#the lie plot

Season six is theoretically about Adrien coming to terms with how he views his father and Kagami coming to terms with how she views her mother and whatever is going on with Tomoe and Lila. In an episodic show with those plots, it makes sense to have a bunch of episodes about parental conflicts featuring other characters and home situations as they give the show a theme. Parental conflicts aren't just a thing in random episodes. They're the thing we're exploring this seasons. That's a good thing! Miraculous should have been doing this all along!

My only real complaint is that - from the handful of scripts I've read - its doesn't seem like Adrien is getting much focus in these parental conflicts. The show is keeping Ladybug as the one to save the day and talk to people which is not how this should work. The character who is learning the lesson should have a much more active role. This should be Adrien's season, but it doesn't seem like it is.

There's also the lie plot issue. Adrien can't really work through how he sees his father until he knows the full story. Him being in the dark undermines anything he decides about his father. It makes it all feel pointless because he's just going to go through all of this again once the truth is out. That doesn't make the theme itself bad, it's the overall plot that's bad.

And one extremely minor criticism to round us out: it would be nice to have some good parents in the mix, but that's hard to do since we can't akumatize most of the teen characters anymore. One of the many reasons a massive hero team was a questionable choice.

I'll end by pointing to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as a show that demonstrates how themes are supposed to work. In that show, every episode sees a character learn a lesson about friendship. The character who learns most of the lessons is the lead, Twilight Sparkle. These friendship lessons all come together in the season three finale - which was originally the show's finale - to give Twilight an upgrade to the Princess of Friendship who protects friendship all over the kingdom. It's quality writing. You establish a theme, let the key character explore that theme through various standalone episodes, and then bring it all home with a finale that captures on the lessons in a way that works even if the audience has missed some of the episodes because the finale doesn't hinge on any single episode. It's about fully realizing the show/season/arc's theme. That's how you make an episodic formula show build to a big climax without actual serialization. A plot without a plot.

For those not watching season six, the episode Mister Agreste had several references to Marinette's "promise". The first comes from a dream sequence:

Gabriel: (Voiceover) Remember your promise, Marinette. Marinette: (Calling out) Adrien?

The second comes during a conversation with Tikki:

Tikki: Marinette, maybe you should consider telling Adrien the truth about his father. It's eating away at you! Marinette: No! I promised Monarch—I MEAN—Gabriel Agreste that I would say nothing.

And the final time comes while she's talking to Luka:

Viperbug: Luka, I... lied to the entire world. Adrien's father wasn't a hero. He was Monarch. He made me swear that I wouldn't say a thing so that Adrien would think well of him, in order to protect him, but now because of that I'm having to lie to everyone! Luka: Why did you do that?! Viperbug: Because I love Adrien more than anything, and he'd be in so much pain if he'd ever have found out! He could get akumatized by the new holder of the Butterfly Miraculous. And I'll never, ever, EVER let anyone hurt him! I have to keep this promise and hide the truth from him, even if it burns my lips and my heart every day until the end of time. Do you think I did the right thing? Luka: I don't know, Marinette

These lines are a little odd because Marinette never made a promise in Re-Creation. This is the scene where Gabriel asked Marinette to lie for him:

Marinette: NO! (slams her fist against the force field)Don't do this!! Gabriel: (turns around to Marinette) Marinette, make sure that Adrien never knows about the villain that I was, (puts down the twin rings on the ground) but instead, that he remembers the times I tried to be a good father. (turns back to Gimmi)

There's a distinct lack of promising going on here. I would call this scene "the request" or even the "delusional plea of a man who still hasn't realized what a douche bag he was to his son" not "the promise." How could it be a promise when Marinette doesn't even reply to Gabriel?

I do think that a skilled writer could take this scene and the resulting trauma and use them to present Marinette as convinced that this was the equivalent to a promise since it is technically the man's dying request and - as we learned in the London special - she blames herself for his death:

Bug Noire: I tried to save him, I tried to reason with him. For Adrien's sake. Surely, we could've worked out a solution together and now, Adrien no longer has a father, all because of me. (breaks down) Adrien's all alone all because of me. Nathalie: (walks to her) What did you want to do? Bug Noire: The wish... I should've made the wish. For Adrien. Nathalie: And what would you have sacrificed? Bug Noire: ...Myself.

This trauma logic may even be what the writers are going for, but it's not a great fit for Miraculous. A choice like this requires you to dig into the character's psyche. You can't do that when you're limited to 20-minute stories that have to be fully self-contained and include an akuma fight. Without that deep-dive, this promise logic feels like a retcon because anyone can see that Gabriel never, "made [Marinette] swear that [she] wouldn't say a thing." It's the same reason Nathalie doesn't work this season. Neat idea, wrong show for it.

The other issue with Marinette's logic - trauma-based or otherwise - is that it's a terrible fit for the way they wrote Gabriel. Gabriel was a monster as a civilian! There are no happy memories of him to protect and Marinette knows that! Season five let her see exactly who Gabriel was on both sides of the mask. That makes Marinette comes across as delusional, not as trying to stumble her way through a truly complex situation where a rational person could conceivably think that Adrien would want to be in the dark.

No matter how much the story plays up Marinette's trauma, the audience won't be on her side because her Gabriel-based trauma is nothing when compared to Adrien's lifetime of trauma at Gabriel's hands. Trauma isn't an Olympic sport, but there's still a clear winner in this fight and it's not Marinette. She's up against the only person who outclasses her.

There's also the disparity in their struggles. Marinette has to work up the courage to have a difficult conversation about a traumatic experience. That's not nothing, but it's hard to feel bad for her because her inability to have that conversation is actively denying Adrien information that he very clearly wants and deserves. You can't really both sides that conflict! Both siding a conflict only works when it feels like there isn't a clear right choice and - for reasons beyond my understanding - season six is going out of its way to make sure that Marinette's side doesn't have a leg to stand on. It is pure black and white. An endless parade of episodes saying that Marinette is in the wrong without letting anything change.

Mister Agreste was the worst of these episodes. In it, Adrien pointed out all the ways that his father was a monster. When he's done with his list, you just sit there going, "So what was the point of these lies? They're not protecting Gabriel's image. They're not bringing his son comfort. They're just torturing the lead, messing with her love interest's head, and killing the show's main couple. Why would I want to watch that? It's not fun and it's not interesting. Miraculous is not formatted to tell a tragedy. Just let Marinette tell him the truth and move on!"

My stance, as always, is that if we had to do a lie plot, then the lies should not have come from Marinette OR that Gabriel's wish should clearly be in play. The writers aren't doing that. As far as we know, this is all on Marinette. If that's the way the writers want to write this plot, then they should have written Gabriel as a genuinely good person on the civilian side. If that was the setup, then Marinette's lies would actually make some sense. She'd be preserving the memory of the person Gabriel was as a civilian totally unaware that Adrien had to deal with the villain side, too.

Specifying canon here instead of "how would you write a traitor plot" because I think they've fumbled HARD on investment in this with how empty 90% of the cast feels. Though, if you'd like to take a shot at that, too, I'd be curious.

The only characters who have been developed enough to make a betrayal plot work and whose development feels set up for a betrayal plot are Chloe, Sabrina, and maybe Felix. Let's do quick pitches for each of them plus a bonus pitch for Lila.

Chloe

Chloe's obviously already off the team, but I think season three's ending would have been far stronger if it was all Chloe's fault and not Marinette's mostly because Marinette doesn't really do anything wrong in that episode. Sure, there's an established pattern of her always picking the teen whose parent is in danger when she needs a temp hero, but Chloe doesn't know that and Chloe has already been told that she can't be Queen Bee again because of her very public identity reveal so it's super weird when the episode acts like Marinette is in the wrong for sticking to her word and not giving Chloe the bee.

In this new version of canon, we nix the public identity reveal and have Chloe's identity reveal come from her near akumatization in Miraculer. She rejects the akuma, reveals her identity, and as a result has a choice to make: tell Ladybug and give up being Queen Bee or keep the reveal a secret, putting everyone at risk. Chloe choses option bee. This leads to Gabriel being able to use her to get the miracle box or maybe just the bee or some other major victory.

This is admittedly not a true traitor plot, but it's similar vibes and a much stronger, nuanced way to damn Chloe. This pitch is also assuming you want to keep canon as intact as possible and you certainly don't have to do that.

Sabrina

For this one, we stop pretending that Sabrina was some sort of mindless doll who blindly followed Chloe and acknowledge that she was Chloe's willing co-conspirator. Once we do that, we can have some fun because Sabrina has done nothing to prove that she's a better person. She found a line she wouldn't cross, but that's not her becoming better. That's just her refusing to do a specific bad thing she'd never had to do before. For her redemption to feel earned, I need more than that because I watched episode like Derision and Reflekta and I remember all of Sabrina's gleeful participation in the bullying.

In this new version of season six, Sabrina is still desperate to rewin Chloe's favor because Sabrina misses all the perks of being Chloe's bff. To regain Chloe's love, Sabrina spills the beans about being on team miraculous and works with Chloe to steal back the bee. Whether she succeeds or fails is up to you, but either way Marinette and the audience will learn a valuable lesson about being too hasty to forgive someone who was "just following orders." You could also use this for a Sabrina redemption where she starts out as a traitor, but her time on the team makes her realize that she wants to be a good person and her redemption comes from her confessing the truth to Ladybug.

Felix

Felix is a chaos gremlin whose motivations are impossible to follow which makes pitching a traitor plot challenging. I need to understand the character to pitch something that feel in character and so I've got nothing to offer. However, we have had an episode where his ring was stolen - Yaksi Gozen - and the show went out of its way to include the sentikids plot so let's actually use that for something interesting! Have the ring theft actually work and Ladybug recovers a fake, allowing Lila and/or Tomoe to use Felix for their evil plans.

You could also do this with Adrien or Kagami, but those betrayals would obviously be senti-BS which makes them less fun. Because Felix is a wild card who makes no sense, him betraying the team would not make the audience immediately cry "senti BS!" and the same goes for Marinette. She could think Felix never changed while Kagami is sure something else is going on leading to a far more interesting plot than you'd get with any of the other sentikids.

Lila

Lila is supposed to be a master of disguise and manipulation and she was once close friends with almost every miraculous holder including Nino who was happy to share his and Alya's secret identities with his friends. We also end season five with Lila applying to Marinette's school so let's work with that! Have season five end with Marinette recovering all of the miraculous and all the secrets out in the open for the relevant characters. A perfect bow on top finish that leaves the Agreste arc with a satisfying ending.

Bascially have the characters as friends. then one season later give a relationship upgrade for development [the way S4 did for KimRon].

Like that be good story telling and that what I expected.

I think it was around S4 when I realized that they do the will-they-wont-they and drag it out forever. And every story they make is hot garbage. So you can alwayse trust for them to do the WORST decision. (I heard about senti-adrien theories and thought "Man this is terrible. Their going to do it aren't they")

Thinking about S6. How much of S6 would be changed if Adrien was in the final battle and we had an identity reveal. Most of the episode are episodic. And any episode dealing with Adrien angsty about his dad being dead can be changed to him angsty about his dad being a supervillian. [I guess you can change Revelator to the reporter guy harassing adrien for being a supervillian son]. Like would it require that much to make S6 enjoyable. [oh wait writer pride on redeeming gabriel]

Based on the scripts I've read, I don't think season six would need to meaningfully change if Adrien knew the truth. He'd could still be wrestling with his relationship with his father, he's just have the full picture of how messed up that relationship was. Marinette could still be wracked with guilt, it would just be undeserved guilt. Society could still have been sold the lie that Gabriel died during the fight and Monarch was someone else, just change the lie to Gabriel being caught up in the crossfire instead of Gabriel making the wish allowing for some interesting discussions about if/when lies are okay. Is society owed the truth about a dead man or is Adrien's safety and peace of mind more important? That's a far more interesting lie conflict than the one canon gave us.

Many episodes would actually be improved if the canon lie plot was removed. I will die on the hill that El Toro De Piedra would be so much better if Adrien knew the truth and got to be the one who helped Ivan. The linked pitch feels so much more powerful than what we got because, until the lies are revealed, canon is poisoned. Nothing truly meaningful can develop because it's all built on a house of cards. A house I have no interest in watching crumble because the person who will probably pay for it all - Marinette - is not the person who should pay for it all.

Yes, Marinette has done wrong, but she's not the series' big bad. Gabriel was and Nathalie was his sole coconspirator. They're the ones I wanted to see pay. Marinette's crimes all steam from her continuing their lies and that's not fun for me. I don't want to see Marinette be Gabriel's whipping boy nor do I want to see her actions downplayed and blamed on a dead man the way Sabrina's crimes were all transferred to Chloe. What I want is something the show can never give me because Gabriel is dead and the love square is broken beyond repair.

Speaking of Chat Blanc and punishments, I once read this post saying that Adrien turning into Blanc was also meant to be a punishment, in this case Adrien's punishment for dating Marinette while secretly knowing she's Ladybug. Any thoughts on that idea?

(Post that spawned this ask)

I can see why someone would reach that conclusion, but I don't think it's supported by the text. To explain, we'll talk about why I don't think this read fits the way Miraculous dishes out its morals and then we'll talk about where the read comes from.

Chat Blanc's Intended Message

Once you understand the rules the govern Miraculous' writing room, the show's morals tend to be obvious. The reason they confuse people - myself included - is that the rules are weird and the morals are often atrocious. That combination has given us an abundance of episodes where the intended moral is not the moral most viewers take away from the episode even when it's clear that the moral the audience sees isn't the moral the characters learned. Because of that mismatch, the audience looks for something beyond whatever nonsense the story is telling us. We expect later episodes to fix or update the message or think that we were genuinely supposed to learn a moral the characters didn't, but that's the wrong way to approach this show. The stated moral is always the intended moral even when the stated moral doesn't fit what actually happened.

Chat Blanc is one of the episode that fits this pattern. Because the audience sees the full story while Marinette stays in the dark, we walk away thinking the lesson was "Gabriel is a monster and Marinette doesn't know that yet so she's blaming herself when she shouldn't" or "Gabriel can't learn Adrien's identity first" but those weren't the messages the episode wanted to send. The writers absolutely want Marinette to blame herself because the message of the episode is nothing more than "Marinette must only use her powers for selfless reasons" and "identity reveals are bad".

At the start of the episode, we get this:

Tikki: Maybe you can give him his present tomorrow at school? Marinette: No. You heard what Rose said. I can't back out again. (runs farther) Since he's not back yet, I can go through the window! Tikki: Oh, no no no! You know it's not a good idea to use your powers for personal reasons. Marinette: I'll be quick, Tikki, no one will ever know!

And at the end of the episode, we get this:

Ladybug: You're still calling me Marinette. You're not supposed to know who I am. It means that if I use my Miraculous Ladybug to fix everything now... Bunnyx: You'll still have this memory of her. (Cat Noir lets the butterfly go and looks sad.) Ladybug: (with her Lucky Vision spots the eraser and the Burrow) Of course! (hugs Cat Noir) I'm gonna fix everything, Cat Noir, I promise! Cat Noir: (smiles) I know. Ladybug: (jumps into the Burrow) Bring me back 10 minutes before the moment you came to get me, quick! I don't have much time before I transform back and lose my Lucky Charm. (puts the bowl on top of head) I have to erase my mistake to get things back to normal. This future is a result from something that happened in the past. I must not throw my eraser here and now, I must throw my eraser back then!

Ladybug from 10 minutes: Signed, Marinette. (Ladybug pushes her away) What the— Ladybug: (erases her name) Trust me, it's better this way. (throws up eraser) Miraculous Ladybug! (throws her Lucky Charm up in air and reverts everything) Scene: Burrow Bunnyx: (looks at unicorn plushie) WOO-HOO!

This is the message. The setup and payoff. Tikki warns Marinette to not use her powers for personal reasons, but Marinette doesn't listen. Marinette not listening technically leads to Chat Blanc, so Marinette has to undo her selfish act of giving Adrien a signed gift to show the audience that she has learned her lesson and will no longer use her powers selfishly. That's why Bunnyx doesn't correct anything Marinette says. So long as Marinette learns the right lesson, it doesn't matter if it's based on a completely inaccurate idea of what happened. It's also why the show never cares to address how terrible Gabriel looks in this episode. Gabriel's actions don't matter to them. He's just a tool for teaching Marinette the error of her ways.

This is the way Miraculous works*. The "story engine" causes a problem, fixes it, and learns a lesson in the process. The story engine is not allowed to learn from the mistakes of others. They - by which I mean Marinette and on rare occasions Adrien - must be in the wrong.

Side note: Adrien getting the story engine promotion is how we got Kuro Neko and Hack-San where Adrien absolves Ladybug of any wrong doing and takes all the blame on himself instead of discussing their mutual faults because heaven forbid we have an episode where both leads learn a lesson. He got Marinetted - given her usual role - and it sucked.

This nonsense is why Miraculous has so many wacky episodes where the show twists itself into a pretzel to blame Marinette when she did nothing wrong. It's also why she randomly acts horribly even when it would be better for her overall characterization if the character in the wrong was someone else. For an example of the first, see Qilin or Volpina. For an example of the second, see Animaestro which would have been vastly improved if the one causing all the problems was Chloe and not Marinette as the linked post explains.

If you look at the way Chat Blanc handles Adrien, you'll notice that his arc - or lack thereof - doesn't fit the story engine logic. While Adrien made mistakes, he doesn't learn anything from them, so arguing that Adrien was supposed to teach us a lesson here is a hard sell. That's not how Miraculous teaches its morals. There's also the issue that this argument hinges on the idea that Adrien did something wrong by dating Marinette and that is not how the episode sees things.

The Nuance of Adrien's Deception

A fairly common complaint about Chat Blanc is that Adrien is manipulating Marinette and taking advantage of the situation. This argument comes from the fact that Chat Blanc comes after Glaciator, the episode where Chat Noir makes his romantic intentions explicitly clear and Ladybug turns him down. There are also multiple post-Glaciator episodes where Ladybug reiterates her no.

Because Ladybug has given such a firm "no", many viewers see Adrien's actions in Chat Blanc as underhanded. Adrien knows that Marinette turned him down and he asks her out without giving her that information, tricking her into dating his civilian side since he couldn't have her on the hero side. This understandable criticism is why I keep saying Glaciator was a terrible addition to the show. It's somewhat cute on its own, but it undermines Adrien's character in many of the episodes that comes after it so it should never have made it into the show.

Even without Glaciator, Adrien dating Marinette while secretly knowing her identity feels wrong to a lot of people because he's keeping important information from her. He gets to make a fully informed choice on who he's dating. She doesn't.

Those criticisms are not invalid if you're talking about the writing, but they are invalid if you're talking about the episode's message because the writers didn't write any of that into the episode. When Adrien figures out that Marinette is Ladybug and runs off to date her, there is no manipulation to it. He doesn't talk about this being his second chance or anything like that. He realizes that his Lady loves him and goes running to be with her without any considerations for the dangers or complexities of the situation:

(Flashback to Glaciator.) Ladybug: You're my friend, and I'd never want to lie to a friend. Cat Noir: But why do you think you'd be lying? Ladybug: 'Cause... there's this boy, I... (The flashback ends.) Adrien: Me!

Plagg speaks out against Adrien's actions, but the only criticism he offers is that this is bad because Adrien shouldn't know the secret identities. Plagg doesn't say Ladybug should know the truth or that Adrien is taking advantage of the situation:

Plagg: Okay Adrien, this whole thing smells like rotten cheese. You know you aren't supposed to know each other's secret identities! Adrien: Just because I know her secret identity doesn't mean she has to know about mine. Everything will be just fine, I promise. (wears the beret and runs out) Plagg: Adrien! Putting a smelly piece of cheese in a box doesn't stop it from smelling!

And when Marinette finds out that Adrien has been keeping this massive secret from her, she is not upset:

Marinette: Adrien! Cat Noir: You were about to be akumatized. I didn't have a choice, m'lady. Marinette: M'lady? But how did you know? I thought our identities were supposed to remain a secret! (drops umbrella and hugs Cat Noir tearfully) Cat Noir: Everything will be okay, I promise.

None of this invalidates the manipulation criticism, but it does mean that it's not a criticism you can make of Adrien's intentions. The most you can do is criticize that Adrien never stopped to think through the situation. There's simply no evidence that he was intentionally manipulating Marinette. He canonically thinks this is what she wants. You can criticize that his logic doesn't make much sense, but that's still on the writers, not an intentional character beat for Adrien. At least, I don't think he's supposed to feel like a dumb blond. The characterization in this show is so weird that I'm genuinely unsure how smart and observant Adrien is supposed to be. He gets to make the insane logic leap that Marinette is Ladybug based on a gift, but can't stop to think about the risks of a one sided reveal even after months of dating. It all boils down to the fact that the show will do whatever it needs to service the plot even if it means making the characters look awful, dumb, etc.

The fact that the episode ignores this issue indicates that the writers did not intend for Adrien's actions to be seen as this big, messed-up manipulation. For them, it is at most a minor faux pas. Ephemeral backs up this read because that episode has a full mutual reveal and yet we get same outcome making it clear that - in the eyes of the show - the issue is not a secret reveal. The issue is that there was a reveal and that should never happen.

This is also why Ephemeral never deals with the fact that Ladybug intended to use lies to manipulate Chat Noir. That wasn't an intentional plot point. It was just the messed up setup the writers went with so they could tell the plot they wanted to tell the same way Adrien's lies were used to get us Chat Blanc. It's a plot beat, not a character beat even though it absolutely should be a character beat, too.

For another example of this pervasive issue see Luka lying to Marinette about the identity reveal in Wishmaker. The show never treats that as Luka doing something wrong. He never apologizes to Marinette and Marinette never gets mad at him for the lies. She still trusts him, confides in him, and gives him a full time miraculous.

Similarly, Kagami is never punished for learning Ladybug's identity and spilling the beans to Felix without Marinette's permission. That massive betrayal of trust is somehow totally fine and Kagami gets to keep the dragon on her at all times.

Even Alya's choice to tell Nino her identity after promising Marinette she wouldn't is not treated as a big deal. It does lead her to be outed in the season four final, but that's just an excuse to get the fox back in the Miracle box so Gabriel can get the fox from Marinette. Alya shares no blame in Gabriel's win, she still gets the fox full time in season six, and her lie doesn't impact her relationship with Marinette begging the question why the Rena Furtive plot even happened.

The only hero character who is shown to be actively in the wrong for a deception is Marinette in season six and even that was a retcon. The bible leaks revealed that season five's ending was originally the show's big happy ending and that version still included the lies, they just came from Emilie instead of Marinette. I seriously think the lie plot is only a thing because something needed to replace Marinette wanting to confess her love in every episode, but chickening out at the last minute.

Final Thoughts

I can see why viewers would want Adrien to learn a lesson in Chat Blanc because Chat Noir's inability to accept Ladybug's "no" gives this episode a nasty undertone, but many viewers take the way that background and the lies make them feel and project intentionality onto Adrien that the story doesn't back. Because that intentionality isn't there and the story never addresses the issue, I don't see an argument for Chat Blanc to be an intentional punishment for Adrien. The only person the writers are intentionally punishing is Marinette. I don't agree with that choice, but it is how the episode is written. For more on that, see the power of love rant which pitches my simplest fix for Chat Blanc. I also support more complex pitches like removing the identity reveal element and having Chat Blanc happen via Ladrien.

While I understand why this episode makes people want to see Adrien punished, I'm not a fan of punishing Adrien for his actions because Adrien isn't supposed to be the villain of the piece. His actions are only questionable because of the show's piss poor writing. I'd much rather fix the overall writing to honor the character Adrien is supposed to be, keep the love square cute, and leave Gabriel as the one who gets to learn a lesson and pay for his crimes. It's the same logic I use when I defend Marinette and Alya and Nino and everyone else in this insane show: yes, the character is in the wrong here, but I don't care because this issue isn't intentional complexity meant to make them interesting, it's the writers being stupid and not thinking through what their choices mean for their characters.

[Gif description: Nick Fury from Marvel's Avengers delivering the iconic line "I recognize the council has made a decision but given its a stupid-ass decision I've elected to ignore it"]

Like, she's been exposed by Marinette and that'll lead to her revenge by exposing Marinette back. Though as a side note: I don't think she has to do much for a take down here. I find it hard to believe she'd be the only one trying to use Ladybug's lies against her. Still, there's more history to their relationship that adds to it. Even if I think everything here is undercooked or given to the wrong characters, personally.

But then they decided to add a background which should have placed her as caring more about Kagami in my opinion. Everything in her introduction feel so disconnected from who she is today. Obviously, they didn't have this planned, but why give Kagami a more prominent role in Lila's entire life with Tomoe possibly being her mom? Yet she's focused on some random girl who exposed her petty lies? Give me some depth to her vendetta against Marinette! Why are we expanding her familial relationship/ dynamics with another character?

It's like they're trying to mold an entirely new character (Lila s5/6) with the one we were introduced to. Yet by doing that they're diminishing the believability on Marinette being the focus of this girl at any point (or even Adrien in the beginning lol.)

Miraculous has a habit of copy-pasting its story elements and plots even if those copy-pastes aren't a good fit for the story. It also does nothing new with the recycled elements and actively ignores the parallels these copy-pastes create. Prime example, Gabriel is canonically the fashion-loving child of two loving parents who are food-industry power houses. He also fell in love with a rich blond with controlling parents who meddled in his relationship and arguably helped turn him into a worse person. Gee what other character does that sound like? (It's Marinette. Gabriel is a copy-paste of Marinette. Does the show care about that? So far, it doesn't seems to which makes the parallels really weird. Why make these characters so similar unless you're going to do something with that?)

From what I've seen, Kagami is turning into a copy-paste of Adrien and the Lila plot is turning into a loose copy-paste of the Gabriel plot. With the Gabriel plot, nothing to tied Marinette to Gabriel. Him being her favorite fashion designer didn't matter. She wasn't his apprentice. He didn't come to love her as a good match for his son. They were just near strangers who hated each other which is the least interesting way to write them given that the plan was always to keep Adrien out of the action. If so, then why were all of the major elements of the story focused on Adrien? It makes no sense.

While I can't explain that nonsense, I can note that the show seems to be doing the same basic plot just with Kagami instead of Adrien. We once again have a sad little rich kid to feel bad for even though she's not the main character or even that active in the story. She also has a parent who is keeping her in the dark on stuff and all the interesting elements of the main plot - aka whatever is up with Lila - tie to Kagami and her family and no one else to the point where I have had the thought that season six could have nixed the lie plot, made Adrienette cute-but-boring, and switched protagonists to Kagami. Like wasn't the Tokyo special all about Kagami's past and family? That's not a bad thing to focus on, but why give Kagami so much attention when she's not one of the main characters? Why not make her a main character?

I don't have an explanation for why Miraculous does this. I can just note that it's an ongoing issue. The show is really bad at writing interesting plots that center on Marinette even when there are glaringly obvious ways to center the plot on Marinette. I will forever be salty that the hat contest in Mr. Pigeon went nowhere interesting when it was the perfect setup to give Marinette and Gabriel a functional relationship that had nothing to do with Adrien.

While there were obvious ways to tie Marinette to Gabriel, I don't see a great way to tie Marinette to Tomoe which is why - if Tomoe is where the Lila plot has to go - I think the best answer might have been to make Kagami the new lead. Marinette and Adrien had five seasons of hell, give them a break! Let Kagami and Felix suffer for a bit! At least Kagami's getting a more active role than Adrien even if it does make her look like a bit of an idiot. You know your mother was an evil villain! You know she worked with the series previous big bad! You promised Marinette that you'd keep her in line! Why is none of that leading to action? It's all very silly.

I think the episode has a great message and handled serious topics well. My only complaint about said message and topics is that it's really freaking weird to see the below moments staring Ivan when the butterfly in the room - everything Gabriel and Adrien - has yet to be addressed.

Scene 1

Ladybug: (Puts a hand on Ivan) You're not responsible for who your father is. Ivan: But it makes me so angry! I love my dad, but I don't agree with what he says or does! Sometimes I'm boiling inside so much that I wanna play my drums with all my strength, and it's even worse when I feel like that because then I get scared to be like him. And this fear is worse than the anger! That's why I can't hold on to my Miraculous. Ladybug: Nothing forces us to become like our parents, Ivan. (she sits next to Ivan) You can love your father and disagree with him. You've already proved yourself worthy of your Miraculous. Ivan: But I didn't do anything... Ladybug: You did! You rejected violence and asked for help from someone you trust. 

Scene 2

Minotaurox: I think there's an important message for you in there sir. Raul: I read it. Minotaurox: Then maybe you should try to understand it now. Raul: I don't know what there is to understand, my son is weak that's how it is. I'd have never dared talking to my father like that. Minotaurox: Then maybe your son is stronger than you ever were. (Raul looks shocked)

Both of these scenes are genuinely good moments with quality writing, I just can't enjoy them because of the Adrien issue. In my opinion, this episode would play much better if it was the ending to an arc that took place after Adrien knew everything and if Chat Noir took Ladybug's place in Ivan's story. Without those changes, this episode is just Ivan getting the lessons and closure that Adrien is being denied. At least, that's how it plays for me.

The issue is especially bad when you remember that this episode has a b-plot about Marinette finding and hiding a letter to Adrien where Gabriel asks Adrien to be the next Hawkmoth. That's the exact same struggle that Ivan is going through, but the plots don't tie together because Adrien is kept in the dark for the entire episode. That's a massive missed opportunity. Why include Gabriel's letter in this episode if you didn't want to address it?

Take a second to imagine a world where this episode came after Adrien knew everything. A world where the episode started with Adrien finding that letter from Gabriel. Imagine if no one else knew about that letter, leaving the audience to wonder what Adrien was thinking. Is he going to listen to his father's plee?

Cue Ivan's fight with his father. We'll watch Adrien guide Ivan through this conflict, allowing us to see exactly what Adrien is thinking while still letting this episode follow Miraculous' episodic formula. It would be so powerful to hear a fully informed Adrien say, "Nothing forces us to become like our parents, Ivan. You can love your father and disagree with him." Then, after Ivan's story is over, Adrien could destroy Gabriel's letter with the audience perfectly understanding what that means because Adrien told us exactly how he's feeling about his own father through his conversations with Ivan. That's just so much more powerful than the version canon gave us. The perfect blend of episodic content and overarching serialized themes.

Early on, we had episodes like Gamer which made Ladybug and Chat Noir an Ultimate Mecha Strike III dream team. But the dream team message was totally ignored on the civilian side. Marinette wins the Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament with Max as her partner and, when Marinette and Adrien train together, Adrien claims that he adds nothing to their team:

Adrien: You're amazing, Marinette. I guess you wouldn't even need me. I'm so lame compared to you...

This is really weird writing. The messages don't match. You could replace the Ultimate Mecha Strike III akuma fight with any other flavor of akuma fight and the episode would actually become more coherent which is not how this is supposed to work. This episode should have shown us that Ladybug and Chat Noir are the best team no matter which side of the masks they're on.

Thanks to the lie plot, season six has taken this pervasive issue and elevated it to a running theme. Many of the episodes are absolutely bonkers in their messaging because delivering a coherent message would require resolving the lie plot and they can't do that. The lie plot is the new status quo. It can only be undone in a series final.

My personal "favorite" example of the issue El Toro de Piedra. My full thoughts on that episode can be found here, but who in the world thought it was a good idea to let Marinette say this to Ivan in an episode where she actively hides Gabriel's final letter to Adrien, thereby denying Adrien the ability to make the kind of choices Ivan gets to make in this episode?

Ladybug: (Puts a hand on Ivan) You're not responsible for who your father is... Nothing forces us to become like our parents... You can love your father and disagree with him.

The A plot and the B plot are not in harmony! They're from totally different shows! This is not how this is supposed to work!

There are many more season six episodes that have this exact problem. They bring in the lie plot, but can't resolve it, so whatever moral we get about lies, secrets, and/or bad parents fails to land because the show can't fully commit to it. Or the message does land which results in Marinette looking horrible because how many times does she need to learn these lessons before the writers let her act on them?