#source: koshofthevorlons

Something I’ve noticed in several fics is Marinette as Ladybug gets chewed out for not fully trusting Chat Noir -- usually with the reframe that she needs to be more willing to trust Chat more and work on her control issues. All of which seems to ignore the elephant in the room. Marinette has been repeatedly shown over and over that she cannot afford to trust the people around her. That if she trusts them, they will let her down.

Bustier ignored years of bullying taking place in her classroom. In Zombizou, her focus is on how Marinette needs to be the better person. For Chloé, a person who has literally spent years bullying Marinette to point that before the series started, she had no actual friends. Which leads us the next issue. Alya is apparently the first person in class willing to stand up for Marinette. For years the rest of her class simply stood-by while Chloé bullied Marinette.  Given their teacher was not doing anything and how Chloé would threaten people with her father, it is understandable. Yet the lessson that would have taught Marinette is that she needs to stand on her own.

But what about Tom and Sabine? They do love their daughter but this does not mean they are particularly good parents. In Gamer they ignore Marinette’s frustration and discomfort, while in Simon Says, they do not bother to actually talk to Marinette in a attempt to figure out what is going on, instead they just ground her.  In Ladybug, Tom acts like he believes Marinette is guilty and Sabine meanwhile is sympathetic toward Lila, the girl who nearly got her daughter expelled. Something which would go on her permanent record and could potentially damage Marinette’s chances of getting into a good university. Then there is Animaestro where they first act like they except her to failure and then set her up to do so by overloading her tray with cookies. Nor can Marinette expect their support. Despite being bullied for years in Bustier’s class, neither Tom nor Sabine seem to have done anything to fix the situation.

Then there’s Chat Noir. Marinette should be able to trust him ...except that multiple episodes have repeatedly shown that no, Chat will either screw-up, play around, or have a hissy fit in the middle of battle. Even after the events of Reflekdoll where Chat talks about how he finally understands why Ladybug is so serious and the pressure she faces, we get Gamer 2.0 and Oblivio. Gamer 2.0 has Chat once again sacrifice himself for no good reason, leaving Ladybug to fix things whereas Oblivio shows him slacking off in the middle of battle so he can drool over Ladybug. Nor can Marinette trust him to stop hitting on her when she asks him to as Ladybug. 

What if Adrien had the Hollywood version of a dissociative identity disorder?It gives Gabriel and Emile somewhat sympathetic reasons for cloister him away for most of his childhood.

Perhaps it is due to Emile’s use of her miraculous while pregnant or a consequence of trying to live up to his parents’ expectations as a child. Whatever the reason, by the time Adrien is 14 years old, he has grown used to living as one of two people in a single body. Then he finds himself with a silver ring and now must deal with a third personality in the mix even as he navigates public school. 

There is a personality that is pretty much the canon version of Adrien. He’s crushing on Ladybug and views Marinette as his “very good friend.” Chloe is still his childhood friend and Nino his first new friend in class.

Then there is his second personality which is basically pv!Felix. Whereas Adrien works as a model, he’s focused on being Gabriel’s heir. He’s also interested in Marinette. Originally it is as a potential asset: she is an up-and-coming fashion designer with oblivious potential. Then as he gets to know her, he finds himself getting more then a bit fond of the girl.

Last is Chat Noir. Created by a mixture of Plagg’s influence and repressed elements of the first two personalities. Chat is pretty much a mixture of his canon self with bits and pieces of fanon chat. Due to being a mixture of the first two personalities, he’s trying to handle having feelings for both Marinette and Ladybug.

Adrien is a complicated character. He’s one who I will admit I have strongly mixed feelings on. He possesses more than a tinge of being a Gary Stu – especially given how Astruc views him as ‘perfect.’ He’s famous, an accomplished fencer, good at the piano, can speak multiple languages, skilled at sports, and more. Everyone in-universe either likes him, or in the case of Felix, is jealous of him. Despite supposedly being heavily sheltered and naive about how the world works, he delivers moral lessons to the protagonist. The background narrative goes out of its way to consistently try to make viewers feel sorry for him and excuse any mistakes he makes.

The series ignores his faults. Going as far as to have the writers’ tweets make it sound as if Chat Noir is an alternate character when they talk about Chat’s flaws. Paradoxically this very writing has created a potentially interesting character via Adrien’s character faults versus his actual good traits. When the narrative is not focused on it, his best traits shine through both as Adrien and Chat. From a character growth standpoint, Adrien has an immense amount of potential as character.

As Adrien, he is a rich white boy who has grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth. He has never wanted for anything at least in the material sense. Money issues have never been an issue for the Agreste family. Until his mother disappeared, he had happy childhood with a loving family. He’s already rich and famous despite still being a teen. Adrien is consistently popular with his fellow teens whenever he interacts with them be it in school, on the job, or at fencing class. He is a bright young man – and he knows it too. His good grades are a requirement for him to be able to get out of the house.

All in all, it seems like a bright life. Except his childhood is spent in a golden cage. A comfortable cage but a cage none the less. He was homeschooled until he finally managed to go to school at the start of the series. Even before Emilie’s disappearance, his social environment was unhealthy. His only interaction with other children was either through his modeling career, fans, fencing class, or the children of his parent’s social peers. Given his general attitude as Chat, his academic achievements are likely the result of his parents expecting a 100% success from their son. Like Chloé, the only real adult authority figures in his life seems to be parents. Adrien might respect Nathalie, but he doesn’t really treat her as an authority figure. Adrien’s fate would have likely followed that of many child stars if things had continued.

Despite this he’s happy and content. Then his mother disappears, and everything goes to hell. Gabriel withdraws into himself, either becoming emotionally abusive or it being more overt. Adrien is forcibly confronted by the prison-like nature of his environment. Cue the events at the start of the series with Adrien trying to get out of it.

Now why is all this rambling important? It lays the groundwork for explaining Adrien’s potential character: warts, sugar, and all. First off, as both Adrien and more noticeably Chat Noir, he possesses serious entitlement issues. It is most obvious in how he treats Ladybug, but it shows in his civilian life as well. He treats his feelings and wants as more important than other people: an example being how he acts when the class is celebrating when Chloé, a girl who had spent literal years tormenting her classmates, is seemly leaving. He also seems to possess either a superiority/inferiority complex or control issues due to his shitty home environment which every so often makes him act like he is better or knows more than other characters. An example of this Reflecdoll and how he tries to mansplaining how Ladybug’s powers works to her – once again forcing Marinette to carry his ass while also doing the duties of Lady Noire.

Most negatively is how his sense of entitlement has led him to harassing Ladybug. And it is harassment: Marinette has asked him repeatedly over multiple episodes to stop and told him she is not interested in him as Chat Noir. She has shown she is not comfortable when he tries to act romantic. There is a clear difference in how she acts when uncomfortable with his actions versus when the two acts as friends. Some people excuse Adrien’s behavior as him not knowing better, but I personally have a hard time not seeing him getting at least some anti-harassment training given his gig as a model. Plus, given the difference between how he acts as Chat versus Adrien suggests he has at least some clue he would face blow-back acting like he does.

Yet, it cannot be forgotten why Adrien was chosen to be Chat Noir in the first place. When pushes comes to shove, Adrien barring Syren has repeatedly shown his heart is in the right place. In Ladybug despite how uncomfortable it made him; Adrien made a deal with Lila to help Marinette. There are scenes of him helping former akuma victims in the background of episodes. When given a opportunity to discover Ladybug’s identity in the Miracle Queen, he instead did the right thing.

We have all seen fanfics which gets rid of characters the author does not like by turning them into mustache twirling villains. I suspect everyone has enjoyed a few of them. I know I have. A well written story can cover any number of sins.

It is understandable. We all have characters we despise. Characters we feel are trash when compared to other characters or who get in the way of writing the plot. However, I feel that character bashing has to a degree become a lazy way to get unliked characters out of a story. This is especially noticeable in stories where main character simply continues on, apparently unaffected by how trusted friends and family members suddenly had an onset of ‘Ron the Death Eater’ syndrome.

If the protagonist has been betrayed by the people around them, they should have trust or confidence problems. They frankly should be a mess of issues from what’s happened, constantly second guessing themselves or the people around them, until they can get their feet beneath them. Instead, most fanfics handwave those problems away and we almost immediately get the main character making connections with near strangers or characters they have barely interacted with before in canon.

Early S3 idea where Adrien learns why you need to read the fine print before handling magical artifacts ...and to be careful about making wishes.

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Setting the groundwork

It begins when Lila decides to make her lies about traveling across the world look more convincing by showing up to class with a box of items she claims are from her travels.

Among the items is a monkey’s paw Lila originally bought it in some hole-in-the-wall store years before. As far as she is concerned, all the myths about wishes being granted by a monkey’s paws are complete nonsense. After all, it never granted her wish. Lila wished for her lies to become true, but it never happened. She never noticed how people suddenly became more willing to believe her. Admittedly this might because she was focused on how no matter where she went, there was always someone in a position of influence who would call her out on lying. Such is the nature of the monkey’s paw. For every wish there is a cost that must be paid.

Nor did Lila know was the magic of such items relies on the magical strength of the wisher. For most of the class, the monkey paw is nothing more than an interesting if gross souvenir from Lila’s travels. In the hands of Adrien, the wielder of the miraculous embodying destruction and bad luck? Even an offhand wish is enough to warp the very world around him.

None of this might not have mattered except an Akuma attack happens at the school during Lila’s presentation. In the chaos, Adrien stuffs the monkey’s paw into his bag to keep it from getting damaged before running off to transform into Chat Noir. By the time the fight is over, Adrien has forgotten that he has the monkey’s paw. It is not until he checks his bag later that night, while Plagg is busy stuffing himself with camembert, that Adrien discovers he never gave it back to Lila. At which point, Adrien who once again had found himself eating dinner alone, makes an offhand remark how he wishes his wishes could come true while holding onto it.

Luckily, being the wielder of the black cat miraculous means Adrien is protected to a degree from the karmic misfortune generated by the monkey paw. Unfortunately, his wish is rather open-ended, and boy does Adrien have various wishes he has made over the years for the monkey’s paw to pick and choose from. He wants his parents love. He wants his father to be proud of him. He wants Ladybug to be part of his family one day. He wants Ladybug to love him. When he was younger, he wished for a younger sibling. He wants freedom from the responsibilities that come from being Adrien Agreste, the son of Gabriel Agreste…

Wishes which are easy twisted, especially when powered by the black cat miraculous.

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Idea

When Adrien wakes up the next day, the very first thing he notices is a feeling of vertigo followed by the sense being in a familiar yet unfamiliar room. After talking with a worried Plagg, he gets a general rundown of what happened. The monkey paw granted whatever his wish was and altered the world to do so, but his miraculous protected him from being overwritten by the wish which is why his memories of new reality are hazy. Making matters worse, the monkey’s paw seems to be gone.

Before Adrien can panic too much, he hears screaming from his little sister’s room. Something that shocks him -- he has a little sister?! He is even more shocked to discover Tikki floating around a panicking twelve-year-old Marinette. Cue Adrien bluescreening from the knowledge that Ladybug was Marinette. Marinette who is now his little sister. The little sister who he has hazy memories of watching grow up and in another reality, he was crushing hard on. Adrien is so busy shoving that uncomfortable factoid into his mental pile of things the does not think about, like how he’s pretty sure his father/Gabriel is sleeping with Nathalie, that he ends straight up spilling the beans: both that he is Chat Noir and that he well …might sorta be somewhat, to a really minor degree, responsible for what’s happened.

Cue Marinette bluescreening as she deals with those two bombs. Eventually she recovers enough (and stops looking like she is either going to have a breakdown or is planning on jumping across the bed to murder him), for the two talk about their situation.

Their new memories are somewhat hazy but between the two of them, they put together the basic facts of their new life. Not everything has changed. Their first names are the same. Adrien is still a model and remembers taking fencing lessons. Marinette is still interested in being a fashion designer. However, they are now the children of a man named Felix Agreste who is apparently Gabriel’s brother. Shocking Adrien who has no memory having an uncle. Marinette might have said something, but she is too busy being shocked about their mother being an unknown sister of Sabine named Bridgette. Nor are their parents the only new family members they remember. Looking at the family pictures, brings up memories of two new cousins. Their oldest cousin, who was born the same day as Adrien, is Allegra Agreste, the daughter of Gabriel and Emile. Meanwhile, Tom and Sabine in this reality have had a boy named Claude Dupain Cheng – who Marinette is rather salty to note has her old birthday from when she was Marinette Dupain Cheng. She it must be noted is less then pleased about being de-aged.

Another major change is the the situation in Paris. Hawkmoth has only recently appeared, and it is the Jade Turtle alongside two unknown teenagers wielding the fox and snake miraculous who are the Heroes of Paris. Some quick checking reveals neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir seem publicly known. Which raises all sorts of questions given how that means there shouldn’t be anyone able to heal and repair the damage caused by akuma.

Understandably relations between Adrien and Marinette are …complicated to say the least. Despite this, both can agree they want to fix the situation. Especially before either Felix or Bridgette return home that night. Unfortunately, their first attempt leads to Chat Noir encounter the new heroes when they find him breaking into Lila’s apartment. That introduction is further soured by how easy Chat Noir handles them even as he fires off puns – say what you will but Adrien has experience fighting against a Hawkmoth who does not need to worry about collateral damage and about two years more experience of fighting on top of that. Matters are further made worse by the appearance of an akuma and Marinette showing up as Ladybug to repair the damage. To cap off the night, Lila did not have the monkey’s paw.

Now Adrien and Marinette must avoid both the heroes and Hawkmoth, while juggling their new lives and new family even as they attempt to figure out a way to return back to their original reality without erasing Bridgette, Felix, Allegra, or Claude.

Given Sailor Moon was released back during the early 90s and the ...issues the American dubbing had, a whole lot of fanon has sprung up about the series. Some of it is good and some of it is incredibly bad -- though this most often shows up in crossovers. Years ago, I made up a list of some of the most common misconceptions which I stumbled over and figured it might worth posting here.

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Crystal Tokyo

The Senshi going out of their way to make sure Crystal Tokyo will come about.

People in the 30th century are obeying Usagi because the alternatives are freezing to death or being exiled into the far reaches of space. The only people “exiled” where criminals, such as the mass murderer who eventually became Wiseman/Death Phantom.

Usagi using mind control to set herself up as Queen of the World. Both sides in the future state she was elected to her position in the future of Crystal Tokyo by the population of the world. Which yes, is unrealistic but it is shojou manga and it is worth considering what Usagi brings to the position: she’s a neigh immortal God-queen who freely gave people millennia long lifespans, access to ancient lunarian supertech, and the knowledge that when the local eldritch abomination appeared, she would be there to kick its butt. Her extremely positive reputation with various galactic powers was merely the cherry on top of all that.

Utopian and dystopia Crystal Tokyo. There is still crime in Crystal Tokyo and people are still capable of being petty and selfish creatures. It's a better world but it isn't perfect. Some of the few examples shown people outside the future versions of the cast in Crystal Tokyo are kids who bullied Chibi-Usa and snobby politicians.

Usagi/Neo-Queen Serenity

Power hungry Usagi. Her stated dream at the start of the series is being a bride and house-wife. She constantly goes on about people’s right to make their own decisions and at the end of the Dark Kingdom arc in the manga, turns down the chance to crown herself.

Usagi being an force of stasis. At the end of the series, Usagi flat-out states the need for there to be change and growth in the universe, no matter how painful that it might be at times. That at times fighting was necessary for a better future. Of how the end of a war would lead to hope for the future and how it was all part of a balance.

Usagi as some type of valley-girl or crybaby post-series. Please, give the girl some credit. She beat back several demonic invasions, saved the world several times and managed to redeem an enemy that had supposedly wiped out all life in the galaxy/universe depending on whether you're using the manga or anime. Not to mention several times going to what was certain death for her, but doing so anyway. Hell in the manga, Usagi is shown through the series growing into a highly charismatic leader and skilled fighter. And even in the anime, she is shown growing at least some.

Usagi as some insensitive clod who's incapable of being charismatic. One of Usagi's strongest traits in both the manga and anime is her incredibly sensitive to people's feeling and ability to sway people’s hearts. This is the same girl who would eventually be elected by the world's population to lead them into a new future and had such a force of presence that she managed to redeem an enemy that had supposedly wiped out all life in the galaxy/universe.

The spamming of the Ginzuishou in a anime inspired story. Manga's understandable since it had no consequences. But in the anime she only used it at full power against Death Phantom and Metallia and once in the R movie. The anime emphasized the Ginzuishou would kill her if she used it. She had three one-time saves saving her life every-time. She had plot armor for the sake of the first arc because they thought the series would end with that episode and she wished to go back to being a normal girl as she lay dying. In R she and Chibi-Usa's wish to protect each other canceled out the effects. The third time, Fiore gave up his life to save her. Each time the senshi warned her she would die from the crystal if she used it. Yet she accepted it anyway.

Senshi

Guns can hurt the senshi. Anime shows the Senshi being bulletproof while the manga!senshi are blatantly superhuman.

The girls lives entire lives being wrapped up in their role as Senshi or the idea of Crystal Tokyo. ALL of girls are shown to have actual lives and dreams completely outside of their duties of being a Senshi.

The senshi all showing up to fight some no-name canon fodder. The senshi have only been together once during a whole fight and that was with Nehellenia. During S, Pluto died before Saturn appeared. The inners and outers are constantly separated and the outers tend to have their own lives to live. 

Minako, Rei or Makoto giving up Usagi for some guy who happens to come by. In the manga, the inners all pledged to each other that no matter what happens Usagi would always come first and that boys would come later because she was so precious to them.

The Senshi betraying Usagi out of their own free will. The girls have repeatedly proven willingness to die for Usagi when the chips are down. Even more importantly in the Dark Kingdom arc, when they all believed that Sailor Venus was actually Princess Serenity, their loyalty was still first and foremost to Usagi.

Haruka being super masculine. In the manga she was androgynous and enjoys both male and female outfits. Following her gender being revealed, she generally wore feminine clothing and has been show to enjoy wearing short skirts. Also, she is is canonically stated to be bisexual.

The Senshi being unwilling to kill human opponents. In the manga, the Senshi usually ended up brutally murdering their enemies. In comparison, the anime has the majority of the enemies being either mind controlled or manipulated by an outside force, but even in the anime, they were willing to kill if necessary.

Mamoru being a pedophile. In the manga, there is only a three years difference, with Mamoru seventeen years old vs Usagi's fourteen years old. In Japan, fourteen years was very much legal as the age of consent was thirteen in the Tokyo region at the time the series was being written. With marriageable age thirteen for girls and sixteen for boys with parental consent.

Mamoru being willing to betray Usagi. They are engaged by the end of the series and happily married by the end of the manga. They are quite content with each other and even in the anime where Mamoru has often acted like an ass too her he's almost always had the reason that his generally being mind control during this time of the week.

Chibiusa's hair color came from nowhere. Ikuko, Usagi's mother and Chibiusa's grandmother in the manga has pink hair.

The Senshi simply being magic users who happen to be able to draw upon a planets mana. They are literal avatar of that planet's spirit made flesh. A Senshi is born when a Sailor Crystal nest inside a newly formed planet. And are the ones affected when something happens to their planet. As long as a Senshi exists in some form their planet, star, moon, asteroid etc has a chance to be reborn at a future date. The only senshi for whom this is not true is Usagi. Instead, her starseed is implied to have been a piece of the starseed represents the universe...

Pluto/Setsuna

Setsuna as some figure of of absolute order and/or stasis. Sailor Pluto is the 'Solider of Change AND Revolution.

Pluto using Space-Time Door as the "TV of Time.” She does not possess the ability to watch events through it. The Space-Time Door’s  purpose is time travel, nothing more.

Setsuna as a some ice princess. In canon, she is a lonely woman who loves her Princess, her closest friend is Chibi-Usa, and she considers the Outers to be her family. She has dreams (to be a fashion designer) and fears (Cockroaches). She is not some manipulative shrew but instead a person who has a job that leaves her distant and with trouble relating to other people.

Pluto manipulating events to create Crystal Tokyo or purposely killing thousands. Her job is to stop time travelers from abusing the time stream. She remained guarding the doors through the fall of the Silver Millennium, the canonical restart of evolution on Earth, and all the way into the 30th century. Pluto only left after she died trying to reach Chibi-Usa while she was Black Lady. The only reason that she was able to have a life outside of her duty is due to Neo-Queen Serenity reincarnating her backwards in time so that there are two versions that currently her existing. Her older self-guarding the Space-Time Door and the younger one living with the Outers.

Chaos, its spawn and various servants

Beryl as a super-important person during the Silver Millennium.  She was a maid and small-time witch/sorceress who made a deal with the local eldritch abomination sealed way in the sun.

Wiseman being anywhere close to that of a good guy or even neutral entity. Death Phantom is a Cosmic Horror born from the root of all evil in SM-Verse.

The Black Moon family being freedom fighters against the tyranny of Crystal Tokyo. Their ancestors are flat-out stated to be religious nuts who thought that the infinite power of the Ginzuishou and its ability to give people eternal youth went against God's will. They  willingly fled to Nemesis after being told by Wiseman they could gain they could power and are implied to be responsible for transforming the planet into the living hell it became. The very first actions that people of Nemesis took when they returned to Earth was to kill countless innocent people without mercy by bombing planet and using poison gases on civilians simply because they believed long life went against god. Both sides also state the Black Moon's goals were only about their hostility toward people’s lifespan and later, to try to take over earth.

Chaos representing “just a little chaos" or serving as a “force of change/growth.”  Chaos in Sailor Moon canon hearkens back to Chaoskampf of older myths. It is a primordial force of nothingness and destruction, which predates the Big Bang and is still salty about the universe existing. Every terrible thing, every planet destroyed, every life lost in the SM-verse all lead back to it. Chaos was behind the corruption of Galaxia, and Metallia, Death Phantom, Tau Ceti were all incarnations of it.

The Dark Kingdom only targeted Tokyo. They mind controlled everyone in China during Sailor V and it was her efforts to stop them got Venus so famous famous as Sailor V.

Misc

Calling the 'Space-Time Door' the Gates of Time.

There is no Juuban ward. Azubu Juuban is a neighborhood in the Azabu district of the Minato ward. It even says they live in Minato is volume one of the manga.