Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chatnoir would've been so much better if the writers gave both Ladybug AND Chatnoir powers essential to defeat an akuma. Imagine,

Ladybug- Creation- The Miraculous Ladybug power which recreates all that shouldn't have, but was, destroyed.

Chat noir- Destruction- The power to purify akumas which allows the weilder to destroy what shouldn't have, but was, created.

Ying and yang, good luck and bad luck, creation and destruction, perfect balance.

They both would've used their powers for good because, as Tikki and Master Fu and all those wise, ancient beings point out, destruction is just as important as creation, dark is just as important as light, bad luck is just as important as good luck (which would've been such a cool theme to dig into but gods forbid the writers ever use this show's full potential).

The funniest thing about thomas and co watching the finale and explaining stuffs while they're at it is that they made it worse by a long shot. It's like beating a dead bush with a dead horse while digging their own graves.

Explain that Mari is actually aware that Gabe is Monarch? Doesn't explain why she's going to his house without Chat to beat his ass.

Jokingly saying that Jagged's crocodile is important to the fight? Nice joke, but care to explain where this whole Kung Fu trio and pet plot came from?

Said that they had planned that Chat won't be in the final fight with Hawkmoth since the beginning? Good job, his character turned out has always been this worthless.

It was Amelie at the end and Emelie stayed dead? Good to know the last 8 years of her irrelevance actually became irrelevant.

Said it was actually Marinette's win? Of course when the villain finally achieved their goal it is the hero's victory.

They actually believe that Gabe is a hero? Hooray, so glad they actually believe that the terrorist who has no qualms nor remorse for physically and mentally beating his own son that he enslaved for his own business is a hero.

And that's not including how they don't explain how people become Miraculized despite it not being akumatization, or how Lila isn't affected by the nightmare, or why Gabe unified Tikki and Plagg in Deflagration instead of making the wish despite it doesn't requires him to unify them.

And those were from two episodes alone. Imagine if they had to explain other episodes, like Evolution and Derision. How deep can they dig their own grave?

I think the writers totally missed out on using Alya and Lila as foils for both being foxes, but using the power of illusion and misdirection in very different ways.

Lila: using emotions and threats to set a trap for LB (and CN, but she’s got that personal grudge)

Vs. Alya: using her intelligence/cunning to get out of a trap (and get LB out too)

And just in general being very different people:

Lila’s entire character is that she’s a liar who will do anything to avoid the truth, while Alya is the investigative reporter who uncovers truth.

Lila as someone who hates and is out to get both Marinette and LB vs. Alya who loves and supports both

I just think they could’ve done a lot more with this, especially since they made both girls a fox character, specifically surrounding the Fox Miraculous (I know Lila never had the real one, but she did pretend to for her akumatization)- that’s not nothing!

But nah, instead Alya just becomes brain dead around Lila, believes all her lies without question (no matter how stupid or nonsensical), and doubts everything her best friend tells her when it comes to said lies. Wasted potential.

Something I've noticed is that the show goes out of its way to portray Adrien's trauma as romantic.

In Kuro Neko, Adrien is exhibiting a trauma response wherein he invalidates his own feelings and tries to be whoever the other person wants him to be, and Catwalker is explicitly based on the mask Adrien puts on to please his abuser, which is also the persona Ladybug develops an instant crush on. What the show tells us, however, is that Adrien as Catwalker telling Ladybug that it's his own fault for being sensitive because he was hurt by her actions and following that up by promising to take care of her is romantic and wonderful.

In Strikeback, Adrien is once again downplaying his feelings and hurt in order to come to Ladybug's support because she needs him. He is once again invalidating his own hurt and absolving her of all blame. What the show tells us is that it's so romantic that Adrien was willing to push away his hurt feelings and come to her aid like a loyal partner even though she never apologized to him or promised to change her behavior.

In Protection, Adrien's tendency to want to be perfect for everybody and cater to their needs is depicted on screen, with him assuming the full blame for Marinette's confidence issues. He has a whole conversation with Kagami about how he needs to change himself for her. What the show tells us is that Adrien is so romantic and so sweet for essentially assuming blame for Marinette's inability to tell him her feelings and saying that he has to be the one to change and cater to her needs.

In Collusion, Adrien's reacting to his father sending him to London by saying "Marinette and I will last forever," is him clinging to the very little good that is going on in his life. It is him once again centering his identity around this girl and his relationship with her because he has never been allowed to be his own person. What the show tells us is that "Adrien loves Marinette so much uwu."

In Confrontation, Adrien writing "All I know is that I love Marinette Dupain Cheng," is him once more centering his whole life around his girlfriend because he has been conditioned into defining himself around other people because he has never been allowed to an individual in his own right. What the show tells us again is that Adrien loves Marinette so, so much, you guyz.

In Conformation (credit to this post by @youremarvelous), Adrien telling Plagg he's angry at himself for falling short of Marinette's love is also him downplaying his own feelings and placing more importance on her, and him believing that he has fallen short of her love stems from him belief that he has to earn love. He's just shifted from defining himself based on Gabriel's wishes to defining himself based on Marinette's wishes. What the show tells us is that Adrien is such a good boyfriend for wanting to be perfect for Marinette.

The discrepancy between what has been portrayed and what the show wants us to think is concerning, to say the least.

Did the writers of Miraculous Ladybug ever wonder why Chloe is more loved by fans than Lila when they're both "mean" ?

The truth is, the writers only have themselves to blame.

You showed us a vulnerable Chloé. And every time you put her in the spotlight, even when she's acting mean, she has such funny lines that we just want to laugh.

Lila, on the other hand, is never around and when she is, she has such plot armor that you just want to hate her. It's so frustrating to see that everything always works out for her. Even when things don't go her way from the start, they always end up going her way. We can also add to this that nothing cultivates in us empathy for Lila.

Miraculous and Redemption

You know, I think I understand what my issue is with this show’s stance on redemption. It’s not specifically who gets the redemption, even the hypocrisy of who does or doesn’t get redemption/forgiven is only one part of the issue.

It’s specifically how they treat the characters who don’t get redemption.

I have seen, in media, where terrible characters who’ve done terrible things get a redemption, and the mean characters, who are just mean, don’t change at all. That’s fine! People are complex, some change and some don’t, some have done horrible things and some are just school yard bullies. It’s fine to showcase this, I mean hell, in the Owl House, Boscha was still an asshole in season 2, and this was past the point that characters like Lilith were forgiven (Lilith isn’t really terrible in Season 1, she just has done a lot worse than Boscha)

Miraculous’s massive issue with this, however, is that the narrative/the authors treats those mean characters as worse than those characters who’ve done horrible things.

I mean, what other media has one of the creators say that some high school bully is comparable to Trump when her literal rich, corrupt, politician father is right fucking there?

Usually the media where a terrible person is redeemed and the mean character isn’t doesn’t treat it as a moral issue. It’s not “oh well this person can’t change” or “oh this person is even worse!” It’s usually “they’re mean, and that’s annoying, but oh well”. That media never treats the character like Satan incarnate, or treats their meanness compared to actual villainy as a moral issue. When characters are around them, they aren’t treating that mean character as literal scum compared to the former villain, the narrative doesn’t treat them as more than an annoyance or, for lack of better words, “small fry”. I mean, while Owl House acknowledged that Boscha was still a prick in season 2, they didn’t act like she was worse than Belos.

Miraculous treats Chloe and Lila, some petty, mean teenagers, as the literal devil compared to other characters. Lila is a master manipulator who somehow convinced 3 people she’s their daughter and has a trillion disguises! It doesn’t matter that that twist came out of nowhere, and it makes it a little weird that this teenager has multiple disguises that she uses around the city apparently, one where she looks like a 20 year old, making people theorize she’s an adult because how on earth is she smart enough or resourceful enough to do this. Chloe is a villain comparable to Gabe, even when she was a hero! Her backstory doesn’t justify any of her actions, but for literally everyone else, we are going to justify their actions! If they don’t do that, they’ll just sweep their actions under the rug completely! It doesn’t matter that she’s consistently being manipulated by the fully grown adults around her, she’s terrible don’t think about it! She neglected her father somehow (???????????????????) so it’s fully justified to send her off with her abusive mother! We aren’t even going to acknowledge that Andre literally had a part in raising her and her turning out this way, because somehow he did no wrong! And what sucks is that it’s succeeding at making those characters appear that way, because some fans are completely genuine when they say that Gabriel is more sympathetic than them. I mean, if you frequent the Reddit (which you absolutely shouldn’t, one way or another it will melt your brain), you’ll consistently see character rankings with Gabriel, Lila, Tomoe, and Chloe in the same category. Somehow the show put the bullies in the same categories as the literal abusive terrorist and his helper in these people’s eyes. You will constantly see these literal teenagers be put on the same category as adults who have done infinitely worse. Even Andre, who is a corrupt politician and terrible role model and literally RAISED CHLOE… is “woobified” by some fans, even going as far to say that Chloe abused him! Nevermind how that would even be possible when she was like, 5-7 when her mom left! I can’t point my fingers at the fans for this though, because the show goes out of its way to place all of its sympathy on the adults, even when they don’t deserve it, EVEN WHEN THE PAST WRITING LITERALLY PAINTS THEIR ACTIONS AS BAD

(It also doesn’t help that the fully grown adult’s actions are all forgiven but god forbid you’re terrible as a teenager, then you’ll get sent off to live with your verbally abusive mother while your basically deadbeat father adopts your half sister literally right after wiping his hands of you)

I will talk about the hypocrisy in redemption at some point, and how bias and forgiveness is handled, but godDAMN, this sucks

Five Ways SentiAdrien is a Retcon

Adrien’s a sentimonster now, but he wasn’t always. Here’s a list of things that wouldn’t have happened if Adrien was a sentimonster:

Chat Blanc

Epehemeral shows us what happens in a world where Gabriel Agreste learns his sentison’s identity. Chat Blanc shows us what happens in a world where Gabriel Agreste learns his human son’s identity. If Adrien was a sentimonster in season 3, then Chat Blanc would have ended with Gabriel winning just like he did in Ephemeral. But it doesn’t because season 3 Adrien was a real boy.

Gorizilla

Nooroo: Master, you don't really think Adrien could be Cat Noir?

Gabriel: I don't know. But he's hiding something for sure. Since his bodyguard has failed to keep an eye on Adrien, there's only one way for us to uncover his secret.

Yeah, put on one of the slave collars and say, “Adrien, tell me what you’re hiding from me?” Problem solved! Except Adrien wasn’t a sentimonster yet, so Gabe had to use an akuma instead.

Felix

As of season 4, Felix and Amilie know that the Agrete’s wedding rings are amoks, so why were they so obsessed with getting their hands on them back in season 3? What were they planning to do with Adrien? Why did Amilie think that was a reasonable request? There’s no way that she’d hand over her son’s ring! Easy answer: the twins cousins weren’t sentimonster yet and the rings weren’t that special. That��s why that plot goes nowhere and why Felix’s actions don’t match his actions after they decided that the boys were sentimonsters.

Origins

Adrien keeps sneaking out of the house to go to school and Gabe just yells at him, never using the slave collars. Plausible, I guess, but still hard to buy given how controlling he is. Why wouldn’t he use one of the rings? He already doesn’t care what Adrien wants and Gabe does not get meaningfully more controlling as the show goes on (it’s part of why season 5 completely fails to make him feel worse in my book).

Miracular

Cataclysms drive Sentimonsters insane, but kill humans, so Chat Noir probably should have gone insane here. Along similar lines, the fact that akuma powers work on him like a normal human is super weird because Adrien isn’t a true human. Can he break his bones? Does he even need to transform to fight? Do all sentimonsters have the ability to use miraculous? I have questions that this show will never answer because the answers don’t exist. That would require competent, well-thought-out lore.

Everyone always goes on about how Adrien and Mylene aren't assholes despite experiencing trauma

But

Surprise, surprise!! People react differently to trauma!

YOU may wanna be a better person, YOU may never wanna be mean.

But not everyone comes out of trauma all nice and kind.

Obviously, and I can't stress this enough cuz sometimes people CANT FUCKING READ. This doesn't mean be a bully, this isn't excusing Chloe. She's a fucking bully and an asshole. We KNOW that.

But holy shit. Not everyone wants to be a good person, sometimes when you feel shitty you wanna lash out and take it out on everyone. Is it right? FUCK NO. But it happens.

It doesn't make then evil, (especially when you're fucking 14 and you get compared to a literal grown terrorist, bffr)

Also. Marinette told Chloe in order for her shitty mom to love her she had to act like her..no ones gonna talk about that stupid ass evidence?? Just. God damn.

Also. Mylenes mom abandoning her shouldn't be compared to Chloes mom abandoning her to have a whole other child and leaving Chloe with a spineless, useless father who gave her EVERYTHING she wanted and never taught her how to act cuz he sucks.

Adrien was conditioned to act properly and do everything he's told or he'll get his freedom or anything he loves takin away, and despite that he still sees the good in people, that's great!!

Chloe was raised being handing everything with no consequences. They can't be comparable!

Chloe definitely deserves to be called out for bullying but she's not worst than all the shitty parents or terrorists in this show idc

This will never not make me laugh

In case you don't know what this is, this is all the sightings of Socqueline Wang in Season 5. Aside from her debut, she only had like two cameos before her big moment in Derision's flashback where she turned out to be this super important figure in Marinette's life...and then she just disappears from the season altogether after the flashback is over. Right after we find out how she got suspended, she just stops showing up for the rest of the season. She doesn't even appear in the present of the same episode or even cameo in the background in episodes afterwards. She's just gone. It's like after they showed her getting suspended and this epic farewell scene between her and Marinette where she rips off the Majesta speech from Alya (Because why not steal one more thing from Alya?), they just treat it as though she isn't in Paris anymore even though we saw her two episodes ago still helping her friends. All this does is serve to prove that Socqueline's entire character is just to provide tragedy for Marinette's backstory and nothing else. I can't even say this is salt for Socqueline because this feels like the writers throwing her out as soon as she apparently fulfilled her purpose in showing Marinette having a big sad because of mean old Chloe. She doesn't even appear in the background of Revolution in protest of Chloe, which you think she would considering how much she hated Chloe. It's an instance of them just creating a disposable character purely just to prove a point and instead of keeping her in the cast, they just throw her into the bin because she doesn't serve a purpose anymore. More people hate Chloe now and that's all that matters to the writers. Screw actually developing this character who's supposedly a great figure in one of our main character's lives. As far as the writers are concerned, she already fulfilled her purpose in the narrative and that's infuriating to me because of how utterly manipulative it all comes across as.

Is this irrational? Am I too upset at the treatment of what's basically a minor character in this show? You be the judge.

Don't you just love how he says this right after admitting to Marinette that he tried to akumatized her multiple times,saying that he doesn't give a shit about the people he endangered,and when Marinette tried to tell him there's another solution he immediately immobilized her and took the miraculous to make the wish and doesn't give a crap about Mari telling him to stop

And even after ALL THAT,this guy gets treated as a hero by everyone in Paris,Wow what a great well written main villain writers/s

What really angers me the most is how Marinette just accepted Gabriel's garbage promise about not telling his son about anything Hawkmoth related and only tell him about the ✨positives✨ (which my guy you treated your son like crap everyday even with your Nice!Gabe act,like you forced your son to be in a relationship with his ex girlfriend and locked him in an empty room alone in London,this is just fucked up),but also lying to everyone that Gabriel is a hero who saved everyone and it's just uuuuggghhhhhh

Also the fact that Emilie,Nathalie,Felix and Kagami don't even bother to reveal to Adrien about his Dad or the fact that he's a SentiKid makes my blood boil,seriously what a bunch of assholes

Also ALSO love how the miracuclass went from "Boo fuck you Gabriel you're a shit father" to them having no issue celebrating Gabriel as hero????,like does nobody in Paris be a little suspicious about Gabriel saving the day or is everyone losing their braincells even when Lila Cerise Iris isn't around

Anyway in conclusion this show is pure irredeemable garbage and this Season finally proves it with it's shit ending

An idea that i don't see people talk about is Chloe being Adrien's sister figure. She had mommy issue earlier than Adrien, then when Emilie was dead, she felt unconscious responsibility to protect and take care of him. All of her affections are all platonic. That's why she hates when Adrien having new friends, bcs they took him away from her. Like, imagine if Chloe has brother complex.

I swear there's a lot that can be explored from their relationship if the writers aren't cementing themselves in "Make everything about Adrienette" and "Adrien is a damsel in distress".

Sigh, another day another wasted potential the show had.

Just had someone tell me that Marinette telling Chloe and Audrey that they should bond over being toxic and entitled was okay because she was being sarcastic, and I just gotta say..... no? that doesn't make it better??

Thankfully this person was pretty civil, and open to having an actual conversation about that scene, and by the end of it we came to agree on some things.

But I still wanna blog about it, because I have a lot of feelings.

Even if Marinette was saying it to be ironic, which still isn't an interpretation that I'm fully on board with, but for the sake of argument, even if she was, that's still a horrible thing to say given the circumstances!

Marinette doesn't have to like Chloe, but if her first reaction to seeing a girl her age on the verge of tears while she asks her mother "Why don't you love me?" is to have a laugh and say "Well, you both suck, so you should be glad to be stuck together!" then that is terrible, and petty, and vicious!

If for some reason you wanna have Marinette banter with Chloe about it, at least wait until she isn't in the most vulnerable position possible, baring her deepest trauma while confronting her abuser.

Either way you slice it, Marinette had no right to say what she did! She was either giving harmful advice that she wasn't qualified to give, or she was being downright cruel.

Anyway, I had a discussion a while back about how Adrien wasn't abused before Emilie's death and I gotta say I disagree, but I'm feeling too lazy to write a whole post about it so here are some bullet points.

Adrien has no friends except for Chloe. I wonder why the boy who is so desperate for emotional connections and friendships would not want to or try to make friends for 13 years except for one girl who is conveniently the daughter of the mayor of Paris unless his parents didn't let him.

Gabriel canonically only gave Adrien a stupid pen for three years (i.e. during the time Emilie was alive) and doesn't that paint a picture of a loving and attentive father. Adrien has also never had a birthday party before.

Adrien's lack of awareness of social cues doesn't make it seem like he is someone who was allowed to socialize like children normally are, and speaks to a lifelong isolation as opposed to it just starting after Emilie died.

Adrien doesn't act like someone who is used to unconditional love and had it stripped away from him. Never does he express confusion over his father's sudden turn from being loving to coldness, not once does he indicate that his father used to act way differently. And yes, Emilie being nice and loving is something that can coexist with her being a bad parent who at best simply allowed Gabriel to isolate Adrien from the world and at worst actively contributed. Adrien only ever mentions that she was nice, not that she ever disagreed with his father on how to raise him.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a child who is used to being assured of his own worth and loved so unconditionally for 13 years would so completely internalize the contradictory idea that he has to earn love by being whatever the other person wants him to be in the span of less than a year without any trouble and with no doubts or confusion at all as to why everything is so different from before. The practiced way he wears his masks around others without once suggesting that it was different before at some point indicates that this has been the norm for him. And not once does he seem to expect anything different from anyone as opposed to just Gabriel. You would expect that someone who is used to being unconditionally loved would just expect that and view his father as an exception to the rule, but that's not the case.

To continue from the previous point, Adrien doesn't react to being shown unconditional love like someone who has experienced the feeling before would. Not once does he bemoan the loss of his supposed better treatment prior to Emilie's death. He acts genuinely surprised and shocked when Gabriel is nice to him, like he's never experienced it before. The way he clings to Ladybug's unconditional support like it's the best thing he's ever had doesn't speak of someone who was raised with unconditional love in abundance. He genuinely does not know how to not put up a front all the time in front of everyone because he believes that is what everyone expects of him, which is something that he probably shouldn't think if he spent 13 years of his life being loved and supported unconditionally and being able to be himself.

As evidence for this being a lifelong thing and not just something that started after Emilie died, consider the fact that Adrien's childhood dream is to be whatever his parents wanted him to be. Idk about y'all but the fact that this child had no dreams and desires of his own except to be his parents' little doll says a lot about how he was raised, and only proves that he's never really seen himself as someone who gets to have his own desires outside of pleasing his parents and having to earn their love even as a child, proving my point that this isn't something that started less than a year ago.

No, but Wishmaker really did shit all over the "Adrien's life only became bad after Emilie's death" argument huh. I sincerely question why anyone thinks that Emilie wasn't abusive after watching that episode.

And idk, the fact that he was constantly mind-controlled by his parents his whole life should be enough to understand that they are abusive pieces of shit.

My impression is that it got worse after Emilie died but was pretty bad before already (I mean, I thought it couldn't get much worse than mind-control, but Gabriel the asshat managed to make it happen). But honestly, the show has such an inconsistent tone with their portrayal of Emilie. They seem to want her to be seen as a good and loving and perfect mother, but then there are so many unfortunate implications regarding her treatment of Adrien that they just... do not acknowledge.

Seriously, giving Chloe the advice "Be nice" is like giving the advice "Don't be sad" to someone with severe depression

In both cases, it is alleged that the person did not want to accept help and it was all their fault

Forgiveness in Miraculous

The main issue I have with the redemption in ML is that redemption = forgiveness

The fact that characters get redeemed/forgiven/absolved when they haven’t done anything to warrant any of that: they simply change their mind and oh they’re good now! The good guys fully accept them as good too!

The characters who are “redeemed” so far have not put in the work to be redeemed

Literally the only character I can think of who did something bad and is actively putting in the work to be better and be there was fucking Jagged Stone

Felix barely did shit to be actually be a better person, and yet Kagami’s vouch for him is supposed to be our indication that he’s redeemed, not only that but he’s on the team!

Nathalie changed her mind, then changed it back to continue helping Gabe, then changed her mind again at the last possible moment, and she’s just chilling at the end with Marinette not doing anything about it, somehow that’s our indication that she’s redeemed (if it turns out Marinette forgot because of the wish somehow someone please throw a brick at my head)

Andre literally hasn’t even tried to act better or be better, and he’s completely absolved from all his actions because “he’s sowwy!” At least the other two characters tried doing something at the end, he didn’t do shit!

I am aware that them being better people could come around in season 6, but that’s not my issue. My issue is how they are treated as already redeemed without them putting in any work whatsoever!

It’s so ironic that the writers rag on Chloe because they say she only did good things because of selfish reasons, when the redemptions for the other characters literally amount to them changing their mind and that’s it