I get it! It’s a magical girl show, so we need the magical girl animal familiar to be the mascot characters for the series and a guide or source of power for the heroes. It’s a staple of the genre…but it’s kind of a silly one. But the other shows at least don’t have NINETEEN of them to fill space and give additional powers that aren’t going to be used half the time!

I hate to say it, but the kwamis as a whole seem…kinda pointless in general. 

The kwamis are tools. They are there to empower the heroes and to serve as someone for them to talk to so they’re not just talking to themselves all the time. We don’t see them get arcs or development the way that most characters do (though to be fair, it is Miraculous, and aside from the main characters and a very select few, it’s hard to say anyone really got development). They are there to serve a function, but the function isn’t really explored. Other than one or two incidents, we don’t see them test the limits of the kwamis or how they manage. We also don’t really see how the kwamis feel about the conflict or their respective users or the day-to-day situations. It makes it hard to invest in them.

This leads to a problem. While I have some sadness for their situation when they’re being used by someone like Gabriel, I can’t find it in myself to particularly care about them personally because we barely get anything personal about them and there are so many of them that need to be explored. And I can’t help but feel that a lot of issues in the series would have been avoided if they were just removed altogether.

For Scarlet Lady, screen time as a whole is limited due to the format, so it was expected that the time the kwamis get will also be limited. I expected that. I think a lot of us expected that. So it says something that Zoe was able to give each of them some focus and make them stand out. It says even more that we’re actually able to understand where the basis of the relationship between each of the heroes and kwamis comes from. 

Certainly more than Canon where we have the pairs based on “well you were conveniently there the first time and used them once, so we’re just going to keep this pair” without any consideration or exploration of how these human and kwami pairs function, how they get along, or if they are even compatible. 

Look, I’m all for interesting dynamics and pairing people with opposite personalities. It’s a common trope for a good reason. But if you expect me to buy that the stuck up kwami focused on fame and nobility and appearance is gonna be most compatible with the no-name no-fame scrawny brainy kid, you need to show me why. I don’t need some long drawn out character/relationship arc or an entire episode of them butting heads and eventually learning to work together, I just need something that explains how these two characters with completely misaligned personalities can have even the beginnings of a bond.

In Scarlet Lady at least, we get SOMETHING.

Look at Pegasus!

Kaalki asks Max if he is glorious and famous. He’s not famous yet, no, but to try and appease her, he tells her that he’s created evolving AI, which all of us know is a big deal. Kaalki, as a kwami uninvolved with the world for who knows how long, has absolutely no idea what that is, but it sounds cool, so she accepts him as her user.

This here? It’s not a bond. It’s a trial run. This is a tentative partnership that is just starting to get off the ground.

Then at the end she meets Markov and can actually see Max’s brilliance first hand though she’s sad that Markov can’t see her in turn. THEN Max responds by promising to create a camera that can break the established rule that tech can’t capture images of kwamis and you can see the heart above her head! Max has effectively won Kaalki over! Over the course of one episode shown in eight panels in two comics pages. That’s it! That’s the basis for the relationship and that was all that was needed to show us that yes, these two can be solid partners!

Canon just gave us a joke and a throwaway line. And that seems to have been a common trend with most of the interactions between the temp heroes and the kwamis.

So it says something that even with the limited amount of time that can be given to the interactions between the users and the kwamis in Scarlet Lady, they seem so much more meaningful.

Max endearing himself to Kaalki by matching his pride in his tech to her vanity.

Sass praising Luka as a perfect snake.

Longg’s initial greeting an explanation getting cut off and the resulting anger and eventual forgiveness over it after Kagami apologizes and calls him “kami-sama”, showing a bit of vanity as well.

Roarr’s exuberance and encouraging Juleka.

Barkk similarly supporting and encouraging Mylene, telling her that they are both strong guard, dogs that protect the pack and especially the line “It’ll be okay cuz I’ll be with you the whole time!” Tell me that isn’t the sweetest thing! Then at the end with both of them calling each other a “good dog”! 

Rose and Daizzi sharing their mutual joy of bringing joy to others and actively trying to get to know each other to the point where Marigold has to interrupt them to remind them that this isn’t an adoption (silly girl, it will be soon enough)!

The two artists of the group uniting over their love of art, but Nathaniel accidentally insulting Ziggy by calling his power a downgrade and creating a drawing of them both as an apology and Ziggy eating the drawing in joy!

Lila trying to work out the mechanics of the rooster power.

Alya and Wayzz…just Alya and Wayzz.

Marigold and Chat at points having to STOP them from bonding because this is totally a one time thing, I mean it!

You can see the bonds being formed! You can see that they matter, not just power wise, but also emotionally. These are new friendships being formed! And you can see why each of these kwami/human pairings were not only first chosen, but continued to be used at later points instead of the obvious answer of multi-wielding.

It resolves a lot of the issues I had with the kwamis in Canon while still retaining the same rules, functions, and personalities of the Canon.

It kind of goes to show that the true issue wasn’t necessarily the concept, but the execution. Kwamis CAN work. They CAN be useful and meaningful with their own individual personalities and characterization. They CAN get enough focus to highlight those aspects even with there being NINETEEN of them!

They can be silly without being stupid. They can be naïve without being childish. They can have opinions and feelings that may clash with their users or their Guardian without anyone needing to be “wrong” for it. 

Zoe made the kwamis MATTER again. She made me love the kwamis in a way Canon couldn’t. And she justified them in every way Canon didn’t.

And as this point keeps coming up as I continue to work on the next essay, I’m hoping that throwing it out here and now will allow me to proceed without getting further derailed from the specific character question.