so I am finally catching up with ml and lemme just say that after watching Passion play out what I have seen in fics a dozen times I want Thomas Astruc's Ass To Be Struck
ok so things we learned about the miraculous timeline from Determination (that I can now confirm, having watched the English dub): (side note: of course, this show doesn't really have a timeline, because it's not consistent enough, but this is a fun exploration anyway)
this episode is "a few days" after Strike Back (marinette says "a few days ago" her feelings for adrien caused her to lose the miraculous)
we are still in the same school year as the one that began in origins (marinette says "we've been schoolmates for months now" about adrien). because of Chris Master, however, we know that the "christmas holidays"[1] break has passed (which fits with it having been "months"). so we can conclude that they're in the second semester of that school year — somewhere from early January to early July.
implications of that second point
in the span of less than 9 months, marinette:
got a miraculous
heard there was a "guardian"
met the guardian
starting giving miraculous to her friends
accidentally lead a supervillain to the guardian, leading to him losing his memories and making her the new guardian
lost the miraculous
both marinette and adrien fell "unconditionally and irrevocably in love" with someone (adrien and ladybug, respectively) and then moved on within that same time period (to be fair that's just how teenagers are)
marinette confessed that she was ladybug to alya, who she has known for only a few months
in the same span of less than nine months, gabriel went through these stages: (in addition to the consistent one "asshole")
mourning his wife i guess? she was in his basement...
calling himself "hawk moth"
calling himself "the collector"
back to "hawk moth"
"scarlet moth"
back to "hawk moth"
becomes "shadow moth"
briefly "the collector" again? i haven't watched dearest family
ok conclusion 1: if you fall in love with the holder of the black cat miraculous, you will make puns. marinette literally makes one while she's having a breakdown over falling in love
conclusion 2: whoever's in charge of english voice acting for this season is really into making the characters meow. chat noir, lady noire, and marinette have all done it in just a two episode stretch
ngl i find it very funny that there's an entire episode (jubilation) where it is revealed to marinette that her greatest dream is to live her life out with chat noir
and then it takes an additional two episodes for her to realize, wait, maybe i'm in love with chat noir