Sometimes, I feel like the writers don’t know Gabriel Agreste is abusive, which would explain why his characterization is all over the place.
They want a monstrous villain and a sympathetic father figure. They want to have their cake and eat it too.
The sprinkles of “concern” in episodes like “Glaciator 2” and all of the implications that “Gabriel was a nice and wonderful father before his wife died uwu” are so unbelievably triggering—that’s not how it works.
Abuse doesn’t manifest overnight.
Like, is this unbelievably nuanced writing depicting how abusers love-bomb and tactfully dole out affection to keep their victims placated and docile?
Or are they stumbling ass-backwards and completely missing the themes and message of the narrative being written?
Just because Gabriel’s most heinous onscreen acts of violence and psychological torment occurred in timelines that have now been erased, doesn’t negate their existence. That is what he is capable of. That is him.
Stabbing someone in the chest and proclaiming it’s an act of love does not make it so. One’s intentions are irrelevant if their behavior is completely contradictory.
I feel like the audience is being gaslit into thinking the man is sympathetic. He is not. He is irredeemable. Being a father doesn’t absolve your abusive behavior. Adrien does not need to forgive his abuser. Adrien should not accept this treatment.
Gabriel is not entitled to contact with his son.
Who knows. I genuinely hope I’m wrong.
no, actually, wait. my friend reminded me of something. winny got asked about a favorite character after season one ended:
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
surely, with one season done, working on another season that even includes the first hint of the graham de vanily rings, with some general idea of how the agreste story should go, with chat blanc originally planned for s2… surely your favorite wouldn’t be someone that is meant to be an abusive parent and you wouldn’t say that you are similar in your private family life… unless you don’t see said man as abusive at all.
/also astruc has said that chloé’s mother isn’t emotionally abusive, she just left ‘like the parents of many other children in the world’. i also begin to suspect that they don’t see adrien as someone with a low self-esteem… what is going on in that writer’s room
