#love rival

Fine, he admitted it.

Red was jealous.

He's been in love with them for— well, he'd known them for years, and only figured out that he felt a little stronger about Jay, Zane, and Cole at the start of the school year, which, considering his normal track record of noticing these things, was a new record.

Of course, acting on said feelings was a little harder said than done. As it, he'd been hopelessly attempting to flirt with them for ages, but none of them seemed to get it. And yes, he could be a little more straight(ha)forward, but in his defence, feelings were difficult, and no, Nya, I can't just tell them, and-

Well, it was complicated, okay. What if they didn't reciprocate his feelings? He was dealing with not one, not two, but three major variables here. If he messed anything up, he'd be make their friendship- the team dynamic- awkward, or worse-

He didn't want to think about 'worse'.

And just as he'd psyched himself up, and was maybe, maybe ready to start being a little more bold with his flirting, see if any of them (or, maybe, just maybe, all three of them) were interested back, suddenly Smith had entered the picture.

He didn't know what to think of Smith.

Well, that was a lie. As his aforementioned admittance stated, he was jealous.

Because Smith knew how to flirt with them. Knew how to turn Jay into a blushing mess instead of just a rambling friend. Knew how to get into the banter of trading pick-up lines with Zane. Knew how to knock Cole off his cool game in a good way. In the little while he'd been here, he'd completely thrown all three into a tizzy.

The worst was that Kai genuinely wanted to like the guy. He did! Smith was nice, he was friendly, he was protective of them- literally everything that could be great about him was!

And Red... Red wasn't that much compared to him, was he. He wasn't as smart, wasn't as strong, wasn't as pretty, wasn't as smooth, wasn't as charming.

Smith walked around like he was the coolest thing since sliced bread and had them hanging off every word. Red went on long-winding tandems on how the mayor was using Garmadon attacks to cover up the existence of trolls that steal your left socks.

Yeah.

Smith was basically the cooler, prettier, smarter, overall better version of Red. And based on how they'd all been practically scrambling over themselves to hang out with him, the others agreed. Red just... wasn't needed anymore in the friend dynamic.

Heck, maybe he should just pass off the role of Red Ninja to Smith too, he'd probably ace that way better than Red ever could.

And through everything- all the casual flirting, friendly hangouts, everything- Smith had been nothing but kind to him. To all of them. And Red repaid that kindness by being jealous and cold back.

Some friend he was.

...

Although...

In the last week or so, things had felt... more personal. He didn't know if he was going crazy or not (all the sleepless nights tossing and turning in bed, brain going a mile a minute over this whole mess, wasn't helping), but it almost felt like Smith was... mocking him?

His flirting had doubled down. He'd gotten... well, bold, and Red just knew the three were falling for it hook, line, and sinker. Why, just yesterday-

// "Awww~ Jay, Baby, you're so cute when you blush like that," Smith said, putting his hand on Jay's cheek and giving it a little pinch. Jay had turtled into his scarf, sputtering, as Smith side-eyed Cole with a soft smirk. "Don't you think so, Cole?"

Cole shrugged, though his eyes were smiling. Next to them, Zane piped up with a cheerful "your heart-rate has elevated by 30%".

Smith looked at him and put a hand on his chest. "Oh? And what about yours?"

Red did his best not to slam his locker shut as he finished grabbing his books. He quietly walked away, but his skin prickled, and he had the oddest feeling Smith was watching him, as if he did that just to rile Red up. //

Which was honestly ridiculous. What could Smith possibly gain from intentionally flirting with Jay, Zane, and Cole in not-just-a-sweet-and-friendly-way, but just to make Red jealous? It would be cruel, underhanded- and it would be using his friends, which was just- no.

It didn't fit with the rest of Smith's character. Unless he was lying, but he seemed to genuine other than a few specific instances, and even then, it was probably just Red being paranoid and selfish.

Right. Yeah. I-It had to be.

Red shook his head to clear his thoughts, heading toward his locker. He'd find Smith later today and talk to him about it. Yeah. Make sure that- even if... if he'd lost before he'd even tried, that at least the others were taken care of. Because if Smith hurt any of them, on purpose or otherwise, well-

He knew a spot behind the diner on Den Street to throw hands.

But if Smith was genuine, and the others genuinely liked him, then... well... then he was happy for them. And he could bottle up his own feelings to sob into a bowl of ice cream later, because at least they were happy.

And if they decided they liked Red (for some reason)- well, he could daydream a little. Jay wasn't the only one who had his head up in the clouds sometimes.

Red turned the corner, and-

…

He froze.

O-Oh. Oh.

Red tried to take a step back, to leave unnoticed, but there was no way his luck would ever be that good. Smith looked over from where he’d just been snogging Cole. “Oh, Kai! Didn’t see you there.”

Red swallowed, tucking his jacket as if he could shield how his heart splintered just a little more. He plastered on a fake grin. "Smith! Cole! Hi. Sorry to, uh, interrupt you two, just wanted to grab my stuff-"

Cole pushed away from the lockers, fixing his headband and staring just a little to the side so they didn't have eye contact. The tips of his ears were darker with a blush. He hummed in greeting, subtly fiddling with his headphones.

"I'll just-" Red unlocked his locker and fumbled for his books at record speed. "Don't mind me, have a great rest of your-"

"Actually," Smith interrupted. "I wanted to chat with you, if that's okay."

Oh. Oh, so they were going to chat now. Okay. Right. Great. "Sure, yeah, totally!"

Damn, Red was actually pretty proud of keeping his voice chipper. Not Zane-chipper, of course (he was pretty sure that was physically impossible), but enough that he didn't sound like he was dreading the conversation.

Cole gave Red a cool little wave- damn he was so cute- before turning to leave. Smith leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek- ouch, no, keep it together, that wasn't on purpose, stay cool- and waved as a flustered Cole put on his headphones and walked away.

"Look," Red started. He took a deep breath; either he got it all out now, or he never would. "I'm happy for you all. Really! I'm- I'm glad they're interested in you, and I'm glad you like them back, and I'm truly happy they- they like you. I-I still gave you a... a good run for your money, though! A-And-" Why was his stupid voice cracking and choking, stop it, you can't appear weak and-

"Pathetic."

"-you better believe if-..."

Red trailed off with a blink. He'd imagined that, right? He'd thought that internally. So why had it sounded like-

He laughed in a short, quiet way. "That's funny, I thought you said-"

Smith tilted his head and smiled. "You're pathetic."

No. No, there was no way Smith just said that. He was hallucinating even though he hadn't touched coffee in ages, too kept up by his own thoughts to need it. Because there was no way that Smith Forge just called him- that he actually just said-

"You know, Kai-" Smith began. "At first, I thought maybe you were just a little dense. Maybe you just hadn't gotten the hint yet, or that you were kidding yourself. Then I realized 'oh FSM, that guy's actually delusional. You genuinely can't see what's directly in front of you."

Red's throat gummed. No way. His feet were rooted to the spot as Smith stepped closer, still smiling like this was just a cheerful chat between to good friends.

"Did you really think-" Smith laughed. "That you ever had a shot even before I came along? They barely tolerate you as a school friend, they’d never want something more."

He clapped a hand on Red's shoulder and the latter flinched, mind reeling, unable to process everything enough to fight back. Not a single sound sang through his broken voice; not a retort, not a comment, not even a sob.

"Face it, Kai. You're a joke. A weak, pathetic, joke. I'm the newer, cooler version of you, and everyone knows it."

It was one thing when it was just in his head. It was another when it was spit, dripping with false kindness and unbothered cheerfulness, directly in his face.

Smith stepped forward and Red finally moved, tripping until his back hit the lockers. Smith didn't seem to care, only grinning a little sharper.

"You got a little crush or three, don’t you, Kai? Well, that’s gonna make this hard to hear. See, I like seeing how flustered I can make those three. They're rather cute, you know. Real precious. Just the sweetest. And you know what I like the most about them?"

He leaned closer, to the point where Red could feel the heat of his breath sting his cheek. Red was almost afraid of the answer, almost- no, that was ridiculous, but-

As he stood there, lungs empty of air, flooded with so many emotions that his vision was tinted at the sides from the overwhelment- in that moment, he was almost afraid of Smith.

He stared at the dark lens of Smith's sunglasses, watching the glint of sharp teeth in a malicious smirk.

"The thing I like most about them is that if they're with me, they're not with you. I'm with them to spite you. Just because you want them, and I get what you want."

Red was dimly aware that he was shaking, slammed with every emotion under the sun at once. The breath he tried to suck in hitched and caught, nearly choking him. His mind was a hurricane of thoughts.

Smith was a threat he couldn't beat.

Smith knew about his crushes and enjoyed watching him suffer.

Smith was faking being his friend.

---

Red was too weak to stand against him.

Red was too easy of a target, had nothing on Smith.

Red wasn't worth being the friend of Smith.

He was unlovable.

His parents didn't care for him. The school didn't care for him.

Why had he ever thought Jay, Zane, and Cole would.

Smith pinched his cheek with another laugh. "But hey, that's just between us, okay? No need to get the others involved. 'Course, that's if they even would believe you. After all, I'm just poor, innocent Smith who Kai seems to hate for no reason. Because you're jealous. Or maybe that's not the right word;

"Because jealous implies you ever had a chance."

Smith suddenly shoved away from Red, adjusting his hair almost lazily. Red was too stunned to cry; he could feel the urge too, but just... didn't. Couldn't.

"Honestly," Smith said, sticking his hands into his pockets. "It's a miracle those three don't hate you. You're so annoyingly persistent. Just give up, Kai. Save them the trouble of having you tell your stubborn face how they really feel about you. Just go home."

He gave a little wave, eyes almost seeming to glow beneath his sunglasses. "Glad we cleared that up. Toodles!"

Red blinked, and the next moment he was gone. The hallway was deserted once more.

But Red didn't cry. He didn't cry as he numbly grabbed his stuff, didn't cry as he walked home one foot in front of the other, didn't cry when he closed the door to his room and drew the curtains. He didn't cry when checked to make sure Nya wasn't home, nor when he weakly shrugged off his jacket. He slipped under the blanket of his bed.

I think in order to organize this post I will be splitting it up as follows.

Why Kagami Works as a Love Rival

Why She is Hated for it

Why Luka Doesn't Work as a Love Rival

Why He is Loved despite it

Final thoughts

So lets get to it

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Why Kagami Works as a Love Rival

Kagami Tsurugi was introduced in the episode Riposte, where she is established as a straightforward, no nonsense fencer that wants to be the best. 

Her introduction is solid, she establishes her base and what the audience is supposed to know about her from the getgo. We also get the impression that Kagami when introduced would be a rival to Adrien, as they are competing in Fencing, which makes for a nice twist when they end up getting along and Kagami begins the task of being a Love rival. She starts off as a foil for Adrien, but then the reveal is she is actually a character foil for Marinette.

What also helps Kagami is that the show is mainly from Marinette’s perspective, so we get to see Kagami as Marinette does, as someone that is competing for Adrien’s affections, cementing the Rival aspect of the Love rival. Kagami clashes with Marinette causing Marinette to in turn be more upfront with her feelings and push harder to try and win over Adrien. This is something a good rival does, pushing Marinette forward and making her have to try. This rival aspect of Kagami’s character give Marinette urgency, which is something that is needed in order to drive Marinette towards a conclusion, whether it is to pursue Adrien or move on. 

Now as a love interest, Kagami establishes her relationship with Adrien in a different way then Marinette. Kagami’s straightforward nature allowed her to tell Adrien how she felt much earlier on, she pushes and asserts herself. This contrasts Marionette’s approach to wooing Adrien, and also has an interesting parallel to how Chat Noir handles his feelings towards Ladybug. Acting as a mirror towards that relationship. While Kagami is not flirtatious like chat noir, she is upfront about her feelings. She puts it out there and is understanding when Adrien isn't ready to respond, much like how chat noir is with ladybug. But the difference being that ladybug and Chat noir’s dynamic has a bit more complexity to it. Regardless, Kagami checks the boxes needed to be a true love rival.

Now the last and most crucial part about Kagami is the character at the core. Cause in the end, we know her and Adrien’s relationship wont be endgame, and interestingly she will be better off afterwards. Ikari Gozen does an excellent job filling in more information about Kagami’s character. In this we get to see that Kagami’s life doesn't revolve around being Adrien’s love interest, she is someone that has her own struggles and wants to find freedom in her own way, be friends with people, but she is awkward. Her development from this and Loveater shows how much she has grown on her own, how she has come to see Marinette as a friend, how she understands that there is more to life than just fencing. She wants to prove she is good enough, and wants to show she is worthy of friendship and love. Those are themes and traits that can be cultivated and grown. Kagami’s greatest appeal is that she can grow beyond her role as a Love rival, and that is why she succeeds.

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Why She is Hated for it

Now despite all of these great qualities Kagami has demonstrated as well as how perfect her character is for such a role, the fandom is mixed about her, some even down right hating her. Interestingly enough, the reasons they dislike Kagami is not because of her character. Especially when you consider the rise in popularity of Marigami. Its because of 3 other factors outside of Kagami’s control. Over-saturation, Writing, and Fandom trends.

Over-saturation seems like an odd choice but it perfectly describes the situation. In season 1, we are introduced to two other female characters that were reoccurring characters AND were romantically interested in Adrien. Chloé bourgeois and Lila Rossi. Now both of them can be considered antagonists, and that is kind of the problem. Two reoccurring female characters already have a thing for Adrien, and both of them are jerks (that being the lightest term I can use). Now we know Adrien would never end up with a bad girl, but that impression starts to stick and make it seem like a pattern. That Adrien only attracts bad people (excluding Marinette). By season 2, when Kagami was introduced, it just seemed to the fans like, “Oh great, ANOTHER one”. Despite Kagami being a good character, and someone that actually cares about Adrien outside of the shallow aspects that Lila and Chloé were invested in, fans were ready to write her off and, with how the show was written, you couldn't really blame them at the time. 

The second is a bit more obvious, the shows writing. The largest offender being Frozer and Oni-chan. While Oni-chan was salted on by fans a bit excessively, I have no real defense for Frozer, Frozer was an awful episode and everyone involved should feel bad. Kagami suffers like many ML characters do from poor writing, now this doesn't destroy her character like many would like you to believe, but she gets portrayed in a more negative light when the intentions are not meant for it. Its a bit harder to explain, but just know poor writing and assume Zag interference was what caused issues.

The Last one is something that is a bit more controversial, Fandom trends. Now in season 2, fans really, REALLY, did not like Kagami. The first two reasons having a large impact on that, but what really made it hard for Kagami, was the fandom itself. Since she was introduced first, certain lovesquare shippers LOATHED her appearance, HOW DARE she jump in and disrupt the love square! There are more words that were used, most of which are very degrading towards women and I would not want to repeat. Kagami took the brunt of the fandom backlash, the one that ‘Ruined the Lovesquare’. And when season 3, or as I call it, the season of Salt, fans really hit her hard with hatred, the Adrigami fandom took a lot of salt from toxic stans, some of which didn't like adrigami because they hated Adrien and didn't want him to be happy. It is gross to think about and its tragic that she is hit hard by hatred simply for things outside of her control.

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Why Luka Doesn't Work as a Love Rival

Luka is the alternate love interest of Marinette and was introduced in Captain Hardrock. He is Juleka’s older brother and is a guitarist.

His introduction is not terrible, but it is not as strong compared to other characters, but I do believe it sets the mood for what he is as a character. His character is the friend’s nice older brother musician, thats kind of it. It sounds like I am being mean but that sums up his character. He isn't really a foil to Adrien or Marinette in anyway, there is no shocking twists or clever parallels to be made, its just Luka. Simply put, Luka doesn't work as a Love rival.

Luka isn't a rival character. He isn't competing with Adrien, he doesn't clash with Adrien in anyway that would help him develop. Adrien and Luka get along fine, there is not a single bit of tension or conflict between them. This isn't a good thing when they are suppose to be competing for the same girl. I already hear what you are thinking, ‘But Adrien likes Ladybug.’ you're right, why isn't Luka interested in Ladybug then? Why is there no clash with chat noir? The point of a Love rival is to push another character towards something, to be a measuring stick. Luka doesn't do that for Adrien, and that is why the rival aspect fails for Luka.

The next course would be the love interest part. Surely Luka is someone that works well as an alternate love interest for Marinette? You are somewhat right, he does work better as a love interest for Marinette rather than a rival for Adrien. But that doesn't make him a good love interest for her. In my take on Love rivals, there needs to be three criteria met to be an effective love rival/love interest, an unequal development of both character, a differing connection that the two share, and a character underneath that can exist outside of the relationship. Luka fails to meet 2 of these criteria. The unequal development of both of them, Marinette has shown some development from her interactions with Luka but the reverse is not provable, we have yet to see Luka really change because of his relationship with Marinette, we don't know how much Marinette has helped/hindered Luka with his struggles, the best argument I could think of was that Marinette helped him be more bold in silencer, but really that sort of falls flat because he has shown bold actions outside of that. Captain hard rock said that he wasn't really good at expressing himself with words, but he shows pretty capable of doing so with people outside of Marinette, like his sister, or expressing anger to Bob Roth, so I don't really see how that works. The other criteria he fails to meet is having a character should the relationship end, Luka’s relevance is tied to him being the other guy for Marinette to choose, we as a viewer have no concrete reason as of yet to see him grow or change after the split. It doesn't help that Luka has even encouraged Marinette to go after Adrien on multiple occasions. People say thats because he is truly selfless and ‘Because he cares’ but really it just shows how little interest he has in trying to win her over, it almost comes off as insulting to Marinette. The only thing that Luka managed to pass was by having a different dynamic with Marinette than Adrien had with her. But that dynamic is shoulder to cry on. I guess that explains why salt fics really try to make Luka into Adrien.

Luka’s character in itself isn't awful, he isn't a bad person or anything of the sort. He is inoffensive and thats the problem. A love rival is suppose to be a point of tension, one that pushes, one that causes development, a force that at its core is meant to help the characters grow, and Luka just isn't the character to do that. He isn't a love rival, or a love interest. Luka is a wall, a wall put in between the two main leads in order to cause a divide without causing tension.

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Why He is Loved despite it

Luka isn't a love rival, and yet despite it he is one of the more popular characters in the fandom. It was something so mind boggling to me, what did this character have that made him so well liked in the fandom? Why wasn't he as hated as Kagami was during her introduction? I found myself coming up with three reasons why this was the case. Luka was so loved because of Necessity, writing and Salt.

 Much Like Kagami suffered from Over-saturation, Luka had the Opposite problem. Marinette’s other love interests all ended up losing interest by the end of the episodes they were in. Nino, Nathaniel, Theo (though it was for ladybug). All of them just got paired off with someone else shortly after. Marinette didn't have another person outside of Adrien that was potentially going for her attention. This necessity allowed for Luka to slip in and fill the gap. The fandom saw him show up and were excited! With Kagami *ruining* the lovesquare, they needed someone for Marinette to help mend her should kagami ‘Win’, and Luka won by default. So Luka was the one the screeching fandom saw as there answer.

The next key that helped Luka was the writing of the show. The problem with the writing in the show is that often the writing will clash and hurt the strong characters of the show. Luka, as someone that does not have any strong defining features is flexible and easy to write for the writers. It makes it easy for him to be written in a way that wont infuriate people because of bad writing. He is able to coast by without having his character be in jeopardy. In a way, he has nothing to lose.

The last factor is of course salt. Now in fandoms, salt is used as a means of criticism or used to describe problems with characters. Luka is someone that people don't really have a problem with, which during the season of salt, made him perfect for all those fics where they needed someone to be on Marinette’s side because Adrien was ‘the devil’ or Lila was an extra mean jerk. Luka didn't have any problems that were agitated by salt, so he was the perfect replacement for Adrien when the writer wanted to hate on the blonde. Luka was the substitute, he was the easy fix that took little effort to include. He was a nice older brother that already liked Marinette, perfect fix for any situation. Its rare to see Luka written in a negative light without his character being warped so far that he is a completely different character.

Luka is loved not because of the things he is, but simply because of the things he is not. He is used more as a means to an end rather than as a character. In the writing, he is more of a wall, while in the fandom he is more of a stand-in. At the end of the day, I don't know what is more tragic.

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Final Thoughts

Kagami and Luka are characters that were introduced in order to spice things up and add development for the main characters. I find that in some ways they do achieve that goal, but in other ways they fail. One of them embodies the spirit of a Love rival while the other embodies the love obstacle. Regardless of this analysis, your thoughts on Kagami and Luka are your own and you can love and appreciate them as you see fit.

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