thing. Emotions are complicated, “there is someone else” =/= “I don’t want you being open about being interested in me”. Remember that by saying Chat is harassing her we are denying Marinette the agency of being able to tell him where to stick it, and she is 100% totally able to do that. We have SEEN she is totally able to do that. So why doesn’t she? 

2) Factually incorrect. They’re both 14yo. They both make idiotic mistakes sometimes because they’re 14yo. When you’re 14 years old, irresponsible mistakes are kind of, like, second nature, you guys are so vehement and I think it is because you are so young. 14yos get to make mistakes. Literally everybody in the world has been young once, it is a shared universal experience, a reasonable person has been young once so if you are testing what a ‘reasonable person’ would do then it is fine to adjust it to what a ‘reasonable 14yo’ would do, and that just changes your perspective a LOT.