#Nino critical | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

new-kit-on-the-block · 4 months

Text

Miraculous - The watered-down significance of akumatization

(This is an analysis, but it's also a sort of rant. So there's a lot of text underneath the cut. Just a fair warning.)

I have a problem with the way that the latter seasons of Miraculous handle akumatization.

There's a pretty basic rule of thumb when it comes to writing the bigger moments of your story:

If something is a big deal, let it be a big deal.

Seasons 4 and 5 don't always do that.

Let's take a look at what I mean.

These are screenshots of the three separate occasions that characters have broken out of akumatization in seasons 4 and 5.

Take note of who these characters are and their importance (or lack thereof) to the overall plot.

On the one hand, you have Alya and Nino, the two main characters' respective best friends. It's only natural in a show like this for these two to be strong enough to break out of akumatization, it makes the main characters look like they definitely chose their friends right.

And then you have Alix's Redditor conspiracy-theorist older brother.

Why is he one of the big three who managed such a significant feat like this?

It's not like he's been shown to be particularly strong-willed. In fact, one could argue that he's even less so than most other characters due to how much further he fell into the rabbit hole of Lila's manipulation than anyone else.

His gullibility and irrationality are the entire reason he gets akumatized in the first place.

And he doesn't ever play a significant role after this, either. The only other time that he even had so much as a speaking role was the other time he got akumatized way back in season 1 for not being allowed to sacrifice someone to the Egyptian gods.

Now, these aren't the first times that people have fought back against Hawkmoth while being akumatized. But they are the first times that they've successfully broken out.

Pixelator questioned Hawkmoth's authority over him, and in response, Hawkmoth did something with his hand that started causing physical pain to Pixelator, reinstating his control over his akuma.

The only other time an akuma victim fought back was Robustus, which was a special case because he rebelled against Hawkmoth by using the specific abilities that were granted to him.

Neither of them even tried to escape akumatization.

Akumatization has always been set up as something powerful. Something that takes the worst parts of you and amplifies them to the point of no longer being capable of rational thought.

We never end up questioning why people don't try to resist akumatization if they know that they might end up hurting people. We already know the answer. It's because they can't.

Even Ms. Bustier, possibly the character who hated akumatization the most at the time, couldn't avoid becoming akumatized despite her best efforts.

So three separate people breaking free from their akumatization should imply that Gabriel's control over his victims is getting weaker, which would be a very big deal.

But nothing is ever done with that. After Alix's brother, nobody ever broke out of akumatization again. The ability to do so is used as nothing more than a plot device in these few episodes.

Another thing is that, if anything, Gabriel's grasp over his victims' emotional state should be even stronger.

His akumas are canonically more powerful than before, to make the lucky charms that Ladybug hands out stop working against him.

If bigger and more powerful akumas don't make his hold on people even stronger than before, then the entire arc of Ladybug realizing that she can create charms to prevent people from being akumatized more than once, and Hawkmoth's counter-arc of nullifying her efforts by simply creating bigger akumas was all just a complete waste of time.

After Guiltrip, I assumed that they were building up to Rose being able to break out of akumatization through her naturally positive nature alone, and then they would have an arc of her teaching others how to do the same.

Suffice to say, neither of those things happened.

Rose's "inner voice" that she's apparently had in her head this entire time doesn't serve any actual purpose other than to make her worthy of the pig miraculous.

To be clear: I don't have any issues with Rose's invisible illness never being mentioned at any point before Guiltrip. That's the entire point of an invisible illness.

My point is that Rose's ability to break free from negative emotion-based mind control is an extremely important ability that was never even so much as hinted at before or even brought up again any time after Guiltrip.

So, once again, it's just an extremely important one-off ability that doesn't matter and doesn't affect the stakes whatsoever.

These seasons keep throwing moments at us that should be very big deals but are never treated as such.

Now let's compare all of this to an actually good akumatization-related scene.

When Chloe successfully rejected akumatization.

When this happened, it was huge, and it felt like it too.

Not just because of how impressive the feat itself was, but also because of where Chloe was in her character arc.

Chloe was under the impression that Ladybug might never let her be Queen Bee again. Full stop.

She had potentially permanently lost a privilege that really mattered to her, Lila was starting to get inside her head, and she was becoming mean to Sabrina again.

By all accounts, Chloe should've been in the stage of her arc where she started to revert back to her old self. The old Chloe would've accepted Hawkmoth's words without a second thought.

If this was the conventional Zuko-style arc that so many writers try and fail to replicate, this would've been the scene where it seems like she may not actually get redeemed, and would fall back on old patterns of hers. Which is an interesting enough arc on its own.

But we instead have a girl who doesn't have any way of truly knowing better, has no good role models, and is close only to people who enable her worst behaviors. And she chooses to be good.

Her worst fears are starting to come true, nobody seems to have any care or respect for her, and a smarter and more experienced grown man is using all of these negative emotions against her to mind control her. And she still chooses to trust the process and work to gain back Ladybug's trust. Exactly like Ladybug told her to.

The one time she was given really good advice, it stuck with her.

This is the moment that flat-out confirms that Chloe can be redeemed, and actively wants to be better.

Not only did she not get akumatized, she almost made it look easy.

But the show still makes it perfectly clear that this wasn't an easy feat by any means.

She was visibly exhausted and scared after the akuma left, breathing heavily like she almost just drowned.

But the important part is that she did it. She didn't get akumatized. And she is shown to be rightfully proud of this fact.

It's also interesting to note that no other character has ever broken out of akumatization, mid-akumatization.

In the seasons to come, several people would be breaking out of akumatization after they had already been akumatized. But Chloe is the first, and only, person to reject akumatization before it even took hold.

That's how you give a moment like this the emotional weight that it deserves, by letting it stand on its own and not bombarding your audience with the same scene played out by several other characters.

Chloe was the only one to do this, and that shows that she could bring something special to the team if she actually got the chance to be a heroine again. It makes us consider the possibility that her stubborn and argumentative nature might actually end up being a silver lining. She can still be herself while saving people. In her own way.

She can be a hero. She can become a better person. And she doesn't have to change a thing about herself.

It would be a really nice message to send.

Which just makes it all the more disappointing when it doesn't amount to anything.

If the point of her character was that she could've been better, but became worse instead, that would've made for an interesting sort of tragedy.

But that's not what it is. I know that's not what the writers intended because if that were the case, then Ladybug would've probably had some lines about how much potential Chloe had, and how well she was doing before she went back to her old self.

We don't get any of that. What we get instead is the show and characters acting like Chloe was always as bad as she is in seasons 4 and 5.

She never actually liked Adrien. She was never kind to her father or Sabrina. She never wanted to get better.

And that's just not true.

Sorry, the main point of this post was to showcase the difference between important moments that were given the appropriate emotional weight, and those that weren't. But I just went off on a bit of a tangent there.

God. Even when this show gets something right, it gets like ten other things wrong.

Anyway, TDLR: If you want a moment to be significant, let it be significant. Let it make big changes that actually matter. Don't be a coward who's too afraid to change the hierarchy of your story in any kind of way that matters.

If you want a moment to have an impact on your audience, give it time to breathe on its own, and don't repeat it for at least a little while after.

And for God's sake, if an ability is a big deal, then don't let some unimportant side character that no one cares about also have that ability. It just makes it seem like it's not.

98 notes · View notes

missplayer30 · 4 months

Text

Based on a part from the Nostalgia Critic's Elf review.

I was thinking of Miraculous Ladybug characters when watching it, especially when both characters are named Zoe. This is my very last art of the year.

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #zoe lee #nino lahiffe #andre bourgeois #zoenette #nostalgia critic #funny #comic

70 notes · View notes

m3nt4llyr4v3d · 1 month

Text

As much as I have opinions on how Miraculous goes about its writing, damn are the ideas it brings up so juicy

Like I feel like there’s something to be sad about how everyone deals with their problems or their trauma. Like, so many of the characters have issues, and it’s so fascinating to think about the way they respond to them

Marinette has the entire safety of Paris on her shoulders and basically in a constant state of trying to fix things even when it shouldn’t be her problem in the first place

Adrien was raised to be as obedient as possible and doesn’t know jack about how to be a kid, literally has no ambitions at the moment, he’s constantly apologizing for things that feasibly wouldn’t be his fault and trying to fit whatever mold he thinks someone wants of him

Chloe’s mom left her and is verbally abusive and calling her daughter a failure for the entirety of Paris to see, so she lashes out at everyone around her and constantly uses her dad’s power. Also the fact that two fully grown adults manipulate her before she’s sent away, just awful

Nino’s best friend has the worst dad imaginable and he felt powerless about the situation wanting to help Adrien (seriously I hope they bring up Guilttrip sometime in the future it reveals a lot of really concerning things about the characters), so he tries to be the best bro to him and give him every experience he can

No idea what happened to Lila as her backstory is uhhhhhh, but that lying, the disguises (she literally came to school in one), and the fake identities had to have come from somewhere. I remember, before the whole 3-moms-thing, theories about her lying for attention because her mom is never home and she’s genuinely lonely, using a scene where she’s talking with Nino and looks actually upset as evidence, so that’s something to consider

Luka’s dad left, and he basically became everyone’s therapist, which he really really really shouldn’t be. We’re told he’s this chill, go with the flow dude, but when your response when hearing your current girlfriend (or at least the in between friend and gf) still likes someone else and saying “I already know that”, that’s just concerning. Dude’s everyone’s therapist, but is anyone checking on him?

Juleka has anxiety and still has unresolved issues with her dad leaving and coming back and (my memory is fuzzy here) not really interacting with her? She’s quiet and keeps a lot of emotions just bottled up cause she doesn’t express them verbally

This is stuff off the top of my head, but damn. As much flack I like to give to this show, thinking about stuff like this is what keeps that little part of me who loved the show years ago alive. Like, I genuinely don’t care what some of the characters have done, I think all of them need a hug and as much therapy as possible

#miraculous ladybug #ml marinette #ml chloe #ml adrien #ml nino #ml lila #ml juleka #ml luka #ml rant #ml critical #ml criticism #fixing the tags here

33 notes · View notes

gameguy20100 · 11 days

Text

Hot take.

Adrien should have been allowed to tell Nino he's Chat Noir.

#miraculous ladybug #ml critical #adrien agreste #nino lahiffe

18 notes · View notes

miraculouslbcnreactions · 6 months

Text

Justice for Nino

Now that all of season 5 is on Disney+, my SO wants to watch it to see what I was so disappointed by. And since I love him too much to let him suffer that alone, I'm rewatching them with him. We just watched Illusion, the episode the killed Nino's character, and I'm still salty about it. After seasons of minimal screen time, they finally give Nino a chance to "shine" by doing this to him?

Key moments of disapointment:

Nino, holder of the miraculous of Protection, deciding that akumatizing Gabriel Agreste is a great plan. Nino, who got akumatized over trying to throw Adrien a party! There is no way that he'd ever consider doing this to Adrien when there's a whole city of other options.

The akumatizing plan isn't terrible, but once again, miraculous of Protection! A protector would wait and inform Ladybug and Chat Noir first so that they're there, ready to stop the akuma as soon as it happens, thereby minimizing the damage. It's not like the heroes are impossible to track down. Just wait for the next akuma. Also make sure that they need this information before you akumatize someone. For all you know, they already know.

This line:

It's not like we have any Miraculous that Monarch could steal from us. The only ones who need to protect their secret identities are Ladybug and Cat Noir, not us.

This comes across as him having absolutely no faith in Ladybug and Chat Noir. Do you think that your benched status is permanent, Nino? You'll be Carapace again as soon as the miraculouses are recovered!

Nino apologizing to Gabriel, but not Adrien. Like, come on Nino, you're supposed to be Adrien's best friend! Even if you think your plan was a good one, wouldn't you feel at least a little sorry for what happened to your best friend. Not to mention the fact that the Gabriel apology barely counts as an apology.

Nino: Mr. Agreste, I owe you an apology. All your troubles today, the pizza, the pasta, the chocolate, all that was... that was a plan to help Ladybug and Cat Noir. And it worked, dude!

He even goes on to say

Nino: Our first mission was a huge success

As if the lightning thing was somehow useful. Even if that was how Gabriel was giving people powers, what good does that do for the heroes? They can't stop lightning!

Just, ugh, Nino deserves so much better than this. I know Alya's Lila blindness bothers people and I get it, it bothers me, too, but this is worse in my opinion. We can at least pretend that Lila's lies are as clever as the writers claim, thereby lessening how bad a friend Alya is being, but this? This is Nino eagerly planning to hurt his best friend. Remind me again, how is he better than Chloe?

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical #ml season 5 salt #ml illusion #Nino deserves better #nino lahiffe

52 notes · View notes

ck2k18 · 10 months

Text

It's really crazy how some of y'all real comfortable putting Alya and Nino in the black best friend trope/role but still wanna whitewash them in your art and fics.

#ml fandom salt #ml fandom critical #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #ml #miraculous ladybug

58 notes · View notes

ficks-of-fancy2 · 8 months

Text

Miraculously bad

So I've been watching MLB from the beginning and I have some complaints. This is honestly a open discussion and I hope that others will voice their feeling in a productive manner. I won't talking about the blatantly obvious racism.

I have the least to say about the first season, but I honestly would have introduced some new heroes before the season's end. I would have ditched the romantic subplot or a at least the love square due to the annoyance of it all and Marinette's disturbing behavior towards Adrien. I don't mind the need for secrecy between Ladybug and Chat Noir up to a point, about season four is when it got to be a problem, that brought the story down. But my biggest problem from the first season is Lila Rossi from a critical standpoint her motivations beyond Adrien don't make sense for a mentally stable person. I get lieing for popularity but not for a boyfriend and it's completely asinine for people to believe her after her lies are uncovered, I for one wouldn't.

In season two we see the arrival of Rena Rouge, Carapace, and the most underutilized Queen Bee. Now don't misunderstand, I don't like Chloe Bourgeois' character because of the wasted potential of her character to change. I know Chloe is meant to be a foil to Marinette however their is a difference between foiling and being a outright antagonistic and I simply believe that Chloe's character deserves more, especially after we learn of Chloe's abusive relationship with her mother. Now on to Mayura who would have worked perfectly as a foil to Hawk Moth, a reluctant hero due to her abilities being similar but also stronger than Hawk Moth's (I.E. her empathic abilities). As we learn in the fifth season Nathalie is only working for Gabriel, so she can protect Adrien from him so it would have been a interesting plot point if she took a more supportive role on Ladybug's team.

Season three is what I refer to as the start of the problem that is; the what if episodes. They are meant to reaffirm the need for secrecy, but after Chat Blanc, they are pointless because she becomes the Guardian of the miracle box, meaning that she should know Adrien's identity. Aside from Oni-Chan and Animaestro, in addition to Miracle Queen, I don't have any problems with this season aside from already spoken thoughts.

Season four proved to be a turn for the worst, mostly because of the episodes; Gabriel Agreste, Ephemeral, and the two part finale of the season. Now I do have minor complaints about a few other episodes where characters so act out of character they are almost different people. Let's start with Gabriel Agreste and Felix. The episode has Marinette acting like a creep to protect her "secret" crush on Adrien. My problem is with Felix, whose goals are later revealed in season five to be freedom for Kagami and Adrien, who are implied to be Senimonsters. Felix managed to discover Shadow Moth's identity but sits on this information for a season. Felix could have easily been replaced by Nathalie or Felix's mother instead. Shadow Moth's Final Attack, Season fours' finale, my issue is twofold taking the form of Felix and Ephemeral. Felix due to his willing actions that resulted in Gabriel gaining almost every Miraculous, something that becomes a recurring issue with Marinette in a similar issue as Luz Noceta in the final episodes of The Owl House, a trait that is annoying because it isn't actively her fault. Marinette, because of the simple solution of transforming back that wouldn't have been a problem if the writers simply didn't bother with Ephemeral.

And Finally season five my biggest problem with MLB, Hawk Moth now Monarch had gotten every Miraculous sans, the ladybug, black cat, and peafowl. The entire season is one big stalemate until the finale. Gabriel has allied himself with Tomoe Tsurugi to create the alliance rings as a way to transfer the powers of the stolen Miraculous to his victims. Nathalie is in rare form for this season actively standing up for herself and Adrien. The entire season is spent foretelling Gabriel's demise and propping up Cerise, or Lila as she is known as of the time of me making this, as the next Hawk Moth. Honestly I have more issues with this season then all the others combined and every issue that I have previously mentioned is on full display in one form or another. On top of all of the other issues three new ones come to light, The first is a old one with a new name, Argos. Argos or Felix whatever you chose to call him refuses to inform Ladybug of Monarch's identity, due to his concern for Adrien's well being. I don't mind this but I still find it to be a problem of conflicting interests that to my knowledge is never resolved. My second issue is from Derision, namely the origin of Marinette's behavior towards Adrien and this goes hand and hand with the writer's refusal to improve and evolve Chloe's character so they simply beat the dead horse. My final issue is the drawn out conclusion of the love square that shouldn't have existed past the third season. It takes five whole seasons for this plot to reach its conclusion and that is bad writing in its purest form.

To end this on a lighter note, I just found out that the original butterfly hero and I share a character name, we are both Húdié and I can't tell if that is lazy or hilarious. (Húdié means butterfly in Chinese) Also because I have no control over my hyperfixations I'm working on a miraculous little project that hopefully doesn't drive me psycho.

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #nathalie sancoeur #ml kwamis #cerise #lila rossi #chloe bourgeois #felix fathom #kagami hiiragi #kagami tsurugi #tomoe tsurugi #long post #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #mlb critical

33 notes · View notes

ilikekidsshows · 2 months

Note

Nino

Blorbo Bingo

I love him so much but the canon disrespects him an equal amount. They just do stupid shit with him instead of focusing on his relationship with Adrien, one of the best, most wholesome relationships in the show. It's because he's always treated Adrien better than Marinette and, rather than fix their main lead through some much-needed character development, the writers decided kneecapping Adrien's other relationships was the way to make Marinette look better.

Nino's too much of a threat to Marinette, I guess. He's too great.

If you're asking me, Nino and Adrien should flee Paris together, escape the stupid canon and start a new life somewhere else.

#ml critical #nino lahiffe #adrino #adrino is love adrino is life #ask game #blorbo bingo

19 notes · View notes

iwasbored777 · 1 year

Text

It annoys me that whenever a girl chose a boy over friendship it's seen as right but only when Marinette does it it's seen as wrong

#no one will judge any girl who takes Adrien before others or Alya when she chose Nino over bff but they judge Marinette for the same thing #And Marinette will be punished a lot while other girls get rewarded #miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #Ml critical #marinette deserves better

59 notes · View notes

kingoftheu · 1 year

Text

Thinking about Ladybug again and being pissed because the base premise is really really good

Like Love Triangles with Two People have been done plenty of times, but the Love Square is fairly fresh. A villain who literally weaponizes negative emotions, even when justified. A supporting cast that has some potential which could have been some really great rep if actual effort had been put in. And just enough lore to make it interesting (I really like how Season one had the origins episode as the finale).

But

Alas.

36 notes · View notes

western-magical-girl-confessions · 1 year

Photo

“I absolutely can't stand the fact that Nino is treated poorly by the fandom and that Nooroo isn't treated well by Gabriel Agreste.”

#nino lahiffe #nooroo #ml #mlb #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #miraculous ladybug confessions #western magical girl confessions #confession 2099 #fandom critical #ml fandom salt

24 notes · View notes

starlight-bread-blog · 9 months

Text

Poor Nino. He's Adrien's best friend, and Adrien is yet to crack a single joke in front of him. Cat Noir is the side of himself he isn't allowed to show because of his controlling environment & upbringing, right? So why 5 seasons in, he doesn't act like himself around his best friend and his first friend from school? Poor Nino, he doesn't know his realest side of him. They'd be hanging out, but he's not him. And Nino doesn't know it.

...

Is what I would have said if I didn't fucking hate Nino

#anti nino #miraculous critical #anti miraculous #miraculous ladybug salt #miraculous ladybug critical #anti miraculous ladybug #miraculous salt #ml salt #mlb salt #anti adrien #anti adrien agreste #anti chat noir

7 notes · View notes

halidom-confessions · 1 year

Photo

@ the anon who @ me because I was upset everyone forgot everything.

Yes, I do want them to remember. Honestly, their bonds that they had before the new world mean so much more since they worked hard to keep it in the first place. But now that bond is just all gone? It feels so empty unsatisfactory to me.

With the Zethia thing, I'd personally want to remember those bad experiences so I can learn from them and grow stronger. But I also don't know if that's what I'd actually want if I was Zethia as I'm just basing my opinion on traumatic past experiences I had. Back then I did wish I could forget everything, but now that I'm stronger and made progress and had good experiences because of those traumatic experiences, I no longer wished to forget those things and accepted they are a part of me. There are some things I think about like how I'd be like if those bad things never happened to me and where I would be now if they didn't happen, but then I think about the people I wouldn't have ever met if and all the good things that came from those bad experiences that I would've never had experienced if I didn't have those bad experiences to begin with. All in all, that's just my opinion though and I'm not Zethia but that's what I would've personally wanted.

And yeah, I know Midgard remembers... but think about it, once he dies, no one will ever remember what happened before. That's just forgotten forever. And not only that, since he's the ONLY one that remembers, he is literally like Zhongli from Genshin Impact. "Osmanthus wine tastes the same as I remember, but where are those who share the memory?" Even if he does meet them all again, he literally can't talk about the experience because no one would believe him. Poor Midgard is all alone with these old memories.

However, I do agree that your points are completely valid though. Especially the Euden thing. Looking at it again, if they all didn't get their memories erased, some of the bad guys like Volk and Beren wouldn't have gotten a happy ending. And some of the dead ones like Mordecai and Gatov's kingdom wouldn't come back. It doesn't show in the main story, but we can assume everywhere else is also fine as well. Saiga's wife is alive, and he didn't kill his master. Aldred lives a normal happy family life with his sister and parents. Hawk didn't have to kill his friends. Maybe Xander and Nefaria get their kingdoms back too. Leviathan doesn't accidentally kill a lot of people before meeting Euden. Epimetheus doesn't get abandoned. Etc etc.

My opinion now is that some of the really close ones should've been allowed to keep their memories and know the truth of what happened before the "good times." Like a secret between them and only them. That would've been a nicer ending.

In response to this confession

#Dragalia Lost #criticism #(for the plot)#sfw #ehhhh idk about more than 1 person knowing the secret #you saw what happened with Meene telling her secret to a select few #it caused factions within the Ilian Church #and even the ones who know the secret have had a fucked up life generations after #like the keyholders and Nino

8 notes · View notes