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It's been over a week since my last live notes and opinions post but I'm back again with an episode from season 1, back before we were burned by character regression, poorly written retcons and botched stories that tore the fandom asunder. I decided on this season 1 episode first because I remember liking it way back when and wanted to remember why I had hopes for the show in the first place, plus I remember liking Nathaniel as a character, so yeah.
Miraculous Ladybug Season 1 The Evillustrator - Live Notes and Opinions
Starts with the daydream sequence of Super Nath saving Marinette from Lady WiFi and Stormy Weather. From what I remember people were pointing out that this episode is set before Lady WiFi so it's a continuity error but some platforms put Lady WiFi first so it's not; I've no clue on what the "true episode order" is either by the writers or the fandom but I'm watching these at the order of what episodes I think I can complete in one sitting at the time without quitting half way due to frustration and/or boredom.
Don't know why Nathaniel would depict himself with a butterfly mask outside of the Doylist reason of only needing one design to animate. Any 3D animators out there, how difficult is it to retexture a model in animation, it's made me curious.
Ah, the scene where Mendeleiev tells Nathaniel to go to the principal's office after saying he's failing chemistry in front of all of his peers in the class.
Why did Marinette leave her bag out in the aisle? In my science classes (especially in the lab rooms) we were told to put our bags completely under the desks or put them on the tables at the side of the room to avoid tripping hazards when issued practical work, or to avoid accidents in general. The only reason Marinette left her bag out to be a tripping hazard was to let Chloe see and mock Nathaniel's drawings and push the plot forward.
The mask in the drawings looks nothing like the butterfly mask in the daydream.
Mendeleiev wears red heels, huh, the details you notice when you pause to write your thoughts.
Animation error, Nathaniel runs to the opposite wall instead of out the door.
Hawkmoth monologue only took a few seconds, wow.
Side thought, imagine if the akuma magic engulfed the victim in a cocoon before it splits to reveal the akuma design, really tie it into butterflies, y'know.
The only groups that get revealed are: Alya with Nino and Adrien, the Chloe with Sabrina and Marinette. It's not the end of it since Mendeleiev says "the groups are" at the beginning. Who was Nathaniel paired with, we'll never know.
Just now noticing the equation patterns on her shirt, neat.
Locker scene about who does what work and what's "equal".
Chloe is Sabrina's only friend and with how Marinette questioned it, no wonder Sabrina tried to befriend Marinette through the project in the episode before getting ignored and pushed aside by someone who claims to not be like Chloe but then proceeds to act the way Chloe would.
Library scene. Forgot to mention it earlier but I personally like Evillustrator's design.
Another hint to Ladybug and Chat Noir's identities, how fast they reacted to a secluded incident where few people were present and no one was recording said incident. Ah well, I can suspend my disbelief for a bit, it's the first season after all.
Scene at the hotel. Chloe doesn't pick up on Ladybug's sarcasm, or maybe she ignores it, or maybe it's a joke I'm overthinking.
Ladybug lets her hatred of Chloe seep into her interactions with her in the mask, tells Chat Noir to protect her on her own since he's insistent that they protect her since she's being targeted by a supervillain.
If anyone saw Ladybug enter the bakery's balcony trapdoor, her identity would be questioned, if not exposed.
She chucks her purse on her bed which Tikki was in. How, she transformed back a single second ago, why did Tikki go into the purse when they're already alone in Marinette's room?
That is a lot of missed calls. When did Sabrina and Marinette trade numbers? Must've been off screen.
Evillustrator enters. Asks her to meet for his party at sunset before leaving.
Chloe working on the project before asking... making Chat Noir do it for her.
Chat Noir gets the call to protect Marinette instead seconds later.
Sabrina shows up outside of Marinette's house to work on the project together. Marinette, tell her the akuma is now focused on you but you only have to visit him at night. There's a good few hours before nightfall so invite Sabrina to work on the project now so she doesn't feel used and abandoned by someone she's trying to be friends with. By lying and saying you have "something important to do" you're ignoring her the way Chloe is and pushing her back towards keeping her friendship with Chloe.
Marinette and Chat Noir scene. She's animated to be purely annoyed with him whenever she thinks he's not looking.
Evillustrator is a fairly passive akuma. If this were set in Season 4 or 5 he could've been talked into rejecting his akuma.
Hawkmoth scene implies he can slightly control the bodies of his akumas if he feels like they're not obeying him. Does this ever come up again? It's a shame if this never comes up again.
He can't draw properly in the dark. Makes me wonder why he never made a torch after realising his weakness is the dark. Maybe he's so used to being in the light he's forgotten the lights can be extinguished.
Imagine an AU where if an akuma stays in a person for too long the person keeps a weakened version of their akuma power.
Wonder why Marinette didn't throw the pen to Chat Noir when she had the chance.
Nathaniel sounded so hurt that Marinette was helping Chat Noir.
Chloe has a honeycomb pattern on her mirror.
How am I only just realising Nathaniel is left-handed?
Wonder if he could draw his own version of the miraculous.
Oh poor Nathaniel, the akumatization made him forget his entire birthday.
"I shall rule the world!" I don't think the writers had figured out Gabriel's goals yet.
Chloe's comments about the heroes being useless seems a little out of character since she's such a huge Ladybug fan in the first few seasons.
Marinette isn't surprised Sabrina goes back to Chloe after ignoring her all of the previous day.
Season 1 Marinette has an easier time talking to Adrien than all future seasons.
Final thoughts, I liked this episode, mainly for Nathaniel and Evillustrator. Chat Noir was fun in this episode too and I wish we got more time with him and Chloe. Imagine if he asked about her school life through the project and learned the only friends she has are Sabrina and Adrien as everyone else hates her "for some reason" and Chat Noir asking if she's because of how her actions hurt them before he has to go, leaving Chloe to think about how she treats those around her. Wishful thinking on my part, I know.
On to what I didn't like, Marinette was a jerk to Sabrina, constantly brushing her off and ignoring her when she knew she was trying to make a friend outside of Chloe, who Marinette knows isn't a good friend to her. Outside of the library scene near the beginning, Marinette is never seen working on the project again in the rest of the episode, even Chloe was at least trying to work on the project on screen. At the end when Sabrina goes back to Chloe, it's framed as an "oh, funny Sabrina" instead of Marinette pushing a classmate back into a known toxic friendship by purposefully ignoring all attempts Sabrina made to become her friend. Marinette hates being compared to Chloe this episode even though she ignores Sabrina and lets her do all of the project work, which is what Chloe has done before.
All in all, it's an alright episode with ups and downs which can go either way depending on your mood and how much you don't like certain characters, and by certain characters I mean Marinette.
The French title is "Le Dessinateur", which simply means illustrator. There's no pun in it, as opposed to "Evillustrator".
Hawkmoth
En: Ah! Artists can be so emotional. I love it.
Fr: Ah, les artistes sont tellement sensibles. C'est une cible parfaite !
Ah, artists are so sensitive. It's a perfect target!
Aren't YOU also supposed to be an artist, Gabriel??
Hawkmoth asks his akuma to "draw him [Nathaniel] into our evil web" in English. In French, he says "accomplis mes noirs desseins", which means "carry out my dark plans", and is also a pun. Indeed, the word he uses for plan/intentions here is "dessein", which sounds exactly like the French word for a drawing : un dessin.
Hawkmoth to Nathaniel when akumatising him
En: Are you tired of having your creative spirit crushed? Evillustrator, I'm your friend and a patron of the arts. I'm here to offer you support.
Fr: Cela ne te dérange pas que ton talent ne doit pas reconnu ? Dessinateur, je suis le Papillon. Un grand amateur d'art. Je viens te proposer mon aide.
Doesn't it bother you that your talent isn't recognised? Dessinateur, I am Hawkmoth, a lover of the arts. I come to offer you my help.
Chloé to Miss Bustier, about Marinette
En: Uh, Miss, can't you add her to another group?
Fr: Euh, Madame, vous pourriez mettre "celle-là" dans un autre groupe ?
Miss, couldn't you put "that one" in another group?
Chloé refers to Marinette in a very rude way here.
Alya calls Sabrina and Chloé "that twosome of terror" in English. In French, she says "ces deux pestes là" : "those two pests".
Chloé to Marinette
En: Later.
Fr: À plus, boulet.
Later, boulet.
Here, Chloé once again refers to Marinette as a "boulet" (see The Bubbler for the explanation of the word).
In the library after Evillustrator has left, Ladybug groans at Chat Noir's pun in English but not in French.
Ladybug
En: Sorry, I'm just a little camera shy.
Fr: Désolée, je suis un peu allergique aux selfies.
Sorry, I'm a little allergic to selfies.
Chat Noir to Ladybug
En: So what's the deal? Why are you acting so weird? Come on, you gotta admit that having this girl worship you is pretty awesome.
Fr: Bah quoi, où est le problème ? Pourquoi tu le prends comme ça ? Avoue que c'est plutôt flatteur, non? Cette fille est complètement fan de toi.
So what, where's the problem? Why are you taking it this way? You have to admit it's pretty flattering, isn't it? This girl is a complete fan of you.
Tikki to Marinette when she gets mad about Chloé
En: Well, simmer down. A hot head isnt going to get you anywhere.
Fr: Calme toi Marinette. Ça sert à rien de s'emporter comme ça elle en vaut pas la peine.
Calm down Marinette. There's no use getting carried away like that, she's not worth it.
Yes Tikki drag that girl in the mud.
Chloé - Chat Noir
En: Are you any good at particle physics? - Oh, this cat's got particle physics in the bag.
Fr: Est ce que, par hasard, tu t'y connais en physique ? - Oh, la physique c'est ma matière préférée.
Do you, by chance, know anything about physics? - Oh, physics is my favourite subject.
Adrien is a nerd!! Another thing that's interesting to notice is the fact that the French dub only always says "physics", meanwhile the English dub translates it to "particle physics".
Chat Noir to Marinette
En: Well, that birthday boy date of yours is bad news.
Fr: Je suis ton cavalier pour le bal de ce soir, Princesse.
I'm your escort for tonight's ball, Princess.
The French word he uses to say he's her date is "cavalier", which literally means knight and is rather old fashioned. Basically, he's trying VERY HARD to be a handsome gentleman. He then calls her Princess again when leaving her (he instead says "Little lady" in English at that moment).
As opposed to this cute nickname (Princess), Marinette calls him "ce gros matou" : "this big tomcat". (In English, she just says "this boy".)
Chat Noir - Ladybug
En: Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. - No cat dragged me anywhere, Cat Noir. I flew in all on my own.
Fr: Ah bah tu t'es enfin décidée à venir. - Tu sais bien que j'étais occupée, Chat Noir. J'avais une mission top secrète.
Well you finally decided to come. - You know that I was busy, Chat Noir. I had a top secret mission.
Her top secret mission was actually teaching him how to do his job to get them out of the glass cage.
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Nathanael felt his heart drop when he saw his arm. The white, skin-tight spandex that stretched across it, black stripes zig-zaging their way up his arm. Looking at his other hand yielded the same results.
"No… no way…" he struggled to his feet, his legs heavy like lead, and forced his way out of his bedroom to the bathroom. His reflection in the mirror greeted him with a glimpse of purple skin and a butterfly-shaped domino mask on his face. Nathanael nearly screamed bloody murder. Instead, he ended up throwing up.
His hands shook uncontrollably when he'd recovered. As much as one could, in his situation. He looked up at the mirror once more, and still found himself face-to-face with the Evillustrator. What the hell was going on?
Was this Hawkmoth's payback? To force a transformation upon him, and leave him to deal with the consequences of it?
The drawing that gave me the idea for The Living Nightmare, and now the cover of it. Pose taken from this pose meme.
