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immaturityofthomasastruc · 2 years

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IOTA Reviews: Miraculous World: Shanghai – The Legend of Ladydragon (Late 2000 Follower Special)

DISCLAIMER: I am not of Chinese ancestry, so I may not understand some of the content featured in this special. If anyone reading this is familiar with Chinese culture in any way, I strongly encourage you to speak up and either give your opinion on this special or point out anything I get wrong when discussing Chinese culture.

Back in 2021, I watched a video analyzing, of all things, Thomas the Tank Engine, specifically it's failed rebrand in a desperate attempt to salvage ratings, Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!. The premise was that Thomas himself would go on adventures in other countries, meet foreign engines, and learn about other cultures as a way to appeal to international audiences. Sure, it had other problems relating to the writing and new format, but one of the more noticeable points made by the creator of the video, The Unlucky Tug, was that for a show trying to focus on representing different cultures, a lot of the international episodes felt very... stereotypical with how the culture was portrayed to the point where it bordered on being offensive. Yong Bao, the Chinese engine, was fascinated with tigers after encountering one taught him to be more courageous, to the point where his tender has an emblem of one on it. Lorenzo, the Italian engine, loved to sing opera, and would even do so while on the job with his coach. Nia, the Kenyan engine, had her paintjob styled after the African flag, has no real personality outside of mentioning she's from Kenya to remind the audience, and was a blatant marketing attempt to make the main cast more diverse.

Where exactly am I going with this? In general, the international episodes were poorly researched, and in response, The Unlucky Tug said “When you think of a middle-class, westernized, white person writing a story about India, this is basically that, absolutely surface-level”. If that isn't a good way to describe the representation of other cultures in Miraculous Ladybug, I don't know what is.

Look, I've gone about this ever since I started this blog, but the way this show chooses to portray different cultures isn't that good. I'm not familiar with a lot of them, but even I know about some of the stereotypes associated with cultures like the Japanese being unreasonably strict, African-Americans being in tough street gangs, or Chinese people being masters of Kung Fu. There's also the fact that whenever Astruc gets backlash from people of color regarding the portrayal of certain races in the show, he gets very defensive, and at one point, ended a close friendship as a result.

It's stuff like this that is why I was very hesitant to review this special. I don't really know a lot about Chinese culture, so I was worried I would either get something wrong, or misunderstand something in it. With the New York Special, it was more about American “culture”, as little as we saw of it by focusing on very obvious things associated with America, like hot dogs, the Statue of Liberty, and brushing off what we did to the Native Americans in the past, so it was easier to talk about.

The point I'm trying to make here is that I might screw up a little on this review, so if I do, please don't hesitate to correct me or explain something I missed, like a cultural touchstone of China the special gets wrong. Although, I'm probably going to make one or two bad jokes about Chinese culture either way.

With all that being said, let's finally get into Miraculous World: Shanghai – The Legend of Ladydragon

First off, let's talk about the continuity of this special. According to the Miraculous Ladybug wiki, the fact that Gabriel is only Hawkmoth in this special, and the fact that Ladybug's form doesn't change when she uses her Lucky Charm later on, this takes place between Seasons 2 and 3. Why exactly did they set it then when the previous special was set between Seasons 3 and 4? There isn't really anything done with setting it in this specific timeframe, and I'll get to how it could have been done later.

We open on the night of a magical eclipse in the past, where the guardian of a mystical cave, Wu Shifu, was growing desperate to protect something, as his Kung Fu students who speak perfect English weren't willing to stay and help him. Man, if only there was a team of superheroes he could get help from to deal with whatever he needs to defend this cave from.

???: What had become of the ancestral values? Courage? Honesty? Loyalty? A mysterious stranger was doing all he could to force the master to sell his school. Someone clearly wanted to take over the land upon which it was built.

Just imagine if that guy genuinely had no idea of what the school was hiding, and only wanted the land to build a parking lot or a McDonalds on it.

Just when it seemed like Wu had nobody to help him defend this sacred place, not even having a family to pass on this responsibility to, conveniently, a baby was left in front of his school. Seeing an obvious chance, Wu decides “Hey, I bet I can be even more immoral than the entire Order of the Guardians combined!”. Yes, the baby would be taken in and would be trained to become the next Guardian of this special's MacGuffin, but with how the scene was framed, it made it seem like Wu immediately saw this orphaned baby and wanted to raise her for the sole purpose of replacing him when he retires. Even Shifu waited a few years until he started training Tai Lung. By the way, how exactly did Tai Lung turn out when he was groomed to be a very important warrior by Shifu again?

Oh yeah...

Over the years, the girl, named Fei, would be trained by Wu in the ways of Kung Fu, and was eventually made his successor, being given a bracelet that was connected to the cave. Unfortunately, the same group of thugs that tried to buy out Wu's school killed him and left Fei an orphan once again. To make things worse, the bracelet was stolen from Fei in her sleep. I'm guessing Wu is regretting a lot of his choices watching this Heaven right now.

After Fei vows to protect the cave by herself during the next eclipse, which is tonight, we get another Miraculous World opening sequence, only instead of a more orchestral rendition of the show's theme song, generic Chinese music plays over the credits. Let's be honest, a more accurate way to open these specials would be something along the lines of this, because it's pretty much what the writers were going for.

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After the credits, we learn that it's Summer Vacation in Paris, and that there were a lot of activities planned for Marinette to do with her friends, even a picnic with Adrien in attendance. But while she delivers a birthday present for her Uncle Wang to the post office for her mother on the day of said picnic, Marinette learns Adrien is somewhere else at the moment.

Marinette: Save me a seat next to you-know-who, please, I'll be there as fast as I can.

Alya: But don't you know? I thought you knew.

Marinette: What? What am I supposed to know?

Alya: Adrien's gone to Shanghai!

Marinette: Huh?! There must be some kind of mistake! I always know what's up with Adrien! His five first names and every corresponding name date, his yearly schedule, even his shoe size! If there were anything to know about him, I would know it!

Alya: Well, he didn't know either. He told Nino that the opening of his father's shop in Shanghai had been moved up at the last minute.

Marinette: Shanghai?

Ugh... here comes the cringe...

Okay, I'm sorry if this is beating a dead horse at this point, but it's really creepy that Marinette knows this much about Adrien. I get it, it's a cartoon, and they're trying to exaggerate a schoolgirl crush for comedy, but with how often Marinette says she knows this much about Adrien, it just makes me uncomfortable. How does she even know this much about Adrien anyway?

It turns out that the reason Adrien is even going to Shanghai in the first place is because Gabriel is after the very thing Fei is charged with protecting, the Prodigious. Supposedly it was a prototype that was abandoned in favor of the Miraculous, but other than a single line from Nooroo explaining that, we don't really get a lot of details on why this was created. It's just another magical artifact that could easily be replaced by another lost Miraculous, and doesn't even flesh out the idea of what a Miraculous is, despite them both being Chinese in origin.

Another thing that's kind of confusing is that Gabriel says that his plan to get the Prodigious has been going on for fifteen years, with a later scene confirming that he was the one who ordered for Wu's murder... when Emilie has only been in her coma for just under a year at this point. Why is Gabriel being tied into the backstory for Fei when he didn't have a reason to be evil while she was still a baby? Also, why is Adrien even coming along with Gabriel? The whole reason he was sent to New York in the last special was specifically to keep him away from Paris while he executed his plan, and now, he's risking his safety for this?

Back at Marinette's place, we get one of the more controversial parts of this special, Marinette lying to her parents about caring about her uncle's birthday in order to get an excuse to go to Shanghai to see Adrien. Okay, what exactly is her plan here? Is she just going to surprise Adrien like what Rebecca did for Josh in the pilot to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? How does she even think Adrien will react to this? And what about Paris? When Marinette got ready to leave for New York in the last special, she made plans with Cat Noir about what to do while she was away. What is she going to do now? In fact, does she even know Cat Noir isn't in Paris right now?

But then things get even dumber when we learn that Marinette's parents, Tom and Sabine, had saved up money for a family trip on the off chance that Marinette wanted to go and connect with her culture more. This just raises so many questions. How long have they been saving up money for? Has Marinette never thought to ask about her culture? Why didn't Tom and Sabine bother to teach Marinette anything about Chinese culture before this moment?

This whole plotline really highlights the problem with the representation in this show. So many media outlets, and even Astruc himself make a big deal about the main character of Miraculous Ladybug being a biracial girl, but the writers rarely do anything with it. “Kung Food” already showed how clueless Marinette was about Chinese culture to the point where Adrien, someone who was learning Mandarin Chinese, had to explain things to her. Now we have this special where once again, Marinette is shown to be oblivious to her own heritage just so she can be in the wrong here. If the point of the special was to have Marinette come to terms with how little she knows about her own culture, and how it's okay to not know a lot about her Chinese heritage (sort of like Carlton in that one episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), I'd be a little more understanding. Instead, this special shames Marinette for not caring about her heritage while doing nothing to actually educate her on it, because most of the special is focusing on the actual conflict that has nothing to do with this plotline.

And I'm not saying Marinette needs to be completely fluent in Mandarin or know everything there is to know about Chinese fashion. My family on my mother's side is Irish, and while I wouldn't say I know a whole lot about the culture, I at least know the basics because of what I learned from my grandfather, who was very proud of his heritage. If there are any followers of color or biracial followers reading this post, I encourage you to give your thoughts on this aspect of the special and Marinette's lineage through reblogs, replies, or asks, as I want to see how your experiences differ from Marinette's.

But the biggest problem I have is that of all the reasons Marinette could have gone to Shanghai, this was what the writers chose to go with. They didn't have Marinette go to a family reuinion with Sabine, they didn't have Marinette go to check out a fashion show there, and they didn't have Marinette's class go to Shanghai on a field trip for a made up “Chinese-French Friendship Week”. They seriously thought the best way Marinette could go to Shanghai was chasing after Adrien for no real reason other than because they can't think of any motivation for Marinette to do anything that doesn't involve Adrien.

Also, I should probably mention that when someone asked him about this part of the special, this is where we got Astruc's infamous “Marinette has to make a mistake in every episode” explanation.

Hey, Astruc? May I offer a word of advice? If Adrienette is the ship we're supposed to support, DON'T FRAME STUFF MARINETTE DOES TO GET CLOSER TO ADRIEN AS A MISTAKE. HOW HARD IS THAT?

In fact, not even halfway through rewatching this special, I thought of a different reason for how and why Marinette could go to Shanghai that not only takes advantage of the timeline, but also expands on the lore of the show: A few weeks after the events of “Heroes' Day”, Master Fu realizes that the battle with Hawkmoth is only going to get harder now that he has a new ally, so he suggests going to Shanghai with Marinette to see if there is anyone who can help decode the Grimoire to boost their chances, or find someone who is at least familiar with the Miraculous and the Order of the Guardians. The reason Master Fu brings Marinette is because he believes his story about the Miraculous will be more credible with an actual Miraculous wielder by his side. Cat Noir will still be made aware of this, but will stay back in Paris in case Hawkmoth and Mayura try anything, with the plan to contact Ladybug if things head south while Ladybug uses the Horse Miraculous to teleport over there.

Marinette and Master Fu look for Wu, but only find the ruins of his school Fei made her home in, realizing she's pretty much their only lead now. This is also a chance to have Fei bond with Master Fu, as the two come from similar backgrounds, since they're both the last remaining Guardian from their respective order. So while Master Fu would help Fei learn about the Prodigious, Fei would give Master Fu the notes her adoptive father had on the language the Grimoire is written in. If you ever wanted to follow up on this in Season 4 or a sequel, have an episode where Marinette takes the Horse Miraculous to Shanghai to talk to Fei about how to deal with all the stress when she's pretty much the Guardian now.

There. In just two paragraphs, I came up with a plot that expands upon the overall story, portrays the characters in a respectful way, and doesn't rely on Unfunny Marinette Slapstick or her simping over Adrien.

But instead, Marinette goes to China to visit her Uncle Wang, who is conveniently much more fluent in English than he was in “Kung Food”. Wang says it's so it's easier to communicate with his niece, but it's not clear if he practiced specifically for Marinette's visit, or if he was planning to do it the next time he saw Marinette at all.

The next scene is pretty much Wang telling Marinette a little about her mother's side of the family, and how Sabine was originally named Xia Bing before she moved to Paris. From what I've looked up, this is something Chinese people do when moving to another country, but the reason is unclear. While Wang starts preparing dinner, Marinette uses the excuse to look for a secret ingredient to look for Adrien. Because yeah, a teenage girl walking all by herself in a foreign country where she can't speak the local tongue is perfectly fine.

As for Gabriel, he goes to the ruins of Wu's school and discovers the location of the Prodigious cave behind a waterfall. Of course, it'll be twenty minutes before he actually gets to do anything, because of this special's second act.

Meanwhile, Adrien himself is walking around with his bodyguard and is asked for a picture with some local kids his age, giving him a chance to remind the audience of how fluent he is in Mandarin. Okay, again, I'm not expecting Marinette to be fluent in every form of the Chinese language, and I'm not saying Adrien is wrong for learning the language at all, but I still think the writers really should have thought things through instead of making Adrien more knowledgeable about Chinese culture than the girl with Chinese ancestry. Although I will give this special credit, as Adrien isn't the one to explain Chinese culture to Marinette, avoiding one of the biggest problems I had with “Kung Food”.

While Marinette walks through the city, we get to see Fei again, as she gives a little monologue about some pseudo-philosophical stuff, because why wouldn't the Chinese girl try to be a young Confucius?

Fei: I'd like to see people as people, think of them as stories: their smallest pleasures, their greatest joys, their disappointments, their successes. That's how my adoptive father would have wanted me to see them.

While Fei is someone who wants to see the good in people, she's fallen on hard times, so she has to resort to stealing valuable objects from others in order to get the money she needs. Naturally, she decides to steal a small ring from the French tourist who has a tough bodyguard behind him. Unfortunately, Fei decides to steal Marinette's phone, Miraculous and the coin purse she uses to hide Tikki instead.

It turns out that Fei is actually stealing stuff for a local criminal named Cash in exchange for information on who killed Wu. Of course, Cash doesn't give Fei a lot of money for what she got, and goes on about how society has changed to focus more on financial needs, because I guess we're going for a “capitalism is bad” message now. Cash gives Fei the idea to bring Marinette to him so he can sell her stuff back to her, but not before shoving Tikki into the claw machine.

Okay, I like the idea of Marinette losing her Miraculous and needing to adapt, but this whole plotline just breaks a lot of the show's continuity. Earlier episodes have shown that if the Miraculous is taken off, the corresponding Kwami disappears from this physical plane (Origins, Feast), and while Marinette has lost Tikki before, it was only because she still had her Miraculous, and therefore, couldn't use it until she reunited with her (Princess Fragrance, Kwamibuster). And another thing, why can't Tikki just phase through the claw machine while nobody's looking and fly back to where Marinette was staying? This whole subplot is pretty much there to add to this special's runtime, because nothing is really added here.

While Marinette struggles to find her way back to her Uncle Wang's restaurant, she is chased by some of the guys Adrien was with earlier. One of them found Marinette's Kwagatama necklace, but in typical fashion for this show, she assumes they're thugs and runs away with Fei in tow. Meanwhile, Adrien goes out to look for Marinette as Cat Noir, as somehow, Marinette's disappearance has made the local news.

Marinette gets to know Fei a little more, not knowing she's the reason she's in this predicament in the first place, but her kindness does get Fei to feel more guilt about how far she's fallen. I actually like this, as unlike most instances of this trope, Fei isn't just a hardened criminal who was touched by Marinette. She genuinely has morals, and she hates the fact that she has to compromise them in order to survive. It's a nice take for this special.

Fei takes Marinette to the pawn shop, where Marinette finds her Miraculous, but Cash tells her to cough up ¥100,000 for it, which amounts to $15,000 for American viewers, and is just over €14,000 for European viewers. Of course, Fei does the smart thing and switches the earrings for a pair of lookalikes and bails with Marinette. Naturally, Marinette thanks Fei for helping her get her Miraculous back.

Marinette: You stole my earrings?

Fei: Weren't you the one who wanted them back?

Marinette: Yes, but not like that! Stealing is wrong. That seller paid a lot of money to buy my earrings from whoever sold them to him! If he can't sell them back, he'll have lost all his money!

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Wow, ungrateful much? Okay, I get it, stealing is wrong, but it's not like Fei stole the latest copy of Bonestorm for Marinette. Marinette had lost one of the most important magical artifacts in all of existence, and all she can think about is stealing being wrong? I think when the only thing capable of de-evilizing Akumas is on the line, stealing is okay, guilty conscious be damned.

Cash realizes the ruse and sends some of his goons after Marinette and Fei, but when the three guys from earlier arrive, Marinette and Fei take advantage of the distraction and run away. Meanwhile, Cat Noir decides to call Ladybug for help finding Marinette. And before you ask, no, it's never explained if Cat Noir told Ladybug where he was going, and vice versa.

The writers finally remember Gabriel exists, as he prepares to akumatize someone to take on the guardian of the Prodigious. He also sees Marinette and Fei, but never questions why this random girl would be in the sacred temple at all. Just when Fei is about to tell Marinette the truth, Cash shows up and tells Marinette instead, meaning we get the standard “liar revealed” cliche that nobody likes. In his frustration of being scammed, Gabriel transforms into Hawkmoth (because I guess nobody heard him shouting “Dark Wings, Rise!”), and akumatizes Cash into King Cash.

King Cash has a pretty decent design. The armor is detailed, and the golden skin is animated very well thanks to the higher budget for this special. His powers are pretty much a knockoff of Style Queen's, with his fan blades having the power to turn whatever they touch into a gold statue, though we never actually see it happen.

Marinette transforms into Ladybug and calls Cat Noir to let him know about the Akuma. Speaking of, Hawkmoth meets up with King Cash at the door to the Prodigious, while Fei tries to stop the two supervillains, which goes about as well as you'd expect. Fei gets thrown into a well for her troubles, and thankfully, Ladybug does the heroic thing and puts her personal feelings aside to save her.

As the eclipse grows closer, Hawkmoth goes into the cave and gets the Prodigious, with the guardian spirit, Mei Shi, attempting to test him. Hawkmoth, doing arguably the smartest thing in the entire special, orders King Cash to turn Mei Shi into a gold statue, but before he can do so and get away with the Prodigious, Ladybug and Fei intervene. During the skirmish, Fei grabs the Prodigious, causing it to activate, transforming her into Ladydragon.

I'm... honestly not sure where I stand on this suit. I think it has a decent color scheme, but not much is really done to evoke the dragon or animal motif. I'm also pretty sure the yellow patch in the middle could be a reference to the yellow and black jumpsuit people associate with Bruce Lee, but that's just a guess on my end. I don't know, I just thought since the Prodigious glowed a lot of colors, there would be more of a rainbow color to the suit, instead of just looking like a scrapped design for Ladybug herself. It's not bad, it's just... forgettable.

But let's also talk about the little controversy this suit stirred up initially. Originally, Ladydragon had golden blonde hair when transformed, judging from the trailers. This naturally attracted allegations of whitewashing, something that the show was no stranger to thanks to Rena Rouge and Pegasus.

Thankfully, the design was changed to give her a more vibrant red head of hair, though with how quickly the change was implimented, you have to wonder if Ladydragon was meant to have red hair from the start, and what we saw from the trailers wasn't even close to the final draft.

While Ladydragon struggles to adjust to her new powers, she soon realizes she has some new friends to deal with. These are the Renlings, magical beings who embody several virtues of humanity. Yeah, remember the two or three times this movie talked about virtues, and every time, the discussion amounted to “Don't be a dick to other people”? It was actually building up to this very moment.

But I'm sure you have other questions about this scene, like...

Where did the Renlings come from?

Why is the Prodigious more dangerous than the Miraculous?

How can Ladydragon talk to the Renlings while transformed?

Why are the Renlings all bound to the single Prodigious?

Who even created the Prodigious, and why?

How are the Renlings and Prodigious connected to the Miraculous in the first place?

Has there been anyone else who has used the Prodigious before?

Why exactly was Fei chosen by Lao Shi to wield the Prodigious?

Why was the Prodigious sealed away instead of being placed under the protection of the Order of the Guardians?

How is Lao Shi connected to the Prodigious?

WHERE THE HELL DID THE PRODIGIOUS EVEN COME FROM?

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This was honestly where the special lost me. With New York, I was more angry at the terrible attempts to tease the Love Square, but I had hopes for this special, as it takes place in the same country the Miraculous came from. You could have done more to establish the history of the Miraculous and Prodigious, but instead, this just came out of nowhere. We still know absolutely nothing about either, yet the show still wants us to act like the origins of these sacred magical artifacts the show is named after isn't important information.

Ladydragon has the ability to transform into various animals depending on the virtues they supposedly represent. Well, they say that, but she doesn't really struggle to transform into any of the other animals, with the exception of the dragon, which represents justice. Since she wants revenge on Cash for ruining her life, she can't access that form. So basically, this special ruined the idea of Hawkmoth getting the Prodigious, because now, we know he wouldn't be able to do a damn thing with it.

When Ladybug is cornered by Hawkmoth and King Cash, she notices Cat Noir hiding out. Using her already summoned Lucky Charm, a basketball, she deflects King Cash's fan so Cat Noir can Cataclysm it. Of course, since we have about ten minutes left, Ladybug doesn't immediately de-evilize the Akuma and takes the time to do a pose with Cat Noir for the trailer.

Hawkmoth then sends his Akuma towards Mei Shi, and even though he is supposedly an emotionless guardian, he somehow gets akumatized into Yan Luo Shi because Fei was focused on revenge... because even though she was already chosen by the Prodigious, that means it's perfectly okay to endanger innocent lives. I'm starting to see why the Guardians abandoned the Prodigious and their stupid guardian.

Yan Luo Shi has a pretty cool design. I like the way he's framed at this fearsome titan. Granted, his motivation to kill as many people as possible until Fei gives back the Prodigious kind of makes him look like a massive hypocrite.

Hawkmoth immediately realizes the problem with bringing Adrien along as he orders Yan Luo Shi to not destroy the city, only to get vaporized in the process. Maybe you should have left him in Paris, numbnuts. In fact, shouldn't this mean he would automatically be de-evilized if the Butterfly Miraculous was vaporized too?

After recharging offscreen, Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Ladydragon try to stop Yan Luo Shi, but Ladybug says that for some reason, only the dragon power of the Prodigious can reach the magic orb containing the Akuma inside him. Cat Noir tries to do what anyone else in his situation would do, use his Cataclysm to break open Yan Luo Shi, but because the plot wants to show off Ladydragon, he's vaporized too.

Ladydragon runs away and blames herself for what's happening, as if the crazy stone statue isn't the one to blame, detransforming to Fei so she can cry. Ladybug detransforms as well and talks to her as Marinette, but when the two are endangered, Fei manages to save Marinette using the power of the dragon... which is pretty much the same elemental powers the Dragon Miraculous has. Riveting.

Marinette transforms into Ladybug again and summons her Lucky Charm, a giant vase. She jumps in, and Ladydragon uses the dragon's elemental powers to shove the vase into Yan Luo Shi's mouth, so Ladybug can free the Akuma. Wait, you're telling me that evilized objects can be broken without using Cataclysm? I can't believe I forgot that.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, Mei Shi apologizes for his rampage, Ladybug uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix everything, Mei Shi says the Prodigious is in good hands with Ladydragon before disappearing, later reveals his true form resembles the Kwamis, Ladydragon takes Cash to the proper authorities, and Ladybug and Cat Noir pretend to fly back to Paris in their Cosmobug and Astro Cat forms.

Back at Uncle Wang's restaurant, Marinette, Adrien, and Fei are having dinner, while Fei reveals that she can play the accordion. Ah yes, one of the most important lessons in learning kung fu: playing the accordion. Wang offers to adopt Fei, and just when Marinette finally tries to learn more Mandarin, everyone in the room laughs at her for saying something wrong. Because isn't it funny that a girl who doesn't know how to speak Mandarin doesn't say something right in Mandarin? And so the special ends with Adrien offering to teach Marinette Mandarin back in Paris, but just like the fact that Gabriel canonically hired an assassin to kill someone, we're never going to follow up on any of that.

While I think this special improved in some areas, it's still very disappointing as a whole.

The smaller cast of Marinette, Fei, Cash, Adrien, and Hawkmoth lead to a lot more character focused scenes, mainly between Marinette and Fei. I like how more focus was given on the origin of Ladydragon, especially after how divorced Eagle's debut felt from the New York Special. The actual animation was still very stunning, and some of the best in the show's history. The city just feels so alive here, and the lighting is so creative. I also like how they didn't focus too much on the Love Square, and kept the plot centered around Fei and Marinette. Granted, it made Cat Noir seem like a bit of an afterthought, but they still gave him relevance in how they stopped King Cash.

Of course, the negatives sadly outweigh the positives. Despite the entire plot starting thanks to Marinette caring more about seeing Adrien than her own culture, there's never really any closure to that plot thread. Other than a single scene where Marinette learns a little about her mother, and the ending, Marinette never really learns more about her culture. Sure, part of the plot hinges on Marinette mistaking people for thugs thanks to not speaking their language, but not much is done to teach Marinette, and by extension, the audience about Chinese culture. Again, I'm not saying Marinette needs to be completely fluent in Mandarin, but for a special marketed as Marinette going to China, they don't really focus more on the culture of the special's setting. Of course, I'm still glad it focused on the main plot with Fei, but I just think they could have done more, like have a few more scenes talking about the virtues that would later become more important once Fei gets the Prodigious. And hey, at least the representation wasn't as offensive as earlier episodes.

The Prodigious itself just didn't get enough explanation to warrant an entire story around it. The writers could have very easily done more to explain the origins of the Miraculous and their connection to the Prodigious, but they settled on doing absolutely nothing instead. It's just a really powerful MacGuffin with no negative downsides other than the user struggling to use it for a few minutes. Seeing how anticlimactic the drawbacks are, what was even the point of it being built up as so dangerous when all that happens is that you can't use it in a certain state of mind? It takes away a lot of the stakes to Hawkmoth getting the Prodigious, because now, we know it would be completely useless in his hands thanks to all of his crimes. Why not show more consequences to Fei using the Prodigious? Maybe if she tries to transform using a certain virtue, it hurts her or knocks her out of her transformation? Maybe Mei Shi can turn into Yan Luo Shi as a result of Fei trying to use the Prodigious for revenge as a result of his connection to the Prodigious? Do something to explain just what makes this artifact so dangerous to use. Is the danger only from Mei Shi, given he freaked out after Fei gave into her emotions once?

Something that also bothered me was the way the writers kept Fei from learning Marinette's identity as Ladybug. I get why she couldn't find out at the beginning, but as they bonded as friends and as the special went on, it just got ridiculous. Ladybug can know who Fei is, but not vice versa? They seriously have Marinette detransform in the middle of a chaotic fight with Yan Luo Shi to talk to Fei, when it would make no sense for Marinette to get to that building in the first place, much less with the giant stone warrior destroying everything. Would it have really killed the writers to make an exception to the identity rule seeing how Fei is from another country, and therefore, someone who isn't at risk of being akumatized? Marinette at least has Cat Noir and Master Fu to support her at this point. Besides the Renlings, who does Fei have? Maybe having Marinette be more honest about how her first time as Ladybug went could have helped motivate Fei to try again. The point I'm trying to make is that while the drama with Cat Noir is understandable, Marinette and Fei's bond could have been handled a lot better without the identity shenanigans.

The climax just felt pretty tacked on got the most part. It was already pretty stupid of Ladybug to somehow forget to de-evilize a recently freed Akuma, but it felt like the writers wanted a giant monster attack to spice things up. Not only do we barely know anything about Mei Shi, his anger at Fei is barely hinted at given how stoic he is. Markov at least displayed enough sentience to show emotion, but Mei Shi didn't even seem that angry before being akumatized. Cat Noir also felt like a last-minute addition, given how little he really does before the climax, and even then, all he really does is help Ladybug defeat King Cash. It was bad enough that Adrien's presence drove the plot, but they didn't even have him do anything worthwhile to justify him being in China other than because Cat Noir needs to be everywhere.

Overall, this special is just disappointing in a lot of areas. While I was more frustrated with the New York Special, this special just underwhelmed me for the most part. I just don't see the point in putting so much effort into making these specials when nothing actually important happens in them. There's no character development, there's no major worldbuilding, and there's certainly no plot progression. These specials are the definition of filler, and I can't believe we have to deal with at least four more of these.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE SPECIAL IS... MARINETTE

Putting aside her motivation for going to Shanghai in the first place, she didn't even tell Cat Noir where she was going when that was a major plot point in the previous special. Yeah, she thought Cat Noir was still in Paris, but even Adrien had some semblance of a plan when he left Paris in the New York Special. Marinette also seriously thought it would be a good idea to walk on her own in a city where everyone spoke a language she couldn't understand, and later had the gall to shame someone for trying to steal her Miraculous right after she got them back, thinking the shady thrift shop owner would be bankrupt otherwise. And during the climax, she not only failed to de-evilize an Akuma for no reason and risked her life going into the crossfire of an Akuma just to give Fei a pep talk when all she had to do was talk to her as Ladybug. It's kind of sad that she did more reckless things in this special than Hawkmoth, who gets the silver medal for the sheer idea of bringing Adrien along to a place with a dangerous artifact instead of keeping him safe in Paris like he's done for his other plans.

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