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mochinek0 · 6 months

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Daminette December 2023: 8-Not Soulmates

Adrien smiled as he looked at the calendar. Tomorrow was the day that soulmates would be revealed to everyone who was between sixteen and eighteen. It had been three years since last time and he was excited for when it was his turn. If anything, he was hoping that Marinette Dupain-Cheng was his soulmate. Marinette was his friend, but she was also kind, creative, smart, and she made tasty pasties. He also thought she was a bit cute. All he wanted to do was protect her from guys that could hurt her.

Adrien turned at the sound of his door opening and saw Natalie.

"Hey, Natalie." he spoke, "Is there a change in my schedule?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about tomorrow." she answered, "How are you feeling?"

"Excited." Adrien declared, "I sort of have my eye on one of my friends. I hope it's her."

"Even if she isn't, don't be disappointed. The person with you mark is waiting for you." Natalie stated.

Adrien glanced down at her hand. It was bare or covered with makeup.

"What about your soulmate?" he questioned.

"I had my eye on someone, too." Natalie replied, "We weren't a match. They matched with one of my friends and they had a family. I'm very happy for them."

"How did you-" Adrien began.

"Handle it?" Nat asked, "I was sad and upset, but I saw how they interacted. They were right to be paired up. I know my soulmate is out there and I haven't stopped looking."

Adrien nodded his head as she left the room.

Adrien got out of his car, excitedly. He immediatley spotted Marinette and made his way towards her, ignoring the people calling out his name.

"Hey, Mari!" He shouted, "Excited about today?"

"Yes!" Marinette smiled, "My soulmate is gonna be here next week!"

"Huh?" Adrien spoke outloud.

"Oh, right." she giggled, "My soulmate is my best friend, but he's in the United States. They actually set an alarm for the time I woke up so they could talk to me about my mark. We found out we matched!"

Adrien grasped the strap of his bag. He felt like the ground was going to fall out from under him.

"Oh." he whispered.

"Yeah." Marinette smiled, showing off her soulmate mark on her hand.

Adrien saw a sword and a needle with a piece of string that formed an X .

"He said he immediately thought of me when he saw the needle." Mari continued, "But he wasn't sure."

"Th-That's great." Adrien managed to say.

"Of course, we have to see if it's romantic, but-" She concluded.

Adrien looked at her confused, "What do you men?"

"Can I see your hand?" Marinette asked.

"Huh?" the model spoke, confused, "Uh, sure."

Marinette pressed their palms with soulmate marks together. He watched as his mark glowed a light blue.

"Blue?" he spoke.

"Mine was blue too." Marinette declared, So we could be considered platonic soulmates. We're friends. Blue is for friends. Red is for enemies and Gold is for lover. Even if Damian is only a platonic soulmate; he's still my best friend."

Adrien lowered his hand and nodded his head.

'At least it's not red.'

"Hey." Luka called, walking over, "How are you? How's the search?"

"My best friend is my soulmate." she excitedly told him.

"Damian?" Luka asked.

Adrien looked at the musician in shock.

'Luka knew about him and I didn't? Why?'

Marinette nodded, happily.

"He set a timer for when I wake up and asked." Mari recanted, "He didn't think he would match mine. He was just gonna give me a pep talk before I came here and freaked out."

Luka laughed, "Well, he has helped you out, a lot more than I ever did."

Mari lightly smacked his chest, "Damian just has a lot of older siblings to ask for advice."

Luka noticed the model's confused look and nodded his head towards him.

"May I?" he asked.

Marinette simply nodded.

"I can see you're confused, Adrien." Luka declared, "Marinette went through a difficult patch the last couple of years. Damian has many older siblings while he…..is not so great at socializing. When it came to Mari, he's reach out for help from his family or his friend to get an idea of what was going on, what he could do, or say to help her."

Mari smiled, "He's sweet."

"To you and only you." Luka smiled.

The conversation ended abruptly as the bell rang for school to start.

"We should get going to class." Adrien spoke.

"Yeah." Luka agreed, "Pretty sure teachers are just gonna let us go half way through. Don't know if anyone would pay attention today."

Marinette laughed as they entered the school.

The school couldn't handle the chaos. There were too many students on their phones, people yelling, fights breaking out because couples were breaking up or accused of cheating. Adrien walked out of the school and entered the car. He could feel Natalie eyeing him in the mirror. He just shook his head and sniffled. He was grateful that she didn't say anything on the way home. Adrien got home and collapsed in his bed. Natalie must have said something to his father because his meals were brought to his room and he wasn't bothered for anything scheduled.

Adrien watched a week later as Marinette ran up to some guy and hugged him.

'Must be her soulmate.'

He watched on as they placed their palms together and their marks glowed gold. He turned away as her soulmate lifted her chin up and kissed her.

'It hurts so much.'

As he walked towards the school, he heard whispers:

'Is that Marinette?'

'That must be her soulmate.'

'Man, I thought she was going to get with Agreste.'

'Yeah.'

'Didn't she like him or something?'

'Pretty sure they had a falling out.'

'They don't really talk anymore.'

'Someone said they say him crying when he didn't match with her.'

'Yeah right. He could have anyone. Why her?'

'They were friends years ago.'

'Well, something must have happened. Haven't seen them together for awhile now.'

'She probably got tired of him saying she was a great friend.'

'True. If I had to hear how much of a friend I was to my crush, I would have moved on, too.'

'That new guy looks like he's already in love with so that works in her favor.'

Adrien pulled out his phone and texted Natalie to bring the car back to the school and meet him toward the back. When the car pulled up, he quickly got in. Before she could say anything, he broke down sobbing. Natalie was shocked but nodded for the driver to take them home.

'She's not my soulmate and it's my fault. I stopped paying attention to her. Luka knew about him. When did she get a new best friend and why from the US? He listened to her. He helped her. I called her a friend and the universe punished me for it.'

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#daminette december 2023 #daminette #adrien agreste #adrienette #adrien crushes on marinette #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne #damian x marinette #marinette x damian #soulmates #not soulmates #luka couffaine #platonic adrienette #romantic daminette #friends to lovers #mochinek0

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zoe-oneesama · 2 years

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Hi Zoe! I see you're done with Party Crasher. If I'm not wrong, Frozer is up next. What do you think about the episode?

This episode is a prime example of why Season 2 has nearly no rewatch value after you've endured Season 4. It's so hard to watch with hindsight.

So, the biggest funk of this episode was definitely Chat Noir - it was him when the episode came out and it still is now. Literally opening the episode with another romantic gesture when Ladybug confirms this MUST be post "Glaciator" because she very gently and sadly reminds him that he knows she's in love with someone else.

Well, he took the rejection SO WELL in "Glaciator", so why should we expect any different here?

This episode (paired with "Glaciator") is the episode that launched the "Nice Guy(tm) Chat Noir" idea. He says things in this episode that I swear were pulled right from reddit. He decides they should go solo because she turned down his rose... "We don't always have to do everything together, after all. It's not like we're a couple." Seriously dude? All this time together, our partnership, our relationship, our friendship, it all means nothing because I don't want to be your girlfriend? Because I was honest about having feelings for someone else? THAT'S the kind of person you are? What a great role model.

But then he's over it, like, immediately. I'm so confused as to why this was even here. To make Chat Noir look like a dick? Way to sell your main love interest, show~

So Sadrien sadly takes his sad rose to fencing practice and gets his sad ass handed to him by Kagami, who's like "wtf kicking your ass is boring if you just let me" and he asks her "do you ever feel like you're stuck, replaying the same story over and over again and hoping for it change but nothing ever does?"

And Kagami's response is her infamous "the biggest mistake a fencer can make isn't choosing the wrong technique. It's choosing the wrong target. Change targets" advice.

First of all, her metaphor sucks. Fencing is a 1 vs 1 sport, you can't "change targets". You can switch from aiming for the chest to aiming for the leg, but it's still the same opponent, weirdo.

Second of all, nothing about what Adrien just asked you suggested he was talking about a person or a romantic suitor whatsoever. Your only hint was that he was holding his Reject Rose, but even so, why wouldn't your first thought be that he's talking about his father???

Seriously, this could've been a good lead in for the Adri////gami set up if Kagami had assumed he was talking about Gabriel and responded with empathy. "Yes, sometimes I feel like that with my own mother, but I realized I don't like feeling like I'm waiting for change to happen. I make my own change happen. If you want your story to be different, maybe it has to come from you."

And Adrien, still thinking romantically, is struck. 'Wow' he thinks, 'she understands me in a way that honestly? Not a lot of people would.' And he declares that she's right, he's going to change his story starting now, and hands her the rose, starting their romance story.

But no, sure, a bad fencing metaphor about how he should forget other hoes and look at her, that works too, who needs BUILD UP amiright? I was a fool to think that maybe Kagami would need a REASON to be into the Writer's Pet Adrien when he's OBVIOUSLY already PERFECT.

Not that any of this matters since Adrien all but tells Kagami to her face "I had a great time but I'm sticking to my original pick." and she says she'll wait for him, girl, have some self respect.

But that's getting ahead of ourselves. After the two part ways, we have a scene with him and Plagg about Adrien maybe switching targets, and uh..

Look, I noticed a real problem with the dialogue in this episode - there's a lack of connectivity throughout the episode with the things people say. I know I make jokes about the show having five writers per episode who don't communicate with each other, but here it reeeeeally feels like maybe that's not a joke.

Like here: Plagg suggests that Adrien is going to start pursuing Kagami and Adrien rejects this idea because he's in love with Ladybug ("No, no way. Ladybug's the only one I love), and it probably wouldn't work with Kagami anyway because it's his technique that's wrong and he needs advice on what to do.

This seems to suggest that Adrien isn't going to go after Kagami, and if he did, it would be to test out a technique on her. Like going out with Kagami would be practice. Now that's obviously not verbatim what he said and could justifiably be seen as reaching, but do you see my confusion? Not once does he say anything about being into Kagami or wanting to go after her (though admit-ably he did give her the Reject Rebound Rose).

But then two scenes later when he's asking Marinette for help, he's describing Kagami as if he's in love with her, as if he's really interested in her. Where did THAT come from between scenes?! Writers! COMMUNICATE!

Also he says in the French version that they have classes together, and in English that they study together, and I would just like to see WHEN?!

There's another example when Marinette goes off to the bathroom after Kagami gives more..."advice". Tikki asks why she's sad, and instead of pointing out the very obvious "Oh, I don't know Tikki, my crush asked me for advice on how to get close to another girl, I'm third wheeling his date and am forced to watch them skate around holding hands, she practically claimed him when Phillipe was trying to recruit Adrien for his ice rink by reminding him AND me that Adrien is with HER, aaaaand I fell on my butt in front of him, her, and the guy who I also have caught feelings for but am feeling bad about potentially leading him on because of my lingering feelings for Adrien. And then my crush's date basically told me it's my fault that all these things are happening to me because I 'hesitate'. That might have something to do with why I'm sad."

But instead her answer is she likes Luka but doesn't know if what's between them is that they're just friends, like with Adrien????

Even if that WERE a part of it, that's not the thing that started this or even the thing that set her off. So why is that the thing they made her stuck on??? That's like the fourth thing on the list of Things That's Made Her Upset. Her answer sounds like it comes from a pre-edited script or something.

So yeah, the dialogue is...weird. But that's almost normal for Miraculous Ladybug at this point.

So anyway, Adrien vows to get advice from someone who is Not Plagg and realizes very quickly that every adult in his life is utterly worthless so he scouts out his friends. Except of the 4 couples he zones in on (Marc and Nathaniel, Ivan and Mylene, Alya and Nino, Juleka and Rose) 3/4 of them are together because of Ladybug and an akuma.

"Hey bro, I need some advice, how'd you and Alya get together?"

"Oh, Ladybug locked us in a panther cage during an akuma attack after you tried to set me up with her best friend."

Maybe it's not as crazy that he went to Marinette as I initially thought.

(That said this gave me flashbacks because for some reason all my friends came to me for relationship advice despite being chronically single for most of high school, so, I felt that pain Marinette.)

And just...wow, writers, I know Marinette is your punching bag but this was just cruel. Having her crush, the guy YOU'RE SELLING as her true love go off about how pretty and special and amazing this other girl is right to her face? Is this supposed to be an equivalent heartbreak to what happened in the first scene? Because this doesn't feel equal, this just feels malicious on the writer's end. Ladybug didn't grind into Chat Noir's face how AWESOME the mystery boy is and at least Chat Noir got to throw a tantrum about it, where's Marinette's tantrum?!

I'll say the one point I give to the Girl Squad is them telling Marinette she's crazy for agreeing to third wheel this date and that she should definitely cancel on Adrien. If he can't handle being alone with the girl he wants to date, that sounds like a them problem, there's being selfless and then there's being masochistic, girl.

But then they lose that point for yelling over her when she tells them she's going to try being Just a Friend for Adrien.

The Girl Squad scene is also frustrating in this way that Miraculous is continuously frustrating in that the characters just don't quite say the thing that makes sense (like in "Maledictator" with Marinette calling Chloe "useless" instead of things that would actually stick like "bully"). Marinette says she's giving up on Adrien because she stutters around him and dating would be impossible if she can't even talk to him, and that she's calmer when she's trying to be his friend instead of dating him.

But what she should have said was "he just asked me advice on how to ask out someone else, he's clearly not into me!"

She has a good point with the stuttering thing, but that puts all the weight on HER for the relationship not taking off. It's HER that can't get it together, it's HER that can't get her words out, it's HER that's stopping them from being together. Meanwhile Adrien's over here asking out other girls, calling her "just a friend", not showing up to meet ups that she'll be at... Hell, he tried to set HER up with SOMEONE ELSE ("Animan"). He doesn't want to date her! Message Recieved!

So she brings in Luka, (which honestly, smart move, because how much would Kagami have REALLY hated Marinette if she showed up by herself on THEIR date) and we get The Metaphors.

Marinette is clumsy, this is a known fact, yet the only times she's clumsy at the ice rink is because she's focused on Adrien - when she focuses on Luka, she's smooth, easily let's him guide her, and is pulling off professional moves. ALMOST like he's a good, calming influence compared to the chaotic energy that Adrien brings.

The "problem" (if you're writing for this show and want to encourage Adrien and Marinette being together) is that the episode never challenges why this should be a bad thing. They want her to be with Adrien, soooo why are they basically visually proving why Luka is the better option? Why does this whole episode feel like it's actively trying to turn Marinette away from Adrien?

I mean obviously they're starting the Love Rival drama, but I mean long term. With the Skating Metaphor and Marinette bringing up how her own inability to think clearly around Adrien is a problem, and then never COUNTERING those problems, why are we supposed to root for them again?

Oh because Luka gave his consent in the end, not because of any merit that Adrien brings to the table, got it.

Then there's the obvious Two Guys Reaching Out to Help Marinette Up and She Hesitates Because Her Heart is in Conflict Metaphor. I only give this one props because at least none of the characters explained that one, they just let that one speak for itself, even if it was obvious.

Though that one accidentally extended when the reason Marinette doesn't choose is because Phillipe forces his way into the interaction to beg Adrien to join his rink - kinda like random, out of pocket shit that she has no control over is CONSTANTLY MESSING UP HER ATTEMPTS TO MAKE MOVES.

Gosh Kagami, maybe Marinette would've made a choice if she'd gotten five seconds between them without INTERRUPTIONS! Maybe she even would've grabbed BOTH of their hands, then what would you have done?

Sighhhh, I'm sorry Kagami, I don't mean to rip on you. It's just that you were so freaking RUDE in this episode to anyone who wasn't Adrien (and also a little bit to Adrien tbh). You can turn Phillipe's offer down without telling him his favorite sport is basically trash. You can help Marinette up without rubbing it in that you got the guy first. You can let Adrien turn Phillipe down himself without peeing on him, as if you're jealous of a this guy just for asking Adrien to join a sport ("he already fences with ME!"). Let the boy speak for himself - maybe he actually was interested, did you check in on what he wants?

Yes, Adrien shouldn't just go along with people to make them happy, but he's not going to learn to stand up for himself if you just speak for him.

And Luka...well you're just here for a good time, aren't you? So patient, so kind, so the only person in the room who can read the writing on the wall. At least someone in this group isn't lying to themselves.

I'm losing steam, so let's rapid fire:

I knew I'd hate Phillipe as soon as I saw him and I was right. He's annoying and I bet he's the reason no one wants to come to his stupid ice rink because he's lurking there interrupting other people's dates. I was on Andre's side when he ragged on him for trying to force people to join (though dude you gave him ten minutes, what did you think would happen?)

Luka's so magical he can play electric guitar without an amp or any sound amplifying device, impressive. Or the people on this show have never touched an instrument.

Also Luka, your advice to just be natural and go with the flow is great and also WASTED on Adrien, his "natural" is a DISASTER.

Adrien panic-lying that he brought Marinette to teach him how to skate was pointless. Maybe Kagami would've thought it was endearing you were too nervous to go on a date with her alone if you were just honest about it, but now it's just Another Thing Kagami has to turn into a competition because she sees Marinette as a RiVaL (which honestly amazing jumping to conclusions because wut, where'd you get that idea?)

Also, does Kagami shoot a bow? She says she only participates in "noble" sports, like bow or fencing, but I can't tell if she's listing sports she considers noble, or listing sports she participates in. Also what does a "noble" sport even mean?

S-stalac-Tikki...and Plagg-lagla. I know it's Plagg-Glacier in English, but it's Plagg-lagla in French and it sounds like Adrien's VA is gargling or stuttering when he tries to say it.

What happened to Luka and Kagami, you're not even going to show them frozen?!

Frozer is so ugly omigoooood not looking forward to drawing him.

So yeah, anyway, Frozer is hard to watch, especially with hindsight, the bad parts with Chat Noir are really bad but don't stick around long, so there's that, and while it doesn't feel like the characters are being too bad during this whole "dating" fiasco, it suuuuure feels like the writers were~

#ml salt #writing salt #looots of writing salt #frozer salt #my opinion #adrien salt #kagami salt #honestly it really is mostly the writing that's so bad #I did consider bringing in Ice Viperion and Ice Ryuko but logistically that doesn't work in SL since Marinette's not guardian #I might draw them for fun anyway but don't expect them in the episode #an essay by zoe

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imthepunchlord · 2 months

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Just a random question, but do you like adrien and marinette being the main duo, or do you think two other people would've been better?

Yes and no.

It's kinda complicated.

So, with my long break from Miraculous, clearing out my salt mines, and doing a gradual rewatch of the show with fresh eyes and enjoying the nostalgia of what used to be, I can say I am reminded on why, we as a fandom, enjoyed them as leads and as a pair.

There was some yin-yang potential in their dynamic, specifically playing off Lady Wifi introducing the Head vs Heart idea.

Marinette's an Empathetic Head. She's observant and perceptive, the planner and quick thinker, typically, she responds logically to what's presented to her. But she does feel deeply for others, and that empathy and kindness drives her to step up and help others.

Adrien in turn is a Reasonable Heart, at least, meant to be. He works off his feelings, goes with his gut, his wants; but he's also meant to be the emotional reason, knowing what to say to ground those that are getting caught up in themselves, offer support and direction, one they didn't consider or see before.

It nicely places off that theme that there's a little bit of the other in the counterparts, which is why the two halves have those dots, a little bit of yang resides in yin and vice versa.

And between the fluff and the snark and the support/loyalty they do offer each other, that potential for them as partners and users for the Cat and Ladybug is there.

Unfortunately, the writers' bias and stubbornness ruined that dynamic. What's meant to be a partnership of equals never becomes equals. Adrien never steps up as a leader and shares the weight of responsibility, and Marinette never feels like she can ease back and trust others to handle things, making her feel like she has to solve everything and be THE solution.

There's also the factor that they decided to prioritize the romance over the friendship, which did not really help Adrien as a hero as he focused more on his romantic pursuits than being a hero, flirting at the wrong time, not taking anything seriously... it was a bad look. And then Adrien and Marinette as civilians, despite being stated to be friends, I kinda question if they truly are. Adrien never actively goes to hang out with Marinette on his own, most of the time, there's a social expectation for them to hang out as civilians, or a favor is involved.

One of the aspects that has a romance work is having a good friendship to be that foundation. But the writers don't value friendship, not between actual friends and not between the love interests.

And the third issue is their means of growth.

Thomas, unfortunately, echoed the idea that girls grow through suffering. So Marinette's growth is just having the narrative against and giving her a hard time and she just can't win no matter what she does. Damned if she do, and damned if she don't. And I got to see that she developed anxiety and has an Atlas Complex and is very stress and just...

And with Adrien, he's just stagnant. He doesn't get involved in his own plot. He doesn't step up to the responsibility of being a hero, nor does he seek to share the weight of leadership. He's handed things on a silver platter, is allowed to be upset and petty and recklessly use his power.

And all of these factors just throws a big wrench into the potential of their partnership and them as leads and as the Cat and Ladybug heroes.

Better writers can make them work. And I bet there are a lot of good fanfics out there that have made them work.

I can see that potential and promise there. It's just really poor execution that ruined it.

I also will say, personally, I do think narrative wise things would flow better if they had a kwami swap at the start. Though, this is largely working the direction canon did go and I can see how a kwami swap could've combated that.

Plagg is set up to be the ideal foil to Marinette and have her grow, as she's too much of a giver, overthinks, piles too much on her plate, and struggles to put herself first. Extra bonus that they could've been a hilarious duo to see.

Tikki's big appeal with Adrien is that she would've gotten him involved in his own plot. Would've pushed for him to figure out who he is, what he wants to do, to be more involved if not be the leader, and to think more before he acts. And there could've been some good fluff as Tikki fills the void his mom left, as she can be very affectionate and supportive.

There's also the factor that Adrien needs someone to straight up tell him when he did something wrong or uncool. Anything that's a vague hint that Plagg occasionally gives just goes over Adrien's head or is ignored.

And there is that big appeal of shifting up the dynamics. Canon's issue is that Marinette and Tikki are initiators, while Adrien and Plagg are reactors. Mixing up these dynamics would've done wonders for their characters and interactions.

So, yeah over all, they can and could've worked as leads and holders of the Ladybug and Cat. The writing just really screwed them over. Though, I will say, doing different leads for Ladybug and Cat isn't an impossibility either.

#ask Punchie #ml salt

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theerurishipper · 3 months

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What's ur opinion on the whole "Blame the writing not the character" thing for writing, cause I think miraculous and its Fandom is a weird case.

Normally I prefer approaching everything from the "Blame the character" angle because at the end of the day all a character is IS their writing (this also applies to good things oc, not just bad). Especially regarding their emotions I don't see much purpose in distancing everything one doesn like about a character from them by saying "Oh, it's just the writing. Disregard it, tahts not who the character truly is" cause at some point that just reads as.. kinda refusing to acknowledge who the character on screen actually is bc one doesn like it.

Miraculous is just a weird case. You can smell the meta decisions 10 miles against the wind - like Marinette and Alya for some reason being able to beat Adrien in battle and Cat Noir pre-s5 being "incompetent". You know exactly that this is not character based writing, Cat has to be weaker than Ladybug and Scarabella because they're girls and they have to look good. It's hard saying Adrien is a weaker fighter in all those cases, or when the temp heros need to be brought in, because you at some level know exactly that there is a meta reason behind it. And that makes it hard to discredit him for that just as much as it's harder to actually give the girls credit for their abilities. They shouldn't be able to beat him so easily, but they do because of their gender and this shows "rules". Just like there is no actual reason in-universe for why he's suddenly on Ladybug's level in season 5. It just is.

(kinda weird how the show also never gave Kagami credit for being a trained fighter either. I guess they thought they can't acknowledge her training either or else they couldn't get away with making Adrien weaker as Cat Noir. So they probably dead ass denied Kagami her special spotlight too for shallow reasons (but at least their consistent)

But on the other hand, I personally don't think Marinette and Adrien leaving in Kwamis choice without saying goodbye to each other is out of character the way most people say it and then just disregard it by saying "it's the writing, not the characters". Rewatching that two parter, it set up alot from the finale, and I don't think them leaving each other like that is out of character just a harsh reality check where we are at after s4.

They never came out of that season actually "better" partnership wise just because Adrien decided to stay by her side these two times and remained kind and supportive. That was decided to be the Cat's definitive job towards the Ladybug so that's what he's continuing to do but that doesn't really concern anything beyond that. In my opinion it is very much questionable how much Ladybug and Cat Noir are actually REAL FRIENDS and not just kind collegues the way Marinette wanted in s4 (with potential for real friendship under better circumstances).

That's also why Adrien gave himself up in the finale, no? If they were real friends he would have been able to ask for her help as she was the only one who could have kept him save because of her yo-yo. But they're just kind collegues, so he didn't.

And just because he stayed her teammate doesn't it mean he's still in love with Ladybug or that he still WANTS to be in love with her after all that pain it caused him. So he made a harsh decision thanks to Plagg and prioritized finally being happy and getting some stability, especially because Gabriel was being fake loving.

And Marinette's romantic feelings for Cat Noir and her acknowledgment of him all together have always been of shakey and chaotic nature. Her feelings for him really started whne she was at her lowest an thinking herself all alone while also being afraid of her feelings for Adrien.

This was from the get go an already dark orange sign for how genuine her feelings are (desperation is always an iffy foundation) and as others already said, she's never seeing more in him than the mask. How can you say you really love a person when you only acknowledge half of their personhood? Marinette only started taking interest in who Cat is when she started getting frustrated by him not reacting the way she wanted him to. If he had I don't think Marinette would have thought about wanting to know who he really is, it really came across like a frustration thing which explained why she was so reckless about it in Elation, and why she then left afterwards.

I don't wanna say she saw no purpose in him anymore after being rejected by him (that's too strong) but we already saw in season 4 that Marinette's treatment or acknowledge of Cat Noir very much reflects what use and purpose she sees in him, hence why he was basically reduced to an irrelevant footnote by the end of season 4. Yes, she wanted him there as teammate but thats it. It's still questionable in my opinion if she even noticed him not showing up anymore at the beginning of Kuro Neko since she reacts surprised when the reporter points out his absence and then claims towards Plagg Cat should be happy that he gets to have time off, as if she just convinced herself that she generously allowed him a week off instead of her having been so deep in team leader mode that she didn't even notice him not showing up anymore.

Marinette not noticing him having stopped showing up is a harsh characterization, but I wouldn't call it out of character in the broader sense.

So her leaving when he rejects her, because she doesn't want to be his friend and teammate but his girlfriend and he said no? Can't say thats out of character either because the show is also really consistent in her characterization that she doesn't see much value in being friends with Adrien either because she loves him, so being friends is the worst thing possible for her.

À décision being harsh and not what one likes doesn mean it's out of character and one should distance the event from the character in one's head.

I think Kwamis choice makes alot of sense, as does the focus on Adrinette instead of Ladynoir, and how the finale played out.

Which goes back to my original question. It's very obvious that there are 20. 000 meta reason controlling the narrative, but in my opinion only in a specific way. Everything still makes sense in my opinion, it just feels so CONTROLLED.

Marinette is a mouthpiece for the writers messages but even if I think the messages are fucked up and hypocritical, I can't say any of it was ever out of character for her?

You get what I mean?

Yeah, I get that. I myself approach it from the "blame the writers" way, but like you said, it's a blurry line. What tips me over ultimately is the fact that Marinette should have grown but clearly didn't. What she does isn't out of character for her for sure, but as far as the writers are concerned, she has grown and she is better, and all the stuff she's doing isn't really a bad thing. So, I can't in good conscience blame the character for being bad when the people who are bringing her to life are the ones who really believe all the stuff that's being said through her. She's supposed to have developed as per the writers' vision, but clearly, she hasn't. It's bad writing, and that really isn't the character's fault. That's how I see it.

Thank you for your ask!

#ML Salt #ML Writing Salt #ML Writers Salt #Marinette Salt #Asks

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 2 months

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Tell me, do you think Amelie shows any of the signs of a woman who was mistreated by her husband, or at least do you think she did before season 5?

That is really, really, really not something you can tell just from a few casual encounters with a person, especially since we didn't meet her until after Colt was dead and we never saw her in another romantic relationship. Every victim will act differently and have different triggers. I have no doubt I could find Amelie's perfect match among real victims because there is no set pattern of behavior they're required to follow to be real victims.

All that being said, I think this ask may just be poorly phrased, so I'm gonna talk about the general way the abuse was handled by the story, which was not great.

As I talk about this more, please remember that we are discussing characters in a story and not real people. I would never be this critical of a real person because a real person is not a piece in an ongoing narrative. A friend revealing that they were abused without any prior indication of this fact is perfectly normal as victims are often very good at masking their symptoms. A character doing the same is often bad writing as stories allow you to get inside people's heads, to see people in private moments, or even just when no one else is looking at them. If the writers never take a moment to use those kinds of tricks to set up a big reveal like an abusive parent, then the reveal comes off like something the writers made up at the last minute, which is bad writing.

So, if you're asking if the show set up the reveal well, then no, I don't think it did as nothing we see in the show would make you guess that something was off about Colt. Like you could argue that it makes Amelie's overprotective and indulgent nature make sense, but lots of people spoil their kids without going through abuse, so that behavior didn't need to be explained. It was perfectly logical as-is.

You could also argue that the abuse explains why Felix is a bully, but plenty of people are awful to others without ever going through some sort of trauma. Felix being a bully could have just as easily have been the result of a pampered upbringing where he was given everything he wanted.

Colt's reveal can be argued to recontextualizes Amelie and Felix's behavior, but that's about it. It doesn't take questionable behavior and make it suddenly make sense. Like I'm still baffled as to why Felix did all the crap he did in his titular episode because he was never cruel just to be cruel again, so what was going on there? Why the dramatic character shift in season four and five?

For the show to have actually set up the reveal of Colt's abuse, it would have needed a really blatant example of Amelie or Felix being triggered OR some sort of line that established that something was off about Colt or even just a line to establish that Felix changed after Colt's abuse started since it's implied that it only showed up after he realized he was sick/dying.

For a trigger, just look at how Marinette was written in Derision. That actually was a good example of PTSD (or at least, my second hand understanding of it). The reason why I'm so critical of that episode is because PTSD doesn't magically turn on and off like that. It's not the kind of thing that shows up for a single episode and then disappears. Marinette should have been having moments like that long before Derision AND long after it, especially since the show has written in a lot of moments that would have made for good times to trigger her and establish that something was off. She's been to that pool with Adrien before. She had Kim ask for her opinion on a present he's giving to another girl. She saw an image of Kim down on his knees with a gift.

Any or all of those should have drawn out some kind of negative, trauma-based reaction from her if the writers wanted us to believe that this fictional character who they have full control over has ongoing trauma. Unless the writers are really saying that all those questionable jokes were her being triggered and then just.... I hope I don't have to explain how utterly disgusting that is.

For an example of a line, they could have done something like having Adrien apologize for missing Colt's funeral only for Felix to say something about Colt not deserving to be mourned or really anything to indicate that he wasn't exactly sad that his father was gone. They could have also had Adrien comment on how much Felix had changed since they were kids and how he could never imagine his cousin being so cruel.

To be fair, they kinda do that one with Adrien initially dismissing Felix's behavior as being the result of his father's recent passing, but it's hard to tell if that means that Felix used to be kind or what. That's especially true because Adrien's been show to tolerate a lot of bad behavior and Felix is canonically made from jealous (Yes, I'm serious, this was a line in the play: His jealousy came to life). So Felix has probably always been jealous of Adrien and will probably always be a jealous person because I guess that's just what he was made to be?

Moving on!

I wanted to highlight that the writers do know how to do this kind of discussion-based setup, as we saw back in Frightningale:

Mayor Bourgeois: But sweetie, there's no way we can cancel the shoot now. Chloé: (pulling out her phone) I'm going to call Mom and tell her how all my dreams have been crushed! (feigns sorrow) Mayor Bourgeois: (stammers anxiously, then grabs Chloé's phone and starts punching in a phone number) Let's not disturb our beloved Queen for such a little matter; right, my little Princess?

Even if this line is kinda weird since Audrey probably wouldn't have even answered the phone.

Any time the writers actually commit to a plot point, they set it up in a way that a little kid could pick up on because of course they do! This is a show for little kids. I think the writers do genuinely want it to be entertaining for the intended audience.

This is why the Colt thing is so weird to me. It's a pretty freaking serious thing to add to your show out of nowhere and I have a sneaking suspicion that it's never going to be mentioned again, which is less than stellar writing. It very much feels like something the writers added to hand waved away Felix's bad behavior, but I'd argue that this is actually a terrible lesson to teach kids.

Being kind to those who have gone through trauma is always a good lesson to teach, but Felix has attempted to assault Ladybug, tried to malign his cousin's good name by impersonating him, and betrayed the entire world by empowering a terrorist even though he could - and should - have immediately gone to Ladybug and told her who the terrorist was. These are not minor faux pas and trauma is not an excuse to traumatize others, otherwise we'd end up with a world full of traumatized people doing whatever they wanted because trauma!

There is a lot of nuance to this topic, but at the very least, Felix needed to do some serious apologizing to make his redemption feel earned. We should not be teaching kids that a sob story is all it takes to justify the kind of shit Felix pulled as that would mean that Gabriel and Chloe's actions were also fully justified because trauma! Might as well lump Lila in there, too, because I'm pretty sure that she's an orphan? Whatever is going on with her backstory is nothing good and we really need to be seeing some clearer messaging around who gets redeemed and why. It's why I've reblogged so many posts about Felix and Chloe being near identical in their actions. The issues is not that Chloe needs to be redeemed. The issue is that there is no reason why she wasn't and Felix was. There is nothing a child can point to in order to understand who you should give a second chance to and who you should run away from for your own mental health.

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical

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ilikekidsshows · 2 years

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What do you mean Adrien need more respect can you elaborate more because it wasn't the only time I see you said it

The way I see it, 'Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir' made a mistake in the very way the show is designed: they constructed a setting where everything hints at Adrien being a main character or at least a secodary character, but he's actually not. The show basically lies to the viewer about what to expect when it comes to Adrien's character. And I tend to have a pretty big beef with shows that lie to me.

The show is called "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir", Adrien's father is the literal main villain of the series, all the minor villains have a personal connection with him and his family has a long history with the Miraculous items. Meanwhile Marinette is just some girl from a bakery next to the school he goes to. The show's very story engine, the construct that creates the stories told in it, puts a lot of weight on stuff connected to Adrien when it comes to the superhero action, while Marinette's story engine connection are her feelings for Adrien, which generate the romantic comedy plots.

All the lore in Miraculous revolves around Adrien. You'd think that this would mean that Adrien would have a vital role in uncovering this lore as Marinette is the one who saves the day. You'd think Adrien's nearest and dearest being villains would be delved into some more since it's such a recurring thing. But none of this happens. Instead the show goes out of its way to make sure that anything that should be about Adrien and how he feels about it, is made to be about Marinette and how she feels about it.

Adrien discovers the Miraculous grimoire in his home, but the episode goes out of its way to make sure Marinette gets her hands on it and is the one who gets to meet Fu and become his student, while Adrien is left out on the lurch. Marinette is the one with an arc of realizing just how evil Gabriel is as she grows past her idolization of him, which might be building up to her being the one of the heroes who figures out he's Hawkmoth first. Marinette is also the one invested in Chloé's failed attempt at becoming a hero, while Adrien's feelings on Queen Bee are never brought up.

Season four ruined Adrien's relationships with every single character who isn't Marinette or Plagg and I think the only reason Plagg was spared is because they literally can't remove that relationship from the show. 'Rocketeer' exists solely so that Adrien won't tell Nino about him being Cat Noir, so that Adrien doesn't get a confidant like Marinette gets in Alya. This makes it so that Adrien will have less screen time to talk about his duties and life. The point is to make sure Marinette has more screen time.

The fallout of Marinette and Luka's relationship ending is depicted from Marinette's perspective, to show how she's getting by after the breakup. The fallout of Adrien and Kagami's relationship ending is depicted from Marinette's perspective as well, to show how she's feeling about Adrien and Kagami breaking up. We still don't have a single scene of Adrien and Kagami discussing their failed relationship outside of the breakup scene, which they absolutely had to include. The writers don't actually want to write about Adrigami, it only existed to make Marinette angst for the dramatic season three finale.

The way Nino and Kagami get removed from Adrien's support network is solely because the writers don't want to write about Adrien's relationships. They only care about writing about Marinette. I'm not saying this lightly. This is a consistent pattern in the show. The same happens in any situation where Adrien has a strong emotional response to something, and the writers sideline Adrien's emotions by having Marinette be even more upset by it or by giving Marinette something worse to deal with.

In the New York Special, Adrien kills someone and quits. This grief is sidelined in the narrative to focus on Marinette having an emotional breakdown about not being there to help Paris and then later angsting about Adrien quitting. The matter is resolved not by dealing with Adrien's grief, but by him coming back for Marinette's sake. The Cat Blanc timeline is not important for Adrien's character, despite the point of Akumatization being character development, it only exists so that Marinette can be upset about it. We know this because Adrien never finds out about it, while Marinette gets nightmares about it. In season four, Adrien gets pushed aside by Marinette constantly, and he is understandably hurt by this and quits. The episode then has him "learn" that Marinette needs his emotional support so much that he should come back and cater to her needs and ignore his own. In 'Destruction', Adrien once again Cataclysms someone, and once again the writers shoehorn in Marinette being upset about not being able to fix it. The best Adrien can manage on his emotions being taken into account by the writers is a few seconds of getting equal screentime with Marinette's.

The season four finale is what makes this writing bias obvious when the part in the story where Adrien was logically supposed to discover just how much Marinette had been keeping from him gets pushed aside by Marinette having an emotional breakdown about Félix tricking her and stealing all the Miraculous. The writers' priorities seem to be that Adrien's feelings on anything don't matter, only Marinette's. Whenever Adrien is justified in being hurt, the writers hurt Marinette worse so that they can ignore him and focus on Marinette instead. They also constantly keep information from him that the other characters should be giving him while not calling out these characters for keeping very important information from him. The important thing about said information control is that it’s always information that Adrien would do something about or have strong feelings about. It’s another sign that the writers don’t want to write about Adrien.

(This paragraph has been edited for more accurate information on the episode ‘Emotion’. The previous misinformation got mixed up because of a spoiler so now this post is accurate and spoiler-free.) The season four finale pivoted Félix into the role of the primary villain in Miraculous after Gabriel. However, in season five, Marinette gets top billing in the episode where he is convinced of the error of his ways, not his cousin Adrien, who Félix has wronged in every single one of his appearances and whose feelings about that this episode is supposed to address. The writers only allow Adrien to have his say once he’s been missing for most of the episode/Marinette has had enough screen time. The sidelining of Adrien and Félix interactions in favor of Marinette content is more on the whole "not allowing Adrien relationships outside of Marinette" thing they've been pushing since season four. Any relationship Adrien has only gets the minimum possible amount of screen time. It’s also part of a different pattern of Marinette and her feelings still getting focus in episodes that should be about Adrien, his family and his feelings, since we also had the episode with the anniversary of Adrien’s mother’s death have another confession attempt from Marinette and ‘Gabriel Agreste’ shoehorned in an entire Marinette subplot. The only time this series had a genuine Adrien-focused episode was when he and Kagami broke up, which I already stated was something the writers just couldn’t resonably exclude. 4% of this show’s episodes deal with things to do with Adrien, but only 1/4 out of those episodes puts focus on Adrien over Marinette.

Mariette’s romantic relationships in this show are really lopsided as well. We all know that it's a gender role cliche for women to always do the emotional labor in a relationship and to offer comfort, but Miraculous "solves" this one-sidedness by reversing it. Marinette's love interests are her biggest emotional support. Every finale has either Adrien or Luka swooping in to comfort her while she's having an emotional breakdown. Even Cat Walker is presented as a romantic option through having him swear emotional labor to Ladybug. Meanwhile Marinette never has to comfort her love interests because they're very skilled at hiding their emotions. This might be another symptom of the writers just not wanting to focus on characters other than Marinette, but I have seen that even progressive people in terms of women's issues tend to balk at the idea of men seeking out emotional support and comfort. Marinette and Luka breaking up the instant Luka needed more emotionally from Marinette does lean towards this former bias since Luka is allowed to have emotional needs as long as he doesn't ask Marinette to help with them. But, regardless of the reason for it, the end result is that Marinette's love interests are more emotional support dispensers than equal partners. The writers don't want Marinette to have boyfriends, they want her to have servants who cater to her needs, because she’s the main character and her boyfriend is her prize that she wins in the end.

This show has no respect for Adrien as a character. It seemed like he was set up as the secondary main character, only for him to be consistently treated as nothing more than Marinette's love interest. The writers only write as much about him as they absolutely have to. The fact that Adrien is also an abuse victim whose story is strictly about how little control he has of his life makes this all even worse, because the writers are actively removing any control he might have on the narrative as well. They're not doing this for the sake of theming, because then they would focus on his feelings about this. It's all for the sake of not having anything derail from their singular main lead. Adrien is a prop for Marinette, not his own character. And I’m too invested in Adrien’s character to be cool with this.

The thing about any of this is that if it was just any one of these matters alone, or even just a few of them, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Nothing is perfect, after all. But it’s this much stuff, and I’m sure this isn’t even all of it. It’s not only a consistent pattern, it’s a constant pattern, and it’s made me lose my patience with this show. It’s obvious these problems aren’t going to be mitigated, because they aren’t problems, it seems to all be on purpose because it keeps getting worse. Maybe it’s backlash at those Toxic Adrien Stans who want Adrien to be the main character in Marinette's place, so the writers diminish his role to drive home the point that he’s supposed to be Marinette’s support and will never usurp her role. The reasons don’t matter, all that matters is that the end result is my favorite character being treated like garbage.

#ml salt #this is basically me explaining why I'm done with the show #I still have some analysis posts I've already written that I plan to post but then I'm moving on to SPOP #I love Marinette but she alone can't keep me invested in this show #I was in it for them both from the start

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bunnidid-reviews · 2 years

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DID Movie Review

Facts -

Movie name: What if it Works

Date of Release: 2017

Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction

Was there a diagnosis of DID? Yes, but in the movie she calls it Multiple Personality Disorder

Was the person with DID presented as evil for having DID? Nope!

Major Trigger warning list:

-Childhood Sexual Abuse(nonexplicit, but there is a flashback shown)

-Attempted Sexual Assault

-an emotionally abusive relationship/manipulation

-Nonexplicit sexual scenes

-Ableism(the main characters called crazy, insane, generally insulted for having obvious signs of mental illness)

-Sudden angry outbursts/yelling/swearing

Subjective Review(this is how I felt about it) -

Personal triggering scale from 1 to 10 (1 being not triggering at all, 10 being a badly overwhelming experience that might cause personal harm): 1-2, (the climax scene may be more triggering as there’s the attempted assault)

Personal relatability scale from 1 to 10 (1 being unrelatable, 10 being OMG THAT’S ME!): 9!

Personal avoidance scale from 1 to 10(1 being eager to get on with it, 10 being impossible to finish): 1

My interpretation of the media(Includes spoilers):

Have you ever wanted a movie on DID that took the disorder seriously, but was still fun and light and romantic? Well What If It Works is the movie for you, then. It’s non-triggering and warm and gently funny, but it also takes the severity of mental illness very seriously. Something I see lacking in a lot of mental illness media, of it swinging one way with the evil/scary route, or the other, where it’s portrayed as a joke.

Onto the plot!

Adrian is an.. Auto-technician of sorts(? He’s into cars and technology and combines them to go vroom vroom pls don’t judge my simple mind) and he has a severe case of OCD, where most his rituals have to do with being kept clean and an extreme fear of bodily fluids. His OCD symptoms ramped up to a debilitating degree after a harsh breakup, and he since won’t contact anyone and has a tendency to fall into his ways and keep to himself. He’s socially inept and it makes me think he’s neurodivergent in a way too

He runs into Grace, first with his car, and next when she(as G at the time) bursts into his therapy appointment, thinking he’s the therapist she’s meeting with, and dropping essentially her own meet-the-alters/list of her sexual escapades. Here she starts talking about her boyfriend Sledgehammer, who seems like a bit of a dick

Sledgehammer is the man G’s in a toxic relationship with, as well as the top dog of their street art group. He’s setting up to have an exhibition, with G/Grace’s artwork being the centerpiece.

When Adrien starts stumbling more and more into Grace’s life, he inevitably starts learning about her parts in a very casual and respectful way that I really liked. He mentions going on a research binge after Grace asks, ‘How do you know about Parts stuff?’ (I’ve yet to see another movie call them Parts :0 ) She feels a lot more relaxed around Adrian and tells him a lot about herself, including her inner world(!!! Again hadn’t seen this much in movies), what roles her parts play, as well as the earliest trauma she remembers(a CSA memory with her babysitter) I loved that he firmly told her it wasn’t her fault.

They have a brief scene where we learn that they’re both extremely touch-adverse after G comes out to try and seduce Adrian, possibly to scare him off. (Adrian’s extreme fear of bodily fluids, Grace’s extreme fear of affection). Even after his outburst and wanting to hide away, he offers to take her out on a friendly/sort of date.

The more Adrian wants Grace in his life, the more strides he makes towards healing. In turn, Grace finds she’s communicating more inwardly and getting more in touch with her parts. Neither party is reverting their mental illnesses overnight, but their great strides are something to feel pride for and its so nice to see!

As Adrian keeps coming into her life though, Sledgehammer starts getting more apprehensive about his girlfriend wanting to be around another man. An art institute in Edinburgh offers Grace an exhibition of her own through Sledge, but he denies it for her both to keep her for himself and make sure she can’t succeed without him.

Around the same time, tensions rise as Adrians ex girlfriend comes back to lay her woes on him about her going to be married. Her extreme insecurities have seemingly always lead to her actually encouraging his OCD behavior and ‘keeping him crazy’ to make her feel normal. Something something she’s getting something medical done and she’s using it as an excuse to come back into his life

Tensions rise, there’s an outburst, but Adrian and Grace are obviously falling in love and aching for eachother from their situations. G tries to break it off once and for all with Adrian by breaking into his home with Sledge to have ~the sex~ there, and it seems to be a breaking point for him and they stop talking

Until after Grace’s messy breakup with Sledge, who comes in a rage to her apartment and drags her inside to be assaulted. Adrien is in the middle of one of his rituals, and can’t make it out the door, so he takes his car and bursts through the wall to save her. She’s already knocked Sledge out, but the act of his heroism that he couldn’t make for his ex drives the emotional point home and they finally admit being in love with eachother and wanting to touch genuinely. We see them in the last shot holding hands :D

I wanted to write the whole thing out like this because there’s a lot I wanted to say about it! A lot of really great representation for mental illness and communication and healing and therapy, which is hard to find all in one movie.

I really loved that these two people with mental illness, even debilitating, are worthy of love and not being alone. The therapist gently guides them towards leaning more into their love and sexuality and insists its healthy to. Them both breaking free of their abusive relationships by their own strength but also for eachother, is extremely satisfying to see. You really end up rooting for them both and I love love love this movie!!

What they got Right in my opinion: Where to start!! Hmm

-Controversial take: I don’t think Adrian’s depiction of OCD is a bad one. Yes it does lean into the (sometimes seemingly nonsensical) cleaning trope, but it’s said that the director based his OCD off her brother’s own experiences. Personally, my sibling went through a really extreme phase of their trauma-based OCD that really mirrored this depiction as well, right down to the washing things to an extreme and wearing gloves and even changing their gloves every time they touched something. I don’t know enough about OCD, but I don’t think it’s fair to label it as inaccurate just because it’s an extreme case. Some people really are ruled entirely by their mental illness and that doesn’t make them less worthy of love or space to exist, even in fiction!

- Oh in the start of the movie, Adrian runs into a group of drag queens and even though he’s very inept in conversation, the drag queens are not shown to be predatory and not portrayed as a joke beyond Adrian just being really awkward around them(but we find out hes just an awkward around anyone really). I just thought that was really nice

- Grace calls her parts parts and I find that really neat!

- Grace describes having an inner world (A house, where she can usually see all the rooms(not all the time) and have a vague awareness of all her known parts. There’s a heart-shaped clock at the top, which gets referenced in her art and various panning through the film. Maybe related to loosing time when switching?)

- Grace has an awareness of her trauma and that she has ten parts, and none of this is explained explicitly and I find that really really refreshing. She’s been in therapy for a while, she knows where she’s at. The audience doesn’t have to be in on everything and that is so sooo cool!!

- Grace is working towards final fusion!!!!! It’s not something her therapisy pressured her to go for, but a clear choice that she’s been working towards over time. Mag-fucking-nificant I love it!!

-G is such a striking representation as kind of a persecutor-protector part, or at least a part who has ‘puffy confidence’(A term I coined for me and my friend, about parts who ‘puff themselves up’ to appear stronger and bigger that they are. Spike is like this too in the movie) Her hypersexuality is portrayed really well. I actually really liked how she went into how disgusted they felt afterwards in a very dissociated way? I 1000% have parts just like G.

-Grace’s touch adverse and hyposexuality felt really accurate too. The inability to be intimate or even want to be touched really hits home with me. I love that the costumes are very telling of how she’s doing. The more layers she wears reflects her comfort levels. They don’t immediately come off for Adrian, either, but instead in the end scene we see she’s wearing one of G’s layers too… ugh I could ramble on this for hours

-The substitute belief/symbolism that Little held about drawing red teapots as a means of communication was extremely accurate. I found it even more so as Grace talk about it bluntly like she knew at one point, then gets confused when it actually shows up in her artwork. Her amazing friend even suggests it’s a means of communication and I liked that a lot

-described coconsciousness!!! The fact that not every switch(in fact hardly any) are blackout amnesiac

-Not DID but I liked how they portrayed manipulation with the ex girlfriend and Sledgehammer. The need to make their partner small and trapped with themselves out of insecurity is classic abusive behavior and it was handled really well in two different ways

What they got Wrong in my opinion:

- I do think some of the OCD episodes were a bit ridiculous and Adrian shouldn’t have been surprised his car didn’t work after washing it very destructively. I can see the logic that drove him to doing it initially, but wouldn’t he knowwww afterwards? I think regre rather than surprise would work better?

- It’s called Multiple Personalities by the characters, but I almost wonder if this was a choice to touch base on what people know about the disorder more commonly and just move on with it rather than a misinformed choice, because the director herself knows it’s called DID.

Would I recommend this to someone with DID to watch?: YES!!!! Yes yes yes!!! In fact, I’d even recommend you show it so someone who you might want to tell more about the disorder but don’t have the words for doing so yourself. It’s a lot softer and easier to swallow than other DID media without making a joke of it

I would also recommend you listen to this interview with the director about her intentions with the movie, because they really come from a place of personal experience and absolute love and goodwill towards people with DID and OCD. You can listen to it >>Here<<

#what if it works movie #dissociative identity disorder #dissociative identity disorder media #otherwise specified dissociative disorder #actuallydid #DID in media #did movie #bunnidid reviews #sorry this one got a bit long i love this movieee #please watch this movie its rlly good!!#theres a free low resolution version on youtube and i believe otherwise on amazon? not sure #if you're looking for the Least Triggering Movie this ones probably it

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aidanchaser · 7 months

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This fic is owed to @valiantlyjollynightmare for the original and @ladyofthenoodle for a full 3 rounds of beta reading. I haven't had so much redrafting of a fic or intensive beta reader work since I was writing the HP AU. She was truly a phenomenal help, and her work paid off. Please drop her a thank you for organizing the @mlsquaredance event and all her incredible hard work on this one-shot.

Read the original work here.

Read the remix on Ao3 or below.

Marinette left her phone on her bedside table as she trudged downstairs. She was done checking messages and pictures, and she was done with tears.

Luka had made his choice. He was on tour again, probably having a great time without her, and there was no sense scrolling through his posts for any signs that he missed her. She certainly didn’t miss him. She’d spent too much of their relationship missing him. Just because she was a bit horny didn’t mean she had to be sad about it.

But the apartment sure was quiet without him.

The refrigerator’s magnetic rubber seal broke that silence with a reluctant pop, and brilliant white light flooded the kitchen. Marinette squinted at her recently filled shelves.

Alya, Nino, and Adrien had been lifesavers after the breakup. Nino had filled her fridge with fresh vegetables; Alya had stocked her cabinets with bottles of wine. Adrien, whose finances were still a legal mess in the wake of his father’s passing, gave her his time.

She’d seen more of Adrien in the past two weeks since the breakup than she had seen of him in the past year while she had been dating Luka. He’d sat with her through her BBC Pride and Prejudice marathon, through three watches of Pride and Prejudice (2005), and through one watch of Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. He’d even offered to stay overnight, to keep her company, as if he knew that company was the way she coped, but she’d turned him down.

One of the challenges of being newly single was waking up at midnight with a very strong urge to be dicked down. She appreciated that Adrien was willing to hold her while she cried through romantic movies; she did not need Adrien to see her wrestling with the urge to roll her hips against his thigh, especially when she couldn’t even be sure that it was Adrien that she wanted. Adrien was a friend, and she wasn’t going to use him just to get some temporary fix. Yes, maybe she had liked Adrien once upon a time, but it was all too complicated now. Just creating a friendship with Adrien had been so much work. She didn’t want to mess it up and lose him.

Neither the vegetables nor the wine held any appeal, so she closed the fridge with a sigh. Marinette leaned against the cool silver door while her eyes readjusted to the dark of her kitchen. Maybe a cold shower was what she needed. She usually had no objections to a steamier shower, but she didn’t want to end up crying her way through an orgasm. She was done crying over Luka, she told herself. She was done feeling sorry for herself.

She opened up a cabinet and pulled down a bottle of olive oil and a jar of popcorn kernels. She’d just make herself a greasy, salty snack before setting into Emma (2020).

The stove clicked and sparked until the gas caught and the fire ignited with a woosh. Marinette poured in the olive oil and waited impatiently for it to sizzle with heat. As she picked up the jar of popcorn kernels, a thud on the small balcony patio of the apartment caught her attention, more muffled than the sparks of her stove, but just as sharp and sudden.

Through her gauzy curtains, silhouetted in the dim streetlight, she saw the shape of a person perched on her balcony. She might have been terrified, or at least startled, if it weren’t for the cat ears on the shadow’s head.

Marinette dumped the kernels into the sizzling oil then unlatched the patio doors.

“What are you doing here?” she said by way of greeting.

Ladybug saw Chat Noir for patrol regularly, of course. But Marinette had hardly seen him in the past year. When Luka had gone on his first tour, Chat Noir had held her while she’d cried, but once Luka had come home, he’d disappeared. Did he know Luka was gone again? Did he know that she and Luka were properly done?

“Making the midnight rounds,” he said easily. His voice was low, like a cat’s purr. “A hero’s work is never done.”

Marinette shifted the weight on her feet, unconsciously pressing her thighs against each other. It was irritating that even just the sound of Chat Noir’s voice was enough to warm her core. Maybe Emma would have to wait until Chat Noir was gone and she’d rubbed out the memory of his purr.

Chat Noir paused and his nose twitched. “Are you cooking in the middle of the night?”

“Just popcorn.”

“Midnight movie?” he asked.

Marinette crossed her arms over her chest and used her ankle to surreptitiously scratch an innocent itch on her calf. She tried not to think about Chat Noir on her couch with the low light of a movie and the weight of a blanket draped over them both. She tried not to think about scratching a different itch.

“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe I just wanted a snack.”

Beneath his mask, his green eyes glinted with a familiar mischief. One eyebrow quirked. “All for yourself?”

She wondered if he was simply asking if she was alone or if he was implying that he wanted to join her. She couldn’t help the icy edge in her reply as she said, “I don’t have a boyfriend anymore, if that’s what you’re asking.”

His perky ears seemed to flatten. It was his turn to shift his stance uncomfortably. He leaned against her patio table, but it wobbled uncertainly and he straightened. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Do you want company?”

There was something delicate in the question. Something in it nagged at her brain, and she recalled the text that Adrien had sent her that morning.

Do you want company today?

Of course she had said yes. She needed noise, she needed distraction, she needed to not be alone with her thoughts. And then she’d sent him home after dinner, because Adrien didn’t deserve to see her like this—sleepless, lonely, and horny.

But Chat Noir wasn’t Adrien.

She pursed her lips and quirked an eyebrow. “I’m certainly in the mood for company.”

His ears perked up again, as if they were perfectly attuned to the purr in her voice. He stepped closer. “And just what sort of snack are you in the mood for?”

“Something simple,” she said as the first kernel of popcorn popped.

The corner of his mouth twitched with a smile, but she thought—maybe she was just projecting her own heartache, but she thought—something in his eyes grew sad.

“I can keep things simple,” he whispered.

She pulled him into a kiss. It was sloppy and wet and she ran her hands through his hair to pull him against her as if she could consume all of him.

It wasn’t her first kiss with Chat Noir by any measure, not as Ladybug, certainly, nor even as Marinette. There’d been kisses done to break curses, kisses done under the weight of curses, kisses done and rejected—and one very wary, delicate kiss on Marinette’s balcony. Chat Noir had told her that he was in love with Ladybug, but, somehow, in the midst of his heartache and her longing, they had kissed. She’d apologized, promised him that it didn’t mean anything, that she was in love with Luka anyway. And a week later, she and Luka had started dating, and Chat Noir had stopped coming by Marinette’s balcony—at least until Luka’s first tour.

He seemed to have an uncanny sense for when she was lonely.

She rolled her hips against his thigh and moaned into his mouth as the popcorn on the stove began to rattle in earnest. His hand trailed down to her waist, but he hesitated as he reached her hip. That wouldn’t do.

Marinette grabbed his wrist and, without breaking their kiss, yanked him into her apartment. She backed into the kitchen counter and guided his padded leather gloves to the elastic waistband of her pajamas.

He took her invitation readily, slipping his fingers inside the soft satin of her underwear and into her damp folds. She hissed like the fire on her stove and moaned with a heat just as warm as his fingers pressed into her clit. She rolled her hips again, but he dropped his other hand back to her waist and held her in place. She whined as he set the pace of her pleasure and whined again as he broke their kiss.

He pressed his lips to her cheek and then to her ear. His hand continued to pump her as he whispered, “You’re letting your popcorn burn.”

She hadn’t noticed that the sound of popping kernels had ceased. She hadn’t caught the whiff of charred popcorn yet. And now that he pointed it out, she didn’t care.

“If you stop, I will kill you,” she hissed into his ear.

His laugh was deep in his throat, another purr of pleasure as he picked up his pace. She gasped and tipped her head back. He responded by pressing his lips against her throat. The sharp canines scraped her neck and she shivered. She was so familiar with those teeth, familiar with the way they scratched her tongue and now her exposed skin. It was those teeth that assured her that she had never met Chat Noir outside of their masks. She would know the shape of those fangs on sight.

If his claws had not chosen that moment to catch on her clit, sharp and poignant, it might have occurred to her that the canines were as conjured as his expressive ears.

Her entire body trembled and she bit down on her lip to hold in her moan, not because she was afraid to be loud but because she was afraid that her pleasure would break her if she indulged it too heavily.

Chat Noir, however, didn’t seem to notice her attempt at restraint. He flicked the tip of his thumb against her clit again and she choked on another moan. One of her hands tightened in his hair, and her other squeezed his waist like she was afraid he would evaporate. He sucked gently on her neck and curled his fingers up into her.

“Chat,” she whined and gasped as her fluids soaked his hand, as her orgasm rippled through her until she was boneless, pinned between him and the kitchen counter, and still he didn’t stop. “Chat,” she cried again, breath hitching as his thumb drew her up suddenly into another tight coil and release. “Chat, please—”

He dragged his lips back up to her ear, and his teeth nipped at her lobe. “I thought you’d kill me if I stopped,” he murmured.

“I think I’ll die if you don’t,” she gasped.

She felt the shape of his grin against her jaw. He pulled his hand out from her shorts and pulled her back into another soft, delicate kiss, just as wary and gentle as the kiss they had exchanged a year ago. Her first epiphany of the evening sparked without warning and she pulled away from him with a start.

He didn’t love Ladybug. He never had.

“You lied to me.”

“I would never lie to you,” he murmured, and moved his kiss down her chin, back to her neck. He nosed against the underside of her jaw like a cat insisting on affection.

“You told me that you were in love with Ladybug.”

His lips went still against her throat. “You said you wanted this to be simple.”

“I want you to be honest.”

He still hesitated. The sizzle of the oil hissed in the kitchen, but its delicate scent was overwhelmed with burned popcorn. If they weren’t careful, the smoke detector would force their kiss apart, but Marinette wasn’t going to let him go without an answer.

Finally, he admitted, “I was in love with Ladybug. Until we kissed.”

She swallowed, painfully aware of the way her throat bobbed against his lips. “And so this past year?”

“I’ve waited.”

“Chat…”

“You’re about to burn your kitchen down,” he murmured, and pulled away.

Reluctantly, Marinette turned off her stove and scraped the black scraps of charcoal that had once been popcorn into the garbage. Chat Noir scrubbed his gloved hands clean.

Hot tears, fueled by frustration as much as embarrassment burned behind Marinette’s eyes as she scraped the blackened mess into the pan. She’d sent Adrien away because she didn’t want to risk her friendship with him, didn’t want to need him in a way he didn’t need her. Now here she was, doing to Chat Noir exactly what she had never wanted to do with Adrien. As much as she might want to give back, as much as she might want to meet him where he was, she couldn’t, and that knowledge hurt.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked. She was glad that her voice was hardly audible over the running water; maybe he wouldn’t hear the bitter anger. It wasn’t meant for him, anyway. It was directed at herself.

She tried to nudge him aside so she could clean the pan, but he wouldn’t budge. Instead, he took the pan from her and picked up a towel. She was forced to watch as he scoured the blackened pan. He looked so intent on the task, she wondered if he had heard her question at all.

Then he turned off the water and said, “You told me that it didn’t matter.”

Her hand was on the pan, ready to take it from him and dry it off, but she froze. Though a protest sat on the tip of her tongue, she couldn’t give it voice. She was the one who had said that their kiss a year ago hadn’t mattered.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said, unsure what else she could say.

He shrugged, as if indicating carelessness, but as she took the pan, he anxiously twisted the ring on his finger. Though the green, glowing paw print was dim, it seemed brilliant in the dark kitchen.

“I’m no stranger to rejection.”

Her heart lurched as it occurred to her that his familiarity with rejection was her fault on two counts. But she never knew what she was supposed to do with Chat Noir’s feelings. Somehow she always managed to misunderstand him when he did nothing but lay things bare for her.

“I guess I should make more popcorn,” she murmured.

As she set the pan back on the stove, Chat Noir grabbed her wrist. “Marinette—”

She looked at him—truly looked—at the flat shape of his ears and the slump in his shoulders, haloed by the streetlight flooding through her open balcony. Despite the darkness, his green eyes glinted like his ring and his jaw worked as he worked through his thoughts. He was always so quick with his wit in a fight, but in the quiet spaces like this, when he was with Marinette, when he was asked to be vulnerable, he was always so cautious and careful.

“It’s okay with me,” he finally said, “if this is all it is. I just want to be with you, and I don’t mind if—”

“Chat, I can’t—that’s not fair to you.”

“I don’t care.”

“But I do.”

The irony that she cared too much to do this to him, that she cared but not in the way that he wanted, was not lost on her.

He let her go and turned toward the balcony.

“Chat…” She didn’t mean to call him back, but she didn’t know how she was supposed to let him go like this. “I am sorry,” she finally said.

His hand lingered against her kitchen counter, and his claws clicked delicately against the tile. “Would you trust me if I said that it hurts less to be with you, even if I can’t have all of you, compared with the agony of being apart from you?”

If she was just Marinette, maybe she would have accepted his offer. Maybe she could have trusted him when he said that he would let it be simple, that he’d allow her to use him as she needed without ache or bitterness. But she was also Ladybug, and she knew the way her partner threw himself on swords for others. She could not fight beside him each day while also destroying him each night.

But Marinette couldn’t tell him that.

As he took her silence for denial, his hands flexed and contracted with his unspoken frustration. He managed a rather tight, “Good night, Marinette,” before disappearing into the night.

She swallowed as he left, waited a moment in her dark kitchen as the silence filtered back in, as the quiet settled into her bones and the ache settled back into her heart.

Maybe she did know what he meant about the agony of being apart.

In search of noise and company, she went back upstairs to her phone. Her thumb hovered over Luka’s icon for only a moment before she swiped away. Instead, she snapped a picture of her laptop screen with the streaming page for Emma open and sent it to Adrien. Then she left her phone on her bed and went to take a cold shower.

Adrien would get the picture in the morning. He’d offer to watch it with her again during the day, and she’d accept his offer of company and distraction. Maybe they would watch Clueless after, or even branch out their romantic film subgenres beyond Austen films and try 10 Things I Hate About You.

But when she got out of the shower, there was already a text from Adrien.

I’ll bring snacks.

She was still reading the text, still trying to make sense of it, as she stood in her room wrapped in naught but a towel and her hair still dripping wet, when a gentle knock sounded from downstairs.

A key jiggled in the lock—she forgot that he had kept the key she’d given him to water her plants when she’d gone with Luka on his second tour—and her door creaked open.

Adrien’s voice broke into her dark, quiet apartment. “Marinette? I brought cheesecake.”

She shrieked, “Adrien, I’m not dressed!” and slammed her bedroom door closed.

His laugh was a snort, muffled and distant. Hastily, she toweled and combed her hair and yanked on a fresh, dry pair of underwear and shorts. She didn’t know where her bra was and she didn’t have the time to look, so she simply threw on a t-shirt.

When she came downstairs, Adrien was standing in her kitchen with two forks in hand. She knew she must look a mess, but he beamed at her, despite her own scowl.

“I thought the picture was an invitation,” he said, head tipped to one side.

“I didn’t think you were awake! I thought—I didn’t know—”

He cut her fumbling protests off with another laugh. Adrien settled onto the edge of her couch and opened up a pale pink cake box to reveal a cake with red raspberry swirled into the cream. She wondered where he had gotten a raspberry cheesecake at this hour.

“I’ll go if you want me to,” he offered, “and leave the cake.”

“No—stay.”

The words were hardly out of her mouth before Adrien was already pulling off his coat and collapsing into her couch. Beneath his neat black peacoat, he was dressed in his own pajamas, like he had seen her text and merely rolled out of bed and into a jacket.

While Adrien plated two generous slices of cheesecake, Marinette dug through the couch cushions for the remote. She found it wedged between Adrien and the back of the couch, yanked it out, and clicked on the T.V. The pale blue light flooded over the two of them, and when she turned to get cheesecake from Adrien, she found him staring at her with an unfamiliar expression.

He was smiling, eyebrows lifted in his usual fashion, like something between expectation and excitement, but she thought—and maybe she was just projecting her own heartache, but she thought—there was something sad in his green eyes.

Then those strangely sad eyes dropped to her collar and his hand drifted to her neck. His fingers brushed against her skin and lightning lanced through her lungs. A dozen protests bubbled to the surface, all the arguments she had just used with Chat Noir—she only wanted something simple; she wasn’t ready for anything truly intimate after this breakup; things were always complicated with Adrien—but they all died on her tongue, as her words so often did when it came to Adrien.

But instead of pulling her against him like she thought he might, he asked, “What happened here?”

In her haste to dress, she hadn’t bothered to check herself in the mirror, but her heart pounded with the memory of Chat Noir’s lips latched to her neck. Was it only a bruise of blood drawn to the surface, or were there also scratch marks from his canines? Her face was hot with blush, but she hoped in the dim light of the T.V., he wouldn’t be able to tell.

“It—” Her throat lurched against Adrien’s fingers as she tried to swallow down a lie, but she wasn’t sure how to tell him the truth. “I don’t—I mean, it’s only—”

And then Adrien’s fingers curled around the back of her neck and his thumb brushed the underside of her chin so gently, so carefully. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Her heart stuttered with a familiar agony. She had promised herself that she was not going to cry about Luka tonight, that she was done with tears, but they welled up anyway.

She and Luka had tried so hard; they really had. But he always wanted more of her than she had to give. He wanted everything, and Marinette could never give her partner everything—she had too many secrets that she had to keep. She had too many bits of herself that even she was still processing, that were still too raw and rough to share.

She’d tried giving Luka everything that she could. She’d even left Scarabella in charge while she went on tour with Luka once, but nothing had ever made it better. She’d wanted time—they’d needed time—and there had never been enough.

But here was Adrien, offering her the two things Luka never could: her secrets and his time.

The tears she had been fighting all evening finally burst out, and Adrien pulled her against his chest, as he had so many times before. She didn’t want to know how many tears she had soaked into his T-shirts in the last few weeks, how many wrinkles she had worn into his clothes by clutching at them with tight fists, how much of her snot he’d had to wash out of his laundry.

With Herculean strength, Marinette rubbed her eyes dry and pulled away. She fumbled for a tissue, but the box on her coffee table was just inches out of reach. Adrien pressed a handkerchief into her hand, like he had come prepared. It wasn’t fair to him to take so much, but it was so easy when he gave so readily.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

Marinette wiped her cheeks and blew her nose. “What on earth are you apologizing for?”

Without her to hold onto, his hands found each other. His thumb rubbed into his palm like he might be able to push his explanation out. Even in the dim light from the T.V. and the street, she could see his jaw working through his words, like he was turning the pages of a dictionary in his head to make sure he picked the right ones.

“I…” He paused again and swallowed. “I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he finally said, which felt like so small of an apology when weighed against the length of the pause.

“It’s not your fault,” she assured him. “I just…” She didn’t need to explain how lonely she was to Adrien. He’d heard it all before, and of course he must know it, or he wouldn’t have shown up to her apartment in the middle of the night with cheesecake in tow. “I just really appreciate that you’re always there for me,” she finally said, and even though it felt small, it was earnest.

“I would rather be with you than not.”

Her heart fully stopped, and she searched for something in Adrien’s eyes, some clue that the connection between his plea and Chat Noir’s question was more than coincidence, but he was no longer looking at her. His eyes were on his hands as he twisted his ring around his finger. The dull silver still glinted in the dim light from outside.

She felt like she was looking at her Lucky Charm at the moment it fell into her hands, knowing the answer was right in front of her but unable to put all the pieces together. She followed her lucky instinct, though, and placed one hand over Adrien’s hands, forcing them still. The other lifted to the back of his neck and pulled him closer into a kiss.

It was soft, delicate, gentle. It made sense for Adrien in a way Chat Noir’s kisses had never quite made sense for him.

Adrien, who was so willing to give her his time, and Chat Noir, who was always there when the people Marinette wanted weren’t.

Adrien pulled away rather suddenly, like something had yanked him away from her. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I shouldn’t—you don’t want—this isn’t fair—”

It was unusual to watch Adrien flounder for words. Marinette, though, didn’t have it in her to be amused, not with the weight of this secret dawning. She waited a moment for Bunnyx to appear or time to reset, but Adrien continued to struggle his way through an apology, and the T.V. continued to hum its bright blue static glare.

There was no undoing what had been done, and she couldn’t exactly avoid it.

“I think,” she murmured, “that unfair is showing up on my balcony after I told you that I was ready to be alone.”

The panic in Adrien’s eyes was brief as he realized he’d been found out, but he crumpled into himself almost immediately. His hands raked through his hair and Marinette’s first thought was that she could be running her hands through his hair, but her second thought was how utterly broken he looked.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I didn’t want it to—I didn’t mean for it to turn out like it did. I just—I was worried about you. You know what it’s like at my house and—I know you think I don’t want to see you sad or something, but Marinette, being with you like this is a hundred times better than being without you.” He kept his eyes on his hands as he twisted his ring around his finger. “Please don’t tell anyone,” he whispered.

Marinette frowned. “I wouldn’t.”

“I mean it—I-I can’t let Ladybug know I’ve broken her trust.”

Marinette bit down on her lip. She wasn’t sure how to say the thing she knew she had to say next. Her throat felt tight with the secret she had kept for so long, that she had finally choked out to Alya after one terrible day.

But he looked so genuinely terrified to think he might hurt Ladybug, and Marinette had the power to assuage that fear. For once, she could offer him some comfort.

Marinette unhooked Adrien’s hands from his neck and pulled them into her lap. Then, she unfastened her earrings and placed them into his palm.

Though he did not move, did not look up at her, she watched the tension in his shoulders shift. His hand closed around the earrings and he felt the shape of them, the warmth from being fastened in her ears and from the magic that pulsed within them.

Finally, Adrien looked up at her. His eyes were still sad, but the longing was so much more prominent. His voice was tight as he said, “Are you… truly?”

She nodded.

Then his shoulders sagged and he looked away. “No wonder you keep turning me down. We have a job to do, and I suppose the job comes first. No sense complicating things, right?”

But Marinette’s need for simple had nothing to do with complicating Ladybug and Chat Noir’s relationship. It had always been about protecting her partner and protecting her own heart. But knowing that the boy she had fallen for long before Luka, the boy who was always there for her, and her loyal partner were one and the same? She was no longer interested in simple.

In fact, she felt like an idiot for thinking she could get away with only displaying the palatable parts of herself to Adrien. He knew her better than anyone, and she knew him, and it was never going to be simple when there were that many fractured pieces stacked together between the two of them.

“Adrien,” she whispered, “I think… maybe without so many secrets, it isn’t all that complicated.”

He met her eyes again and something in his posture perked; she could almost see the cat ears on his head lifting to attention.

“Marinette,” he said, so softly, so tenderly that Marinette could not help but lean in.

She leaned in until their lips were pressed together. The wariness, the gentleness, the tenderness—all of it was cast aside. This kiss transformed into nothing but want and need, as if she could draw all of him up into all of her.

Adrien’s softness and wariness evaporated suddenly. He turned his kiss against the corner of her mouth then to the underside of her jaw. “My lady,” he murmured into her neck, and his voice seemed to reverberate in her chest and curl into her stomach. He pressed her lips against the mark on her neck in a grateful, needy kiss and adjusted to sit on top of her, pinning her back against the couch as Chat Noir had pinned her against her kitchen counter.

Marinette fumbled for the remote and clicked the T.V. off. They didn’t need a movie to carry them through the evening, and they certainly didn’t need the glare of the empty screen. The dark was enough; each other was enough. The cheesecake would wait. Marinette had a much better midnight snack to get to.

#miraculous square dance 2023 #marichat #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfic #ml fic #ml

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kasienda · 8 months

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Love Remains - Ch 6

Written for @thelibraryloser‘s birthday, which was way back in July! But I'm making steady progress again! Woot!

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

Read on Ao3

Chapter 6:

Forty-Two Days Since Marinette Lost her Memory

Marinette blocks out Chat Noir’s form on a blank page of her sketchbook. She’s starting to lose count of how many pictures of him she’s drawn, but she hasn’t captured what she’s going for yet. There’s a softness to his eyes and his smile when he looks at her whenever she’s talking to him. An expression that makes her forget to breathe and her stomach flutter with giddiness.

And so she keeps trying.

She hasn’t told him how she feels yet. Her diary said that he loved her, but she’s still nervous because she’s not certain he still sees her as his partner and friend. Maybe she only serves as a painful reminder of the dear friend he had lost.

She shades in the iris of his eye. She erases it almost immediately. It’s still not right.

She doesn’t know how to live up to the memory that everyone has of her.

Is she still that person? Or is she a whole new person?

She doesn’t know. She’s not even sure what she wants the answer to that question to be.

But she hopes that Chat Noir still loves her.

She hopes she can give him the chance that old Ladybug denied him.

“Tikki?”

“Yes?”

“Why don’t I love Adrien?”

Tikki giggles. “What makes you think you don’t?”

“I just… I love Chat Noir. The old Marinette didn’t?”

“How do you know that?”

Marinette shoves the old diary towards Tikki. “Because she said so.”

Tikki shakes her head. “You’re assuming you understood your feelings.”

“Are you saying she didn’t?”

“I’m saying your diary isn’t the whole picture. When you woke up, Chat Noir was the first person you saw. What did you feel?”

“I… I wanted him to be okay. I wanted to be there for him.”

“And would you call that love?”

“I don’t know what else to call it. It has to be love.”

Tikki nods. “That all came from before. It was all already there.”

“But then what about Adrien?”

“What do you feel when you see adrien?”

“Warm? Fond? Like I want to know him better?”

“And is that love?”

Marinette’s arms shot out spastically. “How can it be? I don’t know him very well!”

Tikki smiles. “As long as you’re being honest with yourself, Marinette.”

Marinette glares at Tikki. She doesn’t love Adrien. She doesn’t . She loves Chat Noir.

And she’s going to tell him.

…

She places candles along the railing of her own balcony. She knows Chat Noir set up his romantic balcony date for Ladybug elsewhere, and she would have liked to use the same location, but old Marinette had neglected to mention where that had been. And the advantage to setting up here is that everything she needs is right in her room.

Once all the candles were lit, she spread rose petals all along the ground. Then she sets the small table with heart shaped pastries and fills small flute glasses with sparkling cider.

Then she has to wait. She readjusts the glasses and napkins again and again. She’s not sure what look she’s going for. It just seems like another thing she can’t get right.

She glances at her phone. He’s going to be there in three minutes. She hadn’t told him there was anything special about today, but he always came every three days just to check in. And he’s never late.

Her gaze sweeps the set up, searching for something out of place. And she suddenly doubts everything.

What was she thinking in imitating his confession? Ladybug rejected him that night! He doesn’t want to relive that moment!

Heart shaped macarons?! So over the top and tacky! She throws them over the balcony’s railing.

Rose petals? Waay too much for a girl who only had six weeks worth of memories. He probably saw her as a child. She sweeps them under the table.

Chat Noir lands silently next to her before she finishes erasing the evidence of her romantic evening.

“Good evening, M’lady,” he greets, the warmth of his voice washing over her skin, sending her nerves bubbling once again.

He looks around, taking in the candles, the glasses, and what’s left of the rose petals.

“What’s the special occasion?” he asks lightly, but his gaze feels heavy, and she absolutely cannot meet his eyes as heat explodes across her face.

“D-do I need a reason to uh… spoil my kit— I mean, uh… I don’t know wh-what I mean.”

Why the hell was she stuttering?

“M’lady?”

She risks a glance at his face. He’s staring at her, his face is smooth, a mask of interest and patience. And then he smiles, and she’s lost his eyes - green and calm. And she wonders why she’s freaking out. How could she forget that with him, she’s completely and forever safe.

She takes in a shaky breath and opens her mouth.

“Tikki, spots on.”

Transforming isn’t part of the plan, but it feels right to be Ladybug. The same way it felt the first time she remembered launching herself into the sky with a yo-yo she had never held before. The same way it felt chasing after him as they bounded across rooftops. The same way it felt when they stood side by side or back to back against more than a dozen akumas.

His eyes are wide, his mouth forms a little oh, and he’s frozen still in what she hopes is surprise.

A laugh bubbles up from her throat, and she reaches for his hand. Their fingers interlace immediately, but he feels limp in her hold.

“Chaton, I don’t know how to put what you mean to me into words.”

He sucks in a breath, his eyes are locked onto her, and so she continues.

“I was never upset that my memories were gone, but I have felt lost. And you,” she squeezes his hand, and warmth lights up her chest and strengthens her smile when he squeezes back. “You have held my hand while I have tried to figure out where I fit in this world. You never ask me what I remember and you always trust my competence. You’ve saved my life literally and metaphorically over and over, and I’m sure you did the same before I can remember.”

His eyes water, his chin trembles, and he’s now holding her hand so hard it hurts, but she won’t let go.

“When I’m with you I feel like I’m a whole complete person.” She glances away, down at their joined hands. “And maybe it’s too soon, maybe it’s too much, but I want to tell you that I— I l-love you.”

Tears slip down his cheeks, and her free hand wipes them away with a caress of her gloved fingertips.

“Please don’t cry,” she begs.

He shakes his head rapidly, and clings to her tighter. She holds him just as hard, determined to grant him the patience he has always given her no matter the situation.

“I was hoping this was a good thing,” she whispers.

“It is!” he says furiously, granting her a watery smile.

He’s so gorgeous. Her eyes dart to his lips, and without thinking she leans forward. Her eyes fall closed, and his breath warms her mouths and his lips—

“No, wait.”

He’s pushing her away, not hard or even far, but something in her chest shatters.

“You’ve always said you were in love with someone else.”

And her shoulders cave in, and she wishes she could hide her face because this is worse than rejection. She had been ready and prepared for rejection.

She untangled her hands from his and pulled the rest of the way away.

“M’lady, please!” He reaches for her hand again, but she dodges, and he stops trying. “I just… you only fall in love with me when you don’t remember him .”

“It doesn’t matter what she felt. It’s not what I am feeling!” she wraps her arms around herself, looking for the comfort he usually provides. It’s a poor substitute.

“But maybe you’ll feel differently if you give him a chance. I don’t want to take that away from you.”

This is so much worse because he does love her. Marientte knows that he does, but just like everyone else, he’s choosing to respect old Marinette over her as she is now.

She feels whole when she’s with him, but he doesn’t see her as whole. She chokes back a sob.

He reaches out for her again, and this time she lets him pull her in.

“Why do you get to decide which of my feelings are real and which ones are not?” she cries into his chest.

He tenses against her. “That’s not what I meant,” he insists.

And maybe it’s not, but that’s what it feels like, so she pushes him away again.

“I don’t know what she felt. I don’t understand what she felt. She loved this other boy. She hated being Ladybug. I don’t understand her. She’s not me.”

Her former self was insane, and more than ever the loss of her memories doesn’t feel like a loss. Even with the option, Marinette isn’t certain she would want them back.

She stiffens at the thought, and looks at him again, her eyes wide. “Is that why?”

His eyebrows furrow, for once unable to follow her jump in thinking. “Is what why?”

“Why you stopped me from kissing you? Because you don’t love me? Because I’m not her. Everyone wants her to come back. No one wants me.”

She falls to her knees, wracking sobs pulsing up and down her form.

“ Marinette .”

She freezes at the sound of her name on his lips. She’s never heard him say it. Of course he knows who she is. He was there on her first day, he took her home, he visited her every three evenings without fail.

She looks at him through her tears.

“I love you so much it hurts,” he says. “And despite what you think, you’re definitely still her.”

He hovers next to her as he speaks, his hands opening and closing like a kitten’s as he looks at her with the most intense desperate expression she’s ever seen.

“You’re someone who always has the right idea at the right time. You’re fearless and I don’t mean that you’re never afraid. That fear just never stops you. Whatever the situation, you dive in and face it head on.”

She thinks he might disagree if he ever reads her old diary.

“You do things because they are right and because they are kind. You decided to be Ladybug not because you wanted to be Ladybug, but because Hawkmoth was terrorizing innocent people and you had the power to do something. And on the first day after you lost your memories, you were comforting me . And that was wild.”

Tears prick at the corners of her eyes again.

“And now, you’re not deterred by what came before. You face the uncertainty and unknowns in your life with so much courage and grace. And I am more in love with you than ever and I honestly didn’t think that was possible.

She wants to kiss him.

“But it feels like if I let myself have this, I’m benefitting from the situation. Last time we forgot everything, we fell in love. But as soon as your memory came back, you made the same choice. I was your second choice. I’m always your second choice. And I love you so much that I want you to be happy more than I want you to be mine.”

She shakes her head in disagreement. “You’re not my second choice, Chaton! Adrien’s sweet and definitely soft on the eyes. But I don’t understand how he could ever compare to Ladybug’s superhero partner. He’s not there during every akuma battle. He’s not the one that has held her hand for as long as she can remember as she tries to figure out who she is. He’s not the person who accepts me as I am now.”

He blinks at her, his eyes dilated. “Adrien?” he repeats. “Adrien is the boy you love?”

And suddenly, she’s furious.

“No!” she screams, shoving him away. “Aren’t you listening?! You are the boy I love! How many times do I need to say it?”

She scrambles away from him, through her window, slamming it closed before curling into a ball and letting herself sob.

Why doesn’t he trust that she knows what she’s feeling better than he does?

Why doesn’t he understand?

…

#miraculous ladybug #love square #ladynoir #memory loss #marinette gave up the box and lost all her memories #partial reveal #half reveal #hurt comfort #but not as angsty as this trope usually is #happy ending #my own content #love remains

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celestiall0tus · 2 years

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Kagami is a the simplest and most difficult character to write.

My Kagami doesn't deviate much from the show. She's standoffish, cold, and extremely blunt. Her mother keeps her on a tight schedule, very much like Gabriel with Adrien. Where mine does deviate is relationships and motivation.

Kagami in my AU establishes an instant connection with Marinette, becoming fast friends. Despite being unable to spend time together, they establish a foundation and build on it. Kagami takes up the mantle of Ryuko to assist Marinette in stopping a villain. Once Kagami sees what she can do, she continues, but to become stronger and experience the full limit of the dragon's power. This changes when she sees Ladybug in grave danger, saving her, but fearing for Ladybug. She becomes something of a personal bodyguard to Ladybug, refusing to let any harm her. This bond grows into a quiet, romantic attraction to Marinette, but where it'll go, I'm still getting a feel for.

For Kagami's kwami, Longg, I changed her. She's no longer kwami of perfection, but nature. She offers a single power to shift forms into an element, making the holder the master over it. This leads to the four forms.

I don't have a default made because it's essentially her canon design because it's the only one I love too much to change. Though with her form update, I may make one. The first set with basic suits is what Kagami starts with. After the gala set of chapters (which I'll be writing soon as posting this) she'll have the updated, draconic look.

#fanart #au #miraculous #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #miraculous fanart #alternate universe #miraculous ladybug #redesign #design #digital art #kagami tsuguri #miraculous kagami #ryuko #miraculous ryuko #miraculous rewrite #miraculous redesign

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k7l4d4 · 30 days

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K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 9

Hello everyone! I'm dropping this a bit early, since I have work today.

Honestly, in retrospect, this episode kinda best represents the kind of hypocritical double standards MLB can get up to. As always, whenever Ladybug does something creepy, overly insistent, or boundary pushing, it gets treated like a joke, yet when Chat does it, it's presented as tragic that the person he likes isn't giving him a chance. Even leaving to the side this episode bringing the show's obsession with treating romance as the be-all end-all to life (which feels pretty insensitive to any aromantics in the audience) to the forefront, the episode has Alya, who has consistently been a person who, even after learning Marinette's secret, a near-rabid LadyNoir shipper, acting as a low-level obstacle by turning her stance on Ladybug get with Chat Noir on a dime. It's not healthy to treat romantic feelings like that; they aren't something that can be controlled, or reasoned with, or that you can just decide to no longer love someone or not. And the show treating love as this thing that can only ever happen between two people at any given moment is... unpleasant.

Now, enough of my rambling, onto the review! As always, please forgive my profanity.

Episode 9: Elation

Okay, somehow Ladybug pulls out an entire table, complete with a cloth covering, chairs, and snacks. On the top of a roof. WHAT!? Okay just... no, this isn't any kind of funny. It's just weird and out of place.

I'm honestly creeped out by how forward Ladybug is being. She's actively trying to keep Chat around, despite the fact that he is literally starting to time out of his transformation, and insistently trying to kiss him. Like, this is uncomfortable on so many levels to watch.

I'm just exhausted, and it's not even five minutes in. It's just cringe-inducing role reversal between Ladybug and Chat Noir's usual dynamics, but whereas Chat, as annoying as he could be at his worst, limited himself largely to just flirting, Ladybug is actively trying to forcibly kiss him... and somehow doesn't seem to get the problem with that. Just... this show in general seems to have a severe issue with informing kids that you have to willingly and knowingly consent to be in a relationship, and that rejecting someone's advances SHOULD BE THE END OF IT. What makes this fiasco all the more infuriating is that Weredad was literally an entire episode dedicated to shutting down the idea of Chat liking Marinette.

Okay, the thing I find the most annoying about this current set-up is that they aren't actually addressing anything INTERESTING about this change in dynamics. They just have Chat play it off as a joke or a test, and Ladybug moping. It's just boring drama.

And now we get Marinette complaining about Chat Noir shutting her down... and we get Alya, one of the people who has ROUTINELY called out Ladybug for "not giving Chat Noir a chance" despite him constantly pushing Ladybug's boundaries, saying that her old behavior of keeping Chat at arms length and wanting to be just friends was perfectly within her right to do so. Yet her wanting to move on from Adrien is treated by both Alya and Tikki like some dumb joke. Wow, I am amazed (sarcasm).

Okay, and now we get Marinette going "wait a minute, what if he's turning me down because he doesn't love me (Ladybug) anymore!?" Wow, it's almost as if he's a person with his own emotions and not obligated to return how Marinette feels... just like how she wasn't obligated to return how he felt back when he was being the ultimate flirt. It's just so... bland. Like, they aren't making Marinette be DUMB, but they are making her come off as oblivious that she can't see these very obvious reasons for things.

Oh, and one really annoying thing that's coming through to me is that Marinette doesn't seem to grasp that she's coming off as obsessive and massively pushing Chat's boundaries even further than he has ever pushed HERS.

And we get yet another repeat of "blab our secret identities if we got together then Monarch would find out," but they never expand on HOW THAT WOULD EVEN WORK. And if I ever see anyone unironically point to Chat Blanc and Ephemeral, I would throw a fucking shoe at them because those episodes made it very fucking clear how contrived Gabriel "figuring it out" really is. He somehow failed to pick up on the truth FOR MONTHS in both throw-away timelines, and only figured it out based on a wild guess because of overhearing Adrien/catching Ladybug on video. Because it's not as if Ladybug is a nice person and would agree to pass along a gift for a girl's crush, or that anyone other than Chat Noir would use fancy pet names like "my lady."

And now we get the strawmanning of Marinette deflecting the already shoddy argument of "revealing their identities, leading to Hawkmoth figuring out who they are!" by getting mad at Nino and Alya blowing their secrets to one another... when as Alya pointed out, that's literally all her fault since she gave them their Miraculouses while they were directly in front of one another, at the exact same time.

And now we get the "Marinette's lying to herself" point. Sigh, the level of deligitimization of romance going on in what's supposed to be a love story is honestly disgusting to me.

Is Alya supportive of Marinette moving on, or isn't she? Is Alya respectful of Marinette's right to reject (or not reject) Chat Noir's advances, or isn't she? Are Marinette's feelings for Chat Noir real, or aren't they? It just can't seem to make up its mind and just clings to whatever stance makes the most drama.

And now Marinette's just having a meltdown. Honestly, this is probably the most interesting part of the entire season to date, in that it's Marinette finally losing her cool over how her "love" for Adrien is functionally dead in the water and how she's basically been making a fool of herself for the majority of the school year all in the name of impressing a guy who hasn't shown any interest in her in nearly the entire time.

Okay, Adrien just showed up to the bakery and he's acting super awkward. I would find it adorable to see him visibly out of his depth and having no clue what he's doing if it weren't tied to more Love Square BS.

Uuuhhh... I am honestly just... tired of how this show treats teenage crushes between awkward kids as if they are gonna be together forever.

It's one thing if it's just the teens themselves, but the adults too? They should honestly know better. Okay, I'm honestly mostly annoyed at just how incessantly Alya is trying to push Marinette in Adrien's direction. It honestly looks more like she cares more about getting them together than about how Marinette feels and what she wants. To note, I don't blame this on her, but on the writers, since if they think THIS is being a good friend, I pity whoever they claim are their best buds.

Because let's be honest, even though the writing is very strongly portraying Marinette as a Strawman against HERSELF, her position is honestly the most moral (however loose and twisted a definition of the word you use) in that so far, everyone who should be in her corner is ignoring her agency and pushing her to do something she (currently) does not want to do.

She had me at "for once, we aren't talking about Adrien" and then lost me at "we are talking about Chat Noir." If this narrative of ignoring what she wants and feels and trivializing her desire to stop pursuing Adrien in favor of Chat Noir hadn't been pushed as an inaffective case of denial on her part, seeing her shut down Alya honestly acting like a bad friend and just having actual turmoil in their friendship would be interesting, but because it's all about this stupid Love Square BS, it's just irritating.

And the stupidest part of all this is that I'm still not even five minutes into the episode.

I will say this, seeing Marinette's downward spiral into paranoia, self-loathing, and just a flatout inability to cope with being a superhero could be interesting... if they weren't trying to make it all about the Love Square.

Adrien getting ambushed by someone who wants a photo "with the Alliance guy" does a surprisingly good job at pointing out that the so-called "freedom" of Alliance supplanting his responsibilities as a model is just a facade. It's almost entertaining.

What really makes this whole thing with both Alya AND Tikki treating Marinette's crush on Chat as if she's lying to herself so obnoxious to me is that the battle against Safari with Marinette becoming Lady Noir kinda strongly implied that her feelings ARE real... and now this episode has her having to convince herself that this is true. It's kinda pathetic how inconsistent the writers are.

I'm honestly kinda banging my head against the wall at how Marinette doesn't seem to realize she's acting around Chat EXACTLY how she acts around Adrien; i.e. a flailing, awkward, motor-mouthed MESS with limited self-control and non-existent self-confidence.

Okay, just got it started again and WOW, they are seriously doing the "awkward whistling while up on a balcony" scene. Oof... it just looks so awkward.

EEeeeyyuupp... Marinette's inability to talk to her crush (THAT ONLY EVER SEEMS TO APPLY TO ADRIEN/CHAT NOIR) is back again. Ugh, they seriously can't come up with any new material, can they?

Honestly, what's throwing me off the most with this is that they are having Chat be so awkward and dodging addressing his apparent attraction to Marinette... which doesn't make much sense to me given his track record for being blatant to the point of being pushy when it comes to Ladybug. Why in the world is he so awkward HERE, with Marinette?

Okay, awkwardness sorta passes a bit with Chat providing a cheesy pickup line... but I will (grudgingly) give the writers credit, since this comes off as the most heartfelt and genuine moment in all of S5 I've seen so far.

And Marinette goes and says "she thinks of Chat like a fan." They SERIOUSLY cannot keep her from self-sabotaging herself, even for a second, can they? Okay, they recovered it. Still cringe-inducing. But the fact that they set this up as being doomed to fail, despite this honestly being the BEST romantic representation the show has had ALL THIS TIME, is infuriating.

And now we FINALLY get Alya having a moment of self-reflection over how she's treating Marinette's feelings... now how are they gonna fuck this up?

Okay, and we get TIKKI being the one to ruin things by claiming that Marinette's feelings for Chat Noir having "caused negative feelings between her and Alya!" Like... Tikki. THOSE NEGATIVE FEELINGS WERE PURELY BECAUSE YOU AND ALYA WERE IGNORING AND DISMISSING THE VALIDITY OF HER FEELINGS, WTF ARE YOU ON ABOUT!?

And I honestly just "love" how Tikki claims that romance between the holders of Creation and Destruction has the risk of causing the end of the world... when we literally have ONE OF HER PAST WIELDERS CONTRADICTING THIS!! As much as I fucking utterly HATE the revisions they made to Joan of Arc's history, SHE AND DARK GRIMALKIN NEVER PUT THE WORLD AT RISK JUST BY GETTING TOGETHER!! And Tikki KNOWS that Adrien and Chat Noir are the same person, SO BY THAT LOGIC SHE SHOULD BE DISCOURAGING BOTH OF MARINETTE'S CRUSHES!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT DOES THIS PISS ME OFF!!!

And here comes the Ice Cream Crybaby. Ughh... I'm just gonna tune out this idiot, since nothing he says is anything more than a bad joke about shipping. Okay, them acting as if Andre going "Chat Noir is supposed to love Ladybug, and Marinette is supposed to be in love with Adrien Agreste" and having them be rattled honestly annoys me. It's just more feelings invalidation.

Nope, nope. N-O-P-E. This all just absolute BULLSHIT. I don't mind Chat Noir learning that Marinette used to crush on Adrien, and literally EVERYONE knows Chat Noir is obsessed with Ladybug, but why the absolute FUCK are they treating Andre telling them this as if it's some big reveal that they never knew about!? Like, yeah, in this context, CHAT has a reason to be upset because he now has a reason to think that the girl he now has a crush on wouldn't love him if she learned the truth, but why in the world is MARINETTE acting as if her crush on Adrien is this big secret OR that Chat's crush on Ladybug was a big secret!? This episode ITSELF had it pointed out that Chat was head over heels for Ladybug, and that idiotic two-parter Truth and Lies had it revealed to Marinette that her "crush" on Adrien is WELL KNOWN TO ALL OF PARIS!!! Dear LORD is all of this obnoxious. I just... can't deal with this crap. I'm just gonna try and tune this out, for real, because this pisses me off way too much to be healthy.

And the forced drama BS just keeps on coming. I knew, I just KNEW, that Marinette describing herself as a fan would come back to bite her in the ass, because now Chat thinks he's taking advantage of her, not building a real relationship, meaning the ONE possible bright spot in this BS season has just been shot in the foot. FUCK ALL THIS NOISE.

And we get another fucking meltdown from Marinette, and unlike the prior one, this one is just obnoxious because it's entirely forced by the writing insisting that she HAS to be pursuing a relationship to be happy instead of, you know, HAVING FRIENDS, HOBBIES, AND A FAMILY THAT LOVES HER!!!

Because all this BS? It's just the show artificially creating drama FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME!! All to shoot in the foot a ship they were never gonna let get off the ground in the first place, and I FUCKING HATE IT!!

And of FUCKING COURSE they make it be Chat Noir forcing Marinette into a kiss in a panic be the thing that stops the Akumatization, BECAUSE WHY FUCKING NOT!?

And WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK ARE THEY ACTING AS IF IT'S THE FACT THAT MARINETTE IS PURSUING CHAT NOIR THE REASON SHE WAS ALMOST AKUMATIZED!? Seriously, THIS IS NOT THE FIRST CLOSE CALL SHE HAS HAD!!! It is not possible, NOR HEALTHY, to be lacking in negativity every second of every fucking DAY, and I just GAAHHH!!! I can't even put into words how much this nonsense both disgusts and angers me. I'm just... I'm just gonna stop typing, and wait until we get past the Akuma before I add any other thoughts, I just can't DEAL with this.

Alright, I'm wrong, one last moment. Seriously, it has been who knows how many moments since Andre last saw Chat Noir and Marinette, WHY THE FUCK IS HE GETTING UPSET NOW OF ALL TIMES!? He wasn't even fazed to see them when they showed up asking for Ice Cream, SO WHY IS HE UPSET!? Was he spying on them and saw them kiss somehow!? Because that's the only thing I can think of that would make this manchild flip out like that.

OH DO NOT EVEN GIVE ME THAT "LOVING CHAT NOIR WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!!" BS!!! WHAT HAPPENED HAD NOTHING TO FUCKING DO WITH YOUR CRUSH AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE WRITERS FORCING DRAMA FOR THE SAKE OF IT!!!

Marinette IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT AT ALL!!! Andre has been set off by FUCKING PICTURES in the past, and I'm just fucking SICK of this forced drama nonsense. SICK OF IT!!!

Huh, we get ANOTHER Akuma that's actually incapable of retrieving the Miraculous. Who knew an Akuma that's a giant Ice Cream Golem without actual hands and whose limbs are too big to even remove the Miraculouses to start with was a bad idea? /s

Okay, never mind, apparently he can reach his human limbs through the ice cream.

I would be more impressed by Alya learning to let Marinette make her own choices regarding her feelings if it weren't coming off the heels of her attempting to FORCE MARINETTE TO LET ADRIEN KISS HER IN A PRIOR EPISODE, among many other things. It's a sharp case of "too little too late."

The way this show treats the fact that they are superheroes and having secret identities as this overwhelming obstacle against being a couple is exhaustively stupid.

And like, AGAIN, the "we love each other as friends" resolution is so much a case of "too little too late" I just roll my eyes.

Okay, how did Hawkmoth know where Ladybug and Chat Noir were hiding??

You know, the stupidest fucking part of all this, Andre's obsession with Ladybug and Chat Noir being a couple, is the fact that THEY WERE NEVER A COUPLE TO BEGIN WITH. Making him going "what matters is that you are happy" bit ring hollow, because the actual status of their "relationship" has never stopped his nonsense in the past.

Show of hands, who thinks that Gabriel learning that Chat Noir is "in love with Marinette" will amount to all of fucking nothing? (Raises hand)

And now they are having Chat write off Marinette's feelings as "idolization." Which, yeah, is partially because of Marinette's fumbles right from the very beginning of this episode... but that honestly more accurately describes Marinette's feelings FOR ADRIEN than it does for CN.

Huh. Chat Noir managed to make me find a joke of his funny. ...Please check outside your window to make sure the sky isn't on fire and raining cats and dogs. And we get the ending being Plagg (accidentally) encouraging Adrien to keep pursuing Marinette on the basis of "she could fall for me again!" Instead of doing the emotionally healthy thing and try to move on.

#miraculous ladybug #mlb season 5 salt #mlb season 5 spoilers #mlb writing critical #mlb writing salt

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iwasbored777 · 2 years

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I keep seeing these ‘MARINETTE BAD’ posts about how she’s a crazy possessive stalker and poor innocent Adrien/Chat Noir doesn’t even understand how wrong she is. And it makes me wonder if the fandom would show this same energy to Adrien/Chat Noir if Ladybug actually had any recurring conflicting male parties after her. Because, as evidenced by how he lied to Theo in Copycat and his immediate attitude with Flairmidable, we all KNOW he wouldn’t take that well. If Chat Noir actually had a male Lila or Chloe or even Kagami to deal with for Ladybugs affections, I guarantee he would have been SO MESSY about it. There would have been more lies, more upstaging and more tantrums. Even the fact that Chat Noir asks who Ladybug is interested in when she tells him she’s interested in someone else was a little concerning to me. I was like “what is he going to do with that information?”

But just like the fandom is overall charmed by Chat Noir pushing the boundaries Ladybug set, I feel like they would also be charmed by his jealousy? Whereas Marinette…

They would straight up call for Marinette’s removal if she lied and told Lila/Kagami her and Adrien had “a thing” to get them away from him, got angry at some random girl he showed attention to or got pissy at him for rejecting her.

And this isn’t Adrien salt. I love Adrien, flaws and all. I just think it’s interesting, the split in the audience response between Marinette’s boundary pushing and Chat Noir’s boundary pushing.And more interesting that some people paint Adrien as this victim with no agency when he has been very reactive throughout.

The interesting thing is that, neither of their poor reactions and boundary pushing ever get them anywhere romantically with the other. Marinette usually ends up embarrassed in a mess of her own making and he is once again rejected. The same lesson is being taught here but somehow , Marinette ends up with most of the ire and Chat Noir is the poor kitten the mean bug hurt.

I know! I know exactly what you're talking about and I feel the same way. Double standards kill me. Adrien does have his own salters that's true but he doesn't have so much hate YouTube channels and videos, you won't see hate memes on Reddit about him, you won't see anyone calling him out on Quora as the of the worst main character ever, you won't see people saying Adrien ruined Marinette's life but you'll ALWAYS see them saying Marinette ruined his, you didn't see like ten people actually giving two f*cks about her during Ladynoir conflict, you won't see any other girl getting so many haters like Marinette, you won't see the fandom being critical of any other character so much, years from now you won't find that much hate material for other characters but you will find too many Marinette hate stuff, I can't even search her name on Google without hate content popping out, you won't see Marinette sugar being appreciated like Adrien's, you won't see more people hating Adrien than Marinette, that's true. Even the show is sometimes, like you said, really rough to Marinette and doesn't take her emotions seriously but his are always taken seriously. It's not just gender thing, I've noticed Marinette getting hate for stuff people praise other characters when they do the exact same thing. Some people even told me they went from hating on her to defending cuz even they couldn't stand these double standards. Even when Marinette does something good they hate her. Imagine when Marinette haters had enough of it 😅.

And I REALLY got sick of "if she was a guy everyone would call her out-" just stop. Y'all ALREADY call her out even for stuff that weren't her fault what do you mean no one is complaining when literally the entire YouTube and Reddit hates her with passion, and as if I didn't watch other TV shows where male character is the worst person alive and no one said a word.

Maturing is realizing Marinette is a great character and she doesn't deserve the slander. I can't believe people only watch the show with one eye. The fact that the girl is to blame for everything IS a proof that people don't stand for female lead characters. The standards are never the same. I can literally compare the same situations when Marinette received hate both times but she made different decisions and even when she did the thing they defended the other character for she got salt. I hate that. I blocked like at least 200 Marinette haters by now and I ALWAYS find more. Aren't y'all tired? Aren't y'all embarrassed by now? So many wonderful stuff about her will be forgotten and all that's going to stay are these obsessive stalker/abuser accusations which aren't even 90% true lol I can't even watch that for ten seconds without laughing from how dumb and biased it is. I don't know who started Marinette hate but I hope they actually get stalked and abused so they know what real stalkers and abusers are like. People like them would be ready to cyber bully a real person and ruin their life like they ruined this character's reputation so they don't deserve anything better than that.

Sorry if I'm too mean there is just too much anger inside me to be calm 😭😭😭😂😂😂

#miraculous ladybug #Ml fandom salt #Ml Reddit salt #ml youtube salt #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #I hate this fandom #leave marinette alone challenge #marinette deserves better #Marinette deserves a better fandom #ml ask #ask and answer #double standards

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purrincess-chat · 2 years

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Cat’s Writing Tips: Building Readership

Welcome back to Writing Tip Mondays with Cat! My name is Cat, and I’ve been a writer for 16 years. I’m not a professional, but I have learned a thing or two in my time as a writer. Take any advice with as many grains of salt as you see fit. Let’s get into it!

Today I want to talk about something I’ve gotten comments on and seen come up a lot among new writers: How in the hell do I get people to read my story? I’ll be focusing more on fanfiction readership for this as marketing and professional publishing are a field I haven’t delved too far into yet. That being said a huge portion of writing is marketing. Books and stories are “products” even if you’re not selling them for money, and if you want people to read them, you have to market them and market yourself. So, what does that look like for fandom?

Most sites where writers post stories have some sort of tagging system in place — learn to use them. For AO3 (and probably other sites, but I only use AO3) make sure you understand the difference between / and & in relationship tags. / indicates a romantic relationship. & is for platonic and familial relationships. Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng. (Lovers). Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Sabine Dupain-Cheng. (daughter & mother). Tags are going to be a big part of what entices readers to your works. Fandom is very interested in specific characters and ships. That’s why most of us are here reading because we want more content for our faves. Clearly advertising what characters and ships appear in your work is going to be the first thing readers look at when considering your story. Make sure you are honest in these tags and only tag the characters that play an important role in the story, or people will get pissed.

After characters and relationships, readers are going to look at warnings next. AO3 in particular has certain tags you can click on the upload screen and the rest can be tagged individually in the additional tags section. If your work contains anything that could be triggering, it’s best to tag it. Character death, abuse, SA, gore, violence, etc. It’s best practice in fandom (and increasingly so in the professional realm too) to warn your readers of any potentially aversive materials within your work, so that they can make an educated decision on whether or not your work is going to be for them. Don’t take it personally if someone skips your story because of content that triggers them. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write those things because those works do have their place, but you need to understand that they won’t be for everyone.

After tags, most people will look at the summary of the work. I feel like fandom is very forgiving on this particular aspect. I’ve seen some stories with very thoughtful summaries have next to no hits while stories that just have author brain dump or just a literal snippet from the story as the summary that have 100k+ hits. The summary is your chance to let the reader know what the plot of the story is. Typically when I write summaries, I point out the main conflict and tease the inciting incident. I try to leave my summaries open-ended, so people have to click the story to find out what happens.

An example of a summary for a story I wrote for last year’s BB:

“When Adrien overhears Lila taking an incriminating phone call, he suspects that his classmate with an allergy for the truth could be working with Paris's mortal enemy: Hawkmoth. He and Ladybug must team up to figure out if his suspicions are correct, but can these two bumbling detectives out sly a fox?”

The summary sets up the inciting incident (Adrien overhearing the phone call and drawing the conclusion that Lila is working for Hawkmoth), addresses the main plot (teaming up with Ladybug to figure out if his suspicions are correct), and leaves on an open-ended question (will they be able to figure it out?). This is a pretty good basic formula. It doesn’t spoil too much, but it gives the reader just enough to know what the story is about to determine if it’s something they want to read.

“Cat, I’ve done all of those things. I’ve tagged with a popular pairing, my work doesn’t have any big triggers in it, and I wrote a pretty good summary. Now what?”

Now you wait. Give people the opportunity to read what you’ve written. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve posted something, then spent the next two hours refreshing the page. You have to give people the opportunity to read it. Not everyone can drop what they’re doing to go read a new story. This waiting period can be agony because as writers we crave that feedback and validation, but unfortunately when you’re just getting started out, you’re going to be waiting around a lot. Building readership takes time.

“Well, what do I do in the meantime?”

Great question: Write something else.

“But people still haven’t read the first thing I wrote? How do I know they’ll read a new thing?”

You don’t. Welcome to writing. You are never guaranteed that people will read your stories. Even after you’ve built a consistent readership. I’ve been writing in the same fandom for 6 years. I have some stories that are considered really popular, but even I put stuff out that just doesn’t land. It’s the beautifully frustrating part of writing.

“But if it’s never guaranteed that people will read and enjoy my writing, what’s the point?”

I plan to talk about this at length in another post eventually, but if you’ve got thin skin, writing is not the hobby for you, my friend. Writing by nature requires you to take criticism and deal with rejection. It’s the nature of the beast. Sometimes people just won’t be interested despite your best efforts, and you know what? That’s okay. If you want to write, write because you enjoy it. Write stories you want to read. Write things you’re proud of because at the end of the day, whether or not someone else enjoys them becomes irrelevant. Especially in fandom spaces where you’re literally doing it for free.

One of the most important things I’ve learned as a writer is how to separate myself from my writing. My self-worth has nothing to do with the number of hits I get or the number of kudos and comments. My self-worth has nothing to do with how many people enjoy my stories. It’s natural to feel attached to your own writing. You spent time making it and were excited to put it out into the world! But one thing you need to understand is that people not reading and interacting with your work is not personal. It’s not a reflection of you as a person or your skill as a writer. Sometimes it’s just not the story readers were looking for in the moment, and that has nothing to do with you. It can be heartbreaking, but you can’t let it damage your self-worth because the two are not connected. This is one of the hardest things to do in writing, but I would argue it’s probably one of the most necessary for your own wellbeing.

“Cat, this all sounds kind of depressing and hopeless. Isn’t there anything we can do to get seen by more people?”

Of course, you didn’t think I was going to leave you on that note, did you? There are lots of things you can do to get more exposure if the AO3 tag system isn’t working out for you. Fandom is a very lucrative market for writers, you just have to know where to set up shop. Easy ways I’ve found over the years to get your writing in front of different audiences that may not see it otherwise:

1. Join discord servers

2. Make writer friends

3. Participate in fandom events such as themed prompt events, zines, Big Bangs, and exchanges

4. Write things as gifts for your favorite creators

5. Write a variety of topics, characters, and ships

Another thing that seems kind of obvious, but work on improving your craft. There are a number of reasons that people may not be reading your stories, so you should do your best to make sure that your writing itself isn’t the problem. Make sure your prose is clean, break up big paragraphs, make sure everything is formatted in a reader-friendly way (see my Dos and Donts post). Sometimes it is your writing style or writing skill that is turning people off. Like art, writing is something that should constantly be improving, and the easiest way to do that is through practice and studying up on the craft. Watch writing tip videos, read other people’s writing, get a beta, study grammar rules. All of these things can help you improve as a writer.

If you aren’t getting the interaction you want right now, don’t give up! Keep writing, write new things, make some friends, have some fun. Always remember that fandom should be fun. We’re all here to have a good time and gush over our favorite blorbos. Start with appreciating the readers you do have. Don’t be entitled. Don’t speak ill of people more popular than you. (because who wants to support a crybaby that shits on everyone?) Be patient, keep going, and one day it will pay off. Just have fun. That’s it. That’s the tip.

As always if you have any further questions on this topic, or if you have another topic you’d like to see me cover, feel free to shoot me an ask or leave a comment. See you all next week!

#cats writing advice #writing advice #writing tip #writing ref #writing reference #writing community #writing

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imthepunchlord · 1 year

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Do you think that Miraculous have a problem setting foils to Marinette?

Yeah, I'd say so.

Like, Chloe CAN work as a foil to Marinette if working off striking differences that elevate Marinette's strength as a character, how they are opposites to each other; Chloe is bossy and pushes her agenda onto her peers, Marinette is more considerate and more go with the flow. Chloe is lazy and uninspired, Marinette is hard working and creative. Chloe is mean and bullies others largely for her own amusement, Marinette is compassionate and helpful and will go out of her way to assist others. Chloe wants to be a hero for her own glory, Marinette does it because it's the right thing to do.

If Chloe is a foil meant to build up Marinette's strength and merit, they work then.

But then as a foil falls flat when the show occasionally accuses Marinette of "being just like Chloe" and it's designed as a means to help Marinette grow or realize her misshaps. Marinette doesn't do anything that Chloe does to warrant this comparison, which if they wanted Chloe to be this sort of foil, Alya would've made a lot more sense cause she has similar behaviors to Chloe (being very pushy, makes decisions for others, can be dismissive/puts people down, heroing for her is more about the glory than the duty).

It could be argued that Chloe works because she challenges Marinette's courage cause she's facing her bully, but that doesn't really work either cause, most of the show, if you never saw Origins, would you realize that Chloe was Marinette's long time bully? Most of this show, I never saw Marinette scared of Chloe but seemed to find her annoying and just irked her. Pre Origins, s1 wise, I just thought they were sort of self appointed rivals with Chloe jealous of Marinette and Marinette jealous of Chloe's closeness with Adrien, and she was just aggravated with the drama Chloe causes. Learning that Chloe was Marinette's bully for a few years was a bit of a brick to the face. So, as that detail of Chloe being Marinette's bully not really covered, that can't really be worked off of either.

Let's see, Lila technically can also really work as a foil to Marinette that addressed differences but similarities. And one that would force Marinette to step up and figure out different ways to go about things.

Lila is set up to be clever, nosy, meddling, and creative (which Marinette shares in traits), and has incredibly high charisma that makes her popular with others and think they can rely on her. Lila vs Marinette could've been a representation of niceness for different reasons, and they do also extend to deception vs integrity. And where Marinette can't be direct, she has to learn to be clever in how she deals with Lila. Lila also could've been a challenge of her loyalty to her friends, how much they care/trust Marinette.

But, of course, it falls flat as Lila is a plot device, not a character. She exists when they need her to exist and she works as they need her to work, even if she shouldn't. And it's hard for her to be a foil when she isn't persistent.

Kagami also could've worked given a lot of similarities (aims for perfection, prioritizes duties) but unlike Marinette, is bold and direct and open about her feelings and thoughts, where Marinette is more inclined to keep that to herself. But that falls flat as Kagami has 3+ different personalities and not a lot of consistency. And, arguably, working off Riptose specifically, Kagami may have better served as a foil to Adrien given they have a lot of similarities, but unlike him, has goals in her life and is more serious/dedicated. She even could've been a plausible romantic rival for LB as she would've been skilled enough to play vigilante and could've been a contender for the Cat.

Felix also could've been a good foil. He is set up to be incredibly clever, meddling, both care deeply for others, and there could've been some fun gags about both having swiping tendencies. But unlike Marinette, he's willing to be selfish, and he doesn't care for the majority but the few, and isn't so open minded about letting others in. And where she's warm and animated, he's cold and stiff (which honestly, I still see them as a solid yin-yang duo as they have their similarities but set differences). And given canon, they now have their appealing color counterparts as red and blue are a popular coded duo.

The big issue is him coming in so late, and he's set up to be more tied to Adrien and Gabriel, though I hear in s5 he's now apparently against Ladybug? Either way, Felix would've been an ideal foil to Marinette IF he was kept in as Chat Noir and her partner. As he is, he just doesn't work.

Why, even Plagg could've been a solid foil to Marinette. He's lazy in contrast to her being hardworking and caring about her duty, he's literal destruction while she's creative, he knows how to relax while Marinette has no chill and likes to be busy and always on the go and just doesn't seem to know how stop and relax. And he is selfish where Marinette is selfless and has a hard time saying no and will pile too much on her plate with what people want.

Out of all possible options, Plagg actually would've been Marinette's best foil. For the most part, there is consistency with his character to show he's a good contrast to how Marinette is, and would be an excellent foil that elevates her strengths, but would also pave the way to growth. Cause at the core, what Marinette needs to learn is to put down boundaries/limits with others and herself, cause she can pile too much on her plate agreeing to help people, she can overwork and overstress herself cause she's getting too over involved and her obligations are taking over her life that she's not really living it anymore. And she does need to learn to prioritize her needs and her wants, she doesn't need to go full blown selfish, but she does need to learn that what she needs and what she wants do matter too.

But it doesn't work as Plagg's not with Marinette but with Adrien. It's one of the two big things where it's like, maybe things would've better if certain aspects were swapped/reversed.

But yeah, Marinette's foils just don't work, and much of it just comes down to their writing and choices.

Chloe they went about things the wrong way, and arguably would've better served as Alya's foil (could've had a Bee vs Wasp scenario which Origins could've pre set up given Alya was quick to challenge Chloe).

Lila is just not present enough and is more of a plot device.

Kagami faltered because they kept changing up her personality. Arguably might've better served as Adrien's foil.

Felix got replaced, came in way too late, and was set up more tied to the Agrestes.

And Plagg is not with Marinette to challenge how she is.

#ask Punchie #ml salt #marinette dupain cheng #chloe bourgeois #lila rossi #kagami tsuguri #felix graham de vanily #felix fathom #plagg

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huge-enthusiast · 3 years

Text

MIRACULOUS FIC RECOMENDATIONS!! (Part 2)

You can find part 1 here.

The first one was really popular! So I decided to make a second part.

The rules are the same:

All of the fics will be rated Teen and up audiences or lower. Also if I don’t put the author’s tumblr is because they didn’t put it in the fic or/and I couldn’t find it.

The only thing that changes is that I would be putting the pairing in the description of the fic.

Without further ado...

Written in the Stars by Boogum (@botherkupo here on tumblr!)

Pairing: Marichat and Adrienette.

He was the god of destruction. She was a princess whose kingdom had been prophesied to fall. To save her people, she became his wife. To save him, she would have to do the impossible. The castle has secrets, the gods are watching, and time is running out.

Chapters: 37/37

TW for mild violence.

Arrange marriage, God AU. While I'm making this list, I still haven't finished the fic, but I had to recommend it because is THAT good. The way I gasped out loud while reading some of the plot twists. The worldbuilding is so good, and even if you aren't into AUs that deviate a lot from cannon like me, I 100% reccomend it.

Need a Lift? again by Boogum.

Pairing: DJWifi

Getting stranded on a foreign planet sucked. Luckily for Nino, his rival was willing to give him a lift home. Unluckily for Nino, she was beautiful and funny and he might just be in love with her.

Chapters: 1/1

Space Bounty Hunter AU! Really sweet and funny. If you are into flustered!Nino then this fic is for you.

hey, you by peachcitt (@peachcitt here on tumblr!)

Pairing: Adrienette

“Have you ever had a dream about someone that changes the way you think of them?”

or Adrien has a dream about Marinette.

Chapters: 1/1

Okay so, peachcitt is one of my favorite ml writers. Everything that they write is sooo good y'all, and i'm already a sucker for adrienette, so I cannot recommend this fic (or any of theirs) enough.

double dare again by peachcitt (I told ya!)

Pairing: Ladrien (with lots of sided ladynoir)

“Don’t ever do that again,” Marinette says, maybe a little too emphatically, and Adrien looks at her, his expression quiet. His cheeks, Marinette notices, are a little red.

“But I wanted to save you,” he says.

or Ladybug and Adrien can't seem to stop running into each other. (whether that is on accident or on purpose is nobody's business but their own, of course).

Chapters: 30/30

This was a ladrien june fic! Every chapter corresponds to the day's prompts but it also continues a story. If that doesn't make you want to read it then I don't know what it will. I fear fanfic writers, they're insane.

(not) so much by therentyoupay (@therentyoupayfanfiction here on tumblr!)

Pairing: Marichat and adrienette

(The claws are sharp, but the host of Destruction—for all of his loudmouth chaos and lack of reserve—is paradoxically careful.)

Chapters: 1/1

In which Chat Noir pays a visit not long after Marinette has made a pretty difficult decision, and they accidentally make a routine.

Prompt: Marinette gives Chat a hickey. Adrien has a suspiciously similar looking hickey the next day at school...

Gotta be honest with y'all, I did not expect this fic to be as good as it is. The adrienette has everything a stablished!Marichat should have. Marinette conflicted with her feelings? Check. Adrien being a hot mess bc That's My Girlfriend But She Doesn't Know That? Check. Them being absolute idiots? Check. It's good!

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News (Your Lips Is The Only Cure I Could Use) by BreG21.

Pairing: Adrienette

Rainwater sloshed up from the pools they had made on the sidewalk and coated his jean pants with every step he took. He couldn't bring himself to care.

He sniffed away some of the water that dribbled down his matted head. "Yeah?"

He paused as if to consider his words while Adrien stared down at him, so lost. "You weren't wrong when you thought you knew. A part of you wanted it to be her, but it was too perfect, you let the illusion fool you because how would you get that lucky. But trust me, Adrien. You weren't wrong."

He wasn't wrong? What was he not wrong about?

You weren't wrong. You want it to be her.

And it finally clicked as a small gasp wisped past his lips. He wasn't wrong.

In which, Plagg falls ill, and with Fu gone and Ladybug being the guardian now, has to go find her civilian self-even with the knowledge that she might not like that-is shocked to realize that even with having the kwami that was supposed to embodied the very being of bad luck, Adrien could conclude the very opposite of what he had thought for so long.

He was so very lucky.

Chapters: 1/1

I screamed so hard while reading this fic. It's just one of those who gets the characters right. Do you like a good reveal? Go read this now.

Operation Mega Sleepover by InTheWild (@smellerbeee here on tumblr!)

Pairing: Adrienette

When Alya and Nino drop out of their long awaited mega-sleepover at the last minute, it leaves Marinette and Adrien alone together for the night. An Adrinette one-shot with lots of fluff and sleepover shenanigans.

Chapters: 1/1

I just,,, I love adrienette fluff so much,,, I love them,,,

You, Me & A Little Bit Of The Future by joonapeach.

Pairing: this is a fortunate case of all lovesquare shenanigans™

Marinette expects some disaster on her first outing alone with Adrien.

She just doesn't expect that disaster to be her future self passing off a baby for her to take care of with Adrien.

(Alternatively... two idiots obliviously in love cooing over their daughter while acting like they have no idea whose kid this is.)

Chapters: 1/1

I think the description says anything that it needs to be said. It's really sweet and funny and I love how they just change their minds so quickly and get emo for literally nothing. Peak shakesperean dumbasery.

The entire Marry That Girl series by Miraculous_Max (Maximilian_Alexander).

Pairing: Adrienette

Let’s say Marinette has a special sketchbook. This sketchbook is filled with drawings of their future house, of Adrien as an adult in multiple occupational settings, of Marinette and Adrien’s wedding, and most importantly, their future children.

Let's say Adrien found this sketchbook.

Works: 8 (All are 1/1 chapters)

Just realized how this list exposes me as number 1 adrienette sucker... oh well. I love how Adrien doesn't feel weirded out by the intensity of Marinette's crush. He likes it! He's as weird and romantic as her! That's one of the reasons I love the lovesquare so much and it makes me happy to see that everyone is in the same boat with me.

Strenght by 11JJ11.

Pairing: Adrienette

Marinette knew she was much stronger than she looked thanks to being a hero. So when her class had an arm wrestling contest she knew that she could beat all of them with ease, but she wasn't expecting anyone else to come close.

Chapters: 1/1

Good ol' accidental reveal feat. the entire class shenanigans. I, once again, screamed for an adrienette fic. Who could've thought.

Super Fan by Taliax.

Pairing: Ladrien

It was a good thing Alya was holding the phone and not her, because it would have slipped from her fingers and shattered. How had she not noticed? She had been there, and somehow she’d missed her crush looking at her like she was an angel sent from heaven.

Forget the perfume ad. This picture was going to be her new desktop.

(In which Marinette realizes that she and Adrien might both be obsessive fans.)

Chapters: 1/1

Canon divergent from after Gorizilla. They're so dumb. That's my opinion on this fic.

How to Kiss Your Crush in Five Minutes or Less also by Taliax.

Pairing: Ladrien

He just needed to know if Ladybug needed Chat Noir. He didn't expect to learn just how much she wanted Adrien.

This would be the best five minutes of his life, if he didn't expect her to forget it.

Chapters: 1/1

CW for making out.

Set during Desperada. I promise there's a happy ending. Also Luka is there for some reason, felt really bad for him.

Laying Down the Rules: The Gabriel Agreste Clauses by LadyKae

Gen

Adrien leaves the manor on a dark and stormy night and seeks sanctuary at the only place he feels safe: The Home of the Dupain-Cheng Family. When Sabine learns why her dear boy is fleeing to her home in the middle of the night, she makes a personal visit to one Gabriel Agreste.

There's more rules in play, but not for Adrien and Marinette.

Chapters: 1/1

This is just Sabine going to beat the fuck out of Gabriel and it's really satifying ngl

4am. by hannieks

Pairing: post-reveal lovesquare

In which Adrien has the cat tendency to wake up their owners at stupid o'clock, and Marinette just wants to sleep. Cuteness ensues.

Chapters: 1/1

Really short but really sweet. If you like Adrien acting like a cat then you would like this.

Can I Date You(r Character)? by midnightstarlightwrites (@midnightstarlightwrites here on tumblr!)

Pairing: Adrienette

Adrien turned to her, something unreadable in his gaze. “Are you ok with this?” he asked.

And what a loaded question that was. Was she ok with it? Was she ok with the one guy she couldn’t seem to get over in real life kissing her in a game of Dungeons and Dragons? When she put it like that, it seemed a bit silly to get so worked up.

It was just a game...right?

She was ok with it, right?

“Sure,” she lied. “I’m ok with it.”

When Adrien's character falls in love with Marinette's, they decided to date in-game. What could go wrong?

Chapters: 7/?

THIS ONE IS SO CUTE. You want to scream??? Read this.

two idiots and a hamster by Boogum (again) and carpisuns (@carpisuns here on tumblr)

Pairing: Adrienette

How do you hide your superhero identity from your roommate? (spoiler alert: badly)

Chapters: 5/?

Once @anna-scribbles described this fic as "is literally the closest i’ve ever seen a fic come to matching the energy of canon", and I couldn't have described it better.

And that's all for now! Next time I will probably make an only DJWifi list since I've been treating them so dirty lol.

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